Medieval and modern times; an introduction to the history of western Europe form the dissolution of the Roman empire to the present time . s foot. As for the emperor, he no longer had any power to controlhis vassals. He could boast of unlimited pretensions and great Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 281 traditions, but he had neither money nor soldiers. At the timeof Luthers birth the poverty-stricken Frederick III (Maxi-milians father) might have been seen picking up a free mealat a monastery orriding behind a slowbut economical oxteam. The realpower in Germanylay in the hands ofthe more
Medieval and modern times; an introduction to the history of western Europe form the dissolution of the Roman empire to the present time . s foot. As for the emperor, he no longer had any power to controlhis vassals. He could boast of unlimited pretensions and great Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 281 traditions, but he had neither money nor soldiers. At the timeof Luthers birth the poverty-stricken Frederick III (Maxi-milians father) might have been seen picking up a free mealat a monastery orriding behind a slowbut economical oxteam. The realpower in Germanylay in the hands ofthe more importantvassals. First and fore-most among these were theseven electors, so called be-cause, since the thirteenth cen-tury, they had enjoyed theright to elect the of them were arch-bishops — kings in all butname of considerable terri-tories on the Rhine, namely,the electorates of Mayence,Treves, and Cologne. Nearthem, to the south, was theregion ruled over by the electorof the Palatinate; to thenortheast were the territoriesof the electors of Brandenburgand of Saxony; the king ofBohemia made the seventh ofthe Fig. 77. The Walls ofrothenburg One town in Germany, Rothen-burg, on the little river Tauber,once a free imperial city, retainsits old walls and towers intact andmany of its old houses. It givesthe visitor an excellent idea of howthe smaller imperial towns lookedtwo or three hundred years ago Beside these states, the do-minions of other rulers scarcely less important than the electorsappear on the map. Some of these territories, like Wurtemberg,Bavaria, Hesse, and Baden, are familiar to us to-day as members 282 Medieval and Modern Times The towns No centralpower tomaintainorder Neighbor-hood war of the German Empire, but all of them have been much enlargedsince the sixteenth century by the absorption of the little statesthat formerly lay within and about them. The towns, which had grown up since the great economicrevolution that had brought in comm
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