Transcribed from the 1890 Macmillan and Co. edition by DavidPrice,
THE
DOVE IN THE EAGLE’S NEST
BY
CHARLOTTE M. YONGE
ILLUSTRATED BY W. J. HENNESSY
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
1890
The Rightof Translation is Reserved
First Edition (2 vols. Crown 8vo), 1866. New Edition (1 vol. Crown8vo), 1869.
Reprinted 1871; January andNovember 1873; 1875; 1876; 1879; 1882; 1883;
1884; 1888. New Edition, 1889. Reprinted 1890.
INTRODUCTION
In sending forth this little book,I am inclined to add a few explanatory words as to the use I havemade of historical personages. The origin of the wholestory was probably Freytag’s first series of pictures ofGerman Life: probably, I say, for its first commencement was adream, dreamt some weeks after reading that most interestingcollection of sketches. The return of the squire with thetidings of the death of the two knights was vividly depicted insleep; and, though without local habitation or name, the scenewas most likely to have been a reflection from the wild scenes solately read of.
In fact, waking thoughts decided that such a catastrophe couldhardly have happened anywhere but in Germany, or in Scotland; andthe contrast between the cultivation in the free cities and thesavagery of the independent barons made the former the moresuitable region for the adventures. The time could only bebefore the taming and bringing into order of the empire, when theImperial cities were in their greatest splendour, the last freenobles in course of being reduced from their lawless liberty, andthe House of Austria beginning to acquire its preponderance overthe other princely families.
M. Freytag’s books, and Hegewisch’s History ofMaximilian, will, I think, be found fully to bear out the pictureI have tried to give of the state of things in the reign of theEmperor Friedrich III., when, for want of any other law, Faustrecht, or fist right, ruled; i.e. an offendednobleman, having once sent a Fehde-brief to his adversary,was thenceforth at liberty to revenge himself by a private war,in which, for the wrong inflicted, no justice was exacted.
Hegewisch remarks that the only benefit of this custom was,that the honour of subscribing a feud-brief was so highlyesteemed that it induced the nobles to learn to write! TheLeague of St. George and the Swabian League were the means ofgradually putting down this authorized condition of deadlyfeud.
This was in the days of Maximilian’s youth. He isa prince who seems to have been almost as inferior in his foreignto what he was in his domestic policy as was QueenElizabeth. He is chiefly familiar to us as failing to keepup his authority in Flanders after the death of Mary of Burgundy,as lingering to fulfil his engagement with Anne of Brittany tillhe lost her and her duchy, as incurring ridicule by hisill-managed schemes in Italy, and the vast projects that he wasalways forming without either means or steadiness to carry themout, by his p