1138-1519.

The principal events in the reigns of the latter princes of the Franconian, and of all the princes of the Suabian line, were produced or influenced by the contests between the popes and emperors, 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 their exclusive pretensions were much questioned.  At length, their right of election was settled; first, by the Electoral Union, in 1337; and finally, in the reign of the emperor Charles IV. by the celebrated constitution, called, from the seal of gold appended to it, the Golden Bull.  By this, the right of election was vested in three spiritual and four temporal electors:  two temporal electors have since been added to their numbers.