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, before they had time to receive that foreign aid which had been secretly promised them, and securing all the important fortresses, which were now not many in number, he so overawed them, and so vigilantly watched every movement, that there was no opportunity to rise and combine.  The Styrian nobles, being remote, made an effort at insurrection.  Albert, though it was in the depth of winter, plowed through the snows of the mountains, and plunging unexpectedly among them, routed them with great slaughter.

While he was thus conquering discontent by the sword, and silencing murmurs beneath the tramp of iron hoofs, the diet was assembling at Frankfort to choose a new chief for the Germanic empire.  Albert was confident of being raised to the vacant dignity.  The splendor of his talents all admitted.  Four of the electors were closely allied to him by marriage, and he arrogantly felt that he was almost entitled to the office as the son of his renowned father.  But the electors feared his ambitious and despotic disposition, and chose Adolphus of Nassau to succeed to the imperial throne.

Albert was mortified and enraged by this disappointment, and expressed his determination to oppose the election; but the troubles in his own domains prevented him from putting this threat into immediate execution.  His better judgment soon taught him the policy of acquiescing in the election, and he sullenly received the investiture of his fiefs from the hands of the Emperor Adolphus.  Still Albert, struggling against unpopularity and continued insurrection, kept his eye fixed eagerly upon the imperial crown.  With great tact he conspired to form a confederacy for the deposition of Adolphus.

Wenceslaus, the young King of Bohemia, was now of age, and preparations were made for his coronation with great splendor at Prague.  Four of the electors were present on this occasion, which was in June, 1297.  Albert conferred with them respecting his plans, and secured their cooeperation.  The electors more willingly lent their aid since they were exceedingly displeased with some of the measures of Adolphus for the aggrandizement of his own family.  Albert with secrecy and vigor pushed his plans, and when the diet met the same year at Metz, a long list of grievances was drawn up against Adolphus.  He was summoned to answer to these charges.  The proud emperor refused to appear before the bar of the diet as a culprit.  The diet then deposed Adolphus and elected Albert ii. to the imperial throne, on the 23d of June, 1298.