leges. At the beginning of the twelfth century, the citizens of SCHWEITZ being engaged in a dispute with the monastery of Notre dame des Hermites, respecting the limits of a forest, HENRY VI condemned them. Unwilling to conform to his sentence, they strengthened themselves by an alliance with the citizens of URI, and made an incursion upon the lands of the monastery. The citizens of UNDERWALDEN took part with them, supported at the same time by Count Ulric de Lentzbourg; and feeling irritated against the Emperor refused him obedience. This quarrel engaged the three Cantons to bind themselves closely to each other by continual alliances, which they were accustomed to renew every ten years, Hence their intimate connection.

It was not till the reign of Otho IV, that the Imperial Governors were acknowledged in Helvetia. This Emperor in the year 1209, during his journey into Italy, compelled them to receive as Governor Count RODOLPH III of HAPSBURGH.* The count engaged by oath, that he would maintain them in

the duke Berthold, was made Rector of that province, an office, which termiminated in his grandson Berthold V in 1218. It seems, this family was of the blood royal of Burgundy, and till its extinction in the abovenamed Berthold, was exceedingly powerful. Helvetia after this period (1218) fell under the immediate government of the Emperors.

* The first mention made in this history of the family of Hapsburgh, as rising into public consideration, occurs about the year 1000. At that period, a king of the name of Rodolph possessed the throne of Burgundy. His feeble administration is sufficiently marked by the expressive title of Fainéant, by which he is known to posterity. The kingdom of Burgundy, formed principally by that part of Helvetia, which lies south of the Reuss, had, in 888, on the death of Charles the Fat, Emperor of Germany, been conferred by the states on Rodolph de Stratlingue, son of Conrad count of Paris; and he was crowned at St. Maurice the fame year, making the village of Payerne in the canton of Berne his principal residence. His son Rodolph II, who succeeded, terminated a war with Burkard, duke of Alemannia, by marrying the celebrated Bertha his daughter, so highly extolled in the history of the Swiss. Her testament, fays Wood, is preserved in the archives of Berne, and is perhaps the oldest original deed extant. Conrad succeeded Rodolph, and defended his states with great bravery against the Huns. He died in 990, and left his throne to Rodolph III mentioned above. This prince extinguished the glory, which his ancestors had obtained, and ended the second race of Bur

their rights and privileges; but this oath could not have been scrupulously kept, since they applied to HENRY VII in 1231, to obtain freedom from his oppression. HENRY not only granted their request, but confirmed their privileges, which his successor FREDERIC also ratified. This ratification was in A. D. 1249. The expressions of the diploma confirm what has been already said of the liberty of the three cantons. They were acknowledged "as FREE MEN,+ who belonged only "to the Empire. Their homage was received with open arms, "since they voluntarily submitted to the Emperor and Empire, "from which it was promised, that they should never be "alienated." Might it not have been expected, that, after so positive a declaration, the liberty of the cantons would have been out of the reach of aggression? Yet it was not long after this, that the ambitious views of the Counts of Hapsburgh

extended even to them.

During the troubles of the interregnum, they chose in 1257 for their protector RODOLPH V, chief of this house and gundian kings. Little respected by his subjects, and unable to restrain the ambitious spirit of his nobles, who had grown haughty and independent, hẹ applied to his nephew and heir, the Emperor HENRY II. Henry referred him to WERNER DE HABSBOURG, bishop of Strasburg, and to his brothers, who were then very powerful princes. They lent him their aid, and for a short period supported his tottering throne. This Wernher built the castle of Hapsburgh, which gave name to the ancestors of the illustrious House of Austria. It stands on a lofty eminence, commanding a majestic prospect, and remains an emblem of the bold and extensive views of the founder of Austrian greatness. But, strange reverse of human grandeur! One half of the ruins scarce furnishes at present a shelter to a family of peasants. Landolde his brother was father of Radebot, count of Cleggeu, father of Wernher II, count of Hapsburgh, whose son Otho II had Wernher III, and he Albert III, who was father of Rodolph III, Landgrave of Alsace, &c, mentioned in the text, grandfather of RODOLPH V, first Emperor of this family.

See Watteville, Wood, &c.

Tanquam homines liberi, qui solum ad nos et Imperium respectum debeatis habere. Ex quo igitur sponte nostrum et Imperii Dominum elegistis, fidem vestram patulis brachiis amplexamur. Ita quod nullo tempore vos à postris et Imperii Domino, et manibus alienari vel extradi permittamus.

Guillimann.

Authors differ in assigning the period of this interregnum, some dating it from the excommunication of Frederic II in 1245,to the election of Rodolph af

grandson of RODOLPH III. The Counts of Hapsburgh, or Habsbourg, had become the most potent lords of Helvetia, by the marriage of ALBERT father of RODOLPH V, with Hedwig de Kybourg, daughter of Anne de Zaringue. From this rich succession, RODOLPH,† who was also heir to his uncle Hartman, Count de Kybourg, obtained the counties Hapsburgh in 1273, making twenty eight years. These exclude from the number of kings of the Romans Henry, Landgrave of Thuringia, William, Count of Holland, and Richard of England, duke of Cornwall. These princes it is true had been raised up by the Pope in opposition to Frederic, during a period of such confusion and violence, that neither divine nor human laws were regarded, and in which, say the German writers, it is impossible to describe the misery of the empire. The weakest were oppressed by the strongest, without any regard to the Imperial constitutions. Nor was the evil confined to Germany. It extended beyond the Alps and passed into Italy, where many princes and state's shook off their allegiance, and became independent. But if we reckon from the time, that the duke of Cornwall depart→ ed for England in 1259, to the election of Rodolph, the empire was but fifteen years without a head. (Heiss, bist. de l'Empire, tom. I.j

It is pleasing to the human mind to contemplate the founders of states and empires, or even of powerful and illustrious families. Of the latter RODOLPH may be considered as among the most celebrated. He is regarded with veneration as the founder of the fortunes of the Austrian family, which for a long period excited the jealousy of Europe, and in the person of Charles V seemed to threaten the extinction of every other power. It would be tedious to relate the wonderful things recorded of Rodolph by the Germans. His future greatness, according to them, was foretold by an aftrologer at court, while he was yet extremely young; and Frederic II, by whom he was educated, being persuaded, he would supplant his children, regarded him with such jealousy, that he retired to Ottocarus king of Bohemia, who made him Grand Marshal of the kingdom; thence he went to his own estates, where he conducted with so much propriety, generosity, and valor, that he acquired an extensive authority. His bravery, wisdom, and good conduct, were at length the cause of his elevation to the Empire in 1273. After his death and that of Adolphus of Nassau his successor, Albert I his son was made Emperor. After Albert, the succession to the Imperial dignity in the house of Austria was interrupted for more than a century. But after this period the family, which had continued to preserve its reputation and power, again obtained an election to the Empire, in the person of Albert II, who in one year received three crowns, the Hungarian,Bohemian, and Imperial. From this period, A. D. 1438, to the death of Charles VI in 1740, for three complete centuries the crown, although elective, was retained in the Austrian family, and their power immensely increased by several politic marriages, on which

of Baden, Zug, Lentzbourg, and Kybourg, the cities of Sem pach, Surzée, and Winterthur, and became landgrave of Burgundy and Turgovia. A prince so powerful was well able to defend the cantons, and he served them faithfully until the time of his ascending the Imperial throne. Not long after this event, encouraged by the good fortune which he had experienced in all his enterprises, and indeed by the earnest solicitations of his eldest son ALBERT, whom he had created duke of Austria, he formed the idea of erecting a duchy for himself in Helvetia. Albert was an avaricious prince. It is the character, which is given of him by a contemporary writer, who was born his subject.† But in excuse it is said, he was charged with a numerous family, having had twenty one children. The measures, which he persuaded his father the Emperor to take, were, to acquire the domains of the abbeys, and to engage the lords to sell him their fiefs, or render homage for them to their House. By thus conducting, he hoped the cities and free people would insensibly be obliged to recur to them for protection, and that finally, when surrounded on all sides by dependents on the Austrian fami

indeed their grandeur has been principally built. The possession of Bohe emia, Hungary, Corinthia, the Netherlands, and Spain, all arose from their prudence in the alliances, which the princes of the family contracted with the daughters of neighboring sovereigns. And so great was the respect paid to the family itself, and the talents of MARIA THERESA, daughter of Charles VI the last male of the race, so highly regarded, that the House itself still maintains its dignity, although it be passed into the ducal line of Lorraine. See Heiss, Watteville, and Wraxall's mem. of the courts of Berlin, Vienna, &c. Whether however, in the event of a new election, this respect would preponderate against the influence of the Prussian cabinet, and whether the House of Brandenburg would not, although of so recent a date, and of so rapid aggrandizement, obtain the Imperial crown, is a problem, that time only can solve. Intrigue it seems is sufficiently busy at the present day in attempting to effect such a change.

† Quod vitio Avaritiæ nimis irretitus fuerit, et tantum lucris et rebus temporalibus inhiaverit ; quod castra, civitates et oppida suorum consanguineorum sibi indebitè usurpaverit. Vitodur.

Iste Albertus Rex monoculus potens in regno Alemanniæ et inibi filiis suis omnia quæ potuit attrahens. Alb. Argent.

ty, they would surrender themselves voluntarily, or if not, might be compelled, on some favorable occasion.

RODOLPH listened with pleasure to the projects of his son, but they were not made public till several years after, when it became known, that this monarch had purchased of the Abbey of Murbach the city of Lucerne, and the rights, which it possessed in several villages of the canton of Schweitz. In exchange he gave the monastery five villages in Alsace, beside. 2000 marks of silver.

This purchase caused such an alarm, that, in order to appease the fears of the cantons, he confirmed their privileges. Dying soon after, he was succeeded in 1297 by ADOLPHUS of Nassau, who granted the same favor.

ALBERT, duke of Austria, ascended the German throne, as successor of Adolphus, in 1298. His disaffection towards the three cantons, and Helvetia in general, was still farther increased by their having been faithfully attached to the interests of his rival Adolphus, and it was not long before he manifested his resentment. He began by refusing, under various pretexts, to confirm their privileges.

Soon after he took off the mask. In the year 1300 he sent the barons de Liechtenberg and d'Ochsenstein to represent to them the propriety of surrendering themselves to him, as they were already surrounded by his domains, and as the Emperor possessed, even in their country, several jurisdictions, which he had acquired from the clergy and gentry. The answer of the cantons was concise. They said "they had "flattered themselves, that they should have been maintained "in their privileges, as on their part they were ready to "fulfil the obligations, to which they might be holden."

Although the preceding notes have been greatly extended, yet the reader will find the information in the following so elucidatory of the subject,' that he will think it indispensable. The power of Rodolph at his accession to the Empire has been mentioned. It remains to add, that in 1274 he acquir ed of Eberhard de Habsbourg, his cousin, the city of Fribourg. Albert his son gained Lucerne, and many lands in the cantons of Underwalden, Schweitz and Uri, besides several lordships, and all the tribute arising from commerce throughout the territory from Lucerne to St. Gothard. Several counts

F