Thus did the wealthy noble woo and wed at Vienna, which after the war rapidly filled with landed proprietors who thoroughly enjoyed life. New families were in possession of the confiscated properties, the Imperial generals and faithful councillors had abundantly taken care of themselves. A residence in the desolated country was wearisome, and many great proprietors had no old family interest in their property. Besides the Imperial nobles, sons of German princes and many of the old nobility of the Empire thronged to the Imperial city, to seek diversion, acquaintances, and fortune at court or in the army. But in proportion as the devotion of the noble servant to his mistress was great, the hope of a happy conjugal union was insecure. And the prospect was not more favourable in the families of the great princes of the Empire. The rulers of Germany attained to a comfortable condition, after the peace, sooner than others. Whatever could be done by the people, seemed to be for their advantage. To the old taste for drinking, hunting, and not always very seemly intercourse with women, was now added the pleasure of having a body-guard who were drawn up in uniform before their castles, and rode by their carriages along the roads. After the war every great prince maintained a standing army; the old feudal lords of the country had become Generals. It was in this century that the great princely families of Germany, the Wettiners, the Hohenzollerns, the Brunswickers, and the Wittelsbachers, gained their influential position in European politics. Three of them obtained royal thrones, those of Poland, Prussia, and England, and the head of the Wittelsbachers for many years wore the diadem of the Roman Empire. Each of these houses represents a great European dynasty. But however different their fortunes may have been, they have also met with a retributive fate. At the time of the Reformation, the Imperial throne with supreme dominion over Germany was offered to the house of Wettiner; the family, divided into two lines, did not listen to the high call. At the battle of Linien, in 1547, it lost the leadership. A hundred years later, the possibility of founding a powerful house was offered to the Wittelsbacher, by the union of the Palatinate with the old Bavarian province and Bohemia, which even the Hapsburgers have never attained to. But one son of the house killed the other at the Weissen Berge. Only the Hapsburgers and the Hohenzollerns have understood how to keep together. The general misfortune of the German Princes was, that they found little in their oppressed subjects to excite awe or regard. For the soul of man is most easily fortified against encroaching passions when his worldly position makes a strong resistance possible for those who surround him. A firm feeling of duty is only formed under the pressure of strong law. Whoever overrides it will find it easier to do great things, but incomparably more difficult to do permanently what is right.