[27] Mr. Bryce credits Maximilian I. with the founding of the Austrian
monarchy. "Of that monarchy," he observes, "and of the power of the
house of Hapsburg, Maximilian was, even more than Rudolph his ancestor,
the founder. Uniting in his person those wide domains through Germany
which, had been dispersed among the collateral branches of his house,
and claiming by his marriage with Mary of Burgundy most of the
territories of Charles the Bold, he was a prince greater than any who
had sat on the Teutonic throne since the death of Frederick II. But it
was as Archduke of Austria, Count of Tyrol, Duke of Styria and
Carinthia, feudal superior of lands in Swabia, Alsace, and Switzerland,
that he was great, not as Roman Emperor. For just as from him the
Austrian monarchy begins, so with him the Holy Empire in its old meaning
ends." (The Holy Roman Empire, pp. 343, 344.) Mr. Bryce's work is one of
the most valuable contributions to historical literature that have
appeared in this century, and great expectations are entertained from
the future labors of one so liberally endowed with the historic faculty.
[28] The division of the house of Austria into two branches, which alone
prevented it from becoming supreme in Europe, and over much of the rest
of the world, took place in 1521.
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