The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-03-12
The cerman Emperors.

1t is nearly hundred years since similar
event to that which stirred all Europe last
Friday, has happened in Europe. The
death of an Emperor of Germany and the
succession of an Imperial prince to his
fathers honors has not happened before
since 1892, when Leopold III died and was
succeeded by Francis l. The vicissitudes
which the German people have passed
through since then have been too sad and too
complicated to be narrated within any reas-
enable limits of time and space. Out Of
them all, like an island of refuge in the
midst of a tempestuous sea, rises the sturdy
nationality built up by the triplet of giants,
old Emperor William, Bismarck and Won
Moltke.
Imperial dignity has been an attribute of
the rulers of the German people since very
early times. Charlemagne, or Karl the Great,
who ruled over Germany as well as over the
region which now is France, received the
crown of the Holy Roman Empire from the
Pope. After the disintegration Of the em-
pre Of Charlemagne, through the tur ultu-
Gus dark and middle ages, the German
Princes who from time to time rose to the
position of oyer-lordship over their peers
Saxons, Franconians, princes of Brunswick,
Nassau, Luxenburg, Swabians of the great
dynasty of Northumberland it the great
ambition of their lives to be crowned Emper-
ors by the Pope, or, when crowned, to MAN.
tain themselves free from his dctation.
Those were the days of Henry ~, of the
great Pope Hildenbrand, and of Frederick
BaIbarossa, who even now, after more than
seven hundred years have swept away the
landmarks of his glorious reign, still figures
in the popular songs and traditions of Ger
many as the ideal Emperor Finally in 1887,
the title Of Emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire having gradually made IFS possessors
Emperors of Germany by title as they had
already been by election, came for good to
the House of Hapsburg, wlier were then
and are now the Princes of Austria. At first
it had been greater honor IT, be Emperor of
the Holy Roman Empire than to be Emperor
of Germany. But in the strfes and turmoils
of the centuries which saw the Reformation
and its fruits, the greater honor waned
and the lesser waxed until, in 1892
when dying Emperor Leopold ii left the
crown, Francis |. took it as the imperial
AlOhh VI 0NAhbhhe anu ACn NSltN bhab ~
was also the crown of the Holy Roman En-
pirc, once so highly priced by Charlemagne
and Barbarossa. But one title was almost
as empty as the other, and neither was much
more than an empty surname of the ruler of
Austria. Germany was maze of little des-
potisms, among which Prussia, elevated by
the genius Of Frederick the Great, and
kingdom since 1901, was rival in influence
to Austria. The rude hand of Napoleon
shattered the feeble bond that yet held the
German States together in the semblance OF
an empire, and in 1906 Frances III. solemnly
laid down the title Of Emperor of Germany,
at the dictation of Napoleon, the French con-
queror Of Germany.
The day and the scene when that title was
raised up again, to honor German monarch
is well remembered by the men Of this gen.
Grafton. The place, the time, the historic
memories associated with it made the event
dramatic almost beyond comparison. In the
palace of the old French kings at Versailles,
IN the presence Of the officers Of his army
and hedged about by the colors of the regi-
ments then besieging Paris on the 18th of
January, 1871, the anniversary OF the corona
ton Of his ancestor, Frederick l., founder OF
the royal line of Hohenzolerns, William l.,
German eonqueror of France, assumed the
title that the Hapsburgs had dropped
The new German Empire there called into
being is very different empire from that
shattered by Napoleon. Prussia is now the
backbone instead of Austria, which is not
included in the new Empire ut all. The Sc
ries of events by which Prussia gained her
position happened during the lifetime of
Emperor William, and are part of his biog-
raphy. The relations of Prussia to the 9TH
er members Of the Empire, and the relations
of the whole to the Emperor is matter of
more interest at the time when the Imperial
CROWNS passing from one head to another.
AS early as 1915 there was formed loose
confederation of the German States, under
the presidency of Austria. After the war
of 1866 between Prussia and Austria twenty
two States united under the presidency OF
Prussia in North German Confederation.