can be seen of separate administrations. They renounced all claim to the
imperial throne, notwithstanding the efforts of the pope to the
contrary, and thus secured friendship with the Emperor Louis. There were
now three prominent families dominant in Germany. Around these great
families, who had gradually, by marriage and military encroachments,
attained their supremacy, the others of all degrees rallied as vassals,
seeking protection and contributing strength. The house of Bavaria,
reigning over that powerful kingdom and in possession of the imperial
throne, ranked first. Then came the house of Luxembourg, possessing the
wide-spread and opulent realms of Bohemia. The house of Austria had now
vast possessions, but these were widely scattered; some provinces on the
banks of the Danube and others in Switzerland, spreading through the
defiles of the Alps.

John of Bohemia was an overbearing man, and feeling quite impregnable in
his northern realms beyond the mountains, assumed such a dictatorial air
as to rouse the ire of the princes of Austria and Bavaria. These two
houses consequently entered into an intimate alliance for mutual
security. The Duke of Carinthia, who was uncle to Albert and Otho, died,
leaving only a daughter, Margaret. This dukedom, about the size of the
State of Massachusetts, a wild and mountainous region, was deemed very
important as the key to Italy. John of Bohemia, anxious to obtain it,
had engaged the hand of Margaret for his son, then but eight years of
age. It was a question in dispute whether the dukedom could descend to a
female, and Albert and Otho claimed it as the heirs of their uncle.
Louis, the emperor, supported the claims of Austria, and thus Carinthia
became attached to this growing power.

John, enraged, formed a confederacy with the kings of Hungary and
Poland, and some minor princes, and invaded Austria. For some time they
swept all opposition before them. But the Austrian troops and those of
the empire checked them at Landau. Here they entered into an agreement
without a battle, by which Austria was permitted to retain Carinthia,
she making important concessions to Bohemia. In February, 1339, Otho
died, and Albert was invested with the sole administration of affairs.
The old King of Bohemia possessed vehemence of character which neither
age nor the total blindness with which he had become afflicted could
repress. He traversed the empire, and even went to France, organizing a
powe