[357] See Ægidi, _Der Fürstenrath nach dem Luneviller Frieden_; a book which throws more light than any other with which I am acquainted on the inner nature of the Empire. [358] The two immediately preceding Emperors, Albert II (1438-1439) and Frederick III, father of Maximilian (1439-1493), had been Hapsburgs. It is nevertheless from Maximilian that the ascendancy of that family must be dated. [359] Reichsregiment. [360] Wenzel had encouraged the leagues of the cities, and incurred thereby the hatred of the nobles. [361] The Germans, like our own ancestors, called foreign, _i. e._ non-Teutonic nations, Welsh. Yet apparently not all such nations, but only those which they in some way associated with the Roman Empire, the Cymry of Roman Britain, the Romanized Kelts of Gaul, the Italians, the Roumans or Wallachs of Transylvania and the Principalities. It does not appear that either the Magyars or any Slavonic people were called by any form of the name Welsh. [362] The German crown was received at Aachen, the ancient Frankish capital, where may still be seen, in the gallery of the basilica, the marble throne on which the Emperors from the days of Charles to those of Ferdinand I were crowned. It was upon this chair that Otto III had found the body of Charles seated, when he opened his tomb in A.D. 1001. After Ferdinand I, the coronation as well as the election took place at Frankfort. An account of the ceremony may be found in Goethe's _Wahrheit und Dichtung_. Aachen, though it remained and indeed is still a German town, lay in too remote a corner of the country to be a convenient capital, and was moreover in dangerous proximity to the West Franks, as stubborn old Germans continue to call them. As early as A.D. 1353 we find bishop Leopold of Bamberg complaining that the French had arrogated to themselves the honours of the Frankish name, and called themselves 'reges Franciæ,' instead of 'reges Franciæ occidentalis.'--Lupoldus Bebenburgensis, apud Schardium, _Sylloge Tractatuum_. [363] Erwählter Kaiser. See Appendix, Note C. [364] Romanorum rex (after Henry II) till the coronation at Rome. [365] But the Emperor was only one of many claimants to this kingdom; they multiplied as the prospect of regaining it died away. [366] The latter does not occur, even in English books, till comparatively recent times. English writers of the seventeenth century always call him 'The Emperor,' pure and simple, just as they invariably say 'the French king.' But the phrase 'Empereur d'Almayne' may be found in very early French writers. [367] See Moser, _Römische Kayser_; Goldast's and other collections of imperial edicts and proclamations. CHAPTER XVIII. THE REFORMATION AND ITS EFFECTS UPON THE EMPIRE.