rch.
The humble and faithful ministers of religion he esteemed and protected,
while he was ever ready to chastise the insolence of those haughty
prelates who disgraced their religious professions by arrogance and
splendor.

At last the infirmities of age pressed heavily upon him. When
seventy-three years old, knowing that he could not have much longer to
live, he assembled the congress of electors at Frankfort, and urged them
to choose his then only surviving son Albert as his successor on the
imperial throne. The diet, however, refused to choose a successor until
after the death of the emperor. Rhodolph was bitterly disappointed, for
he understood this postponement as a positive refusal to gratify him in
this respect. Saddened in spirit, and feeble in body, he undertook a
journey, by slow stages, to his hereditary dominions in Switzerland. He
then returned to Austria, where he died on the 15th of July, 1291, in
the seventy-third year of his age.

Albert, who resided at Vienna, succeeded his father in authority over
the Austrian and Swiss provinces. But he was a man stern, unconciliating
and domineering. The nobles hated him, and hoped to drive him back to
the Swiss cantons from which his father had come. One great occasion of
discontent was, that he employed about his person, and in important
posts, Swiss instead of Austrian nobles. They demanded the dismission of
these foreign favorites, which so exasperated Albert that he clung to
them still more tenaciously and exclusively.

The nobles now organized a very formidable conspiracy, and offered to
neighboring powers, as bribes for their aid, portions of Austria.
Austria proper was divided by the river Ens into two parts called Upper
and Lower Austria. Lower Austria was offered to Bohemia; Styria to the
Duke of Bavaria; Upper Austria to the Archbishop of Saltzburg; Carniola
to the Counts of Guntz; and thus all the provinces were portioned out to
the conquerors. At the same time the citizens of Vienna, provoked by the
haughtiness of Albert, rose in insurrection. With the energy which
characterized his father, Albert met these emergencies. Summoning
immediately an army from Switzerland, he shut up all the avenues to the
city, which was not in the slightest degree prepared for a siege, and
speedily starved the inhabitants into submission. Punishing severely the
insurgents, he strengthened his post at Vienna, and confirmed his power.
Then, marching rapidly upon the nobles