he was kept imprisoned in a castle in Austria. Frederick III, whose indolence earned for him the nickname of Emperor Night Cap, occupied the throne from 1440 to 1493. The barons were continually at war with each other; the disturbances and dissensions were of such a character that Germany and the Emperor became the byword of Europe. Charles V, who succeeded Maximilian, entered into a struggle with the Lutherans, and a religious war raged during the seventeenth century; the Thirty Years' War having begun during the reign of Mathias who was elected in 1612. In 1806 the Empire of Germany ceased to exist and was replaced by thirty-nine States. All the bonds which formerly united the members of the great German family looked as if they had burst asunder; each State had its own laws and currency and levied taxes upon the products of the neighboring States. In 1848 the people resorted to violence; an insurrection broke out and was quickly subdued. It was only after sixty-four years of constant effort that the political unity which was shattered in 1806 succeeded in being reconstituted: the Empire of Germany was reestablished only as far back as 1870. Germany has thus gone through centuries of vicissitudes before reaching her present state of splendor.
England had to undergo like tribulations. The blood of a great number of her children was shed in establishing the liberty she enjoys to-day and of which she is justly proud. A century of continual warfare was necessary to obtain the unity of the kingdom. From 1074 to 1174 the barons fiercely defended their prerogatives; and many kings of England lost their lives in the cause of centralization. The struggle for the possession of power and religious quarrels also made numberless victims.
In 1100, whilst hunting with his brother, William Rufus was killed by an arrow; he was succeeded by Henry II, who had to fight against his brother Robert. After Henry's death two pretenders claimed the crown: his nephew Stephen and his daughter Mathilde (1135). A civil war ensued which lasted fifteen years. Henry II
