September 3, 2025 • 18 mins
Explore the tumultuous era of the Wars of the Roses, a dramatic culmination of the Hundred Years War. Following the death of the formidable King Edward III in 1377, his young grandson Richard II ascends the throne, only to face challenges due to his misrule. The rise of the Lancastrians culminates in the downfall of Richard, while Henry Vs legendary victory at the Battle of Agincourt is overshadowed by his untimely death, leaving a vulnerable child king in his wake. As the specter of madness looms over Henry VI, the stage is set for a bitter internal conflict that will engulf the realm. (Summary by Pamela Nagami, M.D.)
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section forty three of the Houses of Lancaster and York
by James Gerdner. This librovox recording is in the public domain.
Read by Pamelinagami, Chapter eleven, General View of European History,
Part two. The Spanish Peninsula at the beginning of the
fifteenth century was divided into the four Christian kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Navarre,
(00:27):
and Portugal, besides the Moorish Kingdom of Granada. The different
kings had wars among each other and sometimes disputes with
regard to the succession at home. But in fourteen fifty eight, John,
the second King of Navarre, succeeded to the crown of Aragon,
and on his death in fourteen seventy nine he was
(00:49):
succeeded by his son Ferdinand, who, with his wife Isabella,
the Heiress of Castile, had already been proclaimed joint sovereign
of that country. In this manner, the three Christian kingdoms
of Spain would have been united, but after the death
of King John, Navarre became again a separate kingdom, and
(01:11):
owing to French interest, was kept so for another century.
Ferdinand and Isabella, however, united Attagone and Castile turned their
arms against the Moors, conquered Granada and became masters of
nearly the whole peninsula except Portugal, that country, which has
maintained its independence to this day. Became great in another
(01:35):
way by maritime expeditions. Alphonso the Fifth made several descents
upon the coast of Africa, conquering se Utah, Tangiers, and
other places. Portuguese enterprise discovered the island of Madera in
the beginning of the fifteenth century, and afterwards the Azores
(01:56):
then gradually explored the western coast of Africa by Cape
Bojador and Cape Verde, until in fourteen ninety seven Vasco
da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope and made
his way to India. The discovery of the New World
by Columbus in fourteen ninety two was unquestionably stimulated by
(02:17):
the knowledge of what the Portuguese had done before him.
But while the western kingdoms all passed through a period
of weakness and became stronger, the states situated in the
center of Europe remained in the Old Confusion, and in
the East, Christianity was actually receding before the armies of
the Turk Italy was parceled out into small states. In
(02:41):
the north, there was the Dukedom of Milan and the
republics of Venice, Genoa, and Florence, besides some minor principalities.
In the center were the states of the Church, of
which the Pope was sovereign. In the south were the
two separate kingdoms of Naples in Sicily. The principalities in
the north belonged to the Empire. The center of Italy
(03:04):
was governed by the Church. The south was a bone
of contention between foreign princes. Milan was erected into a
dukedom by the Emperor Vensuslaus in thirteen ninety five. It
had long been under the dominion of the Visconti, who
then became its dukes, a family noted for deeds of
(03:24):
violence and cruelty. But on the death of Philip Maria
Visconti in fourteen forty five, the dukedom was claimed by
his son in law, Francesco T. Sforza, who, after some fighting,
obtained it and became the head of another line. This Francesco,
who was the most noted soldier of his day, had
(03:45):
fought by turns in the service of Visconti, the Pope
and the Venetians, and generally speaking, had taken part in
all the Italian wars of his time, sometimes on one
side and sometimes on the opposite. He had fought against
Pope Eugenius the Fourth in the name of the Council
of bal till the prudent pontiff turned him into a
(04:08):
friend by making him gonfaloniere, or standard bearer of the church.
He had been out of favor with the Duke of Milan,
but the Duke found the need of his assistants, appointed
him Captain General of his army, and gave him his
daughter in marriage. After the Duke's death, the Milanese wished
(04:28):
to form themselves into a republic, like several of the
neighboring states, but Swotza formed a league with his old enemies.
The Venetians, laid siege to the city and forced it
to surrender for fear of starvation. He was by then
proclaimed duke, and his alliance was sought not only by
the princes of Italy, but by Louis the eleventh of
(04:51):
France and by the King of Arragon. His sons and
grandsons were dukes after him, but scarcely sustained his greatness
and In the last year of the century, the duc
Ludovico Marietz Vza was taken prisoner and as duchy seized
by Louis the twelfth of France. In Naples, as we
(05:11):
have seen, the House of Anjou disputed the throne for
some time with the family of Durrazzo. Afterwards, the kings
of Aragon, who ruled in Sicily, late claimed to Naples also,
and the House of Anjou was unable to vindicate its
pretensions against them. King Renee at first attempted to make
(05:32):
good his claims, but was soon driven out and left
with a barren title. A bastard branch of the royal
family of Aragon then for some time succeeded, but in
the end this kingdom, as well as Sicily, came into
the hands of Ferdinand the Catholic. Thus, ultimately the greater
part of Italy fell under the power either of France
(05:54):
or Spain, and so it continued for a long time afterwards.
The two two maritime republics of Genoa and Venice did
little to avert this result. The former, a prey to
civil dissensions, submitted in the end of the fourteenth century
to France. And never completely regained its independence till fifteen
(06:14):
twenty eight. Its territory on the mainland was but a
narrow fringe along the coast, but it possessed the island
of Corsica and in the Grecian Archipelago the island of Chios.
It had also made Cyprus tributary and colonized the Crimea
and other settlements on the Black Sea. But the fall
(06:37):
of Constantinople in fourteen fifty three, which the Genoese of
all European powers made the greatest efforts to prevent, deprived
them of their colonies on the Black Sea, and thereby
crippled their commerce. Their rivals, the Venetians, also suffered from
the advance of the Turks in Greece and on the
shores of the Adriatic. Venice, however, did not utcomb as
(07:00):
Genoa did to any other great European power, and she
was so formidable in the year fifteen oh eight that France,
Spain and Germany combined together in the League of Cambre
to humble her. Of the history of the Popes, we
have already said so much that a very few words
may suffice to complete it. We have seen how even
(07:24):
after the papalcy was brought back from Auvignon to Rome.
The French party were strong enough to maintain a series
of anti popes at Auvignon until the schism was terminated
by the proceedings of the Council of Constance, But factions
prevailed at Rome, and Pope Eugenius the Fourth took part
(07:44):
with the Orsini family against the Colonnas. He also came
into collision with the Council of Ball, which was assembled
in fourteen thirty one to promote a union of the
Greek Church with the Roman. Eugenius sought to dissolve this council,
with the Council, maintaining the principle asserted by the previous
Council of Constance, declared itself superior to the Pope, and
(08:09):
ultimately deposed him and set up Amedeus, Duke of Savoy
in his place as Pope. Felix the Fifth. Eugenius, however,
convoked another council at Fedrada, which he afterwards removed to Florence,
and therein pronounced the Council of bal heretical and the
anti Pope Felix a schismatic. Felix indeed was only recognized
(08:33):
in Hungary and a few of the minor European states,
and after the death of Eugenius, he was persuaded to resign.
After this, there is little that is remarkable in the
history of the papacy for some time, except in fourteen
fifty eight a great scholar and traveler, a Nius Silvius Piccolomini,
(08:54):
was made pope by the name of Pius the Second, who,
like all the other popes of this period, made great
but ineffectual efforts to unite Europe against the Turks. The
princes of Europe were engrossed with their own affairs, and
the authority of the Holy See was no longer what
it had been before the popes took up their abode
(09:15):
at Avignon. We have already spoken of the conquests of
the Sultan Bajazette, of the Great Battle of Nicopolis, in
which he defeated the flower of European chivalry, and of
his final overthrow by Timur the Tartar. This saved for
a while from extinction the old Eastern Empire, which had
(09:35):
continued from the days of Constantine and Soliman the First,
the son of Bajazet, recovered the greater part of Asia
from Tamerlane by cding to the Emperor Manuel the conquests
of his father in Europe, but his successors renewed their
aggressions on Christendom, which would have been still more effective
(09:57):
but for family quarrels among the Ottoman princes themselves Albs
the armies of Bamarath the second were defeated when they
invaded Hungary by Johannes Corvinus Haniades Waywoad of Transylvania. The
Prince of Albania at the same time threw off the
yoke and succeeded in maintaining for three and twenty years
(10:19):
the independence of his country. The name of this prince
was George Castriot, but he is better known in history
by that of Skanderbeg, meaning in Turkish the Great Alexander,
which was given him in compliment to his military genius.
He certainly did not a little while he lived to
(10:40):
divert the forces of the Turk from Europe generally. Yet
in the year fourteen fifty three, Mohammet the Second took
by assault Constantinople, and the Eastern Empire came to an end.
In a few years more, he took Athens Thebes and
Corinth and conquered the Morea. Finally, after the death of Skanderbeg,
(11:04):
he made himself master of Albania, and Negropund invaded Croatia
and sent a fleet across the Adriatic, which surprised Otranto.
Italy and Europe generally heard of his doings with terror.
Of all European kingdoms, Hungary was most exposed to this invader,
and Hungary had not unfrequently troubles of its own in
(11:28):
the nature of a disputed succession. To encourage his audacity,
the crowns of Hungary and of Bohemia were united with
the Empire of Germany under Sigismunt, of whose contests both
with the Turks and with the Hussites we have already spoken.
But a party in each of these countries sought rather
to promote a union with Poland. After the death of Sigismunt,
(11:53):
Albert of Austria, who had married his daughter Elizabeth, succeeded
to the throne of both kingdoms, became emperor as well,
but he died within two years. At the moment of
his death he was without an heir, but his queen,
Elizabeth was with child and gave birth to a son,
(12:13):
who was called Ladislaus the Posthumus, and succeeded to the
throne of Bohemia. The Hungarians, however, offered their crown to
another Ladislaus, the King of Poland, with whom Elizabeth, so
long as she lived in Vain, attempted to dispute the
succession on her son's behalf. Under this Polish king and
(12:34):
the brave general John Haniades, the Hungarians succeeded for some
time in repelling the Turks, but being incited by the
Pope to violate a truce with the enemy, the king
met with a great defeat and perished in battle near Varna.
After his death, Honiades was made regent for Ladislaus the Posthumus,
(12:55):
who was still a minor, and invaded the dominions of
the Emperor French the Third to make him deliver up
the young prince, who had been put under his protection.
Young Ladislaus was restored, but those by whom he was
surrounded caused Haniades to be dismissed from the regency, and
some years after goaded the hero's sons into a conspiracy,
(13:19):
which cost the eldest his life. The people, however, were
indignant and on the death of Ladislaus, raised Matias Corvinus,
the second son of Haniades, to the throne. Like his father,
he was a brave warrior, and he regained from the
Turks the strong town of Jaisa in Bosnia. But unfortunately
(13:41):
the Turks were not his only enemy, and he was
compelled to make war by turns against the King of Bohemia,
the King of Poland, and the Emperor. And although a
king of very noble qualities and very successful in all
his campaigns, it was perhaps a happiness for his country
that he left no son to continue his line in
(14:02):
the face of so many adversaries. The crown of Hungary
was again united with that of Bohemia, and in the
following century both crowns came to the House of Austria.
The Kingdom of Poland had long been exposed to attack
from another set of infidels, the Hordes, inhabiting Lithuania, but
(14:23):
in thirteen eighty six, the Princess Hedvig, having succeeded to
the crown, took for her husband Yogillo, Grand Duke of Lithuania,
on condition that he would be baptized. This act was
followed by the conversion of the Lithuanians generally, Yogillo became
King of Poland by the name of Ladislas the Fifth,
(14:45):
and the country was no longer exposed to pagan inroads,
but he and his successors had fierce wars with the
Teutonic Knights of Prussia. Germany had been for centuries under
the rule of the emperors successors of Sharps Arlemagne, who
was considered to have revived the old Empire of Rome. Theoretically,
(15:06):
the emperor was in temporal matters what the pope was
in spiritual, the head of all Western Europe, or rather
of the world. But these proud pretensions had never been
justified by facts. Since the days of Charlemagne himself. For
a long time the Empire had been united with the
old Kingdom of Germany, and the emperor had been elected
(15:27):
by a diet of German princes. He commonly received three
crowns in succession. First a silver crown at Ex La Chapel,
which was the crown of Germany. Afterwards what is called
the iron crown of Lombardy at Milan. It is of silver,
but it has a circle of iron within it. And
(15:47):
finally the golden crown of Empire at Rome. This last
crown was placed upon his head by the Pope, and
until he received it he was not fully entitled to
the name of Emperor. Till then he was only called
King of the Romans. For a long time, the emperors
had asserted their dominion over Italy, but now this was
(16:09):
little more than a tradition. Even over Germany, their rule
was no longer what it had once been. The revenues
attached to the imperial dignity were totally inadequate, and the
electors were fain to offer it to foreign princes able
to support the burden. The German princes cared little for
their sovereign and the emperor himself cared more for his
(16:31):
own patrimony than for the interests of Germany. Venceslaus, who
was king of Bohemia as well as Emperor, seldom visited
the rest of his dominions, and was deposed in fourteen hundred,
the year after his brother in law, Richard the second
was deposed In England. Sigismund, the brother of Venceslaus, was
(16:51):
a more active ruler, but even he cared more for
Hungary than for Germany, still more indifferent to the affairs
of the Empire was Frederick the Third, who was elected
Emperor in fourteen forty, and who made it his principal
aim to advance the interests of the House of Austria.
He created the Duchy of Austria into an archduchy, married
(17:15):
his son Maximilian to Mary, the rich Heiress of Burgundy,
and got him elected King of the Romans during his
own lifetime so as to insure his succession to the
Empire after his death. The policy which he thus initiated
was continued by Maximilian and his other descendants. The Empire
(17:35):
was preserved in the possession of the family, and the
fortunes of the House of Austria were continually improved by
politic marriages. But Germany became more and more disunited, each
of her princes being virtually supreme in his own dominions.
And of Section forty three
Section forty three of the Houses of Lancaster and York
by James Gerdner. This librovox recording is in the public domain.
Read by Pamelinagami, Chapter eleven, General View of European History,
Part two. The Spanish Peninsula at the beginning of the
fifteenth century was divided into the four Christian kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Navarre,
(00:27):
and Portugal, besides the Moorish Kingdom of Granada. The different
kings had wars among each other and sometimes disputes with
regard to the succession at home. But in fourteen fifty eight, John,
the second King of Navarre, succeeded to the crown of Aragon,
and on his death in fourteen seventy nine he was
(00:49):
succeeded by his son Ferdinand, who, with his wife Isabella,
the Heiress of Castile, had already been proclaimed joint sovereign
of that country. In this manner, the three Christian kingdoms
of Spain would have been united, but after the death
of King John, Navarre became again a separate kingdom, and
(01:11):
owing to French interest, was kept so for another century.
Ferdinand and Isabella, however, united Attagone and Castile turned their
arms against the Moors, conquered Granada and became masters of
nearly the whole peninsula except Portugal, that country, which has
maintained its independence to this day. Became great in another
(01:35):
way by maritime expeditions. Alphonso the Fifth made several descents
upon the coast of Africa, conquering se Utah, Tangiers, and
other places. Portuguese enterprise discovered the island of Madera in
the beginning of the fifteenth century, and afterwards the Azores
(01:56):
then gradually explored the western coast of Africa by Cape
Bojador and Cape Verde, until in fourteen ninety seven Vasco
da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope and made
his way to India. The discovery of the New World
by Columbus in fourteen ninety two was unquestionably stimulated by
(02:17):
the knowledge of what the Portuguese had done before him.
But while the western kingdoms all passed through a period
of weakness and became stronger, the states situated in the
center of Europe remained in the Old Confusion, and in
the East, Christianity was actually receding before the armies of
the Turk Italy was parceled out into small states. In
(02:41):
the north, there was the Dukedom of Milan and the
republics of Venice, Genoa, and Florence, besides some minor principalities.
In the center were the states of the Church, of
which the Pope was sovereign. In the south were the
two separate kingdoms of Naples in Sicily. The principalities in
the north belonged to the Empire. The center of Italy
(03:04):
was governed by the Church. The south was a bone
of contention between foreign princes. Milan was erected into a
dukedom by the Emperor Vensuslaus in thirteen ninety five. It
had long been under the dominion of the Visconti, who
then became its dukes, a family noted for deeds of
(03:24):
violence and cruelty. But on the death of Philip Maria
Visconti in fourteen forty five, the dukedom was claimed by
his son in law, Francesco T. Sforza, who, after some fighting,
obtained it and became the head of another line. This Francesco,
who was the most noted soldier of his day, had
(03:45):
fought by turns in the service of Visconti, the Pope
and the Venetians, and generally speaking, had taken part in
all the Italian wars of his time, sometimes on one
side and sometimes on the opposite. He had fought against
Pope Eugenius the Fourth in the name of the Council
of bal till the prudent pontiff turned him into a
(04:08):
friend by making him gonfaloniere, or standard bearer of the church.
He had been out of favor with the Duke of Milan,
but the Duke found the need of his assistants, appointed
him Captain General of his army, and gave him his
daughter in marriage. After the Duke's death, the Milanese wished
(04:28):
to form themselves into a republic, like several of the
neighboring states, but Swotza formed a league with his old enemies.
The Venetians, laid siege to the city and forced it
to surrender for fear of starvation. He was by then
proclaimed duke, and his alliance was sought not only by
the princes of Italy, but by Louis the eleventh of
(04:51):
France and by the King of Arragon. His sons and
grandsons were dukes after him, but scarcely sustained his greatness
and In the last year of the century, the duc
Ludovico Marietz Vza was taken prisoner and as duchy seized
by Louis the twelfth of France. In Naples, as we
(05:11):
have seen, the House of Anjou disputed the throne for
some time with the family of Durrazzo. Afterwards, the kings
of Aragon, who ruled in Sicily, late claimed to Naples also,
and the House of Anjou was unable to vindicate its
pretensions against them. King Renee at first attempted to make
(05:32):
good his claims, but was soon driven out and left
with a barren title. A bastard branch of the royal
family of Aragon then for some time succeeded, but in
the end this kingdom, as well as Sicily, came into
the hands of Ferdinand the Catholic. Thus, ultimately the greater
part of Italy fell under the power either of France
(05:54):
or Spain, and so it continued for a long time afterwards.
The two two maritime republics of Genoa and Venice did
little to avert this result. The former, a prey to
civil dissensions, submitted in the end of the fourteenth century
to France. And never completely regained its independence till fifteen
(06:14):
twenty eight. Its territory on the mainland was but a
narrow fringe along the coast, but it possessed the island
of Corsica and in the Grecian Archipelago the island of Chios.
It had also made Cyprus tributary and colonized the Crimea
and other settlements on the Black Sea. But the fall
(06:37):
of Constantinople in fourteen fifty three, which the Genoese of
all European powers made the greatest efforts to prevent, deprived
them of their colonies on the Black Sea, and thereby
crippled their commerce. Their rivals, the Venetians, also suffered from
the advance of the Turks in Greece and on the
shores of the Adriatic. Venice, however, did not utcomb as
(07:00):
Genoa did to any other great European power, and she
was so formidable in the year fifteen oh eight that France,
Spain and Germany combined together in the League of Cambre
to humble her. Of the history of the Popes, we
have already said so much that a very few words
may suffice to complete it. We have seen how even
(07:24):
after the papalcy was brought back from Auvignon to Rome.
The French party were strong enough to maintain a series
of anti popes at Auvignon until the schism was terminated
by the proceedings of the Council of Constance, But factions
prevailed at Rome, and Pope Eugenius the Fourth took part
(07:44):
with the Orsini family against the Colonnas. He also came
into collision with the Council of Ball, which was assembled
in fourteen thirty one to promote a union of the
Greek Church with the Roman. Eugenius sought to dissolve this council,
with the Council, maintaining the principle asserted by the previous
Council of Constance, declared itself superior to the Pope, and
(08:09):
ultimately deposed him and set up Amedeus, Duke of Savoy
in his place as Pope. Felix the Fifth. Eugenius, however,
convoked another council at Fedrada, which he afterwards removed to Florence,
and therein pronounced the Council of bal heretical and the
anti Pope Felix a schismatic. Felix indeed was only recognized
(08:33):
in Hungary and a few of the minor European states,
and after the death of Eugenius, he was persuaded to resign.
After this, there is little that is remarkable in the
history of the papacy for some time, except in fourteen
fifty eight a great scholar and traveler, a Nius Silvius Piccolomini,
(08:54):
was made pope by the name of Pius the Second, who,
like all the other popes of this period, made great
but ineffectual efforts to unite Europe against the Turks. The
princes of Europe were engrossed with their own affairs, and
the authority of the Holy See was no longer what
it had been before the popes took up their abode
(09:15):
at Avignon. We have already spoken of the conquests of
the Sultan Bajazette, of the Great Battle of Nicopolis, in
which he defeated the flower of European chivalry, and of
his final overthrow by Timur the Tartar. This saved for
a while from extinction the old Eastern Empire, which had
(09:35):
continued from the days of Constantine and Soliman the First,
the son of Bajazet, recovered the greater part of Asia
from Tamerlane by cding to the Emperor Manuel the conquests
of his father in Europe, but his successors renewed their
aggressions on Christendom, which would have been still more effective
(09:57):
but for family quarrels among the Ottoman princes themselves Albs
the armies of Bamarath the second were defeated when they
invaded Hungary by Johannes Corvinus Haniades Waywoad of Transylvania. The
Prince of Albania at the same time threw off the
yoke and succeeded in maintaining for three and twenty years
(10:19):
the independence of his country. The name of this prince
was George Castriot, but he is better known in history
by that of Skanderbeg, meaning in Turkish the Great Alexander,
which was given him in compliment to his military genius.
He certainly did not a little while he lived to
(10:40):
divert the forces of the Turk from Europe generally. Yet
in the year fourteen fifty three, Mohammet the Second took
by assault Constantinople, and the Eastern Empire came to an end.
In a few years more, he took Athens Thebes and
Corinth and conquered the Morea. Finally, after the death of Skanderbeg,
(11:04):
he made himself master of Albania, and Negropund invaded Croatia
and sent a fleet across the Adriatic, which surprised Otranto.
Italy and Europe generally heard of his doings with terror.
Of all European kingdoms, Hungary was most exposed to this invader,
and Hungary had not unfrequently troubles of its own in
(11:28):
the nature of a disputed succession. To encourage his audacity,
the crowns of Hungary and of Bohemia were united with
the Empire of Germany under Sigismunt, of whose contests both
with the Turks and with the Hussites we have already spoken.
But a party in each of these countries sought rather
to promote a union with Poland. After the death of Sigismunt,
(11:53):
Albert of Austria, who had married his daughter Elizabeth, succeeded
to the throne of both kingdoms, became emperor as well,
but he died within two years. At the moment of
his death he was without an heir, but his queen,
Elizabeth was with child and gave birth to a son,
(12:13):
who was called Ladislaus the Posthumus, and succeeded to the
throne of Bohemia. The Hungarians, however, offered their crown to
another Ladislaus, the King of Poland, with whom Elizabeth, so
long as she lived in Vain, attempted to dispute the
succession on her son's behalf. Under this Polish king and
(12:34):
the brave general John Haniades, the Hungarians succeeded for some
time in repelling the Turks, but being incited by the
Pope to violate a truce with the enemy, the king
met with a great defeat and perished in battle near Varna.
After his death, Honiades was made regent for Ladislaus the Posthumus,
(12:55):
who was still a minor, and invaded the dominions of
the Emperor French the Third to make him deliver up
the young prince, who had been put under his protection.
Young Ladislaus was restored, but those by whom he was
surrounded caused Haniades to be dismissed from the regency, and
some years after goaded the hero's sons into a conspiracy,
(13:19):
which cost the eldest his life. The people, however, were
indignant and on the death of Ladislaus, raised Matias Corvinus,
the second son of Haniades, to the throne. Like his father,
he was a brave warrior, and he regained from the
Turks the strong town of Jaisa in Bosnia. But unfortunately
(13:41):
the Turks were not his only enemy, and he was
compelled to make war by turns against the King of Bohemia,
the King of Poland, and the Emperor. And although a
king of very noble qualities and very successful in all
his campaigns, it was perhaps a happiness for his country
that he left no son to continue his line in
(14:02):
the face of so many adversaries. The crown of Hungary
was again united with that of Bohemia, and in the
following century both crowns came to the House of Austria.
The Kingdom of Poland had long been exposed to attack
from another set of infidels, the Hordes, inhabiting Lithuania, but
(14:23):
in thirteen eighty six, the Princess Hedvig, having succeeded to
the crown, took for her husband Yogillo, Grand Duke of Lithuania,
on condition that he would be baptized. This act was
followed by the conversion of the Lithuanians generally, Yogillo became
King of Poland by the name of Ladislas the Fifth,
(14:45):
and the country was no longer exposed to pagan inroads,
but he and his successors had fierce wars with the
Teutonic Knights of Prussia. Germany had been for centuries under
the rule of the emperors successors of Sharps Arlemagne, who
was considered to have revived the old Empire of Rome. Theoretically,
(15:06):
the emperor was in temporal matters what the pope was
in spiritual, the head of all Western Europe, or rather
of the world. But these proud pretensions had never been
justified by facts. Since the days of Charlemagne himself. For
a long time the Empire had been united with the
old Kingdom of Germany, and the emperor had been elected
(15:27):
by a diet of German princes. He commonly received three
crowns in succession. First a silver crown at Ex La Chapel,
which was the crown of Germany. Afterwards what is called
the iron crown of Lombardy at Milan. It is of silver,
but it has a circle of iron within it. And
(15:47):
finally the golden crown of Empire at Rome. This last
crown was placed upon his head by the Pope, and
until he received it he was not fully entitled to
the name of Emperor. Till then he was only called
King of the Romans. For a long time, the emperors
had asserted their dominion over Italy, but now this was
(16:09):
little more than a tradition. Even over Germany, their rule
was no longer what it had once been. The revenues
attached to the imperial dignity were totally inadequate, and the
electors were fain to offer it to foreign princes able
to support the burden. The German princes cared little for
their sovereign and the emperor himself cared more for his
(16:31):
own patrimony than for the interests of Germany. Venceslaus, who
was king of Bohemia as well as Emperor, seldom visited
the rest of his dominions, and was deposed in fourteen hundred,
the year after his brother in law, Richard the second
was deposed In England. Sigismund, the brother of Venceslaus, was
(16:51):
a more active ruler, but even he cared more for
Hungary than for Germany, still more indifferent to the affairs
of the Empire was Frederick the Third, who was elected
Emperor in fourteen forty, and who made it his principal
aim to advance the interests of the House of Austria.
He created the Duchy of Austria into an archduchy, married
(17:15):
his son Maximilian to Mary, the rich Heiress of Burgundy,
and got him elected King of the Romans during his
own lifetime so as to insure his succession to the
Empire after his death. The policy which he thus initiated
was continued by Maximilian and his other descendants. The Empire
(17:35):
was preserved in the possession of the family, and the
fortunes of the House of Austria were continually improved by
politic marriages. But Germany became more and more disunited, each
of her princes being virtually supreme in his own dominions.
And of Section forty three
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