Europe in the Sixteenth Century 1494-1598 Part 11

This at least could not be sanctioned, and, in 1497, St. Gall was placed under the ban of the Empire. Maximilian still continued his double dealing. He delayed the execution of the ban in the vain hope of influencing the Swiss to make a personal arrangement with him, and serve him in his wars. Meanwhile, other differences precipitated the crisis. Of several leagues which had grown up around that of the Swiss Confederation, some of the most important were the three Rhaetian Leagues: the League of G.o.d's House, 'Gotteshausbund,'

round about Chur, from the cathedral of which it took its name; the 'Grauer Bund,' or Grisons, on the Upper Rhine; and the League of the Ten Jurisdictions in the Prattigau and the valley of Davos. The succession of Maximilian to the possessions of the cadet branch of his family in Tyrol on the death of Sigismund (1496), not unnaturally aroused the fear of these Leagues, the more so because Maximilian also about this time gained part of the Prattigau. Accordingly in 1497, the Grauer Bund, and in 1498, the League of G.o.d's House, entered into an alliance with the Swiss and became a.s.sociates (Confderati).

The Swiss Confederation was thus drawn into the interminable disputes as to possessions and jurisdictions, which existed between these two Leagues and Tyrol. Finally, the occupation of the Munsterthal--one of the valleys which joins that of the upper Adige--by the authorities at Innsbruck, led to hostilities (1499).

| Outbreak of War, 1499.

| Defeat of the Suabian League and of Maximilian.

The war was at first carried on by Maximilian as Archduke of Austria, a.s.sisted by the Suabian League, and was not taken up by the Empire until the following year. The best policy on the Emperor's part would probably have been to concentrate his attack, and try to outmanuvre the Swiss and crush them in one decisive battle; for the Swiss army, organised according to the states in which it had been levied, was better fitted for detached enterprises, and its leaders were always somewhat deficient in strategy. Instead of this, Maximilian divided his forces and thus played into the hands of his enemies. The Swiss, advancing in a dense column, or in phalanxes in echelon of three divisions, with four rows of pikemen in front armed with pikes eighteen feet long, supported in the rear by halberdiers with halberds (a combination of battle-axe and spear), proved more than a match for the German landsknechts. The French king sent money and artillery; even the Venetians contributed money, unwilling to see Hapsburg influence increase in these parts. Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, Maximilian's only ally, was at this moment driven from Milan (September 2). The Suabian League was defeated at Bruderholz and at Dornach, near Basel. Maximilian himself was worsted at Frastenz in the Tyrol, and again at the gorge of the Calven in the Munsterthal, and on September 22, 1499, was forced to come to terms.

| The Peace of Basel, 1499.

By the peace of Basel all matters in dispute between Maximilian and the Rhaetian Leagues were referred to arbitration. All decisions of the Imperial Chamber against the Confederation were annulled, and though nothing definite was said as to its future relations with the Empire, no attempt was ever again made to subject the Swiss to imperial taxation, jurisdiction, or military levy. Though still nominally a member of the Empire the Confederation enjoyed practical independence, which was finally recognised at the peace of Westphalia, 1648.

In 1501, for the purpose of strengthening their northern frontier, the Swiss admitted Basel and Schaffhausen to the Confederation; and the addition of Appenzell, in 1513, brought up the number of the Confederate States to thirteen, a number which was not increased till the present century. The Swiss continued to be the mercenaries of Europe, and in 1502, and 1512, gained, as we have seen, further possessions to the south of the Alps (cf. p. 72). One thing at least Maximilian learnt from his defeats. He copied the arms, and to some extent the organisation, of the Swiss, and thus did much to form that formidable infantry which did Charles V. good service in Italy. Yet even this had its disadvantages; for the German landsknechts, finding themselves in request, sometimes adopted the mercenary habits of the Swiss, and took service with the enemies of their country.

| The Policy of Maximilian towards the Empire and his Hapsburg | territories.

| His success as a Hapsburg Prince.

In spite of Maximilian's attachment to the imperial name it may be said of him, as it was of an earlier Emperor, Charles IV., that he was 'stepfather' of the Empire. Further, it was his aim to humiliate the Electors. He had robbed the Palatinate of the succession to Landshut (cf. p. 113). He defrauded the Elector of Saxony of his claim to Berg and Julich by securing the succession, through marriage, to the Duke of Cleves, and of the tutelage of Philip of Hesse, by declaring the young Landgrave of age when only fourteen; and though he supported the house of Brandenburg (Hohenzollern) by approving of the election of Albert, a cadet of the house, to the Grand Masters.h.i.+p of the Teutonic Order in Prussia (1512), he irritated him by confirming the peace of Thorn of 1466, by which the knights had been forced to cede Western Prussia to Casimir of Poland, and to hold East Prussia as a fief of that king. To this he was induced by family reasons: Lewis,[40] the nephew of Sigismund, the reigning King of Poland, had recently married Maximilian's granddaughter Mary, while Anne, the sister of Lewis, married his grandson Ferdinand, with the promise of succession to Hungary and Bohemia, should Lewis die without heirs. In short, the policy of Maximilian was mainly dynastic. To increase the power and the future prospects of his house was his main aim,--by the aid of the imperial position, if possible; if not, by conquest, by policy, and by successful marriages. His success in this design will be best realised by contrasting the position held by his house in 1485 with that which it enjoyed at his death in 1519.

In 1485, one year before Maximilian was elected King of the Romans, Mathias Corvinus not only held Hungary and Bohemia, which had belonged to the Hapsburgs from 1437 to 1457, but had driven Frederick III.

from Vienna. The Tyrol and Alsace were in the hands of Maximilian's cousin Sigismund. Styria and Carinthia were being ravaged by the Turk, and Maximilian himself, now that his wife Mary of Burgundy was dead (1482), was deprived of the government of the Netherlands, and even of the education of his son Philip. Far different was the state of things in 1519. Not only had all Austria proper been regained, but on the death of Sigismund, 1496, the Emperor reunited in his own hands all the Hapsburg possessions, and the ravages of the Turks had for the time ceased. If he had lost Switzerland, and if his attempt to restore his authority in Italy had ludicrously failed, these were losses to the Empire rather than to his house.

| His Marriage Alliances.

It is, however, in his marriage alliances that Maximilian met with most success. The marriage treaties with Ladislas and his son Lewis, mentioned just above (p. 125), were shortly (1526) to restore Hungary and Bohemia to the Hapsburgs. His wife Mary, daughter of Charles the Bold, had brought him most of the possessions of the powerful House of Burgundy, and Philip, the issue of this match, had wedded Joanna of Spain. Already in 1516, Charles, their son, ruled in the Netherlands and in Spain and in Naples.[41]

| His Character.

In spite of his long struggle with the electors, and the failure of his Italian wars, Maximilian was not unpopular with the Germans.

Indeed, he must have been an attractive character, if rather an irritating person to deal with. Although not handsome--for his complexion was pale, and he had a snub nose rising above a grey beard--his countenance was manly, and his activity and strength extraordinary, as his feats in pursuit of the chamois prove. His intellectual activity was not less remarkable; well educated, speaking seven languages or dialects; with wide interests, quick sympathies, a chivalrous and highly imaginative mind, and inexhaustible energy, his many-sidedness won him admirers among all cla.s.ses. No doubt, some of these qualities stood in the way of his success. Fond of indulging in magnificent schemes, many of them incapable of realisation, his very versatility and resource opened him to the reproach of being indecisive and changeable. 'What he says at night he holds of no account on the morrow,' said Louis XI. of him. His self-confidence taught him to be impatient of strong men; 'to refuse the advice of any, and yet to be deceived of all,' says Machiavelli. His overweening ambition led him into financial straits, and these to humiliating s.h.i.+fts, more especially in his dealings with foreign powers who called him 'the man of few pence,' and treated him as an importunate beggar, to be pensioned or bought off at will. But at least, Maximilian was not self-deceived. In his epic of 'Teuerdank,' the adventurous knight of 'glorious thoughts,' who sets out to seek his bride and finally wars against the Turk, he depicts himself, and introduces us to self-conceit and the desire of adventure as the two great dangers which, with envious intrigue, beset him. This attractive, lovable, impracticable, exasperating man of dreams, of nervous, though ill-directed energy, is a fit representative of that period of transition which may be said to be covered by his reign.

| The death of Maximilian, 1519, marks the beginning of a new | period.

With the accession of Francis in 1515, and with the death of Maximilian in 1519, we are definitely introduced to a new period. It is an interesting fact that Italy, the home of that papacy which had guided the Teutonic barbarians out of barbarism, had nursed their earlier days and introduced them to the priceless legacy of Roman law, government, and civilisation, should have been the stage upon which the scenes were s.h.i.+fted.

It was in the Italian wars that the kingdoms of Europe first showed full consciousness of their national ident.i.ty. In them, notwithstanding their deadly rivalries, they learnt that their fortunes were necessarily bound together as members of the European commonwealth of nations. Thence the system of the balance of power, the birth of modern diplomacy, the foundation of a system of international law. In short, during this period, that political system of Europe was established which still survives. Further, in the Italian wars the nations found it necessary to keep large armies on foot, and the art of war was revolutionised by the more extensive use of gunpowder.

Italy indeed suffered terribly. At no date was the selfishness of nations more flagrantly exhibited than in these Italian wars. The peninsula became the spoil of the foreigner, never to regain her independence till our own day. Yet in the midst of her supreme agony, she had bestowed a priceless gift on Europe. The revived knowledge of Greek art and literature, the highest perfection of painting, the new style of architecture, the knowledge of man, and the spirit of criticism--these were to be her final legacies to Europe in the movement of the Renaissance, which was so peculiarly Italian.

Henceforth the main interest of European history will no longer lie in Italy. The struggle for her fair plains is not indeed over. The papacy will still demand our attention, in its relations to the Reformation and to the Empire. But Italy falls back into a subordinate position.

The Mediterranean ceases to be the highway of commerce between east and west. Our gaze is directed north of the Alps to follow the great struggle between the Hapsburg and Valois houses, and the momentous issues which were involved in the Reformation.

FOOTNOTES:

[27] For a description of the const.i.tution of Castile and Aragon, cf. _Cambridge Mod. Hist._, vol. i. 348 ff.

[28] These supposed visits to Genoa and Venice are very doubtful.

[29] On this point cf. Ruge, _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_, p. 458 ff.

[30] The madness of Joanna has been denied by Bergenroth, _State Papers_, London 1868, supplement to vol. i. II. But cf. Gachard, _Sur Jeanne La Folle_, Brussels, 1869; Rosler, _Johanna die Wahnsinnige_, Vienna, 1870; Ranke, _Latin and Teutonic Nations_, Bk. II. ch. ii., note.

[31] Isabella had left Castile to Joanna, and after her to Charles, and Ferdinand did the same with Aragon. But Ximenes proclaimed Charles king conjointly with his mother; and her madness made Charles practically sole king.

[32] On election he a.s.sumed the t.i.tle 'The King of the Romans.'

But coronation by the Pope was then held necessary for the a.s.sumption of the t.i.tle 'Holy Roman Emperor.' Frederick III.

was, however, the last Emperor crowned at Rome; Maximilian in 1508, a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of 'Roman Emperor elect' with the a.s.sent of the Pope; and after Charles V., who was crowned at Bologna (1529), no Emperor sought for coronation from the Pope.

[33] Besides the Princes who enjoyed an individual vote (_Virilstimme_), there were three collective votes (_Curiatstimmen_)--that of the Prelates who were not princes, and those of the Suabian and Wetterabian Graves and Barons.

[34] Cf. _Cambridge Mod. Hist._, vol. i. 299 ff.

[35] This is the usual interpretation. But Ottokar Lorenz, _Deutschland Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter_, ii. 280, reminds us that this solution is not found in the Emperor's 'Diary.' Cf.

_Kollarii a.n.a.lecta Monumentorum Vindobonensia_, ii. p. 675.

[36] The Aulic Council was also to act as a supreme administrative body.

[37] The idea of dividing Germany into circles dates from the reign of Albert II. The four then inst.i.tuted were now increased to ten--

1. Franconia.

2. Suabia, including the Duchy of Wurtemberg, the Margraviate of Baden, and 32 imperial cities.

3. Bavaria, with the Archbishopric of Salzburg.

4. The Upper Rhine, including Lorraine.

5. Lower Rhine, composed of the three Ecclesiastical Electorates.

6. Westphalia, Julich, Cleves, Berg, the County of Oldenburg, and numerous Bishoprics.

7. Upper Saxony, formed of the Duchies of Saxony, and Pomerania, the Margraviate of Brandenburg.

8. Lower Saxony, composed of the Duchies of Brunswick, Luneburg, and Holstein (held by the King of Denmark), Mecklenburg, the Archbishoprics of Magdeburg and Bremen, and the towns of Hamburg, Lubeck, and Goslar.

9. Austria.

10. Burgundy, including the Netherlands and Franche-Comte.

N.B.--Bohemia did not form part of any circle.

The duty of police and administration were to be in the hands of a captain (_Hauptmann_), with two a.s.sessors elected by the circles.

[38] List of Cantons in 1499, with date of their admission to the league:

{ Three { Uri, 1291. { Forest { Schwytz, { Cantons { Unterwalden.