the assembled prelates, and not allow them to buy provisions. This step he probably took by the advice of some of the bishops themselves; for there still were some who were unwilling to make over the rights of their country to the Papal Chair. However this may be, it was so far successful that the Synod was compelled to dissolve; but the legate, withdrawing to Pressburg, laid the country under an interdict, and excommunicated the King. But László was not so easily awed into submission. He appealed to the Pope, forbade his bishops to have any intercourse with the legate; and upon discovering that the Bishop of Erlau dared to disobey him, he fell upon his possessions, and carried off the inhabitants of the Erlau valley, declaring that he was in league with the rebels of the Zips. However, his courage was not of the steady kind; and when he had received a threatening letter from the Pope, followed by exhortations to submission from Charles of Sicily and Rudolf of Germany, it forsook him entirely, and left him ready to make any concessions that might be demanded of him. Little good resulted from the interference of the legate, for even had his mind been sufficiently free from ambitious schemes for increasing the power of the hierarchy, he could not, as a foreigner, have done much to improve the civil state of Hungary. Foreign influence cannot inspire a bad government with wisdom, strength, or justice, and the attempt at interference generally results in making bad worse. In this case, no sooner had the legate turned his back, than László returned to his evil ways, his example being naturally followed by the nobles, who were becoming more and more independent of all authority.

The severity of the decrees inade at the Diet with respect to the Kumans, roused them to revolt. Rather than give up their faith and their gipsy-life, they vowed they would leave Hungary; and accordingly they set out to join their relations in Kumania, (Moldavia,) under the leadership of Oldamur. László hurried after and overtook them, and having defeated them in a sanguinary battle, compelled the survivors to return. This sudden severity towards his former favourites, seems to have caused some estrangement between himself and his mother, and to have put a period to her influence in the government; but still matters went on none the better. Indeed, the land was in such a miserable state, that Oldamur, who had escaped from the late battle, returned in 1285 at the head of some Kumans and Nogai Tatars, committed great depredations, even made his way as far as Pest; and yet was able to go back unhindered, till he reached Transylvania, where the Széklers and a few nobles fell upon them, took away their booty, and set free some thousands of prisoners whom they were carrying off. This is the first time we find mention made of the Nogai Tatars, many of whom seem either to have settled in Hungary of their own accord, or to have been kept there as prisoners.

László had never felt much cordiality towards his father-in-law, Charles of Anjou, and had steadily refused his demand that Dalmatia

Now,

should be given up to Sicily as the marriage-portion of the Hungarian Princess Maria; * but still he had been in some awe of him. however, the warlike powerful king was dead, and László felt himself freed from all restraint. He shut his wife Isabella up in the nunnery on the Margarethen-Insel, where she often lacked even necessaries, while her husband was amusing himself with his Kuman and Tatar favourites, living in their tents, and adopting their costumes, quite heedless of state affairs, and indifferent to the fact that Johann von Güssingen, whose estates extended from the borders of Styria and Austria to Raab, had become so independent as to make war upon Duke Albrecht, and conclude peace without consulting the pleasure of anyone but himself. Fresh remonstrances from the Pope caused him to set Isabella again at liberty; but no sooner was the pressure withdrawn, than he relapsed into his old evil ways, taking the Kumans back into his favour, and allowing them such license that there was no safety for life or property.

In this state of things, the Pope and Bishops devised a plan, which, though intended to remedy them, was ten times worse than the evils themselves. They preached a crusade against the Nogai Tatars, Mahometans, and heathen; but the rabble which flocked to the episcopal standards preferred joining the Kumans in pillaging to fighting with them; and too late the Bishops found they had called into being a force which it was quite beyond their power to control. They were obliged to have recourse to the King; and László promised pardon to all who would lay down their arms at once. The wild crusaders, however, would not obey till they were dispersed by soldiery aided by the Kumans. The assistance afforded by the Kumans on this occasion rendered them dearer than ever to László, who, committing all cares of government to the Palatine Mizse, a lately-baptized Mahometan, set out on a wandering expedition with the Kuman tribes.

But he did not wander long, for the time had come when his love for the Kumans was to prove fatal. There were jealous hearts among them, and eyes that could not bear to see the favour he bestowed upon the Nogai Tatars; and as he was one night sleeping in his tent, he was murdered by the brothers of one of his chief Kuman favourites. After his death, they called him Kuman László; for his mother was Kuman, his friends and his enemies were Kuman, and so also were his murderers. His name was long remembered by the impoverished Magyar labourer, whose stock of cattle had been so reduced by the lawlessness of the times, that he was frequently obliged to yoke himself or his children to his two-wheeled cart, which he then called 'Kuman László's cart.'

András the Venetian, Duke of Sclavonia, had lived so quietly in his duchy for the last ten years, that it is scarcely wonderful that others besides himself started up to claim the vacant throne immediately upon

* Sister of László, married to Charles's son, Charles the Lame.

László's death, or that even in Hungary there was a party hostile to him. However, he at once despatched his plate and other valuables to Stuhlweissenburg, and then set out for the same place with his wife Fennena. On the road, however, they were taken prisoners by Johann von Güssingen, and detained some days, till their release was effected by other of the nobles on promise of ransom. Even when they reached the coronation-city their difficulties were not over; for the hostile party, unable to effect anything by violence, tried in underhand ways to delay the coronation, by hiding the crown. When this was at last discovered, and the ceremony performed, a pretender made his appearance, giving himself out as András, the late king's brother, who had really died in childhood. This false András was, however, soon put to flight, and then the new king had to turn his attention to more formidable rivals.

The Emperor Rudolf, who, as we have shewn, owed so much to the assistance of Hungary, more particularly the brilliant and decisive victory over his dangerous enemy Ottokar, now shewed his gratitude, and redeemed the fair promises he had made to László, by declaring Hungary a vacant fief of the empire, and as such bestowing it on his son, Duke Albrecht of Austria. The only right he had, or could even allege, was that derived from the act of homage performed in Béla IV.'s name to Friedrich II.; and that, as Rudolf well knew, had been not only declared null and void by the Pope, but actually was so in equity. Even had Friedrich performed the conditions upon which Béla did him homage, Hungary would have had every right to refuse to acknowledge him and his successors as her feudal lords, since she had not been consulted, and her consent, spoken by the Diet, was absolutely necessary to the validity of any such arrangement. It must be remembered, that the Kings of Hungary were never, even in their most powerful days, absolute monarchs. They held their power, such as it was, from the nation, and without the nation's consent they could neither lay it down nor transfer it to another. These considerations, however, naturally affected Rudolf not at all. He had professed the warmest affection for Hungary, but he cared little for her constitution, and longed to have her safe under his own protecting wing. He went even farther; and as though the humiliation of being made over to Austria were not sufficient, he proceeded to divide the unfortunate country, giving all on the west of the Danube to Albrecht, and all on the east to Wenzel* of Bohemia, his son-in law; thus making the kingdom of Hungary into two German

states.

The Pope, on the other hand, who longed as much as the Emperor for the supremacy in Hungary, allowed his legate to crown at Naples the son of Maria and Charles the Lame-Charles Martel; * declaring at the same time that Hungary had been from ancient times a fief of the

*Wenzel II. of Bohemia and Charles Martel were both, by their mothers, greatgrandsons of Béla IV.

Holy See, and that no other had a right to dispose of her. He wrote to the Emperor and Albrecht to this effect, warning them not to venture to interfere with his vassals.

Meanwhile, the actual King of Hungary, whose dominions were being thus summarily disposed of, was doing his best to ingratiate himself with his subjects. At the coronation Diet he confirmed the privileges of different classes, and made several new and important laws, evincing a great desire to do justice by all. At Gyulafehérvár, in Transylvania, he also held a Diet, and much pleased the people by the encouragement he gave to trade and manufactures. Born and bred as he had been at Venice, the great commercial capital of the world, he had naturally learnt to value trade as one of the chief sources of a nation's power and prosperity. These wise measures of the King gave general satisfaction, and together with the dread of seeing the country dismembered, served to attach all classes closely to him. Even the factious nobles allowed themselves to be conciliated; so that it seemed as though order and prosperity might once more reign in Hungary.

Peace, however, was not destined to be of long continuance. In the spring, András despatched an embassy to Albrecht of Austria, demanding the restoration of the towns he had taken from Hungary during the war with Johann von Güssingen; but the Duke's only answer was to seize Pressburg. Whereupon András, at the head of a large army, marched into Austria, which he found ripe for an insurrection. Albrecht had not managed to make himself popular with his subjects, who, indeed, so thoroughly hated him, that, with the encouragement afforded by the approach of the Hungarian army, they even rose against him, and shut him out of Vienna. To add to his misfortunes, his great father Rudolf died at this time; and with the greater part of his own subjects in revolt, the enemy in possession of many strong places, and his capital besieged, Albrecht found himself obliged to seek speedy assistance. His letter to the Bishop of Regensburg gives a comical idea of the style of correspondence affected by princes of his time.

6

The poets,' he writes, describe a serpent, which lurks in marshes, and which, if you chop off one of its heads, immediately supplies its place by thirty fresh ones. The Hungarians seem to us to belong to the same race; they are poisonous by their own inward wickedness, cunning by their deceitful subtlety; and they escape like slippery eels out of the hands of those who try to catch them. For though we did once annihilate them, they have come to life again in greater numbers than before, and are jumping up out of their marshes like frogs. We therefore warn you to hasten promptly with your soldiery, to assist us in destroying them.' The Bishop, however, appeared to be in no hurry to obey the summons, for he replied, "The Huns, whose settlements are now occupied by the Magyars, once poured out of their own country with irresistible force, and made their way to the lands beyond White City of Julius-now Karlsburg or Weissenburg.

the Rhine, destroying all that they encountered on their march. Since therefore the Hungarian kingdom is so much larger than all others, it were vain to imagine that it can be so easily annihilated by any injury done to either of its extremities. Often enough have your forefathers bitterly rued the consequences of provoking this brave nation In conclusion, remember

to war.

"The triumphant Béla, on the victorious wings of war,

Prostrated the Duke,* and slew both Austrians and Styrians.'

Hopeless of obtaining any help from the prudent Bishop, Albrecht found his wisest plan would be to yield the Hungarian towns, and make peace. And now at length András, feeling himself to be firmly established on the throne, sent for his mother, Thomasina, to come and take up her abode at the Hungarian court. There seemed little reason to fear any attack from Charles Martel, who had hitherto taken no steps to make good his claims; and as for his father, Charles the Lame, in whose stead he was reigning at Naples, he had enough to do with the disastrous war he was waging with the King of Arragon for the recovery of Sicily.

But precisely at this time, when all seemed to promise well for András, Charles Martel began to bestir himself. He induced his mother, who was then in Provence with her husband, to make over her rights to him; and armed with her proclamation, and the consent of the Pope, having also previously been crowned by the Legate, he called on the Dalmatian towns to recognize him as their king. In spite, however, of his bribes, (the offer of protection, and facility for their trade with Italy,) the towns stood firm, replying that they had already done homage to one Hungarian king, and they only recognized as such one who had been crowned in a Hungarian town with the crown of St. Stephen. Charles Martel was therefore clearly formidable only from the favour shewn him by the Pope; and as the latter died at this time, 1192, and the Papal Chair remained vacant for the next two years, András had nothing to fear from this quarter for the present. Feeling, however, that he required a thoroughly trustworthy governor, he made his mother Ban of Dalmatia, and himself spent some time in the province, endeavouring to counteract any ill effects that might arise from the machinations of Charles Martel. Further to strengthen his position, he joined the league of the German Princes, who had united to place Duke Albrecht on the Imperial throne, in the room of Adolf von Nassau, with whom they had speedily become dissatisfied. It might have seemed as though his enemy Albrecht were the last person András would wish to see Emperor of Germany; but he joined the league out of policy, demanding as the price of his adhesion, that the Princes should pledge themselves not to give any assistance to Charles Martel. This they readily promised, though two of their

* Friedrich von Babenberg.