Not
only kings and dukes engaged in wars, but the most insignificant baron
would gather his few retainers around him and declare formal war against
the occupant of the adjacent castle. The spirit of chivalry, so called,
was so rampant that private individuals would send a challenge to the
emperor. Contemporary writers record many curious specimens of these
declarations of war. The Lord of Praunstein declared war against the
city of Frankfort, because a young lady of that city refused to dance
with his uncle at a ball.
Frederic was now suffering from the infirmities of age. Surrendering the
administration of affairs, both in Austria and over the estates of the
empire, to Maximilian, he retired, with his wife and three young
daughters, to Lintz, where he devoted himself, at the close of his long
and turbulent reign, to the peaceful pursuits of rural life. A cancerous
affection of the leg rendered it necessary for him to submit to the
amputation of the limb. He submitted to the painful operation with the
greatest fortitude, and taking up his severed limb, with his accustomed
phlegm remarked to those standing by,
"What difference is there between an emperor and a peasant? Or rather,
is not a sound peasant better than a sick emperor? Yet I hope to enjoy
the greatest good which can happen to man--a happy exit from this
transitory life.
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