Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 575 traditions, but he had neither money nor soldiers. At the time of Luther's birth the poverty-stricken Frederick III (Maxi- milian's father) might have been seen picking up a free meal at a monastery or riding behind a slow but economical ox team. The real power in Germany lay in the hands of the more important vassals. First and fore- most among these were the seven electors, so called be- cause, since the thirteenth cen- tury, they had enjoyed the right to elect the Emperor. Three of them were arch- bishops — kings in all but name of considerable terri- tories on the Rhine, namely, the electorates of Mayence, Treves, and Cologne. Near them, to the south, was the region ruled over by the elector of the Palatinate ; to the northeast were the territories of the electors of Brandenburg and of Saxony ; the king of Bohemia made the seventh of the group. Beside these states, the do- minions of other rulers scarcely less important than the electors appear on the map. Some of these territories, like Wiirtemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, and Baden, are familiar to us to-day as members Fig. 208. The Walls of rothenburg One town in Germany, Rothen- burg, on the little river Tauber, once a free imperial city, retains its old walls and towers intact and many of its old houses. It gives the visitor an excellent idea of how the smaller imperial towns looked two or three hundred years ago
