LOUIS IX LEADS THE LAST CRUSADE

A.D. 1270

JOSEPH FRANCOIS MICHAUD



Louis IX, King of France, 1226-1270, was at once a monarch of great ability and a man of intense religious spirit. Naturally, in such a time as that of his reign, a man like Louis would be a crusader. His first expedition—called the Seventh Crusade, 1248-1254—was directed against Egypt. He captured Damietta in 1249 and pushed into the interior, but was defeated by the Egyptian Sultan and taken prisoner with his entire army. He was liberated on the surrender of Damietta and the payment of a large ransom, and in 1254 he returned to France.

The state of Europe meanwhile had become unfavorable to further prosecution of the crusades, and Louis was the only monarch who longer took a serious interest in the fate of the Christian colonies of Asia. He also wished to avenge the honor of the French arms in Egypt, and so at length he planned a new expedition against the Moslems in that country. But he long kept this purpose a secret "between God and himself." Louis consulted Pope Clement IV, who at first tried to discourage the perilous enterprise; but finally the Pontiff gave his approval, and while admitting no others as yet into his designs, Louis quietly made preparation and awaited the favorable hour.

At last, the great Parliament of France being assembled in the hall of the Louvre, the King entered, bearing in his hand the crown of thorns of Christ. At sight of this, the whole assembly became aware of the monarch's intentions, which he now fully made known, exhorting all who heard him to take the cross. A sad surprise fell upon the reluctant parliament; but Louis was strongly seconded by the Pope's legate, and many of the prelates, nobles, and knights received the cross.

Notwithstanding the deep regret which spread among his people, who felt the need of their sovereign's presence for keeping peace and order in the kingdom, and also feared for his own safety—his health being greatly impaired—there was profound respect for the motives of Louis and general acquiescence in his determination. Among many this resignation gave place to zealous devotion, and "the warlike nobility of the kingdom only thought of following their King in an expedition which was already looked upon as unfortunate." Final preparations were accordingly made for Louis' undertaking.

While all France was engaged in preparing for the expedition beyond the seas, the crusade was preached in the other countries of Europe. A council was held at Northampton, in England, in which Ottobon, the Pope's legate, exhorted the faithful to arm themselves to save the little that remained of the kingdom of Jerusalem; and Prince Edward took the cross, to discharge the vow that his father, Henry III, had made when the news reached Europe of the captivity of Louis IX in Egypt. After the example of Edward, his brother, Prince Edmund, with the earls of Pembroke and Warwick, and many knights and barons, agreed to take arms against the infidels. The same zeal for the deliverance of the holy places was manifested in Scotland, when John Baliol and several nobles enrolled themselves under the banners of the cross.

Cataloni and Castile furnished a great number of crusaders; the King of Portugal, and James, King of Aragon, took the cross. Dona Sancha, one of the daughters of the Aragonese prince, had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and had died in the hospital of St. John, after devoting many years to the service of pilgrims and the sick. James had several times conquered the Moors, but neither his exploits against the infidels nor the remembrance of a daughter who had fallen a martyr to Christian charity could sustain his piety against the attacks of his earthly passions, and his shameful connection with Berengaria scandalized Christendom.

The Pope, to whom he communicated his design of going to the Holy Land, replied that Jesus Christ could not accept the services of a prince who crucified him every day by his sins. The King of Aragon, by a strange combination of opposite sentiments, would neither renounce Berengaria nor give up his project of going to fight against the infidels in the East. He renewed his oath in a great assembly at Toledo, at which the ambassadors of the Khan of Tartary and of the King of Armenia were present. We read, in a Spanish dissertation upon the crusades, that Alfonso the Wise, who was not able to go to the East himself, furnished the King of Aragon with a hundred men and a hundred thousand marvedis in gold; the Order of St. James, and other orders of knighthood, who had often accompanied the conqueror of the Moors in his battles, supplied him also with men and money. The city of Barcelona offered him eighty thousand Barcelonese sols, and Majorca fifty thousand silver sols, with two equipped vessels. The fleet, composed of thirty large ships, and a great number of smaller craft, in which were embarked eight hundred men-at-arms and two thousand foot soldiers, set out from Barcelona on the 4th of September, 1268. When they arrived off Majorca, the fleet was dispersed by a tempest; one part of the vessels gained the coasts of Asia, another took shelter in the ports of Sardinia, the vessel that the King of Arragon was on board of was cast upon the coast of Languedoc.

The arrival at Ptolemais of the Aragonese crusaders, commanded by a natural son of James, restored some hopes to the Franks of Palestine. An envoy from the King of Aragon, according to the oriental chronicles, repaired to the Khan of the Tartars, to announce to him that the Spanish monarch would soon arrive with his army. But whether he was detained by the charms of Berengaria, or whether the tempest that dispersed his fleet made him believe that heaven was averse to his pilgrimage, James did not arrive. His departure, in which he appeared to despise the counsels of the holy see, had been severely censured; and his return, which was attributed to his disgraceful passion, met with an equal share of blame. Murmurs likewise arose against the King of Portugal, who had levied the tenths, but did not leave his kingdom.

All those who in Europe took an interest in the crusade, had, at this time, their eyes directed toward the kingdom of Naples, where Charles of Anjou was making great preparations to accompany his brother into the East; but this kingdom, recently conquered, was doomed again to be the theatre of a war kindled by vengeance and ambition. There fell out in the states of Naples and Sicily, which had so often changed masters, that which almost always takes place after a revolution: deceived hopes were changed into hatreds; the excesses inseparable from a conquest, the presence of an army proud of its victories, with the too violent government of Charles, animated the people against their new King.

Clement IV thought it his duty to give a timely and salutary warning. "Your kingdom," he wrote to him, "at first exhausted by the agents of your authority, is now torn by your enemies; thus the caterpillar destroys what has escaped the grasshopper. The kingdom of Sicily and Naples has not been wanting in men to desolate it; where now are they that will defend it?" This letter of the Pope's announced storms ready to break forth. Many of those who had called Charles to the throne regretted the house of Swabia, and directed their new hopes toward Italy, strengthening Conradin, heir of Frederick and of Conrad. This young Prince quitted Germany with an army and advanced toward Italy, strengthening himself in his march with the party of the Ghibellines, and with all those whom the domination of Charles had irritated. All Italy was in flames, and the Pope, Charles' protector, retired to Viterbo, had no defence to afford him, except only the thunders of the Church.

Charles of Anjou, however, now assembled his troops, and marched out to meet his rival. The two armies met in the plain of St. Valentine, near Aquila; the army of Conradin was cut to pieces, and the young Prince fell into the power of the conqueror. Posterity cannot pardon Charles for having abused his victory here so far as to condemn and decapitate his disarmed and vanquished enemy. After this execution, Sicily and the country of Naples were given up to all the furies of a jealous, suspicious tyranny, for violence produces violence, and great political crimes never come alone. It was thus that Charles got ready for the crusade; but, on the other hand, Providence was preparing terrible catastrophes for him. "So true it is," says a historian, "that God as often gives kingdoms to punish those he elevates as to chastise those whom he brings low."

While these bloody scenes were passing in Italy, Louis IX was following up the establishment of public peace and his darling object, the crusade, at the same time. The holy monarch did not forget that the surest manner of softening the evils of war, as well as of his absence, was to make good laws; he therefore issued several ordinances, and each of these ordinances was a monument of his justice. The most celebrated of all is the Pragmatic Sanction, which Bossuet called the firmest support of Gallican liberties. He also employed himself in elevating that monument of legislation which illustrated his reign and which became a light for following ages.

The Count of Poictiers, who was to accompany his brother, was in the mean time engaged in pacifying his provinces, and established many regulations for maintaining public order. He, above everything, endeavored to abolish slavery; having for a maxim "that men are born free, and it is always wise to bring back things to their origin." This good prince drew upon himself the benedictions of his people; and the love of his vassals assured the duration of the laws he made.

We have said that Prince Edward, son of Henry III, had taken the oath to combat the infidels. He had recently displayed a brilliant valor in the civil war that had so long desolated England; and the deliverance of his father and the pacification of the kingdom had been the reward of his exploits. It was his esteem for the character of Louis IX, more than the spirit of devotion, that induced him to set out for the East. The King of France, who himself exhorted him to take the cross, lent him seventy livres tournois for the preparations for his voyage. Edward was to follow Louis as his vassal, and to conduct under his banners the English crusaders, united with those of Guienne. Gaston de Bearn, to whom the French monarch advanced the sum of twenty-five thousand livres, prepared to follow Prince Edward to the Holy Land.

The period fixed upon for the departure of the expedition was drawing near. By order of the legate, the cures in every parish had taken the names of the crusaders, in order to oblige them to wear the cross publicly, and all had notice to hold themselves in readiness to embark in the month of May, 1270. Louis confided the administration of his kingdom, during his absence, to Matthew, Abbot of St. Denis, and to Simon, Sieur de Nesle; he wrote to all the nobles who were to follow him into the Holy Land, to recommend them to assemble their knights and men-at-arms. As religious enthusiasm was not sufficiently strong to make men forget their worldly interests, many nobles who had taken the cross entertained great fears of being ruined by the holy war, and most of them hesitated to set out. Louis undertook to pay all the expenses of their voyage, and to maintain them at his own cost during the war—a thing that had not been done in the crusades of Louis VII or Philip Augustus, in which the ardor of the crusaders did not allow them to give a thought to their fortunes or to exercise so much foresight. We have still a valuable monument of this epoch in a charter, by which the King of France stipulates how much he is to pay to a great number of barons and knights during the time the war beyond the seas should last.

Early in the month of March, Louis repaired to the Church of St. Denis, where he received the symbols of the pilgrimage and placed his kingdom under the protection of the apostles of France. Upon the day following this solemn ceremony, a mass for the crusade was celebrated in the Church of Notre Dame at Paris. The monarch appeared there, accompanied by his children and the principal nobles of his court; he walked from the palace barefooted, carrying his scrip and staff. The same day he went to sleep at Vincennes, and beheld, for the last time, the spot on which he had enjoyed so much happiness in administering justice to his people. And it was here too that he took leave of Queen Marguerite, whom he had never before quitted—a separation rendered so much the more painful by the sorrowful reflection it recalled of past events and by melancholy presentiments for the future.

Both the people and the court were affected by the deepest regret; and that which added to the public anxiety was the circumstance that everyone was ignorant of the point to which the expedition was to be directed: the coast of Africa was only vaguely conjectured. The King of Sicily had taken the cross without having the least inclination to embark for Asia; and when the question was discussed in council he gave it as his opinion that Tunis should be the object of the first attack. The kingdom of Tunis covered the seas with pirates, who infested all the routes to Palestine; it was, besides, the ally of Egypt, and might, if subdued, be made the readiest road to that country. These were the ostensible reasons put forth; the true ones were that it was of importance to the King of Sicily that the coasts of Africa should be brought under European subjection, and that he did not wish to go too far from Italy. The true reason with St. Louis, and that which, no doubt, determined him, was that he believed it possible to convert the King of Tunis, and thus bring a vast kingdom under the Christian banners. The Mussulman Prince, whose ambassadors had been several times in France, had himself given birth to this idea, by saying that he asked nothing better than to embrace the religion of Jesus Christ; thus, that which he had said to turn aside an invasion was precisely the cause of the war being directed against his territories. Louis IX often repeated that he would consent to pass the whole of his life in a dungeon, without seeing the sun, if, by such sacrifice, the conversion of the King of Tunis and his nation could be brought about; an expression of ardent proselytism that has been blamed with much bitterness, but which only showed an extreme desire to see Africa delivered from barbarism and marching with Europe in the progress of intelligence and civilization, which are the great blessings of Christianity.

As Louis traversed his kingdom on his way to Aigues-Mortes, where the army of the crusaders was to embark, he was everywhere hailed by the benedictions of his people, and gratified by hearing their ardent prayers for the success of his arms. The clergy and the faithful, assembled in the churches, prayed for the King and his children and all that should follow him. They prayed also for foreign princes and nobles who had taken the cross and promised to go into the East, as if they would, by that means, press them to hasten their departure.

Very few, however, responded to this religious appeal. The King of Castile, who had taken the cross, had pretensions to the imperial crown, nor could he forget the death of his brother Frederick, immolated by Charles of Anjou. It was not only that the affairs of the empire detained the German princes and nobles; the death of young Conradin had so shocked and disgusted men's minds in Germany that no one from that country would have consented to fight under the same banners as the King of Sicily. So black a crime, committed amid the preparations for a holy war, appeared to presage great calamities. In the height of their grief or indignation, people might fear that heaven would be angry with the Christians, and that its curse would fall upon the arms of the crusaders.

When Louis arrived at Aigues-Mortes, he found neither the Genoese fleet nor the principal nobles who were to embark with him; the ambassadors of Palaeologus were the only persons who did not cause themselves to be waited for; for a great dread of the crusade was entertained at Constantinople, and this fear was more active than the enthusiasm of the crusaders. Louis might have asked the Greek Emperor why, after having promised to send soldiers, he had only sent ambassadors; but Louis, who attached great importance to the conversion of the Greeks, contented himself with removing the apprehensions of the envoys, and, as Clement IV died at that period, he sent them to the conclave of the cardinals, to terminate the reunion of the two churches.

At length the unwilling crusaders, stimulated by repeated exhortations and by the example of Louis, set forward on their march from all the provinces, and directed their course toward the ports of Aigues-Mortes and Marseilles. Louis soon welcomed the arrival of the Count of Poictiers, with a great number of his vassals; the principal nobles brought with them the most distinguished of their knights and their most brave and hardy soldiers; many cities likewise contributed their supply of warriors. Each troop had its banner, and formed a separate corps, bearing the name of a city or a province, the battalions of Beaucaire, Carcassonne, Chalons, Perigord, etc., attracted observation in the Christian army. These names, it is true, excited great emulation, but they also gave rise to quarrels, which the wisdom and firmness of Louis had great difficulty in appeasing. Crusaders arrived from Catalonia, Castile, and several other provinces of Spain; five hundred warriors from Friesland likewise ranged themselves with full confidence under the standard of such a leader as Louis, saying that their nation had always been proud to obey the kings of France.

Before he embarked, the King wrote once more to the regents of the kingdom, to recommend them to watch carefully over public morals, to deliver France from corrupt judges, and to render to everybody, particularly the poor, prompt and perfect justice, so that He who judges the judgments of men might have nothing to reproach him with.

Such were the last farewells that Louis took of France. The fleet set sail on the 4th of July, 1270, and in a few days arrived in the road of Cagliari. Here the council of the counts and barons was assembled in the King's vessel, to deliberate upon the plan of the crusade. Those who advocated the conquest of Tunis said that by that means the passages of the Mediterranean would be opened and the power of the mamelukes would be weakened; and that after that conquest the army would go triumphantly into either Egypt or Palestine. Many of the barons were not of this opinion; they said that, if the Holy Land stood in need of prompt assistance, they ought to afford it without delay. While they were engaged on the coast of Africa, in a country with which they were unacquainted, the Christian cities of Syria might all fall into the hands of the Saracens. The most redoubtable enemy of the Christians was Beibars, the terrible Sultan of Cairo; it was him they ought first to attack; it was into his states, into the bosom of his capital, that the war should be carried, and not to a place two hundred leagues from Egypt. They added to this, remembrances of the defeats that ought to be avenged upon the very theatre of so many disasters. Contemporary history does not say to what extent Louis was struck with the wisdom of these last opinions; but the expedition to Tunis flattered his most cherished hopes. It had been proposed by the King of Sicily, whose concurrence was necessary to the success of the crusade. It was, therefore, decided that the Genoese fleet should direct its course toward Africa; and two days after, on the 20th of July, it arrived in sight of Tunis and Carthage. At the sight of the Christian fleet, the inhabitants of the coast of Africa were seized with terror, and all who were upon the Carthage shore took flight toward the mountains or toward Tunis. Some vessels that were in the port were abandoned by their crews; the King ordered Florent de Varennes, who performed the functions of admiral, to get into a boat and reconnoitre the coast. Varennes found nobody in the port or upon the shore; he sent word to the King that there was no time to be lost—he must take immediate advantage of the consternation of the enemy. But it was remembered that in the preceding expedition the descent upon the coast of Egypt had been too precipitate; in this it was determined to risk nothing. Inexperienced youth had presided over the former war; now it was directed by old age and ripe manhood, and it was resolved to wait till the morrow. The next day at dawn the coast appeared covered with Saracens, among whom were many men on horseback. The crusaders, nevertheless, commenced their preparations for landing. At the approach of the Christians, the multitude of infidels disappeared; which, according to the account of an eyewitness, was a blessing from heaven, for the disorder was so great that a hundred men would have been sufficient to stop the disembarkation of the whole army. When the Christian army had landed, it was drawn up in order of battle upon the shore, and, in accordance with the laws of war, Pierre de Conde, almoner to the King, read with a loud voice a proclamation by which the conquerors took possession of the territory. This proclamation, which Louis had drawn up himself, began by these words: "I proclaim, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of Louis, King of France, his sergeant," etc. The baggage, provisions, and munitions of war were landed; a vast space was marked out, and the Christian soldiers pitched their tents. While they were digging ditches and raising intrenchments to protect the army from a surprise, they took possession of the tower built on the point of the cape, and on the following day five hundred sailors planted the standard of the lilies upon the castle of Carthage. The village of Marsa, which was close to the castle, fell likewise into the hands of the crusaders; the women and the sick were placed here, while the army remained beneath their tents. Louis still hoped for the conversion of the King of Tunis, but this pious illusion was very quickly dissolved. The Mussulman Prince sent messengers to the King to inform him that he would come and meet him at the head of a hundred thousand men, and would require baptism of him on the field of battle; the Moorish King added that he had caused all the Christians in his dominions to be seized, and that every one of them should be massacred if the Christian army presumed to insult his capital. The menaces and vain bravadoes of the Prince of Tunis effected no change in the plans of the crusade; the Moors, besides, inspired no fear, and they themselves could not conceal the terror which the sight only of the Christians created in them. Not daring to face their enemy, their scattered bands sometimes hovered around the Christian army, seeking to surprise any stragglers from the camp; and at others, uniting together, they poured down toward the advanced posts, launched a few arrows, showed their naked swords, and then depended upon the swiftness of their horses to secure them from the pursuit of the Christians. They not unfrequently had recourse to treachery; three hundred of them came into the camp of the crusaders, and said they wished to embrace the Christian faith, and a hundred more followed them announcing the same intention. After being received with open arms, they waited for what they deemed a favorable opportunity, and fell upon a body of the Christians, sword in hand; but being overwhelmed by numbers, most of them were killed, and the rest were allowed to escape. Three of the principals fell on their knees and implored the compassion of their leaders. The contempt the Franks had for such enemies obtained their pardon, and they were driven out of the camp. At length the Mussulman army, now emboldened by the inaction of the Christians, presented itself several times on the plain. Nothing would have been more easy than to attack and conquer it; but Louis had resolved to act upon the defensive, and to await the arrival of the King of Sicily, before beginning the war—a fatal resolution, which ruined everything. The Sicilian monarch, who had advised this ill-starred expedition, was destined to complete, by his delays, the evil he had begun by his counsels. The Mussulmans flocked from all parts of Africa to defend the cause of Islamism against the Christians. Preparations were carried on in Egypt to meet the invasion of the Franks; and in the month of August, Beibars announced by messengers that he was about to march to the assistance of Tunis. The troops which the Sultan of Cairo maintained in the province of Barca received orders to set forward. Thus the Moorish army was about to become formidable; but it was not this host of Saracens that the crusaders had most to dread. Other dangers, other misfortunes, threatened them: the Christian army wanted water; they had none but salted provisions; the soldiers could not endure the climate of Africa; winds constantly prevailed, which, coming from the torrid zone, appeared to the Europeans to be the breath of a devouring fire. The Saracens upon the neighboring mountains raised the sand with certain instruments made for the purpose, and the dust was carried by the wind in burning clouds down upon the plain upon which the Christians were encamped. At last, dysentery, that fatal malady of warm climates, began to commit frightful ravages among the troops; and the plague, which appears to be born of itself upon this burning, arid sand, spread its dire contagion through the Christian army.

They were obliged to be under arms night and day; not to defend themselves from an enemy that always fled away from them, but to guard against surprise. A vast number of the crusaders sunk under fatigue, famine, and disease.

It became impossible to bury the dead; the ditches of the camp were filled with carcasses, thrown in in heaps, which added to the corruption of the air and to the spectacle of the general desolation.

In spite of his sufferings, in spite of his griefs, Louis IX was constantly engaged in endeavors to alleviate the situation of his army. He gave orders as long as he had any strength left, dividing his time between the duties of a Christian and those of a monarch. The fever, however, increased; no longer able to attend either to his cares for the army or to exercises of piety, he ordered the cross to be placed before him, and, stretching out his hands, he in silence implored Him who had suffered for all men.

The whole army was in a state of mourning—the soldiers walked about in tears, demanding of heaven the preservation of so good a prince. Amid the general grief, Louis turned his thoughts toward the accomplishment of the divine laws and the destinies of France.

Philip, who was his successor to the throne, was in his tent; he desired him to approach his bed, and in a faltering voice gave him counsels in what manner he should govern the kingdom of his fathers. The instructions he gave him comprise the most noble maxims of religion and loyalty; and that which will render them forever worthy of the respect of posterity is that they had the authority of his example, and only recalled the virtues of his own life.



HEIGHT OF THE MONGOL POWER IN CHINA

A.D. 1271

MARCO POLO



The celebrated traveller, Marco Polo, was born at Venice in 1254, and died there in 1334, His father, a Venetian merchant, had passed many years in Tartary, where he was hospitably treated by Kublai Khan, to whose court, at an early age, Marco was taken, and there was received into the Khan's service. The training he acquired there fitted him to become a professional politician rather than a traveller, in the ordinary sense of the word; hence his more intimate acquaintance with the social and political systems which he describes.

Possessing, in a high degree, the versatility and subtlety seen in so many of his nation, and improving his new opportunities, he soon became among the high-class Tartars as one of themselves. He adopted their dress and manners, and learned the four languages spoken in the Khan's dominions, of which he left a famous description in his book of travels.

The empire seems at this time to have been at the height of its splendor, and historians, as well as students and readers of history, have been fortunate in possessing the shrewd and candid observations of Marco Polo, whose unique narratives still preserve their simple charm, nowise impaired by comparison with our stricter historical methods.

It is our desire to treat of the great and admirable achievements of the Grand Khan now reigning, who is styled Kublai Khan; the latter word implying, in our language, lord of lords, and with much propriety added to his name; for in respect to number of subjects, extent of territory, and amount of revenue he surpasses every sovereign that has heretofore been or that now is in the world; nor has any other been served with such implicit obedience by those whom he governs.

Kublai Khan is the lineal and legitimate descendant of Genghis Khan, the first emperor, and the rightful sovereign of the Tartars. He obtained the sovereignty by his consummate valor, his virtues, and his prudence, in opposition to the designs of his brothers, supported by many of the great officers and members of his own family. But the succession appertained to him of right. It is forty-two years since he began to reign, and he is fully eighty-five years of age. Previously to his ascending the throne he had served as a volunteer in the army, and endeavored to take a share in every enterprise. Not only was he brave and daring in action, but in point of judgment and military skill he was considered to be the most able and successful commander that ever led the Tartars to battle. From that period, however, he ceased to take the field in person, and intrusted the conduct of expeditions to his sons and his captains; excepting in one instance, the occasion of which was as follows.

A certain chief named Nayan, who, although only thirty years of age, was kinsman to Kublai, had succeeded to the dominion of many cities and provinces, which enabled him to bring into the field an army of four hundred thousand horse. His predecessors, however, had been vassals of the Grand Khan. Actuated by youthful vanity upon finding himself at the head of so great a force, he formed, in the year 1286, the design of throwing off his allegiance, and usurping the sovereignty. With this view he privately despatched messengers to Kaidu, another powerful chief, whose territories lay toward the greater Turkey, and who, although a nephew of the Grand Khan, was in rebellion against him, and bore him determined ill-will, proceeding from the apprehension of punishment for former offences. To Kaidu, therefore, the propositions made by Nayan were highly satisfactory, and he accordingly promised to bring to his assistance an army of a hundred thousand horse. Both princes immediately began to assemble their forces, but it could not be effected so secretly as not to come to the knowledge of Kublai, who, upon hearing of their preparations, lost no time in occupying all the passes leading to the countries of Nayan and of Kaidu, in order to prevent them from having any information respecting the measures he was himself taking.

He then gave orders for collecting, with the utmost celerity, the whole of the troops stationed within ten days' march of the city of Kambalu. These amounted to three hundred and sixty thousand horse, to which was added a body of a hundred thousand foot, consisting of those who were usually about his person, and principally his falconers and domestic servants. In the course of twenty days they were all in readiness. Had he assembled the armies kept up for the constant protection of the different provinces of Cathay, it must necessarily have required thirty or forty days; in which time the enemy would have gained information of his arrangements, and been enabled to effect their junction, and to occupy such strong positions as would best suit with their designs. His object was, by promptitude, which is ever the companion of victory, to anticipate the preparations of Nayan, and, by falling upon him while single, destroy his power with more certainty and effect than after he should have been joined by Kaidu.

In every province of Cathay and of Manji,[65] as well as in other parts of his dominions, there were many disloyal and seditious persons, who at all times were disposed to break out in rebellion against their sovereign, and on this account it became necessary to keep armies in such of the provinces as contained large cities and an extensive population, which are stationed at the distance of four or five miles from those cities, and can enter them at their pleasure. These armies the Grand Khan makes it a practice to change every second year, and the same with respect to the officers who command them. By means of such precautions the people are kept in quiet subjection, and no movement nor innovation of any kind can be attempted. The troops are maintained not only from the pay they receive out of the imperial revenues of the province, but also from the cattle and their milk, which belong to them individually, and which they send into the cities for sale, furnishing themselves from thence, in return, with those articles of which they stand in need. In this manner they are distributed over the country, in various places, to the distance of thirty, forty, and even sixty days' journey. If even the half of these corps were to be collected in one place, the statement of their number would appear marvellous and scarcely entitled to belief.

Having formed his army in the manner above described, the Grand Khan proceeded toward the territory of Nayan, and by forced marches, continued day and night, he reached it at the expiration of twenty-five days. So prudently, at the same time, was the expedition managed, that neither that Prince himself nor any of his dependents were aware of it, all the roads being guarded in such a manner that no persons who attempted to pass could escape being made prisoners. Upon arriving at a certain range of hills, on the other side of which was the plain where Nayan's army lay encamped, Kublai halted his troops and allowed them two days of rest. During this interval he called upon his astrologers to ascertain, by virtue of their art, and to declare in presence of the whole army, to which side the victory would incline. They pronounced that it would fall to the lot of Kublai. It has ever been the practice of the grand khans to have recourse to divination for the purpose of inspiriting their men.

Confident, therefore, of success, they ascended the hill with alacrity the next morning, and presented themselves before the army of Nayan, which they found negligently posted, without advanced parties or scouts, while the chief himself was asleep in his tent, accompanied by one of his wives. Upon awaking, he hastened to form his troops in the best manner that circumstances would allow, lamenting that his junction with Kaidu had not been sooner effected. Kublai took his station in a large wooden castle, borne on the backs of four elephants, whose bodies were protected with coverings of thick leather hardened by fire, over which were housings of cloth of gold. The castle contained many cross-bowmen and archers, and on the top of it was hoisted the imperial standard, adorned with representations of the sun and moon. His army, which consisted of thirty battalions of horse, each battalion containing ten thousand men, armed with bows, he disposed in three grand divisions; and those which formed the left and right wings he extended in such a manner as to outflank the army of Nayan. In front of each battalion of horse were placed five hundred infantry, armed with short lances and swords, who, whenever the cavalry made a show of fight, were practised to mount behind the riders and accompany them, alighting again when they returned to the charge, and killing, with their lances, the horses of the enemy. As soon as the order of battle was arranged, an infinite number of wind instruments of various kinds were sounded, and these were succeeded by songs, according to the custom of the Tartars before they engage in fight, which commences upon the signal given by the cymbals and drums, and there was such a beating of the cymbals and drums, and such singing, that it was wonderful to hear. This signal, by the orders of the Grand Khan, was first given to the right and left wings; and then a fierce and bloody conflict began. The air was instantly filled with a cloud of arrows that poured down on every side, and vast numbers of men and horses were seen to fall to the ground.

The loud cries and shouts of the men, together with the noise of the horses and the weapons, were such as to inspire terror in those who heard them. When their arrows had been discharged, the hostile parties engaged in close combat with their lances, swords, and maces shod with iron; and such was the slaughter, and so large were the heaps of the carcasses of men, and more especially of horses, on the field, that it became impossible for the one party to advance upon the other. Thus the fortune of the day remained for a long time undecided, and victory wavered between the contending parties from morning until noon; for so zealous was the devotion of Nayan's people to the cause of their master, who was most liberal and indulgent toward them, that they were all ready to meet death rather than turn their backs to the enemy. At length, however, Nayan, perceiving that he was nearly surrounded, attempted to save himself by flight, but was presently made prisoner, and conducted to the presence of Kublai, who gave orders for his being put to death. This was carried into execution by enclosing him between two carpets, which were violently shaken until the spirit had departed from the body; the motive for this peculiar sentence being that the sun and the air should not witness the shedding of the blood of one who belonged to the imperial family. Those of his troops which survived the battle came to make their submission and swear allegiance to Kublai.

Nayan, who had privately undergone the ceremony of baptism, but never made open profession of Christianity, thought proper, on this occasion, to bear the sign of the cross in his banners, and he had in his army a vast number of Christians, who were among the slain. When the Jews and the Saracens perceived that the banner of the cross was overthrown, they taunted the Christian inhabitants with it, saying: "Behold the state to which your (vaunted) banners, and those who followed them, are reduced!" On account of these derisions the Christians were compelled to lay their complaints before the Grand Khan, who ordered the former to appear before him, and sharply rebuked them. "If the cross of Christ," he said, "has not proved advantageous to the party of Nayan, the effect has been consistent with reason and justice, inasmuch as he was a rebel and a traitor to his lord, and to such wretches it could not afford its protection. Let none therefore presume to charge with injustice the God of the Christians, who is himself the perfection of goodness and of justice."

The Grand Khan, having obtained this signal victory, returned with great pomp and triumph to the capital city of Kanbalu. This took place in the month of November, and he continued to reside there during the months of February and March, in which latter was our festival of Easter. Being aware that this was one of our principal solemnities, he commanded all the Christians to attend him, and to bring with them their book, which contains the four gospels of the evangelists. After causing it to be repeatedly perfumed with incense, in a ceremonious manner, he devoutly kissed it, and directed that the same should be done by all his nobles who were present. This was his usual practice upon each of the principal Christian festivals, such as Easter and Christmas; and he observed the same at the festivals of the Saracens, Jews, and idolaters.[66] Upon being asked his motive for this conduct, he said: "There are four great prophets who are reverenced and worshipped by the different classes of mankind. The Christians regard Jesus Christ as their divinity; the Saracens, Mahomet; the Jews, Moses;[67] and the idolaters, Sogomombar-khan,[68] the most eminent among their idols. I do honor and show respect to all the four, and invoke to my aid whichever among them is in truth supreme in heaven."

But from the manner in which his majesty acted toward them, it is evident that he regarded the faith of the Christians as the truest and the best; nothing, as he observed, being enjoined to its professors that was not replete with virtue and holiness. By no means, however, would he permit them to bear the cross before them in their processions, because upon it so exalted a personage as Christ had been scourged and (ignominiously) put to death. It may perhaps be asked by some why, if he showed such a preference to the faith of Christ, he did not conform to it and become a Christian? His reason for not so doing he assigned: "Wherefore should I become a Christian? The Christians of these countries are ignorant, inefficient persons, who do not possess the faculty of performing anything (miraculous); whereas the idolaters can do whatever they will. When I sit at table the cups that were in the middle of the hall come to me filled with wine and other beverage, spontaneously and without being touched by human hand, and I drink from them. They have the power of controlling bad weather and obliging it to retire to any quarter of the heavens, with many other wonderful gifts of that nature. Their idols have the faculty of speech, and predict to them whatever is required. Should I become a convert to the faith of Christ and profess myself a Christian, the nobles of my court and other persons who do not incline to that religion will ask me what sufficient motives have caused me to receive baptism and to embrace Christianity. 'What extraordinary powers,' they will say, 'what miracles, have been displayed by its ministers?' Whereas, the idolaters declare that what they exhibit is performed through their own sanctity and the influence of their idols.

"To this I shall not know what answer to make, and I shall be considered by them as laboring under a grievous error; while the idolaters, who by means of their profound art can effect such wonders, may without difficulty compass my death. But let the Pontiff send hither a hundred persons well skilled in Christian law, who being confronted with the idolaters shall have power to coerce them, and showing that they themselves are endowed with similar art, but which they refrain from exercising because it is derived from the agency of evil spirits, shall compel them to desist from practices of such a nature in their presence. When I am witness of this I shall place them and their religion under an interdict, and shall allow myself to be baptized. Following my example, all my nobility will then in like manner receive baptism, and this will be imitated by my subjects in general." From this discourse it must be evident that if the Pope had sent out persons duly qualified to preach the gospel, the Grand Khan would have embraced Christianity, for which, it is certainly known, he had a strong predilection.

The Grand Khan appoints twelve of the most intelligent among his nobles, whose duty it is to make themselves acquainted with the conduct of the officers and men of his army, particularly upon expeditions and in battles, and to present their reports to him, and he, upon being apprised of their respective merits, advances them in his service, raising those who commanded a hundred men to the command of a thousand, and presenting many with vessels of silver, as well as the customary tablets or warrants of command and of government. The tablets given to those commanding a hundred men are of silver; to those commanding a thousand, of gold or of silver gilt; and those who command ten thousand receive tablets of gold, bearing the head of a lion; the former being of the weight of a hundred and twenty saggi,[69] and these with the lion's head two hundred and twenty. At the top of the inscription on the tablet is a sentence to this effect: "By the power and might of the great God, and through the grace which he vouchsafes to our empire, be the name of the Khan blessed; and let all such as disobey (what is herein directed) suffer death and be utterly destroyed."

The officers who hold these tablets have privileges attached to them, and in the inscription is specified what are the duties and the powers of their respective commands. He who is at the head of a hundred thousand men, or the commander-in-chief of a grand army, has a golden tablet weighing three hundred saggi, with the sentence above mentioned, and at the bottom is engraved the figure of a lion, together with representations of the sun and moon. He exercises also the privileges of his high command, as set forth in this magnificent tablet. Whenever he rides in public, an umbrella is carried over his head, denoting the rank and authority he holds;[70] and when he is seated, it is always upon a silver chair. The Grand Khan confers likewise upon certain of his nobles tablets on which are represented figures of the gerfalcon, in virtue of which they are authorized to take with them as their guard of honor the whole army of any great prince. They can also make use of the horses of the imperial stud at their pleasure, and can appropriate the horses of any officers inferior to themselves in rank.

Kublai is of the middle stature, that is, neither tall nor short; his limbs are well formed, and in his whole figure there is a just proportion. His complexion is fair, and occasionally suffused with red, like the bright tint of the rose, which adds much grace to his countenance. His eyes are black and handsome, his nose is well shaped and prominent. He has four wives of the first rank, who are esteemed legitimate, and the eldest born son of any one of these succeeds to the empire upon the decease of the grand khan. They bear equally the title of "empress," and have their separate courts. None of them has fewer than three hundred young female attendants of great beauty, together with a multitude of youths as pages, and other eunuchs, as well as ladies of the bedchamber; so that the number of persons belonging to each of their respective courts amounts to ten thousand.

The Grand Khan usually resides during three months of the year—December, January, and February—in the great city of Kanbalu,[71] situated toward the northeastern extremity of Cathay; and here, on the southern side of the new city, is the site of his vast palace, in a square enclosed with a wall and deep ditch; each side of the square being eight miles in length, and having at an equal distance from each extremity an entrance gate. Within this enclosure there is, on the four sides, an open space one mile in breadth, where the troops are stationed, and this is bounded by a second wall, enclosing a square of six miles. The palace contains a number of separate chambers, all highly beautiful, and so admirably disposed that it seems impossible to suggest any improvement to the system of their arrangement. The exterior of the roof is adorned with a variety of colors—red, green, azure, and violet—and the sort of covering is so strong as to last for many years.

The glazing of the windows is so well wrought and so delicate as to have the transparency of crystal. In the rear of the body of the palace there are large buildings containing several apartments, where is deposited the private property of the monarch, or his treasure in gold and silver bullion, precious stones, and pearls, and also his vessels of gold and silver plate. Here are likewise the apartments of his wives and concubines; and in this retired situation he despatches business with convenience, being free from every kind of interruption.

His majesty, having imbibed an opinion from the astrologers that the city of Kanbalu was destined to become rebellious to his authority, resolved upon building another capital, upon the opposite side of the river, where stand the palaces just described, so that the new and the old cities are separated from each other only by the stream that runs between them. The new-built city received the name of Tai-du, and all those of the inhabitants who were natives of Cathay were compelled to evacuate the ancient city and to take up their abode in the new. Some of the inhabitants, however, of whose loyalty he did not entertain suspicion, were suffered to remain, especially because the latter, although of the dimensions that shall presently be described, was not capable of containing the same number as the former, which was of vast extent.

This new city is of a form perfectly square, and twenty-four miles in extent, each of its sides being neither more nor less than six miles. It is enclosed with walls of earth that at the base are about ten paces thick, but gradually diminish to the top, where the thickness is not more than three paces. In all parts the battlements are white. The whole plan of the city was regularly laid out by line, and the streets in general are consequently so straight that when a person ascends the wall over one of the gates, and looks right forward, he can see the gate opposite to him on the other side of the city. In the public streets there are, on each side, booths and shops of every description. All the allotments of ground upon which the habitations throughout the city were constructed are square and exactly on a line with each other; each allotment being sufficiently spacious for handsome buildings, with corresponding courts and gardens. One of these was assigned to each head of a family; that is to say, such a person of such a tribe had one square allotted to him, and so of the rest. Afterward the property passed from hand to hand. In this manner the whole interior of the city is disposed in squares, so as to resemble a chess-board, and planned out with a degree of precision and beauty impossible to describe.

The wall of the city has twelve gates, three on each side of the square, and over each gate and compartment of the wall there is a handsome building; so that on each side of the square there are five such buildings, containing large rooms, in which are disposed the arms of those who form the garrison of the city, every gate being guarded by a thousand men. It is not to be understood that such a force is stationed there in consequence of the apprehension of danger from any hostile power whatever, but as a guard suitable to the honor and dignity of the sovereign.



FOUNDING OF THE HOUSE OF HAPSBURG

A.D. 1273

WILLIAM COXE



The house of Hapsburg—-also called the house of Austria—owes its origin and firm establishment to the most celebrated of the Hapsburgs, a German princely family who derived their name from Hapsburg castle, built about 1020, on the banks of the Aare in Switzerland. This founder of the imperial line was Rudolph, son of Albert IV, Count of Hapsburg and Landgrave of Alsace. Rudolph was born in 1218, and died at Germersheim, Germany, in 1291. He succeeded his father in Hapsburg and Alsace in 1239, and in 1273 was elected German King (Rudolph I), with the substance, though not the title, of the imperial dignity of the Holy Roman Empire.

It is said that the electors desired an emperor, but not the exercise of imperial power, and that in Rudolph they saw a candidate of comparative lowliness, from whom their authority stood in little jeopardy. At the age of fifty-five the new sovereign assumed his throne in the face of difficulty and danger. He was opposed by the Spanish claimant, Alfonso of Castile, and confronted a formidable rival in Ottocar, King of Bohemia, whose contumacy disturbed the reign of Rudolph from its very beginning.

Rudolph's enemies had appealed against him to Pope Gregory X, and Rudolph in turn sought the ratification of the Pontiff, to whom, immediately after his election, he sent messengers with a letter imploring papal countenance. From this moment to the day when he finally overcame Ottocar in the field and secured the possessions which became hereditary in the house of Hapsburg, the historian narrates the steps whereby Rudolph advanced in his career.

Fortunately for the interests of Rudolph and the peace of Germany, Gregory X was prudent, humane, and generous, and from a long experience of worldly affairs had acquired a profound knowledge of men and manners. An ardent zeal for the propagation of the Christian faith was the leading feature of his character, and the object of his greatest ambition was to lead an army of crusaders against the infidels. To the accomplishment of this purpose he directed his aims, and, like a true father of Christendom, was anxious to appease instead of fomenting the troubles of Europe, and to consolidate the union of the German states, which it had been the policy of his predecessors to divide and disunite. By the most insinuating address he knew how to conciliate the affections of those who approached him, and to bend to his purpose the most steady opposition; and he endeavored to gain by extreme affability and the mildness of his deportment what his predecessors had extorted by the most extravagant pretensions.

The ambassadors of Rudolph were received with complacency by the Pope, and obtained his sanction by agreeing, in the name of their master, to the same conditions which Otho IV and Frederick II had sworn to observe; by confirming all the donations of the emperors, his predecessors, to the papal see; by promising to accept no office or dignity in any of the papal territories, particularly in the city of Rome, without the consent of the Pope; by agreeing not to disturb nor permit the house of Anjou to be disturbed in the possession of Naples and Sicily, which they held as fiefs from the Roman see; and by engaging to undertake in person a crusade against the infidels. In consequence of these concessions, Gregory gave the new King of the Romans his most cordial support, refused to listen to the overtures of Ottocar, and after much difficulty finally succeeded in persuading Alfonso to renounce his pretensions to the imperial dignity.

An interview in October, 1275, between Rudolph and Gregory at Lausanne, concluded his negotiations with the Roman see, and gave rise to a personal friendship between the heads of the Church and the empire, who were equally distinguished for their frank and amiable qualities. In this interview Rudolph publicly ratified the articles which his ambassadors had concluded in his name; the electors and princes who were present followed his example, and Gregory again confirmed the election of Rudolph, on condition that he should repair to Rome the following year to receive the imperial crown. At the conclusion of this ceremony the new Emperor, with his consort and the princes of the empire, assumed the cross, and engaged to undertake a crusade against the infidels.

During the negotiations of Rudolph with Gregory X, Ottocar had exerted himself to shake the authority of the new chief of the empire, and to consolidate a confederacy with the German princes. He not only rejected with disdain all the proposals of accommodation made at the instances of Rudolph by the judicious and conciliating Pontiff, but prevented the clergy of Bohemia from contributing the tenths of their revenue or preaching the crusade. He endeavored to alarm the princes of the empire by displaying the views of the new sovereign, to recover the imperial fiefs which they had appropriated during the interregnum, and by his promises and intrigues succeeded in attaching to his cause the Margrave of Baden and the counts of Freiburg, Neuburg, and Montfort. But he secured a still more powerful partisan in Henry, Duke of Lower Bavaria, by fomenting the disputes between him and his brother the Count Palatine, and by ceding to him Scharding and other places wrested from Bavaria by the Duke of Austria.

When summoned by Rudolph to do homage for his fiefs, according to the custom of the empire, he returned a haughty answer, treating him as Count of Hapsburg; a second summons was received with silent contempt; on a third he sent his ambassador, the Bishop of Seccan, to the Diet of Augsburg; and his example was followed by Henry of Bavaria. These ministers were, however, only deputed to raise a feigned contest relative to the vote of Henry and to protest against the election of Rudolph. The ambassador of Henry urged the protest with moderation and respect; but the Bishop of Seccan delivered a virulent invective against the chief of the empire, in a style conformable to the spirit and character of his powerful and haughty master. He declared that the assembly in which Rudolph had been chosen was illegal; that the arbitration of Louis of Bavaria was unprecedented; that a man excommunicated by the Pope for plundering churches and convents was ineligible to the imperial throne, and that his sovereign, who held his dominions by an indisputable title, owed no homage to the Count of Hapsburg.

As he spoke in the Latin tongue, the Emperor interrupted him with a dignified rebuke. "Bishop," he said, "if you were to harangue in an ecclesiastical consistory, you might use the Latin tongue; but when discoursing upon your rights and the rights of the princes of the empire, why do you employ a language which the greater part of those who are present do not comprehend?" The rebuke of the sovereign justly roused the indignation of the assembly; the princes, and particularly the Elector Palatine, started from their seats, and were scarcely prevented from employing violence, even by the interposition of Rudolph; and the ambassadors, quitting the assembly, retired from Augsburg.

The diet, irritated by this insult, passed a decree asserting the unanimity of Rudolph's election; they declared Ottocar guilty of contumacy; required him to restore Austria, Carinthia, and Carniola, which he had usurped, and to do homage for the remainder of his dominions. In case of refusal the ban of the empire was denounced against him, and supplies of men and money were voted to support their sovereign, to assert the imperial dignity, and to reduce the rebellious princes to obedience. The Burgrave of Nuremberg and the Bishop of Basel were despatched to Ottocar in the name of the diet, to demand his instant acknowledgment of Rudolph as king of the Romans, and the restitution of Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola.

They accordingly repaired to Prague, and delivered their message. "Tell Rudolph," replied the spirited monarch, "that he may rule over the territories of the empire, but I will not tamely yield those possessions which, I have acquired at the expense of so much blood and treasure; they are mine by marriage, by purchase, or by conquest." He then broke out into bitter invectives against Rudolph, and after tauntingly expressing his surprise that a petty count of Hapsburg should have been preferred to so many powerful candidates, dismissed the ambassadors with contempt. In the heat of his resentment he even violated the laws of nations, and put to death the heralds who announced to him the resolutions of the diet and delivered the ban of the empire.

During this whole transaction Rudolph acted with becoming prudence and extreme circumspection. He had endeavored by the mildest methods to bring Ottocar to terms of conciliation; and when all his overtures were received with insult and contempt, and hostilities became inevitable, he did not seek a distant war till he had obtained the full confirmation of the Pope and had reestablished the peace of those parts of the empire which bordered on his own dominions. He first attacked the petty adherents of Ottocar, the Margrave of Baden, and the counts of Freiburg, Montfort, and Neuburg, and, having compelled them to do homage and to restore the fiefs which they had appropriated during the preceding troubles, he prepared to turn his whole force against the King of Bohemia, with a solicitude which the power and talents of his formidable rival naturally inspired.

The contest in which Rudolph was about to engage was of a nature to call forth all his resources and talents. Ottocar was a prince of high spirit, great abilities, and distinguished military skill, which had been exercised in constant warfare from his early youth. By hereditary right he succeeded to Bohemia and Moravia, and to these territories he had made continual additions by his crusades against the Prussians, his contests with the kings of Hungary, and still more by his recent acquisition of Austria, Carinthia, and Carniola.

In the tenth century Austria, with both Styria and Carniola, under the title of a margravate, was governed by Leopold I of the house of Bamberg. It continued in the possession of his family, and in 1156 was erected into an independent duchy by the emperor Frederick II, and conferred on Henry, fifth in descent from Leopold, as an indivisible and inalienable fief; in failure of male issue it was made descendible to his eldest daughter, and, in failure of female issue, disposable by will. In 1245 Frederick the Warlike, last duke of the Bamberg line, obtained a confirmation of this decree; but, dying in the ensuing year without issue and without disposing of his territories by will, a dispute arose relative to his succession. The claimants were his two sisters, Margaret, widow of Henry VII, King of the Romans, and Constantia, wife of Henry the Illustrious, Margrave of Misnia; and his niece Gertrude, daughter of Henry, his elder brother, the wife of Premislaus, eldest son of Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia and brother of Ottocar. But on the plea that neither of the claimants was a daughter of the last Duke, the Emperor Frederick II sequestrated these territories as fiefs escheating to the empire, and transferred the administration to Otho, Count of Werdenberg, who took possession of the country and resided in Vienna.

As this event happened during the contest between the see of Rome and the house of Swabia, Innocent IV, who had deposed and excommunicated Frederick, laid Austria under an interdict, and encouraged the kings of Bohemia and Hungary and the Duke of Bavaria to invade the country. The Pope first patronized the claims of Margaret, and urged her to marry a German prince; but on her application to the Emperor to bestow the duchy on her eldest son Frederick, he supported Gertrude, who, after the death of Premislaus, had espoused Herman, Margrave of Baden, nephew of Otho, Duke of Bavaria, and induced the anticaesar, William of Holland, to grant him the investiture.

On the demise of Frederick II his son Conrad was too much occupied with the affairs of Italy to attend to those of Germany; the imperial troops quitted Austria, and, Herman dying, Otho of Bavaria occupied that part of Austria which lies above the Ems. But Wenceslaus of Bohemia, prevailing on the states to choose his eldest surviving son Ottocar as their sovereign, under the condition that he should espouse Margaret, expelled the Bavarians and took possession of the whole country. Gertrude fled to Bela, King of Hungary, whose uncle Roman, a Russian prince, she married, and ceded to him her pretensions on Styria, on condition that he should assert her right to Austria. A war ensued between Ottocar and the King of Hungary, in which Ottocar, being defeated, was compelled to cede part of Styria to Stephen, son of Bela, and a small district of that country was appropriated for the maintenance of Gertrude. But the Hungarian governors being guilty of the most enormous exactions the natives of Styria rose and transferred their allegiance to Ottocar, who secured that duchy by defeating Bela at Cressenbrum, and by the treaty of peace which followed that victory. Ottocar had scarcely obtained possession of Styria before he deprived Gertrude of her small pittance, and the unfortunate princess took refuge from his tyranny in a convent of Misnia. Having thus secured Austria and Styria, and ascended the throne of Bohemia, Ottocar divorced Margaret, who was much older than himself; and to acquire that right of succession of Frederick the Warlike which he had lost by this separation from his wife he, in 1262, procured from Richard of Cornwall the investiture of Austria, Styria, and Carniola, as fiefs devolved to the empire. He either promised or gave compensation to Agnes, daughter of Gertrude by Herman of Baden, and to Henry, Margrave of Misnia, husband of Constantia.

Ottocar next purchased of Ulric, Duke of Carinthia and Carniola, who had no issue, the right of succeeding to those duchies on his death. In the deed of transfer, instituted December, 1268, Ulric describes himself as without heirs; although his brother Philip, Archbishop of Salzburg, was still living. On the death of Ulric, in 1269 or 1270, Ottocar took possession of those duchies, defeated Philip, who asserted his claims, and forced the natives to submit to his authority.

By these accessions of territory, Ottocar became the most powerful prince of Europe, for his dominions extended from the confines of Bavaria to Raab in Hungary, and from the Adriatic to the shores of the Baltic. On the contrary, the hereditary possessions of Rudolph were comparatively inconsiderable, remote from the scene of contest, and scattered at the foot of the Alps and in the mountains of Alsace and Swabia; and though head of the empire, he was seated on a tottering throne, and feebly supported by the princes of Germany, who raised him to that exalted dignity to render him their chief rather in name than in power.

Although the princes and states of the empire had voted succors, many had failed in their promised assistance, and, had the war been protracted, those few would have infallibly deserted a cause in which their own interests were not materially concerned. The wise but severe regulations of Rudolph for extirpating the banditti, demolishing the fortresses of the turbulent barons, and recovering the fiefs which several of the princes had unjustly appropriated, excited great discontent. Under these circumstances the powerful and imperious Ottocar cannot be deemed rash for venturing to contend with a petty count of Switzerland, whom he compared to those phantoms of sovereignty, William of Holland and Richard of Cornwall, or that he should conclude a king of Bohemia to be more powerful than an emperor. The event, however, showed that he had judged too hastily of his own strength and of Rudolph's comparative weakness, and proved that, when the reins of government were held by an able hand, the resources of the empire were still considerable, and its enmity an object of terror.

Rudolph derived considerable support from his sons-in-law the Electors of Palatine and Saxony, and from the Elector of Brandenburg; the Burgrave of Nuremberg, the nobles of Alsace and Swabia, and the citizens and mountaineers of Switzerland. Having made the necessary preparations, he, with a judicious policy, turned his attention to those princes who, from the vicinity of their dominions, were in a state of continual enmity or warfare with the King of Bohemia. He concluded a treaty with Ladislaus, King of Hungary, and strengthened the bond of union by betrothing his daughter to Andrew, Duke of Slavonia and brother of Ladislaus. He entered into an alliance with Meinhard, Count of Tyrol, which he cemented by the marriage of his eldest son Albert with Elizabeth, daughter of Meinhard. But his views were still more promoted by the general discontent which pervaded every part of the Austrian dominions, and by the anathemas of Philip, titular Duke of Carinthia and Archbishop of Salzburg, who absolved the people of his diocese from their oath of allegiance, and exhorted them to shake off the yoke of a tyrant and receive the chief of the empire.

The prelate made repeated exhortations to Rudolph to hasten his expedition. He drew a hideous picture of Ottocar's oppressions; expatiated on the discontents of the natives, and their inveterate hatred to the Bohemians, and used all his eloquence to encourage the King of the Romans to invade the country. "I observe," he says, "the countenances of your adversaries pale with terror; their strength is withered; they fear you unknown; your image is terrible in their imaginations; and they tremble even at the very mention of your name. How will they act, and how will they tremble when they hear the voice of the approaching thunder, when they see the imperial eagles rushing down on them like the flash of the lightning!"

The plan formed by Rudolph for the prosecution of the war was calculated to divide the forces and distract the attention of Ottocar. He himself was to penetrate into Bohemia, while his son was to invade Austria, and Meinhard of Tyrol to make a diversion on the side of Styria. To oppose this threatened invasion, Ottocar assembled a considerable army, sent a reenforcement to Henry of Bavaria, augmented the garrison of Klosterneuburg, a fortress deemed impregnable, fortified Vienna, and despatched a considerable party of his army toward Teppel to secure his frontier; but resigning himself to supineness and careless security, he passed that time, which should have been employed in repressing the discontented by his presence and rousing the courage of his troops, in hunting and courtly diversions.

Rudolph, apprised of these dispositions, changed his plan, marched against Henry of Bavaria, and compelled him, by force of arms, to desert the Bohemian alliance. He meditated a reconciliation between the Duke and his brother the Count Palatine, and, to secure his cooeperation, gave his daughter Hedwige in marriage to Otho, son of Henry, with the promise of assigning a part of Upper Austria as a pledge of her portion. This success opened to him a way into Austria. Accompanied by Henry with a reenforcement of one thousand horses, he traversed Lower Bavaria, by Ratisbon and Passau; overran that part of Austria which lies to the south of the Danube, without resistance, was received with joy by the natives, and rapidly marched toward Vienna.

This well-concerted expedition bore rather the appearance of a journey than a conquest, and Ottocar, awakened from his lethargy, received the intelligence with astonishment and terror. He now found even his ally Henry, in whose assistance he had confided, serving with his enemies, his Austrian territories invaded by a powerful army, the people hailing the King of the Romans as their deliverer, and the adversary, whom he had despised and insulted, in the very heart of his dominions. In these circumstances he recalled his army from Teppel, and led them through the woods and mountains of Bohemia to Drosendorf, on the frontiers of Austria, with the hope of saving the capital. But his troops being harassed by the fatigues of this long and difficult march, and distressed for want of provisions, he was unable to continue his progress, while Rudolph, advancing along the southern bank of the Danube, made himself master of Klosterneuburg by stratagem, and encamped under the walls of Vienna. Here, being joined by Meinhard of Tyrol, who had overrun Styria and Carinthia, and drawn the natives to his standard, he laid siege to the city. The garrison and people, who were warmly attached to Ottocar and encouraged with the hopes of speedy relief, held out for five weeks; at length the want of provisions and the threats of Rudolph to destroy the vineyards excited a small tumult among the people, and the governor proposed a capitulation.

During this time the discontents in Ottocar's army increased with their increasing distress; he was threatened by the approach of the Hungarians toward the Austrian frontiers; he saw his own troops alarmed, dispirited, and mutinous; and he was aware that on the surrender of the capital Rudolph had prepared a bridge of boats to cross the Danube and carry the war into Bohemia. In this situation, surrounded by enemies, embarrassed by increasing difficulties, deserted or opposed by his nobles, his haughty spirit was compelled to bend; he sued for peace, and the conditions were arranged by the arbitration of the Bishop of Olmuetz, the Elector Palatine, and the Burgrave of Nuremberg. It was agreed, on the 22d of November, 1276, that the sentence of excommunication and deprivation which had been pronounced against Ottocar and his adherents should be revoked; that he should renounce all his claims to Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Windischmark; that he should take the oath of allegiance, do homage for the remainder of his territories to the head of the empire, and should receive the investiture of Bohemia, Moravia, and his other fiefs. An article was also inserted, by which Ottocar promised to deliver up to Ladislaus, King of Hungary, all the places wrested from him in that kingdom. To cement this union a double marriage was to be concluded between a son and daughter of each of the two sovereigns; Rudolph engaged to give a portion of forty thousand marks of silver to his daughter, and, as a pledge for the payment, assigned to Ottocar a part of that district of Austria which lies beyond the Danube. The peace being concluded, the city of Vienna opened its gates and readily acknowledged the new sovereign.

Ottocar was obliged to submit to these humiliating conditions, and on the 25th of November, the day appointed for doing homage, crossed the Danube with a large escort of Bohemian nobles to the camp of Rudolph, and was received by the King of the Romans, in the presence of several princes of the empire. With a depressed countenance and broken spirit, which he was unable to conceal from the bystanders, he made a formal resignation of his pretensions to Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, and, kneeling down, did homage to his rival, and obtained the investiture of Bohemia and Moravia, with the accustomed ceremonies.

Rudolph, having thus secured these valuable provinces, took possession of them as fiefs reverted to the empire, and issued a decree placing them under the government of Louis of Bavaria as vicar-general to the empire, in case of his death or during an interregnum. He at the same time established his family in the Austrian dominions, by persuading the Archbishop of Salzburg and the bishops of Passau, Freising, and Bamberg to confer on his sons, Albert, Hartman, and Rudolph, the ecclesiastical fiefs held by the dukes of Austria. His next care was to maintain the internal peace of those countries by salutary regulations; and he gained the affection of the nobles by confirming their privileges and permitting them to rebuild the fortresses which Ottocar had demolished. To superintend the execution of these regulations he fixed his residence at Vienna, where he was joined by his Queen and family.

In order to reward his retainers he was, however, compelled to lay considerable impositions on his new subjects, and to obtain free gifts from the bishop and clergy; and the discontents arising from these measures probably induced Ottocar to attempt the recovery of the territories which he had lost.

Although the King of Bohemia had taken leave of Rudolph with the strongest professions of friendship, and at different intervals had renewed his assurances of unalterable harmony, yet the humiliating conditions which he had subscribed, and the loss of such valuable provinces, filled him with resentment; his lofty spirit was still further inflamed by his queen Cunegunda, a princess of an imperious temper, who stimulated her husband with continual reproaches. He accordingly raised obstacles to the execution of the treaty, and neglected to comply with many of the conditions to which he had agreed.

Rudolph, desirous to avoid a rupture, despatched his son Albert to Prague, Ottocar received him with affected demonstrations of friendship, and even bound himself by oath to fulfil the articles of the peace. But Albert had scarcely retired from Prague before Ottocar immured in a convent the daughter he had promised to one of the sons of Rudolph, and sent a letter to the King of the Romans, filled with the most violent invectives, and charging him with a perfidious intention of renewing the war.

Rudolph returned a dignified answer to these reproaches, and prepared for the renewal of the contest which he saw was inevitable. He instantly reoccupied that part of Austria which he had yielded to Ottocar as a pledge for the portion of his daughter. He also obtained succors from the Archbishop of Salzburg, the bishops of Passau, Ratisbon, and the neighboring prelates and princes, and collected levies from Austria and Styria for the protection of Vienna. In an interview at Hainburg, on the frontiers of Austria, with Ladislaus, King of Hungary, he adopted that Prince as his son, and concluded with him an offensive and defensive alliance. Unwilling, however, to trust his hopes and fortune to his new subjects, many of whom were ready to desert him, or to allies whose fidelity and attachment were doubtful, he applied to the princes of the German empire, but had the mortification to be disappointed in his expectations. He was joined by a few only of the inferior princes; but many who had not taken part in the former war were still less inclined to support him on the present occasion; several gained by Ottocar either remained neutral or took part against him; those who expressed an inclination to serve him delayed sending their succors, and he derived no assistance even from his sons-in-law the Electors of Palatine and Saxony.

On the other hand, he was threatened with the most imminent danger, for Ottocar, who during the peace had prepared the means of gratifying his vengeance, had formed a league with Henry of Bavaria, had purchased either the neutrality or assistance of many of the German princes, had drawn auxiliaries from the chiefs of Poland, Bulgaria, Pomerania, and Magdeburg, and from the Teutonic hordes on the shores of the Baltic. He had also excited a party among the turbulent nobles of Hungary, and spread disaffection among his former subjects in Austria and Styria. In June he quitted Prague, effected a junction with his allies, directing his march toward the frontiers of Austria, carried Drosendorf, after a short siege, by storm, and, descending along the banks of the Taya, invested the fortress of Laa.

Rudolph, convinced that his cause would suffer by delay, waited with great impatience the arrival of a body of troops from Alsace, under the command of his son Albert. But as these troops did not arrive at the appointed time he was greatly agitated and disturbed, became pensive and melancholy, and frequently exclaimed that there was not one in whom he could confide or on whose advice he could depend. His household and attendants partook of his despondency. To use the words of a contemporary chronicle, "All the family of King Rudolph ran to confessors, arranged their affairs, forgave their enemies, and received the communion, for a mortal danger seemed to hang over them." The citizens of Vienna caught the contagion and began to be alarmed for their safety. Seeing him almost abandoned by his German allies, and without a sufficient army to oppose his adversaries, they requested his permission to capitulate and choose a new sovereign, that they might not be involved in his ruin. Roused from his despondency by this address, Rudolph prevailed on the citizens not to desert their sovereign; he confirmed their privileges, declared Vienna an imperial city, animated them with new spirit, and obtained from them a promise to defend the ramparts to the last extremity.

At this period he was joined by some troops from Alsace and Swabia, and particularly by his confidant and confessor, the Bishop of Basel, at the head of one hundred chosen horse, and a body of expert slingers. This small but timely reenforcement revived his confidence, and although he was privately informed that his son Albert could not supply him with further succors, and was advised not to hazard an engagement with an enemy so superior in number, he resolved to commit his fortune to the decision of arms. Turning then to the chosen body newly arrived, he addressed them with a spirit which could not fail of inspiring them with courage, and gave at the same time the most flattering testimony to their zeal and fidelity. "Remain," he said, "one day at Vienna, and refresh yourselves after the fatigues of your march, and we will then take the field. You shall be the guard of my person, and I trust that God, who has advanced me to this dignity, will not forsake me in the hour of danger."

Three days after the arrival of the Bishop of Basel Rudolph quitted Vienna, marched along the southern bank of the Danube, to Hainburg, crossed that river, and advanced to Marcheck, on the banks of the March or Morava, where he was joined by the Styrians and Carinthians, and the forces led by the King of Hungary. He instantly despatched two thousand of his Hungarian auxiliaries to reconnoitre and interrupt the operations of his adversary. They fulfilled their orders with spirit and address, for Ottocar, roused by their insults, broke up his camp, and marched to Jedensberg, within a short distance of Weidendorf, whither Rudolph had advanced.

While the two armies continued in this situation, some traitors repaired to the camp of-Rudolph and proposed to assassinate Ottocar, but Rudolph, with his characteristic magnanimity, rejecting this offer, apprised Ottocar of the danger with which he was threatened, and made overtures of reconciliation. The King of Bohemia, confident in the superiority of his force, deemed the intelligence a fabrication and the proposals of Rudolph a proof of weakness, and disdainfully refused to listen to any negotiation.

Finding all hopes of accommodation frustrated, Rudolph prepared for a conflict, in which, like Caesar, he was not to fight for victory alone, but for life. At the dawn of day, August 26, 1278, his army was drawn up, crossed the rivulet which gives name to Weidendorf, and approached the camp of Ottocar. He ordered his troops to advance in a crescent, and attack at the same time both flanks and the front of the enemy, and then, turning to his soldiers, exhorted them to avenge the violation of the most solemn compacts and the insulted majesty of the empire, and by the efforts of that day to put an end to the tyranny, the horrors, and the massacres to which they had been so long exposed. He had scarcely finished before the troops rushed to the charge, and a bloody conflict ensued, in which both parties fought with all the fury that the presence and exertions of their sovereigns or the magnitude of the cause in which they were engaged could inspire. At length the imperial troops gained the advantage, but in the very moment of victory the life of him on whom all depended was exposed to the most imminent danger.

Several knights of superior strength and courage, animated by the rewards and promises of Ottocar, had confederated either to kill or take the King of the Romans. They rushed forward to the place where Rudolph, riding among the foremost ranks, was encouraging and leading his troops, and Herbot of Fullenstein, a Polish knight, giving spurs to his horse, made the first charge. Rudolph, accustomed to this species of combat, eluded the stroke, and, piercing his antagonist under his beaver, threw him dead to the ground. The rest followed the example of the Polish warrior, but were all slain, except Valens, a Thuringian knight of gigantic stature and strength, who, reaching the person of Rudolph, pierced his horse in the shoulder, and threw him wounded to the ground. The helmet of the King was beaten off by the shock, and being unable to rise under the weight of his armor he covered his head with his shield, till he was rescued by Berchtold Capillar, the commander of the corps of reserve, who, cutting his way through the enemy, flew to his assistance. Rudolph mounted another horse, and, heading the corps of reserve, renewed the charge with fresh courage, and his troops, animated by his presence and exertions, completed the victory.

Ottocar himself fought with no less intrepidity than his great competitor. On the total rout of his troops he disdained to quit the field, and, after performing incredible feats of valor, was overpowered by numbers, dismounted, and taken prisoner. He was instantly stripped of his armor, and killed by some Austrian and Styrian nobles whose relations he had put to death. The discomfited remains of his army, pursued by the victors, were either taken prisoners, cut to pieces, or drowned in their attempts to pass the March; and above fourteen thousand perished in this decisive engagement.

Rudolph continued on the field till the enemy were totally routed and dispersed. He endeavored to restrain the carnage, and sent messengers to save the life of Ottocar, but his orders arrived too late, and when he received an account of his death he generously lamented his fate. He did ample justice to the valor and spirit of Ottocar; in his letter to the Pope, after having described the contest and the resolution displayed by both parties either to conquer or die, he adds: "At length our troops prevailing drove the Bohemians into the neighboring river, and almost all were either cut to pieces, drowned, or taken prisoners. Ottocar, however, after seeing his army discomfited and himself left alone, still would not submit to our conquering standards, but, fighting with the strength and spirit of a giant, defended himself with wonderful courage, until he was unhorsed and mortally wounded by some of our soldiers. Then that magnanimous monarch lost his life at the same time with the victory, and was overthrown, not by our power and strength, but by the right hand of the Most High."

The body of Ottocar, deformed with seventeen wounds, was borne to Vienna, and, after being exposed to the people, was embalmed, covered with a purple pall, the gift of the Queen of the Romans, and buried in a Franciscan convent.

The plunder of the camp was immense, and Rudolph, apprehensive lest the disputes of the booty and the hope of new spoils should occasion a contest between his followers and the Hungarians, dismissed his warlike but barbarous allies with acknowledgments for their services, and pursued the war with his own forces. He took possession of Moravia without opposition, and advanced into Bohemia as far as Colin.

The recent wars, the total defeat of the army, and the death of Ottocar had rendered that country a scene of rapine and desolation. Wenceslaus, his only son, was scarcely eight years of age; and the Queen Cunegunda, a foreign princess, was without influence or power; the turbulent nobles, who had scarcely submitted to the vigorous administration of Ottocar, being without check or control, gave full scope to their licentious spirit; the people were unruly and rebellious, and not a single person in the kingdom possessed sufficient authority to assume and direct the reins of government. In this dreadful situation Cunegunda appealed to the compassion of Rudolph, and offered to place her infant son and the kingdom under his protection. In the midst of these transactions Otho, Margrave of Brandenburg and nephew of Ottocar, marched into Bohemia at the head of a considerable army, took charge of the royal treasures, secured the person of Wenceslaus, and advanced against the King of the Romans.

Rudolph, weakened by the departure of the Hungarians and thwarted by the princes of the empire, was too prudent to trust his fortune to the chance of war; he listened therefore to overtures of peace, and an accommodation was effected by arbitration. He was to retain possession of the Austrian provinces, and to hold Moravia for five years, as an indemnification for the expenses of the war; Wenceslaus was acknowledged King of Bohemia, and during his minority the regency was assigned to Otho; Rudolph, second son of the Emperor, was to espouse the Bohemian princess Agnes; and his two daughters, Judith and Hedwige, were affianced to the King of Bohemia and to Otho the Less, brother of the Margrave. In consequence of this agreement Rudolph withdrew from Bohemia, and in 1280 returned to Vienna in triumph. Being delivered from the most powerful of his enemies, and relieved from all further apprehensions by the weak and distracted state of Bohemia, he directed his principal aim to secure the Austrian territories for his own family. With this view he compelled Henry of Bavaria, under the pretext of punishing his recent connection with Ottocar, to cede Austria above the Ems, and to accept in return the districts of Scharding, Neuburg, and Freistadt as the dowry of his wife.