It was for a like reason that Hungary, lying up against Austria's eastern border, and frequently at war with her, was able, after the middle of the fifteenth century, to annex some of Austria's most easterly possessions. But it was Austria's fortune at this crisis to have as her Archduke a bold and able man of the Habsburg line, Maximilian I., who was afterwards elected Emperor. Austria was by now an arch-duchy, but she was not yet an "electorate"; that is to say she had no vote, as those German States that were "electorates" had a vote, for the choice of an Emperor. For it was thus, by vote among those States that had the right of "election," that one was chosen to sit on the throne of Charlemagne. When you read of a ruler as an "Elector"--say of Hanover or of whatever State it be--you will know that it means that he was ruler of a State that had this right of election. Maximilian then, later thus chosen Emperor, led and organised Austria with such success that by the end of the century, that is to say before the year 1500, he had regained all the territory that Hungary had lately taken, and restored to Austria all her old possessions. He had extended her boundaries to very much those which she continued to hold right up to the re-arrangement made after the Great War. {215} Thus this powerful family of Habsburgs established themselves in Austria, and at the same time established Austria as the most powerful State in Germany, although she did not have a vote in the Emperor's election. But the Habsburgs had possessions in other parts of Europe as well as in Austria. The castle from which their name was taken was near the junction of the Aar with the Rhine, in the north of that country which we now call Switzerland. It began to be so called about the middle of the fourteenth century, and the name was taken from one of its cantons, or divisions, the canton of Schwyz. But at first the name did not cover anything like the territory to which it soon was applied. In the fourteenth century it stood for a confederation of eight cantons. The confederation grew out of an "Everlasting League," as it was called, which was formed shortly after the death of that Rudolph, the first Habsburg ruler of Austria, to resist the political claims of the Habsburgs. Apparently the founders of the League did not dispute the right of the Habsburgs as owners of extensive lands. The Habsburgs might deal with the land and any profits they might derive from it as they would. What the confederates disputed was their claim to govern. [Sidenote: The Swiss cantons]