W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

332 The Coins of Europe
dating from the thirteenth century. It is stated that the
Emperor Charles IV. accorded to the town in 1360 the right
of striking gold of the Bohemian type. There was also
money in this metal of the prince-bishops, and siege-pieces
in copper of more than one kind and denomination, as a
reference to the previous sections, will
shew.
II.
AUSTRIA
It is well known that during some centuries Austria,
the Eastern March or Mark, was governed by margraves
and dukes, and that after certain political vicissitudes it
passed into the possession of the house of Hapsburg. Under
that great and long-lived dynasty the country gradually
augmented its territory by cession, inheritance, or conquest,
until the original domain represented little more than a
province of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Hapsburgs
extended their sway over the Tyrol, Bohemia, Hungary,
Transylvania, and a share of Poland over ; Spain and a considerable
part of Italy and the Netherlands ;
and over Istria,
Carinthia, Carniola, Moravia, and Styria. The title of the
Holy Roman Empire was derived from the succession to the
throne of St. Stephen of Hungary. Down to the beginning
of the present century Austria was the grand centre and
rallying- point of an immense dominion, second only to
Russia in area, and far superior to the latter in wealth and
importance. The course of modern events has sensibly
tended in general to reduce the Austrian outlying dominions,
and her sovereign no longer reigns in Italy, Sardinia, Spain,
and the Low Countries. Burgundy had ceased to be an
actual portion of the empire long before it disappeared from
the array of titles on the older money.
Necessarily confining our attention to the immediate
question, we discover nothing more ambitious or interesting in
the present series than bracteates and denarii, which remain