Exhaustion soon compelled the combatants to come to terms, and greatly to the disadvantage of the cities peace was made in 1389. The main result of this struggle was everywhere to strengthen the power of the princes and to incite them to fresh acts of aggression. During the same time the Hanse towns were passing through a period of difficulty. They were disturbed by democratic movements in many of the cities and they were threatened by the changing politics of the three northern kingdoms, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and by their union in 1397; their trading successes had raised up powerful enemies and had embroiled them with England and with Flanders, and the Teutonic Order and neighbouring princes were not slow to take advantage of their other difficulties.
Towards the close of the century the discontent felt at the incompetent and absent German king took a decided form. The movement was led by the four Rhenish electors, and after some preliminary proceedings these princes met in August 1400; having declared Wenceslaus Rupert chosen king. dethroned they chose one of their number, the elector palatine Rupert III., in his stead, and the deposed monarch accepted the sentence almost without demur. Rupert was an excellent elector, and under more favourable circumstances would have made a good king, but so serious were the jealousies and divisions in the kingdom that he found little scope for his energies outside the Palatinate. In spite of the peace of 1389 the cities had again begun to form leagues for peace; but, having secured a certain amount of recognition in the south and west of Germany, the new king turned aside from the pressing problems of government and in 1401 made a futile attempt to reach Rome, an enterprise which covered him with ridicule. After his return to Germany he had to face the hostility of many of the princes, and this contest, together with vain attempts to restore order, occupied him until his death in May 1410.
After's Rupert’s death two cousins, Jobst, margrave of
Moravia, and Sigismund, king of Hungary, were in the autumn
of 1410 both chosen to fill the vacant throne by opposing
parties; and the position was further complicated
by the fact that the deposed king, Wenceslaus, was
Sigismund is chosen king.
still alive. Jobst, however, died in January 1411,
and in the succeeding July Sigismund, having come to terms
with Wenceslaus, was again elected king and was generally
recognized. The commanding questions of this reign were
ecclesiastical. It was the age of the great schism, three popes
claiming the allegiance of Christendom, and of the councils of
Constance and of Basel; in all ranks of the Church there was an
urgent cry for reform. Unfortunately the council of Constance,
which met mainly through the efforts of Sigismund in 1414,
marred its labours by the judicial murders of John Huss and
of Jerome of Prague. This act greatly incensed the Bohemians,
who broke into revolt in 1419, and a new and fiercer outburst
occurred in 1420 when Sigismund, who had succeeded his brother
Wenceslaus as king of Bohemia in the preceding August, announced
his intention of crushing the Hussites. Led by their
famous general, John Žižka, the Bohemians won several battles
and spread havoc and terror through the neighbouring German
lands. During the progress of this revolt Germany was so
divided and her king was so poor that it was impossible to collect
an army of sufficient strength to crush the malcontents. At
the diet of Nuremberg in 1422 and at that of Frankfort in 1427
Sigismund endeavoured to raise men and money by means of
contributions from the estates, but the plan failed owing to
mutual jealousies and especially to the resistance of the cities.
He secured some help from Frederick of Brandenburg, from
Albert of Austria, afterwards the German king Albert II., and
from Frederick of Meissen, to whom he granted the electoral
duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg; but it was only when the Hussites
were split into two factions, and when Žižka was dead, that
Germany was in any way relieved from a crushing and intolerable
burden.
The continual poverty which hindered the successful prosecution of the war against the Hussites, and which at times placed Sigismund in the undignified position of having to force himself as an unwelcome guest upon princes and cities, had, however, one good result. In 1415 he granted, or rather sold, the mark Brandenburg and the Hohenzollerns. of Brandenburg to his friend Frederick of Hohenzollern, burgrave of Nuremberg, this land thus passing into the hands of the family under whom it was destined to develop into the kingdom of Prussia. During this reign the princes, especially the electors, continued their endeavours to gain a greater share in the government of Germany, and to some extent they succeeded. Sigismund, on his part, tried to enforce peace upon the country by forming leagues of the cities, but to no purpose; in fact all his plans for reform came to nothing.
Sigismund, who died in December 1437, was succeeded on the German throne and also in Hungary and Bohemia by his son-in-law Albert of Austria, and from this time, although remaining in theory elective, the German crown was always conferred upon a member of the house Albert II. of Habsburg until the extinction of the male line of this family in 1740. The reign of Albert II. was too short to enable him to do more than indicate his good intentions; he acted in general with the electors in observing a neutral attitude with regard to the dispute between the council of Basel and Pope Eugenius IV., and he put forward a scheme to improve the administration of justice. He died in October 1439, and was succeeded by his kinsman Frederick, duke of Styria, who became German king as Frederick IV. and, after his coronation at Rome in 1452, emperor as Frederick III.
The first concern of the new king was with the papal schism.
The council of Basel was still sitting, and had elected an anti-pope,
Felix V., in opposition to Eugenius IV., while the
electors, adhering to their neutral attitude, sought
to bring Frederick into line with them on this question.
Frederick III. and
the Papacy.
Some years were occupied in negotiations, but the
king soon showed himself anxious to come to terms with Eugenius,
and about 1446 the electors ceased to act together. At length
peace was made. The consent of several of the electors having
been purchased by concessions, Frederick signed with Pope
Nicholas V., the successor of Eugenius, in February 1448 the
concordat of Vienna, an arrangement which bound the German
Church afresh to Rome and perpetuated the very evils from
which earnest churchmen had been seeking deliverance. Thus
Germany lost the opportunity of reforming the Church from
within, and the upheaval of the 16th century was rendered
inevitable.
Frederick’s reign is one of great importance in the history of Austria and of the house of Habsburg, but under him the fortunes of Germany sank to the lowest possible point. Without any interference from the central authority wars were waged in every part of the country, and disputes of Germany under Frederick. every kind were referred to the decision of the sword. The old enmity between the cities and the princes blazed out afresh; grievances of every kind were brought forward and many struggles were the result. Perhaps the most famous of these was one between a confederation of Franconian and Swabian cities under the leadership of Nuremberg on the one side, and Albert Achilles, afterwards elector of Brandenburg, and a number of princes on the other. The war was carried on with great barbarity for about four years (1449–1453), and was in every respect a critical one. If the cities had gained the day they might still have aimed at balancing the power of the princes, but owing partly to their imperfect union, partly to the necessity of fighting with hired troops, they did not gain any serious advantage. On the whole, indeed, in spite of temporary successes, they decidedly lost ground, and on the conclusion of peace there was no doubt that the balance of power in the state inclined to the princes. Frederick meanwhile was involved in wars with the Swiss, with his brother Albert and his Austrian subjects, and later with the Hungarians. He had no influence in Italy; in Burgundy he could neither stop Duke Philip the Good from adding Luxemburg to his possessions, nor check the towering ambition of Charles the Bold; while after the death of Charles in 1477 he was equally unable to prevent the king of
