Tyrol and its People

Tyrol did not altogether escape its influence though playing no very important part in the struggle. One result was, however, of considerable importance to a family of great

ortresses of Tratzberg and Matzen their prosperity o

German possessions. It was during his reign and on account of this circumstance that Tyrol became deeply involved in the War of the Spanish Succession, and was the object of

er-Innthal and contiguous districts were destroyed. The capture of the capital was the cause of the uprising of the Landsturm, or general levy of the peasants; and during 1703 a number of fierce engagements were fought between these ill-armed but brave Tyrolese and the Bavarian and French troops. One of the most noted battles was that which took place immediately after the Tyrolese had destroyed the Pontlatz Br

thalter or Governor of Tyrol and Vorarlberg, an office which has been filled ever since till the present day, wit

ch reverted to the Crown by natural process on the extinction of the line of feoffees. Maria Theresa and her husband the Emperor Francis I. came to Innsbruck in 1765 for the wedding of their son Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany (afterwards the Emperor Leopold II.), with Maria Ludovica, daughter of Charles III., King of Spain. The Tyrolese and the Innsbruckers gave a warm welcome to their sovereigns, and the festi

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troduced in Tyrol as well as other portions of his wide empire. His salutary and liberally conceived reforms, more especiall

he 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

nd 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"

Mountains." Mantua, an Austro-Italian possession, fell before Napoleon in 1797, and immediately the young general sent an army under Joubert into Tyrol, t

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y given) engaged in a terrific struggle for their beloved land with the not only better armed but more numerous detachments of French and

t 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 superi

N A TYRO

TYROLESE

ies were ended for a time by the Tre

f 100,000 peasants took up arms in defence of their country, amongst whom were many women and young maide

n 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

ck. 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

eir 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

ANDREA

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 bo

nt 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 as well as the most solid members of the village communities in which they dwelt and kept their Wirthshaus, around which, indeed, much of the social as well as the municipal life of the village centred. They were better informed than many of their neighbours, for whatever travellers came to the villages found their way to the

John. But although Hofer and his companions do not seem to have received very much definite or material encouragement from the Emperor or his advisers, they proceeded to Vienna, had several interviews with the Archduke, who appeared to be most favourably inclined to the

very dwelling in the land, during the two or three years which intervened between the Treaty of Pressburg and the uprising of the peasants under Hofer, it was not possible to obtain and store new weapons in any quantity even if to do so had not been rendered difficult from the hosts of spies which overran Tyrol and seemed to lurk beneath almost every rock. Thus it was that out-of-date weapons-most of which had seen service in the war of a century befo

ARZHORN,

for trusting so implicitly all who came. But to objectors he made the same answer: "There are no traitors amongst my countrymen." That his confidence was not misplaced was abundantly shown by the fact that the secret of

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banners of flame. Every hill crest in the vicinity of the Passeyer Valley had its signal fire, and these were answered by others on the mountains overshadowing the distant valleys. On the

eared before Innsbruck. With indomitable bravery they captured the bridge over the Inn, carried the heights by assault, and entering the town engaged in a

ed by the on-press of the Tyrolese, the ruder weapons of the latter, consisting of heavily butted fire-locks, broad knives used in husbandry, scythe blade

arcades of the old-time Herzog Freidrich Strasse, swept the Tyrolese, slaying as they went, until the invaders, driven from cranny to cranny, struck dow

war. Thus after less than four days' fighting the Tyrolese had defeated the Bavarians, captured Innsbruck, and compelled the French commander to

f invaders with the sole exception that the

es gained by Hofer, his brave companions-in-arms Speckbacher and Haspinger, and the peasant troops, were lost. In an almost incredibly short space of time Chasteler succeeded in losing all that had been won. At length his failure to hold what had been committed to his charge became so obvious that he retreated beyond the Brenner, l

French and Bavarian yoke, and after summoning to his standard all who were capable of bearing arms, he had the satisf

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s ignored. Amongst other things, by the subsequent Treaty, Austria ceded all her sea coast to France, as well as considerable territory to Saxony and Bavaria. But it was not until the French, Bavarian, and Saxon troops, straight from their victory at Wagram, to the numb

is summons to the people to gather once more round his standard. That none should certainly know from these summonses where he lay concealed it was his

command of General Rouyer advanced to Sterzing; and then a column of Saxon troops to the number of about 4000 was thrown out beyond the village towards the gorge of Stilfes with orders to sweep away the insurgents. The idea that the untrained, ill-armed, and heterogeneous peasant forces could successfully resist the victors of Wagram appeared ridiculous to the

trunks, baulks of timber, earth and stones loosed from the restraining ropes by the Tyrolese, sweeping every obstruction before them, and falling upon the penned-up Saxons like an avalanche. Then, as the latter were vainly and

Speckbacher, and by the red-bearded Capuchin Haspinger, who held in one hand a crucifix, and in the other a bloodstained s

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ce more repulsed the invader, retaken the position on Berg Isel, and established his headquarters at Sch?n

y fixed, and the advance ordered. On the morning of the attack, at five o'clock, Haspinger the militant Capuchin, a commanding figure upon whom the light of early dawn threw an almost uncanny refulgence, celebrated Mass before the assembled peasant host, who knelt in serried ranks, ragged, unkempt, but inspired to g

ickname of General Barbonne amongst the French, flowing in the wind, and his war cry of "Onward for your country and your Emperor! God will protect the right!" he led his forces so irresistibly that the troops of Mar

withstanding the differentiations of sex) with that of Joan of Arc and with Cromwell. Turning to the thronging multitude, which filled the narrow streets to overflowing, he cried out, with a gentle and almost pitiful glance at their upturned faces, "Do not shout in triumph; but offer thanks to God and pray." At the door of the church of the F

their undying gratitude to their deliverer. But in response he said, "By my be

he palace at Innsbruck, waiting anxiously for the approval and the help from his Emperor in Vienna, his conduct was marked by dignity, kindliness, and strength. But alas, his triumph was but brief. In less than two months after the retaking of Innsbruck, a fresh Bavarian army was entering Tyrol by way o

mself that the Treaty of Vienna was without substance, or merely a trick to enable the invaders to make good their fresh hold upon the country, and he decided to conti

apuchin Haspinger afterwards joined him there, and was ultimately made curate of Hietzing, near Sch?nbrunn. It then became clear to Hofer that to continue the struggle for freedom just

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he meeting with his faithful comrades in arms was concerned, Hofer took farewell

and ceded territory depended very greatly upon the capture and imprisonment or death of Hofer, who, as a popular hero, hel

Archduke John to do so. In the end, as so often happens, there was one found base and treacherous enough to betray the fugitive for blood money. Guided by such an one, named Raffl, some Italian gendarmes, supported by a small detachment of French s

our French officers, a battalion of infantry, and a detachment of cavalry. No effort appears to have been made by the Austrian authorities to

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. At the gates were gathered a handful of his friends and companions in arms who had been captured and brought to Mantua, or had followed him there,

l. But standing erect with unwavering courage he faced the file of soldiers, who with loaded muskets were to do him to death. G

heir mark, and one of the noblest of patrio

or fifteen years, until one night three officers of a Tyrol Chasseur regiment stealthily removed the remains, distressed that the

in the streets of Innsbruck, the remains of Andreas Hofer were with great appropriateness borne to their last resting-place in the church of the Franciscans by twelve innkeepers. On the coffin lay his hat, sword, an

3, when the power of Napoleon was once and for ever broken in eastern Europe, when he was defeated at the fierce battle of Leipsic on October 16-18, by the allied forces of Austria, Russia and Prussia. In this battle (kno

ancis I. (who in 1806 had resigned the title of Emperor of Germany, retaining only that of Austria) entered Innsbruck to receive the allegiance of the peop

tria, Ferdinand, and his Empress took refuge in Tyrol; and in the Austro-Italian War of 1

oseph I. succeeded his uncle Ferdinand, who abdicated after ruling the country for thirteen years under

ia and Prussia, the latter supported the Italians in a scheme to seize Southern Tyrol. The Tyrolese Jager and Schutzen forces took a prominent part in the campaign, and were engaged with great credit at the Battle of Custozza, where the Austrians with 70,000 men defeated the army of Victo

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and prosperous; advancing in the arts, and with

may be, who can tell? Perhaps the secret is alread

it does not need the keen observer to possess much gift of anticipating events to predict that Tyrol may be the scene of yet f