he 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 mos