SWABIA, SUABIA (Ger. Schwaben), or SUEVIA, an ancient duchy, in the s.w. of Ger many, so named from a horde of Suevi, who spread over it in the 5th c., and amalga mated with the Alemanui, its previous inhabitants. It existed as a great duchy of the Frank empire till the 8th c., when Alsace and Iihmtia were separated from it, and the remainder, retaining its name of Swabia, was thenceforth governed by nuntii camera, or royal delegates, one of whom having, in 915, usurped the title of duke of Alemaunia, was condemned by the German diet and decapitated in 917. Swabia at this time was bounded on the iv. and s. by the Rhine, ou the e. by the Lech (which separated it from Bavaria) and Franconia, n. by the palatinate of the Rhine and Franconia, and contained about 13,000 English sq. miles. In 918, however, Swabia was acknowledged as a ducal fief of the empire; and, after changing hands several times, was (1080) bestowed upon count Frederick of Hohenstaufen (q.v.), the founder of the illustrious house of this name, also known as the house of Swabia. Under the rule of this prince and his successors, Swabia became the most rich, civilized, and powerful country of Germany, and the ducal court was the resort of the minnesingers (q.v.); but the wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, and the quarrel with the French respecting Naples, put an end to the dynasty in 1268. The ducal vassals in Swabia rendered themselves almost independent, and professed to acknowledge no lord but the emperor. During these dissensions arose the lordships of Wfirtemberg and Baden, with numerous lesser states, holding direct of the crown, and opposed to them the cities, which strove also for an equal independence, and at last, in reward of important service, obtained in 1347 great additional privileges. A number of them united to make common cause against the
neighboring feudal lords in 1376 (known as the First Swabian League); an opposite league was formed between Wurtemberg, Baden, and 17 towns, in 1405, called the league of Marbach; and both took part in the war of Swiss independence, the former in support of the Swiss, the latter of the Austrians. At last the towns, which had been rapidly increasing in wealth and power, decided at Ulm, in 1449, to form a standing army and a permanent military commission for the forcible preservation, if necessary, of peace and order; and the count of Wurtemberg, the most powerful of the opposite party, having joined them, was appointed military chief of the league, which ultimately grew up into the Great Swabian League, and exercised both administrative and judicial author ity over the whole country, effectively repressing feudal quarrels. In 1512 Swabia became one of the ten circles into which Germany was now divided, received its com plete organization in 1563, and retained it almost without change till the dissolution of the empire in 1806. But during this period the wars of the towns with Wurtemberg, the peasants' war, of which Swabia was one of the foci, the thirty years' war, and those between France and the empire, destroyed the democratic constitution of the towns, and with it their energy, and then their prosperity disappeared, leaving now no relic which could suggest their former great political importance.