Improved agriculture and clearing of more land in Germany
and the colonies, particularly by the Cistercians, had helped
the producers’ harvests to double while
population tripled between 1100 and 1300.
Yet millions of acres of forests in western Europe were
destroyed to increase land for crops and grazing
and in using wood for industrial furnaces.
A growing economy gradually improved the plight of most
peasants as the villication system was replaced
by tenant farmers growing their own crops.
Peasants had to work for the lord about half the week,
and to leave the manor they had to get
the lord’s permission and pay a fee.
By the end of the 13th century increased arable land
and new markets had improved the agricultural economy.
Increasing trade and urbanization led to the development of
merchant guilds in the 12th century as three annual fairs
founded market places that expanded into towns and cities.
As industry specialized, the merchant guilds were replaced
by the guilds of craftsmen and artisans,
who sold their products directly to consumers.
The guilds regulated prices, set standards for wages and hours
of work, controlled the quality of products, and promoted
their business as well as providing other social benefits
for their members and families.
Apprenticeship in the home of a master might last from
two to ten years until the rank of journeyman was achieved.
Journeymen traveled to learn and gain experience.
Journeymen could apply for guild membership by
presenting a masterpiece and passing an examination.
Then they could settle down, raise a family,
and take an apprentice into their homes.
The example of the Lombard League gaining freedom for
cities in northern Italy led to the Rhenish League by 1255
and the Swabian League in 1331.
The Hanseatic League became the most prosperous.
By the end of the 13th century they had ports at the mouths
of the Elbe, Weser, Oder, and Vistula, and they had established
markets in London, Bruges, Bergen, and Novgorod.
The Hanseatic merchants monopolized the importing of
herring and cod, and they shipped furs, amber, lumber, grain,
and flax from Russia, Sweden, Poland, and Prussia
to Bruges and London for wool, cloth, and minerals.
Inland the merchants did business at the popular trade fairs.
The medieval economy increasingly used coined money.
The cities developed self-government and laws.
A serf who escaped from a manor and lived in a city for a year
became free and did not have to return to the former owner.
Some German cities became free imperial cities while
others negotiated their rights with a local prince.
Gradually the craft guilds were represented in the city councils,
which administered the government and justice.
The Béguines took vows of chastity and poverty and earned
money by teaching, nursing, spinning, or sewing.
Christian morality disapproved of usury, the collecting of
interest on loans, and financial speculation was condemned
by the Church councils at Lyon in 1274 and Vienne in 1311.
So Jews and rationalizing Lombards acquired much wealth
in the profitable business of money-lending.
Resentment by Christians at the riches and land acquired
by Jews in this way often resulted in persecution.
One hundred Jews were burned
in the synagogue at Munich in 1285.
In 1250 Friedrich II was succeeded by his son Konrad IV,
who left Germany under his father-in-law Otto II of Bavaria
and carried on the campaign in Italy; but he died in 1254.
Willem of Holland married Elizabeth of Brunswick in 1252;
after Konrad’s death he extended his power from the
Rhineland as he was accepted by princes of the
Rhenish league and northern Germany.
Willem fought over Zeeland with Countess Margaret
of Flanders but was killed while invading Friesland in 1256.
Cornwall earl Richard, brother of England’s Henry III,
bribed the archbishops of Cologne and Mainz with
8,000 silver marks each and promised the Wittelsbach
count palatine of the Rhine an English princess
with a dowry of 12,000 marks.
With the approval of Bohemian king Ottokar II,
Richard was elected emperor in January 1257;
but three months later King Alfonso X of Castile sent
20,000 silver marks and was also elected by Archbishop
Arnold of Trier, the duke of Saxony, the margrave of
Brandenburg, and the devious Ottokar,
though Alfonso never came to Germany to be crowned.
Disputes between the citizens and the bishops
occurred in many cities.
In 1252 citizens of Leipzig destroyed the Zwingburg
of the despotic abbot of St. Augustin.
In the largest city of Cologne, which had about 50,000 people,
a long struggle went on when Archbishop Konrad von
Hochstaden, who sided with Pope Alexander IV and was
supported by Count Engelbert,
tried to deprive cities of their privileges.
After attacking Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) and being imprisoned,
the freed Archbishop next encroached on Cologne;
his new currency was so unpopular that he had to flee
to Bonn and raise fortifications.
Archbishop Konrad’s siege of Cologne failed, and in 1258
he incited the large weaver guild to expel the burgher families.
When Konrad died in 1261, he was succeeded by Engelbert,
who garrisoned the city with mercenaries.
A citizen named Eberhard von Buttermarkt persuaded the
people to recall the burghers; they stormed the watchtowers
of the new archbishop and freed the city in 1262,
as Engelbert fled to Rome and had Cologne put under interdict.
Failing to get the weavers against the burghers, Engelbert
promoted dissension between prominent burgess families;
but he was eventually imprisoned in an iron cage while
an Aachen despot and his three sons
were killed by butchers with axes.
In 1247 a citizen of Mainz called Arnold of the Tower had
organized a movement against the heavy tolls on the Rhine
and other exactions and robberies by the nobles
which led to forming the Rhenish League.
The archbishops, bishops, and nobles from Mainz, Cologne,
Worms, Speyer, Strasbourg, Basel, and Metz gained more
independence and formed a public peace treaty that spread
in 1255 to the Rhineland, Westphalia,
and to southern and northern Germany.
When Jews of Halle were persecuted by Archbishop Ruprecht
von Magdeburg in 1261, citizens protected them.
Citizens of Wurzburg forced Bishop Tring to lift the interdict
in 1265 and defeated his successor Berthold
in a battle at Kitzingen in 1269.
The citizens of Augsburg defeated Bishop Hartmann.
By 1271 the League had sixty Rhenish and Swabian towns
and had overcome several robber knights.
Bohemian king Ottokar II expanded his power by acquiring
the duchies of Austria and Styria, which were
recognized by Richard of Cornwall in 1262.
He also gained territory east of the Rhine in 1266
and the duchy of Carinthia in 1269.
Papal legate Gudeo presided over an assembly of prelates
at Vienna in 1267 that confirmed the canonical laws of
Pope Innocent III against the Jews.
Christians were not allowed to associate with Jews,
who were required to wear distinctive marks
on their clothes and even a pointed hat.
After Richard died in 1272, the princes to maintain their
independence unanimously chose the less powerful
Count Rudolf of Hapsburg as king, and papal diplomacy
persuaded Alfonso to give up his claim.
Ottokar denounced the election but was defeated
and killed by the forces of Rudolf and the
Bavarian Wittelsbach family in 1278.
The duchies of Austria and Styria were given to Rudolf’s
Hapsburg sons Albrecht and Rudolf II, though the princes
blocked their election in 1287 and 1290.
Albrecht was not trusted because of his extreme cruelty.
When citizens of Vienna revolted against his tyranny in 1287,
his siege starved them into capitulating to the loss of all their
privileges; he also ordered some blinded and others mutilated.
In February 1284 the 67-year-old King Rudolf married
14-year-old Isabella, daughter of the late duke of Burgundy,
to extend his territory.
He was resented for trying to increase his power over the
princes, and rebels claiming to be Friedrich II or Konrad arose.
Dietrich Holzschuh led followers along the Lower Rhine;
but those in northwest Germany supported the King,
who seized the pretender and had him burned at Wetzlar.
Rudolf’s loyal friend, Bishop Heinrich of Basel, was appointed
archbishop of Mainz and primate of Germany.
Count Florence of Holland had gained revenge against the
West Frisians, who had killed his father Willem II,
and then he invaded the bishopric of Utrecht.
In 1287 Rudolf promulgated his Land Peace in German.
Brabant and Guelders came into conflict over the succession
of the Limburg duchy, and on July 7, 1288 in the battle of
Worringen the Brabantines led by Duke Jan won the duchy
and captured Archbishop Siegfried of Cologne, Guelders,
Nassau, and other lords and knights.
He kept Siegfried a prisoner for a year
before releasing him for a large ransom.
King Rudolf maintained a large army and defeated the rebel
Count Palatine Otto IV and French allies
at Besançon in July 1289.
Near the end of the year Rudolf went to Erfurt and
suppressed the marauders of Thuringia.
He held court, and princes came from all
over Germany to pay him homage.
Rudolf invested his son-in-law Wenceslaus II of Bohemia
with the duchies of Breslau and Silesia, and he recognized
Bohemia as an imperial elector.
He went to Swabia in November 1290 but was too old to
travel to Rome to be crowned emperor.
In May 1291 he convoked a diet at Frankfort-on-the-Main,
but he became very ill and went to the ancient city of Spires,
where he died on July 15.
After King Rudolf’s death in 1291 Mainz archbishop Gerhard
got his cousin, Count Adolf of Nassau, elected king.
Adolf gave to the electors large concessions in money,
especially to Archbishop Siegfried of Cologne.
Seventeen days after Rudolf’s death, Swiss cantons in the
Schwyz, Uri, and Nidwaldon valleys formed a federal pact
to live by law instead of violence with mutual self-defense,
though Albrecht of Austria defeated their coalition the next year.
Zürich survived a siege, and the liberty of the Schwyz
(recognized by Friedrich II in 1240) was confirmed by the
Landrecht of 1294, which was renewed for the Uri
and the Schwyz three years later by Adolf.
A famine in the Rhine valley in 1296
stimulated a revival of the flagellants.
King Adolf tried to expand his power by getting 30,000 marks
from England’s Edward, and he promised to fight against France.
This enabled him to purchase Thuringia in 1295, but he pillaged
and robbed them and had to fight them for four years.
Adolf also failed to keep many of his promises.
In February 1298 Albrecht began marching an army of Austrians,
Hungarians, and Bohemians from Vienna through Bavaria
to Swabia, where many knights volunteered.
Adolf did not respond to a summons, and on June 23 Gerhard
and the electors charged him with devastating Thuringia,
mistreating its priests, violating peace and law, committing
perjury against princes and towns, and persecuting the Church.
The electors found him guilty, and ten days later Albrecht’s
army defeated and killed Adolf in a battle near Gollheim.
On July 27 the Electors met at Frankfurt
and elected Albrecht king of Germany.
However, Pope Boniface VIII excommunicated Albrecht
as a rebel and proclaimed himself vicar-general.
Albrecht I (r. 1298-1308) was crowned at Nuremberg
and levied large fines on the cities of Franconia that had
murdered Jews after an alleged desecration of the
Christian wafer by one Jew.
The fanatical Rindfleisch had Jews of Rottingen
burned on April 20, 1298.
The Jewish community in Wurzburg was wiped out on July 24.
Jews in Nuremberg used arms to defend themselves
but were slaughtered on August 1.
The persecution spread from Franconia to Bavaria
and Austria and affected 100,000 Jews that year.
Albrecht kept Zürich out of the Swiss confederation.
In 1299 Albrecht betrothed his oldest son Rudolf to
Philip IV’s daughter Blanche and made a treaty
with France, angering Archbishop Gerhard.
Albrecht also abolished the tolls on the Rhine that had
provided such wealth for the Archbishop
and the ecclesiastical princes.
When Jan, the last count of Holland, and his wife
were poisoned in 1299, his cousin Jan II of Hainault
claimed Holland and Zeeland.
Albrecht summoned him to Nimwegen to justify this;
but fearing a plot against his life, Albrecht retreated.
A revolt by Rhenish princes was joined by the count palatine
Rudolf the Stammerer of Wittelsbach and by the house of
Nassau led by Adolf’s brother, Archbishop Diether of Trèves.
Albrecht proclaimed himself king of the Romans on
October 14, 1300, but on April 13, 1301 Pope Boniface
refused to recognize his authority and summoned Albrecht
on the charge of murdering King Adolf.
On May 7 Albrecht called upon the German people
to assist him against the unlawful tolls on the Rhine
and the exactions of the princes.
Albrecht led his forces along the Rhine and in a year
conquered the Palatinate, Mainz, Cologne, and Trèves,
forcing the princes to submit.
Albrecht sent a deputation to Rome in March 1302,
and he offered to defend the Pope’s
claims in his conflict with France.
Boniface needed an ally and recognized Albrecht
as king of the Romans on April 30, 1303.
Albrecht promised to fight the Pope’s enemies, not to appoint
an imperial governor in Lombardy and Tuscany for five years,
and to be just to the defeated electors on the Rhine.
Albrecht invaded Bohemia in the autumn of 1304.
Wenceslaus II died of tuberculosis in June 1305, and this
was followed quickly by the murder of Wenceslaus III.
Albrecht returned to Bohemia and got his son Rudolf
elected king, but he died too in July 1307.
His younger brother had to yield to Heinrich of Carinthia,
who was elected king of Bohemia.
Albrecht was preparing to suppress rebellions by the Swiss
and others when he was assassinated at Baden in Aargau
on May 1, 1308 by a conspiracy led by his young nephew,
Duke Johann of Swabia, whose mother Agnes was the
daughter of Ottokar and hated the Hapsburgs.
The electors chose Heinrich of Luxembourg on
November 27, 1308, and Heinrich VII was
crowned king at Aachen on January 6, 1309.
He negotiated with Pope Clement V, who set
February 2, 1312 as the date for his imperial coronation.
On August 10, 1310 Heinrich took an oath to keep
his promises to the Pope and to defend his rights
and the interests of the Church.
A deputation of Czechs at Frankfurt impeached their
King Heinrich before Heinrich VII, who deposed him
and on August 30 married his 13-year-old son Jan
to the Bohemian princess Eliska.
Heinrich of Carinthia entrenched himself in Prague,
which was captured on December 19
as Heinrich fled to Tyrol.
Then Jan of Luxembourg was crowned king of Bohemia.
Duke Friedrich the Fair of Austria
agreed to return Moravia to Bohemia.
Meanwhile Heinrich VII was on his way to Italy with an army
that increased as he traveled to Turin, Asti, Novara, and Milan.
There he was welcomed by the powerful Guido della Torre
and was crowned king of Lombardy on January 6, 1311.
Matteo Visconti persuaded the
Della Torre to attack the Germans.
Then Visconti treacherously sided with Heinrich;
Guido fled as his castle was plundered and burned.
This put the Germans on the side of Visconti and the
Ghibellines against Della Torre and the Guelfs.
Lombards rebelled against the King’s treachery
and drove out his governors.
When Cremona took in Guido and the Guelfs,
Heinrich put it under the imperial ban.
His army refused Cremona’s submission, executed
the main rebels, banished hundreds, and destroyed
its walls and gates and the houses of the rebels.
Brescia was besieged from May to September
while a plague decimated the German army.
Heinrich’s beloved Queen Margaret died at Genoa.
King Robert of Naples seized the castle
of Sant’ Angelo in Rome.
Avoiding the Guelf cities, the imperial army traveled
by sea from Genoa to Pisa, where they were
welcomed by Ghibellines on March 6, 1312.
The imperial army of 2,000 knights entered Rome
on May 7, 1312.
The Neapolitans refused to surrender, and fighting in the
streets killed inhabitants and plundered and burned the city.
Pope Clement V had refused to leave Avignon,
and on June 29 Cardinal Nicholas of Ostia
crowned Heinrich VII at St. John Lateran.
Many German soldiers went home,
and only 900 knights remained.
The Pope reacted against Heinrich’s fighting the
Neapolitans, threatening him with excommunication
if he did not submit to his arbitration.
Heinrich protested the challenge to this authority,
but he released the prisoners and restored
Roman towers and castles.
He summoned King Robert to an imperial tribunal.
Heinrich subdued Perugia and other Tuscan towns,
but his siege of Florence failed.
He convened a diet at Pisa, but Robert did not
appear and was declared an enemy of the empire.
Robert turned for help to Philippe IV and the French Pope
Clement, who forbade the Emperor to make war on Naples.
Heinrich deposed Robert.
Heinrich’s son Jan prepared to invade Italy with his army;
but Heinrich had caught malaria,
and he died on August 24, 1313.
Some believed that a Dominican priest
had poisoned him with the sacrament.
When tutelage over the young dukes of Lower Bavaria
was granted to Friedrich, Duke Ludwig of Upper Bavaria
challenged his cousin and defeated him in the battle
of Gammelsdorf on November 9, 1313.
In October 1314 the rival armies of Friedrich and Ludwig
camped outside of Frankfurt, which closed its gates to both
armies while the electors voted five to four
for Ludwig over Friedrich.
Ludwig of Bavaria was crowned at Bonn by the archbishop
of Cologne, but a low-intensity civil war began.
Ludwig recognized the Swiss confederation’s independence
from the Hapsburgs in 1316; but he became discouraged
in 1320 when Archbishop Peter of Mainz died.
The Hapsburgs did not press their advantage until 1322
when Leopold invaded Bavaria from the west
and Friedrich led a large force up the Danube.
King Jan of Bohemia fought for Ludwig and attacked
Friedrich at Mühldorf on September 28, 1322;
Friedrich and 1,300 Austrian nobles were captured.
Friedrich’s supporters abandoned his cause,
and Ludwig wisely offered clemency.
Ludwig gave the Mark of Brandenburg
to his eight-year-old son Ludwig.
On October 8, 1323 Pope John XXII promulgated a bull that
presumed his authority to judge the election of the emperors,
and he summoned Ludwig on pain of excommunication.
Ludwig published a vindication of his rights on January 5, 1324
at Frankfurt, but he was excommunicated on March 23.
After three months clergy who still
recognized him were suspended.
The Pope continued to threaten Ludwig with punishments,
and on May 22 Ludwig published his Appeal of Sachsenhausen
in which he called for a general council.
In theology he sided with the Franciscan Spirituals.
Ludwig kept Friedrich a prisoner in Trausnitz castle until
a treaty was signed on March 13, 1325 in which
Friedrich recognized Ludwig as the legitimate ruler.
However, Friedrich was not able to persuade his brothers
or the electors, and so he returned to captivity at Munich
despite the Pope’s releasing him from his oath.
Ludwig renewed the friendship with his childhood
companion and made Friedrich co-ruler of the empire.
The Pope and electors objected to this, and in the treaty
signed at Ulm on January 7, 1326 they agreed that
Friedrich would rule Germany as king and that
Ludwig would be crowned Roman emperor.
They mollified Jan of Bohemia by giving him Silesia.
Friedrich withdrew from the regency of the empire,
and he ruled only Austria until his death on January 13, 1330.
In 1326 Pope John XXII instigated Poland and Lithuanians
to invade Brandenburg, where they burned 150 villages.
Ludwig went to Milan and received the iron crown in
May 1327, and he restored the Visconti
to get money for his troops.
In Rome four Syndics of the People crowned
Ludwig emperor on January 7, 1328.
The Pope reacted by calling for a crusade against Ludwig.
Three months later Ludwig proclaimed John XXII deposed,
and he installed the Spiritual Franciscan,
Pietro Rainalducci, as Pope Nicholas V.
To avoid being stoned by the people,
both Ludwig and Nicholas left Rome on August 4.
Ludwig held court at Munich, where he was advised by the
Franciscan leader Michele of Cesena and the philosophers
Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham.
Despite all this controversy most Germans
accepted both Emperor Ludwig and Pope John.
When Benedict XII succeeded John in 1334, Ludwig tried to
make peace with him; but the Pope demanded that he surrender
all his imperial rights until they were vindicated by the Church.
After Heinrich of Carinthia died on April 2, 1335,
Ludwig gave Carinthia and southern Tyrol to the Hapsburgs
and northern Tyrol to his sons.
In July 1337 he agreed for money to provide 2,000 soldiers
in alliance with Edward III against France,
but Jan of Bohemia and the Hapsburgs sided with France.
Despite the continuing interdict, on July 15, 1338 the German
electors proclaimed that the king elected by a majority of votes
could exercise sovereignty without confirmation by the Pope.
In August a diet at Frankfurt approved two imperial ordinances.
The first forbade anyone to obey the papal excommunications
or interdicts, and the Licet iuris declared that the elected
emperor needed no confirmation from anyone else.
Ludwig ordered the clergy to perform
regular services or face punishment.
Ludwig met with Edward III at Koblenz and appointed him
imperial vicar, but in March 1341 Ludwig made a treaty with
France and withdrew the vicariate from Edward.
France’s Philippe VI tried to mediate between
Ludwig and Pope Benedict XII.
In 1342 Ludwig imposed an annual tax of one florin
on every Jew who had at least twenty florins.
Ludwig antagonized the princes of Germany.
In Tyrol he annulled the marriage of Jan Heinrich of
Luxembourg and Margaret Maultasch so that
she could marry his son Ludwig of Brandenburg.
Pope Clement VI brought new charges against Emperor Ludwig.
When Ludwig’s brother-in-law, Count Willem of Holland,
died childless in September 1345, he gave Holland, Zeeland,
and Friesland to his sister, even though her sisters were married
to Edward III and the margrave of Jülich.
In April 1346 Karl (Charles) of Luxembourg went to Avignon
and made major concessions to Pope Clement,
and in July he was elected king of Germany.
Karl’s father, Jan of Luxembourg, was the son of
Emperor Heinrich VII, and they both went to fight for France.
When Jan was killed at the battle of Crécy,
Karl escaped and became king of Bohemia.
Ludwig died while hunting in October 1347.
News of Ludwig’s death did not stop Karl
from invading Bavaria with a large army.
After plundering it they moved through Swabia and went
down the Rhine to Mainz before going back to Bohemia.
The Wittelsbach princes retained a few cities,
but the rest submitted to Karl.
Like his father Jan, Karl had spent much time at the
French court and was cosmopolitan.
He could speak and write Latin, French, German,
Czech, and Italian.
The electors delayed, and in January 1348
they offered the crown to Edward III of England.
Karl promised that his subjects would be allowed to volunteer
against France, and Edward declined the position.
Ludwig’s sons turned to Friedrich of Meissen,
but Karl defeated him easily.
On January 30, 1349 they elected Günther of Schwarzburg
against Karl, but he was recognized only around Frankfurt.
Karl purchased some princes and cities,
won over the Count Palatine by offering his daughter
in marriage, and compelled Günther and his allies
to accept the treaties of Eltville.
Karl allowed Heinrich of Mainz to keep his temporal
power and the Wittelsbach family their lands and rights.
The elder Ludwig kept Tyrol and Carinthia.
Günther agreed and soon died.
Karl IV was elected at Frankfurt on June 17, 1349,
and on July 25 the archbishop of Trèves
crowned him at Aachen.
The bubonic plague known as the Black Death swept through
Europe in 1349 and 1350, taking an estimated 25 million lives.
Basel lost 14,000 people and Strasbourg and Erfurt 16,000.
In Germany 124,434 Franciscans died in the plague.
Fanatical Flagellants walked from town to town, lashing
themselves with iron-spiked scourges,
carrying crosses, and singing hymns.
Each procession lasted 33 days, and the movement
was expected to go on for 33 years.
They blamed priests for their luxury and hypocrisy and
believed absolution by the Church was inadequate.
They taught that all men are equal before God and
preached repentance, confessed, and forgave sins;
but they persecuted Jews.
Eventually they were declared heretics and enemies of society.
Jews were accused of poisoning wells.
Thousands of Jews were killed,
and their property was confiscated.
In Strasbourg 2,000 were burned in February 1349
and 400 at Worms in March.
The Jewish quarter of Frankfurt was exterminated in July.
A reported 6,000 Jews were killed in Mayence,
and an entire community of 3,000 died in Erfurt.
Margrave Ludwig of Brandenburg ordered all the Jews
in Konigsberg burned and their goods confiscated.
Karl IV delayed going to Italy until September 1354.
He kept the promises he had made to become king,
and Cardinal Peter of Ostia crowned him
emperor at Rome on Easter Sunday in 1355.
He entered and left the city on that day
and quickly went back to Germany.
Many princes attended the Diet at Nuremberg
in the winter of 1355-56.
Karl announced a new currency, toll reductions,
peace on rivers and highways,
and new regulations for the royal elections.
The election law was supplemented at the Diet at Metz in
December 1356 and became famous as the Golden Bull.
The electorates were declared hereditary,
and no one could appeal their judgments to the emperor.
The seven electors were the king of Bohemia,
the duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburg,
the count palatine of the Rhine, and the archbishops
of Mainz, Cologne, and Trèves.
Future elections were to be held in Frankfurt,
and no elector could bring more than fifty armed men.
Karl even added the injunction that the
sons of electors were to be taught Italian and Czech
as well as German and Latin.
When Duke Albrecht II of Austria died in 1358, his successor
Rudolf IV had five documents forged to confirm that Hapsburg
lands were independent of the empire and indivisible.
Karl had Petrarch exam them, and he declared them spurious;
so the German diet rejected them.
The count of Württemberg fought for Rudolf;
but when Karl defeated him,
Rudolf submitted and was pardoned.
After Karl’s third wife Anna gave birth to Wenceslaus in 1361,
Karl became more conservative about his power.
The elder Ludwig died that year, and sixteen months later
his son and heir Meinhard died.
Meinhard had married Rudolf’s sister, and his mother was
Margaret Maultasch, who gave Tyrol to Rudolf
before retiring in Vienna.
The Wittelsbachs objected, but their family wrangling led to
Stephen taking Upper Bavaria in 1363.
Ludwig the Roman and Otto owned Brandenburg and Lusatia,
and they announced their intention
to leave them to the house of Luxembourg.
This induced Karl to occupy Brandenburg and Lusatia
with his army and accept their homage.
In February 1364 the treaty signed at Brünn made peace
between the Luxembourgs, the Hapsburgs, and Hungary.
If Karl and his brother Wenceslaus died without an heir,
their land would go to the Hapsburgs.
If the royal house of Hungary failed, the Hapsburg lands
would go to the Luxembourgs.
Tyrol was granted to the Hapsburgs.
The pious Karl visited Avignon in 1365 and was ridiculed
for his devotion to the Church.
He promised that a crusade could pass through Germany,
and Alsace was ravaged up to the walls of Strasbourg.
Karl tried to regain authority in Burgundy
by having himself crowned at Arles.
He wanted to go to Italy to prepare the way for the
Pope’s return, but the Black Death
returned to Germany in 1367.
By the time Karl raised an army large enough,
Urban was already in Rome.
Karl’s expedition against the Visconti was a failure,
and his subservience to the Pope appeared foolish.
After receiving some revenues from Italian cities
he returned to Germany in 1369.
Urban went back to Avignon and died in 1370.
His successor Gregory XI was Karl’s friend.
After Ludwig the Roman died in 1365, the weak Otto
gave up the government of Brandenburg to Karl for six years.
While the King was in Italy, the Brandenburg nobles led by
Klaus von Bismarck expelled the royal council.
When Karl returned, he came into conflict with
Otto and his heir Friedrich.
The King formed an alliance with Swabian cities
(a violation of the Golden Bull) and invaded Brandenburg.
Otto and Friedrich had made an alliance with Hungary,
but Karl arranged a marriage between his son Sigismund
and King Lajos’s daughter Mary.
The Wittelsbach princes lacked support, and in August 1373
they ceded Brandenburg to the house of Luxembourg
in the treaty of Fürstenwalde.
Otto was allowed to keep several cities and castles
for the rest of his life, and Friedrich was given the money
that Karl made the cities of southern Germany pay
for their lack of support in the war.
In 1372 Swabian cities had rebelled against Karl’s
Landfriede (Public Peace), and his judgment demanded
large sums from them to pay for the war in Brandenburg.
Karl IV used diplomacy to get his son Wenceslaus elected
king while he was still alive, and he was chosen at Frankfurt
on June 10, 1376 and then crowned at Aachen.
Fourteen Swabian cities reacted by forming a league for
mutual defense against anyone threatening them with new taxes.
Karl laid an imperial ban on them and attacked Ulm;
but his force was repelled,
and he left the war to the southern princes.
In 1377 the league defeated Ulrich, the son of the count of
Württemberg, in the battle of Reutlingen.
The imperial vice-regent Wenceslaus made peace at
Rotenburg and guaranteed the cities the right to unite in defense.
The next year Karl ended the war between the league
and Württemberg to the cities’ advantage.
On November 29, 1378 Karl died at Prague.
Karl’s son Wenceslaus became
king of Bohemia at age seventeen.
He was called Wenzel by Germans and continued his father’s
building and patronage of literature.
At the Frankfurt Diet in February 1379 he and the Rhenish
electors called upon the people to adhere to Pope Urban VI,
but Count Adolf of Nassau was named archbishop of Mainz
by schismatic Pope Clement VII and supported him.
The electors of Cologne, Trèves, and the Palatinate met at
Ober-Wesel in January 1380
and condemned the opponents of Urban.
They wrote to Wenceslaus asking him to govern the empire
or resign; but he accepted Adolf and did not punish him.
Princes supported by lesser nobles tried to get the prosperous
towns to accept princely government and taxation,
but in 1381 the leading towns of Swabia and the Rhineland
formed leagues and tried to ally themselves with the
Hanseatic League and the Swiss cantons.
Against the league of Swabian cities confederations
of knights formed the Company of Horners in Hesse,
the Falconers in Westphalia, the League of St. George
in Franconia, the League of St. Wilhelm in south Germany,
and the famous League of the Growling Lion
in the region between the Rhine, Lahn, and Main.
To counter these leagues the princes
formed an alliance at Nuremberg in 1383.
At an assembly at Heidelberg in July 138
Wenceslaus mediated a truce between the town leagues
and the Nuremberg alliance.
In February 1385 the Swabian town-league
formed an alliance with four Swiss cantons.
Wenceslaus relieved Leopold of his imperial office
over Upper and Lower Swabia in August 1385
because of his adhering to Avignon.
In 1386 Leopold and Swabian nobles tried to regain the town
of Sempach from the Swiss; but they were defeated,
and Leopold and 656 nobles were killed.
The next year the King’s deputies were able to
extend the truce for three more years.
Then Archbishop Pilgrim of Salzburg, an ally of Swabian towns
and an agent of the King, was imprisoned by the Wittelsbachs
Stephen, Friedrich, and Ruprecht the younger of the Palatinate.
The war spread from Swabia to Franconia.
Eberhard of Württemberg defeated the Swabian league
at Döffingen, and the Palatine elector Ruprecht
defeated the Rhenish league near Worms.
In 1389 the Swiss gained an advantageous peace from the
Hapsburgs, and on May 5 Wenceslaus during the Reichstag
at Eber was able to promulgate
a Public Peace for southern Germany.
General leagues were banned, but the towns could go to
regional courts of arbitration composed of two princes,
two citizens, and a president appointed by the king.
In 1390s Wenceslaus was busy with conflicts in Bohemia
with the nobles and clergy.
He liked to hunt and turned to drinking.
Karl’s son Sigismund had inherited Brandenburg in 1378;
but after he became king of Hungary in 1387,
his cousin Jost became the margrave of Brandenburg.
They supported the discontent, and in 1394 they even
imprisoned Wenceslaus in Vienna until he escaped.
Rhenish electors governed in the west, and Wenceslaus’s
investiture of Milan’s ruler Gian Galeazzo Visconti
as duke in 1395 was not accepted.
In 1398 Wenceslaus proclaimed a Public Peace at the
Diet of Frankfurt, but it had little effect.
The King went to Rheims and met with the mad Charles VI,
and they called for the resignation of both Popes.
The Rhenish electors and other princes summoned
the Estates at Ober-Lahnstein.
They waited ten days for Wenceslaus to appear and charged
him with selling Milan to the Visconti, Genoa and other portions
of the imperial domain to the French, selling blank letters patent
for offices, granting immunity to robbers, mistreating prelates
and nobles, allying with Poland against the Teutonic knights,
wasting imperial revenues in Bohemia, destroying the
University of Prague, indulging in debauchery and drunkenness,
and neglecting the administration of the empire.
Annual revenues from all Germany’s royal possessions
had fallen to an average of 30,000 florins.
When Wenceslaus failed to show up, they deposed him
on August 20, 1400, and the next day
they elected Ruprecht III of the Palatinate.
That day 77 Jews were executed.
When his father Albrecht (Albert) IV died about 1239,
Rudolf inherited upper Alsace, the Aargau, and the Breisgau,
and he became the count of Hapsburg.
He extended his domains by marrying
Gertrude of Zollern-Hohenberg-Haigerloch about 1245.
Rudolf supported Emperor Friedrich II and his son Konrad IV.
In 1253 Rudolf led a group of knights in a midnight attack on
the city of Basel that set fire to a nunnery,
for which Pope Innocent IV excommunicated him.
Rudolf repented, and in 1254 he joined the Teutonic Order
in a crusade against the Prussian Sambians.
Turmoil in Germany enabled Rudolf to increase his land holdings.
He was chosen as a leader in Swiss cantons and Zurich.
He attacked Basel again and negotiated a peace.
After the death of Friedrich II in 1250, Ottokar as margrave of
Moravia led an army into Austria and was welcomed
by some Austrian nobles and the clergy in 1251.
Ottokar II (r. 1253-78) became king of Bohemia and made a
treaty with Hungary’s Bela IV that recognized Ottokar in Austria
and Bela in Styria; but in 1258 Styrian nobles
revolted and were supported by Bohemia.
Two years later the Hungarians were defeated,
and Styria was ceded to Bohemia.
Ottokar inherited Carinthia in 1269, and in 1271 Ottokar’s
governor in Styria, Ulrich von Durrenholz,
conquered Carniola and became captain of Friuli.
In 1273 the electors made Rudolf king of the Germans,
and he was crowned on October 24 at Aachen.
The next year Pope Gregory X recognized Rudolf, who
renounced imperial rights in Rome
and promised to lead a crusade.
King Rudolf summoned Ottokar to the imperial diet in 1274,
challenging his Babenberg inheritance of Austria, Styria,
Carinthia, and Carniola; but Ottokar refused to recognize
Rudolf, whom he called “a poor count of Hapsburg.”
The Diet condemned Ottokar for holding the fiefs illegally
and authorized Rudolf to enforce their judgment.
Rudolf had gained the support of Ludwig II of Bavaria
by marrying his daughter Matilda to him, and on
December 20, 1274 Rudolf’s son Albrecht married Elizabeth,
daughter of Count Meinhard II of Tyrol.
The Lichtensteins and other wealthy Styrians met at the Rein
monastery and swore loyalty to Rudolf on November 19, 1276.
Rudolf’s army besieged Vienna, and on November 26
Ottokar signed a treaty relinquishing the fiefs, accepting a
double marriage between their children with the dowry of the
northern part of Austria extending his Bohemian kingdom.
Ottokar’s queen Kunigunda urged her husband to fight back,
and he gathered allies from Poland, Saxony, and Bavaria.
Rudolf organized his Austrian and Styrian knights and was aided
by soldiers from Hungary’s Ladislaus IV.
The armies met in the Marchfeld at Dürnkrut on August 26, 1278.
Ottokar was killed and defeated as 14,000 men died.
Rudolf granted Bohemia to his seven-year-old son-in-law
Wenceslaus II, who was Ottokar’s heir,
but Margrave Otto IV of Brandenburg ruled as regent.
Rudolf was to hold Moravia for five years
so that its revenues could pay for his war expenses.
Queen Kunigunda retained only the province around Prague.
Rudolf governed Austria himself and resided in Vienna.
In December 1282 at the Diet of Augsburg he granted Styria
and Austria to his sons Albrecht and Rudolf, and in 1286
he granted Carinthia to Duke Meinhard of Tyrol.
That year Rudolf launched a new persecution of the Jews,
and the famous Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg left Germany and
was imprisoned in Alsace, where he died seven years later.
Rudolf asserted the right of the monarch to tax the cities.
He was not crowned emperor because
he would not risk traveling to Italy.
Rudolf died at Speyer on July 15, 1291.
Austria would be a possession of the Hapsburgs until 1918.
Albrecht I (r. 1291-1308) had gained experience governing
with his father, but he was not elected
to succeed him as king of Germany.
He made a treaty with Andras of Hungary on August 26, 1291
and gave him his daughter Agnes in marriage.
Albrecht crushed rebellions by the Styrians in 1292
and by Austrian nobles in 1295-96.
In June 1297 Albrecht persuaded four of the electors to
summon German king Adolf to answer charges.
When Adolf refused to appear,
the Diet deposed him on June 23, 1298.
Then Albrecht’s army defeated and killed Adol
at the battle of Gollheim.
Albrecht was elected at Frankfurt on July 27
and crowned Albrecht I at Aachen on August 24.
He had seven sons and five daughters.
He urged princes to enforce the laws against private warfare,
and he protected peasants and the persecuted Jews.
In 1299 he made a treaty with Philippe IV of France,
and that
year Albrecht tried to seize Holland and Zeeland but failed.
In 1303 Pope Boniface VIII recognized
Albrecht as king of Germany.
After King Wenceslaus III died, Albrecht’s son Rudolf
was elected king of Bohemia on April 1, 1306.
Rudolf imposed heavy taxes, looted the churches,
and persecuted the complaining bishop of Prague.
When they revolted, he gathered an army
and besieged the fortress of Horazdovitz.
At the age of 22 Rudolf died of dysentery in July 1307.
When Tobias of Bechyn proposed Albrecht’s son Friedrich
to replace him, Ulrich of Lichtenburg and the local nobles
killed Tobias and two other Austrian leaders,
putting Heinrich of Carinthia on that throne.
Also in 1307 Albrecht invaded Thuringia,
but he was defeated at Lucka.
While marching to suppress a revolt in Swabia,
Albrecht was murdered on May 1, 1308
by his nephew Johann of Swabia and assassins.
Johann escaped to the mountains
and went to Italy disguised as a friar.
He confessed to Pope Clement V,
who turned him over to Emperor Heinrich VII.
Johann was called “the Parricide” and was held
in a convent at Pisa until he died in 1313.
Albrecht’s sons Friedrich and Leopold were governing Austria
and Styria together and continued
to do so after their father’s death.
They went after the murderers and came into conflict with the
Swiss in 1315 at Morgarten and were defeated.
When Emperor Heinrich VII of Luxembourg died in 1314,
Friedrich and Ludwig II of Bavaria vied for the German crown,
resulting in a war that lasted eight years until Ludwig’s forces
defeated and captured Friedrich and 1,300 nobles at the
battle of Mühldorf on September 28, 1322.
Leopold continued to fight.
In the Treaty of Trausnitz signed on March 13, 1325
Friedrich renounced the imperial crown; but when he could not
persuade his brothers, he returned to Munich as a prisoner.
Ludwig offered to let Friedrich govern Germany with him;
but after Leopold died on February 28, 1326,
Friedrich withdrew to rule only Austria
until his death on January 13, 1330.
Albrecht II of Austria (r. 1330-58) was called “the Wise”
and “prince of peace” for his skilled diplomacy
except in relation to the Swiss.
He was also called “the Lame”
because he suffered from paralyzed legs.
In August 1330 Albrecht and his brother Otto
made peace with Ludwig II at Hagenau.
By renouncing the German crown in 1335 Albrecht
acquired Carinthia and Carniola from Ludwig of Bavaria.
That year Albrecht mediated a conflict between
Pope Benedict XII and Emperor Ludwig, and two years later
he aided France’s Philippe VI in his struggle against Ludwig
and King Edward III of England.
Albrecht’s daughter Margarete married Count Meinhard III
of Tyrol, and upon his death in 1365 Austria acquired Tyrol.
After Ludwig died in 1347, Albrecht supported his
successor Karl (Charles) IV of Luxembourg.
Austria suffered from the Black Death in 1348
and 1349 when Vienna lost 40,000 people.
Although Zurich desired independence, the Austrians used
force to bring it into the Helvetic Confederacy in 1351.
Albrecht tried to make amends by
rebuilding and paying people for their losses.
When the burghers refused to submit,
he besieged the town with 16,000 men.
The conflict was mediated by Albrecht’s sister Agnes,
the queen of Bohemia; but a dispute broke out
over the release of Johann of Hapsburg.
The Forest Cantons came to their defense
and defeated the Austrian army.
In 1352 Albrecht gathered a force of 30,000 infantry
and 4,000 cavalry and besieged Zurich again.
The elector of Brandenburg mediated a complicated treaty.
More disputes arose, and Albrecht appealed to
Emperor Karl IV, who was perceived as siding with Austria.
Many of Albrecht’s allies left,
but he allowed the Hungarians to ravage the area.
Karl presented a deceptive award which Zurich accepted,
but which the Swiss refused to ratify.
Finally Albrecht went back to Vienna in despondency.
His son Rudolf, who ruled Swabia,
agreed to an armistice for eleven years.
Albrecht devised rules of succession for Austrian lands
and gave constitutions to Styria and Carinthia.
While Germans were persecuting Jews,
Albrecht protected them in Austria.
In 1355 he declared his four sons equal heirs and urged
them to “remain united through brotherly love.”
Albrecht II died in July 1358, and his body was buried
at the Carthusian monastery he had founded in 1332.
Upon Albrecht’s death his oldest son Rudolf IV
was only 18, and he ruled without his brothers.
He promulgated the Privilegium majus,
which has been called a “patriotic forgery”
that invented a tradition for Austrian independence.
His father-in-law Emperor Karl IV refused to accept this,
ordered the seal of the Austrian chancellery destroyed,
removed him as grand bailiff of Alsace, supported
the Swiss against him, and refused to grant him Tyrol.
However, Rudolf annexed Tyrol in 1363.
He reformed Austria’s fiscal system and reduced
the feudal lords’ power over the towns
by developing municipal liberties.
He reorganized the guilds in Vienna, created the
bishopric there, and founded the University of Vienna
shortly before his death in 1365.
Albrecht III was 15, and his brother Leopold III was 14
when they began ruling Austria together in 1365.
In 1369 the Wittelsbachs sold their claim on Tyrol to Austria.
In 1379 Austria was divided with Albrecht III receiving
Lower Austria and Leopold III
ruling Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and part of Tyrol.
In 1382 the Austrians protected Trieste from Venice
and acquired its domain.
However, on July 9, 1386 Leopold was killed fighting
the Alemmanic Swiss at the battle of Sempach.
The war went on until 1388 when a truce began,
which in 1394 Leopold IV extended for twenty years.
Leopold III was succeeded by Wilhelm (r. 1386-1406),
Leopold IV (r. 1386-1411), and Friedrich IV (r. 1402-39).
When the capricious tyranny of Wenceslaus (Vaclav) IV
provoked a civil war in Bohemia, Albrecht intervened
on behalf of the nobles;
but he became ill and died on August 29, 1395.
He was succeeded by Albrecht IV (r. 1395-1404).
The cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden had a long
history of independence until opening the St. Gotthard Pass
increased the value of the route to Italy.
Uri came under the authority of the Emperor in 1231
but had the right to appoint its own magistrate.
In 1240 Emperor Friedrich II granted
the same right to Schwyz and Nidwalden.
Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Lucerne
formed an ancient confederation.
Lucerne submitted to the Hapsburgs in 1244,
and the others did in 1252.
Bern and other towns were set up by feudal families
for defense, trade, and administration.
The Hapsburg, Savoy, and Kyburg families survived;
but in 1264 most of Kyburg
was taken over by Rudolf of Hapsburg.
When Peter II of Savoy died in 1268, Rudolf obtained
Freiburg and forced Bern to submit.
Rudolf was elected king of Germany in 1273
and imposed burdensome taxes throughout his domains.
In 1289 Schwyz lent men to Rudolf at the siege of Besançon
for the guarantee they would remain independent.
When he died in 1291, those in the Forest Cantons began
a resistance movement and revived the confederation.
The three cantons promised each other mutual help against
aggression, and conflicts were to be settled by arbitration.
Judges in their courts had to be natives of the valley
and could not buy their offices.
All the inhabitants over the age of fourteen
except bondsman were allowed to participate and vote.
On October 15, 1291 Uri and Schwyz made a three-year
alliance with Zurich, and they joined Constance, Lucerne,
and Swabian and Burgundian princes
to oppose the claims of Rudolf’s son Albrecht.
In 1292 he defeated them, but his siege of Zurich failed.
The men of Schwyz confirmed their liberty in the Landrecht
of 1294, and in 1297 King Adolf of Nassau renewed the
exemption that Friedrich II had given Uri and Schwyz.
Bern defeated the Austrians at Dornbühl in 1298,
but Albrecht II (r. 1298-1308)
reimposed Austrian taxes and administration.
However, his successor, Emperor Heinrich VII, confirmed
Unterwalden’s liberties and freed the three cantons
from all external jurisdiction except the imperial courts.
The Austrian dukes continued to make their claims.
After Heinrich’s death in 1313, the men of Schwyz led a revolt
against the Austrians by pillaging the monastery of Einseideln
on January 6, 1314 and by supporting Ludwig of Bavaria
in the struggle for imperial power
against Albrecht’s son Friedrich the Handsome.
Austria subdued the towns of Zurich, Bern, Glarus,
Bernese Oberland, and Lucerne.
Duke Leopold led an invasion, but the Austrians were routed
on November 15, 1315 in the narrow pass of Morgarten
on the Schwyz frontier; Leopold fled,
leaving on the field more than 1,500 men.
This defeat caused the Count of Strasbourg
to retire from an invasion of Unterwalden.
The Swiss infantry armed with halberds
had defeated the feudal cavalry.
The pact of Brunnen on December 9, 1315 formed a federal
union of three states and prohibited any foreign alliance
without permission of the confederates.
In 1316 Ludwig confirmed the liberties of the three
Forest Cantons, and on March 1, 1317 he appointed
a native of Uri imperial bailiff of Leventina and Urseren,
opening the pass.
Duke Leopold agreed to a truce with the Forest Cantons
on July 19, 1318 that lasted
with a few interruptions until the end of the century.
On November 7, 1332 the burghers of Lucerne
formed a perpetual alliance with the peasants
of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden.
In 1336 the artisans in craft guilds took power
away from the nobles in Zurich.
In 1339 the nobles of Freiburg challenged the power of Bern,
but on June 21 Bernese troops assisted by men from the
Forest Cantons defeated the coalition of nobles near Laupen.
Bern had made an alliance with the Forest Cantons
in 1323 and renewed it 1341.
During the plague of 1348 many Jews in the region
of Lake Geneva were burned at the stake.
After an attempted coup by the Zurich
aristocrats failed in 1350,
Zurich joined the Swiss alliance on May 1, 1351.
Austria besieged Zurich in 1351, 1352, and 1355.
The men of Glarus fought off an Austrian army
at Nafels in 1352 and were admitted into the
alliance with Zurich and the Forest Cantons.
On June 23, 1352 the burgesses of Zug
took over their town and joined the alliance.
On September 14 Margrave Ludwig of Brandenburg
mediated a truce between
Austria and the Swiss Confederation.
Bern formed an eternal alliance with the
three Forest Cantons on March 6, 1353,
though it retained its alliance with Austria.
Zurich had to relinquish its conquests when
it agreed to the peace of Ratisbon with Austria in 1355.
On March 31, 1361 Emperor Karl IV confirmed the
new privileges of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden.
The three conquered Zug in 1364 or 1365
but continued to pay dues to Austria.
On March 7, 1368 the knight Peter of Torberg prevented war
by persuading Austria to relinquish Zug to the Confederation.
On October 7, 1370 six cantons without Bern and Glarus
signed the Priests’ Charter (Pfaffenbrief) that made clergy
and laity subject to the same laws, prohibited unauthorized
military expeditions, and made majority votes binding.
In 1393 eight cantons including Bern and Solothurn established
laws of war that controlled looting; protected women, children,
and church property; and repudiated deserters.
In 1375 Duke Leopold III of Austria asked for help
against French and English incursions,
but only Bern and Zurich agreed to a defensive alliance.
When Enguerrand de Coucy invaded Lower Aargau,
they expelled the pillagers in three battles
at Büttisholz, Ins, and Fraubrünnen.
De Coucy retreated in the spring of 1376, but people
resented the devastation of the country by the Hapsburgs.
Nonetheless the truce of Torberg was extended to 1387.
On November 10, 1382 Count Rudolf of Kyburg tried
to end his lawsuits by attacking Solothurn, whose allies,
the Bernese, asked for help from the Forest Cantons.
The Kyburgs were forced to surrender
Burgdorf and Thun to Bern.
After Duke Leopold inherited territory in 1379 and tried
to assert his authority, Bern, Zurich, Zug, and Solothurn
joined a union of Swabian and Rhenish towns in 1385.
On December 28 the men of Lucerne took over the
Austrian fortress at Rotenburg, and in the spring of 1386
the Forest Cantons helped them free Entlebuch
and destroy Peter of Torberg’s castle at Wolhusen.
The Swabian towns made a truce with Austria on July 17,
but the confederates withdrew from the Swabian league.
Duke Leopold led an army of mercenaries and knights
in Aargau, destroyed Willisau,
and moved on Sempach, an ally of Lucerne.
At Meierholz they encountered 1,500 men
from Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden.
Leopold and many of the knights were killed by the peasants.
The men of Zurich and Glarus took Wesen in the north,
and on August 11 Bern went to war against Freiburg.
The army of Leopold’s brother, Duke Albrecht III
attacked Wesen and the barricades in the valley.
The mountaineers and the Schwyz at Nafels drove them back,
and the confederates went on the offensive at Rapperswil,
Büren, and Nidau until the Swabians mediated a truce
that was ratified by Albrecht and lasted until April 23, 1396.
All the confederates agreed on July 10, 1393 to the
Covenant of Sempach, which established discipline,
apportioned booty, suppressed pillage, and prohibited
military action that was not in defense of justice.
When Zurich also made treaties with Austria,
burgesses rose against the Austrian faction.
This led to a 20-year peace agreement between Austria
and the Confederation on July 16, 1394
that confirmed freedom of trade and arbitration.
In the 12th and 13th centuries the German empire
had grown through colonization in the northeast
and by increase in population.
Orders of knighthood had been formed as the age
of chivalry reached its peak in the colonial crusades
as well as those to free the holy land.
Sons of aristocrats served as pages
in the castle of their father’s liege lord.
Military training began at age 14 and lasted seven years
with sports and games such as running, jumping, swimming,
wrestling, fencing, archery, riding, and hunting.
Tournaments were ceremonial sports to impress ladies;
but the brutal combats often ended in death.
The virtues of the knight were discipline, self-control,
moderation, courage, perseverance, and loyalty.
They were expected to fight for the Church and the
oppressed poor while defending
widows, orphans, and pilgrims.
Traveling merchants might be defended
by virtuous knights or robbed by vicious ones.
Castles were built to make the knights invulnerable,
and their increasing body armor had the same objective.
The Order of Teutonic Knights was founded at Acre in 1190
and was given special privileges by Friedrich II in 1226.
Friedrich regularly supported the Teutonic Order.
Their crusade into Prussia began in 1230,
and in 1237 a papal bull approved uniting
the Livonian Order with the Teutonic Order.
Otto of Brunswick helped knights conquer the tribes
by building castles at Kreuzburg, Bartenstein
and Rössel by 1241.
Sventopelk of Pomerania attacked Prussia
and raised a widespread revolt that killed Germans.
Only Pomezanians remained loyal to the German settlers.
A reported 40,000 Christians died in Kulmerland.
Varmians, Natangians, and Bartonians drove Germans
out of the north except from Elbing and Balga.
Prince Sventopelk made peace in 1243 and 1248,
but war broke out again until 1253.
Pope Innocent IV in 1245 granted full indulgences
for all those who went to Prussia.
In the next five years the Landmeister Grüningen
conquered the Kurs in East Prussia.
His successor Struckland made the Zemgals pay tribute
and even fought Lithuanians.
He built the town of Memel on the Tange in 1252 to prevent
Kurs from getting weapons from the Sambians.
In 1254 the Bohemian king Ottokar, the Hapsburg Rudolf,
and Otto of Brandenburg led more than 60,000 crusaders
from Elbing to Balga and regained Varmia, Bartonia,
and Natangia and even conquered the Sambian peninsula,
founding the town of Königsberg.
In 1260 the Prussian Brothers faced a revolt
that slaughtered many in their colonies.
That year Lithuanians defeated the Livonian army at Durben
and killed the Landmeister, the Marshal of Prussia,
and 150 knights.
The Kurs revolted, and Mindaugas and his Lithuanians
invaded Livonia as far as Pernau.
Russians plundered Ugenoi,
and the Osilians rebelled in Estonia.
These events inspired more Sambians
to revolt against the Germans.
Then the Danes subdued Est, and the Kurs were defeated.
The Lithuanians suffered losses
at Dünamünde and before Wenden.
Alexander Nevsky died in 1263, and the Lithuanian leaders
Tautvilas of Polatsk and Mindaugas were also killed that year.
The Order defeated the Zemgals and built Mitau.
The rebellion lasted thirteen years, and Germans adopted
the policy of exterminating Prussian rebels.
By 1263 most of the Sambians had been destroyed.
The natives were reduced to serfdom.
Pope Urban IV had been trying to organize a crusade
against the Mongols but now was asking men
to take the cross to save the Order in the north.
Their forts were relieved by the duke of Brunswick
and the landgrave of Thuringia in 1265,
and the next year Otto named a castle Brandenburg.
The margrave of Meissen won victories in 1272,
and the next year the Varmians and Natangians made peace,
followed by the Bartonians.
The central region had been subjugated by 1277,
exterminating the stubborn Pogezanians and subduing
the Nadrovians, Skalovians, and Sudavians,
who settled in Sambia.
The Yatwingians were devastated in 1283,
and by then only 170,000 natives remained in Prussia.
That year one leader brought 1,500 warriors to live
under the Order, and Skurdo took the rest to Lithuania.
Revolts attempting to arouse external enemies
in 1286 and 1295 both failed.
Prussia gave the Teutonic knights an additional base
to add to their many bailiwicks in Germany and Italy.
The Germans colonized Prussia with fortified towns for
peasants and burghers who came from Strasbourg in 1285
and other towns in the first half of the 14th century.
However, they failed to educate the indigenous Prussians
in the rights of citizens, and many plotted revolts.
In the 14th century fighting in Prussia continued
using guerrilla tactics, and both sides committed atrocities.
Lithuanians would burn captured knights in their armor,
and the knights plundered and massacred the inhabitants.
The Teutonic Order battled the Poles from 1326 to 1333,
but in 1343 King Kazimierz agreed to the Peace of Kalisz
that enabled the Order to keep East Pomerania
and Danzig for more than sixty years.
Lithuanians led by Gedymin (r. 1316-41)
and Olgerd’s brother Keistut attacked the knights.
Livonia suffered from a feud between the
archbishop of Riga and the Order.
In 1308 the Archbishop criticized the Order for luxury,
cruelty, and injustice and then accused them of sodomy
and witchcraft, asking Pope Clement V to suppress the Order.
In 1309 Grand Master (hochmeister)
Siegfried von
Feuchtwagen moved his commandery to Marienberg.
Livonia was ravaged by an Estonian revolt in 1343
and then by the Black Death.
The Order annexed Danish Estonia in 1346 and governed
Livonia, Kurland, Prussia, and East Pomerania.
Jan of Bohemia led three crusading expeditions against
Lithuania, and Grand Master Winrich von Kniprode defeated
Keistut and Olgerd on the Strawa in 1348 and led the
Order 1351-82 during its most illustrious era.
Between 1345 and 1377 Prussia mounted seventy
expeditions and Livonia thirty.
The number of knights in Prussia
increased to about seven hundred.
Winrich helped defend Konigsberg
against a Lithuanian attack in 1370.
He managed to maintain friendly relations with Poland
and extended his domain nearly to Vilnius.
He died in 1382, the same year as
Keistut and King Lajos of Poland.
When Jogaila (Jagiello) became king of Poland in 1386,
he promised to convert the Lithuanians to Christianity.
This removed the justification for the Baltic crusades,
and the Order declined.
In 1399 Grand Master Konrad von Juningen (r. 1394-1407)
with 500 men from the Order joined Lithuanians and
Ruthenians in an attack against the Golden Horde in Russia
that destroyed two-thirds of the
Lithuanian army led by Vytautas.
That year the Samogitians conquered the fortress of Memel.
In 1398 the knights took over the Swedish island
of Gotland from pirates.
The Danes then seized the island,
but the Order recaptured it with 15,000 troops in 1404.
Prussia permitted English merchants to enter their ports in 1388;
but in 1397 English cloth was confiscated at Danzig and Elbing,
and the next year the Grand Master renounced the 1388 treaty.