(Germ. Schwaben), an ancient division of Germany, deriving its name from the Suevi. It is the same country that was originally called Allemannia, and occupied the right bank of the Rhine, where that river forms an acute angle at Basle; bounded on the N. by the Palatinate of the Rhine and Franconia, E. by Bavaria, S. by Switzerland, and W. by Alsace; including the mountains of the Black Forest, and the sources and upper courses of the Neckar and Danube. It thus corresponded with the modern Württemberg, the southern part of Baden, and the province of Swabia and Neuburg, in Bavaria. It received the name of Swabia when the Allemani were conquered by Chlodwig in 496, and brought into subjection to the Franks; and it was at first governed by dukes appointed by the Frankish kings. In 1080, Henry IV. made the dukedom hereditary in the family of Frederick of Hohenstaufen. The country was at this time in a very flourishing condition, and the reigning house soon became one of the most powerful in Germany: in the great civil war it stood at the head of the Ghibelline party, and included among its members several emperors,—Conrad III., Frederick I., Barbarossa, Henry VI., Frederick II., and Conrad IV. With the unfortunate Conrardin, the son of the last of these monarchs, who was executed in 1208, the line of Hohenstaufen became extinct; and upon this the various princes, prelates, and cities of Swabia, that had been formerly vassals of the dukes, made themselves independent. Since then Swabia has not formed a separate state, but it was one of the ten circles of the German empire till 1806.