A History of Germany in the Middle Ages (2024)

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

A History of Germany in the Middle Ages by Ernest F. Henderson

PREFACE.

IT may seem strange that one whose aim and desire is to be considered an American writer, should first launch hisadventurous craft on the tide of English popular favour,rather than entrust it to the currents, likely to be morefavourable or less dangerous, of his own native depths. Thishas come about in great part by accident. I happened to be on this side of the ocean when this volume reached its completion, circ*mstances prevented my return to America, andyet I was eager without delay to try my experiment on thepublic.For it is an experiment. Apart from the question as towhether or not I am capable of putting life and spirit intothe vast body of facts and events that concern the past of so enormous a political creation as Germany, I have beenassured from competent side that there is not sufficientinterest in the subject to warrant a work like the present.My belief is, that if there is not, there ought to be. Notto speak of the breathlessly exciting incidents of the GermanReformation, nor of the proud emancipation of the grandmodern empire from the trammels of disunity and disorganization, there is that in the fortunes and misfortunes of aCharlemagne and Henry IV. , of a Barbarossa, a Henry VI.and an Emperor Frederick II. , which should stir the heart ofany observer, no matter what his nationality. The rise andfall of the medieval German Empire is in itself a subjectboundlessly interesting, boundlessly important. Open youreyes, oh ye students of men and of institutions, and seehow Europe has come to be what it is, and how near it cameto being something quite different! If Italy had remainedunder the sway of Germany, if Frederick Barbarossa or hissuccessors had done away with the papal power, as they often1 This volume is intended to be the precursor of two others covering the whole of German history.viii PREFACE.seemed about to do, would the fate of England and France have been the same?And yet what do the ordinary English or American readersknow of the medieval German Empire, or, to give it the fulltitle it enjoyed when in its prime, of the Holy RomanEmpire of the German nation? And how should they knowanything about it, considering how scanty and how insignificant is the literature on the subject! Bryce's essay is almostthe only very recent book to which one can point, and this is,as it was meant to be, the merest fleeting sketch. Whatdoes it tell us of the daily movements and occupations of themediæval emperors, of the condition of things in their lands,of their legislative measures, or of their wars?I think I am right in saying that there is no narrativehistory of Germany-apart from a few translations of antiquated German works, and a few compendiums which certainladies and gentlemen have compiled in their leisure hours—in the English language. In this regard England has beentreated better by German scholars. Lappenberg and Pauli'shistory of England is written with all the care and devotionthat native historians could have shown.The present work is the result of much labour, and ofyears of enforced exile from home. May all these pains nothave been in vain; may the book not fall dead as soon as itis born, but rather may it live and play its part in the worldvigorously. May it make its friends, and, if need be, itsenemies, be hated deeply and loved warmly.LONDON, April 15th, 1894.E. F. H.CONTENTS.PAGECHAPTERINTRODUCTIONA WORD , CONCERNING THE AUTHORITIES CONSULTED FOR THIS VOLUMEI. Germans and RomansII. The Wandering of the NationsIII. The Frankish KingdomIV. The Carolingian Kings .V. Charles the Great as Emperor of the RomansVI. The Reign of Louis the PiousVII. The later Carolingiansxixxi11529497182100VIII. The Saxon Kings · 117IX. Otto the Great as Emperor of the Romans X. Otto II. and Otto III. .• 134· 145XI. Henry II. and Conrad II. • 158XII. Henry III. and the early reign of Henry IV.XIII. Henry IV. and Gregory VII.174183XV. The Rise of the HohenstaufensXVII. Frederick I. and the PapacyXIV. Continuation of the conflict between the Empire andthe PapacyXVI. Frederick I. ( Barbarossa)• 211228246• 260XVIII. End of the reign of Frederick I.XIX. Henry VI. and Richard of EnglandXX. Henry VI. and the World MonarchyXXI. Philip of Suabia and Otto IV.XXII. Otto IV. and Frederick II.· • 280291304318• 331XXIII. Frederick II.'s CrusadeXXIV. Frederick II. and Gregory IX.349• 367XXV. Frederick II. and Innocent IV.XXVI. The last of the Hohenstaufens and the InterregnumXXVII. Internal Changes and Developments in the twelfth and thirteenth centuriesXXVIII. The Literature of the Hohenstaufen times385• 398• • 410427

SINCINTRODUCTION.INCE the comparatively recent time when, by the effortsof Wolf, Niebuhr, and Ranke, historical investigationwas raised to the rank of a science, the whole of the German history has been re-written. New sources of informationhave been opened up, old problems in many cases solved .More than fifty thousand historical essays and other works,relating to Germany, have been reviewed by the " Jahresbericht der Geschichtswissenschaft " in the thirteen years alone between 1878 and 1890.Not in one, but in many ways has history writing beenrevolutionized in our own day. In the first place, the immense importance of text- criticism has been recognized; noscholar now edits a chronicle or document of the past without distinguishing carefully between the original, or at leastthe oldest obtainable, manuscript and the horde of latercopies with all of their accumulated errors. The study ofpalæography has enabled men to determine at least in whatcentury a given text was written, and many a document orchronicle long considered very ancient has been found to beby a comparatively modern hand, and vice versa.By comparing the changes, too, and the omissions of wordsand clauses in a number of different manuscripts of a givenwork, the prototype or original manuscript from which allthe others were taken can often be discovered.What this method signifies for the truth and accuracy of ahistorical text may be made clear from the case of Einhard's life of Charlemagne, written shortly after the death of thegreat hero. Of this valuable writing there are eighty manu- scripts extant, of which all but a very few are worthlesscopies made, in the course of centuries, not from the original,but one from the other. The later scribes and copyists, too,were men far less capable of performing such a task than aremany schoolboys of to-day.xii INTRODUCTION.It is only modern scholars who have been able to establishthe relationships of these Einhard texts to each other, and tosift the later ones of their accumulated errors and interpolations. And the case just mentioned is but one among hundreds.It must be remembered in this connection that, in theMiddle Ages, as parchment grew scarcer, or at least moreexpensive with time, it became the custom to contract almostevery word of more than one syllable; and that the nextcopyist often had to use his imagination as to the real wordthat was intended. Many of the manuscripts of the thirteenth century seem a mere mass of signs and tokens ofabbreviation. How often, too, not to speak of interpolationswittingly and wantonly made for a given purpose, have marginal remarks of a reader or commentator been attributed bya later scribe to the original author, and placidly incorporatedin the new copy!Altogether the study of palæography and of original historical sources gives one an amazing insight into the peculiarities, the follies, and the weaknesses of our forefathers.The abbot of a monastery interpolates or otherwise falsifies acharter of privileges to gain or preserve this or that right, or to raise the value of these or those relics. A chronicler doesnot hesitate to put down fictitious details which may add tothe glory of the ancestors of a family which gives him itspatronage. More than half the charters attributed to Merovingian times have been proved to be fraudulent in either one way or another.Follow the stream back to its source, reconstruct youredifice from the very foundation, find out the original authority for every assertion; such are the watchwords of themodern school of historians. How many extravagant andyet long- credited assertions concerning Charlemagne havebeen traced back to the gossipy and far from veracious monk of St. Gall, who wrote more for the amusem*nt than forthe edification of Charles the Bald! And Heinrich vonSybel, now the Nestor of German historians, has shown that the chronicle on which most of the modern accounts of thefirst crusade have been based was never intended even by itsoriginal author to be taken seriously.It is for medieval times especially that most astonishingdifficulties have had to be met and overcome by the moderninvestigator. For this the peculiarities of the old chroniclersare mostly responsible.INTRODUCTION. xiiiThere was a formalism, for instance, that seemed to belongto good tone among writers of a given period. We find oneauthor, Lambert of Hersfeld, who seems to have a regularformula for conspiracies. They all come about in the sameway, and the details are repeated in almost the same words.It is most usual, too, and the blame for it attaches to Livy,who set the example for Latin writers, for chroniclers to putset speeches in the mouths of those with whom they aredealing-speeches which they never by any chance couldpossibly have uttered. Others will relate interviews-it isLambert again who sins in this way-as though they themselves had been actually present, when we know for certainthat the two persons concerned were absolutely alone andwould never have been likely to repeat even the generaltenor, let alone the actual words, of what had passed between them.It was the custom all through the Middle Ages for onewriter to tacitly embody whole passages, whole pages, andeven whole chronicles, of another in his own work. There was,probably, no intent to deceive, the object was to secure a goodwork, and to continue it if possible, for one's own cloisterlibrary.The historian of to-day has to distinguish what is borrowedfrom what is original, and, in the great modern collections ofmediæval sources, the " Monumenta" of Germany, or the"Rolls Series " of England, the borrowed, so far as it can beascertained, will be found to be printed in smaller type.But it often seems impossible to tell who was the originalauthor, and where he lived, who copied from whom, andwhether both, perhaps, did not borrow from a third.It is exactly in this matter of analyzing chronicles, andtracing the different parts back to their origins, that Germanscholars have performed their greatest services to the studiousworld. Every clue is followed, every similarity of style investigated; passages are often fathered without the shadow of adoubt on this or that older writer.Perhaps the most striking case of all is that of the AltaichAnnals, edited by the late Wilhelm von Giesebrecht. Anumber of different chroniclers of the tenth century, whocould not have known the writings of each other, showed aremarkable similarity in their description of certain events.Giesebrecht came to the conclusion that they must all haveborrowed from one and the same source; and, excerpting andxiv INTRODUCTION.99comparing all that the different writers had in common, heedited and published the lost prototype. It is an actual fact that the original chronicle, the " Annales Altahenses,' waslater discovered, and that Giesebrecht's conjectural readingswere found, as far as they went, to be almost absolutely correct.Nor are text-criticism and the reconstruction of lostchronicles by any means the only branches in which modernscholarship has improved the writing of history. Not onlythe works of dead and gone chroniclers have been tested andsearched, but their lives and opinions as well. It is safe tosay that no considerable writer of the Middle Ages is withouthis careful biographer in the present century.Germany especially possesses a well- disciplined standingarmy of investigators, recruited yearly from her great universities, and ready at a given signal to begin the fight in anyquarter where obscurity or error is found to lurk.The deeper one goes, the more one finds how important itis to know the character and tendency of a given chroniclerespecially of one who is our sole authority for this or thatassertion. Was he well-informed? Did he move personallyin the circles where the events that he describes were takingplace, or does he write by hearsay of things that happened insome distant part of the land?How much more weighty is a word of blame from one whocan be proved to be well- disposed on the whole towards thepersonage of whom he writes; how worthless, often, theverdict of a political opponent! Especially in the medievalchronicles the number of accusations is legion that can beproved to be utterly groundless.Our forefathers of a thousand years ago were, if possible,even more partisan in their judgments than we are to- day.They were more under the ban of fixed and formal ideas;their minds were more closely sealed against anything new orunexpected. Everything was churchly, there was no suchthing as a public opinion. The prince who plundered oroppressed the monastery in which a given monk was writing-and there are centuries during which no one but monksdid write or who may only have insisted too sternly on hisown just rights, goes down in the pages of history as the antichrist in person, however beneficial to the land as awhole his reign may have been. And vice versa. TheFrankish king, Clovis, wholesale fratricide, and breaker ofINTRODUCTION. XVevery kind of sacred oath and treaty, marches forth in thepages of the pious Gregory of Tours as a God-sent championto fight the just fight of Trinitarianism against the Arianheresy.The historian's task would be lighter, indeed, if all chroniclers were as honest and as transparent as Luitprand ofCremona, a tenth century bishop. In his case it is comparatively easy to tell what to believe and what to attributeto wounded feelings . Luitprand informs us at the very beginning that he is going to punish the King and Queen ofNorthern Italy for wrongs inflicted on himself. With this end in view he calls his chronicle of the times the Antapodosis, or " Book of Retribution."Apart from the characters and the prejudices of ancientwriters there are certain peculiarities, the discovery of whichvastly alters the trust and confidence that we are justified inplacing in them. It has always been known, for example, thatmediæval historians have borrowed much of their phraseologyfrom the ancient classics: Ovid and Virgil, Livy and Sallustare the forcing-houses whence all the fairest flowers ofmediæval rhetoric have been culled.It is only within the last ten or fifteen years that this propensity has been systematically investigated . How far hasthe truth suffered by being crushed into this classic garbthat is the question that is now everywhere being asked and answered. Einhard's characterizations of Charles the Greatare taken in great part direct from Suetonius; Ragewin, thehistorian of Frederick Barbarossa, describes the siege ofMilan in the very words in which Josephus tells of the conquest of Jerusalem, yet applies those words with singular skill and aptitude. There is a detailed description, forinstance, of an octagonal tower which we find from independent sources to tally exactly with the true state of affairs.Afamous example is Lambert of Hersfeld's vivid description of the hardships which the Emperor Henry IV. enduredwhile crossing the Alps in winter to humble himself beforeGregory VII. at Canossa. What a picture we are givenof the king sliding down the icy slopes on ox-hides, of his inintense sufferings from cold and hunger! yet the account istaken bodily from Livy, the name of Hannibal being alteredto that of Henry.One may say-Lambert undoubtedly did say to himself-xvi INTRODUCTION.that the fatigues and dangers of a winter journey over theAlps are much the same in all ages. The poet Angilbert,whose verses deal with many of the events of Charlemagne'stime, was not so consistent in his description of Aix-laChapelle. He borrows Virgil's account of Carthage and,forgetting that Aix lies inland, boasts of her splendidharbour!This analyzing of the language and peculiarities of style ofmediæval authors, taken in connection with other criterions,has led, often, to the discovery that writings were spurious.There are expressions in the forged Isidorian decretals-thatgigantic swindle on which the popes, from Nicholas I. down,based many of their most exalted claims-that were copiedfrom works which appeared three centuries after the dates claimed for some of the several documents.It is in great part through methods here touched upon thatthe famous Florentine chronicle of Malaspini has been provedto be a forgery, compiled at a time much later than itsprofessed date for the purpose of glorifying the ancestors of acertain family.It is this same criticism and comparison of original historicalsources that has led to the discarding of many a pleasantanecdote, many a stirring incident that had long been be- lieved.Take the old German tradition of the faithful wives ofWeinsberg. You will find it told in many history books howKing Conrad III., in 1140, besieged this town and finallytook it; how he declared the men guilty of death but allowedthe women to depart with all that they could carry on theirshoulders. Of course they carried their husbands::--a beautifullegend, which, by the way, is claimed by nearly thirty diffe- rent towns as an episode of their own past history. Butunfortunately the originator of the story has been traced, and has been found to have had the anecdote " on the brain asit were. He repeats almost the same tale in connection withthe siege of Crema in 1160, on which occasion it is well knownthat such wifely devotion was quite unnecessary, the wholegarrison being allowed, as it was, to withdraw in peace.""And William Tell, in spite of Schiller and the chapelon the Lake of Lucerne, has had to step down from his highpedestal as liberator of Switzerland. One may well believethat Swiss patriots have searched the archives, and eagerlysought some proof of the existence of their hero. But in vain.INTRODUCTION. xviiNo Hapsburg can be found to have interfered at this periodin Uri, no bailiff Gessler appears in any local register, andno historian of the time, local or foreign, mentioned theoccurrence.One hundred and fifty years had passed before a chroniclercame upon the idea of embellishing his work with thisromantic story which he stated to have taken place in thefourteenth century. Nor was there anything new in theepisode that he chose. It bears certainly more than a chanceresemblance to an incident related by Saxo Grammaticus, awriter of the twelfth century. Saxo tells us of a certain Tokowho lived in the tenth century at the court of Harold Blotan,a Danish king.The king commands Toko to shoot an apple from his son'shead. Toko prepares to obey but lays down beside him two extra arrows. The king asks him why he does this. " If thefirst fails I shall take vengeance on you with the other two,"was the answer. The arrow did not miss, but later the king'styranny became unbearable, and Toko, concealed in a bush,shot him as he passed by.It must not be supposed that the modern historical methodis purely destructive in its tendencies. On the contrary,never before has there been such a search as in our own generation for every available piece of historical evidence froma peculiarly shaped furrow in the ground to a series ofambassador's reports on the complete correspondence of popesand emperors. Never before have there been given to theworld such marvellous books of reference, such laboursaving aids to those who are engaged in the work of research.A digest has been made, for instance, of the subject- matterof forty thousand papal writings and decrees drawn up before the year 1300. In the case of each single document one istold in what printed collection, or in what archive of manuscripts, the original may be found.The same work is in progress, and has been for twentyyears, for the correspondence of all the early German emperors, and a number of large and carefully-edited volumeshave already appeared. The whole is so arranged that onecan cast the eye through the summaries of a thousand or soof letters during the course of a single day's work, and find which of them require more special investigation. Theexamples of such comprehensive works that save one yearsof labour might be multiplied to almost any extent. One bxviii INTRODUCTION.enterprising writer, Gams, has published a large volume containing the names of all the Roman Catholic bishops thatever lived in any part of the world, together with referencesto such books as will in each case give further information.A Frenchman, Chevalier, has printed a dictionary of all thenames of note in the Middle Ages, in this case, too, with full lists of the works treating of each given personage.Wattenbach, a noted professor in Berlin, has written acritical account of each and all of the historical sources in theMiddle Ages relating to Germany. Here one can find at aglance the relative scope and value of a given chronicle, and also the latest and best editions.A great mark of progress in the present century, and afurther proof of the constructive tendency of the work ofmodern historians, is the systematic employment of charters,deeds, and legal documents as historical sources.Every gift, every privilege granted in earlier times, almostevery transaction of any kind was duly certified by a deedsigned and sealed in the presence of witnesses. Probably ahundred thousand such pieces of parchment have come down to us from the Middle Ages alone. The single monastery ofSt. Gall, to-day, possesses in its archives about seven hundredand fifty originals of the eighth and ninth centuries.It is only the last two generations of scholars that haveknown how to make extensive and proper use of these richsources of information, and to control by means of them the assertions of the chroniclers.Such documents often furnish us with new and importantfacts. The whole history of the feudal system-indeed thewhole of the constitutional history of Germany-would be ahopeless riddle did we not have the charters granted by lordsto their vassals, by kings to their cities and nobles. By a comparison of the dates and localities of royal charters we canoften follow the progress of a potentate from one end of hisdomains to the other. The mediæval German king has nofixed abode: he is always on the march. To-day he confersa privilege on this or that town, to-morrow invests a bishopor noble with a fief of the realm, and the next day hurries toa given monastery to confirm to it the jurisdiction over thethieves and robbers in the vicinity.What were the conditions of land-holding, what the commercial relations between one district and another; whatcontingents did that man, or that institution, or corporateINTRODUCTION. xixbody send to the army; what taxes could a territorial lordimpose; who were the bondsmen, who the half-free, and whothe free: to all such questions, and to infinitely more,charters, if rightly interrogated, will give a full and satisfactory answer.Enough has been said to give a faint insight into the methods and labours of modern German historians. It willnot surprise the reader to find that in constructing this history the author has made it his aim to choose his authorities,other things being equal, among the most recent writers on agiven period or subject.

A WORD CONCERNING THE MORE IMPORTANTAUTHORITIES CONSULTED FOR THE SUBJECT- MATTER OF THIS VOLUME.FOR the sake of those who wish a complete bibliography of German history it may be as well to mention the work ofDahlmann (continued by Waitz), ' the yearly report of historicalscience, ² and the weekly catalogue of Hinrich.³The first of these books gives a list of some three thousand workson German history arranged according to periods. All the moreimportant writings that appeared before 1883 are here to be found.The " Jahresbericht " is a grand co- operative work in whichscholars all over the world take part, and which attempts to review systematically each year all the writings which deal with historicalsubjects.Bythe aid of Hinrich's catalogue one can follow the new booksas they appear. All those on history are in a section by them- selves.4 5The great historical reviews of Sybel and Quidde give exhaustive accounts of the more important works that have been published.6The work in two staunch, closely-printed volumes which goes under the name of " Bruno Gebhardt's Handbook of GermanHistory " is, in reality, one composed by twelve different wellknown historians, each of whom writes on the special period forwhich he is considered an authority. A feature of the book isthe rich literary references. The work has been of great use to thewriter of the present history. It is safe to say that never have somany well- authenticated facts concerning the history of any land been contracted into so small a compass.On the other hand the book is more than dull for the ordinary reader.1 Dahlmann-Waitz: " Quellenkunde der deutschen Geschichte." Third edition.1883.2 "Jahresbericht der Geschichtswissenschaft. " 1878. ff. Grote. Berlin.3 "Hinrich's Wöchentliches Verzeichniss der Neuigkeiten des deutschen Buch.handels." Leipzig.4 Sybel's " Historische Zeitschrift. "5 Quidde, " Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft." (Appears quarterly) .6 Bruno Gebhardt: " Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte. " 2vols. Berlin and Leipzig, 1891-92.xxii AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.A book of which three volumes have already appeared, andwhich in a way marks an era in history writing is Lamprecht's.'It is altogether the work of a great historian, and the political history is made to recede behind a detailed account of social,agrarian, literary, and artistic developments. The narrative is brought as yet down to the year 1300.Somewhat similar to Lamprecht, and indeed the work whichseems to have given the latter his inspiration, is Nitzsch's 2"German History," which extends from the earliest times to theReformation period. It is an extremely suggestive book, but onewhich suffers under the peculiar circ*mstances attending its origin.Nitzsch died before it was put into proper form, and one of hispupils compiled it from the great scholar's notes and lectures.4 Schröder's " Constitutional History," without possessing theoriginality of the works of Waitz and Brunner, " is the bestgeneral handbook for the subject. It is clear and systematic, andembraces the latest results of historical investigation. The lastpart, concerning the history of modern times, is treated in tooshort a compass, the author having been unwilling to extend hisbook beyond the limit of one volume.66 Scherer's ' History of German Literature " is a delightfullywritten book, by a great scholar and a great master of his subject.It extends from the earliest times to the end of the time of Goethe.Scherer brings the history of the literature into connection with the general history and culture of the time.Ranke's " " History of the World," which extends only to theeleventh century, is particularly important for the masterly group- ing of facts and the bringing of them into their proper connection.It presupposes in the reader a considerable amount of previous knowledge of the subject. 8Kaufmann's book extends to the end of the reign of Charles the Great. Kaufmann was known for many excellent monographs onspecial subjects concerning the ancient German tribes, and at last embodied the results of his investigations in the form of a narrativehistory. His work is excellent, almost exhaustive. Hoyns's °book covers about the same period as Kaufmann, extending, how- ever, to 911. It is a clear, readable, and reliable account, without,indeed, being of great independent value.9In Mühlbacher's 10 " History ofthe Carolingians " we have a trulyimportant work. Every scrap of contemporary evidence is made1 Lamprecht, " Deutsche Geschichte. " Berlin, 1891. ff.2 Nitzsch, " Geschichte des deutschen Volkes." Leipzig, 1883.3 Schröder, " Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte." Leipzig, 1889.4 Waitz, "Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte. " 1880. ff. (8 vols. ).5 Brunner, "Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte. " 1887. ff. 2 vols.6 Scherer, "Geschichte der deutschen Litteratur. " Berlin, 1885.7 Ranke, " Weltgeschichte. " 1884. ff. (8 vols . ) .8 Kaufmann, " Deutsche Geschichte.'9 Hoyns, " Deutsche Geschichte. "2 vols. 1880. ff.10 Mühlbacher, "Deutsche Geschichte unter den Karolingern " (in Bibliothek deutscher Geschichte). 1894. Stuttgart.AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. xxiiiuse of by one who has known better than any living man livingwhere to find it. Mühlbacher has for years been engaged inmaking a digest of letters and other public acts of the Carolingiansfor Böhmer's regesta imperii.Giesebrecht's history, which was intended to extend to 1250,and which fills five large volumes without having nearly reachedits completion, covers the period from 911 to 1180. It is a favouritehabit of lecturers on German history to find flaws in this work; itis nevertheless awork of prime importance, and possesses the furtheradvantage of being written in a pleasant and readable style. Ithas done more than any other book to rouse a wide interest in thestudy of medieval history, and also to instil thoroughness of methods ofinvestigation. The amount of material that Giesebrechthas worked over for a period covering more than two hundred andfifty years is simply astounding.Manitius' 2 book, covering the period from 911 to 1125, is naturally largely based on Giesebrecht, but the author has been able to makeuse of later investigations. Manitius is conscientious and reliable ,but it must be confessed that the work is heavy, and that the massof detail prevents one from gaining any clear picture of the time.For the Hohenstaufen period there lacks as yet any general andcomprehensive work up to the requirements of the day. Jastrow,in Berlin, is treating the period for the " Bibliothek deutscherGeschichte, " and his book is sure to be excellent; but it willprobably be two or three years before it is completed.3Raumer's history of the Hohenstaufens made a great stir in itsday, but is now completely out of date. De Cherrier's history isstill of value, but parts of it are also antiquated . For special reigns there are a number of useful works.5Prutz's history of Frederick Barbarossa is very learned andexhaustive, and Toeche's Henry VI. is the model of what such an investigation should be.Winkelmann's works on Philip of Hohenstaufen and Otto IV. , 7and on Frederick II. , are immensely learned and exhaustive, butthoroughly to be avoided by the general reader. They also formpart of the collection of year books of German history, in which the treatment is chronological.9Schirrmacher's " Frederick II. and the Last Hohenstaufens " is1 Giesebrecht, "Geschichte der deutschen Kaiser zeit " (latest edition, 1875, ff. ).5 vols.2 Manitius, " Deutsche Geschichte unter den sächsischen und salischen Kaisern. "(Bibliothek d. Geschichte), 1889.3 Raumer, " Geschichte der Hohenstaufen. " Fifth edition. Leipzig, 1879. 6 vols.4 De Cherrier, " Histoire de la lutte des papes et des empereurs de la maison de Souabe." 3 vols Paris, 1858-59.5 H. Prutz, " Kaiser Frederick I. "6 Toeche, 'Kaiser Henrich VI. "deutschen Geschichte. )Danzic, 1871-73. 3 vols.Leipzig, 1867. (One of the Jahrbücher der7 Winkelmann, " Philip von Schwaben und Otto IV. von Braumschweig." Leipzig,1873-78. 2 vols.8 Winkelmann, "Geschichte Kaiser's Friedrich II." vol. i. 1889.9 Schirrmacher, " Friedrich II. und die letzten Hohenstaufen." 1874. 2 vols.xxiv AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.a shorter and a later treatment of the period covered by the author'smore voluminous work on the same subject. It is reliable on the whole.Zeller's 2 66"Frederick II." is more or less of a compilation , butgives all the main facts of Frederick's reign correctly, and is altogether an attractive treatment of the subject. It is one of a seriesof works written on early German history. Zeller is a Frenchman,and has the French grace of style.Kempf, in his history of the Interregnum, has carefully andconscientiously performed a thankless but needful task. The periodfrom 1245 to 1272 is most utterly dreary and uninteresting, and has never before been made the subject of a separate work.In concluding, the author may be allowed to mention a work of his own, which was undertaken as a direct preparation for the present history. It is a collection of original documents translated from the medieval Latin, and made accessible to the general reader.The author's belief is that no one should attempt to write a popularhistory who is not thoroughly at home in the primal historical sources.1 J. Zeller, " L'empereur Frederic II. et la chute de l'empire Germanique du Moyen Age, Conrad IV. et Conradin." Paris, 1885.2 Kempf, " Geschichte des deutschen Reichs während des grossen Interregnums ."Würzburg, 1893.3 Henderson, "Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages." 1892. (Bohn's Antiquarian Library.)A HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE.CHAPTER I.GERMANS AND ROMANS.Tis as enemies of the Romans that the Germans first meet The Indo- Germanic ITus in history; but there was a time far back in the ages race.when the people of the two races were friends and brothers.The modern science of comparative philology has shown beyondadoubt that Germans and Celts, Greeks and Romans, Indiansand Persians, once formed part of the same great family, andthat their languages are derived at bottom from one primævaltongue.By means of a careful sifting of roots and derivations agrammar and dictionary of this Indo- Germanic mode ofspeech have been constructed, and on these and on a comparison of the earliest known customs of the chief descendanttribes, a history of the habits of this primæval race has been based.the race.The names of the trees, flowers, and animals that wereknown to them suggest, as does also an old tradition, theplains of Russia as their home. They were a nomad people Customs ofand lived on meat and milk, at times indulging in a fermented ,intoxicating drink, which was made from honey and wascalled médhu (mead) . They clothed themselves, for the mostpart, in the skins of wild beasts, but also knew the use ofwool, plucking instead of shearing their sheep .In summer they lived in tent-wagons, in winter in holes inthe earth. If one pictures a season passed in such an abode,B2 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Family life.The Ger- mans.The Cim- brians and Teutons.with its impure air and its vermin, one will not be astonishedto find that words signifying " coughing " and " consumption,"not to speak of "itch," have been proved to exist in the IndoGermanic vocabulary.The records of the family life of these our progenitors arefar more creditable than one might expect. They have wordsfor " father," "' mother," " brother," " sister." Marriage wasa well-known institution, the bride being either bought orcarried off by force. If she failed in bearing offspring shewas passed on to a friend. Should she, on the other hand,have properly fulfilled her vocation, hers was the privilege onher lord's decease, in common with the latter's favourite horseand his favourite slave, of seeking death on his funeral pyre,and accompanying him to the abodes of the blessed.The Germans-it is Julius Cæsar, however, who first callsthem by this name-seem to have left their original homevery much later than the Greeks, Romans, and Celts. Alreadyin 330 B.C. , nevertheless, they were firmly settled on theamber-producing shores of the North Sea. Pytheas, of Marseilles , the Christopher Columbus of Germany, visited themthere in that year. On the shores of the Baltic, too, thenumerous stone implements that have been found, the mostperfect specimens known, tell of extensive settlements.When, in the second century before Christ, the wanderingsof the Germans brought them southward—a people dependenton agriculture, and with no knowledge of how to economizeand improve land, must, as the population increases, spreadout in all directions-they found Greece and Rome with acentury-long history behind them, while Gaul and NorthernItaly were completely peopled by Celtic tribes.It was the Cimbrians and Teutons who opened the long lineof demonstrations against Rome, which finally were to robthat power of all her provinces. The annals of Roman history'tell of two victories gained by the great Marius in the years102 and 101 B.C. , the one over the Teutons at Aquæ Sextiæ(Aix in Provence), the other over the Cimbrians in NorthernItaly.GERMANS AND ROMANS. 31For eleven years and more these two tribes in common hadbeen harassing the Celts, and, in spite of their naïve andprobably most true assertion that they only wanted land uponwhich to settle, making the Romans tremble for their capital.But in Marius, with the extraordinary powers that had beenbestowed upon him, in view of the impending danger, andwith the army which he had been able to reorganize, theyfound their master.Battles with the Romans,102 and forA few details of the two battles have come down to us,which show that the barbarians were completely outwitted bythe superior tactics of their adversaries, who were able to fall B.C. upon them simultaneously in the front and in the rear. Theburning sun of the south helped to weaken their power ofresistance, and in both cases defeat was synonymous withannihilation.It is related that in both battles the women at last offereda desperate resistance from the camp of wagons, and that atAquæ Sextiæ no combatants were finally left on the field butthe dogs, who defended the corpses of those who had fallen.Poseidonias, a historian of this time, tells us that the landaround Aix was so fertilized as to bear fruit in astoundingquantities, and that the people hedged in their vineyards withthe bones of the slain.The next great conflict between the Germans and Romans Cæsar andtook place in the time of Julius Cæsar on the confines of Gaul. Ariovistus.This time on the side of the Germans we meet, not as in theCimbrian-Teuton War, with a few shadowy heroes of whomwe only know their names and that they fought hard and died,but with a real leader, the head and king of seven tribes.Ariovistus was the first organizer and the first politicalthinker among the Germans. His name was known far andwide, and in 72 B.C. the Celts called in his assistance againstRome. When Cæsar's troops found that they were to marchagainst him, they were so terrified that they all but renouncedtheir obedience. Only the threat of their commander that hewould march forward with the tenth legion alone shamed themback into order and discipline. In the end the Roman skill4 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Friendly relations betweenand training conquered; Ariovistus was put to flight and wesoon hear of him no more.The relations later became more friendly between thewarriors of the north and the warriors of the south. GermansRomans and entered the Roman service-Augustus had a bodyguard of Germans.them and learned there valuable lessons which they weresoon able to turn to account in their own land.Augustus and the Sigambrians.The inva- sions ofDrusus,13-9 B.C.The subjugation and reorganization of Gaul by the Romansbrought them into closer contact with the Germans; the oldculture and the new courage were now of the greatest influenceon each other. In the year 39 B.c. the powerful tribe of theUbii was allowed by Agrippa to settle on the left bank of theRhine; here in their midst, in due time, an altar was erectedin honour of Augustus, and around it German priests performed the Roman rites. It was among the Ubii that, lessthan three generations later, the city of Cologne was founded,Aggripina, the mother of Nero, having sent thither a colony of Roman veterans.The Sigambrians were the next Germans to begin a seriesof wars with the Romans. They had been exasperated by theoppressions of the Roman commander Marcus Lollius. In theyear 16 B.C. they seized and crucified several Romans, andmade an inroad into Gaul in which they were joined by othertribes . They defeated the Roman legate and even securedthe eagle of the fifth legion. It is about this time that thepoet Horace wishes Augustus a victory over the Sigambriansas the greatest triumph that he could have in his life.The Sigambrians were soon induced or compelled to makepeace, but Augustus determined that his provinces shouldnever again be exposed to a similar danger. He came himself to Gaul to survey the field, and to prepare for an invasionof Germany on a large scale, but in 13 B.c. transferred to hisstepson, Drusus, the direction of the undertaking.Drusus built fortifications along the Rhine, and betweenthe Main and the Lippe. The most famous of his fortressesare the Saalburg, near Homburg, in the Taunus mountains,and Castle Aliso, the site of which is only approximatelyGERMANS AND ROMANS. 5known. Drusus also constructed a canal that proved of greatassistance in later campaigns, allowing Roman fleets to sailinto the heart of Germany. It led through the land of thefriendly Batavians from the Rhine to the Yssel, and fromthere through the present Zuydersee, then an inland lake, intothe North Sea.Every year, until his death• in 9 B.C., Drusus undertook anexpedition through the deep morasses and primæval forests ofGermany. His bravery and perseverance won for him thehighest possible marks of esteem at Rome. The Senate gavethe name Germanicus to him and his offspring; a triumphalarch which still remains was erected in his honour on theAppian Way, and a monument which Tiberius raised to himon the Eichelstein, near Mayence, lasted for seventeen centuries, and was finally destroyed by the French.Great, however, as were the successes of Drusus, he wasunable to lay lasting fetters on tribes so numerous and sowidely dispersed.Tiberius, who succeeded his brother in the conduct of thewar, was able in the year 8 B.c. to inflict a fearful punishment on the Sigambrians. Their chiefs were taken prisonerswhile on a peace-embassy to Rome, and nearly the whole tribe,bereft of its leaders, was transplanted to the left bank of theRhine.We have accounts of further expeditions of Tiberius in theyears 4, 5, and 6 a.d. In the latter year he determined toannihilate the power of a certain Marobod, leader of theMarcomanni, who had defeated the Boiers in the presentBohemia, and had raised up for himself a power such asnever before had been seen in Germany. The most variedtribes, from the Goths in the east to the Thuringians in thewest, looked up to him as their king. He had himself been inRoman service and knew the tactics of the enemy with whichhe had to cope.The army that Tiberius raised for this expedition was thelargest that had ever marched against any one single enemyof Rome. Twelve legions took the field, but they never cameTiberius and Marobod.6 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Arminius and Varus.Battle in the Teuto9 A.D.in sight of the object of their attack. A revolt in the recentlysubjected Pannonia broke out and detained Tiberius for threefull years. By that time a more dangerous antagonist eventhan Marobod had appeared upon the scene.On the river Weser the Cheruscans played much the samerôle that the Sigambriams had once played on the Rhine.But with more success. Their leader, Arminius, fell uponthe Roman procunsul, P. Quinctilius Varus, in the Teutobergforest in the year 9 A.D., and destroyed those splendid legions,the loss of which Augustus is stated to have bemoaned in thefamous "Vare, Vare, redde mihi legiones meas! "Varus had tried to emulate the oppressions of a Lollius, andto tread under foot the Germans as he had, in his formerproconsular district, the Syrians. But he had not calculatedon the organized opposition by which he had been met; he hadnot expected to find a patriot like Arminius-one, too, who hadbeen trained at Rome.When Varus finally saw that the battle was going againstberg Forest, him, he threw himself on his own sword. Arminius sent hishead to Marabod, seeking an alliance against the commonenemy. Marabod, however, had already made a treaty ofpeace with Augustus, and felt no inclination to join handswith the victor.The exact locality of the battle in the Teutoburg Forest,which took place, however, somewhere in the hilly districtbetween the Ems, the Weser and the Lippe, has not beendetermined. Germanicus, the son of Drusus, later visited thescene of the disaster, and found there, nailed to trees, theskulls of the centurions and tribunes who had been sacrificedto Wotan. In recent times a large number of Roman coinshave been found in the neighbourhood of Barenau. It isassumed, even by an authority like Mommsen, that theycame from the pouches of the soldiers of Varus and remained,uninjured by time, long after the bones of those to whomthey once belonged had rotted away.In Rome the importance of the German victory which, aswe even now acknowledge, was one of the decisive ones in theGERMANS AND ROMANS. 7world's history, was fully recognized. It was even fearedthat the capital itself might be invaded. The bodyguards ofAugustus, as well as all German visitors, were banished fromthe city, a stricter watch was kept by night and day.Tiberius, having ended the war with the Pannonians, again The young Germanicus.visited the Rhine provinces, but busied himself chiefly withrestoring discipline to the Roman army. Becoming emperorin the year 14, he entrusted the command in Gaul and thedirection of the German war to the young Germanicus. Thelatter was able to carry off as captive to Rome Thusnelda, thewife of Arminius. Small credit to the Roman commander,for her own father, Segestes, head of a party hostile to theconqueror of Varus, had brought her into his hands. Thusnelda, and an infant son to whom she had given birth in captivity, graced the triumph of Germanicus, in which Segestestook part as an honoured guest.The campaigns of Germanicus, although not ingloriousin a great battle that was fought on the bank of the WeserArminius suffered heavy losses-were on the whole fruitless,and Tiberius at last recalled him (16 A.D.) . For half acentury no more wars were waged with the Germans.More was gained by this policy of non- interference than by Arminiusany number of petty expeditions. The Germans, bereft of a and Ma- robod.common enemy, and yet accustomed to all the excitements ofwar, fell to fighting among themselves . Marobod and Arminius became the centres of two rival camps, and a great butindecisive battle was fought between them. Marobod's subjects finally fell away from him, and the great king himselfended his days as an exile in Ravenna, where the emperorhad allowed him to take up his abode. Roman writersreproach him with having cared to live so long.Arminius in the end fell a prey to the spirit of faction.He was struck down by the hand of one of his own relatives .His exploits have never been forgotten. Tacitus calls himthe "liberator haud dubie Germania," and in our own day agrand monument has been erected to him by the Germannation.8 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.ClaudiusCivilis, 68 A.D.The Roman Limes.Its course.Object of the Limes.The Romans never again attempted the subjugation ofGermany. A revolt broke out in 68 A.D. among the hithertofriendly Batavii. It was headed by Claudius Civilis, and wasjoined by a number of neighbouring tribes. The plans ofClaudius seem to have been ambitious enough, but Rome wastoo strong as yet. The storm soon passed over, and left nolasting results. The Batavii remained, as before, friends andallies of the Roman people.The Romans have left us two valuable reminders of theirconnection with the Germans, the one of a practical the otherof a literary nature. The first is the Limes, a broad fortification-wall, flanked at intervals by fortresses and watch-towers,to the very base of which the full tide of Roman culture onceflowed. Its course can still be traced almost along its wholelength, and a number of scholars, supplied with funds by theGerman Government, are now engaged in laying it bare.Numerous camps and settlements, not to speak of other remains, have already been brought to light.The Limes ran along the Danube from its confluence withthe Altmühl to the monastery of Lorsch on the Wurtembergfrontier, thence along the Rhine and the Main, and aroundthe Taunus mountains. It ended at a point nearly oppositeto Bonn.The Danube section, the so- called Teufelsmauer, was builtfor the protection of the agri decumates, those lands whichwere given over to Romans and barbarians alike for a fixedrent of ten per cent. of their produce. This Limes transdubianus was five feet high and twelve feet broad, and wasprotected for long distances by a moat and a second wall.The Limes transrhenanus was higher, sixteen feet on anaverage, and was provided along its whole length with amoat twenty feet wide and ten deep.Extensive as these fortifications were, they could not havekept off a serious and organized attack on the part of theGermans; but none such was to be dreaded for two centuriesafter the wall was begun. It was the petty plundering expeditions to which it was intended to put an end, and this ob-GERMANS AND ROMANS. 9ject was in the main attained. Behind their wall the Romanveterans, the soldiers and camp-followers, as well as thefriendly German settlers, passed a secure and civilized existence. If danger threatened, signals were exchanged fromone watch-tower to the other, and the forces concentrated ata given point.Germans.Beyond the Limes a broad stretch of land was left uncul- Commercetivated, the trees cut down, the shrubbery burnt away. A with theconsiderable commerce was carried on with the Germans, butthe barbarian traders were only allowed to approach theLimes at certain points and at stated hours. They wereobliged to accept and to pay for an escort of Roman soldiers,and they themselves were not permitted to carry arms.The Roman merchants, on the other hand, penetrated farinto the German lands. In the present Sweden nearly fivethousand Roman denars of the first and second century afterChrist have come to light, and Roman productions have beenfound in the most distant parts of Germany.The building of the Limes was begun under Augustus, but The buildmore than a century passed before it neared its completion. ing of the The line of defence that had to be erected was more thanthree hundred miles in length!It must be remembered in this connection that the menwho composed the Roman legions were not merely soldiers,they were also stone- hewers and builders. To them we owemany temples, baths, and amphitheatres on German ground,and many of their peculiarly-constructed roads can still befollowed.Limes.mania " ofTacitus.The second great heritage that we have from the Romans The " Geris the " Germania " of Tacitus. At a time for which all othersources of information fail us, the Roman historian undertookto write a comprehensive description, to paint a colossal picture, as it were, of the Germany of his day.Tacitus tells of a land " bristling with forests, or coveredwith ugly swamps; " he tells of a people fresh and vigorous,with an unwritten but fixed code of law and honour, and notwithout their vices and weaknesses. They drink and gamble,10 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Manners and Cus- toms.Germans cease to be nomads.Amalgamation ofpetty tribes.and pay their stakes, if need be, by becoming the slaves oftheir debtor. War is their chief occupation, the ultimate endand object for which their youths are reared and trained.Cowardice and desertion of the army are the crimes mosthateful to them; the usual penalty is suffocation in the mudof the marshes.The form of government varies among different tribes:here it is republican, there a liberal monarchy. The land isdivided into larger and smaller districts-into counties, if wemay call them so, and into hundreds. Already there aredifferent classes of society; the slaves carry on the limitedagriculture, and the chieftains, each with his select " following " of youths, lead their people to war, or administer justice in the districts allotted to them by the general assembly..Woman is respected and honoured, but wifely infidelity ispunished by death. Priests conduct the worship of the godsand keep the peace in the army and in the councils.The building of the Limes, and the successful defence ofit by the Romans-it was the end of the third century beforethe agri decumates were abandoned, and the fifth before theRhine boundary altogether fell into disuse-worked a revolution in the inner life of the Germans. Prevented from advancing further, the people ceased to be nomads from verynecessity. They began more systematically to till the fieldsand to lead a less arduous, less warlike existence; but at thesame time their numbers grew apace: they were naturallyprolific, fond of family life, and untainted as yet by vice orluxury. In the fifth century, Salvianus, contrasting themwith the Romans, exclaims regretfully, " they increase daily,and we decrease! "But the fertile districts in central Europe are of limitedextent. The tribes overflowed their boundaries in all directions, one encroached on another, subdued, annihilated, ordrove it away. A double process of suppression and amalgamation took place, which, in a short space of time, reducedthe countless little kingdoms and republics to great " stems, "the numbers of which may be counted on one's fingers.GERMANS AND ROMANS. 11mans.We know little of the habits and customs of the Germans Civilization ofthe Ger- during these early centuries, but here and there a scantynotice has come down to us. Their civilization was higherthan one might expect, and they had fixed notions of rightand wrong, of truth and fidelity. In one respect they werefar beyond the level of an ordinary, unthinking savage."Inthe kingdom of the Goths there are no unchaste men exceptthe Romans," writes Salvianus about the year 430. TheVandals, whose name to-day is a by-word for barbarism,having conquered Carthage, compelled all the impure womento marry, and placed a heavy fine on prostitution. Accordingto the law of the Franks, ' reduced to writing about the year490, the fine for groundlessly calling a woman unclean issecond only to that for attempted murder.mans.In our own day hundreds, if not thousands, of graves of Graves ofancient Germans have given up their dead. In all the chief the Germuseums of Germany one can see the skulls and bones, theweapons, adornments, and implements of these old warriors.They were evidently, as a rule, buried in full state, and someof their belts and dress ornaments have withstood the ravagesof time. On their legs, arms, and fingers, and around theirnecks are found circlets of gold, or of bronze, iron, or copper.Utensils of glass and amber, and vases of clay, usually lieclose to their shrivelled bones. Trusted pages and faithfulwives often shared the death of their lord; in one of thegraves the master's corpse lay stretched along on the shouldersof eight of his crouching servants.comannicwar, 166The Germans had often enough looked longingly towards The Marthe land of promise over the entrance to which the Romanlegions kept watch and ward. In the year 166 A.D. a vast A.D.horde of Marcomanni, Quadi, and other tribes, urged forwardby the Goths, who shortly before had left their home on theVistula to found new settlements on the Black Sea, broketheir bounds and flooded northern Italy. It was the lifework of the emperor Marcus Aurelius to drive them back.1 See Henderson's " Select Documents, " p. 176.12 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Wars alongthe Limes.The Goths.The Goths as Arians.He succeeded in his endeavours, but not without fearfulsacrifices. The plague had decimated his army; he filled thebroken ranks with slaves, gladiators, and robbers, and suchGermans as he could muster. When all other supplies failed,the silver plate from his own table was offered at publicauction in the forum of Trajan.The importance of the Marcomannic war, however, consistsnot in the Roman endeavours and victories , but in the factthat by the treaties of peace—the last of these was signed byCommodus on the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180-many abarrier between the Germans and the Romans was levelled tothe ground. Thousands of the former were received into theRoman armies or allowed to settle on Roman lands. It wasthe beginning of the end.From the time of the appearance of the great " stem " ofthe Allemanni in the district between the Main, Neckar, andDanube Caracalla was first appealed to against them in theyear 213-the wars along the Limes, although interrupted atintervals, never really ceased. By the end of the century the present Wurtemberg and Baden were lost to Rome,and the region was called henceforward " Allemannia " or"Barbaria."The Goths meanwhile had plundered the Balkan peninsula;in 251, after defeating and slaying the emperor Decius, theyravaged Greece, and showed their scorn of Diana of the Ephesians by laying her temple in ruins. The Emperor Claudiuswon a great victory over them in 269, and Aurelian drove themback over the Danube, but relinquished to them the provinceof Dacia-the later Lower Hungary and Transylvania.The Goths soon lost to a great extent their character ofbarbarians, and a number of them accepted the Christianityof which they had heard their Roman captives speak. In aheretical form, indeed, for from the beginning the churchhad been rent by schisms and the one going on at the timebetween the Arians and the Athanasians was to prove themost bitter of all. It was the Arian teachings that wereadopted by the Goths.GERMANS AND ROMANS. 13At the council of Nicea, which was called by Constantine for Ulfilas.the purpose of restoring the unity of the faith, and which setforth the doctrine of the Trinity as it is now accepted, theGoths were represented by their own bishop, Theophilus. Afew years later Ulfilas unfolded his marvellous talents asa missionary, and made that Gothic translation of the Biblewhich is the oldest monument of German literature. Fragments of it may still be seen and deciphered in the universitylibrary at Upsala.It was with no ordinary difficulties that Ulfilas had to cope.He had to construct from Greek, Latin, and Runic charactersthe very alphabet of the tongue in which he wrote. Hecreated a written language for his people; all the otherGerman races took theirs from the hands of the Romans.From first to last Ulfilas had the good of his people in view.He is recorded to have left out the Book of Kings from histranslation of the Bible because it tells too much of war andbloodshed.Already, by this time, the Saxons, the Burgundians, and Saxons,the Franks had appeared upon the scene. The latter,who were Burgun- dians, and later to become masters of nearly all of Europe, had begun Franks.their career in the year 257 with a grand plundering expedition which had brought them as far south as the very foot ofthe Pyrenees. The Emperors Diocletian and Constantine retarded the approaching fate of Rome. They introduced farreaching reforms, reorganized the army and the administration,and once more prevented the barbarians from crossing theLimes transrhenanus.Roman empire.But within the empire itself the process that began after Germanizathe Marcomannic war went on unceasingly. Every branch of tion ofthethe administration became Germanized, and the new soldiersand colonists did not hesitate to help in guarding the frontieragainst those of their own race. Germans married into nobleRoman families, became officers in the imperial armies, andoften exercised a leading influence at court. Not many yearswere to pass before they were to be in a condition to raise anddepose emperors at will.14 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Had the empire been given time it might have peacefullyassimilated the German elements that poured so unceasinglyinto its lands. But the advent of the Huns on the Volgaabout the year 375 precipitated upon it an avalanche ofpeoples-flooded it, ruined it.It is a grim spectacle, this final struggle of western Rome,this repopulating of half a continent. The crowding nationsengage with each other in a rushing dance of death. Side byside or face to face they sweep over southern Europe; nowforward, now backward, until each falls into its own position,to have and to hold as long as it can be maintained. Withinthe space of a hundred and sixty years seven great kingdomsarise on the ruins of the Roman provinces. That ofthe Franksalone was ultimately destined to triumph and survive.CHAPTER II.THE WANDERING OF THE NATIONS.66 375 A.D.HE Huns were, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, The advancewho is trustworthy in the main despite a tendency of the Huns,to make rhetorical effects, savage beyond measure.' Hedescribes how they scarred and made hideous their children'sfaces; how they lived on raw meat which they warmed byplacing between their bodies and their horses; how they ate,drank, held their assemblies and slept on the backs of theirtough little steeds. Their mode of attack was terrible, theirchief manœuvre to simulate flight, then suddenly to turn andcharge.Their first victims were the Alani, a nomad and apparentlyhalf- German tribe. The next were the eastern Goths, manyof whom were slain, many others reduced to subjection. The western Goths were more fortunate; one of their chiefs,Athanarich, offered a brave resistance and was at last able tomake an orderly retreat.Goths on Romanground.But the fear and dread of the Huns was overpowering. By The Westhundreds of thousands the western Goths fled to the Danube,convinced that their only hope of rescue lay in the handsof Rome. When Athanarich opposed this view his camp wasdeserted and the people flocked round other leaders who weresoon treating with the Emperor Valens. The Huns meanwhile remained in the vacated lands, in the so-called" Gothia of the Romans. It was here between the Danube,Theiss, and Dniester, that Ruga, the uncle of Attila, established for himself that monarchy to which, on his death in435, the " scourge of God " was to become heir.16 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Revolt of the WestGoths.The battle beforeAdrianople,378 A.D.The negotiations of the Western Goths led finally to theirpeaceful reception on Roman territory. Valens was oppressedwith the prospect of a war against the Persians, and with thestruggle against the orthodox or Athanasian Christians. Hewas, moreover, at odds with his nephew Gratian, who ruled inthe west, and persecuted the Arians. It was, therefore, inthe hope of making allies of the Western Goths, amongwhom Arianism had taken deep root, that Valens permittedthem to cross the Danube. When, later, the remnants ofthe Eastern Goths asked for the same favour they wererefused.Valens took precautions to secure the good conduct of hisnew settlers. A number of their noblest youths were surrendered as hostages, and were carried off to Asia Minor.When the revolt broke out, as it did soon enough, they wereall put to death.66This revolt seems to have been called forth simply andpurely by the greed and incapacity of the officials whomValens had appointed to superintend the new colonization;an evil demon blinded the emperor," says a contemporary,"when he chose these rascals." The Goths, forbidden toplunder, were yet left without food and supplies. They soldtheir slaves, their children, and their wives, to keep themselves from starving. Before the town of Marcianople matterscame to a crisis. The Germans had tried to enter the cityfor the sake of procuring food, and had slain some of thesentinels . The Roman official, Lucinus, caused a number ofGoths to be executed , but the result was rebellion not intimidation. It was a costly proceeding for Rome. The Germansdeclared themselves to be no longer bound by their recenttreaty. A time of fighting and plundering began, the Gothsbeing led by their Christian chief, Fritigern. His policy wasto waste no time in sieges, but to devastate the open country ." I do not fight with walls," he is said to have cried out, andtherein lay the secret of his success. After a fierce but indecisive battle with troops, which Valens had at last been forcedto summon from the Western Empire, Fritigern was able toTHE WANDERING OF THE NATIONS. 17induce a number of Huns, of Eastern Goths, and of the conquered Alani, to cross the Danube and come to his aid. Thefurther sending of reinforcements from the west was delayedby a fierce inroad of the Allemanni, and Valens, withoutwaiting for the promised troops, engaged in battle with theGoths under the walls of Adrianople. The Roman army wasnot defeated, but annihilated, and the emperor himself, to thejoy of the orthodox Christians, who saw in his fall a judgmentagainst the Arians, perished in an attempt at flight. It was four years before his successor, Theodosius, was able to restorequiet in the Balkan peninsula . But in October, 382 , thejoyful news was proclaimed that the whole nation of theGoths have entered into a peace and alliance with the Romans. "So long as Theodosius lived the relations were friendly, andthe chief ambition of the barbarians was to gain advancementin the imperial service.66But under Honorius and Arcadius they again threw off Alaric.their yoke: a new German hero had arisen, the greatest sinceArminius. We first hear of him in 393 as a subordinatecommander in the army of Theodosius. For nearly a generation the Goths had been without a king; they now raisedAlaric on the shield, and swore to him the oath of theirallegiance. Many of the Germans in the Roman army joinedhis banner. Thrace was plundered, and even Constantinoplewas in danger. Rufinus, however, the guardian of the boyemperor Arcadius, bought off the invaders. The latter turnedto Greece, and penetrated as far as Sparta. Stilicho, themaster of the horse and father- in- law of Honorius, hastenedeastward with an army, and at last surrounded the Gothicforces. How it happened no one knows, but Alaric was soonfree from his pursuer, and, through a treaty with Arcadius,received a part of Illyria, with Dyracchium as his chief seaport. A wedge was thus placed between the eastern and thewestern empire.The campaign in Greece was but the precursor of a more Alaric anddesperate conflict. In Stilicho, however, Alaric found his Stilicho .equal, and, after invading Italy and losing the battle ofC18 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Stilicho's fall.Pollentia (402) , he was glad enough when his great rivaloffered to close with him a not disadvantageous peace.But for Stilicho himself there was no rest. In 404 a countless horde, consisting chiefly of Eastern Goths, but recruitedfrom various other German tribes, precipitated themselvesupon Italy under their leader Rhadagast. The barbarianswere already besieging Florence when the Romans fell uponand vanquished them. Stilicho took twelve thousand Gothicwarriors into the Roman service, but the rest of the captiveswere dragged to the slave markets, and, to add to their disgrace, were sold for the most trifling sums. Two years latera new band, consisting of Vandals, Suevi, and Alani, crossedthe Rhine in search of adventure. After plundering andravaging for three years they crossed over into Spain.In their wake the Allemanians, Burgundians, and Franksdescended upon Gaul, which was harried and desolated to thelast degree. Only in the cities could the Roman culture maintain itself at all; and this only for the reason that civic lifewas distasteful to the Germans, and that fertile fields attractedthem more than walled enclosures.During this time Stilicho was engaged in warding off theattacks of his private enemies, and in making warlike demonstrations in the name of Honorius against the Eastern Empire.In the year 407 he employed Alaric to lay waste the EastRoman province of Epirus.The expedition was soon countermanded, but Alaric claimed4,000 pounds of gold for services already rendered, andStilicho, acknowledging the justice of the demand, himselflaid the claim before the senate. It was finally granted, butwith reluctance, and the negotiations showed plainly thatStilicho's influence, which for years had been supreme, was atlast shaken. His fate quickly overtook him. It was whisperedin the ear of Honorius that his great general had designsupon the throne. By the emperor's own command therescuer of Rome was put to death, and all his friends andallies persecuted. Everywhere the two parties in the WesternEmpire came into conflict.THE WANDERING OF THE NATIONS. 19The Roman legions rose against the barbarian auxiliaries Alaric as anthat had fought under Stilicho, and stormed the towns and avenger.villages where their wives and children were quartered.Nearly 30,000 Germans thereupon marched to Noricum andplaced themselves under the banner of Alaric. The latterwith his whole army marched straight upon Rome. To theembassy that came out to meet him, and to assure him thatthe whole Roman people was about to rise in arms, heanswered-so says the Roman historian-"the thicker thegrass the more easy to mow." He demanded all the goldand silver in the city, and all the slaves of German race. Tothe question as to what he intended to leave them, “ yourlives ," was the terse reply. There seems to have been in theseremarks either a mere intention to intimidate, or a certaingrim humour, for the truce that Alaric finally made was uponexceedingly moderate terms. He had no thought at the timeof harming either the Roman Empire or the Roman people.On the contrary, he desired nothing better than to enter intoRome's service, and he bade the senate send an embassy tooffer peace in his name to the emperor. He demanded theprovinces of Venetia, Dalmatia, and Noricum, and the title ofmagister militum, besides a sum of gold and a quantity ofgrain. With his whole army, in return, he was to fightRome's battles and maintain her glory.Considering the state of disorganization at this time inthe army, as well as in every branch of the administration,Honorius could not have done better than to accept the offer.But, although Alaric lowered his conditions, although heoffered to content himself with Noricum, and to forego thesum of money first demanded, his proposals were rejected.Honorius was surrounded by intriguing courtiers who dreadedthe prospect of having anyone at all in authority over them.They drove the weak and foolish emperor to swear an oaththat he would never make Alaric magister militum.Alaric for his own part was most anxious to come to termsand to secure for his people the blessings of the Romancivilization. He offered at last to forego the dignity that heAlaric seeksalliance with the Romans.The siege ofRome, 410 A.D.20 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Sack of Rome.Alaric's end and burial,411 A.D.had demanded; but when, even on these terms, his profferedalliance was not accepted, his patience gave way. He cut offthe supplies of Rome, and compelled the people to desertHonorius and to acknowledge as their emperor Attalus, theprefect of the city. Honorius retired to Ravenna, but wouldneither abdicate nor, when Alaric tired of Attalus and deposedhim, would he come to an agreement.The plundering of Rome was the last resort of a cautiousand determined man, who had tried every other meansof providing for the wants of the huge army under hiscare. From the 24th to the 27th of August, 410, the city wasgiven over to the soldiers, who robbed and despoiled it. “ Mytongue falters and the words I would dictate to my scribe willnot pass my lips, " writes the great Hieronymus; "the cityis subjected that once subjected the universe! "And yet it was no absolutely indiscriminate ravaging andburning that took place in Rome at this time. The Gothswere many of them Christians who reverenced the churchesand the sacred relics. Alaric, too, had commanded them tospare human life, and there is every reason to believe that, inthe main, he was obeyed.The attitude of the unworthy successor of the Cæsars inthis emergency is later held up to bitter scorn by Procopius, the historian of these times. The anecdote that herelates may or may not be a pure invention; that such a talecould be told is reason enough for repeating it. " Rome hasperished," announces the guardian of the poultry-yard, whohad been the first to hear the news. "He has just beenfeeding from my hand," exclaims the Emperor in surprise.The eunuch assures him that nothing has happened to hisfavourite rooster!Alaric's victorious course came to an untimely end. Heattempted to cross over to Africa and cut off the suppliesthat came from there to Rome, but his ships were wreckedand he was forced to return. Before he could renew theexperiment death intervened.We have seen what importance the Germans attached to theTHE WANDERING OF THE NATIONS. 21proper burial of their great men. Now that their leader haddied in an enemy's land they outdid themselves in showinghim honour. They forced their Roman captives to divert thecurrent of the river Busento, in order that his grave should beundisturbed. Here in the bed of the stream, with richtreasures heaped around him, they laid him to rest. Thewater was turned back into its course, and the workmen wereslain lest they should betray the secret.Athaulf, the new king of the Goths, remained with his Alaric's sucforces for two years in Italy, and then led them over into cessors.Gaul, carrying with him Placidia, the sister of Honorius.Here he fought first for them against the usurper Jovinus,but did not receive from Honorius the anticipated reward forhis services. His demands had been very much the same asthose once made of the emperor by Alaric.Wallia, however, the successor of Athaulf, at last came toan agreement with Rome. Placidia was restored to her familythe wiser by many experiences. She had been forced byAthaulf to wed him, and the nuptials had been celebrated atNarbonne with great magnificence. In the week of anarchythat had followed on Athaulf's death, in 415, she had beensubjected to every hardship; she had even been forced towalk as a captive in the triumphal procession of a certainSigerich, who had claimed for himself the rule of the Goths.Wallia's treaty bound him to make war against the Vandals,Alani and Suevi, who had crossed into Spain, where they hadat first been treated as allies by Rome. In this task he wassuccessful. He completely subdued one whole branch of theVandals who dwelt around the present Andalusia-originallyVandalusia-sending their king as a prisoner to Ravenna.As a reward for these services Wallia's people, in 419, weregiven settlements in Aquitaine, the land being made over tothem by formal deed of gift.It was here that the kingdom of Toulouse was founded,here that the homeless and weary Western Goths were at lastto find their needed rest. Between the years 453 and 456they were able to extend their power over parts of Spain.Founding ofthe kingdom of Toulouse,419 A.D.22 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The WestGoths inSpain.The Burgundiansto Savoy.King Eurich (466-484) brought the kingdom to its greatestheight of prosperity, but under his successor all the originalWest Gothic possessions in Gaul came into other hands.In Spain the Western Goths continued to flourish. UnderReccared (586-601) they gave up Arianism and becameCatholics; their king's conversion began with a religious disputation in 586, and was finally consummated at the Councilof Toledo three years later. We shall see how the Arabsfinally put an end to the West Gothic power.Earlier even than the kingdom of Toulouse another Germantransplanted monarchy had been founded on Roman ground. Already in409 Honorius had ceded to the Burgundians the so- calledprovince of Upper Germany on the left bank of the Rhine.In 437 the Roman general Aetius, having to punish them forunlawful efforts to enlarge their boundaries, slew their king,Gunther, took their chief city of Worms, and transplantedtheir tribe to the present Savoy. He was aided in his undertaking by a number of Huns.The Vandalkingdom in NorthAfrica, 429 A.D.It is this rout of a whole people that is dealt with in thelast part of the " Nibelungenlied," the famous poem of thethirteenth century, where, however, Attila or Etzel, as he iscalled, is falsely made the instrument of disaster.We have said that seven great kingdoms were founded bythe Germans on Roman ground. The third in the list wasthe Vandal settlement in the province of North Africa. Thekingdoms of Odoacer, of Clovis, of Theoderick, and of theLombards complete the number.The so- called Asdingian Vandals, who had crossed over intoSpain in 409, had, by agreement with the other tribes that hadaccompanied them, received settlements in the north-westernpart of the Peninsula, in the province of Gallicia. In 429,under their leader Genserich, they crossed over into Africa,called in, as the story goes, by the Roman stadtholder, byBonifacius, the rival of Aetius. Here they managed to foundan independent kingdom, and in 439 even Carthage fell intotheir hands.North Africa had been the great grain-reservoir of Rome, andTHE WANDERING OF THE NATIONS. 23its occupation by the Vandals, who were to hold it for a hundredyears, was an irretrievable misfortune. And the new settlers,ambitious as they were and possessed with a love of conquest,were no pleasant neighbours for Italy. In course of timeSicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Isles came intotheir possession, while Rome itself was occupied and plunderedby them for fourteen days (455) .The strength and the power of resistance of the Western Weakness of Rome.Empire were meanwhile slowly ebbing away, while the fearfulonslaughts of extraneous powers showed no signs of ceasing.In 449 the Roman legions were definitively withdrawn fromBritain, and the Angles and Saxons began to found thesturdy race that has since done them so much honour.In 451 the Huns, led by their powerful king, Attila, andaccompanied by numerous remnants of subjected Germantribes, marched along the Danube and the Rhine and enteredGaul. Metz was burned and Orleans besieged; the bootyfrom the latter place was already loaded on the waggons whena term was put to further devastations. The fading gloriesof Rome revived once more; once more and for the last timefortune smiled on one of her endeavours. Aetius was aworthy successor of Stilicho, whose fate, too, he was destinedto share. He reinforced his army as best he could from thevarious German tribes in Gaul; while the Western Gothsunder the leadership of their king, Theoderick, fought as hisallies.Attila thescourge of God.Fields.In the plains of Champagne, in the so-called Catalaunian The Catafields, there was a scene of desperate combat that was only launianput an end to by the closing in of night. The Gothic kinglost his life, but the Roman commander- in-chief maintainedthe field, and Attila beat a retreat. In the following year hebore down upon Italy, storming the towns of Aquileija, Pavia,and Milan. It was at this time that Venice came into being.The oppressed people fled to the islands and sand-bars of thesea-coast, and Italy, after a season of direst travail, gave birthto the fairest of her daughters.Attila spared Rome, induced, we are told, by an embassy Attila spares Rome.24 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The fall ofRome.Odoacer,476-489 A.D.Romans andGermans in Odoacer'skingdom .sent to him by Pope Leo the Great. Superstitious fears mayhave done their share; the death of Alaric had been lookedupon by many as a judgment of God. The same judgment,indeed, overtook Attila in spite of his leniency. He diedsuddenly in the following year in the midst of his weddingfestivities.Western Rome was meanwhile entering into the last phaseof her decay. The Suevian Ricimir now became the ruler ofher destinies, and raised five emperors in succession upon herworthless throne. After his death, in 462, four pigmy potentates in turn essayed their fate and, on the fall of the last ofthem, him whose double name disgraced alike Rome's founderand her first emperor, the rule of Italy came into the handsof the barbarian Odoacer.Tired of the shameful farce, the German mercenaries hadraised him to be their king. The title of " patricius " wasasked for and obtained from the Eastern Emperor Zeno, but,although of some use to Odoacer in his dealings with thesubjected Romans, it made him no whit dependent on thecourt of Constantinople. That court always regarded him asa usurper, and rejoiced at and promoted his final fall.Odoacer's reign was a rule of moderation; he made nosweeping changes, and engaged in no adventurous undertakings. His German subjects received settlements on a planwhich had long been employed when barbarian allies wereallowed to encamp on Roman ground. Each soldier wasquartered on a Roman, and received one-third of the latter'sland as his share.It was a plan that had been adopted by many of thewandering German tribes that had settled on Roman soil.If occasion demanded the fraction could be increased. Theunbidden guests were brought more intimately into connection with the culture which they strove to assimilate thancould have been the case by any other method of division.The new-comers, to be sure, were always regarded as interlopers, and reasons enough were there to prevent anythinglike a lasting fusion of the two peoples. The most fatalTHE WANDERING OF THE NATIONS. 25causes of disunion were those relating to religion. TheArianism of the Goths, and of most of the other Germantribes, was always a stumbling block to their intercourse withthe Romans. This unhallowed difference of dogma ate likea canker worm at the foundations of the new kingdoms;again and again do we find, for instance, the Catholic bishopsleading the opposition against their Arian rulers.Odoacer did not greatly interfere with the system of administration that had been carried on under the empire. Thesame officials remained in power, and the land seems to haveenjoyed a season of comparative prosperity.There was no real strength, however, in the new political Theodoric,creation, and its span of life was a short one. In 489 489-526.Theodoric, the king of those Eastern Goths whom the Hunshad subjected, but who had regained their independence afterAttila's death, marched to Italy at the instigation of theEastern Emperor. It was again not merely a warlike expedi- tion, but the descent of one people upon another. It isknown, for instance, that a new race of cattle which has neversince died out in Italy was introduced at this time.Odoacer.Odoacer met the advancing host at the river Isonzo, but Murder ofsuffered a defeat; nor did the battle of Verona end morefavourably. Ravenna, however, proved a secure retreat forthe oppressed king, and Theodoric for three years besiegedit in vain. A treaty was then effected, and it was agreed thatthe two kings should rule in common over Italy. Theodoricafterwards found an effectual method of removing his rivalfrom his path; he invited him to table and ran him throughwith the sword.as successor of the emTheodoric reigned in Italy fully in accordance with the Theodorictraditions of the empire. He himself had long served thecourt of Constantinople, had been made consul, had cele- perors.brated a triumph, and had been honoured by the erection ofan equestrian statue.It was a restoration that he wanted in Italy, a resuscitationof the imperial power that had just died. More than once,in the introductions to his edicts, he says himself that he26 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Theodoric'sforeignpolicy.Art and lite- rature.desires to rule, not like the wild kings of the barbarians, butlike Trajan and the great emperors of the past. In a publicproclamation the Gauls are bidden to rejoice that after theirlong separation they have been re-united with the RomanEmpire, and the Spaniards are ordered to pay their tributeas they had formerly paid it under the emperors. "66Theodoric was the first of the German kings to lookbeyond the boundaries of his own lands; he developed whatmay be called a regular foreign policy. His object was togain a predominating influence over as many as possible ofthe barbarian powers, and with that end in view he took abride himself from a royal house, and wedded four of hisfemale relatives to kings, or sons of kings. Over the westernGoths he, for a long period, held complete sway, acting asregent for his nephew Amalrich, whom they had chosen tobe their king. Their treasure for a time reposed at Ravenna,and a part of their taxes flowed yearly into the coffers ofItaly.Theodoric's reign was looked back upon later as a goldenage for the lands over which he ruled. It was his pride andambition to restrain lawlessness and, besides carrying outworks of utility, to encourage literature and art. Cassiodorus,the famous historian and the chancellor of Theodoric, haspreserved to us in one of his letters an edict of his master'sallowing the senator Decius to drain a portion of the PontineMarshes, and to keep possession of the lands thus reclaimed.An inscription on stone still exists to show that Decius carriedout his good intentions, and drained the land.It was in Theodoric's reign that Boethius-in prison, indeed, and under the shadow of the death that his suspiciousking had determined to inflict on him-wrote his well- knownbook on the consolations of philosophy. It is a search forthe grounds of human happiness, in the course of which herises at last to the proud assertion that man is independentof the blows of fate, and that fortune and misfortune, ifrightly accepted, may prove in the end to be equal blessings .Of one phase of Theodoric's activity our own age canTHE WANDERING OF THE NATIONS. 27judge to no small extent. There are churches and monuments still standing in Ravenna that date from his day; andthe tomb that he built for himself, with its circular roof madeof one colossal stone-how it was ever raised into its positionremains a problem—is in a good state of preservation.feeble successors .After Theodoric's death, his kingdom fell a prey to in- Theodoric'sward dissensions and intrigues. A boy was made king whosemother was so enamoured of the regency that even after herson's death she held on to the reins of power, and wedded anoble whom she hated, hoping in him to find a furtherer ofher designs. He murdered her and ruled alone, but waslater stabbed himself to make room for the next comer.But why tarry with these petty despots? Who cares today for Athalarich and Theodatus, for Ildibald and Vitigesand Erarich. Enough that the weakness of the Goths raisedthe courage of the Eastern Emperor, and induced him toreclaim possession over Italy. His action raised all the spiritthat was left in the people of Theodoric.In 535 Belisarius was sent by Justinian to attack Dalmatia Belisarius.and Sicily. For five years the great general conducted siegesor withstood them in Italy and was, on the whole, successful.But under Totila the Goths regained most of their strongholds.Up to this time, in default of a better effigy, the Goths hadalways stamped their coins with the face of the EasternEmperor. The likeness of a barbarian king now shared thesurface, if it did not entirely replace the customary image.Belisarius, who had been recalled to Constantinople in 540,was sent back to Italy four years later, but accomplishedlittle except to take the city of Rome. On this occasion thestatues that adorned the castle of St. Angelo were hurleddown upon the Goths, and in the general devastation twelveout of the thirteen great conduits that supplied the city withwater were rendered useless . Rome was again lost on thewithdrawal of Belisarius in 549.Narses, the successor of Belisarius, defeated the Goths in Subjugation552, and their king, Totila, fell after performing wonders of of the East Gothickingdom .28 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.End ofthe Vandalkingdom ,539 A.D.heroism. The next king, Teija, shared the same fate beforea year had passed; it is of him that his enemy, Procopius,relates that no heroes of the past could boast of greater valour.But the rôle of the Goths in history had now been playedto its conclusion. The war ended with the subjugation ofItaly, and thousands of able- bodied men were marched off toConstantinople to fight the emperor's battles . Here they didexcellent service, and were so highly valued as warriors, that,in a land where otherwise no heretics were endured, they wereallowed to have their own Arian church.The Vandal kingdom in Africa had by this time also cometo an end, leaving behind it fewtraces save those exasperatingtombs in Morocco, which the sultans refuse to have exploredon account of passages in the Koran forbidding the dead tobe disturbed.Belisarius, in 533 and 534, had taken advantage of a revoltin the island of Sardinia, for the suppression of which theVandals had sent their best forces. He had also been able tomix himself in a dispute between two rival claimants to theVandal throne itself, and had finally mastered himself of theland.The last Vandal king, Gelimer, was made to walk in atriumphal procession through the streets of Constantinople.As he knelt in the circus at the foot of the emperor, he is declared to have frequently repeated the Bible saying, " Vanityof vanities, all is vanity."Even without foreign interference the kingdom would probably have soon enough fallen to pieces. The Romans hadby no means fused with their conquerors, and had been thespecial victims of religious persecution. It was they thathad to bear the brunt of revenge for imperial measures thathad been passed in general against the Arians; add to thisthat the Vandals, in ceasing to be a wandering and a warlikenation, had gone to the other extreme. They had been ruinedby their warm climate and their life of unwonted luxury.I¹CHAPTER III.THE FRANKISH KINGDOM.N the present Belgium, five years after the fall of the Childeric.Western Roman Empire, a child was chosen head of oneof the many petty kingdoms of the Salian Franks. It wasClovis, the son of a certain Childeric, of the line of Meroveus.Childeric had borne the title of " ally of the Roman people,"and as such had fought against the Western Goths. Hiscentre of government had been at Tournay, and here, in 1683,his tomb was found and opened; from it were taken thefamous golden bees that later adorned the coronation mantleof the great Napoleon.Clovis it was who laid the foundation for a great united Clovis, 481-Frankish kingdom. That unity for him, indeed, meant the 511 A.D.annihilation of all possible rival powers, and one by one hewrought the ruin of all the princes in his neighbourhood.The chief account that we have of him-that of Gregory ofTours-lauds him to the skies on the one hand, but on theother does not conceal the fact that he waded to the neck inblood and treachery. He is known to have incited a Frankishprince to slay his own father, and then to have punished himwith death for the deed. He bribed the nobles of a neighbouring people to renounce allegiance to their king, and paid hisdebt in jewels that were false. When his dupes protestedthey were laughed to scorn.Clovis's first expedition was against the Roman governor, Clovis andSyagrius, who seems to have retained in his own hand large Syagrius.remnants of the lands which he had formerly administered inthe name of the empire. A single battle sufficed to bring the30 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Clovis'sconquests.Clovis be- comes aChristian.whole province, with its capital of Soissons, into the hands ofthe Franks. It was an immense gain for Clovis, and theRoman settlers at the same time were little worse for thechange; they retained their law, their lands, and their liberty,and were even allowed later to intermarry with their conquerors.There was danger that the new Merovingian kingdommight itself become Romanized if it were to push its conquests much further to the south; but new German elementswere constantly being introduced. The amalgamation withthe Romans of Syagrius was followed by the conquest of theessentially German Allemanni in 496. The war with theWestern Goths, which almost drove that people out of Gaul,brought the Franks once more in possession of lands where theRoman civilization prevailed; but the subjugation of theRipuarian Franks renewed the German preponderance. Someslight successes against the Burgundians were equalized bythe partial overthrow of the Thuringians.These Frankish conquests were purely dynastic in theircharacter; they were no longer the simple descent of onepeople on another. Nor did the division of the newly wonterritory take place in the same way as in the other Germankingdoms. The public lands, and those which had been leftvacant by the death of their owners, came into the hand ofthe king, to be distributed by him as he might please. Therewas no oppression, no enslaving of a population, no hatefulquartering of man on man.The keystone of Clovis's political arch was reached when,in 496, he became a Christian. What was almost more important for the future of his kingdom, he received Christianity not in the form of Arianism, but of Roman Catholicism.In the battle against the Allemanni, which was fought nearTolbiacum, on the road between Cologne and Treves, he sworeto accept the God which his queen, the Burgundian Clotilda,had so often recommended to him, providing that the tide ofvictory should turn in his favour.The battle was won, the oath fulfilled , and Clovis executedTHE FRANKISH KINGDOM. 31thereby the master move of his life. The Catholic clergy ofGaul, with the power to influence thousands of souls, ralliedround him as their head. He was baptized by the Archbishopof Rheims with great pomp and circ*mstance, and it is related that the prelate addressed him thus: Bow thy neck inhumility, oh, Sigambrian! Adore what thou hast burnt, andburn what thou hast adored . "66Germans.Three thousand of his nobles followed Clovis's example, Fusion ofand the greatest of all barriers to the fusion of his Roman Romans andand German subjects-that fusion so necessary to the vitalityof the new state-fell to the ground.The church itself, be it here remarked, gained nothing bythe change. Its old discipline soon relaxed, church synodsbecame less and less frequent, the discipline of the clergysank to its lowest level. The bishops, who had hitherto beenelected by the clergy and people, came to be appointed by theking, and generated too often into the mere instruments ofhis will.champion of Catholicism.It was as the champion of Catholicism that Clovis set out to Clovis asfight the Western Goths. "I can not bear," he says in thatnaïve gospel according to Gregory of Tours, " that theseArians should possess a part of Gaul. Let us set forth withGod's help and defeat them, and add their land to ourkingdom."We have seen the result. In spite of the aid of the powerfulTheodoric the Western Goths lost all their possessions inGaul save the district around Arles, Carcassone, and Narbonne-the so-called Septimania or Gothia.Clovis.The sons of Clovis carried on his work of conquest. The The sons ofFrankish kingdom, indeed, was now divided into four partsthis principle of equally sharing the heritage was adhered toas long as the dynasty lasted—but it still formed a unity inmore than one respect. The bishops of one sub- kingdommight appear at the synods in another, while the chief warlikeachievements, the final subjection of the Thuringians and ofthe Burgundians were common undertakings of the brothers.The Thuringians were defeated in 531 at Scheidungen on32 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Franks be- comecivilized.Adminis- tration.The kings.The land .the river Unstrutt, the Franks being aided by 9,000 Saxons,who were afterwards given a share of the conquered lands.Three years later the land of the Burgundians fell an easyprey, and was completely dismembered. About this time,too, the Bavarians, the former Marcomanni and Quadi, becamemore or less a subject people of the Franks. They had butshortly before wandered into their present habitations, leavingtheir settlements in Bohemia to the tender mercies of theSlavs.It is under their Merovingian rulers that the Franks stepdefinitely out of the ranks of barbarism. Already in the timeof Clovis a code of written laws ' had been drawn up for theconduct and guidance of the people. It regulates the intercourse of man with man; each crime receives its penalty, andeven the insulting expressions in common use are drawn up inorder, and labelled with their appropriate fines.A state organization was created, and gradually more andmore perfected. The kings had their revenues and theirofficials, their marshals and their mayors of the palace. Aspecial official, the domesticus, saw to the administration ofthe estates that had fallen to the crown in war.The sign of kingship was the long waving hair; we canstill see it on the coins and seals of the time, and proofs arethere to show that an heir who had lost his locks was obligedto renounce his right to the throne until they had grownagain. On one occasion a mother chose death for her youngsons rather than let them be shorn.The Merovingian kings were not crowned and not anointed.As a symbol of authority a spear was handed to them. Theyhad no fixed abode, but moved from place to place, beingobliged frequently to show themselves, and also, with theircourts, to consume in rotation the produce of their variousestates.The land of the Franks as a whole was parcelled out intolarger and smaller districts, into counties and hundreds.1 See "Select Documents, " p. 176.THE FRANKISH KINGDOM. 33Every county had its count or graf, who retained a fixed proportion of the tolls and taxes for his own sustenance, andwho saw to it that justice was done, and that the proper contingents were sent to the army. He presided over the courtsthat were held in the hundreds, and at which the people as awhole were bound to appear, and to give judgment. Thesejudicial assemblies were held in the open air; the count saton a raised throne, his shield being hung up near him as atoken that court was in session.The administration of justice was a far simpler matter Justice.than it is in the present day. Guilt and innocence wereproven by purely external means, and enquiries were notmade into the intricacies of each special case. A judgmentof God, or ordeal, was appealed to, and decision given according as the boiling water or the glowing iron did or did notburn the hand of the accused, or of his or her hired champion.In other cases a number of friends and relatives were allowedto give an oath which cleared the accused from the crimeimputed to him.Besides the courts there was the great yearly muster, the The MarchMarchfield. Here the army came together, and here, too, field .cases of great importance were decided, and matters discussedwhich had to do with the good of the state.The fusion of the Romans and the Germans in the Frankish Relationskingdom progressed now undisturbed. Each gave to the of Romansother a part of the heritage of its own past. The Germanshad the most to gain; they learned now to read and write,they took from the Romans their methods of taxation, theforms of their utensils, their laws as to high- treason, as tothe making of wills, the sale of property, and the superannuation of claims.The Romans, on the other hand, dressed their hair afterthe German fashion-sober and reliable investigators give usthese details - and adopted the Frankish weapons, especiallythe battle-axe, or so -called Franziska. The German Wiergeld,too, or system of atoning for crime by a money payment tothe relatives of the murdered or injured man, came into use D·to Germans.134 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.4The village communities .Socialchange.among them, as did also the judicial combat-that appeal tothe decision of the god of war, which was to hold its own inEuropean law, in the letter at least, as late as our owncentury.In the course of the Merovingian period great changes beganto make themselves felt with regard to the relation of onefree man to another, and also of the distribution of landedpossessions.One may say roughly, that the Germans ofthe third andfourth century had been possessed individually of no landedproperty. The families in a given settlement, or village,enjoyed the woods and pastures in common, and each had aright to a given quantity of land for agricultural purposes.This land, however, had continued in the actual ownership ofthe village community as a whole, and could be withdrawnand re-distributed.66 By the sixth century the Franks had come to have fixedmanses," farms, as one might call them. The commonrights to woods and meadows still continued-they have continued in parts of Switzerland down to the present day-but,in addition, we find these parcels of land in absolute ownership, and the possession of them was handed down fromfather to son.66It was but natural that a distinction between rich and poorshould soon enough arise. Some families possessed but onemanse " in common, in other cases many came to be united inone and the same hand. The Churches especially grew to begreat landowners, for many persons who died without heirs leftto them their estates, wishing to provide for the good of theirsouls. The monastery of Fulda, already by the eighth century,possessed no less than fifteen thousand “ manses.”We shall see in the course of this history how the poorcame into dependence upon the rich, and were forced to becometheir vassals, or " men," and to do them service. To the factof owning or not owning this or that quantity of land may betraced the evolution of the later classes of society, of serfsand freemen, of free lords, knights, and princes. The favourTHE FRANKISH KINGDOM. 35of the king might change a man's rank, but to support thatrank he needed a territorial basis.and BurThe last of Clovis's sons, Clothar, died in 561, after having Neustria,once more, for the space of three years, united the whole Austrasia,kingdom into one hand. Under his sons and their descendants gundy.bloodshed and murder knew no end in the land.Three separate kingdoms, subdivisions of the Frankishterritory, take form and shape at this time, and, althoughsometimes two or all of them are united under one ruler,maintain themselves until the end of the Merovingian period.They are Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy. Austrasia laterbecame exclusively German, while Neustria and Burgundydeveloped into modern France. For the time being no suchdifferences of nationality were at all perceptible; in each ofthe three kingdoms Germans and Romans lived side by side,and the preponderance of one race over the other had not yetmade itself felt.Two new external enemies had meanwhile arisen for the The Avars.Franks.In 565 Sigbert of Austrasia was defeated by the fierceAvars, a tribe allied to the Huns; he later induced theirkhan, however, to enter into a treaty of peace.The Lombards, the last of the wandering Germanic nationsthat found a home on Roman ground, appeared in Italyin 568. In the previous year, in league with the Avars, theyhad subdued the not inconsiderable kingdom of the Gepidion the river Theiss. By 572 , almost all Northern Italy, besides the Duchy of Benevento, to which they afterwardsadded Spoleto and Capua, had come into their hands. Paviasubmitted after a three years' siege. The Eastern Empireretained only Rome and the line of cities on the sea- coast, thePentapolis or the Exarchate of Ravenna.The Lom- bards.Lombards.The Lombards soon commenced making inroads into Gaul, wars ofand year after year devastated Provence. The Austrasian Franks andFranks, however, at last determined to revenge themselves,and, in bond with the Eastern emperor, made a number ofexpeditions into Italy. From the year 590 on they remained36 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Pope Gregory the Great,590-604.Gregory and the Lombards.Brunhilda and Fredegunda.on good terms with the new Lombard kingdom. which hadenough to do to withstand the double enmity of the Greekson the one hand and of the papacy on the other.It was at this time that Pope Gregory the Great was commencing to organize and consolidate the power of the seeof Rome. He gave up, indeed, the claim of Leo the Great tothe primacy over all the churches of the world. He is knowneven to have quoted the passage in Corinthians where Paulblames the disciples for saying, " I ama disciple of Paul, I ofApollo, I of Peter." But, though claiming no more for Romethan the headship over the churches of the west, he did herthe greatest and most practical of services. He establishedofficials to administer the " patrimony of Peter," those estatesin different lands which had been given to the church bypious and repentant souls. He was the first pope to favourthe monkish orders, which were later to become the scoutsand outposts of the great church militant.Gregory conducted in person the defence of Rome when itwas besieged by the Lombard Duke of Spoleto in 592; heshowed himself a diplomatist, too, and skilfully played off oneof the rival powers in Italy against the other, preventing thepapacy from becoming a dependency of either.The internal history of the Merovingian kingdom from 567 ·to 613 shows us one continued succession of deeds of horror.The names of Chilperich, of Fredegunda, and of Brunhildawould grace the annals of crime in any age or in any land.Brunhilda was a West Gothic princess, beautiful we are told,who married Sigbert of Austrasia; her sister, Galswintha,became the bride of Chilperich of Neustria.Chilperich had promised to discard his numerous otherwives in favour of his new queen; but one of them, Fredegunda, was not to be put aside. She had been pre- eminent inthe palace, and she soon regained her old ascendancy, Shenow inaugurated a terrible series of murders, Chilperichaiding and abetting her. Galswintha, Brunhilda's sister, andSigbert, her husband, were the first to go. In order to have achoice instrument of vengeance Brunhilda married a son ofTHE FRANKISH KINGDOM. 37Chilperich, named Merovech. He too was ruthlessly cutdown. Fredegunda also caused the death of another ofChilperich's sons, Clovis, together with the mother who hadborne him.In each of the three Frankish kingdoms there was at thistime a bitter struggle going on between the crown and thenobles. Chilperich now lost his life through a conspiracywhich the latter had instigated. Fredegunda herself diedin 597-peacefully as far as our knowledge goes.Brunhilda was meanwhile the leading spirit in Austrasia, Brunhilda'sand finally became the actual regent for her son Sigbert II. able rule.Hers was, also, a passionate unbridled nature, and in herefforts to keep down the pretensions of her nobles she recededbefore few acts of violence. But she enforced her claims andmaintained the dignity of the crown. Letters are extant,written to her by Gregory the Great, in which the Popeaddresses her almost obsequiously and as a powerful ruler,and begs her to protect his missionaries who were on theirway to found the Roman Church in England.Fredegunda's son, Clothar II. , continued the family enmity Brunhilda'sto Brunhilda. He answered the call of a discontented faction death.of her nobles and invaded her land. The queen herself, at thistime between sixty and seventy years of age, was takencaptive. Clothar accused her of having murdered ten kingsof the Franks—a groundless charge, and one which his ownblood-bespotted parent had not quite accomplished-and prepared for her a death of torture. She was tormented for thespace of three days and ended her existence on the publichighway, being bound to the tail of a wild horse by her hand,foot and hair.In spite of such preliminary episodes as this, it was, on thewhole, a season of unwonted prosperity that the Franks enjoyed under Clothar and also under his son Dagobert. Thecivil wars had ended for the time being, and few foreignenemies disturbed the peace.It is Clothar who reunited once more the domains of Clovisin one hand. The nobles in the end seem to have gainedClothar's charter, 614 A.D.38 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Dagobert,629-638 A.D.Resumé.66what they had fought for, a share in the government of theland. A charter is extant which was granted to them in 614as a reward for the services they had rendered in the waragainst Brunhilda. According to its provisions violence wasto be checked, justice to be observed, no new taxes to be im- posed. Only such men were to be appointed as 'counts " ordistrict administrators as should have considerable possessionsof their own, of which they were to be deprived if they did notproperly fulfil the duties of their office. The bishops were tobe chosen by the clergy and the people, but the king mightveto an election. At this time there were no less than onehundred and twelve bishoprics in the Frankish kingdom.Clothar died in 629 and Dagobert succeeded, being obligedhowever to share the kingdom with his brother Charibert.On the latter's death, Dagobert murdered the youthful heirand reigned alone.Dagobert is known as a law-giver and a good administrator.The early laws of the Thuringians and Bavarians which westill have, were drawn up at his instigation. He favoured theChurch, and issued an express command that each one of hissubjects should be baptized. He protected and encouragedthe followers and disciples of St. Columbanus, those IrishScottish missionaries to whom the Allemanni and otherGerman stems owed their conversion.Charters of Dagobert are still at hand to show that inMayence, Spires, and other Austrasian towns, he saw to thebuilding of churches and monasteries as well as palaces.With Dagobert's death in 638 the history of the Merovingian dynasty may be said to have practically ended. And yetone hundred and fourteen years were still to pass before theseoriginators of the type of rois fainéants, of do-nothing kings,were to descend the last step that led from the throne to thecloister.Thus far have we traced the history of the German settlements on Roman ground. We have seen the might of the Burgundians yield to that of the Franks, the monarchy of Odoacergo down at the approach of Theodoric and his EasternTHE FRANKISH KINGDOM. 39Goths. Theodoric's kingdom, too, went headlong to destruction, sharing a common and almost simultaneous fate with theVandal rule in North Africa. The Lombards in Italy and theWest Goths in Spain were to eke out a somewhat longerexistence as political powers, but they too were eventually tofind themselves in the path of the destroyer.One, and one only, of the new foundations bore within it theseeds of real progress, although at the time of which we arewriting the Franks, too, seemed to be sinking down, draggedunder by their worthless kings into the slough of disunity andcorruption.But the right men in the Frankish kingdom stepped forward at the right juncture, and the brave and ambitiousmayors of the palace, the forefathers of a Charlemagne, supplanted the worn out Merovingians.It was the victory of the second Pipin, won at Tertri in 687, The Mayorsthat decided the future of the Frankish kingdom and thesupremacy of the Carolingian line.Since the reign of Dagobert the power of the mayors of thepalace—the office was at that time in the hands of Pippin theElder, the grandfather of Pippin II. -had been steadilygrowing. Entrusted as they were with the guardianship ofthe youthful kings and with the management of the royalestates, they had come to rule in all but name. One ofthem, indeed, Pippin's uncle, Grimoald, had actually triedto place his own son on the throne, but had atoned forhis daring with his life. The people still set store bytheirinfant kings, and wished to keep them, if only as a relic of thepast.The battle of Tertri was fought against the major-domus,Bertharius, who administered the affairs of Neustria andBurgundy, and its outcome determined the unity of theFrankish kingdom. The young king of Neustria and histreasures and his household were handed over like any otherspoils of war, and Pipin, as we are told, " arranged all thingsand returned to Austrasia." He left his son, Grimoald, asmajor-domus of Neustria.of thePalace.The battleof Tertri,687 A.D.40 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.www.TributaryPeoples.Charles Martel.Charles reThe internal wars and constant disturbances in the Merovingian kingdom had induced all the tributary peoples-theBavarians, Allemannians, Thuringians, Aquitanians, andothers to throw off their yoke. It was the task of the newrulers to regain the lost influence as well as to round off andincrease the kingdom in all directions. All the labourexpended in this regard by Pippin II. , by Charles Martel andPippin the Younger, was to bear rich harvest in the time ofCharlemagne.Of Pippin II.'s deeds we are badly informed. In the socalled " annals, " at first mere scanty notes, written on themargin of the Easter tables of the time, the events of a wholeyear are sometimes summed up in a single remark. We knowthat he conquered the Frisians for the time being, and thathe made two expeditions against the Allemannians. Hisreign, if we may call it so, lasted for twenty- seven years, andon his death in 714 he left the office of major- domus, inNeustria at least, to his grandson, a child of six.The old woes of the Merovingians under woman's ruleseemed about once more to fall on the Frankish people, forPippin's widow, Plectrude, seized the rudder, while CharlesMartel, his son by another union, set to work to wrest thepower from her hands. Plectrude had him seized and imprisoned, but fortune favoured him in the end by showingthe utter weakness of his stepmother's rule.The nobles of Neustria rose against their little majordomus- there was no thought any more of rising against theking-and drove him from the land. All union between thethree sub-kingdoms seemed at an end, civil war was breakingout in all directions, and the greatest of all the externalenemies that had ever threatened the Franks was pressing ontowards their southern border.Charles Martel at this juncture saved the tottering Frankishstores order. kingdom, restored to it peace, order, and discipline, andaverted from Europe one of the greatest evils that has everapproached it. He escaped from his prison, was received withjoy by the Austrasians, and gained a great victory over theTHE FRANKISH KINGDOM. 41Neustrians at Vincy, in the province of Cambray (717). Twoyears later, having ruled over Austrasia in the meantime, andhaving, as the annals go, "set up his own king by the nameof Clothar," he again defeated the united forces of theNeustrians and of Eudo of Aquitaine. In the latter provincethe people, aided by those Basques from Spain who have lefttheir name to Gascony, had come to consider themselves anindependent power. In 720 Eudo was compelled to surrenderthe new king of the Neustrians, Chilperich, of whom Charlesshowed his scorn and contempt by making him, on the deathof Clothar, king of all the Franks. For that sinecure oneMerovingian was as good as another. Chilperich died almostimmediately, and Theuderich IV. succeeded him—so entirelya shadow-king that when he died in 737 no annals of thetime mention the event. We learn of it by a chance remarkin a treatise on chronology!Charles's external policy was the same which his father had Charles'spursued. We hear of a war with the Allemannians and of externaltwo or three expeditions into Bavaria. In the latter land the policy.power had come into the hands of the Agilolfing dukes, andthese Charles brought to recognize the suzerainty of theFranks. Their relative, Swanhilda, was brought back in the train of the returning conqueror. She bore him a son, Grifo,who was later to dispute the succession with Charles's lawfulsons.The Bavarians were left in the enjoyment of much independence, but they acknowledged the right of the Frankishcrown to levy an army, to pardon criminals, and to deposerebellious dukes.The wars against the Saxons and Frisians were, at bottom,a conflict between Christianity and Paganism. WhenCharles,in 734, finally subdued the latter of these peoples, one of hisfirst cares was to burn their gods; while the failures andsuccesses of the missions keep regular pace with the fortunesof war.We are in the midst of an age of tremendous religious The Arabs.activity. The prophets of Allah on the one hand and the42 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The Arabsin Spain.In Gaul.vicars of St. Peter on the other could already count theirvotaries by millions, and the fanatic conversions of theSaracens were offset in a measure by the triumphs of churchorganization on the part of the popes.Agreat and awful conflict between the two religions wasbound to come. Ever since 622 A.D., ever since the flight ofMohammed from Mecca to Medina, the tide of Arab conquesthad been swelling and advancing. Mecca itself had earlysuccumbed to the growing enthusiasm for the prophet, whilethe conquered Persian provinces seemed destined to form thenucleus for a new world rule. The wonderful scorn of deathof the Islamites, furthered by the sure promises of everlastingbliss for those who fell in defence of the faith, made theirarmy one of almost invincible warriors.Viewed in one light the Arab advance was but one morewandering of a nation. The race, so inconveniently numerousthat the killing of a part of the female offspring had becomea regular custom, had at last broken its bounds and carriedall before it. It was not long before Egypt and all NorthernAfrica were in the hands of the Mohammedans, and in 708the Arab leader who has given his name to the Straits ofGibraltar (Giber al Tarik) crossed over into Spain.The seven days' battle of Xeres de la Frontera, fought byTarik against the Western Goths in 711, ended in a completedefeat for the latter. Their kingdom, already a prey toinward dissensions, received its death-blow, and the whole ofSpain, except Galicia, Asturia, and Biscaya, was broughtunder subjection. Arabs as well as Moors and Berbersstreamed into the land. The newly- won territory wasorganized into an Arab province and was ruled by a stadtholder of the caliph.In 720 the Arabs crossed the Pyrennees and conqueredNarbonne, but were defeated before Toulouse by Eudo, dukeof the now almost independent province of Aquitaine. Eudosustained for the next ten years the brunt of the Arab attack.Charles was busy with other enemies and seems not to haverealized the extent of the danger. It is possible, too, that theTHE FRANKISH KINGDOM. 43overthrow of the Aquitanian power would not have beenunwelcome to him.Eudo finally found it more profitable to treat the newcomers as friends than as foes, and gave his daughter inmarriage to the chieftain who commanded on the border. Atthe same time he broke the terms of a treaty that he had onceentered into with Charles.The latter made two expeditions against his recalcitrantally, and Eudo fled before him. But the Arabs proved ficklefriends, the more so as Eudo's son-in-law had meanwhilefallen in a feud.and Poictiers, 732A.D.In the spring of 732 the stadtholder Abderahmen advanced Battle be- into Aquitaine at the head of a countless army. Eudo met tween Tourshim on the bank of the Garonne, was defeated, and sent adespairing cry to Charles for aid. It was the highest time;the religion and the civilization of Europe were in jeopardy,and had Charles failed to respond to the call there is noknowing what would have been the fate of Christendom.The battle fought between Tours and Poictiers in October,732, is one of the most famous in the history of the world.According to a contemporary report-from the side of theexcited victors, to be sure-375,000 Saracens were made tobite the dust. Abderahmen himself was among the fallen.Although not entirely driven from the land-it was yearsbefore Narbonne and Arles were freed from their grasp-theprogress of the Arabs had been effectually checked, and theirgreed of conquest had received a deadly blow. Torn as theywere by the rivalry between their two great houses, theAbbasides and the Ommeiads, they were unable to repeatthe invasion; although we shall see in the next centurieswhat they could do in the way of harassing the shores of theMediterranean.Undoubtedly a small part, at least, of the credit of CharlesMartel's victory over the Saracens belongs to Boniface, theapostle of the Germans. For ten years this prince ofmissionaries had been busily at work among the variousGerman stem-tribes, teaching and preaching, organizing andBoniface theapostle of the Ger- mans.44 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The Irish- Scottish Monks.End ofthe rule of CharlesMartel.subordinating. All of these stems sent their contingents toCharles's army; for the first time the full resources of thekingdom had all been drawn upon at once. The new enthusiasm for Christianity must have roused a corresponding zealto defend the faith against its approaching oppressors.Boniface, the Anglo- Saxon monk, had been raised to theepiscopal rank by Pope Gregory II. in 722. He had takenthe oath of the suburbicarian bishops, or bishops aroundRome, promising to preserve the unity of the Catholic Church,and to implicitly obey the Pope. He had omitted the clause,usual at such ceremonies, of allegiance to the Eastern emperors; from whom the Popes, technically at least, as yetheld their possessions. He had further sworn to have nothingto do with bishops who did not live according to the oldteachings ofthe fathers.66The Irish- Scottish monks are here alluded to—those spiritual descendants of St. Patrick who never could bring themselves to accept certain customs and laws of the RomanChurch. One of the popes, Gregory III. , had dubbed them' false priests and heretics." Notably were their views unorthodox as to the proper method of determining Easter. InEngland the antagonism of the two parties was at times sogreat that the more eager adherents of the one would notsleep under one roof, or drink from one cup, with membersof the other. To the Irish-Scottish monks had belongedColumbanus and Gallus and numerous other missionaries andfounders of monasteries; Boniface, on the contrary, bowedimplicitly to the dictates of Rome.Boniface himself ascribes much of his success to a letter ofsafe conduct granted to him by Charles Martel, and directedto all the nobles of the kingdom. But Charles's sympathieswere not altogether with Rome, and under his reign more influence was exerted over the heathen than over the dissoluteFrankish clergy.Charles Martel died in 741. He had reigned absolutely,although assuming no title higher than that of mayor of thepalace. Since 737 he had allowed the Merovingian throne toTHE FRANKISH KINGDOM. 45remain unoccupied, and the charters of the time are dated insuch and such a year "from the death of Theuderich." Justbefore his own death he divided the land in truly monarchicalfashion between his two sons, Carlmann and Pippin. Theformer received Austrasia, Thuringia and Suabia, or Allemannia; the latter, Neustria, Burgundy, and Provence.property.A century later it was related of Charles Martel, than Confiscationwhom, indeed, by his conquest of the Arabs, no single of Churchmonarch had ever done or ever did greater service to thecause of Christianity-that he had been seen in hell by acertain pious bishop of Orleans, who had descended thitherin the good company af an angel. The angel had declaredthat Charles was being thus punished for having confiscatedand re-divided the Church estates. And there is no reasonto doubt but that he began the process which was furtherdeveloped, and finally legalized under his successors . Anabbot, who presided over St. Wandrille' from 734 to 738 issoundly rated by his biographer for having allowed the estatesof the monastery to be rented out at a nominal sum, so thatspurs, saddles, and the like might be bought with the profitsof the produce. It was exactly thus that the so-called secularization was carried on in the later reigns-the nominalrent, the actual utilization for practical purposes.It was the needs of the State that drove Charles to these Introductiondesperate measures. The crown-lands of the Merovingians ofcavalry.and their other sources of income were insufficient to meetthe expenses of the army; the more so as Charles seems tohave found it necessary in view of future conflicts with theagile and well-mounted Arabs to largely increase, if notentirely to form anew his cavalry. It is only a conjecturethat he did so, but how else can one explain the fact that atthis time a new tax, the fodrum, or fodder tax, is introduced;that new weapons, more suitable for cavalry contests, come invogue, and that the Marchfield, or yearly review, is eventuallychanged to meet in May, in which month it may be supposedthat the grass would be more plentiful for the horses. Therecords of St. Wandrille too, a point which must not be for-46 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The Churchperty.gotten, relate that the lands of the monastery went to pay for66 spurs and saddles."""Under the brothers, Carlmann and Pippin, efforts wereand her pro- made bythe Church to regain her lost possessions. Carlmann,in a capitulary issued in the " Concilium Germanicum of742, promised unconditionally "the restitution and return ofthe estranged church lands, " but was obliged in a later synodto declare that he intends " by the advice of the servants ofGod and of the Christian people, on account of the threatening wars and the attacks of the surrounding nations, to retainfor a time a part of the Church estates for the strengthening ofhis army, in such wise that from each " manse, " or court, arent of one shilling 12 denars, shall be paid to the church,or monastery. "Reform inChurch.=Pippin had long since made a similar disposition for his ownlands, with the reservation that regard should be had for theneeds of the poorer religious foundations. It was always intended to return this land-which was let out in large tractsto powerful nobles-to its original owners, an intention whichwas in part carried out under Louis the Pious.One of the first acts of Carlmann and Pippin was to call inthe Frankish Boniface, by this time an archbishop, and entrust him withthe reformation of the Frankish Church. He it was whor*newed the practice of holding synods, a practice that had,according to Boniface himself, been in abeyance for eightyyears. Such assemblies dealt with matters concerning churchlands and church discipline, with the discarding of heathencustoms, with rules regarding marriage, with the private lifeof the clergy. The latter, for instance, are bidden to abandonthe delights of hunting, and to dismiss their dogs and falcons.Boniface and Rome.Boniface's great service-some think it was no especialgain-was the bringing of the German Church under therule and discipline of Rome. He paved the way for the closealliance of Church and State that was to characterize the reignof Charles the Great. Boniface himself made three visits toRome, and kept, besides, in constant correspondence with thePope. He sought the latter's advice on every occasion, andTHE FRANKISH KINGDOM. 47many of the letters that passed may still be read. They arenot all equally edifying or important. If in one of themBoniface reports of the proceedings of a synod: " We havedecreed and professed that we will hold fast to the end to theCatholic faith, and to the unity and obedience of the RomanChurch," in another he asks the trivial question as to whenthe people might eat ham.In response to the latter interrogation the Pope's answer isworth recording. " The Church Fathers have left no directions on that point, but since you ask me, I advise that it beeaten only cooked or smoked - not raw until after Easter. "Boniface was the founder of the monastery of Fulda, and Monument at Fulda.there, in our own day, a monument has been erected to him.Single voices, indeed, have been raised in protest by those whosee a harm to their nation in the long continued subjection tothe influence of Rome. One man, whose services to historicalscience have been very great, has been known to exclaim:"Not to Boniface, but to the slayer of Boniface he waskilled by a Frisian savage-a monument should be erected! "Carlmann and Pippin possessed now all but sovereign Carlmannrights. Nevertheless, in 743, in deference to the nobles, they and Pippin.again appointed a king. The feeble Childerich III. speaks inone of his charters of " the major- domus Carlmann, who hasplaced us on the royal throne, " and Pippin, as well as Carlmann, signs himself as " him to whomthe Lord has entrustedthe care of the administration." In publishing their lawseach denotes himself as " prince and duke of the Franks,”while Pippin goes so far as to use the kingly “ we ” whenspeaking of himself, being the first of his line to adopt thiscustom .Every change of ruler in these unsettled times gave thesurrounding only half-subjected nations occasion for re-asserting their real or fancied rights. Under Pippin and Carlmannwe have notices of bravely conducted wars with Aquitaniansand Bavarians, with Allemannians and Saxons.Upon the Allemannians Carlmann wreaked bloody ven- Carlmann'sgeance at Cannstadt in 746, and to repentance for this act is retirement.48 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.ascribed his renunciation of his share inthe kingdom, andhis retreat to a monastery in the following year. It was astep which many weary rulers of the eighth century hadtaken or were to take, among them Ine of Wessex, Hunold ofAquitaine, and Offa of Mercia.Carlmann went to Italy and settled as a hermit on MountSoracte, but was too often disturbed, we are told, by visits ofadmiring Germans. He latter retired to Monte Casino, wherewe lose sight of him for a while.PIPPINCHAPTER IV.THE CAROLINGIAN KINGS.alone.IPPIN, after his brother's retirement, ruled alone. He Pippinput down a rebellion of his stepbrother, Grifo, whohad made common cause with the rebellious Saxons. Hethoroughly subdued the Allemannians and Bavarians, treating the land of the latter as a mere benefice, and conferringit on Tassilo, the son of the former duke. Tassilo, indeed,was allowed privileges that were almost royal; the fine, forinstance, of thieving within his palace was twenty- seventimes the ordinary penalty. High treason against him waspunishable with death and confiscation.Pippin's false position as servant in name and master inreality, at last induced him to take a step that was to markan era in the history of Europe. By the counsel and withthe consent of the Frankish nobles he sent an embassy to thePope-whose authority by this time, thanks chiefly to Boniface, was widely recognized-to ask his advice in his presentdilemma. The Pope was the highest instance in matters ofconscience, and as such Pippin represented his doubts withregard to continuing in the old path .The note of the annalist concerning this matter deserves tobe given in full. " The ambassadors asked," he says, " withregard to the kings in the Frankish kingdom who at thattime possessed no more royal power, whether this was rightor no; and Pope Zacchary sent word to Pippin that it wasbetter that he who had the power, rather than he to whom nokingly power remained, should have the name of king; andthat, so that the public peace should not be disturbed, Pippinshould become king by apostolical authority."Pippin be- comes King oftheFranks, 752 A.D.CI50 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.End oftheMerovingianDynasty.Pippin and Pope Stephen II.The Pope's consent having thus been gained, Pippin waselected by the Frankish people, consecrated by the bishops,and done homage to by the nobles. This was in November,751. The ceremony of anointing, that old theocratic institution, was performed upon him by Boniface. Pippin callshimself rex Dei gratia—not king by hereditary right, but kingbecause God, through the Pope, has recognized him as such.The last Merovingian king was shorn and sent into amonastery, and the records of St. Wandrille tell later of amonk who seems to have been the last male descendant of theline.Einhard's introduction to his " Life of Charlemagnewritten, indeed, sixty years later, but by the most distinguished of all medieval writers-may serve as a fittingepitaph for this most unfortunate dynasty: "The race of theMerovingians, from which the Franks were accustomed toappoint their kings, is generally considered to have endedwith King Childerich. Although it only became extinctwith him, it was already long without vital power, andpossessed no other advantage than the empty royal title, forthe possessions and power of the kingdom lay in the hands ofthe chief court officials, who were called mayors of the palace,and who ruled the State. There was nothing left to the kingbut that, content with the royal name, with waving hair andlong beard, he should sit on the throne and play the part ofruler; that he should receive the envoys who came from afar,and give them at their departure, as if on his own authority,the answers which had been taught him, or which he hadbeen commanded to give."Three years after his elevation to the throne, Pippin wastreated to an honour which no founder of a dynasty wassince to enjoy until, in our own century, the great Napoleonlaid stress upon procuring it for himself.Pope Stephen II. came over the Alps, and was fittingly received at Ponthion by Pippin, who had sent the youthfulCharlemagne to meet him as far as St. Maurice, in the Rhonevalley, and consecrated and anointed the new king and hisTHE CAROLINGIAN KINGS. 51wife and sons in St. Denis. He threatened the Frankishnobles with interdict and excommunication should they infuture choose a monarch from any other line. On PippinStephen bestowed the title of " Patrician of the Romans." Itwas a dignified appellation that the Exarchs of Ravenna hadborne as stadtholders of the Eastern Empire and protectorsof the Roman Church.Pippin, on his part, had shown every sign of submission andreverence to the Pope, and at Ponthion had performed themenial service of holding the stirrup for him to mount. Itwas a mark of humility upon which future popes were to laythe greatest emphasis. Four centuries later, when FrederickBarbarossa had strongly objected to thus humbling himself,it was pointed out to him that the custom was an ancient one,and he reconsidered his refusal.It was not a purely unselfish motive that had induced Pope The PopeStephen to visit the Frankish kingdom.The Lombard monarchy in Italy had gone through manyvicissitudes in the two centuries since its foundation, and hadat times seemed in danger of breaking up into a number ofsmall and independent principalities. Nowhere was thestruggle between Arianism and Catholicism more bitter thanhere, and to this struggle, directly or indirectly, may beascribed the murder of several kings.With Liutprand (714-744) begins a period of order andprosperity, although by this time the duchies of Beneventoand Capua had more or less broken loose from the rest of thekingdom.It was the effort to subdue these, as well as the generaldesire of increasing their territory, that brought the Lombardkings in conflict with the Pope, and, through him, with theFranks. Already, under Gregory II. , they had besiegedRome, and the Pope had sent an appeal for aid to CharlesMartel, forwarding to him the keys of the tomb of St. Peteras a sign that he was the Church's chosen protector. TheByzantine emperors, through their officials the exarchs ofRavenna, had hitherto held this proud position, but the warand theLombards.52 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.King Astol- phus.Pippin's donation tothe Pope.of images and dogmatic differences were already engenderingthat opposition which was to divide the religion of the Eastfrom that of the West, and which was to continue into moderntimes. A few years more, and the consent of the EasternEmpire was no longer to be asked for the papal elections, andthe mere announcement to the Frankish king took the placeof the earlier formal authorization.Liutprand's own piety and reverence for the Papal Seeappears to have led him to withdraw his troops, and allaythe storm that had threatened Rome.But King Astolphus, who ascended the throne in 749, wasmade of sterner metal. He deprived the Greek Empire of itslast province in central Italy, the Exarchate of Ravenna, thatstrip of land which stretches along the coast from the mouthof the Po to the town of Ancona. The duchies of Spoleto andBenevento were reduced to partial dependence by the Lombard, and only Rome and its surrounding duchy stood in thepath of the conqueror. Pope Stephen proved, as his ancientbiographer tells us, " an exceedingly courageous defender ofhis sheepfold." He forced Astolphus to make with him aforty years' peace, but was at the end of his resource when,after a few months, the Lombard king saw fit to break hissolemn engagement. It was then that Stephen appealed toPippin, and begged the latter to invite him to visit theFrankish kingdom; he knew that Astolphus would not dareto molest him if he travelled as the guest and at the biddingof a powerful king.Pippin showed his gratitude for the kind offices of thePope. He promised Stephen the Exarchate of Ravenna, whichthe Greek emperor on his own behalf had already empoweredthe Pope to reclaim from the Lombards, and also the Romanduchy, which practically was already under papal rule. Theseprovinces the Pope now took over from the Eastern Empireby much the same process by which Pippin had claimed thecrown of the Merovingians. Each of the two powerful alliesgave his sanction to the usurpations, perfectly pardonableunder the circ*mstances, of the other.THE CAROLINGIAN KINGS. 53The matter of Pippin's donation, involving, as it did, aprobable war with the Lombards, was discussed before anassembly of the Frankish nobles at Kiersy, and a deed drawnup which may be called the foundation charter of the PapalStates. The document, of which the exact wording was notknown, was later confirmed by Charles the Great.retreat.Pippin sent to Astolphus, and ordered him, " out of respect Carlmannfor the Apostles Peter and Paul," to desist from hostilities leaves hisagainst the Roman territory. Astolphus refused, but findinghimself threatened with war, induced the former major- domus,Carlmann, to leave the seclusion of Monte Casino, and tojourney on an anti- papal mission to the land over which hehad formerly ruled. He was to induce his brother to leavethe Exarchate in the hands of the Lombards.Carlmann's intervention was a failure, and he seems tohave been most emphatically reminded that he had betterabide by the monastic calling he had chosen. According tothe court annals he " remained behind . " According to anotheraccount he " was imprisoned " in the monastery of Vienne,where he shortly after died . His sons, lest they, too, shouldadvance inconvenient claims, were also shorn and mademonks.Pippin andAstolphus refused further overtures of Pippin's, although Warthe latter was willing to pay a sum of money-he afterwards betweengave it to the Pope -for the peaceful surrender of the Astolphus.Exarchate. Nothing remained but war, and a Frankish armywas soon on its way to Italy. Astolphus was put to flight inthe valley of Susa, and was then besieged in Pavia.begged for peace, and accepted the terms that were offered .He was to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Franks, and togive up the provinces claimed by the Roman Pope.He soonTo make promises under immediate pressure is more easythan to keep them when that pressure is removed.Nosooner had Pippin returned to his own land than Astolphusrenewed his old policy of oppression. In 756, aided by theDukes of Benevento and Spoleto, he went so far as to besiegeRome, which for three months offered a courageous resistance.54 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Pope Stephen'sappeal.Pippin in Italy, 756 A.D.Desiderius.Stephen sent hasty messages to Pippin urging and imploringhim to hurry to his assistance. In one of his letters he makesSt. Peter himself address the king and his sons, and all theFranks: " Hasten, hasten, I pray and beseech you byAlmighty God, hasten . . . before your spiritual mother,God's holy church, through which you hope to achieve everlasting life, is humbled, betrayed, dishonoured, and besmirchedby the godless. . . . It is well known that your nation, theFranks, was more devoted to me, the divine Apostle Peter,than all the other nations under Heaven; and, therefore, haveI entrusted to you, through the hand of my vicar, the task offreeing from the hands of the enemy the Church, which hasbeen handed over to me by the Lord. "Pippin answered this appeal by arranging a newexpeditioninto Italy. The campaign of 756 proved a repetition of theprevious one. Astolphus, who had again been besieged inPavia, submitted and consented to surrender a third part ofhis treasure in atonement for his fault. To the Pope, Pippinsolemnly presented the Exarchate, with the addition, now, ofComacchio. Abbot Fulrad of St. Denis was commissionedto travel through the newly-won district, and to claim, besidesa number of hostages, the keys of the different cities . Thesewere the symbol of sovereignity; together with the donationdocument of Pippin they were reverently laid on the tomb ofSt. Peter.We are told that shortly before the final overthrow ofAstolphus an embassy from the Greek emperor met Pippinand sought by offering advantageous terms to regain theExarchate. Pippin answered, says the biographer of thePope, " that no treasure in the world could move him to takefrom St. Peter what he had once given to him."Astolphus was succeeded on the Lombard throne by Desiderius, Duke of Tuscany, who was glad enough to buy thePope's support against a rival claimant by assuring him theterritory promised by his predecessor, and by adding to it thedistrict of Bologna. Differences later arose with regard tothe actual surrender of these provinces, but they were not ofTHE CAROLINGIAN KINGS. 55such a nature as to call for armed interference from theFrankish king.The last eight years of Pippin's reign-the period between Subjugation760 and 768 -were almost entirely taken up with campaigns ofAquitaine.against Duke Waifar of Aquitaine, who, among other autocratic acts, had appropriated church lands which lay indeedin his own duchy, but which belonged to the Frankish clergy.Absorbed in this struggle, Pippin allowed his vassal, Tassiloof Bavaria, who in 754 broke his oath of fealty, and withdrewhis forces from the Frankish army, to go unpunished. It wasnot till nearly a generation had passed that retribution forhis act was to fall upon the rebel duke.The subjection of Aquitaine was the crowning triumph ofPippin's life; the land was henceforth a Frankish province,and submitted to Frankish laws. But the king himselfreturned from the war a broken man, who felt his deathapproaching. He retired to St. Denis, where he passed awayon September 24th, 768.One of his last acts was to divide the kingdom between hissons Charles and Carlmann. The former received Austrasiaand Neustria; the latter Allemannia, Alsace, and Burgundy,together with Provence and Septimania.popes.By the order of Charles, or Charlemagne, as he is more Corresponusually called, the correspondence of the popes with his father dence of thewas collected and copied, and is still preserved. It concernsthe Lombards, the war of images then going on in the GreekChurch, and dogmatic questions like that concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost. Presents often accompanied thesecommunications; on one occasion the Pope, it was Paul I. ,sent Greek books-" as many as he could bring together.”Aristoteles and Dionysius, the Areopagite, were among thefavoured authors. This shows that Pippin had certain literarytastes we know, too, that he interested himself in churchmusic, and took measures for the better training of hischoristers. With him enlightenment and political astutenessseem to have gone hand in hand.It was Pippin's fate to have a son so infinitely greater and Pippin's son.56 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Charles'smore successful than himself that his own services are apt to beunderrated. Whatever task he had attempted, whatever dreamhe dreamed, Charles brought to completion and realization.If Pippin fought against the Saxons, Charles crushed them,and moulded them to his will. What were Pippin's successesagainst the Lombards compared to Charles's annexation ofthe land to the Frankish kingdom? And Pippin's assumptionof the royal title, finally, was outshone and outdone by hisson's elevation to the throne of the empire.Over the history of the early years of Charles the Greatearly years. hangs a cloud of mystery. His biographer and friend,Einhard, dismisses with a few words the whole period beforehis accession to the throne. It is not even known whether ornot he was born in wedlock, the marriage of his father,Pippin, with his mother, Bertrada, being placed by two ofthe annalists at a date posterior to his own birth. It is highlyprobable, as the French triumphantly assert, that his birthplace was within the confines of the present France, for hisfather, when not absent on his campaigns, resided inNeustria.Charles and Carlmann.Charles and Carlmann were anointed kings, the one atNoyons, the other at Soissons on the same day—October 9th,768. From the very beginning the relations of the twobrothers to each other were unfriendly, and when Charles, inthe spring of 769, found it necessary to make an expeditionagainst the Aquitanians, who had rebelled anew, Carlmannrefused to aid or to accompany him. The campaign wascarried on alone, and its successful issue could only haveserved to deepen the discord between the two rulers . Thanksto Bertrada, however, an open breach seems to have beenavoided, and Carlmann's death in 771 freed his brother froma presence that had become irksome.Without opposition, although to the exclusion of Carlmann'syouthful children, Charles became ruler of the whole kingdom.It was bythe wish, and at the invitation of Carlmann's nobles,that he did so, and the consent of the people sanctioned anotherwise irregular proceeding.THE CAROLINGIAN KINGS. 57Charles's reign shows a magnificent series of undertakings Charles'swhich often required, individually, years for their fulfillment, under- takings .and which overlapped and, at times, hindered each other.We must look at them separately, and not try to follow theindefatigable monarch in his frequent marches from one confine of his kingdom to the other. Of the forty-six years ofhis rule only two or three were passed in complete peace andquiet. His greatest achievements were the overthrow of theLombard rule in Italy, the subjugation of the Saxons, thereorganization of Bavaria into a Frankish province, theannihilation of the powers of the Avars, and, finally, theacquisition of the imperial crown. We shall see, too, how inthe fields of lawgiving, of education, and of art, he gainedtriumphs that were no less brilliant.bards.Charles had begun his reign by acceding to the wish of his Charles andmother, Bertrada, and taking to wife a daughter of the Lom- the Lom.bard king Desiderius. Pope Stephen III. had at first beenaghast at the prospect of such a union, and had written amost vehement letter to Charles and Carlmann before he evenknew which of the brothers was contemplating the hatefulalliance. He had spoken of the faithless and horribly illodoured people of the Lombards-the propagators of leprosyhe had called them-and had reminded the Frankish rulersof their promise to be the friend of the friends and the foe ofthe foes of St. Peter, and of his earthly representative.Charles had managed to assuage the Pope's wrath, and hadeven given him assurances which caused Stephen to overflow inexpressions of gratitude.But the Frankish monarch had soon tired of his Italianbride. After a year of marriage he had sent her back in disgrace to her father and had wedded the thirteen year oldHildegard, an Allemannian princess. No ties now bound himto the Lombards- -on the contrary, Desiderius became thebitter enemy of his former son- in-law.and Adrian I. In 772 Pope Stephen died and Adrian I. came to the papal Desideriusthrone. Desiderius tried in every way, by fair means and byfoul, to gain the latter as an ally against the Franks. Find-58 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Charlesagainst the Lombards,773 A.D.Charles's donation tothe Church .ing him intractable he resorted to intimidation, occupied thecities of Faenza, Ferrara, and Comachio, and blocked the landroute of the messengers which Adrian despatched for aid tothe Frankish kingdom.In order to have a weapon against Charles, Desiderius received at his court the widow and children of Carlmann, anddemanded that the Pope should anoint the latter as rightfulkings. He even advanced upon Rome to give emphasis to hisclaims, but retreated before the threat of excommunicationwhich Adrian employed.In January, 773, one of the Pope's messengers, a certainPaulus who had managed to cross by ship to Marseilles, cameto Charles, who was in the neighbourhood of Metz. Hebrought an appeal of Adrian for help against Desiderius, requesting most earnestly that the Lombard king be compelledto surrender the misappropriated possessions of St. Peter.Charles's decision to send an army into Italy was takenafter ripe deliberation with his nobles, and after having triedby peaceful means to induce Desiderius to render satisfactionto the Pope.The Lombards retreated before the Frankish forces, andCharles made light of the extensive fortifications that guardedthe descent from Mount Cenis. Desiderius fled to Pavia, thesiege of which occupied the Frankish troops for seven months.Charles meanwhile busied himself with the taking of Verona,in which city the widow and sons of Carlmann had foundrefuge . They were delivered up, and probably ended theirlives, like most other inconvenient personages of these times,in the seclusion of a monastery. No chronicler ever mentionstheir name again.At Easter, Charles made a pilgrimage to Rome where hewas received with great pomp and rejoicing. The youth ofthe city came out to meet him with palms and olive branches,and the Pope received him in state in St. Peter's. Over thegrave of the apostle they swore mutual devotion and fidelity.A few days later Charles solemnly ratified the donation thatPippin had made to the Church, and caused a document to beTHE CAROLINGIAN KINGS. 59drawn up in three copies to commemorate the occasion. Thewording of this deed has come down to us- in a changedform, indeed, for a later clause was added by some churchlyscribe according to which the gift of Charles would have comprised nearly the whole of northern Italy. The extravaganceof the claim has led men for years to doubt the genuinenessof the whole document, but one of the latest investigators haspointed out where the interpolation begins, and how, originallywritten on the margin of the manuscript, it since crept into thetext.About two months after Charles's return from Rome, Paviasurrendered and Desiderius was taken prisoner as well as hiswife and daughter. They were carried off as captives in thetrain of the conqueror, and a new era began, both symbolically and literally, in the history of Italy. The Lombardpower was declared at an end, and Charles took the titleof " King of the Lombards and Patrician of the Romans."Not only public but even private charters were henceforthdated according to the years of his reign.Charles used his victory mildly. With the treasure ofDesiderius, indeed, he enriched his followers, and the crownlands were disposed of right and left to Frankish monasteries.We hear, for instance, of an island in the Lago di Garda beinggiven to St. Martin of Tours.Charles,King ofthe Lombards,774 A.D.Desiderius ended his life in captivity, but his son Adelchis, Revolt of Adelchis.who had fled to Constantinople, made an effort in 776 incommon with Duke Arichis of Benevento, to throw off thenewly imposed yoke. In vain.The Pope heard of the scheme, in which was included aplan for his own imprisonment, and sent word to Charles.The latter crossed the Alps in the dead of winter and easilyput an end to the rebellion, which had as yet not spreadbeyond the confines of Friaul. The insurgents were treatedwith great severity, their property confiscated and they themselves banished in great numbers. Friaul was considered themore dangerous on account of its proximity to Bavaria, andFrankish garrisons were left in its cities.60 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Pippin, King ofItaly;Louis ofAquitaine.Charles issues laws.The first and last attempt to shake off the dominion of theFranks had failed . The duchy of Benevento was, indeed, asyet unsubjected and the Greeks still had footholds in Naples,Calabria, Apulia, and Sicily, but Italy was, otherwise, completely a province of the Frankish kingdom.In the year 781 Charles appeared again in Rome and causedhis four year old son to be baptized by the Pope, the child'sname being changed from Carlmann to Pippin. Charles thenarranged for the formation of Italy and Aquitaine intokingdoms; Pipin was made king of the former and hisstill younger brother, the future Louis the Pious, of thelatter.Charles's purpose was not to dispossess himself of any rightsor privileges, but to lighten the cares of government bycreating local powers which should have authority enough toensure respect. Both for Italy and Aquitaine he continued tomake laws and regulations at will. Frankish institutions,too, were gradually introduced; the letting out of churchlands in return for yearly payments or services, the immunities, the custom of having counts or regular executive officialsfor each given district.In order to heal the wounds of war in Italy, Charles mademild and beneficent regulations. Many freemen had beenforced to sell themselves or their families into servitude or torenounce their lands for paltry prices. In certain of the districts such transactions were declared null and void, and thebuyers of the lands compelled to pay their true value. Fromthe fact that slaves had become so plentiful an extensiveexport of them had taken place the trade seems to havebeen entered into with the Saracens as well as with theGreeks. Charles, in a capitulary published at Mantua, forbadethe further carrying on of this industry, as well as to theselling of weapons to nations that were likely to prove hostile.Other laws provided for the protection of widows, orphans,and paupers, and also for the bettering of the coinage.In 787 Charles again visited Italy, and finding that hisofficials were oppressing the people and demanding from themTHE CAROLINGIAN KINGS. 61unreasonable services, he issued stern decrees against suchtransgressions.Differences remained to be settled with Duke Arichis of Arichis of Benevento.Benevento, who had married a daughter of Desiderius andwho remained in communication with his exiled brother-inlaw, Adelchis.Arichis had tried to wrest Terracina and Gaeta from theRoman Church, and Pope Adrian had urged Charles to sendan army against him. Arichis, however, had no intentionof braving the wrath of the Frankish king, and acceptedCharles's conditions. He consented to deliver up Terracinaand Gaeta to the Pope, and to pay to the Franks a largeyearly tribute. Among the hostages that he was forced togive was his own son Grimoald. Arichis died in the midstof preparations for a new rebellion, in which Adelchis, witha Greek army, was to have aided him.The people of Benevento were not wanting in courage. Grimoald.They demanded the release of Grimoald, who was now heirto their duchy. The original writing in which their demandwas made is still existing- one of the few documents writtenon papyrus that has weathered the storms of the ages.Charles restored Grimoald, but took occasion to obtain therecognition of his own claims as overlord of Benevento. Hisname was to find a place on the coins and in the charters, andthe Lombards in the duchy were to renounce their peculiarnational manner of trimming their beards.Agold shilling and two charters issued by Grimoald have Grimoald'sbeen preserved. In one of the charters there is no allusion charters.to the Franks; the other dates from the beginning of Charlemagne's new rule in Italy, while the coin bears on one sideGrimoald's own name, on the other that of " the Lord KingCharles."Grimoald later made further attempts to rebel, but theyoung King Pippin was able to cope with him alone, and,although several campaigns were fought, only once was itfound necessary to send foreign troops to his aid. In 812,under Grimoalds's successor, a formal peace was entered into62 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.War withthe Saxons,772-804.Character of theSaxons.Reasons for Saxon War.with Benevento, the duchy paying a large sum of money andrenewing its yearly tribute.The history of Charles the Great's long war with theSaxons is summed up by his friend and biographer, Einhard,as tersely and strikingly as one could wish: " It is hard tosay how often the Saxons, conquered and humbled, submitted to the king, promised to fulfil his commands, deliveredover the required hostages without delay, received the officialssent to them, were often rendered so tame and pliable thatthey gave up the service of their heathen gods and agreed toaccept Christianity. But just as quickly as they showedthemselves ready to do this did they also always breaktheir promises; so that, from the beginning of the war,scarcely a year passed without bringing such change ofmind."The Saxons were a strong and courageous people, unspoiledas yet by contact with over- civilized and waning nations. Allthat we can learn of them goes to prove that they stood abouton the same level of culture with the early Germans describedby Tacitus. The same stern morality with regard to femalechastity still ruled among them. Boniface mentions in aletter to one of the Anglo- Saxon kings the cruel punishmentsto which the Saxons publicly subjected their fallen womenand faithless wives. The Saxon laws against theft androbbery were far more severe than among other Germanstems, which fact explains in part the unusually heavypenalties later affixed by Charles to offences against theChurch in Saxony. In his scale of crimes, those againstreligion were looked upon as the most heinous, and weretherefore to be visited with the severest punishments.The Saxons were still heathen; in one of the old baptismalformulas that has come down to us the candidate promises torenounce “ Donar, Wotan and Sachsnot, and all the evil beingswho are their companions."Among the grounds which induced Charles to make waron the Saxons was the fact that the latter often undertookplundering expeditions into Frankish territory . The boun-THE CAROLINGIAN KINGS. 633393daries were by no means clearly defined, much less protectedby any sort of defences.It must not be forgotten in this connection that Charlespossessed a love of conquest, and that he too, like Mahomet,felt a calling to convert the heathen even at the edge of thesword. Crowds of missionaries and priests accompanied hisarmies into Saxony, and the symbol of a conquered chieftain'ssubmission was the cross traced upon his forehead in baptism.It was a holy war, if ever there was one, and the first signof each new rebellion was the overthrow of the Christiansanctuaries.The Saxons were divided into different tribes, which often Severity ofshowed little or no sympathy with each other. It was only the struggle.towards the conclusion of the struggle that a common dangerbrought them more together. The war began in 772, andended definitely in 804; between these two dates was foughtout one of the most stubborn fights that ever took place forthe sake of political and religious independence.In the early stages of the contest Charles seems to havedeceived himself as to the gravity of his undertaking. In777 he considered the Saxons a conquered people, and held adiet in their midst at Paderbom. Saxon nobles appeared andpromised fealty to him. But, within a year, while Charleswas absent in Spain, a plundering expedition on a largerscale than ever was undertaken, and the district around themouth of the Mosel was ravaged by fire and the sword. EvenFulda was threatened, and the monks took to flight, carryingwith them their costliest treasure, the bones of Boniface.In 782 Charles again felt secure of his ascendancy, and it Capitularyis probably then that he issued his famous capitulary for the for Saxony.Saxon land. This instrument—all of these laws are preserved, and have been carefully edited in our own dayintroduces the Frankish institutions and administrative divisions, regulates the duties of the " counts, " who were mostlyappointed from among the Saxons themselves, and declaresthat whoever breaks his oath of fealty to the king shall diethe death. Capital punishment is also placed on the burning64 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Massacre ofof churches, the slaying of a bishop or priest, on adhering tothe heathen custom of burning the dead, on rejecting baptism,and even on eating meat in Lent if it be done in scorn ofChristianity.By confessing of one's own free will to a Christian priest,and by doing penance for such crimes as these, it was possibleto escape the penalty.Indignation against such rigid laws, and, even more so,unwillingness to pay the tithes exacted on behalf of theChurch, fanned the rebellion into a fiercer flame than ever.The more general the measures taken against them, the moreunited did the Saxons become.Charles showed himself unrelenting in the pursuance of hisVerden, 782. aim; he had determined to break the spirit of these his moststubborn antagonists, and he took measures from which allbut a few of the world's monarchs would have shrunk. Aftertwo of his commanders had been defeated near the presentSt. Jacobsberg, on the Weser, he caused 4,500 of the Saxonswho had come into his hands to be executed in one day. Thiswholesale letting of blood took place at Verden, on the Aller,an awful deed of vengeance that was emulated in our owncentury by Charles's disciple, the great Napoleon.Widukindand AbbioThe proceedings at Verden served to exasperate rather thanintimidate the Saxons. The whole land rose in fierce protest,and Charles was obliged to hasten back from Metz, where hehad been showing the last honours to the corpse of his QueenHildegard. At Detmold, however, and again within a month,on the river Hase, he gained important victories .The land was restored to quiet, but in 784 the rebellionare baptized. broke out anew. In the year following, however, the twoprincipal Saxon leaders, Widukind and a certain Abbio,made their submission in due form, and received baptismat Attigny. We are told that Charles acted as godfatherto Widukind, and sent him away loaded with rich presents.The Pope sent a special messenger to convey his congratulations, and ordained a three days' festival of thanksgiving forthe whole Frankish kingdom .THE CAROLINGIAN KINGS. 65The Saxons bore their burden quietly for the next fewyears, but in 792, to use the metaphor of the Lauresheimannals, like a dog returning to its vomit they renewed hostilities and went back to heathenism .It was the younger generation of warriors that now took upthe fight for independence, and they waged it at intervals fortwelve years, aided at times by their neighbours the Frisiansand the Wends.Saxons.Charles at last adopted a measure almost more radical, if Transplantless cruel, than the massacre of these or those rebels. Thou- ing ofsands of Saxons were transplanted to new settlements, andtheir lands distributed among the king's Frankish followers.Again and again Charles resorted to this means of coercion;one of the chroniclers speaks of a " complete uprooting " ofthe people in a certain district beyond the Elbe. The SlavicAbodrites were afterwards allowed to settle on the vacantlands.Many local names in Thuringia, Hesse, and elsewhereremain to remind one of the new seats to which the Saxonswere removed. Sachsbach, Sachsenberg, Sachsenheim andthe like trace their origin to these times.Besides these unwilling colonists Charles carried off numerous hostages; they were usually relegated to monasteries,whence they often returned as missionaries to their own landand their own people.Charles modified in time his severe laws and more and more Peace withthe memory of ancient freedom paled before the satisfaction the Saxons.at a mild and orderly rule.The subjection of Saxony had been a horrible necessity,without it the unity of Germany could not have been accomplished either in mediæval or in modern times. Charles didhis work well, and in the following century a proud dynastyof emperors was to come forth from the land that he had conquered, and to prevent the edifice that he was to found, theHoly Roman Empire, from falling to the ground.During these years of continual warfare Charles had foundtime to make his numerous expeditions into Italy, to marchF66 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Charles'sSpanishExpedition,777 A.D.Roland.The SpanishMarch,against a party of the Saracens in Spain, to conquer the Avarsin the present Hungary, and also to tame the independentaspirations of Duke Tassilo of Bavaria.The Spanish expedition was the nearest approach to afailure of anything that Charles undertook. It was made in777 at the request of an Arab stadtholder, who was oppressedby enemies of his own faith.The caliphate or emirate of Cordova had been founded in755 bythe last of the Ommiads, and it was to protest againstthe manner in which this new power was wielded that Ibn elArabi appeared at Paderborn. The campaign undertaken onhis behalf is chiefly memorable for an attack made by theChristian Basques upon Charles's rear-guard when his armywas retiring from Spain.It was on this occasion that a certain Roland fell, whosename later became a favourite theme for poetry and song. Inthe time of the crusades Charles's expedition came to be talkedof as a holy war against the enemies of the faith, and Rolandwas taken as the type of a fearless champion of godliness.The original " Chanson de Roland" was written between 1130and 1140, and all Christian Europe later grew familiar withthe legend. It was in honour of this almost mythical herothat many of the towns of Northern Germany erected thosehuge stone statues in their market places-Rolands as they arestill called-which were intended to symbolize civic authority.The sword was the sign of jurisdiction, and Roland waspopularly supposed to have been sword-bearer of Charles theGreat.The Frankish kingdom was to suffer occasionally frompetty invasions of the Arabs, but Charles henceforth left thedefence of his border to the young king of Aquitaine. Thelatter succeeded in acquiring and fortifying a tract of territorystretching as far south as the river Ebro. It is known as theSpanish March, but was of small use, on the whole, to theFrankish kingdom.Charles's task in Bavaria was very different from what itwas in Saxony. He had to fight not against a people butTHE CAROLINGIAN KINGS. 67against the representative of a family, a dynasty one mightcall it.Bavaria had, as we have seen, been subjugated by Pippin. Bavaria.The Bavarian laws, drawn up about 745, expressly acknowledge the suzerainty of the Frankish king and his right toappoint, or, if need be, depose a duke. They speak continuallyof the land as of a " province." But Tassilo had, in 754,refused to do a vassal's service in Pippin's army and had,since 763, maintained an almost independent position. Hischarters omit all mention of the Frankish king, and are datedaccording to the years of his own " reign. "With Charles the Great, Tassilo's relations had been at timesnot unfriendly. For a brief year the two were brothers- in-law,Tassilo having also married one of the daughters of Desiderius.In 781 Charles had sent envoys to him to remind him of hisoath of fealty. Two bishops appointed by the Pope hadaccompanied the embassy. Tassilo had then been induced toappear at a diet in Worms, to renew his oath and to givetwelve chosen hostages.In 787 Tassilo, having again offended, had again made hissubmission, this time renouncing his duchy and receiving itback with all formality as a fief of the Frankish kingdom.On this occasion the Bavarian people themselves had beenobliged to swear the oath of fealty, and Tassilo's own son hadbeen carried off among the hostages.Tassilo and Charles.condemna- The new fetters imposed upon him were too much for Tassilo'sTassilo'stions for rebellion, upon hearing of which Charles had himseized and brought before a diet. The charges against himwere high treason, having conspired with his country'senemies, and, finally, " heresliz ” or desertion from the army.The last accusation referred to the old and silently condonedcrime of more than thirty years before.' s power of endurance. He made plans and prepara- tion.The diet, at which all parts of Charles's kingdom wererepresented, and where many of the Bavarians even declaredagainst their own duke, decreed that Tassilo was guilty andspoke judgment of death against him. Charles changed the68 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.·Bavaria as apart of the Frankishkingdom .The Avar War, 791-796 A.D.sentence to seclusion in a monastery-it will have been seenby this time that those houses of God were the best substitutes for states' prisons. Not only Tassilo but his wholefamily, consisting of his wife, son, and two daughters, endedtheir lives within cloistered walls. Tassilo seems to haverichly deserved his fate, for he had evidently planned a rebellion on a large scale. His allies, the Avars, made an attack.of their own accord at two points on the Frankish frontier,but were defeated by forces under the king's officials.In one of his charters Charles justifies himself publicly forhis recent course with regard to the Bavarian duke: " Inasmuch as the duchy of Bavaria has long been withdrawn andestranged from our Frankish kingdom by evil- minded men,our relatives Odilo and Tassilo (father and son) , we, by thehelp of God, who is the Swayer of justice, have brought itagain into our own power." After 788 the charters date fromthe year " since King Charles acquired Bavaria." From thattime on the land became an integral part of the Frankishkingdom, and was regularly administered by " counts." Overthese, later, for the sake of presenting a united front to theAvars, a " prefect was placed. The ducal lands went to thefisc of the king.In 794 Tassilo was brought from his monastery to a diet atFrankfort, and made to acknowledge that he had been rightlypunished and to renounce all claim to Bavaria, either for himself or for his children.The supplement to the subjugation of Bavaria was amilitary expedition against the Avars. This wild people, ofwhom so little is known that the old chroniclers frequentlyconfound them with the Huns, had followed in the wake ofthe Lombards and had settled in the plains of the Danube inthe eastern part of the present Austrian Empire. Theypossessed in the eighth century a very extended but by nomeans powerful kingdom. They lived by plunder, and theGreek Empire was the chief sufferer from their inroads.Their settlements were surrounded by strong walls made ofstones and trunks of trees, and these so-called “ rings ” wereTHE CAROLINGIAN KINGS. 69near enough to each other to permit of communication bysignals in time of danger.In 791 Charles marched into the land of the Avars with alarge army. His columns advanced along the old Romanroads on both sides of the Danube, while a fleet accompaniedthem on the river itself. The expedition was in vain so faras any decisive action was concerned, the Avars refusing to bedrawn into open combat.Charles made great preparations for renewing the attack,and, in 793, attempted to join the Main and the Danube by anavigable canal which should utilize the little rivers Altmühland Rednitz. The difficulties were too great, and the canalwas never finished; faint traces of it may still be seen betweenTreuchtlingen and Weissenburg. The Saxon war and otherundertakings forced Charles to leave the final completion ofthe Avar war to his subordinates. In 795 Margrave Erich ofFriaul took the chief Avar " Ring," the residence of the Khan,and sent treasures of incalculable worth to Aix. We hear ofCharles distributing this booty in all directions; a part of iteven came to England, King Offa of Mercia being presentedwith a sword and two silken garments.The Storming ofthe " Ring,"795 A.D.In 796, when King Pippin of Italy renewed the campaign Subjection he found an unresisting enemy. The Khan and the chiefs of ofthe Avars.the people appeared before him and made their submission.He destroyed their " ring " and carried off the last remnantsof its treasure.No sooner was the conquest of the Avars completed thanthe task of converting them to Christianity was begun. Aconference of bishops was called together, and came to thewise conclusion that it was better to use persuasion thanforce. The preaching, as we are told by Paulinus of Aquileijawho drewup a report of the proceedings of this meeting, wasto be " gentle and convincing and bedewed with sweetness. ”Charles's learned friend Alcuin bade the chamberlain,Maginfred, use his influence with the king to prevent baptismfrom being imposed upon the Avars by force. He also writesagainst a too early insistance on the payment of tithes, " which70 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.End ofthe Avar power.had undermined the faith of the Saxons. " To his formerpupil, Arno of Salzburg, Alcuin writes: "What is the useof baptism without faith? Howcan a man be compelled tobelieve what he does not believe?" Advanced views for theeighth century!The land of the Avars was parcelled out for missionarypurposes among the bishoprics of Salzburg and Passau andthe Patriarchate of Aquileija. A few uprisings of the peopletook place, but the nation had received its death blow andwas rapidly going to ruin. In 805 the Khan appeared beforeCharles at Aix and asked for new settlements for the remnantof his people, for they were in fear of the advancing Slavonians.The request was granted, and they were allowed seats not farfrom the present Vienna. In 822 the name of this oncepowerful nation is mentioned for the last time in history.CHAPTER V.CHARLES THE GREAT AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS.OPE ADRIAN died in 795 after a pontificate of twenty- Charles and four years. He had been a good friend to Charles the the popes.Great, and it was by the latter's direction that the memorialtablet was engraved which may still be seen near the chief entrance of St. Peter's.Leo III., Adrian's successor, hastened to show his devotionto Charles, and sent him the keys of the tomb of St. Petertogether with the banner of the city of Rome. A picture inmosaics of the Apostle delivering with one hand the lattersymbol of authority to the Frankish king, and with the otherbestowing the pallium on the Pope was later placed by Leo'sorder in one of the halls of the Lateran palace, where itremains to the present day. It bears the inscription: "St.Peter, thou grantest life to Leo, victory thou grantest toCharles the King."Charles's answer to the announcement of Leo's accessionshows clearly the light in which he regarded his dutiestowards the Church. He was its patron and protector, thecensor of its spiritual head and members. "Admonish thePope," he says in the instructions to his envoy, “ to lead anhonest life, and especially to observe the sacred decrees of theChurch."It may be said here in parenthesis that Charles's activityextended to every branch of church discipline, and even tothe acceptation or rejection of dogmas. He was not onlyking but also high priest of his people. His capitulariesconcern themselves very much with the good order in theCharles and Churchdiscipline.72122 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Misadven- tures ofLeo III.Leo and Charles at Paderborn.bishoprics and monasteries. It is prescribed among otherthings that bishops, abbots and abbesses may not keep falcons,hawks and conjurers, that nuns may not write love- ditties ,and that shoes shall be worn during the Divine Service.Even the proper use of altar- cloths is not beneath the noticeof this unwearying legislator. In the great dogmatic disputes of the time regarding the adoptionist heresy, the warof images, the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son aswell as from the Father, Charles took a leading and important part, presiding over the synods where they were discussed and, in one case at least, coming to a decision opposedto that of the Pope. The difference of opinion in question,which concerned the war of images, had been caused by amisapprehension, by a mistranslation from the Greek intothe Latin. It was soon explained away, but Charles hadmaintained his ground with great emphasis, sending to Romea comprehensive refutation of what he supposed to be thePope's views.Leo III. succeeded in making himself unpopular with thecitizens of Rome, and a far-reaching conspiracy, under theleadership of the nephews of his predecessor, Adrian, wasformed against him. On St. Mark's day (April 25th) , 799,as he was riding in a procession from the Lateran to St.Laurentius, he was attacked, pulled from his horse, robbed,and otherwise ill-treated. According to a fable, widely,almost universally believed at the time, he was blinded andhis tongue was torn out, but the Lord in His mercy restoredthe missing members. Leo was carried to the monastery ofSt. Erasmus, where he was kept as a prisoner. From therehe escaped by night, being let down by a rope from the wall.He fled to one of Charles's " missi," the Duke of Spoleto,who brought him in safety beyond the precincts of Rome.Charles, as the " Patricius " of Rome, was the naturalavenger of Leo's wrongs. To his camp at Paderborn thefugitive therefore made his way.A poem of the time describes the meeting.ceives the Pope with great honour in theThe king remidst of hisCHARLES THE GREAT AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS. 73assembled troops. We are in a perfect atmosphere of fluttering standards and sounding trumpets. Charles, who isdescribed as being a head taller than all his nobles, rides ona mighty war-horse. His armour and his golden helmetgleam in the sunshine, but are not more brilliant than hisown radiant glance. When the Pope appears he is led by theking into the church, after having given his blessing to thepeople. The mass completed, Charles leads his guest to asplendid feast. The hall is adorned with rich carpets, and isresplendent with purple and gold. Falernian wine is drainedfrom golden beakers.Acloud soon came over the rejoicings at Paderborn. Envoys Accusationsof the Romans appeared and brought most damning charges against Leo.against the Pope. Two parties formed themselves, the onemaintaining that Leo must either cleanse himself by an oathor be deposed, the other declaring that the Apostolic Seemight judge but could not be judged. " What Shepherd ofthe Church," writes Alcuin, " will remain unassailed if he bedeposed who is the head of the Churches of Christ?Charles's sympathies were all with Leo. He sent the latterback to Rome accompanied by envoys who held judgmentnot over him but over the leaders of the rebellion. Theywere banished in disgrace to the Frankish land.The matter was, however, not so easily ended. The Pope'senemies continued to accuse him, and Charles determinedhimself to go to Rome. He arrived there on November 24thof the year 800, and, a week later, called together a greatassembly of nobles and clergy in the church of St. Peter's.Here the charges against Leo were investigated, and he wasasked if he would be willing to clear himself by taking theoath. It was expressly agreed that the Pope could not becompelled to perform this act should he have scruplesagainst it.Leo deigned to prove his innocence. On December 23rd,he ascended the pulpit with the gospel in his hand andpublicly and convincingly justified himself against hisenemies.Charles inRome, 800 A.D.74 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Theimperial coronation,800 A.D.The Pope'shumility.Charles andthe empire.Two days later Charles attended divine service in St. Peter's.It was Christmas Day, and, at the same time, according tothe then manner of reckoning, the beginning of the new year.After the mass the king knelt to pray at the tomb of theApostle. As he rose from his knees the Pope placed a crownupon his head, and the assembled Romans called out: "Longlife and victory to Charles, the Augustus, the crowned ofGod, the great and peace-bringing emperor of the Romans. "The scene had evidently been prepared, but Charles himselfseems to have been surprised at it. According to Einhard hewas at first unwilling to accept the new honour, and declaredthat he would not have gone to the church that day had heknown of the Pope's intention. It is probable that Charleswas not unfamiliar with the idea of becoming emperor, butthat his plans were either not yet ripe, or that he objected toLeo's taking the initiative.Certain it is that the Pope acted with all humility, and notas the lofty dispenser of arbitrary favours. After the coronation he flung himself on the ground and “ adored ” the newemperor. Charles himself never regarded the empire as inany way a present from the Pope, nor did he later request thepapal sanction for the imperial coronation of his son, Louisthe Pious.Charles looked upon his new dignity as a very heavyresponsibility. His famous capitulary, issued in 802, ¹ may betaken as the programme of the young empire. In the year789 he had made his adult subjects swear allegiance to himas a king; a new oath was now required of them, and it wasclearly laid down what this oath comprised. Mere fidelity inthe sense of not committing treason was no longer enough;obedience was demanded to a number of commands concerning personal uprightness of life, general justice and equity,the harbouring of strangers, the protection of widows andorphans.One great change made at this time, and provided for in¹ Published in " Select Historical Documents, " p. 189.CHARLES THE GREAT AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS. 75the capitulary, was the appointment of missi dominici orregular envoys for the whole extent of the empire, which wasmarked out into districts for the purpose. These envoys wereto be yearly despatched to examine into all branches of theadministration. They were to call assemblies at stated timesand listen to complaints against the regular officials-thecounts and centenars. They were to be in direct communication with the emperor, and their reports to him formed thebasis for the instructions- which in many cases may still beread-for the missi of the following year.time forbecomingNo point in Charles's career could have been more favour. Favourableable for his elevation to a new rank. For more than thirtyyears he had been engaged in perpetual warfare, he was now emperor.crowned with the crown of peace. Along the borders of theempire, indeed, the struggle continued almost incessantly withDanes, Slavs, and Arabs; but the emperor was only twiceobliged to take the field in person once, for a short timeagainst the Saxons and once against the Danish king, whodied, however, before a battle could take place.The Holy Roman Empire had been called into being, butthe old Roman Empire of the East, with its claims and itstraditions, still remained to be reckoned with.Charles seems at first to have considered himself the directsuccessor of the Byzantine rulers, whose throne was temporarily occupied by a woman, the cruel and ambitious Irene.There was even question of a marriage with this abandonedcreature, who, in order to strengthen her position, had consented to the blinding of her own son. But with Irene'ssuccessor, Nicephorus, we find Charles negotiating for yearsfor recognition as emperor of the West. It was 812 before hegained his point, and that only at the price of Venice andDalmatia, which his son, Pippin, had brought into dependenceon Italy.Charles andthe Eastern empire.For the development of the little island state this surrender Venice.was of great importance, the more so as Charles assured to itfree trade with Italy, as well as other privileges. The EasternEmpire was too far off to keep a strict watch on its new76 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Partition ofthe empire,806 A.D.Charles's will.Coronationof Louis the Pious, 813 A.D.Charles'sdeath andburial, 814 A.D.acquisition, and Venice soon came to be practically independent.In 806 Charles partitioned his domains among his threesons, Pippin, Charles, and Louis. Pippin and Louis receivedthe lands immediately adjoining their kingdoms of Italy andAquitaine, while the kernel of the Empire, Franconia andSaxony, fell to Charles. But the terms of the division document were never carried out. Pippin died in 810, and theyounger Charles in the following year. Louis the Piousbecame heir to the whole empire excepting Italy. HerePippin's son, Bernard, succeeded his father.In 811 Charles the Great made his will, which we still have,disposing of his treasure, his library-which was to be sold forwhat it would bring—and even of his carpets, curtains, tablecloths, and cushions. The will is signed by a number of archbishops, bishops, and counts.Of the treasure, three-fourths is left to the twenty-onemetropolitan churches of the Empire; the rest is dividedamong his children and grandchildren, his attendants and thepoor.In September, 813, Charles held his last diet at Aix. Bythe consent of all present Louis the Pious was made emperor.The coronation took place in the chapel, Charles himselfplaying the chief part in the ceremony. It was at his command that Louis took the crown from the altar and placed iton his own head.Charles died on January 28th, 814, and was buried withinthe chapel walls at Aix. Over his grave was placed an archwith this inscription: " Under this monument rests the bodyof Charles, the great and orthodox emperor, who gloriouslyenlarged the Frankish kingdom and reigned happily for 47years. He died at the age of 70, in the year of our Lord 814,in the seventh indiction, on the 28th of January."Charles the Great's grave has several times been opened.First by the Emperor Otto III. , whose well authenticatedvisit was afterwards made the framework for most extravagant fables. One can to- day trace the embellishments thatCHARLES THE GREAT AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS. 77each succeeeding author has added to his relation of theincident.zation.Later Frederick Barbarossa made a pilgrimage to Aix, and His canonicaused his antipope, Paschal III., to canonize Charles theGreat. It was on that occasion that the huge chandelier waspresented which still adorns the chapel, Frederick causedCharles's bones to be removed from the antique sarcophagusin which he found them, and to be placed in the costly shrinewhere they now rest. This shrine has since been severaltimes opened-for the last time in 1861 in the presence of adistinguished gathering. The official report of the proceedings shows that Charles's skeleton was considered to bein a good state of preservation, and that its length coincidedexactly with the account given by Einhard of the emperor'ssize.The chapel at Aix well repays a visit to-day. The marblecoffin in which Charles once lay, and which was carried off fora time to Paris by Napoleon, may still be seen there, also themarble chair on which the emperor sat, and which later wasregularly used by the kings of the Romans at their coronation. Other memorials are to be found in the imperialtreasury at Vienna.reign.It remains to say a few words about the inner workings of The innerCharles's rule-the peculiar features that make his reign so workings of Charles'sattractive. His was a rich and magnificent court, with itsmany officials, its seneschal, marshal, chamberlain and cupbearer, its chaplains, notaries and scribes, its long train ofbrilliant scholars and wits, and of youths being trained forthe service of the State.With external powers a constant intercourse was kept up.The Pope frequently sent envoys, and in 804 himself paid avisit to Charles. King Offa of Mercia, Alfonse of Asturia andGallicia, and Haroun al Raschid, the caliph of Bagdad, oftensent embassies . Haroun, the hero of the Thousand and OneNights' Tales, once sent a present that evidently set the wholeFrankish kingdom agog with wonder. It was an elephant,the first that had ever been seen in the land. The chroniclers78A HISTORYOFGERMANY.A renais- sanceThe army.The courts.Charles'sdevote to it more space, as a witty writer has said, than tomany a great man of the time. We know the date of itslanding in the Gulf of Spezzia, where it passed the winter,when it arrived at Aix, what its name was, and when it died.There is scarcely a writer of those days who has not something to say about Abul Abbas.Charles's reign shows a reformation or a renaissance inalmost every branch of the administration as well as in art,literature, and learning.In almost every branch, because in one respect, the mannerof drawing upon the resources of the land for military purposes, this reign must be looked upon as having brought evilinstead of good. There was a movement in progress overwhich Charles had no control, and his efforts to force theutmost military service out of every freeman helped to fosterthe development of the feudal system, and the independenceof the feudal lord. The ordinary man, who was. unable toperform his service, or to pay the fine for not doing so, wasobliged to renounce his freedom.The matter of criminal and civil jurisdiction is too lengthyto be entered into here. Suffice it to say that Charleslightened the burdens of his free men by decreeing that theyshould only be obliged to appear in court and give judgmentthree times in the year. Hitherto the " count " had been ableto call a court at his own pleasure, and to punish with a fine those who did not appear at his summons. A fixed numberof regular judges were now appointed for these extraordinarycourts and—a measure which leaves much room for thought—it was ordained that they must be sober when attending totheir functions!Charles's capitularies go into matters with an astoundingcapitularies. amount of detail. His directions for the management of theroyal estates, which served as a model for private cultivators,tell us even the proper food to be given to hens, and thedifferent sorts of apples that may or must be grown. Thejuice is no longer to be pressed out of the grapes by treading on them with the naked feet, and the gardener's houseCHARLES THE GREAT AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS. 79is to be made ornamental by trailing it over with greenvines.In the matter of the coinage of his realm we find Charles Coins andchanging the standard that had been in use under his prices.predecessors. Henceforward a pound of silver was to be dividedinto twenty shillings, and each shilling into twelve pence.England can think of no better arrangement to- day.Charles had difficulty in forcing his people to accept hisinnovation, for under Pippin the silver pound had beendivided into twenty-two shillings, and the ignorant thought tolose by the change. The capitulary of 794 had to put heavypunishments on the refusal to accept the " new denarius ".slaves, for instance, were to be publicly flogged for such anoffence.The prices of food and clothing were also made subjectsfor legislation . The diet of 794 published a regular tariff forwheat, oats, etc. , while that of 808 declared that a cloak ofthe best fur might be sold for thirty shillings, one of thebest cloth for twenty, and an ordinary one for not more thanten.66 Against usury, which was defined as when one demandsback more than one gave—when, for example, one lends tenshillings, and then claims more," strict punishments were laiddown.One of the most remarkable traits in Charles the Great washis versatility and the variety of his interests. In the midstof all his warlike and other undertakings he found time tomake his court a centre of learning, and of artistic endeavour.Even the handwriting of the time changes under hisauspices. The Merovingian scrawls are the despair of thepalæographist, but the so- called Carolingian minuscle whichwas taught in Charles's schools is as legible as one couldwish. Charles himself knew how to read, but not to write.Einhard describes the monarch's efforts to acquire, late inlife, the latter art. Often in the middle of the night he wouldrise from his bed, take the wax tablets that had been underhis pillow, and practise forming his letters. But with noThe handwriting of the time.80 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Charles'sliterary friends.The literature of the time.Books.great success. The very effort, however, shows the deepinterest Charles took in such matters.In the written language itself a reform takes place. Thestudy of the classic authors which was pursued so industriously had its influence, and the Latin of an Einhard is aspure as any that was written in the whole period from the fall of Rome to the Italian Renaissance.The close political union with Italy was most important forthe development of art and learning in Charles's empire.From here he summoned numerous scholars to lighten hisown leisure hours with their talk, and to teach in the schoolthat he founded at his court for the education of his ownchildren, and those of his nobles. Who has not heard of theplayful intercourse between Charles and his paladins, and ofthe fictitious names they gave each other? Charles wasDavid, Alcuin Horace, Angilbert Homer. When theEmperor'slearned friends were absent they wrote to him-mostly inverse, and often interspersing witticisms and hidden allusions.Several such letters have been preserved.The literature of Charles's time concerned itself chiefly withdogmatic questions, or with polemics on problems of the day.Wehave writings on the question of ordeals, on whether it wasright to wage war and to kill one's fellow men, on the positionof woman, on usury, on matters of church discipline. " In spiteof all defects, " says a modern writer, ¹ " the fact remains thatthis literature kept pace with all the more important phasesof existence, and that the problems of life were not only setbut also thought about and written about. That is the distinctive mark of a living literature and of a cultivatedsociety."A number of school books were compiled by the scholarswho frequented Charles's court. Some of these, like thecollection of homilies of Paulus Diaconus and the " GlossæOrdinaria " of Walafrid Strabo, continued in use during thewhole of the Middle Ages.Books in manuscript, dating from Charles's time, may still1 Kaufmann.1CHARLES THE GREAT AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS. 81be read. Some of them are beautifully ornamented withelaborate initials and miniatures. The schools of Tours andof St. Denis were famous for their productions in this field.The influence of Italy may be traced here in the introductionof acanthus leaves and other designs, of dainty lamps andcandlesticks. Still more may this influence be seen in theone great illustration of the architecture of Charles's day.The chapel at Aix is modelled directly on that of St. Vitalisin Ravenna, and many of the stones and columns employedin its adornment were carried bodily from the latter city.GEvil reign of Louis the Pious.External enemies.Louis'spiety.CHAPTER VI.THE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS.'HE reign of Louis the Pious fills one of the saddestTperiods of German history. No great undertakingscharacterize it, no improvements are made, nothing added tothe edifice reared by Charles the Great. After a few years,during which the prosperity of the empire is carried along bythe impetus that Charles had given it, the process of decaybegins. The weak monarch falls more and more under theinfluence of the clergy, who become possessed with a tremendous sense of their own importance. What caste of prieststhat is bowed down to in all things with absolute servility, bethey Christian ministers or servants of Isis and Osiris, everhas resisted the temptation to pride and arrogance? Awoman finally entwines Louis in her meshes, and changes thetenor of his policy even for the worse. His reign ends in ageneral atmosphere of civil war, family discord, and socialruin.External enemies in the meantime, like moths fretting at agarment, are rending and tearing the confines of the empire.The Bulgarians oppress its Slavic subjects in the south- east,the Saracens keep the inhabitants of the Spanish March in aconstant state of disquietude, and ravage the coasts of theMediterranean; while the Danes, Norsem*n, Normans, orVikings, as they are alternately called, are already beginningthe depredatory tours that are to end with the settlement ofNormandy, the conquest of England, and the foundation of agreat kingdom in Italy and Sicily.""The predicate of " Pious was given to Louis during orTHE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS. 83mmediately after his own reign; and he well deserved it ifpiety represents numberless visits to churches and monasteries, a constant interrogating and torturing of one's ownconscience, and frequently reiterated assertions of one's ownweakness. Such an attitude of mind may be admirable undercertain circ*mstances, it is fatal in the ruler of a great people.And Louis's piety, as we shall see, stood him in bad stead incases where his own personal interest was concerned .Louis's first act on reaching Aix, four weeks after his His austefather's death, was to cleanse the court of the gay and, it rity.must be acknowledged, licentious elements that had beenallowed to revel there in Charles the Great's time. Even thelives of the royal princesses had not been above reproach, andthat apparently without the least interference from their indulgent father. Did not the historian Nithard spring fromthe unsanctified union of Berta and Angilbert? Louis insisted that his sisters should withdraw to the respectivemonasteries the income of which Charles had allotted tothem for their maintenance. The voices of the poets whohad frequently sung the charms of these royal dames becamedumb from this time forward.Louis's reforms extended even to the public officials of thecourt; these, with few exceptions, were removed, and newones appointed in their stead. Among those who weretreated with the most harshness, and who afterwards wereactive in various conspiracies, were Adalhard, abbot of Corvey,and his brother, Wala. It is only a supposition, but not agroundless one, that their disgrace in this instance hangstogether with the attitude of Louis's nephew, Bernard ofItaly. The latter delayed doing homage to the new emperor,and only appeared in Aix after a special summons had beensent to him.The Pope had played no part in Louis's election. Leo III.was old, was bound by ties of gratitude to the Frankishrulers, and did not see fit to interfere. But it was otherwisewith his successor, Stephen IV. Two years after Louis'saccession, and scarcely a month after his own consecration,Louisand Pope Stephen IV.84 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The Con- stantineDonation.Louis re- crowned by the Pope,816 A.D.Louis and the succession.he hastened to Rheims to meet the emperor. He had broughtwith him a golden crown, apparently the one with which PopeSylvester was supposed to have been presented by Constantine the Great. The so-called Constantine Donation ' mayhave been forged in this connection; certain it is that it wasin existence not many years later. It is a false deed of giftby which the great emperor, in honour of his conversion toChristianity, was claimed to have granted to Rome the primacyover Antioch, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, aprimacy which it did not really enjoy till centuries later;to have made the Pope chief judge over the clergy, and tohave offered him an imperial crown and dominion over allItaly.Four days after Stephen's arrival at Rheims, Louis wascrowned with the Pope's crown. The papacy had preservedthe fiction that the bestowal of the imperial dignity lay in itshands. The emperor in return confirmed the gifts of his predecessors to the popes, and added an estate in his own WestFrankish lands . Under Stephen's successor, Paschal, thisgift or pact was again ratified, and a copy of the confirmationcharter is extant.In the year 817 an accident took place in Louis's presencewhich deeply affected the superstitious monarch, and led himto take a step that he himself must afterwards have deeplyregretted, proving as it did an immeasurable source of woe tothe royal family and to the whole land. The wooden gallerythat joined the palace at Aix with the chapel gave way, andinjured by its fall a number of people. Having thus beenwarned of the insecurity of human life, Louis prepared tomake arrangements for the succession to the empire. It wasno easy problem that was set before him. Heretofore, fromthe very beginnings of the Frankish kingdom, it had been thecustom to divide the land between all the legitimate sons ofthe last monarch. But the kingdom had become an empire,and the imperial power was not divisible; had the elder sons¹ See " Select Documents, " p. 319.THE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS. 85of Charles the Great lived, that great emperor himself wouldhave solved the difficulty-exactly how there is no means oftelling. It is barely possible that he would have let the imperial title altogether fall into abeyance. Certain it is thatno mention is made of it in the document which he drew upin 806, and which divided the land between the three sonswho were then living.Meanwhile the power of the Church had been growing Unity versusapace, and the Church was an ardent advocate for unity. It heredity.had grown accustomed to the fact of there being one popeand one emperor. Then, too, every partition of the landmeant dismemberment of various dioceses, for the ecclesiastical possessions had come to be scattered in different partsof the empire. We have seen, for instance, howLombard territory had been distributed among Frankish monasteries.In the present case a compromise was arrived at between Division ofthe new desire for unity and the accepted principles of 817 A.D.heredity. Lothar, Louis's eldest son was raised to the rankof emperor. The two younger sons, Louis and Pippin, received each a kingdom, but were to remain in a certain dependence upon their brother. These kingdoms-Louis's centredaround Bavaria, Pippin's around Aquitaine-were not to befurther subdivided among the sons of a brother who shoulddie, but in each case to go to that particular son whom thepeople should elect .The act embodying these regulations¹ was drawn up withgreat solemnity, and ratified by all the higher clergy. Forthe latter it bore the nature of a compact entered into withthemselves, a guarantee, as it were, for the unity and futurewell-being of the Church.The name of Bernard, King of Italy, was not mentioned in Bernard'sthe division document. That prince had apparently hoped rebellion.that, on the death of his uncle, his own position would bebettered, and that more independence would be assured tohim. That hope was now blasted; on the contrary it was1 See " Select Documents, " p. 201 .86 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Lotharcrownedemperor,822 A.D.Lothar'spapal elec- tions, 824·expressly stated that Italy was to owe the same allegiance toLothar that it had to his father.Bernard and his followers raised the standard of revolt,but their rebellion was badly managed and failed mostmiserably. The emperor succeeded in guarding the passesof Italy, and himself advanced with an army to Chalons, onthe Saône. Here Bernard, despairing of his cause, made hissubmission and fell at Louis's feet. He was placed underarrest.In Aix a court was held and judgment passed on the chiefrebels. They were found guilty of high treason and condemned to death. Louis changed the sentence to blinding,and the punishment was at once fulfilled . Bernard, however, struggled so during its infliction that he received fatalinjuries. He died within three days. His gravestone is stillshown in the church of St. Ambrosius, in Milan, whither heseems to have been carried.Louis the Pious was so embittered by his first experiencesof treason and sedition that he at this time caused Charlesthe Great's three illegitimate sons, Drogo, Hugo, and Theoderic to be shorn and placed in different monasteries. Hefeared everyone and anyone who might put forth a claim to aportion of the empire.In 822 Lothar was sent to Italy to take over the rule ofthat land. Here in the following year, in the church ofSt. Peter, he was crowned emperor by the Pope. He had,indeed, already issued imperial charters in his own name forItaly, and this ceremony, like the former one at Rheims, is tobe looked upon more as a gain for the papacy than for theempire.66In the year 824 Lothar was called upon to give judgmentconstitution in a conflict between the Pope and the citizens of Rome. On regarding this occasion he drew up aConstitution " which was considered so important in later times that it was embodied inthe works on canon law in the days of Gregory VII.It provides for peaceful elections, and maintains the emperor's prerogative as highest judge. The Romans promised to allowA.D.THE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS. 87no Pope in future to receive the consecration who should notfirst have taken a certain oath to the emperor. This was almostcertainly the oath of fealty in which lay an acknowledgmentof the emperor's right to confirm every papal election . Lotharhimself, and his son, Louis II. , were to enforce this claim tothe full, as were also the Ottos and the first Salian emperors.Not until Nicholas II. , in 1059, issued his decree placing theelection in the hands of the Cardinal bishops¹ did the papacyshake off these trammels which Lothar had been the first toimpose.819 A.D.In 818 Louis the Pious had become a widower. Had he Louis wedsremained so many of the worst evils that broke over the Judith,Frankish kingdom would have been averted. But his courtiersurged him to marry again, and tried to tempt him by placingthe most beautiful dames of a suitable rank " on view," asthe annalist has it. The palm of victory was carried off byJudith, the daughter of that Count Guelph, the name ofwhose race was to become so familiar in later medievaltimes.Judith was more than beautiful; she was already famousfor her accomplishments, chief among which was the dexteritywith which she played the organ. In decision of character,not to say obstinacy, she far outstripped her royal consort.A problem of a most delicate and difficult nature was setfor the ambitious wife and the yielding husband by the birthof a son. The Frankish kingdom had been solemnly anddefinitely, with the consent of the clergy and the nobles,divided into three parts. How was this new heir, in whomall his mother's interests centred, to be properly appanaged?Judith showed her real character from the time of her son'sbirth. Like a lioness guarding her whelp she fought for hiswelfare; it mattered little to her that she reduced her husbandto the lowest depths of degradation, and that she plunged theland into civil and fratricidal war. The court became a hotbed of intrigue and deceit, and one wonders whether to be1 See " Select Documents, " p. 361 .Birth of Charles the Bald.88 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Evil results of Louis'spiety.Decline ofthe empire'sgreatness.more disgusted at the weakness of the emperor, the hardheartedness and disloyalty of his sons, or the greed andrelentlessness of Judith.Louis's piety meanwhile grew apace. He soon repented ofhis severity against the followers of Bernard, pardoned them,and even restored their confiscated estates. At the diet ofAttigny (822) he made a public confession of guilt, and didpenance for the blinding of his nephew as well as for havingincarcerated his stepbrothers, Drogo, Hugo, and Theoderic.This self-humiliation was, politically, almost suicidal. Itincreased the influence of the bishops and showed them ameans of humbling their monarch, of which they were laterto make excellent use.The assembly at Attigny reminds one of the modern campmeetings of Methodists, Baptists, and other children of theemotions. After the emperor had spoken and summed up hisbad doings a similar confession was made in the name of thebishops. They declared that they had often been negligentas well in their manner of living as in their teachings andtheir official acts. They promised to do better for the future,but, almost in the same breath, demanded the restitution ofthe Church lands that had been confiscated by the earlierCarolingians. Such a restitution, indeed, was practicallyimpossible; the mere mention of the subject was enough tothrow many of the nobles among whom these lands had beendistributed into a fever of excitement.The once glorious nation of the Franks was rapidly goingto ruin and destruction. All the writings of the time thatexist-reports of bishops, protocols of diets, visions supposedto have been seen by saints (was not Walafrid Strabo, authorof " De Visionibus Wettini, " a direct precursor of Dante?),not to speak of chronicles, annals, and letters-give forth onecontinued wail of complaint. In these literary productionsthe leading personages of the time are often severely criticized. "They love bribes and not justice, " says one writer,' they fear man more than God, they are deaf to the weepingof widows and orphans. " The " counts " were accused of66THE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS. 89making common cause with thieves and other criminals. Itwas declared that the territorial lords had two kinds ofweights and measures, the one for receiving, the other forgiving out; while the clergy were charged with simony, extravagance, and neglect of duty. Superstitious belief inmagic and in love potions, not to speak of miracles, seems tohave pervaded all circles.To add to the general demoralization came year after year Bad harof bad harvest and of plague. Einhard, the chronicler, in his vests.account of the transference of certain relics in 827 causes adispossessed demon to speak as follows: " I am a followerand disciple of Satan, and was for a long time usher at thegate of hell, but now for some years I have been ravaging theFrankish kingdom. Grain, corn, wine, and all other productsof the soil, we have, as we were told, destroyed and annihilated; the cattle we have ' killed through sickness; we havespread plague and pestilence among the people. All the misfortunes and all the evils which they have deservedly enduredfor some time have fallen upon them at our instigation onaccount of the people's own wickedness and the manifoldinjustice of those who are set in authority over them. '"Ah!how deep is our age sunken," continues Einhard himself,"when not good men but evil demons are our teachers, andwe are warned to better ourselves by the instigators of crimeand originators of vice! "Einhard wasAll the elements likely to cause an upheaval of society were Efforts atpresent in abundance-want, oppression, misrule. Louis the reform.Pious, indeed, promised to try and reform all the evils forwhich he might personally be considered responsible, and forthis purpose called an assembly at Aix ( 828) .among those who took part in its deliberations.decided to hold a number of synods in different parts of thekingdom, and also to despatch missi dominici in all directionswho should inquire into particular cases and bring them tothe notice of the emperor, who appointed one day in the weekfor receiving the reports on such matters.Here it wasThe wording of Louis's promulgation in connection with Louis'ssynods.90 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Charles theBald a brand of discord.His newkingdom .the calling of the synods is most characteristic of the man. Herecognizes that the more he should not have sinned the morehe has done so. He desires through God's grace to gainpardon by rendering worthy satisfaction and by doing penance.He promises to better what has hitherto, through his owntardiness and ignorance, been neglected.The same deep self-humiliation, the same rending of theheart and laying bare of its weaknesses before the eyes of thewhole world.We have the acts of one of the synods that Louis causedto be called. The bishops soundly rate the court for theintrigues and ambitious plannings that are going on in itsmidst. They also beg the emperor to impress on his sonsand on his nobles the power and dignity of the ecclesiasticalcalling, and to remind them of an alleged saying of Constantine to the effect that priests might judge men, but might bejudged of no man.But Louis soon lost interest in the proposed reforms; bythe time these admonitions reached him he had become deeplyentangled in matters in which the clergy were hinderersrather than allies. The Empress Judith now steps to thefore-it was probably against her that the animadversions ofthe synod had been directed. The time had come for creatinga worthy portion for the youthful Charles-the "new Benjamin," as the contemporary, Walafrid Strabo, calls him inone of his poems.In August, 829, the emperor, through a simple edict, presented his youngest son with a kingdom composed of Allemania, Alsace, and a part of Burgundy. This gift was madeat the expense of the oldest son, Lothar, who had agreed,indeed, to help Judith in providing for her offspring, but whocould not possibly have expected to be deprived of so large aslice of his own prospective heritage. He soon began togather round him the different elements of discontent, whilePippin and the young Louis rallied to him, feeling the insecurity of their own positions should their father see fit toindulge in any more arbitrary acts of the kind.THE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS. 91Lothar's presence had become so inconvenient, not to say Bernard ofdangerous, that he was dismissed to Italy, and ordered to Barcelona.remain there. Count Bernard of Barcelona, who had heldthe chief command in the Spanish March, was meanwhilesummoned to court, where he soon became, as the annalstell us, "the second man in the empire, next to the emperor."In him Judith found a devoted and fearless supporter. Thetwo had one will and one common interest, and so intimate did they become that the blackest insinuations wereopenly made against the fair fame of the empress. Whetherwith right or no will never be known. In the writings of thetime the most positive accusations to the one effect are metwith the most positive denials on the other.Matters soon came to a crisis. The emperor, aware of the Rebellion.growing discontent, strove to give other occupation to thethoughts of his people by engaging in a foreign or at least distant war. In Brittany there had been a petty rebellionagainst the Frankish overlordship, and the combined forcesof the empire were summoned to appear in arms. Louis himself left Aix on Ash Wednesday, the various contingents wereto betake themselves to the border of Brittany in such wisethat they should meet together in Holy Week. On MaundayThursday a muster of the army was to take place. But beforethat time a revolt had broken out, and the troops hadmutinied, calling upon Lothar and Pippin to take up armsagainst their father. Louis the Pious was bitterly reproachedwith having begun a campaign, and a useless one at that, inthe sacred season of Lent.Judith.Bernard of Barcelona soon found the court too unsafe a Humiliation of Louis and resting- place. He escaped to Spain, while Judith soughtrefuge in the monastery of St. Mary in Laon. Those sacredwalls did not long protect her; she was seized and removedto Poictiers, and made to promise that she would herself takethe veil, and that she would induce the emperor to become amonk.The diet of Compiègne, at which the revolutionary partyhad the controlling influence, recognized Lothar as co-regent.92 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Louis'sHis name reappears in the imperial charters, in which, sincehis dismissal to Italy, it had been no longer mentioned.Louis still retained the name of emperor, but as a mattervicissitudes. of fact, to use the expression of one of his contemporaries, hewas " rather honourably placed in the retired list. " Everyinfluence was brought to bear to induce him to renounce theworld. Lothar kept him, as it were, in liberal custody, andappointed monks to be constantly with him, and to workupon his feelings.Reaction in favour of Louis.The further history of . Louis the Pious shows a continualsuccession of surprises. We have left him crushed to earth,with apparently no one to take pity on or aid him. The nextmoment his cause was high in the ascendant, but before longhe was to sink deeper than ever in a mire of ignominy. Anunhallowed fate, or rather the unbending will of the empress,drove him on and impelled him to constantly throw newbrands on the discord that was smouldering between himselfand his sons.After the diet of. Compiègne Lothar kept the reins ofgovernment in his own hands, but was unable to stem thepublic evils . He was not the man to take radical measuresfor the relief of the people, nor was his position an enviableone as regarded his two brothers, who were unwilling to bewithout share in the fruits of victory.The whole land was meanwhile seething with discontent atthe evil state of things in general. Strangely enough areaction was started in Louis's favour, by the very monkswho had been appointed to direct his thoughts away fromthings temporal to things heavenly and eternal. One of themwent in the emperor's name to negotiate with the youngersons, Pippin and Louis, and to offer them an increase ofterritory if they would rally once more to their father. Themission was successful, and it was arranged that a diet shouldbe held, not, as the revolutionary party wanted, in the westernpart of the empire, where Lothar had more adherents, but atNimwegen, which was more accessible to the Saxons and tothe other elements that were friendly to the old emperor.THE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS. 93instated.The latter at this time showed unwonted decision, andactually imposed a certain amount of respect on his rebelliousson. He even stepped forward at Nimwegen as Lothar'sprotector, and appeared before a threatening crowd holdinghim by the hand. The assembly of Nimwegen passedmeasures against the leaders of the recent rebellion. Judithwas to be released from confinement, but was to appear at afuture diet to be held at Aix. Here if any one might chooseto bring accusations against her, she was either to clear herself of the charges or to submit to the sentence of the diet.No one appeared at Aix to accuse Judith and she was soon Judith rereinstated in all her rights. At a later diet, Bernard ofBarcelona offered to join in judicial combat with any one whostill charged him of adultery with the empress. But the tidehad by this time completely changed and no accuser steppedforward. Be it here remarked, however, that Bernard's justification of his moral character was without effect on hispolitical career. His rôle as prime adviser had been playedto the end. Lothar himself was excluded from participation in the affairs of the empire. The other conspiratorswere judged guilty of death, but the sentence was commuted to imprisonment in some cases and banishment inothers.The emperor was now fully reinstated in power, but oncemore the old unworthy policy began. A new division of theempire was taken in hand, according to which Lothar was tobe restricted to Italy, and the other lands were to be dividedequally between Pippin, Louis, and Charles the Bald. Everyeffort was made to induce Lothar to consent quietly to thisnew arrangement. He was received with honour at Ingelheimand many of his former followers were pardoned.For the emperor new dangers were meanwhile arising.His son Pippin, so recently his ally, began to show adisobedient and rebellious spirit . He delayed answering asummons to court for so long, that when he did finally appearhe was treated almost as a prisoner. Judith meanwhile waslusting after his kingdom for her beloved son. When this beNew divi- sion and newdangers.94 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Pippin's kingdom given to Charles theBald.InterferenceofGregory IV.The Field of Lies.came clear to him, Pippin escaped from Aix and hastened backto Aquitaine, while the emperor and his councillors called together an army against him. The young King of Bavaria,Louis the German as he was later called, was ordered tomarch to his father's assistance, but instead of doing so he,too, unfolded the standard of rebellion, invading the kingdomof his young half-brother. Lothar, too, ceased to concealthe wrath that he had felt at the humiliations inflicted uponhim.The emperor once again showed one of those rare sparks ofcourage and decision that made him seem for a moment likea worthy successor of Charles the Great. Louis the Germanwas driven back to Bavaria, and an imperial army invadedAquitaine. Pippin humbled himself before his father, andwas sent off in digrace to Treves. He was dispossessed of hisland, which was at once handed over to Charles the Bald .Pippin soon escaped from Treves and returned to his formerkingdom where he was able to raise an army from among hisold subjects and to defeat a force sent against him by theemperor.A civil war, and a more dangerous one than ever, was nowin full progress. Lothar, Louis, and Pippin, were all three inarms and they were joined now bythe strangest ally that hadever been seen in the Frankish kingdom. In company withLothar Pope Gregory IV. had crossed the Alps, ostensibly toreconcile the sons with their father, and to preserve the unityof the empire. It is a significant mark of the small influenceexercised as yet by the Roman See in Germany that Germanbishops were foremost among those who reproached the Popefor his unwarranted interference. Anumber of them refusedto come to him, and declared that, should he see fit toexcommunicate them, they would no longer recognize hisauthority.And, indeed, the Pope's whole conduct was neither creditablenor even honourable. It is generally believed to have beenthrough his wiles and arts of persuasion that the disgracefulscene took place on the Rothfeld, near Colmar, which causedTHE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS. 95that little spot in Alsace to rejoice thereafter in the name ofCampus Mentitus or "Field of Lies ."66 ""The army of the father lay encamped opposite to that of thesons . The Pope crossed over and demanded to see theemperor. He was well received, and remained for some daysas Louis's guest, discussing with him the possibility of areconciliation, and being allowed meanwhile to pass freely toand fro among the soldiers. The night after Gregory'sreturn to the rebel camp the majority of the imperial troopsdeserted their leader and went over to the enemy. Louis hadnothing to do but to acquiesce in his fate, and was soon,together with Judith and Charles the Bald, a prisoner in thehands of his sons." theBydecree of the Pope, as we are told, and of the assembled Lothar aspeople, Lothar took the reigns of government completely into ruler.his own hands. His charters of this period are dated,first year ofthe rule of the Emperor Lothar in Francia." Louisthe German, too, omits his father's name from the publicdocument's issued in Bavaria, and only Pippin continues todate in the old manner.sion.A new division of the empire was undertaken by the elder New divibrothers, in which no regard whatever was paid to that sourceof all the discord, Charles the Bald. Three equal and independent states were formed, and we hear nothing now ofLothar's supremacy over his brothers.Louis the Pious, in the meantime, was taken to Soissonsand placed in the monastery of St. Medard. A writing ofa*gobard, of Lyon, composed at this juncture, speaks of himas the " emperor that was.”at ComLothar hastened to summon a diet at Compiègne which Louis's humiliation should decide upon the final fate of his father. He wasdetermined now that the latter should drink the cup of degra- piègne.dation to the very dregs. The diet was attended only byLothar's own supporters; Louis the German and Pippin wereboth absent. The protocol of the diet of Compiègne tells ushow, through Louis's short- sightedness and neglect, theempire has sunk to such a condition of shame and misery96 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Penance at Soissons,833 A.D.Revulsion offeeling.that not only do its friends mourn over it, but its enemies regard it with mockery. Louis is declared to have forfeited thetemporal rule by divine counsel and bythe authority of theChurch. He is exhorted to beware lest he forfeit, too, thesalvation of his soul.From Compiègne a number of bishops proceeded to Soissons, where they induced the emperor, now utterly broken inspirit, to submit to whatever penance they might see fit to impose. They made him appear before a large assembly in thechurch of the monastery, to confess, not once but four times,that he had offended God, given umbrage to the Churchof Christ, and brought confusion upon the people. He wascompelled the while to hold in his hand a paper that had beengiven him, a paper which contained a list of the sins for whichhe was to ask forgiveness. Sacrilege and murder were amongthem as well as every public act that was open to disapprovalfrom the beginning of his reign.This scene in the church of St. Medard in Soissons has fewequals in history for darkness of colouring. If Henry IV. ,later, bowed before Gregory VII. , and confessed his sins andpromised to do penance, it was a voluntary act, performedwith a deep set purpose, and he rose from the ordeal stilla king. Louis the Pious, for the moment at least, gaveup his will, his conscience and his crown, to the bishops of hisrealm . He obeyed their commands weakly and blindly.All of this had been the work of Lothar, who at this timealso tried every means to induce his father to become a monk.But, through this severity and persistency, he overreachedhimself. There were others in high places who were notwilling that the emperor's humiliation should be so deep, andthat anyone should so relentlessly seek his ruin.Louis, the young king of Bavaria, sent envoys to Lothar todemand a milder treatment for his father. After repeated andvain attempts in this direction he induced his brother Pippinto join with him in securing the release of Louis the Pious byforce of arms. The two were aided by a large party of nobleswho were dissatisfied with Lothar's rule. It was not longTHE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS. 97before the captive emperor was once more at liberty, andbefore, in St. Denis, he was solemnly reinstated in power andreceived back into the bosom of the Church. He appeared inpublic adorned with the imperial insignia.In the case of Louis the Pious better than in that of almost Louis's reany emperor of the Middle Ages one can follow the course of instatement.events in the changed wording of the public documents.The charters that he issued after his reinstatement speakof himself as " Louis, emperor through a renewal of God'smercy! "66 Abbot Rhrabanus of Fulda wrote at this time an essayConcerning the Reverence of Sons towards their Fathers, andof Subjects towards their Kings. " It was, as may be imagined,written in the interests of Louis. The whole tide of publicopinion had swung round once more to the emperor's side.It remained to reckon with Lothar. The latter gained two Lothar'simportant victories over imperial armies, but at last, seeing submission.that there was no hope of ultimate success, made his submission. He promised to return to Italy and to mix no more inthe affairs of the empire.In February, 835, a diet assembled at Diedenhofen. Here Louis'sin most solemn form it was declared that the emperor's depo- triumph.sition and humiliation had been contrary to canon and civillaw. At Metz in the same month there took place in thecathedral a scene which was the counterpart of that formerone in St. Medard. Seven archbishops performed the servicefor the reception of a penitent into the fold of the Church.In the name of all the bishops who had been concerned, Ebboof Rheims ascended the pulpit and declared the unlawfulnessof the former proceedings against the emperor. Ebbo himself, who had played so large a share in those same proceedings was forced to declare himself unworthy of the episcopaldignity and to resign his See.It would be a fitting allegory were one to represent Louisthe Pious as a ship, and the popular favour of his subjects asrising and falling waves. He was now on the crest of such awave, but how long would he remain there? He had narrowlyΗ98 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The oldproblem.Rebellion.Death ofPippin, 838 A.D.New Division.escaped stranding, would he have sense enough to avoidrunning near to the same breakers?The old problem meanwhile, the only serious one withwhich Louis seems to have concerned himself during thewhole course of his reign, still remained to be solved. Therewere three kingdoms and four kings, and there was still anambitious empress who was determined to set things right in her own way.At the expense of Louis of Bavaria, who, in consequence ofhis services to his father, had been led to expect a vast increaseof territory, a new kingdom was carved out for Charles theBald. It stretched from Frisia in the north to Toul, Sensand Troyes in the south. The nobles and vassals of this vastdistrict did homage to their new lord at the emperor'scommand.Again the spirit of rebellion raised its head in the Frankishkingdom. The younger Louis held a meeting with Lotharnear Trent, and was called to account by his father for havingdone so. Full of wrath and bitterness he left Nimwegenafter a stormy interview with his father.Charles the Bald had meanwhile been declared of age.Louis the Pious had girded him with the sword, and hadplaced a crown upon his head-a ceremony that had beenomitted in the case of his brothers.In December, 838, matters were complicated by the deathof Pippin. The young Louis was at this time underarms nearMayence, but was soon forced to retreat before the imperialarmy.Judith determined that Aquitaine should be added to theportion of Charles the Bald, or at least that the latter shouldprofit by his half-brother's death. It mattered little thatPippin had left behind him two youthful sons.It was first necessary that a reconciliation should be broughtabout with Lothar who, since his return to Italy, had beenbrooding over his wrongs. He was induced to come toWorms and publicly to prostrate himself before his father.After this performance-a comedy so often repeated in theseTHE REIGN OF LOUIS THE PIOUS. 99It wastimes that it must have lost its significance-negotiationswere begun concerning an entirely new division.decided, with the exception of Bavaria, to separate the wholeempire into two equal shares. Lothar was given the landseast of the Maas and of the Rhone. What Protean shapesthe parts of Charles the Great's empire had been obliged to take at different times since his death!Of course the young Louis felt himself wronged and disinherited, and prepared anew for war. In Aquitaine, too, arebellion broke out, and Pippin's son and namesake waschosen king.Death of Louis thePious, 840The emperor hastened from one task to the other, but hisstrength gave out and, after a short illness, he died atIngelheim (June 20th, 840) . He had sent the imperial A.D.insignia, the crown and sword, to Lothar, exhorting him toprotect his mother Judith and his brother Charles. He senthis pardon to Louis, but wished him to remember that hehad " brought down the gray hairs of his father with sorrowto the grave." The civil wars and disturbances that hadtaken place during the reign of Louis the Pious were but theforerunners of a fiercer struggle that was to come after hisdeath.Lotharclaims the wholeempire.Battle ofFontenoy,841 A.D.Lothar's defeat .LCHAPTER VII.THE LATER CAROLINGIANS.OTHAR, on his father's death, at once demanded forhimself the whole empire. He appealed to the divisionact of 817, which had never been formally annulled . The oldwar-cry of " unity " seems to have drawn around him a largeparty, especially among the bishops, whom he still further wonby reinstating Ebbo in the See of Rheims. The young Pippinof Aquitaine also rallied to his banner.To Louis of Bavaria there was left no alternative except tounite with his half-brother Charles the Bald. Lothar, indeed,tried to reckon with each of his brothers separately, andmanaged to gain valuable time by appointing trysts andmaking truces that he never intended to keep.Finally, a battle that was looked upon as an ordeal or"judgment of God " was fought at Fontenoy in June, 841.Pippin of Aquitaine had by this time arrived in Lothar'scamp at the head of considerable forces. The historian,Nithard, to whom we owe most of our knowledge of thesetimes, took part in the battle as a follower of Charles theBald. With naïve vanity he ascribes the victory in largepart to himself.Lothar was defeated after a hard and brave struggle, inwhich the losses were heavy on both sides. One contemporarywriter assures us that had there been ten more warriors likeLothar himself, the empire need never have been divided.The battle of Fontenoy was not absolutely decisive, forLothar did not yet despair. He sought reinforcements byholding out his hand to a discontented party in Saxony madeTHE LATER CAROLINGIANS. 101up of freemen and leets who were opposed to the nobles.Nor was he above taking the Normans as allies, plunderersand enemies of the empire as they were.Louis and Charles, meanwhile, confirmed their mutual good Oath offaith and constancy by an cath taken at Strassburg (February, Strassburg,842) .In itself a not unnatural and not particularly noteworthyproceeding—and yet the act of alliance here drawn up is oneof the most interesting documents in history. We suddenlyare made aware that the language of the western part of theFrankish Empire had become completely Romanized, whilethat of the eastern part had remained German. The politicaldivision that was about to take place had been preceded byone that dealt with everyday life. Charles the Bald sworehis oath in German so as to be understood by his brother'sfollowers; Louis, on the contrary, spoke a tongue that ismidway between the Latin and the modern French.'The Strassburg oath, then, is a common monument, whenin their infancy, of the two chief languages spoken on thecontinent of Europe to- day."842 A.D.The allied brothers next advanced against Lothar, who Louis andretired to Lyons. An assembly of the clergy at Aix, freed from Charles against the influence of his presence, proceeded as they had once done Lothar.in the case of Louis the Pious at Compiègne. They declaredthat Lothar was a perjurer, that he was incapable of ruling,and that he was responsible for all the murder, adultery,arson, and other deeds of shame that the Church had beenobliged to witness. They gave their sanction to the divisionof the empire between the two brothers and bade Lotharconfine himself henceforward to Italy.1 Charles's oath begins: " In godes minna ind in thes christiânesfolches ind unser bêdhero gehaltnissi sô haldih thesau mînanbruodher, sôso man mit rehtu sînan bruodher scal, in thin thaz er mig sô sama duo ""And Louis's: " Pro deo amur et pro christian poblo et nostro commun salvament • ... si salvarai eo cist meon fradre Karlo et inaiudha et in cadhuna cosa, si cum om per dreit son fradra salvar dist,in o quid il mi altresi fazet ""•102 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Treaty of Verdun,843 A.D. .Furtherdisputes between the brothers.At this time the very existence of the Frankish kingdombegan to be threatened by the Normans. They ran theirboats into the rivers, plundering as they went. They advancedup the Seine and even took Rouen.The need for peace was evident, and Lothar, whose taskhad been so much harder than he had expected, showedhimself ready for a reconciliation. The brothers cametogether on an island in the Saône near Macon. It was thefirst time that they had all met since parting on the Field ofLies.A preliminary peace was established and it was decidedthat the three claimants should keep their individual kingdoms of Italy, Bavaria, and Aquitaine, and that the rest ofthe territory should be divided into three equal parts. Onehundred and twenty men, forty on the part of each brother,were appointed to measure and appraise the land, to calculatethe income from the different estates and bishoprics, and toreport at a later date.By August, 843, the survey had been ended and the finaltreaty was drawn up and signed at Verdun. Lothar, whor*tained the imperial title, although no sovereignty over hisbrothers was now expressed by it, received the middle kingdom-a long narrow strip of land extending from the North Seato the Mediterranean, from the Frisian Islands to the southof Italy. Charles the Bald was given the West Frankishkingdom, and Louis the German the provinces east of the Rhine. A district on the left bank of that river, includingthe town of Worms, was also given to Louis " on account ofthe abundance of wine " as a chronicler tells us.For the Germans the treaty of Verdun was the birthday oftheir nation, although Germany long was to bear no namebut that of the East Frankish kingdom.The years which followed the drawing up of the Treaty ofVerdun show at first an effort to preserve, in public at least,the appearance of unity between the brothers, and then aseries of constant struggles of the one to gain this or thatadvantage over the other. The relations between Lothar andTHE LATER CAROLINGIANS. 103Charles were at first influenced by the fact that one of thelatter's vassals ran away with the former's daughter and thatLothar in some way held his brother responsible for the deed.No sooner was this dispute arranged than Louis the German,who had brought about the reconciliation, saw his two brothersforming an alliance in opposition to himself.theThe enmity of the kings against each other could not General conduce to the preservation of law and order in general, confusion.less so as the Treaty of Verdun itself, dividing as it did different districts that had formerly been united, different churchdioceses, and even the different possessions of one and thesame great noble, gave rise to constant quarrels. " Innocentblood is shed without being avenged, the fear of kings and oflaws has departed from men, with closed eyes the people areapproaching hell-fire," says a writer of the time.German invadesFrance.The people of Aquitaine, which Charles the Bald had Louis thesucceeded in wresting from his nephew Pippin II. , were notsatisfied with Charles's rule and called in Louis the German.The latter first sent his son and then himself invaded hisbrother's kingdom, and put Charles to flight. One of Louis'scharters of the year 858 is dated " the first year of the rule in West Francia. "Charles the Bald's secular nobles went over to the newruler, but the bishops maintained a firm attitude and finallypreserved the land to its rightful king. A synod of Quiersy,under the leadership of Hincmar of Rheims, drewup a writingin which Louis the German was warned to desist;strongest possible language was used, andthe example wasbrought forward of those who had sown discord in the time ofLouis the Pious.theIn the end Louis, who had been looked to as a saviour buthad brought no salvation, was unable to maintain his newposition, and was glad enough, in 860, to sign the peace ofCoblenz with Charles the Bald.The West Frankish bishops, Hincmar at their head, hadtried to make Louis do penance for his invasion of their land,and a synod sent a deputation to him to Worms for thisThe West FrankishBishops.104 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Louis theGerman's character and rule.Death ofLothar I. ,855 A.D.purpose. "But he answered from his raised throne," saysthe official report of the embassy, "that he could not takenotice of the decrees of the synod until he should have conferred with bis bishops. And so it is that that which wasdone in the general interest of the church and the people waswithout effect upon him."Louis the German was the only one of the grandsons ofCharles the Great who possessed to some extent the qualitiesof a great ruler. He had shown himself strong in numerousbattles against the Bohemians and Moravians who had troubledhis eastern boundaries.Under Louis a number of church synods were held of whichthe acts have been preserved. These synods entered the listsfor law and order, they placed penalties on different crimesand established a system of judicial proceeding. A free man,for instance, accused of the murder of a priest was to clearhimself by the oath of twelve approved men; a bondsman wasto submit his cause to the ordeal or judgment of God and towalk barefoot over twelve red- hot ploughshares.The synods concerned themselves, too, with the oppressionof the people by the nobles, in fact with almost all the matterswhich had formerly been regulated by means of the capitularies.Louis the German's chief attention between the years 862and 873 was devoted to putting down rebellions of his ownsons Carlmann, Charles and Louis III. , into the details ofwhich it is not necessary to enter. They were a repetition, ona smaller scale, of the wars of Louis the Pious with his sons,and they had to do with the same cause: dissatisfaction at theallotment of their future shares in the kingdom.Lothar I. died in 855, and was buried in the church ofPrüm, where the casket containing his bones was found andopened in the year 1860.Lothar left Italy, to his son Louis, and the rest of thekingdom to his sons Lothar II. and Charles, of whom thelatter soon died. The feeble reign of Lothar II. , whose land,in honour of himself, received the name of Lotharingia orTHE LATER CAROLINGIANS. 105Lorraine, caused Louis the German and Charles the Bald tocast lusting eyes on their nephew's possessions.the papalpower.It was this Lothar II., whose famous or infamous divorce The rise ofcase, of which Hincmar of Rheims has left us a detailed andrevolting account, gave an opening for the interferencein foreign affairs of the first of the really great popes.Nicolas I. put through his will against Lothar in spite of theopposition of the whole Lorraine clergy.While the empire had been growing weaker the papacy hadbeen growing stronger. It was not long after the treaty ofVerdun that the forged Isidorian decretals, of which Nicholaswas the first pope to make use, were given to the world. Theywere a collection of nearly a hundred letters declared to havebeen written by earlier popes and giving the sanction ofantiquity to many an exalted claim. The aim and object ofthe fabrication seems to have been to remove the higher clergyas well as their landed possessions from the jurisdiction of theState and to place them under that of the Church.The Church for centuries was to make use of these decretals,they were the armoury from which Gregory VII. was to takemany of his most potent weapons.In 857 Lothar II. had put away his rightful wife, Teutberga, and made most shameful accusations against her.This he did for love of a certain Waldrada, whom he intendedto make his queen. Teutberga submitted her cause to theordeal; her champion plunged his arm in the boiling waterand drew it forth uninjured.Lothar, nevertheless, did not abandon his purpose. Heinduced two synods of the Lorraine clergy, which were heldat Aix, to listen to a forced declaration of Teutberga's to theeffect that she was guilty of unnatural crime, and to declarethe marriage null and void. A third synod held in 862 gaveLothar permission to wed Waldrada.Teutberga found refuge with Charles the Bald, who had hisown grounds for wishing to prevent the dissolution of Lothar'smarriage. That marriage had been childless and was likelyto remain so, and Charles, not wishing to lose a fair heritage,Divorce of Lothar II.106 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Interferenceof Pope Nicholas I.The Emperor Louis II. invades Rome.Temporary submission ofLothartoNicholas.did his utmost to keep the new union from being legalized bythe Church. He even went so far as to invade Lorraine.Teutberga appealed to the Pope; Lothar, on the otherhand, formed an alliance with Louis the German, promisingto cede to him Alsace.Pope Nicholas I. sent two legates to look into the matterof Teutberga's appeal; a synod was held at Metz at whichLothar had been ordered to appear under penalty of thecurse of Rome. Again judgment was given against the hapless Teutberga, the papal legates having been won over bybribery and corruption.Nicholas I. did not permit himself to be deceived. Hewent through the acts of the synod of Metz and caused aRoman synod to declare that the judgment had been false.The archbishops of Cologne and Treves, who had taken partin the Metz proceedings and had come to Rome to announcethe result of the deliberations, were deposed. They laid asolemn protest against the Pope's action on the grave of St.Peter. Lothar was again threatened with the ban.The two archbishops had hastened to Lothar's brother, theEmperor Louis II. Louis marched against Rome, where thePope ordained fasting and processions to the end that Godmight inspire the invader with respect for the authority of theHoly See. Nicholas himself took refuge in St. Peter's, wherehe was obliged to remain for two days without food ordrink.Fortunately for Nicholas, Louis was taken with a violentfever, which seemed to him a judgment of God. He reconciledhimself to the Pope.Nicholas was able for the time to bring Lothar II. to submission. The latter was in dread that his uncles, who continally reproached him with his profligacy and unworthiness,might unite and divide his kingdom between them. In 865he allowed twelve of his vassals to take an oath in his nameto the effect that he would in future regard Teutberga as hislawful wife and queen. Waldrada was carried off by thepapal legate to Italy, but escaped from her reverend gaoler atTHE LATER CAROLINGIANS. 107Pavia and returned to Lorraine. In the following year shewas placed in the ban by the Pope.Lothar's hatred of Teutberga blazed forth anew, and herecommenced his intrigues against her. She was obliged tosend a confession of guilt to Rome, and to declare that shewould voluntarily resign the crown.Nicholas would hear of no such thing, and used strongerand stronger language in his letters on the matter. Louisthe German and Charles the Bald evidently expected that thePope would ban and depose their nephew, and that the clergyof Lorraine would obey the sentence. They met together atMetz and swore an oath that, in the event of a division ofLothar's kingdom, one would not claim a greater share thanthe other.Nicholas I. died in 867. Teutberga tried every means to Adrian II . ,induce his successor, Adrian II. , to pronounce the divorce 867-872.that would free her from her persecutions, but in vain.A synod, however, was to have the final decision in thematter, and Lothar was allowed in the meantime to come toRome and plead his cause. He swore an oath to the Popethat he had had no intercourse with Waldrada since the timeof Teutberga's reinstatement " pretending, like Judas, tohave a good conscience in the matter," as Hincmar tells us.Adrian called a synod to meet early in the following year, andlegates in the meantime were to investigate the affair and totreat with the Lorraine clergy.The divorce drama, however, had by this time been playedto the end. Lothar was seized with an attack of fever, anddied in Lucca in August, 869. Teutberga retired to a nunnery,and Waldrada, who for ten years had been the cause of suchunending complications, did the same.It is interesting to note that this Waldrada was the grandmother of that Hugo of Italy and Burgundy, whose daughterin-law, Adelaide, became queen of Otto I. and mother ofOtto II.At the time when Lothar's death occurred, Louis theGerman himself happened to be chained to a bed of sickness,Death of Lothar II. ,869 A.D.108 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The treaty ofMersen, 870 A.D.Louis II. asemperor.Charles the Bald asemperor.while all his available forces were occupied in an expeditionagainst the Slavs.Charles the Bald, by right of the strongest, seized possessionof the whole of Lorraine, being aided in his endeavours by theclergy of that land. Louis the German, as soon as his healthpermitted, threatened his brother with war, fully intimidatedthe man of small courage, and finally compelled him to signthe treaty of Mersen (870) . It is recorded that Louis, on hisway to Mersen, had met with an accident and broken two ofhis ribs, but that he appeared before Charles, physically aswell as figuratively, unbending, and as though nothing hadhappened.By the treaty of Mersen, Lorraine was divided by a linerunning from north to south; as it happened the divisioncoincided pretty nearly with the natural race distinctions.The Frisians, the Allemannians, and the Ripuarian Franks,who already spoke the German language, now formed part ofLouis's share. The Rhine was at last a German stream.The imperial crown had fallen to Louis II. , eldest son ofLothar I., who had received Italy before his father's death.The Pope had assumed undisputed the right of imposing thecrown, a right which had never been acknowledged either byCharles the Great or by Louis the Pious. Each of thosemonarchs in turn had conferred the crown on his son of hisown authority-the papal re-crowning that had in each casetaken place had been looked upon as a kindly but not as anecessary act. Louis II.'s power was insignificant and didnot extend beyond the Alps. He did good services againstthe Saracens in South Italy. For a time, in 871, he was aprisoner in the hands of his own discontented subjects, whoplundered his treasure and threatened his life. He diedwithout heirs in 875, having named Carlmann, son of Louisthe German, as his successor.Again Charles the Bald tried to reap an unfair advantage, and this time succeeded. He drove one of his nephewsout of Italy at the point of the sword, made a treaty withanother which he never kept, and, finally, induced theTHE LATER CAROLINGIANS. 109Pope, John VIII. , to place the imperial crown on his ownhead.Louis the German made an inroad into his brother's land, Death of Louis the but died in the following year, 876. His three sons no longer German,carried out the analogy with himself and his brothers, for they 867 A.D.remained with each other on peaceful terms.Charles the Bald kept the honour he had coveted and won.After Louis the German's death, moreover, he tried to breakthe treaty of Mersen, and to possess himself of Lorraine. Heeven dreamt of regaining for himself the whole inheritance ofhis father." theAndernach.He invaded Lorraine, but met with a resistance, altogether The battle ofsurprising and emphatic, on the part of his nephew Louis III.Charles, " the new Sennacharib," as he was called, orman with the heart of a hare, " was put to flight at Andernach, and the young German monarch carried off a richbooty. The victory secured the unity and independence ofGermany.Charles the Bald died in 877, and Carlmann came forwardas claimant for the imperial crown, and entered Italy with anarmy. He was still negotiating with the Pope for the objectof his desires when death put an end to all his plans (880) .He left a son, born out of wedlock, Arnulf of Carinthia, thelater king and emperor.Louis III. , the victor of Andernach, died two years afterCarlmann, and the whole German kingdom, together withthe claim to Italy, fell to the third brother Charles III. , surnamed the Fat.Charles the Fat was a true descendant of Louis thePious. Sickly by nature, and sunk in the petty affairs ofhis own conscience, he had no time left for the great questions of public utility. And yet it was into the lap of thisman that fortune had determined to shake every possiblehonour.In 879, as Carlmann's death approached, Pope John VIII.had looked to Charles as his liberator, and had given him,with Carlmann's consent, the crown of Italy. Two yearsDeath ofBald and ofCarlmann,877 and 880.Charles theDeath ofLouis the German, 882A.D.Charles theFat, Kingperor.and Em-110 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Saracen inroads.The LeonineCity.Norman invasions.later he had bestowed upon him the imperial consecration.In 887 the nobles of the West Frankish kingdom also, on thedeath of the grandsons of Charles the Bald, offered him thecrown of their land.For a brief space all the domains of Charles the Great werereunited in the hand of one of his descendants. But thevirtue had gone out of the Carolingian race.As a constant background to the events of the half centuryfollowing the death of Louis the Pious went the plunderingexpeditions of the Saracens in the south of Europe, and ofthe Normans in the north and west.The Saracens had conquered Bari, in South Italy, and hadsettled themselves in Apulia, where they were to remain forcenturies. In 842 Moorish adventurers sailed up the Rhone,and devastated the country around Arles. In 846 eleventhousand Saracens sailed into the Tiber, and it is recordedthat they brought with them five hundred horses. Theytook the havens of Ostia and Porto, and advanced on Rome.Here they plundered St. Peter's of its silver ornaments,and of the countless gifts which had been brought by pilgrims. St. Paul's " without the walls " underwent a similarvisitation.It was to avoid a repetition of the danger from this scourgethat St. Peter's, together with the adjacent quarter of thecity, was surrounded by a strong wall. This was completedin 852, and remains of it are still to be seen. The part thusenclosed was called the Leonine city, after Leo IV. , who, atthe instigation of Lothar I., carried out the enterprise. Topay for the construction of this wall, as well as for thedamage which the Saracens had done to St. Peter's, Lotharordered collections to be made from the people in all parts ofhis kingdom.In 841 the Normans, to mention a few of their many actsof plunder, had devastated Rouen, and two years later hadtaken Nantes. In 845 they captured Paris, and were onlyinduced to retreat on payment by Charles the Bald of seventhousand pounds of silver. In the same year they carried off424THE LATER CAROLINGIANS. 111a rich booty from Hamburg; an act, however, for which theirking, Horich, was made to give satisfaction to Louis theGerman.66 The annals of Xanten, under the year 849, declare thatas usual " the land had been ravaged by hordes from thenorth. In 851 they burned the city of Ghent, and ten yearslater Charles the Bald again bought them off from Paris forfive thousand pounds of silver.There was no cessation to the scourge. In 880 Bruno, theancestor of Otto the Great, together with a number of Saxonnobles, suffered a terrible defeat near Hamburg at theirhands, and himself found death on the field of battle.During the year 882 the Normans rioted and plundered asnever before. They made themselves masters of the LowerRhine, of Cologne, Liège, and Xanten, of Prüm, Stablo, andMalmedy. Aix itself, the home and centre of governmentof Charles the Great, was for the most part laid in ashes.The famous chapel served as a stable for the Normanhorses.To Charles the Fat the people of Germany looked to ridthem of their terrible oppressors; it was but feebly that heresponded to the appeal.At a Diet in Worms it was decided that a general musterof the forces of the kingdom should be made against theNormans: even the Lombards furnished their share of thelevies that were made. The object of attack was to be Elsloo,where the invaders had pitched their camp.Instead of driving away the Normans by force of arms,Charles opened negotiations with them, and induced them towithdraw by paying them two thousand pounds of gold. Twoyears later, in 884, they extorted twelve thousand more fromthe West-Frankish rulers. In 885 their ships appeared againin the Seine, but Paris, under its count, Odo, resisted theirattacks for eight long months. By that time Charles theFat had arrived with his army.The Normans aterriblescourge.Charles theFat buys off the Nor- mans.Again he showed his weakness and his incapacity for any- Weakness ofthing but words; again he began negotiations, promising the Charles'srule.112 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.wwwDeposition of Charlesthe Fat.Arnulf ofCarinthia,Normans winter quarters in Burgundy, and seven hundredpounds to pay for their retreat.The defenders of Paris felt deceived and betrayed, andopposed the march of the Normans into Burgundy. Thepeople, as a whole, were tired of their coward emperor, whosereign, indeed, had not lasted a year, and whose weaknesswas partially attributable to his health. He had inheritedepilepsy and at this very time was visited by an attack ofapoplexy.Yet now, if ever, the needs of the time demanded an ablebodied and a whole- souled man.Charles was deposed by a Diet at Tribur and, deserted byall, gave up the struggle, and betook himself to his estates inSuabia. Here he died in the following year.Had the suffering and incapable monarch not gone willingly887-899 A.D. he would have had to go by force. Arnulf of Carinthia, theson of Carlmann, was already on the march with a force ofBavarians and Saxons, Thuringians, Franks, and Allemannians. He was now raised on the East Frankish throne, hiselection betokening, in the words of Ranke, "the first independent action of the German secular world." It was thenobles, eager to have a warrior at their head, and not thebishops, who brought it about.Foundation ofnewkingdoms.The fall of Charles the Fat brought about a fundamentalreaction against the idea of an universal empire. The face ofCentral and Southern Europe breaks up now, all at once, intoa number of independent kingdoms,In Italy, in 888, Margrave Berengar of Friaul, a grandson,through his mother, of Louis the Pious, was crowned king ofPavia; at St. Maurice the Guelphic Rudolph was made kingof Upper Burgundy, between the Jura Mountains and theAlps. Boso, a West Frankish count, had already foundedanother Burgundian kingdom-the so -called kingdom ofArles.In the West Frankish kingdom itself two kings weresimultaneously set up. One of them, Odo of Paris, maintained his ground-Arnulf was invited to become his rival,THE LATER CAROLINGIANS. 113but sent him instead a golden crown-while the other, Widoof Spoleto, went to Italy, and disputed the throne of that landwith Berengar of Friaul. He there, for a while, in opposition to Arnulf, wore the imperial crown.Arnulf's was, undisputedly, the head and political centreof all the kingdoms that had just been founded. Odo,Rudolph, Berengar, and Louis, the son of Boso of LowerBurgundy, sent to him and received his sanction of their rule.Outwardly at least he was their over-lord.Against the Normans Arnulf fulfilled the hopes that hadbeen placed in him. An army, indeed, that had been sent toLorraine to protect that land from further ravages was fairlyannihilated. An archbishop of Mayence was among theslain. But near Loewen, on the river Dyle (November, 891) ,Arnulf himself gained a brilliant victory. His army, thanksto the reforms instituted originally by Charles Martel, musthave consisted largely of cavalry, for we are told that at thedecisive moment his men leapt from their horses, and stormedon foot the fortifications of the enemy.The battleon the Dyle,891 A.D.man inva.sions cease.Shortly after this battle the plundering expeditions of the The NorNormans came to an end. A treaty with King Alfred ofEngland, which gave them a footing in Northumberland ,seems to have furnished them with another field on which towork off their superfluous energy. In the West Frankishkingdom many fortresses had already been built againstthem. Flanders particularly was covered with systematicfortifications, and its Margrave, Baldwin, undertook in thatquarter the protection of the continent of Europe.In the east of his kingdom Arnulf had to cope with a new The Morapower which had assumed alarming proportions. Suatopluk vian Empire.of Moravia had founded an empire which had become thecentre of a great Slavic league.Arnulf allied himself with Bulgarians and, above all,with the wild Hungarians against the Moravians, andin 892 and 893 invaded their land. But with no greatsuccess. The death, however, of Suatopluk, in 894, ridthe Germans of all cause for fear. His sons fell to quarrelI114 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Berengar and Guido.Arnulfasemperor.Louis the Child, 900-911.Rise ofducalfamilies.ling among themselves, and their empire gradually becamepowerless and ripe for the blow of fate that was awaiting it.In Italy, meanwhile, Berengar and Guido had fought for thesupremacy, and Guido had won the advantage. Pope Formosus called in Arnulf's aid, but was compelled, by force asit were, to give the imperial crown to Guido ( 891) and to thelatter's son Lambert (892) .Arnulf marched with an army of Germans first againstCremona, Milan, and Pavia-at which latter place he wascrowned king of Italy-and then against Rome. In 896 hewas crowned emperor by Formosus, and the Roman peopledid him homage. He was the last Carolingian to bear theimperial name.That name, indeed, signified but little now, and no soonerhad Arnulf withdrawn than Italy became the scene of arenewed conflict between Berengar and Lambert. These twoopponents soon made peace and, without regard for theemperor, divided the rule in Italy between themselves.Arnulf died in 899, and his successor was his son, Louisthe Child. Another son, the bastard Swentibold, was givenLorraine, which was made into a kingdom.Louis was but seven years of age, and his guardian andregent was Archbishop Hatto of Mayence-a man to whom,eleven years later, the German nation was to owe the preservation of its endangered unity.Associated with Hatto in the administration of publicaffairs were a number of other bishops, and the governmentassumed a purely ecclesiastical direction.Contemporaneously with this, and partly in opposition toit, the great ducal families which were so to influence thehistory of the next centuries were rising into prominence:the Liudolfings and Arnulfings, the Conradines and Babenbergs. Hatto of Mayence favoured the Conradines at theexpense of the Babenbergs, and the result was a fearfulfeud between these two Franconian families. Murder, betrayal, and civil war played their gruesome part in theconflict.THE LATER CAROLINGIANS. 115Hatto's greatest difficulty in procuring recognition for hisyoung charge was experienced in Lorraine. The effort wassuccessful in part, but only after Swentibold had fallen inbattle against his own rebellious nobles.It was altogether a time of political turmoil and of dissolution. In Bavaria, Arnulf, the son of Liutpold , on the deathof the latter in 907, assumed the government without waitingfor the royal consent. He signed himself in his charters,Duke, by the grace of God. "66On the eastern boundary, meanwhile, a new tormentor, Hungarianworse almost than the Normans, had arisen for Germany. invasions.The Hungarians flooded the land from year to year. Liutpold,who finally fell in one of his efforts to drive them back, andArnulf of Bavaria, gained a few victories over them, butnothing could stop their devastating progress. The greatMoravian Empire finally received its death-blow at theirhands (905 and 906) , and Saxony and Thuringia, as well asBavaria were made the scene of their destructive rioting.Louis the Child died in 911 , and Reginhard, a powerfulnoble of Lorraine, at once tore that province loose from therule of Germany, and placed it under that of Charles theSimple of France.There was every danger that all the separate parts ofGermany would fall away, as the parts of the greater Carolingian Empire had done, into a number of independentkingdoms.Death ofLouis the Child, 911 A.D.This same year, 911, which marked the death of Louis the The foundChild marks also another important event in European history. ing of Normandy.It was then that Charles the Simple of France ceded to theNormans that province, extending from the mouth of theSeine to Caen, which still bears the name of Normandy.It was from here that the sons of Tancred de Hautville wereto proceed to Southern Italy, and to found there and in Sicilytheir great Norman kingdom. It was from here, too, thatthe Normans were to cross to England and bring that landinto their firm and lasting possession. The withdrawal,moreover, from their northern home of the Normans who116 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.واwere to enjoy the new settlement in France, gave those whowere left behind room to breathe and to develop. It was notlong before " Gorm the Ancient " was to found his greatDanish kingdom, and Harald Haardrada was to follow hisexample in Norway.THCHAPTER VIII.THE SAXON KINGS.condition ofEurope.`HE beginning of the tenth century was a time of general Demoralizeddemoralization for Europe. There was a seething process going on out of which good was eventually to come, butfor the present it seemed as though all social order were goingstraightway to destruction. The Magyars, Saracens, andNormans plundered at will, the central power became moreand more sub-divided, the name of emperor was fast fallinginto forgetfulness, and popes were put up and cast down atwill. Around the chair of Peter, indeed, corruption was evenmore rife than elsewhere. Over the corpse of Formosus, whohad crowned Arnulf, the next pope had held a ghastly trial.Clothed in the papal adornments, the loathsome body hadbeen placed on a throne, and, the mockery of a defence havingbeen gone through with, judgment had been spoken againstit. A year later the successor of Formosus had beenstrangled.Literature and art had withered away for want of nourishmentin the East Frankish or German kingdom. The strongestproof of this is that historical sources for the reign of Conrad(911-918) and Henry I. (919-936) were almost unknown totheir own or to later ages. The court annals that had beencontinued during almost all of the Carolingian period cometoan end, and we are dependent for information on the incidentalevidence of monastic chroniclers of acts of synods and ofcharters.Almost all that we know of Conrad's reign is that he made Conrad I.,a last attempt in Carolingian style to maintain the supremacy 911-918.118 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Conrad and the Church.Failure of Conrad'spolicy.of the crown over the individual powers that were croppingup around it. He would not acknowledge the independenceof the stem- duchies, although all his efforts to check thatindependence were in vain. Against each of the duchies inturn, against Lorraine, Saxony, Suabia, and Bavaria he wagedwars which were almost universally unsuccessful. Lorraine,indeed, during his whole reign professed allegiance not to theEast Frankish but to the West Frankish kingdom.Conrad allied himself firmly with the Church. It wasthrough the influence of a metropolitan bishop that he hadbeen raised on the throne, Bishop Salamo of Constance washis chancellor and chief adviser, and to the Church he grantedfar-reaching concessions.That institution in turn unreservedly entered the lists forConrad. The synod of Hohenaltheim, which was held in 916,and at which a papal legate was present, spoke a threefoldcurse against all who should break their oath of fealty to theking, and declared treasonable undertakings to be punishablewith life- long imprisonment in a monastery. Erchanger andBerthold, of almost ducal rank, and leaders of the separatistmovement in Suabia, were condemned to this penalty, butConrad, not satisfied with its severity, later had them put todeath. This act, be it here remarked, availed him little, fora more dangerous leader of the Suabians arose in the personof their new duke, Burkhard.Conrad's efforts to create a strong monarchy that shouldstem the growth of the local powers had been a failure, andno one recognized this fact more clearly than himself. Hislast act, although a practical confession of the uselessness ofhis whole policy, was the grandest of his life. He empoweredhis brother Eberhard to deliver the insignia of royalty toHenry of Saxony, the most powerful of the stem dukes, theman who had most bitterly opposed all efforts at founding agovernment on autocratic principles. Instead of trying tokeep the royal dignity in the hands of his own family,Conrad, himself a Frank, induced his next of kin to bringabout the reversion of the throne to a Saxon dynasty.THE SAXON KINGS. 119The annals of Poehlde, a generation or more later, sum upConrad's character in words that form a fitting epitaph forhim: "This king was so bent on the good of his fatherlandthat he sacrificed to it his personal enmity-truly a rarevirtue."The chief problem of Henry I.'s reign, like that of Conrad, Henry I. ,was how to keep in check the power of the stem-duchies. 919-936.But Henry's method was a different one from that of hispredecessor. He ceased to lean on Conrad's chief ally, theChurch, and at the very beginning repulsed ArchbishopHeriger of Mayence, who was about to perform upon him theceremony of unction at his coronation. Conrad had exercisedviolence and repression towards the individual dukes; Henrytried negotiation and conciliation.With Eberhard of Franconia, who had brought him the Henry andinsignia, and who, in an assembly of Franks and Saxons heldthe duchies.at Fritzlar, had secured him the election, he stood, duringthe whole of his reign, on the best of terms. With Burkhardof Suabia, and the almost sovereign Arnulf of Bavaria, hecame in time to a peaceful agreement, and induced them todo him homage.Arnulf, indeed, was allowed to retain important prerogatives, chief among them the right to appoint bishops to the vacant sees in Bavaria. It will readily be seen what animportant concession this was, a concession which no otherduchy ever enjoyed. Arnulf could thus appoint to office hisown particular and faithful partisans in every part of theland. They worked in his interests in their different dioceses,and were sure to take his part in any contention with theking. And their influence was not small: the bishops, as weshall often see in the future, were among the most powerfuland richest political powers in the land.Both Burkhard and Arnulf continued to call themselves"duke by the grace of God." They issued coins stampedwith their own likenesses, and dated their charters accordingto the years of their own reign.The result of Henry's policy was that Germany at this120 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry I. and Charles the Simple of France.Lorrainemany.time could hardly be called a monarchy. The only dutiesof the dukes were to appear at the general diets and to takepart in foreign wars. All of Henry's own actual power cameto him from his position as Duke of Saxony. Here andhere only could he unfold his powers of organization andadministration.From Charles the Simple of France, who at first had triedto widen his bounds at the expense of Germany, Henrysecured recognition of his own title as king of the EasternFranks. The two sovereigns met on a boat that was mooredin the middle of the Rhine, and closed a treaty of alliancewith each other. A Carolingian king acknowledged thelegitimacy of the elect of the people.That same king's own position was precarious, to say thewon for Ger- least, and rival kings were several times set up by a part ofthe French nobles. Henry was more than once called uponto interfere, and the indirect result of his intervention wasthe reacquisition of Lorraine for Germany. First, as theally of its duke, Gislebert, Reginar's son, then, apparently, ashis enemy, he brought the whole land into subjection, andGislebert acknowledged his suzerainty. In 928 the ties thatbound Lorraine to Germany were still further strengthenedby the marriage of Gislebert with Henry's daughter Gerberga.Henry I.'s reforms.Henryand the Hungarians.Henry's peaceful relations with the German dukes left himtime for the important undertakings for which he is moregenerally known in history. He placed a limit at least tothe greed and rapacity of the Hungarians, and gained largeprovinces and tracts of land from the Slavonians. But, whatwas still more, in order to attain these ends he trained andmoulded his own people.Since the beginning of the century the Hungarians orMagyars had been harassing Germany. What stirring accounts of these outrages come down to us in the annals ofSt. Gall and other monasteries! These religious houses,being repositories of riches as well as sanctuaries of the Godof the Christians, were especially open to their attacks. Inour own day these invasions have formed the theme for oneTHE SAXON KINGS. 121of the best and most popular of modern literary productions.¹In 924 Henry had the good fortune to secure the personof a Hungarian chieftain. The Magyars negotiated for hisrelease, and a treaty was brought about that insured a nineyears' peace to Saxony, in return for which boon Henry wasto pay a yearly tribute.Henry now set about placing his people in a condition to The building defend themselves. He caused numerous fortresses to be of fortresses.built, within which the Saxons might take refuge at theshortest notice. Such fortresses are called " urbes " in thechronicle of our informant Widukind, and hence Henry'sfame as the " founder of cities." But cities they were not inour sense of the word, although on the sites of, or possiblyaround, individual fortresses towns were later to arise. Thiswas undoubtedly the case with Quedlinburg, where, at hisdeath, Henry's bones were laid to rest.In the matter of military tactics Henry introduced one The traininggreat reform. The peculiar nature of the Hungarian inroads of cavalry.made cavalry an absolute necessity, and the Saxon vassalswere now trained to fight on horseback, an art which theFranks had long since learned in their wars with theArabs.Conflicts with the Wends and other Slavonians gave the Henry andnecessary baptism of blood to the newly created troops.The present Mecklenburg, Mecklenburg- Strelitz, the Ukermark and the region along the Havel were occupied at thistime by different tribes, such as the Abodrites, the Redarii,Wilzi, and Liutizi. All through Thuringia, too, were Slavicsettlements, and many towns and rivers such as Jena, Plaue,the Lemnitz, and the Pöllnitz still preserve their originaldesignations. The Slavic villages were built in a circularform and were incapable of extension, which accounts for thegreat number of distinct settlements. In the small duchy ofSaxe Altenburg alone Slavic names have been traced for threehundred villages.1 66 Ekkehard, ” by Victor von Scheffel.the Slavs.122 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The Hungarians de- feated .Henry and Athelstan.ProjectedRome.We hear dimly of various expeditions undertaken byHenry I. against these century-long rivals of the Germans.It was in the territory of the Dalemincians that he foundedMeissen. On one occasion he advanced as far as Prague andcompelled Wenceslaus of Bohemia to do him homage. Amonghis conquests, too, was Brennaburg, the present town ofBrandenburg. These victories brought north Germany intosubjection at least as far as the river Elbe.The truce with the Magyars came to an end, and on Henry'srefusing to continue his tribute they renewed their attacks in933. We hear of a successful battle fought against them inthat year, and we know that Saxony was henceforth free fromtheir invasions although Bavaria and Suabia were still tosuffer for another generation.Henry's last undertaking was a war against the Danes. Weonly know that it was in a measure successful, and that atract of land between the Eider and the Schlei was won forGermany.That Henry's renown had spread far beyond the confines ofhis own land is proved by the almost unseemly alacrity withwhich King Athelstan of England entered into his proposalof an alliance by marriage. Henry sought a bride for his sonOtto, and asked for the sister of the English king. Athelstansent not one but two of his sisters , and Edith, the elder of theprincesses who had come for inspection, was chosen by Otto.It has been intimated that the contemporary history writingexpeditionto for the time of Henry, as well as for that of Conrad, wasscanty and insufficient. Most of the details of his reign havebeen preserved by Widukind, who lived under Otto the Great.Widukind's chief source of information seems to have beenoral tradition, and much that he relates has to be receivedwith caution. Some statements are sorely in need of furtherexplanation. One assertion that has given rise to endlesssurmises is to the effect that, at the close of his life,. Henryhad determined to go to Rome but was prevented by illness.Did he intend to go as a pilgrim or as a conqueror? Was thepope's blessing or the imperial crown the goal of his ambition?THE SAXON KINGS. 123973.The reign of Otto the Great (936-973) may be roughly Otto the Great, 936- divided into three periods. During the first he tries to solvethe old problem of how to reckon with the stem duchies.During the second he renews Conrad's policy of relying onthe Church, not, however, as its servant, but as its head. Inthe third we find him as emperor and as ruler, not only overthe German Church but also over the Church of Rome. Likea second Charlemagne he unites Italy and Germany under hissway; his court, too, although less by his own efforts than bythose of the distinguished women of his family, becomes acentre for the revival of letters , learning, and art.Otto owed his throne partly to the designation of his father,partly also to the election by the nobles, which took place atErfurt, and to the acclamation of the people.The brilliant ceremony of enthronization which took place Coronation.at Aix, shows to what a degree of unity and organizationHenry I. had brought the kingdom. The nobles and vassalsof the crown had been summoned from all German lands, andat Aix la Chapelle they did homage to Otto as Charles theGreat's successor and as king of the Franks. Otto had laidaside his Saxon garb, for it was a recognized principle that theking, from whatever stem he might be chosen, must liveaccording to Frankish law and custom.The coronation was performed by the three archbishops ofMayence of Treves and of Cologne in Charles the Great'schapel, and the throne or marble chair which Otto ascendedwas the same on which his great predecessor had sat. It wasused in turn for centuries by successive German sovereigns,and is still preserved.In the feast which followed the ceremony at Aix the heads Four offices.of the different stem duchies performed for the first timethose menial services that for eight hundred years were tosymbolize the submission due to royal authority. The officesof chamberlain and steward, cup-bearer and marshal, wereperformed by the Dukes of Lorraine, Franconia, Swabia, andBavaria. This act was of great significance. By it, on theone hand, the dukes showed their respect for the king's124 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Slavonian war.HermannBillung.Conspiracy against Otto.position; Otto, on the other, recognized the dukes as heads oftheir stems, and as second only in power to himself.Scarcely was Otto seated on the throne than he was calledupon to suppress a revolt of the Slavic peoples to the east ofSaxony, and especially of the Bohemians, who had by this timeformed themselves into a state. The border tribes in generalwere the redskins of Germany. They too had been dispossessed of their lands, they, too, were glad of any occasionfor havoc and plunder.The conduct of the war against the Slavonians was entrustedto Hermann Billung, who was made margrave or count of theSaxon March, but in whose hands so much power was placedthat he was looked upon with envy and jealousy bythe bordernobles. The latter were in the habit of drawing tribute fromthe Slavonians and saw their interests threatened by Hermann's measures, as also, later, by the Church Missions.During Otto's first years he was to be continually tried asby fire. The Hungarians renewed their attacks but were metby the young monarch in Franconia and driven back. Butworse than all outward enemies were those in the king'senvironment and in his own household.Eberhard, duke of Franconia and brother of Conrad I. ,formerly so loyal to the royal house, had been guilty of alawless act, inasmuch as he had taken upon himself to punishone of his Saxon vassals, a certain Bruning. He had gathereda band of followers and had attacked Bruning's castle inHessengan, killing its defenders and finally reducing the pileto ashes. Otto, who did not allow himself to be swayed byregard for any privileged person whatever in matters pertaining to justice, condemned Eberhard to a penalty whichwas to consist in furnishing horses to the worth of a hundredpounds of silver. His aiders and abettors were to undergothe humiliating punishment of walking a certain distanceeach with a dog upon his shoulders. The punishments ofthis time were as a rule significant. The hand that forged orthat stole was cut off, the eye that lusted was put out, andthe penalty of dog carrying seems to have been intended toTHE SAXON KINGS. 125betoken the brutal character of the undertaking that calleddown its infliction.and Eberhard.A fearful blow had been struck to Eberhard's self- esteem, Thankmarit was a duel to the death now between himself and Otto.He soon allied himself with Thankmar, the bastard brotherof the king, who was chafing under Otto's arbitrary disposalof certain Saxon estates to which he felt that he had a claim.A very distant one it would seem to us-they had belongedto the cousin of his mother Hatheburg, whose marriage withHenry I. the Church had declared illegal.Thankmar.Conspiracy is a weed that grows apace if the ground be in Death ofany way favourable. Saxon nobles and others joined themalcontents, and Thankmar was soon able to attack a castleof Otto's brother, Henry, near Lippstadt, and to carry off thatprince as a prisoner. Thankmar then possessed himself ofthe Eresburg, on the Diemel, and entrenched himself there,but Otto marched up the hill leading to the fortress at thehead of such an army that the garrison did not dare to resisthim. The gates were opened and Thankmar fled to thechurch, where he was slain near the altar by a lance hurledthrough the window.Bavaria.In the meantime a revolt had broken out in Bavaria, where Revolt inthe son of Duke Arnulf, who had died at this time ( 937) ,refused to do homage to the sorely oppressed king. But heretoo Otto was soon master of the situation. The young dukewas banished, and Bavaria was given to a brother of Arnulf.Otto now took occasion to suppress some of the almost kinglyprivileges which the former duke had enjoyed.A newofficial, the palgrave, or count palatine-in this case a youngerson of Arnulf—was to see that the royal rights were regarded,and the bishops were henceforth to be nominated bythe king.Otto's final move in the pacification of Bavaria was thearrangement of a marriage between his brother Henry andJudith, the sister of the duke who had just been dispossessed .That same brother Henry, nevertheless, who, as we haveseen, had been taken prisoner by Thankmar, and who hadbeen handed over by the latter to Eberhard of Franconia, byOtto's brotherHenry joins the con- spiracy.126 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Mayence joins the rebels.Otto'scourage.Failure of the rebellion.whom he had been released, was plotting with his recentjailor against the king. Eberhard, indeed , on Thankmar'sdeath, had made an outward submission and profession ofobedience, but it was not long before he was at the head ofa new and more formidable rebellion. Duke Gilbert of Lorraine was soon won for the movement, and joined his troopsto those of Henry. This combined army was met and defeated by Otto at Birten on the Rhine, and the result was thatmany strong places that had been in Henry's hands at oncesurrendered. Henry himself, after retreating to Merseburg,which fell after a two months' siege, escaped to Lorraine,where he and Gilbert began to negotiate with the Frenchking, Louis.Otto hurried from one scene of war to another; he wasstruggling with a hydra. After vainly besieging Gilbert inChèvremont he tried to negotiate with Eberhard of Franconia, sending to him Frederick, the Archbishop of Mayence.Frederick overstepped his authority, and made a peace whichOtto was forced to repudiate. The archbishop, accompaniedby a number of bishops, thereupon joined the rebels, quittingthe royal camp at Breisach in such haste that their belongingswere left behind. The deserters were welcomed by Eberhardand Gilbert, who by this time had joined forces and taken uptheir position at Andernach on the Rhine.Otto never showed himself greater than in this emergency.He is related to have remarked to an avaricious noble whowished to make capital out of his king's misfortunes, and tosecure for himself the revenues of the abbey of Lauresheim:"It is written thou shalt not throw a sanctuary to the dogs. 'If you, like the others , are going to desert me, the sooner thebetter!Soon enough the tables turned. One morning as Otto wasmounting his horse to repair to church for matins, amessenger ran to meet him whose news changed the wholeaspect of affairs. The counts Udo and Conrad Kurzbold,better known as Conrad the Red, had surprised Gilbert andEberhard, who had remained with a few attendants on oneTHE SAXON KINGS. 127bank of the Rhine, while the bulk of their army had crossedover to the other. Eberhard had attempted to defend himselfbut had at last fallen in the fray. Gilbert, and some of hisfollowers, had thrown themselves into a boat which, beingoverloaded, had sunk in the rushing river.After this crushing blow the rebellion languished, and soonall concerned returned to their allegiance and submitted tothe light punishments which Otto decreed against them. Thevictory of Andernach secured the unity of Germany, forGilbert had undoubtedly intended to make Lorraine into aseparate kingdom, while Eberhard seems to have aimed atundoing the work he had once furthered, at wresting thecrown from the Saxon house, and restoring it to the Franks.Otto was now more powerful than any ruler over Germany Otto'shad yet been. Bavaria had been subjected, Saxony was in power.his own hands, and Franconia and Lorraine were at his disposal. Over Lorraine Conrad the Red, the hero of Andernachwas made duke in 944, and four years later was united inmarriage to the king's own daughter. Franconia remainedattached to the crown and, for the time, no new duke wasappointed. Henry, the brother of Otto, was treated with the Henryrebelsgreatest leniency, He seems for a short time, previously to anew.944, to have been duke of Lorraine, but to have shown himself unworthy of the office. He entered into a new conspiracy,and actually plotted to take the king's life..The plan was betrayed and several persons who had beenconcerned in it were executed. Henry fled, but afterwardsreturned of his own accord and threw himself upon Otto'smercy. He was sent to Ingelheim and kept in close confinement. After a while his prison became unbearable tohim, and he escaped by the aid of a priest to Frankfort, whereOtto was holding the Christmas festival. The scene thatfollowed is famous.Early on Christmas Day while Otto was in the Cathedral Scene onand the Christmas music was being sung, a barefooted Christmas Day.pilgrim clad in hair- cloth fell on the ground before the kingand begged from his inmost soul for pardon. It was Henry128 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Liudolfco-regent.Otto's influence.Italy since 888.who thus humbled himself before his brother. He was takenback into favour in spite of all his sins, and this time thereconciliation was final. The brothers lived together henceforth in perfect harmony, and Henry performed many andgreat services . In 947 he was made Duke of Bavaria. Hemade a victorious expedition against the Hungarians andpenetrated to the heart of the enemy's country.It had been the custom under the Carolingians for kingsto associate their sons with them in the cares of government.Otto induced his nobles to declare his son, Liudolf, co-regent,and the young prince was wedded to Ida, daughter of DukeHermann, of Suabia. In 948 Hermann died and Liudolfsucceeded to Suabia. All of the duchies were now in thehands of Otto or of his immediate family.Otto had raised the German Kingdom to an unknownpinnacle of greatness, and his influence began to be felt farout over Germany's borders. In France he was the acknowledged arbiter between the king and a restless party of thenobles. A synod at Ingelheim, at which by Otto's requesta papal legate was present, threatened Count Hugo of Franciawith the bann should he not return to his allegiance. It wasto German interference that the French king, in 950, finallyhad to thank his crown.The condition of Italy at this time was one of indescribabledemoralization. Since the general downfall of the Carolingian Empire, in 888, there had been no less than twelveshadowy kings, almost all of whom had been arbitrarilydeposed by one or another faction. Four of them wereBurgundians, four Italians, three Germans, and one French.About 930 King Hugo, a Burgundian, possessed the Italianthrone, and even ventured to cast lusting eyes upon Rome.In order to strengthen his influence he wedded the mostnotorious, but also the most powerful, woman in Italy, acertain Masozia. She had been the concubine of PopeSergius III. , and had caused the fall and death of John X.Her favour had gained the papal throne for Leo VI. and forStephen VIII. At last she had ventured to raise her ownTHE SAXON KINGS. 129son by Sergius III. , a youth of twenty, upon the chair ofPeter. He took the name of John XI. But out of Marozia'sown womb an avenger arose in the person of Alberic, whosefather had been a margrave of that name. He threw hismother and his half-brother, the Pope, into prison, and drovehis stepfather away from Rome.King Hugo's son, Lothar, who was obliged to leave the Adelaide andlion's share of the Italian Kingdom to Margrave Berengar Berengar.of Ivrea, was wedded to a princess of Upper Burgundy,Adelaide, daughter of Rudolf II. Her brother, Conrad, hadstood in close connection to Otto, and had spent years at hiscourt. No wonder that the German King was interested inAdelaide's fate, which, on the death of her husband, Lothar,in 950, promised to become tragic enough. Berengar, althoughacknowledged as their king by the majority of the Italiannobles, saw in her a possible rival, the more so as she hadalready gained the affections of the people. He strove to winher by fair means or by foul. He proposed a marriage withhis own son, Adalbert, but, on Adelaide's refusal, beganagainst her a course of persecutions. She was finally madeprisoner and kept in confinement first at Como and then in adungeon at Garda.The sufferings of the young queen aroused universal sympathy, especially in Germany, and it was a golden opportunityfor Otto's interference. He soon determined to go to warwith Berengar, to free Adelaide, to win her hand, to takepossession of the kingdom of Italy, and thus to pave the wayto the imperial throne. The idea of this Italian expeditionwon favour with the nobles, and the summer of 951 witnessedeager preparations in every part of Germany. Liudolf ofSuabia, Otto's son, at this time committed the first of thatseries of offences against his father which were finally to leadto an open rupture. His army was first in the field, but he didnot, as was fitting, await Otto's commands before descendingupon Italy. His expedition was a failure, and he was obligedto withdraw.Otto himself soon after crossed the Brenner with an armyKOtto's plans for Italy.130 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Otto and Adelaide.Liudolf'swell equipped and of rare material. His brothers Henry andBruno went with him, also Duke Conrad of Lorraine andFrederick, Archbishop of Mayence, besides a grand array offollowers. His chief aim and object, as Bishop Rather ofVerona expressly signified in a letter to Pope Agapetus, wasto gain the imperial crown.All Lombardy soon submitted to the Germans, and Berengar took to flight. Otto assumed the titles of King of theLombards and King of the Italians. Election and coronationwere indifferent to him; he considered it his inborn right torule beyond the Alps.Adelaide meanwhile had escaped from confinement by theaid of a priest and a waiting-woman, who had excavated a wayout beneath the walls of her prison tower on the Garda Lake.She had taken refuge in the Castle of Canossa, whither Ottosent to beg her hand. Shortly afterwards Pavia witnessedthe celebration of their nuptials.So far Otto had known no check in his victorious career inItaly. But now Frederick of Mayence, who had been sent toRome to come to terms about the imperial coronation,returned with news of evil omen. The Pope, wholly inAlberic's power, refused to open the gates to the Teuton.Otto seems to have chidden Frederick for not having betterconspiracy. performed his mission. At any rate the archbishop, accompanied by Liudolf, who was jealous of favours shown to hisuncle, Duke Henry of Bavaria, and who also chafed underthe influence wielded by his new stepmother, Adelaide, leftPavia and hastened to spread disaffection in Saxony.Conrad the Red.The two conspirators soon gained a powerful and unexpected ally. Otto had quitted Italy, leaving behind him hisson-in-law, Conrad the Red, who had done such services inthe former rebellion, to checkmate Berengar. Conrad, instead of crushing the ex-king of Italy, made peace with himon his own responsibility, a peace which Otto refused toratify, although he later did of his own accord reinstateBerengar in Italy, making him do homage for the land, however, as for a fief of the German crown.THE SAXON KINGS. 131Conrad was deeply offended at the small regard paid forhis mediation, and went over to the rebels. Liudolf by thistime had thrown all restraints to the wind, for Adelaide hadgiven birth to a son, and a rumour had reached him that hisown rights as eldest born would be disregarded.A.D.The rebellion began with a deep humiliation for Otto. He Otto'sfound himself in Mayence in the spring of 953 almost com- straits, 953pletely in the power of Liudolf, Conrad, and Frederick. Theyforced him to sign an agreement which was shameful anddisadvantageous in the extreme. On regaining his libertyhe declared it null and void.Otto was most ably aided at this crisis by his repentantbrother Henry. For two months they besieged Mayencetogether, but in the meantime a revolt had broken out inHenry's own duchy of Bavaria . A scion of the old dynastystill lived that Arnulf whom Otto had made Count Palatine.Around him a large party collected which had always regardedHenry as a usurper. Liudolf fled from Mayence to Bavaria,where he succeeded in making himself master of many strongholds and in driving Henry's wife and children from theland. Otto hastened to oppose him.The year was fraught with hardships. For three monthsOtto besieged Ratisbon without success, and at last withdrewto Saxony. The old baneful struggle of the parts against thewhole, of local interests against the crown, had broken outanew. Southern Germany seemed already lost, and theroyal ascendancy was fast sinking.therebellion.At this moment relief came in a manner least expected. Failure ofThe Hungarians took advantage of the civil war to pour theirhordes once more across the borders. The rebel Germanprinces tried to use this invasion for their own ends, andbegan treating with their country's enemies. But by sodoing they ruined their own cause. Enough national enthusiasm was left to enable Otto to raise a large army. Bavariaand Suabia soon returned to their allegiance, and it was notlong before Conrad of Lorraine, and Frederick of Mayencemade their submission. Liudolf, too, was subjected after a132 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Otto against the Hungarians.Battle on the955.few more conflicts. As usual, the rebels were mildly treated.Suabia and Lorraine, indeed, were placed in other hands, butthe deposed dukes were allowed to retain their liberty andtheir own personal estates.The rebellion of the duchies was but the forerunner ofother struggles. The Wends made an inroad into Saxony,and, although Hermann Billung drove them back for themoment, a stronger arm than his was needed to bring theminto subjection. Otto was preparing fresh forces againstthem when a peremptory call came to him from the south.The Hungarians had overrun Bavaria, and single hordes weredevastating Suabia. Never before had this plague infestedthe land in such numbers.The Hungarians had formed a camp of huge proportionsLech Plains, in the plain of the Lech near Augsburg. Ulrich, Augsburg'sbishop, was bravely holding the town against them whenOtto and his army approached. With the king was therepentant Conrad, ex-duke of Lorraine, leading a force ofFranks.Bravery of Conrad the Red.The Hungarians become civilized .The battle on the Lech plains was bravely fought. Ottohimself headed the charge with irresistible effect, while anunexpected attack on the German rear-guard was brilliantlyrepulsed by Conrad. The enemy was scattered like chaffbefore the wind, and their camp fell into Otto's hands.It was as victors that the Germans mustered their forcesat evening, but their own losses had been severe, and manyof their noblest had sunk to earth. Conrad, apparentlydesirous to atone for the past, had fought with a lion'scourage, but as he paused for rest and loosed his helmet anarrow struck him and pierced him through the neck. "Agreat hero, and the world was full of his fame," says Widukindthe chronicler.The fleeing hordes of the enemy found death at everyturn. Many were drowned in crossing rivers, others wereslain by the inhabitants of the Bavarian villages .Never was a more decisive battle fought. Never again didthis fearful enemy ravage Western Europe. In course ofTHE SAXON KINGS. 133time the Germans were able to push their boundary linesfurther and further towards the east, and the peace andsecurity of the Bavarian East March, as it was called, laidthe foundation for the power and influence of the laterAustria.The Hungarians soon gave up their nomad life. By theyear 1000 they had foundedtheir kingdom in the presentHungary, and they gradually became a settled and civilizedpeople.Wends.Otto left the Lech plains to hasten to Saxony, where his Otto and themargraves were holding back the Wends. Before the yearwas ended he gained a brilliant though not thoroughly decisive victory. Not till five years later, not till three newexpeditions had been sent against them, was the German rulere-established in these Slavic lands.-Otto'schange of policy.Favours the Church.Church and State.CHAPTER IX.OTTO THE GREAT AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS.T will have been seen that Otto's cherished policy withhad hoped to found a patriarchal state, as it were, and tobring the highest temporal offices into the hands of his ownrelatives. The result had been a civil war. Otto's son,Liudolf, and his son-in-law, Conrad, had allowed no ties ofblood or of marriage to stand in their way. The people ofthe duchies, too, had, in more than one case, shown theirimpatience under the yoke of dukes foreign to their stem.Otto nowgave up the plan of uniting local interests througha network of family ties. On his brother Henry's death, in955, he gave Bavaria to a grandson of the old Duke Arnulf.Hermann Billung was made duke of Eastern Saxony, andnative nobles held office in Suabia and Lorraine.It was, however, almost necessary to the existence of thecrown that it should be supported by a strong party, andOtto was led into a step which, however advantageous atfirst, was fraught with dire consequences for the Germanpeople. He made the Church that which the duchies shouldhave been, the prop and stay of the kingly power. Heencouraged new ecclesiastical foundations, and made richgifts of lands and exemptions to the clergy, hoping in thisway to bind them more closely to himself. His first carewas to fill all the archbishoprics with friends and faithfulservants.William, Otto's own bastard son, received Mayence, Brunowas established in Cologne, and a pupil of his in Treves. ForOTTO THE GREAT AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS. 135more than a century now the history of the German Churchand of the German kingdom were to become almost identical.The government assumes a churchly character, church rulebecomes a matter of politics. The result was to be that whenin the next century the struggle with the popes began it wasno longer possible for the princely ecclesiastics to render untoCæsar that which was Cæsar's, and thus to avoid the conflictof nationality versus the Church universal.So long as the right of choosing the bishops remained withthe king, the latter was able to constitute a body of menwhose interests were identical with his own. The bishopswere simply officials; they left no heirs, being not allowed tomarry, and at their deaths their sees reverted to the crown.They made a splendid counterpoise to the power of the nobles,who were already beginning to claim that their fiefs werehereditary. Estates, honours, and riches could safely be givento such men, and the crown lands yet suffer no diminution.Great were the services demanded of the clergy in return. Duties oftheAs fief- holders they furnished regularly their quota of vassals clergy.to the king's army, and often took the field in person. Allthe business of the court, all the charter writing, all the correspondence, was in their hands.And Otto ruled them like a second Charlemagne. Nocouncil might be called, no decree of the clergy passed, without his consent. Of his own accord he founded bishoprics,and set up bishops, judged the clergy, and disposed of churchfunds. The canon laws indeed, and not only the forged ones,directly negatived such proceedings, but as yet there was noone to call attention to such discrepancies.The immediate result of the union of the crown with theclergy was to raise the prestige of Germany, and to pave theway for the renewal of the holy Roman Empire. A time wasto come, however, when the interests that joined the two wereto be sundered, and the bonds that bound them loosed. Theresult was to be destructive indeed. The glory of the empirewas to be tarnished, and German unity to be trodden underfoot.Results of Churchpolicy.1136 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Imperial crown.Pope John XII.Calls in Otto's aid.Otto in Italy.For a hundred years now the crown of the empire hadbeen a mere bauble, the disposal of which had been for themost part in the hands of the popes. Neither Charles theBald nor Charles the Fat, Arnulf, nor Berengar I., nor any ofthe other rulers of Italy seem to have regarded it as morethan an empty honour. Alberic, the ruler of Rome, had notcared for the title, and had thwarted the plans of those whodid. During his time, therefore-after wielding the sceptrefor twenty years, he had died in 954—it remained in abeyance.Alberic's mantle, as head of Rome, descended upon his sonOctavian, a mere boy. Octavian, in spite of his youth, however, was soon made Pope under the name of John XII. , thuscombining in his person the sovereignty of Rome and thespiritual headship of Christendom. His great ambition wasto increase his tempóral power in Italy, but in this he wasthwarted by Otto's old enemy and vassal Berengar. At thistime Berengar and his son Adalbert were in possession of theExarchate of Ravenna, and the dukes of Tuscany, to whichthe pope also laid claim, did them homage.Pope John looked around for allies, and, finally, fixed hishopes on the German King. Otto had again broken withBerengar, and in 956 had sent his son Liudolf to Italy, promising him the crown of that fair land if he could win it.Liudolf within two years had subjected nearly the whole ofthe so-called Italian kingdom-the present Tuscany andLombardy. The " path was open to Olympus, " as a monkof the time has expressed it, when the heir to the Germanthrone was attacked by fever and died. All the advantageswon over Berengar were lost, and the Pope once moretrembled before him. He felt himself insecure even in hisown Eternal City.It was then that John decided to summon Otto's aid and todazzle him with the prospect of the imperial crown. Ottowas won by the lure, and the first steps were taken towardsthat union with Italy that was to cost the nation so dear.Otto made hasty preparations for his expedition. His sonOtto was elected and crowned co-regent, Bruno was to upholdOTTO THE GREAT AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS. 137the royal rights in Lorraine, and William of Mayence totransact the daily business of the realm. In the autumn of961, the king crossed the Brenner.Berenger had raised an army of 60,000 men, but at thedecisive moment his troops refused obedience.Otto wasable to enter Pavia unmolested and to pursue his way toRome. In February, 962, he received the crown in St. Peter's His Imperialfrom the Pope's hand.It was not altogether without fear that Otto had enteredRome. His sword-bearer had orders to watch while the kingknelt before the grave of the apostle, and to hold his weaponin readiness. The fickleness of the Romans was well knownto Otto, also, to some extent, the character of the Pope. Johnwas obliged to swear by the holy bones of St. Peter that hewould never make common cause with Otto's enemies, Berengarand Adalbert.The price to be paid to the Pope for Otto's newdignity wasto be the provinces held by the two Italians. These were asyet unconquered, but a deed of gift was drawn up concerningthem which is still extant. Written upon purple parchmentin letters of gold, it has withstood the ravages of time. Itsgenuineness, long doubted, has been re- vindicated in our ownday.coronation,962 A.D.The " Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation " as Refoundingfounded by Otto the Great, was to continue for eight hundred ofthe empire.and forty four years. Only for short intervals was the throneever to be vacant, although in the sixteenth century the Pope'sinfluence in the matter of its disposal was to fall into abeyance.In the time of our own grandfathers it came to an end, andthe Austrian Empire, the anomalous kingdoms of Napoleon,and the North German Confederation rose on its ruins.For two weeks after Otto's coronation harmony lasted Otto and thebetween the heads of Christendom. The Pope approved of Pope.the emperor's plan of changing Madgeburg into an archbishopric with many suffragan bishoprics. The details of thematter were arranged in a Roman synod and made known tothe German clergy by a papal bull. But John soon found138 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.John XII's deposition.Chargesagainst Pope John.that Otto was playing by far too important a rôle in Italy,was winning over the bishops by rich donations, and wastreating the provinces that he conquered completely as his own.The Pope did not hesitate to commence negotiations withBerengar and Adalbert. The same messengers who broughtnews of this turn of affairs had much to say about John'sungodly manner of life. Otto was little affected by either ofthese communications, and is said to have remarked withregard to the charges of immorality: " He is a boy, theexamples of good men will improve him."But one day papal ambassadors were arrested at Capuawith letters to the Greek Emperor and to the Hungarians.John confessed his treasonable intents in part, but madecounter-charges against Otto which the latter condescended toexplain away. The crisis, however, was not long in coming.Adalbert was received within the walls of Rome and warmlywelcomed by the Pope. Otto marched against the city, whichhe took without difficulty. The Pope fled with Adalbert.The Romans were made to give hostages and to swear neveragain to instal anyone as pope whose election should not havebeen confirmed by the emperor and his son. Such an influenceas this did Otto win over the Roman Church! The popesbecame his creatures and he their judge.A synod was summoned over which Otto presided. It waswell attended. Three archbishops and thirty-eight bishopscame together in St. Peter's. All the clergy of Rome and theofficials of the Lateran were present, also many nobles and theRoman soldiery.Otto refrained at first from bringing his own causes ofcomplaint before the synod. He wished John's ruin, but thePope's daily manner of living was enough to condemn him. Along list of sins was brought up against him, and his contemptfor the canons of the Church was clearly proven. He had drunkthe devil's health, and had invoked heathen gods while playingdice. He had chosen a ten year old boy as bishop of Todi andhad given a deacon his consecration in a horse's stall. He hadlived like a robber-chief, and an impureand unchasteoneat that.OTTO THE GREAT AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS. 139The synod summoned John to answer the charges againsthim. He replied by banning the bishops who had taken part inthe proceedings. A second summons was likewise disregarded.At the third session of the synod Otto came forward asaccuser and declared the pope a perjured traitor, who hadconspired with the enemies of the empire. John's depositionwas agreed upon and a new pope elected, but it was somemonths before the matter came to a settlement. John hadfound adherents in the city, but died just as Otto waspreparing to crush him.Leo and Benedict.The Romans disregarded Otto's pope, Leo, and elected the The Popescardinal deacon, Benedict. The result was a siege of Rome, afamine in the city, and a capitulation. Again a synod andagain a triumph for the emperor. Benedict appeared beforethe assembly and begged for mercy. Clad in the papal robesand holding the bishop's staff he had come to the synod. Heleft it stripped of his pallium, his staff in pieces, himself aprisoner. He was to die in captivity at Hamburg. The lasthopes for the Romans of freeing the papacy had proved invain. One German after another now ascended the throne ofPeter.Otto's last years were spent partly in administering theaffairs in his own land, partly in trying to preserve quiet andto increase his power in Italy. On Margrave Gero's death, in965, in order that no one man should again have such a preponderating influence in Saxony, his district was divided intosix parts with each a separate margrave. Lorraine, too, wasdivided into an upper and a lower duchy, and these parts werenot again to be reunited.Otto's mere reappearance in Rome sufficed to quell aninsurrection against his pope. He then proceeded to fulfil thepromise once made to Pope John XII. All of its earlierpossessions were restored to the chair of Peter, although theimperial rights in the ceded districts seemed to have been preserved. Otto, for instance, built a palace near Ravenna, wherehe often held his court.Otto now made an effort to reap lasting fruits from all of Otto I. and Otto II.140 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The EasternEmpire.Luitprand's mission.his untiring labours. He wished to secure the empire to hisson, to unite the latter by bonds of marriage to the stillinfluential court of Constantinople, and, finally, to rid Italy ofthe Arabs who had been infesting it for a hundred years.The last of these desires was not to be accomplished either inhis own or in his son's reign. The consent to the imperialcoronation was easily obtained from an obsequious pope, andthe ceremony took place in St. Peter's on Christmas day, 967.The union with the Eastern Empire was only broughtabout after endless negotiations and some bloodshed . Otto,determined to exert pressure on the Greeks, invaded theirpossessions in Apulia and Calabria and besieged Bari. Hesoon withdrew, however, and sent Bishop Luitprand of Cremona at the head of a large embassy to Constantinople.Luitprand was a man of letters and a skilful diplomat, butsomewhat rash and fiery of temper. To him we owe most ofour knowledge of these times; and among his other works isa detailed report, addressed to Otto, of his mission. It is oneof the most attractive writings of the middle ages.¹Luitprand found Nicephorus one of the haughtiest andmost insolent of men, living in a style of great magnificenceand utterly refusing to believe that any power in the worldcould equal his own. He demanded Rome and Ravenna asthe price for the hand of a royal princess, and offered analliance without the marriage if Otto would make Romefree.While Luitprand was detained at the court of Nicephorus,Pope John XIII. sent an embassy to the "Greek emperor."Only the low degree of the envoys saved them from instantdeath, for Nicephorus considered himself the emperor of theRomans, and the only one.Luitprand's mission was a failure. He met with insultsand taunts from the Greeks, and repaid them in kind. Hewas absent so long, virtually a prisoner, that Otto renewedhostilities without awaiting his return. But soon a revolution1 See " Select Documents, " Appendix.OTTO THE GREAT AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS. 141took place in Constantinople. At the instigation of theempress Nicephorus was murdered, and John Zimisces succeeded to his bed and to his throne. Zimisces, surrounded Theophano.by enemies at home, was quite willing to give the hand of aGrecian princess in return for peace in Italy. Theophano,the niece of Zimisces, reached Rome in April, 972 , and waswedded to Otto II. in St. Peter's. She was a gifted creature,and was destined to play a very great part in German affairs .A number of provinces and estates were settled on theyoung bride, and the original of the deed of transfer, drawnup in purple and gold, is extant to- day.to be an In 968 Otto's favourite project of making Magdeburg an Magdeburgarchbishopric, a project which had met with some opposition archin Germany itself, was at last realized. The bishoprics of bishopric.Brandenburg, Havelberg, and Meissen were subordinated tothe new creation, also two new sees, Zeiz and Merseburg, towhich, later, Posen was to be added. A grand centre forcarrying on the conversion of the Slavonians was at last won.Otto's life-work was nearly done. Few German emperors Otto's death.have been able to end their days amid such general prosperityand rejoicing. He was able to take part, in 973, in a seriesof feasts and processions in Saxony, but died at Memlebenbefore the year was out. He had reigned thirty- seven years,and had reached the age of sixty-two. His bones rest in thecathedral of Magdeburg.under Otto I. It remains to say a few words about the social and intel- Social lifelectual life in the reign of Otto the Great, and it must bemembered in this connection that different parts of Germanydiffered much from each other in the degree of their cultureand civilization. There was no general state organization inour sense of the word, and the duchies enjoyed a great degree of independence. The king might demand certainservices of the dukes, but he could not interfere with theadministration of their duchies. Here they were absolutemasters, except when held in check by their local diets.One such assembly in Saxony dared to oppose the wishes142 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Narrowscope of existence.Family life.Religion.of Otto himself, although he represented king and duke inhis own august person. It is questionable whether at anytime in the tenth century a royal or imperial command whichwas contrary to a local law would have been obeyed. Thepeople at this time, as during the next two hundred years,were devotedly true to their dukes. How easily could one ofthem raise an army for his own purposes, and how many ofthe old German songs centre about the beloved person of aduke who, as likely as not, had been a traitor to his king!Cities asWe must remember at every turn how different the peopleof a thousand years ago were from ourselves.centres of trade and commerce had scarcely as yet come intobeing, and the use of money was extremely restricted. Iftaxes or tolls had to be paid they were paid in kind. Thisor that proportion of grain or cloth was subtracted from therest and reserved for the treasury of the king. Even theproduce of the rich estates belonging to the crown was notsold. We know now why it was that the kings of the tenthcentury moved so frequently with their huge followings fromplace to place. It was necessary to consume the products ofthe soil, for they were perishable and not convertible. Amodern historian likens the royal household to a ruminatinganimal that grazes up one pasture after another.Family life, to turn to a special phase of social existence,was a far different conception from what it is now. Amongthe Saxons, Thuringians, and Frisians, marriage seems tohave been purely a business transaction, which was carriedon independently of the wishes of at least one of the partiesconcerned. Fathers could dispose of their daughters at will,and regularly sold them to their future lords. The husbandwas master of his household in the strictest sense of theword, and the women were kept in complete subjection.Conjugal fidelity was a one- sided affair, and the marriagevows were binding only on the wife. The father had a right-how much use he made of it we shall never know-to killhis children or to sell them into captivity.It is possible that religious considerations tempered theOTTO THE GREAT AS EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS. 143brutality of the laws. We know that Otto the Great's agewas one of great piety, not to say superstition. The kinghimself, especially after the death of his first queen, Edith,which event was considered by him a warning to call himto good works, was untiring in furthering missions. Hismother had founded several monasteries, and his daughterherself became abbess of Quedlinburg.Otto's brother Bruno, who was his chancellor and arch- Lorrainechaplain, instituted a far- reaching reform in the church clergy.affairs of Lorraine. He summoned clergy of blameless lifefrom all parts of Germany. Monasteries which had sunkinto decay were purged and regenerated. Old schools werebettered and new ones founded. The Lorraine clergy weremodels for Europe in education, as well as in the proper performance of their duties. Bishops without number werechosen from their midst, and Rheims raised two men fromLorraine in succession on her archiepiscopal throne. Acentury later Rome herself was to choose a pope from thisrich nursery of prelates.The religious life of Otto the Great's age was not without Convenits anomalies. A stiff formalism pervaded this as every other tional ideas.phase of existence. Humility in those chosen to a high position in the Church consisted in a routine of refusing to acceptthe dignity, of fleeing behind the altar, of weeping copioustears, of self-deprecation. Not once but a hundred times dosuch performances meet us in the chronicles, and one case isknown of a regular formula for the proper conduct on suchoccasions. Piety and charitable intent were often measuredby the power to shed tears less or more copiously.The strange belief was almost universal that the end justi- fied the means. We read of housebreakings and robberies,of forgeries and other crimes committed for the sake ofobtaining the relics of this or that saint, and in all the literature of the time we hear no disapproval of such acts exceptfrom the side of the injured parties. On the contrary,biographers frequently praise their heroes for just suchperformances.144 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Art.Classicallearning.Roswitha.An excessive saint worship and an extreme credulity wenthand in hand with such moral ideas. Miracles were thoroughlybelieved in, not as now merely by the ignorant, but by thebest intellects of the time. The more a man could believethe higher was his piety reckoned.In art and literature, Otto's court was the scene of averitable renaissance. Countless miniatures or book illustrations of his time are still preserved. In St. Gall, Treves,Regensburg, and elsewhere, were famous schools for suchornamental work, and the colours used were most brilliantand enduring. Strangely enough they were used withoutany sense for the real fitness of things. Scarlet eagles flythrough cherry clouds, yellow asses pasture in blue fields, andred oxen draw golden ploughs. Towards the end of the century the taste changed and more sombre hues crept in. Ithas been suggested that ascetic views, such as those whichwere so diligently fostered by Otto III. , were responsible forthe transformation.Otto the Great, although personally, as far as we know,without literary tastes, did everything to foster and encouragea revival of classical learning. We hear of an Italian who athis instigation brought a hundred manuscripts over the Alps.Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Terence, Cicero and Sallust arose fromthe dead as it were to a new life in Germany. They foundtheir way into the monasteries and even into the nunneries.Who has not heard of Roswitha, Abbess of Gandersheim,who wrote comedies in the style of Terence, but with the outspoken object of maintaining the field against him? Heraim was " that the praiseworthy chastity of holy virginsshould be celebrated in the same poetic strain in whichhitherto the loathsome incest of voluptuous women has beennarrated." Her works have been published in our own day,and fill a respectable volume.OTCHAPTER XX.OTTO II. AND OTTO III.TTO II. was eighteen years old when his father died. Otto II.Since the age of six he had been king of the Romans,and for five years already he had worn the imperial crown.He was happily married, for Theophano had thoroughly wonhis affections.No immediate disturbance marked the change of rulers,and the solemn circuit of the kingdom was made withoutdelay. But, for many a generation, no German king was torule without shedding of blood, and Otto's turn came soonenough. The sons of Count Reginar of Hennegau-the fatherhad been banished from Lorraine by Otto I.'s brother Brunofor having broken the peace-came back and tried by forceto regain their inheritance. The young emperor took thefield in person against them, and, after besieging them in thecastle of Bossut on the Hayne, put them to flight.But in Bavaria new complications had meanwhile arisen. ConspiracyHere Henry, the brother of Otto the Great, had died in 955, in Bavaria.and his wife Judith had continued to rule in the name of herson, Henry the Quarrelsome. Judith was a most ambitiouswoman, and had brought about marriages between Henryand the daughter of the king of Burgundy, as well as betweenher daughter Hedwig and Duke Hermann of Suabia. Buton Hermann's death, Otto II. conferred his duchy on Otto,son of his own deceased stepbrother Liudolf. Henry theQuarrelsome considered the Bavarian house entitled to Suabia,and, moved by this and other grievances, raised a conspiracyfor the purpose of dethroning the emperor.L146 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Bohemia Dukes Boleslav of Bohemia, and Mesco of Poland, were wonand Poland. for the movement. They were always ready to rebel againsttheir suzerain the German king, and so frequent were theconflicts with them and their successors that the pen wouldweary in narrating them. Bohemia and Poland were on thewhole so wild and uncivilized that the German armies couldpenetrate them with difficulty, and the native forces couldeasily escape.Downfall ofHenry theQuarrel- some.War with France.The result of the present conspiracy was, eventually, thedownfall of Henry the Quarrelsome. In Ratisbon a solemnjudgment was declared against him, and he was deprived ofBavaria, which was given to Otto of Suabia. Not in its fullextent indeed, for a new duchy, Carinthia, was sundered fromit and given to a new duke, called Henry the Younger.The Lorraine rebels had meanwhile allied themselves withKing Lothar of France, and Otto was forced to make a temporary peace that was rather derogatory than otherwise to hisdignity. But it gave him time to put a final end to therebellion in Bavaria, which had been joined in his absence bythe newly created duke, Henry of Carinthia. The two Henrieswere brought before a council of princes at Magdeburg, anddeclared guilty of high treason. They were banished fromthe realm, although Henry the Younger was soon allowed toreturn .The peace with France was soon broken. King Lothar hadrevived the old claims of his house to Lorraine, and marchedwith an army of 20,000 men upon Aix-la-Chapelle. Theunsuspecting emperor was here celebrating the feast of Johnthe Baptist, and knew nothing of the intended invasion until.the advance guard of the enemy came in sight. The verymeal that had been prepared for Otto was consumed by theFrench, and Aix was given up to plunder. The eagle thatadorned the top of the imperial palace was turned towardsthe west in token that the city henceforward belonged toFrance. The proud emblem could soon be restored to itsnatural position, however, for Lothar's army left Aix at theend of three days, never to return.OTTO II. AND OTTO III. 147The French had not proceeded far on their homeward way Otto II.when an imperial messenger overtook them. He had been marches on Paris.sent to announce that Otto, hating subterfuge, wished to givefull warning of an approaching invasion of France. OnOctober 1st the king might expect him.The day appointed saw Otto under way with an army ofunprecedented size, but his expedition was as barren of lastingresults as that of the French king had been. He marcheddirectly upon Paris and struck his camp on the hill of Montmartre. But the city was well defended and the season wasfar advanced. A siege was deemed unadvisable, and Ottoretired after avenging the gyrations of the Aix eagle by ademonstration in kind. He gathered all his clergy togetherand made them sing a Te Deum on the heights of Montmartre.The mocking hymn of victory sounded down through thestreets of Paris. After the hallelujahs had ended he withdrew his troops , the French plundering his rear- guard, indeed,as he went.It was not long before King Lothar, at odds with his cousin Peace withHugo, of Francia, asked forgiveness from the emperor and France.renounced his claim to Lorraine. After a successful expedition against Duke Mesco of Poland, Otto found himself atpeace with all enemies this side of the Alps. France waskept in check by her own internal discords; Poland, Bohemia,and Denmark acknowledged the over- lordship of Germany.Otto, at the height of his fame and popularity, felt that the Southerntime had come for a long- cherished project, the subjugation Italy.of southern Italy.Apulia, Calabria, and Naples were still, nominally, parts ofthe Greek Empire, and received their officials from Constantinople. Capua and Benevento, on the other hand, togetherwith Spoleto and the March of Camerino, had been conferredas a fief by Otto the Great on Duke Pandulf the Ironheaded.The latter had also managed to bring Salerno into subjectionto himself.The Germans and the Greeks were alike threatened by theSaracens or Arabs, who just at this time were greatly ex-148 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Greek- Saracen alliance.Otto'sA.D.tending their influence along the Mediterranean . In 964 theyhad driven the last Greeks out of Sicily, and five years laterhad conquered Egypt and founded Cairo. Since 976 they hadturned their attention to Southern Italy, where the Greekswere too weak to defend their provinces, and where Pandulfwas their only formidable antagonist.The struggle, however, was too unequal, and Otto had longsince determined to come to the aid of his vassal and to ridthe peninsula from the pest of Islam.It was feared at Constantinople, however, and not withoutreason, that not only would the Arabs be driven out but theGreeks also. Of many evils an alliance with the Saracensseemed to be the least. In 981 the great Arab chief AbulKasem girded his loins for another raid, and Otto prepared tomeet him. Envoys from Constantinople came and warnedthe emperor not to put foot on Grecian territory. He refusedto recede and opened the campaign in Apulia. Greekintrigues were probably responsible for the misfortunes thatfollowed.Pandulph had died before the advent of his deliverer, hisextensive possessions were now divided among his sons, andeverywhere discontented factions arose. The emperor had nolonger any firm supporters or allies.In the month of May, 982, Otto marched through themishap, 982 territory of Salerno on his way to Calabria. Near the littletown of Colonne, south of Cotrona, Abul Kasem blocked hisway, and a fierce battle ensued. The onslaughts of theGermans were stubbornly met, but at last Abul Kasem fell andthe Arabs took to flight. But victory made the emperor lesscautious. As he pursued his way along the sea- coast, hemmedin by high hills where the enemy could gather unseen, hiswhole army was surrounded. A scene of wild confusionfollowed; many sank under the sword of the Islamites, otherssought death in the sea, or were captured and sold into slavery.The emperor escaped as by a miracle. He plunged hishorse into the water and reached a ship, which, however,happened to belong to the Greeks. But on board was aThe escape.OTTO II. AND OTTO III. 149friendly Slavonian, who, himself the only one to recognizeOtto, persuaded the crew to steer for Rossano, where theypossibly might procure a ransom for the fugitive. Whentheship landed the Slavonian went on shore and procured arescue party. The emperor was soon out of danger.Otto's prestige had received a blow. The Greeks, who soondissolved their union with the Arabs, remained in possessionof Apulia and Calabria, while the Danes and Wends took thisoccasion to rise in revolt. The Milanese, too, drove out theirarchbishop, and only allowed him to return upon promise ofgreat concessions.The princes of Germany were, however, most true to the Election ofemperor at this juncture. They crossed the Alps at his Otto III .bidding in great numbers, and took part in a diet held atVerona. The diet marks the close union at this time betweenGermany and Italy. The three year old Otto, the emperor'sson, was made king of the Romans on Italian soil. Italianprinces on equal footing with the Germans took part in theelection.Otto proceeded to make preparations on a large scale for a Uprising ofnew war against the Arabs. The Wends meanwhile made the Wends.terrible ravages in Germany. The bishoprics of Havelburgand Brandenburg were annihilated, the archbishopric ofMagdeburg lost half of its provinces, and the Saxon NorthMarch came almost wholly into the enemy's hands.Otto was in Rome at the time and was deeply moved by Death ofthese occurrences. Care and discouragement combined to Otto II . , 983.aggravate an illness that had come upon him. He diedDecember 7th, 983, at the early age of twenty- eight. He wasburied in an antique sarcophagues, over which was placed avase of porphyry. That vase serves to-day as a christeningfont in St. Peter's. The sarcophagus is now a water-troughin the palace of the Quirinal. Sic transit gloria mundi!Upon the death of Otto II. Henry the Quarrelsome of Henry theBavaria executed what to-day would be called a Coup d'État. QuarrelHe had been for five years an exile from his duchy and aprisoner in the hands of the bishop of Utrecht. He nowsome,150 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Theophano andAdelaide.Henry submits.regained his liberty and declared himself regent of thekingdom as the nearest male relative of the youthful Otto III.He secured the person of the king and proceeded to exercisethe government in his name. Nor did he stop here. Hecalled the Saxons nobles together in Magdeburg on PalmSunday and declared his intention of himself assuming thecrown. In Quedlinburg he appeared in royal state and hadhimself addressed as king. Dukes Boleslav of Bohemia andMesco of Poland swore to him the oath of fealty and becamehis firm allies.But Henry had deceived himself as to the strength of theopposition in Germany. Even his own Saxons disapproved ofhis proceedings, and the powerful Archbishop Willigis ofMayence was able to gain one supporter after the other forthe king's mother and grandmother, Theophano and Adelaide.It came to blows between the two rival parties, but Henrysoon saw that, having no strong adherents in any of theduchies, further efforts would be vain. He promised tosurrender his youthful charge. Theophano had meanwhileleft Rome, and in Lombardy had joined Adelaide, whom*otto II. had made vicegerent in Italy. The two womenarrived in time for the diet of Nara, where the matter of theregency was definitely settled (June 29th, 984) . Soon afterwards, at Worms, Henry, pacified by the hope of regainingBavaria, laid his hands in the hands of the baby king andswore allegiance to him.Henry received Bavaria in the following year after arrangements had been made for the compensation of its recent duke.The latter, also named Henry, received a newduchy consistingof Carinthia and the March of Verona.Henry the Quarrelsome had trodden much the same pathas his father, the oft-forgiven brother of Otto I. Like thatturbulent noble, he, too, had come to see that fidelity to hisking was the best and truest policy. He lived for ten yearsafter regaining Bavaria, ten years of such mild and beneficentrule that his name of "6 Quarrelsome " gave place to " Loverof Peace in the mouth of the people. The failure of his "OTTO II. AND OTTO III. 151revolt was looked upon as a judgment of God. Thietmar thechronicler preserves a song about him to the following effect:King Duke Henry fain had been;God in Heaven willed it not. "Theophano carried on the government with great firmness Theoand decision. That she was gifted every one knew; the phano's rule.strength of will and of character that she developed was arevelation. To use the words of Thietmar of Merseburg,66' she led a model life, a thing rare among the Greeks, andwatched with truly manly power over the welfare of her sonand of her kingdom, humbling the proud and exalting thehumble. " Among the " proud " may be reckoned HugoCapet, who, to the exclusion of the last Carolingians, hadswung himself upon the throne of France. He sought butnever gained Theophano's recognition, and at last began toplot with the Greeks to drive the Germans out of SouthernItaly.In 988 Theophano went to Rome and conducted herself inevery way as its ruler. She went so far as to call herself"the emperor" in her charters, which were dated from theyear of her accession. In Rome and Ravenna she held hercourts, and presided over them in person. Her officials weresent even into the patrimony of Peter.Great things were to be hoped for from such a woman hadshe lived, but on the eve of a struggle with Hugo, whileGermany was being harassed by new disturbances among theWends and in Bohemia, she passed away.Mayence.Adelaide, ably seconded by Willigis of Mayence, now Adelaide andundertook the cares of government. Nor were these by any Willigis ofmeans light. Year after year armies had to be despatchedagainst the Wends, until, in 996, a peace was made withthem. The Swedes and Danes, too, constantly plundered theFrisian coasts, and ran their ships into the Elbe and Weser.With his fifteenth year Otto reached the end of his wardship. He was a wonder in the matter of learning and accomplishments; but his education had only served to fill him152 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Otto III. inItaly.Otto III.crownedemperor, 996.St. Adal- bert.with an overweening sense of his own importance. Adelaideand Theophano are somewhat to blame for this result. Theyhad always looked to Otto III. to complete the work begunby his grandfather. The young king's pride and insolenceare said finally to have driven Adelaide from court, and sheended her life in retirement. Willigis, of Mayence, remainedat the head of the royal advisers, and he it was who arrangedOtto's first expedition to Italy.It was high time for interference in that quarter. ThePope, oppressed by the tyrant Crescentius, who was playingthe rôle of a second Alberic, was clamouring for aid. InSouthern Italy Capua had been on the point of throwing offthe German yoke, but had been prevented from doing so bythe counts of Tuscany and Spoleto.In February, 996, the army, which was to escort Otto,assembled at Ratisbon; by Easter the expedition had reachedPavia. Here news was brought of the death of PopeJohn XV. , and in Ravenna envoys from the nobility of Romecame to beg for a new Pope from the hand of the king.Otto named his own cousin, Bruno, who took the name ofGregory V. He was the first German to ascend the papalthrone.On May 21st, 996, the new Pope placed the crown of theempire on the head of the German king.Otto III. , who had thus been raised to the summit ofearthly ambition, was possessed of two souls. The one wasthat of an emperor thirsting for power, longing to surpasshis forerunners in glory and magnificence. The other wasthat of a monk, on whom the movement then going on inthe Church had made the most profound impression. It wasthe time of the growth and prosperity of Cluny, and alliedideas had taken root in Germany. Here they had been fostered, not only in the monasteries, but also among the secularclergy.The man, of all others, whose absolute fearlessness andsincerity captivated the young king, was the Bohemian,Adalbert, whom he met at this time. Adalbert had beenOTTO II. AND OTTO III. 153Bishop of Prague, but, tiring of the world and of its honours,had entered a Roman monastery. Pope Gregory V. orderedhim to return to his bishopric, and he crossed the Alps withOtto and his army, as they were returning from the Italianexpedition.The young emperor became devoted to the saintly bishop.We are told that he had a couch prepared for him near hisown, and that whole nights were spent in confidential talk.An inward voice was constantly calling Adalbert to greatdeeds among the heathen. His old bishopric, refusing toreceive him back, he wandered to the Pomeranians andPrussians, on the coasts of the Baltic. Here he found amartyr's death at the hand of a heathen priest.Otto never forgot his friend. Years afterwards he journeyed as a pilgrim to Gnesen, to the church where Adalbertlay buried. Gnesen itself was raised, by the emperor's wish,to be an archbishopric for Poland. The Adalbert church atAix, which is still standing, was one of Otto's foundations.If Adalbert fostered Otto's monkish tendencies, a man was Gerbert ofnot wanting who was to influence the other side of his Rheims.character, to mould his intellect, and to direct his ambition.This was Gerbert, of Rheims, afterwards Bishop of Ravenna,and finally Pope. At odds with the court and with a partyof the bishops in France, Gerbert willingly accepted aninvitation of Otto III. to come to his court. Otto wrote thathe wished to be cured of the rawness of his Saxon nature,and to have the flame of Greek knowledge fanned to lifewithin him. Contempt for the culture of the Germans couldnot have been more openly expressed.Gerbert came to Otto's court at Magdeburg in 997, andfound the young emperor surrounded by men of science andof wit. The old hall of the imperial castle was the scene oflearned disputations, and Otto himself took pleasure in givingknotty subjects for discussion.These harmless encounters were soon interrupted. Ottowas forced first to make an expedition against the Wends,and then to hurry to Italy. Pope Gregory V. had beenSecond Italian expedition.154 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Otto's asceti- cism.His thirst for glory.driven from Rome. Crescentius had again become master ofthe city, and had begun to make levies on the revenues ofthe Roman church. He soon placed an antipope upon thechair of Peter.Otto responded as promptly as he could to Gregory'sappeals for aid. In February, 998, having been joined bythe fugitive Pope, he appeared with an army before the gatesof Rome. They were quickly opened to him. The antipope,who had sought refuge in a strong tower outside of the city,was soon taken captive and mutilated. Crescentius had fledto the castle of St. Angelo, but that huge fortress did notlong protect him. St. Angelo was stormed and soon surrendered, and the tyrant was beheaded on the castle roof. Hisremains were flung to the pavement below.A year after these events Pope Gregory died, and Gerberttook his place as Sylvester II. Bythis time the monkishside of the emperor's character had grown more and morepronounced. Grief over Adalbert's death, fear of the approaching end of the world, which had been foretold for theyear 1000, as well as other causes, combined to drive himinto extremes of asceticism. As a pilgrim he neared the holyplaces where Adalbert had been. Barefoot he approachedthe cloister of St. Michael on Mount Gargano. At Gaeta hestopped to pray with the hermit Nilus; in Rome he retiredfor a fortnight to a cave near the church of St. Clement.About at this time the names, Servant of the Apostles,""Servant of Jesus Christ," were added to the imperialtitle."It seemed as if the only thing left was for Otto himself tobecome a monk. But the other side of his nature asserteditself in time. He began to make the greatest plans for theextension of his power; nothing short of a world-monarchyseemed likely to satisfy him.In order more firmly to unite Italy and Germany, he placedthe chanceries of the two lands in one hand, that of theArchbishop of Cologne. The imperial titles become morepretentious. The leaden seals of documents issued shortlyOTTO II. AND OTTO III. 155after the fall of Crescentius, bear the emperor's image, andthe words, " Restoration of the Roman Empire. " In hispalace on the Aventine Otto began to unfold an orientalmagnificence. Wondrous were the garments in which hedecked himself, no name was too high-sounding with whichto address him. He was 66 emperor of all emperors,"" " Saxonicus," Romanus," " Italicus." Countless officials , withstrangely sounding titles, surrounded him. Even a navalprefect was appointed, although no fleet was at hand.66The memorable visit to the tomb of Charles the Great, Visits tombwhich took place on Otto's return to Germany, hangs together the Great.of Charleswith these new foibles of Otto III. He wished to feed hiseyes on the form of his great and worthy predecessor. Thevisit made a great impression on the writers of the time; thewildest reports of what the emperor had seen were gravelycirculated, and many fictitious details have been believed inour own day. But any careful historian will assure you thatCharles did not sit upright on a golden throne, that his fingernails had not burst through his gloves, and that Otto did notrepair his nose with a point of gold.In Revolts in Otto's dream of glory was destined not to come true.1001 he returned to Italy, to find the southern half of the Italy.peninsula in open rebellion. Capua and Benevento, Salerno,Naples, and Gaeta shook off the German rule. Even Romewas no longer a safe resting-place for the emperor, whosepalace on the Aventine suffered a three days' siege. He withdrew to Ravenna, and from here made several attempts to retrieve his losses.Meanwhile in Germany the nobles were becoming highlydiscontented with the exclusively Italian policy of their emperor.In the German Church, too, matters took a turn that Condition ofthreatened to bring about such a schism with Rome as already Germany.existed in France. Archbishop Willigis, of Mayence, andBishop Bernward, of Hildeshiem, were in feud concerningGandersheim. The former refused to be bound by thePope's commands, and treated his legate with scorn.156 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Death of Otto III. ,1002.Influence ofItaly on Germany.Condition ofGermany.Otto did not survive the outcome of the struggle; a fever,aggravated by the climate of Italy, carried him away inJanuary, 1002. His dying wish had been that his bonesmight rest near those of Charles the Great, and a number ofbishops and nobles determined to fulfil his last desire. It wasno easy task; the Italians blocked the way, and seven dayswere passed in continual skirmishes. At Easter, finally, theremains of the last male descendant of Otto the Great werelaid in the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle.Under the line of kings that had just ended a nationalconsciousness had developed among the people. Germanythen first was spoken of and regarded as a finite conception;the word " deutsch " begins to appear in the contemporarychronicles.The connection with Rome, so carefully fostered, was toprove disastrous in some ways, but it served to lift Germanyfrom the depths of barbarism, and to make her heir to theculture of the past. One should go to the town of Hildesheim to- day and see the bronze column, the iron doors, andthe other evidences of Italian art as copied or worked over byold Bishop Bernward, the friend of Otto III. They are of abeauty that is simply astonishing. And not only to art butto literature, agriculture, civic life, as well as to religion, anew impulse was given. Roman refinement was grafted onTeuton sturdiness, but Germany stamped her acquisitionswith the mark of her own individuality. Even the Christianity which Rome gave was to assume a loftier character,and was finally to be freed from its trammels.We have arrived, with the death of Otto III. , at a time ofgreat change, at a time when feudalism had swallowed upalmost all the free tillers of the soil; when knights andwarriors had raised themselves to a plane above that on whichordinary men resided; when a population hitherto purelyrural had begun to be enclosed by cities and fortresses withintheir walls.The vassals who had helped Henry I. and Otto the Greatto victory had been richly rewarded. Fief upon fief, soonOTTO II. AND OTTO III. 157about to become hereditary in their families, had been addedto their possessions, and many a fair estate from the crownlands had fallen to their share. The bishops, too, the firmallies of the crown, had not been forgotten; their churcheswere appanaged by vast grants of land, of immunities, and ofprivileges. Otto III. , at last, had placed whole counties undertheir jurisdiction. Had the sacrifices thus made attainedtheir object? The supremacy which Otto I. had won overthe border nations was lost, step by step, by his descendants.The Danes had withdrawn their allegiance; the majority ofthe Wends had thrown off the German yoke; Hungary wasfast becoming independent, and Otto III. , by raising Gnesento an archbishopric, had separated the Polish from the jurisdiction of the German Church. Poland itself was soon toengage in a ten years' war with its suzerain .In France the Carolingians had always sought aid andadvice at the German court, but they had now been supplanted by the Capetians. At the time of Otto III.'s death,too, all Italy was in revolt, and an Arduin of Ivrea stoodready there to play the rôle of another Hugh Capet.Three pretendants.Eckard ofMeissen.Election ofHenry II.SCHAPTER XI.HENRY II. AND CONRAD II.CARCELY had Otto III. been consigned to his gravewhen three men stretched out their hands for the crown.Henry of Bavaria, son of Henry the Quarrelsome, was thenearest male relative of the line that had ended; but heredityalone was not enough, although son had followed upon fatherfor more than three quarters of a century. There failed himthe designation by his predecessor, as well as the consent ofthe nobles. His rivals were Eckart of Meissen, known as abrave warrior, and Hermann of Suabia. Henry was cooland decided in pushing his claim, He it was who receivedOtto's corpse when it arrived in Germany, and arranged allthe details for the burial. He seized the insignia of royalty,and placed under arrest the Archbishop of Cologne who hadwithheld the holy lance.Eckard's candidacy had been much discussed, especially inSaxony. It was felt that a great blow was threatening theSaxon predominance, and that Bavaria should not be allowedto come to the fore.Eckhard himself felt sure of the election . The Bishop ofHildesheim received him with royal honours, although Paderborn refused him entrance, and an ever-increasing party ofbishops and nobles declared against him. He was murderedin the monastery of Pöhlde, where he had taken refuge forthe night. There were not wanting those who accused Henryof Bavaria with complicity in the deed, but history can onlysay “ not proven. ’""Hermann of Suabia had raised an army to oppose Henry,HENRY II. AND CONRAD II. 159but the latter gained the mastery at every point, and, littleby little, all the powers in Germany bowed before him. OnJune 7th, 1002, he was elected at Mayence, and, on the sameday, anointed and crowned by . Archbishop Willigis. TheSaxons had not participated in the election, but, in returnfor various concessions, made their submission six weekslater. The Thuringians were won by the remission of a taxon swine, which they had been paying ever since the timeof the Merovingians-ever since the days of Theuderich, theson of Clovis.Hermann of Suabia made his formal submission in theautumn of 1002, and was treated with leniency. He wasallowed to retain the duchy of Suabia, as well as his fiefsof the crown.His position on the throne once secured, Henry II. took upwith zeal the tasks incumbent on a mediæval sovereign, andstrove to carry them through with patience and perseverance.In addition to the cares of administration, there was a Polishduke with Pan- Slavic aspirations to be warred with repeatedly, Italy to be reduced to subjection, and a number ofstruggles to be carried on with recalcitrant vassals and tributary princes. There was, moreover, the crown of the empireto be gained, and, finally, a reform in the Church to be carriedthrough. Like a second Charlemagne, Henry marched to andfro in his kingdom, now on his eastern, now on his westernboundary, always on the alert, yet sparing time to pass andenforce various salutary measures.Henry II.and the problems ofhis reign.On a seal issued in the first year of Henry's reign stand Restores the words " Restoration of the Frankish Kingdom." Inwardly order.and outwardly he strove to gain this end. He attempted togovern on legal principles, to strengthen the crown by wiseinstitutions. Protection was granted the lower classes; alaw was passed providing against the sale of slaves to Jewsor heathen.The Ottos had failed through a too great absolutism.Henry made his measures dependent on the consent of hisnobles-hence the unusual number of diets and other assem-160 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Warsagainst Boleslav of Poland.These warsinglorious.blies that took place in his reign. Not that his will wassubservient to theirs; when occasion demanded he could bestern enough, and could let his princes know, as a chroniclerexpresses it, that they "must bow before the fountain ofjustice." Numerous are the feuds which he put down, andthe disturbers of the peace whom he reduced to order. Thefirst examples of the so- called " Landfrieden,” or “ peace ofthe land " -local regulations for the restraint of feuds—datefrom his reign; the faint beginnings of written law are hereto be found.In Duke Boleslav of Poland Henry found a powerful andindefatigable enemy. Although a man of violent and tyrannical nature, Boleslav had compelled his people to acceptChristianity, and with it something of German culture. Hehad introduced to some extent an army organization intoPoland, and had protected the kingdom from the attacks ofthe Russians on the one hand, and the Bohemians on theother. He had conquered Pomerania and Prussia, Silesiaand Moravia, and, on the death of Eckart of Meissen, whohad always strongly defended his boundaries, had possessedhimself of Eckart's Mark, and even of the town itself ofMeissen. A party of the Bohemians had invited his interference in the affairs of that land too, and, in the end, he hadcaused himself to be solemnly proclaimed Duke of Bohemia.He had felt himself so powerful that, without troubling hissuzerain the king of the Germans, he had sent to the Popeand asked that he might be presented with a royal crown.Henry's wars against Boleslav were, on the whole, inglorious, for he never really subjected his great vassal, althoughagain and again returning to the charge. One measure of histhat shocked the clergy, and might have lost him their goodwill, had he not thrown a sop to them by his zeal in thematter of restoring the bishopric of Merseburg, was analliance against the Poles with the heathen Lutitii, a tribeof Wends to whom he expressly allowed the practice of theirrites . He showed in this way a political wisdom such as wedo not again meet before the time of Frederick II,HENRY II. AND CONRAD II. 161with the heathen.By this alliance not only were bounds set to Boleslav's Allianceaggressions, but direct furtherance was given to the causeof Christianity. The bishops of Brandenburg and Havelburg who had long been kept from entering their dioceseswere allowed to return in peace. By the peace of Bautzen,closed in 1005 , Boleslav was bereft of one at least of thefruits of his victories . He seems to have renounced Bohemia, where indeed he was no longer wanted, and the possession of which he never regained.In 1007 Henry sent an unsuccessful expedition against Poland; in 1009 he led one, with like results, himself. In1013 a new peace was concluded, as Henry was eager for anItalian expedition, Boleslav for a war against the Russians.Boleslav did homage at Merseburg.Two years later a new series of wars was begun whichlasted until 1018, when a peace was concluded at Bautzenwhich was highly favourable to Boleslav. He was evenallowed to keep Lusitania, the latest of his conquests.Polish His project, indeed, of founding a great Slavic empire had Decline offailed, although shortly before his death he assumed, unopposed, the dignity of King of Poland.Henry II.'s successor, Conrad, be it here remarked, tookup the struggle with Boleslav's sons. He was more successful than Henry had been, and in 1031 a peace was concludedby which Mesco of Poland gave up Lusitania. Mesco diedthree years later, after having renounced the title of king,and having done homage to Conrad. His son Casimir wasunable to cope with the different factions in Poland itself,and was driven from the land. Boleslav's once powerfulkingdom had by this time lost all its prestige; the supremacyamong the Slavic lands on Germany's border was to pass tothe Bohemians.power.and Arduin ofIvrea.Arduin of Ivrea, to return to the reign of Henry II. , proved Henry II .a far less formidable enemy than the Polish duke. He hadtaken the crown of Italy at Pavia in February, 1002, andHenry, almost immediately after his own accession, had dispatched Otto of Carinthia with a small army against him.M162 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry, King of Italy.Henry made emperor.Otto was defeated, his army being surprised and put toflight.It was more than a year before Henry, who was occupiedin putting down one of the inevitable conspiracies with whicheach German king in turn had to cope, could proceed to thechastisem*nt of Arduin. But by April, 1004, his army hadreached Trent; it soon stormed a pass leading to the valley .of the Brenta, and succeeded in spreading panic amongArduin's troops.Brescia, Bergamo, and Pavia opened their gates to Henry,and in the latter place he was crowned King of Italy. Hewas the first of the German kings to insist on this ceremony,the right of the Lombards to bestowtheir crown having neverhitherto been acknowledged. Pavia had to suffer for harbouring the new King of Italy. A revolt which broke outagainst the Germans was put down with a hand of iron. Thecity was reduced to ashes, and thousands perished in theflames.These events cowed the Italians, and the cities of Tuscanysent in their submission.It was nine years before Henry again entered Italy. Bythat time conflicts with his own nobles had led him to feelthat the prestige to be gained by winning the imperial crownwould strengthen his position in Germany, while an understanding with the Pope might further his influence with theclergy. Arduin of Ivrea, moreover, although no longer at thehead of a large following, was stirring once again; not tomention a minor revolt under the Archbishop of Ravenna.Henry found a strong party among the lesser prelates, aswell as among the cities, which at this time were rising intoprominence. Pisa, Venice, and Amalfi vied with each otherin extending their commerce. Florence was just startingon her grand career, while Genoa took the lead in developing the institutions which brought about civic freedom. Thesenew-formed powers, fearing for their existence if they shouldfall into the hands of the nobles, declared for the German king.From the Pope there was little to fear. Benedict VIII.HENRY II. AND CONRAD II. 163was too unsure of his own position, oppressed as he was, onthe one hand, by the sons of Crescentius, who had hithertodisposed of the tiara at will, on the other by the Greeks, whohad awaked to new aggressions in Southern Italy. Benedict'sonly wish could be to welcome Henry should he come as afriend. No sooner had the king recognized him as the truePope, than he offered to throw open the gates of Rome andto present him with the imperial crown.All this had been arranged before Henry's advent. In Coronation1013, then, the latter crossed the Alps, and advanced in ceremony.triumph as the acknowledged champion of the Church. AtRavenna Benedict met him, and a synod was held by Popeand King in common. A new era of prosperity seemed inprospect; evils were condemned, old wounds healed, and forgotten ordinances called to remembrance. From Ravennathe Pope hastened to Rome to prepare for the reception ofhis exalted guest. On February 14th, 1014, the coronationceremony was performed in St. Peter's, the queen also beinganointed and crowned.mits.The new emperor returned triumphant to Germany, and by Arduin subWhitsuntide was already in Bamberg. Arduin, to be sure,had not been subjected, and continued to unfurl the standardof revolt; but he soon saw that his cause was hopeless, and,sick in soul and body, retired to a cloister, and became amonk. His sons tried in vain to prolong the fight, but wereunable seriously to trouble the king's peace of mind.Henry now ruled Italy in peace by means of his officialsDisputes among Italian nobles were settled at the Germancourt; on German ground Italian bishops were invested withtheir office, and did homage for their fiefs . Many Germanswere promoted, too, to these rich and popular sees . Sevenyears after his coronation as emperor Henry again enteredItaly. Pope Benedict had long been struggling with theGreeks and Arabs. He had been aided in 1016 by fortyNorman knights returning from the Holy Land. For thefirst time the future lords of Southern Italy had set theirfoot on the land which was to become their own.Henry's rule in Italy.164 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Efforts to reform the Church.Henry II. ,"the Saint."There was urgent need of Henry's presence; Salerno hadwithdrawn from the obedience of the empire, and the goldenkey of Capua had been sent as a token of submission to Constantinople. The two principalities were recovered, but theGreeks were not dislodged from Southern Italy and the expedition as a whole cost far too dear. The plague broke out,and many of the Germans were carried away.The intercourse with the Pope had again been most friendly,and a grand project of reform had been drawn up. Howseldom in the course of history shall we meet again withsuch unity of interests between the heads of Christendom!Chief among the evils that had crept in to the Latin Churchat this time were simony and marriage of priests. The buying and selling of Church offices had become an habitualpractice in high as well as in low places, while the clergy, inLombardy especially, openly took unto themselves wivesand provided for their children out of the Church lands .Heresy and schism, too, were rampant at this time, and therewere prelates both in Italy and in Germany who had practically seceded from Rome.Henry furthered the Pope's efforts with might and main.The decrees issued against the marriage of priests at a councilheld in Pavia were supplemented bylaws pronouncing secularpunishments against those who disregarded them. Freebornwomen who married unfree priests were to be publicly whippedand banished.It was Henry's merits as a reformer as well as his generalattitude of benefactor towards the Church that caused him tobe called " the saint " by his contemporaries, and, twenty-twoyears after his death, to be actually canonized by PopeEugene III.Seldom was a monarch more conscientious in performinghis religious duties, more punctilious in following out the prescriptions of the Church. He was thoroughly pious by nature,and was strongly imbued with the strict principles of Cluny.Abbot Odilo was his constant adviser, Abbot Poppo of Stablohis right hand in church administration.HENRY II. AND CONRAD II. 165With astonishing liberality Henry acceded to the demandsof his bishops. Rents, tolls, and mint-monies were givenover to them in plenty. But he was determined to havereform, and never were synods held in such numbers.Henry drew the clergy closer and closer to him. They Henry andwere his allies, political as well as spiritual. They were the the clergy.bone and sinews of his government. He, for his part,entered into their brotherhoods and communities, fell on hisface at their feet, and entreated them, if need be; but at thesame time showed them more clearly than any king, sincethe time of Charlemagne, that he expected them to do theirduty both to Church and State. He did not hesitate onoccasion to annul charters of his predecessors, or to curtailtheir deeds of gift. The monasteries, especially, felt hischastening hand. In 1004 Hersfeld was deprived of estatesand privileges, and many monks were banished; a new andsterner abbot brought the rest to submission. Reichenau,Fulda, and Corvei were also severely disciplined, while St.Maximin, near Treves, was made to surrender 200,000 acresof land to the crown. When Bamberg was founded in 1007,five abbies lost their independence in a single day.This bishopric of Bamberg is the spot, of all others, thatis most intimately associated with the memory of Henry II.to-day. The splendid cathedral, which now stands there, wasbuilt by him, and the two great bells that surmount theedifice have been named for him and his queen, Henry andKunigunde. By the foundation of this See, the countryaround was transformed from a scarcely inhabited waste, toa flourishing and populous district. Forests were cut away,the land tilled and cared for. Here, too, art and sciencefound a congenial home.The founding of a bishopric, a suitable diocese for whichcould only be formed by curtailing the possessions of surrounding bishops, was no easy matter; but a synod atFrankfort was finally induced to give a written pledge ofconsent to the project. The Bishop of Wurzburg, indeed,persisted in his opposition for a year, but was finally broughtFounding of Bamberg.166 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Struggle with Ariboof Mayence.Henry's death, 1024 A.D.Conrad II. ,1024-1037.to terms. The consecration of the cathedral in 1012 wassolemnized with the utmost magnificence.Henry was never weary of bestowing gifts and privilegeson his new creation. A number of manuscripts from thelibrary, which he founded at Bamberg, have been preserved.One great hindrance to Henry's project of a great reformon Cluny principles, was the attitude taken towards themovement by no less a personage than the Archbishop ofMayence. The struggle with Aribo darkened the last yearsof the monarch's life, and prevented many of his measuresfrom being carried through. Aribo wanted reform, indeed,but he wanted it brought about in his own way. His highhanded actions brought him into conflict with the Pope, asas well as with the emperor. In 1023 he called together asynod at Seligenstadt, where, among other decrees, one wasdrawn up to the effect that no one should appeal to Romewithout consent of his bishop; that papal absolution, indeed,was invalid, so long as the delinquent had not fulfilled thepenance which that bishop had laid upon him.It seemed as though the proud archbishop, full of personalgrievances against the Pope, who had withdrawn his pallium,were about to draw a large part of the German church awayfrom its obedience to the See of Rome. Aribo went so far asto summon a national council, which, however, degeneratedinto a synod of the diocese of Mayence.Death put an end to all these complications. The year1024 saw pope and emperor both consigned to their polishedtombs, and the struggle was not continued by Aribo againsttheir successors.Henry II. left no male heir. Once more it devolved on thenobles to elect a king. Their choice was a singularly fortunate one.Conrad II. , although he performed no one great deed, andengaged in no one great struggle, brought the medievalGerman empire to a high-some think to its highest-pitchof greatness and prosperity. He was capable and cool-HENRY II. AND CONRAD II. 167headed, diplomatic, and ready to take advantage of everyopportunity that offered .His personality, we use the words of a modern historian,' His per-"is seen in its true light, if we compare it to that of his imme- sonality.diate predecessors. This Rhenish freeman remained entirelyuntouched by the power ofthe priestly ideas which hadseized upon the dynasty of the Ottos, with a force which wenton increasing from member to member. In Conrad II. thereappears again at the head of the nation, for the first timeafter a long pause, a true German character, the warlike andjustice-dispensing layman, as he had developed up to thistime. He himself is one of the most remarkable representatives of this class; brave, skilled in the law, a master innegotiation and in oratory, a protector of the church, yet asking mistrustful against her, self- confident and relentless. AFrench observer betokens him as a man of intellectual boldness, of mighty bodily power, but of wavering fidelity." AsHercules and Ulysses in one, the same writer goes on to describe him.Conrad was able to display his talents in the very assemblythat raised him on the throne. (Sept. 4, 1024.)Conrads.He himself was a descendant of Otto I.'s daughter and of The twothat Conrad who, finally, had atoned for a series of wrongdoings by his bravery and death on the plains of the Lech.But there was another descendant of Otto, called Conrad theyounger, who also appeared in the meeting at Gamba (onthe right bank of the Rhine, near Mayence) , as candidate forthe throne. The elder Conrad had managed to come to anagreement with his rival before the voting took place.Exactly what promises he made will never be known. Certainit is that he induced his cousin to acquiesce peaceably in hisown election. Equally certain is it that he later did not keephis promise.The first, and practically the decisive vote for Conrad, hadbeen given by Archbishop Aribo, of Mayence. We find theInfluence of bishops.1 Nitsch.168 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Conrad II.in Italy.Imperial coronation,1026 A.D.bishops henceforth playing the leading part in every election.Aribo showed his independence—he had shown it, as we haveseen before- by refusing to crown Conrad's queen, Gisela, onthe ground that her marriage was not valid. She was boundto her husband by ties of blood closer than those which theChurch allowed.The Archbishop of Cologne was induced to perform thedesired function. Conrad seems to have borne no malice toAribo, who proved his ally in many ways.A favouring providence seems to have watched overConrad II.'s reign, and to have allowed him to complete theundertakings of his predecessors. We have seen how hesucceeded in bringing the Polish difficulties to a happy conclusion, whereby the disunity and weakness of the Polesthemselves played no inconsiderable part.In Italy Conrad ruled as no German prince had ruled formany a long day. Immediately after Henry II.'s death areaction had here taken place, and a number of nobles hadheaded a rebellion. The palace of the German emperors inPavia was laid in ruins, and the crown of Italy offered toKing Robert of France, who, although hostile to the Germans,refused it, and then to William of Aquitaine.Conrad was detained at first by an easily quelled insurrection on his western border in which the French king, Baldwinof Flanders, Odo of Champagne, the dukes of Upper andLower Lorraine, Conrad the younger and Ernest of Suabia,Queen Gisela's son by a former marriage, were concerned.He was able, however, early in 1026 to appear in Italy, andhe devoted more than a year to restoring order and discipline.On reaching Milan, he was crowned by Archbishop Aribertwith the Lombard crown.Pavia was besieged and taken, and the citizens of Ravennareduced to subjection. In Rome, Conrad was well receivedby Pope John XIX. who placed upon his head the crown ofthe empire. Magnificent was the coronation ceremony, andthe occasion was graced by the presence of Odilo of Cluny, ofRudolf of Burgundy, and of Canute of England. Canute,HENRY II. AND CONRAD II. 169already lord of two great kingdoms and soon to be lordof a third, had been willing and eager to close an alliancewith the German king. The bonds of friendship were laterto be drawn still tighter by the marriage of Gunhild, Canute'sdaughter, and Henry, Conrad's son.It is true Conrad renounced some of the rights and possessions of Germany in order to gain this new friend. The Markof Schleswig was ceded to Denmark, which was to hold ituntil in our own days, and the Danes became absolutely independent of Germany. But on one border at least Conrad'skingdom was now secure from invasion.While Conrad was in Italy, Ernest of Suabia, who in cha- Ernest ofracter was a second Lucifer, again raised the standard of Suabia.revolt. Conrad the Younger aided the movement. AlthoughSuabia was soon a hotbed of rebellion, Conrad's reappearanceafter his successful expedition served at once to restore quietand order. Duke Ernest surrendered and was taken to thecastle of Giebichstein on the Saale. Conrad the Younger wascalled to strict account, his best fortresses rased to theground, his property confiscated , and he himself placed underarrest.It was the tragic and loyal death of Ernest of Suabia three Ernest'syears later, which has endeared him to German hearts and tragic death.rendered him so popular a hero of German song. Conrad hadreleased him from Giebichstein, and even reinstated him in hisduchy of Suabia. But when, in 1030, the emperor requiredhim to pursue, as a state enemy, his own close friend theadventurous Werner of Kyburg, the fiery duke promply refused. Conrad determined on Ernest's ruin. His goods wereconfiscated, the ban of the church and that of the empire alikewere spoken against him. Ernest was soon at the end of hisresources; he retired to that rocky fortress of Falkenstein,the ruins of which are so well known. Thither he was trackedand made to turn at bay. He came forth to meet the troopsof the emperor and fell fighting in their midst. Future generations forgot that he had been a rebel and only rememberedhis unswerving devotion to his friend.170 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Conrad joinsthe empire.Conrad II.'s chief title to fame rests on the fact that underBurgundyto his reign the rich and fertile kingdom of Burgundy was joinedto the Holy Roman Empire, in the possession of which it wasto remain for centuries. Burgundy extended from the sourcesof the Saone to the Mediterranean, and from the Jura mountains to the Western Alps. It controlled several of the greatpasses into Italy, and contained cities such as Lyons, Marseilles, Basle, and Geneva, important then as now.Retrospect as to Burgundy.Conrad and Burgundy.Henry II. as the son of Gisela, oldest sister of Rudolph III. ,considered himself the prospective heir to the Burgundianthrone. But the nobles of that land clamoured for the rightof electing whom they pleased should the throne becomevacant. There were candidates enough, among them Ernestof Suabia, who also could show descent from the royal Burgundian house. It was these unacknowledged claims thateventually had first brought Ernest into conflict withConrad II.All the real power in Burgundy seems to have been in thehands of the nobles and not of the king. Rudolph saw himself so oppressed in 1016 that he concluded to abdicate infavour of Henry II. The act was fulfilled at Strasburg atWhitsuntide and one party of the nobles did homage to thenew king. But another party, under Otto William, the grandson of that Berengar who had ruled Italy in the time of OttoI., flew to arms and held its own against Henry for manymonths. To add to the difficulties of the situation Rudolph,weak and vacillating, retracted, renewed, and again retractedhis deed of gift. Henry then turned his weapons against hisuntrustworthy uncle and the war, begun in 1018, draggedon until 1023 when Henry seems to have dropped hisclaim to immediate rule, but not that to the ultimate succession.When Henry II. died and Conrad succeeded him, Rudolphand his nobles considered the compact as to the successiondissolved. Rudolph declared that he had intended to leaveBurgundy to Henry as his nephew, not as emperor of Germany. Conrad, however, had no intention of looking atHENRY II. AND CONRAD II. 171matters in this light. He hastened to Basle, took the city,and even held a diet there.King Rudolph died in September, 1032, and the insignia ofroyalty were sent to Conrad. But a large party of the Burgundians preferred a weak French noble to a powerful German emperor and called in Odo of Champagne.Conrad's adherents formally elected him King of Burgundyin Basle in 1033. He had already succeeded by negotiation inturning away from Odo the sympathies of the French crown,which at this time was in the hands of the feeble young king,Henry. Therewith the outcome of the struggle was decided.The fight with Odo continued for two years, but at the end ofthat time the proud noble was brought to terms, and theunion of Burgundy with Germany was consummated.Since Charles the Great, no sovereign had possessed suchpower as Conrad II. In addition to Germany, Burgundy andItaly were under his sway, and no rival any longer threatenedhis borders.And not only by acquiring territory did he aid the develop- Conrad's inment of the empire. He carefully watched the signs of the ternal policy.times and acted accordingly. Instead of opposing the growing desire of the lesser nobles to have their fiefs made hereditary, he encouraged it. He established for all time inGermany the principle that the son might quietly succeed tothe fiefs of the father if he were willing and able to performthe duties which the possession of those fiefs implied. In thisway he won to a high degree the love of his vassals, andgained a new support for the crown, the value and importanceof which cannot be over- estimated. The most humble vassalcould henceforth appeal against an unjust lord without thefear that that lord might vent his anger by dispossessing him.In some ways Conrad was far from being as devoted a son Conrad andof the Church as Henry II. or the Ottos had been. Heruled the Church.the clergy with a rod of iron. The bishoprics were filledfrom purely political motives, while the missions in the northwere either entirely neglected, or left to the more zealous careof the king of Denmark.172 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Conflict with Aribert of Milan.Conrad's laws forItaly.Failure of Aribert'sconspiracy.But Conrad built churches of a size and magnificencehitherto unknown in Germany. The cathedral of Spires wasbegun by him, and was completed mainly in accordance withhis plans. The abbey of Limburg, too, dates from his time.The final episode of Conrad II.'s reign was the strugglewith Archbishop Aribert of Milan. Aribert had been foremost among the Italians in his loyalty to the emperor. Heit was who first urged upon Conrad the necessity for an expedition to Italy. He had . crowned him with the Lombardcrown, and had accompanied him to Rome. He had personally assisted in the Burgundian war.But Aribert wished above all things to secure for his seeand for the teachings of St. Ambrose a boundless sway inItaly. His ambitious plans caused him to unite with thecapitanei, or greater vassals of the crown in Lombardy, againstthe valvassores, or sub-vassals. The same conflict here wasgoing on as in Germany, the same desire for heredity of fiefswas everywhere apparent. Aribert and his allies opposedthe movement; dispossession was their favourite means ofcoercion.Conrad II. , who is said to have announced that " if theItalians were thirsting for laws he would immerse them inthem," published a series of regulations which, fortunatelyfor our understanding of these matters, may still be read intheir original form. The valvassors were granted the protection of the law against their oppressors. Fiefs were to behereditary, and might not be withdrawn from anyone saveby sentence passed in an assembly of his peers. The right ofdirect appeal to the emperor was expressly emphasized.Aribert was called to account for certain high- handedmeasures, and was required to restore some fiefs already confiscated. He refused in scorn and anger, and was takenprisoner by Conrad. Escaping from his captivity he raisedall Milan in rebellion against the emperor. The result was asiege of Milan, a bloody battle, and the deposition of Aribert.The latter retaliated by instigating a far- reaching conspiracy.Italy was to be entirely freed from the German yoke, and theHENRY II. AND CONRAD II . 173crown was offered to Odo of Champagne who accepted it andhastened to his favourite game of war forthe purpose ofmaking secure his new acquisition. He lost his life, however,in a skirmish with the Lorraine contingent that was leviedagainst him.Milanese.The leaders in the conspiracy were sent into exile, andAribert lost all of his allies. His faithful Milanese, indeed, Aribert and the still held out, but were no longer formidable, and were notdeemed worthy any more of the emperor's personal attention.They did not desert the proud archbishop even when the Pope,in 1038, publicly excommunicated him. Aribert it was whofirst organized in Milan a city militia into which all classes ofthe population, all the male inhabitants of the surroundingdistrict, were drawn. The institution soon spread to the othercities of Lombardy. Aribert, too, first gave the Milanesetheir caroccio, a car with a mast, and on it a crucifix and astandard, which was to be the rallying point in desperatebattles, and was to typify civic liberty.1039.In the midst of the demonstrations against Milan word was Death ofbrought that Conrad II. had died (June 4th, 1039) and that Conrad II. ,Henry III. , a youth of twenty-two, who already duringConrad's life-time had been elected king, had succeeded to thethrone. The hostilities were at once suspended, for it wasknown that Henry's views differed widely from those of hisfather in all church matters, and especially as regarded thestruggle with Aribert. And the latter, to be sure, was soonpardoned and reinstated in his archbishopric, and in all hisdignities.Henry III. ,1039-1056. NCHAPTER XII.HENRY III. AND THE EARLY REIGN OF HENRY IV.EVER had a king of the Romans fallen heir to suchpower as was Henry's on his accession. He succeededwithout even the customary conspiracy of nobles to the royalpower in Italy, Burgundy, and Germany. Never were theprinces, although only for the time being, more subject to thecrown and the clergy more dependent on it . The duchiesseemed to have lost their old predominance; Bavaria, Suabia,and Franconia were all in the hands of the crown, while inSaxony Henry possessed an all- powerful ally in the person ofArchbishop Adalbert of Bremen.Of neighbouring powers none was strong enough to excitea fear. Canute of Denmark had passed away, and his sonswere fighting among themselves over their inheritance. Francewas suffering under the weakest of kings, while in Rome avicious and insignificant Pope sat on the chair of Peter.Only on the eastern boundary were complications to arise, andthese were to be settled without all too great difficulty, except inthe case of Hungary. Seventeen years later, when Henry III.died, all was changed. The empire, as is now generally recognized, was then already on its downward way. Henry hadsucceeded in estranging his nobles, the lesser as well as thegreater, while his policy had raised the self- confidence of theclergy, and had tended to increase immeasurably the powerof the Pope. His piety, too, had induced him to give upsimony, and to renounce the not inconsiderable revenues thathad regularly accrued to the crown from the sale of ecclesiastical preferments. The latest authorities for the history ofHENRY III. AND THE EARLY REIGN OF HENRY IV. 175these times see in this a weakening of the kingly authority, atriumph for the Church.And yet Henry III.'s reign has hitherto been consideredone of the most glorious in the history of mediaval Germany.This is partly owing to the fact that the writers of the timebelonged to the clergy, and that the prosperity of the Churchhad indeed reached its culmination. Never did it rejoice insuch broad possessions, or in such far-reaching privileges.The bishops of Italy exercised undisturbed the regalia, orroyal rights, which were soon to go over to the cities. Therichest sees of Italy were filled by German bishops, and fortwelve years German popes sat on the throne of Peter.It was a time of prosperity for the higher classes, although Condition ofthe peasants seem to have been oppressed by the nobles, and Germany.to have suffered severely from a succession of years of famine.That a certain amount of luxury and magnificence was displayed at the royal court may be gathered from an anecdotefrom one of the chronicles. The Bavarian Count Udalricleft the advice in his will to his sons never to rebel againstthe emperor, and also, which would cost them about as dear,never to ask him to become their guest. To properly entertain him would mean the ruin of their property.commerce.Germany was at this period beginning to learn the benefits Germany'sof a more extended trade. The highroads of commerce begannow to turn in towards the Rhine and the Elbe. A new classof men, the merchants, rose into prominence, and one cityafter another became a trading centre. Conrad II. hadgreatly furthered this development, and had bestowed extensive market privileges and rights concerning the coinage ofmoney. The Cologne merchants of the time were noted fortheir gay and extravagant manner of living, which fact presupposes a considerable amount of prosperity. The Saxoncities of Bremen, Magdeburg, and Goslar traded with theWends and with the Scandinavian North, while the commerce with England had already become considerable. KingEthelred had allowed the Germans to enter their wares freeof toll. The especial objects of German activity were the176 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry III.and the peace ofthe land.The TreugaDei.The peace in Germany.manufacture of cloth, the weaving of linen, the preparationof leather, and the forging of weapons.It was not long before the cities, to the development ofwhich trade had given such an impulse, were to attainpolitical importance which had utterly failed them up to thistime. They were soon to be able to aid their belpless master,Henry IV. , and to support his tottering throne.Henry III. did everything in his power to establish a firmbasis of national prosperity by preserving peace and puttingdown feuds. He entered into combat with an evil againstwhich the Church, especially in France and in Burgundy, wasnow fighting with might and main.In Aquitaine, as early as 1031, the idea of a general peaceunder the Church's banner had arisen; several synods wereheld which ordered a cessation of wars and a general condition of brotherly love. These decrees were received withboundless enthusiasm, but the scheme was too general, andtherefore impracticable.AllA new plan was thought of, and in 1041 the Treuga Dei,or Truce of God, was promulgated. The act which passesunder this name determined that regularly, from Wednesdayevening until Monday morning, all feuds should cease.who accepted the truce and kept it were to be absolved fromtheir sins; all who infringed it were to condone their offenceby a pilgrimage to Jerusalem or to be excommunicated.The efforts of the French Church were widely successful.A Burgundian synod adopted the regulation and extended itto the periods between Advent and Epiphany, and betweenSeptuagesima and the first Sunday after Easter . AbbotOdilo of Cluny was zealous in recommending the truce.In Germany no formal act was passed and no special daysdesignated, but Henry III. brought the whole weight of hispersonal influence to bear on his nobles. In Constance hehimself ascended the chancel of the cathedral, declared thathe personally forgave all those who had committed wrongsagainst himself, and urged each of his hearers to pardon hisown particular enemy. At a diet in Treves, and again onHENRY III. AND THE EARLY REIGN OF HENRY IV. 177the eve of a battle at Menfö, the same exhortation wasrepeated.The growing wealth in Germany, as well as the generalfeeling ofsecurity, are shown by the number of buildings whicharose in Henry III.'s time. Stone churches took the place ofwooden ones; in some cases even the city walls were torndown to furnish material for the new cathedral. When PopeLeo came to Germany in 1049 a number of splendid buildingswere ready to be consecrated.and Bohemia.We have spoken of complications on Henry III.'s eastern Henry III .boundaries. Here, at the time of Conrad II.'s death, Bretislavof Bohemia, chafing under the conviction that his land wasfar from holding the position it had held in other days, andanxious to raise his people to a greater height than they hadyet attained, determined on attacking disruptured Poland andforming a Slavic empire with Prague for its capital . TheBishop of Prague, too, considering it beneath his dignity tocontinue dependent on the see of Mayence, sent to Rome andasked for the pallium to be given him directly from the Pope.Bretislav's inroads into Poland met with no opposition.Krakau, Posen, and Gnesen fell into his hands. In the latterplace lay the relics of St. Adalbert, the friend of Otto III. ,and once, as we know, a Bohemian bishop. Bretislav madehimself master of them, and carried them in triumphal procession to the cathedral of Prague. More than a hundredwheeled vehicles full of booty and a number of Polish noblesin chains graced the occasion.Henry III. could not let such high-handed actions passunnoticed; but the first expedition sent against Bohemia metwith disaster and defeat. In 1041, however, two armies,better organized and more numerous than the first ones,reduced Bretislav to great straits. Exhausted and discouraged he agreed to give up his conquests and make hissubmission. Poland was vacated, and its exiled duke, Casimir,the son of Mesco, was allowed to return.Bretislav was treated by Henry with leniency, being allowedto keep Silesia. He, as well as Casimir of Poland, becameN178 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry III.and Hungary.WarsagainstHungary.the firm ally of his conqueror, and supported him in all hislater wars.There remained a third power to be reckoned with-Hungary. Hungary had become a kingdom, about the year 1000,under Stephen, or rather St. Stephen, for he was latercanonized. He was succeeded in 1038 by Peter, who, however, was driven from the kingdom and sought refuge at thecourt of Henry III. A Hungarian magnate named Aba wasinstalled in his place on the throne, but Aba's policy, inasmuch as he allowed full sway to the former religion of thepeople, and the old ravaging expeditions of the Magyars wereactually renewed, was displeasing to the Germans.In 1042, Henry, advancing along the left bank of theDanube, gained a victory over Aba, and the next year broughthim to terms. The conditions included the surrender of alarge tract of western Hungary. In 1044 Aba again becamerecalcitrant, and a new army under Henry's own leadershipmarched against him. A decisive battle was fought on theRaab, and the Hungarian army was scattered like chaff beforethe wind. Aba escaped, but was declared to have forfeitedthe crown, which was given back to King Peter. Later, Abawas put to death by order of the restored king, who himselfentered into the closest relations of alliance with and subjectionto the German sovereign. Before the face of the Hungarianpeople he surrendered the golden lance, the symbol of rule,and the people themselves did homage to Henry and to his successors.But this happy harmony did not last long. Henry'sprotégé was soon driven out, and a noble named Andreasraised in his stead. The wars with this new prince fill up thedarkest period of Henry III.'s life. His campaigns proveddisastrous, he was unable to retain his new acquisitions or toregain his influence in Hungary, while his ill success gavecourage to other enemies of the crown which had meanwhilebegun to raise their heads.Chief among these were Duke Godfrey of Lorraine and hisfriend Baldwin of Flanders.HENRY III. AND THE EARLY REIGN OF HENRY IV. 179In 1044 Duke Gozelo of Lorraine had died after having Godfrey ofunited, by Conrad II.'s permission, both Upper and Lower Lorraine.Lorraine under his sway. His eldest son, Godfrey, who alreadyduring his father's lifetime had managed the affairs of UpperLorraine, considered that he had a claim to the whole duchy.Henry, however, willed otherwise. He determined again toseparate Lorraine, and gave the lower duchy to the youngerGozelo, surnamed the coward. A most unfortunate step, farreaching in its consequences, for Henry himself was involvedin a long series of contests, and under his descendants thethrone itself was made to totter.Godfrey rebelled and lost his duchy together with all his Godfrey's fiefs of the crown. He became the central figure in all con- rebellion.spiracies against the king. Now a captive in the rocky Giebichstein, now restored for a time to his duchy, he could notforget his real or fancied wrongs; by every kind of alliance hetried to undermine the royal power. In 1049 Henry called inDenmark and even England against Godfrey and againstBaldwin. Pope Leo IX. hurled the ban of the church againstthem.Deserted by their friends the two rebel leaders yielded andwere treated by Henry III. , as was his wont, with leniency.After Henry's death, Godfrey again rose to power and influence, having married Beatrice, widow of Boniface, margrave of Tuscany. From this union sprang the CountessMatilda, heiress of those vast Tuscan estates which forcenturies were to prove a bone of contention between thepapacy and the empire.Henry III.'s greatest triumph remains to be recorded before Henry III .we pass to the misfortunes of his successor.We have seen how Otto I. rid Christendom of a viciousPope and succeeded for a time in reforming the papacy. Butonly for a time. The year 1046 saw matters in a more disgraceful condition than they had ever been; the papacy hadturned into a three-headed monster which needed the hand ofa new Hercules to slay.reforms theрарасу.Benedict IX. , engaged in matrimonial schemes, had first Three popes at one time.180 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Synod of Sutri, 1046 A.D.Adalbert of Bremenrefusesрарасу.renounced, then reclaimed the holy office; but Silvester III.had meanwhile been elected by the Romans. Benedict, bythe aid of his relatives, the counts of Tusculum, drove out hisrival; but finding his own position too precarious, determinedagain to retire. Not empty-handed, however! By a formalbill of sale he transferred the papacy to his godson, JohnGratian, for the sum of one thousand pounds of silver . John,strange as it may seem, a disciple of Cluny and a would- bereformer, took the name of Gregory VI.Benedict afterwards repented of his bargain, and—if we canbelieve the later account of Otto of Frising, a famous bishopand uncle of Frederick Barbarossa-the three popes livedtogether in Rome, one in St. Peter's, another in the Lateran,and the third in Santa Maria Maggiore!But there were not wanting in Rome the voices of prophetsdenouncing loudly the shame and disgrace of this state ofaffairs. Above all the eloquent Peter Damiani, whose writingsare among the most treasured remains of these times, turnedhis gaze to Henry III. Henry had often enough declaredagainst all forms of simony: here was a chance for him tostrike a blow at this vice and to make an example before allChristendom .Hurrying to Italy, Henry held a synod at Pavia andanother at Sutri. The latter was a stately assembly; theentire Roman clergy had been summoned to appear, anda number of German prelates had accompanied the king.Silvester was deposed and banished to a monastery; GregoryVI. confessed his guilt while protesting his pious purpose inbuying the papacy. He went into exile in Germany beingaccompanied by Hildebrand, the future Gregory VII.At a third synod held in Rome, Benedict IX. was strippedof his dignities and the Roman clergy and people left thechoice of a new pope to their deliverer.Adalbert, Archbishop of Bremen, was first offered the chairof Peter, but his northern see was too dear to him. Bremenhad come to form a centre for all the Slavic missions andAdalbert seems to have dreamt of making it a second Rome.HENRY III . AND THE EARLY REIGN OF HENRY IV. 181His plan was to found twelve new bishoprics and to makethem, as well as Denmark, Scandinavia, the Orkneys, Iceland,Greenland, Livonia, and Esthonia, subject to his own ecclesiastical authority. The plan was to fail, of course, but Adalbertwas to find another field for his talents, and was to play apolitical rôle second to no one in Germany.When refusing the papacy for himself, Adalbert turned the Clement II.choice on Bishop Suidger of Bamberg who took the name ofClement II.Peter Damiani is never tired of celebrating the triumph ofthe German king in having put down three bad popes andraised up a just one. He likens him to the Saviour whocast out the money- changers from the Temple. In the wordsof the Psalmist, he breaks out: "Thou hast broken mybonds, O Lord; I will consecrate unto thee the sacrifice ofmy praise."On Christmas Day, 1046, the new Pope was consecrated, Imperialand on the same day Henry and his queen, Agnes of Poictou coronation.-Gunhild, the daughter of the Danish king had died in1038-received the imperial crown. Moreover, in the boundless enthusiasm of the moment, the Romans conferred on thenew emperor the patriciate, and the right in future to select apope. The next pontiffs were in fact chosen by him, and itwas not until 1059 that the right of disposing of the crown ofPeter was denied his successor.Henry III.'s last years were full of sorrow and vexation,and wars with his border neighbours as well as struggleswith discontented nobles filled his time. A conspiracy headedby his own uncle came to light; the rebels had aimed atnothing short of the murder of the king.Henry died in 1056, and his youthful son succeeded him asHenry IV. The boy had already been crowned and consecrated during his father's lifetime.The crown of the kingdom and of the empire had by thistime become practically hereditary. Some formulas for theroyal consecration, and for the imperial coronation, have beenpreserved. They run as follows: " O Lord, let the kings ofHenry III.'s death, 1056 A.D.182 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.the future come forth from his loins to rule this whole kingdom." And, again: " Keep the place thou hast receivedfrom thy fathers, and that has fallen to thee by inheritance. "Finally: "Receive the crown that was destined for thee bythe Lord God; hold it, and leave it hereafter in honour tothy sons, by the help of God! "And yet the princes in electing Henry IV. at Tribur, in1053, had done so with the express reservation, " provided heshall prove a just king."ONCHAPTER XIII.HENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII.NE of the mightiest of emperors had passed away, and Agnes as а little boy of six was King of the Romans and future regent.emperor. The regent for the young monarch was his mother,Agnes, a weak woman, a prey to the jealousies and intriguesof her advisers, who were, for the most part, bishops intentsolely on the advancement of their several sees.Just at this time a rival power was rising in Europe, a Hildebrand.second claimant to the world-monarchy, a priesthood thatwas to play fast and loose with all the traditions of kingship.The monk Hildebrand, afterwards Gregory VII. , who had received his training in the rigid school of Cluny, was the soulof the movement. He was already the Deus ex machinâ, thepower behind the Papal throne, and was to be the centralfigure in European history for thirty years to come.Futurepopes, inspired by his example, were to reiterate his claims,and to trample in the dust a whole proud dynasty.andNicholas II.Hildebrand's first public act was seemingly committed in Hildebrandfavour and support of the empire he was afterwards sobitterly to oppose. On the death of Pope Stephen IX. , in1058, the Romans, encouraged by the weakness of theGerman crown, elected their own pope, Benedict X. It wasHildebrand who now insisted on the rights of Germany; hecaused the heads of the reform party in Italy to assembleand to elect a pope according to precedent. In bond withDuke Godfrey of Tuscany, a devoted vassal of the empire, hecaused a synod to assemble at Sutri in 1059; here Benedict X. was deposed. The new pope, Nicholas II. , soon wonuniversal recognition.184 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Hildebrand's two allies.The " Pataria. "The Nor- mans inItaly.Robert Guiscard.The victory just won was a victory over the Roman nobility,at that time the greatest enemyof a reformed papacy. Hildebrand had used the empire as a means of gaining his immediate end; he next proceeded to free himself from his ally,associating himself instead with two new powers that hadappeared in Italy-powers already more or less hostile toGermans and to German institutions.The first of these was the " Pataria," a party which hadoriginated in Milan, but had won followers in the other citiesof Lombardy. The Patarians, so named originally from aword meaning " rags," were anarchists, if one may so callthem, who were irritated at the riches and magnificence ofthe prelates; at the same time they were Italian patriotsbound to shake off, if possible, the yoke of Germany. Inflamed by enthusiastic preachers, especially by a certainDeacon Ariald, whose sermons were directed against simonyand the marriage of priests, they had risen against theAmbrosian clergy, whose ritual and observances differedfrom those of Rome. In Milan they had driven the archbishop from the cathedral, and had plundered the houses ofhis subordinates.Hildebrand's second alliance was with the Normans of Italy.These, originally a small band of knights who fought for pay,had gained a firm hold in the land during the precedingtwenty years, had grown rich and powerful by robbery aswell as by diplomacy, and were henceforth to play a rôle inItaly second only to that which their fellows were playingalmost simultaneously in England.Robert Guiscard, the " sly-head, " had come into possessionof all Apulia, over which he ruled as count. Richard ofAversa had made himself Prince of Capua, and it was to himthat Hildebrand stretched outthe hand of fellowship. Richardbecame a vassal of the Roman See, being the first prince toenter into this relation with the Papacy. Three hundredNorman knights marched to Rome to aid the new pope, andto destroy the castles of the Roman nobility.Robert Guiscard followed Richard's example, and was re-HENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII. 185cognized as a vassal for the fiefs of Apulia, Calabria, andSicily. He and Richard were declared rulers of their newpossessions " by the grace of God and of St. Peter." InSicily, where his family were to rule for the next centuryand a quarter, and to heap up an immense treasure, Roberthad not as yet a foot of land; but Gregory well knew theadventurous spirit of the race with which he had alliedhimself.1059.The knights sent by Richard of Aversa had their share in Lateran Council of driving Benedict X. to make a formal abdication. At theLateran council of 1059, the deposed Pope was then forced topublicly confess his wrong-doings, and to give up altogetherhis clerical vocation. Hildebrand prepared in every way forthe struggle that was imminent between the papacy and theempire. In this same council of 1059 a notable documentwas drawn up,' placing the power of electing the Pope in thehands of the cardinals. The confirmation by the emperorwas still held necessary, but the passage concerning it wascouched in ambiguous terms. Indeed, this passage wasomitted altogether in the version of the document that wassent to the different courts of Europe.crowns.Could we believe Bishop Benzo, of Alba, who was present, The twoan event occurred at this council of 1059, which shows moreclearly than anything else what magnificent claims the papacywas now prepared to set forth. We have no reason to doubtthe anecdote itself, except that Benzo is known to haveoccasionally played havoc with the truth when it served hispurpose.Benzo declares that Hildebrand placed upon the Pope'shead a double crown, which bore upon its lower circle,"Corona regni de manu Dei," and upon its upper, " Coronaimperii de manu Petri! " The crowns of the kingdom andof the empire were thus declared to be the Pope's, bestowedupon him by God and Peter. The Pope, in turn, mightconfer them on whom he would.¹ For this and for all the correspondence concerning the War of the Investitures, see "Select Documents. "186 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Estrange- ment withGermany.Election of an antipope.Cadalus in Rome.Abduction ofthe king,1062 A.D.The strongest argument in favour of the bishop's assertionis, that the custom of crowning popes is known to haveoriginated at this time. We hear of no crowned pope before,no uncrowned one after.The transactions of the council of 1059 could not but bedispleasing to the German nation. Not one German bishophad been present, and yet measures of world- wide importancehad been taken. The estrangement with Rome becamegreater and greater. A second Lateran synod seems to havedeclared more plainly that the king's sanction was not necessary to the validity of a papal election. A German synod,held at Worms in 1060, pronounced Pope Nicholas deposed.Nicholas died in the following year, and Hildebrand'sparty elected Anselm, of Lucca, who had been the leader ofthe Pataria. The Lombard bishops, enraged at this choice,brought it about that a council was summoned to meet atBasel. The regent, Agnes, determined to preserve to theempire its influence in Italy, attended. She consented to,nay furthered, the election of an antipope, Cadalus of Parma,who took the name Honorius II. He was a more welcomecandidate to the Lombards, unfortunately, than to themajority of the German bishops, who showed themselves unwilling to make any sacrifices in his favour.Had Germany been united at this time, Hildebrand'sparty would undoubtedly have suffered a crushing defeat.As it was, Cadalus was able to enter Rome and to force hisway to the very doors of St. Peter's. He was in a fair wayto become master of the whole city, when Duke Godfrey ofTuscany appeared with an army, and ordered him to desist,declaring that the proper place to settle the dispute was atthe German court. It is probable that Godfrey had alreadyreceived news of events which had taken place in Germany,and which altered the whole aspect of affairs.There had been a revolution, a bloodless one it is true;and at Kaiserwerth, then an island in the Rhine, the royalboy had been enticed by the heads of a party among theprinces on board a gaily- decked vessel, which had at once setHENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII. 187sail. The young king, wild with fright, had sprung from theship into the rushing stream, but had been rescued by one ofthe conspirators, Ekbert of Meissen.At one blow the influence of the empress had been annihilated, and the reins of government seized by a powerful partyof the nobles, of which party Anno of Cologne was thehead.ment of Cadalus.The new regents instituted an inquiry into all the circum- Abandonstances attending the papal election. The result was theabandonment of Cadalus, and the practical renunciation ofGermany's old claim to have the last word in the matter ofchoosing a Pope. This right, the acknowledgment of whichHenry III. had wrested from the Romans in 1046, was thussacrificed in 1062 by Anno of Cologne.Agnes submitted quietly to the blow which bereft her ofher power. Her one thought was to take the veil, a projectwhich she carried out some years later.Adalbert.It was decided that the cares of the regency should be Anno anddivided among the bishop-princes, who should exercise theiroffice alternately. Within a year, however, all the power hadcome into the hands of two men, Anno of Cologne, and Adalbert of Bremen.The one, the archbishop and arch- chancellor Anno, for atime all but the actual ruler of Germany, was a stern censorto the youthful king. A man of principle, but a strongdefender of the rights of the bishops, in whose interests he isaccused of having tried to permanently weaken the power ofthe crown.Adalbert, on the other hand, was boundlessly vain andopen to flattery; but deeply respected the royal prerogative.He was as tender and yielding with the boy, as Anno wasstern and harsh. Both men were greatly ambitious for theirbishoprics, and many are the records of land- grants wrungfrom their young charge.In 1065 Henry was technically, although not actually, freedfrom his tutelage, and was solemnly girded with the sword.His first thought was Italy and the imperial crown; butHenry IV.prevented from goingto Italy.188 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Adalbert'spride and fall.Henry under Anno's influence.Henry's marriage.Hildebrand and Pope Alexander, although the latter's rival,Cadalus, who was supported by the Roman nobility, had notyet given up his opposition, were far from wishing the adventof a German army. They seem to have endeavoured to dissuade the king from interfering in Italy.The effort was successful—to Adalbert's shame be it said.Twelve years were to pass before Henry was to cross the Alps—to cross them not as an arbiter between two popes, but as ahumble penitent-and not until seven years later still was heto bear the imperial name.Ambition for his see had induced Adalbert to play intothe hands of the hierarchy; hoping to make Bremen theRome of the north he had sought for support at the Rome ofthe south. But the reckless way in which he pursued hisobject, the unbounded influence which he won over theyoung king, as well as his many proud and overbearing acts,estranged and offended the rest of the princes. He spokeopenly of them as fools and avaricious men; their king hadraised them from the dirt, he said, and they were unfaithfulto him.Such language could not fail in its effect; the princes finallyproceeded to a deed as radical as that committed at Kaiserswerth in 1062. At the diet of Treves they stormed the kingwith demands for Adalbert's dismissal; it was all that Henrycould do to prevent actual violence against the person of hisadviser, who made a hasty and shameful exit from thetown.The result of Adalbert's removal was that Henry, nominallyof age, but in reality too young to rule alone, again cameunder the control of Anno and his party. A monk of Stablo,who frequently visited the court, gives a sad picture of theking in the presence of these princes: "The king makes noreplies, sitting as it were dumb and astonished; but in hisstead the archbishop replies at will." And again: " Like acommon slave he (Anno) possessed him. ”No wonder that the boy's life was embittered for him; nowonder that a marriage forced upon him by the princesHENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII. 189remained a dead letter in all but outward form. The virtuousand devoted Berta was hateful to Henry so long as he saw inher the ally of the party that oppressed him. By 1069 mattershad come to such a pass that he used every endeavour to gaina divorce from the object of his aversion. He bribed thearchbishop of Mayence with a promise of the tithes fromThuringia, and even made war against that land to securetheir payment.But Peter Damiani appeared as apostolic legate and threatened the Mayence archbishop with the ban should he fulfilthe divorce. Had Henry insisted he must have renouncedthe long-looked-for imperial crown, and incurred the enmityof the Pope. He yielded completely, and, fortunately, sooncame to know the true worth of the woman he had tried toput away; in the days of his darkest trials she was to aidhim in bearing his burdens.The time came when Henry outgrew his leading- strings, Henry'swhen Anno's power declined, and the long-banished Bremen emancipaarchbishop was allowed to return and sun himself undisturbedin the royal favour.tion.the Saxons.A double task met the king on the threshold of manhood:to reduce to subordination the great secular princes and tocompel obedience from the unruly Saxons, who had donenothing but foster rebellion since the death of Henry III.The anger of the Saxons had especially been inflamed by Henry andHenry's action against Otto of Nordheim, Duke of Bavaria,whom he summoned to the ordeal of battle on a charge ofhigh treason, and who on failing to appear was proscribedand raised a rebellion. Otto, besides having large estatesin Saxony, was the bosom friend of the young MagnusBillung.Altogether the Saxons had never forgotten that theirs hadonce been the ruling race in Germany; they deeply resentedHenry's coolness to these same Billungs, whose ancestors hadfilled the ducal office for more than a century. The wrath ofthe people was aroused to the utmost when the king commenced building mighty fortresses in the Harz Mountains,190 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.SaxonRebellion,1073 A.D.Power of thepapacy .Beatrice ofTuscany.and in Thuringia. Everywhere arose ramparts, walls, andtowers, and it was no longer believed that they were meantto serve simply as a defence against the Slavs. The garrisons,too, seem to have made themselves thoroughly detested.The rumour soon spread that Henry had allied himselfwith the Danes the better to oppose the Saxons. Moreover,when, in 1072, Duke Ordulf died Henry refused to bestow theduchy on the young Magnus, whom he had placed underarrest for having aided Otto of Nordheim in his rebellion. Itwas whispered about that the Saxons would soon be slaves,and their lands be given to the Suabians.In 1073 a large army was mustered by the king againstthe Duke of Poland, who had begun intriguing in Bohemiaand Hungary; the heated imagination of the Saxons foretoldthat their own hour had come, and a rebellion broke out suchas had not been known since the foundation of the Germankingdom.While Henry IV. had been engaged in raising up for himself enemies in his own land, Hildebrand, his rival in all projects of world- rule, had not been idle. Between the years1059 and 1073 the influence of the papacy had madegigantic strides in all directions. The banner of Rome hadbeen carried to Sicily by the victorious Roger, brother ofGuiscard, to England by William the Conqueror, to Spain byloyal French crusaders. Hildebrand had even ventured toprefer a claim of ownership to the whole of the last namedland; it had belonged, he said , of ancient right to the chairof Peter.In Italy itself new and powerful friends had joined thecause of the reformed papacy. Chief among them wereBeatrice, Countess of Tuscany, and her daughter Matilda,next to Robert Guiscard, the mightiest of the Italian potentates.Various and confused were the titles by which the countessheld her possessions; fiefs of the empire and of the papacywere interspersed with numerous "allods " or estates held inabsolute ownership.HENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII. 191Matilda.Nicholas II. and Alexander II. were more at home in the TheTuscan bishoprics than they were at Rome, and Hildebrand Countessheld absolute sway over mother and daughter alike. Matilda,especially, shared his plans and his confidences, and to her isdue much of his success. In St. Peter's her monument standsamong those of the popes. Urban VIII. erected it in theseventeenth century, and engraved upon it, " Champion ofthe Apostolic See." A high- sounding title for one who in herlifetime signed herself, “ Matilda, who, if she is anything, isso by the Grace of God."investitures.The papacy, having long fought for sacerdotal celibacy Beginning ofand for the suppression of simony, was now to enter upon war ofthea struggle for nothing less than supremacy. Its resourcesat this time were far ahead of those of the empire; Henry IV. ,too, weak and inexperienced, had a much too powerful opponent in Hildebrand.The great conflict, the mighty proportions of which can beguessed at by the bitter partisanship of the chronicles andletters that have descended to us, began in a dispute regarding the election of a Milan archbishop.As early as 1059 a Roman council had forbidden anyone to The Milanreceive a bishopric or other spiritual office from the hand of a dispute.layman. When, in 1068, the Milan see became vacant throughthe voluntary withdrawal of its archbishop, Wido, Henry IV.appointed and invested a certain sub-deacon, Godfrey by name. Hildebrand had already given to understand toErlembald, the leader of the Pataria, that he would considersuch an act on the king's part as contrary to the regulationsof the Church, and had ordered him to bring about a canonicalelection. The matter had been temporarily settled by thewithdrawal on Wido's part of his resignation.In 1072, Wido having meanwhile died, Erlembald procured the election of a young man named Atto, who wassingularly unfit for the position, and who won no favour withthe Milanese. Hildebrand, however, supported this creatureof the Pataria, and supplied Erlembald bountifully with goldfrom Rome.192 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry main- tains hisright of investiture.Hildebrand becomesPope, 1073 A.D.The Saxon rebellion .Henry'sflight.Henry considered his former candidate, Godfrey, as therightful archbishop, and paid no heed to a letter of PopeAlexander's begging that he would give him up. The kingfelt, and rightly, that the whole question of his influence inLombardy, and indeed of his whole royal power, was atstake; it was impossible for him thus quietly to resign theright of investiture.The right of investing presupposed the right of bestowing;were the rich sees of Italy and Germany, with all their landedpossessions, their fiefs and their privileges to be thus calmlyabandoned to those whom Rome might choose? It wouldhave been possible for a hostile pope to fill all the chief positions in Germany with outspoken enemies of the king.Henry remained firm, and in 1073 the consecration wasperformed by his command on Archbishop Godfrey. Thiswas the signal for war to the knife; the Pope replied bybanning a number of the king's advisers. Henry held fastto his advisers as well as to his new archbishop.It was at this juncture of affairs that Alexander II. died,and Hildebrand himself ascended the papal throne. It wasat this very time, too, that the rebellion broke out which hadso long been smouldering in Saxony.The rebellion was headed by Hermann, the brother of thedefunct Duke Ordulf, by Otto of Nordheim, who had beenforgiven his former misdeeds, but had been angered by thefailure of his intercession for Magnus, and by Bishop Burkardof Halberstadt. It was joined by almost all the bishops andnobles of Saxony.By August 1st, 1073, Henry found himself besieged in theHarzburg, near Goslar. The Saxons demanded the immediate destruction of the new fortresses as the only basis ofnegotiations for peace; this Henry could not and would notgrant.Cut off from his allies in the kingdom at large, nothingremained for him but surrender or flight. He succeeded inescaping by night from the Harzburg with a few chosenfollowers. The rebellion had meanwhile made rapid pro-HENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII. 193gress; the king's estates in Saxony had been seized, andThuringia had joined in the movement against him.Shameful as had been Henry's flight, further humiliationsremained in store for him. Near Hersfeld he was met by anumber of bishops and nobles from different parts of thekingdom; but all his entreaties- -one annalist with a desireto be graphic relates that he actually grovelled in the dustbefore them—could not rouse them to take any immediateaction against the Saxons. They saw, indeed, that theirinterference was needful, and they agreed to be present ata general muster to be held two months later. More thanthis Henry could not wrest from them.It was at such a moment as this that Henry, sick at heartand with all the world against him, stooped so low as towrite to Pope Gregory VII. a letter full of submission, andsuch as neither the king himself nor one of his predecessorshad ever written to a Roman bishop. "We have sinnedagainst heaven and before thee, " he says to the Pope, “ andare no longer worthy to be called thy son." In the Milanaffair Gregory might act as he pleased. Henry's courage wasbroken.The Saxon princes, with whom Henry opened negotiations,showed no signs of yielding. Their one effort now was toblacken the character of the king in the eyes of all Germany.The vices of a Tiberius or a Nero were laid to his charge.The clergy were urged to excommunicate and depose so greata monster. Henry was summoned, to answer the chargesagainst him, to a diet to be held at Gerstungen.The king naturally refused to submit his royal person tothe judgment of a handful of his subjects, and is accused ofhaving adopted the dangerous policy of calling in theenemies of the kingdom, the Danes and the Luititian Slavs,against the belligerents. This expedient, if it ever wasseriously adopted, failed through lack of spirit on the side ofthe new partisans.Henry cringes to the Pope.Henry sum.monedto adiet.A meeting of the German princes in general was called at Rudolph ofWurzburg, where the king had taken up his abode. The The Suabia.194 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Regenger's disclosure.Help fromthe Rhenish cities.Regenger's death.Saxons, meanwhile, had assembled at Gerstungen, and negotiations were begun between the two camps. It was at thisthat Rudolph of Suabia and others abused their position aschosen mediators, and plotted with the Saxons for the king'sdownfall and the election of a new monarch.In order to deceive Henry, they drew up a treaty, by whichthe Saxons promised to submit before the following Christmas, if the king would grant them indemnity and redress fortheir grievances. Completely mistaken in the character ofhis emissaries, Henry accepted and ratified the treaty, anddismissed the army he had raised against the Saxons.It was at this crisis that a certain Regenger disclosed thefact, a figment of the imagination, that the king had hiredhim to murder Rudolf of Suabia, and others of the princes.In the intense excitement of the moment, the disclosure wasconsidered genuine, and a number of the nobles left the courtand took to arms. Henry himself saw in the matter, probably with justice, a plot of Rudolph's, and, forgetting hisroyal dignity, offered to fight the Suabian in single combat.It was with difficulty that his followers restrained him.Meanwhile, the king's position was becoming desperate.Abandoned by his followers, there seemed no alternative tohim but to descend from the throne. But help was at handfrom an unexpected quarter. The Rhenish cities, grown richby commerce and traffic, declared for Henry. The citizens ofWorms overthrew their bishop, their spiritual and temporalhead, and others followed suit. The neighbourhood ofMayence became so hostile, that the princes, who had calleda diet there, which should decide on the future of the kingdom, were afraid to risk their persons, and the meeting wasnot held.Henry, for his own part, called together the princes ofSouth Germany, and tried in every way to conciliate them.The idea of a duel, or judgment of God, was once morebroached, and it was finally agreed that Udalrich of Godesheim, should be the king's champion against his false accuser,Regenger. Should Udalrich conquer in the combat, theHENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII. 195princes declared, on oath, that they would be henceforthfaithful and obedient.Regenger died a raving maniac before the day that hadbeen appointed for the duel. God was believed to havespoken by thus striking him down, and there was at once agreat revulsion in Henry's favour. When the Saxons sent anurgent summons to the other German princes to meet themat Fritzlar, none came at their bidding.1074 A.D.The Saxons, indeed, were still formidable enough, and it Peace ofwas not until February, 1074, and after long negotiations, Gerstungen,that the peace of Gerstungen was concluded with them. Thepeace was humiliating enough for the king; but it preservedto him his crown, and prevented the secession of Saxony.The hardest condition of all was, that the fortresses inSaxony should be razed to the ground, and, after long discussions, it was arranged that the work of destruction should beleft in the hands of the people themselves.Had the Saxons been content to use their victory with Saxon outmoderation, all might have been well. They had permission rages.to destroy the forts, but not the churches, and in the storming of the Harzburg the Minster, too, fell before their onslaught. Nor did they even spare the royal tombs. Thebones of Henry's brother and of his infant son were draggedto the light and wantonly desecrated.The news of this unhallowed outrage drew the Germanprinces closer to Henry's banner. The deeply incensed kingthought that even the Pope would now take his part. Hewrote and asked Gregory to take action against the violatorsof sanctuaries, but received little satisfaction.Henry now induced the princes to make preparations, Saxons reunder pretence of a war against the Hungarians, for the duced to submission.punishment of the Saxons. In a battle fought near Homburg, on the Unstrutt, the latter were worsted , and are saidto have lost eight hundred of their men. Negotiations werebegun, and, on the 26th of October, Henry had the satisfaction of seeing his enemies walk submissively between thedrawn-up ranks of his own army. The triumph was com-196 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Conflict with theрарасу.The Milan See.plete, and he was able to impose, instead of submitting togalling conditions. It was not long before the Harzburg andothers of the fortresses were rebuilt, and supplied with royalgarrisons. In the midst of the enthusiasm roused by hisvictory, the king was able to gain the consent of the princesto the appointment of his son as his successor.One ray of sunshine had flashed across the path of this muchtried king, but only for an instant. Never, all in all, was crownto be worn by a more uneasy head than that of Henry IV.We have arrived at a stage in the history of Germanywhere the political sky becomes fairly lurid, and the greatconflict with the Papacy breaks out in full force. It was aconflict in which unreasoning wrath was to do its utmost, andwhere the warring principles as first laid down were to provefully irreconcilable.While the Saxon War was in progress, Gregory VII. hadwaited impatiently, hoping still that the king would fulfil thepromises made in his submissive letter. In the interval hehad waged a bitter war against simony and the marriage ofthe clergy, and five of Henry's councillors had been excommunicated on the former charge.Meanwhile the papacy had been somewhat losing groundin Italy. The Normans had boldly encroached on territoryclaimed by Rome herself, and a break with them seemedimminent. The Pataria in Milan had been worsted by aparty which favoured the Ambrosian rites, and which, in thepride of victory, turned to the king and demanded an archbishop from his hands.Again Milan became the apple of discord. Henry disdainedthe Pope's creature, Atto, and discarded his own former choice,Godfrey, placing a third prelate, Thedald, on the archiepiscopal chair. This proceeding certainly gave the Churchreasonable grounds of offence. Atto might have been disregarded, for the king had never recognized him; but Godfreyhad been already consecrated, and should not have been removed without a formal trial of the matter according to Church usage.HENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII. 197hostilities.Thedald was summoned to Rome, and forbidden to undergo Gregoryconsecration until his claims should have been properly judged beginsbefore the Pope's tribunal. At the same time Gregory tooka step which for ever separated him from the king.He sentthree envoys with a letter full of bitter reproaches; disregardof the ban placed on his five councillors, and non- fulfilmentof his own promises of submission were the formal chargesagainst Henry, together with disobedience to a sweeping command issued at the beginning of the year against every formof lay investiture. This last decree seems at the time of itspromulgation to have been intended by Gregory as a tentativemeasure, which he hoped later to reduce to a form more palatable to the king by means of negotiations. Those negotiations, however, had never taken place.Gregory's envoys used strong threats to the king, stronger Gregory'sfar than those employed in the document which they bore. envoys.Henry stood at this moment in the full glamour of his victoryover the Saxons, and these men dared to tell him to his facethat he deserved excommunication and dethronement for hisvices. No wonder that the king was aghast, no wonder thathis followers shared in his indignation, and that it was decided to proceed to the extremest of measures. Henry III.had deposed three erring pontiffs, Henry IV. determined toemulate his father. The fact was in his favour that Hildebrand's elevation in 1073 had been irregular and tumultuous,and altogether little in accord with the election decree of 1059.The king's consent had neither been formally asked nor formally given.At the beginning of 1076 Henry summoned the German Council ofbishops to a council, which was opened at Worms on January Worms.24th. Of the six German archbishops, only two were present,but more than two-thirds of the bishops answered the summons. In the council the wildest accusations were brought Gregoryagainst the Pope, many of them the merest inventions of deposed.hatred. They found credence in the excitement of the moment,however, and the bishops decreed that Gregory, having wrongfully ascended the throne of Peter, must descend from it in198 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Charges against Gregory.Synod atRome, 1076 A.D.Henry de- posed.haste. They composed a writing to " brother Hildebrand,”as they now called him, in which they renounced theirobedience. He had, they said, spread the flames of discordwhich had been lighted at Rome over all the churches ofItaly, Germany, France, and Spain.Point by point all the possible accusations against Gregoryare taken up: he had in the days of Henry III. sworn neverhimself to become Pope, nor to recognize anyone else whoshould be chosen without the consent of the emperor and hisson; this oath he had broken. The election decree of 1059had repeated this engagement; it had been disregarded.Charges against the Pope's manner of life close this remarkable document, which may be read to-day in all its pristine bitterness. Another writing, still more crushing, accompanied it to Rome, and bore the superscription: " Henry,king, not by usurpation, but through God's holy ordinance, toHildebrand, not Pope, but false monk." The letter ends with:"I, Henry, king by the grace of God, together with all mybishops, do call to thee, descend, descend! "The envoys of the king set out at once for Italy; in Piacenza a synod was held, and the Lombard bishops acceptedthe decrees of Worms.In Rome itself the matter was viewed in another light.Henry had addressed a writing to the Romans, accusingGregory of being the worst enemy of the kingdom and of his,the king's person. “We ask you not to shed his blood, " hesaid, " for life after his deposition would be a harder punishment than death." But the sympathies of the populaceturned to the Pope, and it was not without danger to theirlives that the emissaries of the king penetrated to Gregory'spresence as he sat in council in the Lateran. An angry stormbroke loose in the assembly as the Bishop Roland and hiscompanion fulfilled their mission. Swords were drawn, andit was Pope Gregory himself who, by the intervention of hisown person, saved from injury those who bore the tidings ofhis dethronement.When the synod met again on the following day, it was toHENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII. 199answer in kind the harsh measures of the king . All thebishops who, of their own free will, had furthered the schism,were suspended from office; the ban was hurled against theking, his royal power declared forfeit, his subjects loosed fromtheir allegiance.Gregory's The old allies rallied to him in this emergency.Pataria in Milan again raised its head, Robert Guiscard renewed relations for the moment, and the Countess Matilda,who had now entered on her inheritance in Tuscany, showedherself as devoted a handmaid as ever in the service of thepapacy.in Germany. Everything depended on what reception the decree of the Effect of banRoman synod would meet with in Germany. A generationearlier they would have roused nothing but indignation. ButHenry IV. had been too unpopular; the stories , too, which hadbeen fabricated by the Saxons had been believed by many.Moreover, the influence of the papacy had widely spread underGregory's careful management; the new Cluniac monasteriesdeeply revered the Pope, and worked for him among themasses. Of the bishops, too, who had signed the denunciation of the Pope there were many who on riper thoughtsrepented of their action and strove to palliate their error .On the news that the king had been placed in the ban,Saxony again became unquiet and the princes of South Germany entered into a new conspiracy. A strong national feeling had not yet come into being, and loyalty to principlevanished before the petty dictates of self- interest.German allies.Gregory knew the value of such allies as these. His next Gregory'sstep was to write a long communication to the bishops, dukes,counts, and all " who in the German kingdom defend theChristian faith. " The course of the quarrel is reviewed fromthe beginning, the Pope's actions are justified and an appealis made for aid in sustaining (the honour of the Church. Aprospect of forgiveness is held out to the king should he showsigns of repentance. The first attempt, however, of conciliation on Henry's part showed that the Pope would be satisfiedby nothing short of absolute submission.200 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Failure ofHenry's measures.Claims ofthe papacy.Henry humbles himselfbefore theprinces.Henry now proceeded to call together a newnational councilat Worms. It was intended in due form to institute judicialproceedings against Gregory and, having once more deposedhim, to elect a successor. This successor the king in personwas to escort to Rome. But few bishops and none of theprinces of South Germanyanswered the summons, and rumoursof disaffection became rife. The council was postponed andtransferred to Mayence, and a number of bishops did in thelatter place again denounce the Pope and declare him excommunicate. But no steps were taken towards a new election, noarrangements made for a march on Rome.Henry now tried conciliatory measures with his enemies athome. The hostages of the Saxons were released, and werepromised great rewards if they would make their peoplereturn to their allegiance.All such efforts were now in vain; Saxony by this time waspractically lost, and the princes of Germany were meditatingnothing short of the removal of Henry and the election of anew king. Should it come to this, a consummation which hedid not desire so much as Henry's voluntary submission, PopeGregory VII. demanded the right of approving the choice ofthe new ruler.Slowly the papacy was lifting itself into the universal position once held by the empire. One by one claims were putforward which never could have been maintained for a momenthad not Germany been rent by civil discord, and had not theking been grossly misused by his subjects.No one can fail to pity Henry in his powerless distress, butno more is one called upon to admire his attitude in misfortune. A meeting of the German princes was held at Tribur,in October, 1076; together with legates and lay envoys of thePope they discussed the proper methods of a king who had become embarrassing to them. Henry had taken up his positionat Oppenheim, separated only by the Rhine from the arbitersof his fate. He was ready for any humiliation, and daily sentenvoys to Tribur begging his enemies to impose such conditions as they would, but to leave him his royal name and theHENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII. 201insignia of the kingdom. He would better his mode of life,he would be answerable to the princes, if need be, for everyact of government.matum .Henry's promises of reform made no impression, and the The ultiprinces declared themselves about to elect a new king. Butreasons which we cannot to-day fathom induced them to reconsider this intention and to render an ultimatum, severeenough, indeed, but stopping short of deposition. Within ayear from the time when the ban had been published, Henrywas to promise due obedience to the Pope, and to gain absolution from him in person. Should he fail to obtain it, and toclear himself of the charges against him, or do penance forthem, the throne was to be forfeit. The Pope was furthermoreto be invited to come to Augsburg to discuss with the princesthe affair of their king, and altogether to consult for the futureof the Church and of the empire.As a further humiliation Henry was to give up the faithful Henry'scity of Worms to its bishop, and to protect the latter from the debasem*nt.possibility of a new revolt of the citizens. The king himselfand the queen were told to take up their abode in Spires.Henry was not to choose his advisers and not to administerany affairs of government until the absolution should havebeen granted. As an eventual reward for his obedience andgood conduct the princes promised their support in an expedition to Rome which should be undertaken for the purpose ofgaining the imperial crown and of driving out the Normans,whose encroachments had become dangerous to the Italianpossessions of Germany.Henry for a time submitted to his fate. He lived in Spires His plan.almost as a prisoner, avoiding all intercourse with the worldand deprived of all the consolations of religion. But in quiethe worked out a plan by which something might be savedfrom the general wreck of his fortunes. Above all was itnecessary to sunder the close union of the Pope and of theGerman princes; the meeting in Augsburg would be likely inall probability to lead to the taking of permanent measuresfor diminishing the glory of the German crown. Things had202 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry in Italy.Canossa.Henry as apenitent.indeed gone far enough when the princes of Germany inviteda foreign power, the deadly enemy too of their own nationalindependence, to come into their midst and sit in judgment ontheir king!Henry determined at any risk to put a stop to Gregory'salliance with the princes, to grovel in the dust before him ifneed be, but not to return without the required absolution.He sent an envoy to Rome to announce that he was comingas a repentant sinner. Gregory promptly rejected his advancesand started on his journey to Augsburg. In Mantua he wasmet by the news that the king had already crossed the Alps.In doubt as to Henry's intentions, and suspecting that he intended to gain his object by force of arms, the Pope retracedhis steps, and took refuge in a fortress of Countess Matilda,the famous castle of Canossa, near Reggio.Canossa stands on a high and precipitous rock, and was atthat time well defended by art as well as by nature. A threefold wall surrounded it.When Henry arrived at the foot of the hill he sent andasked for an interview with Hugo of Cluny, and with Matilda,both of whom had accompanied the Pope. They consented atthe king's request to intercede for him, but all their entreatieswere in vain.It was then that the German monarch stooped to the lowestdepths of self-abasem*nt. The moral sentiment of Europewould have utterly condemned a Pope who should have refused absolution to a sinner ready to make the fullest atonement for the wrongs he had committed. The whole teachingof the Church was that grace was obtainable for him whosought it by the proper means. The high priest of allChristendom could not afford to be wanting in mercy.Barefoot in spite of the winter snows, and in a penitentialgarb, Henry appeared before the door of Canossa. That doorwas closed against him. The next day he came again; thethird day too saw a repetition of this most miserable ofspectacles .At last the Pope, induced, we are told, by the tears of theHENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII. 203Countess Matilda, and of the Abbot of Cluny, relented.Gregory declared that he was willing to remove the ban ifcertain pledges, partly in the interest of Rome, partly in thatof the German princes, could be given. A meeting was heldbetween members of the Pope's household and a certainnumber of the king's followers, and a writing was drawn up,the wording of which has been preserved. Henry was to givefull satisfaction to the German princes in such manner, andat such time as the Pope should appoint, and wheneverGregory might choose to undertake his journey to Germanythe king was to ensure the safety of his person. Any envoyof the Pope was to enjoy similar protection.This writing was drawn up with all form and solemnity,and was signed, among others, by the Countess Matildaherself.These preliminaries having been arranged, the doors of The pardonCanossa were thrown open, and Henry entered, accompanied of Canossa.by his excommunicated councillors, who had also been includedin the amnesty. As the penitents came into Gregory'spresence they threw themselves weeping on the ground beforehim. The members of the Pope's household were melted totears, and Gregory's own eyes moistened at the sight. Theabsolution was administered in due form, and the apostolicblessing crowned the work of peace.Henry IV. rode away from the castle of Canossa havinggained what he had sought. He had won, indeed, a greatdiplomatic victory, although he had undoubtedly somewhattarnished the honour of Germany. No humiliation couldhave been deeper than that which he had undergone, andeven in our own day the bitterest possible scorn and hatred ofconcessions to Rome have been summed up in those stingingwords, spoken in the diet of 1872, and engraved now on amarble monument on the Harzburg: "We won't go toCanossa! "The compact so solemnly entered into by Gregory andHenry was not long kept by either party. Henry's actionwas by no means approved of by all of his own supporters ,Henry andthe Lom- bards.204 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry and the Pope.Election ofand the Lombard bishops, who were still in the ban, lookedupon the king as a betrayer of their cause. Black looks anda discontented silence met him when he appeared in Reggio.In the time of Henry's distress they had aided him, and heseemed now to be about to abandon them utterly.Such was not the case, however. Early in 1077 the Bishopof Piacenza took prisoner a papal legate who had come toencourage the Paterian rabble against the higher clergy.Gregory at once demanded that Henry should procure therelease of the captive, a demand to which the king did notaccede. The heart of the Pope soon began to fill with distrust towards the man to whom he had so recently restoredthe hopes of Paradise. Henry, for his part, must have hadhis own doubts against a Pope who still continued in closenegotiation with the German princes . Papal legates werepresent at an assembly held at Forchheim for the expresspurpose of dethroning Henry, although they took no activepart in the proceedings.It was the 13th of March, 1077, when the assembly atan antiking. Forchheim came together, and, after a trial of Henry's cause,and a declaration that, in spite of his absolution, they wouldno longer obey him, the princes proceeded to elect his bitterestenemy, the man whom he had once challenged to mortalcombat, Rudolph of Suabia. The papal legates did not dispute the election, but made Rudolf promise to allow thebishoprics to be filled by free canonical election . Rudolf renounced this right of appointing bishops for which Henry IV.had fought and was to fight so stubbornly; the antiking, inhis present emergency, was willing to make any and everysacrifice.Rudolph's adherents.It was chiefly the Saxon princes who had carried throughthe election of Rudolf, and it was only among the Saxonsthat he was ever fully acknowledged . Even Suabia, his ownduchy, refused him obedience, and his progress there, whichwas intended to be a triumph, was hindered by ceaselessconflicts. It was to Saxony that he withdrew, on the newsthat Henry had found unexpected allies, had brought to-HENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII. 205gether an army, and was about to make a struggle for hisrights.Pope Gregory-and for this Henry had to thank the bitter Gregory'sexperiences at Canossa-remained neutral in the conflict that neutrality.now ensued, although untiring in his efforts to effect a peace.He had from the beginning demanded that the matter shouldbe submitted to his arbitration.Henry's power now grew from day to day. With forcesamounting to 12,000 men he left Ratisbon in May, 1077. InUlm he held a diet which passed sentence of death on Rudolphof Suabia and his supporters, Berthold of Zäringen and Welfof Bavaria. But these three princes had determined to makea bitter fight for their lives and dignities, and they raised anarmy which Henry with his heterogeneous and as yet untrained troops was careful to avoid.In November the princes prevailed upon the papal legateagain to pronounce the ban against Henry and to declareRudolph the rightful king; but the Pope refused, for thetime being at least, to ratify these proceedings.Henry within the course of a few months forced Bavaria The rivalto subjection, held his own in Suabia, gained the support of kings.the lower classes in Franconia, and won Bohemia as a faithfulally. Not without bloodshed were these results gained; onthe Neckar and on the Danube the lands were laid waste, andeverywhere the civil war spread panic and dismay.The years 1078 and 1079 were passed in struggles vain asthey were bloody between the rival kings and their adherents.An indecisive battle was fought near Melrichstadt on theStreu, and at the same time an army of peasants whichHenry had collected was annihilated on the Neckar. Suabiawas again devastated by Henry without result.There were two claimants to the last- named duchy at thistime. Berthold, the son of King Rudolph, stood over againstFrederick of Büren, or Hohenstaufen, whom Henry made dukein 1079, affiancing him to his own daughter Agnes.It was a time of utter demoralization for Germany; theland was writhing under the constant plunderings of the206 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Renewal of the ban,1080 A.D.Effect of the ban.Election of an antipope.opposing armies. Gregory VII. was constantly in communication with both parties, constantly commanding the one orthe other king to send envoys to this or that council. Theenvoys were occasionally sent, but without arriving at anyagreement.In 1080 Gregory, encouraged by a victory of Rudolph'swon at Flarchheim and urged by the supporters of that king,took the decisive step of renewing the ban against Henry.The charge was preferred that Henry had prevented theassembling of such a council as would have restored peaceand quiet. Rudolph was declared to be the rightful king;the royal power was accorded to him " on account of hishumility, his obedience, and his uprightness .'""The anathema against Henry was embodied in the formof a prayer to the apostles Peter and Paul, who are declaredto have the power of giving and taking away kingdoms andprincipalities at will. Kings and princes are therefore warnedthat they should dread to disregard the commands of theChurch. The claim of papal supremacy in temporal as wellas in spiritual matters could not have been more plainlyformulated.Contrary to all expectations Gregory's second ban provedas harmless as the first had been effective. Not one ofHenry's supporters fell away from him at this crisis. Onthe contrary his following increased both in Northern Italyand in Germany. The general indignation against the Popeknew no bounds.In Mayence nineteen archbishops and bishops declaredGregory again deposed; in Brixen a synod was held whereGermans and Lombards alike appeared, and where thespectacle seen at Worms in 1076 was repeated anew. Twentyseven bishops here signed the bull for Gregory's deposition.They went further; they elected as antipope Wibert ofRavenna, who took the name of Clement III. Henry IV.agreed to escort the new head of Christendom to Rome.There were now two kings on the German throne, twopopes on the chair of Peter.HENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII. 207All Gregory's efforts at this crisis to raise a strong coalitionagainst Henry were in vain. William the Conqueror, oncestrongly under papal influence, could not be induced tointerfere. Robert Guiscard, who had been under the ban fordepredations against the estates of St. Peter, was absolved inview of the present emergency, but was too much occupiedwith a quarrel against the Eastern Empire to be able to giveany assistance.A.D.Gregory was forced as a final resort to fix his hopes on Rudolph'sthe antiking in Germany. But all that was mortal of death, 1080Rudolph was soon lying buried in the cathedral at Merseburg.A bloody battle had taken place between the two kings nearHohenmölsen on the Grune. Henry's forces had been worsted,but Rudolph had paid his debt to nature. He had beencarried from the battlefield maimed and dying; his righthand had been cut off in the fray.Henry IV. , though beaten, won a great moral advantagethat day. It was a time when justice was administered farotherwise than in our own day, when portents decided whatwas right and what was wrong. For the winner of a combatGod was considered to have spoken, and in this fight betweenHenry and Rudolph the latter's death was a fatal blow to hisThe loss of Rudolph's right hand, too, seemed to thesuperstitious to be full of dark meaning. A contemporary,Ekkehard of Aura, reports that the Suabian said as he died:' Look, this is the hand with which I swore fealty to myking! "cause.66Gregory VII.'s glory, too, was greatly dimmed by theoutcome of this struggle; more than once he had promisedvictory and life to Rudolph, death and destruction to Henry.Henry IV. , with no longer a rival, for the moment at least,to fear, now hastened to Italy at the head of an army, to tryand drive out Pope Gregory, and to lead his own Pope,Clement III. , to Rome. Germany was far from beingpacified as yet, but Henry hoped that having gained theimperial crown, he could return in triumph and crush hisenemies.HenrybeforeRome, 1081 A.D.208 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Hermann ofLuxemburg.HenryentersRome, 1083 A.D.Laterancouncil.In May, 1081, Henry appeared before Rome, to find thatcity strongly fortified against him. He had expected afriendly reception from the Romans. He found, instead, themighty walls and their innumerable towers, well armed anddefended. Various attempts to take the city failed, andHenry found himself involved in a task which took years toaccomplish, years of great hardship and of enforced absencefrom Germany.In the meanwhile, chiefly as before by the Saxons, a successor to Rudolph had been chosen, a rich prince of the houseof Luxemburg, Hermann by name. Hermann had begun hiscareer brilliantly, and had won no small advantage over thesupporters of Henry, who were discouraged by the king'sreverses in Italy.But these reverses were atoned for, in 1083, by a successfulentry into Rome. The whole Leonine city came into Henry'shands, and the antipope, Clement, was solemnly conducted toSt. Peter's. Within a few days Henry was able to withdrawfrom Rome, and to disband his army. He had gained whathe wanted. The Roman nobles had pledged themselves toprocure him the crown that he coveted. Should Gregoryrefuse to bestow it, they bound themselves to elect a Popewho would.Gregory, meanwhile, had summoned a council in theLateran, and Henry permitted it to take place, being careful,however, to place obstructions in the way of those of his ownparticular enemies, who attempted to attend. The legates ofthe antiking, Hermann, for instance, were taken captivebetween Viterbo and Sutri, and the cardinal-bishop of Ostiashared their confinement.Henry had hoped that the council would declare in hisfavour, but found himself disappointed in this hope, andagain called his army together. He demanded the imperialcrown, and clergy and laity alike now urged Gregory to grantthe request. But the Pope wished to make conditions.Henry was to do penance, and be loosed from the ban, beforehe should undergo the ceremony of coronation. On any otherHENRY IV. AND GREGORY VII. 209terms, the apostolic curse, and not its blessing, would go with the crown.The nobles were anxious to fulfil their compact, but thePope remained inexorable. A compromise was actually proposed, by which the crown should be lowered by a stringfrom Gregory's refuge, in the castle of St. Angelo. Henry wasto place it on his own head, and dispense with the consecration.But Henry's star was for the moment in the ascendant,and he was able to make his own terms. He was in no moodto accept a crown thrust at him as a morsel would be thrownto a beggar. The Emperor of the East had joined him in aleague against Robert Guiscard, the ally of the Pope, andfurnished him abundantly with supplies. The prince ofCapua and other nobles had also joined his standard.in the Henry's starascendant.The Romans, tired of the uncertain state of affairs, and Gregoryvexed with Gregory for not more readily yielding to their abandoned bytheentreaties, at last abandoned the Pope, whose cause they had Romans.so long supported. They allowed Henry to enter the city,and to take possession of the Lateran. On the day on whichthis happened, a synod was held, which formally deposed andexcommunicated Gregory VII. Clement III. was acknowledged as the rightful Pope; and, on Easter Day, 1084, in HenrySt. Peter's, he placed the imperial crown on the head of emperor.Henry IV. and of his queen.Gregory was, meanwhile, all but a prisoner in the castle ofSt. Angelo. He was eventually rescued by Robert Guiscard,whose march on Rome Henry IV. had neither time nor sufficient forces to oppose.In the end Henry IV.'s Pope prevailed, and Gregory, hated Gregory'snow by the Romans he had served so long, withdrew to death.Salerno, and died in the following year. His last words,which were true enough, according to his own criterions ofright and wrong, were: ' I have loved justice and hatediniquity, therefore I die in exile." His party chose as hissuccessor, Desiderius, Abbot of Monte Cassino, who, however, accomplished nothing of importance, and died after avery short pontificate.Р210 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.It was reserved for the successor of Desiderius, Urban II. ,to again raise to honour the idea of a reformed and powerfulрарасу. Urban, indeed, had to carry on a long strugglewith Clement III. , but in the end he was to stand out as theacknowledged leader of Europe, and head of Christendom.CHAPTER XIV.CONTINUATION OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE EMPIREHAND THE PAPACY.ENRY IV. had abandoned Rome to Robert Guiscard Henry inin 1084, and had returned to Germany. He found Germany.the magic of the imperial crown far less potent than he hadanticipated. He returned only to be involved again in atangle of wars and intrigues. The antiking Hermann andPope Gregory VII. —it was the year before the latter's death-still had their warm upholders.Anumber of councils and synods were called , some by KingHenry, some by his adversaries. At Quedlinburg the banwas hurled at Clement III. and at his German supporters;at Mayence the dethronement of Gregory and the elevation ofClement were expressly ratified, and Hermann of Luxemburgwas declared excommunicate.Side by side with the attempts to put an end to the civilwar by reasonings and disputations, musterings and marcheswere in progress. In July, 1085, Henry entered Saxony withan army, and, without striking a blow, reduced the land tosubmission. No sooner had the royal army been dismissed,however, than the king's cousin, Ecbert of Meissen, rebelledagainst him, and deprived him of all the fruits of his recentexpedition.Again the stern duel of earlier days was renewed, againSaxony was devastated year after year. Bavaria, too, wasfilled with feuds. Duke Welf held to King Hermann and toEcbert, and in union with the latter gained a victory overHenry at Wurzburg.Rebellion ofEcbert of Meissen,1085 A.D.212 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The Saxons submit.Returns toItaly.Marriage of Matilda.The war inItaly.Defection ofOf great advantage to Henry was the death of BishopBurkard of Halberstadt, who had more than any other manto continually nourish the Saxon opposition. Thirteen timeshe himself had marched against the king in battle. TheSaxon bishops were thus left without a leader, and several ofthem at once submitted to Henry. King Hermann withdrewto his own hereditary lands in Lorraine, and died, in 1088,while trying to wrest an insignificant castle from one of hisown vassals. Ecbert was outlawed, and was killed in 1090while fleeing some Saxon nobles whose lands he had devastated.Whatever were Henry IV.'s faults, want of energy was notone of them. Not yet discouraged by the uphill fight he hadbeen waging for so many years, he left Saxony even beforeEcbert had been captured, and turned to more sights of bloodand more bitter struggling in Italy.The Countess Matilda had, in the meantime, shown her devotion to the papal cause by marrying, at Urban II.'s instigation, the son of Henry's enemy, Welf of Bavaria. The bridewas forty, the bridegroom but seventeen years of age. Theill-assorted pair had but one interest in common, to driveHenry from the German throne, and thereby to secure thefuture of Italy and of the papacy.The Welfs had already been active in rousing Suabia to rebellion, so that Henry's power was threatened simultaneouslyon both sides of the Alps, and he was obliged to divide hisforces accordingly.The war in Italy was one of those slow, harassing onesthat Henry had grown to know so well. Every element wasthere to try his soul. The Pataria had again raised its headin Lombardy. The citizens of Milan, Cremona, Lodi, andother municipalities had formed a confederation for twentyyears for the purpose of defending themselves against theemperor. It was the first of these coalitions that were eventually to prove so fatal to Germany's rule in Italy.All of these unhappy combinations, however, were as nothingthe empress, to the misfortune that fell upon Henry in 1093. It was then 1093 A.D.CONFLICT BETWEEN THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY. 213that the empress, the Russian princess Adelaide-Berta haddied in 1087-turned against him. His son Conrad at thesame time threw off his allegiance, declared himself king, andbecame a rallying- point for the emperor's enemies.It was said at the time that Henry sought death on receiving this news, but was persuaded by faithful friends tocontinue and bear his burdens.father.And heavy enough they were! The defection of Conrad Conradand the empress—the latter, in addition, took care to spread against histhe worst rumours, and make the most damning chargesagainst her husband-induced many to abandon the imperialcause. The young Conrad, through the efforts of Welf andMatilda, was now crowned King of Italy by ArchbishopAnselm of Milan; a marriage was arranged by the Popebetween Conrad and the daughter of Roger of Sicily.It was at this time that Urban II. began to stand forth aspromoter ofa movement that was to stir Europe to its centre.The followers of Clement might continue to hold the castle ofSt. Angelo, as they did until 1099, -butit was to Urban thatthe eyes of all were turning.The same council of Piacenza, which in 1095 heard shameless accusations of Adelaide to the effect that the emperor haddirectly driven her to commit adultery, heard also the stirringcall from the Greek court for aid against the all- conqueringSeljukes. The Council of Clermont, held shortly afterwards,witnessed that incredible scene of enthusiasm where, amiddeafening cries of “ God wills it! God wills it! " thousandsthronged around the Pope to record their crusading vow.Henry IV.'s courage had been nearly broken by the blowsof fate. He remained in Italy until 1097 without an army,and seeking in vain for help from every quarter.In the end Welf tired of his elderly spouse, who had carefully instilled into him the fact that he could never becomeheir to her possessions. He made a public declaration to theeffect that the marriage with Matilda had never in realitybeen consummated, and renewed his allegiance to Henry.By this time, however, northern Italy was practically lost,The first crusade.Italy aban- doned, 1097 A.D.214 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Interest inand Henry was not in a position to attempt its recovery. Itremained in the hands of the great Countess and a papallegate shared with her the cares of government.The interest in Italian affairs had waned and disappearedthe Crusade. in Germany, and the Crusade was the all-absorbing topic.The Germans at first had kept aloof from the movement andhad pointed the finger of scorn at the ragged followers ofPeter the Hermit as they passed through the land. But thetide of feeling soon turned, and there were successful effortsin many districts to bring together crusading armies.Henry V. crownedking, 1099 A.D.Anarchy in Germany.End of the Schism.Henry IV.unpopular with his nobles.Henry IV.'s return to Germany after six years of absencecreated little or no excitement. He was able, however, toreconcile many of his old enemies and to win from the princestheir consent to regard his second son, Henry, in place of therebellious Conrad, as king. The young prince, in 1099, wassolemnly crowned at Aix-la- Chapelle.Germany by this time was in an almost hopeless state.Especially in the bishoprics were anarchy and schism rife; thewar of the investitures still continued, and Gregory VII.'scommand for free elections had led to the raising up of rivalbishops in many sees. As a natural consequence numberlesspetty struggles ensued.Men's idols had indeed been shattered in these dark days.The nation at large had intermittently renounced and obeyedits king, who, indeed, was still in the ban. Christians had beenand still were in doubt as to which Pope held the true keys ofheaven, and many of the separate flocks knew not who wastheir shepherd.Death at last came to the rescue as far as the rival popes wereconcerned, and Urban II. and Clement III. went to their graveswithin a year of each other. Urban's successor was PaschalII., and he put an end to two attempts to perpetuate theschism bypromptly imprisoning, one after the other the hastilyelected antipopes.The last years of Henry IV.'s reign were to prove no morequiet than the first had been. Sincere as were his efforts torestore law and order they failed signally. He did, indeedCONFLICT BETWEEN THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY. 215succeed in making the most prominent bishops and noblesswear to observe a prolonged truce, a so-called " peace of theland " during which all feuds should cease.But all feuds did not cease, and jealous nobles began tomurmur and to reproach the emperor; all the more so as heseemed very much to favour on the whole the lower classes.A perfect storm of indignation was roused by the fact that awell- known count, Sieghard of Burghausen, was murdered bythe mob of Ratisbon almost under the emperor's very eyes,and Henry either had not wished or had not been able to hinderthe deed.Henry had publicly announced an intended pilgrimage toJerusalem for the time of duration of which his son Henrywas to be his regent. Busied with other matters the emperordelayed his crusade, much to the chagrin of those princes wholonged for his absence.The discontent in Germany was fanned by the new PopePaschal II. , who had renewed the ban hurled by his predecessors, and had openly urged Robert of Flanders and Welfof Bavaria to persecute " Henry the head of heretics."But all the various elements of discontent would have been Defection ofseparately little to be feared had not an acknowledged leader Henry V.risen from an unexpected quarter. The discontented princesinduced the newly elected Henry, the emperor's second son, torebel against his father as the first had done. They seem tohave persuaded the young and ambitious monarch that hisown future was at stake, and that, the emperor being stillin the ban, an antiking would soon inevitably be elected.Henry IV. had raised an army for the purpose of punishinga certain Dietrich of Katlenburg who had imprisoned envoysfrom Magdeburg, where the matter ofa schismatic election wasbeing decided. The younger Henry, who had accompaniedthe expedition, secretly left the army at night and placed himself at the disposal of the emperor's enemies. He receivedthe Pope's sanction for his treasonous act.Once more the wasted land was plunged into all the horrors Civil war.of a civil war. The same old story was repeated of petty216 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry IV.'s abdication.The Church'striumph.Henry IV.'s last effort.sieges and fruitless negotiations, of shameful flight on HenryIV.'s part, of bitter humiliations, and of cunning treachery.The climax was reached in 1105 when the young king, after aseeming reconciliation with his father, and having made apromise to conduct the latter to Mayence, where a diet was inprogress, decoyed him instead to the castle of Böckenheim,near Bingen. Here he was kept as a prisoner; his dignityand his ordinary wants were alike disregarded.Fear and discomfort did their work. Henry agreed to abdicate and to surrender the insignia of the empire. Life andliberty were all that he asked, but before even these weregranted him, he was forced to confess to a Roman legate, atIngleheim, that from first to last he had sinned against theRoman Church. Even after this confession, into which he wasfairly tortured, absolution was refused him; only in Romecould he be free from the ban.In thus treading under heel the luckless grey-beard whohad so long been its opponent, the Church gained a new outward triumph, second only to that won at Canossa. It wasonly rendered possible by the incredible selfishness andtreachery of a band of princes who might easily have restrained themselves and awaited the natural death which wasalready hovering over the head of their emperor.InThe younger Henry was formally recognized by the diet ofMayence, where, at the same time, the evils in the Church wereplaced under discussion, and an embassy was despatchedto Rome to beg the Pope himself to come to Germany.the German sees the bishops, installed by the emperor, couldno longer hold their own; they either renounced their officesor sought refuge in flight. The corpses of those who had diedat enmity with Rome were dug up and banished from thechurches.Henry IV. made a last effort to raise himself from thedepths to which he had fallen, and to regain the crown hehad been forced to abdicate. Liège, where he had soughtrefuge, became a rallying point for all his partisans, who werestill numerous enough to make the new ruler tremble, and toCONFLICT BETWEEN THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY. 217cause him to hastily levy a large army. A force of about20,000 men was despatched against Cologne, which had alsoproved faithful to the dispossessed emperor, and which nowsuccessfully withstood an attack.burial, 1106Death at last put an end to sorrows and misfortunes with- Henry IV.'sout a parallel in the history of Europe. Henry IV. passed death andaway at Liège on the 7th of August, 1106, mourned only bythe lower classes of the people, to whom he had ever been agenerous and devoted master.No man was ever more thoroughly hated by his politicalenemies, and their revengeful spirit pursued even his lifelessflesh and bones. His corpse had been buried before the altarin the cathedral at Liège, but the Archbishop of Magdeburgplaced the building thus desecrated under an interdict, andthe dead emperor's friends were charged with the burden ofhis unhallowed remains. Twice more was he buried, andtwice exhumed before he at last found a resting place in theunconsecrated chapel of St. Afra, in Spires. Here he lay forfive years before Rome saw fit to remove the curse from hisashes. His remains were then, with all due pomp and magnificence—oh, mockery of filial devotion! —transferred to theimperial vault.A.D.Henry V. before his father's death had been humble before Henry V.the bishops, yielding towards the princes, and obedient toRome. He soon displayed himself in a different light.Henry IV.'s claim to the right of investing German bishops,a very natural claim, which had for two centuries been undisputed under his forerunners, had precipitated the war ofChurch and State. Henry V. had ascended the throne aschampion of the Church, but no sooner was his position securethan he determined not to renounce this ancient privilege ofGerman kingship.Paschal II. had shown himself lenient in the matter of theinvestitures to the extent of recognizing such bishops as hadbeen ordained during the schism provided they were otherwise above reproach. But he was determined for his ownpart to carry out in future the decrees of Gregory VII.HenryV.andPaschal II.218 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry V. and the investitures.Italianexpedition,IIIO A.D.These decrees, it will be remembered, were not at alldirected exclusively against Germany, and in the very year inwhich Henry V. came to the throne a nominal victory waswon over England, where the investiture with ring and staffwas abandoned by the crown. The King of Hungary, too, hadgiven up this right.Henry V., supported by a number of his princes and bishops,paid no heed to a renewal of the commands against lay investiture. At the council of Troyes, held in 1107, his envoysfully explained his position to the Pope. Henry claimed theright of approving the nominee to a bishopric; the canonicalelection and consecration might then take place, the royal investiture with ring and staff was to follow; the new bishopwas to do homage to the king and to take the oath of fealty.Under no other conditions were the lands, cities, castles, rents,and privileges of any see to be conferred.The Pope sent answer that the acknowledgement of suchrights meant slavery to the Church, that the investing withring and staff was a church sacrament with which the kingshould have no concern, and that the clergy disgraced theircalling when, in taking a vassal's oath, they laid the handswhich had been consecrated to the service of the altar in theblood- stained hand of a layman. The two points of viewwere clearly antagonistic, and years were to pass before acompromise could be effected.Busied as he was with wars against the Poles andBohemians-they turned out on the whole by no meansgreatly to the advantage of Germany-it was not until theyear 1110 that Henry could seriously turn his attention toRome and to Rome's ruler. It was then that he announcedan expedition for the purpose of obtaining the imperial crown,and the project found favour with the princes.Henry had just formed an alliance with the court ofEngland, wedding that Matilda who was later to play sogreat a part in the history of her native land.While Henry was preparing for his expedition, Paschaltook occasion to renewthe threats of excommunication againstCONFLICT BETWEEN THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY. 219all who hindered the filling of Church offices by canonicalelections, and against all clergy who should allow themselvesto be uncanonically chosen.It was the beginning of the year 1111 before Henry, whohad crossed the Alps with a very large army, approachedRome. He had sent envoys before him to demand theimperial crown, and to express at the same time his willingness to settle by negotiation the disputes concerning the investiture.The envoys arrived at a time when the Pope was almostfriendless. Paschal had looked around for the traditionalallies of the Papacy, but had found that the Roman nobilitywere not to be trusted, and that the Normans for the mostpart preferred the wars and adventures of the Orient to arenewal of the struggle with the empire.HenrybeforeRome, IIII A.D.renuncia.tion.It was under such circ*mstances as this that Paschal pro- Theposed an arrangement absolutely revolutionary in its character. Church'sThe wording has been preserved to us of the charters whichwere mutually drawn up on the occasion. The Church was togive back all the landed possessions and rights of the empirewhich had come into the hands of the clergy since the time ofCharlemagne. Whole counties were thus to be surrendered,and priests were to be no longer princes, no longer to holdfiefs and jurisdictions. On the contrary, the clergy were tocontent themselves with tithes and pious offerings. The king ,in return, was to relinquish the right of investiture; thingstemporal were to be wholly separated from things spirtual.On the day of the coronation the mutual renunciations wereto be made, and Paschal was to compel the German bishopsto submit peaceably to the loss of their fiefs .Sunday, February 12th, had been fixed upon for the coro- The coronanation ceremony. Magnificently escorted Henry V. entered tion day.St. Peter's, and the proceedings began. The king caused acharter to be read in which he confirmed the Pope, thebishops, and the abbots in the possession of their severalchurches, and declared that he had no wish to rob themof their belongings. His aim and object was that the220 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Pope and cardinals taken prisoners.Pope abandons investiture.whole odium of what was to follow should fall on thePope.When the charter containing the latter's concessions wasread a scene ensued of tumult and confusion. Paschal wasloudly accused of heresy. Bishops and abbots, princes andknights, were wild with excitement; the one feared thathe would lose the fiefs he held from the Church, the otherthose which he held from the empire. The day was spentin confused disputes; Henry V. declared that the Pope hadbroken his compact, and demanded now the full and freeright of investiture; the coronation ceremony could notcontinue.When night came the Pope and the cardinals found themselves prisoners in the hands of the Germans, and wereremoved to a neighbouring hospice; all thought of compromise was abandoned. Henry was determined that the captivesshould not be released until after his right of investing bishopshad been acknowledged.The Romans rose in a body to rescue the Pope, but theGermans held their own, and were able to retire from thecity, carrying with them Paschal and his fellow- captives.After weeks of imprisonment the Pope, moved by thewretched condition of Rome and the Romans, and also bythe fear of a new schism, yielded to all of Henry's demands.The right of investiture was abandoned- that right indefence of which Gregory VII. and Urban II. had filled allEurope with war and turmoil. The king might enjoy it now,fully and freely, as his predecessors had done. In the campbefore Rome, on April 12th, 1111, the precious documentcontaining the renunciation ' was placed in Henry's hands,and on the following day the coronation ceremony was performed. Henry withdrew from Rome as emperor, carryingwith him hostages of the Pope.As may well be imagined, the measures taken by Paschalmet with strong disapproval in many quarters. The majority1 See " Select Documents, " p. 407.CONFLICT BETWEEN THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY. 221of the cardinals bitterly opposed such a termination as this tothe war of the investitures, and the Gallican clergy were proceeding to take radical steps against the Pope when thelearned Ivo of Chartres restrained them. He assured them,from the fullness of his knowledge of canon law, that Paschal,having acted under compulsion, was not bound to keep hisagreement.diates his renunciaA Lenten synod held in the Lateran in 1112 at last per- Pope repusuaded the Pope to repudiate his compact, and a party of theGallican clergy, under the leadership of Archbishop Guido of tions.Vienne, showed themselves willing to take up the struggleagainst the emperor. A synod held at Vienne in 1112 declared lay investiture to be heresy, and the privilege wrungfrom Paschal.to be null and void. The ban was laid uponHenry, who, like a second Judas, had by treachery, perjury,and desecration forced the Pope to sign the deed.It was strange that Henry V. should have found himselfmuch in the same position, with regard to the ban, as thefather whom he had, with the aid of the Church, deposed.But the parallel was to be carried still further. At themoment when the emperor most needed devoted adherentsdisaffection showed itself among the princes in general, and arebellion broke out in Saxony.Henry had offended in different ways various influential Rebellion innobles, chief among them the powerful Saxon duke, Lothar Germany.of Supplinburg, who united in his own hand the former possessions of the Billungs, of Otto of Nordheim, and of Ecbertof Meissen. The fidelity, moreover, of the great Adalbert,Archbishop of Mayence, began also to be doubted by theemperor, the more so as Adalbert was known to be insympathy with those of the Gallican clergy who so stronglyfavoured the abandonment of lay investiture.Henry V. maintained later that Adalbert had been privyto a conspiracy formed at Erfurt to murder him. Be that asit may, he took the decisive step of arresting the primate ofGermany. An emperor, a pope, and an archbishop had nowin turn been his captives!Arrest of the archbishop.222 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry V. in the ban.Death ofFor the time being Henry's move was successful, and avictory gained in the following year by a Count Hoiersplaced Saxony once more in his hands. The rebelliousprinces submitted; some were pardoned, others placed underrestraint.But the peace was of short duration. In 1114 the citizensof Cologne, seized with a sudden mistrust of the emperor'smotives, deserted their places in an army that he was leadingagainst the Frisians. They found allies, and for a long timewar devastated both banks of the Rhine. Again the Saxonrebels raised their heads; once more Henry was obliged tomarch against them. In February, 1115, he suffered astinging defeat at their hands.It was at this time that a legate of the Pope, acting onhis own authority, indeed, ventured, upon German ground,to renew the curse against the emperor. It was of greatadvantage to the rebels that they could claim the authority of the Church for their hostile acts; once more thecause of the Saxons was that of the opponents of lay in- vestiture.Everything depended on a reconciliation with the Pope, andHenry, who in 1116 left Germany to its disunion, and enteredItaly as claimant of the estates of Matilda-the great countesshad died in the previous year, having come, it is believed, toan agreement with the emperor-recommenced negotiationswith him. Paschal had never himself spoken the ban againstHenry, although he had approved in general terms the actionof his legate.But if the emperor had expected to find the Pope ready toPaschal II. , make peace he must soon have found out his error.1118 A.D.Henry V. and Gela- sius.Thenegotiations failed, and when, in 1117, Henry came to Romeand wore his crown, Paschal excommunicated the bishop whohad set it upon his head. The Pope had succeeded in raisingan army, and was proceeding to more active hostilities, whendeath overtook him (January, 1118) .Henry V.'s first step on hearing that a new Pope, Gelasius,had been elected, was to hasten to Rome, where he hoped toCONFLICT BETWEEN THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY. 223come to terms with the future head of Christendom beforethe consecration could take place. But Gelasius took frightat his approach, and fled from Rome. Henry, in concert withthe Romans, sent envoys to demand his return, promisingthat he should be personally unmolested, but requiring anoath to the effect that the questions at issue between thepapacy and the empire should at last be settled .Gelasius sent an unsatisfactory reply. He intended, hesaid, to hold a council at Milan or Cremona; the matter ofthe investitures could be settled there if the emperor werewilling. But the emperor was not willing, neither were theRomans, who considered Rome the proper place for concluding matters of such prime importance.an anti- pope.The result was the election of an antipope, Burdinus, and Election ofthe beginning of a new schism. More and more was thereign of Henry V. becoming the reflected shadow of that ofhis father! There only failed a few ungrateful sons to makethe analogy complete.Gelasius now formally spoke the anathema over Henry V.and over the latter's pope, and finding Rome too unquiet forhimself crossed over into France.Henry V. now returned to Germany, from which he had Henrybeen absent for the space of two years. He had left the land prevents Würzburg a prey to civil war, and civil war had done its work. To use diet.the words of a chronicler who wrote in the year 1117: “ Menrage against each other with bestial delight; to the clergyscarcely their bare lives are left; the fields lie waste, thevillages are in ruins; many districts and cities are completelydevastated, and in many churches the service of God hasaltogether ceased."It was well that Henry came. The legate of the Pope hadbeen active in promulgating the ban, and preparations werebeing made for a diet at Würzburg, which might have costthe emperor his throne. His deposition had already beenseriously discussed, and had been made contingent upon hisappearing to answer the charges against him.Henry's presence was enough to dissipate the clouds of224 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Calixtus II. ,1119-1124 A.D.Council ofrenewal of ban, 1119 A.D.treasonable intent, and to set bounds to the growing disaffection; the Würzburg diet never took place.Early in the year 1119 Gelasius died, and was succeeded byCalixtus II. , that same Archbishop Guido of Vienne, the headof the Gallican clergy, who had been the first to proclaim theban against Henry after the transactions with Paschal in 1111 .He was the very man of all others with whom an eventualagreement must have seemed impossible. Yet, strangelyenough, he showed himself, inthe end at least, more peaceloving and conciliatory, above all more amenable to reason,than any of his predecessors.In Germany there was a universal desire for quiet andorder consequent on the utter desolation of the land, andall looked forward to the council of Rheims, where it washoped that the question of the investitures would be finallysettled.At this council, which met in 1119, documents on bothRheims and sides had been actually drawn up when a sudden mistrustseized both parties. The emperor found reason to fear that apenance like that which Henry IV. had undergone at Canossawas about to be inflicted upon himself; the Pope, that Henryhad in the neighbourhood a large army, and intended to secureby intimidation a more favourable treaty. Idle rumours these,so far as we know, but they served their purpose, and resultedin the breaking off of negotiations.Abandon- ment ofBurdinus.The council ended with a solemn renewal of the ban againstHenry and against Burdinus; all Germans were to be loosedfrom their oath of allegiance should the emperor continue inhis evil ways. Hundreds of candles were lighted in the assembly and suddenly and simultaneously extinguished-theusual symbolical way of casting into outer darkness the wretch who was burdened with the curse of Rome.The renewal of the ban did not greatly harm the emperor;indeed, in the months that succeeded, his power and influenceseem rather to have been on the increase than otherwise. Heeither could not or would not, however, make great sacrificesto uphold his puppet pope. Calixtus finally took BurdinusCONFLICT BETWEEN THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY. 225prisoner, paraded him ona camel through the streets of Rome,and then incarcerated him in a monastery.Hostile as the proceedings at Rheims had been, the discus- Thoughts ofsions of that council had opened men's eyes, strangely blinded compromise.in the heat of this long struggle, to the fact that a fair compromise of opposing interests was possible: that bishops andabbots might be canonically elected, and yet still remain servants of the emperor, answerable to him alone for theirestates and their privileges.It was three years before such a compromise was reallyeffected, years of continued strife between the emperor andall who thought as Rome did among his subjects . But theright moment came at last, came at a time when two hostilearmies were encamped over against each other in the vicinityof Mayence, and when the bloodiest of battles seemed aboutto take place.An arrangement was hit upon which found favour with Arbitration.both sides. Twenty-four princes were chosen-twelve torepresent the emperor, twelve the Church party; to them wasleft the final voice in the matter.At Würzburg in 1121 the arbiters came together and drewup a treaty of peace that was agreed to by all parties. Theactual question of the right of investiture was to be decidedin a council which the Pope was to summon; the princespromised to see that at that council the honour of the empireshould be upheld.Meanwhile the emperor was to be acknowledged, and even Concordat ofAn embassy was soon Worms,bishops might frequent his court. II22 A.D.afterwards sent to Rome to express Henry's ardent desire forpeace; Calixtus was quite as anxious for such a consummation, and the final results of all negotiations were embodiedin the famous Concordat of Worms, issued September 23rd,1122.The emperor renounced the investiture with ring and staff,and gave to the Church the right of appointing and electingher servants. But the elections were to be held in the royalpresence, and the temporal fiefs and privileges were to be226 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The kiss ofpeace.Concordat atriumph for the Church.Death ofHenry V.,1125 A.D.conferred by a special investiture with the sceptre. InGermany such investiture was to precede, in Burgundy andItaly to follow the Church's consecration.The original document drawn up on the part of theemperor is still preserved in the archives of the castle ofSt. Angelo at Rome.In the Rhine meadows near Worms, in the presence of acrowd so great that the city had not been able to contain it,the peace of the Church and the State after their war ofnearly fifty years was solemnly concluded. The papal legateextended to the emperor the kiss of peace, and administeredto him the holy Eucharist. The ban was thereby loosed, andHenry received back into the lap of the Church.The Concordat of Worms, although in every sense a compromise, was, nevertheless, a triumph for the papacy. WhatGregory VII. had claimed, indeed, freedom from the stateand dominion over it, had not been gained. But, all thesame, the spiritual principalities were greatly emancipatedfrom the authority of the crown. The emperor's right ofapproving of a nominee of the Church was very different fromhaving the nomination of a candidate in his own hand.The Church undoubtedly gained a tighter hold on theclergy of Germany, for it was able to place its best men inthe several sees, and thus to carry out more fully its greataims of sacerdotal celibacy and abolishment of simony.Charles the Great, Otto the Great, and Henry III. hadstriven to purify the Church, but had kept their mastery overit. Henry V. , in one important respect, at least, had acknowledged that Church's independence. Moreover, the fact thatduring the struggle pope after pope had gained recognitionin spite of the royal or imperial opposition had given the lastblow to the theory that the consent of the German monarchwas necessary to the validity of a papal election.The signing of the Concordat was the last great act ofHenry V.'s life. His remaining days were spent in trying tokeep peace among his unruly subjects and in preparing foran invasion of France in the interests of his father-in-law,CONFLICT BETWEEN THE EMPIRE AND THE PAPACY. 227Henry I. of England. The invasion never took place, andthe emperor died in 1125.Henry was buried in the magnificent cathedral of Spires,the first of the great triumphs of church architecture onGerman ground. The building had but shortly before reachedits completion.Frederick of Hohen- staufen as candidate for thethrone.Lothar ofelected.THCHAPTER XV.THE RISE OF THE HOHENSTAUFENS.HE history of the Hohenstaufen rule in Germany, thathistory which shows the culmination and then thetemporary fall of the medieval empire, would have begunwith the year 1125, instead of fourteen years later, had itnot been for the efforts, not to say intrigues, of ArchbishopAdalbert of Mayence.The chief candidate on the death of Henry V. , and theman whom that king had designated as his successor, washis nephew Frederick, Duke of Suabia, son of that Hohenstaufen to whom Henry IV. had given the duchy just mentioned in 1079. Frederick was the nearest of kin to theemperor who had just passed away, and, together with hisbrother Conrad, heir to the private Salian possessions. Hehad married the daughter of Henry of Bavaria, leader of theGuelphs, and seemed best fitted to reconcile the differenceswhich had already begun to grow up between that house andhis own. But he had led the anti- papal party under Henry V.,and it was feared that a continuation of the old Salian policyof antagonism to Rome might bring about the ruin of theChurch.Adalbert of Mayence, on whom it devolved to call togetherSupplinburg the electoral assembly, succeeded in influencing a number ofprinces, and in excluding the elements that were likely tooppose his plans. He then put through the election, whichtook place in somewhat tumultuous fashion, of Lothar ofSuplinburg, Duke of Saxony, a man who had been noted inhis own duchy as a just ruler and a careful administrator.THE RISE OF THE HOHENSTAUFENS. 229Three candidates, Frederick, Lothar, and Leopold ofAustria, had been designated as eligible to the throne by acommittee of forty, which had been chosen from the fourstems. Lothar and Leopold had each promised to submit tothe result of the voting, even though a third should beelected. The same demand was made of Frederick, but in aslightly different form. He was asked to consider himself asnot having been designated, in order that the election mightbe an entirely free one. Adalbert had intended to place himin a dilemma, and he succeeded. Frederick asked for timeto consider the proposition, and withdrew from the assembly to consult with his friends. But his action was representedto the princes as an attempt at asserting a hereditary rightto the throne, and it was this claim of heredity that thesesame princes were bound to oppose. To show its baselessnessin the present case, they gave the throne to Lothar.Bavaria wonover byThere was one powerful prince, Duke Henry, surnamed the Henry ofBlack, of Bavaria, the father-in-law of Frederick of Hohenstaufen, whose voice had not yet been heard in the matter, Lothar.and who had not been present at the election . ShouldBavaria unite with Suabia against him, Lothar's positionwould be anything but secure. But a bribe was thought of,which proved sufficiently desirable to induce Henry to goover to the rival camp.Lothar, at this time sixty years old, and without maleheirs, had a daughter, Gertrude, whose husband would fallheir eventually to huge estates in Saxony, and was not unlikely to be ultimately chosen to the throne of the empire.A marriage was now arranged between Gertrude and Henrythe Proud, Duke Henry's son and heir, in whose person theGuelphic dream of uniting Bavaria and Saxony in one hand,was to be realized a few years later. The young Henry himself, through his mother, was heir to half the Billungestates.Frederick of Hohenstaufen made his peace immediately Conflict withafter Lothar's coronation; but a question soon arose with Frederick ofregard to the Salian estates, his heritage from Henry V., staufen.Hohen-230 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Guelphs against Hohen- staufens.Conrad asantiking.which involved him in deadly conflict with the crown. Thequestion concerned the lands of felons, which had been confiscated by the late king. Were they to be considered asprivate royal possessions, or as belonging to the empire?Kings had hitherto disposed of crown lands at will; buteither they had left no near male heirs, or those heirs hadsucceeded to the throne.A court, held by Lothar at Ratisbon, rendered judgment ina sense unfavourable to Frederick, and the latter was orderedto make certain restitutions. He refused, and, inasmuch ashe prepared to defend his claims with the sword, waspromptly declared guilty of high treason, and the ban of theempire was spoken against him. Lothar was fettered at firstin his attempts at coercing Frederick, by an unfortunate warin Bohemia. He had taken sides in an internal conflict thatwas there going on, and had suffered a crushing defeat, beingable, however, in consequence of developments in Bohemiaitself, to make a not disadvantageous peace.It was at this time that the fatal hostility betweenGuelphs and Hohenstaufens, which was to be inherited bythe Italian Guelphs and Ghibellines, the adherents of thepopes and the adherents of the emperors, may be said to havebegun. Henry the Proud, the Guelph, joined with hisfather-in-law in the struggle against Frederick the Hohenstaufen.Frederick, for his part, was able to raise a strong party,which was greatly encouraged by Lothar's reverses inBohemia. It soon felt itself strong enough to take a step,warranted, alas, by precedent, both in the history of Germanyand of the papacy. An antiking was elected in the personof Conrad of Hohenstaufen, Frederick's younger brother.Conrad's first act was to hasten to Italy, where he hoped toput himself in possession of the estates of Matilda, and togain powerful adherents. But the Hohenstaufens werealready to begin to feel what papal enmity could accomplishagainst them, and the antiking was met by the ban of thechurch hurled against him by Honorius II. It helped himTHE RISE OF THE HOHENSTAUFENS. 231little that the Milanese received him with open arms. Hemet with loss upon loss, and allies and means alike failedhim.Lothar.The whole clergy of Germany, in the meantime, had de- Clergy forclared for Lothar, for the sanctity of an election approved byRome, and of a coronation fulfilled by the Church. Theyoung Henry of Bavaria, too, was most zealous on his behalf.He surprised Frederick of Hohenstaufen in a Suabian monastery, and set fire to the edifice, hoping to smother his enemyin the flames. But Frederick escaped to a fire- proof tower ofthe minster, and Henry was soon obliged to withdraw. Thewar with the Hohenstaufens, although on the whole littleblood was shed, lasted for four years. The sieges of insignificant towns were conducted on such primitive principles,that months were often spent in useless endeavours. ButSpires and Nuremburg, those old Salian strongholds, at lastfell into Lothar's hands.the Hohenstaufens.It was not, indeed, until 1134 and 1135 respectively, that Peace withFrederick and Conrad made their submission to the king.Lothar showed himself magnanimous in the extreme. Bothhis former enemies were left in possession of their hereditarylands and privileges, and Conrad was later made royal bannerbearer on an expedition to Italy.favours the Church.It was the results of Lothar's church policy, results which Lothardid not show themselves until much later, that made hisreign an unfortunate one for Germany. We must leave asidethe oft disputed questions, as to whether or not he renouncedthe right of investiture at his coronation, and whether, whenhe afterwards twice urgedthe Pope to acknowledge thatright, he referred to the procedure instituted by the Concordatof Worms, or to the state of things previous to that treaty.Proof enough, however, remains to show that be more thanonce sacrificed the idealof imperial glory to the enjoymentof a passing privilege.The German Church, indeed, looked upon his reign as agolden age. According to the annals of Pöhlde, "he leftbehind him such a memory of his time as will be blessed232 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Monasticorders .Bernard of Clairvaux.Expedition to Rome.until the end of the world; for in his days the Church rejoicedin peace, the performances of divine service increased, andthere was a blessed abundance of all things." And a Saxonmonk writes: "In Lothar's time a new light began to shine;not in Saxony alone, but in all Germany quiet and abundanceprevailed, and peace between Church and State. ”Lothar's right hand man in the kingdom was Norbert,founder of the Premonstratensian order, and later archbishopof Magdeburg. He was a man of wide influence, and apowerful spreader of missionary ideas. It was a time whenmonastic orders were in their prime, and when their leaderswere able to control in a measure the politics of Europe.Pope Honorius II. died in 1130, and it was Bernard ofClairvaux, the head of the Cistercians, and the reformer in allof more than one hundred and eighty monasteries, who wonover Kings Louis VI. of France and Henry I. of England forthe more pious Innocent II. , as opposed to the antipopeAnaclete who had been chosen by the Roman nobles.Norbert won Lothar also for Innocent, and a meeting, atwhich St. Bernard was present, took place between the newPope and the German king at Liége. Lothar performed theservice of marshal for the Pope, and led his horse by thebridle after holding the stirrup for him to mount. He established herewith a precedent, for no German king for centurieshad thus humbled himself save Conrad, the rebellious anddisinherited son of Henry IV.It was here at Liége that Lothar demanded the right ofinvestiture as the price of his support. St. Bernard, whocompletely controlled the Pope, hereupon interfered, declaredthe king's wish to be " unbecoming," and prevented furthernegotiations. Lothar, none the less , was won for the stricterChurch party; he agreed to lead an army to Rome, where hewas told that the imperial crown awaited him.It was a hazardous undertaking, for Lothar could raise nosuitable forces. The Hohenstaufens were not yet subjected,and an expedition had to be sent against King Niels ofDenmark and his son Magnus, the latter having killed aTHE RISE OF THE HOHENSTAUFENS. 233Slavonian prince who was under Lothar's protection. In theend Niels and Magnus were made to do homage and to paytribute.It was with only 1,500 knights that the German king in1132 crossed the Alps, and he was able to accomplish nogreat undertaking, although ably supported by Innocent andSt. Bernard, who met him at Viterbo. The Pope had alreadywon for himself the support of Cremona, Brescia, Pavia, andPiacenza.Lateran,1033 A.D.Early in 1033 the Pope and the emperor marched into CoronationRome. Anaclete was in possession of St. Peter's, and of the in thecastle of St. Angelo, nor was it possible to dislodge him withthe forces at hand. But Lothar was determined to have theimperial crown, and the ceremony of coronation was gonethrough with, contrary to custom, in the church of theLateran. Tho oath which the new Emperor swore to thePope has come down to us, and differs little from that takenby his predecessors. But a patriotic artist later painted the Picture inscene in the audience hall of the Lateran, and the followinginscription was placed under the picture: "The king comesbefore the gates, first swearing due honour to the city. Hethen becomes the vassal of the Pope, and takes the crownwhich he bestows."Frederick Barbarossa made a valiant and effective protestin later days against the wording of this inscription; theodious terms were explained away, and the aggressive workof art removed.Lothar is said at the time of his imperial coronation oncemore to have asked the Pope for the right of investiture asexercised of old by his predecessors, and Norbert of Magdeburg is said to have sided against his own sovereign. Bethat as it may Innocent was induced at least to confirm thatprovision of the Concordat requiring that the investiture inGermany should only be bestowed after the king had approvedthe candidate, had conferred upon him the secular privilegespertaining to his office, and had received his due profession ofobedience. This charter of confirmation is still extant.the Lateran.234 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Estates of Matilda.Roger of Sicily.Lothar'striumphs in Italy.Another charter marks an event which may have given riseto the impression that Lothar became a vassal of the Pope.Innocent conferred on him for life the use of the estates ofMatilda, of Gregory VII.'s great ally. Henry V. had regardedhimself as heir to these lands, maintaining that Matilda hadhad no right to will them to the Church; Conrad, Lothar'srival, had gone to Italy hoping to gain possession of them asHenry V.'s successor, but the cities of Tuscany had refused toreceive him as their lord.Lothar was to pay a hundred pounds of silver for the useof the estates which, at his death, were to be conferred forlife on his son- in- law, Henry of Bavaria, who was to swearhomage and fealty to the Pope.Lothar's acceptance of the estates from the hand of Innocent, his acknowledgement that the Pope had a right tobestow them, was a concession of far- reaching import-a concession that can only be explained on the supposition thatthere was danger of the estates falling, either by sentence ofthe Pope or otherwise, into the hands of the Hohenstaufens,who had claims to them that were not unfounded.Three years after his imperial coronation, Lothar again returned to Italy with an army, ready to help the Pope againstAnaclete, who was still unconquered, and against Roger ofSicily, a prime mover in the matter of the schism. Rogerwas nephew of that Robert Guiscard who had been the conqueror of Southern Italy. He had shown himself worthy ofhis uncle, and had maintained the possession of Calabria andApulia, not to speak of numerous possessions of the Greeksin Africa. A king's crown had been bestowed upon him byAnaclete as the price of his support.Such a power as Roger's in the south of Italy was a constant menace to the empire which, too, still had a nominalclaim to Apulia, Salerno and Capua. Henry III. , indeed , hadbeen the last to exercise sovereign rights over these provinces.Lothar's progress through Italy in 1136 and 1137 was asuccession of triumphs. A few cities, indeed, refused himallegiance, but he met with no organized resistance, and thereTHE RISE OF THE HOHENSTAUFENS. 235was probably no one town in which more than a faction of thecitizens was hostile to him. He was soon the acknowledgedmaster of Lombardy and the Romagna. After leavingBologna he divided his army, entrusting a portion of it to Henryof Bavaria who was joined by Pope Innocent. Whenthe twodivisions met, each after its own career of conquest, it was tobesiege the strong fortress of Bari, which, together withSalerno, soon capitulated.Innocent returned to Rome, where, in 1138, on Anaclete'sdeath, he won general recognition. The relations between thePope and the Emperor had become somewhat strained at thelast, although each in turn had shown that he was willing tomake concessions in case of necessity.Innocent was under the impression that the emperor wassubjugating the recalcitrant cities solely for the advantageof St. Peter, whereas his chief aim was to gain gloryfor the empire. More than one misunderstanding arose.Viterbo being forced to pay a fine of £3,000, the Popeclaimed it as feudal lord, Duke Henry as conqueror of thecity. In this case, and in a dispute regarding the electionof an abbot of Monte Casino, Innocent was compelled toyield.His relations with thePope.with theIn the important question as to who should confer the Curiousduchy of Apulia a curious compromise was effected . Both compromisehad agreed that Rainulf of Alife was the proper person; but Pope.the question was who should invest him, for the Pope and theEmperor each claimed to be feudal lord of Apulia. As a finalexpedient the standard or token of investiture was bestowedby both in common, the Emperor holding the shaft, the Popethe point of the banner.In peace and concord, outwardly at least, the two potentates Lothar'sparted, and Lothar prepared to return to Germany. Death death, 1137overtook him on the journey through Tyrol.Innocent II. , bereft of his strong adherent, soon found himself in sore straits, for Roger of Sicily was able to retrieve hislosses and to pursue his ambitious plans. The Pope, to thesurprise of Europe, finally took up arms in his own behalf, andA.D.236 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.A Guelph as candidate,1137.Henry of Bavaria.Objectionsto Henry of Bavaria.marched out to meet Roger. The result was that the warlikepontiff and his chief supporters fell into the enemy's handsand were held as prisoners of war. Innocent at last wasallowed to depart in peace, but not until he had ratified themeasures of his rival Anaclete, and recognized Roger as headof a great Norman kingdom in south Italy.How often has it happened in the history of medievalGermany that the chief interest centres on two men instead ofon one-on him who holds the throne, but also on him whoclaims it!At the time of Lothar's accession, in 1125, a Hohenstaufenhad been the rejected suitor; at his death a Guelph wasto hold that unenvied position. And the mutual relations ofthe two houses were not to be bettered by the new complications.Henry of Bavaria had every reason to expect the crown.He had been present with Lothar at the last, and the dyingking had designated him as his successor. His power andwealth, too, seemed to signal him out above all others for thehighest position in the land. Already Duke of Bavaria andof Saxony and heir to Lothar's private estates, he was about toenter upon the enjoyment of the estates of Matilda which,according to agreement, were to be his for life. Had the goalof the German princes been a purely national one, had theirone ideal been to strengthen the empire and to free it fromthe shackles imposed by the Church, they could have attainedit by electing Henry.But it was not. Many were jealous of Henry's position,and many were bound by ties of loyalty and of self-interest tothe house of Hohenstaufen. To the Church, moreover, sopowerful a man as Henry-one, too, who while in Italy hadfirmly stood his ground against the papal demands— was notlikely to prove acceptable.Archbishop Albero of Treves, who owed his advancementto that see to the personal intervention of Innocent II. , prevented Henry from being chosen. To him belonged thefirst vote and the conducting of the election, for the seeTHE RISE OF THE HOHENSTAUFENS. 237of Mayence was temporarily vacant and the Cologne archbishophad not yet received his pallium from Rome.The object of Albero's choice was none other than that Conrad II. ,Conrad who, for a brief period, had already worn the royal 1138-1152 .crown in opposition to Lothar. The election took place atCoblenz on the 7th of March, 1138, and the crown was placedon Conrad's head by a legate of the Pope. Neither Saxonynor Bavaria was represented, and the greatest haste and irregularity characterized the proceedings. But Albero knew thatthe choice of Rome would be the choice of the German clergy,and that the princes would approve a measure which rid themof the fear of Henry's supremacy. The event proved that hewas right, but Conrad's election was a blow to the progress ofGermany. His reign was the reign of a faction and nothinggood or lasting came of it.Henry of Bavaria.Henry at first bore his disappointment with a good grace, War withand, either by promises or by threats, was induced to resignthe insignia of royalty which had come into his hands atLothar's death. But Conrad was not satisfied with this.Henry was far too powerful a subject for a mediocre king, andcauses of dispute were not wanting. The reports that we haveof the quarrel are vague and contradictory, but we know thatConrad raised objection to the holding of two duchies in onehand, and that he eventually conferred Saxony on MargraveAlbrecht the Bear, a descendant of the Billungs. Henry wasdeclared in the ban, and war between the king and hismightiest vassal became inevitable.Conrad left no stone unturned to gain allies for the comingstruggle, and we hear at this time of his conferring upon Genoathe right of coinage-a right so valued that for centuries tocome the name Conradus was to be stamped on Genoesecoins.66 ""In Saxony the rival dukes had already begun to despoil Fighting in Saxony.each other's lands. Albrecht was at first the more successful,taking Luneburg, Bremen, and other important places, and atone time holding nearly the whole duchy in his power. Butin 1139 the tide turned, and Henry gained such an ascen-238 A HISTORY OF GERMANY,Death ofHenry of Bavaria.Weinsbergbesieged,1140.dancy that Conrad, when he appeared in Saxony, found theland too hostile, and did not dare to remain. His withdrawalhad much the aspect of a flight, and only served to strengthenHenry's cause.Before leading an army against Henry, Conrad retired toBavaria, which he conferred on Margrave Leopold of Austria,his half- brother, and own brother to Otto of Frising, theclear-headed historian of these times, and of the early part ofFrederick Barbarossa's reign. Otto, although a bishop, helpedhis brother valiantly to defend his duchy.In the summer of 1139 Conrad's forces and those of Henrythe Proud stood over against each other, prepared for thefinal struggle, at Kreuzburg, near the Werra. It was agreed,however, instead of fighting, to make truce, and the Saxonsexpressed their willingness to renew their allegiance to Conradand to submit their complaints to a general diet to be held inWorms. The day ended, not, as everyone had expected, inhavoc and bloodshed, but in a mild carouse, the Archbishopof Treves being discovered to have opportunely brought withhim as baggage a considerable quantity of wine.The negotiations, strangely enough, had been carried onwith the Saxon nobles and not with Henry the Proud, andthe latter determined to carry the war into Bavaria, which heintended to wrest from its new duke. But a sudden and fatalillness befell him; he died at the age of thirty-five. Many ofhis contemporaries believed, or professed to believe, that hehad been poisoned.The opposition in Bavaria against Duke Leopold and Ottoof Frising continued to be carried on by Henry the Proud' Srelative, Count Welf. He defeated them in the MangfallValley in August, 1140, and Conrad himself was fain to cometo the help of his half-brothers. He besieged Welf's stronghold, Weinsberg (near Ulm) , which fell after an eight weeks'siege. Two famous traditions attach to this victory, neitherof which, however, can be said to be historically well founded.It was here that the women were allowed to depart with whatbelongings they could carry, and each left the city bendingTHE RISE OF THE HOHENSTAUFENS. 239under the weight of her husband. Here, too, the great cries,"Ho Welf," and " Ho Waiblingen " (Ghibelline), are saidfirst to have been uttered.Conrad was detained in Bavaria for more than a year, but Truce withby May, 1142, the greater part of the Welf faction, although the Guelphs.not Count Welf himself, was ready for peace; and a largeassembly was held at Frankfort for the purpose of bringingabout a general reconciliation. Saxon and Bavarian princeswere present in great numbers, as well as Gertrude, the widowof Henry the Proud, and her young son, Henry the Lion.Gertrude here promised her hand to Leopold's brother andConrad's half-brother, Henry of Austria, surnamed Jasomirgott, from the oath which was always on his lips ( “ Ja so mirGott helfe "). The wedding festivities were celebrated withgreat pomp, and lasted a fortnight, and it was hoped that theenmity between the two chief houses in Germany was aboutto be finally laid at rest. Saxony was given to Henry theLion, who renounced Bavaria, which, Leopold having died afew months before the peace-meeting at Frankfort and theduchy having remained until then in the hands of the king,was given in 1143 to Henry Jasomirgott.But this advancement of a member of the Hohenstaufenfamily to the head of a duchy that had so long belonged tothe Guelphs, aroused Count Welf to new action. He nowclaimed Bavaria in his own right, and, strange to say, in thisnew struggle the youthful Frederick Barbarossa took part notwith his uncle, King Conrad, but with the new claimant.Henry Jasomirgott, however, remained master of the situation in Bavaria, and was able to take Dachau, the strongestfortress of the Guelphs.with Con- stantinople.The opposition was crushed for the moment, and Conrad Alliancewas able to turn his attention to other matters. After longand oft-interrupted negotiations an alliance with the court ofConstantinople was brought about, an alliance directed againstRoger of Sicily, who is said to have bribed Welf to fan thediscordant elements in Germany, so as to prevent Conrad fromappearing in Italy. Certain it is that Welf played most ably240 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.General de- moralisationinto Roger's hands, for his enmity to the Hohenstaufens, whichinfected other noble houses also with disloyal impulses, prevented anything like decisive action on the part of the king.Who can doubt but that the failure to win the imperial crownin Germany. Was owing to the general disorganization and demoralization,which kept the king from crossing the Alps in spite of thePope's urgent invitations to do so? Intestinal feuds calledhim now here now there, and obliged him to dissipate hisstrength in petty undertakings.The secondcrusade.Crusadeagainst the Wends.The prestige of the throne was sinking lower and lower.Conrad had, indeed, in 1142, made a successful inroad intoBohemia, and established his own candidate in that duchy;but since then he had accomplished nothing worthy of record.In 1146 his attempts at interference in Poland signally failed ,while his influence in the lands on his south-eastern borderwas almost annihilated by a victory of the Hungarian kingGeisa over Henry of Bavaria.In the midst of all these mishaps and dissentions the newscame that a great crusade was in progress against the Turks,who had taken Edessa and were otherwise holding highcarnival in Syria. The second crusade was in some ways agodsend to Germany; men laid aside their own disputes tounite in a great and common cause. Welf himself took thecross.St. Bernard, fresh from unheard- of triumphs as a preacherof the crusade in France, appeared in person before Conrad,and, after several attempts to make the king take the cross,was at last successful. On the feast of St. John the Evangelist (December 27th) , 1146, the monk rose up in the cathedralat Spires and gave vent to a burst of eloquence that carriedall before it. As Bernard himself expressed it, a wonder ofwonders was accomplished, and Conrad was moved to tears,declaring that the Lord himself had spoken. Bernard seizedthe standard from the altar and bestowed it on the king asleader of the crusading host.The zeal for the crusade became as general throughoutGermany as it had been throughout France; but the SaxonsTHE RISE OF THE HOHENSTAUFENS. 241were allowed the privileges of those going to the Holy Land,if they would undertake to subject the neighbouring Wends,a task which they only partially fulfilled in the followingyear.Conrad's expedition left Germany in June, 1147, choosing Conrad'sthe route through Hungary. A month later King Louis, of expedition.France, with an immense army, followed in his wake. Anumber of crusaders from the neighbourhood of Cologne hadalready joined a Flemish- English fleet, which was soon, onbehalf of the hospitable king of Portugal, to conquer Lisbonfrom the Saracens.Great as were the preparations, and wild as was the enthusiasm for the second crusade, no one of these great expeditions ever resulted quite so miserably.Conrad's army braved successfully the dangers that Disaster.threatened it, from the fears and suspicions of the Greeks;but on the road from Nicea to Iconium provisions gave out,the army became disheartened, and further advance was impossible. It was decided to return to Nicea, and 30,000Germans are said to have fallen during this retreat, wantand fatigue being aggravated by continual attacks of theTurks. From Nicea Conrad sent home the greater part ofthe troops that remained, being convinced that nothing wasto be done with such untrained forces. With the rest hejoined Louis of France at Lopadium, but was soon obligedby illness to return to Constantinople.The French continued their expedition, but were no moresuccessful than the Germans had been. The greater part ofthem fell under the sabres of the Turks, or were draggedinto captivity, while sickness and hunger completed whateverthe enemy left to be accomplished.The blame of all these disasters has often been laid to the The Greeks.faithlessness of the Greeks, who undoubtedly did make compacts as to means of transport, supplies, etc. , which werenever fulfilled. But the Greek emperor was aghast at theflood of nations that had been let loose against him, and hefeared, not without some reason, that the French, at least,R242 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.1Siege of Damascus,1148 A.D.Treason in the Christianarmy.Conrad's return toItaly.Count WelfVI.'srebellion.were lusting to conquer his own capital of Constantinople.No wonder that provisions and guides were difficult to obtain,and that the wish to furnish them often failed. On thewhole the Germans were better treated than the French, andConrad, whose sister-in-law had married the emperor, wasfor long periods Manuel's guest.Conrad again left Constantinople in the spring of 1148,and, accompanied only by his retinue, sailed for Ptolomais.From there he hastened to Jerusalem, where he succeeded inraising a new army from the crowds of pilgrims who hadgathered there. In common with Louis of France, who hadalso gathered new forces, and with Baldwin, king of Jerusalem, it was decided to besiege Damascus, and thus by onegreat action to wipe out the shame of the previous disasters.The siege opened in the most promising manner, and itwas hoped that, within a fortnight, the cross would be seenwaving above the walls of the city. But disunion andtreachery were at work in the Christian army, and the contingent from Jerusalem began treating in secret with thevizier of Damascus. The accusation of bribery was lateropenly brought against King Baldwin and the Templars.Certain it is that the withdrawal of the Jerusalem forcesresulted in the abandonment of the undertaking againstDamascus. The same cause, too, brought about the failureof an attempted siege of Askalon. Sick at heart, and feelingthat they had been betrayed by the very people for whosesake they had undergone such bitter privations, the two kingsset sail for their respective lands.In May, 1149, Conrad landed near Aquileija, and preparedto take up arms against Roger of Sicily, having made a compact to that end with the Emperor Manuel. He dreaded,doubtless, a return to Germany without first having performed some feat of arms, which should make the peopleforget the miserable outcome of his expedition.But Roger had not been idle. He had met Count Welf,who returned before Conrad from the crusade, and hadentered into a new compact with him. Welf again stood atTHE RISE OF THE HOHENSTAUFENS. 243the head of a rebellion in Germany, and Conrad hastenedback to take the reins of Government from the hands of hisyouthful son Henry, whom the princes had chosen king atthe beginning of the crusade. This same young king sooninflicted a signal defeat on Welf's army, near Flochberg.Welf made his submission, and did not again disturb thepeace of the kingdom. He remained faithful to Conrad, evenwhen Henry the Lion, now of age, renewed his claim toBavaria, and prepared, as was the wont of these passionateGuelphs, to move heaven and earth to attain his object.But the struggle had only just commenced, when the hand Conrad'sof death was laid first upon the young King Henry, and then death, 1152upon his father Conrad. The latter died February 15th,1152.At the time of Conrad's death, hard blows of fate werefalling not only on the empire, but also on the papacy. TheChurch, impregnated with St. Bernard's principles, and fullof mystic and extravagant ideas of its own greatness, hadsuffered an irretrievable loss of prestige through the failureof the second crusade. And from on all sides enemies werenow attacking it . Abelard had already engaged in his greatphilosophical contest with St. Bernard, in which he disputedthe foundations of hierarchical influence. The Waldensianheretics were raising their heads, while the boldest, as yet, ofall reformers, the great demagogue, Arnold of Brescia, hadformulated a teaching that struck at the root of the Church'stemporal power.A.D.Brescia.Arnold demanded that the clergy should renounce their Arnold ofconnection with the things of this world, and devote themselves to their spiritual duties. They were to renounce theirsecular possessions, and to content themselves with the giftsof the pious.Arnold was banished from Italy by the Lateran Council of1139, and went to France, where he supported Abelard in thelatter's disputation with St. Bernard at Sens. Bernard procured his expulsion from France, and he went to Zurich.In 1143 and the following year the people of Rome tried244 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Arnold in Rome.Papal claims and pretensions.to throw off the yoke of their pontiff, who was alike theirspiritual and their temporal head. The revolution assumedimmense proportions, and Pope Lucius II. fell while defending the Roman capitol. His successor, Eugene III. , wasforced to reside in Viterbo.At this time Arnold reappeared in the city and became itsmaster. Rome was to have a new communal governmentmodelled partly on that of the Lombard cities , —which wererepublics in all but name, -partly on antique principles witha senate and consuls. It was a movement such as the historyof Rome has to record more than once; Arnold of Bresciawas the successor of Crescentius and the forerunner of Coladi Rienzi.Conrad III. was about to come to the help of the oppressedhierarchy, having refused, perhaps unwisely, the invitationof the " republic " to become its ally, when death overtookhim.In spite of all reverses and attacks the papacy did not ceaseto put forward the most far-reaching claims as to the prerogatives of the see of Rome. Towards the end of Conrad'sreign these claims found a lasting form in the " DecretumGratiani," a collection of canons which soon superseded allother works on ecclesiastical law, and which was to controlthe life of the Church for centuries. It is filled with sentences from Pseudo- Isidor, and with assumptions of papalomnipotence.And, indeed, more and more the popes were striving tobecome not only the chief bishops of Christendom, but alsothe first princes. They commenced to surround themselveswith retinues of nobles as well as of clergy, and the imperialdiadem with which Hildebrand is reported to have crowned apope in 1059 was now regularly worn together with the mitre.It professed to be the crown mentioned in the forged donationof Constantine as having been presented by that emperor toPope Sylvester.It was well, indeed, for the prestige of Germany that abrilliant and determined man now came to the throne. TheTHE RISE OF THE HOHENSTAUFENS. 245empire was to succumb in the end to the papacy, but itwould have succumbed miserably and weakly had it not beenfor Frederick Barbarossa and his descendants. The nationwas to suffer defeat after a long and heroic defence againstoverwhelming odds, but the war of the Hohenstaufens andthe popes was to be one of Titans against gods!Frederick Barbarossa,1152-1189.Frederick and thePope.Frederick'sFCHAPTER XVI.FREDERICK I. (BARBAROSSA) .REDERICK of Suabia was designated by the dyingking Conrad, to the exclusion of his own remaining son,who was only eight years old, as that one of the Hohenstaufens who was best fitted to reign. The election tookplace at Frankfort on March 4th, 1152, and all the greatpeace-breakers of Conrad's reign, having laid aside their oldenmity, were there: Albrecht the Bear, Welf VI. of Bavaria,Henry the Lion.Frederick was the only candidate, and but one dissentingvoice, that of the Archbishop of Mayence, who was the lastupholder of St. Bernard's strict hierarchical ideas in Germany,was raised against him. Henry the Lion was undoubtedlywon over by the assurance of favours which we shall soon seegranted to him.It is significent of the position that the new king intendedto take towards the papacy-Frederick's views were knownto the Archbishop of Mayence, whence the latter's opposition-that immediately after the election he informed Eugene III.of his intention to restore to its old influence and glory theempire " bestowed upon him by God. " He promised, indeed,respect and love for the Pope's person, and protection for thewhole Church; but, unlike his predecessors, he demanded nopapal sanction or confirmation of the election.Frederick at the time of his election was about thirty yearspersonality. of age. He was small, fair- complexioned, with reddish hairand beard. He was endowed by nature with great capacities,and was extremely ambitious. He possessed a keen sense ofFREDERICK I. (BARBAROSSA) .247justice, and, on the very day of his coronation, refused topardon a suppliant who knelt before him, declaring that hehad been duly and lawfully sentenced. And all through hisreign we shall find him placing justice before mercy.Frederick's first care was to make the circuit of his kingdom and to receive the homage of the duchies; nowhere washis royal authority impugned. His next step was to enterinto a solemn treaty with Pope Eugene, by the terms ofwhich the imperial crown was to be bestowed upon him inreturn for aid against the turbulent Romans, against theNorman king of Sicily-Roger died in 1154, but his sonWilliam continued his policy-and against the Greeks, shouldthey attempt to lay claim to any portion of the Italian soil.Treaty with the Pope.At the same diet of Constance, where this treaty was finally Fugitivesdrawn up, appeared two citizens of the little Italian town of from Lodi.Lodi, who had moving tales to relate of the oppressions theyand their fellows had been made to suffer from their powerfulneighbour, Milan. The two supplicants, unknown to the restof their fellow-citizens, who were too cowed even to approve ofsuch a step, had fled to Frederick for aid.We have arrived at a time when certain of the Italian The Lomcities, especially Milan, Venice, and Pavia, had developed into bard cities.great communal powers. The citizens-in whose midst, andnot, as in Germany, on the surrounding heights, the greatnobles had built their castles -had drawn the jurisdictionsand revenues, the market, toll, and coinage monies into theirown hands; had conquered stretches of surrounding territory,and were on the alert for further conquests. Lodi, and Comoas well, were victims of this new lust for power.Frederick sent a written warning to Milan to desist fromher persecutions; but the letter when it arrived was receivedwith scorn, and the royal seal trampled under foot. Theenvoy barely escaped with his life. There was sure now tobe a conflict, and thus early did Frederick come into contactwith a power that was to be to his kingdom what Carthagehad been to ancient Rome. And not unlike the fate ofCarthage was to be that of Milan.248 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Marriage withBeatriceofBurgundy,1156 A.D.Henry the Lion.The Duchy of Austria.Intent upon the expedition which was to gain him theimperial crown, Frederick hastened to strengthen his position by negotiating for an alliance by marriage withthe court of Constantinople, and by completing the transformation of Henry the Lion from an enemy into afriend.The negotiations with Emperor Manuel with a view towedding a Grecian princess to the new king of the Romansfinally failed, and Frederick eventually (in 1156) marriedBeatrice, daughter of the count of Macon, whose house, nextto that of the Zäringens, the founders of Berne, was the mostpowerful in Burgundy. Beatrice brought with her a magnificent dowry. The extent of her lands may be judged from the fact that Frederick became feudal lord of 5,000 newvassals able to perform military service. The marriage, too,had great political results, for Burgundy had become estrangedfrom the empire during the reigns of Lothar and Conrad, butFrederick from now on was able to draw tighter the bondsthat bound it to Germany. In 1157 he made a triumphantprogress through the land, confirming the possessions ofecclesiastical foundations, and bestowing the regalia on newlyelected bishops.Henry the Lion's affair was settled by the decision of aDiet at Goslar to the effect that his claims to Bavaria werejust, and should be regarded. For the present he was giventhe royal right of investing, as Duke of Saxony, the bishopsof Oldenburg, Ratzeburg, and Schwerin, and any new Slavicbishoprics with their temporal possessions. The formerDuke of Bavaria, Henry Jasomirgott, remained to be reckonedwith; but, in 1156 he was conciliated by the gift of the newlyformed duchy of Austria. On September 17th of that yearhe renounced at Ratisbon the duchy of Bavaria, giving up theseven standards which were the signs of his sway accordingto the feudal usage. The standards were then conferred onHenry the Lion, who gave back two in token that two provinces, those lying between the Enns and the Inn, were henceforth to belong to the newly formed duchy, and notto Bavaria.FREDERICK I. (BARBAROSSA) .249The wording of the charter which Frederick conferred on .Henry of Austria is preserved. The duchy was to be hereditary and, contrary to all custom, daughters were to have theright of succeeding as well as sons. The duke was to havethe sole jurisdiction in the land; his duties towards theempire were to be merely nominal.Great as these concessions were they did not suffice forsome of the later dukes of Austria, and a successful forgerydistorted, after two hundred years, the original terms ofFrederick's grant. The later greatness of the House ofAustria was founded to a great extent on a basis of lies.It was altogether Frederick Barbarossa's policy to favour Frederick'sthe secular princes, and thus to gain support against the general policy.Church. He gave Suabia to his own cousin, Frederick ofRotenburg, he won the Zäringens with promises concerningBurgundy, and the South German Guelphs by granting themfiefs in Italy, among others the estates of the CountessMatilda.The mutilation of Bavaria for the sake of satisfying theclaims of Henry Jasomirgott was, all the same, the first steptowards breaking the power of the great stem duchies; thelast step was taken when, in 1180, Saxony was subdivided.1154 A.D.It was the autumn of 1154, to return to the Italian expedi- Italiantion, when Frederick crossed the Alps. He held a great expedition,muster of his army in the Roncaglian fields near Piacenza,and those princes of Germany, notably the archbishop ofBremen, and the bishop of Halberstadt, who had been orderedto join the emperor, and had not done so, were declared tohave failed in performing their duties as vassals, and to haveforfeited their fiefs of the crown.In the Roncaglian fields Frederick received ambassadorsfrom the Lombard cities, some of which also sent propitiatorygifts; silks , ostriches, lions, and parrots are mentioned as theofferings of Genoa. All of the cities, Milan included, seemto have taken the oath of allegiance.The attitude of the Milanese was submissive enough. At Frederickthe king's command they promised to desist from a war and theMilanese.250 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Fall ofTortona.Frederick andAdrian IV.against Pavia, and offered to pay the sum of 4,000 marks ofsilver if they might not be compelled to rebuild the devastated cities of Lodi and Como-a proposal which Frederickfor the present neither accepted nor rejected . He was anxiousto press on towards Rome, and he demanded guides from theMilanese, and an escort which should be headed by two ofthe consuls of their city. These were intended, doubtless, tobe hostages for Milan's good behaviour.The German army was led through regions where food andprovender failed . Frederick began to suspect the Milaneseconsuls of treachery, and ordered his army to retrace its steps.An embassy from Milan came out to avert his wrath, butFrederick declined now to enter into any negotiations excepton the basis of a complete restoration of Lodi and Como totheir civic rights. The ban of the empire, the carrying out ofwhich was postponed till a future time, was soon spokenagainst Milan.The rich city of Tortona, which refused obedience toFrederick, now endured a long and wasting siege, and fell inspite of aid sent by the Milanese. The city was levelled tothe ground, and its punishment proved a warning example toall Italy. The news spread of the Suzerain's vigour and determination of his sternness and justice, too, for along trainof clergy and monks that had come out from the city to begfor mercy, if not for the inhabitants as a whole at least forthemselves, had been promptly sent back to suffer with therest.

The fate of Tortona cleared the way to Rome.The preliminaries of the imperial coronation had alreadybeen arranged by envoys, which had several times passed toand fro between the king and the new Pope Adrian IV., theonly Englishman who ever sat on the chair of Peter. Adriansorely needed Frederick's aid, determined as he was to putdown the insurrection in Rome, and to overcome the newking of Sicily. The Pope had by this time declared Arnoldof Brescia in the ban, and had laid Rome under an interdictjust before the Easter season-a proceeding which had brokenFREDERICK I. (BARBAROSSA) .251the will of the Romans for the moment, and caused them tobow humbly before their spiritual head as he made his entryinto the Lateran on Maundy Thursday.Adrian was soon obliged to withdraw from Rome, however, not feeling safe in those unquiet precincts; he advancedto Sutri to meet Frederick.At Sutri a disagreement arose between the two heads ofChristendom because of the king's refusal to hold the stirrupfor the Pope, who had ridden up before the royal tent, to dismount. Adrian refused the kiss of peace until Frederickshould have performed this service, and finally withdrew inanger. The question was hotly discussed, and several cardinals left the camp; but Frederick yielded on ascertainingthat precedent, especially in the case of Lothar III. , was infavour of the papal claim .Holds stirrup of Pope.Arnold of Brescia,1155 A.D.Arnold of Brescia had meanwhile, at the time of Adrian's Death ofbrief triumph, fled from Rome, but had found refuge withsome nobles of the Campagna. One of Frederick's first acts,one of the conditions indeed of the coronation, was to seize himand surrender him to the Pope. Arnold was afterwards,without the knowledge either of the Pope or of the newemperor, taken from prison by his personal enemy, the prefectof Rome, Pierleoni, and hanged. His body was burnt and hisashes were thrown in the Tiber.Romans.The rebellious Romans had tried to draw Frederick over to Fredericktheir own side, and had asked him to recognise their republic. andtheThey themselves had offered to bestow on him the imperialcrown and the rule, as they expressed it, over the city as well asover the whole earth. In return, the emperor was to recognizeall their privileges, to protect them against all their enemiesand, incredible as it may seem, to pay them 5,000 marksof silver .Frederick declared the Roman claims and assumptions to The Coronabe preposterous, and received the crown from the hand of the tion, 1155Pope. Wehave a circ*mstantial description of the ceremony.Frederick donned the coronation mantle in the vestibuleof St. Peter's, and then proceeded to the new chapel of SantaA.D.252 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Return toGermany.Milan's boldness.Maria in Turri, where he knelt before the Pope and promised to protect and defend the Holy Roman Church. Returning to St. Peter's he was met by two bishops in turn whocalled down the blessing of heaven on the imperial rule thatwas about to commence. Frederick was then led to the subterranean vault where the bones of the apostles Peter andPaul reposed; while he lay here outstretched in prayer alitany was sung in the church above. He was afterwardsanointed by the Bishop of Ostia and was led to the altarwhere the Pope awaited him. Here he was adorned with theimperial crown and girded with the sword of Peter. Highmass followed, during which Frederick sat on a throne somesteps lower than that of the Pope.The coronation ceremony had been performed almost insecret in the midst of a hostile population; a guard of Germansoldiers surrounded the participants. A bloody encounterended the day and 800 Romans are said to have fallen, 200 tohave been taken prisoner.The emperor quitted Rome almost at once, leaving it still inthe hands of the rebels, but like a newJason he had snatchedfrom the enemy the prize which he coveted.Frederick returned to Germany, delaying only long enoughto devastate Spoleto, which had refused him the fodrum orcustomary tax for an expedition to Rome, and to overcome theforces of Verona which opposed him in the valley of theAdige. On his march through Lombardy he had taken careto announce to all the cities still faithful to him that he hadwithdrawn from Milan all privileges, tolls, and jurisdictions, aswell as the right of coinage.No sooner, however, had he left Italy than Milan recoveredfrom her fright, formed an alliance with Piacenza, and laterwith Genoa, inflicted dire punishment on Lodi, Como, and onother cities which had supported the emperor, and assistedTortona to rise from her ashes.It was not till 1158 that Frederick, detained by the cares ofadministration and by various minor conflicts, was able to return to the charge against Milan and to fit the subjugation andFREDERICK I. (BARBAROSSA) . 253reorganization of Italy into his plans for forming such a worldmonarchy as represented to himself, and indeed to all themediæval rulers, the true ideal of the Holy Roman Empire.Rome of old had ruled the world from Italy as a centre;without Italy the empire was nothing-a mere anomaly.Frederick had, in the interval, succeeded in restoring such Peace inpeace to Germany that, in the words of his biographer Germany.Ragewin, " men had changed, the land had become a differentone-yes, the very heavens seemed milder and more friendly."Nor was it the peace of inanition. Frederick had been unceasing in his efforts , at last successful, to end the strife between Henry the Lion and Henry Jasomirgott; he hadinduced the Bohemians to promise help for the next Italianexpedition by allowing their duke to wear a royal crown ongreat feast days; he had reduced Poland to subjection,and had practically brought back Burgundy to the fold ofthe empire.The emperor's great aider and abettor in all these matters The chanhad been his chancellor, Rainald of Dassel, a man of untiring Rainald of cellor,energy and of great diplomatic talent. A contemporary calls Dassel,him, "the beginning, middle, and end ofthe emperor'shonour. "When Frederick finally did cross the Alps, it was with one Italianof the largest armies that ever the head of the Holy Roman expedition,i158 A.D. Empire had led into Italy. Rainald of Dassel and Otto ofWittlesbach, Count Palatine of Bavaria, had been sent aheadto pave the way and to negotiate with the different cities; sowell did they perform their task that almost all the towns ofnorth Italy sent aid and contingents to the German army.They had even treated with the once scorned republic of Rome,anxious to have an ally if need be against the Pope. Romenow sent its prefect and a number of senators.The Milanese, frightened at the approach of Frederick's Milan submits.forces, tried to make terms, but for the present without success. The city was besieged, and its defenders, falling a preyto the heat and to the pest, were soon ripe for submission.The German army had suffered too, and Frederick was glad254 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Milan is humbled.Roncaglian diet.The study of law.enough to come to an agreement. Milan was to permit therebuilding of Lodi and Como; the citizens were to swearallegiance to Frederick, to pay a large fine, to permit thebuilding of an imperial castle within their walls, and tofurnish three hundred hostages, fifty of whom were to be carried off to Germany. The consuls of Milan- that administrative body, made up originally from the capitanei, the valvassores, and the ordinary burghers, but now simply chosen bythe citizens from the six quarters of the city-were to have their election confirmed by the emperor.The submission of Milan was made with all the dramaticformalities usual in the middle ages. The twelve consuls ofthe city humbled themselves before Frederick, who awaitedthem in his camp, seated on a throne. They approachedbarefoot and with ropes around their necks, through twolong lines, formed by the German soldiery, and delivered uptheir swords, declaring that this act symbolized the surrenderof all the weapons in Milan.Frederick released the city from the ban, and caused theimperial banner to be unfurled from the top of thecathedral.With the fall of Milan, Frederick's mission in Lombardywas not yet fulfilled. He was determined to establish therelations of the Italian cities to the empire on a firm andlasting basis, and with that purpose in view he summoned agreat diet to meet in the plains, near Roncaglia, on the 11thof November, 1158. This diet is notable for the fact thathere laws were made for the regulation of the position of theLombard cities towards the empire.Law, as a science, was just then having its renaissance.The eager study of it was awakening once more the memoriesof ancient Rome, and of her rule over the universe, and theJustinian code represented more than anything that ever waswritten, the absolute power of the emperor, and his office asfountain of justice. Frederick was determined to wield thisoffice like a new Constantine or a new Justinian; but he hadto reckon with other times than they, and the result was toFREDERICK I. (BARBAROSSA).255be a desperate conflict with the newly developed civic powers.It was a conflict between fixed precepts, on the one hand, anda number of cases that had never been thought of, whenthose precepts were drawn up; between an iron rule and ahistorical progress that for generations had defied that rule.school.It was at Bologna that the new school of law had its Bologna lawcentre, and it was to the doctors of Bologna, whom he afterwards rewarded by granting their university free jurisdictionover its members, that Frederick submitted the task of finding out exactly what were the imperial rights, the so- calledregalia in Italy. He intended to begin his reforms with thecommunes, and afterwards to adjust his relations to theNormans and the papacy; but those communes had reacheda degree of independence of which he had never dreamed.The result of the labours of the Bologna doctors, whowere aided by twenty-eight judges, chosen from among therepresentatives of the different towns, is fortunately preserved to us. To the throne were adjudged to belong thepublic roads, rivers, and harbours, with their tolls and taxes,mines, salt- works, etc. , the estates of felons, and the half oftreasure-trove. The appointing of civic magistrates wasthe emperor's, and the right of rebuilding imperial palaces incities where such had formerly stood. He could call in anemergency for horses, transport-waggons or ships, and evenlevy an extraordinary war- tax.•In very many cases the income from the regalia had beendeeded away to individuals, or to corporate bodies, as аreward for services rendered, and all such who could producea genuine charter, were allowed to remain in possession.But there were cities which in former days, even in a formercentury, had wrested their autonomy from the hands of thebishops or other lords to whom the original grants had beenmade, and which could show no deed of gift. In all suchcases Frederick confiscated the regalia, and eventually a largeyearly sum, more than a million marks of modern money,was gained for the royal treasury.The “ Regalia," or royal rights.256 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Imperial edicts.Roncaglian decrees.Frederick's views as toLombardy.Opposition in Genoa.The next step of the emperor was to issue a general peaceproclamation for Italy, which forbade all feuds, and also allassociations of individuals, or of cities. It was to be swornto every five years by all male beings, between the ages ofeighteen and seventy. Finally, Frederick issued an edictregarding fiefs and the transferance, subdividings, and forfeiture of them.The Roncaglian decrees were a mighty effort to makeNorthern Italy submit to leading strings; but the effort,which was to continue for twenty-four years, was ultimatelyto fail.66The Lombard cities, with the exception of Genoa, had giventheir consent to the measures passed at the great assembly.The Archbishop of Milan had addressed the emperor withhigh-sounding phrases, and had quoted the institutions ofJustinian: ' Know that all the right of the people to makelaws has been vested in thee. Thy will is law, according towhat is said, ' What pleases the prince has the vigour oflaw.' " But the cities had been under a misapprehension.They had failed to see what a weapon they were putting intoFrederick's hands, and to them the report of the Bolognalegists and of their own representatives, had been a mereformality. Nor had they ever dreamt of the practical consequences that were later to be drawn. It was a differentmatter, however, when they were called upon to renouncerights which they had exercised for centuries unopposed.Had Frederick been able to carry out to the full his viewsin Lombardy he would have established a rule there moreabsolute than that which he enjoyed in Germany. But everyeffort in this direction necessarily drew down upon himthe unbending opposition of the three great factors inItalian politics: of the cities themselves; of the Pope, whowould be hemmed in by a power so much greater than hisown; and, finally, of the Norman kingdom of Apulia andSicily.Genoa was the first of the cities to oppose Frederick's newordinances. The people maintained that, having frequentlyFREDERICK I. (BARBAROSSA) .257warded off the attacks of the Saracens, they had completelyfulfilled their duties to the empire. The emperor shouldremember the small amount of imperial territory that Genoapossessed; it was through her shipping that she had grownrich, not through her fiefs of the crown. In the end a coinpromise was effected, but Genoa took care to strengthen herfortifications in case they should later be needed.More serious were the complications in Crema, where theimperial envoys were ill-treated and barely escaped with theirlives, and where the emperor's command that all fortifications more than twenty feet high should be torn down wasdisregarded.In Milan, too, the people refused to accept the podestas, Milan.the new officials imposed by the emperor, declaring that thetreaty of 1158 had expressly permitted them to have theirown consuls, which was true. But Frederick, somewhatarbitrarily, considered that treaty cancelled by his new decrees; he prepared now to make a final and relentless strugglefor the rights which he claimed in Italy.The dispute with Crema led to a siege-a siege whichshows all the worst features of medieval warfare. Noelement of horror was wanting to it, no means left untriedof subduing the valiant little city. One detail alone willsuffice. Frederick caused one of his movable besiegingtowers, the advance of which had thus far been checked, tobe literally festooned with the persons of hostages and captives from Crema, who were let down in baskets and thusexposed to the missiles of their own friends. The manœuvrefailed, for patriotism and civic pride proved superior to alltenderer feelings; and when the tower was moved back butfew of the unfortunates were still living.For seven months this terrible siege lasted , to end as allsuch unequal contests must always end . Crema fell at last,after a memorable and heroic defence, and the inhabitantswere forced to surrender unconditionally. In a long andmournful procession they withdrew from the city, which wasgiven over to pillage and flame.SCruel siege ofCrema,1160 A.D.258 A HISTORY OF GERMANY,Punishment of Milan,1162 A.D.Milan's humilia- tions.It was more than a year later before Frederick, who hadsent to Germany for reinforcements, could proceed to thefinal punishment of Milan. Even then he did not attempta regular siege, but contented himself with devastating theoutlying fields and vineyards, and by cutting off everypossible avenue of supply. The effect was slow but sure, themore so as Milan was overcrowded with those who had takenrefuge from without.The beginning of the year 1162 found the Milanese utterlydiscouraged and face to face with starvation. On the firstday of March eight of the consuls, carrying the keys of Milanand the tokens of their own dignity, appeared before theemperor and made a complete surrender.The bold city was now made to drink the cup of humiliation to the very dregs , and no ceremony was left unperformedwhich could show the utter abasem*nt of the inhabitants.Hundreds of the proudest nobles were made to approach inthe pouring rain, barefoot, with ashes strewn upon theirheads, and to kiss the emperor's feet and cry for mercy. Themast of the carrocio was lowered before him, and the bannerof the city removed, while all the standards that had belongedto the army were laid at his feet. The very trumpets weregiven over to him with a blast from which the citizens hadbeen wont to preface their legislative functions.The fate of the city hung in the balance for a while, but thescale was turned by the representations of those towns whichhad formerly been made to writhe under Milan's oppressions.It was decided finally by Frederick and his nobles that thecity should be blotted out from the face of the earth, andthat the inhabitants should be allowed a week in which towithdraw. Four places were appointed in the vicinity inwhich they might make new settlements.66The work of annihilation soon began, and Cremona, Lodi,and Como were allowed to riot in Milan's ruins and to laythe torch to the houses of their old enemies. 'A secondTroy has perished, " writes Godfrey of Viterbo at thetime.FREDERICK I. (BARBAROSSA).259The fate of Milan completely paralysed for the moment Submissiorall opposition in Northern and Central Italy. Frederick steps of North Italy.forward now in all the pride of victory, and signs himself asCharlemagne once had done: " Roman Emperor crowned ofGod, great and peace- bringing; glorious Triumpher and continual Increaser of the Empire." In all the cities, except inthose which for their services were allowed to choose theirown consuls, the Podestas exercised henceforth in the imperialname an almost unlimited power. They preserved peace inthe land, but by raising old taxes and imposing new onesmade the people groan under their oppressions and longeagerly for occasion to revolt.Long struggle with theрарасу.Adrian IV.'shostility.Besançon episode,1158.FRCHAPTER XVII.FREDERICK I. AND THE PAPACY.REDERICK meanwhile had engaged in another quarterin a new and more terrible contest; but in order tounderstand the full meaning of the long struggle between thepopes and the Hohenstaufens it is necessary to go back a fewyears and to trace the growing estrangement of the heads ofChristendom.Whenever these great rivals came in any way in contactthere was danger of an outbreak; the more they raised themselves above the surrounding powers in Europe the moresensitive became the surface which they exposed to eachother.We have seen the vexation of Adrian IV. in 1155 atFrederick's refusal to hold the bridle and the stirrup of thepapal charger. A further cause of annoyance to the Popewas the fact that Frederick was prevented by the force ofcirc*mstances from fulfilling the very task for which he hadbeen summoned to Italy and as a preliminary reward forwhich he had received the imperial crown. The revolt of theRomans had not been checked, and William of Sicily had notbeen subjugated.Adrian's whole policy changed when he found that theemperor could no longer help him in Italy. He made overtures to the Sicilian king and received his homage as a vassalof the See of Rome, investing him himself with his lands ofApulia and Sicily and granting him the kiss of peace.Frederick was greatly angered and embittered by thischange of tactics, and an incident which occurred at Besançon

FREDERICK I. AND THE PAPACY. 261served to deepen the unfriendliness of the relations . Eskil,Archbishop of Lund, had been captured in Burgundy byhighwaymen, and Frederick, with whom Eskil stood in disdisgrace, had taken no measures to secure his release. ThePope finally sent two cardinals, Bernard and the chancellorRoland to press the matter.Frederick received the envoys graciously enough in thepresence of his nobles. But when the papal letters were readand translated with all due emphasis by Rainald of Dassel ascene of wild confusion ensued. Adrian spoke of the imperialcrown as a " benefice " that he had. " conferred " upon Frederick; and the indignation aroused by these expressions increased to fury when one of the legates-it is generallyassumed that it was Roland-called out, " From whom thenhas the emperor the empire except fromthe Pope? " Otto ofWittlesbach drew his sword to defend his royal master'shonour, and all the emperor's authority was needed to protectthe envoys from violence. The latter were sent back to Romeby the most expeditious route, and Frederick, not knowingwhat proportions the struggle with the papacy might nowassume, hastened from Burgundy to Germany and issued amanifesto in which he proclaimed to the whole world thedignity of the empire. "Whoever shall say," he writes, Spirited"that we received the imperial crown as a benefice from the defence of imperialLord Pope contradicts the divine institutions and the teach- rights.ing of Peter and shall be guilty of a lie. .. We ask you asone to condole with us over such ignominy inflicted on us andon the empire, trusting that the undivided sincerity of yourfaith will not permit the honour of the empire which, fromthe foundation of Rome and the establishment of the Christian religion "-one sees that Frederick considered himselfthe direct successor of the Cæsars-"up to your own timeshas remained glorious and undiminished to be lessened by sounheard- of an innovation.'99 1•Almost the entire clergy of Germany shared the emperor'sSee " Select Documents, " p. 412.262 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Adrian IV.'sdeath, 1159 A.D.AlexanderIII.views in this matter and boldly declared their opinion to thePope, who was fain in the end to explain away the objectionable utterance by means of a convenient sophistry. By beneficium he had not meant the technical feudal term for benefice,but simply a benefit, and surely a pope was conferring abenefit on an emperor by crowning him! The explanation,crude as it was, sufficed, and peace was established for thetime being. But the Pope was filled with dismay at theemperor's growing influence in Italy, and the Roncagliandecrees embittered him more than all else, affecting, as theyin a measure did, the possessions of ecclesiastical princes.Everything pointed to an approaching struggle. Adrianrefused to confirm the imperial candidate for the archbishopric of Ravenna; on one occasion he wrote to theemperor addressing him in the second person singular andplaced his own name before that of Frederick; on another hecaused a letter to be delivered by the hand of a minor official.Terrible offences against etiquette these, which were speedilyanswered in kind. The hostilities were about to mature whenAdrian died (1159). At the last he had made demandswhich would, if fulfilled, have deprived Frederick of all thebenefits of the Roncaglian decrees as well as of the possessionof the Matilda estates to which those decrees to some extentapplied. He had even gone so far as to make an alliancewith Milan, Brescia and Piacenza, promising for his own partto ban the emperor within sixty days; and his cardinals hadagreed in the event of his (Adrian's) death, only to elect sucha man as would continue his policy against the Hohenstaufen.It was nowthat the man came to the papal throne who wasto force the proudest prince in the world to make an almostabject submission after eighteen years of ceaseless conflict .Alexander III. was elected by a majority of the cardinals;but a minority, in the interests of the empire, chose Victor IV.Alexander was that same chancellor Roland who had once soangered the emperor and his people at Besançon; he was,moreover, known to be at the head of the party which soughtin William of Sicily a counterpoise to the imperial power.FREDERICK I. AND THE PAPACY. 263Such a man was highly unwelcome to Frederick, who was withdifficulty prevented by Henry the Lion and other nobles fromhanging the envoys whom Alexander sent to him.For the sake of appearances, however, the emperor declared Schism inhimself willing to submit the matter to a general council, and the Church.an assembly was summoned to meet at Pavia, January 13th,1160. In order that Frederick should seem to exert no compulsion in the matter, none but clergy were to take part inthe proceedings and the rival popes were to defend themselvesin person.Alexander scorned to submit his cause to any such tribunal;the more so as in the summons he had been addressed as"Chancellor Roland " while Victor had been called Pope andhead of the Church. Alexander, moreover, had already commenced negotiations with England and France, with Hungary,Castile, Jerusalem and even the Greek Empire, which were toend in his recognition by all of those powers.Victor, on the other hand, had no hope but in the might of Synod ofthe emperor, and willingly appeared at Pavia. Here the Pavia, 1160whole question of the election was reviewed.Witnessesasserted that a conspiracy had existed to keep Victor frombeing elected; furthermore, that Alexander was known tohave been in collusion with the Milanese and other enemiesof the empire. Finally precedent was appealed to, and itwas found that in similar cases of schism the Church hadalways declared for him who, "by demand of the people, atthe wish and with the consent of the clergy " had first beenraised upon the chair of Peter by the cardinals. Victor had,in fact, after an actual hand to hand fight with Roland for thepossession of the papal mantle, been the first to leave theconclave and to enter St. Peter's, where he had received thecries of praise and adulation of the multitude, who wereunaware as yet of the double election. He had then succeededin keeping Roland prisoner for nine days, but the latter onhis release had been treated as a martyr by the Romans.The council of Pavia, which finally declared, as might havebeen expected, for Victor, was nothing but an assembly ofA.D.264 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Frederick'santipope.England and France for Alexander.about forty German and Lombard bishops, although England,France, and other countries had been invited to take part. Inhis opening address the emperor vindicated his right to holdthe council by appealing to the examples of Constantine,Theodosius and Justinian, as well as to those of Charlemagneand Otto the Great.After the fateful decision had been passed, Frederickreceived Victor before the door of the cathedral of Pavia, heldthe stirrup for him to dismount, and led him to the altar. Thestrong Emperor and the weak Pope rustled up the aisletogether, with all the pomp of a cause that needed emphaticvindication. All present, beginning with Frederick, thenkissed the feet of the vicar of God. Candles were broughtand the anathema hurled at Roland and at the bishops whohad consecrated him. The usual extinguishing of the lightsfollowed this grim ceremony.It was natural that Frederick should visit with his displeasure those of the German clergy who would not subscribeto the decrees of Pavia. We hear of numbers of Carthusianand Cistercian monks refusing obedience to Victor andwandering across the borders into France. The cause ofRome now became the cause of Milan, and a papal legatespoke the ban over Frederick from the cathedral of that city,the sentence being soon afterwards confirmed and renewed byAlexander himself at Anagni.Had England and France sided with Frederick, as at varioustimes there were prospects of their doing, the outcome of thestruggle would have been very different. But Henry II. ,although the struggle with Thomas Becket, who was upheldby Alexander, later drove him to seek an alliance withFrederick, was on the whole jealous of the latter's power andsoon repudiated his promises.The rôle played by Louis VII. of France in the whole matterwas a pitiable one; so much so that his brother- in-law, theCount of Champagne, who had tried to win him for Victor,showed his disgust at his king's vacillation and final declaration for Alexander by becoming a vassal of the emperor.FREDERICK I. AND THE PAPACY. 265At the time of the final reduction of Milan Frederick hopedthat a victory over that powerful enemy would scatter thegathering clouds of opposition. And indeed Alexander nowmade an effort to win the emperor over to his side . Hepromised to forget the past entirely and would rejoice, hesaid, at an opportunity to love and honour so great andglorious a prince. But Frederick, especially in the momentof victory, was not inclined to simply let fall his Pope, and noother basis of compromise was possible. Alexander now felthimself so insecure in Italy that he passed over into France,although Louis VII. had not yet declared for him.Victor IV. died in April, 1164, and Rainald of Dassel, who Paschal III.had meanwhile been made Archbishop of Cologne, brought it as antipope.about that immediately after the burial ceremony a new popewas elected by the anti- Alexandrian cardinals. Frederick atthe time was busy in opposing a petty coalition which hadsprung into being, and which was headed by Verona andencouraged by Venice. The election had taken place withouthis authorization and even without his knowledge, but he wasconstrained to approve the act of his chancellor.The elevation of Paschal III. denotes a new stage in thehistory of the schism; for many, even in Germany, who hadsupported Victor were not willing to acknowledge his successor.The archbishops of Mayence and Treves, among others, wentover to the enemy-a step for which the former of these twoprelates was soon afterwards deposed. And every defectionwas of the greatest importance to Alexander, who was nowslowly gathering into his own hand all the different threadsof opposition.Frederick meanwhile had summoned a great diet at Würzburg for May 23rd, 1165. Here Rainald of Dassel made astirring speech, and pointed to the presence of two Englishenvoys in proof of his assertion that Henry II. and fifty of hisbishops were ready to support him, an assertion which wasnot borne out by future events. The emperor in person,followed bymany of his clergy and nobles, then took a solemnoath never to acknowledge Roland or a pope elected by hisOath of Würzburg,1165 A.D.266 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Afatal proceeding.Canoniza- tion of Charles the Great.Frederick's March to Rome.party, but to remain true to Paschal and his successors. Thediet engaged itself, should Frederick die, to elect no one asking who was not willing to take the oath that had just beenuttered. The spiritual and temporal lords, moreover, were toimpose a like oath on all their vassals and subjects, and allrecusants were to be considered enemies of the empire.Frederick himself swore that he would never ask for absolution from the oath of Würzburg, nor accept it should it beoffered. He soon afterwards caused a prayer for Paschal tobe included in the Church service, induced nearly all thebishops of Germany who had not been present at Würzburgto subscribe to the measures passed there, and began a rigidcourse of persecution against all the supporters of Alexander.The day at Würzburg was one of the most unfortunate ofFrederick's life. Fetters were there laid not only on theemperor himself and on his nobles, but on the whole Germanpeople as well.cause;At the time, indeed, the new Justinian felt very sure of hishe seemed to himself at the zenith of his It power.was now that he determined to glorify the empire by thecanonization of its founder, Charles the Great. The ceremonywas performed with pomp and magnificence at Aix-la- Chapelle;the bones were raised from the grave and placed in a goldenshrine in the presence of a large assembly. The greatchandelier which still adorns the chapel was presented byFrederick in memory of this occasion, and the town of Aixitself reaped a harvest of privileges and exemptions.In the autumn of 1166 Frederick again crossed the Alpswith a large army. A diet which he held at Lodi declaredin favour of marching without delay upon Rome, whitherAlexander had just returned after an absence of four years.The Greek Emperor Manuel, a man of great plans and smalltalents, was at this time preparing a gigantic scheme, bywhich he himself was to be made king of the Romans andprotector of the papacy, and the king of Sicily was to becomehis son-in-law.The Verona coalition which had opposed Frederick twoFREDERICK I. AND THE PAPACY. 267years before was still unsubdued, and the latter, too, mightwell have occupied himself with redressing the crying wrongsof the Lombard cities as he was repeatedly implored to do.But it was thought that by striking at Rome the heart of theopposition would be reached and that the other enemies couldthen be readily overcome.Romans.Christian of Mayence and Rainald of Cologne were the Defeat ofthefirst to approach the Eternal City. The two archbishopsarrived in time to take sides with the people of Tusculum,who were warding off from their town an attack of theRomans. Rainald's clear eye had seen howimportant Tusculumwould be as a strategic post for the Germans. The Romanssuffered an overwhelming defeat-a second Cannæ the battlewas called. Five thousand were slain or taken captive, andan immense booty was harvested.Frederick meanwhile had been busied in besieging Ancona,--which stronghold of the Greeks he forced to capitulate, -and in attacking a band of Normans. This one vain skirmishwith the forces of the king of Sicily was, in spite of thenumerous wars that had been planned, the only engagementthat had taken place since the time of Lothar.beforeRome.On July 24th, 1167, Frederick appeared before Rome; an Frederickarmy which came out to meet him was driven back, and apart of the Leonine city fell into his hands. The next daySt. Angelo was besieged-upon how many scenes of blood hasthat grim fortress looked down! —and four days later fire wasset to the Church of Santa Maria in Turri, which immediatelyadjoined St. Peter's . An entrance was thus forced into St.Peter's itself, and its defenders, after a brief skirmish in thoseholy halls, ceased their efforts . The Church of the chief ofthe apostles was soon in possession of the emperor.On the day following the siege Pope Paschal was solemnlyenthroned on the chair of Peter and was able to confer on theemperor the patriciate of the city and on the empress theconsecration that had failed her until now.Alexander meanwhile escaped; a fountain where he rested Rome subon his flight has borne the name from that day to this of mits.268 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The pesti- lence inRome.Frederick'slosses.Ajudgment of God.“fountain of the Pope." The Romans, bereft of their leaderand terrified by a Pisan fleet which appeared in support ofthe emperor, were driven to make their submission. Thesenate took the oath of fealty, and Frederick's conditions wereaccepted by the city. Alexander was to be abandoned andPaschal acknowledged as the only true pope.But in the very moment of his triumph Frederick wasstruck by the hardest blowof fate that he had ever experienced,a blow that was to mark the turning point of his career. Onthe first day of August, amid general rejoicing, he and hisempress had worn their crowns in a grand assembly at St.Peter's. On the day following the weather changed; aviolent thunderstorm was succeeded by a deadly heat. Apestilence broke out in the camp and in the city, and deathwas wafted on every current of air.The emperor withdrew to the Tusculan hills with a portionof his army, but many of his soldiers were too ill to be moved,and remained, most of them to die, in the neighbourhood ofRome. The emperor's losses were enormous; it was calculated by a contemporary that twenty-five thousand men werestruck down in a week. High and low, nobles and servingmen bowed their heads before the scourge. Among the deadwere the emperor's cousin the young Duke Frederick ofSuabia, Welf VII. of Bavaria, and, last but not least, Rainaldof Dassel, Frederick's chancellor and leader of half of his forces.There was mourning in Cologne when the news of Rainald'sdeath was known there. He it was who had borne thitherthe relics of the "three holy kings," the three Magi fromMilan-relics which brought to Cologne almost as much fameand prosperity as the bones of Charles the Great did to Aixla- Chapelle.The people of the twelfth century saw in Frederick's mishap nothing less than a judgment of God. Thomas Becket,in one of his letters, breaks forth, as it were, into a hymn ofpraise. He likens the emperor to Sennacherib who wasstruck down while opposing Ezekiel: "The Lord has crushedthe hammer of the godless, and, if they do not come to theirFREDERICK I. AND THE PAPACY. 269senses will shortly crush the rest " (meaning his own king);and John of Salisbury implies that Frederick had betterhenceforward consider Italy as a lost land.It was natural that the ' courage of Frederick's enemiesshould rise in proportion to the greatness of his misfortune,and he soon found himself engaged in a bitter strife with theLombard cities.We have seen what a terrible vengeance Frederick tookupon Milan in 1162. During the five years that followed thesufferings of the banished Milanese were intense. Even uponthem, in their newly appointed settlements, rested an intolerable burden of taxation, and relentless officials pressed allbut the life-blood out of the wretched people. Every rod ofland, every hearth, every span of oxen was taxed; hundredsof swine and poultry were required for the tables of theofficials themselves. No wonder that the book which contained the list of lands and the sums that were to be raisedfrom them is called in the annals of Milan " the book of painand mourning!"Nor were the Milanese the only sufferers. Numbers of theLombard towns groaned under their weight of taxation.Each mill that was situated on a navigable river was made topay a yearly sum, each fisherman was forced to surrender athird of what he caught. Heavy restrictions were placed onhunting.The wonder is not that a coalition should have been startedby Verona, but that the great majority of the Italian citiesshould for years have kept aloof from such a movement. Butthere was a feeling of reverence for the emperor and it wasbelieved, probably rightly, that the exactions of his servantswere carried on without his consent or knowledge.It was unfortunate that these grievances should first havebeen formally presented to him at a moment when he wasstraining every nerve to reach Rome and to measure his forceswith those of the Greeks, the Pope and the king of Sicily.Never was there a time when the reduction of taxes must haveseemed more impossible to him.Wrongs of the Lombard cities.No redress forgrievances.270 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The Lombard league.Return ofthe Milanese.Extension of Lombardleague.But it was none the less galling to the Lombards to seetheir just complaints disregarded; an unusually cold winter,too, added to their discomforts, making it still more difficultto find means of subsistence. An effort was at last made tobetter a condition of things to which slavery would have beenpreferable.No sooner had Frederick passed through North Italy on theway to his triumph and ultimate humiliation in Rome thanthe formation was begun of that greater Lombard Leaguewhich was to prove so terrible and invincible an enemy.Cremona was, according to the emperor's own account, theprime mover in the matter. Mantua, Bergamo, and Bresciajoined with that city, and bound themselves to mutual protection. The league, which was to last for fifty years, was notopenly hostile to the emperor; fidelity to him, indeed, was oneof the articles of its constitution. But only such duties andservices were to be performed as had been customary in thetime of Conrad III.; so the cities practically renounced theRoncaglian decrees and declared themselves in revolt.From the beginning, too, the league took sides with Alexander. But its most daring act of insubordination was theleading back in triumph of the Milanese to the scene of theirformer glory. The outer walls of Milan had not been entirelylevelled to the ground and the city arose as if by magic fromher ruins. Bergamo, Brescia, and Cremona lent her efficientaid in the work of restoration.A sculpture executed in 1171 by order of the consuls andshowing the return, accompanied by their allies, of the exiles,is still to be seen in Milan, near the Porta Romana. Howfew of those who look on it to-day realize what that returnmeant to the long- suffering citizens, and what premonitionsof evil to come must have gone with them.The Lombard League spread rapidly. Lodi, after muchdemur and after being surrounded by an army, was forced tojoin it. Piacenza needed no constraint, and Parma yieldedafter some opposition. Including, Milan there were soon eightcities in the confederation. The imperial officials were dis-FREDERICK I. AND THE PAPACY. 271avowed, and the old consular rule re- established, while everywhere Alexandrine bishops replaced those that had beeninvested by Victor and Paschal.failures .Returning almost in disgrace from Rome, Frederick took Frederick'sup the struggle against the revolted cities , sending an appealfor reinforcements to Germany. But an attack on Milanproved fruitless, as did also one on Piacenza, and the emperorwas soon forced to entrench himself in Pavia. His positionbecame more and more desperate, the more so as the newarchbishop of Milan, Galdinus, unfolded a great activity infavour of Alexander. The Pope named him apostolic legatefor the whole of Lombardy, and it was doubtless due to hisinfluence that at this time the Verona coalition formally joinedthe Lombard League.Sixteen cities were nowbanded together against the emperorwho remained helpless in their midst. Pavia soon ceased tobe a safe refuge, and he retired to Novara and then to Vercelli; but both cities were even then planning to join theconfederation.In the end Frederick prepared to leave Italy as a fugitive, His flight.and with but a small train of followers. In Susa, where theroad begins which leads over the Mount Cenis pass, he wastold that he must give up the few remaining hostages he wasleading with him. All exits were found to be closed againsthim, and it came to his ear that an attempt was to be madeupon his life.The emperor fled from Susa disguised as a servant, whilehis chamberlain, Hartmann of Siebeneichen, who bore him astriking likeness, continued to play the part of captive monarch.A band of assassins actually made their way into the royalchamber, but seem to have spared the brave chamberlain onlearning their mistake.The real object of their attack was meanwhile hastening ontowards Basle, which he finally reached in safety.It was to be expected that a man of Frederick's iron willwould soon return to avenge the humiliations he had suffered,and the League hastened to strengthen itself in all directions.Founding of Alessandria,1168 A.D.272 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Frederickdelays his return .Affairs inGermany.Alexander was invited to take up his residence in their midst,and he, although obliged to refuse, continued to work for therebel cities. The latter showed their gratitude by founding anew town, which was to be a common fortress for the wholeleague, and naming it Allessandria in honour of their ally.The citizens took an oath of fealty to the Pope and agreed topay him a yearly tax. The new foundation, although laughedat at first by the imperialists and called Allessandria dellaPaglia, from its hastily constructed straw huts, soon held apopulation of 15,000. It continues to-day to reflect credit onits sponsor.Contrary to all expectations it was six years before Frederickreturned to Italy, and the Lombard League was meanwhileleft master of the field. This delay is undoubtedly ascribableto the fact that the emperor found it impossible at once toraise another army. The recent blows of fate had been toosevere, and no enthusiasm for a new Italian war could becalled into being. When, later, Frederick did recross the Alpsit was with the mere shadow of an army; the nobles hadseized every possible excuse to remain at home.No doubt but that the enforced rest was of benefit toGermany; there at least the emperor's power was undiminished. Indeed, the lands of many of those who had beencarried away by the pestilence had fallen to him by inheritance,or lapsed as fiefs of the crown. Frederick is the first of theemperors who really acquired great family possessions . Thesehelped him to maintain his imperial power without having torely too much on the often untrustworthy princes of the realm.The Salian estates, to which his father had fallen heir on thedeath of Henry V. , formed a nucleus, while, by purchase andotherwise, he acquired castle after castle, and one stretch ofterritory after another, especially in Suabia and the RhinePalatinate.Bythe emperor's influence feud after feud was settled, andthe princes were induced to acknowledge his second son-whynot his eldest has never been explained—as successor to thethrone. The internal prosperity and concord were not withoutFREDERICK I. AND THE PAPACY. 273their influence on the neighbouring powers, and Hungary,Bohemia, and Poland were forced to acknowledge and fulfiltheir feudal duties.Meanwhile Tuscany and a part of the Romagna had Affairs inremained true to the empire. Frederick's emissary, Christian Italy.of Mayence, who was sent to Italy in 1171, was able to play aleading role in the hostilities between Pisa and Genoa, and, in1173, to again besiege Ancona, which was still a centre forGreek intrigues. Christian was able to assure the emperorthat some allies at least were left in Italy.In one way time had worked a favourable change. So longas an immediate attack was to be feared the Lombard cities—between thirty and forty of which, including such towns asVenice, Bologna, and Pavia, had finally joined the Leaguewere firmly united and ready to make any effort. But as theyears went on and the danger became less pressing, internaldiscord crept in among them. Venice, for instance, helpedChristian of Mayence in besieging Ancona; and Pavia, trueto its old imperial policy, was only waiting for an opportunityfor deserting its latest allies. The League feared, too, thatAlexander might leave it to its fate and make an independentpeace with the emperor.As a matter of fact, in 1170, strong efforts had been madeto bring about such a consummation. But Frederick wasbound by the Würzburg decrees and his envoy could not offerthe submission that Alexander required.John of Salisbury tells us that the emperor made a proposition to the effect that he himself, for his own person, shouldnot be compelled to recognize any pope " save Peter and theothers who are in Heaven," but that his son Henry, the youngking of the Romans, should recognize Alexander, and, inreturn, receive from him the imperial coronation. The bishopsordained by Frederick's popes were to remain in office . Alexander answered these proposals with a certain scorn, and theimperial ambassador, Eberhard of Bamberg, returned fromVeroli, where the conference had taken place, with nothing toshow for his pains.Frederick and thePope.T274 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The Pope and theLeague.Siege of Alessandria,1174-1175 A.D.Peace negotiations.Alexander's next move was to send an account of the interview to the heads of the Lombard League, and at the sametime to consecrate, as it were, that organization. He declaredthat it had been formed for the purpose of defending thepeace of the cities which composed it, and of the Church,against the " so- called emperor, Frederick, " whose yoke it hadseen fit to cast off. The rectors of the confederation weretaken under the wing of the papacy, and those who shoulddisobey them threatened with the ban. The Pope recommended a strict embargo on articles of commerce from Tuscany, should the cities of that province refuse to join theLeague.At this same time Alexander showed his friendliness towardsthe Eastern Empire by performing in person the marriageceremony over the niece of the Emperor Manuel and one ofthe Roman Frangipani.Frederick's first act on entering Italy in 1174 was to wreakvengeance on Susa, where he had once been captive; no halfmeasures were used, and the town was soon a heap of ashes.Asti, also, the first League town which lay in the path of theimperial army, was straightway made to capitulate. But,although the fall of these two cities induced many to abandonthe cause of the League, the new fortress of Alessandria,situated as it was in the midst of a swampy plain and surrounded with massive earth walls, proved an effectual stumbling-block in the way of the avenger. Heavy rains andfloods came to the aid of the besieged city and the imperialtents and huts were almost submersed, while hunger andother discomforts caused many of the allies of the Germans todesert. The siege was continued for six months, but Frederickat last abandoned it on learning that an army of the Leaguewas about to descend on his weakened forces. He burned hisbesieging implements, his catapults, battering rams, andmovable towers, and retreated to Pavian territory.The forces of the allied cities were sufficient to alarmFrederick, but they did not follow up their advantage. Oneis surprised to find negotiations for a peace begun at a timeFREDERICK I. AND THE PAPACY. 275when a decisive battle seemed imminent. What preliminarysteps were taken, or why the Lombards should have been thefirst to take them, is not clear; although some slight successesgained by Christian of Mayence at this juncture in the neighbourhood of Bologna may have been not without effect.A commission of six men was appointed to draw up thearticles of treaty, three being chosen from the cities, threeappointed by the emperor. The consuls of Cremona were todecide on disputed points-points, namely, as to which it wasimpossible to arrive at a mutual agreement. A truce to allhostilities was meanwhile declared, and at Montebello bothsides bound themselves to concur in whatever arrangementshould be made by the commission and the consuls. TheLombards meanwhile went through the form of a submission,knelt at the emperor's feet, and lowered their standards beforehim. Frederick thereupon received them into favour anddismissed the greater part of his army, the League doinglikewise.tions .Naturally enough the disputed points were the most im- Failure ofportant ones, and had to be referred tofthe consuls of Cremona. negotiaBut the rage and disappointment of the Lombards wentbeyond bounds when the different decisions, which, indeed,were remarkably fair, at last were made known. The emperorwas to exercise no prerogatives in Northern Italy that hadnot been exercised in the time of Henry V.; he was also tosanction the continuance of the League. But no arrangementwas made for a peace between the heads of Christendom,although the League had made this its first demand. Then,too, Alessandria, which Frederick considered to have beenfounded in scorn of himself, was to cease to exist, and itsinhabitants were to return to their former homes.inThe report of the consuls roused a storm of indignation;many cases the document embodying it was torn in shredsby the mob. The Lombards altogether refused to be boundby the terms of the treaty, and reopened hostilities. Frederickhastily gathered what forces he could and sent a pressing callto Germany for aid.276 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry the Lion's desertion.Henry'spower.It was now that the greatest vassal of the crown, Henrythe Lion, rewarded twenty years of trustfulness and favourby deserting Frederick in his hour of need. The only causethat is known, a strangely insufficient one, was a dispute concerning the town of Goslar, which the emperor had withdrawnfrom Henry's jurisdiction. The details of the meeting, whichtook place according to one chronicle at Partenkirchen, toanother at Chiavenna, are but vaguely known to us, butFrederick is said to have prostrated himself at the feet of hismighty subject and to have begged in vain for his support.We have seen how Frederick, at the beginning of his reign,had caused Henry, who was already in possession of Saxony,to be acknowledged Duke of Bavaria in place of HenryJasomirgott, who was conciliated by the gift of the new duchyof Austria. From that moment Henry the Lion's power hadsteadily grown. He increased his glory, and above all histerritory, by constant wars against the Wends, developing ahitherto unheard of activity in the matter of peopling Slaviclands with German colonists. The bishoprics of Lubeck,Ratzebürg and Schwerin owed to him their origin, while he itwas who caused the marshy lands around Bremen to bereclaimed and cultivated.When, on various occasions, conspiracies were formedagainst Henry by other Saxon nobles, the emperor had boldlyand successfully taken his part, helping in person to quell theinsurgents; in 1162 he had prevented the Duke of Austriaand the King of Bohemia from trying to bring about theirrival's downfall.Amarriage with Matilda, daughter of the King of England,had increased the great Saxon's influence; and during thecontinued absences of the emperor in Italy his rule was kinglyin all but name. In 1171 he affianced his daughter to theson of King Waldemar of Denmark, and by this alliancesecured his new colonies from Danish hostility.In actual extent and productiveness his estates fairlysurpassed those of his imperial cousin, and the defection ofsuch a man signified the death- knell of the latter's cause.FREDERICK I. AND THE PAPACY. 277J1176 A.D.The battle of Legnano, fought on May 29th, 1176, ended Battle ofin disaster and defeat. Frederick himself, who was wounded Legnano,and thrown from his horse, finally reached Pavia after days ofadventurous flight, having meanwhile been mourned as deadby the remnant of his army.All was not yet lost, indeed, for the League, not knowingwhat reinforcements were on the way from Germany-thesmall army of Christian of Mayence, too, was still harvestingvictories in the March of Ancona-did not follow up its successes. Cremona, moreover, jealous of Milan, began to waverin her allegiance to the cause of which she had so long beenthe leader, and eventually signed a treaty with the emperor.But Frederick, although he at first made a pretence of Prelimicontinuing the war, was soon forced by the representations ofhis nobles to abandon the policy of twenty-four years, and tomake peace on the best terms obtainable with Alexander III. ,and, through him, with the Lombard cities . The oath ofWürzburg was broken, and the two treaties of Anagni andVenice put and end to the long war.At Anagni the articles were drawn up on which the laterlong and wearisome negotiations were based.The emperor,the empress, and the young King of the Romans were toacknowledge Alexander as the Catholic and universal Pope,and to show him all due respect. Frederick was to give upthe prefecture of Rome and the estates of Matilda, and tomake peace with the Lombards, with the King of Sicily, theemperor of Constantinople, and all who had aided and supported the Roman Church. Provision was to be made for anumber of German archbishops and bishops who had receivedtheir authority from the antipopes.naries of peace.There is no need to dwell on the endless discussions that Negotiaensued with regard to these matters; more than once it tions.seemed as though all attempts at agreement would have to beabandoned. But both parties were sincerely anxious forpeace, and at last a remarkably skillful compromise wasdrawn up at Venice.Frederick had objected strongly to renouncing the rights278 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Peace ofA.D.of the empire regarding the estates of Matilda; he was to beallowed to draw the revenues of those estates for fifteen yearsto come, and the question was eventually to be settled bycommissioners. The form of the peace with the Lombardswas a still more difficult matter, but the Pope made a wisesuggestion which was adopted. A truce of six years wasdeclared, at the end of which time it was hoped that a basiswould have been found for a readjustment of the relationsbetween the emperor and the League. With Sicily, too ,hostilities were to cease for a term of fifteen years.It will be seen that all the great questions at issue, savethe recognition of Alexander as Pope, were thus relegated toa future time; to a time when the persons concerned wouldno longer be swayed by passion, and when the din of warwould be forgotten.During the negotiatiations the Pope had remained for theVenice, 1177 most part in Venice, while Frederick had not been allowed toenter the city but had remained in the neighbourhood inorder that the envoys might pass more quickly to and fro.The terms of the treaty were finally assented to by theemperor at Chioggia, July 21st, 1177. Alexander now prepared to carry out his cherished project of holding a mightypeace-congress at Venice; and there, at the news of theapproaching reconciliation, nobles and bishops and theirretinues came together from all parts of Europe.Frederick'sentry into Venice.Now that the peace was to become an accomplished fact,Venice outdid herself in preparing to honour the emperor.The latter, too, was determined to spare no expense that couldadd to the splendour of the occasion. He had negotiated fora loan with the rich Venetians, and he now imposed a tax of1,000 marks of silver on his nobles.Frederick's coming was announced for Sunday, July 24th,and by that time the city had donned its most festive attire.Two tall masts had been erected on the present Piazzetta, andfrom them floated banners bearing the lion of St. Mark's. Aplatform had been constructed at the door of the Church, andupon it was placed a raised throne for the Pope.FREDERICK I. AND THE PAPACY. 279When the emperor landed on the Lido he was met by Prostratescardinals whom Alexander had sent to absolve him from the himself before theban. The Doge, the Patriarch of Grado, and a crowd of lesser Pope.dignitaries then appeared and furnished a brilliant escortwith their gondolas and barks. Having reached the shoreFrederick, in the presence of an immense crowd, approachedthe papal throne, and, throwing off his purple mantle, prostrated himself before the Pope and kissed the latter's feet.Three red slabs of marble mark the spot where he knelt. Itwas a moment of world-wide importance; the empire and thepapacy had measured themselves in mortal combat, and theempire, in form at least, was now surrendering at discretion.No wonder that later ages have fabled much about this meeting. The Pope is said, with his foot on the neck of theprostrate king, to have exclaimed aloud, " The lion and theyoung dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet! "As a matter of fact Alexander's letters of this time expressanything but insolent triumph, and his relations with theemperor after the peace had been sworn to assumed thefriendliest character. On the day after his entry into VeniceFrederick visited him in the palace of the patriarch, and weare told that the conversation was not only amicable but gay,and that the emperor returned to the Doge's palace in thebest of moods.Schism .A year after the congress at Venice the antipope-Calix- End ofthetus III. had succeeded Pascal in 1168 without in any wayaltering the complexion of affairs -made a humble submissionto Alexander at Tusculum. Therewith the schism ended, anda year later, in 1179, Alexander held a great council in theLateran where it was decreed that a two-thirds majority inthe college of cardinals was necessary to make valid thechoice of a pope. There was no mention of the clergy andpeople of Rome, none of the right of confirmation on the partof the emperor.Vengeance on Henry the Lion.War withHenry the Lion.ITCHAPTER XVIII.END OF THE REIGN OF FREDERICK I.Twas not to be supposed that Frederick would ever forgivethat act of Henry the Lion by which the whole aspect ofthe war in Italy had been changed. Yet it is probable thattechnically Henry had committed no offence against theempire; for no charge of desertion or herisliz, as refusal to domilitary service was called, or even of neglect of feudal duties,was ever brought against him. He probably possessed someprivilege, like that bestowed on Henry Jasomirgott, renderingit optional with him to accompany the emperor on expeditionsout of Germany.But the circ*mstances had been so exceptional, so much hadhung in the balance at the time of Frederick's appeal for aid,that no one can blame the emperor for now letting Henry feelthe full weight of his displeasure. Nor was an occasionlacking by which his ruin might be accomplished. For yearsthe Saxon nobles and bishops had writhed under Henry'soppressions, and the emperor had hitherto taken sides withhis powerful cousin; he now lent a willing ear to the charges.of the latter's enemies.The restitution to Udalrich of Halberstadt of his bishopric,a restitution that had been provided for in the treaty ofVenice, gave the signal for the conflict. Henry the Lionrefused to restore certain fiefs which, as Udalrich asserted,belonged to the Halberstadt Church. Archbishop Philip ofCologne and others came forward with similar claims.Henry was repeatedly summoned to answer his accusers butdid not deign to appear. On the contrary he prepared to raiseEND OF THE REIGN OF FREDERICK I. 281up for himself allies and to besiege the castles of those whowould not join him. His own lands were thereupon laid wasteby his private enemies, and that with the emperor's consent.But Halberstadt, which took part in one of these plunderingexpeditions, suffered a terrible vengeance at the hand of theenraged Guelph. In one destructive blaze the city, churchesand all, was reduced to ashes. In the war that he was nowwaging Henry did not hesitate to call in even the Wends tohis aid, but Westphalia was soon lost to him, and only inEast Saxony was he able to maintain himself.1180 A.D.At a diet held in Würzburg in January, 1180, the emperor Henry'slaid the question before the princes what was to be done to sentence,one who had refused, after having been three times summoned,to come before the imperial tribunal. The answer was thathe was to be deprived of all honour, to be judged in the publicban, and to lose his duchy and all his benefices. Thus wasfinal sentence passed on the chief man in Germany next to theemperor himself.An imperial army was now raised and several fortresseswere besieged. No battle took place, but the fact thatFrederick had a large force at his command was sufficient tocause defection in the ranks of Henry's allies. In 1181 theemperor's army marched as far as Lübeck, which city, Henry'sproudest foundation, was forced to submit. The whole regionnorth of the Elbe followed Lübeck's example, and Henry wassoon forced to confess that his cause was hopeless. He laiddown his arms, and was summoned to a diet at Erfurt to learnhis fate. Here he fell on his knees before Frederick, who,with tears in his eyes, raised him and kissed him in token ofpeace.He was made to surrender all his possessions with the Henryexception of Brunswick and Lüneburg. He was to go into banished.exile, and to bind himself by an oath not to return withoutthe emperor's permission. He soon afterwards passed over toNormandy, where he stayed for two years with his father-inlaw, Henry II. He then passed over with the latter toEngland.282 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.End of the stemduchies.Evil results.Frederick'sprosperity.Henry the Lion's fall marks an era in the constitutionalhistory of Germany. Never again do the great stem- duchiesplay an important rôle.Franconia had ceased to be a duchy in 939; Suabia was inthe hands of the ruling dynasty. Bavaria was now given toOtto of Wittlesbach, in whose house it still remains; but,weakened as it already was by the formation of the new duchyof Austria, another duchy was now separated from it—that ofStyria. The Tyrolese territory of the counts of Andech, too,was soon to become the duchy of Meran. Saxony, at the dietof Gelnhausen, ' held in April, 1180, was divided into two partsone of which, the whole of the present Westphalia, was conferred on Philip of Cologne "with every right and jurisdiction,namely, with the county courts, with the advowsons, escortmonies, manors, vills , benefices, serving-men ( ministeriales),bondsmen, and all things that pertain to that duchy." Theother part, which continued to be called the duchy of Saxony,and which embraced the lands between the Weser and Elbe,was conferred on Bernard of Anhalt, son of Albrecht theBear.The mutilation of the great duchies was a measure of farreaching importance, but it was not without disadvantageousresults. Henry the Lion had inspired the Slavonians with awholesome dread and had kept Denmark in check. Hissuccessors were unable to continue this policy. Moreover, thebenefit from the subdivision of the Guelphic lands accruednot to the emperor but to the individual princes to whom hegave them. The might of these territorial lords was, in theend, to extinguish that of the central government—thememberswere to destroy the body; and some look upon Frederick'saction as having furthered this development.The years immediately following the Congress of Venicewere, strange to say, the most brilliant period of Frederick'sreign. It was, after all, only his ideals that had suffered, anda time of prosperity now settled down upon the nation.1 See " Select Documents, " p. 217.•END OF THE REIGN OF FREDERICK I. 283With Alexander the emperor remained on friendly terms;but the Pope in 1181 died in exile, having been forced by thefaithless Romans, as Gregory VII. had been a century before,to flee the holy city.The peace with the Lombard towns was signed at Constancewithin the six years agreed upon, on June 23rd, 1183. Thecommunal freedom for which they had fought so long wasnow accorded them; the emperor gave up all right to theregalia and recognized the Lombard League. His dream ofbecoming a second Justinian had not been realized.The cities received the privilege of using the woods, meadows, bridges, and mills in their immediate vicinity, and ofraising revenues from them; the jurisdiction in ordinary,civil, and criminal cases; the right of making fortifications.The emperor was, to a certain extent, to be provided for whenhe chose to come to Italy; but he promised to make no longstay in any one town. The cities were to choose their ownconsuls, who were to be invested with their dignity by theemperor or his representatives. The ceremony, however, wasto be performed only once in five years. In important matterswhere more than a certain sum was at stake, appeals to theemperor were to be allowed.Peace of Constance,1183 A.D.becomes Cæsarea.With the city of Alessandria, so long to him a thorn in the Alessandriaflesh, Frederick had already come to a separate agreement byconsent of the League. The city was, technically, to be annihilated, and then to be refounded; it was no longer to bearthe name of the Pope, but that of the emperor. Alessandriawas to become Cæsarea; yet none of the inhabitants were tosuffer by the change.The treaty is extant; it provided that the people shouldleave the city and remain without the walls until led back byan imperial envoy. All the male inhabitants of Cæsareawere then to swear fealty to the emperor and to his sonHenry VI.The Lombard cities, from this time forward, remained trueto Frederick; they even became his allies in his new strugglewith the popes.284 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The Matilda estates.Frederick'splans forHenry VI.BrilliantMayence,With Lucius III. efforts were made to come to an agreement regarding the Matilda estates. Frederick suggestedthat the Pope should formally and finally renounce them, andin return receive for himself a tenth, for his cardinals a ninth,of all the imperial revenues in Italy. This proposal was rejected, as was also one to leave the whole matter in the handsof a commission. It was finally agreed to have a personalconference between the Pope and the emperor, and themeeting took place at the end of the year 1184. But bythat time new differences had arisen, and the question ofthe estates, important as it was, was thrust far in the background.Frederick had taken a step which was to inaugurate aseries of conflicts even more terrible than those which hadgone before, and which were to end, more than eighty yearslater, with the fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and theexecution of its last scion in the market-place of Naples.The advancement of his son Henry VI. seems to have beenthe leading thought of the emperor's declining years. Hehad caused him to be crowned King of the Romans whilestill an infant; he repeatedly tried to induce the Pope togrant the boy the imperial crown. The assembly held forthe purpose of solemnly girding Henry with the sword wasprobably the most brilliant festival of the Middle Ages.assembly at It took place at Mayence in May, 1184, and the number ofknights and nobles who were for three days the emperor'sguests is estimated at 70,000. Unheard of preparations hadbeen made; a wooden palace and a wooden church had beenerected for the emperor, and a sea of tents stretched in alldirections. Knightly sports , and especially tournaments, filledthe days, and Heinrich von Veldeke, a poet of the time,declares that the memory of all that was done at Mayence tohonour Frederick will endure a hundred years; yes, to theend of the world.1184 A.D.Henry the Lion appeared at Mayence to cast a shadow onthe festivities . He begged to be allowed to return in peaceto Germany, but was ordered back into exile.END OF THE REIGN OF FREDERICK I. 285and Con- stance ofBut Frederick's chief act as regarded Henry VI. , the act Henry VI.which in future was to have such unhallowed consequences,was the affiancing of that prince to Constance, the aunt of the of Sicily.feeble boy-king of Sicily, and heiress of all his domains. Itwas this union of Sicily and Germany which threatened todestroy the power of the papacy, to enclose its territory, as itwere, in a vice; and against this union pope after pope inturn invoked all powers, natural and supernatural.For the moment Frederick seemed to have gained an immeasurable triumph. He had formerly intended, after defeating the Lombard League, to proceed to the subjugationof the Norman kingdom. He had failed with the cities; butthe other great goal, by the most easy and peaceful means,was now to be accomplished .At the meeting held by agreement with Lucius III. in1184 the Pope showed himself in no conciliatory mood. Herefused absolution and reinstatement to a number of clergywho had been consecrated during the schism, and for whomthe emperor now intervened; he would come to no agreement about the Matilda estates . He showed himself, finally,thoroughly lukewarm as regarded Frederick's ardent wish tohave his son Henry crowned emperor of the Romans duringhis own lifetime.From this time on the relations between the Pope and theemperor became more and more strained. Frederick formeda defensive and offensive alliance with Milan, one clause ofwhich treaty concerned the retention on the part of theemperor of the Matilda estates.Of all the Lombard cities Cremona alone, Milan's rival,now held to the Pope. Her citizens were embittered byFrederick's attitudes towards Crema, which she had formerlydestroyed, but which the emperor had permitted to be rebuilt. Cremona proceeded to attack the restored city, butwas promptly declared in the ban of the empire.Meanwhile the young King Henry had taken a step whichdrove the Pope to further acts of hostility. There had beena double election to the archbishopric of Treves and Frederick,Relations with thePope.Henry VI.and the Pope.286 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Urban III.Threefoldcoronation,1186 A.D.Cæsar.as was his undoubted right according to the Concordat ofWorms, had decided which of the candidates should beaccepted; the rejected one, however, a certain Folmar, hadappealed to Rome. Henry VI. now proceeded to acts ofviolence against the supporters of Folmar, and the Popehastened to declare the latter the lawful archbishop.Lucius III. died in November, 1185, openly at enmity withFrederick; his last act was to enjoin that his successor shouldnot crown Henry VI. as emperor.That successor, Urban III. who had formerly been archbishop of Milan, was as hostile and unbending as Luciuscould have wished. Although the old points of differencewere not yet settled, new ones were constantly arising. Urbandeclared against the so- called regalian rights and right ofspoils: the right of the emperor according to feudal law ofenjoying the revenues or "temporalities " of a bishopricbetween the death or removal of one incumbent and theelection of another, and also to be heir to a deceased bishop'smovable belongings. In order to prevent Frederick fromenjoying the regalian rights in the archbishopric of Milan,Urban retained that see in his own possession even afterbecoming pope.The consecration of Folmar of Treves had not yet takenplace, but in 1186 , Urban performed this last decisive act.Meanwhile at Milan (January 27th, 1186) , Frederickorganized another grand festival such as that which he hadheld at Mayence. Here the marriage of Henry with Constanceof Sicily was celebrated, while a three-fold coronation tookplace. Constance was made Queen, Frederick himself wasrecrowned as King of Burgundy, and Henry VI. was declaredKing of Italy and Cæsar.This last title was that bywhich the Roman emperors sinceNerva had designated their successors. It was not directlythe assumption of the imperial crown without the Pope'spermission, although henceforward Henry ruled almost independently in Italy and occasionally signed himself "Augustus. "He it was who now invested vassals with their fiefs, imposedEND OF THE REIGN OF FREDERICK I. 287punishments and made donations. In fact if not in namethe imperial power was now divided between FrederickBarbarossa and his son.рарасу.The punishment of Cremona was carried out in June, 1186; Chastisethe city was reduced to subjection and made to pay a heavy ment ofthefine. The emperor's next step was to surround Verona, wherethe Pope and the newly consecrated Treves archbishop werestaying, in order to cut off the latter's return to Germany.King Henry meanwhile led an army through the papal territory, ravaging and plundering as he went. One strongholdafter another fell into his hands; everywhere in the Campagnahe compelled the payment of the " fodrum," and forced citiesand nobles to do him homage. According to an Englishchronicler, Gervase of Canterbury, " he (Henry) proposed totake from him (the Pope) everything."Seldom before had the papacy suffered such chastisem*ntat the hands of a king of the Romans; but Urban's spiritwas not broken. He raised a series of bitter complaintsagainst the emperor, and in the moment of his own greatestneed found an ally in Germany itself.Philip of Heinsberg, archbishop of Cologne, now raised a Rebellion inrebellion which threatened to assume such dimensions that it Germany.caused the emperor to hurry back from Italy.Philip had formerly done great services for his monarch,and his rewards had been in proportion; his diocese had beenincreased by half the lands of Henry the Lion. But his newposition as one of the most powerful princes of the realm hadbrought him into conflict with the crown. He had objectedto Frederick's plan of having Henry VI. crowned emperor;he was personally hostile to the young king, who had decidedagainst him in some disputes that came under the feudal law.Between Verona and Cologne there had been kept up aconstant communication; Philip was made papal legate, andupheld the Pope in his complaints regarding the " right ofspoils " and other matters.Philip succeeded in raising a great coalition which, however,almost of its own accord, soon wasted into thin air. Not to288 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Clergy side with Frederick.Death of Urban III. ,1186 A.D.Gregory VIII. and the Crusade.speak of Folmar of Treves and a few discontented Germanbishops and nobles, Denmark, England, and, for a short time,France, were pitted against the emperor. Henry the Lion,too, was suspected, at least by Frederick, of having a share inthe new conspiracy.Fortunately for the emperor the great body of the Germanclergy sided with him at this crisis . At a diet at Gelnhausen(1186) the whole matter of the conflict with the Church,which conflict Philip had chosen as an excuse for his ownopposition, was discussed . Here Frederick in person made adefence of his own policy and refuted the charges broughtagainst him. He showed that the regalian rights and the' right of spoils " as exercised by himself were not nearlysuch burdens on the churches as the necessity of providingfor pampered clergy with their horses and their retinues. Hereproached the Pope with having sown dissension amongthe Lombard cities, with having consecrated Folmar of Treves,with having retained the see of Milan.66The diet was fully won by Frederick's representations.The bishops sent a writing to the Pope, to which all of theirseals were appended, admonishing him to make peace withthe emperor and to fulfil the latter's just demands.Urban III. at this time summoned Frederick before histribunal at Verona and declared him guilty, by default, ofthe charges formerly brought against him. The Pope waspreparing to declare the emperor in the ban when the handof death was laid upon himself.Philip of Cologne had raised an army, and had begun tomake hostile demonstrations but, abandoned by his alliesPhilip Augustus of France could not long remain in the sameleague with Henry II. of England-and bereft of Urban'ssupport, finally made his submission.Gregory VIII. , Urban's successor, was as peacefully disposedas any pope could be. He exchanged protestations of friendship with the emperor; he addressed Henry VI. , who haddesisted from his attack on the papal lands, as " RomanEmperor elect; " he abandoned Archbishop Folmar of Treves,END OF THE REIGN OF FREDERICK I. 289and finally declared to Frederick that he could not bear theheavy burden placed upon him without the help of the worldlyprinces.It was the time when a newattempt was in progress to freethe Holy Land. No one grieved more than Gregory over theloss of Jerusalem, which had fallen into the hands of Saladin;the Pope was untiring in his efforts to win soldiers of thecross.Frederick showed zeal for the undertaking; he had himself Frederickgone on the crusade of 1147, and he nowarranged for a great takes thediet at Mayence where the matter of a new expedition shouldbe considered.The diet (it was the same one at which Philip of Colognemade his final submission) met at Easter, 1188. GregoryVIII. had meanwhile died after a pontificate of less than twomonths; but an enthusiastic summons to the crusade whichhe had composed before his death was read at Mayence.Here, in the midst of a scene of wild excitement, the emperorand his son, Frederick of Suabia, took the cross. Followingthe example of their gray-haired sovereign thousands ofknights assumed the votive emblem.cross.tions for the crusade.Extensive preparations were now made for the expedition. PreparaThe rabble that had so hampered the previous crusades wasto be excluded, and only those who possessed a certain sum ofmoney were allowed to take part. Negotiations were begunwith the Greek emperor, and every effort was made to assurehim that the former occurrences which had given his predecessors cause for complaint should be avoided. The King ofHungary was won by being allowed to wed his daughter tothe young Frederick of Suabia.Frederick had meanwhile despatched an envoy to the greatSaladin demanding that he should renounce all conquestsmade at the cost of the kingdom of Jerusalem, should giveback the relics of the holy cross, and should pay certaindamages in case of refusal he was to know that not only theRoman Empire but the whole world was ready to make warupon him.

U290 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Frederick starts on thecrusade.His death,1189 A.D.Failure ofOn May 11th, 1189, the crusading army started on its way;on that day the crowds assembled at Ratisbon looked for thelast time on their emperor. Frederick had appointed his sonHenry vicegerent in all matters pertaining to the empire, andhad won a promise from Pope Clement III. that the imperialcoronation should now be fulfilled; Henry the Lion had beensent anew into exile under oath not to return for three years.What need to follow the long and weary marches throughthe territory of the wily Greeks, and of the treacherous Sultanof Iconium? The great historical fact, the one fact of absorbinginterest, is that the great leader and knightly emperor, theman who was to be worshipped as a national hero for the nexteight hundred years, returned no more. In the river Saleph,not far from the Armenian town of Seleucia, he found hisdeath while seeking refreshment in the cool waters after a hotday's march. His body was brought to land, but, althougheven as late as our own day the effort has been made, hisultimate place of burial has never been discovered. Accordingto the legend so beloved in his fatherland, Frederick sits in theheart of the Kyffhäuser mountain, waiting for the time whenhis country shall need him. Then, like a second Messiah, hewill come again.Barbarossa's death betokened the failure of his crusade.the crusade. Many pilgrims at once returned home; a remant of the armyunder Frederick of Suabia was able to reach Syria, but in thesummer of 1190 was decimated by the plague. The youngSuabian duke himself found his death before the walls ofAcre in January, 1191 .Meanwhile Germany had fallen a prey to civil war, and itmight have gone hard with the land indeed had not the youngking, Henry VI. , shown a strength of character and a geniusfor ruling such as had hardly been expected from him. Heknew when to strike, when to temporize, and when to yield.HCHAPTER XIX.HENRY VI. AND RICHARD OF ENGLAND.ENRY VI. , although small of frame and delicate of Character ofconstitution, was in every other way one of the Henry VI.strongest of the Hohenstaufens. His were the proudest ideals,his the clearest political insight, his the most fiery courage.He bade defiance, if need be, to all precedent, and occasionally,indeed, to all scruple. His reign, in proportion to its length,is more full of stirring incident than that of any Germanmonarch who ever reigned, if we except that of the man whoin our own day fought with three different countries withinsix years, founded a united Germany, and made a strongempire out of a weak confederation.Had Henry VI. lived longer, he, too, would undoubtedlyhave changed the character of the monarchy over which heruled. He was as ambitious as Otto III. had been, but withless in him of the dreamer and more of the man of action.He, too, wished to rule the world from Italy as a centre; heexpressly designates Apulia and Sicily as his " by ancientright of the empire. " His assumption of the titles of " Kingof Italy " and of " Cæsar," and, above all, his marriage withConstance of Sicily, brought him nearer and nearer to the goalof his ambitions.return .Hard conflicts, however, were to stand in his way. No Henry thesooner had Frederick Barbarossa started on his crusade than Lion'sHenry the Lion broke his knightly word, returned frombanishment, and proceeded to make a desperate fight for hisformer lands and possessions. He was supported by a numberof Saxon princes who were discontented with the new order of292 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry VI.and Henry the Lion.Condition ofSicily.Tancred.things. His brother-in-law, too, Richard the Lionhearted,soon to be King of England, gave him encouragement, and, asthere is reason to believe, even more tangible assistance.The Guelph had little difficulty in gaining a footing inNorthern Saxony; many hastened of their own free will tojoin the cause of their former master, others yielded to compulsion, and thirty castles were made to surrender. Naturally, however, those who had gained by Henry's fall, proceeded to oppose him with might and main.There was no need for the new Duke Bernard to send anappeal for aid to Henry VI. The latter was aghast at thedaring and at the treachery of Henry the Lion. In fourweeks he was ready with his musterings and his preparations,and marched against Brunswick; but that city was moreprepared to endure a winter siege than the king was to beginone, and the army finally returned to Goslar, where it disbanded. During the winter, however, Henry the Lion sufferedvarious reverses at the hand of Saxon nobles, and in July,1190, the rebellious prince was glad to accept the mediationof the archbishops of Mayence and Cologne, and to makepeace with the king. Henry VI. was impatient to claim thecrown of Sicily, and was glad enough to receive the sons ofHenry the Lion as hostages, and to make to the latter certainconcessions, the chief of which was that he might remain inGermany and enjoy half the revenues of Lubeck, in additionto the lands that Barbarossa had left him.At the time when this rebellion of Henry the Lion was atit* height, the last king of Sicily, William II. , had passedaway, and Henry VI. and his queen were now heirs to thethrone. Already, in 1184, on the occasion of the marriagewith Constance, King William and his nobles had agreedthat Henry VI. should be the next ruler. In 1186, at a dietin Troja, the barons had done homage to their future kingand to his queen.But the land was torn by party dissensions, and, on thedeath of William II. , a number of the Sicilians repented oftheir engagements. They chose Count Tancred of Lecce, oneHENRY VI. AND RICHARD OF ENGLAND. 293of the very nobles who had done homage to Henry, as theirking; and he, with the approbation of the Pope, who stilllooked upon himself as feudal lord of Sicily, was crowned inthe cathedral at Palermo.Henry VI. had at first underrated the importance of themovement in Sicily. He had sent envoys who returned withthe information that the rebellion against his authority wasnot serious, and could be easily quelled.But Tancred was no mean rival; his virtues and his disinterestedness had won him the election. He now dippedinto the rich treasures of the Sicilian kings, and raised andequipped a serviceable army with which he twice drove backthe defenders of the German cause.Meanwhile there had landed in Sicily, on his way to the Landing ofcrusade, a man who was, directly and indirectly, to have the Richard Lionhearted.greatest influence on German affairs. Richard of Englandsailed into Messina September 23rd, 1190, royally escortedand with blaring trumpets. Philip Augustus of France hadmade his landing a week before—far less magnificently, weare told. The two great rival kings were detained by violentstorms, and were finally obliged to winter in Sicily.The fact that Richard's sister, the widow of William II.,was kept by Tancred in captivity, was cause enough for theEnglish king to interfere in Sicilian matters. Tancred released his prisoner at once, but Richard found a pretext insome excesses of the populace, to whom the two royalvisitors were far from being welcome, of continuing thehostilities. The people were made by Richard to give hostages until such time as Tancred should have fulfilled hisdemands.form anThese demands were at first high beyond all bounds; a Richard andgolden throne for his sister, a golden table twelve feet long Tancredfor himself, a hundred galleys equipped for two years, a alliance.silken tent in which two hundred knights might be entertained-and more of the kind. In the end Richard compromisedfor forty-two thousand ounces of gold, and struck an offensiveand defensive alliance with Tancred, whose daughter was toL294 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Richard's motives.Henry VI.and Pope Celestine III.marry Arthur of Brittany, the presumptive heir to the throneof England.Richard was impelled to make this alliance by a desire tocircumvent Philip Augustus-who, loyal to Henry VI. , orpretending to be so, had refused overtures of Tancred-andespecially by hostility to the German emperor. The unionwas directed " against anyone who should attack it (Sicily)or make war against Tancred. " The Pope was asked to confirm the treaty, " inasmuch as it will in future bring greatgain to both kingdoms."Richard's friendship for Henry the Lion must be borne inmind in this connection; the son of that unruly prince appearsas witness in a charter issued at la Reolle by the English kingafter the journey towards Sicily had already been begun. Itis possible that Richard had at first intended to conquer thewhole of that land. Philip Augustus was firmly convincedthat such was the case, and other contemporaries give vent tothe same suspicion.Did the English king intend to help the Guelph by strikinga deadly blow at Henry VI.'s influence in Southern Italy?The chronicles leave us in darkness on the matter, but enoughis known to show that Henry VI. believed the worst ofRichard, and saw in him his deadliest enemy. Had theEnglish king done nothing else, he had made common causewith a usurper whom he had induced to pour into his lap thetreasures of the Norman kings.By this time Henry VI.'s army was on the march. Thetidings of Barbarossa's death had become known in Germany,and the young king was eager first to secure the imperialcoronation in Rome, and then to press on to Southern Italy.The death of Pope Clement III. took place while Henry wason his way. The new pope, Celestine III., was already eightyfive years of age, vacillating in character and given to suddenand inconsiderate outbursts of wrath. His great successor,Innocent III. , in one of his letters passes severe judgmentupon him.Celestine's cardinals declared themselves no longer boundHENRY VI . AND RICHARD OF ENGLAND. 295by Clement's promise regarding the imperial coronation, and,in order not to be obliged to perform the ceremony, the Popepostponed his own consecration.the Romans.The hostility of the Romans to the town of Tusculum plays Negotiaan important part at this juncture of affairs. Before accepting tions withCelestine as Pope and head of Rome the citizens had madehim promise to take their side in the matter. They nowagreed to procure the imperial crown for Henry if he wouldmake a similar convention; they demanded that the cityshould be left to their mercy, but promised to bestow iteventually on the Pope, thus securing his compliancy in thematter of the coronation. Thus did the rebellious Romansimpose their will on the two highest powers in Christendom.When Henry had abandoned Tusculum the Pope causedhimself to be consecrated, and in April, 1191 , placed thecrown on the head of the king and on that of his queen,Constance. Still further details are known about this coronation than about that of Barbarossa. Henry was made topromise that he would keep peace with the Church, suchpeace as the Lord gave to his disciples; and then to kiss, asthough he were kissing a cross, the Pope's brow, mouth andchin, and his two cheeks. When Celestine accepted him asson of the Church " he was obliged to kiss the Pope's breast.Afterwards he was submitted to a catechism; made to say theApostles' Creed, and to promise to be reverent, chaste, sober,cheerful, and the like.66Two days later Tusculum was in the hands of its enemies,who tore down its walls and otherwise gave vent to theirhatred. Contemporary writers blame Henry severely, andconsider his abandonment of a friendly city as a blot on theglory of the empire.The new emperor nowmarched off joyfully fromundertake the conquest of his Sicilian inheritance.dreamt of the series of misfortunes that were to fallhead.Henry VI.crowned1191 A.D.emperor,Rome toHe littleHenry VI.meets with reverses in upon his Sicily.The cities of Apulia were, for the most part, easily won, butbefore Naples Henry suffered a terrible reverse. Tancred's296 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Prepares for the struggle with theGuelphs.admiral, Margerito, a famous seaman who went by the namein Italy of " the second Neptune," appeared with a fleet in theharbour. The Genoese ships that were to have aided theGermans were belated, and the few Pisan galleys on whichthey could count were glad enough to run out to sea andescape so unequal a contest. At the same time the tropicalheat caused a deadly fever to break out among the landforces.Nor was this all. The young Henry, son of Henry theLion, who had accompanied the emperor as hostage for hisfather, escaped and went over to Tancred. He aided theSicilian for a while and then hastened to Germany, where hespread a report that Henry VI. had died of the fever, andhimself came forward as candidate for the throne. Henrythe Lion urged the princes to proceed with the election .So much was true of the young Guelph's story, that theemperor really was seriously ill, and was forced to abandonthe siege of Naples. Nine-tenths of his army had succumbedto the fever. His empress, Constance, too, had been betrayedby the inhabitants of Salerno, where she had taken refuge,and was carried off by Admiral Margerito as a captive toMessina.Henry VI. returned to Germany to see what he could makeout of the wreck of his fortunes. He, the Hohenstaufen,knew well that a new and terrible conflict would have to befought out with the Guelphs; again the two families stoodover against each other in fierce, unquenchable hostility.Henry VI. , directly after the treasonable flight of the youngGuelph, had sent to Germany and ordered the Archbishop ofMagdeburg to raise an army which should attack Brunswickin the following summer. Henry the Lion, on hearing ofthese preparations, sent a deputation of clergy to see if therewere no possibility of bringing about a reconciliation. Theemperor answered by frankly unfolding his programme: toutterly annihilate the Guelphs no matter what promises theymight now make; to return to Apulia, subject it, and thenlead back the empress with all due honour.HENRY VI. AND RICHARD OF ENGLAND. 297newThe younger Guelph was now declared in the ban of the Henry VI.empire, and Henry VI. was met at Würzburg by a number of raises upSaxon nobles, whose lands had long been kept in a state of enemies.insecurity by Henry the Lion's acts of hostility, and who wereanxious now to take part in the work of vengeance.But at this juncture the emperor's own severity and arbitrariness not only prevented him from gaining a victory overthe Guelphs, but raised up for him a new and even moredangerous class of enemies.tions in the bishopric ,Liége.Awhole series of episcopal sees, of which the incumbents in Complicamany cases had died in Palestine, were vacant at this time.In many of them Henry was able to secure the election of hisown candidate without opposition, but in Liége it came to aschism. The majority of the cathedral chapter, influenced bythe Duke of Brabant, chose the latter's brother, Albert; theminority elected a relative of Baldwin of Hennegan, a certainAlbert of Retest, to whom it was thought that the emperorwould be likely to be partial. Henry, when the matter waslaid before him, proceeded as though no such thing as anelection by the canons of the Cathedral Chapter had takenplace. He rejected both candidates, and, bribed by a paymentof three thousand marks of silver, gave the place to Lotharof Hochstaden.It was a fatal act; it was a challenge flung in the face ofthe whole clergy, a direct breach of the Concordat of Worms.Albert of Brabant hastened to Rome to complain of Henry VI. ,and to cause the Pope to take measures which should preventa recurrence of such arbitrary decisions. Celestine confirmedAlbert as Bishop of Liége and threatened with the ban allwho took the oath of a vassal to Lothar of Hochstaden.Albert, on his return, applied to Archbishop Bruno of Murder ofCologne for consecration, but Bruno feigned illness, and the Albert.Archbishop of Rheims, more daring and with less to lose,performed the ceremony.Henry VI. now appeared in Liége, and caused the housesof Albert's supporters to be broken open, their goods to beseized. The heads of the Rhenish-Lorraine nobility were298 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.League against Henry VI.Denmark forsummoned to appear and compelled to do homage to Lotharof Hochstaden as their liege lord. The same demand wasmade and enforced on Albert's brother, the Duke of Brabant.Henry VI. had played the part of an oriental despot; stillmore like one, if the accusations against him are true, was hissubsequent action.Albert was visited by three German knights, who, after afriendly reception, seized a favourable opportunity to attackand to thrust him through with their swords. No onedoubted then, and but few can doubt now, but that Lotharof Hochstaden's party had instigated the murder, and thatHenry was privy to it. Even the latter's supporters fail tojustify the fact that the three murderers when, later, thenobles insisted on their expulsion from Germany, wereinvested by the emperor with rich fiefs in Apulia.The murder of Albert was the signal for a meeting ofprinces, for a mighty oath of vengeance, and for a leagueagainst Henry which, coming at the time of the Guelphicdisturbances, threatened to overwhelm him. Even the Saxonallies who had hastened to meet him at Würzburg grew tiredof waiting for the help and the guidance that never came,and made their peace with Henry the Lion. Only a few ofthem, notably Count Adolf of Holstein, continued their ownfeuds with the Guelph, and drew down on certain parts ofSaxony terrible havoc and devastation.Henry VI. had placed his greatest hopes on Bishopthe Guelphs . Waldemar of Schleswig, a cousin of the Danish KingCanute VI., but a renegade who had promised to bringDenmark under German influence. In order that he mightbetter pursue his plans, Henry had caused him to be madeArchbishop of Bremen.But Canute of Denmark discovered Waldemar's treasonableplans and, embittered against the emperor, gave his supportto the Guelphs. Publicity was given to the whole intriguebythe flight of the Archbishop to Sweden, and a contemporarytells us that "the emperor's weakness and the duke's strengthwere now apparent to all the world."HENRY VI. AND RICHARD OF ENGLAND. 299straits .The conspiracy had by this time been joined by Duke HenryVI. inOttakar of Bohemia, and had spread its meshes over a large the greatestpart of Germany; its two great centres were Saxony and thelower Rhine. The emperor's chief supporter was DukeLeopold of Austria who had been laid under obligations bybeing given the vacant duchy of Styria.Henry VI. was in the greatest straits; the Pope had givenhis blessing to the league against him; the Duke of Brabant,the leader of the conspiracy, was aiming at nothing short ofplacing the crown on his own head.Richard At this time an event occurred so opportune, so unexpected, Capture ofso pregnant with results that it well deserves the popularity Lionhearted.which, down to the present day it has enjoyed in works ofpoetry and romance. Never have a man's enemies, if thebiblical expression may be pardoned, so completely beenmade his footstool as at the present juncture. The captureof the English King, Richard the Lionhearted, by DukeLeopold of Austria, rescued Henry VI. from an intolerableposition, and caused him to reap a perfect harvest of successes.It is unfortunate that the details of this event which havemost widely obtained credence have come from the Englishside. Naturally to Richard's friends his imprisonment seemeddastardly and iniquitous. The wildest tales were spread ofthe courageous and generous monarch being kept in dungeonsand loaded with chains, of his nobles being tortured to deathwith inhuman cruelty. Again and again the changes arerung by the chroniclers on Henry VI.'s greed and avarice.Naturally; for the people were heavily taxed to raise themoney for Richard's ransom, and even the churches weremade to give up their golden chalices . Yet even among theEnglish chroniclers themselves, voices are heard which mightwarn us that there are two sides to the question. Williamof Newbridge, although going out from the assumption thatgreed was Henry's only motive, declares that the emperorhad concealed that motive and had known well how to veil itunder a cloak of justice.Two sides tothe question.300 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry VI.and PhilipAugustus.Leopold of Austria.Richard'sadventures.Let it be remembered that Richard the Lionhearted was anardent supporter of Henry the Lion who was in open rebellion; the English king's conduct in Sicily, too, had beenmore than equivocal. He had made a firm alliance withTancred, and had gone off with treasures which the emperorclaimed with good right to have belonged to himself.Is it any wonder that Henry sided with Philip Augustusof France and favoured the machinations of the latter whenhe returned precipitately from the crusade to work Richard'sruin? A formal treaty was drawn up between the twomonarchs, and Henry promised to take Richard prisonershould he attempt to pass through his empire. An edict wasissued declaring the English king a public enemy, andordering all imperial subjects to watch for his return.No one did so more eagerly than Leopold of Austria, whohad his own grounds for undying enmity. The well- knownepisode in Acre had occurred but shortly before. After thetown had fallen, and the crusaders had entered into possession, Richard saw that Leopold had planted his ownbanner on one of the principal buildings. In an access ofrage he had ordered the Austrian standard to be taken downand trampled in the dust. Leopold had left Palestine withPhilip Augustus, vowing vengeance for his affront.In returning from the crusade Richard, desiring at allhazards to avoid France, had chosen the route throughAustria, intending to proceed by way of Bohemia to Saxony,and thence to England. He had been shipwrecked nearAquileija, but had escaped. While passing in disguisethrough the territory of the Count of Gorz, a nephew of themurdered Conrad of Montferrat, for whose death Richardwas widely but unjustly believed to have been responsible,he had made an unwise display of his riches, and suspicionswere aroused against one who called himself a merchant, andyet made presents of priceless value. He escaped from Gorz,but the rumour now spread of his return, and every tracewas followed up which could lead to his detection. He hadreached the outskirts of Vienna, and had sent his only atten-HENRY VI. AND RICHARD OF ENGLAND. 301dant into the city to buy food; but the Byzantine coins whichthe latter offered, and, finally, the rich gloves of the kingwhich he carried at his belt, drew down suspicion on him.He was put to torture, and confessed the truth.The treatment atHenry'sOn December 21st, 1192, Richard, brought to bay as it Richard'swere, surrendered his sword to Leopold in person.captive was taken to the castle of Dürenstein on the Danube, hands.and the people, as he passed, berated him as a traitor andthreatened to stone him. Leopold himself, even according toEnglish testimony, treated him with great respect; he wasguarded, however, by wardens with drawn swords. Leopoldwas induced to give him up to Henry VI. by the promise ofhalf the king's ransom, and by the prospect that Richard'sniece should marry his own son. He made the conditionthat the emperor should inflict on his captive no harm of lifeor limb.The mightiest hostage that could be desired for the goodconduct of the Guelphs had fallen into Henry's hands; thelatter had secured the means, too, of inducing Philip Augustusto grant him any aid he might desire against the Rhenishprinces who might be attacked now by overwhelming forcesfrom on two sides.of Richard's release.It had been agreed with Leopold what conditions were to Conditionsbe placed on the eventual release of Richard. Besides theransom, which was placed at 100,000 marks of silver, andwhich was declared to be a compensation for the moneytaken from Sicily, the English king was to send men andships, and himself to aid in the conquest of the Normankingdom.It was intended to terribly humble the man with the heartof a lion. He was to be asked to make war against his ownally, and to act as the vassal of his deadly enemy.Finally he was to be retained as a pledge until the Germanprinces who were in rebellion should promise good behaviourand submission. This last condition, which was eventuallyinsisted upon, while that as to Richard's personal participation in the Sicilian war was modified, caused the release of302 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Richardbefore the Diet ofSpires.Richarddoeshomage forEngland.Richard will not abandonHenry the Lion.the captive to be delayed far beyond the time that had beenat first appointed.Richard was now brought before a diet at Spires and madeto listen to the emperor's demands, and to a long series ofaccusations. The chief charges concerned his conduct inSicily and the murder of Conrad of Montferrat, while theinsult to the flag of Leopold of Austria was not forgotten.Richard was then allowed to step forward and to defendhimself in person. " He spoke royally," says his chronicler,with eloquent words and with a lion's courage, as if he weresitting on his inherited throne, or in the hall of Lincoln, orin the midst of his barons at Caen; quite forgetting hiscaptivity."66It was a moving scene, a scene of which we have a trustworthy account. When he had ceased speaking Richard benthis knee before the emperor. The latter was deeply affected;he descended from his throne, folded the king in his arms,and kissed him, while the nobles stood around with tears intheir eyes. Henry called the English king his friend, andpromised him aid in increasing his power, and, above all, inmaking peace with Philip of France. Richard's captivity wasmade as bearable as possible, and later he was kept in liberalcustody at the emperor's court.But on the conditions of the release Henry felt bound toinsist; he even added to them, as it seems. Richard wasallowed, indeed, to pay a sum of money instead of going toSicily, but he was made to do homage for England as for afief of the empire. He surrendered his land, and received itback in return for a promise to pay a yearly tribute of fivethousand pounds. Later, at Winchester, at the request ofhis nobles, Richard was re-crowned with the English crownfor the express purpose of revindicating his sullied honour.So far had Richard bumbled himself before his captor;but one demand he unconditionally rejected, although theremission of half of his ransom had been promised in caseof compliance. After the mighty conspiracy which sothreatened Henry's throne had come to nothing, after all theHENRY VI. AND RICHARD OF ENGLAND. 303other princes had made their submission, Henry the Lionalone remained in opposition. Henry VI. now required thatRichard should let him fall-for all we know that he shouldproceed against him in person. Richard's refusal, while itreflects all honour on his own chivalrous self, shows howdeeply his cause was bound up with that of the Guelphs, andhow wise, from a political point of view, the emperor hadbeen to take him captive.Henry VI.'s attitude at this time was not so worthy of Vacillationadmiration as that of his prisoner. He vacillated in the end of Henry VI.between an English and a French alliance. At one time hisfriendship for Richard rose to such a pitch that he investedhim with the kingdom of Arles, where, indeed, in spite of allthat Frederick Barbarossa had done, his own influence wasfar from secure. But again he lent ear to the voice of Philipof France, who offered him 150,000 marks of silver if hewould prolong Richard's captivity another year—it had alreadylasted two.The English king, however, was set free in February, 1194, Richard's release, 1194 and a month later made his entry into London. A.D. Richard's advent had indeed been a boon for the emperorof the Romans. It left Henry VI. master of new and vastpecuniary resources, and at peace with almost all his enemiesin Germany. England, in the eyes of the Germans at least,had become a subject land; in 1198, on Henry VI.'s death,Richard was summoned to take part in the new election asa distinguished member of the empire."The Count Palatine asmediator betweenHenry VI.and Henry the Lion."CHAPTER XX.HENRY VI. AND THE WORLD-MONARCHY.BOUT the time of Richard's release events occurred inASicilywhichcaused the emperor to long for peace withHenry the Lion and his party. Mediators were not wanting.At the time of the negotiations with Philip Augustus concerning Richard's further captivity, the French king hadoffered his hand to the emperor's cousin, the daughter of theCount Palatine of the Rhine. But a romantic attachmenthad long existed between the young girl and the son ofHenry the Lion, and the idea of the French marriage wasnaturally looked upon by the lovers as the death- knell of alltheir hopes. Their sufferings had moved the heart of thegirl's mother, who had arranged a runaway match; the pairhad been hastily wedded in the castle of Stahleck at Bacharachon the Rhine.At the time Henry had been furious. The Count Palatinehad no sons, so the Palatinate, which Frederick Barbarossahad so carefully formed into a province which should be anappanage of his house, would now eventually fall to theGuelphs. The result of the marriage, too, had been toincense Philip Augustus, who withdrew his offers , and toadd to the delays attendant on Richard's release.But now that peace was so desirable the intervention ofthe Count Palatine, closely connected as he was with bothparties, proved most valuable. A peace- meeting was arrangedat Tilleda, close to the Kyffhäuser, and a reconciliation wasbrought about. The younger Henry was promised the succession to the Palatinate, but, in return, was to do militaryHENRY VI. AND THE WORLD-MONARCHY. 305service in the approaching expedition for the recovery ofSicily. The other son, Otto, who had been named by Richardof England one of his hostages for what had been left unpaidof his ransom, was to remain in Germany under close supervision.Henry the Lion himself was by this time well on in years,and scarcely more to be feared. He died in 1195, after havingdevoted his last days to good works, and to the collecting ofchronicles, which he caused to be copied and read aloud tohim. He spent whole nights, we are told, in listening to them;perhaps a few historical truths as to the usual fate of rebelsand rebellions may have at length come home to him.Peace was at last restored in Saxony, except for some feudswhich continued to be fought with the Archbishop of Bremen.According to Arnold of Lubeck, a faithful observer, " Highwaymen and men of blood lamented, for their accursed harvestwas lost. Blessed be the marriage of Henry of Brunswick,for, through this alliance, peace and joy have been wedded forthe benefit of the land! "Death ofHenry the Lion, 1195A.D.In Sicily, meanwhile, even during the emperor's absence, his Sicily.cause had steadily been gaining ground. He possessed anumber of adherents there with whom he had kept in touch,and these had managed to fill the days of Tancred with fearand unrest. By the mediation of the Pope, the EmpressConstance, through whose intervention Celestine hoped tomake peace with Henry VI. , had meanwhile been released(June, 1192 ) .acknowledges Tancred.But these longings for a reconciliation on the Pope's part Celestinedid not last long. Celestine's character was wavering as wehave seen-he was by this time nearly ninety years of ageand, finding that Tancred was willing to make a most favourable treaty with the Church, he proceeded to solemnly investhim with the kingdom of Sicily, and to promise him, as feudallord, help against all his enemies. When the conspiracy ofGerman princes was formed against Henry VI. , the Pope hadexpressly supported the rebels and had held out hopes to theDuke of Brabant of obtaining the imperial crown. HenryX306 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Death ofhis son, 1194A.D.had retaliated by ordering the arrest of anyone in Italy whoshould be found on his way to Rome. The chief prelate nextto the Pope, the cardinal bishop of Ostia, had been seizedin accordance with this decree.Meanwhile Tancred, soon after Constance's release, causedTancred and his son Roger to be appointed co- regent in Sicily, and affiancedhim with the daughter of the eastern emperor, Isaak Angelos,hoping thus to gain a new ally. But within a month of eachother both the rulers of Sicily, father and son alike, werecarried away by sickness. A younger son, William, a mereboy, was then proclaimed king, and his mother undertook theHenry VI.called toSicily.Attacks Salerno.Defeats the widow of Tancred.regency.But the successes of the emperor's partisans in Apulia hadby this time discouraged the majority of the Sicilian barons;they sent to Henry VI. and asked him to take possession oftheir kingdom. Henry appeared in their midst with a splendidly equipped army which had been lavishly paid with theransom of Richard of England. He was supported, too, by animposing fleet, having won the Genoese by promises, which, asit turned out, he never kept. The Pisans, too, had been overwhelmed by tokens of favour; they were to have free trade inthe Norman kingdom and immense fiefs, besides certain rightsin every Apulian and Sicilian city.One of Henry's first points of attack was Salerno which, informer days, had betrayed the Empress Constance to the followers of Tancred. Salerno, hitherto a flourishing town andespecially renowned for its school of medicine, fell after aday's siege. " The city which helped the whole world withher remedies," says an Austrian chronicler, " could now findno physician to offer her a cure for her woes.'Salerno's fate intimidated the rest of Henry's enemiesin Southern Italy, and the way to Sicily was soon free.Sibylla, the widow of Tancred, had raised an army whichwas defeated by the imperial troops near Catanea. The firstand last great effort at resistance had failed, and one stronghold after another, last of all Palermo, fell into the hands ofthe Normans.HENRY VI. AND THE WORLD- MONARCHY. 307Henry VI. has been reproached with inhuman barbarity inhis treatment of these Sicilian rebels, although his victims juston this occasion seem to have been very few in number. Thereis scarcely any doubt but that some of the ringleaders wereskinned alive; but this punishment, horrible as it was, isscarcely more cruel than what was inflicted in every land ofEurope during the middle ages on those guilty of high treason.In England, but a few generations later than the time ofwhich we are writing, traitors were dragged at the tailsof horses, then hung, then quartered, and their heads placedon lances in public places.Henry VI.crowned king of Sicily, 1194Henry VI. was determined that for the land of Sicily as awhole his advent should be that of a deliverer come to bringpeace and prosperity. On the wanton destruction of propertyby his soldiers he placed the penalty of mutilation. In Novem- A.D.ber, 1194, he held a brilliant entry into Palermo; a few dayslater Sibylla and her son, for whom a generous provision hadbeen made, surrendered the royal treasure, and on ChristmasDay the crown of Sicily was placed on the head of the Germanemperor.It was not long, indeed, before a conspiracy was discoveredagainst Henry's life, a conspiracy in which the royal familyand the first magnates of Sicily were implicated . Theoffenders were all banished, and the queen and her childrenspent lonely years in Alsace, not even being allowed the solaceof each other's companionship.Frederick II., 1195At this time, when Henry was firmly seated on the Sicilian Birth ofthrone and had once more become master of his enemies, ason was born to him, the later much-tried and too enlightened A.D.emperor Frederick II. An heir was now at hand to unite theNorman and the German claims, and the boy was christenedRoger Frederick in memory of his two grandfathers.carried off.It was with Richard of England's ransom that Henry had Sicilianbeen able to complete the conquest of Sicily. With the treasureaccumulated treasure of the Norman kings he next proceededin his endeavours to make himself monarch of the world.The riches of Sicily, Apulia and Calabria were now collected308 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Constancein Sicily.Ideal ofworldmonarchy.and carried off to Germany. The country had been scouredfor coined money, for gold and silver ornaments, for preciousstones. The royal palaces had been stripped of their silkenhangings and of their valuable furniture. Among the bootywas a red silk garment which the Arabs had presented toRoger II. , and into the border of which they had wovenexpressions of good- will towards the king. It served as acoronation mantle for the next German emperors.66The administratration of Sicily was now conferred on theempress Constance. In the palace of her fathers at Palermoshe took up her residence, and she ruled freely and almost inher own right. In her charters she speaks of " our majesty,"66 our fisc," our domains," and on one of her seals whichwas found at Palermo she is represented as sitting crownedon her throne, the sceptre in her right hand, the imperial orbin her left. Coins have also come to light which bear on oneside the name of Henry, on the other that of the empress .For a subjected land it was a great consolation that it wasto continue to be ruled by a scion of its old dynasty.The German chronicles and letters of this time are overflowing with expressions of joy over Henry VI.'s triumphs.His former tutor, Conrad of Querfurt, is astonished at thepractical lessons in geography that the emperor has taughthim, and declares that men are now brought face to face withthings previously only taught about in school.Never, since Europe had separated into its different kingdoms was the ideal of a world-monarchy more nearly realizedthan under Henry VI. We have seen him assume, if onlyfor the moment, the overlordship of England; the actual rulewas his of the great Apulian- Sicilian kingdom. He had intimated to the Genoese that they might reward themselves, ifthey wished, for their recent services at the expense of thekingdom of Arragon. He was now to turn his eyes towardsFrance on the one hand, and towards the Greek Empire onthe other.In the summer of 1195, Henry sent a golden crown toRichard of England and urged him, in the name of the fealtyHENRY VI. AND THE WORLD-MONARCHY. 309sworn to himself, to press on with his war against PhilipAugustus, whereby he might be sure of his, the emperor's, support. He openly declared-Pope Innocent III. is our authority-that he would compel the French King to do him homage.Richard sent to inquire exactly on what imperial forces hecould count, but a new development, an invasion of the Moorswhich threatened alike Navarre and Castile, the ally ofEngland and the ally of France, caused those two warringpowers to make a hasty peace against their common enemy.The Greek Empire at this time was in a condition of super- The Greeklative weakness. In 1183, William II. of Sicily had made an empire.expedition against it, and had conquered several provinceswhich, however, he lost again through the treachery of hisown Sicilians. In 1185, Isaak Angelos had overthrown thetyrant Andronikos, the murderer of Manuel, and had himselfascended the throne. When Henry VI. conquered Sicily, hefound in Palermo the daughter of this emperor Isaak, who,it will be remembered, had married the son of Tancred. Thisprincess he nowaffianced to his own brother, Philip of Hohenstaufen, who might thus eventually fall heir to the throne.The sword of Damocles was at this time hanging over Isaakhimself, and Henry VI. in a masterly manner made the mostof the emperor's tribulations.Isaak, threatened with overthrow by his own brotherAlexius, turned to Henry for aid. The latter consented to thelevying of forces in German lands, and a number of soldiersto whom Isaac had promised rich pay crossed over to his aid.But Henry made this the occasion for extravagant demands;he claimed nothing less than all the provinces betweenEpidaurus and Thessalonica, averring that those had beenthe conquests of his own predecessor, William II. in 1183,and that he, as heir to the Norman crown, had a right tothem. He demanded further that a Greek fleet should support the German crusaders, and that a high tribute shouldbe paid; in case of refusal he threatened with war.As aByzantine chronicler has it, "he came forward with hisdemands like the lord of lords and the king of kings."Henry's demands from the easternemperor.310 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry VI.projects acrusade.The Pope'sdelight.Letter ofthe Pope.Soon the news came that Isaak had been overthrown byAlexius and had been blinded and imprisoned.The newdespot tried to win Henry's favour, but the latter consideredthat the time had now come for avenging the old alliance ofthe Greeks with the Pope against Barbarossa and the repeatedill-treatment of crusaders. He came forward now as thechampion of Isaak; the latter's rights, however, now that hehad been blinded, were declared to have descended on Irene ,who soon afterwards actually married Philip of Hohenstaufen.There was much of the wily Ulysses in the character ofHenry VI. In order to carry out his plans against theEastern Empire it was necessary to make his peace withRome. This he did by sending to Celestine and declaringthat he felt a desire and need of returning to the fatherly lapof the Pope. The inducement that he offered was nothingless than the taking of the cross in person and the sending offifteen hundred knights, each with a squire, to the Holy Land.Their expenses were to be paid out of the treasure of Sicily.Celestine III. , that pious, simple old man, was more thandelighted. In his eyes the regaining of Palestine was thefirst duty of the papacy. He believed that the ill- success ofthe last crusade had been due wholly to the dissensions ofthe Christian leaders, and was far from being satisfied withthe treaty which Richard the Lionhearted had closed withSaladin. That treaty, although it provided that pilgrimsshould be unmolested, left the land still in the hands of theheathen, and Celestine had forbidden all Christians, underpain of the Church's curse, from visiting the Holy Sepulchre.We possess a letter of the Pope written to the emperor inthese days. It is full of expressions of goodwill and rejoicing,and ends as follows: "Thou, most beloved son, now thatthou dost see our silence broken and the bonds of our tongueloosed, receive the Apostolic greeting and blessing to the endthat the whole Church may find in thee the longed- for fruits,and may fall on its knees and pray for the happy continuanceof thy empire, and the prosperity of thy person; and alsoHENRY VI. AND THE WORLD-MONARCHY. 311may the Heavenly Emperor hear the prayers of the Churchand direct thy steps in the way of eternal salvation. "ofthecrusade.Henry VI.'s crusade, although Celestine did not at once Real objectperceive it, was about as worldly an undertaking as was everput in progress. His idea was to subject Palestine, to compelthe tributary states of Eastern Rome to bow to his sceptre,and then, from on all sides, to close in upon the ByzantineEmpire. How grandly the religious enthusiasm of the ageworked into his all-comprising plans!The preparations for the crusade were zealously carriedforward. In December, 1195, Henry held a diet at Worms,where for a week, the papal legate at his side, he sat severalhours daily on a throne in the cathedral to receive the vowsof the crusaders. The excitement was far greater than it hadbeen even at the time of Barbarossa's expedition; archbishopsand bishops, dukes and counts hastened to take the cross .An embassy arrived in these days from Amalrich ofLusignan, to whom Richard of England had given the throneof Cyprus, and who now offered to become the vassal of theemperor. Henry sent him a golden sceptre and a promise tocrown him on his way to Jerusalem. Leo of Armenia hadalready done homage, having come to the conclusion that theEastern empire was too weak to protect him.Before leaving Germany Henry made his greatest attemptto strengthen his royal prerogative. He brought forward alaw before the princes which, if it had actually passed intopractice, would have fundamentally altered the constitutionof the empire, and made it as much a hereditary monarchy asEngland and France had become. But how much moreextended, how much more powerful! Of what splendidresources would it have had the disposal!What Henry demanded was two-fold: that the crownshould be settled on his own house for ever, and that theNorman kingdom of Sicily should be consolidated withGermany. All barriers were to fall, and the Emperor of theRomans, as such, was to have undisputed sway from theNorth Sea to the Mediterranean.Henry VI.proposes tothronehereditary.make the312 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry VI.'s plans acceded toby theprinces.Henry VI.in Italy,1196 A.D.Philip of Hohen- staufen.The moment for bringing forward these proposals was wellchosen. Henry was at peace with the papacy and, in bondwith it, was about to fulfil the highest mission of a medievalemperor, and to march out against the enemies of theChristian religion. Powerful inducements, too, were offeredto the ecclesiastical and lay princes. The latter were promisedthat fiefs of the empire, which had hitherto lapsed to thecrown on the death of the last male holders, might henceforthdescend to daughters or go over to the nearest relativesin an indirect line. The prelates were offered the emperor'srenunciation of the " right of spoils," a right, indeed,which they had never in theory acknowledged, but which hadnone the less been exercised to the detriment of the severalsees.At the brilliant diet of Würzburg ( April, 1196) Henry'splans were, for the moment, acceded to by the princes present,who drew up charters and sealed them with their various seals. The emperor then and there proceeded to conferThuringia on the daughter of the landgrave, Herrmann.Apparently at the goal of his desires, he departed for Italyin the summer of 1196, intending to superintend in Apuliathe preparations for the crusade, and to procure the coronationof his son, Frederick II. , at the hand of the Pope.The Lombard cities, which had not been on the best ofterms of late with Henry VI. , feared at this time that it wasintended to turn the crusading forces against themselves.The representatives of thirteen towns took an oath to upholdagainst anyone and everyone the rights granted by the peaceof Constance.But Henry had larger prey in view. He left the cities totheir own dissensions, which kept them fully occupied.In Tuscany, which had been given as a fief to Philip ofHohenstaufen, the power of the empire was fully established.Philip entitled himself " Duke of Tuscany and lord of alllands of the late Countess Matilda." But the Pope hadbegun to feel the inconvenience of having so proud andinfluential a neighbour; he was becoming aware, too, of theHENRY VI. AND THE WORLD-MONARCHY. 313true import of Henry's crusading zeal. He entered intonegotiations now, for his own part, with the Greek Emperor.Henry's servants were able to intercept messengers ofAlexius to the Pope and to possess themselves of the letterswhich they bore. It came to mutual reproaches now betweenCelestine and the emperor; the former's principal animadversions were directed against reported misdeeds and oppressions of Philip of Hohenstaufen. The ban of the Churchwas laid, in a general way however, on the originators of allacts of violence in Tuscany.and Celes- tine III.Henry VI. instead, as the Pope wished, of entering into a Henry VI.discussion of the evils that were laid to his charge, nowdemanded the coronation and at the same time the baptism ofhis son. This coronation, performed on one who had not beenelected by the German princes, would have betokened thepapal recognition of the heredity of the crown, and an acceptance of Henry's plan of constitutional reform. Of the unionof Sicily and Germany too, for the candidate on whom Celestine was asked to place the German crown was the undoubtedheir to the Norman kingdom.Celestine mustered up courage enough to refuse; he insistedmoreover that Henry should take the oath of allegiance tohimself for his Sicilian possessions. The negotiations lastedthree months and at the end of that time the Pope stillremained unbending; it must be taken as a sign of his pacificdisposition that he did not threaten the emperor with thecurse of Rome.plan.Meanwhile the princes of Germany had been occupying The princes oppose themselves with Henry's plan of reform, against which aHenry's violent opposition has declared itself. The right of electing a cherishedking was a much cherished privilege which no one was willingto renounce, certainly not for the compensations that had beenoffered. There was no princely family either that might noteventually hope to see one of its own members on the throneof the empire. Could that throne at any price be allowed tobecome hereditary in the house of Suabia?Henry VI. now showed his greatness and his diplomatic Henry abandons it.314 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.League of the Pope,the Lom- bards, andskill. He saw clearly that his other designs would be frustrated if he were to insist on the carrying through of this one.He retracted his proposition altogether; he did it with such agood grace that those who had been most violently ventingtheir wrath against him now voluntarily chose his son Frederick as his successor. The principle had been rejected, theresult for the moment was to be the same.Henry now laid the question before his nobles whether heshould in person proceed to the Holy Land, or whether heshould remain in Apulia and direct the undertaking; nothingcould have induced him to take this step save his dread ofleaving Italy at a time when the Pope was at enmity with him.The nobles answered of course as the emperor had intended,and soon enough it became evident howmuch his presence wasneeded.Henry VI.'s character, as has been seen often enough, wasnone too gentle. He had, in the first place, injured thenational feeling of the Italians by trying to incorporate theirthe Sicilians. land with Germany; he had offended the Lombards in variousways, and he was looked upon with dislike and suspicion bythe Sicilians. A harsh judgment passed upon the Count ofAcerra at Christmas, 1196, did not mend matters. The countwas drawn at the tail of a horse and then hung head downwards from a gallows while the court fool put a stone in themouth of the dying man to amusethe emperor who was lookingon. The Sicilians, the Pope, and the Lombards now formeda league, and the Empress Constance, touched by the complaints of her own people, sided with her husband's enemies.How far she sympathized with the revolt which now brokeout in Sicily and with the plan to murder Henry and put upa new ruler is a matter which is not made clear by any of thewriters of her time.Terriblepunishments inflicted onthe rebels .Henry VI. mastered this rebellion as he had the others; hecaptured the chief conspirators, and now, in truth, outdidhimself in the infliction of severe punishments. Strange tosay, such were the sentiments of the times that we owe therecital of these penalties, not to his enemies, but to thoseHENRY VI. AND THE WORLD-MONARCHY. 315among his chroniclers who were his warmest friends andadmirers; nor have they a word of blame or even of excuse fortheir stern master. Yet some of the prisoners were sawn inpieces, others covered with pitch and ignited, others impaledalive. The principal conspirator, the governor of the fortressof San Giovanni, whom it had been intended to make king,was crowned with a red hot crown which was fastened to hishead with nails. The Empress Constance was forced to bepresent at this barbarous scene, the only punishment, so faras is known, that was ever inflicted upon her.At last Henry VI. was free to pursue his plans for the conquest of the Orient. The Greek emperor was now induced topay an enormous tribute in order to raise which he tried toimpose the so-called “ German tax " on all his provinces.This measure raised such opposition that Alexius desisted.He then thought to raise the money by confiscating the holyutensils of the churches, but involved himself thereby in aterrible conflict with his clergy. As a last resort the gravesof the former emperors were sacked and the corpses plunderedof their gold ornaments. Even the last resting - place of thegreat Constantine was not spared, although Alexius found inthis case that thieves had been there before him and hadcarried off all that there was of value.The great crusade started from Apulia in the summer of1197. Henry had brought together a much greater armyeven than that which had accompanied Barbarossa. Thenumbers are placed at 60,000. The emperor had been untiringin his efforts to raise supplies and to remove all hindrances.For the Teutonic order, which had been founded in 1190, andwhich was likely to prove a valuable ally, he had alreadygained the confirmation of Clement III. , he now himselfgranted to the new foundation lands and privileges in Italyand Sicily. The brothers were to be allowed to enter Palermowithout paying toll; their grain was to be ground free inroyal mills; they might exercise the priest's prerogative andextend the last unction to all dying Germans. It was but ayear later than this that an assembly of German nobles andThe Greekemperor pays tribute.Starting of the greatexpedition,1197 A.D.316 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Henry VI.at the summit ofhis glory.His death,1197 A.D.Failure of the crusade.Henry VI.'s will.of the clergy and barons of Jerusalem solemnly raised theTeutonic brotherhood to be an order of knights which shouldstand on equal ground with the Templars and the knights ofSt. John.66We have reached the period of Henry VI.'s greatest powerand glory. Shortly before the Poet Peter of Ebola had exclaimed in his enthusiasm: ' Thou wilt once more elevate tothe stars the structure of the church and of the empire, and,when there is no enemy remaining thou wilt lay thy bed nextto Jove! "Henry's ships were now hurrying over the sea to glean him,as he hoped, a new harvest of triumphs. He was master forthe moment of all his enemies. Of all but one; on the feversof Italy he had not counted. The cold dews of night after ahot day's hunting did more than numerous conspiracies hadbeen able to accomplish. The great emperor, only thirty-twoyears of age at the end of his eventful life, was laid to rest inthe cathedral of Palermo, where one may still stand and musebeside his porphyry sarcophagus.The crusade was in the end a failure. The knights of St.John and the Templars had banded together, and even conspired with the infidels against the Germans. The latter, indeed, had made important conquests, notably that of Beirout--but demoralization and dissension had already begun to dotheir work among them when the news of Henry's deatharrived. Many princes at once set sail for home, anxious tosecure their lands and their dignities.A few months after the death of the world-monarch aworld-pope was enthroned on the chair of Peter, and HenryVI.'s widow did him homage, and allowed appeals to Rome aswell as the introduction of papal legates, and the final decisionover disputed elections of bishops. She drove all Germansfrom the court and, finally, on her death- bed made the Popethe guardian of the Norman kingdom and of its youthful heir.In this, indeed, she did not run counter to the intentions ofher husband, for Henry VI. had left a will, the terms ofwhich were long kept secret, which pointed to the Pope as theHENRY VI. AND THE WORLD- MONARCHY. 317Innocentproper refuge, and which offered him great inducements inItaly if he would espouse the cause of the young Frederick.Innocent III. was the counterpart of Henry VI. , but the The power ofsuccess of the Pope's plans necessarily betokened the fall andthe ruin of the whole fabric which the ambition of theemperor had raised . One of his first steps was to revoke theprivileges granted to the Teutonic order in Sicily.Innocent was soon to rule over Tuscany as well as over theNorman kingdom; over Arragon and Hungary, and over thenew Latin empire in the east, that dream of Henry VI. whichwas now actually to be fulfilled . He, too, was to haveEngland laid at his feet as a fief, and, more fortunate thanthe emperors, he and his successors for nearly a century wereto receive her yearly tribute.III.Long civil war inGermany.Italy no longer sub- missive.SELCHAPTER XXI.PHILIP OF SUABIA AND OTTO IV.ELDOM has the loss of any one man affected a countryas that of Henry VI. did Germany. The highest pitchof prosperity seemed about to be reached when there came the most utter and entire reaction. Philip of Hohenstaufenlater wrote to Innocent III.: " It was astonishing and pitiful,the condition of wild confusion into which the empire cameafter Henry VI.'s death; how it was torn in pieces, and soshaken in all its parts and boundaries that far- sighted mencould doubt with good reason whether in our day it couldever be brought back to its former conditionGermany was like to a sea lashed by every wind.”""AllThe prophecy of the " far- sighted men was to be only tootruly realized . An era of civil war now broke in upon thenation; it was to last, with due interval, for the next twentyyears. The cities of Lombardy, Tuscany, and Romagnathrew off the German yoke, and began to grasp in all directions for the territory about them that had belonged to theempire.It was at this time-a sure token of regained confidenceand audacity- that Cæsarea dropped the name which hadbeen imposed upon her in 1183, and reassumed the old name ofAlessandria. The church, too, began energetically to makeannexations, and in Tuscany the Papal legates were the primemovers in a series of revolts. A Tuscan League was formedwhich enjoyed the warm support of Innocent III. , whileConrad of Spoleto was induced to resign that duchy in favourof the Church and to return to Germany.PHILIP OF SUABIA AND OTTO IV. 319Frederick II.Soon after Henry VI.'s death it became evident that the Abandonrule of the Hohenstaufen dynasty had rested more upon the ment offear than upon the love of its subjects. The young FrederickII. , who had been elected but not crowned, had his upholders,it is true; chief among them was his uncle, Philip of Suabia,the most powerful, the richest, the most respected of theprinces. But Philip was soon forced by circ*mstances toabandon the ward for whom he had at first so eagerly enteredthe lists. He found that a large party, headed by Archbishop Adolph of Cologne, was determined at any and everyrisk to set aside the youthful Frederick. The Church couldnot endure the thought of the Sicilian king becoming emperorof the Romans; Frederick, too, was a mere infant, and everyone saw that a strong hand was needed at the head ofaffairs.staufen.Philip then came forward in his own person as candidate Philip of for the throne. He was himself still very young, probably Hohennot more than eighteen years of age. He possessed the bestqualities of his race, although no opportunity was ever givenhim of unfolding them. Fair-haired, handsome, and brave,his gentleness and friendliness, as well as his gay disposition,are praised by contemporaries. Walter of the Vogelweid who,like all true poets, was fond of saying much in few words,calls him nothing short of a sweet young man."Adolph of. Cologne, richly endowed as his see had been by Adolph ofFrederick Barbarossa, and many as were the bishoprics under Cologne.his jurisdiction, was at this time doubly influential as beingthe representative of the Archbishop of Mayence, who wasstill absent on the crusade. He was bound, moreover, byties of friendship to Richard of England; in fact Englishinfluence was strongly felt in many ways in Cologne, for between that city and England a busy commerce had begun tobe developed. Adolph's attitude with regard to the electionof 1198 seems to have been dictated by the purest greed andselfishness. His mind was made up on two points; noHohenstaufen was to be elected, and any prince who shouldbe chosen must pay dearly for the honour conferred upon him.320 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Otto IV.Philip's election.Otto's election .He offered the crown to Bernard of Saxony, who, however,refused it.Adolph's final candidate, and one on whom he was surethat the English king would look with the greatest favour,was to be none other than Otto, the younger son of Henrythe Lion—the elder son, Henry of the Rhine Palatinate, wasstill in Palestine. Once more Guelph was to be pitted againstHohenstaufen, and all the political miseries which that enmityentailed were to be conjured up anew. The fight, indeed, wasto be a fiercer one than ever, and its different stages were tobe marked as usual by the curses of Rome. Double elections,so common with the papacy, had been known but twice inthe history of the empire; they were to be frequent enoughin the century that was about to begin. What recklesssquandering of territory and riches they were to lead to; howinsatiable was to be the greed of the allies sought for byeither party!Philip of Suabia's election was put through at an assemblyheld in Thuringia in March, 1198; that prince had not beenbackward with presents and promises. He was first chosenregent or defender of the kingdom, with powers which wereto become void so soon as Frederick II. should appear in theland; but the nobles present came to the conclusion that astronger title was needed if anything was to be gained, andhe was soon in possession of the full royal prerogative.On the news of these proceedings the followers of Adolphof Cologne were in despair. Having no candidate at hand,as the younger Guelph was still in France, they began negotiations with Duke Berthold of Zäringen. A regular bartering took place for the crown, an unworthy haggling for afew marks of silver more or less. Berthold at last found thesum of the outlays that he was expected to make altogethertoo high, and, although he had once accepted, finally withdrew. He was soon won by promises from Philip of Hobenstaufen, and acknowledged the latter as king.Otto of Brunswick was then chosen by the Cologne party, butnot until three months had passed in delays and negotiations.PHILIP OF SUABIA AND OTTO IV. 321Otto, only sixteen years old at this time, was scarcely to becalled a German at all. Henry the Lion, it will be remembered, had married the sister of King Richard, and this sonhad been brought up chiefly at the English court. Richardalways bore Otto the greatest affection, and had named himCount of Poictou. The uncle and nephew, indeed, were surprisingly similar in character, alike powerful of frame andfond of knightly sports. Richard was now Otto's warmestsupporter; he loaded him with riches, as to the amount ofwhich contemporaries tell fabulous tales. English gold wasthus pitted against the treasures which Henry VI. hadamassed, and which had fallen to Philip of Hohenstaufen.from the ban.In 1197, immediately after the death of the great emperor, PhiliploosedPope Celestine III. had formally placed Philip in the ban onaccount of his proceedings in Tuscany. Innocent III. hadoffered to absolve him if he would release the Archbishop ofSalerno and other Sicilian prisoners who had been carried offto Germany. Innocent's legate, the Bishop of Sutri, performed the absolution before Philip had fulfilled all thenecessary conditions, a proceeding for which he atoned onhis return to Rome by lifelong imprisonment in a monastery.Philip is declared by one of the chroniclers to have been"too tame and benevolent " in the matter of opposing theparty of Adolph of Cologne. Why did he not disperse theassembly that met to elect another king? Why did he notwrest recognition of his own claims at the edge of the swordinstead of allowing the schemings and deliberations to beuninterrupted during all the ten weeks between his own and.Otto's election?Whatever his grounds for delay, this inactivity cost him Otto seizesdear, for Otto's first step was to take Aix, the old coronation Aix.seat of the empire. On the first day after its seizure theantiking affianced himself with the daughter of the Duke ofBrabant; on the second he caused himself, at the hand ofAdolph of Cologne, to be crowned and anointed—a ceremonywhich was not performed in Philip's case until some monthslater.Y322 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Ottosquanders the rights of the empire.Innocenttakes nopart.The warbetweenPhilip and Otto.Otto now possessed a considerable following, chiefly composed of holders of the secular and ecclesiastical dependenciesof the see of Cologne; he proceeded to increase it by analmost wanton squandering of the rights and privileges of theempire. Archbishop Adolph, especially, was richly rewarded,and Otto was obliged to swear that he would never try toregain the lands taken from his father and given to Cologneby Frederick Barbarossa. He furthermore renounced theright of spoils , that right which Henry VI. had offered togive up in return for the heredity of the crown.But his chief concessions were with regard to Italy; hehoped thus to gain the support of Innocent III. He acknowledged all the rights of the Church to the patrimony of Peter,to the Matilda estates, the exarchate of Ravenna, the Pentapolis, the March of Ancona, and the duchy of Spoleto, and offered to aid in recovering and maintaining them. Heagreed to act according to the Pope's advice in the matter ofthe Tuscan and Lombard leagues, and, finally, expressly recognized the Church's suzerainty over the kingdom of Sicily.Innocent was in no hurry to accept these offers; it remained to be seen if Otto was capable of carrying them intoeffect. But the deed which was drawn up concerning themon the day of Otto's election was later pointed to as proofpositive of the validity of this or that pontifical claim .One by one the nobles who had been on the crusade reachedhome and took sides with one or other of the rival claimants.Otto thus gained the support of his brother Henry, CountPalatine of the Rhine, of the Duke of Brabant, and of Landgrave Herrmann of Thuringia.Philip's following was, on the whole, far more numerousthan that of his opponent and, indeed, for the next two yearshe maintained the ascendancy. No great battle was fought,but Philip burnt Bonn, Remagen, and Andernach, and devastated the Palatinate, while Otto took the imperial cityof Nordhausen, and conferred it on Hermann of Thuringia.The death of Richard of England in 1199 was a great blowto Otto's cause, for although the English king left him heir toPHILIP OF SUABIA AND OTTO IV. 323all his jewels and to three-fourths of his treasure, the legacywas not paid till many years later. In 1200 King John Lackland bound himself in a treaty with France to let his nephewfall, and it was not till 1208 that he energetically and openlytook his part. He made agreements with him at differenttimes, it is true, but they did not signify much more than didthat dead letter compact which Philip entered into with PhilipAugustus in 1198, and which was directed against Richard ofEngland, " Count Otto, " Adolph of Cologne, and other enemiesof the Hohenstaufen king. And yet these treaties are interesting as showing the effort to carry a German war far outover the boundaries of Germany. A few years later thateffort was to succeed, and one single battle was to affect thefate of the three chief European powers.Meanwhile Otto's fortunes were at their lowest ebb. Philip Otto loseshad gained the support of the imperial ministeriales, of which ground.new and weighty factor in German politics we shall speak in another connection. He had under him, moreover, thegreatest commander of the age, Henry of Kalden, who hadjust returned from the crusade. Strasburg, whose bishopheld to Otto, was forced to surrender, and the landgrave ofThuringia was induced by Philip, at the cost indeed ofimperial fiefs which Otto had promised but had not been ableto give, to desert the young Guelph. Even the Archbishop ofCologne, whose lands had been repeatedly devastated, and whohad been obliged to pawn the treasures of his church, began to waver.tations to Innocent.Innocent III. had not yet taken part for either candidate. RepresenIn May, 1200, forty-eight German princes sent a writing tothe Pope informing him that Philip of Hohenstaufen had beenlawfully elected, and warning him to respect the rights of theempire. They declared that they were about to lead Philip toRome and to procure for him the imperial crown. Philiphimself also sent envoys. Innocent expressed to the latter hissatisfaction at their advent; he declared that the final decision in such matters rested of course with the Church. Hadnot the Popes transferred the empire from the east to the324 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Innocent for Otto IV.Innocentopenlytakes Otto's part.west, and had they not the bestowal of the crown of thatempire in their power? There was no Barbarossa nowto takeoffence at such utterances, or at a writing drawn up at thistime in which Innocent speaks of the empire as though it wereplainly a fief of the papacy.The only result of the representations made by Philip'sfollowers to Innocent was to induce the latter to declare moreopenly for Otto. If there was one thing that the Popedreaded, it was the appearance of another Hohenstaufen inItaly. He sent a writing to those princes whom he consideredmost influential in Germany, and weighed in the balance thetwo candidates for his favour. He showed how Philip hadbeen elected in the wrong place and crowned by the wrongbishop; how he had broken his oath of allegiance to theyoung Frederick, and how at the time of his election he hadbeen in the ban of the church. He depicted the dangers of anew attempt on the part of the Hohenstaufens to found ahereditary monarchy: " if brother should now succeed tobrother as son formerly succeeded to father, inasmuch as hewould have obtained the kingdom not by their election, butrather by succession, the liberty of the princes would perish."To the announcement of the princes that they would leadPhilip to Rome to assume the imperial crown, Innocentanswered that he would summon the lawful king to hiscoronation.In March, 1201 , Innocent formally recognized Otto IV. asking and future emperor, bade the clergy of Germany do thelike, and promised to absolve the princes from any inconvenientoath in the matter that they might previously have taken.Philip of Hohenstaufen and his upholders were then declaredin the ban.Innocent now unfolded an immense activity in the interestsof his pretendant. John of England was ordered to give upthe legacy left by Richard, and every effort was made to winover Philip of France. Letter after letter was sent to Germany to this prince or to that; the Duke of Saxony, theArchbishop of Madgeburg and others were promised in thePHILIP OF SUABIA AND OTTO IV. 325Pope's own name that Otto would not endeavour to recoverthe lands of Henry the Lion.Innocent shows a surprising knowledge of German affairs;he knew just what weakness to appeal to in the case of eachparticular man of power. A papal legate, Guido of Præneste,was despatched to Germany to confirm Otto's election , and towork in his interests; also to settle the matter of a doubleelection in the archbishopric of Mayence where each of the twogreat parties had put in its own candidate.turns the scale infavour.The conflict between the two rival kings had now become a Innocentconflict between Church and State. Those of the bishops whostill remained faithful to Philip had nowto renounce the Pope Otto'sor at least openly to disobey him. During the next fewyearsInnocent caused many of them to be called to account andmanaged at every vacancy to secure the election of such menas would be friendly to the Guelphic cause.This one man alone, with all the apostles and saints behindhim, it is true, and with all the terrors of hell and joys ofheaven at his disposal, was able to turn the whole current inOtto's favour. The latter wrote to him later: "My kingshipwould have dissolved in dust and ashes had not your hand,or rather the authority of the Apostolic chair, weighed thescale in my favour. "Nothing seems to have been holy to Otto except his own Successes ofpersonal advancement. In the hope of securing the friendship Otto IV.of the King of Denmark, a friendship which helped him littlein the end, he quietly looked on while the Danes wrestedHolstein from its duke. He consented to this plundering ofthe empire as he had formerly consented to renounce Italy.Slowly but surely, however, he made himself master of all thenorth-western part of Germany, of the land from the NorthSea to the Mosel and Werra, and from the French boundaryto the Elbe and the Harz.66 The upholders of Philip, in the year 1202, sent a stirring Protest sentprotest to Rome: When have you popes ever read, when to Rome.have you cardinals ever heard that your predecessors ortheir envoys have interfered in the elections of the Roman326 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Otto at thepower.kings, have played the role of electors, or have weighed theelectoral votes as judges over the election? We believe youwill find no answer.'""Innocent deigned to reply to the protesting princes, but,entrenched as he was behind a wall of Biblical quotations andassumptions of almost divine rights, gave them little satisfaction. It was not in the nature of a Pope, of this Popeespecially, to give a plain answer to arguments against hisown real or fancied prerogatives.Otto stood now at the height of his power. John ofheight ofhis England, having just been bereft of his French fiefs for nothaving appeared to answer the charge of murder, was seizedwith an excess of great friendliness for his nephew. Thepartizanship of Ottokar of Bohemia, too, whom Innocent hadat last induced to desert Philip, gave Otto an immenseadvantage. Ottokar did homage to his new liege lord andcaused himself to be recrowned at his hands, the papal legategiving him the consecration and the assurance that Innocentwould now recognize his royal title, which he had previouslydisputed. Philip's campaign in Thuringia, in 1203, was notsuccessful; he was unable to hold his own against the landgrave, aided as the latter was by the Count Palatine and theBohemian king.The tideturns.But the tide of Otto's fortunes was at its flood; all hishard-won acquisitions were now to ebb away.To those who have followed the splendid struggle made byBarbarossa and his son to uphold the rights of the empire,this civil war in Germany is indeed a sad sight. More disloyalty and baser motives come to the surface than we haveyet had to deal with.Otto IV.'s own brother Henry now deserted him and didhomage to Philip. By holding to Otto, Henry had lost thePalatinate, where, as was natural, the sympathies of thepeople were for the Hohehstaufen. As a recompense he haddemanded Brunswick, which was Otto's chief inheritancefrom Henry the Lion. Otto refused, and the result wasHenry's defection from his cause.PHILIP OF SUABIA AND OTTO IV. 327power in the ascendant.Philip now again prepared to subdue Thuringia and Philip'smarched into the land at the head of such forces that theKing of Bohemia, who had prepared to oppose him, was completely intimidated and fled before him. The Thuringianlandgrave was compelled to make his submission. He wasobliged to listen to contemptuous utterances from Philip, andreflections on the character of a man who had four timeschanged his party. Lands formerly conceded him were nowwithdrawn, and his son was retained as a hostage for his goodbehaviour.whose capital,Innocent, foreserted by his friends.Ottokar of Bohemia now sought peace of his own accord,and was made to pay a penalty of 7,000 pounds of silver. Inthe course of a few months Philip regained all that he hadlost in the three years that had passed since his enemies hadfirst been induced to rally against him by Innocent III .One by one Otto's friends deserted him. His greatest Otto deloss was Adolph of Cologne, the citizens ofindeed, still remained true to the Guelph.seeing what was about to happen, had admonished thefaithful burghers in most moving terms: " Can the mother,too, forget her child? Ye must not abandon this king, yourson, as it were, with respect to his kingship. Ye have plantedhim, now show yourselves careful gardeners." Cologne,indeed, was now the last remaining stronghold of theGuelph.Adolph himself was to be moved by no representations. Headopted Philip's cause fully and freely, and agreed to makegood the one deficiency in the Hohenstaufen's title, and tocrown him in the chapel of Charles the Great.This ceremony was performed in January, 1205. Philiplaid aside his former crown and submitted to a new electionby the princes . He was recrowned by Adolph with thecrown of his predecessors. Walter of the Vogelweid declaredthat it fitted him as though made for him, and that itsprincipal gem, which seems to have been famous under thename of the " orphan," would now be a guiding star to allthe- princes.Philipcrowned at Aix, 1205A.D.328 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Innocentfaithless followers.Innocent III. hurled the ban at Otto's renegade brotherbans Otto's and at the Duke of Brabant, while Adolph of Cologne wasdeclared deposed, and a new archbishop, who, however, onlyfound adherents in the city itself, was set up in his place.The Pope regarded Adolph as a traitor to himself, " For," ashe said in one of his letters, " in the question concerning theempire he did not follow our judgment but we his; he wonus, not we him for Otto, whom he now gives up of his ownaccord."Philipdefeats Otto,1205 and 1206 A.D.InnocentIII. changes policy.One sees howbaneful this interference of the Pope in Germanmatters had been. For years Innocent III. had fed theflames of civil war, and had furthered every kind of schismand disunity; it must not be forgotten that he was the samerelentless and terribly consistent man who a few years laterwas to lay waste, and finally to cause the depopulation ofSouthern France, the home of the Albigensian heresy.King Philip proceeded in person against Cologne and Otto,who made a sally from behind the walls, was wounded anddriven back. In the next year ( 1206) the latter determinedto try his fate in the open field , but was defeated near Wassenberg; he fled to Brunswick, where he continued for a while toplay the role of a king, without supporters and without land.Cologne, from which all supplies had been cut off, wassoon compelled to surrender and to promise fealty to Philip.Innocent III. was too wise a man to try and hold a posi- tion which had at last become fully untenable. Henow sentlegates to Germany to loose Philip from the ban. That king,indeed, was obliged to swear the usual oath to the effect that,as to all the grounds of his excommunication he would implicitly obey the commands of the Pope; but, as the chiefground had been his wearing of the crown, it will be seenthat the oath was a mere formality.Both Philip and Otto were induced to leave the decision asto who should be king in the hands of Innocent; it was nolonger doubtful, however, how that decision would turn out.It is not even known if it was ever formally rendered. Philip,none the less, now raised the largest army that had ever stoodPHILIP OF SUABIA AND OTTO IV. 329at his disposal, intending to attack Otto in Brunswick. Thelatter had promise of aid from the Danish king and from hisuncle, King John. His one idea seems to have been to dielike a king at the head of an army; Denmark and Englandmight see to it from where that army was to come.crownNegotiatiations with Innocent had meanwhile been carried Innocenton through envoys. The Pope agreed to renounce all lands promises toof the empire in Italy that had been unlawfully appropriated Philip.by the Church at Henry VI.'s death. A marriage wasfurthermore arranged between a nephew of the Pope and adaughter of Philip; the bridegroom was to be invested withTuscany as a fief. Innocent promised, finally, to crown theHohenstaufen with the imperial crown as soon as he shouldcome to Italy.A.D.How sudden was that change of destiny which now made Philip'sof Otto IV. , instead of a forsaken pretendant preparing to murder, 1208defend his last stronghold, the sole and undisputed ruler ofGermany and the emperor of the Romans!Philip of Hohenstaufen had, on the morning of June 21st,1208, attended at Bamberg the marriage of his niece Beatricewith Duke Otto of Meran. In the afternoon he was restingin the archbishop's palace when the count palatine of Bavaria,Otto of Wittlesbach, asked for and obtained admission. Ottohad often amused the king with exhibitions of his skill as aswordsman; for once, however, Philip declared that he wasin no mood for such play. "This time it shall be no play "was the fierce answer, and Otto turned his sword against theunsuspecting monarch. He made a little wound in theneck of the king," says a chronicler, “ but he severed the onevital vein. "66a private enemy.Philip of Hohenstaufen was slain by no political enemy, by Philipno envoy of the rival king. It was a family difference that murdered bybrought about the catastrophe, a difference which began witha refusal on Philip's part, in spite of a promise previouslygiven, to allow one of his nieces to become the Wittlesbach'sbride.The murderous blow fell upon the king at the moment330 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Philip's murderer.when fate seemed at last about to be kind to him; for eightyears he had been obliged to fight his way inch by inch torecognition. In the midst of his triumph, when the imperialcrown was already within his reach, he was struck down .According to the custom of the time the nearest relative ofa murdered man had to appear in open court and demandvengeance for the blood that had been shed. In November,1208, at a diet held by Otto IV. in Frankfort, Philip's eldestdaughter was led forward by the bishop of Spires, who hadwitnessed the crime. Otto of Wittlesbach, as no doubt existedconcerning his guilt, was at once condemned and proscribed.He was eventually seized by Henry of Kalden, once the commander of Philip's forces and nowthe marshal of the empire,who gave him his death with his own hand. The Wittlesbachpossessions were given to two of the Guelph's supporters.ICHAPTER XXII.OTTO IV. AND FREDERICK II.ledgment of Otto IV.MMEDIATELY after Philip's death we see the princes Acknowwho had been on his side turning one by one to Otto.The latter showed himself only too ready to come to termswith them, to confirm their old privileges and to grant themnew ones. In the lands of the influential archbishop ofMagdeburg, for instance, he agreed never to erect new mintsor to impose new tolls, and never to encamp there withoutthe archbishop's consent.Innocent III. looked upon Philip's death as a righteousjudgment of God. He had made his peace with the king, itis true, and had been about to crown him Emperor of theRomans; but that was only because the desertion of Otto byall of his allies had left him no other course. The bishops ofGermany were now threatened with the ban and with deposition should they favour the election of any other king thanhim whom they had so recently abandoned. The secularprinces received a similar admonition, and even the citizensof Cologne were not forgotten by the zealous and ever-activePope." and Otto.Otto himself was given a lesson in the difficult art of Innocentruling: " Show good will and condescension, oh dearest son,'wrote Innocent, "show honour and favour to all and refrainfrom hard words and from violent deeds. Do not be backward with making concessions, do not be sparing of promisesbut also keep them faithfully. Thou must educate thyself to the dignity and the bearing of a king."•During the negotiations in Rome between Innocent and332 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.England and France.Otto's elec- tion andbetrothal.Innocent'sconditions.the envoys of Philip and Otto the question had been broachedof settling the differences between the Guelph and the Hohenstaufen by means of a marriage alliance. Otto himself wasto have wedded Philip's eldest daughter Beatrice.This plan was now eagerly taken up by Innocent, whoadded to his already enormous duties as a correspondent bywriting to the mother of the princess in question, to themarshal of the empire, Henry of Kalden, and also to thosewho had been Philip's representatives in Rome.It was not to be supposed that Otto's irregular election in1198 could be simply made binding now on the whole nation.It was decided, accordingly, that in form at least an entirelynew election should be held.Meanwhile England and France began to interest themselves in German affairs as they never had done before.King John had at last come to the conviction that Otto'ssuccess was a necessary adjunct to his own hoped- for triumphover Philip of France. The latter king seems to have sharedJohn's view of the subject; he first wrote and urged Innocentto prevent Otto's election, and then, having failed to win thePope, commenced treating with Philip's widow, in commonwith whom he induced the Duke of Brabant to come forwardas candidate for the throne. A candidate almost without asupporter in Germany, it is true; and even the widow ofPhilip could lend him no aid, for she died before theelection.That election, which took place at Frankfort in November,1208, was a unanimous one; it is interesting to note thatOtto, from now on, when speaking of his dead rival, nolonger refuses him the title of king, although he continuesto date from 1198 as the beginning of his own reign.At Frankfort the princes urged Otto to complete his reconciliation with the past by wedding Philip's daughter; atWürzburg in May, 1209, the betrothal was celebrated withall due form, the Pope having granted a dispensation, as Ottowas distantly related to his young bride.Innocent III. was ill when the message from Otto con-OTTO IV. AND FREDERICK II. 333cerning his successful and unanimous election arrived; heafterwards declared that the news had made him well.Legates were despatched to Germany to treat of the imperialcoronation and to bring forward the conditions which thePope meant to attach to the performance of that ceremony.Innocent himself wrote to Otto: 66 Inasmuch as, by the graceof God, true peace and firm concord now exist between theChurch and the empire, we have thought best, O dearest son,in order to remove all matter for future dissension and suspicion, to ask certain things of thee which thou altogethermust grant without making difficulty; for they accord withreason and with thy salvation."The requests which Innocent made and which Otto granted Otto's rewere the renewed renunciation of the right of spoils and the nunciations.recognition of the papal acquisitions in Italy as well as thePope's suzerainty over the Sicilian kingdom. More thanthis, Otto swore to help in rooting out heresy, to allow appealsfrom the tribunal of any bishop in Germany to that of Rome,and to give up all influence over episcopal elections—eventhat influence which the Church, in the Concordat of Wormsof 1122, had acknowledged as rightly belonging to the Germanking.The only excuse for Otto's consenting to allow Rome tocontrol the rich German sees with their lands and jurisdictions is that he probably never meant to, as he never did,keep his promises in this regard. What he wanted now wasthe imperial crown; that crown once gained he did nottrouble himself greatly about his promises towards Innocent.In the summer of 1209 Otto crossed the Brenner, about to Otto'sbegin that strange progress through Italy which was finally progressto result in the practical loss of his German crown.Viterbo he met the Pope, who received him as a son and A.D.folded him in his arms, but who soon left him to return toRome and prepare for the coronation.through In Italy, 1209This ceremony took place October 4th, 1209; the usualconflict with the Romans, who were offended because Ottohad not negotiated with them and had granted them no newThe coronation, 1209 A.D.334 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Europe too small for apope and anemperor.Otto comesprivileges, cast its shadow on the day. The new emperorfound the streets of the city so insecure that he refused thePope's invitation to the usual coronation banquet, and carriedInnocent off to his own camp without the walls, where hecaused a feast to be prepared. When they separated after this friendly meal it was for ever. In more senses than inone their ways were henceforward to lie apart."The history of the last years of the medieval GermanEmpire shows most clearly that there was not room in Europefor two such claimants to world rule as the Pope of Romeand the holy Roman Emperor. Beginning with FrederickBarbarossa three successive German monarchs had beenplaced in the ban-Henry VI. not openly so, indeed, duringhis lifetime, but at his death Celestine III. had declared thatby taking captive a crusader, Richard of England, he hadipse facto fallen under the curse. Celestine had long refusedto have Henry buried in consecrated ground.We shall now see how the very men who had been theChurch's creatures, as it were-Otto IV. and Frederick II.were each in turn to find it impossible to satisfy that Church'sclaims, and to live with it on a peaceful footing.During the months which followed his coronation, Ottointo conflict devoted himself to the bringing of order into the affairs ofNorthern and Central Italy.with Innocent.He travelled from city to city settling disputes and reclaiming the rights and estates of the empire. His objectwas the restoration of things to the state in which they hadbeen at the death of Henry VI. in 1197. In Ferrara he fulfilled one at least of his engagements towards the Pope bybanning the heretics there, and decreeing the confiscation oftheir goods.The break with Innocent came when Otto made commoncause with Count Dipold of Acerra, who for twelve years hadcombatted the Pope's influence in the kingdom of Sicily.Dipold was given Spoleto, and was allowed to call himself"grand captain " of Apulia and Calabria. If such a title wasto be given it was the prerogative of Frederick of Sicily, andOTTO IV. AND FREDERICK II. 335of him alone, to give it. Innocent now accused Otto ofstretching out his hand for the Sicilian crown, as well as forthe patrimony of Peter.Otto did in truth now proceed to the conquest of landsclaimed by the Papacy on the borders of Tuscany- lands towhich indeed the empire had an equally good title. Radicofani and Montefiascone fell into his hands.He prepared, too, for the expedition into Southern Italyso dreaded by the Pope. Pisa, in return for a promise of aidagainst Genoa, engaged to supply him with forty galleys ather own expense, and as many more as he might choose topay for.By the end of the year 1210 the emperor had proceeded as Innocentfar as Capua, where he entered into winter quarters. Innocent helpless.III. at this time seems to have been utterly helpless; he implied as much himself in a letter to the consuls of Terracina,in which he spoke of a rushing torrent that he was unable tostem. All the same he wrote to Otto: " If thou dost continuein thine obstinacy we cannot help but punish thee with theanathema."against Otto IV. ,1210 A.D.On the news that Otto had crossed the boundaries of the The banSicilian kingdom Innocent carried his threat into execution;one more emperor was declared accursed, and his subjectsfreed from their oath of allegiance.Innocent, with his usual political forethought, began atonce to raise up for himself friends in the struggle that hadthus broken out. He became reconciled to the deposed.Adolph of Cologne; he made overtures to Philip Augustus,who had long been in the ban on account of steps taken todivorce his queen, Ingeborg.The Pope now begged the King of France for forces andmoney to be used in Apulia, and especially did he urge himto manipulate the German princes, and to raise up such arebellion amongst them as should compel Otto to leaveItaly.With respect to the latter of these commissions Philip wasable to answer: Know that we think to have already seen.66The Popeand the king of France.336 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.JOtto andJohn of England.Innocent to the Germanprinces.Otto against Frederick II.Rebellion in Italy andGermany.to this well and thoroughly." As to the former he proposed that Innocent should force the clergy of France tocontribute a third of their income, and offered for his ownpart to give up a third of the amount due from the clergy tothe crown.King John of England had meanwhile been in constantcommunication with Otto; it was evident that when thestruggle came it would not be between the Pope and theemperor alone. The first question of general European importance had arisen; it was the birth time of really greatalliances.Innocent III. wrote to the German princes giving thegrounds upon which he had placed Otto in the ban; chiefamong them was the attack on Sicily. He declared that theemperor, in having commenced this attack without seekingthe advice of his nobles, was threatening the very foundationsof princely power. "Should he accomplish his purpose inthis regard he will then crush you down into a condition suchas that to which the English barons have been reduced byhis relatives. Brought up in England he will do his utmostto introduce also into the empire the customs of that land."Innocent went on to say that he had been deceived in Ottoas God Himself had once been deceived in Saul-indeed thiscomparing of himself to the Divinity was not uncommon withthis supremest of supreme pontiffs.Otto's expedition against the Sicilian kingdom was sosuccessful that in a few months almost all the mainlandprovinces had fallen into his power, and the young KingFrederick's days of royalty seemed numbered. The latter issaid to have kept a galley moored in the harbour of Palermoalways ready to carry him at a moment's notice to the shoresof Africa.It was to the church that Frederick owed his deliverance;he was later often enough reproached with ingratitude to thatinstitution which had indeed preserved to him his throne.Innocent succeeded in his efforts to raise up a rebellion inGermany; its heads were Archbishop Siegfried of Mayence.OTTO IV. AND FREDERICK II. 337King Ottokar of Bohemia, and Landgrave Herrmann ofThuringia-that eager and industrious changer of parties.In Italy already, in various ways, the Pope had induced orcompelled a number of cities to renounce the emperor.Bologna, for instance, had been threatened not only with banand interdict but with the closing of her famous university.Innocent finally issued a manifesto to the princes of theempire in which he exhorted them to proceed to the election ofa new ruler. He showed them how God had reproved Sauland had substituted one younger than he, who had obtainedthe kingdom and held it.Frederick II.called to the Germanthrone, 1211Under this " one younger than he" Innocent meant beyonda doubt King Frederick of Sicily. To be sure he was one ofthe hated race of Hohenstaufen; the dreaded union, too,of the Sicilian and German crowns in one hand would now A.D.take place. But Frederick had already taken the oath ofallegiance for Sicily, and before procuring his election to theGerman throne it was possible to hamper him with every kindof condition that the heart of the Pope might desire.Towards the end of February, 1211 , those of the Germanprinces who were in rebellion met at Nuremberg and decidedto offer the crown of the empire to him who, as seems to havebeen expressly emphasized, had already once previously received their oath of allegiance. All the former merits andservices of the Hohenstaufens were now recalled to memory.Envoys were despatched to Frederick to invite him to come toGermany; each prince, writing individually, assured him thathe would at once be formally elected king.Frederick of Hohenstaufen, worthy in many ways to be Frederick'scompared with his noble grandfather Frederick Barbarossa, youth.was at this time seventeen years of age, and had already married, in 1209, the widowed ex-queen of Hungary, Constanceof Arragon. This union had been the work of Innocent III.Frederick's youth had been passed in Sicily in the midst ofconstant wars and party intrigues. Of immense influence onhis character, and on his whole career, had been his contactwith those Saracens who had settled in Sicily and who had reᏃ338 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Saracen influence .Frederick's character and personality.Otto IV.returns toGermany.mained, in spite of occasional persecutions, on friendly termswith the Norman kings.All around Palermo were Moorish palaces and countryhouses with their parks and gardens, while in the town itself anumber of merchants traded peaceably with the Christian inhabitants. Many of the court servants were Mohammedans,as were also some of the young king's teachers, and Frederickalways more or less retained his oriental surroundings. Hismorals and his religious orthodoxy alike suffered from thisintercourse, for he continued to keep a harem almost to theend of his days, and Pope Gregory IX. was able at the lastto give a goodly list of his heretical acts and utterances.The great service that the Saracen culture did for Frederickwas to train his mind in the appreciation of art, science, andliterature, and to give him broad views of philosophy and ofthe duties of a monarch. Was it not he who declared thatpersons who continued to believe in the ordeals or judg- ments of God were not so much to be corrected as to belaughed at?Frederick tells us himself in one of his numerous letters thathe spent all his spare moments in reading and in acquiringknowledge. A record still remains of his having sent to theuniversity of Bologna " various compilationsfrom Aristotle andother philosophers formerly published in Greek and Arabicand relating to controversial and mathematical subjects."In person Frederick, like his immediate ancestors, was notimposing. According to one account he was " red, bald, andshortsighted, " and he is known to have been small of stature.A Mohammedan historian, who described him at the time ofhis crusade (1228-9) is of the opinion that as a slave he wouldnot have brought two hundred drachmæ.Otto IV. was onthe point of crossing over to Sicily whenthetidings of the rebellion and of the danger to his throne reachedhim. "He was struck by grief of heart," as an annalist tellsus. His first thought was to continue on his way and to tryand overcome Frederick before the latter could leave Sicily.But the representations of the German and Lombard envoysOTTO IV. AND FREDERICK II. 339who had brought him the news caused him to change hismind. He returned to Germany, stopping however to settledisputes and to make changes in the administration of thosecities in northern Italy on the allegiance of which he couldstill count. Chief among these was Milan. By the middle ofMarch, 1212, he was in Frankfort. Otto's mere presence inGermany, representing as he did the only legal and legitimatepower, was enough to influence in his favour many waveringelements that would otherwise have joined his enemies. Theopposition was soon confined to Mayence, Bohemia, andThuringia.Otto with Beatrice ofThe emperor thought now to further his influence with the Marriage offriends and supporters of the Hohenstaufens by at last consummating his union with the daughter of Philip of Suabia. HohenThe marriage ceremony was performed at Nordhausen in July, staufen,1212 , in the midst of the tumult of war; Otto was engaged atthe time in devastating the lands and besieging the castles ofLandgrave Herrmann of Thuringia.The campaign was progressing favourably, all the plans ofthe Guelphic monarch seemed about to meet with success,when once more his good fortune suddenly and unaccountablyturned her back upon him—this time for ever.1212 A.D.fection from Otto.Otto's young bride died suddenly within three weeks after General deher wedding day; the news came that Frederick of Sicily wasabout to appear in Germany, and those Suabians, whom regardfor the daughter of Philip of Hohenstaufen had thus farcaused to hold to Otto, left his camp in a body.The Bavarians followed suit, and the imperial army dwindledso rapidly that Otto was obliged to give up the siege ofWeissensee, although that stronghold was almost on the pointof capitulating. He marched off to the south to meet andturn back if possible the approaching danger.Frederick of Sicily had hesitated long before accepting the Frederick II .invitation of the German princes; but at last he found that leaves Sicily.he had scarcely an alternative. It must be remembered thathis own lands of Apulia and Calabria were already in thehands of Otto who, on leaving Italy, had by no means given340 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Frederickup his conquests; on the contrary, he had taken every meansto permanently secure them. So soon as Otto should makepeace with or subdue the rebels in Germany he would befree to continue his previous policy and to wrest from Frederickwhat remained of his kingdom.Before embarking on his new undertaking, Frederick redoes homage newed his oath of allegiance to the Pope and did homage to to the Pope.him, at the same time confirming the concordat drawn upbetween the Church and the Empress Constance in 1198.Finally, at Innocent's command, Frederick's infant son Henrywas crowned King of Sicily which was to be his special andonly heritage. Everything in human power had been doneto prevent the union in one hand of Germany, and the Siciliankingdom.Frederickcomes toGermany.His adventures.Frederick at this time was full of real devotion to Innocent.He names himself King of Sicily and Emperor Elect of theRomans " by the grace of God and of the Pope. " Innocentis said to have spoken of him as the Church's son."66Frederick's journey through Lombardy was full of dangerand adventure. Cremona, head of the one faction among thecities, was friendly to him; her rival, Milan, hostile. On oneoccasion he only escaped falling into the hands of the Milaneseby swimming across a river on an unsaddled horse; " hewashed his trousers in the Lambro," to use the derisive wordsof a Milan chronicler.Frederick finally entered Germany over the Rhætian Alpsand by way of Coire, having purposely, without army as hewas, avoided the greater Alpine passes. Ecclesiastical princessuch as the Bishop of Coire, the Abbot of St. Gall and, aftersome hesitation, the Bishop of Constance, furnished himescort. He was soon in Suabia, in the land of his ancestorsand the home of his strongest adherents.Here, from the very first, Otto had been unpopular; hehad seemed to the Suabians harsh and unbending, and evenhis conscientious attempts to administer justice had beenlooked upon as acts of tyranny.Frederick's following grew from day to day; he was obliged,OTTO IV. AND FREDERICK II. 341however, to pay his supporters by liberal promises of landsand of rights that belonged to the empire.and Philip of France.Frederick soon discovered how much of Otto's strength lay Frederickin the alliance with John of England, and how important itwas for himself to secure the friendship of Philip of France.With this end in view he had a meeting with the heir to theFrench throne at Toul in November, 1212. For his own parthe promised to make peace neither with Otto nor with theEnglish king without Philip's knowledge. The latter atthis time placed large sums at the disposal of his ally, andFrederick distributed these new resources with so free a handthat the fame of his liberality proved one of his strongestadvocates with the German princes.A few weeks later Frederick was formally elected king at FrederickFrankfort and crowned at Mayence by Archbishop Siegfried . elected king,The rightful insignia were in Otto's possession, but otherswere made in imitation of them.The princes took oath that even should Frederick die theywould never again acknowledge Otto.The factors that had raised Frederick on the throne werethe authority of the papacy, the influence of France, thesatisfaction of the demands of the princes, the prestige of hisrace and, finally, his own personality. To add to his triumphHenry of the Palatinate, who for his own part remained trueto his brother Otto, was obliged by the sentiments of his subjects to renounce his principality in favour of his son whomhe allowed to do homage to the Hohenstaufen.1212 A.D.the Church.The one unfortunate part of Frederick's elevation was that Frederick'she had been obliged to hamper himself with promises to the promises toChurch. He now, in a charter drawn up at Eger and signedwith a golden seal, agreed to all the renunciations in Italythat Otto had made, gave up the right of spoils and theroyal influence on episcopal elections, and acknowledgedwithout reserve the right of the German bishops to makeappeals to Rome.The great significance of the charter of Eger lies in the The Charterfact that its engagements were not merely personal as they of Eger.342 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Otto's re- treat toBrunswick.England and France.had been in the case of the grants made by Otto IV. , but thatthey were made with the consent of the princes and undertheir witness; a fact which Innocent caused to be especiallyemphasized in the final version of the document. Eachprince, too, was made to declare in a separate charter that hehad agreed to and signed the chief instrument.The empire was now bound as firmly as possible so far asthese promises to the Church were concerned. The Pope hadat last a legal claim to vast territories in central Italy andespecially to the Matilda estates. The renunciation of theinfluence over episcopal elections changed the character onthe one hand of the ecclesiastical principalities, on the otherof the German monarchy itself. The bishops were now completely under the influence of Rome, while their sees becamemore and more independent of the empire to which theynominally belonged. The crown was obliged to look roundfor new props to sustain its power.Otto IV. , all this time, had not been idle, as the fearfuldesolation in Thuringia and in parts of Saxony could bestbear witness. The English king had kept him supplied withfunds, and he was able to prevent a diet at Merseburg whichFrederick had intended to hold.Otto was finally obliged, however, to retreat to his oldrefuge of Brunswick; his opponents had intended to seekhim out here, but were so long detained by the siege ofQuedlinburg that the cold weather put an end to thecampaign.Otto had not yet given up hope, but he had determinedthat the conflict should be fought out on another field ofwar. He had sent to John of England urging him to attackFrance, and announcing to him that not only he himself, butalso the Dukes of Flanders and Limburg and the Countsof Holland and Boulogne, were ready to aid in such anenterprise.Philip of France, for his part, was preparing for an invasionof England, an expedition which he was able to look upon asundertaken in a holy cause. In January, 1213, he was ex-OTTO IV. AND FREDERICK II. 343pressly admonished on the part of the Pope to carry intoexecution the ban that had been laid upon the luckless KingJohn. Philip was able to comfort himself with the thoughtthat his enemies were the enemies of the Church, and thatGod's curse rested on them.defeat.Innocent, indeed, soon changed his policy, accepted the Frenchcomplete surrender that John, in dread of his barons, madeto him, and became feudal lord of England. It was now inhis interest to prevent the French war that he had done hisbest to bring about, but it was too late. Large armies hadbeen raised on both sides, and Philip Augustus proceeded tolay waste the lands of the Count of Flanders, intending thento cross the Channel. His fleet was attacked and destroyedby the English, and he himself was obliged to retreat and toabandon his Flemish conquests.At the end of the year 1213 the English-Guelphic coalition Invasion ofwas so in the ascendant that it was decided to strike a final France.and decisive blow at France; it was intended to annihilatethe latter Power as a state organization. Otto consideredthat it would be a light matter then to strike down theopposition in Germany and to make his peace with Rome.In the winter of 1214 John crossed with his army fromPortsmouth to La Rochelle. He was able for a time tooccupy Poitou, but was driven out by the French crownprince.Otto IV. was meanwhile approaching from Aix- la -Chapelle;on his course he had managed to gain over the Duke of Bra -bant, who was the French king's son-in- law. He now becamethe emperor's father- in-law, for Otto wedded that same Mariawho had been affianced to him in 1198. No priest dared tobless this union with one who was in the Church's ban, andthe Duke of Holland gave the bride to her imperial husband.The climax of the struggle between the rival claimants inGermany, as well as of that between France and England, hadnow been reached. Otto had the advantage of numbers, buthis army was composed of adventurers, and was practicallyunder many commanders. The soldiers of Philip Augustus344 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Battle ofBouvines,1214 A.D.Frederick II.'s suc- cesses.were fighting for their own altars and their hearths and wereunder their one royal leader.The crash of the opposing forces came at Bouvines, not farfrom Tournay (July 27th, 1214); the attack was begun bythe allies and the battle raged for hours with terrible severity.But at last the day-the greatest single day in the history ofthe Middle Ages-turned in favour of the French. Otto fledfrom the field of battle, but only when all hope was over.His army was all but annihilated and his ally, the Duke ofFlanders, was taken prisoner.Now and henceforward King John of England left Otto tohis fate, and closed a six year truce with Philip Augustus.The battle of Bouvines is particularly memorable as havingbeen the birthday of France's greatness. Her king had notonly conquered his great German enemy, not only reduced hisold foe of England to sue for peace, but he had, with theforces of the French communes, become master of his ownvassals, many of whom, like the Count of Boulogne, hadfought on Otto's side.Philip Augustus sent the gilded imperial eagle that hehad captured on the field of battle to Frederick II. , havingfirst caused its broken wings to be mended. A highlysymbolical gift, for Frederick had indeed only the Frenchking to thank for the boon of the royal power.The Hohenstaufen himself was at this time engaged inraising and mustering an army, but the decisive blow hadbeen struck before he was ready with his preparations. Henow marched first against Aix-la- Chapelle, which he wasunable to take, and then against the Dukes of Brabant and ofLimburg, who were reduced to subjection. The Counts ofCleves and Juliers and other allies of Otto were also inducedto make their peace.Aix, Cologne-where he had taken refuge-and the smallertowns of Landskron and Kaiserswerth were Otto's onlyremaining strongholds, and everywhere the voice of the peoplehad turned against him. He lived on pittances sent himfrom England, while, to add to his misfortunes, his wife,OTTO IV. AND FREDERICK II. 345Maria of Brabant, developed an uncontrollable passion forgaming. There are memoranda of accounts still remaining toshow that he had to pay debts for her to no inconsiderableamount, and that, too, with borrowed money.mark.Everywhere new friends rallied to Frederick; Burgundy, Frederick II.Friaul, and Istria declared for him, as did also the King of and DenDenmark, who seized or devastated the lands of Otto'snorthern followers. •King Waldemar, indeed, was paid as the Pope had been bya renunciation on a large scale to possessions of the empire.At a diet at Metz, Frederick and his princes surrendered thelands that Denmark had just conquered; in fact, all theimperial territory beyond the Elbe and the Eider.Frederick must not be too harshly blamed for this transaction; he was not in a position to prevent the Danes fromclaiming what they wished. It was better for him to havethem as friends than as enemies. He felt the shame of thecompact, indeed, and later was glad enough to seize anopportunity for rendering it null and void.Frederick's next triumphs were the subjection of Aix-la- Frederick'sChapelle and the taking of Kaiserswerth. In the former triumphs.town, the usual coronation place, he was now crowned kingby Siegfried of Mayence, July 25th, 1215. His contemporaries consider this the real beginning of his reign.Cross.Here at Aix Frederick, in the enthusiasm of the moment, Fredericktook a step which, more than he himself or any one else takes thecould have dreamed, was to influence the whole future courseof his life. He allowed one of the crusade preachers presentto affix the cross to his shoulder; he vowed a vow upon thefulfilment of which the Church was to insist with iron inflexibility. For the next thirteen years Frederick was to be like a man with a millstone tied around his neck.Frederick.From Aix Frederick proceeded against Cologne, which, Colognealthough in spite of the papal interdict it had held faithfully receivesto Otto for seventeen months, was now glad enough to riditself of its dangerous guest, even allowing him to departwith his debts unpaid, and giving him money to help him on346 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Culminationof InnocentIII.hisway. The empress, in orderto be the morethoroughlysecurefromrecognition, donnedthe garbof a pilgrim.ColognereceivedFrederickin its midstand promisedtodo him homage

its submission

betokensthe completionofthat changewhichbroughtthe burghersof Germanyovertothe side of him who had beenessentiallythe chosenof theprinces. Evennowthesetwo opposingpoliticalfactors, thecitiesand the princes, werenot to continuelongin perfectharmony.Otto IV. was left to depend on the lands of his house inSaxony and on the help of the Ascanian dukes-those descendants of Albrecht the Bear who were to be the ancestorsof the later Hohenzollerns and Wettiners. In Lombardyand Tuscany, too, a few cities remained faithful to him untilthe day of his death.If the year 1215 marks the ebbing of Otto's power it marksof the power the culmination of that of Innocent III.; nothing could nowhappen in any part of Europe without his claiming and exercising the right of interference. France, England, andGermany were submissive to his will. He had summoneda great council to be held in the Lateran at Rome; andMilan and Piacenza, Cremona and Pavia had promised tosend representatives who should witness the final settlementof the dispute concerning the throne of the empire.The Lateran Council of1215 A.D.Innocent had gone his way steadily gaining power for theChurch. His courage had been broken by no reverses. Hehad been obliged to declare first for, then against Otto ofBrunswick; first against and then for Philip of Suabia. Hehad been forced to consent to a far closer union than he hadwished of Germany and Sicily. But he was now to presideover the stateliest assembly of the century, and to render thelast verdict in the strife that had gone on for generationsbetween the Guelphs and the Hohenstaufens.Seventy-one primates and archbishops among them theGerman patriarch of Constantinople and the patriarch ofJerusalem-more than four hundred bishops and eight hundred abbots and priors met together in the palace of theOTTO IV. AND FREDERICK II. 347Lateran; eight kings and countless princes and cities hadsent envoys. Various matters were at issue, among them thebettering of the Church organization and the announcementof a crusade; seventy canons on these matters were drawn upto Innocent's satisfaction .When the question of the conflict concerning the Germanthrone came up an effort was made by the supporters of Ottoto win the members of the council over to the latter's side.A writing was published at this time which advocated appealing to the council as a whole from the decrees of a popewho was not " Innocentius " but Nocentius," not " Apostolicus " but " Apostaticus."66rick II.'sIt was too late for such an attempt as this; one of the Council conlast proceedings of the assembly was to renew the deposition firms Fredeand banning of Otto, and to confirm the election of Frederick election.as future emperor.It was among the last acts of Innocent III. , too, to promulgate these decrees; he died of a fever in July, 1216. Hissuccessor was Honorius III. , known to be a person with nogreat force of character and one not likely to make himselfgreatly feared.Otto IV. now occupied himself, with the help of his allies, End ofthe Margrave of Brandenburg and the Duke of Saxony, in Otto IV.ravaging the lands of the Archbishop of Magdeburg. Frederick hastened to the latter's aid and drove Otto once moreto retreat to Brunswick. Magdeburg had suffered severelyfrom the Guelph's devastations; it was a common saying ofthe time that an Emperor Otto and an Archbishop Albrechthad been the founders alike and the destroyers of the see.But Otto's unhallowed and disastrous course was at lengthrun; he died in Harzburg from an overdose of a remedy towhich he was partial. It healed the ill from which he mostsuffered, that of having lived too long.On his death-bed a Cistercian monk loosed him from the Dies as anban, gave him the last unction and the Holy Eucharist. He emperor.seems to have been seized with a fury of repentance; againand again he confessed his sins against the Church, and348 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Is buried asone.priests were told to scourge him until the blood should flow.Against their will they applied the rod, a miserere beingchanted the while.In the midst of his self-abnegation, of his rendings of theheart, Otto never gave up the claim of being rightful emperor.Even while promising implicit submission to the will of thePope he emphasized the fact that he had been lawfully andwith due solemnity crowned and that nothing had happenedwhich could deprive him of his throne.In making his will he enjoined on his brother not to handout the insignia of the empire either to him who should infuture be chosen, or " to him who is now elected " untiltwenty weeks after his own death. He wanted it to seem asthough no compulsion had been exercised upon him.He passed away on the 19th of May, 1218, and was buriedin the church of St. Blasius in Brunswick. According as hehimself had provided he was laid to rest in royal garments, acrown on his head, the sceptre in his right hand, the imperialorb in his left; a sword was at his side.Otto may have taken pleasure at the last in knowing thathis rank would be thus asserted; the Germans of to- day canonly look with sadness and regret on his fatal attempts toreign. How often had those attempts been renewed in thesetwenty dark years of German historyCHAPTER XXIII.FREDERICK II.'S CRUSADE.HENRY of Brunswick, the brother of Otto IV. , only toofaithfully carried out the latter's last wishes as to theinsignia of the empire. The twenty weeks and more passedaway, and they still remained in his possession.Not that he for a moment thought of renewing the claimof the Guelphs to the crown; he wished, however, to set aprice on the insignia, and Otto had once enjoined him to seeif he could not rescue some of the lands that had belonged toHenry the Lion. But the duchy of Saxony, as well as Henryof Brunswick's former principality, the Rhine Palatinate, werenow in the hands respectively of the Ascanians and Wittlesbachs, whom Frederick had no wish to offend. Henry finally,after having at Frederick's request been threatened with theban by Pope Honorius, compromised for a large sum ofmoney, 14,000 marks, and for the title of imperial vicar forthe territory between the Elbe and the Weser, and deliveredup those emblems the symbolical importance of which madethem worth so much more than their own intrinsic value.The matters of greatest interest in the history of FrederickII. are his relations to the Popes and to the Lombard cities,and his pacification and administration of the kingdom ofSicily. To this last topic, affecting as it does only indirectlythe history of Germany we shall by no means be able to dojustice.The war with the popes, which was to reach its climaxunder Gregory IX. and Innocent IV. , was to be the deathstruggle of the empire, so far as that empire could claim toOtto'sbrother delivers upthe insignia.Frederick'sstrugglewith the popes.350 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.HonoriusIII, becomesuneasy.be universal. An empire, still called " holy " and " Roman,"was to emerge again after the general anarchy which immediately preceded, and which followed upon Frederick's death;but it was to have far other aims and objects than the worldmonarchy of a Henry VI. Italy, the goal that had lured somany German emperors and so many German armies to theirruin, was to play no part in the new order of affairs.Frederick's vow, taken in a moment of enthusiasm at thetime of his coronation in 1215, was the pretext for an unlimited interference on the part of Honorius III. and hissuccessors in the matter of the movements of that monarch.To them the crusade was his holiest and chief duty, while tohim one complication after another seemed to require hismore immediate attention.First and foremost it was necessary to provide for the administration of Germany, so recently full of turmoil, duringan absence of its head which might last no one knew howlong.The young king of Sicily, Henry VII. , had at Frederick'scommand been brought by his mother to Germany, and invested with the duchy of Suabia. However unpleasant sucha proceeding must have seemed to the Pope, Honorius hadmade no objection. Frederick now proposed that his sonshould be elected king of the Romans and should rule in hisown stead, under proper guardians, while he was away fromGermany.The Pope became uneasy; would not the dreaded union ofthe two crowns in one hand thus become an accomplishedfact? Frederick had given a promise in 1216 to the effectthat, when he himself should become emperor, all connectionwith Sicily should cease; that promise was now about tobecome meaningless and void.Frederick assured Honorius that his only object was tofurther the cause of the crusade by providing for the peace ofGermany, and that nothing would be changed in the relationsof Sicily to the papal chair. This Hohenstaufen was so immeasurably superior to the Pope in diplomatic talent, and inFREDERICK II.'S CRUSADE. 351the clearness of perception that prevented him from everlosing sight of any desired goal, that he was able in thismatter to put through his will without giving Honorius anyreally valid excuse for objecting to the young Henry'selection.son, 1220That election took place in April, 1220, the princes of their Election of own accord having come to the conclusion that the only way Frederick'sto avoid a new season of anarchy was to have a fitting repre- A.D.sentative for Frederick. The latter was able to tell the Popethat he himself had scarcely been consulted in the matter andthat he should not consider Henry's elevation valid until he,Honorius, should have given his consent.The princes thus took upon themselves the whole responsibility in the matter; they deputed one of their number to goto Rome and to bring Honorius a written assurance, sealedwith their own seals, to the effect that the empire would claimno jurisdisdiction or right of interference in Sicily.The embassy was, for various reasons, delayed, and Newgrant toHonorius was beginning to be offended at not receiving the the Church.official announcement of so important a matter as the electionwhen Frederick despatched a comprehensive statement drawnup by himself of all that had taken place. He succeeded inpacifying the Pope; the more so as he himself had just made,in all due form, a most important grant of privileges to theecclesiastical princes of Germany. By it the absolute right ofbishops to will away their property had been acknowledged;should they die intestate, their successors were to inherit theirmovable goods. The king had further agreed henceforwardto found no new toll- centres and no new mints in territoryunder the jurisdiction of ecclesiastics and to receive no one inhis cities who, bound to such princes by ties of dependency,should have tried to escape from their jurisdiction.Frederick had undertaken, finally, to place in the ban of theempire all persons who for more than six weeks should beunder the Church's curse. The excommunication would indeed have become a dreaded weapon in the hands of thebishops had this clause of the agreement been rigorously352 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Frederick'spolicy inGermany.Frederick's crusadedelayed.Prepara- tions for theimperial coronation.carried into effect. But it never was; and King Rudolph ofHapsburg later, while confirming Frederick's charter of privileges as a whole, left it out entirely.Frederick had been obliged to deed away right and left theprerogatives of the empire, but the blame for his so doingattaches more to his predecessors than to himself. Theprinces had tasted the joys of independence, it was no longerpossible to hold them back. Times had changed since aCharlemagne or even since a Frederick Barbarossa could impose his will upon them. They were to proceed now slowlybut uninterruptedly on their way to absolute sovereignty; bythe fifteenth century the map of Germany was to assume thatkaleidoscopic form which it was to retain until the beginningof our own generation .As to Frederick II. , he gave to the nobles and clergyof Germany almost everything that they demanded, and thento a large extent left the land to its fate. There is no doubtbut that he, "the child of Apulia " as he had been called at hisfirst coming, preferred his southern kingdom, and devoted hisbest energies to its interests.The vow concerning the crusade, much as it was later tohamper Frederick, proved at first a means of gaining thePope's consent to various measures. One of these had beenthe election of Henry VII. as king of the Romans; anotherwas the coronation as emperor of Frederick himself.The crusade had already been planned and postponed severaltimes. The Pope had seen the necessity for the delays, andhad on the whole been very patient, although he had hinted atthe necessity for excommunicating those who did not keeptheir vows. In 1220 Frederick did penance and allowedhimself to be absolved as one who actually had fallen underthe ban.As to the imperial coronation, which caused a still furtherdelay, the Pope himself was as anxious as Frederick thatit should be performed, and it was as a welcome guest that thelatter appeared in Italy.In Lombardy, Frederick's envoys had carefully prepared theFREDERICK II.'S CRUSADE. 353way, and as he passed through on his march to Rome all thecities did him homage. His measures were most conciliatory;he had declared beforehand that he considered the peaceof Constance of 1183 as the legal basis for the relations to theempire. His strongest ally was Cremona, which was theleader of a strong coalition opposed to that headed byMilan.Before Honorius would crown him, Frederick was obliged torepeat his assurances that Germany and Sicily would never beconsolidated. He declared expressly that he had receivedSicily, not as an inheritance from his forerunners, the Germanemperors, but as a fief of the Roman Church through hismother, Constance. He promised to appoint only nativeofficials in this, his southern kingdom, to employ for it aspecial and separate seal, and to do nothing to infringeon the final right of ownership which pertained to theChurch.As a counter- concession, his son Henry being occupiedin Germany, Frederick was allowed to continue to retain forhis own person the royal dignity in Sicily, in spite of hisformer promise to abandon it the moment the imperial crownshould be placed upon his head.tion ceremony, 1220The coronation, the last one that was to take place for The coronanearly a hundred years, was performed in St. Peter's onNovember 22nd, 1220; the ritual observed was much the A.D.same as in former cases, and Queen Constance, too, was included in the ceremony,As soon as Frederick had been invested with his newdignity he renewed the taking of the cross; he took it at thehands of that same cardinal of Ostia who, as Pope GregoryIX. , was to be more than inexorable in demanding the fulfilment of his vow.heretics .At this same time Frederick granted a series of new privi- Frederickleges to the Church. The clergy were not to be made to againstappear before secular tribunals either in criminal or in civilmatters . Heretics, chiefly those of certain sects, which werenamed, were to be condemned to perpetual infamy, to banishA A354 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.at his coronation.ment and loss of goods; their children, even, were to bedeprived of their inheritance. Should any temporal lordsdelay to cleanse their lands from heresy, the "orthodox "were to take the matter into their own hands.Italy, where the sects mentioned in Frederick's charter hadmainly established themselves, was the land most affected bythese regulations. The heretics there had formed themselvesinto regular communities, had gained for themselves in manycases the acknowledgment of their rights as burghers, andhad even been allowed to open public schools, It was a greatmisfortune for them now that Frederick's political needscompelled him to be very gracious, very generous towards thePope, and to do what he demanded.It has not been proved that Frederick's own shortcomingsin the matter of the faith were as yet sufficiently suspectedto cause him to cloak them with zeal against the heretics.Later, indeed, this charge might safely be preferred; for hispersecuting ardour can be proved to have varied at times indirect ratio to the accusations of unorthodoxy that werebrought against him.Laws passed The laws passed by Frederick at his coronation concernedby Frederick themselves, besides the matters mentioned, with the safety ofpilgrims and with the treatment of shipwrecked mariners.The latter, hitherto, together with whatever of their possessions might happen to be rescued, had been treated as lawfulspoils of fortune; they had been frequently sold as slaves.Adminis- tration ofSicily.Honorius III. confirmed Frederick's new laws and spokethe ban against all who should infringe them; they wereconsidered of so great importance that they were incorporatedin the law books of the Bologna School, and the professor ofthat institution instructed their scholars in these new decreesas well as in the corpus juris of Justinian.His coronation over, Frederick turned to the ordering ofaffairs in his kingdom of Sicily. Sicilian nobles had appearedin Rome, and there already we find Frederick demandingback crown lands and settling disputes as to the possession ofthis or that piece of territory.FREDERICK II.'S CRUSADE. 355In December, 1220, Frederick held an assembly at Capua,and here an assize was published ordering that all privilegesconferred since the death of the last Norman king in 1189should now be brought forward for confirmation.In justifying these measures to the Pope, Frederick wrotethat " the emperor Henry gave away much that he ought tohave kept; after his death, moreover, many privileges wereforged under his seal, and so the greater part of the royaldomain was flung away." In his own, Frederick's, youth,finally, the various men in power had managed matters inthe same way to the ruin of the kingdom.All the former estates, rights and privileges of the crown, Laws ofto which a good title could not be shown, were now reclaimed, Capua.and laws passed regulating feudal services, protecting fiefs intheir integrity, and ordering the destruction of fortresses andtowers erected without permission. Lands were not to remainin mortmain; religious foundations were to regrant theirnewly acquired territory within a year.These laws of Capua were the beginning of Frederick'simmense legislative activity for his kingdom of SicilyGermany, alas, was not ripe for such orderly and wholesomemeasures.It is an interesting sight, this reorganization of a kingdom Reorganizathat had so long been in a state of chaos; to it Frederick tion of Sicily.devoted himself heart and soul. We find him promulgatingedict upon edict, arranging in person what taxes were to beimposed, sending his envoys all through the land to see thathis laws were observed . He placed the sea- coasts in a stateof defence, caused fleets to be built, and passed measuresintended to further Sicily's commercial interests . The predominating influence of the Pisan and Genoese merchantswas done away with, and every encouragement given to homeindustries.All these administrative cares demanded time, the more so Crusadeas the Mohammedans in the interior of Sicily had broken into again post- poned.open revolt. It proved impossible for Frederick to be readyat the time fixed upon for the crusade.356 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Unfortunateexpeditionagainst Egypt, 1221 A.D.New termfor thecrusade.Honorius, fortunately, still showed himself reasonable andpatient. He saw how useful the resources of Sicily werelikely to prove in the attempt to regain the Holy Land, andhe allowed Frederick again and again to postpone his going.The latter's zeal was as yet unimpeachable; day and night,as he wrote to the Pope, the crusade was on his mind. Heprepared numerous galleys and ships of transport and placedthem at the disposal of those pilgrims who had made themselves ready for the voyage.In April, 1221, an expedition started for Damietta, whichhad been a Christian stronghold for two years, an expeditionthe movements of which Frederick had done all in his powerto further. He had published a manifesto to all his Germansubjects: " Forward, ye true champions of the kingdom, andseize the weapons of Christian knighthood; for already theeagles of the Roman Empire have gone on in front!The attack on Egypt, which was to be undertaken fromDamietta, was intended as an unexpected blow in the flank ofthe Mohammedans; had it succeeded it is possible that thepapacy would have found it less necessary to enter into itsconflict with the head of the empire who had remained athome. But it failed miserably; the army became involvedin the Delta of the Nile at the season of the floods, and theEgyptians managed to cut off from it all supplies. TheChristians were finally obliged to capitulate, to give upDamietta, and to enter into an eight years' truce, which, however, it was agreed that a crowned head of Europe, should hecome in person, might put an end to.Honorius III. blamed Frederick for the loss of Damietta,but, although holding before him the terrors of the ban, stillkept on good terms with him, knowing that he alone couldretrieve the disaster, if retrieval were still possible. He helda friendly meeting with the emperor in the spring of 1222,and it was agreed that the final term for Frederick's departure should be settled at a congress to be held in Verona.This congress did not take place, as illness kept the Pope, arenewed Saracen revolt the emperor, from attending. · At aFREDERICK II.'S CRUSADE. 357brilliant assembly held in Ferentino in March, 1223, however, June 24th, 1225, was fixed upon for the starting of thegreat crusade.There was still no doubt of the emperor's eagerness to do The crown ofall in his power for the rescue of the Holy Land. He showed Jerusalem.this by his ready consent to the plan of a marriage on hispart-the Empress Constance had died in 1222—with Iolanthe,the heiress to the throne of Jerusalem. Honorius hadfurthered the union, hoping thus to engage Frederick heartand soul in the cause of the crusade.The crown of Jerusalem, indeed, which was nominally toremain in the hands of the German emperors even as late asthe time of Charles V., was an illusory possession; but thePope and the cardinals offered to assist Frederick in regainingit by imposing a tax for three years on every hearth inChristendom.The marriage took place at Brindisi in November, 1225.Iolanthe's father, John of Brienne, had practically consentedto renounce his claims in her favour, but Frederick's roughinsistance on a formal abdication soon turned his father-inlaw from a friend into an enemy.Sicily.The new date fixed upon for the crusade approached, and SaracenFrederick still found it impossible to proceed to the fulfilment revolt inof his vow. In his kingdom of Sicily, indeed, his power hadcome to be almost absolute. He had put down a stubborninsurrection of the Apulian nobleman, Count Thomas ofMolise, and had, after four years of warring, reduced theSaracens to entire subjection. One of their fortresses afteranother had fallen into his hands, and by the autumn of 1225all opposition was at an end.Luceria.A large number of the Saracens were made to cross over Saracento the mainland, and a colony of them formed at Luceria colony atenjoyed, during all the rest of his reign, Frederick's specialcare and protection. The colonists were allowed to till theirfields, to practise their handicrafts, and to exercise in peacetheir religious rites. Frederick seems to have preferred thatthey should remain Islamites, although in 1223 he allowed358 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Furtherpostpone- ment ofcrusade.Treaty with the Pope,1225 A.D.Pope Gregory IX. to send Dominican monks to them asmissionary preachers. Later, when the Church had entirelybroken with the emperor, the latter was bitterly reproachedwith having unduly favoured the Saracens and with havingcommitted unhallowed acts in common with them.It was from Luceria that Frederick drew his best and mostfaithful troops, the kernel of his army.What prevented Frederick from starting in 1225 was theill- success that the crusading preachers had met with inFrance and England as well as Germany. For a century anda quarter Europe had been sending her nobles and people towater the Orient with their blood; the time for great andoverwhelming expeditions had passed. Continued ill- success,ending with the loss of Damietta, had chilled the fervour ofthe once so devoted Christendom. It had proved impossible,too, to raise the tax that had been decreed at Ferentino, andFrederick was compelled to ask for a further delay of twoyears. Honorius was momentarily not in a position to refuseit, although other causes of complaint, chiefly concerning theSicilian bishoprics, had begun to embitter him against hisdilatory champion. As a matter of fact, the Pope was atthis time an exile from Rome and in no wise capable ofentering into a final struggle with a powerful emperor.By the treaty of San Germano, drawn up in July, 1225,Frederick bound himself to the Pope by promises moredefinite than any he had yet given. He agreed to cross inAugust, 1227, with a thousand knights, a hundred transportships and fifty galleys, and to maintain these forces for aperiod of two years. He was, in addition, to have shipsready for two thousand knights, each with three horses; alsoto make payment of one hundred thousand ounces of gold(about eleven million francs of modern coin) at five differentterms to John of Brienne and the patriarch of Jerusalem, andto the grandmaster of the Teutonic order. This money, however, was again to be placed at his own disposal when heshould once really have crossed the sea.Should Frederick fail to cross, should he not take withFREDERICK II.'S CRUSADE. 359him the thousand knights, or should he not remit the sumsagreed, he was to consider himself ipse facto under sentenceof the ban. For the fulfilment of his promises, finally, thepledge was to be the kingdom of Sicily.Frederick had now taken a series of new responsibilitiesupon his shoulders; his crusade was no longer to be international, but entirely his own affair, and Sicily was to bearthe burden of it in case he himself should die.The recovery of the Holy Land became almost more ofpolitical than of religious importance, and the undertakingbegan to assume much the aspect of the expedition onceplanned by Henry VI.Lombardcities.One of the first uses to which Frederick put the new Frederickrespite that had been granted him was to try and bring order and theinto the affairs of Northern Italy. In January, 1226, hesummoned all his Sicilian vassals to do service against theLombard cities. His programme was the readjustment ofthe relations to the empire, the restoration of peace betweendifferent towns that were at war with each other, the uprooting of heresy, and, in general, the furthering of the crusade.A diet was summoned to meet at Cremona.Honorius III. was horrified at the preparations for a The Pope'spossible war against Lombardy, preparations, too, which anger.were being made without his consent being asked in thematter. He was more than incensed when Frederick beganlevying troops in papal territory. He wrote and reminded theemperor of the humiliations that his grandfather Barbarossahad been made to suffer on account of his enmity to the HolySee. He brought Barbarossa's sudden death, as well as thefate that in turn overtook both Henry VI. and Philip ofHohenstaufen, into connection with their hostility to theрарасу. Take care that God do not annihilate thee andwipe out thy race; We, indeed, if thou dost insist on thyruinous course, shall not omit to chasten thee with the ban."66Forthe first time the rooting out of the whole Hohenstaufenstem was laid down as a possible necessity for the Church; itwas to become that Church's holiest aim and object.360 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Renewal The result of Frederick's interference in Northern Italy wasof the Lom- that Milan, induced probably more than by anything else bybard league. the emperor's partiality for Cremona, renewed the LombardLeague, in which twenty cities were soon enrolled. Frederickcould reckon on the goodwill and support only of Cremona,Pavia, Parma, Modena, and Asti. As the emperor approached,accompanied only by inconsiderable forces from Sicily, theallied cities assumed a more and more hostile attitude. Theybegan to exert pressure on towns which remained neutral,stopping all commerce with them; their own members wereforbidden under heavy penalties to even communicate withthe emperor. The passes near Verona were occupied, so asto prevent the approach of King Henry and the Germanprinces.Frederick bans thecities of theleague.The League thought itself strong enough to impose its own conditions on the emperor. He was to promise not to placein the ban of the empire any of the cities belonging to it; hewas to dismiss his own armed followers, and the escort of hisson was not to exceed twelve hundred horsem*n.Frederick scornfully rejected all such propositions, and withthe approval of an assembly of nobles and bishops, laid theban upon all the cities of the League. Bishop Conrad ofHildesheim had already excommunicated them and laid themunder the interdict.All privileges were now withdrawn from the cities and theConstance treaty was declared no longer binding. Intercoursewith the burghers was forbidden, their civic constitutionsdeclared null and void; even their institutions of learningwere ordered to be closed.The new complications with the Lombard Leaguethreatenedruin to the whole crusading project. This Honorius saw; heknew that what he felt to be his chief object in life waslikely to remain unfulfilled should the quarrel between theemperor and the cities be pushed to extremes. He sent aconciliatory embassy to Frederick, and finally induced thelatter to consent to submit the whole matter to papalarbitration if the Lombards would do the same.FREDERICK II.'S CRUSADE. 361the Lom- bards.The cities of the League, after some difficulties and delays Temporary-on one occasion it was declared that the draft of the peace peace withsent from Rome had fallen into the water and becomeillegible, and all negotiations had to cease till a new copyconld be procured—were at last brought to agree to thisarrangement, and both parties finally accepted the Pope'sdecision. The emperor was to revoke all his hostile decrees;the cities to furnish him with four hundred knights for thecrusade, and to observe the canons passed at the Laterancouncil of 1215 as well as the laws against heretics.It will be seen that the decision of Honorius was extremelyone-sided, that no mention was made of the imperial rightsas opposed to the cities, and that the Church alone reaped allthe advantage of the peace. Frederick, true to his agreement,was obliged to accept that peace; but by it the conflict withthe Lombards was only postponed, not terminated.1227 A.D.Honorius had shown himself from first to last conciliatory; Death ofFrederick had responded in kind. The death of the Pope, Honorius,however, in March, 1227, brought to the Chair of Peter a manwho was determined to have his due, no matter what the costmight be to the empire.The almost The The shadows deepen now all along the scene.comedy-like trifling between the heads of Christendom ceases,and the first dark episodes of the greatest of all mediavaltragedies begin. What fate-drama of classic times can showa plot equal in incident to the history of the downfall of theHohenstaufen? The popes play the part of the avengingfuries; unrelenting, always on the alert, they pursue theirprey through three generations. They raise up friends forthemselves by squandering their stock of heavenly rewards,and by playing fast and loose with the superstitions and thegreedy desires of mankind. They are able at last to dispose of the kingdom of Sicily as if it were a trinket or abauble. The old mythological twilight of the gods seemsdescending upon the earth, and the whole original structure of the medieval empire falls to the ground in a heap ofruins.shadowsdeepen.362 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Pope Gre- gory IX. ,1227-1241.The crusaders at Brindisi.Gregory IX. , the newPope, was the nephew of Innocent III. ,and heirto that pontiff's ambitious hopes and world- embracingplans. In the notification of his election which he sent toFrederick, he reminded the latter of his crusading vow, andof the ban that was in store should that vow not be fulfilled ."Do not bring us and thyself, " he wrote, " into that positionof dire need, out of which we could not easily free thee evenif we would."Frederick meanwhile had been doing his best to raise acrusading army, and at last, by dint of pecuniary and othergifts had succeeded . Louis of Thuringia, for instance, thehusband of that Elizabeth of Hungary who was afterwardscanonized for her good works, was offered five thousand marksof silver and the succession to the margravate of Meissen.Frederick had offered to furnish ships for the transport ofall crusaders without respect to person, and the number thatfinally came together surpassed all expectations.The ships had been collected at Brindisi, and here thecrusaders assembled in August, 1227. Unfortunately theheat of the summer, and the poor food and insufficientaccommodation, brought on a pestilence to which thousandsfell victims. Strange that Pope Honorius and the emperoralike had been so blind to the dangers of the Italian climateas to set such a term for the departure of the pilgrims!Many of the German leaders, among them the landgraveof Thuringia, died, and the emperor himself was seized withthe malady. He bore up under it for a time, and saw inperson to the sending out of one detachment of ships afteranother. As he felt the sickness gaining on him he held acouncil of war at Otranto, at which the Patriarch of Jerusalemand the Grand Master Herrmann of Salza were present. Helaid the question before the assembly as to whether or not heshould continue the journey. By general advice, and in viewof the evils which his possible death would bring upon histwo monarchies, he decided to postpone his departure untilthe following May. Hethen hastened to the baths of Pozzuolito seek a cure for his illness .FREDERICK II.'S CRUSADE. 363the ban.Gregory IX. and his partisans always stoutly maintained Frederick inthat Frederick's illness was feigned, and the Pope wouldlisten to no justification whatever. He at once declared theemperor in the ban, and sent an encyclic letter to the bishopsof Western Europe heaping one accusation after anotheron his head. The capitulation of the Christian army inEgypt, and the consequent loss of Damietta, were againlaid to his charge; the plague at Brindisi, too, was declaredto have been owing to his faulty arrangements and preparations.Frederick himself never maintained that the Pope did nothave a formal right, based on the treaty with Honorius, toexcommunicate him. He even went so far as to accept thesentence and ask for absolution, bringing forward evidence toprove the baselessness of most of the charges against him.He published a justification of himself, of which many copieswere distributed through Italy and Germany.But Gregory IX. had given full rein to his wrath, and Gregory'snothing could make him relent.The emperor had declared his intention of still going onhis expedition to the Holy Land; he now prepared to executethis threat, for as threat Gregory regarded it.The Popehad no interest in a crusade to be conducted by one who wasin the ban; he absolved all crusaders from their vow.Frederick had friends even in Rome; when the Pope inMarch, 1228, repeated the promulgation of the ban, andordered the clergy of Sicily to place under the interdict anyspot where the emperor might tarry, he found himself attackedby a mob in the very church of St. Peter's itself. He wasobliged to flee the city, and finally to take refuge in Perugia.His misfortunes did not dishearten him, however, for we soonfind him preparing to send an army into Sicily, where he hadalready forbidden the payment of the taxes which Frederickhad imposed. He also loosed all the latter's subjects fromtheir oath of allegiance, and spoke of him as the " so- called "emperor, and as a servant of Mahomet.wrath.Frederick undertook his crusade with absurdly small forces, Frederick's crusade.364 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Christianhostility inJerusalem.and directly in the face of the Papal anathema. The ironyof fate willed it to be the most successful expedition that hadtaken place for many a long year.A civil war that had broken out among the heirs of thegreat Saladin gave the emperor a splendid opportunity ofplaying off one faction of the Mohammedans against theother. One of Saladin's sons, the Sultan of Egypt, hadactually sought an alliance with Frederick, and offered him inreturn Jerusalem and the Coast of Syria.After declaring the Duke of Spoleto his representative inSicily, and arranging that, in case of his death, the youngKing Henry should succeed him both in that kingdom and inGermany, Frederick set sail from Brindisi with only fortygalleys (June, 1228). He landed in Acre in September, andfound there ten thousand pilgrims and about eight hundredknights.Two Franciscan monks had followed in the wake of Frederick's expedition bearing a command of the Pope that noobedience should be shown to the excommunicated emperor.The Patriarch, the Knights of St. John, the Knights Templars,and others, gave ear to this injunction.The Templars even tried to betray Frederick into the handsof his own ally, the Egyptian Sultan, El Kamel, who straightway sent to the emperor the letters containing the treacherousproposals. In spite of the fact that Frederick's forces were neither formidable on the one hand, nor likely to prove ofgreat assistance on the other, El Kamel continued to treatwith him. Not only self- interest, but a personal friendshipand admiration soon bound him to the emperor; he was filledwith wonder at the latter's learning as well as at his religioustolerance.Gregory IX. , according to the assertion of Frederick himself, who declared ten years later that he still had the intercepted letter in his hands, wrote to El Kamel, and urged himnot to surrender to the emperor the Holy Land, and the rightto the crown of Jerusalem. So far did implacable hatredlead even the Vicar of the Prince of Peace!FREDERICK II.'S CRUSADE. 365By the treaty with El Kamel, which was finally signed inFebruary, 1229, Jerusalem, as well as all the land between itand the coast, was ceded to the Christians. Bethlehem, Joppa,Nazareth, and Sidon were among the towns acquired, and itwas expressly stipulated that the walls of Jerusalem, Joppa,Cæsarea, Sidon, and Castle Montfort might be rebuilt. Twochurches in Jerusalem were to remain in the hands of theMohammedans.When signing this treaty El Kamel promised to observe itunder penalty of having to acknowledge the Father, Son, andHoly Ghost. Frederick swore that, rather than infringe it,he would eat his left hand.The treaty with El Kamel, 1229A.D.Since the time of the first crusade all the vaunted courageof European kings and princes, and all the immense outlays onthe part of Christian subjects, had achieved no such successes asthese. The patriarch ofJerusalem, however, sent a very garbledaccount of the treaty to the Pope, mentioning for the mostpart only the points of it that were favourable to the Saracens.Frederick took possession of Jerusalem on the 17th of Frederick inMarch and, on the 18th, in the church of the Holy Sepulchre,Jerusalem .in the presence of the archbishops of Palermo and Capua, andsurrounded by a crowd of pilgrims, placed the crown ofJerusalem on his own head. On the 19th the Archbishop ofCæsarea, commissioned by the patriarch, laid under the interdict the church where this ceremony had taken place, as wellas the other sacred places in the city. The patriarch insisted,moreover, that the treaty entered into with the Sultan ofEgypt was no real peace, and that the true possessor of Jeru- salem was the Sultan of Damascus.Frederick retaliated against his Christian enemies by decreeing that all foreign crusaders should leave the Holy Land,that the patriarch and those who refused to obey should bekept prisoner in their own houses, and that no KnightTemplar should be allowed to enter Jerusalem, the gates ofwhich city were to be kept guarded.Meanwhile in Italy events were happening the tidings ofwhich, when they reached him, caused Frederick at once toGregory's invasion ofSicily.366 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Frederick routs thepapal troops.return home. On the very day of the coronation in Jerusalemthe papal troops, the clavigeri or " key-bearers " as they werecalled, had attacked and defeated his chief commander nearMonte Cassino. Almost all of the mainland provinces ofthe Silician kingdom had then fallen into their hands.Gregory IX.'s plans seem to have included the utter ruin anddestruction of the emperor. At this same time in Germanyhis legate was raising up sedition, and trying to induce theonly remaining male descendant of the Guelphs, Otto ofLuneburg, to dethrone the young Henry VII. and place thecrown on his own head.Frederick set sail from Acre on May 1, 1229; on the 10thof June he landed in Apulia. He hastily raised such forcesas he could, his army consisting chiefly of German crusaders,and of Saracens from Luceria. In September he appearedbefore Capua, and within a few weeks the Papal troops hadbeen routed, and the whole land, with the exception of MonteCassino and a few fortresses, had been recovered.Frederick used his victory with moderation; indeed, allthrough this conflict with the Pope he had shown himselfsingularly patient and long- suffering. He now urged Gregoryto make peace, and the latter was no longer in a position torefuse. The Emperor promised immunity from punishmentto all those who had fought against him and, in return , inAugust, 1230, was loosed from the ban. Gregory, a yearlater, acknowledged him as king of Jerusalem, and officiallycalled him by that name. He also confirmed the treaty whichFrederick had entered into with El Kamel, and enjoinedobedience to the emperor on the Templars and the Knights ofSt. John.DCHAPTER XXIV.RENEWED STRUGGLE BETWEEN FREDERICK II. ANDGREGORY IX.URING Frederick's absence in Italy and Palestine, an Germanyabsence which lasted in all twelve years, the young during Frederick'sKing Henry had been under the control first of Archbishop absence.Engelbert of Cologne, and then of Louis of Bavaria. Engelbert kept such peace in Germany that his administration couldbe likened by a contemporary chronicler to the reign ofAugustus.But, in 1225, Engelbert was murdered by a personal enemy,and Germany became a prey to the greatest disorder; theyoung king came under the influence of evil advisers, and hispath began to separate from that of his father. Sunk inselfish pleasures he troubled himself little about the duties ofgovernment.The chief incident of importance during this time had beenthe capture of King Waldemar of Denmark and his son byCount Henry of Schwerin. This was in 1223, and CountHenry's motives had been of a private nature, he being avassal of the Danish monarch, and having received harshtreatment at his hands. It soon became evident, however,that the episode might become politically important in thesame way, if in a less degree, than the famous capture ofKing Richard of England.Waldemar, it will be remembered, had been allowed byFrederick II. to keep, as the price of his friendship, certainGerman provinces lying between the Eider and the Elbe. Itwas now arranged that the Count of Schwerin should giveCapture ofKing WalDenmark,1223 A.D.demar of368 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Frederick's Sicilian con- stitutions.A great code for Sicily.over his prisoner to the empire for a sum of money, and thatthe Danish king should be made to pay a ransom, and tosurrender the recently acquired lands.Atreaty was actually drawn up with Waldemar in 1225,by which he was to pay 45,000 marks of silver, and to giveback the territory between the Elbe and the Eider as well asthe Slavic lands, with the exception of Rügen. Waldemarwas then set free, but did not keep his agreement, and theprinces of North Germany resorted to arms. They defeatedthe Danes at Bornhövede in 1227; Waldemar was compelledto renew his treaty, and to surrender Holstein and Lubeck,Hamburg, Mecklenburg, and Pomerania-provinces whichDenmark never regained.Frederick II. , after the peace of San Germano, under whichname the treaty concluded with Gregory IX. is known inhistory, applied himself with all energy to the completion andworking out of his administrative system in Sicily. Theresult was that that state soon became a wonder amongmediæval governments; it became what the kingdom ofJerusalem might have been had its rulers been morecapable.The constitutions of Melfi, drawn up in 1231 , crystallized,so to speak, all of Frederick's former measures. The monarchywas now absolute in all respects; the princes had little or noinfluence on the government. Frederick claimed to hold hispower from God alone; he chose his advisers from amongthose of his subjects whom he knew to be most capable, showing a preference for those skilled in the law.It was a great code that Frederick caused to be publishedat Melfi, a code that embodied the decrees of his Norman predecessors as well as the new ones promulgated by himself.One is astonished at the advanced ideas of government thatare here brought forward. The feudal system is made toretreat before the power of the throne; the aristocracy nolonger hold all the offices of state; they lose the right offortifying their castles, and no longer have jurisdiction overtheir subjects in criminal matters. They are obliged to swearSTRUGGLE BETWEEN FREDERICK II. AND GREGORY IX. 369allegiance to the king, and may not even marry without hisconsent.On the other hand, their daughters and collateral relativesare allowed to inherit their fiefs, which thus remain in thefamily even in default of direct male heirs.The administration of justice and the care of the financesare the concern of the crown; Frederick greatly increased hisrevenues by establishing monopolies in salt, iron, copper,steel, and raw silk.The prelates are made to submit in certain questions to thedecisions of the temporal courts; no one is allowed to sellproperty to any church or religious order, or to any of theclergy.One would willingly dwell longer on these Sicilian reforms,on the forbiddal of judicial combat, onthe laws against quacksand poisoners, and against those who administered lovepotions. On the measures for the improvement of commerce,too, on the abolition of serfdom, the establishment of modelfarms, the encouragement of agriculture, and the introductionof strange plants, such as indigo, cotton, and sugar-cane.The decrees of Melfi did not at all please Pope Gregory IX." We have learned," he wrote in the beginning to the emperor,"that thou, whether of thy own accord, or seduced by the reforms.thoughtless counsel of ungodly men, dost intend to publishnew constitutions which will necessarily gain thee the title ofa persecutor of the Church and a destroyer of the publicliberty. "66A glance at Frederick's activity in Sicily was needful inorder to show the contrast of the policy which he pursued inGermany. Here his allies and supporters had been the prelates and princes; he could not now turn round and try tosubject them or crush them down.The Pope's displeasure at SicilianFrederickFrederick's son Henry, indeed, who after 1230 became Oppositepractically independent, held a different view of the matter, views ofand tried to stem the growing independence of the Germanaristocracy by leaning on the cities, which were fast becomingpowerful. When a town desired privileges, as opposed to itsBBand his son.370 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The terri- torial lords.Insubordi- nation ofHenry VII.lay or ecclesiastical lord, Henry granted them; he favouredthe adoption of municipal constitutions and the formation ofleagues or alliances.In order to protect the interests of the princes, whosepower was thus being undermined by the actions of his ownson, Frederick in 1230 restored the office of grand chancellorof the empire, which had been vacant since 1224, and choseBishop Siegfried of Ratisbon to that position. At a diet heldat Worms early in 1231, Siegfried, in the emperor's name,forbade leagues of every kind among the cities, and declaredall such as had been already entered into to be dissolved. Nopermission to renew such unions was to be given in future bythe princes without the emperor, or the emperor without theprinces.Henry VII. was forced soon afterwards by his father toissue a so-called golden bull, which was for the princes a practical charter of independence. For the first time they wereofficially given the title of domini terræ or lords of theirterritory. All privileges and jurisdictions were to be theirsabsolutely, all the counts or administrators of the hundreds orlesser districts were to hold office directly from them. Theonly restriction laid upon them was that they should notchange the laws of their land without consulting their nobles.The duchies, margravates, and bishoprics were fast becomingstates within a state.Frederick's bull went on to strike at the fundamental hindrance to princely progress, the power and prosperity of thecities. These were no longer to be allowed to confer upon thepeople of the faubourgs (Pfahlburgher) the rights and privileges of citizens which had hitherto enabled them to escapefulfilling their duties to their lords.The young Henry had by this time given signs of open insubordination. Frederick had called a diet at Ravenna in1231, for the purpose of restoring peace with the Lombardswho were in rebellion and who had raised an army of 10,000men. He had summoned his son to the diet, but Henry failedto appear. The young king did, however, come to a secondSTRUGGLE BETWEEN FREDERICK II. AND GREGORY IX. 371assembly at Aquileija, where he swore to adopt the emperor'spolicy and to obey his commands. He promised to treat theGerman princes with especial favour, and it was agreed thatshould he act counter to his engagements those princes mightconsider themselves absolved from their oath of allegiance.Frederick took this occasion to confirm the privileges grantedat Worms in the previous year. Henry's submission atAquileija was but a lull in the storm that had commenced torise. On his return to Germany he continued to favour thecities as before, and to take their part against the lords.disorders.It was a time for the empire of terrible disorders, of Internalpolitical anarchy, and of religious oppression. Germany wastorn by internal feuds; the King of Bohemia was at war withAustria and Bavaria, the Archbishop of Cologne was fightingagainst his Westphalian vassals , the Count of Limburg againstthe Bishop of Münster.tion inGermany.It was a time, too, when the Inquisition was girding itself The Inquisifor its work, and the Franciscans and Dominicans, or " dogsof the Pope," were beginning to scour the land in search oftheir prey.In 1231 the land saw burnings innumerable, and everyother kind of persecution. The common people, driven wildby superstitious fears, joined hands with Conrad Dorso andother monks, and helped them in their search for heretics.The lords of suspected persons were rendered more pliable andwell- wishing towards the persecutors by being allowed to keepthe confiscated lands of victims. The inquisitors, to whomFrederick was obliged, out of deference to the Pope, to granthis imperial protection, went on the principle, as the trustworthy annals of Worms tell us, that they would rather burna hundred innocent persons than let one guilty one escape.To Master Conrad of Marburg, a Hessian, Gregory IX. Conrad ofgave extended powers for the rooting out of heresy. Conrad Marburg.was told to preach a crusade against the guilty, and to promiseforgiveness of sins to those who would hunt them down.Even murderers were to be absolved if they would help in sogodly a work.372 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Conrad's murder.Diet ofFrankfort,1234 A.D.Annihilation oftheStedingers.The inquisitors grew so courageous in time, that they ventured to accuse even venerable preachers and prelates; theyoung king himself finally became an object of their suspicion.Against Count Henry of Sayn they brought charges thatremind one strongly of those advanced in the later trials forwitchcraft. One was that he had been seen to ride upona crab.The count in question caused King Henry and the Archbishop of Mayence to call an assembly where he confronted.his accuser and justified himself; but Conrad of Marburgstill insisted on his charge. The Count of Sayn then appealedto Rome, and with his messengers went envoys from manythe German nobles.ofGregory IX. seemed surprised at the dimensions which thematter had assumed, and was about to send an answer favourable to the princes, when the news came that the Germanpeople had found a way of helping themselves. Conradof Marburg was murdered, as were also some of his aiders andabettors.Gregory IX. , infuriated by what had taken place, madefurther efforts to inflame the masses against the heretics; buta reaction had already set in. The diet of Frankfort, held inFebruary, 1234, set bounds to the excesses of religiousfanaticism by decreeing that offences against the faith shouldbe tried in the secular courts, and according to regularjudicial procedure. The decisions were to be according toequity. In order that such cases should the sooner be broughtto a termination, King Henry agreed himself to hold a courton four days in each month.In spite of measures like these it was possible for theInquisition to gain a great and lasting triumph.Gerard, Archbishop of Bremen and Count of Oldenburg,had long since announced that his particular enemies theFrisian Stedingers, a tribe of peasants numbering about 11,000souls, were guilty of heresy inasmuch as they scorned thesacraments and teachings of the Church and occupied themselves with works of darkness. In 1229 Gerard had inducedASTRUGGLE BETWEEN FREDERICK II. AND GREGORY IX. 373the Pope to empower the bishops of Minden, Lubeck, andRatzeburg to preach a crusade against the Stedingers. Anarmy had been raised in this way, but the sturdy Frisians hadheld their own. In 1234, however, 40,000 “ crusaders " cametogether under the leadership of the counts of Oldenburg,Cleves, and Holland, and of the Duke of Brabant. Thousandsof the Stedingers were slain, the tribe as such being fairly annihilated.The emperor disapproved of his son Henry's attitude in Coolness ofthe matter of the heretics; exactly on what grounds has never Frederick with been made clear. Frederick's wrath was also aroused by Henry VII.news of a feud which the young king carried on againstBavaria, likewise by Henry's treatment of two Suabian princeswho were known to be loyal to his father. The cleft grewwider and wider.In September, 1234, Henry took the decisive step of issuinga manifesto to the German princes recalling his own servicesto the emperor and declaring that the latter was trying todiminish powers once freely granted. He complained ofhaving been threatened with excommunication-the Popeand the emperor were at this time in accord.While continuing to adopt a tone of injured innocence Rebellion ofHenry prepared openly for rebellion. He held a meeting at Henry VII .Boppard where the final arrangements were made, the aimand object of the revolt was to be the separation of Germanyfrom Italy. An alliance, to be valid for ten years, was nowentered into with the Lombard League; it was expresslydirected against the emperor. Henry also tried to win thesupport of Louis IX. of France, but here his overtures metwith a repulse.Henry made an attack on Worms- whose citizens , as thelocal annals tell us, did not swerve from their loyalty to theemperor as much as a bean's breadth "-with an army of 665,000 men, but was beaten back. It was his first and lastundertaking, for Frederick was already on the march, and theeffect of his presence in Germany was to show the weaknessof Henry's following and the utter foolishness of his revolt.374 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Life- long imprison- ment ofHenry VII.The Diet ofMayence,1235 A.D.Frederick had no army to speak of, but considerablepecuniary resources were at his disposal. He was at one, too,with the Pope and with England and France.Henry sent envoys to Nuremberg to try and appease hisfather's wrath; he was ordered to appear in person at Worms,where Frederick had arranged to celebrate his wedding withIsabella of England-Iolanthe, the heiress. of Jerusalem, haddied just before the anomalous crusade of 1228 .Henry might have gained his father's forgiveness, althoughnot his own reinstatement in power, had he submitted unconditionally. He is said, however, to have refused to give upthe castle of Trifels which had come into his power and tohave tried, after having consented to appear there, to escapefrom Worms.He was taken prisoner, and never again recovered hisliberty. He died in 1241 , and was honourably buried inCosenza, memorial services being held for him throughoutall the kingdom of Sicily. Frederick mourned him sincerely;he was, as he declared himself, neither the first nor the lastfather who had suffered harm from a disobedient son, andyet had wept at his grave.Frederick's marriage was celebrated at Worms with greatmagnificence, the English princess bringing him an immensedowry. A brilliant diet was soon afterwards held at Mayence;no such assembly had been seen since the great festival heldby Barbarossa in 1184.This diet of Mayence marks an important epoch in thelegal and constitutional history of Germany. Not only was aresident chief-justice appointed for the empire, but regulationswere passed concerning tolls and coinage, and especially concerning the peace of the land. Robbers and brigands wereto be systematically pursued; the right of carrying on feudswas confined to cases of self-protection or to cases wherejustice had been denied . Even then a formal challenge wasdeclared necessary.It is not surprising that Frederick, in view of recentevents, passed a law against sons who were disobedientSTRUGGLE BETWEEN FREDERICK II. AND GREGORY IX. 375and disloyal to their fathers. They were to be utterly disinherited.An attempt was made at Mayence to fix the legal customs Laws ofand usages and to codify the laws already existing in the 1235 A.D.empire; for the first time such laws were now published inthe German tongue.It was at this same diet that the last possible sparks offuture discord between the Guelphs and Hohenstaufens wereextinguished. Otto of Luneburg, Henry the Lion's only remaining male descendant, promised to renounce all the hatredand enmity that had existed between his own and the emperor's forefathers, and gave up the allodial possessions ofhis family, receiving them back as a fief of the empire. Anew duchy was formed from these lands and conferred onOtto and his male and female heirs.Last in the measures passed at Mayence, but not least in War againstit* consequences, which were dire enough, was the declaration the Lombard League.of war against the Lombard League. Frederick had alreadyhad a number of differences with this organization, and nowit had dared to join his son in rebellion against himself.With this war we enter on the last act of the Hohenstaufentragedy. At the beginning of that act Frederick is seen to beprosperous and successful enough, but the Pope soon entersupon the scene and begins the work of extermination whichhis successor was to carry out so well.As regarded the differences that had arisen with the Lombards previous to their making common cause with KingHenry, Frederick had consented, upon quitting Italy in 1235,to leave the decision to the Pope. Matters were changednow in so far as the emperor thought no more of arbitrationbut of a retributive war.Gregory was by no means pleased at this change of policy;he wrote to the German princes, pictured the harm that thestruggle would do to the cause of the Holy Land, and beggedthem to induce the emperor to accept his mediation. Frederickconsented that the negotiations should proceed for a time, andsent Herrmann of Salza to Rome to look after his interests.Gregory IX.and the Lombardwar.376 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.FrederickThe deputies of the Lombards, however, failed to put in anappearance at the date appointed, and Herrmann was recalled.There was all the less chance of a compromise as the Lombards had already taken steps towards opening hostilities.They had renewed their league and had sworn to let none ofthe Germans or their allies pass through their territory. Theyhad tried to take Verona, which was in a measure the key toItaly, from Frederick's commander Ezzelino da Romano.Herrmann of Salza, after leaving Rome, held an assembly atPiacenza of deputies from a number of Ghibelline cities.Gregory IX. raised a loud outcry, declared that the LombardLeague was ready to submit to arbitration, and requested thatHerrmann be empowered to reopen the negotiations.It was too late. By the summer of 1236, Frederick wasand Gregory. already in Verona at the head of 3,000 knights. A somewhatbitter correspondence had meanwhile been carried on with thePope. Gregory had accused the emperor of robbing churches,restricting freedom of elections, doing violence to the personsof clergy, furthering heresy and favouring the Mohammedans.Frederick had answered calmly and with dignity: " Youbring up against us whatever, during our absence, has beendone amiss by our officials in our kingdom of Sicily; as if we,from Germany, could oversee everything with the eyes of alynx and make ourselves heard with a voice of thunder! "Frederick II.in Austria.ToFrederick, for his part, after a not very brilliant campaignin Northern Italy, was obliged hastily to return to Germany.Duke Frederick the Warlike of Austria had assumed anequivocal attitude at the time of King Henry's rebellion.answer this and other charges he had been summoned to twodiets in succession, but had failed to appear. He had thenbeen placed under the ban of the empire, the carrying intoexecution of which had been entrusted to Bohemia, Bavaria,Passau, Frising, and Bamberg.The complications in Austria became so serious as to demandthe emperor's presence. The duke had been bereft of hislands but had regained them after engaging in separate conflicts with each of his enemies in turn.STRUGGLE BETWEEN FREDERICK II. AND GREGORY IX. 377Frederick II. now reduced to subjection Austria, Styria,and Carinthia, and in 1237 held a court in Vienna, where hisnine year old son, Conrad, was chosen King of the Romans,his election being confirmed soon afterwards by a diet atSpires.Frederick II. remained but a short time in Germany, andhurried back to Italy. The first decided success of the Lombard war, which, interrupted by vain attempts at negotiation,dragged on for years, was the battle of Cortenuova, fought inNovember, 1237. If the emperor's own statement can be believed, the League lost 10,000 men. The caroccio of Milanfell into Frederick's hands, and he presented it to theRomans who, much to Pope Gregory's disgust, placed it onexhibition, elevated on columns, in their Capitol. A Latininscription regarding it still exists: "This illustrious booty,taken from the Milanese, comes (to Rome) to show thetriumphs of the emperor. "Negotiations were entered into after this defeat at Cortenuova, but Frederick would have nothing but unconditionalsurrender, and for this the Lombards were not prepared.Battle ofCortenuova,1237 A.D.Frederick had meanwhile given the Pope a tangible cause Enzio, kingof offence by wedding his own illegitimate son Enzio to of Sardinia.Adelasia the heiress of Sardinia, and by naming Enzio kingof that land. The new monarch now proceeded to take possession of some of the principal cities. Sardinia, as Frederickhimself had acknowledged, was a fief of the see of Rome; thebreach with the Pope was now complete.Gregory now made up his mind to use his last greatweapon; to close the doors of Heaven and flaunt the keys inthe emperor's face.Banning anddeposition of FrederickII. , 1239On Maundy Thursday, in the presence of a great assembly A.D.at Rome, the sentence of excommunication was solemnly pronounced. The emperor's body was given over to Satan inorder that his soul might be saved at the day of Judgment;his subjects were loosed from their allegiance, every placethat he should enter declared under the interdict.The bull deposing Frederick, which was sent to the different378 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Frederick'sletter to theprinces ofEurope.Gregory's letter.countries of Europe, contained numerous charges and endedup with the remark that as the emperor was universallyaccused of irreligion, the Pope intended to have him legallytried for heresy.Both Frederick and the Pope issued manifestoes whichleave nothing to be desired in the way of venom and bitterness. We cannot read them to- day without a feeling ofbreathless excitement; they are the ponderous blows of adeadly struggle.66 Frederick's letter was directed to the sovereigns, prelates,and nobles of Europe: Cast your eyes around you andopen your ears, oh, children of men. .... Princes, takeheed; people, listen to what is your own cause; mayyour eyesbe opened to the light and your decision be inspired by theLord Himself! " Frederick goes on to enumerate the wrongshe has received at the hand of the Pope, to accuse the latterof prevarication and to show the dangers that threaten allother monarchs should he himself fall a victim: " Run forwater for the protection of your own house when that of yourneighbour burns; for a certainty he will think it easyto cast down the other princes if he once succeeds in crushingthe head of the empire."·Gregory's letter is a masterpiece of invective: "A furiousbeast has come up from the sea; her feet are those of a bear,her teeth those of a lion, in her members she resembles theleopard; she only opens her throat to blaspheme the name ofthe Lord, to attack the divine tabernacle and the saints whoinhabit the heavens. Formerly she laid secret ambushes forthe Church, now she attacks it openly with her nails and herteeth of iron."Gregory repeats the old story of the Church having been amother to Frederick and he having heaped ingratitude uponher. All the old griefs are brought up: the plague thatbroke out in Apulia at the time of the crusade, Frederick'svow so often deferred , his feigned sickness, his having allowedthe Saracens to worship in the temple at Jerusalem. ThePope calls the emperor the precursor of Antichrist, andSTRUGGLE BETWEEN FREDERICK II. AND GREGORY IX. 379finally works himself up to the most terrific of all his accusations: " This king, enthroned on the seat of pestilence, The threeimpostors.maintains, to use his own words, that the whole world hasbeen deceived by three impostors, Moses, Mahomet, andChrist; of whom two died honourably, the third on the cross.Furthermore he has dared to aver, or rather to say falsely,that all those are fools who believe that Almighty God, theCreator of heaven and earth, was born of a virgin. Thisheresy he bases on the assertion that no one can be bornwithout the previous union of a man with a woman, and thatthere is no need to believe anything at all that cannot beproved by reason and by natural means."unorthodoxy.Terrible charges these at a time when on far less grounds Frederick'smen were often sent to the stake. The charges, too, if notliterally true were undoubtedly so in substance; all that weknow of Frederick makes it highly probable that he gaveutterance to these or similar remarks.The emperor, in a letter to the cardinals, did his utmost toclear himself, and made a formal and explicit profession offaith. He declared that Mahomet's soul was delivered up tothe flames of hell, while Moses was the friend and favouriteof God. In this same letter he broke forth in further attacksupon the Pope, calling him the father of discord not of mercy,of desolation not of consolation. He is himself the Antichrist of whom he calls us the precursor; the great dragon,the false prophet, the angel of darkness who fills with rancourthe earth and the sky."66This war of words was but the prelude to a war of deeds.Before the end of the year Gregory tried to induce the noblesof Germany to proceed to the election of a new ruler and hisagent, a certain Albert de Behaim, did cause the King ofBohemia, the Duke of Austria and others to try and elect theson of the Danish King. The plot failed, much to the disgustof the agent, who in his report to the Pope calls the chiefpromoter of it " rex Blasphemiæ " instead of " Bohemiæ."The princes as a whole had refused to be concerned in themovement, implying to the Pope that he was meddling withFailure of Gregory'splot.380 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Gregory's unceasinghostility.Frederick's successes inItaly.matters which were none of his affair and that, although hemight invest the elect of the people with the imperial ornaments, he had no right to withdraw them.Gregory next turned to Louis IX. of France, proposing togive the empire to the latter's brother, the Count of Artois,whom he offered to support with the treasures and influenceof the Church. Louis, too, refused to be the Pope's instrument of vengeance.Meanwhile the mendicant monks were going from hamletto hamlet in Italy, inciting the people to rebellion against theemperor, and carrying the promise of indulgences to those whowould embrace the papal cause. Frederick for his parthastened to raise a strong army of mercenaries, to equip hisfleet and to put his fortresses in order.Gregory left no stone unturned to gain adherents in hisnew struggle; those who had already taken the cross werefirst allowed, then compelled, to buy absolution from theirvows; being warned at the same time that Frederick waslikely to cast into irons and condemn to horrible punishmentsthose crusaders who might fall into his hands.In Italy, as was natural, the Pope's efforts met with moresuccess than elsewhere; here he raised up a wasting war thatkept the emperor busy for the next two years. In the Tuscancities Frederick found allies against the Lombard League; inFlorence, although Guelphs and Ghibellines were fightingbetween themselves, both parties were as yet friendly to theempire.There is no need to follow the details of the war, or todwell on the defection of Frederick's allies , Azzo of Este, andAlberic, brother of Ezzelino da Romano. The emperor wasaided by his illegitimate son Enzio, who was already kingover a large part of Sardinia, and who was now made imperiallegate for the whole of Italy. Enzio's later misfortuneshelped to break the heart of his father.On the whole Frederick was not unsuccessful in these days.He wrested nearly the whole of Spoleto and the March ofAncona from the power of the papacy, and was able to occupySTRUGGLE BETWEEN FREDERICK II. AND GREGORY IX. 381Viterbo. He took Ravenna and, after a long siege, Faenza(April, 1241) . The papal army answered the fall of the latterby an unsuccessful inroad into Sicily.In 1240 the princes of Germany had sent to Rome the Gregory calls agrandmaster Conrad of Thuringia, successor of Herrmann of Council, 1240Salza to negotiate a peace between the emperor and the Pope. A.D.The negotiations had failed as Gregory had insisted onincluding the Lombards in the agreement.Gregory, meanwhile, had evolved a plan of his own forgiving back to Christendom its much needed rest. He haddetermined to hold a general council of the Church at Rome,to submit to the representatives of the different parts of theChristian world his grievances against Frederick and to obtainof them his enemy's condemnation.Easter-day 1241 was the term fixed for the assembly, andFrederick was asked to grant the prelates attending a safeconduct, and to suspend hostilies so long as the council shouldbe in session.will not grant safe- conduct tothe prelates.Frederick was not for a moment in doubt as to what Frederickattitude an ecclesiastical assembly under the headship of hisown bitter enemy would take towards himself. He wrote tothe princes of Germany denouncing the hypocrisy of the Popein the matter of the council, and declaring that Gregory onlywanted him to make truce with the Lombards in order thatthe latter might procure for themselves reinforcements. Heforbade those of his subjects who had been summoned to thecouncil to attend it, and refused roundly to grant a safe conduct to any of the prelates.That Gregory was in truth seeking the ruin of the emperorseems proven by the fact that even after summoning thecouncil he continued to try and induce the Count of Artois tocome forward as candidate for the throne of the empire.Meanwhile there had begun to make itself heard onGermany's eastern boundary the roar of a torrent which, as itseemed for a time, threatened to engulf the empire and thepapacy alike, and with it the whole civilivation of westernEurope.The Tartar invasion.382 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Batou-Khan.Frederick and the Tartars.Satiricalwritings.During the early part of the century the Mongols, orTartars, under their leader Temuchin or Gengis- Khan, hadconquered the greater part of the celestial empire, the Corea,the mountains of Thibet, parts of Hindostan and Persia, andthe lands bordering on the Caspian Sea. Gengis died in 1226,and his descendants continued his conquests.It was his grandson, Batou- Khan, who now threatenedGermany from the direction of Hungary. Parts of his armyhad at the same time been sent against Poland, Bohemia, andNorth Germany. At Liegnitz, in 1241, Duke Henry ofSilesia was defeated by the tenfold more numerous army ofthe Mongols, but only after such a resistance that the victorshad learned to dread their opponents and hurried off to jointheir leader in Hungary. Here they ravaged the country witha mercilessness that had not been equalled since the days ofthe Huns. King Bela, who had suffered a great defeat inMarch, fled to an island of the Adriatic, and sent wild callsfor aid to the Pope and to the emperor. He offered, ifFrederick would only aid him, to submit to becoming a vassalof the empire.The young King of the Romans, Conrad, the King ofBohemia, and other princes sent to Italy to urge the extremityof the danger, and to beg that a peace might at once bebrought about between the heads of Christendom.Frederick probably estimated the actual danger from theMongols more truly than the alarmed princes. He contentedhimself with giving, through messengers, advice and directionsas to how to war with the new enemy. He caused a decree tobe issued ordering every one of his German male subjects withan income of more than three marks of silver to take to arms.He warned the generals not to engage in battle in the openplains; he gave suggestions as to the collecting of suppliesand as to the economical use of barley and wheat, which werenot to be employed for brewing beer or any other drinkswhatever.The invasion of the Tartars; and the attitude of the Popeand of the emperor towards it, gave rise to a number ofSTRUGGLE BETWEEN FREDERICK II. AND GREGORY IX. 383satirical and polemical writings. An anecdote went therounds to the effect that Batou had offered Frederick, if hewould lay down his arms, a lucrative employment at theMongol court. Frederick was declared to have answered thathe knew a good deal about birds-on which subject, as ithappens, a treatise of his has come down to us—and wouldlike the position of falconer.Aforged letter, purporting to have been written by a Tartargeneral, was circulated throughout Europe and asserted thatthe object of the Khan's coming was to make peace at last between the empire and the papacy.In one of these writings Frederick, who was called theworthy rival of Satan, was accused of having called inthe Tartars to destroy the Christian faith, and to gain forhimself the rule of the world.Gregory maintained that Frederick had taken pains toexaggerate the whole danger, so that a large army mightbe brought together which could then be used against theрарасу.Italy.Frederick himself was sure, as he wrote to the princes, that Frederickif he were to leave Italy at this juncture of affairs the Pope cannot leavewould at once fall like a vulture upon the kingdom of Sicily.His absence from Germany did not in the end prevent thegreatest and most successful preparations from being madethere. A general crusade was preached against the invaders,and a universal peace proclaimed for the land.It was in these days that the emperor made his most boldand successful move against the Pope, after which he hastenedto descend upon the estates of the Church, and prepared toend the struggle by taking Rome itself.In naval combat, assisted by the Pisan fleet, King Enziosecured for his father one of the strangest prizes that everfell to the lot of monarch. Frederick had always warned theprelates summoned by Gregory to attend the council thatthey would do so at the greatest peril to themselves. Hehad written special letters to this effect to the kings of Franceand England.The captureof a hundred prelates,1241 A.D.384 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Gregory's indignation.Gregory's death, 1241 A.D.None the less, a large number of prelates embarked fromGenoa in April, 1241, thinking to escape the emperor on thehigh seas. Vain hope! Between the islands of Giglio andMonte Cristo they were attacked by Enzio and overcome.Two thousand men in all, among them the Archbishop ofBesançon, found their death in the waves. About one hundredcardinals, bishops, abbots, and deputies from Lombard citieswere taken captive and brought to the emperor at Gaeta.At his command they were incarcerated at Naples and atMelfi, and it was long before they regained their liberty.Gregory's grief and indignation may be imagined; he senta pathetic letter of condolence to the prisoners declaring, tocomfort them, that the ship of Peter, now on a rock, wouldsoon be sailing in smoother waters. He wrote to the kingsof Europe, the Doge of Venice, and the heads of the ItalianRepublics, urging them to come to his aid against the tyrantand oppressor of the Church.Frederick in a similar manifesto announced that he gavethanks to God whose powerful hand had laid low the abettorsof the Pope.The emperor was already at the gates of Rome; he hadtaken Tivoli and stormed the fortifications of the monasteryof Farfa, when he learned that the pontiff against whom allthese hostilities were directed had gone the way of all flesh.In order to show that he was warring against the head of theChurch as a man, and not against that institution itself, heimmediately withdrew his army.MCHAPTER XXV.FREDERICK II. AND INNOCENT IV.EANWHILE the great danger from the Tartars dis- Celestineappeared as quickly as it had come. Wenceslaus of IV.Bohemia defeated a strong detachment of them at Olmütz,and the death of the grand khan or head of the Mongolempire drew them away from Hungary and back to theRussian steppes.In Rome the cardinals, among whom were two captured byFrederick, who released them temporarily and conditionallyfor the occasion, proceeded to the election of a new pope.They chose Celestine IV. , a man who, had he lived, wouldin all likelihood have proved friendly to the emperor. Buthe died even before he could be consecrated, and disturbancesin Rome, as well as the dread of the plague which was ragingthere, prevented the cardinals from making a new choice forthe next twenty-one months. Frederick's two prisoners returned to their confinement.Meanwhile in Germany Gregory IX.'s influence for evilhad made itself felt far out over his grave. His agent, thatsame Albert of Behaim who had previously tried to raise upan antiking, resumed his activity. He entered into relationswith Siegfried of Mayence, archchancellor of the empire andregent for the young Conrad, and with the new Archbishopof Cologne, the warlike Conrad of Hochstaden. They weresoon joined by Arnold of Treves, by Bremen, Strasburg, andLiége.The majority of the cities of the empire, however, heldfirmly to Frederick, who was obliged, indeed, to extendtheir privileges.Efforts to raise antiking.с с386 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Frederick tries to hasten papal election.Frederick and the vacant chair of Peter.The goal of the insurgents was the election of a new king,and the man on whom they had intended to bestow thisdangerous honour was landgrave Henry Raspe of Thuringia.But Frederick made a flying visit to Germany, deposedSiegfried of Mayence from his position as vicegerent, andgave that office to none other than his own proposed rival,the landgrave.66Leaving King Conrad in the field against Siegfried ofMayence, and the Duke of Brabant and the Count of Juliersagainst the Archbishop of Cologne, whom they soon overcame, Frederick returned to Italy to hasten, if possible, theelection of a pope. He wrote a letter to the cardinals andreminded them of their duty in forcible terms:Like serpents you cling to the earth instead of raising yourselves tothe skies. Each of you is aiming at the tiara, and no one ofyou is willing to leave it to the other. Renounce the spiritof faction and of discord! Let the college of cardinals giveby unanimous choice to Christendom a pope who will satisfyus and the empire, and whose election will be for the universalgood."HeFrederick's disgust at the delays to which he was subjectedcaused him to use ever stronger and stronger terms.calls the cardinals"the laughed-at of nations."66 sons of Belial, "66 troop of perdition, "At the same time he gaveemphasis to his words by recommencing his ravagings in theneighbourhood of Rome, while Enzio devastated the territoryof Piacenza, Milan, and Brescia.Meanwhile the affairs of the Church, without a head as itwas, had come into a state of almost irretrievable confusion.A pamphlet was written at this time, the author of whichwas supposed to be the emperor's chancellor, Peter de laVigne, and which seems to have advocated doing away altogether with the papacy. Its language is somewhat enigmatical: " If the pontifical unction has ceased to be performed,if a pope anointed and consecrated is not to be found, areyou not afraid that another holy of holies will arise? Andwhat will it be? "FREDERICK II. AND INNOCENT IV. 387It was even hinted in certain circles that Frederick wouldlike the position of pope for himself, and Louis IX. of France,in a letter to the cardinals, speaks of a " prince who wouldfain at the same time be king and priest." The Frenchclergy, for their own part, are said to have been on the pointof electing a pope for themselves.1254.At last, in June, 1243, an end was put to this anomalous Innocentstate of affairs, and Sinibald Fiesco, a Genoese, was raised to IV., 1243-the papal throne. He took the name of Innocent IV. Ascardinal he had been on the best of terms with the emperor,who, however, did not build great hopes on his elevation,declaring that no pope could ever be a Ghibelline. He wrote,nevertheless, in a most conciliatory spirit to the new pontiff:"We have learned with extreme joy that our old friend hasbecome our father; we believe that your elevation to thepapacy will put an end to all our discords."The ambassadors who brought this message of congratulation were not admitted into the presence of the new pope,being envoys of a prince who was in the ban. It was an illomen for the success of the necessary negotiations.Innocent.These negotiations were soon entered into by the Pope, who Negotiasent the Archbishop of Rouen and two other prelates to the tions with emperor at Melfi. Innocent's demands were as follows:Frederick was to release the remainder of those who had beentaken captive in the great naval battle of 1241 -a number ofthem had already been set at liberty. He was to restore allthe lands taken from the Church, and to make peace with theLombards. The complaints of the emperor against the Church,and of the Church against the emperor, were to be submittedto a tribunal of kings, princes, and prelates.Frederick, for his part, was willing enough to give up allthe lands in question on condition that he should receive themback as a fief of the papacy, paying tribute for their use. Heoffered , further, to give the Pope a sum of money, and toundertake a new expedition to the Holy Land. Disturbancesin Viterbo, where the inhabitants drove out the imperialgarrison and called in the Guelphs, as the partisans of the388 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Thedrawing-up of a peace.The peacebroken.Pope had now come to be called , to their assistance, jeopardized for some time the success of the negotiations.Frederick had spent three months before the town, whichhad received pecuniary assistance from the Pope, and waspreparing to bring about its utter destruction, when the representations of the German princes, on the one hand, and ofLouis IX. and the Count of Toulouse on the other, inducedboth Pope and emperor to consent to the drawing up of apreliminary peace. The captives were to be released, and theChurch lands given back, while all those who had taken thePope's part were to be pardoned.The Pope and the cardinals were to be arbiters in theLombard question; Frederick, finally, was to declare to theprinces of Europe that in not submitting to the papal ban, hehad not intended to scorn the Pope's authority, but that, as amatter of fact, he had never been properly notified of the sentence. To show his regret for all that had taken place,he was to fast and to give alms, to found monasteries andhospitals, and to place knights at the disposal of the Pope.The peace had been signed and sworn to by the imperialplenipotentiaries, the Pope had spoken publicly of Frederickas a devoted Catholic prince and son of the Church, whendifficulties and differences of interpretation arose, which altogether prevented a reconciliation.Frederick wanted the Lombards to take an oath of fealtyto himself before the liberation of their delegates who wereamong the captives; Innocent insisted that the latter shouldbe freed at once, and that the whole question at issue betweenthe League and the Empire should be subjected unconditionally to his own decision. The Pope furthermore demanded that the restitution of the Church lands should bemade without reserve, Frederick that certain rights of hisown should be regarded. A grave question arose as towhether the emperor should be absolved from the ban beforeor after making his restitutions.The rejoicings that followed on Frederick's signing of thepeace were of short duration. Before a month had passedFREDERICK II. AND INNOCENT IV. 389Innocent despatched a writing to Germany to the effect thatthe emperor preferred breaking his oath rather than to obeythe commands which he, the Pope, had laid upon him.Innocent had begun to feel that Rome was no longer a safe Flight of place for him; he was anxious, too, to hold a general council, InnocentIV. , 1244 but not in Italy. He knew that no more foreign prelates A.D.could be induced to lay themselves open to capture by theemperor.66While still carrying on negotiations with Frederick, andwhile not refusing the latter's invitation to a personal interview, the Pope prepared for flight. His three nephews methim with a fleet at Civita Vecchia; by July, 1244, he was inGenoa, by December in Lyons, whence he wrote his generalsummons to the long-projected council: " In order that theChurch," so ran the document, may, through the assistanceof her faithful ones, gain the honour and adornment thatbelongs to her; in order that relief may be brought as soon aspossible to the ill- fate of the Holy Land, and to the sorely triedempire; also that a means of riddance may be found againstthe Tartars and other betrayers of the faith and persecutorsof Christendom; finally, because of the conflict at issuebetween the prince and the Church, we have decided to calltogether the kings, prelates, and other princes of the world. "The missive goes on to say that " the prince " mentionedhas been summoned to appear before the council either personally or through emissaries.Summons to Council of Lyons.The mishap to the Holy Land, to which Innocent referred, The Holyhad been caused by the fact that the Sultan of Egypt, irritated Land.by the dealings of the Jerusalem barons with his own enemies,had called in the Charismian Turks, who had visited the Holycity with havoc and devastation. A Christian army, raised toavenge this proceeding, had been defeated and dispersed.Shortly after Innocent had issued his summons to thecouncil the three heads of his party in Germany, the Archbishops of Mayence and Cologne and Albert de Behaim, nowArchdeacon of Passau, came to Lyons. They engaged themselves, should the Pope see fit to proceed to Frederick's390 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.TheCouncil,1245 A.D.Deposition of Frederick.The secretsessions.deposition, to themselves undertake the election of a newking. They returned to Germany to carry out this plan, forthe furtherance of which Innocent soon sent a special legate,Philip of Ferrara.That the council of Lyons was not universal, and could notbe so in the absence of almost all the German bishops, was aforegone conclusion . Frederick sent his two great legists ,Thaddeus of Suessa and William of Ocra, to appeal fromwhatever decisions should be made to a future pope, and to aproper council.At the assembly, which was opened in June, 1245, therewere present about 150 prelates, mostly from France, Spain,and Italy. The question at issue with Frederick II. was atonce taken up, and Innocent proceeded to heap one accusationafter another upon his enemy. Among the crimes mentionedwere the establishment of the Saracen colony at Luceria,Frederick's oriental habits and customs, his astrologicalsuperstitions, his scorn of the Christian religion , his friendship with the Sultan of Egypt, the permanent violation of allhis promises.At the third session of the council, held three weeks afterits opening, Frederick's condemnation was passed, and he wasdeclared deposed from the throne of the empire . Innocent,in his boundless self-partiality, asserted later that he couldremember no case which had ever been more carefully anddeliberately tried by experienced and holy men. To use hisown words, " Some of our brethren undertook for him [theemperor] in secret session the role of defenders, others that ofaccusers, in order that through thesis and antithesis, accordingto the method of the customary disputations in the schools,the truth might be most thoroughly proven."What went on in those secret sessions is not difficult toconjecture from the public acts of accusation which weredrawn up for the benefit of the whole asssembly. Frederickis called the prince of tyranny, the effacer of the Church'sdogma, the master of cruelty, the destroyer of the universe,the hammer of the whole earth, and more of the kind. " ForFREDERICK II. AND INNOCENT IV. 391inasmuch as four times and more he has committed thecrime of high treason, and through all the crimes mentionedand many others, has so robbed himself of all imperial androyal power, that a new election must be gone through withby the princes: see to it that one so vicious and unrepentantdo not again arise to the shame of the princes and to the ruinof the world. Rather, as a warning to these same mightyprinces, give over this man, drunk with the blood of so manysaints, to everlasting ignominy. Wipe out the name and theoffspring of this Babylonian; let his name be forgotten,inasmuch as he is boundlessly unmerciful and cruel. "envoy.After the final decree of condemnation had been read, after Protest ofall who were bound in any way to the emperor had been loosed Frederick'sfrom their oaths, and all who should in any way assist him hadbeen declared excommunicate, Thaddeus of Suessa, Frederick'srepresentative, rose in solemn protest. At the beginning ofthe session he had declared again that the council was notuniversal, and had been told that it was as much so as theambushes of the emperor would allow. He now exclaimed, ifMatthew Paris can be believed, " This is the day of wrath, ofmisery, and of anguish, " and foretold the end of all things.The Pope answered: "I have done what I was bound to do,may God fulfil it according to His will. " The clergy loweredtheir torches to the ground to the sound of the " Te Deum. "Frederick, after his deposition, wrote circular letters to theprinces and prelates of Europe. He declared that no law,divine or human, had conferred on the Pope the right todispose of empires, or to punish princes by depriving them oftheir temporal dignities. He denounced the whole manner ofprocedure of the council, and, finally, attacked the corruptionand greed of the clergy and the abuse which they made oftheir power. " Devoured with ambition they hope that thewhole Jordan will flow into their mouths.them your hand they will take your arm all the way up to theelbow. Join yourselves to us and we will look to ittogether that they lose what is superfluous, that they servethe Lord henceforward and content themselves with little."·• If you reachFrederick to the princesofEurope.392 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Innocent's letter.Hostileutterances.The war inItaly.66Frederick had often declared that his own cause was thecause of the kings and princes to whom he was writing.Innocent wisely undertook to refute this assertion, arguingthat there was a difference between a king whose throne washereditary and an emperor who had been chosen by theprinces and consecrated at Rome. At the same time he madea strong defence of his own almost god- like prerogatives:As to the imperial dignity, was it not the papacy whichtransferred it from the Greeks to the Romans and fromConstantinople to Rome? . . . Can the successor of theApostle not judge kings? Has it not been said to him,' Behold, I have set thee over kings and kingdoms to the endthat thou shouldst uproot and plant? ' . . . It is not only asacerdotal rule but aroyal domination that Christ has founded."The war between the empire and the papacy was now morethan ever a conflict of irreconcilable principles; in passingsentence upon Frederick the Pope had declared: " we and ourbrothers the cardinals will maintain the struggle for the causeof God and of the Church until our last breath. " Frederick,for his part, gave the world to understand that hitherto hehad played the part of anvil, but that now he was determinedto undertake the role of hammer....An effort was made by Louis IX. of France to bring abouta peace between the two great adversaries, and Innocent IV.and twelve cardinals spent a week with the French monarchat Cluny; but neither then nor through the correspondencethat followed was any result achieved.In various parts of Italy hostilities were now resumed;Frederick was efficiently aided by Ezzelino da Romano, byKing Enzio, and by Count Thomas of Savoy. No great actiontook place, but, on the whole, the emperor's cause was in theascendant. Before the end of the year 1246, he seemed onthe point of being able to bring the Pope to terms . Enziojoined him in Western Lombardy, and in the spring of 1247all was ready for a combined undertaking against Innocent.But at this juncture the loss of Parma, which was importantas dominating the way to Tuscany, and which had beenFREDERICK II. AND INNOCENT IV. 393counted on as a sure Ghibelline stronghold, caused Frederickto hasten and attempt its recovery.Frederick'sAt this time a conspiracy in which those of his own house- Conspiracyhold were concerned, was made against the emperor's life . It againstwas headed by Tibald Francesco, a former Podesta of Parma, life.who is said to have been won by the promise of the Siciliancrown. The subjects of the latter land had already beenspecially exhorted by the Pope to throw off the yoke of "thesecond Nero, the master of lies, the corrupter of the world,despiser of the faith, and persecutor of the Church."The conspiracy was discovered by Frederick in time; manyof its leaders, together with the garrisons of the fortressesScala and Capaccio, where they had taken refuge, wereblinded, mutilated, and killed. One hundred and fifty personsperished in this way, and twenty-two women were sentencedto life-long imprisonment.favours the would-beIn a circular letter addressed to the sovereigns of Europe The PopeFrederick accused Innocent of having sharpened the swordthat had been intended for himself. The Pope was unwise assassins.enough soon to give colour to these charges by heapingrewards on those who had been engaged in the conspiracy andwho had escaped Frederick's wrath. The deed of gift to acertain ringleader, Pandulf Fasanella-or rather the copy ofit that the Pope kept in his own registry-is still extant.Forhis own part the Pope raised a countercharge of intendedmurder against the emperor, and is declared by MatthewParis, who has recently been convicted, however, of a tendencyto invent romantic details, never to have left his palace unlessattended by a bodyguard of men-at- arms.Meanwhile in Germany the efforts of the papal party hadbeen successful, and Henry Raspe, landgrave of Thuringia,had been elected king and future emperor.The election took place in May, 1246; already a monthbeforehand Innocent had been able to write to the princesthat the landgrave was ready to take upon himself theburden of the empire for the honour of God and of the Church,and for the protection of the Christian religion. "HenryRaspe as antiking.394 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The Germanprinces.Otto ofBavaria.HenryRaspe's success.The Pope had displayed an immense activity in the matter;his messengers had gone from end to end of Europe. Eventhe citizens of Lübeck had received a special writing exhortingthem to take the side of Henry. Nor did Innocent shrinkfrom expense; immediately after the election he sent the antiking ten thousand marks of silver, later he forwarded fifteenthousand more. He ordered that a crusade should be preachedagainst Frederick by the Archbishop of Mayence, but thelatter had already anticipated the command. The souls ofthose who fought in the good cause were to be freed from allsin.It was fortunate for the Hohenstaufens that many of theGerman princes showed indifference to and took no part in thestruggle while others declared against Henry Raspe. Theemperor failed indeed in his efforts to win Frederick the Warlike of Austria by raising that duchy to a kingdom and byoffering his own hand to the Austrian duke's niece and prospective heiress. The prince in question, however, died inthese days.The man whose partizanship proved most decisive andavailing for the emperor was Otto of Bavaria, a prince whosepolicy was chiefly prompted by jealousy of the King ofBohemia. The latter's son married that same daughter ofFrederick the Warlike whom the emperor had sought as hisown bride, and the Bohemian hoped in this way to gain forhis house the rich Austrian heritage. But the Wittlesbach,Otto, was unwilling to have so powerful a neighbour on hisboundary, and he declared for Frederick, to whose son,Conrad, he wedded his own daughter Elizabeth. The ceremonytook place in all haste, September 1st, 1246.The one great and only success of Henry Raspe's short reignwas a battle fought at Frankfort, where he had determined tohold a diet, with the young King Conrad, who had tried toprevent the assembly. Conrad was deserted after the fightinghad already commenced by a part of his Suabian nobles whohad been bribed by the Pope. One sees that there was nodepth to which the successor of Peter would not descend forFREDERICK II. AND INNOCENT IV. 395the sake of ruining the race to which he bore so intense ahatred.The victory of the antiking was complete; many of Conrad'sfollowers were killed, six hundred knights were carried awaycaptive.Henry held his diet after the battle and at it, in obedienceto the papal injunctions, the Archbishops of Salzburg andBremen, ten bishops and five abbots were excommunicated forhaving remained true to the Hohenstaufens. The majorityof those thus punished, however, later submitted to Innocent.Frederick II. , at the news of the progress which the rivalking was making, determined to return with an army fromItaly, and to conduct the war in person; but there was noneed. Conrad recovered from the blow that he had received,and, supported by Bavaria, was soon able to hold his own.Henry Raspe prepared for a winter campaign in Suabia. Death ofHe held a diet at Nuremburg, and then, towards the end of Henry Raspe.January, besieged Ulm. After a few days he was compelledby want of provender, and by an illness which befell himself,to raise the siege and to return to Thuringia. A fall fromhis horse increased his malady, and he died in the WartburgFebruary 16th, 1247. At the news of this misfortune thepapal party became so demoralized for the moment that thelegate, Philip, first concealed himself, and then hastily fledfrom the land.Henry Raspe has generally been represented as a cowardand a weakling; his conduct during the few months that hereigned shows nothing to justify such accusations. It is impossible to say whether or not he was capable of accomplishinggreat things had a longer rule been granted to him.Innocent IV. showed no intention of ceasing from his perse- Innocentcution of the house of Hohenstaufen. His party employed IV. does not desist.the short period of quiet that ensued on Henry's death inpreparing new forces, and in finding a new candidate for thethrone.In May, 1247, Innocent published the sharpest edict thata Pope had yet invented against an emperor. Those who396 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.William ofHolland.Aixbesieged.still remained faithful to Frederick were not to be admittedto give testimony in court, or to perform any other legalfunctions; should they be pursued for crimes, and have fledto a church, they were to be denied the ordinary right ofasylum. No one, under pain of anathema and interdict, wasto have any intercourse or in any way to carry on trade withthe emperor's supporters.The crown of the empire was offered now to various princes,to the Count of Gelders, the Duke of Brabant, Richard ofCornwall -who all, however, refused. It was finally acceptedby William of Holland, a youth of twenty, who was electedat Worringen, October 3rd, 1247. The assembly which chosehim consisted chiefly of prelates, and of Rhenish and Westphalian nobles. But one prince of importance was present,the Duke of Brabant.Innocent at this time again caused the cross to be preachedagainst Frederick, and gave his legate a general permissionto change the objects of vows already taken against theheathen if Palestine had not been expressly mentioned byname. In William's hereditary lands even this feeble exceptionwas omitted .In this way William was able to raise a considerable army;in the lower Rhenish provinces, and in the land between theMaas and the Ems, he soon gained recognition.His greatest acquisition was Cologne; the city closed atreaty which was full, indeed, on his part, of the unworthiestconcessions. The Pope sent his thanks to " the glorious, andas it were, the only city of Germany; which surpasses allothers in size, fame, and power."It was expected that Aix would follow Cologne's example,and a diet was summoned to meet there. But the cityproved refractory, as did also Kaiserswerth, and Williamspent the whole winter in preparing to besiege these twostrongholds. It was almost a year before he was able toenter the old coronation city, and to have that ceremony performed. The true crown being still in the hands of theHohenstaufens a new one was prepared.FREDERICK II. AND INNOCENT IV. 397William of Holland's elevation to the throne was only ofinterest to a small part of the empire. It did little to stemthe anarchy that was at this time rampant all over Germanyas well as in Italy. Guelph was fighting Ghibelline in everycorner of the one country as of the other. There were feudsand wars in Bavaria and Franconia, and on the Suabian,Austrian, and Bohemian boundaries; a few sieges more orless made little difference.•Siege of Parma by Frederick II.The taking of Vittoria.CHAPTER XXVI.THE LAST OF THE HOHENSTAUFENS AND THE INTERREGNUM.THEHE star of the Hohenstaufens was sinking beneath athreatening horizon, and over a political sea that hadalready began to rage violently. The young King Conrad madewhat efforts he could to better the state of affairs, but, in themain, was obliged to keep on the defensive. He had neitherstrong allies nor pecuniary resources .The emperor meanwhile had been engaged in besiegingParma. That city had been wrested from the Ghibellines bya number of its own Guelphic exiles, assisted by partisans ofInnocent from neighbouring towns. Frederick had beenobliged to give up an intended expedition into Burgundy forthe purpose of attacking the Pope in Lyons.Parma, as has been said, was particularly important fromits position; Frederick had reason to fear, too, that if it werenot recovered other Italian communes would fall into thehands of the papal party. The siege was carried on withvigour, but the defence was courageous and determined.Frederick caused his camp to be laid out inthe form of a city,with streets, houses, and churches; he intended that Parma,once in his power, should be given over to destruction, and thatthe inhabitants should settle in his new foundation, to which,confidant as he was of success, he gave the name Vittoria.By February, 1248, Parma had been almost reduced tosubjection, and for three months no supplies had entered thecity. But all at once the carelessness of the besiegers altogether reversed the order of affairs. The emperor had goneon a hunting expedition, leaving Vittoria with but a scantyTHE HOHENSTAUFENS AND THE INTERREGNUM. 399garrison, when the Parmesans made a quick sally from theircity, and possessed themselves of the new settlement. Theyset fire to its wooden houses, reducing the town to heap ofashes. Fifteen hundred of the enemy, among them Thaddeusof Suessa, are reported to have been killed, three thousand tohave been taken prisoner.Frederick returned from the hunt to find the work ofmonths undone; he gathered together the débris of his armyand retreated to Cremona. His sceptre, crown, and seal, aswell as his harem, remained in the hands of the victors.The result of the events at Parma was to greatly encouragethe followers of Innocent, to whose side Ravenna and almostall the cities of the Romagna now passed over.During the next two years Frederick regained much of hisinfluence, but it was a hard up-hill fight that he fought; the Peter de lamore so as treason was once more found to lurk in his imme- Vigne.diate vicinity. Peter de la Vigne had been the emperor'scherished friend and counsellor as well as the judge of theroyal court; he had been sent, too, on many an importantand confidential mission. How much Frederick thought ofhim may be gathered from the fact that in the palace atCapua one painting represented the emperor together withde la Vigne and with Thaddeus of Suessa, another the emperoron his throne and Peter in his judicial chair.Whether Frederick's suspicions were well- founded or not isa matter of dispute, but at Cremona in February, 1249, hehad Peter de la Vigne arrested on a charge of having attemptedto poison him. According to one account a physician bribedby Peter, according to another Peter himself, had presentedthe emperor with a deadly potion. Frederick maintainedthat the chief responsibility for the intended crime restedwith the Pope.Peter de la Vigne, after almost falling a victim to the rageof the inhabitants of Cremona, was carried to Borgo SanDonnino, where he was judged by a number of commissioners.He was then taken to San Miniato, where his eyes were burntout with red hot irons. At Pisa, on the way to Sicily, whereDeath ofPeter de la Vigne.400 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Enzio'scaptivity.Frederick'sdeath,1250 A.D.it was intended that he should pass the rest of his days, heput an end to his own life by dashing his brains out againstthe stone pillar of a church.A misfortune even more severe than the treason and deathof his once faithful adviser was still reserved for Frederick.At the time of de la Vigne's arrest the young king Enzio hadbeen wedded at Cremona to a niece of Ezzelino da Romano.A few months afterwards he, the emperor's favourite son andmost devoted adherent, was taken prisoner by the Bolognesein an insignificant skirmish at Fossalta. A number of hisfollowers were likewise captured.Frederick did his utmost to procure his son's release, butall his efforts were in vain. For the next twenty-three yearsthe unfortunate prince languished in confinement. Death atlast put an end to his sorrows in the year 1272.In spite of all his trials Frederick's position in 1250 wasby no means desperate. The Pope's prestige had received asevere blow through the failure of the crusade of Louis ofFrance and, on the whole, the balance of power in the Italiancities was with the imperialists. In Germany, too, Conrad'scause was slightly in the ascendant, and he had made successful ravaging expeditions against the territory of hisopponents.But the emperor's chequered career was now at an end.He fell a victim to dysentery while on the march from Foggiato Luceria, December 13th, 1250. At the last the Archbishopof Palermo removed the church's ban, and Frederick wasburied in the Cathedral at Palermo where his magnificentporphyry mausoleum still stands.In 1781, during some repairs to the cathedral, this tombwas opened by order of the government. It was discoveredthat two other bodies had later been placed with Frederick,the one that of Peter of Arragon, who died in 1346, the otherthat of a person unknown. The great emperor's remainswere found to be in a perfect state of preservation except forthe fact that the weight of these bodies superimposed uponhim had somewhat flattened his features.THE HOHENSTAUFENS AND THE INTERREGNUM. 401His head, which lay on a leather cushion, bore a crown; thegarments in which he was attired are supposed to have beenthose worn at his imperial consecration.The imperial orb was there but, contrary to usage, was surmounted by no cross. A cross sewn on to his cloak, however,served as a reminder that the dead monarch had once been acrusader.1250-1254.According to Frederick II.'s will King Conrad IV. and, in Conrad IV. ,the event of the latter's death another son, Henry, was tosucceed to the throne in Sicily. As a last possibility, Manfred,whosebirth had been legitimatized shortly before the emperor'sdeath, was to uphold the honour of the Hohenstaufens.Conrad, whose reign thus far had been one of continualhardships and trials -on one occasion he had barely escapedfalling victim to an attempt upon his life-now gave up thestruggle in Germany and hastened to claim his Sicilian inheritance. In January, 1252 , he joined his brother Manfred,who had been occupied in the meantime in mastering variousuprisings in Southern Italy.Innocent IV. steadily refused all overtures made to him bythe young king, against whom he caused a crusade to bepreached. He sent special writings to many princes, and anencyclical writing to all the cities of Germany in favour ofWilliam of Holland. William came in person to Lyons wherehe remained with Innocent several days. On the occasionof a great public function he held the stirrup of the papalcharger.In order to provide himself with a strong ally, Innocentinduced the Lombard cities to renew their league. He offeredSicily in turn to Richard Cornwallis, brother of Henry III.of England, to Charles of Anjou, and to Henry III.'s son, theyouthful Edmund, who finally accepted. His father raisedthe enormous sums which the Pope demanded, and in March,1254, Edmund was invested by a papal legate with Sicily asa fief of the Roman see. He never took possession of theland, however, and Henry III. soon had need of the monieshe had raised for his own wars with France.D D402 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Conrad IV.'s death.Manfred.Charles ofAnjou.At this time Conrad IV. , who had raised an army of 20,000men, prepared to, strike a decisive blow. He was carriedaway, however, by a fever contracted while besieging Naples.Conrad had always intended, after subjecting Italy, to returnand take up the struggle in Germany. He had left his queenthere and she, in 1252, had borne him a son--Conradino asthe Italians called him. The guardianship of this son, Conradon dying gave to his own arch-enemy Innocent IV.It wasan experiment that had once worked well for the Hohenstaufens in the case of Frederick II. , but this time, althoughInnocent IV. had first accepted the charge, it was destinednot to succeed.Conrad IV. and his brother Manfred had, at the last, nolonger been on good terms with each other. The one wasGerman at heart, the other Italian. Manfred finally becamereconciled to the Pope, accepted the office of lieutenant of thekingdom of Sicily, and, shortly before Innocent's death, whichoccurred in December, 1256, held the bridle of the latter'spalfrey at Naples. He soon tired of his position as papalvassal, however, and hurried to Lucera, where the Saracensreceived him with open arms. He gained a victory at Foggiaover the papal troops, and caused Alexander IV. , the successorof Innocent, to flee from Naples.Manfred then proceeded to take possession of one provinceafter another, and, in August, 1258, to the exclusion of therights of the young Conradino, caused himself to be crownedat Palermo as King of Sicily.His reign proved rather a boon than otherwise for the land,but, in February, 1265, Pope Clement IV. signed a treatywith Charles of Anjou, brother of the King of France, transferring to him all rights over the Sicilian kingdom.66Charles of Anjou, whose rule of oppression was to form theprelude to the cruel Sicilian Vespers, entered Italy at thehead of a brilliant army. The Pope greeted him as aCharles the Great, son of Pippin." He was crowned at Rome,in the church of St. Peter's, by five cardinals, the Pope himself not being able to enter the city because of debts whichTHE HOHENSTAUFENS AND THE INTERREGNUM. 403the Holy See had contracted, and for which he was held personally responsible.A.D.The great reckoning with Manfred took place at Benevento Manfred'sin February, 1266. That unfortunate prince, after making a death, 1266brave resistance, fell in the thickest of the fight. The Frenchknights, his victors, are said, as a token of homage to hisvalour, to have each carried a stone to the place where he wasburied, near the bridge of Benevento. He was soon exhumedfrom his honourable place of rest by order of the papal legate,and his remains were thrown in the Volturno.There remained one scion of the great race whose destinies Conradino .have concerned us so long. The young Conradino, who hadbeen brought up at Constance by his uncles, the Count Palatine and the Duke of Bavaria, was now fifteen years of age.After the death of Manfred, fugitives from Benevento cameto offer him the crown of Sicily, and the prospect of eventuallybecoming emperor.A proclamation was now issued in Germany protestingagainst the rule of Charles of Anjou over Sicily, and callingfor knights to join the young Hohenstaufen. With an armyof 6,000 men Conradino crossed the Brenner in October, 1267,being received at Pisa as the liberator of Italy. Rome outdidherself in bidding him welcome, and one of her senators proclaimed him emperor in the Capitol.None the less , as Clement IV. is said to have remarked,Conradino was going " like a lamb to the slaughter."The battle ofTagliacozzo ,1268 A.D. Tagliacozzo, near the Abruzzian Mountains, was the sceneof the final effort of a Hohenstaufen to regain the lands ofhis fathers. The battle at first went against the French, buta sudden charge of Charles of Anjou and a thousand of hisbest knights changed the fortunes of the day.Conradino escaped from the field and fled first to Rome, and Conradino'sfrom there to the sea coast, where one of the Frangipani, aformer Ghibelline, to whom he incautiously revealed hisidentity, gave him up to Charles. He was taken to Naples,and, together with his faithful friend , Frederick of Austria,was publicly beheaded in the market place.death.404 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.William of Holland.The Rhine Confedera- tion.Many details were later invented concerning this tragicscene, the more so as it became a favourite theme for thetroubadours. All that is really known is that the boy ofseventeen showed the courage of his race, and met his deathwith calmness.How little William of Holland's kingship signified forGermany, to turn back to the affairs of that land, may begathered from the fact that he was able to spend nearly twoyears (February, 1253, to January, 1255) in the Netherlands,where he was engaged for the most part in a feud with theCountess of Flanders. He had somewhat strengthened hiscause, indeed, by marrying, in 1252, the daughter of Otto ofBrunswick, the descendant of Henry the Lion. He had alsobeen recognized by the Duke of Saxony and the Margrave ofBrandenburg.Of great importance for William was the formation of alarge and well-organized confederation of the Rhine cities,which, after Conrad's death, placed itself at his disposal. Itwas soon joined by the cities of Westphalia. The avowedobject of the confederation was to gain protection for itsmembers against violence and against unjust tolls; its idealwas to found a general peace. It gave itself a military organization, and prepared to form a large fleet which shouldprotect its interests on the Rhine.Had William of Holland not received assurances of fidelityand support from the newly-founded league, it is more thanprobable that he would have resigned his crown in favour ofOttokar of Bohemia. He was surrounded everywhere bypowerful enemies. The Archbishop of Cologne went so far inhis hostility as to set fire to the house in which the king washaving a conference with the papal legate, and the augustpair barely escaped with their lives.It is interesting to note that while joining his cause to thatof the league, William did not confirm the latter as an alreadyexisting power, but pretended, as it were, to be its founder.His object was to represent the organization as one not independent of, but subject to the central power; and he ignoredTHE HOHENSTAUFENS AND THE INTERREGNUM. 405those acts which had taken place before the league had wonhis own sanction.William held a diet at Worms in January, 1255, at which,for the first time in the history of the empire, deputies froma large number of cities were present.A.D.William of Holland lost his life in an expedition against his William'shereditary enemies the Frisians, January, 1256. His reign death, 1256had embraced one of the most dreary periods in the whole ofGerman history, yet his death was a misfortune, for he wasbeginning to restore peace and order to a part at least of theland.Germany was now to suffer the greatest shame that hadyet befallen her; no worthy candidate from her own princesnow came forward for her vacant throne. She became thespoil of foreigners, who desired the possession of her royaltitle as a means to the conquest of Italy.It was the Rhenish cities which at this time seemed aboutto enter the lists successfully for the preservation of law andorder. They declared that the princes must proceed at onceto a proper election; should two or more kings be chosen,they, the cities, would refuse to acknowledge any one of thecandidates-they would lend him no money nor would theyallow him to enter their precincts. Would that the cities hadremained firm in the patriotic attitude which they hadassumed. But differences made themselves felt, and dissensions crept in among them. Those especially which wereunder the rule of bishops, like Cologne, Mayence, Spires, andWorms, were soon following the selfish and disjointed policy of their masters.Two foreigners, Alphonse of Castile and Richard Cornwallis came forward and vied for the throne. Alphonsehad already caused himself to be elected Roman king andemperor by Pisa, and king by the town of Marseilles-vainand empty ceremonies, the significance of which is hard tocomprehend.The great importance of the election of 1257 lies in the fact The rise ofthat here, for the first time, the electoral college, with its the electoralcollege.406 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The sevenelectors .The double election of1257.seven members, appeared as a complete and exclusive organization with power to choose whom it would. Seven princeshad risen so in power and influence above their fellows,that to them alone belonged the right to give a head to theirnation.It is one of the unsolved problems of German history toknow exactly howthis change came about. In the electionsof Henry VII. , of Conrad IV. , of Henry Raspe and of Williamof Holland, a number of lesser princes had been concerned;they were now suddenly thrust in the background.Already in the Sachsenspiegel, the great law- book whichwas published about 1230, the theory had been advanced thatthe chief votes in the election belonged to six princes; thearchbishops of Mayence, Cologne, and Treves, the Count Palatine, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg.The reason for mentioning these men and not others seems tohave been that they actually were already the representativesof their fellow princes at the ceremony of the coronation.The provision of the Sachsenspiegel remained merely atheory for nearly a generation, but it is highly probable thatafter William of Holland's death and after two or more fruitless diets had been held concerning a new election, the methodthere proposed was adopted by consent of the princes.To the original six members mentioned in the Sachsenspiegel came as a seventh the King of Bohemia , who claimedhis position as being chief steward of the empire. His votewas at first disputed, but the Pope upheld him and theGerman people soon came to look upon him as an elector. Inthe double election that now took place his vote was eagerlysought after by both parties, there being three votes for eachcandidate.The Archbishops of Mayence and Cologne and the CountPalatine, who shared his vote with his brother, Henry ofBavaria, declared for Richard Cornwallis; the Archbishop ofTreves, the Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg for Alphonse of Castile.The King of Bohemia, strange as it may seem, gave his voteTHE HOHENSTAUFENS AND THE INTERREGNUM. 407to both candidates. It is probable that his envoy used theunlimited powers conferred upon him in favour of the one,while the king himself was gained over personally for theother. It is also probable that even had Bohemia actedotherwise, the schism would still have taken place; forRichard's electors were determined, if need be, to count astwo the votes of the Count Palatine and his brother.Richard Cornwallis came to Aix-la- Chapelle and wascrowned there with great pomp and circ*mstance. The expenses of the ceremony as well as the enormous sums withwhich, as previously stipulated, he was obliged to reward hiselectors, caused him to draw heavily on his resources."Foolish England, " exclaims a Hamburg chronicler of thetime, "which has deprived itself voluntarily of so manypence! Foolish princes of Germany who have sold for moneytheir noble prerogative! "One result of the double election was the practical dissolution of the Rhine Confederation; the cities now took sideswith the one king or the other. Aix- la-Chapelle had set theexample by receiving Richard within its walls. A number ofother cities such as Frankfort, Nuremburg, Wetzlar, andGelnhausen followed suit and acknowledged the Englishprince in return for privileges which made them almost independent of the empire. Richard was obliged to promise, too,to absolve the citizens from their oath of fealty should hisown election not be ratified by the Pope, and should a kingwho should be generally recognized as lawful be raised upagainst him.One remarkable feature of the history of Germany at thistime is the lack of interest that the nation as a whole took inthe matter of the king and the antiking. No one seemsto have known on the whole which was which, and no onecared enough to take to arms for the cause of either. NoGerman annalist concerns himself with these affairs at all , andwe are dependent for most of our information on Englishchroniclers and on papal letters.End ofRhine Con- federation .Alphonse of Castile, occupied as he was with the affairs of Alphonse of Castile.408 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.RichardCornwallis.Theimperial crown.his Spanish kingdom and with his wars against the Moors,never once appeared in Germany. At the beginning he hadfully intended to do so and, like Richard, had squanderedlarge sums of money. But in the end he came to look uponhis German dignity as the merest honorary title, a necessarypreliminary to the longed for imperial crown.Many of the great nobles, indeed, on Germany's westernboundary considered themselves vassals of Alphonse, andwent to Spain to be invested with their fiefs. As a matter offact they were practically their own masters, and troubledthemselves little about their distant suzerain.Richard Cornwallis tried for a time to do his duty to theland over which he had become king, but possessing as he didno crown estates in Germany, and entangled as he was in thedisputes between the crown and the nobles in England, heaccomplished nothing. He returned after a year and a halfto the land of his birth, where he henceforth passed by far thegreater part of his time.The empire meanwhile was left to its own dissensions.Each prince was striving to develop into an independentterritorial lord, and constant disputes arose as to the properboundaries between one neighbour and another. The landwas full of petty feuds and jealousies innumerable..66Neither Richard Cornwallis nor his rival was crownedemperor at Rome; great efforts, indeed, had been made in thisdirection, but without success. The popes remained neutraluntil a process which had been instituted in the matterat Rome, but which had dragged on for years, should havebeen decided. Urban IV. went so far as to address bothkings in turn as elected king of the Romans," andClement IV.'s plan was that both kings should abdicate anda third person should be elected. After Manfred's death theprospect of having once more a really German king inConradino seems to have met with general approval amongthe princes, but we have seen the outcome of the youngHohenstaufen's prior undertaking against Charles of Anjou.After Conradino's execution efforts were made to bring for-THE HOHENSTAUFENS AND THE INTERREGNUM. 409ward Frederick III. , as he was called, a son of Frederick II.'sdaughter Margaret and of the Margrave of Meissen . Themajority of the princes, however, saw plainly that nothingwas to be gained by such a proceeding-instead of two therewould have been three nominal heads of Germany.death.With the accession of Gregory X. to the pontifical throne, Richard'sin 1272, the process concerning the German throne seemedlikely to be brought at last to a conclusion. But a higherpower stepped in and rendered the continuance of thatprocess unnecessary. The news came of Richard's illnessand death, and no one troubled themselves any more aboutAlphonse of Castile.Alphonse, indeed, now demanded from the Pope the End oftheimperial consecration and coronation as his own undoubted interregnum.right, but he found no favour in the eyes of Gregory X.The latter proceeded to take a step that was to be thesalvation of Germany. He fairly commanded the electors tohasten and make a new choice; in case of refusal he threatenedthat he and his cardinals would give the empire a head.The so-called interregnum, which had lasted since 1250, wasat an end; the fearful time of anarchy was over and a neworder of things began.One of the first proceedings of the new ruler, Rudolph ofHapsburg, was to annul, with consent of the electors, allpublic measures that had been passed by the kings who hadreigned since the deposition of Frederick II.Colonization of Slavic lands by Germans.System of landholding inthe villages.CHAPTER XXVII.INTERNAL CHANGES AND DEVELOPMENTS IN THE TWELFTHDAND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES.URING all the years in which the Hohenstaufens hadbeen occupied with their bitter wars against the papacy,Germany of her own accord had been making wonderful progress in social, agricultural, and intellectual matters. In theeleventh century she possessed little more than the landsbetween the Elbe, Rhine, and Danube; by the fourteenth shehad doubled her territory, had extended her bounds to theBaltic and the river Vistula, and had peopled Bohemia,Silesia, and even Transylvania with her colonists.Anew field of activity had been discovered, and in workingit, all the experience of past generations was brought to bear.Peasants and citizens, knights and clergy from all parts ofGermany wandered out to the Slavic lands in the north and inthe east. Their new settlements were unhampered by oldtraditions; their mode of life became more free anddemocratic.Various causes tended to induce men to leave their homesand seek their fortunes elsewhere. Chief among them, forcultivators at least, was lack of space in their native villages.All through the Middle Ages the unit of landed possessionfor the village communities was the manse or hufe, whichcomprised room for house and garden, the right of using thecommon village pastures and also a certain number of parcelsof agricultural land . These parcels were distributed amongthe three fields , or three greater divisions of land, one ofwhich was to lie idle each year in order that the soil mightINTERNAL CHANGES AND DEVELOPMENTS. 411improve. As a rule about thirty acres of agricultural landwould generally fall to the share of each possessor, whoseparcels, however, being assigned by lot, did not necessarilyadjoin each other.the newBy the twelfth century the inconveniences of this system Betterhad come to make themselves widely felt. To reach one of system inhis own lots or plots the farmer had to cross his neighbour's districts.land; it was necessary, therefore, in order to avoid spoilingcrops already sown, for all to plough, sow, and harvest at thesame time. This was, naturally, a great hardship for activemen who had to accommodate themselves to the ways of theirslower neighbours.The great attraction for those who emigrated and becamecolonists was that in the new districts to which they wereinvited, or in which they arranged with the lord of the landto become settlers, the different parcels of land were nolonger scattered. A long central street was usually laid outand from this each man's allotment ran backward in a longstrip, if necessary over hill and dale.The new manse, too—the mansus regalis as this measurement was usually called-was almost invariably double the sizeof the old.The thinly populated Slavic lands in North-eastern Germany, in Silesia, and in Transylvania were rich in marshydistricts, in moorlands, and in uncut forests that werealtogether uninhabited . The methods of agriculture of theSlavs were far more primitive than those of the Germans;the process of reclaiming lands, so familiar already to theDutch and to the Flemings, was to them entirely unknown.Many of the Slavic land-owners now called in the Germans assettlers and divided their districts among them on the new.system that was everywhere coming into vogue.Germans called in bySlavs themselves.It was with four great groups of Slavs that the German Differentcolonists came, peacefully or otherwise, into contact; the groups of Slavs.Tschecks and Moravians, the Poles, the Baltic tribes, and theSorbs.The Tschecks were settled in the present Bohemia, and412 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Peculiaritiesof Slavicvillages.Henry the Lion and Albrecht thethe Slavs.the Moravians, as now, adjoined them on the east and spoketheir language. The Poles possessed at this time an immensestretch of territory, and were destined to play a large part in German as well as in Swedish and Russian history. TheBaltic Slavs consisted of the Pomeranians, Liutitians, andAbodrites; their land was flourishing, and Danzig and Wollinhad already been founded, the one at the mouth of theVistula, the other of the Oder. The Sorbs, whose descendants in the Spreewald, about fifty miles from Berlin, stillkeep their language and their quaint costume, had settlements at that time which extended over a large part of thepresent kingdom of Saxony.The Slavs, as has been intimated, possessed no really practical method of agriculture. They had established themselveswherever the land seemed easy to cultivate. Their villageswere of a circular form, and did not admit of being enlarged;it accordingly frequently became necessary to found newones.In Bohemia and Silesia there were villages under the protection of Slavic princes, where the inhabitants all pursuedone trade or occupation; Tscheckish names still exist toremind us of such places. Kolodéja, for instance, was oncethe village of the wheel- makers, as the word itself implies;Mydlovary, in like manner, has perpetuated the memory ofthose who were engaged in boiling soap.The Slavs along the Elbe were in a lower state of civilization than those in Bohemia; it was against them that theOttos had fought, that Meissen had been founded, and thatthe Billungs had won their laurels.It is with Henry the Lion and Albrecht the Bear that thegreat increase of the empire's boundaries at the expense ofBear against the Slavs may be said to have begun. Albrecht, originallypossessed of lands in the present Anhalt, where his descendants still rule, was given the North Mark by the EmperorLothar in 1134. This embraced the present Altmark andthe tongue of land between the Elbe and the Havel. Albrecht'schief goal was the incorporation of the Slavic territories ofINTERNAL CHANGES AND DEVELOPMENTS. 413Havelberg and Brandenburg into his new dominions. Thishe accomplished in the one case by violence, in the other bya treaty, Brandenburg falling to him by inheritance after thedeath of its prince, Pribislav Henry, in 1150.Both Albrecht and Henry the Lion took part in the crusadeof 1147 against the Wends; the results of the undertakingwere small, but the terrible devastation and depopulation ofthe land prepared the way for the calling in of Germancolonists.Count Adolf II. of Holstein, a vassal of Henry the Lion,had in the meantime been doing much to carry Germanculture into Slavic lands. He it was who, in 1143, havingcalled in Flemish, Dutch, Westphalian, and Frisian colonists,began the building of Lubeck, which in both senses was tobe the first German city on the Baltic.Lion's conquests.For his own part Henry the Lion had at first found it to Henry thehis advantage to favour the Slavic princes on his borders andto accept their tribute. In 1160, however, he determined toconquer the land of the Abodrites in spite of the fact thatit* prince, Niklot, had been his friend and ally. Niklot fellafter a heroic resistance, but in 1164 his son defeated theSaxons and regained for himself the land of his father.As a fief of the empire, however, with which he remained on terms of peace. He was the founder of the twomodern duchies of Mecklenburg Strelitz and MecklenburgSchwerin.Henry the Lion next proceeded to attempt the conquestof Pomerania and Rügen. As regards the latter place theDanes were before him, and founded a rule which lasteduntil the time of the Reformation. In Pomerania Henry wasmore fortunate. In common with Albrecht's successor, Ottoof Brandenburg, he reduced the land to subjection.Flemish It was, on the whole, the Dutch and the Flemings that Dutch andproved most successful in the matter of colonizing conqueredlands. Accustomed as they were to low moorland, theyundertook the cultivation of tracts that had hitherto seemedworthless. To them was due the credit of reclaiming the414 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Discovery ofsilver mines.burg.· marshes around Bremen, and their methods were largelyadopted by other German settlers.The territory around the Erzgebirge on the eastern borderof the present Saxony was settled in feverish haste, not byfarmers, but by miners. Here, near Freiberg, silver wasdiscovered about the year 1160, and a rush was made for theplace. By 1225 Freiberg had come to have no less than fivedifferent churches and parishes. Tin and copper were alsofound in the neighbourhood, and around each promisingcentre German settlements arose.Colonization About 1160 began the systematic colonization of Brandenof Branden- burg by Albrecht the Bear. He had but shortly beforesuppressed a Slavic rebellion, and seems now to have adoptedthe principle that the Slavs had no longer right or title to thelands which had so long been theirs. They were given awayright and left to the followers of the margrave and to the newsettlers. The former owners took refuge in the forests orfounded miserable hamlets on the seashore. Only a fewremnants of them can be traced in the following centuries;we know, for instance, that as late as 1752, in Lüchow, nearHanover, sermons were preached in the Slavic tongue.Influence of the Church.Themonkish orders.The Slavs were treated by the Germans much as the laterredskins by their American conquerors; in certain districtsthe war against them was one of extermination. In thecounty of Schwerin, about the year 1170, we hear of an orderbeing given that every Slav who could not answer certaininquiries about himself should be strung up to the nearesttree.The influence of the Church must not be forgotten in connection with this work of Germanizing Slavic lands. In thewake of the farmers followed the clergy, and churches andchapels soon dotted the landscape. In Meissen to- day, inthe former land of the Sorbs, remains of this early colonialarchitecture are still to be seen.The monkish orders were especially active in furtheringcolonization. The first to take the field were the Premonstratensians, founded by Norbert, Archbishop of Magdeburg·INTERNAL CHANGES AND DEVELOPMENTS. 415from 1126 to 1134. By 1150 they had already establishedthemselves as far north as the island of Usedom. After1170 their influence yielded to that of the Cistercians, whoseorder had been founded by Bernard of Clairvaux.The Cistercian monasteries, founded one after the other inrough uncultivated districts, proved very oases in the desert,and worked their civilizing influence in every direction. Theirmonks took the matter of colonizing the reclaimed lands intotheir own hands, and called in Dutch and other settlers asoccasion demanded.The Teutonic Order proved in the end the most successful The Teuof all civilizing and Germanizing agents. The knights were tonic Order.called in to Transylvania at the beginning of the thirteenthcentury by King Andreas II. of Hungary. They undertookthe defence of the boundary against the Kumani, a tribe ofplunderers.The rapid progress which the Order made, and the independent power which it seemed about to found soon awakenedthe fears of King Andreas, and, after fourteen years, theknights were banished. The Order was transplanted toPrussia, where an immense field of activity awaited it.The Prussians, a people who were divided into many stems The Prusand tribes, lived in the land between the Vistula and the sians.Memel. They were about on a level of civilization with theGermans of the time of Tacitus; their priests sacrificed tothe gods and tended a never-dying flame.It was at the hands of the Prussians that St. Adalbert, thefriend of Otto III. , had met his death; since then there hadbeen various attempts at conversion, some of which had metwith no small success. About 1215, however, there was aterrible uprising against the new teachings, and the heathenraged so furiously that a crusade was preached against themin Poland and Germany. The failure of this crusade showedthe necessity for more radical measures; Herrmann of Salza,friend alike of Frederick II. and of the Popes who opposedhim, procured permission for his Order to undertake the difficult task and to take possession of a large tract of land. It416 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Conquests ofthe Teutonic Order.Struggles of the Order.Marienburg.was expressly stipulated that the Order should be independentof the Polish Church, and that its land as well as its futureconquests should form a separate principality of the HolyRoman Empire.This was in 1226; by 1231 the knights had crossed theVistula and founded the town of Thorn, and already a yearlater the whole bank of the river between Thorn and Kulmhad come into their possession. In 1233 Marienwerder wasbegun, by 1237 the mouth of the Vistula had been reached.Colonists followed everywhere in the wake of the conquerors;not only peasants and burghers, but nobles as well. In 1236a grant of thousands of acres near Marienwerder was madeto the Noble Lord Dietrich of Tiefenau.The knights continued their conquests along the Baltic.They were assisted by the " Brothers of the Sword, " an orderwhich had been founded in Livonia at the beginning of thecentury, and which now gladly amalgamated itself with theTeutons. The next task was to conquer the land whichseparated the former seats of this new branch from those ofthe rest of the Teutons. The work was rapidly accomplished;in 1251 Memelburg was founded, in 1254 the important townof Königsberg.The Order now ruled over Prussia, Courland, Livonia, andthe land of the Lettes.Terrible revolts of the subjected peoples were still to bemet and put down. The next years were full of bloodshed,and the real struggle was found to have only commenced.The Prussians attempted to massacre all the Christians in theland; in the end they themselves were all killed , enslaved, or driven away.Several times the Order had been on the verge of destruction, but in the end it conquered. By 1283 the struggle wasover, and there was no more opposition to be feared. TheTeutons were soon able to extend their influence into Polandand Pomerellen, to which latter land the Margrave of Brandenburg was induced in 1308 to abandon all claim.In 1309 Marienburg was founded at the Delta of theINTERNAL CHANGES AND DEVELOPMENTS. 417Vistula, and became the capital as it were for the whole order.The ruins of this mighty fortress are to-day among the finestin all Europe.tion ofthe land of theThe land of the Teutonic Order came to be the best governed Administrastate of the later Middle Ages; it was divided up into districts,each with its own directory, and with a fortress for its central Order.point. The officials were all chosen from among the brothers,and there existed an admirable system of control. Every yearthere was a general calling to account, and the grand master,with the advice of the chapter, could depose, advance, ortransfer according as he saw fit.inBy the efforts of the Order a strong bastion to the north- Extension of east of Germany had now been formed against the Slavs; Brandenburg's the south Silesia was strong enough to fear no ordinary boundaries.attacks. Between the two that part of the Polish kingdomwhich comprises the present province of Posen made a greatindentation to the westward, and touched the confines ofBrandenburg. It was the task of the Brandenburg margravesto secure and extend their boundaries in this direction, andwell did they succeed. By the time of the interregnumBrandenburg was one of the largest provinces of the entireempire, and fifty years later one of its margraves, Waldemar,became candidate for that empire's throne.We have followed far enough the growth of Germany asregards the acquisition and colonization of new territory. Inanother direction a great inward development was going onquietly the while, and results no less remarkable were beingobtained. A population formerly scattered over a large extentof territory began to concentrate itself at different points;we have reached the period of the rise of great towns.We may define a city in the Middle Ages as a place privileged to hold markets, with immunity from the jurisdictionof the king's officials, and governing itself by means of acorporation.No connection remained with the old Roman cities thathad existed on German ground; if new settlers occupied thesites where those cities, once had been, as was the case withE EGrowth ofcities in Germany.418 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Markets.Markets the nucleus oftowns.Cologne, they adopted nothing of the old Roman municipalinstitutions. For centuries the counts and centenars ruledover such incipient towns as over any other part of theircounty or hundred.What gave the impulse to a newgrowth or a new foundingof cities was the establishment of markets and the bestowal ofprivileges in connection with them. Markets might be foundedat first only by express permission of the kings, who receivedin return certain tolls or taxes. A large symbol, usually across that was erected at the time of each yearly or weeklymarket, signified to all that the gathering was under the king'sespecial peace.Such markets were held already in Carolingian times,towards the end of which period, too, the places where theywere held were often granted immunities. The people withincertain limits were not to be subject to the usual financialburdens, but were to enjoy for themselves the revenuesaccruing from their pastures and fields, and from judicialfines and penalties. They were to be exempt, too, from thejurisdiction of the count or centenar and to have their ownofficial, the advocatus or defensor.The only duties which these and other districts enjoyingimmunity were obliged to fulfil were hospitality to the kingwhen he came in their midst, the building of fortresses andthe keeping of watch and ward, the building of streets andbridges, and the obeying of a summons to the army.It is no mere chance that the market place in all olderGerman towns occupies so important a position. It was thenucleus of the city which spread out from it in all directions.Mints and other necessary institutions were established in theneighbourhood; fortifications were erected so that the placeshould not be disturbed; merchants, and especially Jews,began to settle themselves comfortably round their place ofexchange. Judicial courts that began with settling differencesrelating to market affairs, and that were under a special marketjudge, developed into the chief judicial bodies of the cities.The land, for which a small rent was paid to the lord of theINTERNAL CHANGES AND DEVELOPMENTS. 419town, was already by the end of the eleventh century technically free, and could be willed away or sold. At first theadministration as a whole was in the hands of the communityin general, and records remain, for Magdeburg, for instance,to show that mass meetings were called for the transacting ofordinary affairs. A chosen few naturally soon gained theascendancy, and the institution of city councils was evolved.The old market cross, which was erected and taken down Marketas occasion demanded, was replaced in the twelfth century by crosses.a monumental stone cross, to which often a glove, a hat, asword, or a shield was attached as symbol of the king's protection. This protection implied that offences committedduring market time were to be punished with the royal ban ofsixty shillings in addition to the usual penalty. In the fourteenth century the stone crosses gave place in many towns tothe Rolands-huge stone figures bearing the sword of justice.Already in the tenth century Mayence, the Aurea Maguntia The Rhineas it was called, had begun to be an important centre. Oneby one the cities along the Rhine now rose into prominence.In the eleventh and twelfth centuries Cologne possessed thecommercial supremacy, carrying on a large trade with Englandand other countries.cities.The twelfth century, as a result of the constant intercourse Increase ofkept up with the Orient by crusaders, saw a vast increase of commerce.commerce all over Europe. Eastern wares were landed onthe English and Flemish coasts, and were transferred fromthere to all parts of Germany, especially to the coasts of theNorth Sea and the Baltic. Bremen and Lubeck quicklybecame large and flourishing.The needs of commerce had meanwhile given rise to those Gilds ofgreat and important associations, the Merchant Gilds. Trade merchants.was originally carried on by wandering merchants who wentwith their wares from place to place, and bought, sold, orexchanged at the different markets. For their own protectionon the way, a number of traders would unite themselves intocaravans. Rich and poor, men of high degree and men oflow united into such societies, and chose a leader or alderman420 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Gildsmanage trade.Pre- eminence ofgild mer- chants.The lords of the cities.for themselves, whose duty it was to arrange for the safety ofthe expedition.Such temporary associations for mutual convenience soonled to more lasting unions. The Gild took a name to itself,chose a patron saint, and arranged festivals and banquets.The actual meaning of the word gild is a sacrificial feastconvivium was the common translation for it later in Saxony-and this social and festal element was never wanting.The earlier alderman becomes a regular official; a numberof gild brothers form an advisory committee. The gildsundertook the improvement of intercourse between commercialcentres, introduced new scales and weights, and developednew codes of commercial usage. They strove for and obtainedthe monopoly of trade in certain branches, and they formedsub-gilds in far- off places, thus assuring their members of agood reception and of proper protection. Cologne had a gildin London, Groningen had gilds in Cologne and in Utrecht.In the cities of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries therewere thus three factors, the gilds, the city councils, and thelesser or local tradesmen, if we may call them so. The gildsthemselves became more and more associations of greatermerchants, who in many towns formed a regular oligarchy,securing for their members the chief positions in the citycouncil. They often came into conflict with the other membersof the community, but the great struggles between the classesand the masses belong to the history of the fourteenth andfifteenth centuries.The cities were now proud corporations with a great senseof their own importance, their inhabitants are addressed evenin royal charters as " distinguished citizens." More and moredid they strive for freedom and for complete emancipaționfrom the rule of the lords to whose territory they belonged.By the end of the Hohenstaufen period there were comparatively few of these market cities still remaining under thedirect jurisdiction of the crown. They had for the mostpart been deeded away to great nobles, to bishops andabbots.INTERNAL CHANGES AND DEVELOPMENTS. 421It was Otto I. who had commenced making such grants ofmarkets and of the jurisdiction over them; by the time ofHenry IV. nine-tenths of the markets were subject in the lastinstance to members of the clergy.When the markets developed into regular cities, which theydid chiefly in the eleventh century, the princes to whom theyhad been granted retained their authority, drew their revenuesfrom taxes and judicial fines, coined their own money, andsaw to the maintenance of peace.these lords.It was not long, however, before the cities tried to throw off Revoltthe authority of their lords. Already, under Henry IV. and againstin his favour, Cologne had risen against the ArchbishopAnno; many other cities, too, took the part of the unfortunateking, who rewarded them with grants of tolls and jurisdictions.Later, as we have seen, the territorial princes, supported byFrederick II. , made strenuous efforts to prevent the growingautonomy of the cities; a decree of 1231 categorically forbadethem to elect their own authorities. The result was a fiercerconflict than ever; the laws passed were disregarded, and inthe end the burghers had their way. The cities graduallybecame little republics, drew the inhabitants of the surrounding districts under their influence and made leagues and confederations with each other.more inIn the struggle between the Hohenstaufens and the anti- Cities growking, Henry Raspe, the cities played an important part-all more andthe more so as the greater lay princes maintained anunworthy dependent.neutrality. Sought after by both parties they drew all theprofit possible from the condition of affairs. Frederick II.and Conrad IV. were not chary in promising privileges, andwere able to win over Aix, Treves, Augsburg, Worms, Ulm,and many other towns.The Archbishop of Mayence, on the other hand, gained overfor himself his own capital by granting it practical autonomy;the Bishop of Strasburg followed suit, while Cologne acceptedfavours from the papal as well as the Hohenstaufen side andremained neutral.422 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Growth of feudalsystem .The " Bene- fices " ofCharles Martel.Sub- division of benefices.Homage.The disorders consequent uponthe fall of the Hohenstaufensgave the cities an opportunity to complete their emancipation.Already in 1254, as we have seen, it had become possible foran organization like the Rhine Confederation to spring intobeing and to become for a moment the most important politi- .cal factor in the land.At the time when the colonization of the Slavic lands by theGermans was making such progress and the German citieswere growing so rapidly in importance, in wealth, and in independence, another development was reaching its climax, adevelopment no less interesting and wonderful.The twelfth and thirteenth centuries are the period whenthe feudal system flourished in Germany in its greatest completeness. This system may be said to have begun at thetime when Charles Martel confiscated the lands of the Church,and parcelled them out among his nobles. His object was toenable the latter to support the heavier expenses of militaryduty contingent on the extension of the use of cavalry.In distributing these lands among his followers CharlesMartel stipulated that the holders should pay a certain rent tothe especial church to which the property belonged-a stipulation which was confirmed and repeated under Pippin.The " benefices," as they were called, proved for the Carolingian kings a powerful factor in controlling their nobles.Whoever fell under the royal displeasure was likely to forfeitlands which had been given him, not only as a reward for pastservices but as a pledge for services to come.The services in question were mostly of a military nature,and the man to whom the land was lent was obliged to subdivide a certain part of it and lend it in turn to those who werewilling to be his followers in the army. What the kings didon a large scale they, the nobles, were compelled to do on a smaller one.Those to whom they sub-granted their land were obliged toswear loyalty or fealty, and this oath, or homage as it wascalled, came to be incumbent on the original holders themselves as regarded the king. They became his vassals, andINTERNAL CHANGES AND DEVELOPMENTS. 423aided him with an army of sub-vassals of their own. Theseholders-in- chief, or seigneurs, were the men who, towards theend of the Carolingian period, answered the call to arms, andnot, as up to the time of Charlemagne, the whole body offreemen.The feudal system gradually invaded the whole of Europe, Feudalalthough in Germany especially, in addition to fiefs, there systemwere always private landed possessions or allods. These Europe.latter, indeed, in order to fit them into the prevalent schemeof land-holding, were often designated as " fiefs of thesun! "invadesFor centuries, fiefs were not hereditary. They lapsed to the Heredity ofcrown at the death of every holder; at every change of fiefs.monarch or of lord there had to be a renewal of the grant.When the time came, as it did in the thirteenth century, thatthey could descend regularly from a father to his son, ordaughter, or even to his collateral relations, the power of theking as a feudal monarch was at an end.Not only land, but offices and privileges could be grantedout as fiefs in return for certain services . These, too, were atfirst withdrawable at the will of the crown and in time becamehereditary.The result of the spread of vassalage was to ruin the state Resultsin its old form . The land became subject to many masters, of thethe monarch wasted the greater part of his time in reckoning vassalage.spread ofwith this or that aspiring noble. We no longer find kingsissuing general laws or capitularies for all of their subjects justas we no longer find them directly commanding those subjectsto fight their battles.Bythe twelfth century, feudalism had invaded everything;even the episcopal sees were looked upon as fiefs which wereto be withdrawn and held for a while after every vacancy.Rulers of foreign lands hastened to become vassals of theemperors and also of the popes; Henry VI. and Innocent III.claimed homage from nearly all the kings of Europe.Among the vassals of the higher nobles in Germany the so- The " Miniscalled ministeriales or serving men came to form a class of high teriales. "424 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The knights a distinct class.Duties of aknight.importance, a class by themselves of men who, originally notfree and without land of their own, raised themselves in rankand formed a sort of lesser nobility. In a royal charter of1134 they are spoken of as the ordo equestris minor. Theiradvancement was owing to the fact that the services demandedof them were of a military nature, and that they could thusmake themselves indispensable on occasion. Many freeknights, seeing the rewards that the ministeriales were entitled to, voluntarily gave up their own rank and privilegesand entered into this connection.It was the ministeriales who made up the kernel of thearmies of the Hohenstaufens; they it was who helped thosekings in their struggles with the princes, with the popes andwith the Lombards.Bythe time at which we have arrived the knights themselves, ordo equestris major, had come to form a class so distinct and so exclusive that no outsiders could enter it exceptin the course of three generations or by special decree of theking. Only to those whose fathers and grandfathers were ofknightly origin could fiefs now be granted; only such couldengage in judicial combat, in knightly sports, and above allin the tournament or joust.One of the chief duties of a blameless knight was to be atrue vassal to his liege lord, and at once to repair to thatlord's court when summoned, even if the object were only toassist at festivities. He was to be ready to aid in the administration of justice or to take part if need be in a war ora feud. He was obliged to swear on receiving his fief to be "faithful, devoted and willing; " he laid his hands in thehands of his master, and in many cases sealed the compactwith a kiss.Feudalism did much to awaken a moral sentiment; fidelity,truth, and sincerity were the presuppositions upon which thewhole system rested, and a great solidarity of interests cameto exist between the lord and his vassals. The latter mightbring no public charges against their master in matters affecting his life, limb, or honour; on three grand occasions, inINTERNAL CHANGES AND DEVELOPMENTS. 425case of captivity, the knighting of his son, the marriage ofhis daughter, they were obliged to furnish him with pecuniaryaid.Knightly honour and knightly graces come in the twelfth Knightlycentury to be a matter of fashion and custom; a new and etiquette.important element, too, the adoration of woman, is introduced.A whole literature arises that has to do almost exclusivelywith knightly prowess and with knightly love. Altogetherwe see the dawn of a new social life. Money begins to circulate more freely, we find an increased luxury in the matter ofclothing and of household arrangements. The streets becomemore secure and more passable, and visitors move to and frofrom one castle to another. A number of minor courts beginto flourish besides that of the king; the Wartburg, forinstance, becomes a centre for the musical and intellectuallife of the times. A regular code was finally establishedof the rules of conduct considered suitable and becoming;the German words " hübsch " (from höfisch courtly) and" höflich '""=are a legacy of these days, and serve to remind usof what was considered good style in such courtly circles.Just as certain classes of society to-day adopt by preference Frenchthe garb and the customs of a foreign country, so already in influence.the twelfth century French influence made itself felt inGermany in many directions. The names that refer to thetourney and to knightly sports at this time are all French, soare those which refer to the more elaborate dishes at thetable. In fact everything that had to do with festivities orwith luxury in general seems to have been taken from France.We have French names for dress-materials, for the costumesthemselves, for various dances, and the love-poems of thetime are overflowing with French expressions.The formalism and etiquette, too, of German chivalry was Frencha direct legacy from France. Men troubled themselves about formalism.their manners as in other ages they did about their sins; greatstress, for instance, is laid on the forms to be observed whenentering or when leaving a room, when addressing persons orwhen parting from them. Godfrey of Strassburg weaves a426 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.long discussion into his " Tristan " concerning the differentways of greeting; should one only bow, or should one speak?A conventionalism not only of action and expression, butalso of feeling, developed itself. It became the custom tosink oneself in one's love, to discuss and to analyze theemotions of the soul.CHAPTER XXVIII.THE LITERATURE OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN TIMES.WEE learn of the tendencies described in the last chapter The poetryfrom the literature, and especially from the poetry of ofthe time.the time. Almost the whole literature of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, for that matter, was poetry; but a poetrywhich was accepted as a means of chronicling real facts. Noone, because they happened to be written in verse, doubtedthe adventures of Æneas or the possibility of the tranformations of Ovid. The most impossible details were woven intothe poems of the day, and it was the fashion not to questiontheir truth.It was the hey-day of love-poetry, the most flourishingperiod for the minnesingers or wandering minstrels . Thenobles, too, commence not only to find pleasure in the songsof others, but also to take the pen into their own hands.A manuscript still exists which was written in the four- The Minneteenth century, and which contains the poems of 140 minne- singers.singers who had written during the previous two hundredyears. It is headed by songs of the emperor Henry VI. andof the unfortunate young Conradino. The whole is a seriesof pictures taken from the knightly life of the times; theydeal with war and peace, with love and play, with tournamentsand crusades.Lichten- stein.Among all the writings of the time none can be more Ulrich vonamusing than the memoirs of the poet-knight Ulrich vonLichtenstein, who describes his own love-adventures from1222 to 1255. He inserts the songs that he composed oneach occasion of especial tenderness. His hopes and his dis-428 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Devotion to Woman.WalteroftheVogelweid.appointments are all reproduced, and his work, more thanany other, shows the extent to which the worship of womancould be carried. He, a married man and father of severalchildren, has an operation performed on his mouth becauseits expression does not suit the chosen object of his devotion.He cuts his finger off because his lady had been told that hehad lost it for her sake in a tournament, and is surprised tofind that that was not the case.These fair ladies who were thus loved and fought for held,for the most part, the far- off, half- deified, position thatBeatrice did to Dante. Reinmar of Zweter, a contemporaryof Ulrich von Lichtenstein, compares a beautiful woman tothe holy grail; he who would win her must remain pure asthat grail's guardians.Reinmar of Hagenau drove sickly sentimentality and unsatisfied longing fairly into the ground. Those who read hispoems at last began to laugh at him, and to ask how old thelady might be whose praises he had been singing for such aneternity.There were not wanting those among the poets themselveswho made themselves merry over the devotion of theirfellows.A certain Tannhuser, who lived until about 1270, ridicules theonerous services which the ladies demand from their adorers.His dame wants him, he says, to stop the Rhine from flowingby Coblenz, to take its reflection from the moon, and tocapture her a salamander from the fire. It was Tannhuserwho declared that he had spent his whole fortune on fairwomen, good living, and baths twice a week.The greatest master of lyric poetry in this period- indeedthe greatest lyric poet who lived before the time of Goethewas Walter of the Vogelweid. We can trace his career from1198 to 1227, during which time he was continually wandering from court to court. He sang for Philip of Suabia, forOtto IV. , and for Frederick II. , and some of his poems haveto do with the affairs of the nation. He was looked upon bymany as a dangerous man who led the people astray, and itwas declared by one of the Italian clergy that with a singleATHE LITERATURE OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN TIMES. 429poem he could bewitch thousands, and make them disobedientto God and to the Pope.66In truth, Walter was anything but pleased with the doingsof the court of Rome. He was essentially a German patriot,loving and admiring his own country. He who wishes tolook for virtue and for true love," he exclaims, " shall cometo our land; there delight is to be found in planty-oh, thatI may live long therein! " He objects to German gold finding its way to Rome, and calls the Pope a new Judas, and aservant of the devil.ethics.Although unchurchly to the last degree, Walter's system of Walter'sethics was highly admirable. He is an apostle of humanityand toleration, and declares that Christians, Jews, andheathen serve one and the same God. He is most severe onhimself because there are some of his enemies whom he cannot bring himself to love. He insists on moderation in allthings, and on self-restraint. He sings the praise of friendship, and esteems it higher than blood relationship. " Let afriend's smile," he urges, " be true and without guile, pure asthe evening glow that presages a beautiful day."99In attacking the Pope for continually demanding moneyfor new crusades, Walter, whose rhetorical turns and artificesare nothing if not original, apostrophizes the collection- box:"Tell me, collection-box, has the Pope sent you to us that youshould make him rich, and plunder the Germans? Hedraws a graphic picture of the Pope sitting among his Italians,and expressing his contempt for the Teuton. " Eat fowls,"cries his holiness, "and drink wine, ye priests, and let themfast, the German (Aword so strong, apparently, thatit has been omitted in all the manuscripts that have comedown to us.)Walter and theChurch.Witty allusions crop up even in Walter's tender love- songs . Walter'sIn praising his fair one he likens her body to a garment that wit.covers her true personality, and takes occasion at the sametime to mock at the custom of rewarding minstrels by gifts ofcast- off clothing: " Garments that have been worn I havehitherto never accepted: this I would willingly accept for life;430 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Walter's character.The " Nibefor this an emperor might turn minstrel. There, emperor,begin thy lay! No, emperor, somewhere else!"In summing up Walter of the Vogelweide's character,Scherer, our chief modern authority in such matters, drawsthe following attractive picture: "The best representationthat he gives is that of himself-a man such as one wouldlike to have for a friend, so bright in all his being, so gentle;for all his light and pleasing form, so inwardly earnest andfirm; merry with the gay, sad with mourners; full of hopefrom childhood on, and unwearying in striving after highgoals; fresh and cheerful even in time of need, thankful forgood fortune. Somewhat gloomy, indeed, in old age, andwith good cause, for spring and summer were over for theminnesingers, and Walter foresaw the approach of autumn. "So much for lyric poetry; simultaneously with it epic.poetry had reached a high development in Germany.Between 1190 and 1208 was composed the " Nibelungenlungenlied." lied," or " Song of the Nibelungs." It is an open questionwhether one hand or many wrote this great work, some partsof which are dull and lifeless, while others rise to the greatestheights of tragic art.Siegfried andBrunhilda.The poem relates how Siegfried, the great hero, the son ofSiegmund, comes to Worms, to the capital of the Burgundians. He has heard of the beauty of Kriemhilde, thesister of Gunther and Gernot. At first he appears as аwould-be conqueror and destroyer of the Burgundian kingdom, but soon his wrath is appeased, and he becomes Gunther'sfriend and ally, the winner of all his battles.Gunther sends him to tame, on his behalf, Brunhilda,Queen of the Isenstein beyond the seas; it is necessary tocombat with her to win her love; the reward for Siegfried isto be Kriemhilde.Siegfried, disguised in the tarnkappe, or magic mantle,which he had once captured from the dwarf Alberich, subduesBrunhilda, whom he had formerly known, and makes herbelieve that her conqueror is Gunther. Brunhilda is broughtto Worms, Siegfried and Kriemhilde are wedded.THE LITERATURE OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN TIMES. 431Brunhilda will not submit to Gunther, and Siegfried, inhis tarnkappe, is again called in. Once more he subduesBrunhilda, and this time takes from her a ring and hergirdle.Later Siegfried and his bride, who had departed for Norwaywhere the great hero ruled over the land of the Nibelungs, andwhere he possessed a rich treasure, return to Worms to visitGunther and Brunhilda. A quarrel ensues between Brunhildaand Kriemhilde, the latter having boasted too highly of herhusband's prowess. In the excitement of the moment Kriemhilde shows the ring and girdle that Brunhilda had beenforced to surrender to Siegfried . Brunhilda complains toGunther that Siegfried is falsely assuming the honour ofhaving subdued her, and Gunther is filled with hatred againstthe friend who has betrayed his secret.Brunhilda's grief rouses Hagen, Gunther's faithful follower, Siegfried's to take vengeance on Siegfried. He draws from Kriemhilde death.the information that, when Siegfried had slain a dragon, andwas bathing in its blood to make himself invulnerable, theleaf of a linden-tree had fallen between his shoulders and leftan unprotected spot.Hagen arranges a hunt, and Siegfried, who has shown hisfearlessness and boyish spirits in various conflicts with wildbeasts, at last is weary, and bends at a fountain to drink.Hagen pierces him through the back; Siegfried dies and iscarried home on his shield, and placed in a coffin beforeKriemhilde's door. Kriemhilde comes out on her way toearly mass, sees the coffin, and has it opened. She raises withher white hand the head of the dead man and covers it withkisses. Her eye falls on Siegfried's shield . She sees thatthere are no clefts in it, that there has been no combat, andthat he must have been murdered. She and Siegfried's father,Siegmund, plan to take a terrible vengeance.The second half of the poem is devoted to unfolding the Kriemhilde'sprogress of this work of retribution. Kriemhilde gives her vengeance.hand to Attila, the fierce king of the Huns; Gunther, Gernot, Hagen, and all the flower of the Burgundian nobility,432 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.The end of the Burgundians.Other epicpoems.Tristan and Isolde.are bidden to a feast at Attila's court.and all are either killed or taken captive .A massacre ensues,The last canto of the " Nibelungenlied," which describesthis tragic end of the Burgundians is about the finest production of medieval poetry. The catastrophe is splendidly described with all its boundless horror, with here and there astriking episode of individual heroism.Hagen and Gunther are among the captives, and arebrought in chains to Kriemhilde, who demands from theformer the treasure of the Nibelungs, of which he hadpossessed himself after Siegfried's death. He refuses so longas Gunther and Gernot shall live . Kriemhilde then hasGunther put to death, and shows his head to Hagen. Gernotin the meantime had already fallen. Hagen still refuses, andKriemhilde slays him with Siegfried's sword. She is thenstruck down herself by the hand of one of Attila's guests.""The " Nibelungenlied " is not the only great literary product of the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. Theepics " Wolfdietrich and " Gudrun " each lead us throughtwo generations of loving, faithful, and sorely tried personages. Henry of Veldecke wrote an Æneid based on a Frenchtranslation of Virgil's work; so highly was it valued that aThuringian noble stole the manuscript while still incompletefrom the bride of the landgrave to whom Henry had lent it.It was nine years before the poet could regain his propertyand complete his work.In the poems of this time we find foreign legends taken upby German writers, and worked over in their own especialstyle. So it was with the story of King Arthur and theKnights of the Round Table which, first recorded by theBritish chronicler, Geoffrey of Monmouth, soon became thecommon property of Europe. So it was with the legend ofTristan and Isolde, so also with that of Parsifal and thesearch for the holy grail.Godfrey of Strassburg, who died about 1210, worked theTristan legend into its completest form , and surrounded itwith picturesque details. He represents Tristan as an idealTHE LITERATURE OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN TIMES. 433knight, possessed of every virtue. Tristan has been broughtup at the court of his uncle Marke in Cornwall, in whoseservice he performs the bravest deeds. He conquers Moroldof Ireland, and frees Cornwall from a shameful tribute. Hethen makes peace between the two lands, and wooes the Irishprincess Isolde for his uncle. On the ship which carries thebride to her intended husband Tristan and Isolde drink bymistake a love potion originally intended for Isolde andMarke. Love makes Tristan forget all his duties and all theties which have bound him to his liege lord. Remorse, however, soon makes him flee from Isolde and take service in aforeign land. Here he meets and marries a second IsoldeIsolde Whitehand. He cannot forget his first love, however,and he succeeds in making his new bride miserable, and inturning her affection to hatred and jealousy.Tristan is wounded, and the first Isolde is secretly called into heal him. The second Isolde prevents her coming untiltoo late; the Irish princess arrives to find Tristan dead, andbreathes out her own life over his corpse.Medieval epic poetry reached its height in Germany under Wolfram ofWolfram of Eschenbach; his own contemporaries were fore- Eschenbach.most in singing his praises. " Never did mouth of laymanspeak better," says one enthusiastic poet, and indeed Wolfram's works seem to have been universally considered assecond only to the Bible and the writings of the Churchfathers. He was master of his own language as no onebefore him had been, and yet personally he could neitherread nor write. Everything had to be read aloud to him, andhe dictated all his verses. His eloquence has been likenedto the rushing of a torrent which art had done nothing tostem."Parsifal " is Wolfram's greatest poem, a poem with a Parsifal.religious background, and full of deep ethical teachings.Parsifal is the son of Gahmuret, a Christian prince of Anjou,who had long lived peacefully among the Saracens, but whohad deserted his Moorish wife, Belakane, after the latter hadalready borne him a son, Feirefiss. Gahmuret had later wonF F434 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Parsifal and Feirefiss .The Holy Grail.The Order of the Grail.the hand of Queen Herzeloide of Valois, having defeated herother suitors in a tournament. From this union Parsifal hadsprung.One of the later episodes of the poem shows us how thetwo brothers, strangers to each other, meet in deadly combat;how Parsifal's sword breaks of its own accord, and howFeirefiss not only spares his brother's life, but shows himduring the rest of his days a faithfulness as great as that ofany Christian, even though, as the poet explains, it wasthrough Christ that faithfulness was first brought into theworld. Feirefiss finally is baptized and carries Christianityto India.Wolfram introduces us in his poem to the Holy Grail.According to the heathen legends this was a vessel or receptacle which gave forth food and drink; according to theChristian version it was the cup used by the Saviour at theLast Supper, and in which His blood had been collected byJoseph of Arimathea.Wolfram understands under the Grail is a costly jewelwhich has fallen from Heaven, and which has been givenover to a religious order of knights to guard. It is a symbolof eternal life; he who looks upon it does not die, butremains for ever young. It is kept in the wild mountain ofMonsalvat, where none can enter save those who are speciallycalled and chosen. Its votaries must renounce earthly love,and only the king of the order may take to himself awife.The Order of the Grail is represented as comprising a largecongregation of men and women, knights and squires, priestsand laymen; it is mystical and secret, and receives its commands direct from Heaven. The dignity of king representsthe highest office to which mortal is capable of attaining; hispower is far above that of the Pope.It is to this dignity of king that Parsifal is destined, buthe has first to go through a process of purification in order tothrow off his load of sin. The fundamental idea of Wolfram'spoem is to find out how to obtain the needed perfection; it isTHE LITERATURE OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN TIMES. 435much the same problem that Goethe has worked out in his"Faust." Wolfram comes to the conclusion that by steadfastness and fidelity a man may reach the highest of allgoals.career.Parsifal's career is unfolded before us, and he is seen con- Parsifal'squering one by one the evil influences that are brought tobear upon him, and being benefited by the good ones. Hismother wants to keep him from the warlike pursuits of thoseof his own rank, and has him brought up in a lonely wood.He meets by chance, however, with knights who inflamehis chivalrous nature by tales of King Arthur and hisfollowers.Parsifal bursts away from his mother, who dies of grief atparting from him; he comes to King Arthur's court clad inthe garb of a fool, and utterly without knightly training.Gurnemauz, at home in all the external forms and proprietiesof worldly knighthood, but without spiritual insight, undertakes to teach him what is suitable and becoming. He warnshim, among other things, against asking questions.Parsifal comes to the aid of the oppressed queen Cond- Parsifal andwiramurs, and finally marries her, but leaves her in search of Amfortas.adventure. He is admitted to an assembly of the knights ofthe Holy Grail. He sees King Amfortas in mortal pain; hesees a bloody lance brought in, at the sight of which thereis general wailing. He receives a sword from Amfortas whoalludes in connection with it to his own deadly suffering;but as Gurnemauz has taught him to ask no question, Parsifalrefrains from sympathy and is silent. The poet intended toshow how the knightly etiquette and stiff conventionalismof the time stood in the way of the common feelings ofhumanity.The word of human compassion which Parsifal failed to Parsifal'sutter would, according to the decree of the Grail, have cured want ofthe pain of Amfortas, and would have raised Parsifal to the compassion.throne. The latter, having failed to perform the chief dutyof a really chivalrous soul, leaves Monsalvat in disgrace andis received by King Arthur among the knights of his Round436 A HISTORY OF GERMANY.Parsifal'sdespair.Parsifal'sTable. Here Kundry, a messenger of the Grail, informs himreproachfully of the evil which he has unwittingly done.He insists on his innocence; he renounces the God whocould have allowed such shame to fall upon him. He willbe true to his wife and strong in battle, but declares thatfrom God he expects nothing more. He starts at once insearch of the Grail, and wanders disconsolate for five longyears.On a Good Friday a pilgrim meets him, induces him topurification. search his own soul, and brings him to a pious hermit,Trevizent. Here he learns humility and submission to thewill of God. He meets and conquers the knight Gawan, andthe conflict typifies the higher, spiritualized chivalry as opposed to that which is lower and more earthly. The child ofGod fights and overcomes the child of the world.Lohengrin.Asceticismkills romance.Parsifal is finally sufficiently chastened to be recalled tothe Grail. He asks the question and expresses the sympathyon which so much depends, is made king, and is joined byhis queen Condwiramurs and by his two sons.Lohengrin, one of the sons of Parsifal, is the hero ofanother legend that was made use of by various poets.Wolfram, at the conclusion of his Parsifal, speaks of theKnight of the Grail who, drawn by a swan, comes to Antwerpand weds the Princess of Brabant. Lohengrin makes thecondition that she shall not question him about his origin;she disobeys and he leaves her, being borne homeward by aswan. The theme was greatly elaborated by a Bavarian poetwho wrote about 1290; and other characters, such as KingHenry, and Frederick, Count of Telramund, were introduced.Enough has been said to show how rich the early thirteenth century was in literary works of thrilling interest.Before the century had waned Dominican and Franciscanmonks, inquisitors and papal legates, had invaded Germanyand had entirely altered the direction of men's thoughts.The Franciscans especially had thundered forth their powerfulsermons against tournaments, fine garments, and every otherluxury; against minstrels and against dancing, against singingTHE LITERATURE OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN TIMES. 437secular songs and reading books that were written in theGerman tongue.Chivalry itself was to go down eventually before the morepractical needs of the day; social and political life was toundergo a radical change. The knights were to degenerateinto highwaymen and robbers. In the time of the Reformation we see them make one last attempt to maintain theirposition as a class; they then sink for ever in the ruins of acivilization that had passed away.CHISWICK PRESS:-CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.