The only way to grasp the endless shiftings and divisions of the German principalities, so as to give anything like a clear general view, will be to take the great duchies, and to point out in a general way the steps by which they split asunder, and the chief states of any historical importance which rose out of their divisions. ♦Growth of new powers in the twelfth century.♦ Most of these new powers begin to be of importance in the twelfth century, a time which is specially marked as the æra when those two states which have had most to do with the making or unmaking of modern Germany begin to find their place in history. ♦Brandenburg and Austria.♦ It is then that the two great marchlands of Brandenburg and Austria begin to take their place among the leading powers of the German kingdom. ♦The Circles.♦ And, in making this survey, it will be well to bear in mind the much later division into circles. The circles, an attempt to create administrative divisions of the kingdom as such, were, in a faint way, a return to the ancient duchies, the names of which were to some extent retained. Thus we have the two _Saxon_ circles, _Upper_ and _Lower_, and the three of _Franconia_, _Swabia_, and _Bavaria_. All of these keep up the names of ancient duchies, and most of them keep up a stronger or fainter geographical connexion with the ancient lands whose names they bore. The other circles, the two _Rhenish_ circles, _Upper_ and _Lower_, and those of _Westfalia_, _Austria_, and _Burgundy_—the last name being used in a sense altogether new—arose out of changes which took place between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, some of which we shall have to notice. * * * * * ♦Saxony; its three divisions, Westfalia, Angria, Eastfalia.♦