mperors, respecting
investitures, or the right of nominating to vacant bishoprics;--by the
pretensions of the popes to hold their antient territories independent
of the emperors;--or by the new acquisitions of the popes in Italy.

1264-1272.

These contests reduced the empire to a state of anarchy, which produced
what is generally called, by the German writers, the Great Interregnum.
While it continued, six princes successively claimed to be emperors of
Germany.

1272-1438.

The interregnum was determined by the election of Rodolph, count of
Hapsburgh. From him, till the ultimate accession of the house of
Austria, in the person of Albert the Second, the empire was held by
several princes of different noble families.

1438-1519.

Albert was succeeded by Frederick III.; Frederick, by Maximilian I.; and
Maximilian, by Charles V.

To the period between the extinction of the Suabian dynasty and the
accession of the emperor Albert, may be assigned the rise of the Italian
republics, particularly Venice, Genoa and Florence; the elevations of
the princes of Savoy and Milan, and the revolutions of Naples, and the
Two Sicilies.

[Sidenote: IV. 1. The State of Germany, from the beginning of the
Suabian Dynasty till the Accession of the Emperor Charles V.]

The boundaries of Germany, during this period, were the Eider and the
sea, on the north; the Scheld, the Meuse, the Saone and the Rhone, on
the west; the Alps and the Rhine, on the south; and the Lech and
Vistula, on the east. They contained,--1. The duchy of Burgundy; 2. The
duchy of Lorraine; 3. The principalities into which Allemmania and
Franconia were divided; 4. The Bavarian territories, which the Franks
had acquired in Rhoetia, Noricum, and Pannonia; 5. Saxony; 6. The
Sclavic territories between the Oder and the Vistula: these were
possessed by the margraves of Brandenburgh, and the dukes of Poland and
Bohemia, and the princes dependent upon them in Moravia, Silesia and
Lusatia;--7. by the provinces of Pomerania and Prussia, on the east of
Saxony; 8. and the Marchia Orientalis, Oostrich, or Austria, on the east
of Bavaria.

At first, the emperor was chosen by the people at large; the right of
election was afterwards confined to the nobility and the principal
officers of state: insensibly, it was engrossed by the five great
officers,--the chancellor, the great marshal, the great chamberlain, the
great butler, and the great master of the palace. But