from the Italian Opera. It was he, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, also Grand Duke of Tuscany, who founded the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, which still rules over the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
REFORMS OF JOSEPH II.
On the death of Maria Theresa in 1780 she was succeeded by her son Joseph II., upon whose accession many innovations were introduced in Tyrol as well as other portions of his wide empire. His salutary and liberally conceived reforms, more especially as regarded the Church, were brought about by a desire to adjust political and religious affairs and do away with anomalies.
Inasmuch as Joseph's scheme embraced the suppression or abolition of numerous priories, monasteries, churches, and other religious institutions, it is little to be wondered at that his action met with the most strenuous opposition from the Church whose property was threatened. One act, the closing of the University of Innsbruck, which had been founded by Leopold I. in 1677, it is not easy for any one at the present day to understand. The Emperor Joseph II.'s scheme of reform was not successful, although it had arisen from honourable motives and a sincere desire to redress some very crying grievances.
He was succeeded in 1790 by his brother, the Emperor Leopold II., who reopened the University, and undid much of the work his predecessor had accomplished with regard to the suppression of religious houses. He, however, reigned but two years, and was followed by his son Francis II. of Germany and Francis I. of Austria. This ruler came to the throne at a great and unhappy crisis in European history. The French Revolution was at its height and the ensuing period of the "blood lustful" Napoleonic Wars made of Europe a vast camp and battle ground. It was also a period destined, as events proved, to make Tyrol famous for all time, to develop the best instincts of her people, and to exhibit the race in a heroic and romantic light.
To understand the position of Tyrol at this epoch it is necessary to briefly sketch the events which led up to the struggle as it affected the "land in the Mountains." Mantua, an Austro-Italian possession, fell before Napoleon in 1797, and immediately the young general sent an army under Joubert into Tyrol, the routes into the country being left almost undefended by the retreat of the Austrian forces towards Carinthia, after their defeat at Lodi on May 10, 1796.
FRENCH INVASION
Once more the Landsturm was raised in South Tyrol, and again the peasant forces (to whom the name of "ragged coats" had been contemptuously given) engaged in a terrific struggle for their beloved land with the not only better armed but more numerous detachments of French and Bavarian invaders. Even the well-tried legions of Napoleon were destined, however, to find them as redoubtable as had formerly Maximilian.
Under the gallant von Worndle the Inn Valley Landsturm was led down into the Pusterthal, where it was joined by the Austrian forces under Generals Laudon and Kerpen. Napoleon's troops, although well led, and possessing all the advantages that experience and a knowledge of strategy could give them, nevertheless could not withstand the terrific onslaught and heroic bravery shown by the Tyrolese. A fierce and bloody engagement was fought at Spinges which resulted in the triumph of the peasant forces and the utter rout of the invaders, who were compelled to evacuate the country. About the same time another smaller engagement took place near Bozen, where a mere handful of peasants engaged a much superior force and defeated it. This otherwise comparatively unimportant event has gained fame and significance from the fact that this small body of Passeyer peasantry was led by a tall, broad-shouldered man with a long brown beard, named Andreas Hofer, who was destined afterwards to play so great and remarkable a part in the history of his beloved country.
SUNSET ON A TYROLESE LAKE
A TYPICAL TYROLESE LANDSCAPE
After the Battle of Spinges hostilities were ended for a time by the Treaty of Campo Formio, October 17, 1797.
During this preliminary struggle against the French it is estimated by several authorities that upwards of 100,000 peasants took up arms in defence of their country, amongst whom were many women and young maidens. The total population of Tyrol at that period did not probably much exceed three quarters of a million.
The peace secured by the Treaty of Campo Formio did not, however, endure very long, for early in 1799 the war broke out again, and the French under General Massena entered Tyrol, on this occasion by way of Switzerland through the mountain passes, the Bavarians supporting the invaders by incursions over the frontier in the direction of Salzburg. In an engagement near Feldkirch in Vorarlberg General Massena was defeated; and upon making a fresh attack the French, hearing all the church bells of the district ringing on Easter Eve and mistaking them for the alarm bells summoning the Landsturm, hastily abandoned their intentions and retreated across the frontier into Swiss territory. The victories of Marengo and Hohenlinden on June 14 and December 3 of the next year, brought about the Treaty of Luneville on February 9, 1801, by which the Bishoprics of Brixen and Trent (already in a sense belonging to Tyrol) were made integral parts of the country.
Hostilities were continued, however, in other parts of Europe, and the long war dragged on, Napoleon over-running the Continent and more especially South-Eastern Europe almost unchecked, till Ulm, where the Austrians were defeated October 17–20, 1805. The French army under Marshal Ney afterwards entered and occupied Innsbruck. Then came the disastrous Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, where Napoleon defeated the combined Russian and Austrian forces. The power of the latter was shattered, and by the Treaty of Pressburg, December 26, 1805, Tyrol, which now for upwards of four hundred years had been one of the chief possessions of the house of Habsburg, was ceded to the victors. The Bavarians took the northern, and the French the southern portion. Not only was the country for a time lost to Austria, but even its name was taken from it. The new owners promptly divided it into three departments known by the names of the three chief rivers—the Inn, Eisack, and Adige.
In the beginning of the year following the Treaty the Bavarians took formal possession of their new territory. During a period of some three years the Tyrolese fretted under the rule of their conquerors. But the time was not spent merely in idle murmurings or in servile acceptance of the conqueror's yoke. The peasants who had fought so bravely for their land and liberty in ancient times, and in 1797 and 1799, were eager once more to take the field to recover their lost freedom, and to drive the usurpers of their beautiful Tyrol for ever beyond its frontiers.
RISE OF ANDREAS HOFER
Day by day, week by week, month by month a general rising of the community was being gradually organized by three men more particularly, who were each of them destined to become famous, and to go down to posterity as the saviours of their country. Of these Andreas Hofer, born of Inn-keeping parents at Sandyland in the Passeyer Valley in 1765, was destined to outshine both in his life and death his two companions, named Speckbacher, born at Rinn, and Haspinger, the tall, red-bearded Capucin monk, known respectively as "the fire-devil" and "the red beard."
The task that Hofer and his companions set themselves was no easy one. The country swarmed not only with the soldiers of the Bavarian occupation force, but with spies who seem always to spring up whenever the price of treachery is worth earning. The punishment for men taking part in any such schemes as that in which Hofer, Speckbacher, and Haspinger and their faithful companions were engaged in was death. Death not only for the principals, but death for the humblest participant. Nevertheless the plan prospered. It is interesting to remember the very large and important part which was played in the organization of the peasants' uprising by the Tyrolese innkeepers, or wirthe, who were very dissimilar to the ordinary conception which English people have of men of their class. They were usually the most wealthy
