ht be a question. "I
UNquestionably!" Sigismund would answer, with astonishment. "Soft, your
Hungarian Majesty," thinks Jobst: "till my cash is paid, may it not
probably be another?" This question has its interest: the Electors
just now (A.D. 1400) are about deposing Wenzel; must choose some better
Kaiser. If they wanted another scion of the House of Luxemburg; a
mature old gentleman of sixty; full of plans, plausibilities,
pretensions,--Jobst is their man. Jobst and Sigismund were of one mind
as to Wenzel's going; at least Sigismund voted clearly so, and Jobst
said nothing counter: but the Kurfursts did not think of Jobst for
successor. After some stumbling, they fixed upon Rupert KUR-PFALZ
(Elector Palatine, RUPRECHT VON DER PFALZ) as Kaiser.

Rupert of the Pfalz proved a highly respectable Kaiser; lasted for ten
years (1400-1410), with honor to himself and the Reich. A strong heart,
strong head, but short of means. He chastised petty mutiny with vigor;
could not bring down the Milanese Visconti, who had perched themselves
so high on money paid to Wenzel; could not heal the schism of the Church
(Double or Triple Pope, Rome-Avignon affair), or awaken the Reich to a
sense of its old dignity and present loose condition. In the late loose
times, as Antiquaries remark, [Kohler, p. 334; who quotes Schilter.]
most Members of the Empire, Petty Princes even and Imperial Towns, had
been struggling to set up for themselves; and were now concerned chiefly
to become Sovereign in their own Territories. And Schilter informs
us, it was about this period that most of them attained such rather
unblessed consummation; Rupert of himself not able to help it, with
all his willingness. The People called him "Rupert KLEMM (Rupert
SMITH'S-VICE)" from his resolute ways; which nickname--given him not in
hatred, but partly in satirical good-will--is itself a kind of history.
From Historians of the REICH he deserves honorable regretful mention.

He had for Empress a Sister of Burggraf Friedrich's; which high lady,
unknown to us otherwise, except by her Tomb at Heidelberg, we remember
for her Brother's sake. Kaiser Rupert--great-grandson of that Kur-Pfalz
who was Kaiser Ludwig's elder brother--is the culminating point of the
Electors Palatine; the Highest that Heidelberg produced. Ancestor of
those famed Protestant "Palatines;" of all the Palatines or PFLAZES that
reign in these late centuries. Ancestor of the present Bavarian Majesty;
Kaiser Lud