27.4 Europe: a.d. 1201 to 1300  (Page 4/14)

When Hungary fell to the Mongols, great fear penetrated Germany and it was rumored that the "Tartars" were the lost - tribes of Israel and that Jews were smuggling arms to them, with the result that at several border posts Jewish merchants were indiscriminately slaughtered. Frederick II blamed King Bela for incompetence and held the pope responsible for placing Christians in jeopardy. At Frederick lI's death, the Hohenstaufen line fell and the nobles of Germany further weakened the monarchy and let Germany fall from the leadership of Europe. The imperial administration was in utter ruin by 1268 when the Austrian Habsburg, Rudolph, became emperor. The true "Roman Empire of the German People" never did re-emerge. (Ref. 27 , 221 ) (See "Confederation of the Rhine", map)

In 1230 heathen Prussia was conquered by the Order of Teutonic Knights and in 1237 they also took Kurland, Livland and Estland and began to colonize those districts. In Brandenburg, Berlin was founded in 1240 on the site of an older Slav settlement. Bavaria, at that time, was ruled as several separate fiefs under various members of the Wittelsbach family.

The German people in the 13th century were morally still half pagan and their Christianity was half a cover for territorial robbery in the east. Their manners were crude, the laws chaotic. The Hohenstauf en rule during most of the century was the most brilliant of the medieval civilizations but it was already beginning to decay. Leprosy was on the increase and most cities had hospitals outside the city limits for those patients. The greatest German scholar of the Middle Ages was St. Albert the Great, a Dominican monk, who some believe was on a par with St. Thomas Aquinas. By the end of the century the peasants' lot had improved considerably due to better general economic conditions, more arable land, better markets and trade. It was the city burgher, however, who proved the most dynamic and also the most disruptive element of medieval society. The city became the cradle of a new middle class, a new corporative legal code, a new economic system and a new philosophy of life. Several German city leagues were formed - Rhenish, Swabian and the Hanseatic League. The new economic system was based on money, not on land. (Ref. 177 )

Austria

Another Frederick, the Duke of Austria and the last of the Babenbergs, took advantage of a lull in the Mongols' advance (they were resting across the Danube) to take unoccupied areas of Hungary, although in many areas the Hungarians resisted. When the winter of 1241 came, the Danube froze (an unusual event) and the Mongols crossed over, sacking Gran (now Esztergom) and Buda and then headed for Austria itself, laying waste all lands as far as Wiener Neustadt and their scouts were on the outskirts of Vienna. It was then, in December, 1241 that Ogedai Khan died and the home regime at Karakorum was temporarily run by his wife, Toregene, as regent, until new elections could be held. The invasion of Europe had to be postponed, as the Mongols went back to Mongolia. (Ref. 27 ) This allowed Frederick to continue his attacks on the Hungarian Magyars but in one of the battles of 1246, he was killed. The Bohemian King Ottocar Premysl then moved in and captured Vienna, Carinthia and Carniola. In 1272 the German princes elected Rudolf of Habsburg as the German king and he promptly reclaimed the Austrian territory from Bohemia and thus both the Habsburgs and Austria made their true entrance on the European stage. It was another 10 years, however, before King Rudolf actually defeated the Bohemians, who had been trying again to seize power. Rudolf then gave both Austria and Styria to his sons. (Ref. 206 )