however, may date it as the
era of his prosperity; for, having passed through the ordeal of a long
banishment, in which he learnt to know himself, he came out of it a
wiser man and a more powerful Prince. From that period fortune favoured
him, and each Wuertemberger has cause to prize the latter years of his
government, esteeming the religious reformation which this prince
effected in his country, as the greatest blessing conferred on his
countrymen.

The public mind, in the year 1519, was still in a state of great
excitement. The insurrection of "poor Conrad,[3]" six years before, had
been partially quelled, though with difficulty. The country people in
many places still shewed symptoms of discontent. The Duke, among his
many failings, had not the method of gaining the affections of his
subjects, for they were oppressed by his men in office, under his own
eye, and burdened with accumulated taxes to satisfy the wants of the
court. The Swabian League, composed of a formidable confederacy of
princes, counts, knights, and free cities of Swabia and Franconia,
formed originally for the mutual protection of their rights, was
treated with contempt by the Duke, particularly owing to his refusal to
become a member of it. His frontier neighbours, therefore, watched his
actions with the eye of enmity, appearing to wait for an opportunity to
let him feel the weight of the power which he had despised. Neither was
the Emperor Maximilian, who reigned at that period; very well inclined
towards him, since he was suspected of having supported the knight Goetz
von Berlichingen, for the purpose of avenging himself on the Elector of
Mains.

A coolness had subsisted for some time between him and the Duke of
Bavaria, his brother-in-law, a powerful neighbour, owing to his having
ill-treated his wife Sabina, the Duke's sister. Added to that (and
which hastened his downfall) was the supposed murder of a Franconian
knight who lived at his court. Chronicles of undoubted authority
mention, that the intimacy between Johann yon Hutten and Sabina was
such that the Duke could not behold it with indifference. One day at a
hunt, the Duke taxed him with, and upbraided him for his treacherous
conduct, and calling upon him to defend his life, run him through the
body. The family of Hutten, and particularly Ulerich, Johann's cousin,
raised their voices against the supposed murderer; and their complaints
and the cry of vengeance resounded throughout Germany