His coronation had been a blow to him and to his brothers.

Formerly they had been permitted to work their will on the highways, but the Hapsburg, the Swiss, had pitilessly stopped their brigandage.

Now for the first time robber-knights were sentenced and their castles destroyed.

The Emperor meant to transform Germany into a sheepfold, Absbach exclaimed.

The Siebenburg brothers were his faithful allies, and though they complained that the joyous, knightly clank of arms would be silenced under such a sovereign, they themselves took care that the loud battle shouts, cries of pain, and shrieks for aid were not hushed on the roads used for traffic by the merchants.