eldest son to the throne,
Filangieri ruled as military governor. In commemoration of one of the
cities he had laid in ashes, he was created Duke of Taormina. When England
tried to exact the promised recognition of the Constitution of 1812, King
Ferdinand rejected the proposal with the sardonic statement that peace had
been re-established in Sicily, and everybody was content.

[Sidenote: Danish war]

[Sidenote: Dueppel trenches stormed]

[Sidenote: Battle of Gudsoe]

The armistice of Malmoe with Denmark expired on February 26. The German
Bundestag mobilized three divisions of the allied German federation. Within
a month Prussian, Bavarian and Swabian troops marched into Holstein. A
Prussian general, Von Prittwitz, assumed supreme command. On April 3, the
Danes opened hostilities by a bombardment of the Island of Allston. Then
came the battle of Eckenfoerde, when German shore batteries blew up the
Danish ship of the line, "Christian VIII.," and two smaller vessels, the
crews of which surrendered. On April 13, the Bavarians and Saxons stormed
the intrenchments of Dueppel. One week later, the German troops, in
conjunction with the volunteers of Schleswig-Holstein, under Von Bonin,
occupied Jutland, and defeated the Danes at Kolding. A Danish advance from
Fridericia was repulsed after a seven hours' fight, on May 7, at Gudsoe.
The Danes fell back on Fridericia, where they were invested.

[Sidenote: Francis Joseph's "Constitution"]

[Sidenote: German Constitution adopted]

[Sidenote: German imperial crown rejected]

Meanwhile the German Parliament had met again at Frankfort. After the
resignation of the former Austrian chief of the Cabinet, Schmerling, the
Parliament was split into two factions, according to their preferences for
a German union with or without Austria. Early in January it had been
decided to elect some German prince to assume the leadership of German
affairs as Emperor of the Germans. To this plan the minor German
sovereigns gave their consent. During the first week of March, when the
Emperor of Austria issued his new Constitution, which declared the whole of
the Austrian Empire under one indivisible constitutional monarchy, it was
plain to the German delegates that Austria could no longer be reckoned on.
On March 28, King Frederick IV. of Prussia was elected by 290 votes. Some
284 delegates, among whom were 100 Austrians, abstained from voting. An
imperial constitution was adopted which limited the f