Europe (c.1400-1458)

37. Hesse

Hesse 179 He was born into a family of Moers which was highly respected among the rulers of Germany. He had three brothers, who all lived beyond sixty: Henry, the eldest, governed his father’s dominion; Johann administered the Church of Münster for many years until the end of his life—and to the highest acclaim;434 and Walram aspired in vain to the Church of Utrecht and, when his brother passed away, the Church of Münster, even though, in the case of Utrecht, he benefited from the support of the Council of Basel and, in that of Münster, from a directive of Pope Nicholas. Dietrich, while studying canon law in Bologna, received the Church of Cologne from Pope John XXIII, over which he has presided now for forty-six years435 with the full support of the commons and nobility . Although, with varying results, he has waged numerous wars in defense of the church, fulfilling the roles of both an energetic soldier and a valiant general, he has never neglected his priestly duties or the civil administration at home. His physique is handsome, his stature taller than average, his spirit large and generous—his palace always stood open to distinguished guests. 37 HESSE 129. BETWEEN Westphalia and Franconia lies Hesse, a mountainous region which stretches north from the Rhine and joins Thuringia. The ruler of the nation, Landgrave Ludwig, was invited to become emperor in our time, but he said that he was unequal to so heavy a burden and preferred to rule efficiently the small realm bequeathed to him by his parents than to accept a large one and squander it.436 It also stood in the way of his governing the Chris434 . Aeneas confuses Henry and Johann; on Walram and Henry, see paras. 121, 126. 435. He was appointed to the bishopric in 1414, so it would have been forty-four years in 1458. 436. Ludwig I, landgrave of Hesse (r. 1413–58), was offered the imperial crown in 1439 before it was offered to Frederick III. For more on Ludwig, see Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. 52: 115–18. 180 The Franks tian world, he said, that he was not a scholar. However, he was a guardian of the laws, which he ordered to be translated for him into his native tongue. In all the cases tried before him, he was never found to have passed an unjust sentence. When he entered a certain monastery under his jurisdiction in order to institute reform, he was invited to eat with the monks and is believed to have swallowed poisoned food during the meal. For both he and the abbot, who had requested the reform, are said to have died shortly afterward. 38 THE FRANKS 130. AFTER this comes Franconia, a decidedly well-known and very powerful region, which was named after the Franks who settled there. In fact, the Franks were originally Trojans, who, after the destruction of Troy, followed the leadership of Priam, the nephew of Priam the Great on his sister’s side, and made their way into Scythia through the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. There they built a city called Sicambria, from which they took the name of Sicambrians . For it is known that, after the conquest and burning of Troy, those who survived its destruction divided into three bands and fled into exile. Some, under the leadership of Aeneas, headed for Italy; from them the Albans were descended and later the Romans , who gained control of the whole world. Others under Antenor slipped through the midst of the Achaeans, and, after making their way through the gulfs of Illyria and reaching the kingdom of the Liburnians in the innermost recess of the Adriatic Sea,437 they founded the city of Padua; tradition holds that Antenor was buried there. Antenor took refugees of the Enetians with him, and from them the Venetians were later named, who today wield immense power by land and sea. The third group, as I said, entered Scythia, 437. Virgil, Aeneid, 1.242–44. ...