The Medieval Empire in Central Europe: Dynastic Continuity in the Post-Carolingian Frankish Realm, 900-1300 1-4438-1966-2, 978-1-4438-1966-4

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The Medieval Empire in Central Europe

The Medieval Empire in Central Europe: Dynastic Continuity in the Post-Carolingian Frankish Realm, 900-1300

By

Herbert Schutz

The Medieval Empire in Central Europe: Dynastic Continuity in the Post-Carolingian Frankish Realm, 900-1300, by Herbert Schutz This book first published 2010 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2010 by Herbert Schutz All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-1966-2, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-1966-4

To Christopher

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Maps................................................................................................ ix List of Monarchs......................................................................................... xi Preface ...................................................................................................... xiii Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER I.................................................................................................... 9 THE OTTONIANS (919-1024) Political Tasks and Challenge ............................................................... 9 Conrad I and Henry I and the Elected Kingship.................................. 21 Otto I - an Innovator on the Throne..................................................... 41 Otto II and the Regency of Theophanu and Adelheit ........................... 70 Otto III the Repentant Sinner on the Imperial Throne ......................... 83 Henry II and his Divine Mandate to Rule ............................................ 95 CHAPTER II .............................................................................................. 113 THE SALIANS (1024-1125) Conrad II and the Renewal of the Secular Authority ......................... 115 Henry III and the Triumph of the Secular Authority.......................... 125 Henry IV and the Loss of the Secular Authority ................................ 139 The Investiture Question .................................................................... 153 The First Crusade .............................................................................. 176 Henry V.............................................................................................. 190 CHAPTER III ............................................................................................. 209 THE HOHENSTAUFEN – (1138-1266) Conrad III and the Second Crusade .................................................. 209 Frederick I Barbarossa...................................................................... 214 The Third Crusade ............................................................................. 232 Henry VI............................................................................................. 236 Towns and Settlements – Increasing Urbanization............................ 245 The Teutonic Order and its Activities along the eastern Baltic Coast .................................................................................................. 258 Early Stages of Imperial Disintegration – Philip, Otto IV................. 263 Frederick II ........................................................................................ 268

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The Fourth Crusade........................................................................... 272 Henry (VII) and the Growth of Territorial Particularism.................. 274 Demise of the Crusades and the final Decline of the Realm .............. 280 The last of the Hohenstaufen and their mytho-poetic Legacy ............ 295 Conclusion............................................................................................... 301 Notes........................................................................................................ 305 Bibliography............................................................................................ 349 Index........................................................................................................ 355

LIST OF MONARCHS

The Ottonians (919-1024 Conrad I (911-919) (Frankonian) Henry I (919-936) Otto I (936-973) Otto II (973-983) Theophanu (983-991) Adelheit (991-994) Otto III (983-1002) Henry II (1002-1024) The Salians (1024-1125) Conrad II (1024-1039) Henry III (1039-1056) Henry IV (1056-1106) Rudolf von Rheinfelden – anti-king (1077-1080) Henry V (1106-1125) Lothar III, von Supplinburg (1125-1137) . Hohenstaufen (1138-1268) Conrad III (1138-1152) Frederick I (1152-1190) Henry VI (1190-1197) Otto IV (1198-1215) Philip (1198-1208) Frederick II (1197-1250) Konrad IV (1250-1254) Richard of Cornwall – elected king in 1257 Alfonso X of Castile – elected king in 1257 Conradin (born 1250-1268)

LIST OF MAPS

See Centrefold 1-1

The Carolingian Empire following the Treaty of Ribémont of 880

1-2

Hungarian raids of the 10th century. (after a map at the Hungarian National Museum, Budapest)

1-3

The Duchies of the Ottonian and Salian Empires

1-4

Archiepiscopal provinces and bishoprics in Central Europe

2-1

Major locations mentioned in the text

3-1

The Hohenstaufen Regnum Teutonicum and the Regnum Italie during the 12thcentury

3-2

The Hohenstaufen realms during the reign of Frederick II (1212-1250)

PREFACE

This book continues chronologically the survey of Central European cultural history from prehistoric and early historic beginnings in the region, most recently with The Carolingians in Central Europe, their History, Art and Architecture, so that the circumstances of the preceding 400 years have already been placed in their extensive background. Space forbids that this subject matter be recapitulated, except incidentally, especially since during the next 400 years, 900-1300, the region experienced a veritable information explosion. The book was conceived as a traditional historical introduction to an investigation of the Romanesque period in Central Europe, 900-1300. It is intended for a moderately informed audience and assumes only a passing interest and superficial knowledge of historical events in medieval Europe among its readership. The book offers an amplification to the usual general medieval histories in that it deals with a range of pertinent specifics. During the Romanesque period man continues to be a maker of images. The true historical character of the period should include an examination of pertinent material cultural indicators of that mosaic of visual and aural cultural aspects, images and objects, illustrations and designs, music, literature and monuments serving as artifacts and material cultural instruments, which would complete the concept of Romanesque. Such an assembly would offer a variety of vantage points from which to consider so complex a period. This book will not deal with any indicators other than the historical chronology. The term Central Europe is chosen here by necessity as the discussion focuses on that region of Europe, which came to be contained within the medieval Empire. To some readers Central Europe is located further east. In the larger context of cultural indicators the term "Central Europe" brings its own concentration on what was to be known as the Holy Roman Empire. Very little information shall be provided here for East-Central Europe, Poland, Bohemia and Hungary, as these regions quickly evolved independent historical traditions in need of independent treatments. Though Poland, Bohemia and Hungary each had a developing history, each country unfolded along its independent lines but whenever these did encounter the developing history of the Empire this is indicated in the text. The Arts, Literature and Architecture of Romanesque did not find their

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own expression in what may be conventionally understood as "Central Europe" before the advent of Gothic. Wherever the Empire interacted militarily and politically with these regions, such interactions shall be considered, especially when these regions shared a community of interests. Similarly concerns for the medieval Italian kingdom shall be treated in terms of the repeated military campaigns necessary for the Empire to maintain nominal political control in the north of Italy, to assure access to Rome in order to control the citizens and popes to ensure the imperial coronation. Coincidentally, this control, actually absentee rule, which however, evolved into periodic, at times extended integration, served to contest the Byzantine and Arab presence in southern Italy. With the exception of Otto III and Frederick II, the absentee monarchs made no attempt to establish a permanent residence in Italy. It may be comfortable to consider the region under discussion as Germany. However, such a geographical, political or even linguistic concept did not exist for centuries to come, so that using the terms German or Germany is anachronistic. They are merely modern terms of geopolitical convenience. The distinguishable, multilingual population groups, which constituted this "Middle Kingdom", were multi-ethnic Bavarians, Franks, Frisians, Hessians, Lotharingians, Saxons, Thuringians and Swabians/Alamans, assembled in five duchies – Lotharingia, Saxony, Franconia, Swabia and Bavaria. Although they were to constitute the pillars on which rested the political structure of the realm, none was a homogeneous ethnic entity. Nor had they any sense of being German until such poets as Walter von der Vogelweide used the word as a descriptive term during the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Before the eighteenth century, a pronounced and consistent consciousness as a "German" people did not yet exist either, and the idea of a German nation did not gain official acceptance until 1871. Fifty years earlier the Lied der Deutschen, written by Hoffmann von Fallersleben, was a wishful intellectual projection, for the singing of which one could be imprisoned. In the Middle Ages, the respective Germanic dialects were sufficiently different, on occasion even dividing a duchy, that the absence of a common language was an obstacle to interregional understanding and cohesion. Until a political focus became established, one had no more than a sense of living in an abstract sphere of power. Its regional identity, along with its common response to challenges, crystallized during its interactions with its neighbors. Until the tenth century, if one region was under attack, the others watched with interested anxiety, hoping they would not be next. The idea of a "nation state" was a long way off. Instead, the Carolingian concept of the Imperium Christianum offered a vague sense of cohesion.

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Fundamental is the appreciation that the Christian church transmitted the Classical heritage in two ways: as heir to the former Roman imperial administration, it assumed organizational responsibilities; as representative of a system of thought it preserved Classical philosophy in its religious end phase. Thus the historical setting is dominated by such images as the "Two Worlds" of St. Augustine, of the "Two Authorities" or "Two Swords" of Popoe Gelasius I, of regnum and sacerdotium, or in more modern terms of the"crown" and the "cross", each time representing complementary secular and ecclesiastic concepts on which rest the fundamental understanding of the divine order. It is a period characterized by such vaguely defined abstractions as "worlds" or "realms" or "authorities", to convey the idea of orderly secular and spiritual domains. The absence of any real concept of "state", allows the image of the "crown" to be the more appropriate when used to indicate things political in tandem with the idea of the"cross", of the church and things religious, where today the Latin terms regnum and sacerdotium require explanations. In that sense, such abstract concepts as "crown" and the symbolic "cross" are more accessible and offer fewer obstacles to understanding. In member states of the British Commonwealth the term "crown" is still a common euphemism when referring to the state. As objects they are ideal to serve as material cultural indicators, as interrelated instrumental supports of the arts and ideas constituting Romanesque. However, the conjunctive word "and" is more debatable, because in the medieval context the relationship between the concepts regnum and sacerdotium was conjunctive only until c.1046, during the early collaborative stages of the Gelasian "Two Authorities". Until then, the sacerdotium embraced the "Two Authorities" within the order of the Imperium Christianum. The relationship was to become largely disjunctive after this date. Once key concepts of the divine order and of sacerdotal holiness were incorporated into the early monarchy, the "cross", whether object or institution, was always an essential, integral and complementary component of the "crown" and the regnum. For the "cross", the spiritual realm represented through the church, the "crown" did not play as essential a role, and receded in significance, once the sacerdotal Ottonians and early Salians had restored the Papacy to its focal position and the popes invented their own tiara. As the Papacy assumed the sole representation of God's order of creation, the Two Authorities were joined in a common disagreement, as the spirit of collaboration was displaced by disputes over the primacy in the confrontational relationship between the Empire and the Papacy. It set the two powers at odds, so that the "and" should be substituted by a term of contention. However, for St. Augustine disputes and disorder are of the

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Devil. Since from the papal perspective the emperor was the cause of the disorder, he was of the devil and easily associated with the Anti-Christ. The Empire, still known as the Roman Empire, was the realm within which the historical processes took place. As the Regnum Teutonicum, initially a denigrating term introduced by Popoe Gregory VII, it came to be better known by its later designation as the Holy Roman Empire. It too has very little to do with any notion of state or nation. Along with the Christian church, this "Roman Empire", as it continued to be known, began with the birth of Christ. It was destined to end with his second coming, believed to be imminent. That medieval man was living at the end of days was an eschatological idea. . It was understood that this Roman Empire had been designed by God to last to the end of days. Its rulers were understood to be charged to protect the church. Only as Roman emperors could these monarchs fulfill that task. However, elected German kings, their mandatory coronation in Rome as emperors was not a foregone conclusion. The historical setting contains the continuity of the ideas formulated by St. Augustine in his De Civitate Dei – The City of God, in which all history is divided into "Two Realms", that of God and heaven, and that of the Devil and the world. The former realm contains those humans, whom God has chosen. The other contains all those not predestined for salvation, but left in the state of sin and guilt. It was this division coupled with the fear of being cast into the realm of the Devil, which gave to the threat of excommunication its great sting. The setting also contains the variable interpretations of the Gelasian doctrine of the "Two Authorities", which provided for the conflict between the crown and the representatives of the cross. The relationship between the crown and the cross, between the Empire and the Papacy was confirmed when the church invented the Constantinian Donation, to support the claim that the emperor Constantine had bestowed imperial authority on the popes and the western church. The fable of the Pepinid Donation supported by Charlemagne's promise to honor the donation further confirmed the position of the papacy. Even though the emperor Otto III demonstrated that these claims were forgeries, during the Salian Period of the 11th century the papacy interpreted the doctrine of the "Two Swords" to mean that the "Material Sword" represented by the Empire should be an instrument entirely in the service of the papacy. This interpretation of papal primacy caused serious dissension between political reality and spiritual ideality, which could not but end in the supremacy of the Papacy and the dissolution of the realm into a particularist territorialism. That the imperial authority would have created this suppposed primacy of the church was not even an

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inconvenient consideration. The primacy in the Empire is the cornerstone of medieval imperial history. The book is arranged in three major chapters, each dealing with one of the three imperial dynasties which directed the medieval Empire in Europe. In broad strokes it is a survey of the Historical Setting against which Central European Romanesque Culture unfolded, offering an adequate introductory skeletal narrative of the historical events from c.900 to c.1300, summarizing the political continuum from Carolingian times. Socio-economic considerations complement the historical summary with discussions of conquests, colonization, Christianization, urbanization, and persecutions. The view taken is that History serves as the orienting background to other areas of investigation and that History is never just the history of documents, but a confluence of cultural contributions. Incidental references to the intellectual evidence, literature, to the arts and architecture are intended to suggest complementary aspects of the period. Each dynastic segment is introduced by a brief summarizing and orienting overview, before dealing with the dynastic events in greater detail. This device should not be misunderstood as needless repetition. A dominant historical aspect dealt with in this MS is the problematic relationship between the Empire and the Papacy. For doctrinal reasons the Empire initially needed the reliable support of the Papacy, so that the early kings and emperors invested much military capital to secure the papal throne for the popes. In that role the monarchs assumed and enjoyed their primacy over the popes. Beginning in the middle of the 11th century a series of energetic popes began to contest this primacy of the emperors and using the religious temper of the times overturned the claims of the Empire and generally reduced the monarchs to a secondary role. By the middle of the 13th century and the decline and end of the last northern dynasty the power of the monarchs had passed. In this contest with the monarchs the Papacy could rely on the growing particularism of the Empire’s nobility to exploit inherent royal weaknesses and seek its own advantages in territories and power. The advent of the crusades saw the emperor in a dispute with the pope. Since the appeal for help against the Turks from the eastern emperor came to the pope rather than to the emperor, the crusades became an undertaking for which papal approval had to be obtained. Although the Empire could not take the lead in the first crusade, the nobility of the Empire did take part, even playing leading roles. During the 13th century imperial policies caused the emperor to devote his interest to southern Italy and Sicily, leaving the lands north of the Alps, except for the Baltic lands, to pursue their own particular interests.

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The information represented in this book is derived mainly from an extensive body of literature written in German and English. In recent years a considerable number of comprehensive works has come into being written in English or translated into English dealing with the history. Traditionally the major and minor works of art and architecture of the regions to the east of the Rhine are less well treated. Admittedly, some of the artistic and architectural monuments find occasional mention and representative inclusion in comprehensive works dealing with these aspects of European cultural history, but most of the impressive inventory is bypassed. The historical literature written during the 20th century yields a conventional understanding of the European Middle Ages focused on Southern and Western Europe, mainly on Italy, England and France, treating the latter two as though they shared a common narrative. The medieval Empire in early Central Europe was rather orphaned. Only in recent years has the medieval Empire come to be discussed in English or French with a greater degree of interest and attention, though Western and Southern Europe continue to be considered the areas of emphasis. The search through any university's course offerings demonstrate this preference. Only in recent years do library catalogues indicate that from among the very voluminous historical literature in German an increasing number of works has been made accessible to readers of English, as many original works, as well as some fine translations into English have been prepared by outstanding scholars. The Bibliography and Endnotes include references to recent translations and books in English. I am pleased to thank Brock University for the financial support of my work, especially Professor Michael Manley-Casimir, Acting VicePresident, Academic. I owe special thanks to my department for allowing me office space and secretarial assistance while I prepared this manuscript. I would also like to thank my colleague, Professor Barry Joe, Digital Humanities, for his assistance with the preparation of the camara ready copy of the text. The maps were drawn by Loris Gasparatto, the cartographer in the Department of Geography and I thank him for the clarity of his work. Several readers have made comments about the content of the book and I thank them for their constructive efforts. I am most grateful to my wife Alice for her sustained support, encouragement and personal sacrifice to see this project to completion.

INTRODUCTION

When Louis the Child, the last Carolingian ruler of the East Frankish Kingdom died in 911, the magnates of the kingdom took a surprising and innovative step: rather than turning to the western Carolingians for a legitimate successor, they elected the Franconian Conrad I, one of their own, to the kingship. This act marked the beginning of an independent, Germanic kingdom in Central Europe. By the middle of the tenth century, this kingdom assumed responsibility for the remnants of the Carolingian Empire already focused on Rome. This Empire had adopted the organizational structure of the early Christian church and had thereby benefited from administrative features of the former Roman Empire. Though the territoriality of the Carolingian Empire disintegrated, it survived intellectually in its guise as the Imperium Christianum. In this form, as heir of the Roman Empire, it was thought entrusted to the pope, deemed universal and eternal and the last one before the end of days, the return of Christ to this earth. This thought is the primary motivation for the existence of the Imperium Romanum. It could not be invented anew, only transferred as a translatio imperii by the pope. Its importance cannot be overemphasized, for it allows only for the primacy of the ecclesiastical realm and not that of the secular realm. As heirs of the East Frankish Kingdom, the succession of its Frankish and Saxon rulers was seen to continue from Charlemagne and to have been entrusted directly by God with the guardianship of this Imperium Christianum, without benefit of the intercession of another authority. Evidently a different interpretation. The Carolingian titles gratia Dei rex, Augustus a Deo coronatus, magnus imperator, Divus Caesar imperator Augustus, patricius, of antique origin, had been passed on to their sucessors, to be used in addressing their God given majesty, analogous to the practices of the Byzantine Empire. For three centuries theses interpretations were to be the source of strife. As protectors and custodians of the Imperium, it was the function of these rulers to preside over the necessary but sometimes incompatible restorations and renewals – Restoratio and Renovatio of a past gloriously ordered Carolingian world. The evolving ambivalence of roles was to characterize the history of these experimental royal and imperial ideas as they came into conflict with similar intentions claimed by the Papacy. The problem became one of semantics, as the church understood 'restoration'

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Introduction

and 'renovation' in terms of the order of the world prescribed by Scriptures and by St. Augustine in his De Civitate Dei. Rather than exerting their energies in realizing this terrestrial and spiritual realm on earth, during the eleventh and early twelfth centuries both parties wasted their energies fighting over which party was best suited to determine the structure of this order and assume supremacy and sovereignty over a purely religious Imperium Christianum. It came to be the intention of the Papacy to claim the secular inheritance of the Roman Empire of the fourth and fifth centuries and, based on the historical views of St. Augustine, to assert its own 'fullness of power', expect the willing concession of the secular orders and of their interests, and assume the secular jurisdiction over this purely ecclesiastic Imperium Christianum as well. St. Augustine had positioned the church as the representative heavenly authority on earth. This made the secular Empire unnecessary to the extent that the Imperium Christianum was to be recast as the universal church, a replica on earth of God's heavenly order. The invention of the Constantinian Donation, and later of the Pepinid Donation were major steps towards the objective of stripping the monarch of his claim to divinely ordained stature and deprive him of his control over the church. By the end of the eleventh century, this had been accomplished. Through the use of the papal institutions, the Roman pontifex maximus had become the supreme pontiff of the Catholic church and of all Christian lands. The secular powers did not share this purely ecclesiastic view and they resisted participation in this world view. Centuries of conflict were to follow, affecting much of the cultural history of Central Europe. Both sides saw themselves as the sole defenders of God's orderly creation. Each saw in the other the source of diabolical disorder. The fact that the scribal culture was determined by clerics and monks, affected the one-sided literary evidence, generating the perception of the Middle Ages as a mainly bookish and spiritual period in which secular motivations of the oral culture representing the largely illiterate population played a very subordinate role. It will become apparent, however, that in this reputedly Christian society, the individualistic lay culture, maintained its place in society and restrained and channeled the pro-active, reformative efforts of the church to transform human society. By contrast the collective intellectualism of the church was based on traditions and customs. At the same time, individualistic needs affected this church. It should be considered that the history of texts represents an incomplete picture. Medieval texts are inclined to be tendentious, being in the service of one particular interest group. Objects on the other hand,

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suggest a certain disinterestedness. Against the background of the historical developments within the northern realm, an examination of some of the details of the artistic, literary and architectural endeavors would amplify the more complex nature of the period. The combination of related material elements constitutes the cultural history of Central Europe from 900 to 1300, Romanesque. The written history to the contrary, it was mainly in its interrelated material culture, its works of art and architecture, that this Romanesque Imperium Christianum had come closest to being a reality. The impressive architectural achievements of these dynastic periods have left lasting memorials to their builders. Three imperial dynasties, Ottonians, Salians and Hohenstaufen, ruled the Regnum Teutonicum, determining that phase of the Middle Ages, the Romanesque, in Central Europe. Only on the eve of its passing, in 1254, when it had revealed itself to be an unrealizable idea and a hollow sham, was it named the Imperium Sacrum Romanorum, Holy Roman Empire.2 The idea of a secular and political Holy Roman Empire had been a failure in any case. It never took on established contours. Despite the occasional imperial presence in Rome for the coronation, the city had never been under the control of the emperors, even when they were in Italy for years at a time. Most frequently, their visits proved a misadventure. During the past thirty years, the dynasties, their supporters and rivals, have generated interest among many. Media events and exhibitions in Magdeburg and Bamberg for the Ottonians, in Speyer for the Salians, in Stuttgart for the Hohenstaufen, in Freiburg for the house of Zähringen and in Vienna for that of Babenberg, attracted a wide interested public. In 2004, Mainz hosted a very extensive exhibition on the Crusades. Beyond our period of interest, the emperor Charles IV and his time were featured in Nürnberg during the late 1970s. In very recent years exhibitions were assembled dealing with Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony and with the city of Magdeburg in 1200, while in Forchheim an exhibition commemorated the foundation of the kingdom in the early 9th century. In late 2007 and early 2008 the National Museum in Nürnberg hosted a special exhibition of the Codex Aureus of Echternach. Large volume publications and catalogues accompanied these exhibitions. During the past thirty years, the discussion concerning this period has been fanned as much by the personalities associated with the historical events as by the interpretations of the historical and cultural perspectives, during which early benchmark studies have been re-evaluated. It is only possible to deal with some of the highlights of the recorded historical processes. Thanks to the traditional focus on these dynastic interests, and to the investigation of particular topics, comprehensive views of the

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Introduction

cultural continuity were less emphasized. The thousands of regional details in the areas of administration, politics, economics and agriculture, forestry and settlement, can only be suggested. Despite the effort of reconciliation suggested in the architecture of the great Romanesque cathedrals, for nearly 300 years the historical development was affected by a problem already known to the Carolingians. The conflict between the representatives of the crown and the church culminated in the disputes over celibacy, simony and the investiture of abbots and bishops by the secular authorities during the late eleventh century. The sale of ecclesiastic offices, the control over the appointments of bishops, i.e. simony, were the dominant issues for both contenders. For both, these questions were crucial since they also involved land ownership. As long as the kings were credited with being both rex et sacerdos, their entitlement to perform the investiture and to expect homage and service, the servitium regis, was not challenged. However, once their sacerdotal role was questioned by the Papacy, their entitlement was attacked. Simultaneously, for the Papacy, the de facto control of the provinces of the church hinged on the ecclesiastical appointment and control of the bishops, who ruled these provinces. It was basic in the pursuit of the primacy of the Papacy and its supremacy over the monarchy. At the same time, owing to disputes between the crown and its secular magnates, the Ottonians had already based the power of the kingdom on the instruments and supports of the church and the control of its bishops as a means to provide the kingdom with stability, free from political rivalries. This circumstance was to lead to the triangulated problem arising between the crown, the Papacy and the high nobility of the realm. To ensure this stability, the popes and the nobility had to be kept apart and under the control of the monarchs. It was this struggle for primacy in this perceived end phase of the Christian Roman Empire, which trapped the imperial foreign policy ideologically in an orientation towards the Regnum Italie, Italy and Rome. Imperial policies had to be determined by the adherence to the isolating imperial idea, if the universal Imperium Christianum was to be a reality at the end of time, understood to be imminent. The challenges to the legitimacy of this persuasion repeatedly embroiled this 'middle kingdom' with its unpersuaded neighbors, among whom, with some noteworthy exceptions, the primacy over the church was not the all pervading issue. After 1046, this crucial concept of a church supported 'state' was turned into the kingdom's greatest weakness, as the secular realm was gradually driven on the defensive. At the beginning of our period of investigation, the bishopric of Rome acted as an advisory depository of the Christian

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heritage. However, during the eleventh century the 'Two Authorities' found a common cause in reciprocal conflict, as in Salian times, initially with royal support, strong popes began to recast the Papacy into a center of primary power and absolute authority. They used excommunication, being cast into the world of guilt and sin without chance of Salvation, as a means of restricting royal power in episcopal matters. Papal absolutism found expression in the ultimate expulsion of the king/emperor from the Christian community and in absolving the emperor's vassals from their oath of fealty, given reluctantly in any case, thereby upsetting the social order. It was not convincing that the sacerdotal king/emperor claimed the same power over the pope. The popes held the better propagandistic cards, as the religious temper of the times worked to the king/emperor's final disadvantage. At any time, the pope could demonstrate his sovereignty and with his power to excommunicate, cast the king out of the community of God's chosen into a realm of guilt and sin, strip the king/emperor of his political support and reduce him to impotence and even remove him. On the other hand, the episcopal basis of the Empire recommended the imperial Italian policy, including the necessity of controlling the Papacy in Rome. Consequently, any attentive policy towards the east was left largely to the eastern duchies. There was no expressly formulated imperial 'drive towards the east'. In the north and east, conquered territories neglected and 'lost' during the late tenth century, were not reclaimed for centuries. Nevertheless, the political dissensions and wrestling for positions, as well as the persistent dispute with the Papacy concerning the primacy, did not affect the European evolution of a catalyst, evident in the varying stylistic elements of the religious arts and architecture – Romanesque. While little is left of the secular arts, in the Regnum Teutonicum religious Romanesque works of art and architecture provide the key evidence, though they were not all in the same phase of development. Differences determined by materials, intentions, traditions and climatic conditions contributed to regional distinctions. However, despite regional differences the elements of the style are identifiable. The political disputes may have contributed to a prolonged conservatism and the style's longer duration in the Empire. The arts, crafts and architecture, however, were affected very positively by the link with Italy, and especially with northern, Lombard Italy. This book treats the historical setting from c.900 to c.1300 as a continuum. Each dynastic segment is introduced by a brief summarizing and orienting overview, before dealing with the dynastic events in greater detail. This should not be taken for repetition. It bears stressing, that throughout its history, the Regnum Teutonicum was a kingdom in which the succession was subject to an electoral process.

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Introduction

From its beginning, the East Frankish Kingdom operated as an elected kingship, dependent on the support of its territorial magnates and its bishops. It first experimented with the election of its own Franconian king, Conrad I, fended off external threats and established an identity of its own under the Saxon Ottonians (919-1024), restored the credibility of the corrupted Papacy, acquired imperial status and the recognition of the Byzantine Empire through marriage. Its cohesion rested on a millennial vision of a Christian realm in which a 'Golden Rome' awaited the heavenly fulfillment on earth, rather than on the exercise of real power in this world. Based on the 'Two Realms' projected by St. Augustine in his De Civitate Dei – The City of God. He divided history into the realm of God and heaven, in which resided the angels and those humans chosen to receive God's grace, and the realm of the Devil and the world, in which resided those not predestined for Salvation, but relegated to the state of guilt and sin. For the community of the chosen there is no place on earth. The community of the damned, on the other hand, lives in dissent, fighting for such false earthly values as power and domination. For St. Augustine God's Realm is not of this world. However, the Christian church is for him the means for God's Realm to reach into human life and the Realm of the World. A Manichean dualism separates the Two Realms, to be kept separate at the end of time. Just as is God's Realm, so is the Realm of the World an abstract idea, within which the Empire was thus a projected ideal. The justification of this realm lay in its protection of the church and the Papacy as part of the more realistic late Classical Gelasian doctrine of the 'Two Authorities'. The Ottonians inherited this doctrine from the Carolingians. In return, the king could attain the imperial dignity. In his person the parts of the realm found their cohesion. In its attempts to consolidate the kingdom, the succeeding Franconian Salians (1024-1125) encountered the disaffection of the German magnates and the determined contrary interests of the strengthened Papacy, which demanded total submission and obedience of all. That this was a violation of the Gelasian doctrine of the 'Two Authorities' was now recalled on the royal side. The royal position, having discovered the vulnerability of the Ottonian model, which had placed its reliance on the control of the church of the kingdom, could not allow this control to slip into the papal domain. During the dispute, the royal power became very unstable and subject to the opportunism and self-interest of its magnates, until the balance of power tipped. While the Papacy appears to have exploited with assurance the religious fervor of the times as the popes implemented a 'script', the emperors seem to have improvised ad hoc, hampered by the particular interests of the ecclesiastical and secular magnates, who shifted their

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support between the monarchy and the Papacy as their interest dictated. A king could not face their combined opposition, especially when strong popes rose to insist on obedience to the pope and to dispute the primacy of the king/emperors in the matter of the control of the realm, but especially in the spiritual realm. While the Papacy was weak, this posed only little difficulty for the German king/emperors, who followed the late Roman imperial precedent of relegating the church to its traditional secondary position, as still was the case of the church in Constantinople. With the western church assuming the former imperial role for itself, the reversal of this position had the consequence that now any strong pope could incapacitate the secular state through the power of excommunication which cancelled all feudal relationships. Disobedience could lead to charges of heresy. Claiming sole legislative authority in all matters, the pope could sit in judgment over all, but not be judged by anyone. The pope's verdict was absolute and irreversible. By the early thirteenth century, the Papacy through its curia had also become the primary judicial instance in the west. Although a compromise became possible, the conflict between kings and popes remained a contentious element in imperial politics, given that any interested party could disturb the compromise. The erosion of the religious and secular foundations of the cohesive monarchy contributed directly to the centrifugal configuration of the Empire and its ultimate devolution into disparate, autonomous territorial principalities. The problem was not to be resolved under the Swabian Hohenstaufen dynasty (1152-1268). Conditions in Italy had undergone modernizing changes, so that Frederick I, Barbarossa, appeared to be an anachronism. The advent of the Crusades had helped to accentuate the tensions between the Empire and the Papacy, over the question of preparedness to participate in them. The Hohenstaufen policy in Italy and Norman Sicily made them estranged absentee kings in Germany. The last effective king, Frederick II, called stupor mundi, wonder of the world, has been credited with being the first Renaissance man on the imperial throne. Frederick's reign was dominated by a lengthy dispute with the Papacy, among other things over a contentious diplomatic recovery of Jerusalem. Frederick's proximity to Islamic culture brought Moslem influences to his court, which affected his intellectual position on many things. Frederick was buried beside his father Henry VI in Palermo, Sicily, the two having been German kings in name only.

CHAPTER ONE THE OTTONIANS

Tasks and Challenges At the beginning of the tenth century, Central Europe was a generally amorphous assembly of many peoples, without definable identity, colored only by the Frankish veneer borne by its leading groups. In this prenational condition, there was no concept of German or “Germany”, France, Poland, Bohemia or Hungary. No one foresaw that during that century the multi-ethnic East Frankish Kingdom and its surrounding regions would be reconfigured and undergo such transformations, that by the end of that century, but only then, new realms would take on rudimentary forms, and a new universal Empire would come into being. In it, crown and church arrived at creating a synergetic, cohesive structure, to prepare both for the “Fullness of Time”. The first such Empire, the Carolingian Imperium Christianum, especially as formulated in the time of Louis the Pious, existed more as an idea than an actual political state. Its demise, reduction and survival as a provincial “Empire', was a pragmatic attempt to safeguard the surviving pieces. The intellectual pieces, partly inherited from late antiquity, especially the idea of the Imperium Christianum, which contributed to the characteristics of the Carolingian Empire, continued to animate the thinking of the regna, which followed. One force, especially, did adhere to the ideal of a Christian realm, the church, and it is a characteristic of this realm, that realm and church were most closely interlinked in a relationship in which the king's sacred rule was an expression of the divine will. It was to give credence to the word “Holy”, which, only on the eve of the Empire's own practical demise in 1254, contributed to the renaming of the Imperium Romanum, better the Regnum Francorum Orientalum, since 1157 the Sacrum Imperium, into the Sacrum Imperium Romanum, the Holy Roman Empire. That a realm even came into being is unexpected, for throughout its history it resembled rather a kaleidoscopic, an open-ended experiment in progress. During the tenth century, this configuration of “tribal” entities was subjected to compacting changes in the form of the Ottonian kingdom.

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These changes endured for centuries, providing the center of Europe with political, ecclesiastical and economic structures, well before other regions could follow suit. To justify its existence it repeatedly had to reestablish its claim to otherworldly support and representation reflected in its arts and architecture. It was soon to establish its hegemony in the center of Europe, to pulsate, expand and contract, to run into the conflicting and rivaling intentions of the church, to shift eastward, but to continue until its abolition by Napoleon in 1806. At all times, the frontiers were in a state of flux. The concept of borders defining areas of sovereignty had not yet been invented. Following the Treaty of Ribémont in 880, the approximate western borders of the East Frankish Kingdom were the western borders of the duchy of Lotharingia, which arched from the North Sea coast and the ScheldtMeuse-Rhine estuary in the north, followed a line to the west of the river Meuse, to the headwaters of the Moselle. From there, the border went on to Basel and the knee of the upper Rhine. The border of the duchy of Swabia reached to the headwaters of the rivers Rhine and Inn. The southern border of the Bavarian duchy penetrated far into northern Italy. Swabia and Bavaria controlled the Alpine passes into Italy. Bavaria included Slovenia, while its eastern marches of Carinthia, Styria and of Bavaria, coincided approximately with the eastern borders of modern Austria. Towards the north, the border of Bavaria followed the mountain range of the Bohemian Forest. Thuringia followed the river Saale to the Elbe, the eastern border of the duchy of Saxony. (Map 1-1) Beyond these very long and unsettled eastern borders lay the lands of a multitude of Slavic peoples. During the ninth and tenth centuries, the eastern limits of Bavaria and Saxony were seriously penetrated and their hinterlands severely destabilized by the disruptive relations with the western Slavs and especially by raiding Hungarians. The Saxon border extended to the Schlei in the north. At all times, the territorial holdings of the church could be located within and without the respective tribal jurisdictions.1 In the Frankish tradition the realm was partitioned among members of the family. It was to be to the credit of the first king of this new assembly of duchies, that he designated only one successor. By the middle of the thirteenth century, the Empire included Burgundy and Provence in the west, configured as the Arelat, Bohemia and Moravia, Silesia and Pommerania in the east. Italy in the south, excluded the Papal States, while Sicily came to share its rulers with the empire. An expanding Denmark had crossed the Danewirk and pushed its border towards the south. Owing to the feudal order of the personal interdependencies of

The Ottonians

11

vassalage, the Empire's hegemony included the crusader kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem in the east. Population estimates project a density of no more than a modest 4 - 4½ million inhabitants living on c.450 000 square kilometers in the center of Europe.2 Nevertheless, it appears that the rulers had little difficulty raising large military forces when needed. It was described earlier3 how and where pre-historic and early historic populations had settled, and how later on solitary monastic establishments, fortified seats of the nobility, military outposts and supporting settlements were driven into previously uninhabited regions. These transitional times were dominated by the rights of the stronger. That situation focused the Frankish magnates' attention on such immediate needs as the survival in one's position, with one's possessions. From among the leading Saxon families, more or less linked to the Carolingians by marriage and bolstered by this continuity, the new configurations of elite power would emerge. In repeated, destructive feuds, whole families died out. Aware of its nobilitas and utilitas (nobility and bestowed suitability), the nobility maneuvered for position, until it became apparent to all, that one family among them was the beneficiary of the required divinely empowering charisma, Heil, felicitas, to aspire to the sacred kingship.4 To be eligible, a candidate had to be without physical handicaps, with proven horsemanship, military skills and leadership. As judge, he had to know and speak the law. The acceptance of this distinction then became a formality of linked procedures to which the modern understanding of the term “election” does not really apply, for it was a chain of events, beginning with the selection from a potential pool of candidates, designation of a nominee, election and enthronization by the four leading tribes through representatives. Confirmation came through the coronation by high ecclesiastics and the elevation to the throne. In other words, the election was not a free choice, but a complementary, stepincremental process. It will be apparent repeatedly, that the monarch was not arbitrarily entitled by his birth, but elected after having been selected. The election implied the voluntary submission to the one elected along with the vow of loyalty. The election demonstrated God's will, carried out by the church and the aristocracy as instruments of that will. Criteria for his eligibility included the absence of any blemish from birth or subsequent damage to his person. Already among the Carolingians, rivals for the crown would be disqualified by blinding. The pool of candidates was determined by membership in the kinship marked by its Heil. This did not necessarily imply hereditary succession of the male heir, though that may have been the result. Just being of the royal blood provided no legitimate entitlement in any of the medieval European

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kingdoms. The king's paternal designation of the nominee during his lifetime from among the royal kinship, who could be a royal son, though not necessarily the first-born, but also a nephew, bore particular authority, especially when accentuated by the transmission of the royal insignia. Such a nominating designation was a binding proposal to cause the electoral process to unfold along certain lines, as the royal authority could determine the political will of the majority.5 However, even if there was an heir, his candidacy in the succession had to be submitted by designation and subjected to the electoral process. Hereditary succession was subject to prior election, which could ignore the rights of the first-born. The emphasis rested on worthiness. Only then, could the heir be anointed and crowned. This will be evident repeatedly in the following text, when the Ottonians sought queens and imperial princesses in marriage to “improve” the blood, and when important military expeditions were delayed, pending the successful outcome of a problematic acceptance, election, coronation and enthronement of the underage heir. “The king is dead, long live the (new) king”, could not be heard in the German kingdom. Before the “Investiture Struggle”, the church had no difficulties with these principles, so that until the end of the twelfth century the election was only one link in the chain. These were Germanic principles, which had to be observed before the ruler could be crowned and enthroned by the magnates. Following the Concordat of Worms of 1122, it gradually became the prerogative of a select group of magnates to determine the choice until finally a group of seven prince-electors reserved the right to elect the monarch. Particularist self-interest soon induced them to favor candidates who lacked the military and economic power to assert their will over them. During the tenth century, the earlier Germanic notions were still reverberating, when Widukind saw it that way.6 The candidate's anointed coronation was the evident proof of God's voice and in the manner of the Old Testament; the king was the anointed of God. Only when proof positive was available that the Heil was no longer present in the family, as perhaps indicated when a dynasty died out, could the selection, designation, election, coronation and enthronement of a new monarch be entertained, as happened several times in the elevation of the anti-kings. Even Henry II, an Ottonian in the cadet line, took care to secure the royal insignia to legitimize his claim, before he became involved in the process leading to his coronation and elevation. Hence, usurpations were not a likely course of action. A benefit of this process was the prevention of rivalries among the members of the family. In keeping with the notion of Heil, the new king's charisma extended to all the members of his kin, without depriving the kinship of the predecessor

The Ottonians

13

of its prestige and influence. For nearly a century, the Ottonian descendants maintained their leading positions, especially in the religious foundations. This complex issue extended into feudal law, where a vacancy of a fief through death, did not automatically lead to its being passed into the possession of an heir. The fief reverted to the lord, who then had several choices how to dispose of it, including its award to an heir. With the decline of the Carolingians, the East Frankish realm had retained basic Frankish forms, while it reverted socially to an earlier warrior society. Devastation of settlements, fields and harvests, by fire, was a principal feature of warfare, against populations living on the edge of subsistence. Sieges were necessary to remove enemy pockets in the rear of an advancing army, despite the delays they caused. The remote figure of the king captained the passing abstract ship of state. Caught unawares in its turbulent wake, the common people, subjected to a judicial inequality, experienced only vaguely the churning tumult of the passing of history. The records kept in Latin inform about the “Latin Middle Ages” of the clerics and their scribal culture, but little about the integrated oral culture of the common man and his mental and spiritual concerns and daily toil, his struggle against catastrophes, wars, failed harvests, starvation, toxin induced hallucinations and infectious and incurable, “diabolical” diseases, life, death, heaven and hell on earth. The visions of purgatory were innovations introduced only during the thirteenth century. How did emphasis on the clerical world view reflect that of the common man? For the commoners, the awareness of the world will have been concentrated on such familiar concepts as family and kinship, farm and village, probably also on notions of clan. Any distinguishing tribal notions may not have existed at all, either. What was a Saxon to an Alaman? Any notion of regional identity, let alone “national” consciousness, lay in the distant future. Without an identifiable name, a center, central administration, without the administrative uniformity derived from written directives and preserved records, any central planning, one will at best have been aware of one's state as a client of someone higher up the hierarchical pyramid on whom one was dependent and to whom service and dues had to be rendered. It was understood that with the decline of the Carolingians, during which period no Carolingian heir had the strength to dominate another, God had transferred his benevolence to another worthy line, in which wisdom, protective strength, justice and clemency are generously represented. Already in 916 at a synod, the assembled bishops had proclaimed the sacrosanct nature of the anointed king,7 intended to caution any magnates, not to commit a blasphemous act, because the oath of fealty was a

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sacrament. The anointed, sacred king, as the immortal living lord of God's kingdom made visible on earth, was the uniting bond among princely jurisdictions, which preferred a high degree of independent territorial authority. Missi dominici appointed along Carolingian lines could not replace the monarch, since the heavenly kingdom on earth was located wherever the king chose to stay. Therefore he had to be seen everywhere in his aura, so that all the people could share in it, not just a select few. As “prince of peace”, he brought peace and justice, and shunned vice, made appointments, received petitions, heard grievances, confirmed rights and bestowed privileges, righted wrong and spoke justice. He was the guarantor of the freedoms due his subjects. On religious feast days, he showed himself with his insignia and in full regalia as the sacred anointed of the Lord, as the “prince of peace”, of law and order, and then his personal presence extended the hope that salvation by association was possible. There were no constitutional institutions or instruments available to help him guide the other lords of his realm, many of whom had assumed the administrative duties on a hereditary basis.8 They existed within a personal bond based on the oath of fealty, which they had sworn to his unifying sacred kingship. The main functions of the kingdom were the preservation of peace and justice. Therefore there could be nothing worse, than an interregnum, when the throne was vacant, because then chaos and injustice reigned, all personal relationships were dissolved and the kingdom ceased to be an effective unit. The royal progress, the perambulation, the symbolic circle ride, of the itinerant monarch as worldly king “under the crown“, was used by the Ottonian, Salian and Hohenstaufen king/emperors to introduce, demonstrate royal rule as a personal experience and enforce their sacral rule from horseback.9 It served to overcome the impression of the king's remoteness, reduce the distance between rulers and subjects, and tried to persuade people of the notion of the whole even being a real monarchy on earth. Tents and pavilions are less forbidding than palaces, even if a moving center blurs the definition between its protean appearance and location and its periphery. Considering the poor state of communications, a central administration was not to be envisaged. An itinerant court was a necessity, since it was easier to move the court to the supply, than to move the supplies to a central site. It follows, that the court had to leave a hostel once its resources were depleted. It is astonishing to note, that, even in their very advanced years, none of the monarchs could be accused of noncompliance with this expectation, as it was the king's personal duty to impress through the sacerdotal aura of his crowned presence. A reign was the itinerant life on horseback, interrupted

The Ottonians

15

by military actions, rituals, the celebration of high feast-days in designated locations and the assembly of decision making councils, diets, and convened synods. Government was by consensus. Only illness seems to have interfered with these itineraries. Not unlike modern district supervisors of sales, their inspecting and regulating presence was needed constantly and everywhere. When seen in this itinerant role, wearing the sanctified crown claimed to have been placed on his sacred head by Christ himself, his progress through his realm took on the spiritual aura of the consecrated circuit of the anointed monarch. His majesty carried holiness and the idea of a sacred kingship into the less remote parts of the realm. This earthly splendor was a prefiguration of the heavenly one. Not until Staufen times, did the monarchs begin to delegate their authority. Only a rudimentary secretariat existed at first, headed by a chancellor and several chaplains/clerics, who accompanied the court, of possibly up to a thousand retainers, officials and servants. It was this group of clerics which kept such records as have been handed down. It should not surprise that their points of view color the historical accounts. Traveling at a speed of about 24 km per day, at first only essential points, Pfalzen,10 royal residences and efficient hostelries, will have been targeted during the annual perambulation. The planners of the itinerary will have had to take particular organizational care. The economic burden, which the court's sojourn represented at any one visit, would have been prohibitive. The sites, whether bishoprics, abbeys or princely courts, obliged to extend their hospitality, needed an opportunity to recover before the next visit could be considered. Yet hospitality figured prominently in the servitium regis, the service to the king. Thanks to the royal donations of land, privileges, fairs, markets, mints and tolls, the secular and religious foundations prospered and with their growing, permanent settlements, came to be best suited to host the court for longer periods. They actually became royal assets. The Ottonians followed a deliberate policy concerning markets by favoring established markets but expressly preventing their duplication in regions already served by an established market. New market sites were given either elongated, rectangular, square or triangular outlines, often still reflected in the town and city plans today. The ready availability of game and fish will have added to the attraction of the site. Without an official residence, any sense of a cohesive realm was still hindered by extensive and barely penetrable mountain ranges, forests, swamps, moors and heaths. However, it was no longer a total wilderness.11 Even though islands of intellectual and cultural activity had already introduced centers of excellence into the duchies, scribal culture was in full decline and the gaping chasm between Carolingian and Ottonian

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learning cannot be imagined deep enough, prior to the renewed contact with Italy. Administrative focal points introduced a measure of orderly stability. Regional identities were crystallizing, as ever new settlements were needed by the monastic and military infrastructures to open up the vacant hinterland, to colonize and be viable. Land continued to be cleared by fire, axe and plow to prepare the arable land on which to sustain a gradually improving modicum of life and a growing population. The names of very many communities reflect the manner of settlement and their origins as slash and burn clearings in what had once been a vast wilderness. At all times, fishing attracted people to settle along riverbanks and lakeshores. Through these efforts, a network of intellectual centers, settlements and communications had developed in the duchies, which gradually opened the regions to intensified colonization. In the west, Roman cities continued into medieval times, very quickly expanding into and beyond the defensive perimeters of those extensive foundations, while they maintained the original layout of streets. Elsewhere, towns came into being during the tenth and eleventh centuries, often focused on religious foundations, soon supported by a secular economy based on manufacturing, commerce and trade, which defined their citizens. Some grew into cities during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as royal/imperial interests and then those of territorial lords, both secular and ecclesiastic, who realized their political and economic advantages, as the developing money economy stimulated the gradual emergence of civic freedoms, as we understand them, for their citizens.12 As in earlier times, subsistence agriculture, the crafts and an exchange of goods provided the necessities. Long distance trade in salt and luxury items, conducted with caravans of pack animals, required the development of an adequate system of transportation, which during the early period circumvented Central Europe. Owing to the lack of adequate roads, wagon trains were a later development. It would be wrong, however, to project a landscape in which little communication was possible, for the network linking the monastic foundations and the established routes of the royal itineraries indicate a relatively high traffic density. Considering the many diets, assemblies, and synods, which were convoked at diverse points and attended by dignitaries from the many parts of the realm, the roads will have been well traveled, but on foot and horseback. Initially the interests of the nobility, of church and state, were well represented in the duchies of the kingdom.13 It has been demonstrated that during Carolingian times an active, extensive and fertile exchange of cultural goods, artistic works and sophisticated ideas took place in the Carolingian Empire, even during its regression.

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Charlemagne had energetically rejected the notion of considering Rome the capital of the Frankish realm. Nor did the Carolingians foster a rebirth of the Classical Rome of the pagan emperors. They drew their inspiration from the Rome of the Christian Caesars, such as Constantine, Theodosius and Justinian. Charlemagne's successors in the Frankish Empire came to be content to be crowned emperor by the pope in Rome. However, the medieval Empire came to find itself in an ideological trap, in that a Holy Rome was a crucial component within its definition. The Book of Daniel had been interpreted by St. Jerome to refer to four Empires – the Assyro-Babylonian, that of the Medes and Persians, that of Alexander and his successors and that of Christian Rome to be the last. Since a new empire could not be founded Christian Rome was understood to have been continued by transference, translatio imperii, in the Carolingian Empire in the west. The demise of that Christian Empire would signal the end of the world. Its preservation was a duty before God and the Christian people. In view of the sorry state of the Papacy and the church, the idea of its restoration, as a Renovatio, became a necessary concern, a Leitmotif, encompassing many contradictory tendencies and uncoordinated influences, during the Middle Ages, once the guidance and protection of the church became an imperial obligation. The latter included the duty to go on crusade, do missionary work among the pagans and to combat heresy and witchcraft. Thus, the continuation of the Carolingian notion of an Imperium Christianum required an imperial echo in all things. During the late tenth century, it behooved the strong German-speaking kingdom to assume the responsibility for this Renovatio, even if in real terms the protection of the church and the Papacy was Idealpolitik, but only by controlling the imperial church, could the Ottonians reign over an indivisible realm despite the disparate parts of their Empire and its centrifugal tendencies. The implementation of this ideal restoration as a continuum, with Rome as the center of gravity, required the pragmatic inclusion of Lombardy and northern intervention in Lombardic affairs. This was especially so when the involvement with the political ambitions and unrest in northern Italy, caused contestants for the papal crown, to reach for support from the strong northern realm against their rivals. During several centuries, this increasingly anachronistic attitude was to cause immense grief, especially once the complications deriving from reformed church law, hidden behind the so called “Investiture Controversy”, beginning during the middle of the eleventh century, became an aggravating factor for the secular powers. In this contest, in which the two powers tried to establish their respective authorities, partisanship split the Imperium Christianum. By the time the contentious positions had been

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clarified, the sacred, sacerdotal status of the western emperor had been neutralized. In any case, although the anointing ceremony set the king apart as it gave him authority in and over the church, it did not bestow on him the sacramental authority of bishops and priests to ordain, consecrate the Eucharist, or to absolve.14 In retrospect it is difficult to grasp, how vitally the decisive spiritual, ideological and political questions were linked to the significance of papal Rome, as they affected the respective primacy of pope and emperor. The ideas, which each represented, concerning the Imperium Christianum, were not primarily complementary. Worst of all, misunderstood as a lodestar, the light they followed proved to be a lantern, which they themselves carried in front of them into certain misadventure. Subsequently, in the absence of a multilingual, multitribal identity, it would be premature to speak of a “national” identity, only the effective implementation of the traditional imperial idea had any meaning. This continuity required ready access to Rome as a necessary condition to a rite of passage of the imperial forces. This passage had to be assured repeatedly in the face of an understandable lack of regional cooperation and outright particularist hostility on the part of the cities of northern Italy and especially of the population of Rome. This orientation towards papal Rome came to force an intermittently recurring, but enduring, needless frustration upon the imperial administration, especially since in its dilapidated and scandalous state, the Rome of the popes represented an idea, and no longer the glory of a pontifical residence. These circumstances pitted the emperors as individuals against the Papacy as an institution. As individuals, the monarchs were “outnumbered”. For nearly four hundred years, the Roman emperors focused their attention on Rome and Italy as Charlemagne had done. At the same time the concern taxed the human and material resources, which these Roman emperors had to invest to maintain their Italian ambitions and Roman obligations. Except during the reign of the generally disinterested Henry II, who tried to combine in his person priestly and royal functions, and thus realize a sacerdotal realm in the north, repeated campaigns, prolonged sieges, contagious diseases, food shortages and miserable living conditions frequently caused the ruler's death as they decimated the imperial forces, as each new emperor needed to be crowned in Rome, owed protection to the Papacy, or wanted to enforce a specific point. That the economic, political and cultural forces within the various parts of the Empire were following an independent agenda was not often appreciated. Already Dagobert, the Merovingian, had espoused a joint policy, within which eastward political expansion was to be a joint

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undertaking with Christianization. Under the Carolingians, this policy was enforced severely. For the western Slavs, this meant ruthless aggression to be met with ruthless resistance. For the Ottonians, however, conversion to Christianity was not implemented as a prelude to colonization.15 They were content to treat Slavic resistance as a problem primarily in religious organization, more so than as military intervention. While among the Bohemians and Poles further east, an individualistic tribalism was being formed into cohesive political units, the western fragmented Slavic tribes were not met with repeated, determined and concerted effort, but only with piecemeal interaction, which did not forge them into coordinated entities. The western Slavs equated Christianization with Saxon conquest, while their adherence to paganism resembled the struggle for ethnic liberty. Thus, the regional frontier history was a simultaneous development in military, political and ecclesiastical history. It took shape as a transelbian Slavic mission on the part of the Saxons, rather than of the Empire, leading to the creation of eastern Saxon bishoprics, without the express objective of incorporating the western Slavs. Subsequently they adopted the modified traditional thinking of the Carolingians of the unified Imperium Christianum. By 1002, three essentially independent realms came into being excluding the western Slavs – Poland, Bohemia and Hungary. By the end of the period under discussion here, a concerted imperial transalpine, Central European policy receded in importance, while the imperial administrative policy was devoted almost exclusively to the last Hohenstaufen emperor's Sicilian and Italian concerns. The brief surveys of the dynasties, which follow, are anything but complete. Among these, our treatment of the Ottonians, the founders of the kingdom, will be the most extensive, because they developed the platform of the Carolingian heritage, on which the subsequent historical events were staged. The Saxon Ottonians understood this heritage as a task for which they were jointly responsible with their Frankish predecessors. At no time, however, did the Saxons systematically occupy controlling positions in the other duchies, so that the Ottonian kingdom was never a pre-eminently Saxon kingdom. Only during the reign of Henry II, the last Ottonian, did the Ottonian kingdom integrate all parts of the realm in sacerdotal cohesion as the “House of God”. Political problems of constitutional organization, social and cultural states of mind, institutional continuity and external policy, such as that dealing with the Slavic frontier were first attempted during their reigns. Proto-typical statements of exhausting future problems, especially those concerning the Regnum Italie and papal Rome, as well as ecclesiastical and secular solutions, were first formulated during this period. At the bottom lay an idea inherited from the

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ideological inventory of the early Carolingian emperors, the modified ideal of the Imperium Christianum and its governance. The problem has been identified to have arisen sometime during the last pagan millennium before the Christian era, when the emergence of a temporal kingship defined the range of activity, until the spiritual caste reserved for itself the care and teaching of doctrinal concerns, while the king was charged with its protection. In this partition of functions, the two cannot be equal. Ideally, they can be in equilibrium, each pursuing its end in harmonious cooperation. Sacerdotism can exist on its own and independent of royalty and the support of the state, while the king is dependent for the justification and the very legitimacy of his position on the consent of the sacerdotal group.16 Initially an imperial concern, which included the restoration of the medieval Papacy and the control of the church and people of Rome as a foundation of imperial power, pursued as a sacerdotal concept, it became the battleground between Byzantine emperors and Roman popes, and again once the Papacy had recovered from its disarray and contested the primacy over this modified Imperium Christianum. Pope Gelasius I (492-96) in his letter to the emperor Anastasius in 494, skillfully applied Biblical exegesis with Roman jurisprudence and defined the two powers which ruled the world, the sacred power of pontiffs and kings and that of priests.17 Because the latter had to answer to God, theirs was the weightier. However, the pope laid no claim to worldly power. Charlemagne had claimed both powers for himself, while the pope was to restrict his activities to supportive prayer. As king, God had armed him with the Two Swords of the Two Authorities of Gelasius I, regalis potestas – the royal power armed with the gladius materialis, and auctoritas sacrata pontificum – the priestly authority armed with the gladius spiritualis, with which to protect the church from false doctrine and from all enemies. Church and state were to share authority on earth without strife, as both emperor and pope were vicars of Christ on Earth.18 Not intended to be a power struggle between Roman emperors and popes, the pursuit of this ideal as a universal secular or a universal ecclesiastic realm was not to achieve this equilibrium, but to bring considerable grief to the Ottonian, but especially Salian and Hohenstaufen dynasties during the nearly four hundred years of European history. Though not loudly proclaimed before the eleventh century, the goal of attaining supremacy and even sovereignty over Christendom by designating the “material sword” subservient to the spiritual authority, was not forgotten by the popes. Gelasius had provided a point of leverage, when he suggested that the priesthood carried the greater burden, being accountable to God. At the time, however, the Empire played the decisive

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role, as the church had not yet developed the idea of its supremacy over monarchs. The confluence of these circumstances and historical processes raises questions about the causal effects, which affected the realm. Remnants of the “great man” theory still see powerful individuals as movers and shapers of the course, often the changing course of events. Thus the historical narrative may be projecting a positivistic sequence of events with greater assurance than the actual evidence might justify. It is much more apparent, that it was the circumstances and the historical processes which moved and shaped the individuals, and determined a narrowly circumscribed framework, within which the ruler was a plaything, who could act with only a limited degree of freedom. This made for greater continuous concatenation, than for apparent, disturbing change, even when dynastic transformations took place. Eclectic retrospection had imposed a selective teleology onto the process and fitted the process to the desired, national, outcome. The Ottonians (919-1024)19 Conrad I (Franconian, 911-919) ---------------------Henry I (919-936) Otto I (936-973) Otto II (973-983) Theophanu (983-991) Adelheit (991-994) Otto III (983-1002) Henry II (1002-1024)

Conrad I and Henry I - The Elected Kingship The royal election of a non-Carolingian was a new procedure, closely resembling a usurpation by a few, especially after the dictum of 754 in which Pope Stephen II forbade the Franks, under pain of excommunication, to elect a king from outside the line of Pepin's descendants. When Conrad I, the Franconian, was elected king in the East Frankish realm in 911, secessionist ideas did not play a primary role, though representatives of the West Frankish kingdom were not invited.20 The uppermost concern was for a coordinated defense of the eastern realm. Inner dissensions over the realignment of influence and power during the ninth century among the leading families and the centrifugal tendencies promoted by regional priorities, had reshuffled the social structure. It had also weakened the

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already overextended Carolingian Empire, so that the attacks on its borders from all sides could not be fought off effectively by a weak and uncertain, regional, royal authority. Under the rule of the juvenile king, Louis the Child, in itself an unusual election, the old leading families, religious and secular magnates, could rise into determined, decision making prominence, first as members of a regency council and later as rather independent agents. The dangers from the northern Vikings, the western Slavs and Hungarians and the southern Arabs appeared on all frontiers. Centrifugal political forces, inner weaknesses and a lack of coordinated defensive cohesion and determination made the remnant kingdoms too vulnerable to the psycho-terror of the concerted attacks. By virtue of the shallow draft of their longboats, the Vikings were able to penetrate quickly, far inland by rowing up the rivers of Western Europe. In 880 Danish Vikings coming up the Elbe River had annihilated the entire Saxon army. Against them and the other invaders, the Frankish forces were not entirely successful. From Spain and Sicily the Arabs had gained a foothold on the Mediterranean coast of France, from where they were able to threaten the north for a century – a raid took them to St. Gall. Lake Geneva was within their domain to the north, while their practical influence was felt in much of Italy – Rome fell to them in 846. Thereafter the Papacy was in declining moral disarray. Since the bishop of Rome had the religious as well as the political rule over the city of Rome, for long periods Roman city politics determined the choice of pope, which did not always bring worthy individuals to the papal throne. The hostile groups dismantled the existing defensive system of the realm and for the next fifty years, the Hungarians unsettled the East Frankish kingdom with annual incursions. The buffering kingdom of Moravia crumbled in 906, followed by Saxony in that same year and Bavaria in 907, Swabia in 909/910. Bavarian and royal armies were destroyed in the encounters. King Louis the Child was defeated in 910. The military defeats entailed much loss of life and especially the death of many political and religious leaders. The destructive raids and demands for tribute brought the kingdom to the verge of economic ruin. Between 910 and 955 Hungarian raiding parties of mounted bowmen reached Constantinople, the Balkans, and southern Italy. In 56 years, northern Italy endured 35 Hungarian incursions. (Map 1-2) From the Mediterranean to the North Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean and the borders of the Byzantine Empire, the former Carolingian Empire offered no obstacles to their roaming, allowing them to intrude even into Spain. The western Slavs followed suit. For the East Frankish kingdom as a whole, these were serious reversals, though not all regions were equally affected. Thus,

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Franconia was spared.21 Overall, these catalytic assaults forged an identity in the center of Europe, for which it is not entirely appropriate to speak of an “Ottonian Renaissance“. In the end, Central Europe was able to absorb and Christianize most of these peoples and to effect an astonishing restoration as the basis for an extraordinary revival in art and architecture.22 The eastern incursion posed specific problems to the eastern duchies, Saxony and Bavaria. The larger problem for the impotent kingdom had to be solved regionally by the frontier duchies. The Liudolfingian margraves of Saxony and the Liutpoldingians in Bavaria were able to assume ducal functions and decisive powers.23 Owing to the external threats, the hereditary, Carolingian tribal duchies were undergoing a renewal.24 The Franconian nobility had been particularly savaged until the Conradines remained as the primary power, which gained the leadership of the tribe. In Swabia, a resolution had not yet been found. The death of King Louis the Child in 911 presented the eastern magnates with an unforeseen problem, the election of a non-Carolingian to the East Frankish throne. Since Merovingian times, kingship had revolved around the Germanic conception of Heil, felicitas, as the single inherent charisma, most distinguishing qualification for dynastic royalty.25 Under the Carolingians, this had assumed a Christian guise. With the exception of Lotharingia, not a tribal duchy, which wanted to retain the, albeit fading, Carolingian tradition and joined the western kingdom,26 the East Frankish tribal duchies were intent on forming a separate entity. They resolved their tribal differences and designated, elected or agreed to the election, coronation and elevation of Conrad the Franconian to the throne, as Conrad I. His title was simply rex, without regional designation. At the time, one still lived in the Regnum Francorum within which Franconia was still considered a part of the Frankish core, still imbued with vestiges of the traditional continuity. However, the cohesion of the duchies with one another, seemed to have a higher priority than the question concerning Carolingian overlordship, available in the weak western king Charles the Simple, to whom an invitation was not even extended. He was not credited with much residual Heil. However, the threats posed by the Slavs and Hungarians helped to focus Frankish minds. Conrad, a prominent member of the regency council, was something of a compromise, since he was a distant Carolingian by marriage, though not of the royal blood. Similar relationships existed among the Saxons and Bavarians,27 a factor that encouraged monarchic aspirations in both of their ruling families. Conrad's election in Forchheim on November 10, 911 by the four leading tribes – Saxons, Franconians, Bavarians and Swabians (Alemans), and the rejection of the ineffective, western Charles the Simple as

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representative of the dynastic continuity, reflected a significant reorientation, a resolute consensus among the magnates. However, this disconnect did not necessarily imply a decreasing sense of particularism in favor of a growing sense of united identity. Anointed and crowned like the Carolingians, Conrad also expected to rule by divine grace. Thereby, however, he also represented the discontinuity with the Carolingians, so that the act marked the beginning of the independent realm and the crystallization of an abstract constitutional structure. Still, without an independent designation, this increasingly autonomous, sovereign realm continued with the old designation as the Regnum Francorum. Conrad I was not up to the tasks of recovering Lotharingia, ending the Hungarian danger and settling the conflict between royal and ducal powers. Not able to free himself of Carolingian precedents, which did not actually allow for the existence of tribal duchies, Conrad I tried to continue along their policy lines, directing his efforts against the tribal duchies. Throughout the tenth century and beyond, their particularist sense of ducal independence, however, was frequently more pronounced than their desire to play a subordinate part in a unified kingdom. They were less for Conrad than they were against Charles the Simple. Tolerated as first among equals, Saxony, Bavaria and Swabia were not prepared to cooperate with his stabilizing efforts, nor recognize his monarchical prerogatives and primacy over them. For the common people the sense of membership barely extended beyond the limits of the immediate community. Already the allegiance to a distant duke demanded a stretch of the imagination, especially since the dukes were not originally members of the particular tribe, the Carolingians having imposed them earlier. The royal struggle to revive a Carolingian monarchy against his dukes was to sap Conrad's strengths and contribute to the failure of his rule.28 Charles the Simple involved him in a western war, when in addition to Lotharingia, Charles also wanted to annex Alsace. Able to repel him, Conrad also wanted to recover Lotharingia by force. After 913, he tired of these efforts. All the while he made no defensive moves against the Hungarians, who, between 912 and 917 raided four times at will throughout the realm, leaving sporadic defense to the dukes. Their political reputation increased significantly, while the king's name suffered. Conrad could not call on any royal infrastructure to reinforce him and lead a united army against the Hungarians. Instead, he concentrated his resources on dealing with domestic affairs. It was his idea to stabilize his kingdom, not by relying on the “tribal” dukes, but on the greater integration of the church in political affairs.

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Since sacerdotal Carolingian times, service to the Imperium Christianum had been understood as the service to the realm and to the church. With that understanding, the kings and dukes had tried to place the church institutions under their own administrative control. These fared better under the kings and hence were the natural allies of the crown, especially since in view of the Papacy's weakness, the kings thought it essential to influence and even control the election and investiture of abbots and bishops as well as of some of the princes of the church. From 904 –1046 the Papacy was a plaything of the political factions of the city of Rome. As royal vassals, the bishops were obliged to raise troops and frequently took up arms themselves, often dying on the field of battle.29 While the king Conrad I was trying to deal with rivalries in Swabia, disputes with the Saxon duke Henry, launched attacks on him from the north. Henry had himself not instigated the problems with Conrad I. The king had similar difficulties with Arnulf, the duke of Bavaria. Conrad wanted to reduce the power of the Saxon and Bavarian dukes and to prevent a dukedom from coming into being in Swabia. Thuringia had only recently been merged with Saxony and Conrad wanted to reverse the merger.30 Seemingly interminable, the fundamental dispute dealt with the relationship between the kingship and the nearly regal dukedoms, until Henry of Saxony was able to negotiate a mutual recognition with the king to have him accept his conquests and virtual autonomy and not reduce Saxon ducal authority. These negotiations of 915 may have included an agreement between them that Henry should be Conrad's successor.31 With the support of the Swabian and Bavarian clergy, Conrad I assembled forces against Swabia and Bavaria. Despite an alliance with the Hungarians, Bavaria fell to Conrad in 916. Condemned at a synod of Frankish, Swabian and Bavarian bishops, for having dared to rise against the anointed of the Lord, the Swabian magnates were executed.32 In Bavaria, duke Arnulf fled twice to the Hungarians and was replaced by Conrad's brother. However, the apparent successes were temporary. In 917, a new Hungarian invasion cut a destructive swath through Bavaria, Swabia, Alsace and Lotharingia. Arnulf was duke of Bavaria again and all of Conrad's efforts in the south were cancelled. A campaign in 918 to restore his power there, ended in defeat. Wounded, perhaps in battle, Conrad did not recover, and died just before Christmas 918. He was buried in Fulda.33 In trying to put his Carolingian stamp on the kingdom he had failed to realize his exemplary royal intention. It was too early to advance the meaningful integration of the dukedoms into the kingdom as representative offices of the crown against the interests of the stronger duchies, to place

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the welfare of the kingdom over that of the duchies. Even though some magnates of the East Frankish church held fast to the idea of the unified Frankish realm and supported Conrad,34 his inadequate military strength rested mainly on his Franconians. It is significant that the northeastward shift of the political center of gravity also entailed a delivery from established Carolingian traditions. While the Eastern Carolingians had been based in Bavaria and Swabia, the new kingdom was shifting its center, first to Franconia and then into Thuringia and Saxony.35 In the process, the respective churches came completely under the control of the dukes. Arnulf secularized much church property in Bavaria, adding greatly to his strength. However, Lotharingia was not returned to the realm and the Hungarian incursions could not be stopped. It fell to the dukes to initiate any possible resistance against invaders.36 Their successful selfhelp heightened their profile, while their efforts contributed to the need of a sense of concerted action. It has been laid to Conrad's credit that, reputedly on his deathbed, and in view of the unresolved threats to the kingdom, he had the foresight not to continue the Frankish tradition of partitioning the realm among members of his family. He designated Henry of Saxony as his successor, and convinced his brother Eberhard to take the royal insignia to Saxony. With hindsight among the Ottonian historians, he was credited with the providential nomination of Henry, the Saxon duke (919-936), as his successor.37 It will be appreciated that the historical narrative projects a causal linearity to the historical events, suggesting a substantiable set of “facts” bridging much uncertainty. Widukind of Corvey may have invented the actual sequence of events and retrospectively recast it as the expression of a Saxon manifest destiny. He made an unwarranted tribal distinction here, when it was probable that the distinction was not yet clearly defined. Conrad and Henry and all the other Carolingian dukes for that matter, represented the eastern Carolingian high nobility, not necessarily representing ethnic origins or tribal interests, maneuvering for primacy.38 In fact, the transfer was more pragmatic than prophetic, since there was nothing to predict that Henry I would succeed, where Conrad had failed. It is doubtful, whether all the member duchies of the realm appreciated the singular dynamic potential harbored by the Saxons, that they all considered Henry, of the newly integrated Saxons, to be the obvious successor, especially when one considers that it was not until the Ottonian kingship, that the Saxons crystallized into a political unit. Henry was initially only the first among equals, who could raise similar claims. Bavaria, for one, was heading in its own direction and crowning its own king. King and anti-king faced one another at the beginning of this royal

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initiative. Only in retrospect and because of its unpredictable consequences, did Henry's ascent to the throne mark the definitive creation of a durable East Frankish kingdom.39 According to Widukind, who was a propagandist for Saxon manifest destiny, Conrad reasoned with his brother Eberhard, that although the Franconians had most of what was needed for the kingship – armies, fortifications, weapons and all the royal insignia, they lacked the decisive qualification – the royal Heil, felicitas. That had supposedly shifted to the Saxon duke, Henry.40 The legend, that Henry was naively and disinterestedly preoccupied catching songbirds, hence his name “Henry the Fowler” and that the kingship just fell into his lap, has something Biblical about it. To find favor in the eyes of God, the so chosen had to be innocently free of intent.41 On the contrary, Henry was politically very astute and actively involved in the lengthy – five months – frustrating negotiations, which preceded the nomination. During the ninth century, the prominent Saxon ducal family of the Liudolfingians already had had marital links with the Carolingians and could even point to a direct link with Charlemagne's brother, Carloman. Already in Merovingian times, they may have been Thuringians, who benefited from expropriations of Saxon lands and their favored position in Thuringia.42 During the Frankish conquest of the Saxons, this family may have identified with and represented Frankish interests in Saxony. Two names figure prominently during the period: one Liudolf and his younger son Otto. These two magnates provided the name for the dynasty, rising in stature during the reigns of the last German Carolingians. German historians consequently often refer to this dynasty as the Liudolfingians, since the names Liudolf and Liutgard are frequent during the tenth century. It is, however, more common to refer to this dynasty as Ottonians. In accordance with Charlemagne's directives, the ancestral Liudolf had married one Oda, daughter of a prominent Franconian family.43 It was they who had founded the proprietary family convent at Gandersheim with their underage daughter as its first abbess. Convents, whether for nuns or canonesses, were to become a Saxon preference. Throughout this period of investigation, the great loss of life among the fighting men-folk, created a surplus of women, including widows, who in many instances outlived their husbands by a generation. Frequently convent life was preferable to married life. At least 55 women's communities of canonesses were founded in Saxony between 919 and 1024.44 Liudolf's and Oda's daughter Liutgard was married to the Carolingian Louis the Younger, son of Louis the German. Henry was thus the nephew of a Carolingian king.

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There was much to recommend Henry's choice as king. From earlier times onward, the link via the concept of Heil was valid throughout the Middle Ages and far beyond. It placed the leading individual of the leading families, identified as princeps or dux, into a relationship with the divine, and in which the sacerdotal notion of a princely community of equals, in which the king was only one among them, was held together.45 In his own person then, Henry combined the dual ancestral Heil of Saxon military dukes and the bloodline of Franconian kings. The royal dynasty begins with Henry I and ends with Henry II. In between are three Ottos, hence the more obvious historical designation. The dynasty ruled for just over one century between 919-1024. Its first two kings established the parameters of the German kingdom. Our historical discussion will stress the developments under these kings. When Henry I was still duke of Saxony, he pursued a young widow, Hatheburg, whose youth, beauty and extensive possessions had enflamed his love for her. She was a widowed heiress of extensive properties around Merseburg, who had already entered a convent and taken the veil. Therefore the church frowned on this union, but Henry pressed his suit until she yielded. Henry's first marriage, 906/07 was a political union with Hatheburg. Three years later, in 909, he suddenly had pangs of conscience about the validity of his marriage for reasons of church law and repudiated and divorced her. Henry also excluded his son Thankmar from his mother's inheritance, and merged Hatheburg's estates with his ducal domain. He had learned of the younger and more beautiful and even richer Mathilda, a descendant of the legendary Saxon duke Widukind, for nearly thirty years the unyielding opponent of Charlemagne, several factors recommended to him the repudiation of Hatheburg and their son Thankmar46 and married Mathilda. The augmentation of his own holdings by the addition of the eastern and western acquisitions extended his control over all Saxon lands.47 Most important for the politics of the family was the link with the renowned line of the pagan Saxon duke Widukind, not on account of being the persistent freedom fighter and adversary of Charlemagne, but because of his conversion to Christianity.48 Mathilda (c.896-968) was the first Ottonian queen. She rose to that rank, when Henry of Saxony became king in 919. The lid of her sarcophagus is set up in the crypt of St. Servatius in Quedlinburg. She was only about thirteen years of age when Henry married her. Mathilda was raised in the convent at Herford, where she grew into a pious, and in time, a self-assured, grand and ostentatious lady, fond of splendid garments and the display of her wealth and self-worth. It was a strategic marriage. Her

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territorial assets exceeded those of his first wife, and when combined with hers, brought most of Saxony under Henry's control. Mathilda's biography is fragmentary and composed without real understanding. Two vitae are quite unreliable. She was to be the mother of an emperor, a Bavarian duke, two western queens and an archbishop. Contrary to the king, of her children, Mathilda came to favor her second son, Henry, porphyrogenetos, born to the purple, when his father was already king, over her first-born, a circumstance which was to create all manner of difficulties for Otto, her first born and the prime candidate. Reputedly, Otto was conceived when Henry I forced himself on her while he was drunk, during the week of abstention preceding Easter. She considered this a serious blemish, which prayer and sprinkling of holy water could not remove. Otto was born before Henry had ascended the royal throne, but Henry seems to have disregarded her reservations. It can be assumed that in the maneuvering among the various supporters Mathilda will have played a key part, as she agitated for the preferable legitimacy of Henry's royal birth in the succession over that of his older brother. Repeatedly she supported Henry's opposition to Otto. Her kinship intertwined in extensive marital connections. These made for divided loyalties as well as quickly spreading support. One can be sure, that she interceded with Otto on behalf of his younger brother, each time he forgave him his rebellions. It was on her advice and request that Otto made him duke of Bavaria. Clearly, her role as queen entailed more than performing household duties and ornamental functions. Within the limits of her femininity, she shared in the royal duties and representational expectations of her station. Education became an area of emphasis for her. Following the death of Henry I, she learned to read. She may have set the tone at court, for learning in the form of a literary education became a requirement at Otto's court. Her piety found overt expression in overly generous donations. She founded churches and several convents, most notably the two dedicated to St. Servatius and St. Wiperti in Quedlinburg. She made so free with donations of crown land and royal treasure that Otto had to restrain her generosity, out of concern over the reduction of the royal domain. Being queen in a kingdom held together by means of a strenuous, itinerant kingship, she traveled independently and had to endure the hardships of the annual progress. She died in 968. Following her death, she was venerated as patroness of several dioceses – Paderborn, Fulda and Freising. This Ottonian extended kinship gave Henry's son Otto a powerful pedigree

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In May 919, following an interregnum of five months, the secular magnates, the Franconian army and the co-equal Saxon and Frankish people were assembled at Fritzlar, to recognize the new leadership of the Saxons in the kingdom. Swabia and Bavaria did not participate in these proceedings. The only accounts pertaining to this situation were written a generation later from a Saxon perspective. Any Franconian precedents had been discarded. Nor does there appear to have existed any solidarity with the absent tribes. The reported event may have marked no more than the oath of fealty of Eberhard and his Franconians to Henry. The elevation of Arnulf in Bavaria49 may have proceeded simultaneously. Perhaps owing to a textual ambiguity, Henry may have already assumed the fragile kingship elsewhere, for Widukind of Corvey suggests that Henry was already king50 and commander of many mighty forces, when he appeared before them to be shown with the royal insignia and perhaps in Frankish regalia. Henry was introduced first to an assembly of the Frankish magnates, who proclaimed him king. Only then did Franconians and Saxons acclaim him, reflecting the new order.51 Widukind is intent on showing the legitimacy of the Ottonian succession and later applied to the new realm the terms omnis populus Francorum atque Saxonum. The archbishop's offer to anoint and crown him with the diadem was gently declined. It was Christian understanding, that as the “anointed of the Lord”, the king would have been the chosen earthly representative of the heavenly king, Jesus Christ, from whom all legitimacy to rule derives. The choice was confirmed through liturgical ritual, consecration and elevation to the throne. During the anointing, consecrated oil was dabbed on head, chest, shoulder blades and the arm joints. The choice implied pious responsibility and dependence on the works of God, rather than any empowerment of arbitrary action. Fifty years after the event, Widukind retells the hearsay that Henry felt too unworthy to accept such consecrating distinctions.52 Reputedly, his speech was met with great approval of the assembled people and their acclamation. The magnates must have paid their obeisance before the acclamation by the popular assembly.53 The probable reasons for this gesture may have had more to do with the politics of the day and Henry's diplomacy towards the other magnates. It definitely had legal implications. To avoid the strife, which his predecessor had had with the magnates, Henry may have preferred to appear as the “first among equals”, in a more or less voluntary association, rather than as the select anointed and chosen of the Lord in the Carolingian fashion. A spirit of compromise pervaded the affairs of the realm.54 The ceremony was not yet an established tradition in the eastern realm, but will have been staged in accordance with an agreed ceremonial. Conrad had begun to base his

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kingship on the magnates of the church. Henry, more secular in persuasion, may have wanted to set different accents and reinforce his secular power through the integration of the dukes into a community of interests.55 Already in Merovingian and Carolingian times, there had existed prayer communities among the religious foundations. A network of oath-fraternities linked the magnates among one another and the king. It served as a bond, facilitating the formulation of a unifying purpose, namely the consolidation and stabilization of the kingdom. The regional inability to resist the Hungarian threat was the other motivating cause of thoughts of unification. Thus, his election was a public signal to all, of God's grace working through the bond of the people. The view was evolving, that the king was a part of the divine order, even without being anointed. Did this omission not increase the risk of usurpation? The very election by the will and voice of the people was an expression of God's omniscient benevolence and a confirmation of his will and favor. The vote consequently had to be unanimous.56 By virtue of a special charisma, Heil, felicitas, the king was a divine intermediary. Once anointed, he was the image and representative of Christ on earth, the crown qualifying him for the priesthood, with a bishop's rank. Since the time of Pepin, kingship was understood as a divine ministry. With this understanding, royal birth and succession were subject to, but also proof of God's will.57 Thus, kingship was not so much an inherited entitlement, but seen primarily as God's assignment. In the same vein, royal successes or failures were attributable solely to the reliance on benevolent, divine providence. Success was acknowledged with humble gratitude to God. Strategic skill in battle weighed nothing without God's benevolent protection, guidance and help. The king's successes demonstrated God's love for him, while he followed the way of the Lord. If the social hierarchy and its acts reflected God's will, what of the concept of injustice? It was Henry's understanding that he had succeeded to an indivisible realm. Henry appreciated the following tasks: integration and consolidation of all settled parts, recovery of lost territories, restoration of devastated regions, and especially resistance to outside attacks. Territorial expansion does not appear to have been a consideration. Following his acclamation, Henry moved against the other abstaining dukes in force and, prepared for confrontation, by means of firm diplomacy quickly obtained their support. The duke of Swabia, with all of his entitlements, agreed to become his vassal and received the royal holdings as the vice-regal representative of the king's authority there. In Bavaria, the process was more prolonged, as Arnulf had been proclaimed king within the Regnum Teutonicum,58 more or less simultaneously with Henry's elevation, but in 921 Arnulf renounced

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his claim to royalty, submitted to the vassalage59, whereupon he was granted a negotiated degree of royal autonomy and entrusted with the holdings of the realm as vice-regal representative of the crown. Arnulf continued to claim his duchy by divine grace, the royal prerogatives to coin money and to use a seal, invest bishops and preside over their assemblies. Henry, the cautious hesitant, seems to have realized that the unity of the realm could be achieved only with small step-increments, therefore the unity was renewed by means of royal concessions and agreements reached with the tribal duchies. The reintegration was almost bloodless, as Henry had realized that the reintegration and peace of the realm was possible only with the cooperation of the dukes and not against them.60 Once this was accomplished, he could work towards also securing the realm against West Frankish claims by means of a negotiated agreement, prepared by envoys, between Henry and Charles the Simple, in which Charles renounced any future claims to the East Frankish kingdom and recognized its autonomy. A shield placed in the middle of the Rhine River near Bonn marked the event.61 Henry's policies towards the west were favored by the instability and open dissensions in the western central authority, where the Robertians, later to be known as Capetians, were pressing to gain the preeminence at the expense of the last Carolingians. Appeals for help to Henry, the perils of Hungarian raids, ended with the marriage of Gieselbert of Lotharingia, to Henry's daughter Gerberga, his elevation to duke, and the reintegration of Lotharingia into the eastern kingdom in 925 as a duchy.62 The western border of Lotharingia, established during the partition of 843, was to remain the western border of the Regnum Francorum orientalium. The reintegration of Lotharingia was of the greatest strategic significance, because henceforth the entire length of the river Rhine was the major communications artery. More important was the inclusion of some major Carolingian sites, such as Cologne, Trier and especially Aachen, which ensured the continuation of the Carolingian tradition.63 By marrying his daughter Gerberga to its duke, Gieselbert, the wavering loyalty of its duke was unreliably committed to the Regnum, until he drowned in the river Rhine. The acquisition of Lotharingia and the Carolingian ancestral lands with Aachen was of great emotional significance. (Map 1-3) The river Meuse, the mountainous Argonnes and Ardennes and the river Sambre provided a defensive delineation, east of which lay major cities and a large population, significant emotional and economic considerations for the new eastern kingdom.64 Henry realized that the consolidation of his realm required the greater participation of the

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church and its representatives and their representation at court.65 Consequently, ever more bishops from all the duchies of the realm joined his entourage. At the Diet of Worms of 926, Henry scored another coup, when King Rudolph II of Upper Burgundy presented him with the “Holy Lance”, which he had acquired in 921/22 during the uncertainties in northern Italy, thereby acknowledging Henry's primacy. It was to be the first of the imperial insignia.66 Complemented by the enthronization, the insignia represented the manifestation of the idea of sacred power. The elevation onto the throne may be an echo of the Germanic elevation on the shield, as a demonstration of the secular electoral will. The lance was said to have nails from the Cross worked into its blade,67 and signified the entitlement to Italy and the Empire. The lance was to be the first component of a spiritual and protective screen, which the Ottonians were to create around their realm. A number of traditions converge in this lance – the Longinus lance of the Crucifixion found by Flavia Helena, the empress-mother of Constantine, associated with St. Mauritius, the commander of the legendary Thebaic Legion, already venerated by the early Franks and preserved in the Burgundian monastery of St. Maurice d'Agaune. It is held that martyrs were credited with special powers of intervention, since they had already enjoyed a preliminary resurrection. Present on earth and more accessible through their relics than the remote and fearsome divinity, the communion of familiar saints and martyrs flanked the throne of God in heaven, ready to intercede on behalf of the souls. The consecration of Bamberg Cathedral in 1007 will illustrate this point. One may have transferred earthly court proceedings into heaven, where sponsors were also needed.68 The gesture implied the supremacy of Henry and the eastern realm over Upper Burgundy as it ushered in decisive Ottonian relations with Burgundy. As an exalted relic, the lance was to become one of the major insignia of the realm and of the highest spiritual value, when through the cult of St. Maurice, he became the patron of the Ottonian monarchy and of the realm. Represented spiritually through their accumulated relics, a heavenly host of heroic saints and martyrs came to accompany and safeguard the faithful Ottonian armies on earth. Henry credited all future victories to this lancerelic, especially when he placed his faith in it on the day of St. Longinus, the day set for the decisive battle against the Hungarians in 933. Otto I was to wield it during the final battle against the Hungarians in 955. It was to symbolize the entitlement to rule. In the fourteenth century, the emperor Charles IV had the lance wrapped in an inscribed golden sleeve.

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Henry was able to use the fear of attack to unify the realm and to devise successful defensive methods against the invading Slavs and Hungarians. Between 919 and 923, the Hungarians seemed to appear everywhere. The eastern monasteries, established by the Carolingians as a screen of protective focal centers along the Eastern frontier, were their preferred targets. Widukind of Corvey, the Saxon historian, reports that during the invasion of 926 an important Hungarian noble was taken captive and rather than accepting vast golden treasure as ransom, Henry asked for peace, an armistice finally arranged for nine years to protect most of his kingdom.69 Against an annual tribute, he gained time to strengthen his position. At the Diet of Worms in 926, defensive measures were decided by common consent of the assembly, which advanced the systematic, coordinated construction, restoration and provisioning of effective fortifications and hitherto temporary and improvised fortified refuges throughout the realm for the population, in anticipation of certain attack. He may have followed Anglo-Saxon examples, when he had settlements surrounded by walls.70 These fortifications, archeologically not verifiable, were supposedly a systematic defense in depth, also intended to become familiar strategic locations, as sites of future assemblies in peacetime. Indirectly, the forts, designated for trials, market days and other social events, helped to urbanize the people, though Henry is erroneously credited with the founding of towns.71 They were not yet intended as residential castles for the nobility, but their location in isolated places, contributed to the gradual inner colonization of vast empty regions, by focusing social interaction on them. Levies were raised among the peasants, - every ninth man to staff the forts, with the other eight seeing to his provisions. These measures had created a peasant “militia”, by designating one man per household to prepare equipment for himself and to hold himself ready, when called upon. The church was called upon to fortify its own establishments, while the nobility will have fortified its own sites with earthworks, palisades around elevated towers. Widukind reports, that in Merseburg there was stationed a “penal battalion” of “shock troops”, of proven, convicted but pardoned belligerents and criminals free to raid and pillage among the western Slavs to the east.72 Henry also realized that an infantry army could not withstand the Hungarian light cavalry. Consequently, those with the means had to equip at least one heavily armed horseman. War horses were acquired in all the duchies and horsemen trained to fight in close formations.73 He thereby called into being prepared defensive infantry and heavy cavalry forces, early forms of the military social order of the Middle Ages. At this early

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time, these forces constituted an available modernized field army with which aggressive wars could be fought and significant victories were won against the western pagan Slavs in 928/29 and the Danes. To establish a reputation as soldier-king, ruthless, murderous campaigns of intimidation were launched against neighboring pagan Elbian Slavic tribes to the east74 – some of them had first invited the Hungarians. A pincer movement of Saxons and Bavarians was directed against Prague in Bohemia to intimidate and to enforce the payment of such tribute in kind, as cattle, fruit and honey, although the Bohemians were allowed to retain their religion and local autonomy. Because of his submission to Henry, the Bohemian duke Wenzeslas was murdered in 929 by his brother Boleslav. Full integration seems not to have been the objective before the organized Christianization of the tribute peoples. Against Christians Henry employed negotiations and treaties. Bohemian princes had already had links to the eastern Carolingians during the ninth century and had been inducted into the Saxon and the Bavarian political and religious spheres of influence. That same summer a massive uprising of the Elbian Slavs was beaten down ruthlessly, thereby introducing a new phase of escalated belligerence into Saxon and Slavic relations. Initially the Elbian Carolingian frontier was reestablished, hinging on Magdeburg, already mentioned in 805 as a trading center.75 Saxon hegemony was extended eastward, not so much by occupation as by enforcing the payment of tribute, under the loose supervision of a Saxon margrave administering buffering marches. These dealings were entirely in Saxon hands. German colonization and settlement were not to be on the agenda for a long time. This included the adoption of St. Vitus from Corvey as patron saint of St. Vitus Cathedral on the castle mount of Prague. After 976, its bishops were also to come from Saxony.76 Still later the law code of Magdeburg was to be adopted in Prague as well. The campaigns tested the effectiveness of the cavalry, while they did much to dissuade the Slavs from rendering any possible support to the Hungarians. According to Widukind, the victory celebrations coincided with seventeen-year-old Otto's splendid marriage in 929/30 to Edgith, possibly a distant Saxon relative and daughter of the Anglian king Eadward the Elder of Wessex.77 At the same time, the kings of Wessex were not above using their daughters and sisters for their political interests. Edgith, also a descendant of King Alfred the Great, added considerable prestige to her husband's position. Two of Edgith's sisters were married to royalty in the western Frankish successor kingdom. Edgith may have been intended to ensure Saxon support against the Danes and their expanding interests in England. With this marriage, the Ottonian kingdom broke with the

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Carolingian tradition, and placed its accents differently, as its kings followed a new policy, beginning with the union with Edgith and the prestigious royal Anglo-Saxon house of Wessex. Initially, the validation of their position was only thinkable along Carolingian models, so that frequent marriages with the highest Carolingian nobility, despite its blemished legitimacy, were to be expected. The recent inclusion of the Saxons in the Carolingian concert of diverse populations may have induced them to reinforce their relative position through upgrading marriages of their sons and daughters with the existing power structures within the kingdom and without. Henceforth the Ottonian genealogy indicates that marriages with foreign royal or imperial brides were to be the rule rather than the exception. During the Ottonian period the daughters of the high nobility married into the royal families of the Franks and Burgundians in the west, as well as the princely houses among the Slavs and Hungarians. These contributed to yet another extensive network of intensifying kinship ties and associations, which transcended the political jurisdictions. Several royal Ottonian women were to become queens in the west, allowing Otto I to wield a brother-in-law's influence over the Burgundian and West Frankish kingdoms. Marriage, which improved the blood, leading to territorial inheritance, was the quickest and most efficient method of gaining hegemonial influence and territorial strength. For the kingdom, this had the additional advantage that it avoided family entanglements over the succession within the kingdom. Further Ottonian marriages such as that to the royal Burgundian Adelheit and to the imperial Byzantine princess Theophanu, were clearly diplomatic coups to mark the recognition and renown of the Ottonian line. The marriage also marked Otto as the sole successor in the kingdom, meaning that the kingdom had reached such a consensual point of consolidation, that the succession was assured.78 Mathilda was not fond of her daughter-in-law, perhaps because of the difference in their respective ranks. She deepened the rift between Otto and his mother, Mathilda, who was not convinced that the indivisible succession was an expression of the divine will, and favored her second son, Henry, over her first-born, an inclination which was to create all manner of difficulties for Otto I. Henry's strategic planning also included a rapprochement with the church. In the predictable conflict with the Hungarians, he did not wish to miss the blessings of the church and forfeit the support of heaven. Long before the peace was to expire in 935, an assembly of the realm decided not to renew the armistice and to cancel the tribute when the Hungarians returned to claim their customary tribute. Widukind of Corvey reports a heroic harangue in the classical style, with which Henry roused his dukes

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and their peoples to defend what was theirs. He argued that to pay the tribute, the church treasures would have to be confiscated. In 932 one chose to rely on the support of heaven. Henry provoked the Hungarians when he refused the annual tribute in 933, whereupon the invading Hungarians split their forces and by means of a pincer movement wanted to overcome the Saxons. However, these defeated first one and then, following the banner of St. Michael, the other Hungarian wing. Widukind did his rhetorical best to record that just the sight of the Saxon heavy cavalry turned the Hungarian attack into a rout.79 These successes were won by contingents drawn from all the duchies of the realm, fighting in a common cause. The kingdom had been successful in its first joint action. The victory affected them all, for it confirmed the union. This manner of raising military forces was to become the prevalent model. All through the kingdom, the annals recorded this “national” event as a common experience.80 They gained for Henry immense stature and confirmation that his heart lay in God's hand, and according to Widukind, the combined, patriotic (?), army proclaimed him pater patriae, father of the fatherland, rerum dominus imperatorque, mighty lord of the world and imperator, the proclamation of the soldier emperors of ancient Rome. Widukind had borrowed from a classical source. A warrior-king, as well as an effective negotiator, Henry signaled vision, determination and strength, along with diplomatic and strategic foresight, willingness to take calculated risks, combining ruthlessness with generosity, wisdom and dignity. Most importantly, Henry had demonstrated by his defensive strategy and his victories that God had chosen well, when he was chosen king, that he clearly had Heil, and that he merited the leadership of the kingdom, above the other dukes. His reputation had reached the patriarch of Jerusalem, who already in 932 admonished him to convert the Jews. Local suggestions to expel those unwilling to convert found no support. Too much trade in exotic things would have been lost. A Viking attack on Frisia drew Henry to the north. In 934 minor realms of the Danish Vikings were overthrown in Holstein and in Schleswig, bringing that danger to an end. Henry insisted on their Christianization. The victories here enabled the organized r resumption of the Danish mission and the conversion of the ruling groups.81 The north was secured. Henry's reputation spread beyond the borders of his kingdom. A situation had been created, which provided the opportunity for a sense of patria to evolve. A grandiose policy reflected Henry's diplomatic and military successes against raiding Hungarians and marauding Vikings, as well as inner foes, through the founding of defensive alliances of all the duchies, of the community of autonomous, yet federated interests among

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the religious and secular components of the realm. Where the realm had been torn by inner strife, the personal bonds between Henry and his magnates achieved even through “international” marriages, relationships, oaths, friendship pacts and agreements secured the crown, and suggested a potential political entity in the center of Europe. To see in him the founder of a German “nation state”, however, would be a premature, anachronistic, nationalistic overstatement. This interpretation would have been surprising for the times, because an identity of this largely multi-ethnic amorphous assembly of jurisdictions had not yet been defined, even if the realm had acquired great prestige and attracted wide attention. Empires of the Roman, Byzantine and Carolingian types were the only available models to follow. The retrospective review of these successes induced the contemporary historians to recognize the workings of divine providence, beginning with the demonstrated virtue in Conrad's providential recommendation. Arnulf of Bavaria pursued unrealistic ambitions in Italy, which, according to Widukind of Corvey, may have induced Henry I to look towards Rome despite his illness. From a literary point of view, the journey to Rome would have been the seal of Henry's accomplishments.82 Exploiting the weakness of the West Frankish kingdom, Upper and Lower Burgundy had been able to strengthen their relative positions, to the extent that in 931 the Lower Burgundian Hugh, already raised to the kingship in northern Italy, 926, thought Rome and the imperial crown to be within reach. As was mentioned above, links between Burgundy and Henry had already come into being. These were to be significant in the time of Otto I. In Rome, conditions were unsettled, to say the least. The control of the Papacy had fallen to the nobility, which in turn had fallen under the sway of two women, mother and daughter, of highly questionable character. The daughter, Marozia, called herself senatrix, like her mother, removed Pope John X and threw him into prison to perish there. She raised her son, the offspring of a union between herself and Pope Sergius III, to the papal throne as John XI. Following several affairs and two aristocratic marriages to prop up her control in Rome, she offered Hugh her hand in marriage, with the hope of the imperial crown. Hugh accepted immediately and in March 932 he entered Rome and married Marozia in the Castel San Angelo. However, her son Alberic incited a riot against Hugh and the Burgundian “greed”, so that Hugh had to flee. Marozia perished in prison. A sixteenth century historian had summarized the period as the Pornocratia. Hugh's imperial hopes came to naught, when Alberic married one of Hugh's daughters. For the next 22 years, Alberic determined the sequence of events in Rome.83 Hugh's Roman misadventure induced the nobles of northern Italy to invite Rudolph of

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Upper Burgundy to take possession of northern Italy. He agreed to Hugh's offer of the rule over Lower Burgundy and Rudolph became claimant over the whole Burgundian kingdom in exchange for any intention on northern Italy. In view of French opposition to such plans, Rudolph drew closer to Henry. The Holy Lance may have been handed over in this context. Having surrendered his claim to Italy, the lance could no longer serve his purposes, but could cement relations with Henry.84 Arnulf of Bavaria had already focused Henry's attention on Italy. Arnulf wanted to invoke the traditional links between Bavaria and Lombardy. He had his son elected king of the Lombards in 934. A clash between Hugh's forces and the Bavarians put an end to Arnulf's ambitions. His independent adventures in an independent foreign policy, followed by an independent attempt to regulate his succession in the Bavarian duchy, caused him to be noticed unfavorably by Henry. The marriage of crown prince Otto with the royal princess Edgith in Quedlinburg, in 929, brought significant prestige to the Ottonians. It was part of Henry's domestic policy,85 for the ordering of the realm. At its center stood the succession, in which Henry, in his lifetime, designated Otto, his legitimate first-born, as the sole successor to the throne, perhaps already as king.86 However, there are no records establishing an election. By adhering to the principle of selecting the only worthy successor, Henry departed most clearly from the Frankish pattern of regulating the succession among all surviving sons. Except for the designation, there are no records identifying Otto as sub-king, nor where he spent the years preceding his coronation. By departing from Carolingian precedents, Henry excluded his other sons from the succession and thereby linked the idea of a selective primogeniture with the indivisibility of the kingdom. Thankmar, his first-born of the repudiated Hatheburg, was passed over, in favor of Otto I. Queen Mathilda was assured her extensive property in case of her widowhood.87 She was yet to propose her second but favorite son, royal prince Henry, who was actually porphyrogenetos, born to the purple, when his father Henry was already king, making his a very consequential candidature for future years. Otto was about ten years older than his brother Henry. The youngest brother Brun was prepared for the clergy. Though the principle of indivisibility of the realm was introduced, it did not yet include the novel principle of porphyrogeniture, being born to the purple, as was the Byzantine custom. Eleventh century documents suggest that it was this royal birth, which nourished prince Henry's dissatisfaction over the succession and encouraged several revolts against his brother.88 This Henry had a cruel streak. Later he disqualified the archbishop of Salzburg by blinding and had the patriarch of Aquileia

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emasculated. The established dukedoms would have opposed a partitioning of the realm along Carolingian lines in any case, as it would have made the dukes redundant. The policy further separated the royal properties and domains from those belonging to the family. King Henry's decisive designation of Otto as his successor avoided such disputes at the outset. The assembly of 936 at Erfurt finalized these dispositions. Henry I returned to his Pfalz at Memleben, where he suffered a stroke during a hunt and died in July 936. His had been a successful military and diplomatic reign of a mere 17 years, during which the kingdom was one of largely autonomous duchies with particularistic interests, unified along loosely federal lines, consolidated within, the succession established, secured from without and given a primacy among the European realms. By establishing itself as an indivisible realm, in which other sons were deprived of any share in royal power, it departed significantly from its Carolingian predecessor.89 Repeatedly Henry showed himself to be the cautious pragmatist with serendipitous foresight, who was not necessarily motivated by abstract intentions. Though still only in its preliminary external form, for the contemporaries the kingdom was a clear demonstration of God's benevolent intervention in the affairs of men. Reality was to prove rather different, as Otto had to demonstrate the permanence of this divine will on the occasions of several uprisings of his brothers against his rule.90 In 929/30 Edgith, (c.910/12-946) the daughter of the Anglian king Eadward the Elder of Wessex, married Otto I. A union with the prestigious house of Wessex was clearly a diplomatic coup for the Ottonians. Eadward of Wessex was a descendant of Alfred the Great, while she was a sister of kings Æthelstan and Eadmund, all descendants of the martyr-king St. Oswald of Northumbria, was clearly an event which bolstered the prestige of the “Ottonians“. A link by marriage with this royal and religious family was an elevating distinction for Otto over his brother, which deepened the rift between himself and his mother. Otto's mother Mathilda was not fond of her daughter-in-law, perhaps because of the difference in their respective ranks. The ruling Æthelstan had sent his two sisters, Edgith and Edgiva, for one to be chosen.91 Her older sister had already married Charles the Simple, while Edgith's sister Edgiva was married to Louis of Burgundy which added importance to the political support of the Ottonian kingdom. Otto indicated the gladness of his choice by presenting Edgith with a special distinction, Magdeburg, as her dower in case of her widowhood. Otto and Edgith probably lived in eastern Saxony, which may account for her being given the town of Magdeburg. By way of a progress through the

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duchies, the heir to the throne was presented to the kingdom..92 On her urging Magdeburg was built out, as indicated by a multitude of tenth century foundations, and once the lands towards the Slavic territories had been secured militarily, Magdeburg flourished under the royal favor during the reign of Otto I. His favorite residence has not yet been located. The foundations of an impressive apsidal building, identified beneath the cathedral square, may have been an early, immense Romanesque church rather than the royal palace.93 Otto's sponsorship of Magdeburg culminated in his creation of its archdiocese in 968. Though founded in recorded time, the early records concerning this complex event are sparse.94 With Edgith he had a son, Liudolf (930) and a daughter Liutgard (932). Already earlier, he had a son Wilhelm, with a noble Slavic princess from Brandenburg.95 Wilhelm was to become archbishop of Mainz. Her descendants were subsequently to be found in the ruling houses. It is likely that in 936 she was crowned with Otto. Nothing certain is known about her whereabouts during the unrest of the early years of Otto's reign. Sadly, queen Edgith died in 946. She was buried in Magdeburg. Signs were said to have been observed by her grave, a cult commemorated her, and the people soon venerated her as a saint. That Otto chose to be buried beside Edgith in Magdeburg Cathedral, and not at a site agreed upon with his second wife Adelheit, may signal the deep affection, which they had shared, though this decision may have been determined by Otto's decision to make Magdeburg his memorial site. It was she, who suggested to him that his failures were God's response to the unkindness with which he had treated his mother Mathilda. Following Edgith's death, Otto reputedly learned to read, perhaps a belated result of her persuasive ability. A later, Gothic, idealized portrait sculpture, commemorates them as a pair. Hrotsvith von Gandersheim stands out, in that in her Ottonian Gesta, Edgith is represented to be radiant in a blaze of purity, and alongside his empress Adelheit, they were portrayed as exemplary figures among the prominent personages of the realm.

Otto I – an Innovator on the Throne The election on August 7, 936 of Otto I, a mere five weeks following the death of his father, was a Frankish and Saxon joint undertaking, not unproblematic in itself. His younger brother Henry, born to the purple and favored by his mother, contested the choice, perhaps still harking back to the Carolingian ideas of the fraternal divisibility of the realm. Widukind of Corvey represents the succession to the throne as a case of hereditary entitlement. Perhaps during the funerary proceedings, Otto was elected by

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the secular Frankish and Saxon magnates of the realm. The election was not a vote, but indicated by the act of homage, rather than some vocal signal or motion by hand. Though he was not an eyewitness, and without citing any sources, Widukind has left a credibly detailed account of the essential sequence of the coronation ceremony from its religious perspective. With hindsight he predicts Otto's imperial destiny. It has been argued, however, that he enriched his report of the coronation ceremony by using information obtained about the coronation of Otto II, in 961. Edgith is not mentioned in his account of the ceremony.96 With a clear demonstration of his concern for the continuity with Carolingian traditions, the secular election was followed by an enthronization and homage by the leading military figures of the realm, by the handing over of the insignia. His anointment and coronation were performed by the high clergy waiting in the Palace Chapel in Aachen. Subsequently the elevation onto the throne of Charlemagne was performed,97 during which he wore Frankish regalia,98- important gestures which sealed the early historical process in a final act of unification. The anointed Otto stressed the legitimacy and continuity of his role as a successor of Charlemagne. This would have implied the continuity with Rome's Christian emperors. The choice of Aachen, located in Lotharingia was also a signal that Otto confirmed the claim to Lotharingia despite its earlier choice to join the western kingdom, where the Carolingian Louis IV, son of Charles the Simple, had just been crowned in Reims.99 The possibility arose, that Louis might want to reclaim his ancestral lands and reestablish the western Carolingian kingdom. Aachen and Charlemagne's heritage had to remain symbols and a focus for the eastern kingdom. Contentious secular and religious interests had to be met. It seems significant, that the secular ceremony began with a first enthronization. In the colonnaded atrium in front of the western portal to the Palace Chapel, the magnates placed their folded hands in those of the king as a gesture of their allegiance and swore their oath of loyalty and support to their king in return for his protection. It was a clear signal, that this king was no longer the first among equals. Only then did the religious ceremony continue at the center of the octagonal rotunda in the Palace Chapel with a public acclamation of Otto, chosen and confirmed by God, as designated by the mighty lord Henry from among all the princes. It was the archbishop of Mainz who presented him for the acclamation and who bestowed on him the royal insignia.100 He also assumed precedence in the formalization of the kingship by anointing and crowning Otto, assisted by the archbishop of Cologne. This also proved problematic, since the archbishop of Trier represented the apostolic precedence of Trier, the

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archbishop of Cologne argued that Aachen was in his diocese, while the archbishop of Mainz was the highest ranking prince of the church in Germany, ever since the time of St. Boniface.101 A second enthronization followed, this time on Charlemagne's marble throne, according to Widukind already placed “between two marble columns of great beauty”, on the upper tier of the octagonal interior, where he could be seen by all.102 Otto will have sworn his oaths by placing his hands into the illuminated pages of the Carolingian Coronation Gospels. The anointing and crowning had become very much an act of affirmation and confirmation by the church, as it broke out of the liturgical restrictions. During the festive dinner, which followed, the harmonious structure of the united secular realm was demonstrated by a public bonding, the four dukes performing the symbolic offices.103 Gieselbert, the duke of Lotharingia functioned as lord chamberlain, the duke of Franconia as lord high steward, the duke of Swabia as cupbearer and duke Arnulf of Bavaria as marshal. It was a flattering way to introduce the notion that the dukes held royal service posts. This bonding ceremony established the coronation ritual for centuries to come. Participation in ritual signaled the acceptance of expectations and duties. It made the point that the realm was a personal association of individuals under the suzerainty of the king, within a federated union of lay and ecclesiastical lordships. His choice of Aachen, located in Lotharingia, of the Frankish regalia and the participation of the Lotharingian church in the ceremonies, signaled clearly his emphasis on the legitimate continuity with the Empire of Charlemagne.104 While his father had declined the anointing through the church, Otto's coronation consisted of two sequential, consecrating events, performed by the secular and ecclesiastical princes. In view of the consecration and coronation of Louis IV at Reims only a few weeks earlier, Otto could not afford to appear in the least less consecrated than his western relative, his wife's nephew, lest he wanted to invite legitimate challenges to his kingship from the western Franks. The religious confirmation through liturgical ritual was to become the dominant feature in subsequent coronations. In the end, the ecclesiastical prince electors were to determine the election. Otto's intentions concerning his inner and foreign policies are not immediately apparent, however, they were to mesh in such a fashion, that it is difficult not to see a causality in the realization of a grandiose plan derived from the circumstances created by his father Henry I. His domestic policy focused on the consolidation of the monarchy in the German kingdom by breaking the power of the older tribal dukes, who had supported his father, and by surrounding himself with a younger circle of

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supporters, insisting on their acceptance of his unilateral decisions.105 He also established control over the church of the kingdom. His relatives, especially his younger brother Henry and later his son Liudolf were to be serious irritants. The succession may have been more contested than the records indicate. His eastern policy should have been formed by the need to stabilize the northeastern Elbian Slavic tribal areas through conquest and Christianization. However, among the Elbian Slavs, an independent, organized political unit was not to come into being and ultimately, several centuries later, they became integrated into the Empire as a duchy. Following Henry's death, the Slavs tried to reject the previous agreements. Magdeburg, a merchant settlement, located on the trading crossroads in all directions,106 was to be the jumping off point for these missions. Military conquest was not a part of this agenda. The Hungarians were to pose one last serious threat to the stability of the kingdom. The kinship ties with the Burgundian kingdom in the southwest were to involve Otto in the Regnum Italie and subsequently to lead to his imperial coronation in Rome and a prestigious link by marriage with imperial Constantinople. In 973 this imperial Regnum Francorum Orientalum reached from Denmark in the north to central Italy in the south. With Henry's death Otto's resolve was tested:107 Vikings appeared in the north, the Trans-Elbian Slavs shed their tributary status and crossed the Elbe River, the Bohemians rose after their king had been murdered by his brother Boleslav (935) and the Hungarians once more crossed their western borders and the Danube (937). For Otto, these are tense times, with an embroiled nobility within the kingdom, plundering foes in the north and east, Hungarians pillaging in the south, Franks arming in the west. Fortunately, the Hungarians veered west and terrorized Franconia and Lotharingia instead, until they disappeared into France. He restored order with some effective campaigning. East of the lower Elbe, his father had tried dealing with the Slavic tribes in a piecemeal fashion. Otto did not raise the military might of his kingdom to deal with them as a problem of organized conquest, pacification and Christianization. Instead, he began by establishing two marches and entrusting them to men of merit, the northern one to Hermann Billung, the southern one at Meissen to Gero, brother of the deceased count. The marches were to form part of Sclavinia. No doubt, some, governed by personal ambition, wished Otto had not succeeded.108 These measures caused serious unrest and desertions further inland, where with injured pride close relatives, who felt themselves passed over and provoked, provided points of hostile crystallization, including his halfbrother Thankmar, who hoped to inherit Meissen.109 Otto preferred to use

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merit rather than family ties as a selection criterion. For a while, it seemed that this young king had a capacity for making big mistakes. He alienated his mother even more, when he curtailed the number of her possessions. Particularly in Bavaria, where Arnulf's son did not offer his oath of allegiance, Otto demanded the return of the concession, which his father had made to Arnulf – autonomous investiture of bishops in the Bavarian church and a nearly independent foreign policy, and demanded closer integration within the royal following. A refusal brought Otto's military intervention. Its failure invited his disgruntled opponents to make common cause and take prince Henry prisoner. However, one by one, they either fell in battle – Thankmar was pierced by a spear while in a chapel110, perhaps not on his knees in surrender - or submitted, releasing Henry. While Otto wept over his brother's death, four of Thankmar's supporters found no mercy and were hanged according to Frankish law. The Bavarian duke fled and his uncle was instated in the fugitive's place. Henceforth the Bavarian duke also functioned as a royal official. One plot begot another, as soon after his release Henry revolted with the aim to dethrone his brother, claiming a greater entitlement to the throne, having been born to the purple, unlike his older brother.111 He did not consider that the revolt against the anointed king was a form of blasphemy. Henry evidently could rely on his oath-fraternities and had the support of Saxon nobles, and the dukes of Lotharingia and Franconia. It made for an explosive situation. Otto was experimenting with a new administrative concept, not to the liking of some magnates, but for nearly a decade, he persisted making his particularly provocative “mistakes”. He affronted the very magnates, with whom his father had established the kingdom. Under the Carolingians, the claims to authority had passed to many of the magnates, who during the confusions had managed to blend their own territorial possessions with those pertaining to their courtly functions. This had encouraged the notion that the kingship was an agreement among the tribal ducal families, as had been the case between the Franconian Conrad and the Saxon Henry. Contrary to the Carolingian administrative system, based on royal agents replaceable at will, the Ottonians only had hereditary dukes to persuade to cooperate in dependable governmental partnerships. The repeated challenges lay in reconciling divergent, particular interests into common consent.112 Otto's aim was that of his father, to replace the tribal dukes linked through their territorial and kinship ties to land and people. He wanted to deprive them of their power base and make the dukes royal, feudal officials, dependent solely on the seemingly arbitrary favors of the king.113 The onus was on the dukes and bishops to demonstrate their principal loyalty to the king as a primary criterion for selection and

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appointment. With a degree of royal arrogance, they felt he insulted them, when he did not find it necessary to rely on friendly relations to cement the allegiances. In his innovative, autocratic view, he aimed to make the abstract oath of fealty the only necessary bond between the monarch and his subject vassals, not a network of personal relationships. The administration was to be based on still vaguely conceived constitutional principles and institutional service functions, even when the authority of the monarch was a great distance away. The problem was not to be alleviated throughout these centuries. This process was impeded by a regression of written communications. Instead, it relied on personal interventions, confrontations and common rituals, partly favored, partly necessitated and largely hampered by the exhaustive itinerant kingship. Promotions among the lesser nobility to key positions ensured their support and adherence to the status quo.114 As has been illustrated in the Carolingian context, this model of rule was necessitated by the economic considerations, which would often strain the reliable, many faceted infrastructure of provisions, supplies and other factors, necessary to sustain a sedentary, permanent court in any one location, for a longer period.115 Usually the court, a splendid entourage of magnates and their followers of about 1000 retainers, chose to locate at royal sites, for selecting other sites quickly exhausted the host, unless gifts and donations compensated for the costs. The perception of majesty was closely linked to his generosity, which included clemency and mercy, and all manner of donations, gifts and rewards. His personal, majestic appearance and presence in the kingdom was essential, for the administration, justice and peace were where the king was, and he could not intervene, mediate, adjudicate, act and campaign everywhere all of the time. The aim was to establish a consensus among the parties. In view of the sparse use of scribal communication among the Ottonians, significantly less than among the Carolingians, prolonged royal absences were the great weakness, readily interpreted as neglect of duties and relegation of emphasis and loss of favor and support. The king's presence and generosity helped to bring this consensus about. While initially the magnates brought their requests to court, eventually the king was expected to receive petitions at the stations of his progress. Expectations became established practice, which entailed an increasing density of royal sites, Pfalzen. The documents indicate to which new and different parts of the realm the king extended his presence and how he modified past practice. Documentation was a way of signaling the extent of the king's jurisdiction. Councils, synods and liturgical ceremonials at religious feast days, assembled sequentially in different locations of the

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kingdom, making decisions by consensus binding on all, attempted to address this problem. Owing to the great distances, bad road conditions, attendance was sporadic. In this context, the oath of fealty was a most crucial bond, strengthened by the king's generosity. Eventually these practices depleted the king's disposable resources, since he paid no particular heed to conserve and expand his resources. He made donations to secular and ecclesiastic lords of such income generating measures, regalia, as land grants, the rights to exact tolls, rights to hold markets and fairs, and to mint coins, so that these lords could maintain and improve their servitium regis, their service to the itinerant crown.116 These consisted mainly of hospitality, supplies and provisions, and the acceptance of ambassadorial duties, but especially of military service.117 These forms of the royal favor contributed to the economic prosperity of the bishoprics, which made it possible for them to equip and provide for the royal armies that costly, armored, heavy cavalry. Already the Synod of Sardica (343) had established that bishoprics were to be located in a civitas.118 In time, these episcopal sites became attractive centers of settlement and commerce, as they offered the bishops the opportunity to build their administrative power.119 However, the king's changing goals resulted in political reactions among his family and supporters, each time he tried to implement a more advanced notion concerning the monarchic rule. Eventually the magnates understood what he intended. The rebels' military defeat did not end the revolt, although Otto offered to pardon them, but they declined. Fortuitously for the rebels, the Slavs staged an invasion along the Elbe. Otto confronted them and won, when he had to wheel about to counter an attack from the western Franks. Henry had fled to his brother-in-law Gieselbert and together they sought support from Louis IV, the western king, who had already moved into Alsace and received their homage. Following much diplomatic and military to and fro, and the death of some of the insurgents, on the lower Rhine, Otto emerged victorious in the west.120 In pursuit of his brother, Otto crossed into France, where to his surprise the lords paid him homage, including Louis IV and his brother Henry. The kingdom of the western Franks lay open to him. Otto returned to Germany and forgave the insurgents. Events had indicated to him, that his family had not accepted his new administrative concept and they would have to be considered. Gieselbert had drowned in the Rhine, making it possible to bestow the duchy of Lotharingia on his brother Henry (940), but within the year, he was driven out by his subjects. Dispossessed, he instigated a plot with the eastern Saxons to murder Otto I at Pentecost 941 and to raise himself to the throne instead.121 While Henry was spared, the co-conspirators were arrested and

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executed, indicating clearly that he had a double standard, when he insisted on the realization of his vision – clemency and forgiveness for members of his family and the high born if he needed to reinstate them, but no quarter for those of lesser birth. Otto's intention to be sole ruler and to make unilateral personnel decisions of the moment, regardless of dynastic claim, was not being readily accepted. That Christmas, in Frankfurt, on an ice-cold floor, a barefoot Henry, prostrated himself before the altar. Otto's clemency had him forgive the repentant sinner one last time, for hereafter Henry gave up his challenges, as his hatred abated. Otto's reputation for clemency was based on his treatment of a relatively small circle, primarily relatives, the highest nobility and anointed bishops.122 By means of a new family marriage policy, which included France, where Otto's intervention preserved the throne for his Carolingian brother-in-law, King Louis IV, Otto rewarded loyal magnates by offering them Königsnähe, proximity to the throne, by means of marriages to royal sisters and daughters. When the older generation died, he bestowed the duchies on their descendants. Already in 936/37 Henry had been married to Judith, the daughter of Arnulf, so that having the Bavarian duchy bestowed on him was logical. In 940, his son Liudolf had been married to Ida, the daughter of the duke of Swabia. In 947, he was made its duke. At approximately the same time, 946, Otto had convoked the magnates to swear an oath of loyalty to Liudolf, indicating clearly Otto's successor.123 Death by natural causes had removed the older generation of tribal dukes from their posts, allowing Otto to replace them with members of his own family in the ducal service posts. He also married women of his family to them, thereby creating even a dynastic link with the future Salian dynasty, when his daughter Liutgard was married to duke Conrad “the Red” of Lotharingia, a nephew of King Conrad I and ancestor of the later Salians.124 Otto retained ducal control over Franconia and Saxony. No longer semi-autonomous tribal duchies, they were entrusted to his relatives. Something resembling a cohesive state had taken their place, ruled either by the king directly, or through close members of the royal family. Finally, they seem to have grasped the new concept. Unfortunately, this experiment contained a serious flaw – family ties with individuals were not as continuously reliable and stable as established institutions. Queen Edgith had died in 946. During the following years, he devoted himself to administrative concerns, arising from the hegemonial primacy of the Ottonian kingdom in Central Europe. This included Otto's invited interventions in the affairs of the western Kingdom. The French crown had come to depend on the support of Otto.125 Following the death of Rudolph of Burgundy in 937,

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Hugh, king of Italy had married Rudolph's widow, Bertha, the daughter of the duke of Swabia. By betrothing his son Lothair to her daughter Adelheit, he incorporated Burgundy into his Italian kingdom. Rudolph's son Conrad had sought refuge with Otto. Already in 926, Rudolph had entered into a feudal relationship with Henry I. Conrad may have renewed that allegiance, very much in Otto's interest, who did not want a strengthened and augmented Burgundian kingdom straddling major southnorth trade routes, perhaps intended to revive the middle Carolingian kingdom of Lothair, bordering his southern frontier. It was now under Otto's “protection”.126 In addition, ever since Edgith's sister Edgiva had been married to Rudolph's brother, there had existed a closer Ottonian link with Burgundy. The death of Hugh and his son Lothair in 948 and 950 respectively, allowed Berengar, margrave of Ivrea, to have himself crowned king of Italy. When Adelheit raised claims to the succession of her own, he seized her royal treasure, the source of her power and token of her legitimacy, and had her imprisoned.127 Adelheit, the sister of Conrad, Otto's protégé, appealed to Otto for assistance. Her supporters, opponents to Berengar's plans, charged him with usurpation, may have called on Otto for help and may have actually offered him the Italian crown along with the queen's hand in marriage. However, there is no certainty that Adelheit gave such indications.128 The confluence of personal as well as of political considerations probably motivated Otto's intervention. He did need a wife, Adelheit was young and reputedly very beautiful, not just in conventional terms, and he did have to set right the unsettled affairs to the south and southwest. Her appeal would have been very timely. By pushing Adelheit's beautiful helplessness into the foreground of motivation, Saxon historiography probably reversed effect and cause.129 Was it the protection of innocent beauty, or power politics enhanced by beauty, that induced Otto to initiate an Italian “policy“? Otto, as well as Berengar, must have been aware, that the cities of northern Italy controlled access to Rome. If Otto was developing an imperial policy, then it was in the context of a Carolingian tradition, in which the control of northern Italy was a significant consideration. With Lombardy in Berengar's control, he might gain control over the Papacy as well. This control Otto needed to advance his missionary policy in the Slavic east. An Italian intervention recommended itself. His brother Henry and son Liudolf, dukes of Bavaria and Swabia, had preceded him without his authorization, hoping to improve their particular territorial situations. However, while Henry had been successful in achieving his objectives, owing to Henry's intrigues – he falsely let it be known that Liudolf was Berengar's friend and Otto's enemy, Liudolf suffered a reverse, ridicule

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from his father and loss of face. This rivalry was to cause new, serious family feuds. Without a fight, Otto was able to enter Pavia in the late summer of 951. Immediately Otto issued royal decrees in his own right.130 In the meantime Adelheit had escaped from her prison,131 and following her meeting with Otto, Otto married the eighteen-year-old queen at Christmas 951. In doing so, Adelheit followed a Lombard tradition, within which a widowed queen had the right to transfer the royal dignity to a husband of her choice.132 Hereby Otto became king of Italy, the first to bear the title Rex Francorum et Italicorum. This appears to have been Otto's understanding that being king of northern and central Italy in the Carolingian fashion, was the formal qualification needed, to satisfy a precondition to be crowned emperor in Rome by the pope.133 When he found that the conditions for such a coronation were not yet optimal, he was content to have served notice of his imperial claim,134 and hereafter one came to see the realm as an imperial monarchy. In the meantime, he abandoned the Italian title, and returned north, where he lost the Regnum Italie from view, as new domestic problems were taking shape. His marriage to Adelheit had set some unexpected reactions in motion. The rift between Liudolf and Henry widened, and while Henry welcomed Adelheit, twenty-one year old Liudolf seemed to reject his father's Italian policy and resented his young stepmother, because of the threat, which she represented to his succession. Previously Liudolf and Ida had been welcomed as the future monarchs. A shadow of doubt now affected this perception. Actually all of Otto's grown children sought distance from their father following this marriage. In north-eastern Italy Henry's conquests around Aquileia were added to the Bavarian duchy, thereby securing the Alpine passes, while north-western Italy remained a fiefdom for Berengar. Liudolf felt slighted and found enough support to revolt. He held court, distributed gifts like a king, and assembled several of the greats around him. Again, Otto's high-handedness provoked the great lords to rally around the opposition to him, Liudolf.135 In 952/953 Adelheit gave birth to a son, named after his grandfather Henry. Although he died soon after, the birth made the point that Liudolf was not necessarily the crown prince. Two more sons were born c.953 and 955. The first, Bruno, also died (957), the other, Otto, succeeded to the throne as Otto II. Prince Henry's birth may have encouraged Liudolf to revolt.136 It was not a last uprising by the dukes against the crown, though a great number of ecclesiastic and secular princes took sides. Claiming to direct his hostilities against his uncle Henry, in 953 Liudolf forced his father into an agreement, which probably dealt with the sharing of power and guaranteed Liudolf's succession, regardless of any other royal births. Like Absalom,

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he had raised his hand against his father and thus violated the Fifth Commandment. Otto soon rejected the agreement, claiming to have been coerced, Liudolf's supporters were stripped of their titles and possessions. The king asked that the leaders among the rebels be surrendered, while his family members again be spared. Liudolf refused to break the oaths of mutual support. Otto's response was exceedingly severe and desertion and open war were the result, and the revolt of the sympathizers spread throughout southern Germany and even into Saxony. Otto was not the universally accepted and gentle king portrayed by his historians.137 Only the west did not get involved. There, Otto's youngest brother Brun had just been made archbishop of Cologne and shortly after, duke of Lotharingia.138 Otto was desperate and virtually isolated, his realm disintegrating, when a devastating Hungarian invasion in 954 provided the turning point. Defenses in Bavaria were down, allowing Henry to exploit the dissension in the Ottonian kingdom and its conflicts with the Slavs, under whose pressure, the eastern frontier and its advanced outposts were collapsing. Murder, destruction and slavery overtook the Saxons. The Hungarians hoped to make easy spoils. The moment was also chosen by dissatisfied Saxons to lead a Slavic invasion. Otto made no bones about the need of the political and religious integration of the Elbian Slavs into his realm. Their resistance was entirely legitimate, though futile in the end. Otto's measures were extreme as he had their leader beheaded, had the eyes of his advisor gouged out, and his tongue ripped out to stumble about among the 700 decapitated prisoners.139 The rebels welcomed and colluded with the Hungarians, provided them with guides and even celebrated a feast with them on Palm Sunday 954 at Worms.140 The revolt collapsed, as the sympathizers refused to make common cause with the invading enemies of God against their king. The consequences for the rebels consisted of the loss of their titles, though they were permitted to retain their personal property. A repentant Liudolf threw himself at the mercy of his father, who forgave him. Liudolf died of natural causes, malaria, in 957. A crisis in the succession was a possibility. Disappointed in his assumption that the duchies would prove a reliable support of the crown, the duchies in question were reassigned, while Otto I entertained a change in his policy.141 This revolt must have demonstrated to Otto, that the “family policy” was a failure in that it favored particular princely ambitions but offered no security to the realm. It could not be clearer to him that he needed an alternate support for the state. His hopes rested with the pillars of the church, if he could convert their functions to resemble those of his brother Brun, the prototype of the Ottonian imperial bishop, who combined both religious and secular responsibilities in his

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office, as a reflection of the unity of realm and church142 as once demonstrated by the Carolingians in their Imperium Christianum. Since then it was a core element of the royal identity to attribute religious teleological significance to the king's rule as service on behalf of his subjects, expressed through the creation of conditions which would favor their salvation. Romanesque church architecture was to be charged with making that unity a personal experience. Indeed, several princes of the church had joined the rebels, but even though some of the princes of the German church had also wavered in their loyalty to the king, nevertheless Otto resolved to tie their interests closer to those of the crown. Königsnähe, self-interested proximity to the king, with its implied expectations for royal favor and material enrichment, promised greater loyalty and support. A complication arose when the great monastic foundations strove to separate from the power of their diocese, by asking for exemptions, immunities, legislative and administrative rights, and for being placed under the jurisdiction of the pope and the protection of the king. The king wanted to realize an integrated, practical and reliable support for the royal position. In the church there could be no thought devoted to dynastic succession in the office. That was to be the Ottonian intention, a continuation of the Carolingian practice, which demanded the king's control over the independent ceremonial elevation, the investiture, of suitable individuals, even laymen, as bishops and abbots.143 Their homage made them vassals of the king. However, for the clergy to swear the required oath of fealty was against Canon Law. The aim had been to gain administrative and military support. For centuries, the church accepted the sacerdotal position of the kings and this practice was not contested by the Papacy. Though the nobility followed the royal example, founding proprietary churches, monasteries and convents, the majority of bishoprics east of the Rhine River, were royal foundations, justifying further the claim of royal control over them, a factor which favored their growing importance and size. With their cathedrals and saintly relics, these locations became episcopal residences and centers of economic attractiveness.144 In secular matters, the pope was never involved. This solution was to have fateful consequences, when during the eleventh century the royal prerogative to invest bishops and abbots was challenged by the re-energized and reformed popes, once they too assumed and enforced their universal jurisdiction, derived from principles of church law. For the moment, the returning Hungarians presented a more pressing problem, which required a concerted reaction. No longer quite the earlier

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threat,145 they had assembled their main force over a great distance in the gravel plains along the river Lech, the term Lechfeld was coined later, up to 7km wide in places, north and south of Augsburg. Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg did his utmost to stall them and retain the city, allowing Otto I to gather his forces and meet them in open battle.146 Fighting contingents and their supporting feudal dependents from Franconia, Bavaria, Swabia, reinforced by a large mounted force of Boleslav's Bohemians, and a small force from Saxony made up Otto's army. Most of the Saxon forces were so entangled with the Slavs, that more could not be spared. Following the victory over the Hungarians, Otto had to hurry back to deal with the Saxon-Slavic frontier. The Lotharingians were left as a reserve to guard the west, in case the Hungarians avoided an encounter with Otto's army and raided the west. Surprisingly, on August 10, 955, the open field battle was joined. Perhaps some 8000 men, arranged in eight columns, advanced on the Hungarians.147 The Hungarians had been warned and initially the engagement went against Otto's forces, when squadrons of Hungarians annihilated Swabian and Bohemian columns still in columns of route to the rear of the main body. Still, perhaps superior in numbers, a field battle was forced on the Hungarians and they were routed. Heavy rains may have rendered the Hungarian reflex bows ineffective, and without them their hit and run, superior light cavalry tactics could not be implemented. According to Widukind, Otto himself had taken the Holy Lance and under the banner of St. Michael, personally charged the foes.148 To the contemporaries, this victory was an obvious intervention by divine providence, a response to the fast and the prayers, which preceded the battle. On August twelfth the fleeing Hungarians were intercepted further east, by another column of Bohemians, and caught between them and Otto's pursuing army, were decisively wiped out. Many drowned trying to cross the Bavarian rivers. This final victorious phase of the battle is usually ignored in the tradition. It was made out to be Otto's heroic victory. The Hungarians had been perceived to be a scourge sent by God. Their defeat signaled God's own intervention. Three of the Hungarian leaders had been taken prisoner and on Henry's orders were hanged in Regensburg.149 Remnant Hungarian units straggled back to the plains of Pannonia. Did this victory merit the same acclaim as did that of Charles Martel over the Moslem forces at Tours? The Hungarians gave up their nomadic ways, prepared to receive Catholic missionaries from Passau, rather than Greek Orthodox missionaries from Constantinople. It became realistic to expand Bavaria into an eastern march, to colonize the future Austria. Two months later, Otto's forces, supported by Bohemians, gained

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a decisive victory against the Trans-Elbian Slavs. Behind this event lay an instance of Ottonian duplicity. A delegation of Slavs had earlier offered peace and tribute, if their autonomy could be assured. Otto agreed, provided retribution for past transgressions was exacted. Seven hundred prisoners were executed following the defeat. Otto's gain was nominal, since land gain was not his objective.150 The consequences of these most significant victories against the pagans benefited all those Christian regions, which had previously had to bear the brunt of these invasions. From now on Italy, Burgundy, and France could identify their benefactor and undisputed leader in Europe. Later nationalist interpretations to the contrary, Otto I came to be seen as protector of the Imperium Christianum, entitled to wear the imperial crown. In France this protection assumed practical dimensions, as with the death of the rulers, their wives, Otto’s sisters, Gerberga and Hadwig, ruled in France for their sons, with Otto ruling as de facto co-regent, intervening militarily when necessary.151 According to Widukind, he was celebrated as pater patriae and hailed imperator.152 As yet without impact, during the next seven years the terms grew in popularity. In the process, the idea of “soldier emperor” shifted in time to qualify him as “emperor”, in which capacity he could fulfill his role generally as protector of Christendom and specifically as defender of the church in Rome. The church did not at any time accept the word “protector” to mean “ruler”, an interpretation, which frequently recommended itself to the secular powers. The link with Rome, first forged by St. Boniface, remained firm, although in some circles it was considered, that the imperial dignity might not require papal sanction, since not all imperial coronations had been performed in Rome. Charlemagne had pointed the way, when he crowned Louis the Pious coemperor in Aachen – Louis felt this was somehow inadequate - and when he connected missionary conquest with the imperial dignity. Two formulations dated before 962 omitted any references to Rome.153 Otto was pleased with the designation imperator augustus. Otto's brother Henry, duke of Bavaria, had died in 955. Otto I designated Henry's son Henry, to be called the Quarrelsome by some, the Pious by others, to succeed him. Until he was of age, his mother Judith assumed the regency. The emperor Henry II was to come from this Ottonian line. In Lotharingia, his brother Brun was succeeded in 965 by other Ottonians, the children of Otto's sister Hadwig and of his aunt Oda. The duchy was divided and in general, the parts pursued independent developments. While Saxony remained under the nominal control of the king, Hermann Billung, a diplomat, and Gero a brutal warrior, received

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procuratorial authority, first over their eastern marches and then over the entire tribal area.154 Having restored the security of the eastern frontier, Otto I could return his attention to Italy. Berengar had taken advantage of the civil war to allow his allegiance to slip. Liudolf, sent to Italy to remind him of his duties, died of a fever following a successful battle in 957. In Rome, an incompetent Pope John XII, made prince of Rome and pope in 955 at age 17 or 18, had territorial ambitions for the Papal States. An emboldened Berengar seized some towns in the Papal States, which frightened Pope John XII, who already feared Byzantine aggression, and who now, 960, sent two envoys with an appeal to Otto to deal with Berengar. The appeal included the offer of the imperial crown. For Otto, this was the awaited opportunity. In preparation for the journey to Rome in May 961, Otto had his six year old son crowned Otto II at the diet of Worms as co-ruler and as a means of securing the succession. He did not, however, assign any tasks or territories to him in the function of sub-king. At Aachen, he was anointed. This time the three archbishops were equally involved, with Wilhelm, the archbishop of Mainz, Otto's natural son, acting as the viceregal guardian for the prince and the realm. In August of that year the king set out with a strong force from Augsburg, crossed the Alps over the Brenner Pass and arrived before Pavia in Lombardy – Berengar having fled – and following the old Via Triumphalis Otto arrived before the walls of Rome on January 31. In anticipation of his arrival, he had indicated to the pope his protection and respect, to honor and restore the Patrimonium Petri as (fraudulently) outlined in the Constitutum Constantini.155 On February 2, 962, Otto I and Adelheit were anointed and crowned emperor and empress – imperator Augustus and imperatrix Augusta and also consors imperii. Adelheit's coronation was another departure from Carolingian precedent, and a special liturgical program had to be worked out for her and integrated into the sequence of formulas and prayers.156 In St. Peter's, Pope John XII, only 25 and notorious for his blatantly scandalous lifestyle, performed the ceremony following the imperial acclamation by the Romans. Imperial crown and Empire were understood as anticipation on earth of the rule of God in heaven.157 It is apparent in the illuminated gospels and sacramentaries that the Ottonians favored proclamatory representations in which the hand of Christ reached out of heaven, to place the crown on the emperor's head. They wanted to be seen to rule as Christ's representatives, a clear claim to the dominium mundi, the primacy of rank over the pope. Despite his reputation, nothing disqualified this pope, who enjoyed the customary respect and papal authority.158 Nevertheless, following the ceremony, Otto immediately made the pope

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and the clergy swear on the grave of the Apostle Peter, their sole allegiance and support for the emperor. Once again, the imperial crown was associated with the super-power in Europe. Otto's primacy was recognized in the traditional Carolingian form, which included the religious components. The exclusively secular considerations did not come to the fore. Concluding the formalities was a loyalty oath sworn by the pope and the people of Rome. The mutual exchange of oaths had become a Carolingian tradition. On February thirteenth, Otto placed himself in the tradition of earlier emperors and issued the privilegium Ottonianum, which in the Carolingian fashion of the “Pepinid Donation”, was based on the mythical “Constantinian Donation”,159 confirmed the emperor's protection of the pope's rights to Rome and the Papal States, the terra sancti Petri, all rights and incomes. Since the time of Pepin, the church had striven for worldly power and property, something Pope John XII had wanted guaranteed even before Otto entered Rome.160 Otto made the promises on condition that Ottonian suzerainty be observed and that the Roman clergy and nobility swear that a pope be elected, who would swear an oath of allegiance to the emperor, before he was consecrated. The Ottonianum, gold writing on purple parchment, included the Carolingian demand for an imperial representative with the supervisory role over the proper procedures in the elections and administration of the Papacy and of the city, somewhat more than the Papacy might have wished. The document actually assigned a subordinate role to the Papacy. Pope John XII had had a less determining role in mind for this moralizing emperor, when he called on his aid, and had not considered the possibility of Otto's show of military force and pragmatic intervention in Roman affairs. Otto had barely left Rome, when he was detained in Italy by Berengar. According to Liutprand of Cremona, in Rome all terms were overturned, as a perfidious John XII instigated an anti-imperial coalition, and even sent emissaries to Constantinople, to get the Byzantines to instigate the Hungarians to resume their attacks on Central Europe and thereby distract Otto from Italy. Events demonstrated to Otto, that he would have to institute more stringent measures to be effective in Italy.161 Discrediting accusations of simony, apostasy, appeal to pagan gods, to Satan, murder, perjury, incest and the misappropriation of church property and finally breaking the oath of loyalty to the emperor, led a synod to discard John XII for apostasy and godlessness. Disobedience to his oath of allegiance to Otto was the real cause for his dismissal.162 In fact, Otto dealt with the Papacy, as he would have with a German bishopric. A papal notary submitted to a crash program in clerical consecration before he was enthroned and ordained as Leo VIII, December 6, 963. Thinking the

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matter concluded, and to avoid friction between his troops and the population, Otto demobilized most of his troops before Rome, when the less intimidated Romans rose against the new pope. That same day the revolt was beaten down in the fashion of the day. Otto and his pope were to be murdered. John XII returned and all things were reversed. Evidently, an oath sworn to an absentee emperor had only nominal validity. Otto's supporters were hunted down, some were whipped or mutilated and others killed. Of the envoys, who had first been sent to invite his intervention in Italy, one had his right hand hacked off, the other had his tongue torn out, his nose cut off, along with the two fingers of his oath hand. It took Otto three and a half years to settle the factional affairs in Rome. A depleted food supply around Rome, the summer heat and an epidemic decimated his forces, before he could return over the Alps.163 It had been possible to force Berengar to surrender and to send him into exile in Bamberg. Several popes died. An unapproved Pope Benedict V was exiled to Hamburg, until with Otto's intervention in 965 John XIII became pope.164 The importance in these events lay in that Otto's intervention, and indeed that of the Ottonians, stabilized Rome and eventually freed the Papacy from the intrigues of local Roman factions and restored it to universal significance and validity. The repeated Roman revolts, which were to characterize imperial dealings with Rome, were symptomatic of a fundamental imperial problem. The emperors never succeeded in establishing an effective, all pervading imperial administration throughout the Empire, which could have contributed to the development of a community of interests and an administrative power basis for all parts of the Empire. However, it was still a time when an itinerant court, personal networks, kinship ties, prayer associations, feudal dependencies, frequent synods, diets, and councils, arbitrarily imposed foreign counts and dukes, duties and obligations, political notions and ideas, were held together by means of an oral tradition of customary practices, of common law, and where the royal rule took the form of the royal presence at regal functions. These forms and practices could not yet take the place of a central administration, scheduled meetings with agendas and priorities, clearly defined policies, codified jurisdictions, areas of responsibility and hierarchical competencies of a home-grown administrative sort. Imperial rule took the form of consensus among the participants. The adoption of the ecclesiastical infrastructure and the attempt to graft the imperial structure on it, an apparently workable idea, proved to be a serious miscalculation. As it was to be, the Imperium Christianum existed mainly wherever the emperor was, and he took increasing interest in being a player on the world stage. Once the

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imperial court took up residence in the Italian centers, the emperor was out of reach for many and the imperial ideal an intellectual projection. As an experiment, it had failed in the reign of Louis the Pious. It was to fail again. Nevertheless, the repeated problems did not lead to a questioning of the imperial Italian policy. It did have its basis in the duties stated in the principle of the Two Swords, the protection of the church. Ottonian queens and empresses played a singular role and enjoyed exceptional stature combined with expectation befitting great, royal ladies of the court. They played a participatory and supportive part in the governing role of their husbands, tended to the household, filled undefined courtly and diplomatic gaps and opportunities, and as ornaments provided a focus of festive splendor and majestic beauty. The maternal role was clearly a queen's priority. As mothers, they were expected to give birth to the heir and the other legitimate royal children, and to tend to their educational needs. However, their itinerant role in life made child rearing difficult, hence, the royal children grew up in the care of others, without loving bonds, barely knowing their parents. During Ottonian times, most of the royal consorts were from prestigious foreign cultures, yet they identified with their new positions and assumed roles of great service to their royal and imperial realms. In the case of Otto III, his Greek mother and Burgundian grandmother assumed the governing guardianship over him and ruled as monarchs in the interests of the monarchy during his minority. The literary sources offer evidence, that the queens used the opportunities of the bedchamber to exert political influence. Appeals to apply such influence during intimate moments even came from the pope. Women were instructed to avail themselves for such purposes. For that reason, petitions and supplications, which had little chance of reaching the eyes and ears of the king, were often first presented to the queen in the hope that she could cut through the protective and self-interested royal entourages and intercede, where the direct approach to the king might fail.165 Otto's I second wife, Adelheit (c.931-999) was queen over extensive territorial domains in northwestern Italy and Burgundy. Her appeal to Otto for assistance was very timely. Of royal descent, she was queen of Italy and in political distress. By pushing Adelheit's helpless beauty into the foreground of motivation, Saxon historiography probably reversed effect and cause. Otto must have been aware, that the cities of northern Italy controlled all access to Rome. A policy to control northern Italy was an essential strategy. Otto married the eighteen-year-old queen at Christmas 951. In this, Adelheit followed a Lombardic tradition, within which a widowed queen had the right to transfer the royal dignity to a husband of

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her choice. Through her, Otto gained nominal control over her extensive possessions and became king of Italy, the first to bear the title Rex Francorum et Italicorum. This formal qualification was needed as a precondition to be crowned emperor in Rome by the pope. A sequence of pregnancies between 952/953 and 955, not favored by the strenuous itinerant life on the road, made the point that Otto's first son Liudolf was not necessarily going to be the crown prince, as more sons were born. Otto, born 955 was to succeed to the throne as Otto II. On February 2, 962, Adelheit was anointed and crowned empress – imperatrix augusta and also consors imperii. Without precedent, a special liturgical program had to be worked out for her and integrated into the sequence of formulas and prayers. Having ruled her own realm before her marriage to Otto I, her appreciated administrative assistance to the king will have qualified her for her role as empress and imperial consort. It fell to her responsibilities to receive the magnates of the realm, embassies and delegations, for which her multi-lingualism qualified her eminently. She probably presided over her own court, had her own officials, with whom to administer her own distant holdings, her immediate family, her charities and foundations, and the daily needs of the court. More importantly, she provided access to the attention of the king, when other avenues were closed. Appeals, petitions and supplications, especially those formulated in Latin, Old French, Provençal, Italian and even Swabian or Bavarian, had a better chance with the queen of coming to the attention of the king, when first presented to the multi-lingual queen. She could communicate with the envoys and circumvent the interference from protective and self-interested royal entourages and intercede, where the direct approach to the king might fail. Ninety documents issued by Otto I bear evidence that Adelheit had at least an ancillary function, befitting her limited station as a woman, in the decision making process, when she intervened on behalf of supplicants from all corners of the Empire. She too represented an extensive kinship connection, which now found its leadership in her person as empress and consort of the emperor. There is one recorded family gathering, when the crowned heads of Western Europe assembled in Cologne in 965, during which the family relations were even expanded by additional marriages. Twenty years later her daughter by her first marriage, Hemma, asked for her as empress mother to mediate between her and her own son, Louis V. She initiated the creation of monastic foundations in strategic locations to complement strategic necessities of the realm, by which means Ottonian control could be extended and regions safeguarded not under the direct rule of the crown. As an indication of Otto's devotion to her salvation, he donated many religious holdings to

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her. She placed her Burgundian, Lombardic and Alsatian foundations under the rule of Cluny. The reform movement emanating from Burgundian Cluny was favored by the empress Adelheit, the highestranking supporter of the revival. Otto I was much more successful in the imperial north and northeast. He assumed the Christianization to be a responsibility of his realm and undertook to secure the Danish and Slavic frontiers by an organized defense in depth, establishing missions and three bishoprics among the Danes and five bishoprics as jumping off bases in the eastern cis-elbian regions south of Magdeburg.166 In the north, Otto's hegemony was such, that Harald Bluetooth ceased all hostilities, and allowed the missions to proceed from Hamburg into Jutland. In return, Otto did not challenge the Danish kings. By contrast Otto's policy towards the Slavs was to be much more interventionist. Boleslav, duke of Bohemia, made two attempts to resist Otto's suzerainty, but acceded in the end and remained loyal to the king. Further north, two men were the implementers of Otto's policy: the margraves Hermann Billung along the lower Elbe, and Gero along its middle course. The stability of the eastern marches hinged on administrative districts and such suffragan episcopal centers as Havelberg and Brandenburg, dependencies of the archbishopric of Mainz. Christianity was to be the bonding agent, yet the records are silent concerning his plans to create the archbishopric in Magdeburg.167 In promoting the Slavic missions, Otto pursued a hard line, associated with ruthless conquests and resistance, – his margrave Gero had thirty Slavic leaders murdered during a meal –, territorial consolidation, partly through settlement, and not without serious reverses. Christianization and Germanization will have served one another and resembled the two sides of a coin. In the absence of any evident benefits, the resentment over the tax burden, and Saxon costs in lives and loss of resources had aggravated the rebellious discontent over this eastern policy. The foundation of three bishoprics among the Slavs coincided with the foundation of those among the Danes. On the day of the battle on the legendary “Lechfeld” against the Hungarians, the day of St. Laurentius, Otto I had pledged to establish a bishopric in honor of this saint, at Merseburg. It was the earliest indication that the eastern missions were receiving a new focus, leading to the foundation of several additional bishoprics. The monastery of St. Mauritius in Magdeburg, already founded in 937, was to be the center of the eastern thrust of missionary activity delimited by the river Oder. It is significant, that the church was dedicated not only to the martyr St. Mauritius, but also to the glorious warrior. It clearly placed an accent on the joint religious and military aspects of the eastern missions.

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The eastward expansion of the Christian lands through the joint ventures of bishops and margraves became Otto's primary task. In practice, the policy focused on the recognition of suzerainty and the payment of the annual tribute. Magdeburg Cathedral, with its designated supporting bishoprics of Havelberg and Brandenburg, was to become the Ottonian equivalent in the east to Aachen in the west. Otto's intentions meant the curtailment of the jurisdictions of the archbishopric of Mainz which would have to yield its metropolitan rights. His son Wilhelm, the archbishop of Mainz, was presented as a key obstacle to raising Magdeburg to become an archbishopric.168 Until then, Magdeburg was in the diocese of the bishop of Halberstadt, which was a dependency of Mainz. It would have to yield its diocesan rights. While Otto I had been busy in Italy, margrave Gero was able to draw the Slavic prince Mieszko I into closer ties with the Empire.169 This strong and aggressive political configuration, with a standing army of three thousand Scandinavian mercenary warriors, had great potential for expansion. Hence, it was a military accomplishment to defeat and then to induce Mieszko, as duke of the Poles, to become tributary to the Empire, but also to be recognized as “friend” and “loyal supporter” of the emperor.170 When he married the Christian daughter of the Bohemian duke Boleslav, and accepted Christian baptism, Poland was opened to Christian missionaries, introducing Poland and the western Slavs to western intellectual and spiritual traditions and the Catholic Christian association of states. Already in 968 Poznan was established as a bishopric, perhaps dependent on Magdeburg.171 In 973/74 Prague was created a bishopric, dependent on Mainz. It appears to have been Otto's intention to anticipate Byzantine missionary activity in Eastern Europe. Russia first invited western missionaries, but delays prevented a quick response from Adalbert, the future archbishop of Magdeburg.172 When in 962 Russia refused western Christianity, turning to the Byzantine form of eastern Christianity instead, the religious demarcation confirmed Poland's western membership. To break the control of Mainz and to obtain confirmation for the episcopal reorganization along the eastern frontier, Otto needed the approval of the pope. Clearly, the emperor was not omnipotent. In the meantime Pope John XIII had been dethroned, imprisoned, but was freed, returned to Rome with force, and was reinstated triumphantly. He had been able to appeal to the king, who now appeared in Italy at Christmas 966. Trials, ceremonies of infamy, banishments and executions by crucifixion dealt with the twelve leaders of the anti-papal revolt.173 During Otto's third stay in Italy, 967, a synod convoked in Ravenna finalized the creation of the eastern center of gravity in Magdeburg. Though pope John XII had already

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given his approval, German episcopal resistance delayed these plans, until Pope John XIII raised the status of Magdeburg in the east to archbishopric, charged with the supervision of the eastern bishoprics till then dependent on Mainz in the west.174 These changes were facilitated through the death of Otto's son, the archbishop Wilhelm in Mainz. Archbishop Brun of Cologne had died in 965. Their successors were amenable to Otto's eastern projects. It will be recalled that Brun had a dual function as archbishop and duke of Lotharingia. In his capacity as duke he had placed those on vacant bishops' chair, who had passed through his cathedral school in Cologne and been effectively prepared for religious and secular services. In his person, Brun demonstrated the congruent functioning of religious and secular offices. Following Brun's death, as of 967, Otto transferred the best of these trainees to his court chapter and charged it with the assembly of the most suitable candidates in an institution, which would prepare a future episcopate of the realm, which could function competently in both aspects of the realm. By the beginning of the next century, such individuals were to be a common feature in the realm. Individuals who could preach a sermon and guide the administrative royal correspondence were to form the fulcrum of an administration demonstrating the congruence of interest within the church and the realm. Brun was to arise as the Ottonian role model of this kind of bishop of the realm, to come into being during the Ottonian-Salian periods.175 Henceforth, the historical processes of the realm reflected the preoccupation with episcopal foundations as complementary administrative institutions, responsible to the realm. Under royal protection, immunity, and furnished with estates, the bishoprics, monasteries and convents, even when the latter were proprietary establishments founded by the nobility, were free of ducal control. However, they were subject to royal service, the servitium regis, a bone of contention for the ensuing reform movement in the church, which aimed at the ultimate liberation of the church from royal control. Saxony appears to have had a predominance of convents, perhaps a reflection of the high mortality rate among the Saxon military nobility. Convents, even as proprietary family foundations, were placed under royal protection, endowed with immunity as a safeguard against the hereditary claims by others, and the right to select the abbess, provided the founding families could place suitable family members at their head.176 Whether family or episcopal foundations, some were intended to reinforce the stability of the realm. A collaborative administrative authority, came to act as reinforcement to the dukedoms, to constitute a major support of the monarchy, indicated by the growing link between aristocracy, church and crown. Brun had

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exemplified these aspects of administrative logistics. The policy was to culminate under Henry III, who as Christ's vicar on earth intended to provide the kingdom with the stable, cohesive base of the organized church on earth,177 provided the pope, as head of the Christian church, refrained from exercising his primacy over the church and its offices. As long as the popes were weak, helpless playthings of Roman city politics, and could be induced to play a supporting role in a kingdom which saw itself both as a worldly and spiritual realm, it was possible to prevent their interference. However, in time, the reforms insisted on church law, and a change in the religious climate towards greater piety, the Papacy was able to divide this support. It laid claim to the dominium mundi and challenged the primacy of the secular authority, to the extent that the conflict between the Two Authorities became the overriding political preoccupation. The Ottonian assumptions became the weakest link in the realm. Otto I had to return to Italy in 966, when John XIII, a correctly elected and approved pope was driven out by the Romans. By the time Otto arrived in Rome at Christmas 966, the Romans had accepted the pope. Except for a few minor disputes, harmony characterized relations between the secular and religious interests. South Italian considerations kept Otto in Italy for most of his eleven years as emperor. The control of northern Italy invited him to cast his eyes on southern Italy as well, where the Byzantine emperor considered the remnant Lombardic principalities in southern Italy to be in his sphere of entitlement. The Byzantine emperors continued to call themselves “Roman Emperors” and frowned on Otto's imperial coronation and resented the western “pretenders”. To them he was rex, and not basileus / imperator.178 At the synod in Ravenna Otto pursued the politics of marriage, when he proposed the marriage of his son with a Byzantine imperial princess as a compromise to overcome the tensions between the two Empires over the primacy in Italy. Negotiations of this type had been conducted off and on since 945. Hence, on Christmas Day 967, the thirteen-year-old Otto II was anointed and crowned co-emperor by Pope John XIII in Rome, the ceremony being modeled on the Byzantine coronation ritual. The date of the coronation coincided with the anniversary of Charlemagne's coronation on Christmas Day 800. The choice of date was clearly deliberate. This event, so early in the life of Otto II, may have been necessitated by Otto's marital designs for his son, since the Byzantines, imbued with their sense and claim to uniqueness, seem not to have been willing to marry one of their princesses born near the purple to one less high-born and less exalted. Constantinople was fundamentally opposed to the existence of another Empire in the west, especially one that claimed the protection of the

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church as a prerogative, a Byzantine jurisdiction in any case.179 Liutprand of Cremona, Otto's envoy in Constantinople, charged with the marriage negotiations, was told of the demanded return of Ravenna and Rome and all Italian lands, as a condition of the marriage, was rebuffed and eventually allowed to return home. To press the suit, Otto resorted to ineffective military action in southern Italy, where the Byzantines still maintained interests, protected by strongly fortified sites. Without benefit of a navy, Otto could not secure the fortified seashore cities.180 The eastern emperor Nikephoros Phocas,181 a great military leader, wanted to maintain the fiction not only of an eventual Byzantine recovery of northern, Adriatic Italy, but of a Byzantine reconquest of the former western Roman Empire. He consequently defended his original possession, campaigns followed and it was not until Byzantine reverses in southern Italy contributed to a palace revolution in Constantinople that a new emperor came to the throne. About now, Constantinople must have given up any serious hope of reconquering Italy and shifted to a policy of gaining influence there by marriage.182 The new emperor was prepared to negotiate, and the marriage plans were reactivated. A marriage was to settle the claims to southern Italy and establish a durable reconciliation with the eastern Empire. The agreement was drawn up in 972, but it was not a porphyrogenita, a princess born to the purple, who was sent, but a non-imperial niece of the successor emperor, Theophanu.183 It is not known, whether Otto was sensitive to questions of his Ottonian imperial legitimacy, but clearly a Byzantine marriage would have added immensely to the dynasty's prestige and renown and help overcome any reservations concerning the Byzantine recognition of Otto and of his son as basileus / imperator.184 Perhaps the Byzantines thought it presumptuous for the upstart Ottonians to seek an imperial princess in marriage, as Liutprand of Cremona reported. During Otto's absence of six years in Italy, the Saxon magnates had followed their own judgment, demonstrating their lack of cohesive support for Otto,185 and expressed anti-Italian sentiments against Otto's Roman absenteeism, not always to the emperor's liking. Upon his return to Germany, Otto held court at Easter 973 in Quedlinburg and received a last international recognition. Embassies represented a long list of peoples, including Arabs from North Africa and Spain.186 Otto died unexpectedly on May 7, 973, in Memleben.187 Used to crisis management, he did not face death in terror either. His innards were removed and buried in Memleben. His body was filled with spices and embalmed. He was buried beside queen Edgith in Magdeburg Cathedral. Analogous to Aachen in the time of Charlemagne, during Otto's lifetime Magdeburg had advanced

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from peripheral settlement on the Slavic frontier, to one of the centers of the kingdom. To make the cathedral his last resting place, had been his intention all along. These burials also departed from usage. To the people, Edgith was soon, though only temporarily, venerated as a saint.188 Perhaps his divinely chosen, anointed, hence consecrated, sacerdotal imperial status gave him a sense of entitlement, as only martyrs could be buried in cathedrals. As savior hero, servant of God, Christ and all the saints, Otto had furnished the church with an abundance of the relics of saints and martyrs, hoping for their intercession on his behalf.189 Several of his paladins chose to be buried near him, the value of Königsnähe and glory by association sought even in death. Otto's long reign had come to a most satisfactory conclusion. Within less than a half century, he had departed from Carolingian models and had converted his inheritance of his father's tentative, more or less regional kingdom into an Empire with international scope. He had turned his father's rudimentary personal associations into a governable realm, in which peace and quiet had been established, where outer and inner turmoil had been rampant only forty years earlier. It was an astonishing array of accomplishments: the confirmation and elevation of the monarchy, the establishment of supportive secular and episcopal administrative structures, the attainment of the imperial crown for himself and for Adelheit, the reduction of Byzantine control over parts of Italy, the merger of the German and Italian realms, the elimination of the Hungarian threat and the Christianization of the border Slavs through the creation of eastern bishoprics and the confirmation of the elected succession through primogeniture. There is no evidence that the Christianization was brought by conquest and occupation, enforced conversion and baptism. Otto was instrumental in the creation of three bishoprics: Hamburg-Bremen for Scandinavia, Magdeburg for Poland and the suffragan bishopric of Prague for Bohemia. For nearly a century the church institutions were to prove a reliable and adequate support for the kingdom, as a skillful balance between family considerations, ecclesiastical and aristocratic pre-eminence seemed to have assured a stable future, at least on the short-term.190 Otto I, the warrior king, entered the realm of stereotypical and legendary rulers. Otto's accomplishments found a quick record in fragmentary minor records and annals, but especially in the historical works of Widukind, the canoness Hrotsvit von Gandersheim and Liutprand of Cremona. Not free of indebtedness, their works resemble laudations of the king. Widukind was among the first to commemorate his reign and that of the Saxons with enthusiasm. The other duchies did not fare equally well in his assessments. His report of Otto's coronation is not

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authentic and although he had frequent opportunity to be in the king's presence, he drew on traditional, Classical literary authorities to create the great man's image of composite virtues.191 His reliability on many things may be compromised for that reason. According to Widukind, in realizing the Saxon kingdom, Otto saw his single-mindedness of purpose as no more than the execution of God's will on earth. Widukind does not yet write “German” history. Hrotsvit was asked to write her history of Otto to his coronation. She wrote it in epic hexameters. Perhaps influenced by Carolingian texts, she saw in Otto a new David and in his deeds a repetition of biblical events and a divine determinism in his accomplishments.192 According to Hrotsvit, the canoness, God determined Otto's identity, his fate and his deeds. There followed a history of her convent at Gandersheim also in poetic form, beginning with its foundation by duke Liudolf in the ninth century to 919, the year at which her epic of Otto begins. Quite different in tone was the historical work of the expatriate Lombard, Liutprand of Cremona. A member of his retinue and propagandist for Otto and his Italian policy during his stay in Italy from 961-964, he sees in Otto the rising star. Following his mission to Constantinople, he had only derision for the eastern emperor, nor did he have much good to say about the Papacy. Flattery and bemusement were his objectives.193 Two years later, Adalbert, who had been too late to effect the mission among the Russians, when still abbot of Weissenburg, had written a continuation of the chronicle of Regino von Prüm. Regino's account had ended in 906. Adalbert took it to 967, using his own experiences for the last fifteen years of the account. Adalbert's history reflects greater critical and objective distance towards individuals and events than did Liutprand's work.194 Ottonian interest and actual patronage, however, was only peripheral, and displayed primarily by the Ottonian women.195 The establishment of stability and unity in the kingdom promoted trade, commerce and the exploitation of resources, such as the silver mines in the Harz Mountains, and prosperity. While philosophical and literary aptitudes had yet to mature, the openness of the kingdom and its contact with the neighboring realms allowed for the influx of skills, techniques, arts and crafts, attitudes and orientations, such as the monastic reform movement, a derivative of the reforms of the Carolingian Benedict of Aniane, emanating from the western realms.196 Education experienced a revival, as many of the religious foundations established or reactivated schools culminating in the monastic, episcopal and cathedral schools of higher learning in the Empire. However, by the thirteenth century convents and monasteries no longer promoted learning as they had in earlier

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centuries. Based on the model of Cologne, cathedral schools came into being in Utrecht, Liège, Trier, Bremen, Eichstätt, Regensburg, Magdeburg, Würzburg and elsewhere, as well as in monasteries such as Werden, Herford, Corvey, Fulda, Reichenau, St. Gall and Regensburg. Some of them provided a link with the later universities. None, however, admitted women. The curriculum continued that was first introduced during the Carolingian period.197 The Carolingian foundations generally continued the "cloister arts" as before and preserved their relative positions, while the new Ottonian foundations, as Hildesheim, and the convents of Essen, Gandersheim and Quedlinburg tried to improve theirs through their schools. The courses of study were a recapitulation of earlier knowledge of the biblical and patristic literature, preferably the Christian, Classical and Carolingian authors. In these pursuits the old and new monastery and cathedral schools competed with one another, enriching the cloister arts through the impetus generated by the monastic reform movement, stressing the return to the enforcement of stricter monastic rules, asceticism and the renunciation of secular interests in favor of common ideas and ideals, promoted by the influx of wealth. Several of their graduates founded new schools, once they had risen into positions of ecclesiastical or administrative authority, or became teachers at other schools. A network of teaching and learning emerged, favored by the Ottonian women, especially the abbesses. Considering that cultural patronage is a means of representation, it is surprising that the monarchs themselves, though supportive founders of many religious establishments, were not enthusiastic patrons of learning. The Ottonian scriptoria and workshops continued the Carolingian traditions. The provenance of many books cannot be attributed definitively. The emergence of so many new foundations, their lack of library and human resources, the lack of scribal training, as well as the infrastructure of book production, made frequent use of the network among the old and new monasteries and convents necessary. By this means the exchange of books, manuscripts with which to build their library collections, and the acquisition of innovative objects in all fields, made the start of new foundations acceptable, until some of them became capable to produce fine illuminated works of astonishing excellence. Liturgical service texts such as collections of antiphons, tropes, sequences and hymns figured prominently in the production of books.198 The popularity of tropes and sequences contributed to the emergence of early European liturgical theater. The growing territorial power and wealth of the expanding bishoprics, monasteries and new convents found flourishing expression in impressive building programs. Ottonian abbots

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furthered church architecture, which with their defensive, fortress-like appearance provided the structural prototypes of the Romanesque. Only a few examples of the Ottonian public decorative art in the form of murals have survived, as at Reichenau. The missionary activities of the bishoprics demanded larger numbers of trained missionaries, just as growing needs of the ducal, royal and imperial administration required trained intellects and greater literacy in the ranks of its personnel.199 The tastes of the Romans of Christian antiquity, Byzantine Greeks, the North African, Sicilian and Spanish Arabs found admission to the Central European inventory of style, thereby affecting the artistic temperament. Considering only the cultural effects of this pollinating contact during the following generation, the benefits were immense. Following the Carolingian decline, it allows the term “Ottonian Renaissance“ to describe the stimulus to the revitalization of earlier, though dormant beginnings. With hindsight, it is clear that the Ottonian period provided the basis on which the frameworks of the Central European medieval identities were to evolve. Dependent on Otto's mastery of personal connections and circumstances, the realm was vulnerable owing to its centrifugal tendencies, and it would hinge on the strength of his successors, whether this fragile creation, a response to the demands of his own time, had a stable future. The western monastic reform movement mobilized significant changes, as it met with a new piety during the tenth century. It entailed a devaluation of the secular world, a rejection of all activity not focused on the monastery, but rested on the preference of spirit over matter, soul over body, arriving at a disdain for human existence that is not motivated by chastity or at least celibacy. The monastery was the ante-chamber of paradise, offering the seamless transition from an earthly to a heavenly existence. When involved in the dispute settlements between the secular and ecclesiastical realms, the monasteries could assume a superior, select and elitist attitude.200 New foundations came to be placed under the direct control of the pope and out of the king's reach. This was already the case with the established Cluny in Burgundy. Gorze, near Metz, and its foundations remained under imperial control. The reforms, a return to strict Benedictine rule, emanating from Cluny, from Gorze, St. Maximin near Trier, to name just three, furthered by abbots, bishops and even some emperors, were to intensify the religious climate of the age.201 In this, the Ottonian realm was less affected, owing to the newness of the foundations and their energetic devotion to prayer and work. Indolence was not a likely problem in their walls. Many of them played a role in the colonization and hence had a clear economic function.

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Otto's interests lay in the efficient management of the monasteries, the effective implementation of the monastic rule, their dedication to the assigned tasks and properties and estates entrusted to their husbandry. He had reserved for himself the power of direct intervention and could remove an abbot, if he failed in the execution of his administrative responsibilities. Otto did just that on the Reichenau, 965, and at St. Gall, 972, without meddling in the spiritual life of the abbeys.202 Many of the new foundations were private and proprietary, such as Gero's church and convent of St. Cyriakus in Gernrode, 961, dedicated to the Virgin and St. Peter, as a monument to eastward expansion.203 For fifty years, it also served as a shelter for Gero's daughter-in-law, the abbess Hathui, provided with estates and endowments, furnished with extravagant donations from among the Slavic spoils. Such foundations were accompanied by dedications preoccupied with obsessions of sin, guilt, divine anger, the remission of sins, salvation and the imminent apocalypse and the concerns to gain the protection of saints and the Trinity. It was the accumulated wealth, which made the life and the support of the arts in the service of God possible. The reform movement, such as the Burgundian Cluniac revival, favored by the devout empress Adelheit, encouraged the veneration of relics, the unarmed pilgrimages to sites associated with saints or their relics, and polarized the world into one of saints or sinners.204 Not all attempts at reform were successful. In at least one instance, c.957, the monks refused to participate in the reform, which their abbot intended to introduce, beat him up and finally blinded him and ejected him from the monastery.205 The reforms were initially favored by the monarchs as a boon in imperial-papal relations, in that they regulated and strengthened the Papacy. However, this persuasion strengthened the reliance on the reform principles of church law, which during the eleventh century was to prove a greater advantage to the reformed Papacy in its struggles with the Empire. Directed against the emperors over the question of investiture, it was to make excommunication a disruptive and ruinous tool in the hands of the pope, by means of which any secular lord could be cut off from his salvation, be cast out of the sanctity of the church and into the world of the devil, of sin and guilt. With one word, the pope could alienate, isolate and incapacitate the king/emperor from his supporters and make all oaths of fealty null and void.206 Whether the apprehensions about the approaching millennium were actually a motivating force is a much debated topic, despite the absence of decided evidence that people lived in fear of the dire end.207 Since for God a thousand years are like one day, a beginning and end of this millennium could not be determined and when one spoke of the end of time, it was not

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clear, whether the end of real time was meant or the end of spiritual time, and if the two actually coincided. Assuming people had a clear idea of the year 1000, was that year the end or the beginning of the millennium? The peace and stability brought about by Otto to the realm and the Papacy, seemed to prepare the Imperium Christianum for a momentous event. Otto III may have taken these ideas about the terror of the year 1000 seriously. However, why was so much art and architecture produced in its many guises and lasting materials, at just the time when the end was supposedly seen to be so near? Ottonian art and architecture have nothing obviously chiliastic about them.208

Otto II and the Regency of Theophanu and Adelheit In 973, at the age of 18, Otto II succeeded his father. In this new Empire, being first-born to the purple, porphyrogenetos, qualified the eight-year old son to be elected king at Worms and crowned and anointed at Aachen as Otto II in 961. In this respect Otto I deviated from custom, under which a successor first had to be of age, as had been the case in his own succession and that of his older, deceased son Liudolf.209 Though nominal co-ruler, Otto I did not assign him a sub-kingship. The coronation was intended to secure the dynastic succession in the face of Otto's and Adelheit's potentially hazardous journey to Rome. Archbishop Wilhelm of Mainz, Otto's oldest son, was to act as regent for his little half-brother, Otto II. A joint authority of father and son was not established until 967, when he was crowned emperor in Rome. The following years were not without tensions between them. Of an impatient disposition, prince Otto's early rise in station may have given him an exaggerated sense of selfworth, but without the matching self-reliance.210 In April 972, the seventeen year old Otto II was married to Theophanu (c.960-991),211 the twelve year old niece of the Byzantine emperor John Tsimiskes, and Otto II and Theophanu were crowned emperor and empress by Pope John XIII in the Constantinian basilica of St. Peter's in Rome. For Otto I, this marriage represented the peak of his secular and ecclesiastical policies, his diplomatic success and the height of his imperial prestige. It suggests a lack of personal warmth towards his son. She was not a porphyrogenita, a princess born to the purple, who was sent from Constantinople, but a non-imperial niece of the successor emperor. Perhaps the Byzantines thought it presumptuous for the upstart Ottonians to seek an imperial princess in marriage. At the Ottonian court, the lesserborn princess Theophanu was considered an affront and some wanted to refuse her. Otto I probably insisted on her coronation as a means of

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upgrading her status.212 She will have invited a certain “culture shock” at the itinerant court, as the Ottonian west first encountered the Byzantine east close at hand. The shock will have been greater for Theophanu, who had grown up in the sophisticated and highly urbanized Constantinople and now found herself in a landscape of rudimentary settlements and mysterious, endless, seemingly trackless forests. Most medieval architecture was yet to be built. Without a doubt, she surpassed her court in intellectual and cultural education. Her name, Theophanu – Divine Manifestation – likely astonished and perhaps affronted her western contemporaries. The exotic luxury of her appearance at the western court probably provoked admiration of her great beauty. Her commanding presence may have brought her disdain for her elegant and extravagant garb, her extraordinary ornamental treasures of enameled gold and interlaced filigree. She provided a distinguished focus and endless topics for gossip. Determined and intelligent, she actually proved a good choice and a worthy successor of Otto I. The marriage meant the recognition by the eastern emperor of the western emperor. Her territorial wedding gifts, consisting mainly of the properties of his grandmother, queen Mathilda, made her the richest woman in Europe before the year 1000.213 Otto II and Theophanu were married in April 972 in St. Peter's in Rome, by Pope John XIII, accompanied by Theophanu's coronation as empress.214 Even now, Otto II was a very junior partner and kept away from government responsibilities. He was not allowed to use the imperial title, and in the preserved marriage document Otto I was given primary treatment. His son's name is not highlighted. The records hide a generational conflict. Despite her age, Theophanu may have had more aptitude for governmental affairs than her husband. Determined, attractive and intelligent, she actually proved a good choice. The marriage meant the recognition by the eastern emperor of the western emperor. For Otto I, this marriage represented the peak of his secular and ecclesiastical policies, his diplomatic success and the height of his imperial prestige. For Theophanu the next eight years meant five pregnancies under the trying conditions of an itinerant court, including encampments on campaign. The splendid marriage contract stipulated that as consort, she would share in the imperial power. When compared with the wealth, kinship associations and real territorial power that Adelheit had brought into the marriage, Theophanu's position was essentially weak and vulnerable to criticism. She was criticized for her outlandish Greek ways and especially for her rich courtly dress. The criticisms will not have diminished when she was late having children and then seemed to fail to produce an heir,

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despite her several pregnancies. The itinerant way of life will have tested her strength, nevertheless, her first obvious duty was assuring the succession, so that by the time she was about twenty years of age, in 980, she had given birth five times, to four girls and finally to a boy, Otto III. The birth of a son and heir confirmed her position as consort. One of the girls died soon after birth, the others were handed over to be raised in convents. Theophanu's influence increased. As Otto's crowned consors imperii, she functioned as co-empress, so that within the eleven-year period of Otto's reign, Theophanu is identified 73 times with increasing frequency in a quarter of Otto's imperial documents.215 She shared that influence with the chancellor Willigis, who, thanks to her good offices, had been raised archbishop of Mainz, the most powerful ecclesiastical position in the kingdom.216 During this well intentioned, though short, lackluster, but not incompetent reign, Otto II tried to keep the ship of state on an even keel. Otto II was to be sole ruler for a mere eleven years. For the first seven years of his reign, he had to rush about putting out fires in the kingdom, to confirm his rule. Ecclesiastical disputes over the establishment, privileges and jurisdictions of bishoprics, kept the church in turmoil. On the day following the death of his father, the attending nobles repeated the ceremony, which had initially raised him to the kingship. Factors must have justified a recapitulation of the oath of fealty. His presence in the kingdom may have reined in the nobles and prevented uprisings. In southern Germany, an opposition gathered against Otto II, over an illegal and duplicitous investiture of the bishop of Augsburg, actually the emperor's prerogative.217 Deaths in the ducal families recommended that Otto II intervene in their successions. Henry the Quarrelsome of Bavaria, an attribute given to him by posterity, Otto's cousin, had plotted with Boleslav II of Bohemia and Mieszko I of Poland and challenged him for the crown. The plot was uncovered in 974 and the participants summoned under pain of excommunication. Henry appeared and was imprisoned.218 At the same time Harald Bluetooth with Norwegian support, attacked from Denmark, but could be beaten back. A punitive campaign against Boleslav expedited the foundation of the bishopric of Prague. In 979 Otto II had been able to restore the tributary relations with Mieszko of Poland. However, he was not able to co-ordinate realistically his father's Slavic and Italian policies. The fact that the north sent him the reinforcements, which he requested for his activities in Italy, suggests northern support of the continuing Italian policies. His father's plans to integrate the western Slavic tribes through their Christianization fell to individual Saxon efforts

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through the creation of a monastic landscape supported by patron saints, by building a screening curtain of monumental churches and founding convents and monasteries and by furnishing them with their relics.219 Saxon military forces never stayed long as occupiers. Unrest in France, and further unrest stirred up by Henry the Quarrelsome, following his successful escape, led to campaigns and following decisive successes in 978, a dissolution and redistribution of the duchies, as well as the creation of new ones out of the larger splinters. During each rebellion, the empress-mother, Adelheit, conspired with him against Otto.220 Not surprisingly, her influence with her son waned. Subsequently Henry, the repeat offender, was imprisoned until the death of Otto II. The vacancy brought the Babenberg line of Franconian dukes to eastern Bavaria, to rule there for most of the next three hundred years. French politics included an attack on Aachen and a retaliatory campaign to the walls of Paris in 978. During the return, Otto's rearguard was badly mauled.221 The marches and countermarches were mainly for show and not pursued with interest on either side. Family disputes during the 970s had estranged Otto from his mother Adelheit. She had to retire in 974. The monarchy could not realize its domestic intentions, while the ambition to control Rome and northern as well as Byzantine Italy may yet have proved to be too ambitious. To his credit is the discouragement of the Saracens from establishing a lasting presence in southern Italy. In December 982 he was nearly killed in a disastrous defeat of his forces by the Arabs in southern Italy. The Fatimid caliphs of Cairo urged their dependency in Sicily to expand Islam into southern Italy. The expansion was directed against the Byzantine holdings in southern Italy. Southern Italy was open to raids by the Sicilian Saracens, but the aggression of the Bulgars tied up Byzantine forces in the Balkans. Some places had already been garrisoned by the Moslems. The defensive intervention should have come from the Byzantine emperor. The new regime in Constantinople found no friend in Theophanu. She will have counseled military action to seize this opportunity. The Saracen threat to some of the Greek cities, as well as the conflicts among some of the southern Italian nobles called for Otto's military intervention, which coincidentally created the possibility of bringing southern Italy into the Ottonian Empire. To that end the northern duchies and bishoprics were able to reinforce his army by sending him a force of 2100 heavily armed cavalry.222 Successful in 982 against the southern Italian nobles, he incorporated Apulia and Calabria. That year Otto II assumed the imperial title Romanorum imperator augustus, as a

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demonstration of the autonomy of the Ottonian Empire beside that of the emperor in Constantinople. The title was to remain with the medieval emperors. A shift of the imperial center of gravity into the Regnum Italie seemed indicated.223 The imperial troops encountered and defeated a Saracen army along the Adriatic coast. Rejoicing over their victory, they were caught in open formation while in pursuit by strong, now reinforced Saracen reserves and annihilated. Among the fallen were many religious and secular magnates of the Empire's leadership. Otto himself had to swim to a passing Greek ship.224 Still, the Saracens withdrew to Sicily, while the Byzantines did not regain their hold. To strengthen her own position, Theophanu may have counseled military action to make use of this opportunity. With the normalization of the north, through oaths of loyalty and a peace treaty with France, it was possible for Otto II to begin to develop a policy of his own, at least so it seems in retrospect. He began with a peaceful journey into a stable Italy in 980, which seems to have held greater fascination for him than it had for his father. Otto's absence in the north had allowed a popular revolt in Rome against Pope Benedict VI to return the Papacy to earlier unsettled conditions, including the murder in 974 of the imprisoned pope by his successor, Boniface VII. There followed the usual appeals for imperial assistance. In Italy Otto II and his mother were reconciled. He needed her prestige there as well as her relation by marriage to several of the princely houses. In a progress, he reestablished the imperial claim. Otto II spent Christmas 980 in Ravenna. Here an intellectual feature in Otto's character highlights the significant and singular reorientation of the second generation of Saxon rulers. While Otto I had been nearly illiterate, Otto II presided over and participated in a lengthy learned dispute in the scholastic manner between two great scholars of the day, Gerbert of Aurillac and Ohtrich of Magdeburg, over the organization of philosophy, i.e. of all knowledge. He showed an interest in education. His intellectual curiosity stimulated his pursuit of philosophical questions. A misrepresentation by a third party brought confusion about the relationship between mathematics and physics. Otto II wanted clarification. Regrettably during the disputation, the debaters lost track of their topic and the emperor ended the dispute, without declaring a winner.225 Already in 972, during a visit to St. Gall, Otto had examined and removed some books from its library. Subsequently, he had attracted a number of famous scholars to his entourage, especially Gerbert of Aurillac and the abbot Adso of Montieren-Der. Gerbert, the greatest scholar of his day, had been educated in Aurillac and then in Catalonia, where he came under Arabic influence and

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learned to appreciate mathematics, astronomy and the other natural sciences. The extent of his knowledge was such that he soon gained the reputation of being a magician.226 Adso had written a work on the AntiChrist and the finite mission of the Roman Empire. Their scholarly considerations, perhaps supported by Theophanu, were to give form to Otto's politics by directing his attention to Byzantine southern Italy.227 While at his side, the new Pope Benedict VII could enter Rome. The first catastrophic defeat of an Ottonian army may have injured Otto's prestigious position among his followers, especially in the north. The magnates of the Empire challenged the emperor. At their behest, a quickly convened imperial diet in Verona dealt with the reappointment of dukes according to their wishes, and voted the funds for the resumption of hostilities against the Saracens. The election of three-year-old Otto III, to secure the succession, may have been a compromise. Otto's near escape will have focused his thinking. Subsequently little Otto was to be crowned in Aachen and entrusted to the archbishop of Cologne for his education. This arrangement would ensure access of the magnates to the infant king. The election and coronation was to be a joint German-Italian undertaking, reinforced by the presiding archbishops Willigis of Mainz and John of Ravenna. Shortly after 975 the pope added the authority to anoint and crown the king to the archbishop's authority. Willigis had obtained the papal authorization to crown a king. Election and coronation represented the realization of the idea of a Rome based Empire.228 During the deliberations in Verona, a Danish attack in the north coincided with a violent Slavic uprising against their willful oppression by the Saxon duke and the margraves. The Trans-Elbian Slavs reverted to paganism, reacted violently against their Christianization, rolled back the Christianized areas, and destroyed the bishoprics Havelberg and Brandenburg. In their desire for liberty, even recognized by German chroniclers, the people reverted to a century of paganism.229 Ironically, this rekindled Saxon militancy against the Slavs, for against Christians the gain in booty was too negligible to warrant the hardships of eastern campaigns. In the absence of a standing army, each campaign would begin with a delay, as the forces would first have to assemble at a staging point before the advance could begin. Considering the methods of fighting and especially the poor supply system, an army had to live off the land, meaning that only the short period between late summer and early autumn, when the harvest was ripening on the fields, was practical for military expeditions. Pillage and destruction were the main weapons, with which the supply system of the foes could be affected most severely. Similarly, the enemy could resort to a “burnt earth” strategy to deprive the attacker of

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his expected provisions of food and fodder. Campaigns at other times of the year had to be even shorter, geared to the supplies and provisions a soldier could carry. Wagon trains would hinder the advance over trackless territories. An unexpected thaw would stop a force in its tracks. For the same reasons, an army could not be kept assembled, but had to be disbanded at the first strategic moment, not always reliably determined. A Saxon victory against the Slavs at least preserved the Elbe as the eastern frontier. The Christianizing efforts of Otto I had been in vain. In Rome, during the summer of 983, a new pope took the name of John XIV, thereby indicating some continuity with the policies of John XIII. The marriage contract recording the marriage between Otto II and Theophanu, a magnificent document of golden lettering on purple parchment, nearly one and one half meters long, stipulated that as consort, Theophanu would share in the imperial power.230 As empress, she was to play a significant role following the death of Otto II and the childhood of Otto III. Otto was three years old when the magnates of the Empire elected him king in Verona, in May 983, from where he was taken to Aachen to be crowned. Otto II died on December 7, 983, following an attempt to deal forcefully with a fever – malaria.231 He was buried in the atrium of St. Peter's in Rome, where his sarcophagus is still on display. The messenger traveled between 20 to 25 days, and the news did not reach Aachen until after prince Otto had been crowned and anointed on Christmas Day 983 as Otto III. His father's premature death, as well as the reverses occurring just at this time, have overshadowed his reign, perhaps unjustly. Theophanu raised in the child-king a pious intellectual, who appreciated spirituality and the beauty of the arts and Greco-Roman culture in particular. Following the marriage of Otto II and Theophanu and Theophanu's later rule, the Byzantine influence can be expected. During Theophanu's reign, Greek influences were introduced, including the veneration of St. Nicholas, St. Pantaleon and especially the cult of the Virgin Mary, as Maria Theotokos, the Bearer of God. The Palace Chapel in Aachen was already dedicated to her. Theophanu had reinforced this concept. Objects associated with her were to be represented on the face of the pulpit in the chapel of St. Mary. From Italy, she brought the remains of St. Albanus to the church of St. Pantaleon, thus providing a link with St. Albans in England Despite Theophanu's apparent entitlement to act as Otto's guardian, she had to overcome hurdles before she could be accepted in this role. Rumors suggested that she was responsible for the defeat and Otto's death, facts to the contrary. A woman such as she was could cause the misfortune of men

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and then she was also Greek and suspected of having a liaison with Johannes Philagathos, the king's closest advisor. How could she ever rule? The providential events of election and coronation had a new relevance, as old rivalries in Bavaria and the west flared up a last time. While the two empresses were still in northern Italy awaiting the resolution of the uncertainties, the question of the guardianship over the king arose. Frankish Ripuarian Law determined the age of fifteen to be the age of majority. This Germanic law did not know the concept of “regency” for a ruler, who was still not of age. In the care of a guardian, all documents were issued in the name of the king, who acted as though of age, completing his pre-drawn signature with the proverbial single stroke of the pen. He had the power to act as “regent”, who actually had the child-king in his hands. He also had the responsibility of providing for his care and sustenance.232 Despite Theophanu's entitlement to act as his guardian, she had yet to demonstrate her competence, and for a while, the young king and the royal insignia were handed over to Henry the Quarrelsome, as the closest male relative. With the two empresses still in Italy and seemingly not very eager to return until the situation had stabilized, he was not opposed.233 While the magnates of the church tended to support him, the lay princes resisted his unprincipled and ambitious seizure of power. With promises and bribes, only some joined his support. Conditions in the kingdom, however, especially the prolonged loss of territory along the Slavic frontier, required strong immediate leadership. When Henry proposed he be crowned king in Quedlinburg by the magnates, whom he had invited to Magdeburg, including Mieszko I of Poland and Boleslav of Bohemia, the question concerning the guardianship had become a question of the succession.234 Although Henry was acclaimed, he was not crowned. Henry found himself on a slippery slope and had to watch his support fail to increase as oath associations among his highborn opponents promoted the loyalty principle to gain ground in favor of the crowned king. Henry refrained from promoting his claim and the legitimacy principle triumphed.235 Archbishop Willigis of Mainz intervened at this point and contributed significantly to the eventual effacement of Henry and the recall of the empresses from Italy. It is difficult to imagine, what concessions and demonstrations of competence, in addition to Theophanu's and Adelheit's agreement to cooperate in their dealings with the succession, were advanced by the imperial party to determine the outcome. In the end, after two and a half years of tough negotiations, Theophanu, Adelheit and Mathilda the abbess of Quedlinburg appeared at an assembly of the magnates. It concluded with Otto's mother and the reigning empress, assuming the guardianship

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over him in June 985. All the magnates of the realm, including Poland and Bohemia, paid homage to the king and renewed their oath of fealty. Christmas Day 983 was a momentous day, on which, according to tales, a bright star shone in bright daylight, clearly Otto's star. The analogy with the star leading the three imperial women to the child will have been useful.236 The recognition of a 'prince of peace' suggested that order was assured in the kingdom. The motif appeared frequently in the illuminated gospels written during his reign and contributed greatly to the perception that Otto III was indeed the sacred emperor, venerated by all the lands. At Easter 986, Theophanu assembled the magnates of the realm and upon the extension of her grace, Henry the Quarrelsome submitted before the whole court, though without prostration, paid homage and was reinstated in his Bavarian duchy and restored to his relative rank in the order of the kingdom. Negotiations probably laid out the details of the publicly staged agreement.237 The empress Adelheit returned to Pavia, where she continued to enjoy great prestige and assumed her hereditary responsibilities for Italy. It was from now on that as empress Theophanu was to play a significant role during the childhood of Otto III. By then Theophanu had submerged her Greek origin and assumed her duties as an Ottonian empress. The question of the guardianship over the king had arisen. Traditional Frankish Law held fifteen to be the age of majority, but did not know the concept of “regency“ for an underage ruler. A guardian issued all documents in the name of that king, who completed his pre-drawn signature with the single stroke of the pen. He had a “regent's” power, who actually had the child-king in his power and trust. An assembly of the magnates of the realm concluded in 985 that Otto's mother and reigning empress should assume the guardianship over him. The guardianship of Theophanu was to be a success when, with her advisors Willigis of Mainz and Wildibald of Worms, who preserved the administrative continuity, and the assistance and consent of the magnates of the realm, she ruled skillfully as regent, even as emperor. It is a characteristic of the queens and empresses of the Empire, as well as in the Middle High German epics and romances, that the royal, imperial consorts and other women of the high nobility had enjoyed positions of responsibility and autonomy before their marriages, and then often shared in the rule of their husbands.238 Usually better educated than their husbands, frequently born in another culture, they mediated between cultures and often contributed to changing fashions and the customs of the court. If they had been monarchs in their own right, like Adelheit, they represented centers of power, held court, assisted by their administrators

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and played ancillary roles in ruling the kingdom. Adelheit was multilingual and it follows, that she received embassies from other parts of the Empire. It is imaginable that the queens used the opportunities of the bedchamber to exert political influence. Appeals to apply such influence during intimate moments even came from the pope. Successions and regencies of women were not undisputed, women not being deemed qualified, while in literature, the heroes often arrived just in time to save the queens from hostile aspirants to their thrones. The empress Adelheit's biography could have served as the literary prototype. Although there are sufficient examples of women assuming rule and military command in times of need, Theophanu's rise to power is most noteworthy. The queens often had their own court, administered by their own officials. She was frequently called upon to try to mediate in the conflicts among her Ottonian relatives in the west. She launched no aggressive initiatives in the west and only limited holding actions without gains along the eastern frontiers. She definitely advanced no new concepts of a military and missionary nature. During her journey to Rome, 989/90, on which her son did not accompany her, but during which she intended to restore her son's imperial image and deal with matters concerning the Papacy, she actually claimed the title Theophanu imperatrix augusta, and even assumed the name Theophanius gratia divina imperator augustus, the masculine form of her name and title, on imperial documents. She identified with the imperial issues of the realm, generally favored the north with her administrative attention and issued documents in her own name. In earlier centuries eastern empresses had proceeded thus in similar situations. There is some evidence that she made administrative decisions and appointments while in Pavia during Adelheit's absence in Burgundy. While Theophanu can be credited with the introduction of lasting Greek elements into the Ottonian “renaissance”,239 and the maintenance of the kingdom's cohesion, the imperial realm was losing its preeminence. In Rome, the papal authority reverted to that of an urban principality. In the west, as the Empire lost its hegemony over the western kingdoms, the last Carolingian was displaced and a new dynasty, the Capetians, came to the fore in 987 with Hugh Capet, marking the beginning of the history of France. With it came a drastic reduction of the influence of the resident Ottonians over the west, as the two political units drifted apart. The common ground was rather tenuous in any case. This date may mark the gradual emergence of the individual beginning of French and German identities.240 Despite her military leadership, Theophanu was only able to maintain the status quo. Things were worse in the north and east of the kingdom. In

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the north, Harald Bluetooth was driven into exile and the northern bishoprics suffered as Christianity was rejected, and the North Sea regions were revisited by marauding Vikings.241 It was to be the beginning of the creation of a northern realm that would include Britain under King Canute (1014-35). In the east, the empress could not regain the lost territories, as the sparse population could not muster the required strength, but thanks to sound appointments made during the years 991/92, the western Slavs could be subdued, when Saxon, Polish and Bohemian interests moved on them from west and east. Until the eastern frontier was again stabilized, the region served as a military staging area for the eastern campaigns. Theophanu took part in a punitive campaign, joined by imperial, Polish and Bohemian forces, which devastated the Trans-Elbian lands, but did not quell the repeated Slavic incursions into Saxony. She showed strength, even though the eastern frontier was to remain a trouble spot for the eastern margraves. Theophanu's premature death was a misfortune. Theophanu died no older than thirty-five while in Nymwegen, in June 991, when Otto III was only 11 years of age. She had a history of infirmity and probably died of natural causes. The six years of her rule were free of conspiracies. Considering the time-span of about ten years, this sequential guardianship was a success. She had chosen her church of St. Pantaleon in Cologne as her last resting place. Theophanu's remains are preserved in the church of St. Pantaleon in Cologne in a modern sarcophagus, made of white marble from Naxos. Without disruption, Otto's grandmother Adelheit assumed the guardianship until 994/95, without indicating a change in the administrative direction. Adelheit was not to find a grave in Magdeburg, though statuary representing her was erected in Meissen. Her convent at Seltz, in Alsace, was furnished by Otto, as a point from which a region could be safeguarded. At the same time, she founded it as her own liturgical memorial site. She was to be buried there in 999. Unfortunately, this foundation was washed away by a flood. Adelheit attracted veneration as a saintly person and was finally canonized in 1097. In preparing her case for sainthood, the abbot Odilo of Cluny, author of her panegyric biography, depicted her as the long-suffering, submissive survivor of much calumny and harassment by her daughter-in-law, the “Greek” Theophanu. It was part of a strategy, which polarized the world into one of saints or sinners. Her supposed endurance was presented as part of her qualification for sainthood. In fact, Adelheit had supported the rebellions of Henry the Quarrelsome against Theophanu's husband. Subsequently the conflict was aggravated by territorial, jurisdictional disputes, and perhaps

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also her continuing, very generous policy of donations, opposed by her son Otto II. These family disputes, probably fed by intriguing factions, came to a head in 975, when Otto II delineated Adelheit's holdings in the kingdom, without reference to Burgundy or Italy. Such rulings estranged Otto from his mother Adelheit, while Theophanu's influence with her husband increased. It is quite understandable that even an imperial widow would lose her preeminence in the new socio-political structure of the court. Theophanu effected an elegant and extravagant Byzantine dress code, while Adelheid exercised ever more restraint and withdrawal from the world. Adelheit left for Burgundy, where her brother was king, and then to her personal holdings in northern Italy. To make his qualifying point, Odilo of Cluny may have overstated it, as he shifted the dispute between mother and son to a dispute with his wife. Theophanu did not share Adelheit's restrictive, Cluniac attitudes towards Christian practices. In 980, Otto II celebrated a great reconciliation with his mother in Pavia. The empress Adelheit returned to Pavia, where she continued to enjoy great prestige and assumed her hereditary responsibilities for Italy. It has, however, been noted that there is only one document from this period which was jointly sponsored by both empresses. During the minority of Otto III, the two empresses certainly did collaborate in the guardianship. Theophanu and Adelheit laid whatever differences to rest, as Theophanu left Rome for Pavia, and agreed to cooperate in their dealings with the succession. In the end, after two and a half years of tough negotiations, Theophanu, Adelheit and Mathilda the abbess of Quedlinburg appeared at an assembly of the magnates of the realm, which concluded with Otto's mother and the reigning empress, assuming the guardianship over him in June 985. Though the women wielded all effective power, all documents were issued in the name of Otto III. There are only very few documents issued jointly, so that it appears that the two avoided one another, taking turns in being with the infant king. A new dispute broke out that year, when Adelheit wanted to bequeath a great many of her holdings to the convent at Quedlinburg, headed by her daughter Mathilda. Since this donation included much imperial land, Otto's chancery, headed by Theophanu, blocked the transfer. Adelheit left for Pavia to represent the interests of the realm in Italy. At the end of one year she, the “mother of Empires”, was called north, to assist her daughter Hemma deal with the difficulties in the western Carolingian kingdom, in the course of which, Hemma died in prison. The eastern kingdom did not get involved, turning its attention to Italy instead. There, however, Adelheit was excluded from the decisions, just as her dispositions over her own property were subjected to restrictions and she

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was excluded from court. She withdrew to her convent at Seltz. With Theophanu's unexpected death in 991, Adelheit's position changed radically. Aged sixty, she assumed the guardianship over the young king and a large measure of the government until 994/95. It had been a seamless transition. Though ably supported by leaders of the imperial church, by then she lacked the energies needed to head a strong administration, her donations were too generous and damaging to the crown, as she withdrew from the world. The imperial influence receded ever more. Her ward was insistently independent and self-reliant well before he was of age, assuming representational duties for himself well before 994, when he turned fourteen. The itinerant life of the progress was taxing her energies and she withdrew to Seltz. She met with him on only three more occasions. When he absented himself to Rome, his aunt, the abbess Mathilda was entrusted with governmental affairs north of the Alps. Adelheit set out on a last journey into Burgundy, to visit places dear to her, ending with Cluny. She died in Seltz on December 17, 999, at the age of sixty-eight. Her daughter Mathilda, the Abbess of Quedlinburg, had died that February, only forty-four years of age. In 995, a revolt erupted again. Mieszko I had been motivated to move his seat from Poznan to Gniezno, free of tributary obligations, and had tried to subordinate his lands to Rome, by entrusting them as a gift to St. Peter. Such an act removed them from any other secular or episcopal claims. Before his death in 992, he had stipulated the division of his realm among his sons. His son Boleslav I Chrobry excluded his brothers from the succession. His stepmother and her sons he forcibly returned to Saxony, while he blinded two relatives from his Bohemian family, in case they had ambitions,242 and set out on a campaign of expansion in Silesia, against Bohemia. Eventually the aim was to establish a bishopric in Poland. It happened in the year1000.243 This had to do with delimiting the extent of the authority of the archbishop of Mainz and any consequent Germanization. Within the kingdom, the functional role of the duchies again began to revert to their earlier hereditary character, as the dukes once again assumed greater responsibility for their fiefs. Otto's grandmother Adelheit, aged sixty, had assumed the regency until 994/95. It had been a seamless transition. Ably supported by leaders of the imperial church, by then she lacked the energies needed to head a strong administration. Otto supposedly sent her away from the court. Of a Cluniac persuasion, she devoted much energy to church affairs, made extensive donations to monasteries and convents, and tended to her western heirs. During her guardianship, the imperial influence receded even more. Her daughter

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Mathilda, the Abbess of Quedlinburg, had died in February 999. Adelheit died on December 17, 999, at the age of sixty-eight. In 1097 she was canonized by Pope Urban II. Otto III was to follow her in death just over two years later. Despite his short reign, he has left a more enigmatic and interesting self-image than other rulers.

Otto III - the Repentant Sinner on the Imperial Throne Otto III was fourteen, when he was girt with the sword and declared of age, and when, without much ado, he took the reins of power from his grandmother in 994.244 One Heribert, chancellor for Italy and future archbishop of Cologne, may have planted the idea of a coronation in Rome in the young emperor's mind.245 Already on that occasion, he decided on a journey to Rome to obtain the imperial crown, to find a Byzantine bride and to forge an intertwining link with Italy. He was an enthusiast, but not a military man. During his very short personal rule of only seven years, conquest ceded to diplomacy and alliances. It is noteworthy that his foreign policy achieved lasting successes. In his dealings, he revealed himself a man, who respected conventions, but who also struck out with innovative initiatives of his own, not backed by tradition. Reportedly, the role of humble, repentant sinner, moved by intense, tearful feelings of guilt, suited his religious temperament more. His demonstrative introspective sensitivities, solitary withdrawals, prolonged fasts, excessive penances, the mortification of his flesh, probably had a detrimental effect on his health, weakened his physical condition and made him susceptible to illnesses. At the same time, the communicative style of the day required public procedures, which included the demonstration of clemency, of justice, in addition to demonstrative, self-abasing gestures of the deepest repentance and the greatest humility, not hidden to God.246 His generous donations to abbeys and bishoprics were an overt complement to his personal piety, even if one should see it as part of his concern for his salvation. The image-makers of the day, with some hagiographical intent to color him as the saint on the imperial throne, may have done their share to present him in this light. Had “his” star not shone brightly in the daylight? His rich gifts to individuals and the personal favor of personal proximity, engaging in intimate conversations and confidentiality, drew him closer to the great minds of his day, while it accumulated personal and political capital. An inordinate number of testimonials of praise followed his reign.247 He was gifted, with quick understanding and his teachers, John Philagathos and Bernward of Hildesheim, instilled in him the highest

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ideals and the most religious impulses of his day. Already in 993 Bernward was made bishop of Hildesheim, a position he held for thirty years. His support of art and architecture was to leave a lasting heritage.248 Otto III could be moody and driven by a sense of his own exalted person, he was drawn to distant places rather than to those nearby. He thought and planned globally. Already in 995, he sent envoys to Constantinople to negotiate the marriage with a Byzantine bride. Since the eastern emperors had no sons, a marriage with one of their daughters held out the possibility of a marriage, which would reunite the eastern and western Empires. Perhaps it was his aim to marry a Byzantine princess that made him want to demonstrate the equality of Rome with glorious Constantinople, the new Roman Empire of the west with the Roman Empire continuing in the east. From his teachers he had acquired the idea of the renewal of Roman imperial power as wielded by Charlemagne, and that an apostolic form of Christianity was only attainable through the strictest asceticism and missionary devotion. A later gospel illumination of his Apotheosis depicting his Christocentricity shows clearly, that it was his belief that it was the emperor's responsibility to guide Christendom according to the will of God. He was a charismatic and most assertive personality with a Classical education, of ascetic piety and the conviction of a divinely ordained imperial role. With the tutelage of Bernward of Hildesheim and John Philagathos, the devoted servant of Otto II, Theophanu had raised a pious, artistic intellectual, who appreciated spirituality and the beauty of the arts and Greco-Roman culture in particular. Once again, the need to deal with political problems in Rome and the death of Pope John XV coincided with his ambitious intellectual intentions. These could only be realized, if he was emperor. The conditions gave Otto III the opportunity to visit the former Roman world and intervene there. Roman city politics had made the Papacy a notorious institution. In all he spent 47 months in Italy, compared with 41 months north of the Alps. A Roman delegation met him in Pavia, where, in contravention even with the Ottonianum, he named his cousin Brun successor on the papal throne. Brun was the grandson of Liutgard, daughter of Otto I and Edgith. He was elected and ascended the papal throne as Gregory V, ruling only briefly from 996-999. The chosen name was to rekindle the memory of the glorious papal past of Gregory the Great.249 He then crowned Otto III, nearly sixteen, emperor on Ascension Day 996. This visit, so early in his reign, gave him the opportunity to envision his ideas of a modified Christian Empire, the familiar Imperium Christianum. In anticipation, he had already appointed one Heribert, a German, chancellor of Italian affairs in the chancery, a post traditionally

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held by an Italian. The appointment suggests strongly, that as early as 995 Otto may have been aiming to merge administratively Italy with Germany. The majority of documents issued originated there. After 997, he spent most of his time, by far, south of the Alps, with Saxony fading from focus and Aachen and Rome assuming the role of imperial residences.250 It should be mentioned, that an introduction of radical innovations was not easily possible. They could normally only be advanced within a familiar context. Concerning the Papacy, however, Otto appointed non-Italian popes and acted as if he were investing the Papacy in the manner of a German bishopric and chose in his cousin Brun a member of his own family. By this action, by placing a German on the papal throne, and by collaborating closely with his pope, he signaled that he was developing a new concept, which accented the integration of the papal office and the German link with Italy into one political entity. In the background stood the doctrine of the Two Authorities, proposed by Pope Gelasius I (492496), according to which church and state were to share authority on earth congruently and without strife.251 The fiction of the Constantinian Donation – Constitutum Constantini, formulated at the end of the eighth century, had subverted the Gelasian teaching, by claiming that Constantine had placed the western half of the Empire under the popes, when he retired to Constantinople.252 The collaboration was intended to reverse the effects of this invention. In two diplomas issued in Rome, Otto clearly subordinated the pope to himself and in his multi-ethnic Empire has the Romans listed before the Franks, Bavarians, Saxons, Alsatians, Swabians and Lotharingians, indicating the primacy of the Romans over the others, even the Saxons.253 Did this indicate his intention to shift to the Romans the consideration of being the foundation of the Empire? Following his return from Gniezno and Aachen, perhaps actually a progress through the Empire, he dictated a document in which the pope was granted eight counties as fiefs, in which he named himself Otto tercius Romanus, Saxonicus et Italicus.254 In any case, owing to his Burgundian and Greek descent his sentiments drew him closer to the universal world of the Greeks and Romans than to the regional and estranged Saxons. Theophanu's recent regency had introduced Greek influences. He placed himself at the side of the pope as co-leader of Christendom.255 Simultaneously he consistently used the title which his father had used, Romanorum imperator augustus, as an indication of his orientation towards Christian Rome and the Christian imperial ideal, which, while it stressed the concord between pope and emperor, recognized only the primacy of the Empire, emphasized by Otto's refusal to renew the Ottonianum. The title may also have been intended to stress

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the imperial equality of western and eastern emperors. That could only be interpreted as a challenge to the emperors in Constantinople. Gregory's isolated and hence vulnerable position in Rome, without imperial support, will have induced him to agree readily to this subordinate role. The proclamatory Liuthar Gospel, prepared on the Reichenau and probably a subject of discussion during Otto's suspected stay on the island, shows the Apotheosis of Otto III. Against the purple background of this illumination, the presumptuous “Roman” emperor, not Christ, is enthroned within the mandorla with the hand of God placing the crown on his head. The tetramorphs flank him, draping a banner across him, while Terra, the earth goddess, supports the throne. Two pennant-carrying kings, most probably of Poland and Hungary, bow to him in reverence, while two representatives each of crown and cross are placed on the bottom of the page.256 This page leaves no doubt about the dominium mundi of the divinely instated emperor in his Christ-like guise as ruler of the Imperium Christianum. With an eye for intellect, like-minded supporters were invited to join him. Thus the renowned scholar Gerbert of Aurillac, who had already impressed his father and who now proposed his supportive imperialis philosophia, and the Czech Adalbert of Prague, who, with his life negating ascetic and mystical determination to promote the Christianization of the world, could reconcile the Imperium Romanum with the Ecclesia Romana, as a new conceptualization of the world. Both were in personal difficulties, at the time Otto III invited them to his court.257 He also came to associate with the hermits' existence of the Italian Anchorites, repeatedly doing severe penance in their retreats. Leo of Vercelli in particular helped to formulate the concepts of the Renovatio Imperii Romanorum.258 In this regard, Otto III would have resembled his role model Charlemagne, as he assimilated these intellectual stimuli in his worldview. The comprehensive dedication pages of the Gospel of Otto III, now in Munich, illustrate this view, as Otto is enthroned and flanked by secular and episcopal magnates of the realm. He receives the homage of the key provinces of his realm – Sclavinia, Germania, Gallia and Roma. For reasons of his health, Otto III withdrew across the Alps, to Aachen, where for months he devoted himself to the familiarization with Charlemagne and the lavish furnishing of the Palace Chapel with valuable liturgical instruments, relics and an encirclement of monastic foundations. Relics were a particular means to ensure the assistance of saints. In restoring the Aachen of the Carolingians, he was gaining glory by association with Charlemagne, especially when he later opened and entered his grave, and emulating him in restoring Aachen as another center of his Empire in addition to Pavia, Ravenna and Rome.

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At all times Otto must have been aware of the Carolingians' orientation towards the Rome of the Christian emperors, rather than to that of the early “classical” Caesars. At the same time, he exchanged his entourage of advisors and replaced them with those, who could identify with his new vision.259 In view of the recurring political problems in secular Rome, Otto III must have realized that next to the Christian Rome, an alternative would have to be realized. Otto III chose to follow Charlemagne's example and in 997 began to emphasize Aachen as his second center, though it is not clear, how he was going to reconcile the itinerant kingship with the idea of semi-sacred, God-guarded capital centers, where the king would wear the crown and where the anointed king's sacral status conferred proximity to the altar.260 His imperial coronation oath obligated him to consult, guide and protect the Papacy in Rome and the Christian church. The Renovatio fitted into this concept as a constant imperial program. It justified Otto's claim to primacy in determining local Roman matters and his strong interventionist role in the renovating restoration of the Papacy and in making church appointments in the manner of his grandfather's investiture policy. A year earlier, 996, the situation had arisen in Rome, which had replaced the pope and caused Otto III to return there, to reinstate his Pope, Gregory V. His aunt Mathilda, abbess of Quedlinburg, upon whom Otto had bestowed posthumously the title matricia, was once again left in charge of the German kingdom as his representative.261 In a casual manner, the court and military escort proceeded towards Rome. It became apparent now, that the Ottonian order in Rome was in need of a serious intervention in Roman affairs and effective only when the emperor himself was present with strong military forces. To the Romans, the emperor was no longer welcome. Even so, Otto took his time to deal with the revolt and the leading insurgents.262 In the face of a possible Byzantine plot, focused on an anti-pope, actually John Philagathos, Otto imposed ruthless measures, including the anti-pope's deposition, blinding, mutilation and parade of infamy in 998. In one version of the story the other leader, the Roman senator, Crescentius, had taken refuge in the fortified Castel San Angelo. Once it had been taken by storm, he was taken to the battlements for all to see, where he was beheaded, thrown off the tower, dragged by cattle through the dirty streets, and hanged outside the city, upside down next to twelve other conspirators.263 Crescentius had benefited from the king's earlier clemency, but had now violated it, which invited the severe punishment. Through administrative rationalization, Otto III tried to dismantle the Papacy as a political and territorial unit, and to implement the sacerdotal vision, reconciling his imperial, temporal power with the

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church institutions in the Regnum Italie. Otto was handicapped by his father's premature death in 983 and his own disputed succession. The interval preceding his own appearance in Rome and coronation, had allowed the imperial position to decline into merely nominal forms in the perception of the Romans. In his person, totally incompatible western and eastern worlds converged, and it was now that he appears to have recalled to the Romans the motivating ideal of the Renovatio264 of the late Christian Roman Empire and advanced the revival of a restored, eternal Imperium Christianum, realized in a renewed Aurea Roma, a Golden Rome.265 In view of the city's ruinous condition, this was a great ambition, actually a fantasy. Already during his first visit to Rome, he had not renewed the Ottonianum and now set to the construction of an imperial palace on the Aventine Hill in Rome. Otto I had had a palace built outside Ravenna. Otto III found that when visiting Rome, the emperor had no residence of his own. Once again, it was to become the residence of the Caesars. If he was going to stay for a longer time, if he was going to assume the sacerdotal rule in Rome, he needed such a representative residence, whether he wanted to return Rome to its former Christian imperial glory or not. While the association with his own building program in Rome may have reflected his own vanity, a reform of the Papacy was a more likely intention. Past examples had shown that in this context political considerations could not be avoided. This provides the context for declaring the Constantinian Donation, which had initially provided the “constitution” of the Papacy, a forgery, probably of the eighth century. If these were his ideals, he did not invent new concepts, but reverted to Carolingian assumptions and formulations, in which the imperial seals bore the inscription Renovatio Imperii Romanorum, and may have meant no more than the liberation of the Papacy from the control of Roman municipal power struggles. Those conditions had already once before brought Otto I to intervene in Rome. By raising non-Romans to the papal throne, Otto III emulated his grandfather. On the other hand, the nominal introduction of former Roman titles may have served to support his reign in Rome by means of antique references, along with a measure of contemporary Byzantine court ceremonial266 suggested at least an outward, superficial intention to assume Roman veneer and to realize the Renovatio Imperii Romanorum. Gerbert of Aurillac may have fostered these notions in Otto.267 A panegyric hymn of praise by Leo of Vercelli applied the apocalyptic idea of the four Empires and asked Christ to ensure Rome's continuity, to renew and strengthen the powers of Rome and to allow it to

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blossom anew under the rule of Otto III. With the assistance of this new Constantine, the pope might cleanse the world. Two paradoxical tendencies co-existed in him. On the one hand, the imperial challenge demanded an overt approach to dominate the world. On the other, his growing religious fervor, his inclination to renounce this vain world, demanded an introverted withdrawal from it. The Apotheosis depiction of the living emperor elevated into an ethereal dimension found in the dedication pages of his Gospel kept in Aachen fits this intellectual climate. His dilemma planted in him the conviction of being a great sinner, which could only be countered by seeking purification in life negating asceticism and severe penance. It found something of an outward reconciliation in the collaboration between Otto and his former teacher and new pope. By assuming the reign-name Sylvester II, the next pope and philosopher on the papal throne, Gerbert of Aurillac, most recently the former imperial archbishop of Ravenna, may have intended a specific allusion to the creation of the Roman Papacy in the time of Sylvester I and Constantine.268 Recalling the names Constantine and Sylvester also suggested a return to the early Christian Papacy.269 In a hymn dedicated to emperor and pope, Leo of Vercelli asked Christ to renew Rome under the rule of Otto III and admonished the two that under the power of the emperor, the pope cleanse the world. This hymn struck a chord in Otto III, who could see implementing it in the form of his Renovatio Imperii Romanorum. At the beginning of the new Empire, though emperor, he saw himself as the servant of Jesus Christ. While their joint presidency at synods is demonstrated, the idea of the apostolic universal Christian Empire, however, failed to take on concrete forms, other than the liberation of the Papacy from Roman city politics. This had nothing to do with the eschatological anticipation of the coming of the Anti-Christ. Each time one of his bishops died, Otto personally felt deep guilt and subjected himself to penance. He made a point of seeking out the sites associated with saints and hermits, to do penance, sometimes for days on end. While during the spring and autumn of 997, Otto was most concerned to show his spiritual link with Charlemagne, he showed deep concern for his sinful condition, so that it is difficult to determine the focus of his emphasis. During the summer of 997, the northeastern Slavic frontier was once again in turmoil as western, Elbian Slavs devastated Saxon territories. Westphalian forces, led in battle by the bishop of Minden, defeated them, bringing the fourteen-year-old conflict to an unsettled, indecisive conclusion. In fact, Otto's preoccupation with the affairs of his German kingdom receded ever more into the background. With some critical distance, one must weigh the extent to which Otto's intention to pursue his

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Renovatio was founded on substance or just a hollow illusion, originating in a juvenile imagination, based on rhetoric. . In 1001, Otto III reportedly admonished the Romans, that for their sake, he had left Germany and led the Romans into distant regions. The reference to distant lands would refer to his journey to Poland, actually a winter pilgrimage to Gniezno (Gnesen) and the grave of the missionary Adalbert, his friend and advisor, the bishop of Prague martyred by the pagan Prussians in April 997, where he recognized Boleslav I Chrobry as ruler in 1000.270 Perhaps the awareness of the year 1000 recommended seeking the presence of saints in his role as imperial pilgrim. It was March 1000, when he approached the town as sinner, barefoot pilgrim and in devout prayer. In tears, he prayed that the martyr intercede for God's grace. His title on that occasion was servus Jesu Christi - “Otto III, servant of Jesus Christ and emperor of the Romans, Augustus according to the will of God, our savior and redeemer”.271 On this occasion a replica of the Holy Lance was handed over. It is still preserved in the cathedral treasury at Krakow. Piety was not his only motivation. This pilgrimage culminated in the creation of the archbishopric of Gniezno, meaning, that Poland was released from its dependence on German Magdeburg and constituted an independent archdiocese of the church, with subsidiary bishoprics in Kolobrzeg (Kolberg) on the Baltic coast, Wroclaw (Breslau) and Krakow. As a gift to St. Peter, it was entrusted to Rome. Still under his rule, Otto III nevertheless cancelled the tribute and created the conditions, which contributed to the emergence of Poland as an independent territorial entity, especially when he crowned him with a golden headband and elevated Boleslav Chrobry, perhaps to the rank of patricius, imperial representative, as only one later source claims.272 Boleslav repeated his coronation in 1025, following the death of emperor Henry II. It is not clear, whether this visit to Gniezno was motivated by the Renovatio Imperii Christianum. That same year it was agreed that Otto's niece, Richeza, was to marry Mieszko II. Upon his return to Aachen, Otto had the grave of Charlemagne opened, and removed Charlemagne's pectoral cross to wear as a token of the continuity and devotion to his role model, Charles the Great, whom he wanted to have proclaimed a saint, which may have determined the description of the event as a visit to a saint's grave. Otto is said to have imitated Caesar and Augustus opening the grave of Alexander the Great.273 Aachen was intended to be Otto's burial site. Henry, duke of Bavaria, to be Henry II, was present at the event. Adalbert had baptized the Hungarian grand prince Waik and given him the name Stephen. This may have happened at the imperial court in Cologne, during which ceremony Otto

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acted as godfather. Another replica of the Holy Lance was handed to Stephen. He drew close to the Ottonians, when he married Gisela, the daughter of Henry the Quarrelsome and became ruler in 997. In 1001, in the presence of pope and emperor, Stephen I was crowned king of Hungary and an archbishopric was established at Gran, modern Estergom, where its buildings still dominate the promontory overlooking the valley of the Danube. Staff from the imperial chancellery was seconded for the Hungarian administration, equipped with legal and liturgical materials.274 Hungary itself was also dedicated to St. Peter, removing it from other claims. This Christianization was consistent with Otto's idea that the higher order of the Empire should organize and stabilize the peoples on the Empire's periphery. By declaring these lands as “gifts to St. Peter,” he was consolidating an abstract idea and incorporating them into his imperium Christianum.275 The imperial integration was, of course, only temporary, though ecclesiastically Hungary remained a jurisdiction of the church in Rome. Among several other similar gospel illuminations, the Munich Gospel of Otto III prepared in a scriptorium on the island of Reichenau was to record this realm by means of the allegorical female figures representing Sclavinia, Germania, Gallia, and Roma, approaching the enthroned emperor on the facing page.276 In reverse order, Rome is first, pointing to Otto's intention to reestablish the primacy of Rome within his Renovatio Imperii Romanorum. Otto's pious, even mystical otherworldliness is featured extensively in the older literature. In it, the approach of the millennium may have been unduly stressed, as the term was not understood as “an event in salvation history, but as a date”.277 In any case, his purported enthusiasm for a new, Golden Rome, and a renewed Jerusalem came to naught and did not lead to a Roman revival, rather a revolt among the citizens of Rome and Italy.278 (Map 1-4) Although he had been away for only half a year, unrest spread through all of Italy. Despite his own estrangement from the world, the support for a revival of Rome was minimal. His intended residence in Rome seemed a threat to the Italian nobility and during a revolt, Otto III was besieged in his palace on the Aventine. In 1001 a rhetorical account had Otto III admonish the rebellious Romans and remind them that for their sake he had left Germany and his relations, rejected Saxony and his other Germans, – perhaps implied criticism of Otto III on the author's part 279 – but led the Romans into distant regions, never reached by their ancestors. In his role of most apostolic servant of the servants of God, Peter and Paul, he assumed a dual hierocratic function. While he restored to the church its territorial claims in Italy, he also blamed the earlier popes for having squandered the papal resources on the citizenry of Rome and having laid

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claim to imperial territories as a means to balance their books.280 If he now honored the papal claim and returned the territories as a gift to St. Peter and not to the church, then it was out of love for Pope Sylvester II, whom he had raised onto the papal throne. He wanted to cement the relationship. It was in this context that he denounced the Constantinian Donation as a forgery because he knew of the manipulations of one Johannes Diaconus and linked with it other, later, like-minded documents. With this autonomous act, Otto left no doubt, that he saw himself linked to Constantine and Charlemagne, entitled to the unrestricted rule over Rome and the primacy of the emperor over the pope in this Christian realm. It did point, however, to the collaboration of the emperor with the pope.281 The speech may be a fiction and may have been no more than inspiring rhetoric and not a reflection of an administrative program, but the mob beat two leaders of the revolt nearly to death and threw them before Otto's feet. A typical Roman uprising, it was marked by a willingness for reconciling compromise. Evidently, the Romans liked the idea of a new Rome, as long as it did not involve cosmic change. While he propounded his otherworldly ideas in Rome, his sister Adelheit governed in Germany. Their aunt Mathilda had died in 999, only forty-four years of age. More recently, one admits his remoteness based on his adoption of Byzantine protocol while he negotiated in vain to acquire a Byzantine bride.282 New tensions ensued and Otto III and Sylvester II chose to leave Rome for Ravenna. In his enthusiasm for the new Rome, he had not grasped that his military presence in Rome was a financial burden and more akin to a foreign occupation. Otto III had difficulty accepting appearances as the truth. In Ravenna, he subjected himself again to very severe penance, fasted for all but two days per week, wore haircloth under the purple and slept on a mat on the floor. Owing to his reclusive mentality, his physical constitution suffered. While waiting for military reinforcements with which to deal with the opposition in Rome, but which his northern nobles refused or were reluctant to send, he died suddenly of a fever, probably malaria, outside Rome on January 23, 1002. That his Byzantine bride arrived in Italy in time to hear of his death is probably a fiction.283 Retrospective accounts attributed his premature death to his misguided Italian policies. Italy broke into immediate revolt, elected its own king, making it hazardous to transport Otto's corpse to Aachen. Rome had remained closed to him. Otto III had requested to be buried beside Charlemagne in Aachen. His lofty ideal to effect the restoration of a universal realm was an unrealized vision. His hermitic inclinations could not be reconciled with the necessary pragmatic requirements. Only the attachment of Poland and

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Hungary to the west through the Catholic Christianization was to be a permanent result of his intentions. Otto showed little appreciation for the interrelated subtleties of the German political conditions. In the face of increasingly demanding local problems, the lords tired of serving as tools of an otherworldly ambition.284 As absentee king, he had left Germany to the administrative care of his very capable sister Adelheit, who, however, could not impede the centrifugal tendencies. Royal order and justice were seen to deteriorate. His transcendental experiment proved a failure. As was mentioned above, the repeated Roman revolts, were symptomatic of Ottonian dealings with Rome, in that the emperors never succeeded in establishing an effective, all pervading imperial administration, which could have contributed to the development of a community of interests and an administrative power basis for all parts of the Empire. Otto reinterpreted his pledge to protect the pope as his prerogative to be like the pope. Otto's intrusion into the ecclesiastical infrastructure and his sacerdotal attempt to assume the ecclesiastical and secular primacy, as coequal of the pope, a conceptual possibility, was a serious error in understanding of the spirits of the day. Can he be faulted for not having appreciated the earliest forms of an emerging Polish, Hungarian, Italian and even German identity, having been preoccupied with his idea of a restored Catholic Roman realm? As it was to be, even the modified Imperium Christianum existed mainly wherever the emperor was. As an experiment, it had failed in the reign of Louis the Pious. It was to fail again. In view of the dissatisfaction, which was fermenting north of the Alps and Otto's preoccupation with the Christian imperial ideal centered on Rome, he was faulted for having forgotten the realities of the kingdom. Already nearly contemporary historians chose to see in his successor's intentions a departure from Otto's intentions towards Italy and Rome and towards the east, seeing in the former an excessive idealism and in the latter, a long awaited realism.285 It is true, that Otto III had been an absentee king, in effect leaving the throne vacant, while Henry II seldom left his kingdom. During his reign Henry II issued documents at 86 different locations, that constitutes an increase of 23% over those of his predecessor.286 For Henry Italy had become peripheral. He spent only 20 months of the total 265 months of his reign there. A similar shift in accent is evident in the increased number of documents issued, of which over 400 had addressees in Germany and only 33 in the Regnum Italie.287 Henry II may have had a more subtle understanding of his role as God's chosen and anointed representative on earth, as Vicarius Christi. His kingdom was imperial, and whether he was crowned emperor or not, it was the

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consecrated emperor's custodial task to maintain the order of the world, just as God maintained the order of the universe. The realm was the “House of God”. All government derived from God. Henry had this point made artistically on his behalf on several dedication pages of gospels and sacramentaries, associated with him. Although partly intended to emphasize his legitimacy towards his relatives of the Saxon line, its overall propagandistic aim was to persuade that his right to the succession was demonstrated by his divine coronation. The analogy between microcosm and macrocosm was yet to be formulated. Henry II understood this to be his personal, task assigned to him by God. Rebellion against such a ruler was tantamount to blasphemy, to be punished with severity and not to be treated with clemency, forgiveness and reconciliation. In the criticism directed against Otto III, however, it was overlooked, that royal reigns only offered illusions of free choices, and were not structured along lines of innovative policies, but rather on necessary responses to arising situations and within the range of established obligations of the position. Rome was de-emphasized, as the Renovatio Imperii Romanorum was no longer seen as a priority, while a Renovatio regni Francorum took its place. Though worded differently, Henry II did not introduce an antithetical program, but continued the idea of a unified Christian realm. Historians subsequently inferred a hypothetical change in the imperial policy from the sequence of events.288 The appearance of Henry II as “savior hero” of the kingdom, armed with new realistic intentions, is a historical fabrication. His concerns during his last years for his salvation, made him quite similar to Otto III in intent, though not in method. Monks and hermits were to be the agents of his reforms from the ground up, so that Otto's monastic yearnings pursued the model of renouncing his throne and as hermit seek salvation in introspective ascetic solitude in the face of the uncertainties and transitoriness of the world. By contrast, for the pragmatist Henry II, it was a problem in organization with the churches and monasteries as episcopal instruments of renewal and reform of the ecclesiastical and secular organizations of this world, by means of which his salvation was to be ensured.289 At the time of Otto's unexpected death, no regulations concerning the succession were in place. A vacant throne threw the kingdom into a centrifugal crisis, threatening disintegration, but with the accession of a new king, a “spoils system” is also likely to affect the traditional power structure, as new entourages, with new magnates, rise to prominence. The direct Ottonian line had ended, and any dynastic change represented a danger to the existence of the realm because it threatened its dissolution.

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The magnates of the realm had to decide on the succession either by ignoring dynastic links and resorting to a new election or by observing dynastic links. Among the several factions claiming the royal throne, Henry, the duke of Bavaria,290 seized the funerary cortege on its way north at Augsburg, coerced the surrender of the royal insignia and extorted the Holy Lance.291 Following a lying in state in the churches of Cologne, Otto was buried in Aachen, on April 5, 1002.

Henry II and his Divine Mandate to Rule Henry was Otto's distant cousin and son of Henry the Quarrelsome. As close confidant of Otto III, he had been present at Otto's opening of Charlemagne's grave in the Palace Chapel in Aachen. However, since he was not of the nuclear royal family and not universally recognized, and the position still an elected kingship, the peers of the realm waiting in Aachen, were resolved not to accept his succession as Henry II.292 That at age 29 he was still childless, may have been a contributing factor. He had the support of a well organized and powerful Bavarian duchy as well as that of his inlaws, the counts of Luxemburg, of many of his Ottonian relatives and especially that of the Ottonian abbesses of Quedlinburg, Gandersheim and Essen, it required the invitation of archbishop Willigis of Mainz. At the time, he was actually suspended from office, owing to his resistance to the plans of Otto III and Pope Sylvester II, to reduce the pre-eminence of the archbishopric of Mainz and to grant Aachen the pre-eminent status and to force him to submit to papal authority. He was normally papally entitled to perform coronations, and at this time was able to place an impressive liturgical program at his disposal, not available to the other claimants.293 Arguments reinforced with claims of his descent from Charlemagne and legitimate continuity made a significant difference and some magnates elected him king in June 1002, just a little more than three months after Otto's death. Saxons, Thuringians, Lotharingians and Swabians withheld their vote. A division of the realm was considered.294 Without actually being elected by all, he was anointed and crowned king by the archbishop of Mainz, on July 15, 1002, in Merseburg.295 Henry brought the Holy Lance himself. The dynastic concept triumphed in the end. He considered himself to have been mandated by God to rule. Perhaps self-conscious about the display of the sincerity of his stance, and the manner of his succession, throughout his reign Henry II was adamant about observing, demonstrating, and staging expressions of the continuity of his reign within the Ottonian context and from Otto III specifically. With numerous examples, he celebrated the memory of Otto III throughout the kingdom,

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while at the same time emphasizing the Christocentricity of his own sacred kingship. During his progress through the kingdom, he first received the oaths of allegiance in a step-incremental manner from his secular magnates. He subsequently proceeded with a complementary circuit of the ecclesiastical centers. In this manner, he reconciled the perceptions of the people with the political necessities. Within one year of his accession, Henry had created two overlapping networks on which he could rely.296 He was yet to be instrumental in promoting a third network among princes and churchmen – prayer communities, which transcended political jurisdictions, known since Carolingian times. By making concessions to many princes of the church, promising them special privileges, he had gained their consent.297 Having promised the Saxons their rights and claims, the surrender of the Holy Lance to him at Merseburg, the homage paid him by Boleslav of Poland, was followed by the coronation in August of his wife Kunigunde of Luxemburg as queen in Paderborn and his ascent to the throne of Charlemagne in the Palace Chapel at Aachen on September 8, 1002, as Henry II.298 Since Paderborn Cathedral and its surrounding area, including the Carolingian palace had burned down extensively in 1000, the coronation in such a deprived location must have been a significant political gesture. Unlike his predecessors, he had to win the succession and reunite the kingdom. This he did with the apparent understanding that his coronation was a divine judgment. Henry's sober, pragmatic, determined and decisive course of action characterized his self-reliant reign of 22 years, 1002-1024, during which he returned his main focus to his northern kingdom.299 Throughout, he was able to keep more than one goal, one course of action in sight, and to pursue them with insight and perseverance. Initially, practical royal concerns appear to have had precedence over ideal imperial ones, though it is quite true that his was an imperial monarchy.300 It has to be appreciated, that the perception of reality, was accompanied by a sense of the allegorical. Thus, Henry treated his kingdom as something of a sacerdotium with himself as the sacerdos, the head of a heavenly kingdom realized on earth.301 The illuminated ruler portraits of his liturgical books, actually secular images in a religious mantle, repeatedly stress that he was crowned by the divinity directly. Never is the presence of a pope indicated in these scenes. Since Henry did not see himself in competition with the pope, to whom he expressly surrendered the rule of Rome, the illuminations do not reflect a propagandistic intent, but rather his role as vicar of Christ on earth. Subsequently the gold embroidery of his stellar cape hails him as the

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ornament of Europe, whose reign was augmented by the King of Kings, who rules in eternity. Little wonder, that he considered any opposition to his will as a blasphemous act directed against God's chosen ruler. With the understanding, that he was the supreme custodial administrator of a realm in the fullness of time, the imperial coronation does not seem to have been of great significance to him. He played the traditional instruments of state in a different key. Circumstances induced him to place his accents differently, so that the ideas concerning the Renovatio of the earthly Roman imperium receded in his and others' daily concerns. During the early years of his reign, the natural deaths of a number of his magnates allowed their sons to succeed them, creating very few problems for him. Henry II was introducing new practices into his dealings with the high nobility, as he set out to reform the ducal organization of the realm.302 Some duchies came under direct royal rule. Some were reduced and their component parts reassigned to others. However, despite his links with royalty, his mother was a royal princess from Burgundy, his wife a descendant of the house of the counts of Luxemburg, his sister married king Stephen of Hungary, and of course, he was an Ottonian, to the imperial magnates, his rank may just have been seen as too equal to their own. On the other hand, Henry repeatedly injured their sensibilities through his insistence that, divinely ordained, he was undisputed ruler of this “House of God” and the “people of God” and through his belief that since all rule came from God, all opposition to his earthly rule was a blasphemous opposition to God's will and heavenly rule. As a sin, it could only be punished with church penance, rather than along aristocratic lines.303 The contemporary historian, Thietmar von Merseburg, substantiated this line of thought. While, understandably, he surrounded himself and appointed churchmen to high positions, who knew his view and supported his intentions, a collision course between the king and his secular magnates was in the offing. They were reluctant to be integrated administratively with the ecclesiastics, placed under reformed church law. Thus he had to experience that the territorial ambitions of his Luxemburgian relations, the queen's brothers, grew to be problematic. They constituted a threat of possible western separatism, which necessitated years of heavy fighting.304 The expectations among the ambitious Bavarian and Bohemian magnates complicated eastern unrests and the course of his Polish wars. Some magnates had to submit to incarceration pending the king's pleasure. During other instances his expansion of the royal progress and his appearance accompanied by military forces, had no other intention than to demonstrate through his presence the continuing hegemony of the

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kingdom over its territories. Networks of intermarriages among the disaffected magnates, always kept the fear of hostile coalitions alive, which because of their interrelatedness could lead to open battles, and spread over wide regions, like a brushfire. Henry's inner policies aimed to prevent such ducal concentrations of power,305 but they involved him in simultaneous conflicts on more than one front, preventing decisive solutions. His absence from any theater tended to compromise the success of his forces. Even at the end of his reign, Henry II had not succeeded to reconcile the aristocratic interests with those of the king and the kingdom. The situation was to constitute its very volatile weakness. The political units forming to the east proved a particular problem, especially Boleslav I Chrobry, raised by Otto III to near royal status, raised claims to the eastern marches and captured Prague. A Polish realm was coming into being, which extended from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathian Mountains and from the river Vistula to include Bohemia and Moravia.306 Henry's repeated demands that Boleslav I pay homage, failed just as often. Tensions overshadowed their relationship throughout Henry's reign. When Boleslav wanted to campaign against Vladimir, the grand prince of Kiev, he sued for peace in 1013. German troops accompanied him to Kiev, but when in return he refused to provide troops for Henry's Italian campaign, after that adventure proved unsuccessful, Henry resumed hostilities against him.307 Despite his Christian piety, Henry II entered into an alliance with the pagan western Slavs against Boleslav I Chrobry, before a peace, concluded in 1018, only confirmed the status quo.308 Another joint campaign against Kiev was successful. This conflict was complicated by a dislike of Henry and a general fighting fatigue among the Saxons, their resentment of his alliance with the pagans against the Christian Poles, and the many kinship relations which had come into being between Saxons and Poles.309 In these dealings, Henry showed innovative statesmanship, for the alliance returned a superficial German suzerainty over the pagan lands, although in 1003 the alliance provoked a rebellion in the kingdom and endless feuds in Saxony. Relations with Capetian France, Hungary and the Danish north remained friendly. King Canute of Denmark, perhaps allied with his relative Boleslav I Chrobry, may have campaigned against the NorthElbian Slavs, though there is no record indicating an alliance with Henry II.310 Only minor conflicts arose in Flanders. Burgundy, the Regnum Burgundie, had been in a feudal dependency with the Empire for a longer time and Henry II was able to have himself declared the successor of its king and relative.311 Following Otto's death, northern Italy had effectively seceded, as its nobility had elected its own king, Arduin of Ivrea and when

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with the death of Pope Sylvester II, the Papacy fell once again to the Crescenti. When Arduin threatened the bishoprics of northern Italy, these turned to Henry to solicit his intervention. Problems along the Polish frontier delayed his departure for Italy, but then his expedition into the Regnum Italie gained him the coronation as king of Lombardy, in Pavia in 1004, thereby granting to northern Italy a degree of independence.312 An uprising in Pavia drove him from the city. Polish affairs forced his return to the north.313 Apparently, he had no enthusiasm for his imperial coronation.314 His actions and reactions had something sporadic about them. Unrest in Pavia and especially in papal Rome, were disregarded. Other problems were of his own making in dealing with questions of church law, the jurisdictions of bishoprics and abbeys, and the restoration of the bishopric at Merseburg, and the creation of the bishopric of Bamberg, a strategic location, approximately half-way between Bavaria and Saxony. A royal, Carolingian, domain since 906 and a favorite location since childhood, Henry had made it a wedding gift to his wife.315 Anticipating strife with the bishop of Würzburg, in whose diocese Bamberg was located, Henry began by just building a large church. When in 1007, actually on May 6., the date of his birthday, Henry and Kunigunde endowed the church with vast holdings, even their own, and bequeathed to it all their worldly goods – in one day 27 properties were bestowed on the new bishopric -,316 and especially its dedication to St. Peter, which gained papal support, their intention to found a cathedral became apparent. However, a king was not authorized to reduce or redistribute the holdings of a bishopric, since they were the property of the patron saint, who could not be injured in this unilateral manner. On the other hand, who could presume to oppose the wishes of God's vicarius, the anointed representative on earth, who was owed the same obedience and submission that was owed to God? Perhaps already at this time, Henry's intention was to create Bamberg as a religious center, with St. Peter as its leading patron saint among a host of other saintly patrons, a new Rome, as Charlemagne and Otto III had done in Aachen.317 To what extent did his secular and ecclesiastic support structures approve of this intention to establish in Bamberg an additional capital center like Magdeburg, an alternative to Regensburg, to Rome? Bamberg too could incorporate seven hills, like Rome, each hill graced by church steeples, forming a wreath similar to Aachen and lending to Bamberg an impressive skyline, suggestive of that of the Heavenly Jerusalem.318 At a general synod in Frankfurt in 1007, he prostrated himself before the assembly and implored God and the assembly to grant him permission. He based the reason for their bequest on their forlorn hope to have children and the naming of God

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as heir, his piety and sense of responsibility for humanity, and his mission against the Slavs.319 Concerned about its political importance, but also about his own salvation, he had held out archiepiscopal hopes to the bishop of Würzburg, though only the metropolitan in Mainz could enact such a promotion, and obtained his consent, provided the new bishop of Bamberg would act as his suffragan. The approval of a synod and of the pope raised the church to the status of cathedral in 1007, without acknowledging the wishes of the bishop of Würzburg. For Henry II it was perhaps a site where his memory could be celebrated liturgically on his birthday long after his death.320 His tomb and that of his wife are certainly still there, as are their ceremonial cloaks and his sacerdotal, liturgical vestments, originally preserved in sealed lead coffins. The foundation caused an ecclesiastical incident at a synod convened in Frankfurt, hostile to Henry's intention. The civil war, which broke out in 1008 and lasted to the end of 1012, did not interfere with this project. Henry pleaded that in view of his divinely ordained childlessness, God was to be his heir.321 Since the kingdom came to him from God and since there would be no heir, the kingdom would revert to God. Such was his understanding of the divine order of the cosmos. His plea was convincing and the assembly signed the founding document. For several months, the bishop of Würzburg withheld his agreement. Pious politician that Henry II was, he felt the need to reconcile the world and its necessities with the church and with heaven. He immediately invested his chancellor with the bishopric and the archbishop of Mainz consecrated him that same day. To locate the bishopric firmly in its religious context, in 1020 Henry invited the pope to celebrate Easter in Bamberg.322 Consecrated in 1012, with the sisters of Otto III in attendance, as abbesses and as living reminders of the continuity of his memory, the cathedral was oriented and occidented, in that as in Rome, the western choir and altar were dedicated to St. Peter and Rome, the eastern choir and altar to the Virgin Mary and the king, who as protector of the church could claim rights to space within the church. It was conceived as an analogy of the kingdom, as the western altar was consecrated by the western archbishops of Cologne and Mainz, the eastern altar by those of Magdeburg and Salzburg.323 A wreath of churches and monastic foundations, as well as workshops, was constructed to surround the cathedral, as was the case in Aachen and especially in Rome. He made Bamberg a royal bishopric, closely linked with the crown, endowed with income throughout the southern regions of the kingdom, and beyond the diocese of Bamberg, with distant abbeys and convents, Alpine passes and many territories and properties, royal, secular and ecclesiastical, to this new bishopric. He pillaged the churches of the realm for their splendid

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liturgical service texts, had them rebound in resplendent covers and had other manuscripts prepared expressly for the services and the library there. As a staging area, the bishopric also had a military and missionary function towards the Slavs just to the east. The regions around the headwaters of the river Main were Slavic and still largely pagan in cult and funerary practice. Any missionary activities emanating from Würzburg had not been effective.324 The integration of these people into the Christian community and the associated administrative measures undertaken by the new foundation was to have a lasting, significant effect. During his inner and outer difficulties, Henry II was able to rely on the backing of the church. The reliance on the sacerdotal expectations was to find its greatest application during his reign, adding to ecclesiastical strength rather than to the secular interests. As ruler, he saw himself to be the custodian of God's domain on earth, not its owner. As God's undisputable representative, he was the absolute authority, not to practice arbitrary license, but to administer and augment God's trust responsibly and to the greatest benefit of all. In this capacity, the power was attributed to him and accepted, that investing bishops was his exclusive prerogative and responsibility for reasons of state as well as for those of the church. Henry II was the first to install bishops charged with the effective administrative functioning of the state. Regardless of the vote, Henry II had to approve it and the candidate in the interest of the state. During his reign, he invested 64 bishops of his choice. He repeatedly overruled the monastic vote of abbots on the basis of his sacerdotal prerogative to perform the investiture.325 The act of homage made any attempts to appeal to the pope unfriendly acts against his royal/imperial God-given authority. On the other hand, for the clergy to swear the oath of fealty was against Canon Law. By itself, this view was anachronistic, had it not been for the newly assigned local, secular, administrative responsibilities, previously in the hands of counts and magistrates, in conjunction with accompanying, extensive territories. However, the fact that royal investitures were made to satisfy the servitium regis, including the administrative and military needs of the kingdom, rather than religious needs, contributed so greatly to the vulnerability of the kingdom. The aristocratic community of interests shared by the secular and ecclesiastic nobility was diverging. During the reign of the Salian dynasty, this sacred kingship was to be altered drastically, as the sacerdotal link and the congruent relationship of church and state was severed. Simultaneously, with his extreme understanding of his role as God's steward, he attributed all misfortunes that befell the realm, to his own sins, burdened with the knowledge that during his judgment at the end of time, he would have to give good account of the

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responsibility and trust that had been placed in him. Only then would heavenly joy be his.326 Educated at first in the cathedral school of Hildesheim, in rhetoric, grammar, theology and Canon Law, Otto II may have intended him for the clergy,327 and under the later tutelage of high churchmen, such as the active, reform-minded bishop Wolfgang of Regensburg, Henry later appreciated the position of vulnerable monasteries and convents.328 Persuaded that they should be self-sufficient and effective, he supported them with immunities, endowments and incomes, frequently from entire counties, and secured the royal protection of the monastic establishments from episcopal demands, and by insisting on his approval of the chosen appointments to ecclesiastical position of high rank, or on his right to intervene. To ensure good, systematic administration and to consolidate his control over the parts of the realm through the bishoprics, Henry II imposed bishops, who were not regionally related and who were prepared to share their wealth. They were drawn frequently from his core of experienced imperial administrators in his chancery, the capella. In this, he was the first to do so effectively.329 Owing to his anointed person, he considered himself entitled and obliged to guide equally the affairs of crown and cross. He unilaterally organized the foundations into rationalized, viable interdependencies, not without incurring deep resentments among the magnates. As a result, the religious foundations were in a better position to fulfill the servitium regis and render hospitality and provisions. While his predecessors had stayed in their own Pfalzen, Henry II changed the pattern, and accomplished a dual purpose. As he preferred to prolong his presence over a wider extent by visiting the far-flung bishoprics of the realm, he also shifted his costs and the financial burdens associated with the visits of his court during his progress, to the church establishments. A network of “king's highways” improved with the king's repeated itineraries to the distant corners of the kingdom. Henry was more intensively conscientious in his regular dealings and personal visits with his magnates. In this context, he favored the monastic reform originating from Gorze, in Lotharingia,330 since it did not challenge the autonomy of the bishops in their support of the king. He adopted the Ottonian approach to the bishoprics and reserved for himself the appointment of bishops. Though there were some instances where the monasteries wasted the economic basis of their foundation in excessive worldliness, Prüm, Hersfeld, Reichenau, Fulda and Corvey, for instance, the reform efforts were not primarily intended to counteract the advancing moral decay, but placed particular importance on reshaping the monasteries in strict

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accordance with the original rule of St. Benedict. To reverse the progressing decline, Henry II occasionally ignored the abbeys' rights to elect their own abbots, where their choice did not conform to his intentions, and invested reform-oriented abbots, whose punishments and strict enforcement of the rule induced some monks to leave the cloisters.331 His attention was attracted to the monastic reform movements emanating especially from the Burgundian Cluny,332 because Cluny took aim at foundations that had become too worldly, and wanted to return the foundations to their original ascetic intentions. Despite his piety, and although he maintained contact with abbot Odilo of Cluny, this was not Henry's administrative concern. He found the Cluniac reform of the independent, monastic, Benedictine rule less attractive, because the reform tried to place its monasteries under the absolute rule of the abbot, group them into units, and then place them under the almost absolute abbot of Cluny and the Papacy. The jurisdictions of the bishops were significantly curtailed and even excluded. The implications for the monarch were obvious, as the reforms were intended as a safeguard against the claims of secular power. The king claimed this control for himself while he proceeded to secularize some foundations to secure the establishments for the Empire. Still, in 1014, Odilo was eager to endure the journey and attend Henry's imperial coronation in Rome. In recognition for the imperial gifts, which Henry had made to Cluny, the monks adopted him into the prayer community of the most powerful monastery.333 As overlord, Henry requested inventories of monastic properties and wealth, to determine the extent to which they exceeded local ascetic needs. Surpluses hoarded in the monasteries were confiscated to benefit the crown and their autonomy was restricted. At Corvey the emperor intervened personally, deposed the abbot and replaced him without consultation, had 17 monks arrested and the noisiest imprisoned, personally introduced new measures and had inventories prepared and confiscated the surplus.334 Small foundations were rationalized and merged with others to demonstrate viability. Rich individuals were entrusted with poorer foundations, so that they might contribute their own wealth to their material improvement. Monasteries and convents were donated to bishoprics.335 The Ottonian abbesses, sisters of Otto III, were particular beneficiaries of these rationalizations. He favored the construction of churches and cathedrals and hoped to draw down some heavenly reward for himself during the consecrating celebrations and some heavenly credit and divine support in impending battles.336 Henry's concern over his salvation led to his close association with his bishops, which in turn led him to be accepted as co-celebrant, considering them to be his coepiscopi,

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his fellow bishops. He saw himself as a member in the community of the anointed. Among the nearly forty bishops, he sought the close company of a select number of archbishops and bishops, visiting them frequently and allowing their intervention.337 These initiatives were to serve the intensification and cohesion of the relationship between the crown and the religious institutions of the realm. Within the context of his sacerdotal ambitions, Henry ventured to reinforce the link among the institutions of crown and cross under the third network mentioned above. This network implemented his reactivations of a neglected monastic rule, alongside the familiar prayer associations. Both had originated in Carolingian times. Henry II may have intended by this means to establish an unrestraining framework, within which the loosely linked constitutional foundations of the kingdom could function. In 816, in Aachen, Louis the Pious had presided over the formulation of a rule of prescriptive guidelines pertaining to the life of cathedral canons and collegiate churches and the canonical communal life within them. St. Benedict of Aniane had been responsible for a revision of the Benedictine rule for monks. 338 Henry recalled this “Aachen” rule from near oblivion. In Hildesheim, he may have grown up under this rule, the canonica regula.339 Henry himself may have instituted this rule for canons in Bamberg. With the posting of churchmen from Bamberg to ecclesiastical positions between Utrecht, Magdeburg and Constance, the observance of this rule will have been spread. Under its terms, monks and canons were to be segregated and their range of activities more clearly defined. Monks were to be restricted to the ascetic life of prayer on behalf of themselves and others. The care of souls and the attention to administrative matters was to be assigned to the canons. Henry will have witnessed this revision of the vita communis while in Regensburg under bishop Wolfgang of St. Emmeram in Regensburg.340 Henry may have promoted the implementation of this rule while duke of Bavaria. Throughout, Henry's later emphasis on the implementation of the canonical rule stressed the organizational revision of functions and jurisdictions with a view to greater effectiveness. Membership in the communities subscribing to this rule created fraternal associations, which expected to be admitted into the presence of God at the end of time. Henry made the explicit point to join these prayer fraternities in order to share in their bliss. Otto III had revived these Carolingian prayer communities. In 1001, Henry had become a member of the prayer association in Hildesheim. Furnished with his donations, it was to pray for his soul. The communities were open to secular outsiders from among the nobility. This made fighting units possible, which were also linked in

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prayer. It can be expected that they offered a higher degree of cohesive loyalty. Who prays together, stays together, even beyond death. Within this objective, he transferred whole counties, towns and cities to the endowments of bishoprics, bolstering their positions, by allowing the emergence of centers of learning, or by linking counts and bishops in an attempt to promote the integration for the sake of regional peace and prosperity. Particularly in the center of the kingdom, he improved their authoritative strength, to a lesser degree also the economic and military strengths of the bishoprics, by placing whole counties under their control, with the counts as their vassals. They gained urban and territorial control, in that the counts were restrained in their freedom to seize episcopal territories, while the towns were encouraged by their bishops in their economic growth. Within the framework allowed by the times, Henry II applied his organizational talents to stabilizing his realm through overlapping interrelationships, based on liturgical concepts. It was part of an emerging policy of promoting the inner colonization of the kingdom. Donations to diocese, abbeys, convents and churches, implied service commitments. These and other measures organized and tightened the coherence of the service and power structure of the realm and improved the cooperation and peace in the land. In principle, the church of the Empire, from the pope to the humblest monk, was thereby placed under the guidance of the head of the imperial church, the divinely ordained king/emperor within a communal realm. By the time of his death in 1024, but only in principle, the networked associations formed an integrated, all embracing liturgical cohesion, reinforced by the spiritual leadership of the northern kingdom, in which most components formed a unified community of interests. Of Henry II it can be said, that he had a pragmatic, organizational talent, with which he personally tried to realize the idea of a scaled down Imperium Christianum, a more modestly conceived Christian kingdom, reliant on the Holy Lance and founded on the community of saints, especially the community of saints revered by the Ottonians. In fact, the king's position was very vulnerable, for he was always dependent on the vacillating support of his bishops.341 Half a century later, this vulnerable dependence jeopardized the kingdom. We see in Henry's policies a symbiotic relationship between utilitarian and spiritual considerations. The latter contributed to his canonization in 1146. The western strip of his kingdom, Lotharingia, had become affected by heretical thinking, originating from still further west. The region was particularly susceptible to a wide variety of religious dissent and doctrinal rejection. Though the Papacy maintained a rather ambivalent attitude

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towards the persecution of Jews, their protection varied with the degree of effectiveness, with which the bishops controlled their diocese. In this context the conception ripened, that it was an abomination for Christians to live in communities, which also sheltered those of other faiths, especially Jews. Expulsion was seen as the remedy. By these means as well as the adoration of relics and by pilgrimages to their venerated places religious fervor was mobilized and channeled in mass demonstrations of the faith. Already in 1010, as a feature of apocalyptic fears and deflected hatreds, persecutions took place in France, which included robbery, murder and enforced suicides, particularly among women, to avoid the enforced baptisms. That year Pope Sergius IV is supposed to have proclaimed a Jerusalem campaign against the enemies of the faith as part of the Peace of God movement.342 In 1012, anti-heretical measures were instituted in Mainz, coincident with the expulsion of Jews, who were blamed in part for the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in 1009 by the caliph of Cairo, Al-Hakim.343 Eternal life would be gained by all participants in the venture.344 In December of 1012, while Kunigunde tended to the defense of the eastern frontier, Henry II was in Mainz to receive the submission of the Luxemburgians, and in his presence, the Jews and heretics were expelled. Punishments will have been carried out, however, without resorting to death by fire, as was to be the case in Orléans later that month.345 The persecution of heretics and those of other faiths, like Jews, was a predominant component in the church's desire to establish and enforce a community of the faith based on universal principles. Conversion to the right forms of religious belief was the principal objective. Nevertheless, in 1084 the Jews of Speyer received episcopal privileges, possibly even a protective wall, while the Jews of Mainz and Worms received a royal privilege from Henry IV in 1090.346 A climate of discrimination must have made these measures necessary, which, in view of the subsequent persecutions of the Jews were anticipatory protective instrument. Just a few years later, during the crusades, Jews were sought out to enforce their baptism and conversion to Christianity,347 leading Henry IV to place all of the Jews of the kingdom under his protection in 1103. From Carolingian times onward, the illustrative arts proclaimed the victory of the Church Triumphant, Ecclesia, over a replaced Judaism, Synagoga. Atrocities were committed, when the enthusiasts encountered resistance among the targeted groups, who would not appreciate this Christian truth and to take revenge on them for the death of Christ. It was even thought necessary to eliminate Islam as a false religion.

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Of future significance was Henry's support of the cult of the Virgin Mary. The Palace Chapel in Aachen was already dedicated to her. Theophanu had reinforced it when she came from Greece. The cult probably already played a significant role in Bavaria, where on the eighth century Tassilo Chalice348 the Virgin Mary was identified as Maria Theotokos, Bearer of God. The cult was accented, when Henry II set the day of his coronation on the day of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, September 8, 1002, in St. Mary's chapel in Aachen. In this Palace Chapel, he donated and dedicated the splendid pulpit and the antependium of the altar to her. Only its front survives.349 Preoccupied with his domestic and eastern activities, Henry had not at first eagerly sought the imperial crown. His ambition lay primarily in the Renovatio regni Francorum. He had previously ignored unrest in Italy and in Rome following the death of Pope Sylvester II in 1003 and it was not until after 1012, that a contested papal election enticed him to return to Italy. A peace with the Poles in 1013 freed him to direct his attention to Italy as the Regnum Italie. 350 Control of the access routes was assured. The king approached in force and confirmed the successful candidate Benedict VIII, a former layman, who on February 14, 1014, led the royal couple into St. Peter's and crowned Henry and Kunigunde emperor and empress. Henry converted his imperial crown into a votive crown, when he had it suspended symbolically over the altar. Clearly, he assented to coexistence of his royal and imperial crown.351 He did not cede one, when he assumed the other. After an interval of thirteen years, the return of a German emperor was not welcome in Rome and within a week a bloody factional riot had to be put down. Henry chose to leave Rome and Italy. Upon his return north, he was met with jubilation, which however, disguised the fact that his rule of the Regnum Italie was rather symbolic, naming bishops and bestowing privileges on the Italian bishoprics and churches, and developing among them the loyalty to the Empire. Under the threat of being cut off in northern Italy, and renewed difficulties in Poland and Bohemia,352 Henry withdrew speedily from Italy and showed it no further interest. In retrospect, the expeditions into the Regnum Italie bore a resemblance to one sweeping water. The gains rarely compensated for the incurred losses. In 1015, the third phase of the war broke out with Boleslav I Chrobry. A three-pronged invasion was a failure, when the two outer prongs failed to reach their objectives, once again owing to a lack of Saxon enthusiasm, perhaps a result of the endless feuds in that duchy. During the following year, a threat arose on the Polish eastern frontier, when the new grand prince of Kiev concluded an alliance with Henry II. A

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pincer movement was planned. It was a total failure. The war lasted until 1018, when Boleslav planned to campaign against Kiev. It was a success. At the same time, however, the North-Elbian pagan Slavs unleashed destructive campaigns against the Christian establishment in the region. King Canute of Denmark may have advanced against them from the north, expecting Henry to bring forces up from the south. This he was prevented from doing, because pockets of his Saxon nobles rose in revolt against him, accusing him of favoritism towards the ecclesiastical lords. Even though they represented common social origins, their interests were beginning to diverge. Diplomatically, reconciliations came into being and the return to previous conditions north of the Elbe could be left to regional authorities.353 Newly destabilized, northern Italian interests recommended the pope visit Henry in Bamberg in 1020, actually an acknowledgement of Henry's prestige and status. Following a grandiose reception in Bamberg, he celebrated Easter in the new cathedral there, assisted by a patriarch, an archbishop and ten additional bishops, in all a momentous event.354 Nearly two hundred years had passed since the last pope had crossed the Alps in 833. On this occasion, Henry II confirmed the Ottonianum, negated by Otto III, with his own Heinricianum. The document suggests that the exclusivity of Rome had slipped in Henry's political estimation and that Bamberg may have become his “new Rome”.355 In Bamberg, Henry II made visible his culminating idea of an Imperium Christianum supported also in Bamberg. In Bamberg, he had thrown a pebble into the pool, thereby creating an additional center, alongside those of Jerusalem, Rome, and Aachen, from where the expanding ripples of his regal concepts based on the community of saints were intended to encompass Christendom. It was not to be realized after his death. In 1016 Pope Benedict VIII had invited returning Norman crusading pilgrims to assist Italian forces against the Sicilian Saracens. The Byzantines were tied up with the Bulgars. Ultimately the Saracens were driven out. During his stay in Bamberg, the pope invited Henry II to intervene in Italy against the Byzantines.356 The ensuing imperial campaign of 1021 was directed into Apulia, southern, Byzantine Italy, where an unsuccessful rebellion against Byzantine over-taxation in 1018 had led to a decisive defeat of the southern Italians at Cannae. On that occasion Russian Norsemen, Varangians, in the Byzantine army, had fought against the Sicilian Norsemen, by now called Normans, who had been called in as mercenaries against the Byzantines and had become involved in Italian affairs as early as 1013. Within sixty years, they had become powerful and welcome potential allies of the popes.357 The defeat

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had forced the local prince to seek refuge with Henry in Bamberg, while Byzantine recovery threatened the papal domains. A token of this relationship was a splendid cloak of blue damask, still on display in Bamberg. Henry's intervention was moderately successful, as imperial suzerainty was recognized in southern Italy, though Henry refrained from outright conquest. In singular cooperation, emperor and pope collaborated at a synod assembled in Pavia in 1022, reconfirming the mandatory celibacy and poverty of the clergy. Sons of the clergy had no right to inherit church holdings, so as not to diminish church property.358 After an absence of 10 months, Henry II returned north. While the campaign against the Byzantines was less than a success, he had reached his religious objectives. Henceforth, after their conquest of Sicily in 1072, the Sicilian Normans would deal with the Byzantines in southern Italy. In the course of a century the Normans, led by the house of de Hauteville,359 stayed to occupy Sicily, and eventually to establish a highly cosmopolitan court. Not a well man at any time, Henry's condition kept him in Bamberg from mid-December 1023 to mid-March 1024, investing new bishops with recently vacated bishoprics. Ill health, chronic colic perhaps caused by kidney stones, did not interfere with the itinerant progress and so he celebrated Easter in Magdeburg, and then moved to Halberstadt where he imposed a bishop on the cathedral chapter, then to Goslar for a stay of ten days. However, his illness kept him in the Pfalz at Grone, where two months later he died on July 13, 1024. Henry had no heirs360 and deliberately had made no provisions for the succession, leaving that regulation in the hands of God. Though the nobility felt somewhat less reconciled to his aims than the clergy, he believed to have ruled responsibly, and left a largely expanded, intensified, consolidated and coordinated realm, in which the proximity of royal Pfalzen and bishoprics constituted complementary networks. He seems to have been persuaded that as Vicar of Christ, he had fulfilled the mandate given to him by Christ, to establish God's order in his kingdom. The empress Kunigunde, experienced in the affairs of state, with the support of her Luxemburgian brothers, was able to continue managing the affairs of the realm during the interim. She subsequently entered the convent she had founded as humble Benedictine. She died in 1039. Kunigunde, (c.975-1039), the wife of the emperor Henry II, sister of the count of Luxemburg, was crowned queen in Paderborn in August 1002.361 On February 14, 1014, the royal couple was crowned emperor and empress in St. Peter's in Rome by Pope Benedict VIII. Both were beatified and canonized, Henry in 1146, Kunigunde in 1200.362

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When they married in the year 1000, she was about 25 and he 27 years of age, but Kunigunde differed from her predecessors in that she did not become pregnant, so that on the occasion of the foundation of Bamberg Cathedral in 1007, Henry and Kunigunde had endowed the church with vast holdings, even their own, and bequeathed to it all their worldly goods. In Frankfurt, Henry made their situation apparent, when he declared officially the church to be their heir: they had given up hope that their marriage would yet be blessed with children. Despite the obvious implication, the medieval public relations enterprise began to circulate a legend, that they lived a married life of chaste renunciation and sexual abstinence, an indication of their saintly lives. Actually they were very close and in their joint documents they frequently referred to themselves with the Biblical, but formulaic phrase from Genesis 2:24 of being “one flesh”, and hence quite in accordance “with God's holy ordinance”. Their celibacy was a fiction. They were bedmates and variations of this intimate formulation appeared in documents accompanying donations for the convent of Kaufungen to which Kunigunde would retire as widow. The convent was founded when she was seriously ill in 1017 and both began to be concerned with their salvation. Anointed and crowned they were one another's equals in all things. Their coronation scene in Henry's Book of Pericopes testifies such an understanding. Both are of equal height. She is the serene empress. Laudations recommend that God save the empress Kunigunde. The traditional formula of the empress being the consors imperii, or its variation consors regni, had been used for the empresses Adelheit and Theophanu and was now bestowed equally on the empress Kunigunde. The equality of the royal couple made it possible for petitioners and supplicants to approach the king through the offices of the queen. As was mentioned earlier, the remoteness of the king made a direct approach unthinkable, as Königsnähe, the proximity to the king, was a crucial obstacle, composed of family members, magnates, confidential advisors, trusted counselors and special interest groups guarded the royal personage with a nearly impenetrable screen. Yet, access to the highest authority in the land on serious matters had to be available, even if it could be problematic to some. The queen, unless she too was surrounded with a “protective” screen could provide an avenue on which one could perhaps reach the king's eyes and ears. As was apparent above, she could act as a hub through which all manner of national and international threads could be connected. Her role was that of a powerful filter, mediator, conciliator and confidante. Her interventions have left a trace, as more than a quarter of all of Henry's documents make reference to her. Most of them deal with

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matters pertaining to certain jurisdictions, such as Paderborn or Bamberg, and the documentation accompanying investitures, enfeoffments, foundations, donations, bequests, rights and privileges for convents and monasteries. This could even extend to episcopal disputes and the complexities of an off-again, on-again foundation of a bishopric, such as Merseburg in 1004. It has also been found that during periods of documentary silence, she tended to affairs of state as the itinerant monarch. When Henry was militarily engaged in the west against her brothers in Luxemburg, she organized the defenses on his behalf along the eastern frontier, representing the royal interests from her center at Magdeburg. Her name figured in documents accompanying donations, even after Henry's death, when she was empress no longer, but still enjoyed the respect of her former magnates. The empress Kunigunde, with the support of her Luxemburgian brothers, was able to maintain her position for a short while. It was she, who had placed her brother on the ducal throne of Bavaria. There especially, she was furnished with royal, ducal and church estates to provide for her welfare during the remaining years of her life, and to safeguard them from the new Salian dynasty, lest Conrad II wanted to lay claim to them prematurely. He actually did confiscate most of them for his son, as duke of Bavaria, and as his successor Henry III. She died in 1039, in the Benedictine convent, which she had founded and in which she was buried. Not until 1125 were her remains moved to Bamberg Cathedral and placed beside those of her husband. The foundation of the German kingdom has been given very extensive treatment, with a view to setting the pertinent historical and cultural themes. For the next three centuries, these themes determined the historical processes in a great number of variations. In this context, the notion of sacred kingship lost its importance in the face of reality, as it became little more than a metaphor. During the next hundred and fifty years the earlier Ottonian focus repeatedly shifted from the German kingdom to imperial interests in the Regnum Italie. The later Salian and Staufen dynasties continued to be called to Italy and Rome to intervene on behalf of the pope, to face papal excommunication, and to safeguard their imperial interests, challenged by Roman and Italian factions and even by the Normans of southern Italy. More often than not, the Slavic and northern frontiers did not receive equal or any imperial attention. The Empire seems not to have had any colonizing ambitions in this eastern region.

CHAPTER TWO THE SALIANS

The Salians (1024-1125) Conrad II (1024-1039) Henry III (1039-1056) Henry IV (1056-1106) Rudolph von Rheinfelden – anti-king (1077-1080) Henry V (1106-1125) Lothar III, von Supplinburg (1125-1137) With the death of Henry II, people may have experienced some trauma.363 If the consecrated king was the personification of the kingdom, then what happened to the kingdom, when the king died, especially if there was no successor? Within six weeks, the succeeding Salian was elected on his own merits. The Salians were actually hostile to the Ottonians, but continued the family ties with the Ottonians, – Liutgard, the daughter of Otto I and Edgith provided the dynastic link. With the election of Conrad II, the crown returned to Franconian hands. The dynastic name was not bestowed on them until the twelfth century, intended to reflect the link with the most noble Salian Franks. Over the years, they had accumulated considerable territorial power along the middle Rhine, so that their primacy in the kingdom could not easily be challenged. They ruled for just over a century, from 1024 to 1125.364 Their succession was not determined by an election, but by a family agreement. In 1024, another Conrad was to be the first of the new dynasty. He was careful not to model his reign along the lines of his Ottonian predecessor. His focus rested on the consolidation of the broad support among the secular powers in the realm, having seen fit to garner the support of the ecclesiastical magnates even before his designation with promises of privileges following his enthronization, providing an early example of the royal succession deteriorating into a transaction. It was he, who first placed the emphasis on the validity of the kingdom/empire as a universal transpersonal realm without connections to the person of the monarch. It was this, which was perceived as the challenge to the Papacy, with its

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claim to absolute obedience. These coincident and rivaling claims concerning the definition and guidance of the Imperium Christianum were to shake the realm to its foundations during the fifty years, which straddled the eleventh/twelfth centuries. Among the members of the dynasty, Henry III was still accepted as Vicarius Christi, and still exerted the greatest power over crown and cross by enforcing the reform rules. Inadvertently he provided the Papacy with the means to counter the secular imperium during the infancy of his son. At the same time the magnates strove to determine their own political fortunes. Institutions began to place a stronger accent on their interests. The questions concerning investiture and homage, on which hinged the king's sacerdotal status and the control of the kingdom/empire, were to emerge as the catalysts, which provoked the power struggle. Henry IV was confronted with changed political conditions, which had evolved during the regency, when he wanted to revive the old assumptions, and could not even reenact those of his father. On the contrary, the reform popes could make the sale of offices and investiture of the recipients a wedge issue, with which to alienate vassals and monarchs from one another. Henry IV acquired notoriety, when Pope Gregory VII excommunicated him over the question of obedience and he had to humble himself in his presence, before he could be reinstated. Papal excommunication, severance from God's community, was the supreme means to loosen all feudal ties and institutional controls.365 While he was able to recover the externals of his reign, he had had to yield his claim to the divinely ordained status of the monarch. In 1122, Henry V was able to negotiate a compromise with the pope concerning investiture. At the end of the dynasty, its prestige was badly tarnished. Historically the Salians abandoned under duress, the key aspects concerning investiture. Culturally the Salians would not have left an excessive inventory, were it not for some historical writings and their powerful architecture. With the latter, however, thanks to a vast building program, sponsored by the crown, the dynasty bequeathed impressive and lasting reminders of its passing with the spectacular cathedrals located particularly in Speyer, Worms366 and Mainz, associated with the emperors, while the episcopal and secular magnates of the other dynasties erected cathedrals and monumental parish churches in great numbers throughout the Rhineland. The architecture reveals a growing self-assurance of the culture carrying elites. The skylines of their centers, crowded with pinnacles and spires, were beginning to announce their eminence Conrad to the traveler from afar. The imperial cathedral at Speyer, the largest church in western Christendom in its day, was to exemplify to all, the symbiotic glory of

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church and Empire in one edifice. The Salian period was a “crossing over”.

Conrad II and the Renewal of the Secular Authority Conrad's negotiated ascent to the vacant throne in 1024 was not unproblematic, for there was no direct descent. The Saxons did not attend.367 The succession signaled the existence of a permanent, indivisible, because transpersonal, abstract, political institution, independent of a personal link, but subject to designation, election, coronation and elevation, when one considers, that following the death of Henry II, the empress, with the support of magnates representing church and state, maintained the enduring abstract structure and cohesion of the Empire. In this regard, II, the Elder, most successfully and without conflict assumed the rule on his own merit over a continuing, stable political entity.368 Within three years, he and his queen could be crowned emperor and empress. His election followed the consensus of most of the assembled ecclesiastic and secular princes. When Conrad the Elder and his cousin, Conrad the Younger, ended on the short list, they agreed, that one would support the other should the other be chosen. The people had assembled on the plains on both sides of the Rhine, between Worms and Mainz. When the magnate-electors assembled to exercise their privilege, some church representatives, headed by the archbishop Aribo of Mainz, determined the outcome of the vote, while others left in silent protest. The will of God could express itself only with unanimity. As part of the process, the empress Kunigunde handed the royal insignia to Conrad II, the Elder, on September 4. 1024.369 On the eighth, celebrated as the birthday of the Virgin Mary and an important future association for the Salians, he was anointed, by the archbishop of Mainz, crowned and raised to the throne in Mainz Cathedral, as acknowledged Vicarius Christi. As protector of the church, he was handed the sword, ring, cloak and fibulas, scepter and staff and perhaps already the orb. The crown is last.370 The archbishop had scruples about his wife Gisela and refused to perform her coronation. The kingdom had its foundations extensively based on the bishoprics, over which the archbishop exercised immense control.371 His support was crucial. Archbishop Aribo, however, was still involved in the unresolved Hammerstein affair in which he opposed a marriage on the grounds of blood relationship.372 From Mainz Conrad and his wife Gisela continued the progress of familiarization and incorporation, through which the regions of the kingdom entered into a personal relationship with the king. In Cologne Gisela was crowned by the

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archbishop of Cologne, on September 21, 1024, which implied a change of the right to perform the coronation from Mainz to Cologne.373 The event was followed by Conrad's symbolic, ceremonial ascent of Charlemagne's throne in Aachen to validate his sacred status, his election and signal and establish the legitimate continuity. The queen, beautiful and distinguished by her prestige and wealth, twice widowed countess of Braunschweig and then duchess of Swabia, of Ottonian descent, related to the western Carolingians and the royal house of Burgundy, represented something of this continuity in her own person. Both contributed an Ottonian component to their qualifications for the crown.374 That they were bloodrelatives was frowned on by Henry II375 and may account in part, for the initial refusal of her coronation and for the hostile distance with which Conrad approached Henry's heritage. He did not, however, allow his opposition to Henry II blind him to the advantages offered him by continuing Ottonian administrative principles, regarding the chancellery, the policies towards the church, the Regnum Italie, the Regnum Burgundie and the idea of Empire.376 The accent on his own distinctiveness included the symbolic competitiveness represented in the foundation of the monumental, dynastic funerary site of Speyer Cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary,377 no doubt in deliberate imitation of the Ottonian Magdeburg and Bamberg. While the royal progress marked the official beginning of the reign, it also represented a royal embrace of the kingdom.378 The kingdom was, wherever the king was, or had been. A man of impressive stature, 2m (well over 6ft.) tall, he was expected to demonstrate in his person a firm reign, in which the security and unity of the realm were assured. In Saxony, they obtained the approbation of the abbesses of Quedlinburg and Gandersheim, the noblest living members of the Ottonian house, thereby emphasizing the family relation. The itinerary was determined by visits to monastic establishments, bishoprics and royal palaces, stressing the congruence of religious and secular interests represented by the monarch. In Saxony, he received the delayed homage of its magnates, since they had not participated in the election.379 The practice of celebrating the high feast days of the church year at certain locations, fixed key destinations during the progress, until it ended at Christmas 1025 in Lotharingian Aachen. (Map 2-1) With the death of Henry II, northern Italy considered the link with the kingdom to have been severed. The Italian cities were evolving a new economic and political identity based on currency, manufacturing and distribution through trade. This identity found outward expression when the inhabitants of Pavia razed the fortified royal palace there, which had

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been built by Theoderic the Great and used by Carolingians and Ottonians as royal residence. The Lombard cities proceeded with a separatist attempt to elect their own king from the ranks of their own magnates and when that failed, they invited princes from Aquitaine and other French domains to assume the Italian crown. They even offered the imperial crown.380 It appeared that the citizens of Pavia resented the financial burden imposed on them whenever the monarch came through their cities, to stay in the citadel. The Italian bishops withheld their support for this separatist course of action, since they fared better under the northern link, their relative positions being more secure under an emperor, than under their local princes. When the Italian representatives appeared before Conrad II to rationalize their action – the emperor's death justifying their sense of severance í, Conrad presented them with the novel view, that even with the death of the monarch, the realm continued to exist, and that they had not just razed the king's palace, but the royal palace. Their view of a personal kingdom was countered by a view, which propounded the conviction that the realm was an abstract, ultra-personal concept, which went beyond that of the individual monarchy.381 It follows that Conrad II would consider the imperial role in Italy a priority. Based on Carolingian and Ottonian prerogatives, a Regnum Italie incorporated in the realm was an established claim, which Conrad, as preserver of the law, had a duty to demonstrate the legal principle as soon as possible.382 Shortly after his coronation, Conrad II led an army into Italy in 1026. Pavia refused him entrance and so he was crowned Lombard king in Milan. The regional tribulations, conflicts and resistance to royal rule, which tore the region apart, caused bloody resistance against Conrad's forces in Pavia and Ravenna.383 Avoiding the heat of summer, it was not until March 1027, that Conrad could make his way through the resistance of Italian cities and enter Rome under jubilation and acclaim. On Easter Sunday 1027 he and his wife Gisela were crowned emperor and empress by Pope John XIX in St. Peter's, in what was a most splendid event. A large number of dignitaries, including king Rudolph III of Burgundy and king Canute the Great, king of Denmark and England, who was intent on expanding his northern kingdom and needed good relations with the Empire. The festivities were marred by a Roman uprising.384 During a synod, presided over by emperor and pope, the emperor's will was done. The emperor was recognized as Vicarius Christi, Christ's representative on earth. The pope would continue to be the Vicarius Beati Petri. A show of force established the emperor's suzerainty in southern Italy, but beyond that, his interest in central and southern Italy was merely peripheral. However, the link between the crown and Rome, as head of the world, was

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projected most emphatically, without actual practical consequences.385 Rebellion urged a quick return north of the Alps, where Conrad soon received the submission of the rebels.386 This short-lived revolt, begun in 1025, over which his resentful stepson, duke Ernst of Swabia, took the lead in 1027, demonstrated the latent resistance of the regional nobility to pursue a course of interests at great variance with that of the crown. Ernst was to become a legendary figure, when the experiences and adventures of others were blended around his as the main character. In fact, he revolted again, was proscribed and finally killed fighting.387 The revolt was a portent, which grew out of the ambivalence of the royal position. First among equals, the king could still be challenged in his god-given authority by those dissatisfied with, or injured by his rule, who could give notice of their consensual support and, in an extreme case, reach for the sword in the defense of their own interests. It was the function of the church to reconfirm the God-given, sacerdotal authority of the king's rule by divine grace. Clearly, the crown had to maintain the support of the church as a guarantor of the sacred authority of the crown. Two generations later, this disposition would lead to a three-cornered, dysfunctional structure threatening the monarchy, consisting of Papacy, crown and high nobility, and reveal the fluctuating vulnerability of the Empire, as any one pursued independent aims, and when any two could plot against the third party, and turn a consolidated stable realm into a pulp. Later in the year1027, Conrad II pursued the increase of his prestige through the hereditary incorporation of Burgundy as the Regnum Burgundie by insisting that agreements reached with Henry II a decade earlier were valid.388 With the death of Rudolph III of Burgundy Conrad II realized this ambition. Still set on an immediate succession, at Easter 1028, he designated his eleven-year old son, who could then be elected as Henry III, and crowned and enthroned king in Aachen.389 The coronation was followed by a joint progress of father and son, to demonstrate the splendor and dignity of the monarchy, and to win popular approval for the election. Already in 1027, a bride was sought in Constantinople to increase the stature of the prince in waiting and the prestige of the western Empire, but the suit came to naught. In any case the eligible princesses were at least in their forties.390 The choice was to fall on King Canute's daughter, Gunhild. For the sake of a northern alliance, in 1036 they were married in Nymwegen, on the Lower Rhine.391 She was to bear a daughter. The envoys to Constantinople had returned with a relic, particles of the True Cross. The fragments were enshrined in an elaborately ornamented cross, henceforth known as the Imperial Cross, which joined the imperial regalia because of its sacred association. It soon superseded the Holy

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Lance in significance because of the incorporation of a particle of the True Cross. The significance of the Cross was not a new appreciation. Already in the early ninth century, Hrabanus Maurus had extolled the Cross in his De laudibus sancti crucis – In praise of the sacred cross.392 During the late Ottonian period, c.1000, the Cross of Lothair became a prominent processional cross, while during the reigns of Conrad II, Henry III, and Pope Leo IX, the Cross rose to particular veneration throughout the realm and it became a royal attribute, affixed to the imperial crown.393 The frontiers of the Empire in the west were reestablished to include Burgundy, Provence and Lotharingia, allowing Conrad's hegemony over Burgundy, Germany and Italy to proceed towards his imperial coronation. A certain disinterest marked Conrad's policies towards the east. There the Polish duke Boleslav I Chrobry used the opportunity presented by the end of the Ottonian dynasty, to aspire to the kingship in 1025.394 Otto III had prepared him for this step some twenty-five years earlier. His daughter Reglindis had been married to the margrave of Meissen, while his son and successor Mieszko II had married Richeza, a niece of Otto II. In 1028, Mieszko made hapless war on the Empire and on the Grand Prince of Kiev, was overthrown in 1030 by his stepbrother, but returned to rule upon the murder of his brother in 1032, but renounced the royal crown. The ensuing dynastic chaos reduced Poland to play only a modest role for the next three hundred years.395 It would appear from the above, that Conrad was motivated by a traditional agenda, which aimed at the concentration of the Hausmacht, and which had raised the family to its royal and imperial dynastic powers.396 The mural in the apse of Aquileia Cathedral, c.1028, which shows Conrad with his wife and son, young Henry III, points to a confidence in the expectation of a dynastic future.397 One could argue that the fresco underscores Conrad's transpersonal understanding of the permanent kingdom and that it is not focused on his or any other, royal personage. The same motivation may have determined his planning for a family burial site beneath Speyer Cathedral.398 Conrad could concentrate on consolidating his rule over a stable kingdom along Ottonian lines, as by keeping three duchies under the direct control of the crown, pointing to the essential dominion, which the crown had to maintain, and whenever opportune, to recover and expand over its territorial holdings. This included properties entrusted to the church, for which the crown expected the traditional return of services as part of the servitium regis. The concept of the crown as a transpersonal institution is reflected in these policies.399 While his predecessors had exercised the Gelasian doctrine of the Two Authorities, Conrad played down the sacerdotal guise and claimed the

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unrestrained domination of the church of the realm and its positions. He disposed freely over abbots, bishops, and their domains, as his administrative officials and did not hesitate to bestow titles and prerogatives on those willing to pay, and to proceed against them vigorously, if they did not follow his suit. This was especially important in the Regnum Italie, where the imperial urban and regional administration worked mainly through the bishoprics, which in turn often requested the support of their positions from the Empire.400 This lay investiture, by rewarding and elevating loyal aristocratic clerics in return for homage, usually competent and loyal members of his administration, to high church offices, regardless of their spiritual suitability, an essential administrative device, was yet to be found particularly irksome, and Conrad was charged with simony, the sale of church offices.401 The practice was seen to turn the canonical procedure on its head, when the monarch first selected a layman, had him approved by the clergy and then consecrated by a metropolitan. It invited a popular reaction of violence. It came to be fought in terms of the freedom of the church from homage, i.e. secular control. In the Empire's interest since Ottonian times, the administrative priority could not but take precedence over the spiritual one. The support of the church for the crown was already represented in the Ottonian manuscripts, which showed bishops steadying the arms of the king/emperor Henry II. The practices of the secular magnates to create proprietary foundations and to invest their own clergy collided with the growing religious belief inherent in the reform movement, which divided the world into saints and sinners, heightened individual and collective spiritual concerns and challenged the king's traditional claim to be both rex et sacerdos.402 It was to lead to the so-called Investiture Struggle. Conrad was still able to avert the crisis, as he excelled at finding common interests and consequently had to deal with fewer revolts and engage in fewer wars. Greater security contributed to commerce and greater prosperity. The synergetic consolidation of his rule in Germany was advancing well. In an effort at centralization, he had bestowed the vacant duchies of Carinthia, Bavaria and Swabia on his son Henry III, so that he could proclaim that his reign was confirmed and corroborated by the grace of God. Under his responsible guidance, the magnates of the church represented the stability of the realm. On festive occasions, surrounded by his bishops, he showed himself resplendent in the ornate splendor of dress befitting the Vicarius Christi, Vicar of Christ, and with sacred rank and sacerdotal dignity presided as ruler of the church and even of its popes.403 The coronation as king and especially as emperor through the ritual of the anointing, gave the king the select status as the chosen of the Lord. In a

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grouping to the right of the Virgin Mary in the mandorla, the mural in the apse of the cathedral of Aquileia, c.1028, shows Conrad wearing the crown and a purple mantle, flanked by three saints. Young Henry III and the empress Gisela are placed on either side of this community of saints.404 Rome was of interest only as the site of his imperial coronation. On that occasion, he made none of the traditional promises concerning the protection of church and Papacy, and attached no particular importance to the Patrimonium Petri. In general, the church institutions found no particular favor with him. In principle, Conrad II favored financial compensation from those, whom he nominated for the bishoprics. He was not loath to practice simony.405 It was his concern to place the kingdom on the stabilized support of the still restless secular powers, which may have adopted, only in part, the episcopal understanding of the sacred monarchy. Had it not been for conspiracies, the independence inspired confrontations among the prospering northern Italian cities or the power politics of the southern Italian Normans, Conrad II might well have been right. In principle and in fact, the kingship was an elected kingship, where the peers could give expression to their primacy over the king by their vote. While the election had something of the principle of selecting “the first among equals” about it, the election probably accepted the king primarily as “chosen moderator” of contrary interests and enflamed conflicts'.406 Unconditional obedience to such a lord would be an admission of unfreedom. Conrad had a sympathetic ear for their concerns, which earned him the loyalty of his vassals. On the other hand, the absence of a central administration, demanded adherence to the personal authority of the monarch, if the realm was to function. In that respect he treated dukes, counts and other highly placed aristocrats as royal officials rather than as vassals. It facilitated their appointment and dismissal as an aspect of royal authority. This circumstance necessitated the personal presence of the monarch and the itinerant kingship.407 Generally, he was a traditionalist, for whom any tendencies of social change were most peripheral. It will become apparent, that the concept of obedience to any relatively higher authority, whether secular or episcopal and papal, was being demanded and becoming established. It would appear that the principles of obedience, characteristic for the monastic rule, were gaining ground through the Cluniac reforms and affecting the church and its institutions, ultimately to be demanded from all Christians. The monarch's supremacy over his bishoprics would soon meet challenges from the reform inspired Papacy, which aimed to displace the monarchy from church affairs and claimed this supremacy and sovereignty for itself. Many

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of the ensuing socio-political and religious disputes originated in the questioning of this all encroaching authoritarianism. Not unlike sweeping water, any successes in Italy were of questionable duration. At issue in Italy and the whole realm was the inheritability of fiefs among the lesser knights, which threatened the territoriality of the princes. On the other hand, a restriction imposed on the lesser knights, meant a weakening of the imperial military power in the Regnum Italie. The bishops of northern Italy were implicated. Especially the bishop of Milan did not comply with the king's determinations. They even extended an invitation to the French to assume the crown in Italy. In December 1036, Conrad again crossed the Alps. At the end of considerable bloodshed in and around Milan, Conrad held the perpetrators to account. The archbishop Aribert of Milan was ultimately deposed and replaced, and excommunicated by the pope, who had become the executor of the imperial will.408 His episcopal co-conspirators were banished beyond the Alps. Not overly pious, Conrad treated harshly anyone, reform inspired or not, who, through disobedience might pose a threat to the royal authority. A supporter of the reform movement, Henry III reinstated him. The siege of Milan, however, was only raised with the death of emperor Conrad in 1039, when the leaderless besieging army dissolved. Events in Lombardy were a signal that the cities of northern Italy were in a state of intellectual turmoil. Under the walls of Milan, Conrad issued his feudal law in 1037 – his Constitutio de feudis, which was to have an effect on the age to come. The law confirmed the reciprocal feudal commitments, while it guaranteed that the fiefs of the lesser vassals were hereditary, courts protected the individual from excessive feudal demands, while the prescribed gifts in the form of horses and weapons were to continue. This law applied throughout the realm, as Conrad wanted to gain for the crown and for his loyal, personal service, the immediate military support of the lesser knights. The law confirmed the rise of a limited caste of warriors and/or administrators of unfree status by birth, as at the same time, it confirmed the status of the aristocracy in its hereditary holdings.409 The military capacity of some, paralleled by clerical aptitudes among others, promoted the upward social mobility among these unfree, although suitable and talented ministerials, the lesser service nobility.410 It proved true, that military service ennobled. Descendants of free commoners and former serfs, these knights were professional warriors who could be removed at any time and controlled. Dependent on their lords, their social position separated them from the noble vassals, making them more dependable.411 On the other hand, it should be kept in mind, that under the system of vassalage, every free

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vassal owed homage and fealty for his fief, with restricting contractual obligations and involuntary services which defined his freedoms. Ministerials experienced vassalage in a more limiting manner, when it came to the legal bonds to their lords, hereditary landownership, marriage, military service, and allegiances. Even serfs were entitled to liberties.412 In his attempt to consolidate the kingdom into a political unit resembling a state, and in order to gain greater control and greater benefits from his scattered territorial holdings, Conrad instituted greater numbers of this group to administer these holdings. The social crystallization of this group, derived from the Germanic retinues, took several centuries. The Carolingian magnates and their East Frankish successors maintained retinues of dependents on their lands with shares in the estates. It was a process which allowed taking personal advantages. To illustrate, Otto II had requested a large force of heavily armed and mounted reinforcements while campaigning in Italy in 981. These troops were drawn from about fifty standing secular and ecclesiastic entourages of ministerials, of unfree retainers with or without fiefs, made available by the magnates of the realm. During the 11th century the number retainers was to increase, when the clearing and increasing inner colonization of the forested interior of the realm made land grants available to the secular and ecclesiastical magnates for subdivision and distribution as fiefs among their unfree ministerials in return for services. Some of the land and associated administrative offices would also be available to free vassals paying homage.413 Both groups of fighting warriors were hereditary landowning orders, living in fortified houses and stone castles. The rise of this group of unfree bondsmen now had its pronounced beginning, so that after 1100 the majority of German knights belonged to that order of ministerials414, a designation which characterized more their hereditary status than their role as armed horsemen. Along with a gradual consolidation of the sword-bearing aristocracy, they and their families formed a cohesive social interest group. It would provide the fighting force of the crusades. The hereditary fief, increasing in importance provided dependable support in return for obedient loyalty, for landownership and service, especially military service. Conrad's feudal law assured the economic security of this lower nobility, because their bond with the realm was closer and stronger than that of the established nobility. While the latter was inclined to follow its own interests, these bondsmen owed obedience and service without question and could not act on their own initiative, as along with their holdings they were considered transferable property. Since all ministerial possessions belonged to his lord, inheritances, marriages, mobility of service under other lords, were subject

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to rules, supervisions, permissions, and the lord's explicit consent, fundamentally conceived not to promote the reduction or dispersal of a lord's holdings even to monasteries and convents. Land was the basis for military strength. Thus marriages and other transactions usually had to take place within a lord's retinue. However, multiple allegiances were possible, allowing the imperial ministerial Wernher von Bolanden to own seventeen castles and owe allegiance to forty-four lords apart from the emperor himself.415 Although treachery, murder, theft and actual feuds against their lords are known, the ministerials were generally grateful to their emperors, kings, dukes, counts, bishops and abbots, who acted as guarantors of their legal rights, privileges and exemptions appropriate to their lifelong status as unfree knights416 and who could contribute armed, equipped and provisioned contingents of many hundreds when called upon. By securing the legal status of the lower levels of society they could be drawn closer to their lords and to the crown, even in an administrative capacity. Their loyalty to the king was to take precedence over their fealty to their immediate liege lord.417 Even though their lords kept a closer control over them in a form of vassalage of non-contractual un-freedom, by the middle of the 12th century the growing importance of their knightly and courtly functions gained them recognition,418 so that they would eventually profit from opportunities, gain great influence at their respective courts, merit such important hereditary court functions as treasurer, major domo – master of the palace, master of cellars, master of the household and marshal – master of judicial functions, as well as supervisors of tolls, mints and markets, judges, magistrates, counselors and competent officers of the court and administrators of the laws419 leave their unfree status behind and merge into the chivalric community and came to be considered nobles, nobility being deemed a social quality rather than a social status.420 Like the nobility, they came to owe homage and oaths of fealty for such specific occasions as the campaigns in Italy and internal wars and feuds. The call to take the Cross was the clearest such example. By the end of the 12th century the distinctions between free and unfree knights had eroded. The members of the Teutonic Order, the Knights of the Hospital of St. Mary of the German House came from the caste of ministerials including their grand-master, Hermann von Salza, a ministerial from Thuringia.421 A number of others rose in the church to bishoprics and abbacies.422 The relative independence of this caste is indicated by the stipulation that they serve their lord at their own expense. Within a network of their fortified sites, a secular cultural identity was to emerge, chivalry. It was largely the

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more important ones among them, who provided the audience for the medieval lyrics, epics and romances. In southern Italy aspirations created conflicts among the magnates. In 1038, Conrad moved his army to the borders of the Byzantine territories and established order, but caught by the summer heat, the campaign was very costly in human lives, including that of the young queen Gunhild.423 It was to be his last major undertaking. Conrad II died in 1039, in Utrecht of a severe attack of gout, the result of a diet rich in meat and alcohol, only about 50 years of age. His innards were buried in Utrecht, funerary processions and celebrations accompanied his corpse, as it was taken past Cologne, Mainz and Worms to Speyer, for burial in the crypt of his last resting place, his cathedral.424 He left an expanded realm at peace.

Henry III and the Triumph of the Secular Authority Henry III (1017-1056) was accepted in the kingship without dissent by the major regions of the realm, so that the transition to Henry's broadly supported reign was seamless. Only once, with the succession of Otto II, had this happened before. Germany, Italy and Burgundy accepted him without any dissent. Conrad II had left him a consolidated realm, in the administration of which he already played a ducal and royal role. His representational progress through the realm was staged as a symbolic show of Salian magnificence. Owing to his teacher, Brun, the brother of Henry II and bishop of Augsburg, Henry III emulated the style of Henry II.425 While he continued the transpersonal ideas of his father, drawing on the strengths of the church for his administrative aims, still his reign was a challenge, owing to the perpetual struggle against the recalcitrance of the nobility. At the same time, the bishops were growingly aware of their increasing powers in determining responsibilities in royal affairs. The Regnum Italie required constant attention. Already in 1040, he assumed the title Rex Romanorum indicating his intention to realize his imperial claim without alienating those most affected. Conflict arose along the eastern borders when the duke of Bohemia invaded Poland, devastated Krakow and sold Polish prisoners into slavery. During a punitive campaign, Henry III was beaten when the Bohemians received Hungarian reinforcements. However, when Henry advanced on Prague with three columns from north, west and south, the penitent Bohemian duke submitted to Henry in Regensburg, whereupon Bohemia was returned to him as a fief along with two Polish provinces. He was to remain a loyal vassal.426 An effective show of force sufficed to restore Henry's sovereignty in the east by 1046. The Hungarians had dethroned their

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unjust king Peter and elevated one of their princes, Aba, who wanted to demonstrate his might by devastating the imperial lands along the Danube. Henry led three successful campaigns against him between 1042 and 1044, received the submission of the Hungarians and in 1045 reinstated Peter, who, with his nobles, became his vassal. Aba was tried and executed.427 Henry's appearance with his army along the eastern borders of Saxony sufficed to realign the Slavic Liuticians and to reinstate the Polish duke. In 1046 he, along with the dukes of Pomerania and Bohemia paid homage to the German king, thereby restoring Henry's sovereignty along all of the eastern borders.428 In the west, king Henry I of France showed concern when in 1042 Henry III married Agnes of Poitou in what seemed to be an encirclement. The king of France was not enthused about the arrangements along his eastern border, when Henry III secured the peace along his western border by apparent encirclement, when he married Agnes, the daughter of William V of Aquitaine and Poitou, in 1042 at Ingelheim. For some unknown reason Henry III expelled the minstrels and jesters from the festivities. The Regnum Burgundie was given an independent chancellery. In Lorraine the ducal succession (1044/46) in Upper and Lower Lorraine entailed unrest and uprisings, leading the claimant, Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of southern Lotharingia to arrange an alliance with Henry I, king of France, whereupon Henry III deprived him of all of his fiefs, inducing Godfrey in turn to raid the imperial lands. In 1045, he submitted and following a year's imprisonment, he was reinvested with Upper Lorraine. Lower Lorraine was bestowed on the brother of the duke of Bavaria, both of them Luxemburgians.429 Henry III had received the best education available, with great personal, theological interests in the writings of the Church Fathers, rooted in his own piety.430 His mother and the bishops to whom he was entrusted had introduced him to the teaching emanating from the reform monastery of Cluny. These may have reinforced his ascetic traits. His father had been concerned that as future king he combine education with a strong sense of his own divinely sanctioned majesty, in order to substantiate his appearance before men of intellect and politics. Henry realized these expectations, for he was entirely convinced of the sacred dignity of his royalty, and charged with the special responsibility for church and monarchy.431 Barely nine years of age, Henry III had been crowned coking and had bestowed on him the duchy of Bavaria, c.1026.432 He gained administrative experience, when at age fourteen, in 1031, he became duke of Bavaria, in 1038 duke of Swabia and king of Burgundy, in 1039 duke of Carinthia, underscoring the functional nature of these dukedoms. He demonstrated his royal prerogative to dispose of these functional positions

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at will, and assigned them to individuals of his own choice, without regard to their tribal origins. Strangers in their lands, they were dependent on the central authority. He acted similarly with dignitaries of the church, when in 1044 he deposed the archbishop of Ravenna. One drew an analogy with Christ's clearing the moneychangers from the temple and hailed him as the restorer of a new golden Davidic age. For some of Henry's supporters, he was the postfiguration of Christ, the Vicarius Christi, whose sacred kingship was self-evident.433 The Middle Ages came to see in David the ideal monarch. Settled conditions in Italy allowed the return of peace to the land, despite questionable papal dealings in Rome, during which Gregory VI paid off his predecessor Benedict IX, who no longer wished to be pope, with a huge sum for the throne.434 This practice of Simony, condemned in Acts 8:9-24, was the acquisition of a spiritual office through the payment of a large sum of money. It was yet to be condemned as a heresy. Holders of high church offices were particularly vulnerable to such a charge, if they belonged to the close entourage of the monarch or his magnates.435 The reasoning is based on the analogy that the church is the bride of Christ. To “sell” her makes the church a harlot. Hence, those who engaged in simony were likened to procurers, adulterers and fornicators and all those who engaged in wickedness. Following his successes north of the Alps, Henry III also wanted to assume the rule in the Regnum Italie as emperor and to ensure for the entire realm the true peace and the establishment of the true Church of Christ. Henry perceived a threat to these ideas in the princely and papal collusions, particularly rife in Rome. The designations for the apostolic throne had once again reverted to the power struggles among the Roman interest groups. Henry wanted to advance the Christianization of the remaining Europe and needed the support of a reliably founded Papacy in Rome. He convoked a synod at Sutri on December 20, 1046. As a consequence Gregory VI and two previous popes, Sylvester III and Benedict IX, were deposed autocratically.436 Henry III could not afford to be crowned emperor by a pope, whose legitimacy was in the least questionable. Sutri came to be seen as a synod of momentous consequence, as by its means the reform movement gained access to the papal throne. Inadvertently, the reform synod was probably Henry's greatest accomplishment as a reformer.437 He was credited for having created pivotal conditions within which the Papacy could evolve into the autonomous and supreme authority of the Middle Ages. The synod ushered in a decade of mutually supportive imperial and papal collaboration, as with a series of German, imperial bishops, reform ascended the papal

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throne. Gregory VI was exiled to Cologne, accompanied by a militant Hildebrand, destined to become Pope Gregory VII. Bishop Suitger of Bamberg was appointed Pope Clement II with the agreement of such powerful churchmen as Odilo of Cluny. Clement II crowned Henry and Agnes emperor and empress on the following day, Christmas 1046. The Romans bestowed on Henry the dignity of Patricius, which entitled him to wield the decisive right of primacy in papal elections. He had thereby elevated his theocratic position to its highest possible rank and removed the Roman populace from its detrimental role as pope-maker.438 It was a surprise that the Romans did not stage an uprising following the coronation. It was a pivotal series of events. Hereafter, the pope ceased to be the bishop of Rome subject to local factions, or to make the position of the head of Christianity subject to their interests. Henceforth no Roman interest groups were to presume to rule over Rome. This delivery of the Papacy from external influences brought with it the idea of the freedom of the church from all influence and control. It allowed the emergence of an autonomous and eventual commanding claim to the primacy in Christendom. Thus the early forgery of the Constantinian Donation was a demonstration of the theoretical superiority of papal power over any secular authority.439 Paradoxically it also allowed the Papacy to establish itself as a territorial power. The year 1046 marks a watershed, not only because of Henry's imperial coronation, but because he also created conditions in which the reform Papacy could henceforth develop, unfold and exercise its previously unimagined, undisputed episcopal power. Ironically, under imperial protection it strengthened to take advantage of the growing spiritual accountability, pains of psychological insecurity, torturing introspection, and the mounting anxiety over prospective salvation, no doubt motivated in part by sublimated self-interest, to put the kings on the defensive. It marked the beginning of the end of the Gelasian theory of the congruent Two Authorities and the transformation of the Imperium Christianum into a purely religious realm. The transformation finished thirty years later, in 1076, with the mutual hostility of the Gelasian Authorities. This revolutionary antipathy would also contribute to the cultivation of the distinct, divergent, and rivaling interests of the aristocracy and the monarchy. For one, the notion of the indivisible, transpersonal kingdom gained in definition and contributed to the consolidation of the abstract ideas of statehood and nation.440 At the same time, a general redefinition of other jurisdictions was coming into being. The demand arose for free royal elections, investiture of bishops, the advent of a dialectic Scholasticism, the rediscovery of Roman Law and the

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collection of Church Law. It coincided with the rise of knighthood, the need for greater social mobility, for greater exploitation of the resources of the land, caused by population growth and social stratification, increasing specialization of the crafts, trades and commerce, and by greater consumerism. Upon his return to Italy Henry III received the homage of the south Italian lords at Monte Casino. Included among them were the Norman princes, whose holdings of the counties of Aversa and Apulia were confirmed. When the principality of Benevento refused to open its gates to the emperor, even during a prolonged siege, Pope Clement II excommunicated it. He died in 1047, it was rumored that he had been poisoned, and was buried in Bamberg Cathedral. His successor, Damasus II, ruled for only 24 days, the shortest of papal reigns. Henry appointed Pope Leo IX, an Alsatian noble from Eguisheim and bishop of Toul. Upon the request of the monks of Toul, Henry III, his relative, had raised him to the position when only twenty-four.441 The castle of his birth still exists in modified form. Eguisheim, south of Colmar, is visually a most interesting town. Leo IX and members of his entourage were to play a key role in the step-incremental reconfiguration of the reform Papacy. His choice of name deliberately associated him with the great Pope Leo (440-461), who at the Council of Chalcedon had defended the purity of the Christian faith and insisted on the pre-eminence of the church in Rome before all other churches. Leo IX laid a new foundation for the church. With his choice of name, he signaled a course of action, not however, as a return to established traditions, but towards a new order in which the worldly and spiritual domains were submitted to a progressive revolution. At the end of the process the Papacy was to be a compacted, self-determining institution.442 He surrounded himself with a monastic meritocracy, an effective, educated staff of reform-minded Lotharingians, whom he distinguished with the cardinal's hat. The entourage included one cardinal Humbert of Silva-Candida, who would prove the leading papal theoretician in questions promoting the claim of the pope's primacy,443 and Hildebrand, who had returned with Leo to Italy from Cluny. Subsequently Hildebrand was to serve as Leo's papal legate in France and Victor's in Germany. Leo introduced this administrative core of high church dignitaries to replace the traditional structure provided by the city politics of Rome. By assigning new functions to the cardinals and making them into collaborators of the pope, he promoted the subsequent formation of a papal council, the future College of Cardinals. With its collective

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knowledge in church affairs and laws, it was a type of senate at the pope's side.444 Henry III had set the tone for the new idea emerging from the reform synods, while Leo IX applied their spirit, intent on establishing the dominium mundi, the primacy of the Papacy in Christendom, though at first only in response to Byzantine claims. The prohibition of simony and insistence on celibacy figured prominently on the agendas of his reform synods. Thanks to Humbert's analyses, these topics later implicated and condemned the royal participation in these practices, including the emperor's presumptuous right to depose a pope. Annually, at Easter, Leo convoked synods of all bishops to Rome, thereby presenting the church as a coherent entity. Those who could not attend received his visits, not always welcome.445 Questions pertaining to the implications of simony and celibacy were constant agenda items. The Papacy presented proactive initiatives, even if the realization of the idea lagged behind the reality of the obstacles. In time, legates would represent the pope. With imperial support, the pope abandoned the narrow understanding of his passive position of bishop of Rome, and introduced the itinerant Papacy along imperial lines, an extensive tour of inspection of the religious foundations. In doing so, he exchanged his remote, abstract role, into a central, concrete, visible and personal identity. Rome was wherever the pope was. He provided early signs of a universal authority. About one hundred and seventy privileges were issued to the monasteries and convents in Italy, France, Burgundy and Germany, which ultimately created the bond between the Papacy and the monastic institutions, so supportive of the papal position during the impending “Investiture Struggle”.446 At this stage, the Two Authorities demonstrated their united intention. As imperial bishop, Leo IX seems to have been integrated into the Empire as one of its functionaries.447 In the east, Hungary underwent turmoil and dynastic strife leading to incursions across the imperial border along with Bavarian complicity. However, the new Hungarian king needed the emperor's friendship. Henry III tried to referee in the disputes among the Slavic dukes, but the Liuticians defeated an imperial army in 1056. Aware of the instability along the eastern borders, Henry III established marches as buffers, with defensive obligations for their settlers, against Slavic incursions. These projects included the construction of the imperial castle at Nürnberg as a military jumping off point against Bohemia.448 Henry concluded his reign by curtailing the power of the dukes, or by bestowing the dukedoms to families unrelated to the populations. Thus, Bavaria was assigned to his sons Henry and Conrad and after Conrad's

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death to the empress Agnes. New conflicts flared among the duchies ruled by younger generations.449 A cause of upset was Henry's innovative appointment of unfree liegemen, competent and loyal ministerials, to positions of responsibility. During the reign of Henry IV, some of these ministerials rose to the highest religious posts and such secular rank as chancellor and through military service to positions of administrative leadership in the realm. Under the Hohenstaufen, Werner von Bolanden owned seventeen castles and could send 1100 knights into the field. One of them took king Richard the Lionheart captive. Another, Hermann von Salza, rose to be Grand Master of the 'Teutonic Order'. Under the Staufen, the ministerials were the backbone of the imperial administration.450 Selected and rewarded for their competence and capacities, ministerials, counts and margraves were assuming roles of responsibility. As was noted above, these ministerials were a particular German institution in which a widely ranging service nobility of noble bondsmen was born into hereditary service to their lord, with specified freedoms.451 Eventually some gained the highest functions in the realm, such as imperial stewards and marshals and regional judges. Henry's foundation in Goslar became not only the singular educational center to prepare the centralization of the royal administration by means of the education of a reservoir of highly literate clerics and loyal administrators, links between the realm and the episcopate, all non-Saxons. It also became the focal point of a developing royal Salian landscape of strong points and residences, staffed by outsiders, royal ministerials, mostly Swabians.452 These intentions irritated the Saxons, because it indicated an estrangement from their habitual, Ottonian, royal seats. The local silver mines made Goslar a logical economic, administrative center and administrative training ground. Henry III espoused the cause of the Cluniac reforms to affect knightly morality, to rein in the worst excesses of the age causing murder, pillage, rape, blood feuds and the despoiling of churches and other religious foundations and to bring to a long suffering humanity a faint hope of peace and security in their lifetimes. In this Henry III sympathized with remedies that had been developed in southern France to deal with the random violence, such as the ideas of the Pax Dei, the “Peace of God”,453 instituted during the tenth century in the spirit of the Cluniac reforms which affected the life of the world and especially that of the knights. The church began to demonstrate a changed attitude towards war. Of necessity, the church in France had diverted the inclination for military conflict towards religious causes. In Burgundy Henry III had become familiar with this Peace of God, an ordinance forbidding the use of arms on holy days and weekdays from Wednesday to Monday, in remembrance of the Lord's

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suffering. Its intent was to protect the weak including churches, clergy and other consecrated places from attack and plunder. In Burgundy, this Peace of God was imposed by the church to restrict the feuds, which disrupted the social order in France.454 This Pax forbade fighting on all high holydays. In analogy, Henry, an ardent supporter of the Cluniac reform movement, instituted his own decrees of the King's Peace, actually a euphemism for royal expansion and an unsuccessful attempt to instill peace among the nobility, preaching sermons to uphold the peace throughout the realm. A poem by Adam von Bremen praises him and implores him to end war among the peoples, bring peace to the cities and to forge swords into plowshares.455 Henry III was inclined towards the supplementary Treuga Dei, the Truce of God, which prohibited fighting on Sundays and on the last three weekdays, representing the three days of Christ's suffering. It was even posited, that whoever spilled the blood of a Christian, spilled the blood of Christ. In all, three quarters of the year would be free of strife. The problem lay in the circumstance that a knight's holdings tended to be scattered over wide areas, so that it was in a knight's interest to round them off. With adequate means, he could resort to marriage, inheritance, purchase or exchange. Unfortunately, acquisition by force of arms was a favorite method to bring about the same result. For the people living on the land this had dire consequences, since the general conduct of a war meant damaging the opponent's position by looting and burning crops and villages. The king's interest in such an equalization of justice implied greater legal administrative centralization and most importantly, it implied the concept of obedience to superior authority.456 The beneficiaries of such a peace were the weaker social groups, the houses of God and their holdings, their clerics, pilgrims, women, Jews, peasants and their harvests, merchants and their trade. The pent up frustrations of those favoring the fighting life would ultimately find relief fighting the infidel during the crusades. By the early 13th century the crusades had become a fixed feature of medieval society. Recruitment, like fundraising from private resources, followed persuasive preaching. It was also in accordance with the structures of medieval society determined by kinship, vassalage, family ties, group memberships and a range of social pressures.457 Regrettably, although motivated by intense religious fervor by most of those seeking to pray at the Holy Grave, the crusades later deteriorated into displays of greed and avarice among the leading nobles intent on settlement and colonization, and jealous demonstrations of status, intrigue, treachery and treason. Unarmed pilgrimages, by definition pilgrims were forbidden to bear arms,

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accompanied by armed guards, set out as early as 1016 and in 1033, the millennium of Christ's death. In 1064/65, the bishop of Bamberg led some 7000 pilgrims to Palestine.458 When this crowd reached Palestine it came under attack by robbers it found the protection of Moslem authorities, who were afraid of the economic losses which the insecurity on the road would cause.459 In 1107, the king of Norway needed 60 ships to transport his followers to the east. Clearly, there existed a crusading spirit outside those armed pilgrimages later to be classified as crusades. It was Urban II who accomplished the synthesis of pilgrimage to Jerusalem and crusade.460 Recognizing the pilgrims' vulnerability, the order of warrior monks, who combined the principles of the monastic rule with the permission to bear arms, the multi-ethnic Knights of the Temple of Solomon, Templars for short, would be founded in 1120, to offer a degree of security to all pilgrims on the pilgrimage routes in Palestine.461 This development effected a transition in the definition of the Christian life exemplified by a withdrawal from the affairs of the world to an active involvement with it. The Christian knight became the exemplar.462 In the Salian Empire, conditions were not so severe as in France, so that the Cluniac ideas of the Peace and Truce of God did not have the same degree of urgency and Henry III considered it a Christian ruler's most solemn and noble duty and task, being the anointed of the Lord, to be the bringer of peace. It was not to be the role of the church in the Empire. As the “Prince of Peace”, Henry III strove for the emissary consciousness to coincide with the Salian administrative ambitions, especially his own.463 The pursuit was to be in vain since it was based on the idealism of his theocracy and affected by the personalities involved and the contemporary political realities. Beset by conspiracies and wars, the future of the royal position was to be too vulnerable. Yet, the growing conviction of the people that they lived in sin and badly needed forgiveness provided the church with an unbeatable long-term instrument. Though the bishops were still the chief administrative and sometimes military supports of the emperor, of growing importance was the changing understanding with which bishops approached their functions, at a time, when Henry III was demanding an uncompromising control over the church. It was still his understanding that the functionaries of the church combined in their person the duties to the crown, and hence it had to be he, the first to do so, who invested bishops and abbots with the ring. It was symbolic of the mystical marriage between the bishop and groom and his church and bride. The crook symbolized the temporary territorial possessions, for which the bishop owed the monarch the oath of fealty. The monarch set himself up as de facto judge over all officers of the

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church. That this irked the princes of the church can be imagined. It was to prove a collision course with the Papacy. At this time, it seems natural, that in disputes between worldly and ecclesiastical magnates, the kings Conrad II and Henry III sided with the representatives of the church.464 This favor promoted the institutional continuity, cohesion and growing strength of the bishoprics. On the other hand, the church promoted the territorial interests of the lords as a means to gain their own territorial autonomy. The secular orders were ravaged by deaths in their ranks, frequently of entire successions, which did not favor territorial expansion and such an institutional continuity, through the reversion of fiefs to royal control. It follows, that disadvantaged secular interests would store up resentments against the crown. It favored rather the continuous restructuring of strong, ascending families.465 Imperceptibly it favored the emergence of the church holdings from royal control, as it favored territorial growth and autonomy of the princes of the church and their foundations. In their own interests, the princes of the church favored the growing territorial particularism of the lords and all of their own transformation into princes of the realm. Probably influenced by the contemporary spirit of liberating reforms and coincident with them, there began to appear among the bishops resentments over the emperor's unilateral, highhanded and even abusive dealing with them, their appointments, transfers, demotions and dismissals. They became sensitive to being caught between the loyalty owing to the worldly power of the emperor and the obedience they owed to the spiritual authority of the pope. Both thought that as representatives of the divine, obedience to them was actually obedience through them and the church to God. However, a natural piety also motivated Henry III to draw closer to the church as he demonstrated by his close ties to the abbots Odilo and Hugh of Cluny, asking the latter even to act as godfather for his son and heir, Henry IV (1050-1106). In 1048, Henry III had raised, bishop Brun of Toul, to the papal throne as Leo IX. With him, church reform was established in Rome as he attracted several competent administrators, including the controversial Hildebrand. With them, he reorganized the papal administration along the outward semblance of the imperial chancellery. The restructuring included the formation of the College of Cardinals. During many travels and free of jealousies and without tensions between them, he collaborated with the devout Henry III to promote the advent of the Imperium Christianum. Leo approved, confirmed and protected church holdings, promoted the purification of the church, condemned simony and sponsored the celibacy of priests.466 Clearly, the religious and secular positions were approaching a new configuration,

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reflecting a new social climate. During this period, what was already known as the Pseudo-Isidore during the Carolingian period, gained support for two positions: the primacy of the pope as sole head of the Christian church, and the immunity of bishops. Southern Italy, including the principality of Benevento had been infiltrated by increasing numbers of Normans, which constituted a challenge to papal interests in the region. Without official imperial support, but resorting to the appeal to protect the Christian church against infidels, by promising impunity for their crimes, the remission of sins and by promising martyrdom to those who fell in battle, a crusading indulgence in fact,467 in about 1053 Leo IX raised a mercenary army in Germany and the Papal States to fight these Christian Normans. Initially adverse to war, the church adopted St. Augustine's idea of “just war”, where war was considered justifiable. It was an about-face by the church and a subversion of principles at this time, until 150 years later the proclamation of crusades against those deemed the Christian enemies of the church, became standard practice. Leo sanctioned fighting in the realm, ignoring the principles embedded in both the Peace and the Truce of God. The army suffered a defeat in 1053 and Leo was taken prisoner. Released, he died the following April.468 Pope Leo's tactic, however, was to provide the model for the later crusades, which were first preached forty years later. The pope's initiative not only contravened the rules against fighting, but also rewarded the military campaign legally, ethically and spiritually. It is this feature, which distinguished a voluntary pilgrimage from a crusade. The events marked a consequential turning point in that the popes not only directed military action against the enemies of Christendom, but also against any perceived or declared enemies within the Christian community. Despite entreaties directed to Constantinople, which however, undiplomatically but ideologically, insisted on the primacy of the Roman pope over the Byzantine patriarch, the Byzantines excommunicated the Romans and refused to send help against the Normans of southern Italy. The Latins responded by excommunicating the patriarch Michael on July 16, 1054. The patriarch responded with a curse. This date marked the Schism, the final split between the western and the eastern Christian churches.469 Leo had died in April of that year. Little would now interfere with the formation of a Norman state. Hildebrand was credited with the complete reversal of the papal policy and the improved relationship between the Papacy and the Normans,470 contributing to the pope's increasing power and to the legitimization of the Norman claims in southern Italy and then Sicily, when they agreed to become vassals of the

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pope. The Norman gains in southern Italy, which the pope awarded unilaterally, came at imperial expense. A papal alliance with the Byzantines against the Normans did not materialize. In 1055, Henry III set out on his second journey to Rome. Accompanied by the pope, Victor II, and 120 bishops he convoked a reform synod in Florence, where the pope forbade the random sale of church property and held several bishops to account for violating the rules of celibacy and against simony.471 With an eye to long-term relations within the Empire rather than foreign policy, the five-year old child-king Henry IV was betrothed to Bertha, the daughter of the count of Turin. Henry's reign marked the end of an era, as the sacerdotal monarchy was stripped of its empowering controls. Henry III was charged with the violation of his own principles of justice, peace, piety and love of God.472 Unintentionally he undermined the very support and cohesion of the realm, the spiritual unity of the Imperium Christianum under the joint theocratic leadership of one pope and one emperor, proclaimed symbolically by the oriented and occidented architecture of the imperial cathedrals, when he inadvertently promoted the strengthening of the Papacy. Regrettably, he showed himself something of a “sorcerer's apprentice”, who brought a circumstance into being, over which his successors were to have no control. This spiritual harmony was an idealization and not to endure in the face of disappointing realities. It obscured the reality of serious problems with a veil of lofty abstractions. In the north conflicts arose between the ambitious missionary interest of archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen, who wanted to establish a northern archdiocese including Iceland, Greenland, Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltic coasts, as identified by Pope Leo IX, and the more pragmatic dukes of Saxony, the Billungs. The emperor sided with the archbishop and hemmed in the Billungs, by expanding the land holdings of neighboring bishoprics. In Lorraine, the return to unsettled conditions led to such rare events as alliances between king Henry of France, Edward the Confessor of England, and Sven Estridson of Denmark with the emperor Henry III, directed against the mighty count Baldwin of Flanders, a vassal of the French king. Despite being excommunicated by Pope Leo IX, Baldwin persisted in raiding Lorraine. Imperial military efforts accomplished little, as a power center was taking shape in the west. It was to gain in significance, when its duke Godfrey married Beatrix, the widowed margravine of Canossa-Tuscany. Henry succeeded in having the Lotharingian magnates drive out Godfrey and upon his return from his second expedition to Italy, 1055, he had Beatrix and her daughter Mathilda

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in his train.473 The latter would yet play a significant role in the troubles of Henry IV. In the Regnum Italie, April 1055, a sacerdotal Henry III raised his last bishop to the Papacy. Bishop Gebhard of Eichstätt took the name Victor II and soon acted the part of the imperial functionary. Victor pursued the reforms and continued the struggle against simony. The emperor increased his powers by enlarging the papal domain by the addition of the duchy of Spoleto, not only because he wanted to strengthen the pope, but mainly because he considered the Papal States as a buffering march against the Normans and the growing power of Tuscany under its Lotharingian duke. In so doing, he had continued his policy of integrating church offices, even the Papacy, into the administration of the Empire. This in itself is not surprising, since these popes continued to be bishops in bishoprics of the realm and as such, they had a tradition of being co-opted for administrative functions in the kingdom. The confluence of internal and external tensions aggravated the situation for the Empire. Opposition was rising against his autocratic rule and increasing estrangement marred his relationship with his subjects. But, rather than ameliorating the growing tensions, he resorted to the selfaggrandizement and remoteness of his own personage, announcing that any violation of his majesty would invite the death penalty. As early as 1047, an assassination may have been plotted by the Saxon nobles against Henry III.474 In fact, Henry applied the Ottonian policy of making the imperial church the foundation of the Empire. Henry's understanding of his sacred, high-priestly role on earth, easily misunderstood, gave him the right to claim the authority over the church and to invest such church support as was needed to provide the realm with a solid and stable basis,475 which throughout his reign counteracted the potential threats of unrest and rebellion from his nobility. On the other hand, the growing insistence of the reform movement to demand freedom of the church from worldly authority and to subject the king's functions to Canon Law and to raise the episcopal consecration above the oath sworn to the king, introduced serious points of political contention. This belief was to challenge the foundations and the stability of the realm. Disinterest marked the imperial attitude towards the east. The Slavic border wars were left to the ability and resources of the local interest groups. Neglect affected the eastern bishoprics, including Magdeburg. Reverses were considerable, including the destruction of the Saxon forces shortly before Henry's death. These sins of omission may have been symptomatic for a Salian disenchantment with the eastern frontier and a return to their western and southern core

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lands.476 But even in Bavaria, a rift developed between its duke and the king over differences in the Hungarian policy. Royal high handedness compromised his relations with the contrary factions among the high nobility. The list of complaints and complainants was long and varied, the king's responses unsatisfactory. Fortunately, armed conflict did not erupt, because of the deaths of his adversaries. Henry's nobles resented his unyielding firmness, his punishing confiscations and excessive favor of the clergy, even though both nobility and clergy belonged to the same social class. They faulted him for no longer representing their interests, for having abandoned peace and justice, piety and the love of God, in favor of severity, confiscations and episcopal preferences. Estrangement from his secular supporters characterized the closing years of his reign, owing to his reliance on toadying advisors and favorites at court, and unwarranted investitures in high church offices.477 The internal tensions were such that the open conflict between the crown and its magnates was merely postponed, because all manner of immense difficulty broke out during the minority of Henry IV. Troublesome decades of a prolonged power struggle were to ensue, during which the consolidated Papacy became the principal rival of the Empire in the pursuit of the realization of the universal Imperium Sacrum Romanorum on earth, as militant popes claimed control over the imperial church and challenged the king's right to invest bishops. The neighboring kingdoms were engaged in their growth and consolidation for which opposition to the Empire provided good cause, but which in turn contributed to the serious internal problems, which arose for the crown within the realm.478 Henry's military ventures against them were not marked by outstanding successes. This confluence was a serious, even existential complication for the realm. Its resources were not sufficient to maintain the hegemony over the kingdoms on its periphery. On October 5, 1056, the day of his thirty-ninth birthday, Henry III died, probably exhausted from his determined struggle to defend the theocratic principles. The chronicler blamed it on his eating a stag's liver. His death struggle lasted eight days. Was his a regrettably premature death? Probably not. The significantly improved conditions during the “regency” of the reigning empress Agnes may have prevented a calamitous crisis for the realm. The glorious beginning of his reign was tarnishing towards its increasingly autocratic end. On October 28, he was laid to rest in the crypt of Speyer Cathedral. His heart was removed to Goslar. On his deathbed, Henry III had entrusted the welfare of the prince to Pope Victor II. Once again, a young widowed empress and her infant

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son found themselves challenged to bear the burden of ruling a latently unsettled Empire.479

Henry IV and the Loss of the Secular Authority Henry IV was six years old. Henry's birth had been preceded by that of four sisters. The oldest, was Gunhild's daughter Beatrix, who at the age of eight, in 1045, was made abbess of Quedlinburg. He had three older sisters and a younger brother, who, along with Henry, were the children of Agnes of Poitou, the second wife of Henry III. At his birth, November 11, 1050, the long awaited heir was named Conrad, but on the occasion of his baptism at Easter, March 31, 1051, his godfather, the abbot Hugh of Cluny, insisted that he be named after his father rather than his grandfather, hence Henry IV. Henry's younger brother, born in the autumn of 1052, was then named Conrad. Already before his heir's baptism the ailing Henry III had pursued the designation of his successor and the consent of the magnates to the succession and had the assembled nobles pay homage to the child-king. The state of the realm recommended hurry. That the abbot of Cluny should be asked to be godfather to the prince indicates clearly the close link, which the imperial family felt with the reform movement emanating from Cluny. In November 1053, Henry III had his son elected king at the Diet of Tribur and a month later awarded him the duchy of Bavaria.480 On July 17, 1054, Henry was crowned king at Aachen, whereby Henry IV became co-ruler of the kingdom. The succession had been assured, though a plot to assassinate the child-king was seriously considered. The Bavarian duchy was awarded to young Conrad. The election and promise of obedience at Tribur had been agreed upon by the magnates with reservations and on the condition that the new king would behave differently than his father had and prove himself a just and proper ruler. This was new and possibly a warning, reflecting an early expression of “constitutional” ideas.481 The disgruntled magnates reserved for themselves the right of resistance should the king-elect not live up to ethical expectations and follow in his father's footsteps. By no means a universal complaint, changing conditions in the realm promoted disillusion, disappointed acceptance and pessimism about the prospective succession. As was mentioned above, some felt that justice was abused and peace a remote ideal. The growing recognition of the increasing status and early economic importance of the cities and their citizens, along Italian models, as well as the increasing reliance on ministerial functionaries coupled with some loss of aristocratic privilege may have

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contributed to this insistence. In tandem, economic and administrative developments would offer an increasingly stable support for the king, especially when it became apparent, that the old nobility was not above electing its own anti-king.482 Already Conrad II had established the hereditary Reichsritter, the ministerials, the former unfree service nobility, now promoted to the status of independent imperial knights who owed allegiance only to the emperor regardless on whose territory their feudal landholdings were located. Not a power just then, these were seen to be eroding the aristocratic privilege of the old nobility and threatening the partnership with the crown, just when the support of the clergy was fading, to become a significant, loyal military support of the emperors. However, rather than locating in urban centers and forming an urban nobility, as was the case elsewhere, they remained rural and, debt-ridden and impoverished, ultimately regressed to the level of robber barons, owning no more than three hectares and a cow. In order to correct their fortunes, they sought their victims particularly among the merchants conducting long distance trade and in their willingness to serve in the mercenary armies of the day. That old nobility considered itself distinct from this new caste of ministerial knights. By 1200, the most important imperial ministerials outranked in power and influence many of the princes.483 It should be considered, that the lines were not clearly drawn and that during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the term Ritter, for those serving on horseback, including peasants, did not apply to a uniformly defined and constituted social horizon. Under Frederick II, 1194-1250, officials came largely from this group of ministerials. Only rarely were they granted a fief. Most often, they were installed or removed by the king. They owed him loyalty and accountability and were paid for their services. Their duties included judicial, administrative and military service, the guardianship over the forests and properties of their tenants, over churches and monasteries, enjoying the king's protection, as well as the collection of duties, fees and fines, taxes and tolls from towns, mines, roads, bridges, and mints. From these incomes they had to meet all administrative costs, and render to Caesar, what was Caesar's.484 As mentioned above, to gain another supporting pillar in Italy, at Christmas 1055, prince Henry was betrothed to Bertha, the daughter of the margrave Otto of Turin-Savoy. The choice of bride was motivated by strategic considerations designed to keep control of the western Alpine passes and directed against the Lotharingian duke Godfrey, now married to the margravine Beatrix of Canossa-Tuscany. In preparation for the succession, Henry III arranged for the reconciliation with Godfrey and the

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margravines. Henceforth two additional names appeared on the royal/imperial diplomas, that of Henry IV and of the empress Agnes. While this demonstrated dynastic continuity within the realm, to the magnates this signaled their projected exclusion from administrative affairs. They began to develop their own. On his deathbed, Henry III had the assembled magnates elect his successor one more time and placed the young Henry IV under the tutelage of Pope Victor II.485 Thanks to the guardianship of Pope Victor II, the reign of six-year old Henry had a stable beginning. He saw to it that Henry IV ceremoniously ascended the throne of Charlemagne in Aachen and within a short time; the trouble spots in Lotharingia, Bavaria and Carinthia were appeased. He gained the support of the magnates by oath to extend to Agnes the right to designate a successor, should the throne become vacant. Her youngest son having died in 1055, such an eventuality was conceivable. The young Agnes, 30 years old, empress for twelve years during which she gave birth to five children, was recognized as the head of the Salian house. She could follow the example of the Ottonian empress-mother Theophanu and assume the rule for her son, although different from her, Agnes had taken the veil upon Henry's death.486 As was the case for Theophanu, there was no provision for a regency. As guardian, she could rule in the king's name during his minority. Following the testament and guidelines of Henry III, as reigning empress, she effectively gathered bishops and abbots about the throne and restored much confiscated property and proceeded with the practice of Lay Investiture, by awarding ring and crook, without arousing any criticism. While churchmen held great influence at court, secular powers dominated the kingdom and ministerials rose to power in support of the monarchy. Their influence at court and on young Henry roused resentments against them. Increasingly hemmed in, Agnes was pressured to surrender royal prerogatives, as she tried to muster the support of the magnates. Free to award the duchies to assertive individuals, she could no longer claim them for the crown. Difficulties, which arose in Saxony,487 though not handled competently, and though they contributed to a loss of prestige for the crown, did not lead to dissent, especially when a successful campaign against the Slavs returned them to imperial suzerainty. Relations with Hungary, torn by rebellion, were arranged as among equals in a marriage of the Hungarian heir Solomon with Judith, Henry's sister, called Sophia in Hungary. In Henry's name, the central authority representing the empress imposed non-resident dukes on Bavaria, Swabia and Burgundy, and Carinthia. It was she, who bestowed the Swabian duchy on Rudolph von Rheinfelden, and the future anti-king, who bolstered his claim by

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abducting her twelve-year old daughter Mathilda.488 Owing to a clever marriage policy Rudolph von Rheinfelden, possibly of the royal Burgundian line, duke of Swabia, would eventually gain sufficient power to rise as anti-king to Henry. Following Mathilda's death, he married Adelheit of Turin, the sister-in-law of Henry IV, thereby gaining Königsnähe, the proximity to the king. Carinthia and Bavaria were similarly distributed as royal domains, over which the empress could dispose at will. Ironically, she elevated the men, who were to create the most serious of difficulties for her son.489 In Lotharingia, the magnates determined the affairs of the duchy. Dissatisfaction and rivalries led to strife, but by failing to exercise immediate royal control over the duchies, though capable, Agnes, passively but unwittingly permitted the containment of the central authority. Reacting to events rather than determining a policy, royal control without policy became ineffective. The magnates had learned not to be intimidated by sanctions imposed by the church, just as they were learning to do without a king.490 It was a climate in which the child-king learned to distrust those around him. While she could rely on high churchmen, the self-serving ambitions of the magnates, the secular peers of the land were less prominent at court. An ambivalence obscured the historical processes, as on the one hand the regency of Agnes suggested continuing stability, while on the other, the growing estrangement of the self-assured magnates eroded the central authority. Internal affairs also blinded the imperial court to the great changes taking place in Rome. A rift occurred between Rome and the German prelates Agnes was initially able to draw on the assistance of such high churchmen as the abbot Hugh of Cluny, the archbishop Anno of Cologne, the archbishop of Mainz and especially the bishop Henry of Augsburg. Unfortunately, Pope Victor II had died in 1057, during his return to Rome. His successor, Stephen IX, was elected speedily, to prevent the Papacy from becoming once again an instrument of the Roman populace, as happened with the next pope, the anti-pope Benedict X.491 For the ministerials royal service, as soldiers, bailiffs, prefects and stewards, offered the chance for advancement, prestige and influence, even if at this stage they were still non-hereditary stakeholders of the king's expanding territories. Agnes' favor for bishop Henry of Augsburg as her chief advisor incurred the hostility of others, who did a lot to denigrate the empress, by calling her names and suggesting immoral behavior towards bishop Henry. The atmosphere at court was unrestrained. Preoccupied with internal affairs, the imperial court did not appreciate the great changes taking place in the world.

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With her administrative focus on the Salian kingdom, Burgundy and Italy, but also the kingdoms to the east, fell from her attention. Especially the activities of the reformed Papacy were ignored. With the death of Victor II, the line of popes favorably disposed to the Empire came to an abrupt end. The crown showed no reluctance to concede the papal elections. As a result, the relationship between the Empire and the church shifted towards the Papacy.492 The changeable nature of royal policies even bothered the Papacy in Rome. In the end, the empress withdrew from the affairs of state and surrendered them to her counselors. Among these, archbishop Anno of Cologne, initially not one who determined policy, had increased his material power, but had incurred the displeasure and disciplinary censure of Pope Nicholas II. This caused a rift between Rome and the northern prelates. It would come to focus on the question of investiture of laymen with bishoprics and abbeys in the imperial church, coupled with the act of homage, a political necessity in the north. The question pitted Royal Law against Canon Law. It was a situation, which favored simony and marriage of the clergy. With Agnes' projected retirement to a pious life of ascetic renunciation, – though competent, she was not motivated by a ruler's temperament – the counselors had to gain influence over the king. In 1062, a conspiracy among the magnates challenged her fitness to rule and resented the influence of the bishop Henry of Augsburg over her and the imperial policies. There may also have been concern over the proper education of the young king and the greed and arbitrariness of the courtiers, and the prestige of the realm. By the time that the affair was over, the sacred kingship was a vain memory. Anno gained the upper hand by enticing the young king onto his ship and abducting him. The story has the young king jump overboard, but being hauled back on board. Simultaneously Anno may have seized the Cross of the Empire and the Holy Lance, in order to ensure his determining future role in the administration.493 Too undramatic for a coup d'état, this bold move probably required the connivance of other secular and ecclesiastical magnates. Utilizing the boy-king's minority, the magnates indulged in a “feeding-frenzy” as his advisors advanced their own interests, acted against one another, seized power and unprotected royal territories.494 Such events very likely furthered Henry's distrust of his higher nobility, as he encountered “glass walls and ceilings” at every turn. The lesser nobility may have responded more easily to his condition. On occasion, he deliberately affronted the highborn, and favored the company of the ministerials.495 While Anno's hunger for power must have been a factor, the other reasons advanced listed distrust over the leadership quality of a

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woman, the greed and arbitrariness of the courtiers, the quality of the king's education and the concern over the Empire's prestige give the motives a ring of sincerity. The Annolied496 paints a favorable picture, while the Anno shrine represents an enhancing legend of his role. Anno II, along with Adalbert, the archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, happily practiced nepotism, transferred much of the royal domain to church holdings.497 The empress Agnes wanted to leave the world and enter a convent. Henry IV must have felt affronted and deeply injured in his sacred majesty. This may account for his future relations with the religious and secular magnates of the realm. Anno assumed responsibility for the complex affairs of state and with the collaboration of others, soon set them aright, by reversing unsound measures instituted by Henry III, and demonstrating another aspect of the continuing transpersonal realm. Eventually the citizens of Cologne drove Anno from the city. In Rome, in 1059, Hildebrand had been instrumental in raising Pope Nicholas II to the papal throne by members of the reform movement. Hildebrand may have performed the first papal coronation with the triple tiara, signifying papal sovereignty. Furthermore, the laudations, which had been associated exclusively with the imperial coronations, were now used for the coronation of the pope.498 A council in the Lateran deliberated about an improved papal election and authorized the cardinal bishops, an inner group of cardinals, to augment their ranks with additional cardinals, thereby anticipating the future College of Cardinals.499 Imbued with a growing sense of self-awareness, the papal electors derived the mandate from the apostolic authority, as they ruled out any conditions under which a layman could invest someone with a position in the church. They alone would play the determining role in papal elections, thus preventing simony. Most important was the placement of this procedure under church law, to which royal law was subordinate and which equipped the Papacy with its primacy in Christendom. It was a question of the freedom of the church from imperial intervention. A papal decree marked the determining shift towards the papal primacy. It was too late for the crown to establish its rights of approval over the papal candidacy. The king/emperor, other clerics and the population of Rome would have passive observer status and only have the right of acclamation.500 The king's role in these matters was not even under discussion. His military power would be contested, because the Papacy had gained the vassalage of the southern Normans, as well as income and military support against all who threatened interference with it. Legalities were not observed. Agnes and her imperial court had seen no reason for agitation about these events and the decisions taken. The Lateran Council of 1059 excluded any German representation and

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retroactively approved irregularities in the election of Nicholas II. As protection against any possible displeasure of the Empire, the pope sought the support of the southern Normans. Despite his short reign, significant changes were introduced under Nicholas II, including an oath of fealty by the Normans to be papal vassals, an unfriendly change of papal policy directed against the regency of the empress Agnes of the northern kingdom. Evidently, serious differences between the reform papacy and the royal advisors disturbed the relationship. The pope's unexpected death in 1061 returned the Papacy to schismatic conditions, when the various factions proposed two popes, generating the fear that the conditions, which had led to the Synod of Sutri, were about to return. The election in 1061 and confirmation of Alexander II on the papal throne, though approved by Anno and his council, was rejected by Agnes, who proposed an alternative candidate, Honorius II. It created an even deeper rift between the crown and the Papacy, leading to the excommunication of several of the advisors of Henry IV. This was a loss of royal prestige and threatened an alienation from the reform movement. He was supported by the northern bishops. There followed the century of the anti-popes.501 This was to be a bloody schism, as both popes occasionally resided in Rome. Though Agnes retained her nominal “regency”, she suffered pangs of guilt, for having helped to bring the schism about, and retired to a pious life of renunciation and monastic seclusion. She withdrew from politics first to her estates and in 1065, with the majority of her son, to Rome, to end her days in the vicinity of the grave of St. Peter. In the end, Alexander II was confirmed on the papal throne. Anno had read the temper of the times correctly and postponed the inevitable clash between the realm and the reform Papacy. It is of significance, that this pope issued a decree against the persecution of Jews, and rejected an attack on Jews, who did not display hostility against Christians. This may be why a charge of murder of a Christian had to be leveled at Jews, before they could be attacked. In 1063, the archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen established himself as Anno's rival.502 Owing to Henry's grudge against Anno, Adalbert quickly rose in the king's favor, as he took the king's side and condemned those who had earlier raised their hands against their king or had pillaged the churches for their own enrichment. He proposed their eradication. He reputedly considered himself higher placed than St. Peter, for he had not denied Christ as Peter had, and proclaimed that the king's subject owed their king absolute loyalty. Clearly, Adalbert had a different understanding of the kingship, than did Anno. His own ambitions included the exclusion of the Saxon dukes and his assumption of their secular

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position and power, while he aimed to expand his archbishopric to include the Scandinavian world and to become patriarch of the Danish diocese. His archbishopric Bremen was not his priority, as Adalbert's political ambitions focused on his dominant role in the monarchy and not the monarchy as such. The thoughts concerning the total loyalty to the king met with the personal persuasions to Henry IV. The Obodrite uprising of 1066 deflated Adalbert's ambitions. The opposition at court accused him of staking his own claims, and in 1066, despite the king's wishes, drove him from the court. His ostracism served as a signal for the king, not to place his personal wishes above those of the realm.503 In retrospect, Adalbert was considered a bad influence on the young king. His support for the pre-eminence of a single favorite advisor may have formed his sense of unilateral rule and alienated the magnates, who as a group were obliged to render “counsel and assistance”, consilium et auxilium. This relationship restrained even the king from acting autocratically, with cunning and deceit, but always supported by the consent of the council of the peers of the land, because the nobility expected to share in the consensual rule of the realm, and, at least in principle, to guard the rights, which the king had the duty to extend and protect. Henry's disregard of the principles of “counsel and assistance” drew upon him severe criticism for not having sought counsel or heeded that of the wrong advisors.504 In late March 1065, Henry IV had celebrated his coming of age, his admission into the order of knights as well as the assumption of his own, independent rule as king in the ancestral city of Worms. According to an anecdote, the young king immediately drew his sword against his abductor, Anno, archbishop of Cologne. Only his mother's intervention saved the man some discomfort. His distrust of the high nobility seems to have been the result of this experience early in his life. Subsequently the empress Agnes reversed her stance of guilt in the papal schism with a pilgrimage to Rome in the second half of 1065, indicating her belated support for the reform Papacy. Henry's long reign of fifty years (1056-1106) did not begin well, as many conflicts, scandals and intrigues continued into his rule. Nepotism among the leading prelates, greed and the thirst for power among the high ranking nobility, undermined the prestige of the realm, jeopardized the kingdom and seemed to tax the young king's ability.505 His early recall of the moderate number of properties distributed during his mother's regency, by Anno for instance, bestirred resentments. Little wonder that he would call upon dedicated ministerials to be his confidants and assist with his administration as governors, prefects and provosts. It follows that Henry IV would attract the discontent, resentment and grave displeasure of the

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peers of the realm for associating with counselors of humble birth, and for the threat, which they represented to their positions, as Henry IV tried to reclaim the former position of the crown unilaterally. At no time did Henry's autocratic government reflect the traditional administration by the consensus of the leading magnates.506 Repeatedly, he could not count on the loyal support of his magnates, who did not hesitate to equate him with the Antichrist and the godless incarnation of evil as such. On the other hand, the grandeur of Speyer Cathedral attests to the majesty and spiritual nature of his character. It was he, who would bring this favorite project begun by his grandfather and continued by his father to near completion. Concerning the Italian policy and the settling of the papal schism, one counselor in particular among the prelates, Adalbert, archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, countermanded and postponed Henry's announced expedition into Italy at great cost to the imperial prestige in the Regnum Italie. This show of indecision did allow the anti-imperial forces in the Papacy to distance themselves from Henry IV. The court did not appreciate the lurking dangers. Anno was instrumental in the overthrow of Adalbert, mentioned above, and returned to power, effectively relegating Henry to his minority once again. In Italy, the losses to the imperial position were equally in need of recovery. Unfortunately, efforts were to be too late. While Anno of Cologne and Siegfried I of Mainz had sought the reconciliation of the court with the Papacy, the pope needed the king as possible recourse against the expanding Normans. However, as early as 1059 the citizenry of Milan, strong and rich because of its long distance trade, but in conflict with the urban nobility, strove for political influence and the codetermination of the future of the city and revolted against the ruling but worldly clergy and for, what was to become a future problem, urban autonomy. Once again, the Salian supporters in Italy were disappointed, as a new expedition in 1066 was postponed indefinitely, even though the Normans were under the walls of Rome. Clearly, Henry IV did not prove himself an effective protector and defender of the church.507 During the next few years Henry IV had to deal with other problems of his own making: reputedly seduced by a womanizing life of debauchery and promiscuity,508 Henry became so ill, that his successor was sought. True or not, the defamations and accusations point to a destabilizing climate of suspicion and doubt around the king. Upon his recovery, the marriage with his betrothed Bertha of Turin was celebrated in 1066, but the 15-year-old child-groom resented his loss of freedom and two years later wanted to divorce his now 16-year-old child-bride, claiming that the marriage had not been consummated. Unknown in Ottonian-Salian times, in 1069, at the

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diet at Frankfurt, the papal legate prevented the unprecedented divorce, and king and queen were reconciled. A year later a daughter was born. However, while the Papacy's renown grew, the monarchy's reputation had suffered a damaging blow.509 Italian affairs were allowed to unfold according to their own agenda, costing the Empire valuable collaboration in the developments. In 1066 (the year of the Norman conquest of England), at the Diet of Tribur, the magnates had overthrown Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen as chief counselor of the king. This affected negatively conditions in the north and along the Slavic frontier east of the river Elbe for many years as anti-Christian forces dealt harshly with the Slavic Christians, murdering and martyring many of them. Even Hamburg fell to their assault. In 1069, Henry IV led a campaign across the river Elbe, the first in many years. It was to be a weak gesture. Henry was soon involved in a conflict with the southern duchies, Swabia and Carinthia. Conspiracy charges were levied against the dukes. The background to these charges lay in the Cluniac reform, which was being extended to include the imperial monastic foundations. The reform meant that the foundations would renounce their involvement in the secular affairs of the world and turn to prayer and ascetic withdrawal. Rudolph von Rheinfelden, duke of Swabia, wanted to introduce the reform there. To the king this act had the appearance of a negation of the feudal obligations and of the interests of the realm, and revolt. In 1073, a temporary reconciliation between the king and the dukes could be arranged. In the meantime, a royal investiture of the bishop of Milan without consultation became highly problematic. Pope Alexander II had excommunicated one of the king's candidates, Godfrey, while the city of Milan rejected the papal candidate. In 1073, Henry IV invested Godfrey with the symbols of his office. The pope's response was the charge of simony and to place five of the king's advisors under the ban.510 This was a clear warning to the king, all the more significant, because of the empress' agreement. The pope's unexpected death in 1073 delayed the open conflict with the Papacy only briefly. As the Ottonian “system” was disintegrating, Pope Gregory VII took charge of the question of Lay Investiture, initially mainly in cases of unworthy appointments. However, the dissatisfaction created by Henry's appointment policy played into the pope's hands, who saw the secular appointment of bishops as an obstacle to reform and chose to see the particular problem in Milan to be mainly one of simony.511 As the Papacy was increasingly considered to be a source of jurisdiction, counsel and direction, appeals to Rome for papal intervention became an effective device, and the number of personal appeals to the pope increased, even by

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prominent and powerful German churchmen. Henry IV should have read the signals of an approaching crisis.512 Questions of autonomy were emerging as concerns, as the pope began to preempt the royal investiture by consecrating his candidate. At the Lenten Synod of 1076 Gregory VII deposed Henry IV and excommunicated him.513 However, the great clash of 1076 was not caused by a clear prohibition of investiture first proclaimed during the autumn synod of 1078 and renewed in 1080. It clearly was the result rather than the cause of the conflict between pope and king.514 This quickly led to the relegation of the king and the prohibition of his royal investiture before the ecclesiastical consecration on pain of excommunication. 515 It is interesting to note, that the Seljuk Turks had taken Jerusalem in 1071, an event that caused no determined reaction in the west until twentysix years later. In Saxony, the social and religious power structure vigorously pursued its own interests following the death of Henry III. After 1065, and perhaps as a residue of Adalbert's anti-Saxon influence, Henry IV wanted not only to restore previous conditions against the interests of those favoring the status quo, but to establish his claim to royal authority throughout the kingdom and especially in Saxony.516 Saxon dissatisfaction had first brought princes of state and church together, to remonstrate with the king, but in the midst of preparing for the Slavic campaign, he rebuffed them rudely, with the result, that princely dissatisfaction was transformed into a popular uprising. The biased historical records find it easy to defame the king, distort his intentions and put his action totally in the wrong. They included rhetorical accusations of profligacy, his moral unsuitability and incompetence to rule, all the characteristics from the catalogue of tyranny. There are no other records.517 The kingdom was rife for strife. The unrest was motivated by the royal policy under Henry IV to recover, restore the traditional legal status, lost during his minority, and expand into the former royal Ottonian domain in Saxony-Thuringia. It appears that he wanted to return to his father's policy to create a core region of royal lands, marked with and controlled by stone castles, not conceived as refuges for the neighboring population, but as controlling, repressive strongholds, imposing reminders of the services and duties owed the king. The largest and most threatening of these was the Harzburg, in the vicinity of Goslar, intended to be another family funerary site, but subsequently razed. 518 These castles imposed large expenses for maintaining the frequent prolonged stays of the court there, for the construction of many defensive mountaintop fortifications between Göttingen in the west and Merseburg and Magdeburg in the east, and by

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the claimed infringements blamed on their ministerial occupants. These ministerials were unfree Swabians loyal to the crown, and when they became inconsiderate tax collectors and enforcers of royal policy, and when they were encouraged to intermarry with the Saxon nobility, these impositions were formulated as accusations that the king violated justice, traditional tribal rights and freedoms. The ministerials, poised in their castle-eyries like birds of prey, were seen tendentiously to pose a threat to the position of the old nobility. Irrational propaganda even charged Henry IV with wishing to replace the Saxon population with Swabians. The king seemed intent on reshuffling the established social structure. The nobility appreciated that Henry was counteracting centrifugal and separatist tendencies of the parts of the kingdom by pursuing stabilizing and consolidating objectives, including the leveling of social differences. Some of the poor rose socially, some of the elevated groups fell among the unfree. Some recognized the social upheaval, others wanted to resist it. The new order of loyal ministerials was ideally suited to realize this centralizing intention. As could be expected, the threat posed by these intentions provoked some hostility among the magnates. The rebellious nobles could see the concentration of control, the leveling of social differences, and demanded the dismissal of these lowborn ministerials from among the king's advisors. They felt singled out and injured in their sense of justice. To them, the king's intentions seemed tyrannical, arbitrary, unjust and repressive constraints, a threat to their own freedoms.519 In Pope Gregory VII, they found a willing ally, who, without understanding the Saxon cause, was intent on fighting the sacerdotal claims of the monarchy. When in 1073 Henry IV called on the armed forces to assemble for a campaign into Poland, it was rumored that the gathered forces were actually to be directed against Saxony. The high nobility and their many supporters rose in revolt.520 It was to end in the election of an anti-king. At Goslar, in August of 1073, Otto von Northeim addressed the assembled nobles, in which the records credit him with haranguing his audience with direct quotations from Roman writers of the last century before the Common Era. He supposedly used rhetorical elements taken from the Catilene rebellion and applied them to justify the Saxon resistance against Henry IV in the cause of Saxon liberty.521 The ancient rhetoric overstated the case, but illustrates nicely, the continuing availability and scholarly familiarity with the Classical sources. The Saxon lords demanded that the king reverse all measures, which he had initiated. The king rejected the demands and was promptly besieged by overwhelming forces. He made good his escape, but six months later the parties recognized their inherent

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weaknesses and a peace was concluded early in 1074, on Saxon terms. The Slavic campaign was cancelled. Assailed from within and without, Henry had to concede the razing of the imperial fortresses in Saxony and the royal castles were destroyed, including the Harzburg with its graves of Henry's firstborn and his younger brother,522 which returned the king to the attack and this time the bloodiest pitched battle in the kingdom to date, cost many lives on both sides, but resulted in the king's undisputed victory. In 1075, the opposition had started to crumble as the nobles began to intrigue against one another and Henry's forces destroyed the rebel Saxon peasant army in a massacre. Against the Saxon reluctance to yield, Henry brought up another army in 1075, composed of troops from all the other duchies and this time the Saxon and Thuringian leaders surrendered unconditionally to Henry and a peace was negotiated. Not inclined to show generosity, an untrustworthy Henry missed a great opportunity to institute a consolidating peace and instead arranged a humiliating spectacle of the surrender of the nobles, confiscated their property and imprisoned them. They were subsequently scattered throughout the kingdom. The kingdom had recovered its pinnacle of prestige and Henry designated his two-year old son Conrad to be his successor. At Christmas 1075, in Goslar, the assembled lords elected Henry's son Conrad. The razed fortresses were rebuilt. Subsequently the most imposing ones were leveled again, so that today only minimal outlines are still visible. While the dynastic succession was assured, the Ottonian-Salian continuity was disrupted. On the eve of the disputes between the imperial interests, first formulated by the Ottonians and those of the reformed Papacy over investiture in 1076, this was particularly consequential, as the dispute resulted in the mutual negation of the representatives of regnum and sacerdotium.523 The new Pope, Gregory VII, wanted to return to the model of unity based on the concord between sacerdotium and regnum, once promoted by Henry III, in which however, the primacy rested with the sacerdotium.524 He had discovered a canon in the records of the dubious Fourth Council of Constantinople (869-70), that Pope Hadrian II had supported a decree prohibiting any metropolitan or bishop from consecrating anyone who had received a bishopric from a lay person. It anathematized any layman, who intervened in the election or promotion of bishops. This Canon 22 quickly established itself in the papal arsenal of Canon Law.525 It effected a change in the weighting of the electoral vote. Dissenters were ignored, while majority votes became decisive as an expression of the divine will. The reestablished order through force was deceptive and left him vulnerable in the struggle for supremacy throughout the realm. Political

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configurations were coming into being, which signaled resistance to the demand for obedience to his authority, and the loss of his unified support. The situation threatened to isolate the king, just when the struggle with the Papacy was to ensue. When fictitious accusations of murder plots arose among his enemies, Henry appealed to the pope for support against his growing opposition. Unknown to Henry IV, the accent in the relationship between crown and cross was shifting progressively towards the religious authority and his own isolation. Henry's supporters in the battle concluded that the victory had been Henry's and not that of the realm.526 By the end of the process, the sacerdotal role of the king was eroded to the point, that the principle of royal sacredness was no more than a nominal, hollow stance, no longer to be supported. This was to be a radical development of the greatest importance, since it undermined the king's position, vis-à-vis the proclamation of the Easter council of 1059, concerning laymen. Seen to be sinners, they could not be worthy. Without recognition of his sacerdotal status, Henry was a layman, no longer authorized to perform investitures of churchmen. Henry IV had expected to continue his father's understanding of royal rule, command and obedience, derived from the divinely ordained order. Within the structure of the imperial church, Henry IV had lost his preeminence much earlier, as beginning with Pope Leo IX, the institution of the church had established binding procedures, demanding unconditioned obedience and which ignored the hierarchical position of the king/emperor.527 The times and their assumptions had changed. The long-term ambition of the Papacy was the abolition of royal theocracy. By the time Gregory VII ascended the papal throne, Henry's position was badly eroded. For Gregory, Henry had fallen away from the church and into wickedness and debauchery. Only his return to the love of the holy church and the renewal of his peace with Gregory could he render satisfaction to God, for associating with excommunicated, hence evil advisors.528 The concord was possible only on Gregory's terms. The concatenation of obedience to divine authority made criticism and rejection unthinkable. In 1077, the magnates assembled to choose a new king in a free election, based on his merit, and not within the constraints of the sacerdotal legitimacy of succession in the reigning dynasty. The magnates asserted their right of participation in the selection of the ruler, rather than submitting and paying homage to the automatic succession of a more or less suitable son as heir. They were making good the conditions, which they had expressed at the time of Henry's election in 1053. It is interesting to note that later, Henry IV found support only with the citizenry of Liège and Worms, a traditional Salian center, which had expelled its bishop and in 1073 had given Henry protection, manpower

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and money, for which Henry granted commercial privileges to Worms.529 In the following year, local conflicts in Cologne drove out its archbishop Anno, while in 1077 the townspeople of Mainz staged a bloody uprising. In Cologne, archbishop Anno returned in force and meted out severe punishments. Even though Henry IV could offer no help, in the final phases of his reign the towns sided with him against his son Henry V.530 Emancipation from episcopal control became a growing wedge issue in the urban centers of the realm. Dynastic problems in Hungary invited Henry's intervention, which ended with the king's restoration, his vassalage to Henry and Hungary's tributary state, and the surrender of six fortified towns in 1074, but otherwise a limited success.

The Investiture Question531 This traditional term is a misnomer, since it represents only the last phase of the primacy dispute between Empire and Papacy. It was a logical conclusion of rational processes activated by the reform movement of the church directed against simony, the purchase of high church offices, which necessitated investiture by the ruler, for which the invested owed the oath of fealty.532 Since the two latter were secular in nature, lay investiture and homage violated Church Law. The conflict between crown and cross culminated in the church's claim to the dominium mundi and total obedience of all to the church in all things. To avoid claims of inheritance, celibacy of the clergy was a key concern. These were to be the concrete expressions of the disputed principles. The Ottonians had been emphatic in their desire to be seen to rule as Christ's representatives, a clear claim to the dominium mundi, of the primacy of rank over the pope. The factional rivalries within Rome, which had raised family interests to the papal throne, led to the invitation of Otto I, the King of Italy, to Rome, to bring order into the situation. Following his imperial coronation, Otto I immediately made the pope and the clergy swear on the grave of the Apostle Peter, their sole allegiance and support for the emperor. Otto's primacy was recognized in the traditional Carolingian form, which included the religious components, as well as the secular considerations. There was no mention of exclusively secular jurisdictions. Otto I had placed himself in the tradition of earlier emperors and issued the privilegium Ottonianum, which in the Carolingian fashion of the “Pepinid Donation”, was based on the mythical “Constantinian Donation”. It had confirmed the emperor's protection of the pope's rights to Rome and the terra sancti Petri, and to all rights and incomes. Since

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the time of Pepin, the church had striven for worldly power and property, something Pope John XII had wanted guaranteed even before Otto entered Rome. Otto made the promises on condition that Ottonian suzerainty be observed and that the Roman clergy and nobility swear that a pope be elected, who would swear an oath of allegiance to the emperor, before the pope was consecrated. Otto III had assumed Byzantine attitudes, wanted to make Rome his residence and relegate the Bishop of Rome to a similar status as that enjoyed by the Patriarch of Constantinople under his emperor. With Otto's death and the succession of Henry II, the focus on Rome and the Papacy abated somewhat, even though Rome had to be maintained as the focus of Empire because of the link, which it provided with ancient Rome and its imperial traditions and institutions. Almost as a reaction to Otto's obsessions, Henry II paid greater attention to Bamberg as another Rome. The reforms proposed by the institutions of the church, allowed Roman family interests to consolidate the papal position by the creation of a papal administrative infrastructure, including the curia and a predecessor of the later College of Cardinals.533 During the ninth and tenth centuries, the Papacy had been actively engaged in gaining territorial control in Italy, while it laid increasing claim to the spiritual domain. In addition, the mythical “Constantinian Donation” came to be used to substantiate the temporal position of the Papacy, even though Otto III had exposed the document as a forgery probably prepared during the last quarter of the 8th century. As the Papacy assumed ever more of the ancient Roman imperial structural and administrative aspects for itself, it equated the papal residence with the center of Imperial Rome. The Papacy was laying the foundations for its claim to the primacy over universal Christianity. To demonstrate its authority publicly, the popes came to wear tiaras, the pallium, miters, a cross rather than a crook, and to underscore the papal claims implied in the “Constantinian Donation” to ride a white horse, led ceremoniously by the emperor. It emphasized the emperor's subservience to the pope. An anachronistic fresco dated to 1247 in the chapel of St. Sylvester in Santi Quattro Coronati in Rome commemorates such an event on the occasion of the coronation of Lothar III in 1133. As the Papacy entered into competition with the secular Empire, the outward indicators underscored the pope's assumption of growing secular responsibilities towards the exclusive leadership of the universal Christian community. Its ultimate aim was to render the secular Empire redundant. To this end, the Papacy took advantage of its archives to use them to redefine its present status and objectives in terms of an invented past.534 What did not conform to the demands of the church was heretical. Faith came to be equated with obedience. In time, any opposition

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to any papal position was denounced as heresy, followed by excommunication. Throughout universal Christendom, religious centers had been founded by monarchs and bishops, as well as by members of the nobility, who retained the authority over their foundations and their administrative heads, so that bishops and abbots could be appointed rather than elected. Throughout, the pope had the authority to grant to the institutions papal privileges, dispensations and exemptions, which could remove them from these jurisdictions and place them under the direct protection of the pope as proprietary establishments. He could dissolve, partition or merge the jurisdictions of bishoprics, or found new institutions, thereby weakening the relative strength and authority of the regional church, its abbots, its bishops and archbishops and strengthening the Papacy.535 In these dealings, a type of simony was often at play.536 With the introduction of papal vassalage, the popes now even became the proprietary liegelords of secular lords. Exemptions were even granted to such kingdoms as Poland and Hungary. The papal decrees had canonical validity and proved a valuable, successful and hence popular instrument in the implementation of the papal primacy. Financial commitments were attached to these papal dispensations, exemptions and privileges, providing the Papacy with a rich source of revenue. By means of synods chaired by papal legates, the Papacy could intervene in the affairs of the church provinces. These practices were particularly effective in those kingdoms, in which a sociopolitical stability had not yet been attained. This was not the case in the Regnum Teutonicum, where the Ottonians and especially Henry II had established a realm in which the king was both rex et sacerdos. This was to prove even more the case during the reign of Henry III, the last effective representative of a ruler over the Imperium Christianum. However, an agenda to consolidate the universal church was in place waiting for implementation even there, facilitated by the fact that the measures implemented by the Papacy had rendered the imperial justification derived from the late Roman Empire an anachronism.537 By the beginning of the thirteenth century, the doctrine of Original Sin was confirmed as an additional concept with which to assail the royal position. Since all men were born in sin, they needed priestly and especially papal intervention to ensure their salvation. Since it was the pope's prerogative to declare a recalcitrant monarch a sinner, and then to grant a repentant sinner absolution, the emperor's relegated position was beyond dispute.538 As was mentioned above, focusing on the investiture of bishops and abbots from among laymen is convenient terminology. The issues of celibacy and simony were at the root of the problem, the latter a particular

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target of the reform movement in the church. Henry III had intervened personally in the affairs of the Papacy, when at the Synod of Sutri he deposed three popes and installed a fourth one. Though this action found the approval of the reformers, himself a strong supporter of the reform movement, Henry's intervention was ultimately condemned as an abuse of prerogative and as heresy. The papal infrastructure had drawn on the reformed monasteries for trained specialists and as these were promoted through the ranks, the reforms were gaining in influence until the administrative structure produced its own papal candidates, thereby strengthening the position of the Papacy. Celibacy of the priesthood was one of the earliest goals of the reform. Since churchmen were married to the Virgin and the church, marriage and intercourse with women was seen as a type of bigamy.539 In practice, however, such activities escaped close scrutiny unless the cohabitation attracted notoriety. Resistance to its enforcement, however, was vociferous.540 Simony proved the more far-reaching issue, since it compromised the authority of rulers to make appointments in the religious institutions in their jurisdictions. Both issues were peripheral to the dispute, as both sides were agreed on them. Behind this controversy, the real disputes revolved around the actual ownership of property within the kingdom, practically expressed in the oath of fealty to the king. Since medieval authority rested on land ownership and territorial control, the power conflict between the monarchy and the Papacy was inevitable. We know from their sponsorship of the arts and architecture, that hitherto, German bishops, abbots and even monks had been able to receive the call from other bishoprics and abbeys and to accept such positions, including promotions, rather freely, thereby being able to contribute to a cohesive, strengthening and stabilizing network within the kingdom. Already in Carolingian times, prayer communities had linked the religious realm, while the exchange of books among the monasteries had tied them into a networking “national” community.541 In the oath of fealty, the princes of the church received any appertaining property from the suzerain, symbolized by investiture with a scepter, who left it nominally in the hands and administrative control of the royal church following investiture.542 For bishops and abbots investiture was coupled with fealty and the implied expectation, that this ownership was linked to the servitium regis. While the emperor considered such land ownership to be temporal, reverting to the crown following the death of its grantee, – their positions could not be passed on through inheritance –, for the papal church, the swearing of oaths contravened Canon Law. Homage was unacceptable for its members, as such land grants became permanent possessions of the church and sacred, with the

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Papacy as prospective absentee landowner in the kingdom, but without responsibilities to the kingdom. To this end it was mandatory for the establishment of papal control that investiture pass out of the hands of laymen, even of the sacral king, and into the hands of the popes. To bring this about, the reform movement was instrumental in condemning the prerogative of laymen to install churchmen or laymen as bishops and abbots and insisted on the free election of the institutional heads in accordance with church law. The fact that an increasing number of popes had served as papal administrators accounts for some of the emergence of this papal policy. By questioning these prerogatives, the king's suzerainty and freedom of action, already restrained by his nobility, was to be severely curtailed. Only the pope was to have such exclusive prerogatives when dealing with matters affecting the church. For the itinerant monarchs the implementation of such reforms entailed the transfer of allegiance and cancelled the servitium regis for bishops and abbots and their pyramidal infrastructures. Considering the kingdom's dependence on the church and its institutions, the reforms introduced a high degree of vulnerability to the position of the king, the royal institutions and the stability of the kingdom. Of the “Two Authorities” the secular one was hereby relegated to an inferior, peripheral level. Since 1046, the reform Papacy developed the arguments based on its understanding of the exclusive papal role until it succeeded in establishing this understanding as the reality of the papal role within the Imperium Christianum. Propounded by Pope Gregory VII, it embroiled the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V, compromised even further by the dissent of the Saxon nobility. Upon the premature death of Henry III and during the regency of the empress Agnes, and especially during the minority of Henry IV, the Papacy was able to advance its position against that of the monarchy. By definition, in the eyes of the Papacy, any control of the church and its institutions by the secular authorities was of evil. By the middle of the eleventh century, only those countries were recognized as truly Christian, which recognized the suzerainty of the pope as that of the supreme pontiff in a universal church.543 All others were heretics. The king/emperors had not only been deprived of their sacerdotal dignity, which had last imbued the theocratic Henry III, but Henry IV was equated with the Anti-Christ. The aggressive papal innovations indicated to the kings that they were now in need of a newly based legitimacy. In January 1076, the troubles of Henry IV were to begin with a letter brought to him in Goslar by papal envoys.544 In 1073, on the day following the burial of Pope Alexander II, the Roman populace, joined by the clergy, proclaimed the ascetic Hildebrand pope, a logical choice, since he had

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wielded the power behind the papal throne of several popes. It was not an election.545 Without reference to the obligations laid down in the Ottonianum, Henry did not protest, yet royal consent was not obtained either. It has been surmised that the public acclamation aimed at returning the pope-making power to Roman political interests.546 This could only be understood as a challenge to the royal prerogatives, but then the king was associated with some under the church ban, and was automatically excommunicated himself. Hildebrand took the name Gregory VII, a deliberate association with Gregory the Great, who had established the primacy of the Roman church and its primate in Christendom, but a special gesture of spite following the deposition and exile of Gregory VI. Henry could have refused to recognize the selection, as he was encouraged to do. Contrary to the law, the people of Rome had determined the succession, evidently an expression of the divine will and the Holy Spirit. Gregory insisted on his unwillingness to assume the role, but he submitted to the choice, since he saw in the will of the people the working will of God, to which he owed unconditional obedience. This he would expect of others. Hildebrand, who adhered strictly to the rule of poverty, rather than to that of a Cluniac monk,547 had determined papal policies for many years and even dominated the popes. Though pious and of a solid religiosity, Gregory was a pragmatist in whom politics were religiously motivated. In the interest of the functional church, he relied on councils and legates. He wanted to counteract the many abuses and forbade Simony – the sale of church offices, Lay Investiture – bestowing church offices by or to laymen, and clerical Fornication/Concubinage – insisting on the celibacy of priests. This was intended to prevent hereditary claims and the dissipation of church property. In the interest of the autonomy of the Papacy, he created new conditions, affecting the roles of the Roman nobility and the emperor. “All power to the pope” was the motto, which summed up in twenty-seven dictates his intentions to introduce his claim to papal omnipotence, formulated in his Dictatus papae, a document of twenty-seven theses exploring the direction of papal authority.548 Many of these were neither his nor new, but represented the radical Gregorian view. The opening statement establishes that the Roman church was founded by the Lord and owed its existence to no one else. In his mind, Christ had charged St. Peter with the foundation of the Christian Church. As living representative of St. Peter, Gregory was the energetic executor of the latter's will549 and as of 1075 asserted with these “Papal Dictates”, that without agreement with the Roman Church no one could consider himself to be Catholic. He was a heretic who was not in agreement with the church and obedient in all

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matters, not just in questions of the faith. The demand for Gregorian papal centralism, even if it meant assuming both Gelasian authorities, the burdens of the church and the state,550 advanced by claims to unconditional obedience, to the undisputed primacy, universal infallibility, unquestioned immunity and omnipotence of the pope, is a logical consequence of the reform Papacy. Supported by the Constantinian Donation, the pope claimed the right to wear the papal insignia, in another, the authority to depose emperors. Gregory's threatening letter of December 1075 made the clear claim that Christ acted and decided solely through the pope and that henceforth the king was subject to the Imperium Christi and cut off from any direct divine entitlement.551 No one but the pope was qualified to rescind these dictates. One year before he actually did so, he claimed the authority to depose emperors, and cancel oaths of allegiance, since he was the only true emperor, solely entitled to possess and carry the imperial insignia and to be considered the universal reigning authority. In his mind, spiritual and temporal powers were one.552 Even though Pope Gregory VII advanced these views with extreme enthusiasm, considering the intellectual and political climate of the day, there were no challengers of these seemingly abstract claims based on authentic and forged papal documents. They were quickly transformed into concrete demands, supported by the reformed views that the lay interference must be eliminated from the church. Christ as Salvator also figures as Pancrator and it is this aspect of Christ, which infuses the pope as universal ruler. As the supreme ruler of Europe, all kings were to be his vassals, among them, William the Conqueror and Philip I of France, and while no one could reverse the judgments of the pope, the pope could revoke those of all others. It was a clear claim to the undisputed primacy of the Papacy in all matters spiritual and temporal. The transformation of the imperial laudations into papal laudations was being realized, as the popes were assuming imperial authority. The rift came to be over the key questions of simony and fealty, celibacy and the associated problems related to investiture with high church offices.553 In young Henry IV, the pope had hoped to have a pliable instrument to use in his plans of reform, hence the cautioning tone of his didactic epistle. In Gregory VII, Henry IV was to encounter a pope of firm, almost fanatical conviction of the rightness of his views. The temper of the times supported the pope. The pope proposed an armed pilgrimage for 1074/75, supported by 50,000 knights, to defend the Byzantine empire against the Turks and to overcome the schism between eastern and western Christendom.554 It was intended as the first demonstration of papal power, consecrating the image of the Christian knight. That the pope would take

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up the sword was a clear indication that the Gelasian theory of the Two Authorities, the Two Swords, was no longer in effect, as notions derived from Roman law were becoming established. The royal/imperial theocratic ideology became an anachronism in 1076/77.555 Caught in his own troubles, fearful of excommunication, Henry had replied to the letters of the new pope already in 1073, in a most repentant and humbly submissive, (cynical?) manner, blaming his youth and arrogance as well as the counsel of others for his transgressions, but asserting the need to maintain temporal and spiritual unity and the collaboration between them.556 Henry approached the pope from within his spiritually sensitive and devout personality as repentant Prodigal Son. Subsequently, the pope encountered difficulty and hostility with the northern bishops, who resisted the subservience demanded by the disempowering papal centralism, which Gregory wanted to practice, and they withdrew their obedience.557 Through legates, the pope wanted to affect the affairs of the imperial church, while the bishops felt competent to deal with their own affairs. By means of a council the affairs of the church were to be righted and the imperial episcopate disciplined and placed under the direct control of the Papacy. King and magnates were to serve as his instruments to bring about the submission. Instead it created turmoil, volatility and skilful disingenuity and hypocrisy. The council collapsed, as the episcopal opposition became consolidated. For some years, the Papacy had tried to influence the German church by means of conciliation and moderation, while without relenting it moved against several of the bishops, who had to defend themselves against charges, including simony. These charges had originated with their subalterns, who initially complained only about the mismanagement of the wealth and the finances of the establishments and the secular, imperial use to which these were put by some of the bishops. With charges of simony in the air, the financial practices were quickly transformed into accusations of simony. A loose interpretation of simony, favored by the radical reformers, saw in every compensation for the installation into an office a case of simony.558 The countercharge launched by the bishops accused the Papacy and its legates of deliberately inciting unrest against the bishops and of wanting to impose on them the will of Rome. The relationship between Papacy and German episcopate needed clarification. Henry IV tried to keep out of the brewing conflict, but because some of these prelates had given proof of their loyal service to the crown, it follows that it was only a matter of time before the king would be intricated in these matters. Gregory VII had let it be understood that the royal investiture and homage were irksome to him

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and now demanded the unconditional obedience, which he had indicated. The protection of the church against its enemies was an imperial condition. Already Charlemagne had made the combat of paganism a priority. During the 11th century numerous armed ventures resembling crusades were enacted in several theaters.559 With the Christianization of the military, war had assumed a religious purpose, was regarded as holy, and a religious duty for every knight. It had become a socio-political precondition for the crusades. In the process, the authority of the monarch, especially in France, slipped to the territorial lords and to the church. This included the Peace of God movement which was henceforth proclaimed as ecclesiastical law.560 In 1074 the pope counted on the king's support for a venture of surprising dimensions: nearly twenty years before the First Crusade, Gregory wanted to launch a joint military venture led by the pope, which would unite all western and Greek and Levantine Christians in a common cause against the infidel in Palestine, under the threat of excommunication.561 During the pope's absence, the king was to care for the church. In 1071, Jerusalem had fallen to the Turks. So far, the question of the right of investiture was not at issue. Unquestioned obedience to the pope was. Lay Investiture and the accompanying homage were to be the catalysts, which pitted emperor and pope against one another. Though not disinterested in the pope's distant venture directed against the enemies of the church, the immediate dispute over investiture was Henry's priority. Naively, Henry IV challenged Pope Alexander II in 1073, over the investiture of bishops, especially that of the bishop of Milan. It had led to the excommunication of five of Henry's advisors, and of him by association. Henry seems not to have known the Pseudo-Isidorian principles and that he should have been more circumspect and not been so oblivious to the changes, which had taken place in Rome. He was to walk into an open knife. For Gregory the excommunicated advisors and Henry's continuing ambivalent association with them were a pivotal priority. Immediately upon his accession, Gregory had established that the pope should be acknowledged the final judge and arbiter so that he could impose peace and concord. From his point of view, the concord between sacerdotium and regnum was taking shape.562 Beginning at the Lenten Synod of 1075, the pope reinforced his demands of obedience from all, threatening even the pious king of France with excommunication. Under papal pressure, Henry withdrew his support from any bishops, who had been noticed unfavorably. However, while Gregory praised Henry IV during the summer of that year for his eager support of the reform, he threatened him with excommunication, if he did not remove the “evil” bishops from among his counselors. At the same time, Henry's position in

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the kingdom improved significantly in Germany and in Lombardy. The Lombards especially expected Henry to assert himself with keen initiative. From a great distance, Henry had earlier intervened in the tumultuous politics of the city of Milan and challenged the pope, when he responded with the ill-considered investiture of a bishop of Milan in 1073, an area in which he should have been most circumspect, especially since simony was suspected.563 Simultaneously Henry had sent envoys to the southern Normans, to negotiate their vassalage to Henry. An encirclement of the Papacy seemed in the offing. Evidently, the royal court, or rather, Henry in his unilateral, unprincipled ways, showed his contradictory duplicity.564 However, he had underestimated the importance, which the pope attached to his wishes, just as he was oblivious to the changes, which had taken place in Lombardy during the previous twenty years, for he invested additional bishops. The king had not yet visited the Italian kingdom. The repeated power vacuums were allowing the Lombard cities to develop emancipated centers of monetary wealth through trade and commerce. The pope reacted immediately with a severe reprimand and by reversing the king's investitures, insisting on apostolic obedience, challenging the sincerity of the royal assurances and by reminding the king that he had still not yet dismissed his advisors, excommunicated by Alexander II in 1073, thereby drawing such a threat upon himself and the sacerdotal monarchy. Gregory reproached Henry for his obstinacy and that he should subordinate himself to the rule of Christ and give precedence to the honor of God instead of his own.565 From Henry's point of view, the pope had challenged traditional royal prerogatives, while from Gregory's perspective, Henry had violated apostolic decrees, when he went beyond simony and proceeded with episcopal nominations and irregular appointments.566 Gregory's letter threatening excommunication reached Henry on New Year's Day 1076. It will be recalled that at Christmas 1075 Henry IV celebrated his victory over the Saxon rebels and the election of his son Conrad at Goslar. The pope's letter must have seemed incongruous in this context. Even though the pope was open to conciliation, his admonitions for obedience and his tone were quite contrary to the king's personal inclinations. He demanded that Henry sever relations with his excommunicated advisors, do penance, or like they, be excluded from the community of the church. He held it against him that Henry had invested bishops and reminded him that he owed his victory to God's assistance. The theme was the demand for the king's obedience to the pope as apostolic successor of St. Peter, to whom God had entrusted his flock and the power to tie and sever in heaven and on earth.567 Gregory summoned

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Henry to Rome to face charges and in case Henry refused to follow the summons, threatened him with excommunication. Nowhere is mentioned in the letter that the king was forbidden to perform investitures. Although in the air, Gregory seems to have avoided this topic. This was not to be the cause of the dispute, rather its consequence.568 The chastising tone of the pope's letter met with the disapproval of all. Towards the end of that month, Henry convened a synod at Worms of the magnates of the realm to consider the deposition of the pope and to formulate three royal responses,569 which could only be interpreted as a model of hubristic disobedience. While the imperial church was not totally represented, only one secular magnate appeared, so that the response reflected the royal and partial episcopal reactions. The episcopate denied its obedience, the king asked for the pope's abdication and expulsion, for Roman collaboration with himself and his bishops. The Lombard bishops joined in the denial of their obedience. These declarations were read to the Lenten Synod of 1076.570 That the secular orders chose not to be involved should have been understood as a signal. While the king's support was less than unanimous, the pope was criticized for his presumptive, unilateral tone, and impertinent and unjustified assumption of powers. The written responses negated the pope, denied him his title and addressed him as brother Hildebrand, Hildebrando fratri. The letter is a cutting collection of accusations of injuries, unjust claims, unwarranted presumptions, incitements, dissension, perjuries, usurpations and injustices, which give vent to the stored up opposition to the pope's unjustifiable attempt to centralize the practices and procedures of the Christian Church.571 Henry IV had joined his prelates with a list of his own, on which the most serious challenge is his voluntary renunciation of the papal throne, since he had ascended it without regard to the king/emperor's approval. Basic to the dispute is the assessment of the respective value and primacy of each of the Two Gelasian Authorities, which compose the order of the world, now in the confrontational challenge, which places the anointed king's legitimacy against the usurper pope's illegitimacy as a false monk. The royal letter advocated the rebellion of the Romans against the pope, his deposition and a new election with the participation of the king as confirmed by the people of Rome. The Lombard bishops joined this position. However, Henry IV deluded himself as he thought that a directive issued in distant Germany would decide the occupation of the papal throne. Less than a month later in 1076, Gregory VII read the letters from Germany to an assembled Lenten synod, which broke into a riot. On the following day, in a prayer to St. Peter, the pope, as living representative of St. Peter and sole leader of

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Christianity excommunicated the German primate, suspended all signatories to the royal reply, excommunicated the Lombard bishops for their disobedience and negated the king and deposed and then excommunicated him. Since French problems were also on the agenda, he included a large number of French clerics and laymen in the ban.572 In view of Henry's problems with the Saxons and the dukes of Swabia, Bavaria and Carinthia, the pope had chosen a strategic moment to proclaim the excommunication. Royal and imperial expiations had been performed before, but the deposition and excommunication of a monarch was a shattering, categorical and novel act. Most consequential was the cancelled oath of allegiance of all, which forbade to all the royal service, and caused the royal world to quake. The excommunication isolated the king with one stroke as it annihilated the hierarchical structure of the medieval monarchy and the Saxons regarded the pope as their leader and themselves as the faithful of St, Peter.573 Gregory acted entirely from that position of strength, which the emperor had forfeited morally, and within the framework, which he had proclaimed. Knowing the will of God, and as successor to St. Peter in the claim of leadership of all Christianity, Gregory VII displayed the primacy of his select status.574 This new doctrine spelled out the rejection of the traditional balance of the Gelasian theory and the undisputed spiritual primacy of the Papacy over the secular Empire in all its aspects. The dominium mundi was in the pope's hands. The Cluniac reforms were bearing fruit as the exclusive universality of the disabused church.575 Hierocracy claimed the triumph over theocracy. It clearly established the claim to absolute control of the church, the submission of its priests and all of its institutions, meaning, that priests had no obligations other than to God and the church as defined by the pope. One of the intentions clearly was the reorientation of the imperial church: rather than looking towards the monarch for its jurisdiction, demonstrated by the royal investiture of church dignitaries with secular property and its administration, the church of the realm was to be “reformed” and to be freed from its feudal obligations represented by the performance of homage and its worldly concerns. All bishops and church institutions were to turn from deference to the Empire and towards the direct, unilateral control of the Papacy. Since the episcopate in the Empire was the most reliable administrative and territorial support of the monarchy, this realignment took aim at the autonomous self-sufficiency of the Empire. The axe of the Papacy was being put to the trunk of the kingdom. The reaction north of the Alps unleashed great public participation. The royal position utilized the Gelasian theory of the Two Authorities, of

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the Two Swords, and claimed that both swords existed in balance to defend the order willed by God in which the equality of the worldly and spiritual authorities was established. Leaning on earlier Carolingian arguments, the spiritual sword should enforce the obedience to the king, who rules in God's stead, while the worldly sword of the king should be wielded without, against the external enemies of Christ, and within, to enforce obedience to the spiritual authority. Upon receipt of the letters from Worms, Gregory excommunicated or suspended the signatories and in a special ceremony excommunicated the king, in which he cancelled the oath of allegiance to him.576 Henry tried to celebrate Easter at Utrecht in a most festive manner and entered the church in his most regal vestments, even though the news of his excommunication had arrived there on the previous day. The local bishop proclaimed the pope's excommunication, but others, including the bishop originally scheduled to do that, fled the court. What followed seemed like God's judgment. Lightning struck the cathedral and burned down the houses specified for the reception of the king. Soon after, the officiating bishop died. It was easy for the king's opposition to claim divine punishment. On the one hand, the Lombard bishops voted in favor of Gregory's excommunication. On the other, the king failed badly trying to convene a synod at Worms to condemn Gregory and to elect a new pope, though yet another poorly attended assembly at Mainz declared Henry's excommunication invalid and reiterated Gregory's excommunication. However, the effect was minimal. On the contrary Gregory's actions had more resonance and Henry's camp split into those unconditionally loyal to him, those of the growing, uncompromising and defecting opposition and a decreasing group intent on compromise, but which saw in Henry's excommunication the dissolution of all oaths of allegiance and encouraged conspiracies. Henry's inevitable penance would admit his weakness openly and the primary jurisdiction of the Papacy over the monarchy.577 Nothing other than the king's unconditional submission to papal obedience would preserve the kingdom. Only on the basis of the unquestioning recognition of exclusive papal authority were reconciliation and restoration possible. It was a challenge to the constitutionality of the Empire and the chief obstacle to the restoration of his rule. The pope seemed to sanction rebellion against the king and the attempts by this group to challenge Henry's position deepened the rift and the king's situation deteriorated, as old and new, northern and southern oppositions to his rule conspired against him. As soon as the excommunication became known in the kingdom, the coalition of dissenters reassembled, the bishops assumed a waiting position or tried to return into the pope's favor. His support had eroded

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very quickly. Once again, Saxony turned against the king. The idea surfaced that a new royal election be initiated and a new king be installed, should Henry IV not be reinstated within a year and a day.578 Gregory absolved and reinstated any bishops who recanted their positions against him. Henry contemplated military action against this gathering opposition, but conceded the hopelessness of such an undertaking and resorted to negotiations, which were successful. Henry's opposition was seriously divided which prevented a new election. Fortunately, the opposing camps cancelled one another out.579 By rephrasing Henry's deposition because of his excommunication, the pope had raised the possibility of Henry's reinstatement, should he return to his unconditional obedience. Henry IV complied and issued such a declaration of obedience and satisfaction to the pope in all things and admonished all of his excommunicated supporters to seek similar reconciliation. The last sentence of his own statement reputedly contained an additional, controversial sentence in which he asked the pope to justify publicly all those things of which he had been accused. Gregory the judge was suddenly turned into Gregory the accused. This was probably not part of the letter to the pope, but a later addition for internal propagandistic purposes. Henry IV had to make such additional concessions as the definite dismissal of his excommunicated advisors and the restoration of Worms and his supporters to the jurisdiction of the bishop.580 Quite clearly, the crisis concerning the foundation of the Salian dynasty constituted a weakening of the monarchy in the eyes of its eastern neighbors. The French king was undergoing similar problems with Rome. Hungary and Poland had shaken off imperial suzerainty, but Hungary now found itself resisting the advances of the pope. Against these two, the duke of Bohemia found it wise to remain Henry's most loyal ally. By contrast, Henry's magnates swore not to recognize him as king any longer should he not recant and be reinstated by the anniversary of his excommunication, to swear an oath of mutual support and to invite the pope to Germany to preside at Augsburg over the resolution of the conflict on February 2. 1077.581 This itself would be a humiliation of the king. While Gregory did not hesitate to accept the invitation and to entertain a crossing of the Alps in mid-winter, he refused Henry a visit to Rome. A triangular relationship was in the offing, which could only prove to be detrimental to the king's interests. The pope and the aristocracy could assemble into a coven of dissent and make common cause anytime the king proved to be an obstacle to the interests of either party. Unfortunately, as described above, Henry IV had alienated his nobility and could count on some of his bishops, but only on a small faction of loyal supporters. Among his bishops, the

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support was equally unreliable, since some of them were opportunists, who had not been invested for their strength of character. The strength of the king could be negated immediately through his excommunication and the cancellation of the oath of fealty to him. The pope was able to play this trump, whenever his spiritual and his growing secular primacy were threatened. This changeable climate encouraged the inception of processes, which gradually undermined the feudal hierarchical state. The dispute with the Papacy clipped the royal prerogatives and suggested greater flexibility of action to the nobility. The new room to maneuver allowed the Welf, Zähringen, Babenberg and Hohenstaufen families, among others, to gain regional prominence, before becoming involved in enduring conflicts for supremacy. Henry was preparing his penance in Speyer, when he heard that the pope would not receive him in Rome. Henry reacted strategically. He appreciated that he had to refrain from acknowledging his deposition and the dissolution of the oath of allegiance and consequent loss of princely support and prevent the pope's meeting with the magnates at all cost. A number of prelates preceded him to Rome. Resolutely, with his wife and son, and a small entourage he set out just before Christmas to intercept the pope en route.582 He celebrated Christmas in Besançon, and because the German dukes had closed the other Alpine passes, the miniature court crossed the Mont Cenis in unusually extreme winter weather and the most adventurous and taxing conditions. The women were dragged across the ice fields and lowered on cowhides; many horses were lost before the court descended onto Turin, where his mother-in-law, the margravine, provided protected passage.583 When news of his arrival in Italy spread, the Lombard dignitaries flocked to the side of their king. To the disappointment of the Lombard nobility, who would have been happy with a show of force and see Henry humble the pope, Henry had other designs. He had to recover the basis of power in his kingdom and needed the pope's absolution within the year, if he wanted to recover the support of his nobility. He therefore came as repentant sinner. Gregory had left Rome in early January and when he heard of Henry's arrival, he too believed in a threat of arms. As a precaution, he withdrew to Canossa, into the impregnable castle of the margravine Mathilda.584 The abbot Hugh of Cluny, Henry's godfather, had come into the vicinity of the pope and now the two margravines and the abbot worked towards reconciliation. Henry was set on approaching the pope in that function, which he as priest could not refuse. Henry, as repentant sinner could not be denied absolution. Such an act was not without precedent. Louis the Pious had demonstrated his humility on two such occasions. On an earlier occasion, the onset of the

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Polish campaign in 1074, Henry himself had reputedly already abased himself before his magnates.585 On January 25.1077, the day on which the church celebrated the conversion of St. Paul, Henry appeared like a commoner, barefoot and dressed in a hairy shirt within the inner gate of the castle. Henry knew how to stage a theatrical event. On two succeeding days, Henry appeared in this dramatic fashion. Gregory questioned the sincerity of the performance and was not immediately moved by this show of penance and self-humiliation to show his apostolic mercy. He admitted later to having been moved by all those, who under tears and supplications interceded on Henry's behalf. Some accused him of base vengeful motives.586 On the third day, Gregory finally relented, removed the anathema from him and other excommunicants in his entourage, raised him with a kiss of reconciliation and proceeded to celebrate mass in the castle chapel. As a final sign of reconciliation Gregory and Henry dined together. The pope must have expected Henry IV also to acknowledge the papal rule over the church of the realm. A repentant Henry IV had cleverly maneuvered the pope into a position in which he had to absolve him. A utilitarian, Henry defeated the pope on his own terrain and subtly maintained his royal position. In fact, he had only preserved his German prerogatives. In perception, he had compromised his prestige in the Empire and among its neighbors. Most importantly, the claim to be the anointed of God and ordained king by divine grace could no longer be upheld. Gregory VII had reduced him from Vicar of Christ to being a mere layman.587 Henry III would probably have acted differently. The pope suspected Henry's sincerity and had him swear as king, that within a period determined by the pope, Henry would submit his conflict with his nobles to the verdict of the pope or with his counsel bring about a reconciliation, and that Henry would provide safe passage for Gregory or his legate over the mountains or into any region of the realm. This meant that he could meet with the magnates in February, without fear of interference from the king.588 At Canossa, absolution and reinstatement were not considered separate problems by the crown. However, that the unilateral control of Christianity had shifted to the Papacy was made clear when the pope assumed the functions of a monarch and then imposed the king's public penance at Canossa. A humbled Henry had submitted unconditionally and assumed the path pleasing to the pope.589 Actually, the twofold deposition of Henry IV had stripped the monarchy of its sacred aura. Only shortly before, Henry had insisted that as the anointed of the Lord no earthly judge could pronounce sentence over him. The crown was not a papal gift, a token of feudal dependence, but a distinction falling automatically to the ruler following the election by

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the princes which invested him with regnum and imperium. It was the pope's duty to crown the one who was emperor in all but title.590 By contrast, for the pope the royal claim to primacy was no more than an expression of human vanity and sinful presumption, in need of humiliation and revision. In his eyes all Christian kingdoms were papal fiefdoms. The act solidified the split among the magnates and justified to one faction the election of an anti-king. The papal demand for absolute obedience made it clear, that the idea of a balanced theocratic dualism of authorities was no more. Some regarded Canossa as imposed political submission, which cost Henry and his successors their sacrality. The sacerdotal claim of the realm was stripped off, as the king was deprived of any immediate responsibility to God. Gregory VII had deprived the emperor of his elevated distinction, as he “defrocked” him and negated his select and anointed status. Henry's excommunication and deposal were the prerequisite steps. Even though the pope exceeded his authority, Henry was helpless. The infallibility of the church was a logical consequence. In some quarters, one believed to be living at the end of time.591 Henceforth all princes were vassals of St. Peter. In its terminology, the idea of a select, universal Empire came to be the reserve of the pope as representative of St. Peter.592 The pope received the right to judge the secular magnates and any secular affairs. The pope defined the king as the German king, Rex Teutonicus, ruling over a papally circumscribed German realm, the restricted Regnum Teutonicum.593 Henry's secular rule was to be restricted to Germany. Italy, as Regnum Italie, was not conceived as a part of it. Henry had gained time to recover his position and it behooved him to reinstate the old order. He found help among the Lombard bishops, who feared for their control over their cities if the pope could force his reforms on them, and who imprisoned the papal legates. Henry did perform an act of protest, when he abandoned the patronage and veneration of St. Peter and instead turned to the Virgin Mary and adopted her as the patron for Speyer Cathedral.594 For the moment, it was just as well, for Henry's opposition, though it felt betrayed by the pope, prepared the election of a papal anti-king. The opposition to his person evidently did split the absolution – reinstatement question: the one did not in itself validate the other. Although restored as rightful king, his divine right and the inviolability of his position were irreparably damaged. For the opposition, Henry IV had been weakened and not reinstated, nor had the oath of allegiance been restored, and invitations were issued to Pope Gregory VII and to the empress Agnes, who had an established right of designation. Two papal legates were commissioned to attend. Henry opposed the attendance of all at an

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assembly called at Forchheim, south of Bamberg. This site had symbolic character, since it was here in 911 that the East Frankish magnates had elected the first non-Carolingian king, Conrad I. Secular and religious peers of the realm arrived in great number. Instructed to prevent an election, the legates gave in to the pressure of the secular princes and on the insistence of the particularist Saxons, one first proceeded to a formal dethronement of Henry, before proceeding to the election of a new king. One took meticulous care not to permit illegalities or to create ambiguities. The election of March 1077 raised the duke of Swabia, Rudolph von Rheinfelden, Henry's brother-in-law, to the throne. The pope was to remain ambivalent in his support of the rival kings as it would not foster the concord, which he sought.595 Gregory made it clear by legates and letter that any disobedience to papal will from either king would lead to a removal from government and excommunication.596 The king-elect had to commit himself to obedience and to assign the bishoprics in accordance with a free canonical vote, to allow the royal succession to the throne to be a free election, even if there was an heir, and to consider suitability to be the determining criterion for the candidacy.597 The dynastic succession of the Salians must have served as a negative experience. The Cluniac reform in its guises can be recognized behind these conditions applied to the divine mandate, the elected kingship, and the dynastic succession, as it aimed at the foundations of the Salian monarchy and as it spread relentlessly throughout the kingdom, affecting churchmen and laymen alike. It served to undermine the principal role of the emperor, the protection of the church, as the church assumed this role in increasing manner, both for itself and all its institutions.598 The ruler had been stripped of his sacral character and was deemed the Antichrist. Henceforth, the weakened ruler was a layman entrusted with the guidance of the realm as its custodian rather than as its lord. This was a religious interpretation of Conrad's II concept, that the kingdom transcends the person of the king. Soon it would be claimed that just as the “people” had the right to bestow sovereignty on its ruler, it also had the right to withdraw it.599 Though it is far too early to speak of social contracts, notions of freedom of choice and merit of the candidate in the vague context of a “constitutional” monarchy appear in the distance. The free canonical vote found an echo in the free vote for the royal candidate. However, it was not the intention of this group to introduce new legalities, merely to restore traditional practices. The assembled peers wanted to return to participatory practices of an elective kingship, in effect before the Salians introduced their practices of designating their infant successors so far in advance, without any consideration of their ultimate suitability.600 Rudolph's reign did not begin

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happily. On the day of his coronation, a citizen revolt in Mainz forced him and the archbishop who crowned him to flee the city. In Swabia, Rudolph could not count on support, and so he made Saxony his area of activity. Following his return from Italy Henry IV secured the Alps and in Ulm, presenting himself “under the crown”, he held court as sacral king over those who had rebelled against him, deprived them of their fiefs and dignities, and proscribed or executed them. It was his intent to restore the regnum, without affecting Gregory or the sacerdotium. However, his return as king, restored to communion, would eventually invite his excommunication.601 Bavaria and Swabia he kept under his personal control. It was at this time, 1079, that he split the Swabian duchy and invested one Frederick as duke of Swabia, married him to his daughter Agnes, only seven years old, thereby gaining Königsnähe, proximity to the king, and laid the foundation of the next dynasty. Frederick took as his seat the castle of Staufen, from which the dynastic name Hohenstaufen derives.602 The family's origins may be traced to Salzburg, from where it moved westward. Its holdings may initially have been rather compact, to be rounded out following subsequent acquisitions. Gaining the duchy and the proximity to the crown by marriage, his unfailing loyalty in the pursuit of Salian interests following Henry's excommunication shaped the orientation towards the monarchy and the family's prominence in the kingdom. Entrusted with the loyal pursuit of the Salian agenda, they used this opportunity to build out their territorial possessions with castles and the promotion of some urbanization.603 Taken together, this policy furthered the advancing pioneering settlement of the vacant tracts of land. Beside the line of the Welfs and that of Zähringen, whose holdings were much more extensive,604 the Staufen kinship definitely belonged to the high nobility of southern Germany, with justifiable future claims to the crown. Henry IV chose to play the role of war king and consolidated his position quickly. By guaranteeing peace, security and social upward mobility, he found particular support among the rising urban middle classes, the peasants, the ministerials and lower levels of knights and the lower clergy. Pope Gregory VII declined to recognize officially Rudolph, the anti-king, even when in November 1077 his legate repeated the ban over Henry IV and his supporters. His ambivalence was to lead to the disenchantment of the magnates. Henry was anathemised and forbidden all rule and government.605 Gregory was preoccupied with hierarchical questions. Relentlessly he promoted the Papacy's rise to universal primacy, while also extending papal relations with Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Spain and with England's William the Conqueror. Concerning lay-

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investiture, two synods in 1078 and 1080, returned to the decree that no cleric could accept investiture of bishopric, abbey or church from any layman, be he king or emperor. Since such an investiture would be coupled with homage, such an investiture would be deemed invalid and the cleric in question would be excommunicated. It was only with these pronouncements, that the conflict was focused on the investiture of bishops, and merited the designation Investiture Struggle.606 In the German kingdom, episcopal investiture by the king in return for homage, crucial to the existence of the realm, was starting to reflect political interests and necessities. It was not a point on which the king could simply yield to a higher authority.607 Over the centuries, the crown had bestowed many privileges and much territory, including urban centers, on the institutions of the German church, for which it was owed services. The established ritual, in which the candidate paid homage and was installed by means of the symbolic ring and crook, formalized the mutually dependent relationship.608 Although Henry had suffered several defeats against Rudolph's forces, Rudolph's support began to crumble and at the Lenten Synod of 1080 at Brixen, Henry reputedly presented Gregory with the ultimatum to excommunicate Rudolph in return for his obedience, or Henry would find a pope who would.609 This ultimatum suggests Henry's tone of 1076, but a few months after this Lenten Synod, in July, at Brixen, Henry actually had Gregory deposed. Once again, Gregory VII had excommunicated Henry IV, reminding him only now, that although he had received absolution at Canossa, the kingship had not then been restored to him, although the opening words of Henry's oath, recorded in Gregory's own Registrum were: I, king Henry.610 Rudolph was confirmed as ruler of Germany, but no more. So that he might rule and protect Germany, all his followers were granted absolution from all their sin.611 The pope's statement concluded with dispositional claims of superiority over all kingdoms on earth, principalities and counties. Gregory staked his career, his expulsion from office, on the power of St. Peter's anathema to allow Rudolph to triumph and thereby bring on king Henry's dismal end by August 1, 1080.612 Gregory was out of control. Henry's renewed excommunication in 1080 suddenly stripped all those bishops, whom he had invested, of their legitimacy. At Bamberg and Mainz, the German prelates and magnates demanded the pope's deposition, feeling less restrained under the emperor than under the discipline of the pope.613 In June 1080, a joint synod at Brixen of German and Lombard bishops and perhaps even the Roman cardinals reiterated with pent up vehemence his faults to excess and condemned Gregory VII for his false claims, asking him to depose

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himself. The instruments of excommunication and indulgence were too clearly used for political purposes. The synod agreed on a new pope, one Wipert, the former chancellor for Italy. In 1080 it re-excommunicated the archbishop of Ravenna but in 1084 he became the king’s pope, taking the name Clement III.614 Evidently, Henry, who had participated in all of the decisions, was no longer controlled by reason either. Hatred seemed to be the common denominator. Two kings were balanced by two popes, who also occasionally invested duplicate bishops. The rift between the two positions was to affect Henry's reign fatefully. Henry's forces were defeated in battle once again in October 1080 near Goslar, however, Rudolph lost his right hand in the battle and bled to death.615 His death invited two interpretations. For Henry's supporters this event was taken to be a trial by battle followed by a divine judgment and punishment, since it was the right hand, which he had originally raised in his oath of fealty to Henry. Even Gregory was shaken by this obvious negation of his belief in God's favor for his cause.616 Rudolph's supporters buried him in the choir of Merseburg Cathedral. His grave is marked by the unique and oldest extant bronze plate memorial of a standing figure clad in royal regalia. The inscription lauds the church-based legitimization of his reign and his death as sacred victim of war for the church and the ancient laws. These sentiments explain why Henry did not recover his kingship in Saxony. He turned his attention to the modifications of Speyer Cathedral, now under the patronage of the Virgin Mary. A bellicose Gregory VII did not end his struggle against Henry with Rudolph's death. At the Lenten synod of 1081 he excommunicated Henry and his supporters once again and insisted that a new anti-king would have to be a man of humility and unconditional fidelity and obedience to the church of St. Peter and to Gregory. In August of 1081 a poorly attended assembly selected an anti-king, count Hermann von Salm, who on December 26 was crowned at Goslar to lead the Saxon, Swabian, and Bavarian and pro-Gregorian discontents against Henry.617 Already in April 1081, despite the unresolved political conditions in his rear, Henry IV had crossed into Italy with only a modest force, where in 1080 his Lombard supporters had defeated the troops of the margravine Mathilda. She was now proscribed. Though the Normans had renewed their oath of fealty to Gregory in 1080, the pope could expect no help from them now, while they were engaged against the Byzantines in the Balkans. The citizens of Rome were not yet ready to surrender their city, so that Henry, usually ready to engage in conflict resolution, opened negotiations in which he insisted on the succession to the imperial crown, but acknowledged that the citizens of Rome had a right of co-determination where emperor and

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pope were concerned. He had to withdraw from Rome, when his small army was much reduced by disease. Back in northern Italy, he received the invitations of the Romans to return to Rome in 1082. This time it was a reversed Canossa, as Henry forced Gregory into the part, which he had been forced to play.618 This time a Norman contingent joined Henry's large force, although once again Henry had to return north to escape the summer heat. Early in 1083, Henry resumed the siege of Rome and within a few months was able to penetrate into parts of Rome. However, during the summer heat Henry's garrison fell victim to disease. During the following year Gregory's support was dissolving as a dozen of his cardinals and many other cardinal priests joined Henry's ranks. Bribed by Byzantine money provided to Henry and provoked by Gregory's intractability, the Romans opened the gates. Even the majority of cardinals followed Henry's claim that he was fighting for the liberation of the church. Henry made a triumphant entry into Rome on March 21, 1084. He convoked a synod at which he appeared as Gregory's accuser. The pope was condemned for having violated the royal majesty, deposed and excommunicated the king. A papal election followed, which on Palm Sunday confirmed Clement III in the Papacy. On Easter Sunday Clement III, though anti-pope, crowned Henry IV and his wife Bertha emperor and empress.619 Two months later, the Normans reappeared on the scene. A strong imperial power in Italy constituted a serious challenge to their power. Heeding the pope's earlier call, superior Norman forces took Rome. An uprising by the citizens of Rome was put down by the Normans who are reputed to have behaved so catastrophically, that when they withdrew, Gregory's position was untenable and he followed them to Salerno.620 He continued to act as pope, but his pronouncements and decrees, such as Henry's fifth excommunication, were no longer heeded.621 Henry's supporters interpreted the pope's plight in exile as a divine judgment. Clement III had returned to Rome, where he had crowned the imperial couple. His Papacy was recognized for a long time in various parts of antiGregorian Christendom. Gregory died May 25, 1085. His expulsion from Rome by its population, followed by his death had been interpreted as a divine judgment. Was he a revolutionary reformer? The common intention fundamental to his activities was the establishment of the Papacy on its exclusively religious authority.622 What was purposefully formulated as a possible idea, was not merely the distinctive separation of the secular and ecclesiastical realms, at best a highly naïve, unrealizable and unsustainable undertaking, but the total displacement of the secular realm and its influences – investiture, simony and proprietary rights – from a papally determined Christendom – the Imperium Christianum as a papal domain.

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Aside from the imperial coronation, what had Henry actually gained in Italy? His hurried retreat from Italy jeopardized all of his gains there. The Papacy would retain and expand its territorial holdings and wield both swords.623 The questions concerning investiture now entered a more rational phase in which excesses and transgressions on both sides were seen in a more objective manner. The weakness of the imperial position lay in the royal need of papal consecration, for the king/emperor to be able to function as the anointed of the Lord. This circumstance alone played the hierocracy into the hands of the pope. Forgeries favoring the legitimate primacy of the emperor were now “discovered”. In Germany, at a synod in May 1085, Henry removed the Gregorian opposition by deposing and excommunicating 15 bishops. He made it clear that he intended to regain control over the German church, by determining the episcopal investiture.624 The synod also declared a Pax Dei, a Peace of God. This decree as well as the Truce of God had originally been introduced by Henry III as responsibilities of the secular authority. However, with the loss of power, the ordinances were now acknowledged to be the responsibility of the church. On this occasion, Poland and Bohemia were declared kingdoms.625 The original contentious issues so important to Gregory concerning simony, clerical celibacy and fornication had already slipped from view. During the next few years, Henry's campaigns in Saxony were marked by failure. Nevertheless, the opposition to his rule crumbled, as ever more bishops changed to his side, or were murdered, and the anti-king, count Hermann von Salm returned to his Lotharingian county. Already in May 1087, Henry IV was able to have his son Conrad crowned king in Aachen, thereby securing the succession. Just before Christmas he had to mourn the death of his wife Bertha, however, very spontaneously he remarried during the next year, Praxedis, the widowed margravine of Stade and daughter of the grand-prince of Kiev.626 This act, perhaps a hostage taking through marriage to commit the loyalty of the Saxons, was too impetuous, and was not to bring him the happiness of a lover. Her idea of being empress may not have corresponded to reality. As king, however, he had been able to restore the kingdom to its earlier authority and prestige. The years 10801089 marked the zenith of his position. In March 1088 a new pope was elected, Urban II. Of French origin, he had served as prior at Cluny, as papal legate to Germany and been appointed cardinal bishop of Ostia by Gregory VII. With him, the Cluniac reform ascended the papal throne, where it determined papal policy, especially the peace movement. Urban II was an avowed, though

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pragmatic successor of Gregory VII.627 With the anti-pope Clement III enthroned in Rome, a Gregorian Pope Urban II could not rule from there. With both in favor of celibacy and opposed to simony, their respective attitudes towards the role of the emperor provided the basic difference between them. Urban II rapidly gained wider support, while Clement III remained too narrowly associated with his emperor and his successes. Not until 1089 did Urban II enter Rome with support of the Normans. In 1093, Henry's son Conrad rose against his father and had himself crowned king of the Regnum Italie in Milan. For Henry this was a hurtful blow, all the more so, since much of the struggle with Gregory had to do with the unquestioned authority for the king to secure the dynastic succession. In the kingdom, his secular magnates began to secede. In 1094, Henry IV had imprisoned his wife, for suspected infidelity. Praxedis, escaped with the help of Mathilda of Tuscany, sought separation, and prostrate before the pope accused Henry of the basest practices – her group rape in the presence of her husband.628 True or not, stereotypical denunciations amplified the opposing propaganda.629 Of Henry it was reported that he had suicidal depressions. Not one to miss an opportunity to add to the emperor's difficulties, in April 1095, Pope Urban upheld the accusations and recognized Conrad as papal anti-king. Conrad had led the pope's horse by its reins, an old gesture of respectful acceptance, in return for his guarantees of security and his legitimacy on the throne of St. Peter.630 Urban also arranged Conrad's marriage with the daughter of Roger I, of the Sicilian Normans. Urban held out the promise to recognize him as king and eventually crown him emperor. However, in Germany Conrad's desertion was barely noticed. In Italy, he shriveled to insignificance and when he died in Florence six years later, the event was ignored.

The First Crusade Following the synod of 1095, Urban II set out on his journey to France, where at the Synod of Clermont, attended mainly by French bishops and nobles, he intended to deal with concerns of the French church. The emperor's (anti-) Pope Clement III had no significant support in France. During its proceedings Urban II excommunicated the French king Philip I for adultery.631 Almost at its end, Urban picked up the idea first advanced by Leo IX in 1053, when he ennobled any among the fallen as martyrs, denounced the local feuds and preached the peregrination to free the Byzantine empire and the eastern Christians from the threat of the “Infidel”. Urban's actual speech is no longer extant, but the liberation of Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulcher did not bear particular emphasis.632 The

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term “crusade” as an “expedition authorized by the pope” did not come into use until the thirteenth century and was then used infrequently.633 Ingeniously, Urban had picked a fertile moment. Frustration and pent up energy among the French knights met with spiritual enthusiasm focused by the need to atone for sin and coincided with fervent religious purpose and direction. The restraints of the Truce and Peace of God placed on the fighting life of the French nobility did not apply for the soldiers of Christ as the fight directed against the infidel offered not only material rewards of conquest but also a satisfactory spiritual reward for committed or perceived sins. The appeal for help had reached Urban II from the emperor in Constantinople, though not from the Christians of Jerusalem, and on his own initiative, he now changed the focus as he called upon the French nobility to cease its feuds and to mount instead an armed pilgrimage to free the Holy Land with its Holy Places, and to avenge the outrageous provocations supposedly committed by the infidel. The re-unification of the eastern and western Churches may have been Urban's secondary motive. In return he offered the crusading indulgence.634 The Germans, supporters of Pope Clement III would have faced papal and royal censure had they joined the enthusiastic crowds in large numbers. For the future of the Papacy, Urban's call to arms for a sacred cause, proved a stroke of genius. Henceforth the pope eclipsed the emperor as the effective leader of Christendom, as the crusades could only be legitimized by the pope as representative of St. Peter and not by laymen. The First Crusade is usually considered to be a French undertaking and hence not entirely pertinent to a discussion dealing with the medieval Empire. However, though Henry IV and his pope were not primarily involved, nobles close to the king and others did take the cross. Those crusaders who took the land route to the Holy Land did travel through the Salian kingdom, wreaking havoc as they went. The Cluniac reform had stressed sin and guilt, and encouraged the veneration of relics, the pilgrimages to sites associated with saints or their relics as a collective means to gain redemption and the salvation of the soul through personal access. A popular wave of self-doubt, introspection and repentance, already a motivation since the advent of the year 1000, contributed to the enthusiasm generated by Urban’s sermon. There were two types of pilgrimage at this time – the strictly voluntary one, which could assume communal forms, and the one imposed as a temporary banishment by the clergy as expiation for a misdeed. The former may have been motivated by a strong personal urge to pray near relics in one of the numerous sanctified places within relatively easy reach, but also far away,

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in Santiago de Compostela, Rome, Constantinople or even Jerusalem, which in time had become the primary goal. Originally closely related to the peregrination, an unspecified wandering, including members of every social station, it had come to refer to a specified journey ad sanctos.635 In the latter pilgrimage, the pilgrim, as outcast, may not have had a choice of destination. Not much will have distinguished him from other outlaws. In the absence of prisons, the pilgrimage was the equivalent of a limited term exile from his community and possibly a death sentence. Unsupervised, many focused on targets of opportunity and turned to crime. If condemned to “get out of town” and ejected beyond a territory and its law, the undesirable “outlaw” could be killed on sight. The other option was that of an antisocial life of brigandage among other outlaws in impassable forests. Both pilgrimages were equally risky for the pilgrim. The sporadic, voluntary undertakings of the past had increased in frequency and the number of disorganized, poorly prepared participants, scruffy outsiders and marginalized outcasts, brought great economic strain on the regions through which the unprepared and ill-equipped pilgrimages passed. As poor pilgrims, cripples and beggars, easily confused with marauders, they lived off the land and their passing did not bring great economic benefits, so that the inhabitants of the land route were less than enthusiastic about their appearance. However, these pilgrimages required no pledge and had no benefits for the participants, other than some vague satisfaction of having prayed at the sacred sites and the hope that the prayers were heard.636 Following Urban's appeal, taking the cross was a mobilization of military power with the virtual exclusion of the poor. These set out on their own as a van-guard of rabble mobs, destined to perish along the way. Among the nobility, the bellatores, it produced an ideological cohesion of noble service.637 Doing penance assumed a new guise, when it could be done under arms directed against the enemies of Christianity, including the emperor. Urban's sermon had another effect. While the submission to a monastic existence and the contemplative life had been the prescription with which one could flee the world in order to gain salvation, taking the cross offered another, active path in life leading to the same goal. Here the vita contemplativa and the vita activa became interchangeable, as venturing on crusade in the service of God equated with a cloistered renunciation of the world, even for sinners. Generally, the participation of women was not encouraged, the dangers of the road and their vulnerability to assault and rape from the other pilgrims figured strongly in the reasons for the attempted exclusion. Their presence jeopardized the pleasure negating life of renunciation and sexual

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abstinence, which those who took the cross had pledged to maintain. Women were to live within the moral expectations of the church, keep the home fires burning, guard the home front, to pray for the safe return of their man, and to assist in the success of the whole venture through prayer and donations. However, not to exclude them totally from the opportunity to gain redemption and the salvation of their soul by this means, they were granted dispensations and redemption for non-participation. They could, of course accompany a male relative, or guardian, so that the participation of women, even with their children, was quite extensive. Of course, the great lords had their ladies along, frequently for diplomatic reasons. Thus, for instance, fifty years later, Eleanor of Aquitaine accompanied her first husband king Louis VII of France in 1147. Some chose to enter convents in the Holy Land, rather than return home. The restriction of women was to help limit the number of camp followers and thereby reduce all manner of organizational problems. Richard the Lionheart made an exception when he allowed washerwomen to accompany his soldiers. They were supposedly elderly and unattractive. Women also boosted fighting morale and helped as fetch-and-carry auxiliaries on the battlefields, carrying munitions and even served as bowmen. Arabic sources claim women fighting as men. They did act as caregivers for the wounded. If taken prisoner they probably ended in the slave markets or if luckier, in the harem of a lord. The church frowned on the presence of women and blamed military misfortunes on their presence and sexual excesses. Nevertheless, prostitution was rampant among those on the march. At the end of the crusade, these too obtained absolution for their sins.638 The new ventures were innovative in that they promised certain redemption to the participants, martyrdom for those who died on the way and like them, instant passage into heaven. For the nobility, the hope for material gain, fame and distinction was joined to a naïve glorification of warlike adventure. Carefully staged, Pope Urban described falsely, but in vivid, rhetorical colors, the supposed oppression of the Christians in the Holy Land, although the versions of his speech never mentioned Jerusalem. Very imaginatively, they did mention the desecration of the altars with the blood of circumcised Christians, and described great tortures inflicted on the Christians. However, is it credible, that a Christian's stomach would be slit open, his intestines tied to a stake, whereupon he was prodded to run until he had disemboweled himself and dropped dead? The speech did contain an emphasis on the image of the penitent, who was more of a robber than a knight, and who would become a true knight, when he took the cross and who would receive heavenly rewards to boot, following the journey. More than anything, for the new

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Soldiers in Christ, Urban II reconciled and rewarded incompatibles, chastised previously in the Peace and Truce of God.639 Poverty, chastity, renunciation and abstinence in all things, and penitence became the standard guiding principles for all those, who took the cross in return for spiritual rewards. Over the centuries, the emperor's obligation to protect the church against all enemies had strengthened the idea that force used in her service was love and in the concern of bringing salvation to others, no “love” could be held back. This applied particularly to all those of other faiths, who did not want to share in that love. Against them, the force of “love” was justified. 640 The Jews of Europe were the first to experience the consequences of this affectionate logic. It was to take until the eighteenth century before this logic had run its course. The response to his appeal astonished Urban. He attributed it to the presence of the Holy Spirit. He had equated the military liberation of the Holy Places with a pilgrimage. He had also equated acts of violence with acts of penance. Actually years of drought and crop failures brought extensive famines in western and central Europe. This encouraged people in 1095 to seek nourishment elsewhere.641 It is not surprising that these mass movements of people coincided with extensive periods of crop failure. While the nobility awaited the harvest of 1096, already in the winter of 1095, the promises of absolution as a reward for poverty and abstinence, made by charismatic preachers, helped to unleash the common people, who responded prematurely with apocalyptic enthusiasm, and followed a monk on a donkey, called Peter, the Hermit, into the unknown. Hungry thousands, more certain of an early death than a long life, joined his throng en route. Ignorant of Geography, they believed that the Holy Land was around every bend in the river, and Jerusalem every city on the horizon. They were equally misguided about the identity of the strange people they met on the way. In the spring of 1096 this “van-guard” of the crusade led by Peter the Hermit and Walter Have Not, committed a persecution of Jews in Rouen in Normandy, Metz and in Provence, as well as in the Rhineland at Cologne, Trier, Mainz, Worms and Speyer, as well as in Regensburg on the Danube, and Prague in Bohemia, prominent cities with well established Jewish communities. In Worms and Mainz, every sixth inhabitant was Jewish. The wealth of some seemed in outright contravention to the belief propagated by the church, that as punishment for their responsibility in the death of Christ, they lived in servitude and poverty.642 Mobs threw themselves on the Jews, robbed them, desecrated their sanctuaries and persons and forced baptism on them. As was mentioned above, Mainz had endured such an attack already in 1012. The perpetrators included the lower nobility and clergy, burghers, country folk,

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migrant workers and much riff-raff from among the city-dwellers, though in Cologne and Mainz, members of the upper middle class tried to come to their assistance. The fate of the Jewish communities varied with the degree of effectiveness with which a bishop could control the influx of migrant mobs in his bishopric. In the absence of any episcopal control, the Jewish communities of Mainz and Speyer were decimated, when 800 Jews were killed. In Worms and Cologne, they were virtually wiped out. In Mainz a local war lord, a count Emicho, moving from city to city, seized control of the city of Mainz and with a murderous mob of fanatical French and German crusaders, expelled or intimidated the local churchmen or nobles, killed nearly a thousand people, intent on avenging the Savior's death on the Jews. The archbishop hoped that the surviving Jews would accept baptism – they preferred to commit suicide instead, by seeking refuge in a synagogue, where they knew they would die a fiery death. This unfortunate event brought the emperor's censure on the bishop of Mainz. In 1090, Henry IV had granted them privileges in Speyer and Worms and now, 1099, felt that the metropolitan had not acted in a sufficiently consequent manner to prevent the death of so many Jews, but that he and his relations had enriched themselves with their property. Henry upheld the rights of the Jews, pursued those who had gained from the pogroms, restored to the Jews their stolen property, and allowed those forcibly converted to Christianity to return to the faith of their fathers.643 Expelled and excommunicated by Clement III, the archbishop tried to organize resistance against Henry. In Trier, the archbishop was unable to protect the Jews through sermons. Their majority accepted baptism and only a few, mainly women, committed suicide by throwing themselves into the river Moselle. In Regensburg, people escaped death by being baptized in the river Danube. In Prague, some accepted baptism, while those who did not fight back were killed.644 An army composed of crusaders from England, Flanders, Lotharingia, and northern France descended on Cologne, destroyed its synagogue and killed some Jews. The Archbishop, a relative of the bishop of Speyer tried to save them by distributing them to other communities, but other crusaders threatened them there as well. Some had reached the vicinity of Düsseldorf, were challenged to convert, but on the Sabbath performed a kind of Massadah and killed one another or themselves. About 2500 German Jews lost their lives at the outset of the First Crusade. The emperor's decree allowed the regeneration of the Jewish communities.645 Thousands of Hungarians are said to have perished and the city of Belgrade was sacked and burned. A disorderly force of some 20 000 reached Constantinople. The eastern emperor could not ship them to Asia Minor fast enough.

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Also affected by the eschatological view and the advent of the messianic time, while still in Central Europe, it seemed illogical to them to set out on a long perilous journey to fight the infidel in distant places and to leave these same enemies unmolested at home. Pious Jews were seized by messianic fervor and set out for Constantinople, where they expected to meet their Messiah.646 The mass-movement appears to have been ignorant of the distances to be traveled and of the logistical requirements for such adventure. On their journey into uncertainty, being unarmed, most of the Christian pilgrims perished on the land route. A return home was not assured. To cover the c.3000km to Palestine, the daily advance for the men at arms might average a sustained 50km per day. That of the common pilgrims was much less. A horseman could cover twice that distance. The transport of provisions was problematic, starvation and even cannibalism were widespread, personal security could not be guaranteed, in the case of ineffective camp discipline, order and orderliness.647 One stumbled from feast to famine, as consumption was not regulated. Depending on the available food supply, the forces fluctuated between gluttonous times of plenty and times of great want. One knows too well of the effects of a lack of restraint following a period of great hunger. When available, livestock, especially beef on the hoof was intended to meet the food supply, but that placed great demands on the availability of fodder. Relative differences in the pace of the advance increased the vulnerability, as the marching columns came to be stretched out along the route. Foragers and marauders will have affected the lives of those along the crusade's main route, while they in turn were very vulnerable to ambushes and open attacks from hostile forces. Life on the subsistence line, the frequent lack of supplies, made survival the primary concern. Those with money, or with possessions, which could be sold, or who were the members of a lord's table, fared better, until such resources were also depleted. Many a knight went into battle on a donkey, or even on foot, without his armor. Feudal allegiances proved beneficial, if one's lord was in a position to host other mouths to feed. The plight of the poor, without the mobility to fend for themselves, proved a problem and an organizational challenge. In view of the multicultural, multilingual groups gathered in close, but disparate proximity in the open camps, under all manner of climatic conditions, maintaining an organized concept of such a mass movement will have been a challenge to the leadership. The pace, the dangers and conditions on the road, as well as unsanitary conditions in the camps, would soon contribute to fatigue and weakness, such intestinal infections as dysentery and contagious diseases, hunger and thirst, as well as wounds received.

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Stragglers were particularly vulnerable. Those who entered Anatolia were killed or captured by the Turks and enslaved. Two such naïve groups perished, before the more military forces scored successes. Those who came by sea in fleets of coastal freighters, with passenger capacities of about 450, or in galleys, hugging treacherous coast lines, sometimes perished in storms or endured shipwreck, when thrown by mountainous waves onto inhospitable shores. For the French nobility, after years of pent up frustration over the prohibition of belligerent behavior, an armed pilgrimage, a “Holy War” on behalf of the church, channeled these frustrations, and may have held out redemption as a reward. All manner of compensations, in addition to adventure and booty were incidental.648 The motivation of an economic benefit for an impoverished nobility, demonstrated by the hurried foundation of the crusader states,649 was not a primary goal at the outset, but quickly became necessary to sustain life and was at least as strong a motivation as the religious quest for the remission of personal sins and salvation of others. The mass enthusiasm leading to the vow to take the cross, engendered by the motivating sermons stressing piety, guilt and the remission of sins, will have been followed by more sober, pragmatic calculations, as a knight's intention to go on crusade required a considered raising of funds, mostly through the sale or lease of estates and other property, the preparation of the estate and the arrangement of its affairs.650 It became customary that the church granted absolution not only to the knight, who took the cross, but also to the one, who equipped and provisioned him. Eventually a payment could be made to absolve someone from his pledge. As a result, much real estate changed into the hands of the church. With the development of primogeniture, it was up to the dispossessed younger sons of great ancestry, but few resources, to make their fortune elsewhere.651 It prevented the fragmentation of estates. However, the image of the lonely knight errant owes more to fictitious romances than to reality. Any knight would require some men at arms, including at least one squire and perhaps a cook and quartermaster in his entourage, drawn from among the domestics and fighters of the estate. He needed a string of horses, distinguishing between his warhorse and others for traveling and some packhorses, to transport the knight’s costly armor and supplies. The squire may have had to carry the weapons and armor and lead the warhorse by its reins. The knight's departure entailed a considerable economic drain and risks for the estates, a reduced standard of living and the threat of impoverishment of the kinship through the forced liquidation of property. The cost of good horses, each one with the value of a small

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herd of cows, and chain mail armor was formidable, about ten times that of a horse. By papal decree, he was exempted from the breach of the terms of his vassalage during the crusade. For the lower social levels, it could mean the loss of freedom.652 Not leaving an acknowledged heir behind endangered the continued ownership of the fief. The underestimation of distances and the time needed to reach destinations, of the supplies needed for the journey, of the need for a supply train, meant that a means of exchange had to be established. The pledge of poverty made acquisitions en route necessary for survival. It is true, that the returning crusaders had little to contribute to the wealth of their families, as they generally did not return home laden with booty. Whatever they had acquired would have been needed to finance their return journey. Greatly increased prosperity came to the middlemen of the Mediterranean port cities, already engaged in trade with Constantinople, Moslem Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.653 Fortuitously these cities had the transport available, when it was needed. It was not an exclusively French undertaking, which set out in 1096. Four contingents totaling about 4500 knights and about 30 000 men at arms, grouped in regional contingents,654 set out for Constantinople and Jerusalem following four different land and sea routes. Obstacles and protracted sieges delayed the advance of the crusade, beyond Constantinople. The Byzantine emperor wanted to exact from all crusaders the oath of allegiance, and that any former Byzantine territories conquered on this occasion, would revert to the control of Constantinople. The eastern emperor thought he had hired a few thousand mercenaries to do his work. He got more “good will” than he had wished for, and was sorry to see his wish fulfilled in this extreme fashion. He became less than eager to be helpful to the western Christians. Their leaders soon revealed themselves intent on acquiring domains for themselves in regions far away from the path followed by the main body. The journey across Asia Minor was to take six months. The siege of Antioch virtually ruined the crusade.655 By the time the crusade reached Palestine, it had lost virtually all of its mounts and pack animals to the famine, to thirst, while their blood was drained by the thirsting crusaders.656 In the end, the knights had to make do with any mules and oxen for riding, and any livestock that had not yet been eaten. Their packs had to be distributed onto the backs of surviving sheep, goats and dogs. Many among the poorer knights and men at arms threw away such pieces of their arms and armor that had not already been sold. They devolved to the ranks of the poor labor force. Impoverished, weak and poorly equipped for the arid, shadeless and waterless terrain, its dust,

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searing sun and its blinding brightness, they were parched with thirst, starved, afflicted with infections of the eyes and probably chafed by surviving pieces of their heated armor. Delusional, they replaced discipline with apocalyptic visions and religious fervor. To improve conditions the leaders repeatedly risked pitched battles as an alternative to being ceaselessly on guard, to being harassed by archers, whose swarms of arrows descended on them out of the sun, but whom they could seldom see. Their wounds, exhaustion and heat stroke afflicted the overly exerted men in their padding, chain mail hauberk, from metal plated crown to hip and leggings, and surcoats. The conical helmet with attached nose-guard in the Norman style was the most common form of the helmet during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The upper rim of a heavy shield protected the lower face. On hostile territory, ready for battle at any time, the leaders may have been equipped with heavy, about 3.5kg, sealed, unprotected pothelmets of riveted sheets of overlapping metal, resting directly on the knight's head, with only the 7mm wide eye-slits and some holes in the area of the chin providing inadequate ventilation. By 1200, it was worn generally by the horsemen. A fatal characteristic of heat stroke is vomiting. Under these conditions, suffocation, if not worse, was an inevitable outcome. Amazingly, Jerusalem fell in 1099, after a siege of six weeks.657 At this point, less than a third of the original number was present under the walls of Jerusalem. Like Joshua's army at Jericho, the crusaders marched barefoot around the walls of Jerusalem, in the vain hope, it would bring about their collapse. A vision of St. George did not favor the outcome. Filled with the crazed intoxication of victory they fell upon the inhabitants and indifferent to their faith, slaughtered Jews, Moslems and Christians alike, reducing many prosperous regions to desolation and misery. Even though the First Crusade did not have official imperial approval, it was to effect widespread reaction. The interests of the Empire were too embroiled with the immediate questions over investiture and the stability of the realm, for the emperor to focus on far away adventures, although as gladius Christi, the sword of Christ, it would have behooved him to lead the crusade and to free the sacred places. In any case, with the decline of the royal authority, religious war was passing into the hands of the nobility as armed pilgrimage became a focus of a knight's obligations rewarded with indulgences. A host of German commoners as well as magnates, among them Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of Lower Lorraine and close associate of his liege lord, the emperor Henry IV, had joined the crusade with the emperor's permission. To do so, he had sold much of his property and extorted more funds from the Jews of the Rhineland. With the

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available funds he had raised an impressive military force of 20 000 men, including 2000 knights. The added participation of close confidants, the Staufen brothers, Otto and Conrad von Staufen, members of the circle around Henry IV, indicates the emperor's interest in the crusade.658 Godfrey became regent of the crusader county of Edessa, the guardian of the Holy Sepulcher and the reluctant first ruler of Jerusalem in 1099. With only 300 knights and 2000 men at arms, he remained in Jerusalem, when the others returned home, having fulfilled their pledge to pray at the grave. Soon after he died in 1100, he rose to the level of the ideal Christian knight and crusader. The emperor reassigned the imperial Lotharingian fiefs. In Jerusalem, his brother Baldwin, count of Edessa, was elected and crowned king. It was he, who placed the kingdom of Jerusalem on a more durable footing. The expedition, though 25 years late, made Urban II and not Clement III the unquestioned spiritual and military leader of Christendom. Figuratively speaking, the pope had taken hold of the “other sword” as well, as the church had assumed responsibility in the physical world. When Urban II granted indulgences for participating in a papally directed war, he signaled that a popular movement was also an official policy. The pope, not the emperor, had realized an opportunity. The pope's successful appeal was a clear defeat of Henry IV.659 In 1100, the pope initiated another wave of recruitment, to reinforce the crusaders in Palestine. Because they approached in independent groups, they were annihilated by the Turks. The defeats were blamed on the lack of Christian preparedness to do penance, without negative effect on the crusading enthusiasm.660 In view of the schism between the eastern and western churches, why had the appeal of the eastern emperor not been directed to the western emperor? It is important to note, that Christian persecution by the Turks, as claimed by Urban II, was not the actual issue. During the middle of this decade, Henry's position was precarious. His son had deserted him, his wife denounced him, his support in Lombardy was crumbling and his hostile south German magnates closed the Alpine passes. He found himself bottled up in Italy with only limited military support.661 His pope, Clement III, had a very restricted sphere of influence, while Urban II used his influence to preach the First Crusade and thereby create a military force completely under his control. Inadvertently Urban II had affected the politics of Europe. Henry was in no position to lead Christendom, let alone contemplate a campaign by the Christian west to Jerusalem. However, eventually changing circumstances in Italy allowed Henry to use a willingness for compromise among his south German opponents to settle affairs in Germany by means of splitting the tribal

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duchy Swabia in three parts and granting the parts to the territories of the new Welf dukes in Bavaria and by the creation of a duchy for the house of Zähringen in the Black Forest and in Switzerland, in addition to the lands already assigned to the Hohenstaufen family in Swabia.662 In 1097, he attained the reconciliation with almost all of his magnates and in 1098, and with their support Henry IV had his son Conrad deposed and had his twelve-year old second son Henry anointed and crowned king in 1099, as Henry V. A suspicious Henry IV had his son swear not to threaten his father's life or security and not to interfere unasked in the affairs of state during the father's lifetime.663 Urban II died in Rome in 1099. Shortly after, a new Gregorian pope had been elected, Paschal II. Less than a year later Clement III died, September 8, 1100. Henry took no interest in the election of the next three popes; instead, he tried to restore the unity of the church. Paschal II renewed Henry's excommunication in 1102, considering him to be the source of all heresy, whose destruction would be a work pleasing to God. An attempt to stylize the armed opposition to him as a crusade fell flat among the reconciled German nobles, but he succeeded in separating the bishopric of Lund in Sweden from the archbishopric Hamburg-Bremen. Henry's religious worries were deeply felt concerns over his possible guilt and his excommunication. In 1101, the imperial marshal Conrad was joined by other magnates to lead a joint German-French “crusade” of a hundred thousand fighters to reinforce those of the First Crusade remaining in the Holy Land. Conrad stayed there until 1108.664 For the next two hundred years, the crusades figured prominently in the policies of the Empire. In 1103, in Mainz Cathedral, Henry announced an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem, as a means to have his excommunication lifted and peace restored to the realm. Perhaps his most lasting contribution was his proclamation of the Landfrieden, an imperial 'land peace', extended over the participating territories of the realm, a secular peace, decreed to last for four years. Several such secular declarations of territorial peace had been proclaimed in previous years.665 Intended to prevent feuds and crimes of violence, it was enforced under pain of mutilation, applied to highborn and lowborn alike. The old penal laws permitted the wealthy to pay penance, which disadvantaged the poor. The new penalty brought the principle of an equalization of justice closer.666 It pointed to the increasing secular, central authority of the king within the realm. It had the potential to become an independent legal instrument of the emerging state. It became apparent that the imposition of such a peace had to rely on the active support of the magnates.667 Unfortunately, the fragility of this peace was demonstrated, when it failed

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as Henry's son, the future Henry V, made common cause with those against whom the measures were directed. Dissatisfaction among the high nobility over the king's sins of omission and persistent favoritism shown the ministerials among the lower service nobility, as well as the papal impasse, – Pope Paschal II had declared a war against Henry to be the equivalent to a crusade including the remission of sins668 – induced the magnates to see an escape from the stalemate by throwing their support behind the opportunistic and seemingly unscrupulous, young king. The papal impasse may well have been the cause for the rift between father and son, resulting in the father's excommunication and removal from power. Henry V may have put himself at the head of the opposition as a means to safeguard the throne for the dynasty. Henry V may also have recalled his great-grandfather's concept of the transpersonal Empire extending beyond that of the person of any one monarch.669 When the two approached the pope to referee between them, Pope Paschal II sided with the young king Henry V, whom he absolved of his oaths to his father, and whom he would recognize as king, if he acknowledged his obedience to the apostolic chair. This Henry V demonstrated when he very clearly promoted the unity of the church by reversing his father's investitures and effected his collaboration with the reformed church. Negotiations between the kings were marred by the son's insistence on the father's submission to the pope.670 All the while the magnates on both sides tried to mediate a peace between the factions. Henry IV sought a resolution in open battle, but the desertion of his major magnates before Regensburg, caused him to leave his forces, which decided the outcome. The change of sides prevented a civil war. Unkindly, Henry V imprisoned his father, and by threatening him with lifelong imprisonment, forced him to surrender the insignia of the realm. Henry IV did reject a public confession in which he was to admit to the unjust persecution of Gregory VII, his elevation of an anti-pope and his attacks on the whole church. To do so would have amounted to a selfcondemnation of his entire policy and an agreement to his moral selfdestruction. He was prepared to confess publicly, if he received absolution immediately. He held fast to the insistence on his restoration and the maintenance of the reign. Henry managed to escape and gain the safety and active support of the bishop of Liège and the duke of Lower Lotharingia.671 On January 5, 1106, Henry V had received the insignia from the archbishop of Mainz and accepted the homage of the peers of the realm, but otherwise found considerable opposition to his succession.672 Henry IV died on August 7, 1106 in Liège, after a short illness. Henry sent his ring

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and his sword to his son with the request to be merciful to his supporters and to bury him in Speyer Cathedral.673 The bishop of Liège had buried him in front of the altar of the cathedral church, although Henry was still under the ban. His son had him exhumed and interred in an unconsecrated chapel outside the walls of the town. Ironically, Henry V was to find that the climate had not changed, when he encountered serious problems with the Papacy and it was not until five years later, when Henry V had triumphed over the Papacy, that the ban over his father was lifted and he could be laid to rest in his cathedral at Speyer. Though the Gregorians persisted in their relentless and humiliating condemnation of Henry IV, for the people, especially the sick and poor, he acquired cultic status. Praise and vilification characterized his posterity.674 The camps were divided among those who continued to see Henry IV as rex et sacerdos and those who with benefit of the Scriptures, wanted to see the spiritual power of the cross raised over that of the temporal power of the crown. As long as the infallibility of the Scriptures was accepted as God's Word, without question, it was a conflict, which the crown could not win. By not resorting to consultation and consensus building with his magnates, by disregarding them, by violating the royal parameters, by not adhering to agreements, by undercutting his negotiators, by his delaying tactics and sudden changes of policy directions, his rule lacked transparency and he invited their suspicion and besmirching condemnations. To his enemies he had a base and evil nature, premeditative cunning, capable of sexual abuses, motivated by sinister intentions. Henry IV had rejected rules and conventions as he reacted arbitrarily to social pressures, as he interpreted them into initiatives of royal support for the rising middle class and the more effective use of a loyal order of ministerial knights in the administration of the kingdom. To the religious and secular magnates, afraid for their pre-eminence in the empire and with it the principle of consensual government, this upstart group of advisors and administrators was particularly irksome. Since he deliberately disregarded the hierarchical ranking of his magnates and their objections, they saw in his favoritism for ministerials their potential disempowerment and approaching eclipse, very much like the Saxons suspected him of wanting to replace them with Swabians. This persistent “modernization”, without formulated objective, especially his increased protection of the towns and cities, was to cause him all manner of dissenting criticism from the magnates of the church and the higher nobility. Frustrated by his insincerity, even treachery, his provocative and dishonoring arbitrariness and in their attempts to demonstrate his unsuitability to rule, his critics, concerned about their status quo, began to favor the papal position and returned repeatedly with

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an escalation of the same charges stemming from the same quarter: their perceived need to depose him. It is to their credit, that they did not proceed with innuendo and rumors, but openly, as reflected in the sources. That they often modified his course of action would indicate that the accusations presented at the diets and synods were not defamatory inventions.675 In other things Henry IV was not an innovator, but rather given to reaction with conventional means against the challenges of dissent of the day. In total, Henry fought 62 battles during his reign, of which many ended in his defeat. Despite the fluctuating fortunes of his reign, he had instilled in his subjects an enthusiasm in his kingship, suggesting a revival of the old confidence in the king's Heil, his charisma. Nevertheless, his chief concern, the preservation of the kingdom of the Salian dynasty was secured against the spiritual forces of the Papacy, the episcopate and the centrifugal interests of the secular magnates in the face of the pope's decisive power of excommunication. This more than any other feature marked the vulnerability of the medieval Empire, not founded on the material world and human nature, but on one grandiose idea dependent on faith and oaths of loyalty. For nearly a hundred years, the vow of fealty became perjury whenever the pope inclined to declare it so, not actually in questions of the faith, but most often over questions of politics and obedience. Prolonged peace affected the nobility, which preferred turmoil and territorial particularism in any case to the unifying rule of one king. If the king drew closer to the church, the nobles made difficulties and if he drew closer to the nobility, the church expelled him from the Christian community, rendering all oaths to him invalid. Nevertheless, despite the threat to his salvation, Henry IV refused to surrender any of the traditional royal/imperial prerogatives. He preserved a situation in which the church of the realm would continue as chief support of the central authority for yet another century. The question concerning the investiture became truly crucial at the very end of his reign and the beginning of that of Henry V. Considering the circumstances, which preceded Henry's death, it seemed though, that Henry V just might capsize the ship of state. The struggle over the primacy had done serious and lasting injury to the fabric of the Regnum Teutonicum.

Henry V With the support of the nobility, Henry V was able to maintain his power in the realm and his kingdom. He inherited problems in Lower Lorraine, when Godfrey of Bouillon departed with the First Crusade, leaving a

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vacancy in the duchy. Conflict between the houses of Louvain and Limburg, a situation not resolved for one and a half centuries, brought first the count of Flanders and then in 1107, king Henry V into the field. A settlement of sorts was reached. In Saxony, the ruling family had no male heirs, bringing about a dynastic change when Henry V invested a new duke, Lothar of Supplinburg, the later king/emperor Lothar III. By then the independence-minded leading noble families were so interrelated that only their affiliations with respective papal and royal positions divided them into camps. The regions beyond the eastern frontiers required increasing attention. The succession in Bohemia ultimately embroiled Poland and Hungary, causing Henry to settle the disputes, resulting in the progressive integration of Bohemia into the Empire, bestowing on the duke and future king the function of imperial cupbearer. Despite inner unrest, the imperial link by marriage maintained the close relations between Poland and the Empire. The questions concerning the succession involved Bohemia and Hungary, the principate of Kiev and finally also Henry V, who saw an opportunity to reaffirm the vassalage of Poland. However a campaign in 1109 was a failure, had it not been for the Polish duke's need to have the king's backing against the pagan Pomeranians. Bishop Otto of Bamberg, representing the imperial church, was asked to pursue missionary work in Pomerania. In Hungary, in 1108, the question of the succession again invited the unsuccessful military intervention of Henry V. As was mentioned, Poland and Bohemia became involved. Why Henry resorted to force against Hungary is not clear. Hungary had been expanding southeastward and building relations with the Byzantines. The attempt to establish a Hungarian vassalage with the Empire was a vain undertaking.676 In all questions except one, Henry V could rely on the stability of the realm: the resolution of the papal disputes over the lay-investiture of bishops and other clerics. Urban II had added the challenge over the incompatibility of homage and oath: how could a cleric be expected to place his consecrated hands into the bloodstained hands of a worldly lord. The challenge was directed against the consecrated secular ruler. Here Henry V was determined not to make any concessions and insisted on the investiture with ring and staff.677 Henry was spared excommunication In France, the symbols ring and crook were no longer an issue, as one argued that since the worldly property was not of a spiritual nature, the king invested the cleric only with the material property belonging to the office. The spiritual office was not a part of such an investiture. The pope thereby recognized the crown's secular, territorial ownership, the temporalia.678 Of course, the French crown was not based on the control of a “national” church.

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In England, the kingdom superseded the priesthood. While the king represented the cosmocratic role of Christ, the priest represented Christ's human nature, as represented by Christ's sacrificial death. In his dispute between Henry I and Anselm of Canterbury, the Concordat of Westminster of 1107 stipulated that the king retained the essential influence over the election of the bishops, and to demand their homage in return for the worldly insignia, the temporalia, before the investiture. In return, he agreed to forego the investiture with the spiritual symbols.679 The notion was arising that the symbols were secondary, with which the investiture was performed, as long as the investiture, along with the oath of fealty, preceded the consecration. Such an investiture would protect the church. On the day of the ceremony, the bishop should take both from the altar. This approach was not realized in the negotiations680. The German position demanded that the temporalia, the urban and rural property and regal attributes transferred (temporarily) to the church remained the permanent property of the realm, for which the church owed the servitium regis, the service to crown and realm. The opposition of the church focused on this demand, in order to maintain its property and the maximum freedom of the church and its clerics. The church wanted to disentangle its magnates from the secularia, from worldly affairs.681 Henry V, unlike his father, was open to the reform movement, and preferred installing supporters of the movement in the bishoprics and abbeys, but maintained his customary right to control the church of the realm, and proceeded with the investiture of even the highest bishops, by handing them ring and bishop's crook.682 Paschal II responded with an intensified prohibition and turned to France for support against Henry. It was to be the beginning of a significant relationship. The pope subsequently forbade any investiture and threatened any cleric who accepted it and any layman who offered it with pain of deposition and excommunication. He did, however, invite Henry V to Rome. In 1109, royal emissaries renewed their arguments before the pope, who conceded that the church should have, what was justly owed the church and that the realm should be given, what the realm justly demanded.683 Before setting out for Rome, Henry V became engaged to the eightyear old Mathilda, daughter of Henry I of England, who would come to be known as the empress Maude, the ancestral mother of the Plantagenets. Henry V may have conceived this eventual marriage between Norman England and the Empire, as a counterbalance to the alliance between the French king and the Papacy. It was performed in Utrecht, at Easter 1110. A few months later, in Mainz, Mathilda was crowned queen, four years before the actual marriage. The archbishop of Trier became her tutor. Her

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dowry of at least 10 000 silver marks helped to bolster the fighting spirit of Henry's German lords.684 In February of 1111 Henry arrived in Rome at the head of 30 000 knights. Negotiations had preceded his arrival. In March of the previous year, the pope had reinforced his intransigent attitude towards layinvestiture. He likened it to temple robbery, by means of which laymen could correct their financial fortunes. The king was intent on confirming the imperial coronation, as well as his right to invest the church hierarchy in the realm. Against the advancing forces of the king, Paschal II tried to negotiate with the Normans and with the Roman nobility. The royal negotiators argued that the loss of services from bishops and abbots would destroy the royal power base, a proposition to which the pope had to agree. Thereupon the pope cleared the impasse by arguing that the church's involvement in secularia, worldly affairs, transferred its emphasis from the divine service, to the care and defense of their worldly goods, by even the basest means, was the source of all evils. Did the pope preach the poverty of the church? Should the church not renounce and condemn this position. Consequently, he was prepared to convince the bishops to relinquish all claims to properties and rights belonging to the realm and to instruct all bishops and abbots to accept this agreement under pain of excommunication, if the king relinquished his claim to the right of investiture.685 The church's income should henceforth be raised through the tithe and any private gifts. The pope had noticed that the bishops were becoming territorial lords and were acquiring an undesirable secularity through their possessions and resulting concerns. The term in question, regalia, referred to secular positions from duke to count. It included territories and such utilitarian jurisdictions as the rights to the mint, to tolls, to hold markets and the economic potential of any prospering towns. If one considers the economic might of such archbishoprics as Cologne, Mainz or Milan, this renunciation actually implied the impoverishment of the imperial church, on the one hand, as well as that of the secular lords, who feared the loss of their church fiefs. In return, Henry was to concede all previous agreements concerning the Papal States.686 The pope was under certain duress to propose a solution, for he was caught in a squeeze play between the inactive Sicilian Normans in the south and Henry's poised forces from the north. For Henry, the return to the crown of such vast territories was an immense opportunity, but also an administrative problem, where to find the additional officials. On February 9, Henry V agreed to sign, on condition that the princes of the realm agreed. Supported by many of them, Henry swore an oath to guarantee the security of the pope. On the day of his imperial coronation,

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the agreement was to be made public and enacted. Henry entered Rome on February 12, to be crowned in St. Peter's. He followed the traditional ceremony, promised the traditional privileges and issued the usual guarantees, greeted the pope by kissing his feet and swore the protective oath. Henry read out his renunciation of the investiture, the pope read the document sharply criticizing the system under which the church of the realm was organized and ordered the return of regalia, rights and properties, and in the terms expressed earlier by Gregory VII and Urban II condemned Lay Investiture. The German magnates protested so vehemently, that the coronation proceedings had to be interrupted. The bishops had not been consulted in the planning of these renunciations, while the pope had relied on the total obedience due him.687 It dawned on them that the fiefs, which they held from the church, would revert to the crown. By the end of the day, it became apparent that despite daylong negotiations, the pope would not be able to keep his promises. Thereupon Henry demanded the conclusion of the coronation and the documentation of the right of investiture. With the pope not prepared to do that, Henry took the pope and the cardinals in attendance captive, and during the night of February 15, left Rome amidst riots raging in the streets.688 For that he was charged with the violation of the sacred person of the pope and he too was now called “Antichrist”. What had gone wrong? The attempt to find a solution had led to a calamity. The negotiations had defined regalia to include all such high offices as dukedoms, property, the rights to the mints, tolls and markets and had defined them as service institutions of the realm rather than as the king's personal and disposable domain.689 The pope's proposal was directed at the separation of the secular and ecclesiastical realms, seeking the “freedom of the church” from lay interference,690 motivated by his perceived need to disentangle his prelates from their increasing involvement in worldly affairs as the root of all evil and the need to refocus them on the religious life. The proposal was not realistic for it compelled the princes of the church to renounce their worldly powers at a time when they were pursuing an opposite course. The secular peers were threatened with the loss of income from their religious fiefs and with the increasing might of the king, something for which they could not display any enthusiasm in view of their territorial and particularist interests. The increased power would derive from the claimed and reclaimed royal holdings, by means of which the king's power expanded over the territory of the kingdom. The question remained open, whether the king could administer these holdings. The magnates would not have favored the increase in the number of ministerials. These would have to be charged

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with the administration and represented the threat of royal authority among the magnates. Resistance also came from the policy makers in the church, who were loath to recognize the continuing property rights of the king over holdings once they had passed into the hands of the church. They rejected any such restitution. Henry V must have been aware of these complications all along, as he tried to gain control over the territories of the kingdom. The strain of the captivity, along with concern for his fellow captives, may have induced Paschal II to yield to Henry on every point. Following a free and canonical election the king would invest a bishop with ring and staff, before the consecration. The sequence of ceremonies was mandatory. On the following day, April 11, 1111, the pope issued the papal privilege and the cardinals signed it. The pope also swore never to challenge the king about the investiture and, most importantly, never to excommunicate him again. The document named Henry specifically. In return, the king guaranteed the release of all captives, the restitution of all acquired church property, loyalty and obedience, provided it did not challenge the royal and imperial prerogatives. Cleverly, the document was not worded to imply an extension including Henry's successors. Henry V was crowned emperor two days later, on April13, 1111.691 On his return to Germany Henry negotiated an agreement with Mathilda of Tuscany, the Papacy's strongest supporter in Italy, in which she ceded all of her holdings to him. Because she had earlier bestowed all of it to the Papal States, the new circumstance would lead to new disputes. Henry had been able to gain yet another concession from the pope – the lifting of the ban on his father. Five years after his death, Henry IV could be buried in Speyer Cathedral. The personal agreement proved not to have been a settlement. The two individuals were not to be equated with their institutions. Opposition to it fostered the division between Empire and Papacy. Critical invectives were expressed by both sides. In March 1112, a church council of Gregorians declared the agreement invalid, having been conceded under duress, against the Holy Spirit and contrary to Canon Law. Individual bishops excommunicated Henry repeatedly during the next few years, however, the more often excommunication was used as a tool, the less effective it became. The growing entrenchment of the church invited a harder line in the Empire.692 Following the Roman coronation, the German secular and religious lords, previously reconciled to the king, began territorial feuds amongst themselves and with the king, who reclaimed vacated holdings for the crown, without redistributing them, or not quickly enough, or bestowing them only on loyal supporters rather than on the rightful heirs. They feared

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a return to autocratic conditions. The chief characteristic motivating the political unrest in the realm then was the conflicting mutual territorial selfinterest, which pitted the magnates against one another and the crown, as they tried to augment and consolidate their holdings and amass ever-larger self-sufficient domains under their increasingly independent rule. The reason for these actions is to be found in the gradual adoption of his father's policies. In order to increase the Salian Hausmacht, royal dynastic power, he too used opportunities intelligently, favored loyal ministerials and bestowed on them castles and empty, previously unassigned estates interspersed among the holdings of other lords. These lesser knights constituted the emperor's fighting forces, as well as his administrators.693 It follows that the ambitious high nobility resented these ministerials for their ambitions and upward mobility, through marriage for instance, and for the threat, which they posed, and like his father Henry IV, treated Henry V with the same increasing suspicion. The royal/imperial magnates of church and state, in pursuit of their ambitions and self-interests aligned and realigned themselves as they maneuvered for advantages against one another and with or against the king. They suspected in the king/emperor a competitor within the same jurisdictions, within which they competed. The nobility saw its own advantages for itself in the conflicts between emperor and pope. Since religious and secular groups both belonged to the aristocracy, it is not surprising that they would make common cause against the weakening central authority, as they consolidated their own independent positions.694 The Ottonian system, which had based the state on the reliability of the church foundations and which had also served the early Salians was turning into the centrifugal weakness of the state. In January of 1114, Henry V was married to the twelve-year-old Mathilda, and during the festivities, he regained some of the control over and support of large parts of the realm. The areas of the Lower Rhine, traditionally supportive of the crown, Cologne, the Middle Rhine, and Saxony drifted away. Henry's army was defeated repeatedly by rebels. A diet convoked at Goslar was ignored by the magnates. A contest of arms in 1115, between Lothar of Supplinburg and Henry, went disastrously against him, resulting in Henry's loss of northern Germany. Increasing obligations also stirred the ministerials to revolt. The emperor's excommunication, renewed once again in several places, on various holy days during the year, now began to take effect in the realm, as the prelates began to desert him.695 Henry's attempts to make peace came to naught, as the number of his supporters shrank and he lost footing. Although the Salian kingdom reached the same low as in 1077, no anti-king was proposed. Only the south remained loyal.

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Mathilda of Tuscany had died and Henry decided to march into Italy to ensure the inheritance, which the margravine had bequeathed to him, and to regain a power base and strength there with which to deal with his northern German opponents. Young queen Mathilda accompanied the expedition. Henry expected to have her crowned empress. During his absence of two years, he left trusted administrators in Germany to rule the realm and to conduct the continuing war. During a second expedition to Italy, Henry left his nephew, Frederick II of Staufen, duke of Swabia, to co-administer the northern kingdom with vice-regal authority. It was to allow him to set the Staufens on the path to the ultimate authority. While Frederick and his brother Conrad served the realm, they also managed to consolidate their own position, by establishing pockets under their control, wherever possible. It is reported that duke Frederick II hauled a fortress with him at the tail of his horse.696 Salian need for Staufen support favored the social ascent of the Staufen into the ranks of the highest peers of the realm. By contrast, in the early 12th century the house of Zähringen was expanding towards the Burgundian southwest through royal favor,697 while the Welfs expanded southward, even into Italy, in contravention of the royal policy. The north, however, could not be reconciled. The Salian policy concerning Saxony had collapsed, allowing separatist tendencies to gain strength. Henry's stay in Italy was not a military campaign. Only a small force accompanied him. Few difficulties awaited him in Lombardy. He could redistribute the imperial fiefs of his Tuscan inheritance and come to the assistance of pope Paschal II, beset by Roman city politics. The noble factions had returned to their quarrels, and when in 1117 the family of the pope was forced to seek imperial support, Henry was quick to take advantage of the circumstance. Though the cardinals and clerics in Rome rejected Henry, still excommunicated, an outsider archbishop performed the ceremony. Though Mathilda was named royal consort and charged with great administrative responsibilities, she was never crowned empress.698 Paschal II, sheltered by the Normans, promptly excommunicated the archbishop, definitely an unfriendly act towards the emperor. The pope died in January 1118. His chancellor succeeded him as Gelasius II. Unresolved tensions caused Henry V to have an anti-pope elected. This unwise move led to the excommunication of both, and the specter of yet another schism threatened to divide the allegiances and prolong the disputes and the wars.699 The danger posed to Henry by a proposed diet in Würzburg, at which he was to justify himself, led him to return quickly to Germany. His presence sufficed to dissuade his opposition to assemble the diet.

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When Henry V returned from Italy two years later, though repeatedly excommunicated, amidst rivalries and growing unease about the growing strength of others, powerful nobles began to return to Henry's entourage by 1119. Negotiations with the church were reactivated concerning disputes. Gelasius II had died that year and Calixtus II succeeded him. A very distant Burgundian relative of the emperor, Calixtus initiated peace negotiations, sought contact with the imperial prelates and in October 1119 convoked a council in Reims. Preliminary talks between Henry V, the abbot of Cluny and the bishop of Châlons prepared Henry to entertain concession concerning the investiture. The bishop suggested that the king surrender the rights of investiture of bishops and abbots, since that did not indicate a diminution of the royal authority, in accordance with the French model. Though not invested by the king, he still performed all the traditional services owed to the king. In writing, Henry agreed to such an arrangement. It was proposed that in a personal meeting between pope and emperor the agreement should be concluded formally. Calixtus found the terms so promising that he interrupted the council at Reims and traveled to meet Henry. However, a last minute change in the papal position disrupted everything. Henry had agreed to renounce any investiture of any church. At this point, surprisingly, the papal side insisted that the king renounce even the material investiture. However, one would grant him the vital services of the church of the realm, although on a voluntary basis and without sufficient guarantees. Henry could not accept these terms, especially since Calixtus had only recently condemned any investiture. Furthermore, the papal side wanted to exclude the contrary-minded bishops from the negotiations. Affronted, Henry refused, asked for postponement to consult his magnates, whereupon the pope broke off the negotiations. A distorted report – a large military force had supposedly intimidated the pope and his entourage – led to Henry's renewed excommunication. His German and Italian supporters and advisors were included in the ban. The attempt at finding a solution had failed, once again. The records are sparse. Henry's cunning, as well as the duplicitous intrigues of the Papacy, have been blamed for the failure. During the preliminary discussion, both sides may have ignored or understated the burning issues. Contrary to appearances, however, these negotiations were a step towards an agreement.700 Henry V was to be the last monarch to insist on total investiture, logical, if one considers, that owing to the Ottonian policy, which had based the strength of the kingdom on the support of the strong church, the church was owner of the largest landmass in the kingdom, about one third.701 The secular authority could not lose control over church territories. In the kingdom, the secular stability

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depended on the reliability of the ecclesiastical infrastructure. Anything less would have furthered the erosion of the kingship and rendered the monarchy impotent, since the magnates elected the king. While the secular lords could be divided, the princes of the church could dominate, as they followed a more unified approach. Half a century later, the ecclesiastical prince-electors outnumbered the secular prince-electors.702 Already in Merovingian times, the Frankish kingdom had been based on a loose arrangement of tribal duchies, in which the duke represented one or the other among the prominent tribal families, often strong enough to withstand the will of the king. The Carolingians inherited this situation and were quite successful in breaking these dukes to the royal will, as was the case with Tassilo III of Bavaria, and imposing dukes with allegiances to the king rather than to the tribal group whom they now ruled on behalf of the crown.703 By the end of the Carolingian Empire and the election of an East Frankish king, this situation had largely reestablished itself and was at the basis of the difficulties, with which Otto I had to deal. He soon saw a solution in deposing the uncooperative dukes, bestowing the dukedoms on weaker people loyal to himself and by placing the kingdom on religious foundations. He had seriously conceived of the religious individuals and foundations as reliable bastions of the secular realm. Beginning at this time, the sacerdotal understanding of the kings recommended to them to see in the servants of the church and of God, also servants of the secular realm. Alongside the abbots and bishops, the dukes, margraves, palatine counts and counts were recast as administrative functionaries. Eventually these positions extended beyond the territories immediately assigned. With the pending advent of feudalism and vassalage, the constitutional structure of the realm grew on a legal network of personal intertwines focused on the king, dependent on the oath of fealty between vassal and liegelord, in which the lord owed the protection of the vassal, who in turn was obliged to render “counsel and assistance”, consilium et auxilium. This relationship restrained the lord, even the king, from acting unilaterally, but always supported by the council of the peers of the land, because the nobility expected to share in the consensual rule of the realm, and, at least in principle, to guard the rights, which the king had the duty to extend and protect. Verdicts had to be formulated by the consent of the assembly of peers. This accounts for the many and regular conventions of royal and episcopal councils, court days and diets.704 As was demonstrated repeatedly, this oath made the king very vulnerable to any spiritual interference, which might invalidate the oath. 'Assistance', that is, consultation, was a particularly crucial requirement, when the need for military assistance arose, such as for the campaigns into Italy, or

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worse, for the crusades. To meet the expenses for the latter, holdings had to be sold or mortgaged, and in the case of deaths, forfeited. Eventually the right to consultation gave them the right to refuse, and as this obligation underwent changes in usage, the magnates became increasingly reluctant to participate in ventures, which forced prolonged absenteeism on them, and growing dissensions in the transalpine kingdom, while away campaigning, in Italy usually, in the interests of the crown. The king's prolonged absences in Italy, had consequences north of the Alps. Subsequently, the settlement of these disputes may have invited imperial intervention to the disadvantage of the magnates. It was these factors, which account for their reluctance or outright refusal to join forces in the cause of royal/imperial intentions. Their costs in human and financial resources were simply too high. The process inadvertently contributed to a growing territorial particularism. By the end of the Salian period, the king had to be able to draw on alternative sources of manpower. These were being cultivated among the ranks of the ministerials and in the growing urban centers. It behooved the king to convince his magnates that the royal interests were also their interests. While the imperial-papal disputes seemed to focus attention solely on the conflict between the monarchy and the Papacy over their respective primacy, another conflict was being played out – the conflict between the crown and its magnates. As mentioned above, in principle and in fact, the kingship was an elected kingship, where the peers could give expression to their primacy over the king by their vote. While the election had something of the principle of selecting “the first among equals” about it, the coronation as king and especially as emperor through the ritual of the anointing, gave the king the select status as the chosen of the Lord. This allowed for ambiguous tensions within the kingdom. The fact that a king could be humiliated, an anti-king could be elected, pointed to the rescindable nature of the election and the impermanence of the anointing coronation. The preceding has illustrated the point. The lords had learned that the king's position was not absolute. An anti-king could be chosen and an anointed king could be excommunicated, even more than once. During those periods when the king was under the ban, the ecclesiastic and secular magnates had the opportunity to develop their own territorial particularism at the expense of the crown and its jurisdictions. In this respect the aristocratic and papal objectives coincided – the curtailment of the king's authority and reduction of power, a circumstance destined to have a long future. The Salians had realized the need for a reliable substitute structure, if they wanted to remain at the helm of their kingdom, and had begun to split up the hereditary tribal duchies and to appoint loyal non-natives to act

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as ducal functionaries, to favor the towns and their growing middle class, but especially by creating pockets of a royal, independently loyal, administrative and military support group of ministerial knights, in all of the reaches of the kingdom. In view of the unreliability of the personal links between kings and the secular magnates, the crown continued to depend on the church as a cornerstone, while it had to develop a dependable source of power. To the magnates this process resembled the crown's attempt to level social differences, to curtail their ambitions, influence and power, and attempt to act arbitrarily against their particular interests. The bishops especially, were developing the secular powers of their bishoprics. Thus Adalbert, the archbishop of Mainz, had presumed royal prerogatives and granted to the city of Mainz the right to its own courts.705 Around 1120, Adalbert, had become embroiled with Henry V, and had found allies in Lothar of Supplinburg, the duke of Saxony, and with the archbishop of Cologne. Two armies converged on Mainz, one friendly Saxon and one hostile imperial, and the threat of a major military conflict arose between the king/emperor and the secular and religious magnates, when the latter took the initiative to eliminate the conflict. Representatives from both interest groups met in Würzburg in 1121 to work out the basis of an agreement and to pave the way for a final peace agreement.706 The “Investiture Struggle” in all the western kingdoms, which had begun as a dispute over the principle of the correct relationship of secular and ecclesiastical power on earth, had deteriorated into disputes over details, including territorial ambitions advanced by bishops and nobles.707 It is apparent that at this point the conflict concerning investiture was not just one about the primacy between Papacy and royal/imperial crown, but intertwined in it, was the serious question of the constitutional structure of the realm. Adalbert took the lead in these negotiations. A solution might recommend itself, if the questions could be reduced to the initial dispute. The result of the diet of Würzburg in September 1121 was that all feuds within the realm were laid to rest. No longer would emperor and magnates be played off against one another. The magnates committed the king, Henry V, to apostolic obedience and to princely counsel and assistance in order to preserve their honor and their rights in the realm towards the pope, formulated as royal rights and property for the kingdom, church property for the church. The formula reconstituted the consensual power relationships in the realm.708 Emperor and monarchy were confronted by the realm and its princes. The realm had prerogatives, over which the king had custodial control, but for which the magnates had constitutional responsibility. As a means of characterizing the strength of

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their position, the emperor must yield to the combined strength of the peers, for they had formed an oath association by which means they could force the king to adhere to concluded agreements. No longer did decisions lie with the king or his functionaries, but with the combined decisions of the princes. In their growing territorial particularism, secular and ecclesiastical magnates understood themselves to be the embodiment and representation of the realm, something they could demonstrate periodically to the king by their free election of him. They controlled the peace. Should the emperor wish to break the peace, he would have to deal with their combined resistance. Simultaneously they shared the responsibility for the maintenance of the honor and the rights of the realm. In return, the emperor could count on their support in the imminent dealings with the Papacy. That the Salian century had undergone great changes is demonstrated by the power of consent among the magnates, who now, at the end of the period, assumed the role of heads of the realm. A century earlier, they had been credited as collaborators of the rules and pillars of the king's reign.709 While the king/emperor remained the titular power, the realm had become an autonomous unit, represented by the princes of the realm. Within this framework, the territorial magnates could develop their own ambitions and weaken the monarchy by amassing royal territories and taking possession of strategic fortified sites, as they pleased. While these developments suggest an early attempt at shaping a “constitutional monarchy”, it also paved the way for greater territorial particularism and arbitrary abuses. No longer could emperor and magnates be played off against one another. The subsequent Concordat of Worms, of 1122, confirmed this accord. After repeated attempts, the German lords circumscribed the powers of the king and frustrated the crown's attempt to make them and the kingdom subject to the particularist interests of the kingdom as a cohesive territory, in which the territorial sovereignty of the dukedoms would be willingly subordinated to that of the kingdom. The crown had little choice but to come to terms with the repeated expression of resistance in the realm. The ministerials were excluded from the mutual commitment. The crown's attempt to replace the system of personal dependencies by something more embracing could not be realized. In early 1122, an exchange of legations advanced the conciliation. The Norman threat to Rome favored the motivation.710 The highest papal dignitaries, future popes, and imperial representatives finally met at Worms, and on September 23, 1122, the agreement was announced to the public before the gates of the city. During the mass, which followed, Henry was allowed to partake of the Eucharist, as a sign of his readmission

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to the Christian community, and the exchange of two signed documents marked the festive conclusion to the proceedings.711 The papal position triumphed, when Henry renounced the investiture with ring and staff and permitted the canonical election and free consecration in all churches of the realm, the Regnum Teutonicum, a somewhat derogatory term first introduced by Gregory VII to restrict the concept of imperium. Henry V made restitution of all properties and rights to the church and to all others, which he and his father had confiscated since the beginning of the “Investiture Struggle”. Within the Regnum Teutonicum all elections of bishops and abbots were to be performed free of violence and simony in the emperor's presence, who could intervene in all disputed elections. In the Regnum, the chosen ecclesiastical candidate was to be invested with a scepter as the temporary regalia before the consecration. Secular magnates were invested with a banner. In the Regnum Italie and the Regnum Burgundie, the imperium, the investiture with the temporary regalia was to take place within six months of the consecration in a ceremony in which the emperor used his scepter. The one invested is expressly committed to perform the services identified in the investiture. The terminology points to the emperor's essential control of the church in his Regnum Teutonicum, Germany. The relationship between the ruler and all of his high prelates was now founded on legal principles. While the prelates had functioned as the main supports and stakeholders of the Ottonian-Salian realm, who supported it through the servitium regis, they now were secular vassals of the temporal king.712 In the Regnum Burgundie and the Regnum Italie, the imperium, the emperor wielded only limited authority over the church. The copies of the Concordat of Worms of 1122 were not identical. The version prepared by the representatives of the crown was prepared for the Apostles Peter and Paul and the Catholic Church. Its concessions were valid for the church as a whole. The papal version, the Calixtinum, addressed the person of Henry V. Henry's version, the Heinricianum, was binding for all his successors and for the Empire of the future. The papal document was binding only on the specific relation between the Papacy and Henry V. Its terms would end with Henry's death. Henry and some lords signed the imperial copy. The papal copy was signed by legates, but never by the pope. The First Lateran Council of 1123 accepted it only with reservations.713 The agreement was a futile rear-guard action. What he rescued, was the condition, which allowed the ecclesiastical and secular princes to begin the aggrandizement of their territories. Henceforth the secular and ecclesiastic collaboration of the Imperium Christianum was to be no more, as the king/emperor lost his co-equal status and, most significantly, no longer had any influence on the papal election and the

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autonomy and universality of the Papacy. In Germany, the king had surrendered his proprietary authority over the church of the realm, in that he could no longer install the princes of the church, effecting the division of crown and church.714 It was a triumph for the reform Papacy. The documents were a cynical compromise, so that the likelihood of future conflicts was latent in the agreement. It was to become a question of power politics and the rule in Italy. Within the self-awareness of the emerging states, the Empire had compromised its leading role and prestige. Depending on the perspective, this 'Investiture Struggle' was either a secular struggle against papal rejection and relegation of the Regnum in the Imperium Christianum, or a struggle of the church for freedom from the sacerdotal assumption of the secular realm and the intrusion of secular interests and controls into the affairs and conduct of the church. Simplified, from c.750 to c.1050 the monarchy considered church and state as co-equals in the jurisdictions of the Christian realm. The king/emperors propped it up, regulated and ordered the turbulent affairs of the church in Rome and supported the reform movement as a means of rectifying political abuses in Rome and in the church. By c.1150, the reform movement had strengthened the church to the point that it could cast off and reject the direction and protection of the realm and not only proceed as an independent institution, but as a unilaterally superior institution. The church could allow or forbid, restrain the secular powers by making the loftier claim to higher authorities, because it had the religious temperament of the times on its side, when it reached for and gained the absolute primacy in the various domains of Christendom. Identifying the ruler as the incarnation of the Antichrist was an essential device. During the next century, the proprietary foundations of laymen were abolished, thereby expelling the secular lords from determining church affairs, and relegating the lords entirely to the secular realm.715 The dominium mundi of the church was firmly established. While the secular authority had to cope with discontinuities and distractions, the reform Papacy never lost this objective from view. Ironically, despite its allpervasive control, the lay culture would reassert itself by the middle of the twelfth century. Not for a long time though, would it be able to free itself of the interventionist policies of the Papacy. The realm did not come to rest. Chaos and destruction prevailed as feuds and the rights of the stronger became the norm. Under its duke, Lothar of Supplinburg, Saxony had not been a party to the agreements, and usurping royal prerogatives, he bestowed fiefs on great nobles, while all along Adalbert, the archbishop of Mainz agitated against Henry V.

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The Concordat of Worms did not change the mood and Henry continued to be involved in the north with questions of the succession of this noble and that. Periodically he would place someone on a ducal throne, when that was a clear affront to the legitimate successor. The English succession made Mathilda a candidate, and discussions paving the way for her succession may have been under way. The family ties involved Henry in a distracting adventure against the king of France, at war with Henry I of England over the control of Normandy. The heir to the English throne having died at sea, Henry V may have considered support of his wife's claim from Holland and was in Utrecht when he died in 1125, at the age of thirty-nine.716 Mathilda had his innards buried there in the cathedral, beside his great-grandfather Conrad II. His body was taken to Speyer Cathedral for burial. The “empress” Mathilda had no claims to the imperial throne, and returned to England, where as “empress Maude” she married Godfrey of Anjou, and bore king Henry II of England, the Angevin Plantagenet. Childless, Henry V had made no provisions for the succession. The Salian dynasty had come to an end. However, the idea of the transpersonal realm provided the cohesion, which prevented the disintegration. During the twelve years which followed the reign of Henry V, Lothar of Supplinburg was the chosen king. At the end of this period the Hohenstaufen sons of Henry's sister Agnes' first marriage were to qualify for the royal throne. Those of her second marriage to the Babenberg margrave Leopold III of Austria were not considered.717 Once again, the magnates of the realm saw the opportunity of an election of a king. The precedent setting elections of Conrad I in 911, of Conrad II in 1024, even of Rudolph von Rheinfelden as anti-king in 1077, were now coupled with the dislike of a hereditary monarchy within the framework of a growing territorial particularism. While the overshadowing Investiture Struggle seemed to focus attention on the conflict between the monarchy and the Papacy over obedience and their respective primacy, another conflict was being played out – the conflict between the crown and its magnates. As was already mentioned, the kingship was an elected kingship, where the peers could demonstrate their power by their vote. However, the coronation as king and especially as emperor through the ritual of the anointing, elevated the king as the chosen of the Lord. This created ambiguities within the kingdom. As previously mentioned, the fact that an anti-king could be elected, indicated that despite the anointing coronation, the king's position was neither absolute nor permanent and that an anointed king could be excommunicated, even more than once. The great lords could once again turn to a free election of their king, without dynastic considerations. The electoral process is well documented for

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1125.718 Friedrich von Hohenstaufen, Leopold von Babenberg and Lothar von Supplinburg attended the electoral convention “chaired” by Adalbert of Mainz. To the surprise of the aspirant Frederick von Staufen, the tumultuous assembly in Mainz elected the Saxon duke, Lothar von Supplinburg king, as Lothar III, continuing the Carolingian list of royal names. While the archbishop Adalbert of Mainz played the role of kingmaker, the bishops appear to have agreed on a variation of the electoral process and seem to have wanted something other than a mere formal confirmation. Lothar himself appears to have been moving the process along. Frederick, later called the “one-eyed”, a flaw that traditionally would have disqualified him from the kingship, accepted Lothar's election reluctantly and paid homage to him. The Staufen family had been members of the entourage of the Ottonian Henry II, and now, he and his brother declined to transfer the Salian properties to the new king, as if to preserve the heritage of the Salians.719 The non-compliance weakened Lothar's position significantly. After one hundred years, the personal dynastic properties could not easily be distinguished from among the royal properties of the crown. For Frederick von Staufen and his brother Conrad, compliance with the request would have entailed a serious reduction of the territorial control, which they commanded. Actually, Frederick moved in the opposite direction. Owing to the nature of the elected kingship, it mattered to the Staufen to fix the legal character of the duchy. A policy of arranging good marriages, acquiring and founding monasteries and building strong castles, generally extended and consolidated relative kinship positions, as a means of safeguarding the independence of the duchy from the realm. He also paid attention to some early urban development, such as Freiburg. He had married Judith, the sister of duke Henry the Black, a Bavarian Welf, hoping to consolidate his position in the south and intent on maintaining the authority and control, which Henry V had exercised, partly through Frederick, in southern Germany. Their son was the future king Frederick I. Lothar might have been content with a gesture of compliance as an overt indication of Frederick's homage to him. Now, Lothar did not hesitate to proscribe Frederick, when he refused to appear before him in Strasbourg that December 1125. Pope Honorius II excommunicated both brothers, and then his successor Innocent II renewed the ban. The following January, in Goslar, the magnates tried to impose their expulsion by force of arms, but the encounters had unfortunate outcomes for the crown. Lothar's image as a military leader suffered.720 During the summer of 1127, duke Frederick's brother Conrad returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and surprisingly had himself proclaimed

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king by Swabian and Frankish supporters. His proclamation as anti-king may have been intended to reverse the course of events, which had bypassed the Staufen family's aspirations for the crown. Frederick was probably not surprised by the coup. Together the brothers pursued separate interests, Frederick in the Rhineland, where in Alsace after 1116, when as regent acting on behalf of an absent Henry V, he expressed his territorial ambitions by appearing as the legendary builder of castles721, and Conrad in Italy, where he rivaled Welf interests by laying claim to the Tuscan holdings of the margravine Mathilda, but all he accomplished was his coronation as king of Lombardy. In 1130, he returned with only limited success. In Germany Lothar succeeded in compacting the Staufen holdings to a minimum. While Frederick and Conrad were under the ban, Lothar traveled to Rome for his coronation in June 1133. Lothar III introduced new administrative structures into the realm, by establishing the order of landgraves, in Thuringia and along the upper Rhine, among which the Habsburgs, related to the house of Zähringen, were to gain power in Lower Alsace.722 By means of this new order, weaker positions were strengthened, while strong positions were reduced by means of the loss of territory. Zähringen was to gain Burgundy as part of its duchy, an acquisition soon to be confirmed by the Staufen dynasty. Throwing their support behind the house of Staufen was good Zähringen policy. This was to last only until 1146, when Frederick Barbarossa began to extend his ambitions to Zürich and Burgundy, because of which the duke of Zähringen was once again reduced to an empty title.723 Through Lothar's pincer movements, the Staufen position became untenable and the brothers yielded, first Frederick in the spring and then Conrad in the autumn of 1135. He renounced his claim to the crown. But, rather than being proscribed, both only had to pledge participation in the next advance into Italy against the growing power of the Normans. A marriage sealed the peace.724 During his return from Italy in 1137, Lothar III died in the Tyrolese Alps.

CHAPTER THREE THE HOHENSTAUFEN

The Hohenstaufen (1138-1266) Conrad III (1138-1152) Frederick I (1152-1190) Henry VI (1190-1197) Otto IV (1198-1218) Philip (1198-1208) Frederick II (1197-1250) Conrad IV (1250-1254) Richard of Cornwall – elected king in 1257 Alfonso X of Castile – elected king in 1257 Conradin (born 1250-1268)

Conrad III and the Second Crusade While other peers of the realm, especially the Welfs, expected to present their qualifications for election,725 Conrad once again preempted the process and outmaneuvered the Welfs. He had a group of nobles, hostile to the Welfs, assemble secretly in Koblenz and elect him king on March 7, 1138. Coronation, consecration and elevation followed shortly after in Aachen. It was a coup d'état, ending his anti-kingship. However, Conrad's position was weaker than that of the Welfs, and he was elected by those magnates, who wanted to pursue their own territorial interests and did not want a strong king interfering with their plans. His election marked the beginning of the long territorial particularist struggle between the high nobility and the king, as represented by the conflict between Staufen and Welfs. Conrad III was able to support his case by pointing to his lengthy kinship ties with the Salians. His mother Agnes was the sister of Henry V. His royal descent helped sway the vote. The diet of Bamberg at Pentecost 1138 did not challenge the facts. His reign was characterized by the realization of greater extension of his family's Hausmacht, dynastic power,

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secured by ministerial fortifications, in newly purchased, newly acquired and newly colonized regions. It is a curious circumstance of German medieval history that the third dynasty should also begin with a Conrad. That is not to say that the reign of Lothar III was an insignificant interlude. Ruling from his saddle, he continued to use his available resources capably, promoting the centralizing interests of the monarchy and of the realm inherited from Henry V, including the terms of the Concordat of Worms of 1122. In that regard, Conrad was not that well provided. His limited power base caused him to insist on the legitimate continuity of his authority, which he demonstrated in tireless itineraries. Fateful economic and climatic circumstances made his reign a hardship. He expressed a tendency to seek recourse in the imperial past, defending anachronistic assumptions. From Henry V he had inherited a feudal restructuring and consolidation of the realm, animated by inner forces. Without great schemes, intensification and centralization of the reign permeated all levels of the social and religious hierarchy, but he thought in limited dimensions and tried to rule the kingdom as he would a duchy. Forests were cleared, trade routes established to link towns, markets encouraged and, following his father's principles, existing cities sponsored with privileges.726 He established greater functionalism and legalization of the reign and its economy. On the other hand, his limited power forced him to maximize rationally on his administrative resources. Under him, the pragmatic process of a state consciousness was advancing well, beginning in 1138 already, when he folded the three chancelleries of Germany, Burgundy and Italy into one imperial chancellery. Staffed by individuals of ministerial descent rather than by dignitaries selected from the capella, the chancellery was being transformed into a new, growing “civil service”, a superior administrative instrument on which the Empire could rely increasingly for the execution of all of its affairs. In addition, Conrad installed additional administrative pockets, wherever possible throughout the kingdom, creating a strategic, consolidating network of dependencies, loyal to the crown. In addition to the imperial ministerials, drawn from among the unfree, he created the rank of Burggraf, bur(g)grave, from among the free nobility, to administer such imperial castles as Nürnberg, or Regensburg and their territories along the eastern reaches of the realm. Placed among other domains, they were intended to form territorial bonds and become centers of influence and radiating cohesion. Interestingly enough, Conrad created no new monastic foundations, but he began the durable relationship of his house with the Cistercian order. It is also important that Conrad added to the

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family holdings of his brother, and distinguished them clearly from the holdings of the crown. The rivalry between Welfs and Staufens was energized during Conrad's reign. The Welfs were dukes in Bavaria and thanks to Lothar III, mistakenly, also of Saxony, the power base of Henry the Proud established in preparation for reaching for the royal crown. The laws forbade that one duke be enfeoffed with more than one duchy. Conrad now insisted that Henry the Proud voluntarily surrender Saxony and thereby reduce his power in the kingdom. Though Conrad's intention was obvious, it was not logical to Henry, who not only refused to comply but also refused to pay homage to the king. In return, Conrad proscribed him, deposed him and reassigned the duchies to different dukes, to the Askanians in Saxony and the house of Babenberg in Austria. The Welfs refused to yield; Conrad scored military victories against the dukes, Welf VI in Bavaria and his brother Henry in Saxony. When Henry the Proud died in October 1139, Richenza, the widow of Lothar III assumed unhindered the guardianship over ten-year old Henry, son of Henry the Proud and Lothar's daughter Gertrude. This Henry was to make a name for himself as Henry the Lion. Once the Askanian Albrecht the Bear renounced Saxony it could be bestowed on Henry the Lion so that Saxony was firmly in the hands of the Welfs. In 1142, Henry received the duchy as a fief.727 His mother Gertrude was married to Henry II Jasomirgott of Babenberg, who in 1143 was enfeoffed with Bavaria as if she had brought it into the marriage and with her tutelage over her son Henry of Saxony, the marriage would lead to a de facto control of both duchies under the house of Babenberg. In the west and southwest, the Staufens were able to gain only a degree of control. In the northwest, the attempts to acquire monastic establishments and thus control of the region proved unsuccessful. Southern Germany remained marred by conflict. The western Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Papacy were attempting to coordinate a coalition directed against the Normans in Italy. To bind the parties to the agreement, Conrad's sister-in-law Bertha von Sulzbach was married to the Byzantine Emperor Manuel in January 1146.728 She took the name Irene. Conrad adopted her as his daughter, to make her marriageable for an emperor. However, at Christmas 1146 a fervent Bernard of Clairvaux persuaded Conrad III to join Louis VII of France in a Second Crusade729 to recover lost territories in the Near East, instead of launching a campaign against the Italian Normans. The forces of Islam had regained Edessa, one of the crusading states, established during the First Crusade. The pope blamed this loss on the increasing sinfulness of Christians. A new groundswell of enthusiasm carried a mass movement

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along throughout southern Germany, following Bernard's sermons on the occasions of high church festivals. He stressed personal salvation and those in attendance were prepared to respond with enthusiasm in return for the remission of their sins.730 Originally, German participation was not considered by the pope. To secure the succession during his absence, Conrad wanted to have his firstborn son Henry confirmed on the throne. Both of his sons were to die prematurely, and the question arose, whether, on the one hand, God's anointed could absent himself from the responsibility for which he had been chosen, to protect the realm and the pope from harm, especially in times of conflict, dissent and revolt in the realm, and on the other, how he, the secular head of Christendom, could not take the lead on behalf of Christendom against its enemies, when it was the question of heathenism in the world needed to be resolved. In public opinion, of course, one did not have to travel as far as the Holy Land to fight the infidels. As was the case earlier, the Jews living within the borders of the realm had reasons to fear the renewed crusading fervor. At worst, the infidel could be located only just beyond the eastern borders of the kingdom. Radulf, an itinerant Cistercian monk from Clairvaux, had started to preach without restraint hatred of the Jews and to rouse the people of northern France. His activities had spilled into the Rhineland, where he openly preached the murder of the Jews, and which predictably resulted in unrestrained pogroms of the Jews in Normandy and in the Rhenish cities. Where possible, king Conrad and the bishops offered the Jews refuge in their castles. Radulf's “crusading” followers attacked those Jews, who found no shelter, wherever they found them and either baptized them forcibly, or killed them. Bernard personally had to restrain him in Mainz and force him to return to his monastery. Contemporary Jewish records, describe the violations. In Würzburg, the fabrication was circulated that the Jews had murdered a Christian, whose corpse was floating in the river Main, and that the corpse had a miraculous effect. On the eve of Good Friday, agitated crusaders and the local rabble then roamed the city killing, torturing and baptizing Jews. Many of them were rescued by their Christian neighbors, and the local bishop had the mutilated bodies gathered up, washed and anointed and buried in his garden. The story of the floating corpse was repeated in several places, with repeated results.731 These events forced the hands of the church to preach the crusade in Germany, to a less than eager king Conrad. Following a change in papal policy and several sermons by Bernard of Clairvaux, who did not hesitate to threaten him with all heavenly powers, he agreed to take the cross again and lead the German crusade.

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Conrad had already been to the east in 1123/24 and now a host of south German lords joined his expeditionary force, but these were joined by an undisciplined rabble of ill equipped, poor, old and frail men and women, who proved a liability to the progress of the crusade, its organization and supply system. The movement coincided once again with a famine, that of 1145-47. His nephew Frederick, proven in battle, accompanied Conrad, who was to be away until 1149 in what proved to be a senseless undertaking. In March 1147, Henry the Lion launched an accusation, that his father had been dispossessed unjustly. It followed Conrad's attempt to have his eldest son Henry (VI, †1150) elected king and successor. This accusation was tantamount to an electoral condition. Since the start of the crusade could not be delayed, the coronation could not be performed. For the duration of the crusade, the Peace of the Land had been proclaimed and Henry of Saxony would have to await the end of the crusade.732 Henry, however, refused to join the crusade. Instead, he directed his attention eastward, against the still pagan Slavs. Bernard of Clairvaux could be induced to acknowledge the campaign against the Wends an independent crusade, demanding 'death or baptism' of the populations relapsed into paganism. It led to the systematic crusading policy towards the eastern, Slavic regions, actually with more successful results. Unfortunately, the insistence on baptism prevented a peaceful colonization.733 Hoping to take advantage of the alliance by marriage with Constantinople, Conrad III had decided to follow the perilous land route, along which the uninvited pilgrims now burned and plundered their way down the Byzantine Danube. A flash flood caused the Germans severe losses in men and materiel. Bypassing Constantinople, they met a devastating defeat in Anatolia. The German crusader army was annihilated, perhaps as a result of a Greco-Turkish conspiracy.734 The remnants, including Conrad and Frederick, joined the French forces, which followed behind. Already here it became apparent that the crusading spirit was easily tempted to pursue dubious aims, as targets of opportunity appeared, when western elements wanted to attack Constantinople. Only the false news spread by the Greeks, that the Germans were making rich booty, sped the French across into Asia Minor, there to meet a similar fate as had befallen the German crusaders. A positive result was achieved by the sea-borne crusaders, recruited mainly from among urban centers in England, Normandy, Flanders, Frisia and the Lower Rhine, but not from among the high nobility, who were able to take the cities of Lisbon and Tortosa from the Moslems.735 This group joined the French forces.736 A change of targets led them to attack Damascus instead of Edessa, which could not have been more ill conceived. Returned to Constantinople, Conrad III convalesced

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and the Greek emperor – their wives were sisters – projected cooperative plans on how to deal with the Normans. The plans were to come to naught. Circumstances interfered with the realization of any projects. Of great significance for the future Staufen attitude towards the church, was Conrad's insight into the Byzantine relations between emperor and patriarch, in which the state operated entirely free of church interference. With the exception of that part of the crusade, which had taken the sea route along the Atlantic coast, the Second Crusade had been a farcical debacle. For the German crusaders it was an encounter with the participating peoples of Europe and those inhabiting the rim of the Mediterranean.737 Some saw in the failure the interference of the devil and even of the Antichrist.738 The long-term effect for Staufen politics was their involvement in the affairs of Byzantium, the eastern Mediterranean and the kingdom of Sicily, where in 1130 Roger had been crowned “king of Sicily and Italy” in papal attire.739 The emperors objected strongly to the creation of an autonomous Sicilian kingdom as they considered southern Italy a part of the regnum Italicum. In pursuit of his Bavarian interests, Henry the Lion gradually occupied all of Bavaria by 1150. The anti-Norman coalition was not to be realized. Along the Empire's eastern borders the traditional complex relationships, including marriages, between the Empire, the Austrian March, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary and Byzantium determined the unpredictable political climate in those regions, now also overshadowed by the internal disputes within the transalpine kingdom. Henry, the king-designate, died in 1150. The death of his wife and son Henry left Conrad a lonely man. It was now that he drew close to the visionary Hildegard von Bingen. King Conrad III, aged 58, died on February 15, 1152, before he could be crowned emperor. On his deathbed, he designated his nephew, when he handed the insignia to him and recommended to the electoral assembly that in the interest of the transpersonal kingdom, his own six year old son Frederick be passed over and that the succession pass to his nephew Frederick III, duke of Swabia.740 The problems associated with the succession of Otto III and of Henry IV may have recommended this course of action. Conrad III was laid to rest in Bamberg Cathedral. The equestrian statue there, representing an idealized royal knight, may suggest him to be the ideal knight.

Frederick I Barbarossa On March 4, 1152, the electoral assembly elected Frederick I, dismissively called Barbarossa by the Italians, because of his red beard. In an old Germanic gesture, his Swabian knights raised him on a shield. He was

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seen to reconcile in his own person the pertinent, often feuding families: a Salian through his grandmother Agnes, a Welf through his mother, Judith, the daughter of Henry the Black of Bavaria and wife of Henry the Proud of Saxony and aunt of Henry the Lion; Staufen through his father Frederick II, duke of Swabia. Frederick I and Henry the Lion of Saxony were cousins. The historical writings of the day saw in this confluence of bloodlines a divinely ordained objective.741 Once again, legitimacy of descent was the decisive criterion. On March 9, 1152, Frederick, considering himself to have been chosen by God's divine grace, was anointed and crowned in Aachen by the archbishop of Cologne. Thus in 1157, Otto von Freising was asked to portray the realm to have an eschatological function, and that it was to be the role of the Staufen family to halt the decline of the sacerdotal realm and prevent the end of the world. Not only were they entitled to the succession by blood, but destined by a manifest necessity. His chancellery began to use the term sacrum imperium. One reached for available possibilities and traditions, and imbued them with a new dynamism. Barbarossa especially, a most imperious figure in his time, was to undergo a later mytho-poetic, messianic enhancement under which he would restore all that was good in the world during his second coming. The Staufen rise to the throne was put as an evident need. Though it proved an unrealized hope, and although already a generation later, this view would be revised, the myth lived on.742 The election on March 4, 1152, was not uncontested and not without rumored cunning. Henry the Lion was not a strong candidate.743 Frederick was generous in the titles, offices and promised expectations, which he distributed among the Welfs especially, though many of them were out of reach or occupied by others and could not be realized. Henry the Lion was probably appeased with a promise to return to him the duchy of Bavaria. During Frederick's progress through the kingdom, at the diet of Merseburg in June 1152, the king was called upon to decide a conflict between Henry the Lion and Hartwich, the archbishop of Bremen.744 Henry had gained Slavic territory along the Baltic coast. However, the duke of Saxony also wanted to have his jurisdiction beyond the Slavic area along the Baltic coast confirmed, including the former holdings of the archbishop of Bremen The archbishop of Bremen had lost these regions, when the archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen lost jurisdiction over Scandinavia and now wanted to be able to establish bishoprics there. The duke of Saxony wanted to have jurisdiction over the same area. This involved the old question concerning the investiture of bishops. Elections, as stipulated in the Concordat of 1122 were not yet realistic. Henry claimed the right to

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invest bishops for himself, since he did not want to compromise the territorial integrity. The archbishop perceived in this a curtailment of his metropolitan rights by a secular magnate and asked to be invested by the king. However, since royal prerogative had not been able to establish a precedent in Saxony, in 1154, at Goslar, Frederick bestowed the king-like privilege to invest on Henry, duke of Saxony, and now also of Bavaria. The king did not obstruct Henry's wishes to expand his jurisdictions. This expansion was to be directed eastward, especially along the Baltic coast and led to the monastic establishments, bishoprics, trade agreements, the protection of long distance traders and trading centers on Gotland and beyond. The city of Lübeck was one of his foundations.745 In 1152, the diet had met in Regensburg. From there, Frederick wanted to launch a campaign to impress on the Hungarians the new facts of the Empire, but for unknown reasons the German peers refused to support the campaign. The eastern, Austrian march, known as Ostarichi, was separated from Bavaria and in 1156 raised to the level of duchy, to compensate the Babenberg duke, Henry, for the loss of Bavaria to Henry of Saxony. It would come to be known as Österreich, Austria. The dispute between Staufen and Welfs seemed to be laid to rest, for the time being. In 1152, it was also decided to seek the imperial coronation in Rome in combination with the delayed campaign into Italy, originally intended by Conrad III. In 1153, at Constance, when Frederick swore to three points of a bilateral agreement, he burst on the scene as a potentate: to make no peace with Romans or Normans without the consent of the pope, to subject Rome with all the powers at the Empire's disposal to the Papacy and to restore the conditions of a century earlier; to maintain and defend the integrity of the Roman church and to restore what had been lost; to make no concession to the Byzantine emperor on Italian soil and to prevent his establishment there.746 Clearly, Frederick intended to turn the clock back one whole century, to the times preceding the “Investiture Struggle” and the Concordat of Worms of 1122, when the Two Authorities, the Two Swords, were the accepted rulers of Christendom. The pope was to be relegated to his earlier restricted authority. For his part, the pope promised to honor Frederick as St. Peter's beloved son, to crown him emperor without reservations and to support him as ruler for the benefit of the realm. Upon royal request, to admonish or even place under the ban all those who wanted to overthrow the order of the realm and to participate with all available forces in the expulsion of the Byzantine emperor from Italy. The second papal clause was taken to represent a particular means to limit the powers of the pope–without invitation, he could not intervene, but with the invitation, he could not refuse. The decisive clauses reflected

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Frederick's interests and the Italian policies of his predecessors. On the other hand, the papal promises applied only to Frederick, while Frederick's clauses affected the Papacy as a whole. Frederick I immediately began to invest bishops without papal consultation and even demanded the pope to replace bishops of dubious loyalty to the crown with his own supporters, which by extension could allow him to replace gradually the entire episcopate with prelates loyal to him, like his Salian predecessors. In so doing, he wanted to prevent any alienation of the aristocracy through the intentions of the Papacy. Being of the same aristocratic order, these churchmen could be expected to block any efforts to generate an opposition.747 Pope Eugene III had to show himself to be conciliatory. The ambitions of the Normans to take all of Italy, those of the Byzantines to recover their Italian domains, when combined with the co-operation between the eastern and western Empires, – the Bavarian duke and Austrian margrave had married the eastern imperial niece Theodora –,748 made conciliatory concessions to Barbarossa a most expedient policy. However, for papal assistance and the promise of the imperial coronation, the pope demanded concrete military assistance and the promise not to make common cause with any parties, which might foster hostile ambitions against the Papacy and its interests. It seemed as if the gains made by Gregory VII, had been reversed. For Rome's sake, an effective and protective Empire had to exist, though Rome never interpreted the word “protector” to mean 'ruler'. In October 1154, Frederick set out for his coronation in Rome with only a limited force of 1800 knights. For many years the imperial presence had not made itself felt in Italy and the Regnum Italie was no more than a faded memory. Since the early 12th century, northern Italy had used the power vacuum to promote participatory city administrations, the communes headed by consuls, based on new economic, social and political parameters, based on money, manufacture and trade. This rise entailed intercity disputes as one sought to dominate another. They had appealed to Frederick to referee their disputes. On his way to Rome Barbarossa wanted to deal with such complaints. At the time, the city of Milan enforced its dominating hegemony over neighboring cities in Lombardy... In Frederick's mind the esteem of the Empire needed to be restored. As legislative authority he expected to enforce unaccustomed notions of a central authority, but found he had entered an unfamiliar world. Milan and the other cities were well on the way to establishing their own administrative units. With his limited forces he could not subdue the cities by force. Instead he laid waste their hinterland. However, in 1155, the siege, capture and destruction of Tortona, allied with Milan, and intended to serve as a

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persuasive example, had the opposite effect. The other cities rallied to the aid of Milan and it became apparent to Frederick I, that these cities acting in cohesion, posed a significant problem for him and his reign. Pavia and other cities opened their gates, allowing Barbarossa's coronation as Lombard king, in 1155. In Bologna, he issued privileges to the faculty and students of the university of Bologna.749 The issues concerning royal jurisdictions were not resolved in a satisfactory manner. Frederick I returned to Italy in 1158. In Lombardy he set up camp in the fields of Roncaglia near Piacenza, on the river Po and assembled a diet of the realm. Representatives of 28 Italian cities were invited to participate. At issue was the recovery of imperial fiscal rights and the clarification of the royal administrative rights in the communes, termed regalia. These included the jurisdiction over duchies, counties, the installations of consuls, the control of mints, weights and measures. The text formulated at Roncaglia identified many more, to examine which of the regalia had been ceded to others by the churches. It established the monarch's sole jurisdiction.750 The pope, Hadrian IV, an Englishman, needed assistance against the Normans and the Byzantines in southern Italy, and against the citizens of Rome. He had placed the city under the interdict, forbidding all church services. In Rome, a revolutionary church reformer, Arnold of Brescia, preached the poverty of the church and denied popes and emperors the right to rule Rome. This Arnold was taken captive, hanged and his corpse burned at the stake. With Hadrian's accession to the papal throne a change in the political climate became apparent. Before Frederick entered the city at Easter 1155, he and Pope Hadrian IV met at Sutri. Hadrian was a “Gregorian” and like him was convinced of the pope's superiority over the emperor. He demanded the king render the strator service, to lead the pope's horse by the reins. This was in clear opposition of Frederick's understanding of the primacy relationship between them, so that he was most averse to render the service, and signal his vassalage of the pope. Barbarossa even insisted that a prejudicial fresco,751 still on view recalling the time of Lothar III, be removed from the oratorium of St. Sylvester in Santi Quattro Coronati in Rome, which commemorates forged events in reference to Pope Sylvester and the emperor Constantine and which designated the emperor as the pope's vassal.752 Neither one of them greeted the other with the customary niceties. While Frederick kissed the pope's foot, the pope refused the kiss of peace, as long as the king did not hold the stirrup, when the pope dismounted. A tribunal of magnates deliberated the problem and persuaded the king to yield, while the pope agreed to have the fresco removed. The next morning, when the pope arrived on his white

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horse, surrounded by a fragrance of bishops, the king rendered the pope the expected service. The coronation could proceed. The citizens met him between Sutri and Rome and offered him the imperial crown out of their hands. He was surprised, that the Roman Senate demanded from him the recognition of the city's constitution and that he pay the city 5000 pounds of gold, since it was Rome, which bestowed upon him the imperial title and mastery of the world. Partly trapped in his own understandings, partly influenced by the view that the imperial office remained tied to the Papacy, Frederick could not accept the crown out of the hands of the people of Rome with their rebellious, republican tradition.753 He did not understand the hint offered him by the changing times.754 He rejected the authority of their claim, since it was the right of conquest, which gave the Eastern Franks the inheritable right to Rome and the imperial dignity. Frederick was crowned in St. Peter's on June 18, 1155. A riot followed the ceremony, as the populace objected to the resubmission of the city to papal authority and took the pope prisoner. To the displeasure of the pope, this clause of the agreement formulated in Constance in 1153, which defined the imperial claims, possessions and powers in Italy, could not be realized because of popular opposition, nor could southern Italy be secured against Byzantines and Normans. Again, Barbarossa could not overcome the reluctance of his magnates to join him in such a campaign. A policy decision, not to counter his magnates and thereby proceed unhindered with the consolidation of his realm, had precedence over an extraterritorial adventure of a summer campaign into southern Italy.755 He had to declare the Italian campaign concluded and demobilized his troops, to return to Germany. The possibility of a marriage between Frederick and a Byzantine princess, to solidify an alliance against the Normans, could not be realized either. In January 1156, negotiations were initiated, intended to lead to a marriage between Frederick and Beatrix, the heiress of Burgundy, at most fifteen years old. On June 17, 1156 the link between the transalpine realm and Burgundy was consolidated in Würzburg.756 Frederick was thirty-four. It had transpired that Frederick had not been able to live up to the terms of the agreement of Constance, leading to his imperial coronation. Barbarossa could not get beyond an expression of intentions. The Normans paid to the city of Rome Hadrian's pontifical inauguration fee of 5000 pounds of gold, thereby becoming the pope's protectors. In 1156, the pope formally concluded such an agreement with the Normans. It became increasingly apparent that the two theoretical and united authorities, sacerdotium and imperium, representing Papacy and Empire had grown apart. Barbarossa resolved to concentrate his Italian policy on northern

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Italy, especially on Milan. We had observed earlier, that in Lombardy independent episcopal directions had been in place, resistant to the jurisdiction of Rome. This potential independence was more of a threat to Rome than the imperial ambitions. Barbarossa made the tradition of conquest by Charlemagne and Otto I the basis of his judicial position in the Regnum Italie. Not a subtle approach, this attitude caused the collaborative community of interests of communities and Papacy against Frederick's Italian policy. It was too late, that Barbarossa now invoked joint functions of sacerdotium and imperium.757 Two papal legates attended the diet assembled in Besançon in October 1157. The assembly in Burgundy was intended to tie the Burgundian peers closer to the Empire. These legates, from the anti-imperial camp, carried a strongly worded papal letter, which redefined the imperial crown as a papal beneficium, and not a hereditary right, or put differently, a papal fief bestowed on the German king, rather than a beneficial deed. It clearly restated the Gregorian position, that the emperor's position was subservient to the pope. Rainald von Dassel translated this understanding of the Latin. It caused an uproar. This papal return to the old dispute between pope and emperor, aroused Barbarossa's suspicions and he had the luggage of the legates searched. One found completed privileges with only amounts and the names of the beneficiaries left to be filled in. The papal approach failed.758 This time the unanimous support of the emperor isolated the pope. The collective statement made by the magnates restricted the pope's claim to the primacy in Christendom, in that they considered the imperial coronation in Rome to be no more than a consecrating act, with the pope acting as functionary. Frederick forbade appeals directed to the Papacy, a procedure which would have eroded episcopal positions and which caused the German prelates to make a common front against the pope. They took the first tentative steps on the way towards a “national” church. Six months later, in June 1158, two new prelates arrived at the camp, south of Augsburg, where the forces were massing for the expedition to Rome, representing the pro-imperial group among the cardinals. They insisted that beneficium did indeed mean “good deed” and not papal fief and protested the decree, which forbade the clergy to appeal to Rome. They also addressed Barbarossa as “Lord and Master of Rome and of the World”, having lordship over the world–dominium mundiíwith virtually unlimited powers .759 A second Italian expedition had been delayed to 1158. This time Fredrick approached with a multi-ethnic army of 50 000 men.760 Of interest are the disciplinary measures which Barbarossa imposed on all for breaking the peace – shearing of hair, flogging, branding on the cheek and

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chopping off hands; the same rules applied to profiteering vendors, charging inflated prices; noses were cut off any dubious women found in the camp. Fredrick was supported financially and militarily by a long list of Milan's rivals, which opposed its hegemony over northern Italy. In September 1158, after a siege of four weeks, Milan was forced to yield. The city lost its privileges, the citizens had to swear allegiance and the clergy and other notables had to humble themselves before the emperor and beg forgiveness. Despite democratic legislative efforts, Frederick I dealt rather heavy-handedly with the Lombard cities and it soon seemed that the reason behind the intervention in Lombardy was motivated by his desire to improve the financial fortunes of the crown. In the meantime, Pope Hadrian IV encouraged resistance and made secret deals, proposing that any opposition to the emperor was pleasing in God's eyes. The two sides eventually faced off with sloganistic, defamatory diatribes. Pope Hadrian IV was leading towards the emperor's excommunication, but died in September 1159. During the summer of 1159, two cardinals had appeared asking that an agreement be formulated based on the agreement formulated in Constance and designed to restrict the imperial claims, possessions and powers in Italy. Barbarossa rejected the proposal, because in his eyes the pope had broken the agreement when he resorted to the help of the Sicilian Normans. Barbarossa had the choice of abandoning his Italian policy or to engage in a conflict with the Papacy reminiscent of the one conducted by Henry IV, a century earlier.761 The pope's death, followed by a split vote in the papal election, introduced the long lasting schism, which was to add significant ramifications into all imperial dealings, as the familiar differences were augmented by the schismatic division. It affected local as well as imperial affairs. The schism brought two candidates into contention, of whom Victor IV was the first to be proclaimed by the populace of Rome, attributed to imperial bribes scattered about the people. The final selection was then to be an imperial decision. The imperial position was the familiar one, that the voices of the noble electorate expressed the Will of God. At the contentious diet of Besançon in 1157, this position conflicted with that of the pope, who had declared his primacy over that of the emperor, by insisting that the Empire was a beneficium, a papal fief. But this imperial power was beginning to raise resentments among those who challenged the imperial prerogative, because since Gregory VII, this had become a papal prerogative. Prematurely Barbarossa had indicated his willingness to support only the candidate, who was willing to cooperate with the Empire and expected other monarchs to join him in this support. Victor IV belonged among the imperial supporters.

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The following procedures were not according to any acceptable rules. The opposing candidate deliberately chose the name Alexander III, to mark his ideological succession to Alexander II, the first of the antiimperial popes preceding Gregory VII.762 In February 1160, the council in the cathedral of Pavia was in disarray, as Alexander refused to appear, rejecting the idea that a pope could be judged. The assembly did not have a “quorum” and, thanks to the manipulations of Rainald von Dassel,763 the counted votes were skewed as opponents were not admitted, one hundred signatures were forged to approve the election of Victor IV. It was to prove that while Alexander III had great support in France and Italy, especially in the cities of Lombardy, Victor IV remained the emperor's pope, obeyed mainly in Germany, though Salzburg sided with Alexander. Frederick I strove for a consensus among other monarchs for his pope, Victor IV, but both Henry II of England and Louis VII of France supported Alexander III.764 What was taking shape was the politicization of the Papacy, the papal association with the strengthening cities and a growing regionalism. The perception of the Imperium Christianum shared by the Two Authorities and encompassing all Christendom, was in the process of undergoing a transformation. Misunderstandings by some interpreted it as a temporal claim to universal rule on earth, loosing from sight its earlier understanding. Opposition and resentments were growing against the claims of universal authority claimed by church and Empire respectively. It was to be difficult for Frederick I to develop a consistent papal policy. During his reign of 38 years, he had to deal with twelve popes of which four were anti-popes. A papal reign tended to be short, although Alexander ruled for twenty-two years, which meant that despite the advanced ages of the popes, each brought a new energy to the same thematic disputes between popes and emperors. Agreements made with one pope, were not necessarily binding on his successors, who generally came up through the papal hierarchy and were most familiar with the persistent, long term papal policy. Though Frederick considered the other Christian kingdoms as equal partners in their dealings with the Papacy, he could not persuade them of their community of interests in the papal disputes, and the kingdoms of England and France aligned themselves against the Empire. John of Salisbury loudly challenged the imperial assumptions and assertions. The perceived arrogance emanating from the imperial idea, represented by Rainald von Dassel, archbishop-elect of Cologne, that the nomination of the bishop of Rome could only originate with an imperator Romanorum,765 was isolating the Empire politically and alienating the neighboring kingdoms. At the same time, the needs for

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reinforcements to fight in northern Italy and for resources seriously strained the means of the transalpine Empire, causing shortages and even murderous unrest in the cities. Milan had relapsed into its previous resistance and for that it was besieged, until the Milanese offered surrender and terms. Suspicion of its revival led to its evacuation and complete destruction in March 1162 by the imperial forces and those of the rival cities.766 The records list shameful atrocities, reflecting the temper and practices of the times. Pope Alexander fled to France. In such councils as could be assembled, Barbarossa and his advisors twisted and turned to arrive at formulations favorable to the isolated imperial position. It was to be a defeat. When Victor IV died in April 1164, the schism did not end, because the imperial chancellor, Rainald von Dassel, something of a driving force behind the emperor, unilaterally and against the counsel of the archbishop of Mainz, had another subservient pope enthroned immediately, Paschal III.767 It was consistent with his earlier assertion that Rome was a German bishopric, with the pope a German bishop, whom the emperor could invest. Rainald had achieved that ill will now broke out among Germany's bishops and lords and many changed sides or abstained from any involvement. In England, Henry II had tried to stiffen his control over the English church and had encountered the resistance of Thomas Becket of Canterbury. Becket sought refuge with Alexander in France, leading to the situation, which culminated in the “Murder in the Cathedral” in 1170, an unnerving event, perceived as a sacrilege, which caused a cooling of relations between Staufens and Plantagenets.768 Earlier, Rainald had promoted an approchement with England, when in 1165 an alliance recommended itself between king Henry II of England and the emperor Frederick I, which took the form of marriages. One of the daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, three-year-old Eleanor, became engaged to Frederick's sickly one year old heir, Frederick, while the other, nine year old Mathilda, became betrothed to thirty-five year old Henry the Lion of Saxony, a most consequential marriage. Henry II and fifty English bishops promised the recognition of Paschal III. A flash of euphoria of a joint crusade to deliver Jerusalem was projected.769 In 1164, Rainald von Dassel had the bones of the Magi, the Three Kings transported from Milan to Cologne. However, it is likely that the provenance of these relics is Rainald's own invention770 They were considered saints of the realm, whose kingdom had been founded by Jesus himself, owing to their association with his birth. Their new location in Germany was intended to guarantee the immediacy of God in the face of the claims of Pope Alexander III. The canonization of Charlemagne in

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Aachen at Christmas 1165, although performed by an anti-pope and never recognized by the church, was intended to underscore the same guarantee. Charlemagne was celebrated as Apostle, confessor and martyr for his services to the Christian church. Henry II of England is said to have given the impetus to this idea, as the procedures followed at Aachen resembled those of the elevation and enshrinement of Edward the Confessor in London's Westminster Abbey in 1163, following his canonization in 1161 by Pope Alexander III. Already in 1144, the remains of St. Dionysus had been placed in the crypt of St. Denis in Paris.771 In 1146 Conrad III had had Henry II canonized. The symbolism of the canonizations and enshrinements of these patron saints served personal, regional and dynastic purposes. In each case, the monarch took an active part in the ceremony. For Barbarossa and the Staufen kinship, this entailed claiming Charlemagne's glory by association and imperial legitimacy. This concern had received new urgency because of the resumed unification discussions between the eastern and western churches, after which the eastern emperor could claim the protection over a united church, in view of the so-called Constantinian Donation. A reunification would have obviated the necessity of a western emperor and since Manuel I could claim continuity and legitimacy from Justinian, the western emperors had to be concerned over theirs. Two dimensions came into play with the canonization of Charlemagne: the self-justification of the western Empire and the reduction of the significance of Rome. The enshrinement of the saints and of Charlemagne in Aachen counteracted such a claim. Had Charlemagne not proclaimed Aachen as the Roma nova, the New Rome and the New Jerusalem? The imperial dignity was not dependent on Rome.772 Conditions demanded Frederick's return to Italy in October of 1166. In July king William of Sicily had died, creating a favorable situation for an intervention in southern Italy, as he hoped to gain both southern Italy and Rome in one venture.773 During the following July Rome was taken by force, as Alexander III fled, thanks to the collusion of the Roman Senate. The emperor's pope could move into the Lateran Palace and crown the empress in St. Peter's basilica and renew Frederick's own coronation, as a confirmation of his own peak of power. However, swarms of mosquitoes carrying malaria enveloped the army, striking nobles and commoners alike, and only fragmented contingents could return north. Rainald von Dassel collapsed on the way into the mountains. The loss of his most capable advisors among the victims of the catastrophe caused a significant change in Barbarossa's politics, in that he gradually abandoned the judicial basis of his position.774 Troops had to be sent north to deal with uprisings

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there. The imperial administration of Lombardy collapsed, as one by one the Lombard cities fell away, united to cast off the Empire, blocked the way north, giving a final signal of the failure of Frederick's Italian policy. He barely escaped an attempt on his life. At home, the death of the younger generation was felt most painfully, as many families died out. On the other hand, since their estates reverted to the crown, Frederick obtained territories for renewed distribution to some loyal supporters, which could have contributed to the consolidation of his position in the transalpine Empire, so that in the end, the results might have been positive. Barbarossa used this opportunity to increase the Staufen holdings, a source of resentment, and division, and suspicious resistance against his Italian campaigns, which, owing to the weight of imperial, Italian considerations were to demand most of his attention until July 1178. On the other hand, the new acquisitions gave him a real territorial base in Germany, thereby increasing his family's Hausmacht In 1167, the Lombard cities had formed a unified league, the Lega Lombardia, which now came on stage, directed against Frederick.775 In Saxony, he faced open resistance. In 1168 Pope Paschal III died. Rainald von Dassel having also died, a rapprochement with Alexander III became indicated. The time for keeping a subservient pope had passed. The concessions went so far as to cede to the Papacy the unrestricted jurisdiction over the Papal States and the Mathildean inheritance in return for the pope's assistance in obtaining a solution in Lombardy. At the diet of Bamberg in June 1169, Frederick proposed his three-year-old son Henry (VI), born in the autumn of 1165 at Nymwegen, to be elected king. Following the election Henry was crowned at Aachen in August.776 Frederick's firstborn Frederick having died caused Henry II of England to lose interest in his daughter's marriage to a Staufen. While Mathilda Plantagenet of England, daughter of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine and sister of Richard the Lionheart, married Henry the Lion of Saxony, providing him with powerful political backing, relations between Plantagenets and Staufens cooled markedly. Instead, there evolved closer and longer lasting ties between them and the French Capetians. The Welfs and especially Henry the Lion had come to head the Saxon faction, while the Hohenstaufen, as heirs of the Salians, inherited the dissension between Saxons and Salians. The stage was set for a renewal of the century-old conflict. It was predictable that Barbarossa would lead another campaign into the Regnum Italie, and in preparation, he set his own house in order by compacting his control over the kingdom, and by re-establishing his suzerainty over the neighboring realms, especially the passes through the western Alps, either by amicable agreements or by superior suasion.777 For

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years to come, the big events eclipsed the hundreds of instances of change and instability, when new fortunes were made or lost as secular and religious posts and possessions were confiscated, reassigned, bishops removed from their seats and others invested with them, not to mention the tensions flaring up along the borders. The entanglements in the disputes between Capetian France and Angevin England had implications for the Empire, when its members became implicated in their conflicts. Behind the great and brilliant events, the socio-political realm was not at rest. The instances are merely far too many to recount. At Easter 1174, a festive coronation of the royal parents and their son Henry (VI) took place at Aachen. Shortly after his eighth birthday, his first royal act is documented. Among the guests, Frederick even hosted envoys of the sultan Saladin, who for the past six months had been in his entourage.778 For several years, Frederick had maintained diplomatic relations with the Seljuk Turks and with Saladin. The project appears to have focused on a possible marriage between Saladin's son and one of the imperial daughters. It may have been part of Frederick's dealings with the eastern emperor Manuel. The Turkish sultan reputedly made similar advances to the Staufen court in 1179. Destined to remain episodic, these negotiations would prove favorable only a few years later, when Frederick prepared his Crusade.779 In March 1172, Barbarossa had charged the Lombards and the Papacy with conspiracy, that they wanted to transfer the imperial crown to the Byzantines. This had been prevented by the crown itself drawing closer to the Byzantine emperor, but in 1174 Barbarossa led another campaign into Italy, where the Lombard and Veronese Leagues had put aside their rivalries and now presented a common front against the emperor. His forces were inadequate to venture an outright confrontation with the Leagues. During the peace negotiations of 1175 of Montebello,780 Frederick agreed to a peace with the Leagues. His negotiators ran into obstacles when Barbarossa insisted on direct rule over the Lombard cities as a means of maintaining a semblance of imperial suzerainty. He did not trust the representatives of the merchant and artisan interests in city government. The seemingly endless to-and-fro of small campaigns and negotiations came to a head in the autumn and winter of 1175. Barbarossa had sent for northern reinforcements and it was at this time that Henry the Lion of Saxony demanded he surrender of Goslar with its silver mines in return for military assistance, and refused to render this help when Goslar was not ceded to him, despite the emperor's humiliating pleading.781 The imperial defeat by the Lombard League at the battle of Legnano in May 1176 was proof that the military approach to enforce direct rule over the Lombard communes, was a vain solution of Italian problems. The

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Milanese sent a letter to Bologna, attributing the victory to the pope and the “community of Italians”.782 The peace between the Papacy, the Lombard League, Sicily, the Byzantines and the Empire was negotiated in Venice in 1177. It settled the disagreements between the crown and the communes in Lombardy in a six-year truce.783 The outcome was Barbarossa's reconciliation with the pope following eighteen years of strife, his submission to the pope, the recognition of the Papal States in central Italy as the pope's temporal domain, and the pope's equal suzerainty over the Mathildean lands, with the precise borders left to the determination of referees. On the pope's insistence a peace of fifteen years was concluded with the king of Sicily, thereby providing a new focus for the emperor. Frederick was satisfied that his excommunication had not shattered his esteem and the cohesion of the realm. Behind the settled disputes lurked the jurisdictional questions concerning the sacerdotium and the imperium. Ever since the reform Papacy had reserved all religious domains for itself, the secular power had to develop and establish a worldly rational. The canonization of Charlemagne was its beginning. Using the familiar and erroneous history, the rationalization, mixed with faulty memory syndrome, boldly traced the common origins of Romans and Franks to the legendary Trojans.784 The justification of the existence of Empire and emperor was seen to be established historically in the legitimate continuity of the consecrated dynastic links from Roman/Carolingian through Ottonian, Salian and Staufen family lines. The genealogy was ordained by God and divine providence as the perpetual world order intended by divine providence, hence not dependent on the hindering, ritualistic, legitimizing accretions introduced by the church. The argument implied the hereditary nature of the imperial crown.785 Henry's refusal to reinforce Barbarossa in Lombardy was not the first disagreement between the two cousins. Complex quarrels within the family of the Welfs led to repeated summonses to attend and explain himself at several imperial diets, Henry refused to obey, responding with military force and which in turn constituted a violation of feudal law. Guilty of leze majesty, these offenses offered the emperor the opportunity in 1180 to move against Henry, to “indict him as a wrongful lord and peace-breaker”, to place him under the imperial ban and strip him of his duchies.786 In view of imperial military successes many of Henry's supporters changed sides. However, Frederick could not force him to submit until in the following year a campaign directed into northern Saxon territories and new imperial alliances caused Henry to yield. The terms

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included a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela before going into exile in England. Frederick's actions revealed an underlying policy, the subdivision of the duchies and their redistribution to loyal Hohenstaufen supporters. Western Saxony passed to the archbishop of Cologne, eastern Saxony to the Askanians, while Bavaria was awarded to the house of Wittelsbach.787 Barbarossa used the spread of feudal ideas to draw his nobility to himself by means of land grants and acts of homage. The gradual subdivision of the duchies effected a change in the manner in which troops were raised in the duchies, in that these would now have to be raised by the knightly retinues enfeoffed with fiefs and castles.788 At Pentecost, in 1184, in conjunction with an imperial diet, Frederick held a spectacular celebration to mark the knighting of his sons – his second son king Henry (19) and his third son Conrad, renamed Frederick (14) following the death of Frederick's first son. The princes had come of age.789 Often proclaimed as a uniquely grandiose event, there had been others organized by the great magnates of the realm. This occasion showed Frederick Barbarossa at the peak of his prestige. Foreign royalty from France, England, Spain and the Balkans, the dukes of Austria, Bohemia and Saxony, the German and Italian magnates of church and state, with their entourages numbering many thousands, necessitating the establishment of an encampment of tents and wooden structures, including a church, on the right bank of the Rhine, just north of the mouth of the river Main. The records mention about 50-60000 retainers in attendance. A high mass was celebrated, over which officiated several archbishops, bishops and abbots, followed by a splendid meal at which the highest, designated magnates officiated at table. The hosts, emperor and empress, wearing their imperial crown, Henry VI, under the royal crown, presented a celebration of such festive sparkle and splendor, that the Minnesänger and troubadours, such as Heinrich von Veldeke, who had witnessed the events, echo his impressions in his Aeneid. In the emperor's presence, flanked by noble squires, they swore their oaths of knighthood, received chain mail shirt, spurs and armor, the glove and finally the sword. Thereupon the emperor struck them on the shoulders with the flat of his blade and in the name of God, the saints Michael and George, he dubbed them knights, admonishing them to be brave, unflinching and loyal to their liege-lord. The role of the church was largely marginalized, since its protection was the duty of the monarch. Tournaments, jousts and games, displays of weapons skill and demonstrations of horsemanship followed the ceremony. The epic poets captured these noisy and moving scenes in their works – the knights in shining weapons, flying helmet crests,

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blowing tabards covering the armor, fluttering pennants, the women in finery and precious garments, the horses bedecked in colorful caparisons, liveried grooms and squires, lavish tents topped with identifying gonfalons, snapping in the wind, all to frame the joust as the knights charged one another to break their blunted lances, aiming to unhorse their opponent, or as the poets put, making the opponent sit behind his horse. It was a spectacular din of heraldic fanfares, flashing and clashing weapons, neighing horses, rearing to crash into one another. Clad in iron chain mail, the knights shielded their lovelorn hearts, while they carried their ladies' favors on their sleeves. It had definitely become a most colorful world, dominated by risky playfulness in combat and banter in the game of love. The popularity of these tournaments, disguised the relatively high mortality among the participants. It did not seem to have mattered that the Second Lateran Council of 1139 had denied to anyone killed in a tournament the right of burial in consecrated ground. It was established during the thirteenth century that all of the Seven Deadly Sins were fostered in these events.790 Eventually, royal decrees forbade the use of sharp weapons, à outrance, in favor of blunted weapons, à plaisance. During the festivities, Henry the Lion, returned from exile in England, acting as emissary of the king of England, approached Frederick to negotiate an agreement. It was to be sealed with a marriage of Richard, whom the troubadours called Coeur de Lion, the Lionheart, with Frederick's daughter. Unfortunately, she died towards the end of 1184.791 The years 1183 to 1186 were again spent in Italy. At this time, Frederick was able to draw on the expertise of the law school of the university of Bologna and succeeded in integrating the urban, economic and political dynamism of the Lombard cities into the structural fabric of the Empire. With their cooperation, he was able to advance his reign over the Regnum Italie.792 At the same time, he was negotiating closer relations with the Norman kingdom of Sicily, the Regnum Sicilie. (Map 3-1) In January 1184, in Milan, Henry VI (21) married Constance de Hauteville (32) of Norman Sicily, the aunt of the yet childless Sicilian king William II.793 Her dowry included 40 000 pounds of gold, in addition to a treasure in silver, gems, furs, velvet and silks.794 The imperial coronation was reenacted, performed by the leading magnates of the church. It was a significant, symbolic occasion, for it anchored the Staufen focus south of the Alps in Sicily, henceforth a private possession of the Hohenstaufen.795 With Lombardy, Mathildean Tuscany and now Norman Sicily, most of Italy was under Staufen control. The Papal States and the pope were surrounded and without allies. The wedding ceremony contained elements of the coronation ceremony best identified with an

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imperial coronation of Henry VI and of Constance.796 Henceforth Milan was to host all royal coronations in the Regnum Italie, normalizing the continuity of Carolingian traditions. Named “Caesar” by his father, he succeeded him onto the imperial throne. Central Italy was assigned to him, with special regulatory authority directed against the Papal States.797 He had been king since 1169 and Barbarossa had promoted his son's imperial coronation during his own reign. The marriage between the hereditary Empire and Norman Sicily would lead to an enduring peace with the Papacy literally caught in the middle, should Constance become the heir, something that the imperial court expected. It would mean the incorporation of Norman Sicily and southern Italy into the Empire, without military interaction. Without the designation, “Caesar”, Henry would not have been more than Constance's consort. To prevent the encirclement, in 1188, William was induced to pay homage to the pope.798 The encirclement may have impeded the imperial coronation of Henry VI. Later, after 1198, Pope Innocent III vehemently resisted the unio regni ad imperium, “the union of the (Sicilian) kingdom with the Empire”.799 Already Conrad III had begun to secure the German territories by building fortifications diagonally through the kingdom from Burgundy into Saxony. The territorial consolidation could be advanced following the dying out of many noble lines during the malaria epidemic in 1167, when the crown could use this crisis to the advantage of its territorial policy and recover many vacated holdings for renewed disposition. Reward and punishment, depositions, loss of fiefs on the one hand and promotions in rank, on the other, were the practical procedures. The chief obstacle to this policy was Henry the Lion800 and his plans of expansion, which, however, were deflected towards the Baltic regions, rather than westward. Once Austria had become an independent duchy (1156), Henry could only strengthen Bavaria internally. His founding of Munich to guard the crossing over the river Isar and the protection of the Brenner Pass were two such examples. The territorial ambitions of the dukes of Zähringen in the southwest were concluded to their general satisfaction,801 while Barbarossa's marriage to Beatrix of Burgundy defined the imperial jurisdiction in that area culminating in his coronation in Arles in 1178, as king of the Arelat. With Henry the Lion in control of the Brenner Pass, Barbarossa had to secure alternative access passes to Italy, by acquiring or at least controlling the necessary holdings. The Swabian duke, Welf VI, his heir having perished in 1167, had already ceded his southeastern Swabian lands to Frederick I. Along the Middle Rhine Barbarossa had occupied the counties and bishoprics with relatives and supporters. This territorial policy gave the transalpine kingdom an enduring stability. In

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this transition the process, which converted and weakened large tribal duchies into smaller, more manageable territorial principalities, advanced further to some benefit to the Staufen territorial policy. However, the ceaselessly growing demands of the large holdings had to be balanced and played off against others. It was easier to insist on the peace in the land when dealing with smaller political units.802 The demonstrable illustration is offered by the fall of Henry the Lion and the redistribution of his holdings among Barbarossa's trusted followers803 – Saxony to the Askanians, Westphalia to the archbishop of Cologne, Bavaria to the house of Wittelsbach, but not before Styria had been severed and created an independent duchy in 1180. Henry behaved in a provocative manner, seeing regal possibilities for himself within the Empire. As grandson of the emperor Lothar III, son-in-law of Henry II of England, contacts with the kings of Denmark and Sweden, and with Russian princes, descent and associations raised him above the other territorial magnates. During his armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem, 1172, accompanied by 500 armored knights from among his Bavarian and Saxon ministerials, and significant secular and ecclesiastic magnates, the Byzantine emperor received him as if he were a king. The Byzantine emperor provided naval transport to Acre. In Jerusalem, he failed to interest the Knights Templars and the king in a military adventure. Henry had to be satisfied making donations to churches and to the orders of knights. In 1173, like a monarch he returned to Bavaria by the land route, via Constantinople, carrying precious relics in his baggage.804 Barbarossa began to intrude on territories of the Welfs, even in Saxony, by withdrawing vacant fiefs, intent on weakening the duke. Whatever slights Frederick I may have felt over Henry's divergent interests, although his refusal to appear with Barbarossa at the battle of Legnano was not the decisive affront. Henry the Lion had violated laws in his belligerent dealings with his opponent and was called before the imperial courts repeatedly to answer charges. Henry refused again and again to appear and was proscribed for a period of five years. An interval, to allow for his penance, was ignored. Henry violated the laws of vassalage and fealty towards his lord, the emperor, and in April 1180, forfeited his fiefs and was deprived of all his private holdings in absentia for failure to comply, which were redistributed. Henry resisted under arms, and tried to bring a French-English coalition into being directed against the emperor, until in November 1181, he was forced to yield. His most important magnates left his entourage and paid homage to the emperor. Lübeck was elevated to imperial status and its privileges confirmed.805 At the diet of Erfurt at the end of 1181, Henry was condemned once more. Frederick I had few

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holdings in Saxony, so he was probably under pressures, when he did not add the Saxon territories to the imperial lands, but redistributed them, as mentioned above. The power politics among the peers reinstated the holdings to Henry, but banished him for only five years. Frederick may have had other measures in mind. It is significant that for the first time magnates censured one of their own for showing disrespect for the imperial majesty. For the next three years, the interactions and territorial rivalries among the western dukes, counts and the emperor assumed an international character as the French and English kings were implicated. In 1182, Henry the Lion and his family sought exile with his father-in-law, king Henry II of England in Normandy. He was back in 1185.806 He died of a stroke in 1195. Important is the legal constitution of the princely estates and their order within the kingdom, called the Heerschildordnung, the relative ranking along economic and political weighting derived from the earlier military service and command structure, transformed into the rank ordering of the linkage of fiefs, and classified as ”shields”. Court procedures in Würzburg, during the 1180s, formulated this classification, in order to document the progressing dissolution of the old tribal structures and their reconstitution along feudal lines. It represents the feudal pyramidal hierarchy with the king at its top; the secular and ecclesiastical princely orders are encompassed by two “shields”, in which the secular princes belong to the third “shield”, because they may also own church fiefs. The fourth and fifth shields comprise the free counts and the nobles, who can be enfeoffed by the princes of the realm and thereby be royal vassals. The last places in this pyramid of seven levels are occupied by the ministerials and the service nobility, who as one-shield knights may receive fiefs, but may not redistribute them.807

The Third Crusade Since 1183, Salah-ad-Din, known as Saladin in the west, had been scoring victories against the crusaders in the Holy Land and in 1187 had retaken Jerusalem following his victory at Hattim. A segment of The True Cross had been lost to the Moslems, and knights of the Temple of Solomon and of the Hospital of St. John had been executed, all because of man's sinfulness. As penance and a test set by God, Jerusalem's recovery had to be a keystone of papal policy and a new crusade was preached. Pope Gregory VIII promised spiritual rewards and a full indulgence as well as the protection of property and legal and financial benefits.808

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Having participated in the Second Crusade, Frederick had not lost events in that region entirely from sight. The Turkish envoys at his court will have kept him up to date. In March 1188, a court day was assembled at Mainz in the name of Jesus Christ, which attracted a splendid multitude. As four years earlier, knighthood was once again the chief concern, but this time, Christ himself was understood to be its guide and knighthood was propounded primarily as the protection of the faith.809 Frederick's leadership of the new crusade recommended itself to him, as the enthusiasm to take the cross seized all ranks of the nobility. It was to be the decisive and final event in Frederick's life. He took the cross, for what was to be the Third Crusade.810 For Frederick I, Charlemagne's fight against paganism had been exemplary. Like his role model, he now wanted to crown his life in battle against the infidel. Prior to that event, the Christian west had ignored the threat. Pope Gregory VIII had finally motivated the warring kings of France and especially of Plantagenet England, and Frederick I, the emperor, to take the cross and launch the Third Crusade. The general euphoria did not blind Frederick to the practical needs of such an undertaking. Owing to his participation in the failed Second Crusade in 1147, he knew what to anticipate and set to organizing the campaign.811 One estimated an absence of three years and for that period, a peace throughout the kingdom was declared. Henry the Lion and his son were asked to return into exile for that length of time. A marriage between his son Conrad and Berengaria, the royal princess of Castile, destined to be a failure, would prepare a situation similar to that of Norman Sicily, and finally, through negotiations, he secured a system of supply for his forces on the way and the passage through the Bulgarian passes and the readying of ships to enable the crossing of the Hellespont. Regensburg on the Danube was the staging area where his army of 1215000 men assembled. To limit the wagon train, he ordered each participant to have the financial security to support him for up to three years. This time the infirm and impecunious, who had been a cause of previous failures, were barred from participation. While his son Frederick joined in, many of his nobles abstained from the crusade, indicating that the enthusiasm for the crusade was waning in popularity. The inevitable loss of life in their ranks demonstrated during the Second Crusade, and the ensuing redistribution of holdings, will have contributed to the suspicious reluctance. To prevent the usual persecution and murder of the Jews in his realm, he charged his officials to protect the Jews, and the persecutions were prevented. One Kuno von Münzenberg offered the Jews of Mainz the protection of his castle in 1188. The Jews in England were victimized. Indebtedness to them had something to do with it. In 1236 crusader

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sermons in the western French counties of Anjou, Poitou and in the duchy of Brittany caused persecutions, during which about 3000 Jewish men, women and children were killed, their possessions stolen and their books burned. Enforced baptisms were an additional feature, despite episcopal threats of punishments and papal admonitions. Louis IX of France, somewhat of an anachronism, who felt that all hostility shown the infidel was just, was not sympathetic to the Jews. Following the failure of his crusade, simple shepherds, servants and country folk set out to win the Holy Land and on their way committed the usual excesses, until the citizens of Bourges annihilated them.812 For the remainder of the Staufen period, the Jews had to pay taxes to local authorities for their protection. The mutually beneficial coexistence of Jewish and Christian communities ended, when the addition of economic pressures induced Jewish communities to migrate to Eastern Europe.813 It accounts for the origin of Yiddish within the Middle High German Rhenish dialects. Suspicion of one another, rather than resolve, characterized the undertaking, for the kings of England and France had been at war only recently. In mid-May the German forces set out. While some, including the founders of the Hospital of St. Mary of the German House, took the less strenuous sea route from North Sea ports and from Italy, Frederick and some of his magnates sailed down the Danube. The army could progress only as quickly as it could be supplied. Frederick I negotiated the way through Hungary, Serbia and Byzantium and with the Seljuk Turks of Anatolia. Discipline on the march and in camp was strictly enforced. In Hungary, a betrothal was arranged between Fredrick's son, the duke Frederick of Swabia and a daughter of the king of Hungary, in order to consolidate relations, possibly leaving an echo in the Nibelungenlied. At the end of June, the forces had reached Belgrade. Tournaments entertained the troops. Sixty squires were knighted. Shortly thereafter, the army turned south, but now many small ambushes began to harass the crusading army. Friendly relations with Serbs, Bulgars and the Sicilian Normans roused the old suspicions of the Byzantine emperor against Barbarossa.814 The emperor Isaac II now imprisoned the German envoys on the pretense that the crusaders really wanted to capture Constantinople, for his son Frederick of Swabia. Supply bases had not been prepared as agreed, and the spread out crusaders were sent out to forage and plunder for supplies, as the army assumed winter quarters in Adrianople. The pressure on Constantinople increased, when the Bulgars offered assistance against the Byzantines, and in February, the eastern emperor agreed to cooperate. During the Easter week, the Byzantine fleet shipped the crusader army across the Hellespont, into Asia Minor. The Anatolian terrain and climate

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caused great hardships, as heat, the lack of water and the increasing number of attacks, – five victorious field battles – sapped the effectiveness of this army. Turkish dissension had invalidated the earlier agreements. Further hardships had to be endured. Still, in May 1190, the German crusaders gained a victory, which resulted in the reconfirmation of the older agreements, and the army reached the territory of Christian Armenia. Threatening heat and uncomfortable humidity were the detrimental impediment. On June 10, 1190, sixty-seven-year old Frederick stepped into the chilly river Saleph and died. His unheroic death in southern Anatolia was considered a calamity by the western forces, as a sign of Allah's grace by the Moslems. The consternation, the possibility of God's unfavorable intervention, which overcame the army, must have been paralyzing. It was later proclaimed that Fredrick's death was his earthly punishment for mistreating Pope Alexander III. The Staufen crusade collapsed, although the majority of the German crusade continued on. The miserable remnants of Frederick's army chose to continue to Jerusalem. Barbarossa's son, Frederick, assumed a shaky command over the crusade. He wanted to bury his father in Jerusalem. Barbarossa's innards were buried in Tarsus. The attempt to preserve him in vinegar failed. His flesh was buried in Antioch, his bones in Tyre.815 Even if they arrived there, they have disappeared since. Malaria, dysentery and starvation reduced the crusader army, reaping many victims among many of the magnates. Prince Frederick succumbed to a disease in January 1191, under the walls of Acre. Hereafter, the German contribution to this crusade is overshadowed by the other participating kings, Philip II Augustus of France, and Richard the Lionheart of England. By the time they set out for Jerusalem in July, Barbarossa was already dead. Following a general loss of prestige, such German contingents as did continue, followed the duke of Austria.816 When the French and English forces met during their stopover at Messina, Philip II Augustus and Richard mapped out the spoils each was claiming exclusively for themselves. Following the siege of Acre, duke Leopold V of Austria, planted his flag next to that of the French and English kings, demanding recognition for their effort of two years beneath the walls of Acre. It was on this occasion that Richard tore down the Austrian flag, as a way of disallowing the German forces their share.817 The act was to lead to Richard's captivity in 1192 and his ransom of 1194. One long-term effect of this crusade was the foundation of the German Ordo Teutonicorum, of the Teutonic Knights, to be known officially as the Knights of the Hospital of St. Mary of the German House. Provided with

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the rule of the Knights Templars, they assumed the white cloak with the black cross.818 Barbarossa's distant death led the mythmakers to blend the reputation of Barbarossa with that of his grandson Frederick II as early as 1416, when they decided to locate their residence in Thuringia, ultimately within a mountain cave from where his second coming in times of misery, as savior hero could be expected. The topic was to interest the imagination far into the 19th century.819

Henry VI Henry VI had already been entrusted with the administration of the Regnum Italie in 1186, while Barbarossa kept control over Germany. He assumed the unconditional rule in the Empire during his father's absence on the Crusade. Difficulties were quick to appear. The Crusader army had barely set out, when Henry the Lion and his son returned early from the second exile – his wife Mathilda had died in the summer of 1189. With everyone away on crusade, the opportunity presented itself to retake his holdings, only to face a war with Henry VI, in October 1189. A month later William II of Sicily, married to Joanna, the sister of Richard Plantagenet, died childless. Constance and Henry suddenly inherited the kingdom, which Henry, however, had no competence to rule. In January 1190, her nobles chose Tancred as their king, with papal support.820 The culturally enriching co-existence of Latins, Greeks and Arabs was sacrificed, as a persecution of the Moslem Arabs was unleashed. They withdrew into the mountainous interior of Sicily. The circumstances had international implications and consequences for the particular interests of England and France. William’s wife had been Joanna of England, the daughter of Henry II. On his way to the Holy Land, Richard demanded she be returned, along with her dowry as a means to help finance his crusade. Tancred married his son Roger to Irene, the daughter of the Byzantine emperor, while striking closer relations with Philip II Augustus of France. Richard and Phillip held a meeting and formulated an agreement at Vézelay in July of 1190 in which they agreed to split the spoils of conquest equally.821 The crusader armies met in Messina, when the news of Barbarossa's death reached them in November. New alignments recommended themselves and Richard's nephew Arthur of Brittany was engaged to Tancred's daughter. Philip II Augustus remained loyal to his agreement and refused to participate in the isolation of Henry VI. This pact between the Capetian king Philip II Augustus and the Staufen was yet going to be very important.

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To meet the crisis, Henry VI set out for Rome. Returning crusaders had brought him the news of his father's and brother's death. Henry, the son of Henry the Lion, whom Henry VI had enrolled in his army as a token hostage, deserted Henry's camp, to return to the north in order to instigate another opposition. As a precaution, he obtained from the pope the assurance that in the event of banishment, he be entitled to the significant privilege of being banished exclusively by the pope himself.822 Cleverly, owing to his advanced age, Pope Celestine III prevented the consolidation of the rule of Henry VI in Italy at the expense of the Papal States, but prepared the way for the pontificate of Innocent III. At the same time, he delayed his own episcopal investiture and consecration, without which he could not perform Henry's imperial coronation. Finally, at Easter 1191, the pope was consecrated and could now perform the definitive imperial coronation of Henry and Constance.823 By then, Henry VI had lost precious time, which interfered with his military plans. A deceitful, unjust and brutal conqueror, he ransacked, burned and destroyed the regions to which he was entitled. In August 1191, the siege of Naples was in its fourth month, his army was struck down with malaria, while the worst imaginable unsanitary conditions fostered intestinal infections and dysentery, affecting all social ranks. He himself was afflicted and had to be removed to northern Italy.824 This was a reverse for Henry, somewhat offset by Philip II Augustus' return from Palestine, owing to illness, and the renewal in Milan of the pact between the Capetian and Staufen kings. Philip and Richard were enemies and had not spent a congenial, mutually supportive time on Crusade. The empress Constance, believing her husband had been totally defeated, surrendered Salerno to Tancred. Pope Celestine accepted his homage as his liege lord. In the transalpine regions, the consequences of Barbarossa's policy not to extend Henry's rule beyond Italy, now became apparent. The north, misled by the false rumors of Henry's death, grew unsettled as episcopal problems revived old oppositions to the west, and encouraged desertions to the Welfs to the east, thus reinforcing their opposition to the imperial position. Two decades after the murder of Becket, it included an episcopal murder, when Albert, bishop of Louvain was slain by German knights in front of the gates of Reims. The king's foreknowledge was assumed and the outrage was similar, when it was felt, that the emperor's punishment of the perpetrators was not severe enough.825 This opposition soon spread to include Denmark, Bohemia and even the Zähringen duchy to the southwest. The hostile coalition forming around the Welfs was formidable.826

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A fortuitous circumstance was to change Henry's critical situation, when Richard the Lionheart stumbled into this context on his ill-advised return-route from the Crusade. Richard was a difficult personality and not at all the fair-minded and gentle knight of legend. Following the death of Barbarossa he assumed the lead over the crusade, which led to an affront of the duke Leopold of Austria in front of Acre and to a falling-out with Philip II Augustus of France. The cause lay in the victory at Acre and the division of the booty, as had been agreed. Germans and Italians were not to be included in sharing the spoils and the ransom moneys.827 It may not be a legend that Richard's troops had torn down the Austrian banner following the siege of Acre, and for which Leopold bore Richard a grudge.828 Furthermore, at a meeting Richard's brother King John and a returning Philip II Augustus were conspiring, while at the same time a pertinent agreement was struck between Henry VI and Philip II.829 Apparently, they had agreed to violate the crusader's immunity and capture Richard and hold him hostage. Subsequently Richard had compromised his reputation to such an extent that he had to leave the Holy Land incognito. Austrian ministerials in the service of the Babenberg dukes recognized Richard in his pilgrim's disguise, violated his immunity as crusader, seized him near Vienna, and held him illegally for a while in Dürnstein castle, located overlooking the Danube just west of modern Krems, before he had to hand him over to Henry and captivity during 1193/94 in Trifels castle.830 Poetic elaborations intertwined the core of the story with much ancillary, embellishing, anecdotal detail. While participation in a crusade was preached as the service to God, in which all levels of society were equal, and part of the feudal obligation, the image of the crusades was fading, so that the interference with the safe passage of a crusader was an acceptable breach of the peace. The affronted duke Leopold realized an opportunity to even the score with Richard and negotiated the terms of his release with the emperor. The pope excommunicated Leopold for the violation. For the emperor this was a most fortuitous circumstance in that it offered him the opportunity to demonstrate at least his theoretical universal, imperial superiority over other monarchs.831 He appreciated that he held a trump card against the Welfs. He charged Richard with assuming hubristic airs, entering into negotiations with the infidel Saladin, and with having violated the Austrian flag. In the spring of 1193 Henry VI forced homage on Richard and demanded a sum of 150 000 silver marks,832 half of it for Leopold as compensation, but disguised as a dowry for Richard's niece Eleanor of Brittany on the occasion of her marriage to one of the sons of Leopold. In addition, Henry demanded an annual tax of 5000 pounds, and Richard's

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participation in a campaign against Tancred in Sicily – he was to present himself with a force of knights and fifty well equipped war ships to assist in the capture of Sicily.833 In the interim, Philip II Augustus was infringing on Plantagenet lands, occupying lands in Normandy and making deals with John “Lackland”, who was aiming to claim the crown from his older brother. Both “King” John and Philip II Augustus offered to pay the ransom, provided Richard could be detained a year longer.834 The argument is raised occasionally, that the captivity of Richard was motivated by the disputes between Staufen and Welfs, of whom Richard would be the most esteemed leader and most valued prize and bargaining foil. At the same time, Richard did not want to be handed over to the French king. Richard was released from providing military support against Sicily, in return for the payment of another 50 000 silver marks, but this sum could be remitted, if an agreement with Henry the Lion, was reversed, perhaps another marriage.835 Eleanor of Aquitaine intervened in the proceedings: Richard should be freed following the payment of the ransom, but should then also swear fealty to the emperor. This act of submission would save the throne for Richard because it would also enlist and secure the emperor's assistance in any future difficulties. Apparently, Richard agreed even to the payment of an annual tribute of 5000 pounds. As Richard's liegelord, Henry issued a mandate to John and to Philip II, to return all castles and properties seized illegally during Richard's captivity, otherwise he would assist Richard in their recovery. With Richard sustained in the kingship, Philip II Augustus would also continue to need the support of the emperor. Henry VI could play the referee.836 As mentioned, England and France wanted to prolong the detention, but duplicitous Henry could not obtain the approval of his magnates. The ransom was never paid in full and for a while, England became only a nominal imperial fief. Some of the English money would finance Henry's campaign against Norman Italy and Sicily. Between 1192 and 1194, Henry VI stayed in Germany. The year 1194 brought a significant change in Henry's situation. His involuntary consent to a marriage of Henry of Braunschweig, the son of Henry the Lion, to Agnes, the daughter of the count palatine of the Rhine, actually an encroachment of the Welfs into Staufen jurisdictions, finally led to a fortuitous peace between Henry the Lion of Saxony and Henry VI in 1194.837 Henry VI had already promised the young lady to the king of France, as well as to the duke of Bavaria. With Saxony and the north secured, Henry could turn his back on the transalpine kingdom and his attention to Sicily. Of greater importance to him was the Empire's relationship with the Byzantine Empire. In 1194, Henry was able to

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arrange the betrothal of his brother Philip with the Byzantine princess Irene, the daughter of the emperor Isaac Angelos. The marriage was concluded in 1197. This new family relationship was to introduce consequential Staufen dynastic interests into the course of the crusades. The death of Tancred and his son Roger in February of 1194 had left a child, William, to succeed under the guardianship of Sybil, the queen mother. Henry VI used Richard's ransom money to prepare a campaign against the Sicilian Normans, taking advantage of the dissension among the Sicilian nobles. Encountering no resistance, in November 1194, Henry VI could be crowned king of Norman Sicily. A month later, a conspiracy was discovered in Palermo, in which even the royal family was implicated. Conflicting, even propagandistic reports have left confusion among the details. The Normans' legendary treasure was taken to Germany and kept at Trifels castle. The royal family, queen Sybil and her three daughters were banished to Germany as well, following the “discovery” of the plot. Reportedly authentic or forged conspiratorial letters led to death sentences, and let Henry appear as the oppressive tyrant, as if his illness was clouding his mind, responsible for a monstrous reign, and the catalogue of his death sentences giving a gruesome image of his darkening character. Subsequent activities and events do not support this image.838 Henry repeatedly stressed that his legitimate rule over Norman Sicily and Norman Italy derived from his marriage to Constance and the ancient rights, which appertained. He now crowned her queen of the kingdom and installed her as regent over her father's former kingdom, in Henry's absence. As Romanorum imperatrix semper augusta et regina Sicilie, she assumed a fairly independent reign, surrounded by her own Sicilian counselors and administrators. Although it was never to happen formally, emperor and empress were united in their attempt to unite imperium and regnum within the monarchy, even in the face of papal opposition.839 This claim was to be perceived as a threat to the electoral nature of the kingship and the shift to a hereditary form. The implied change roused the German magnates to voice their reluctance in the expected election of Henry's successor. Henry and his administration had to solve the problem of linking southern and northern Italy across the Papal States. Understandably, the pope resisted the threatened encirclement. By appointing his brother Philip to the duchy of Tuscany and to the Mathildean holdings, this problem was dealt with in part. Henry VI considered all these lands part of the Empire, refusing to pay homage for them to the pope, nor considering his wife's, Constance's, inheritance to be anything but the emperor's by ancient law, already claimed by his father. Henry's focus on these regions of the

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Empire was to have consequences for the dynasty and for Germany. Thanks to its multicultural composition, Sicily was rich, with a progressively organized administration and its vitality drew the imperial attention away from the north. The shift in focus was supported by ideas, which suggested that the imperium was not tied to the identity with a particular geographic political unit.840 To help placate the Papacy, Henry VI announced in 1195 his intention to launch a crusade. Although Pope Celestine III doubted his sincerity, Henry announced the departure date for the following March from the port of Bari, on the Adriatic Sea, presented concrete plans and announced setting aside the means by which the crusade would be supplied and the pope put aside his skepticism.841 Henry had resented the imperious suzerainty, which Richard the Lionheart had assumed in the Holy Land, as he himself was also motivated by the idea of the eschatological emperor residing in Jerusalem and circumstances seemed to be preparing the way to this realization. These announcements were made at Bari, where Henry VI consolidated the Regnum Italie, by granting privileges and administrative dispositions. In Constantinople, a palace revolution had brought a new emperor to the throne, Alexios III, who promptly sought Henry's favor by paying tribute. Henry had taken up the Sicilian policy of expanding his control into the Balkans.842 Feeling the approach of the fullness of time in his lifetime, in preparation, Henry reactivated the expansionist ideas of the Sicilian kings, as a means to secure the approaches to the Holy Land. The pope did not favor an armed pilgrimage directed against Constantinople, as he frowned on the possibility of the Byzantine Empire being used to augment that of Henry, in which Constantinople, the center of the eastern church became a rival of Rome within the western Empire.843 Byzantine dynastic difficulties were exploited and Henry was able to exact a payment of 16 hundredweight of gold. The rulers of the kingdoms of Cyprus, created by Richard Plantagenet, and of Armenia, in southern Anatolia, could be persuaded to surrender their lands and receive them back as imperial fiefs. The territories of Tunis and Tripoli were tributary to the Empire. The Staufen records offer no evidence that Henry VI strove for the conquest of Constantinople, let alone for “world domination”. Jerusalem appears to have been his goal, there to erect a spiritual kingdom on a higher level than the self-serving Kingdom of Jerusalem. With the immense sums at his disposal, Henry VI could entertain his crusade to free the Holy Places.844 In this regard, he took up his father's emulation of Charlemagne, the conqueror of the pagans. Such a struggle would give him the leadership of Christendom vis-à-vis the pope, an opportunity

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which Henry IV had missed a century earlier. The emperor, visiting the Holy Land at the head of his crusade, would lay the foundations for a new age, an imperium of peace and reconciliation. At this culminating point in world history, the end of days, the emperor of peace, from the house of Staufen, would unite east and west, vanquish the heathen and convert the Jews. To ensure the success of this venture, it was decided to reach for Jerusalem by sea and to preselect the armed forces, which would help bring this about. Henry had to abandon his plans to lead the crusade personally, perhaps owing to his recurring illness, allowing several of his highest-ranking magnates to lead the German forces to the Holy Land. In 1198, a fleet of about 50 large coastal freighters set out from Cologne and the North Sea ports. Again, these troops shared in the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, when they reinforced king Sancho of Portugal in the capture of Silves from the Moslems. In the Holy Land, these forces were able to achieve some durable successes.845 Henry's early death in 1197 blurred his intentions. Ironically the captivity of Richard of England, had contributed to the depreciation of the crusading ideal. Subsequently, less than a decade later, the Fourth Crusade, so-called, a pillaging expedition directed against Constantinople, was to mark the end of the ideal. A clue to Henry's intentions is the name, which he supposedly gave to his successor – Constantine.846 The kingdoms of Cyprus and Armenia became imperial fiefs and the conquest of Jerusalem was likely intended as a permanent incorporation into the Empire. The idea of the Renovatio Imperii Romanorum, encompassing the Mediterranean seemed realizable. Henry's intended crusade seemed an instrument to help bring this about. His son would see the center of gravity of his realm come to lie in the south. Already he was to negate the Empire's royal east-Frankish framework, promote his father's intention, thereby estranging imperial concerns from the needs of the northern kingdom. Safeguarding the succession by means of an election by unanimous vote, had delayed the departure of the crusading fleet.847 On the day following Henry's coronation in Palermo as king of the Regnum Sicilie, the Sicilian kingdom, Christmas 1194, Constance had born him a son, the future Frederick II. His birthplace was Jesi and that similarity of name was taken as a prophetic association with the birth of Jesus.848 Even though there is little sound basis for his reputation, he is acclaimed as scholar and scientist, stupor mundi, the “wonder of the world”, perhaps even the first “Renaissance Man”.849 Henry designated his son and presented the child to the vote by the magnates at the diet of Worms in December of 1195. However, the lords refused to vote. As has been demonstrated repeatedly, rather than supporting the ideal of a universal Empire, they represented an

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ever growing, self-serving, self-transforming and intertwining labyrinth of changing particularist territorial interests, which they wanted satisfied and confirmed with ever new privileges and guarantees. A transition was nearing completion as the tribal lords were developing a territorial consciousness. In February 1196, at Mainz, he repeated the request, but not until Christmas of that year, did the peers of the realm comply and confirm the succession of the infant Frederick II on the royal throne.850 The delay may have been caused by a “constitutional” dispute over the inheritability of all fiefs of the realm. In Sicily, Henry set out to review all grants and privileges in a clear gesture that all the rights and privileges claimed by the church, the nobility and the cities were subject to his grace and authority.851 The lords may have brought this request to Henry as a response to this confiscation of fiefs and as a condition of their agreement to the succession. Henry may first have requested their agreement to a new normative royal right of succession, as was customary in Sicily, and offered the inheritability of fiefs in the male or female line, or in the case of childlessness, in cadet lines, in return for an agreed upon suspension of the royal election. It was in the crucial interest of the magnates to pass their holdings on within their families, without having to fear the loss of their independence and the confiscation of their holdings upon their death.852 Occasionally this was already the case and fiefs were passed on by right of inheritance, this meant the abolition of the elected kingship and that decision-making power of the lords. While surrendering the legal basis of the royal election was a contrary tendency, the temper of the times advanced the notion of the imperial Staufen family, selected by divine grace to last to the end of time, a hereditary empire would be logical and pleasing to the divine will.853 The latter would naturally cause opposition among the magnates. It appears that the delays of the preparations for the crusade were a deliberate attempt to coerce the emperor to agree to the conditions advanced by the nobility. Not until the principle of an elected monarchy was established, could the princes yield to Henry's pressure and agree to the royal succession. While the pope declined to give his consent to Henry's wishes, the settlement of this question could no longer delay the departure of the crusading fleet.854 The departure for Jerusalem became even more problematic, when Henry's administrative reforms revised the royal privileges of the Norman nobility in Sicily. It was his objective to gain effective control over the Regnum Sicilie, consolidate his newly acquired Sicilian kingdom and complete the union between it and the Empire. The birth of his son at just this time may have signaled to him God's approving support of the

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venture. However, an extensive conspiracy against him was uncovered, which may have included the pope and even his own wife.855 Henry had grown up in a climate, propagated by Godfrey of Viterbo and Joachim of Fiore, which had fostered the propagandistic notion of the select status of the Hohenstaufen family as God's chosen to rule the dominium mundi, to the end of days.856 The homage paid him by Richard of England, and the kings of Cyprus and of Armenia, the tributes paid by the Berber princes of North Africa and by the Byzantine emperor, supported this concept. His Crusade to the Holy Land and his restoration of Jerusalem to Christendom were to be the seal of his reign.857 Within the understanding of the day, a conspiracy against him was an affront to the anointed, God ordained, majesty. Henry, the pragmatist, was not influenced by notions of piety. With the assistance of his crusaders, Henry could perform “God's Will” and subdue the Sicilian forces ranged against him. Again, most cruel reprisals befell the conspirators, including those already banished.858 A vanguard had already left port, when Henry VI came down with illness in early August and died in Messina, on September 28, 1197, of the same illness, perhaps typhoid or malaria, complicated by diarrhea, which had affected him six years earlier, before the walls of Naples. A successful crusade might have raised his prestige to the highest levels. Instead, his death brought about the collapse of his house of cards and set the pent-up centrifugal forces of disintegration in motion. In Italy, especially in Sicily, his death ignited anti-imperial uprisings, intended to cast off the imperial suzerainty. German officials were expelled. Some resisted militarily, others left voluntarily. North of the Alps, one wanted to shed Staufen rule, and in 1198 held elections, which returned Staufen and Welf to the rivalry over the crown, which for a decade was to tear the kingdom apart. If there ever was a big scheme, it now went to pieces. The entire feudal construct had depended on the hierarchical acceptance of just one person, Henry VI, at its apex. Rumors had him poisoned by Constance, and though this is most unlikely, the contemporary questions concerning his death, speak to the social and political suspicions of the day. He did die excommunicate.859 His last will and testament, in which he spelled out the conditions under which the Papacy would have been heir to most of Italy, was kept hidden.860 Interestingly enough, his gains of stature, made with cunning, cruel force and occasional good fortune, died with him. His sarcophagus was erected in Palermo Cathedral, only following the enthronization of Innocent III, the new pope. His death may have been considered a general relief. His was a contradictory, thoroughly disagreeable personality. While he is known to have been a capable poet and adept statesman, his short reign was overshadowed by that of his

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legendary father and that of his illustrious son. It formed an interlude characterized by most questionable methods and his cruel and mean spirited disposition. Virtual liege lord of Christendom, his realm contained many disparate regions, without any sense of cohesion. He had a base enough character to incur the animosity of all those, who owed him allegiance. The chronicles of the day, not free of bias, have left this image. He lives on quite differently in the three poems at least attributed to him. They are tender love lyrics, even morning songs praising the night passed together, the glory of being in his lady's presence and the misery of her absence, during which he would rather surrender lands and crown, than surrender her.861 However, the Minnesänger served a literary convention of expression, so that the words do not necessarily reflect personal longing and anguish. Constance was not the likely recipient of these lines. The poetry would suggest a temperament oscillating between tenderness in one instance and insensitive harshness the next. By themselves, the poems are insufficient evidence to redeem his image in the historical record. His unexpected death caused another power vacuum. Fueled by dissension, and as was the case elsewhere, there was no single personality representing the state, to stem the process of disintegration. This role was assumed by Pope Innocent III, who for the next two decades dominated European events. His rule marked the Papacy at its peak, as Innocent III assumed the designation Vicarius Christi. In the meantime, led by the chancellor Conrad von Hildesheim, the crusade had reached Acre in the Holy Land, in September 1196. It met with mixed successes, until it learned that Henry VI had died. Jerusalem could not be taken and generally, the status quo prevailed. The emperor's death vitiated any diplomatic successes that had been achieved. The concerns shifted to arranging the return journey.

Towns and Settlements - Increasing Urbanization Economic expansion contributed to an inner and outer colonization promoted by population increases and the ensuing creation and growth of communities, towns and cities. This urban development encouraged new commercial connections and trade routes, roads and bridges, markets, tolls and mints.862 Shortly after the year 1000, townsmen and peasants were beginning to play a greater role, suggesting demographic divisions into those who pray, oratores, those who hunt and fight, bellatores, and laboratores, those who work the land. This formulation by bishop Adalbero of Laon and Gerard,

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bishop of Cambrai, intended as a justification for social inequalities on earth, as an analogy of the order in heaven, a conception of a society so ordered by God.863 Laws forbade monks and clerics all manner of secular activity, but to pray, to preach the word of God, to minister the sacraments. Their link between heaven and earth, gave them spiritual power on earth. Laymen had to protect the church, the peace and the weak.864 The carved friezes on Romanesque cathedrals illustrate this social structure, both seriously and comically. Peasant armies frequently supported the king. This was an unexpected alliance and by no means a reliable indication of an emerging socio-political counterweight against the peers of the realm. A moneyed citizenry was emerging gradually in urbanizing and episcopal centers. The long established Lombard cities acted as positive as well as negative role models. Their characteristic uprisings against their administrations, usually their bishops, made them suspect and unreliable meeting places. In the northern kingdom, the towns, generally under the sponsorship of bishops, were growing as the extent of their own resources permitted, without benefit of an official royal policy, which would encourage such developments. This growing network of urban centers and other communities effected the expanding inner colonization of the realm. This development, however, did not enjoy anything resembling a uniformity horizon. Some urban centers existed since Roman times and were located to the west and south of the Roman limes, essentially the Rhine and Danube frontiers. Most of them, Augusta Treverorum, Aquae Granni, Argentorate, Noviomagus, Borbetomagus, Mogontiacum, Bonna, Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, Noviomagus became episcopal or palace centers, such as modern Trier, Aachen, Strasbourg, Speyer, Worms, Mainz, Bonn, Cologne and Nymwegen, all west of the Rhine, or Augusta Vindelicum, Castra Regina, Iuvavum and Vindobona, modern Augsburg, Regensburg, Salzburg and Vienna, south of the Danube, had the advantage of an early start, would offer a focus and be the ones most likely to expand early. The size and reach of the archbishoprics would illustrate this expansion. The ecclesiastical magnates had an advantage. Further east and north of this limes, urban development advanced slowly under the Frankish Merovingians and Carolingians, as a string of religious foundations would reinforce earlier and further the crystallization of later settlements. Beginning in Ottonian times, additional religious foundations served the purpose of acquiring, opening up, stabilizing and colonizing the hinterland. The secular magnates were at a disadvantage, while the itinerant kingship did not further the development of a royal capital.

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Something of a cataract effect characterized the varying levels of development from west to east, not that the urban population, enjoyed much of a level of comfort and sophistication anywhere in the north. Most consequential for gaining future support for the monarchy, was the granting of privileges to the cities and their growing citizenry striving for freedom and greater political participation against the claims of an increasingly hostile nobility and a reluctant church. To deal with their pressures, urban settlements strove for political, constitutional autonomy with administrative councils elected from the municipal economic elites, while in some regions towns formed loose alliances. It was an unknowing offset against the looming failure of the sacerdotal objectives intended to make the church in Germany part of the comprehensive foundation of the realm. Quite early, a symbiotic relationship came into being as religious festivals and high feast days attracted markets and fairs, offering an economic stimulus to the communities and their surrounding regions.865 The consequent rise of the cities, promoted by the growth of religious foundations within their walls, as well as of industry, trade and commerce, entailed the organization of their citizens into social divisions, associations of merchants, corporations and guilds of craftsmen. The first guilds are documented in Worms in 1106/7, in Würzburg in1128, and in Cologne in 1149. Hereafter the idea spread quickly and widely.866 It follows that the secular interests of the urban clergy would be affected.867 Historically, the year 1046 marks the onset of the High Middle Ages. Cultural production had hitherto found a balanced joint expression of secular and religious themes and motifs. From 1100 onward, and almost as if in opposition to the dominance of the church, a new consciousness became established. A more self-reliant middle class, more readily adopting the money economy, not favored by the church, and increasingly aware of its economic importance, inserted itself into the social estates and strove for greater urban autonomy. At the same time, the rural population grew markedly, contributing to greater population density and the consequent expansion of settlement. European chivalry, based on the determining image of the knight, the beneficiary of new horizons and experiences acquired during the crusades, incorporates the determining culture carrying elite, reflecting new socio-cultural values and confluences. These will be demonstrated below. The urban centers, towns and cities, attracted ministerials, merchants and other social groups, who, as loyal adherents to the emperor, contributed to the synthesis of a new social order. With their rather secular interests, it was naturally at odds with the religious, rather conservative and parochial interests of the bishops, who discouraged a growing sense of

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autonomy associated with an increasing money economy. It made the towns natural allies of the emperors during investiture disputes. The Scriptural opposition to money, which “compromises the salvation of the soul”, caused the bishops to find themselves in opposition to the money based growing prosperity, and ensuing sense of autonomy, of their citizenries. It was ironic, that by the thirteenth century, the bishops had grown ever more dependent on the moneys and credits extended by the prosperous middle class. Their economic prospects would be greater within the more open, secular, imperial horizons, where they were more likely to have commercial and intellectual links with the less restrictive, progressive outside world. As these centers increasingly entered the purview of the emperors, the Salians and Hohenstaufens granted privileges and charters, the right to hold markets and fairs, mint coins and collect tolls. The Salians had built their Pfalz in Goslar to protect the silver mines, while the latter started to build Pfalzen to foster and support the growth of other such economic centers.868 When Frederick I came to power, there were about twenty-four mints in the realm. At the end of his reign, there were nearly ten times that many, very much the result of his involvement in Lombardy. Especially following the peace arranged with the Lombard League the trade relations between north and south were deliberately animated. These are at the beginning of urban administrative freedoms and liberties of the inhabitants. The sponsorship of economic growth in strategic locations of the realm attracted royal attention and directed a considered course of action of the monarchs and their major magnates. He confirmed the privileges of many towns with charters, granted financial relief to their citizens, improved individual judicial standing, permitted the circumvallation of their towns and encouraged urban growth around the imperial Pfalzen. Not to be outdone, the bishops sought the support of their citizens by granting similar rights and privileges. Once peaceful relations between church and state had been re-established, the episcopal centers also returned to share in the administrative responsibilities of the realm. He proved a less enthusiastic sponsor of their bent to greater independence, along Lombard lines.869 A growing population was also directed to use fire, axe and plow to clear the land in return for the assurance of specific liberties as rewards for their risky pioneering efforts. A network of urban centers was creating regional cohesion and identity, and emerging as a good source of income, in such economic contexts as focal points for agriculture, trade and commerce, as centers of royal power, culture, learning, prestige and freedom. Markets were essential to guarantee the supply system for the

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steadily increasing number of inhabitants. Local religious festivals and kermises, in combination with markets and fairs, added to the economic fortunes of a town. The courtyards with stables and storage lofts in the houses of medieval towns still betray their agricultural origins. The city walls were a demarcation against the open land, protected the inhabitants against enemies and circumscribed the area in which the town's peace and justice, its laws and privileges prevailed. Urban building “programs” testify to this development, as the emerging mercantile and manufacturing groups, including Jews, began to replace the wooden and humble dwellings and to encircle the churches and church buildings with their own solid stone houses.870 Although they were early bishoprics, the rhenish centers mentioned above, were motivated by secular interests, aided by the greater presence of the monarchy, contributing to the weakening administrative position of their bishops.871 Shining examples of such developments, even of town planning, were provided by the dukes of Zähringen, who between 1098 and 1198 were city-builders, unimpeded by bishops, and who developed established sites or founded in their Alemanic territories planned communities with town lay outs still evident today. Rectangular city blocks were fitted into determining axes within the city walls – such as Bern, founded in 1191, originally a Celtic oppidum, and Fribourg in Switzerland and Freiburg, founded first as a market before 1120, – later chronicles indicate 1091, 1111, 1112, 1118, 1120, 1122 as possible dates –, as deliberate Zähringen foundations, originally anchored by castles. The monastery of Adelhausen existed on the outskirts of Freiburg since Merovingian times. Others were adapted, when they came under Zähringen control, such as Villingen, which had a market privilege as early as 999, Offenburg, Rheinfelden. Still others imitated the model, without any Zähringen connections. During the tenth and eleventh centuries, these tentative developments point to adoptions and adaptations. The dukes of Zähringen, benefited from the silver mines in the neighboring mountains and valleys of the Black Forest.872 Henry the Lion founded Munich in his Bavarian and Lübeck in his Saxon duchies. He also took control of Bremen because of its seaport. He took the first to facilitate the north-south trade and protect a crossing over the Isar River, the others as ports on the Baltic and North Seas. Participation in the expanding economic growth and its profits motivated all of these considerations among which trade and commerce were more important than agriculture. Trade yielded more taxes. Barbarossa's problematic dealings with the cities of northern Italy, affected his reluctant attitude towards towns and their citizens and their inclination to assemble in supportive associations and troublesome

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leagues. In the end, he proved himself the strong sponsor of the laws, of privileges and circumvallations of such old Roman cities as Trier, Cologne, Speyer, Mainz and Worms. He was the founder of numerous new ones such as Gelnhausen, Kaiserslautern, Bad Wimpfen, to name a few in the west, but also other, episcopal foundations in the north such as Minden and Münster, and east such as Chemnitz. Any number of new cities arose in the hereditary Staufen lands, such as Hagenau in Alsace. The extensive building programs in the towns and villages of this region can still be appreciated in the many surviving churches and castle ruins. In the south and southwest, such locations as Adelhausen/Freiburg and Breisach demonstrate how monastic foundations provided the settlement base, - Adelhausen monastery existed since Merovingian times -, or the location of a palace, a Pfalz, as at Bad Wimpfen or Gelnhausen, led to the growth of settlements north of the Alps. Other leading families, such as the Zähringen in Freiburg, Zürich, Bern and several others, and the Welfs in Munich, Memmingen and Ravensburg, but also of Braunschweig and Lübeck in the north, participated in such ventures. Providing safeguards and economic and urban hubs for the evolving long distance trade in salt, for instance, or Lübeck of the Welfs for the trade across the Baltic Sea, in support of expanding colonization was part of the intention. The general population growth was another part of the motivation. The increasingly autonomous city as commercial center during the time of the evolving money economy, brought not only economic progress and prosperity, but also political development, even though royal support was often lacking as the kings played with the municipal liberties when they surrendered the towns in return for the political assistance of the territorial magnates. Their particular economic interests interfered with the ready flow of trade by the construction of numerous threatening strongholds and toll stations along roads and rivers. The ecclesiastic magnates in particular did not tolerate any form of autonomy in their cities. In proclaiming legislation hostile to the cities Frederick II did not differ much from his grandfather. It had been the emperor's obligation to guarantee the peace of the land. With the growing social and political turmoil of the thirteenth century, following the collapse of the Staufen Empire, the self-interest of the cities recommended the formation of defensive associations of cities with the intent of arranging for their security and peaceful cooperation873 and improving the security of their wagon trains on the roads and thereby ensuring the safety of their merchants from plunder and interference along the long-distance trade routes. The Lombard cities and their leagues may

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have served as ready models. Furthermore, the city as fortress brought military and political security. Some foundations were not viable.874 During Ottonian and Salian times, towns already covered a surprising area. Churches and market halls, as well as inhabited stone towers and stone houses characterize these early settlements. Their spacious locations came to be complemented by monastic foundations and churches forming something of a perimeter around the inner core of the settlement, as if to create a protected precinct, in Cologne, for instance. The street plans of old cities still show this. From the eleventh century onward, a continuous wall usually encircles the settlement. Though a degree of standardization becomes evident, the towns show a wide variety of design. Foundations of the twelfth century begin to indicate the emergence of a grid pattern of streets and buildings, forming an interconnected network of parallel streets, flowing together into one roadway to pass a gate and/or cross a bridge. Circular plans also came into being where the streets radiated as from a hub, formed by a church, usually dedicated to the protective power of a local patron saint, or the Virgin Mary. Within this network and near a market, craftsmen/distributors and as of the thirteenth century, native or foreign merchants assembled in separate quarters to have easy access to the weekly, seasonal and annual markets. The frequency of these secular and religious occasions, as well as the larger trade fairs necessitated the building of accommodations, hospitals, shelters, stores and workshops, meeting facilities and warehouses, especially once during the twelfth century itinerant merchants were forced to store and offer their wares locally while in transit. In this fashion merchants came to assume an increasingly important role in the social fabric of the medieval towns. The growth of their capital investments accounted for this ascendancy. As middle men to the wealthier citizens and nobles they supplied luxuries and exotic goods obtained from foreign lands in long distance trade. They carried ideas. As distributors they supplied the local markets with the daily necessities. Although their honesty was suspect, the businessmen engaged in “big business” gradually rose to significant social status within their communities, sometimes represented by branches in several cities. The keepers of market stalls, small shop keepers and vendors were closely associated with the peasantry and were often treated derisively for their crude and rustic manners and speech, and suspected of dubious practices, cunning and greed. In medieval drama the ointment merchant appearing in the Easter plays was a slick peddler and as a comic figure, a source of humor. For the clergy, the traders represented the world motivated by profit, a condemnable undertaking. Usurers were the worst representatives of this

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group,875 and, as on the side portal of Bamberg Cathedral, holding bags of money, condemned to be dragged off by the devils. Although condemned by the church and despised by a squandering nobility, urban prosperity was promoted by the increasing and prospering congregation of money making businessmen. Among the promoters of honest trade practices Berthold von Regensburg, a man of God and preacher, figures prominently with his admonition of urban interaction to adhere to expectations and social responsibilities, amounting to business ethics, his “Silver Talents”. Since God had given man a free will, he owed his honest services to others in return, along with the effective use of his time, the husbandry of his property, and the love of his neighbor. For these five gifts a man had to give a good account. Man's body and soul are complemented by his social responsibilities.876 Man's urbanization contributes to the evolution of a work ethic and the respect for worldly property. It marks a path unobstructed by sermons and social categories, actually evened by the preachers of the mendicant orders and other theologians, who help to consolidate and to justify the position of the merchants in society. This path also required a more practical education in the applied knowledge of trade and commerce, including the reading of trade manuals, the writing of correspondence, the study of foreign languages and the keeping of records of the financial transactions. This itself urged the adoption of Arabic numerals and the introduction of zero and of January 1 as the start of the calendar year. The shift to a money and credit economy played a key role in promoting these innovations. The path then led to the decisive rise of the qualified urban patricians into the administration of urban government. At the same time it encouraged mutually beneficial affinities with the nobility and the formation of an urban aristocracy. However, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, these developments in the Regnum Teutonicum did not attain the power and emancipation reached in the cities of Lombardy and in other Italian cities. The rise of commercial interests contributed to the advent of secularism. The settlements are subject to such respective legal determinations as grants, privileges, immunities and charters. To ensure the ready supply of grain, for instance, municipal warehouses had to be accommodated within the walls. These urban developments were accompanied by greater social awareness, as the earlier idea of man as a composite of body and soul was expanded to include a social function.877 The economic possibilities offered by the early forms of capitalism also allowed for the greater exploitation of the simple people in these centers, who in an attempt to rectify their plight, engaged in criminality, including the pursuit of persecutions. On pillories and whipping posts culprits could be shamed

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and exposed to public scorn. Executions were normally performed outside of the city walls. The containment, which characterized the towns favored the outbreak of infectious diseases. During the Staufen period, these monarchs as well as the members of the high and low nobility founded centers, thereby contributing to the expanding regional urbanization with new foundations around a rudimentary pre-urban core and the circumvallation of existing settlements led to an inner fortification of the kingdom. This process also entailed the development of administrative councils and the equality and protection under the founding charters and with it a degree of uniform freedom for those individuals and economic enterprises locating within the walls, reflected in the land parcels of equal size. Within the walls, all inhabitants were subject to the measures and protection of the same local laws. To varying degree, this also applied to the enterprises and crafts conducted and practiced by women, though this did not lend them any political responsibility, special rights or privileges, not even guild membership. By law, women, regardless of rank, were barred from any public and religious offices.878 Equality of men and women was linked to the ability to bear arms and women did not. Even abbesses could only exercise some discipline, but had mainly administrative authority over the property of their convents in accordance with the rule of their order. Gender discrimination was in effect, lower wages for women, for instance, even where skills, responsibilities and duties were the same. Regardless of which economic system was in place, it had little bearing on the status of women. Even for queens the primary function was to be pregnant for half their life. Women had no functions in public administration and played no role in the municipal electoral process despite their significant share in the domestic economic life of their communities. Freiburg can serve to illustrate urban organization. In Freiburg measures and volumes are set into the portal of the cathedral. As elsewhere, while some occupations like the bakers, butchers and brewers, also innkeepers, were located strategically about the town, others were concentrated in quarters. To this day the streets mark these quarters and may be named Schustergasse, cobblers' lane, Weberstrasse, the weavers' street, Gerberau, tanners' row, Judengasse, Jews' lane, to mention just a few examples from the city plan of Freiburg. The Salzstrasse, the salt road, retains the memory of the salt trade. Erfurt has a bridge still called the Krämerbrücke, the merchants' bridge, indicating a bridge as a favorable location to interact with pedestrians. River water channeled through the streets, as in Freiburg, provided a degree of sanitation. Owing to the smells associated with the tanning process, the tanners were located

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downwind of the prevailing winds, usually along the town's perimeter, near flowing water. The location of wind- and watermills was determined by circumstances. Many public squares still bear such identifying specialty names as Holzmarkt, timber market, Heumarkt, haymarket, Fischmarkt, Weinmarkt, and so forth. Haymarket remained as a local name in southwest London and elsewhere. Towns with names like Newmarket speak for themselves. In many Bavarian locations the word Markt is part of the place name, pointing to their origins. One street reminds one of the locations of the Hospitalers. Some names of markets are modern, such as the Kartoffelmarkt, the potato market, while some street names mark the razed fortifications. Churches, often located about the cities in patters resembling a wreath, as in Cologne, Aachen, Hildesheim, and so forth, also accent the location of the markets, under the auspices of particular patron saints. Cities marked by prosperity and a supportive infrastructure could be selected as sites for the lengthy imperial diets. The street names also recall the locations of mercantile interests from other cities like Strasbourg or Nürnberg, or regions, such as the Frisians, or Saxons. Not honored with names were the marginal districts to which the recurring waves of migrants, transients, rural unemployed, social misfits and rejects were assigned. A characteristic of the Jewish quarters is the presence of synagogues and baths to serve the ritual washing of women. Because the ritual stipulates water from springs, in several cities – Cologne, Worms, Speyer – these baths, mikvas, require “living water”, hence a steep descent to reach spring- or groundwater at considerable depths, 7-25 meters. The synagogues were freestanding buildings generally erected in the architectural style of the day. The one in Worms was founded in 1034. Although destroyed in 1146, during the Second Crusade, and again during the Kristallnacht of 1938, it was rebuild in accordance with its reconstruction of 1174/75 and is now the oldest restored synagogue in Germany.879 Increasing segregation of Jews led to segregated cemeteries, often in a distant community, and to the establishment of separate places of amusement, such as dance halls. The market is an integral part of the street system. One type in the lands of the dukes of Zähringen was the stretched out street market, where the stalls were accommodated under colonnades. A common feature of their foundations, such as Freiburg and Bern, this arrangement protected the vendors and their goods in all kinds of weather. There the grid was based on intersecting axes. The church was not necessarily the hub of the settlement, as it was in Nördlingen. The focus may also have been provided by a lord's residence. Eguisheim, in Alsace, is characterized by two concentric streets around what was a fortified church and castle,

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birthplace of Pope Leo IX. There is an adjoining market square. The concentric layout was more common towards the east. Some cities accommodated the irregular terrain on which they were located, such as Freiburg, dominated by a castle, or Rothenburg, anchored by a count's castle, or Lübeck, surrounded by water and flushed by canals. Occasionally, as in Riquewihr, Alsace, a squared outline with a spine like main street is located on a slope amidst the vineyards. Some others, like Esslingen, Swabia, incorporated adjoining land within its walls. Normally city walls could be round or squared, and with rounded corners. Access was controlled through gates, fortified with towers. Population growth led to the expansion of the town limits and to the foundations of new towns by kings or other magnates of state and church, or by religious orders. Surveyors would be contracted to stake out the settlement. It was probably they, rather than the lords, who determined and transmitted their ideas of a serviceable lay out.880 At first, some sections were left to be built up at a later date. Some of these spaces were occupied by the monastic foundations of such mendicant orders as the Dominicans and Franciscans, as well as the Béguines. Though these foundations were mostly dissolved following the secularization of the late eighteenth century and the French Revolution, the buildings still exist, fulfilling new functions. To this day, a yellow building in Freiburg is called the Schwarze Kloster, the black cloisters, recalling that it once housed nuns in black habits. Today it houses two restaurants, several shops and the classrooms of a Volkshochschule, a public institute of higher education. The monastery of the Augustinians is now a reputable museum. Before the secularization, Freiburg contained within its walls about thirty monasteries and convents. It was possible that a new inhabitant was resettling from elsewhere and may actually have taken his wooden house apart, brought it along, ready for reassembly in its new location.881 From the twelfth century onward, there is evidence of some use of firewalls. Only a few stone houses can be dated earlier than the thirteenth century. Among these the Romanesque house in Gelnhausen, dated to 1180, and probably intended for the local administrator and as town hall. That is suggested by the compressed lower level, but large, high hall in the upper storey. Another is the thirteenth century House of the Three Kings in Trier. Of interest are the representational towers, dated to the thirteenth century, Geschlechtertürme, in habitable towers associated with aristocratic families, with their high upper living quarters, indicating a contemporary Italian influence, which still characterize the skyline of Regensburg. The churches are the other examples of monumental architecture. They reflect the changing stylistic

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tastes of the wider community, so that over the centuries they reflect something of an organic growth, as modifications and reconstruction echo the taste of a particular time. Popular with tourists today are the church steeples which point to the secular functions of these churches. Living quarters for the watchman were installed below the bell-cage, who with his bird’s–eye-view was charged to sound the alarm when he saw plumes of smoke and fire and the possible approach of danger. While he had a horn to blow, the bells served to assemble the inhabitants for any collective action that might be indicated. Today the churches tend to occupy a prominent site on the market. Originally, the “churchyard”, the space surrounding the church, was the communal cemetery. Where the church actually served as market church, the (west) entrance served as seat for the presiding market judge who judged correct weights, volumes, and measures. As previously mentioned in Freiburg Cathedral, dimensions, furnished with dates are engraved for actual pieces of metal inserted into the stone of the entrance-vestibule. They reflect the inflationary price fluctuations. During his stay in Germany in 1220, Frederick II was to re-energize the impetus of Conrad III, to the foundations of cities, towns and markets, 39 alone in the German southwest, such as Freiburg (1220), of which 18 were on church holdings.882 In this undertaking Frederick showed himself less as the founder, for instance of the still picturesque town of Nördlingen, than the promoter of cities, by granting them rights and privileges. The founding and judicial sponsorship of numerous towns and cities enhanced the economic and cultural development of their regions and was practiced by the magnates of church and state, as it indirectly contributed to the emancipation of growing urban populations. Armed with energy and growing self-confidence, the citizens contested the authority of the bishops in their cathedral towns. A constitutional change was being prepared during the Staufen period, and especially during the Interregnum, following the death of Henry VI, as the economic success of evolving social groups transformed the urban centers into communal societies led by mayors and councilors. The constitutional process began in the western regions of the empire and by the middle of the thirteenth century about 150 communities had administrative councils, partly elected, partly appointed from among the ministerials and the mercantile, patrician citizenry. Princely appointments receded as the electoral process advanced, introducing various procedural models.883 At the same time, the bishops lost their role in the consolidation of their territorial possessions.884 These councils came to focus on administrative matters concerning communal management, defense, taxation

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and such economic matters as the regulation of the markets and the mint and especially the interpretation of the law. Many matters were not regulated by the royal authority and to them the councils laid administrative claim. Cities and towns came to be considered as eco-political units. It did not happen without political maneuvering and civil strife. This included the identification of such episcopal sites as Basel, Constance and Augsburg as imperial cities, of which the bishops would now have to share the income with the king. Simultaneously the secular magnates assumed the role of city founders, thereby limiting the episcopal expansion. In 1226, Frederick would issue an imperial diploma for the northern city of Lübeck as a guarantee against the claims of the local magnate and as a means to protect the region against the Danish king. The royal authority over urban policies brought protests from the religious quarter over the encroaching ambitions of the territorial lords. The royal prerogative over mints, tolls and markets was established to lie henceforth with the king. It was a first step in establishing the royal primacy over that of the territorial magnates. Royal sponsorship contributed to the weakening of the magnates. Further complaints derived from the flowering of the city foundations and their independence of the neighboring territorial lords and the frustrated envy, which their growing, but inaccessible prosperity invited. On the other hand, that prosperity through activity, as well as the haven, which the towns provided for those living on the margins, contributed to the depopulation of the neighboring lands, and the swelling of the unstable, marginalized new urban population, of itinerant workers for instance, as people followed the possibilities of making a better life for themselves in the urban centers. Their eagerness led to discrimination and hostilities between the newly arrived refugees, disbanded soldiers, discouraged pilgrims, volatile outcasts, disreputable vagrants and all those pursuing shameful, dishonest and undignified occupations, and the established populations.885 The towns offered a level of urbanity and civility and especially freedom. In principle, one year and a day in town placed the run-away serf on the threshold of his liberty. That related to his freedom to struggle for material security and to strive for respect and hope for socio-political freedoms under the protection but limited enforcement of the town's law for the sedentary inhabitants and property owners. A community of interests evolved in the network of narrow streets of each quarter. However, crowded, unsanitary conditions in contained spaces also favored the spread of rumors, riotous mob actions, persecutions, the accumulation of smelly refuse, infectious diseases such as leprosy, violence and a high

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rate of crime. Attractive inducements could bring the refugee back to his owner.886 In Paderborn, the resolution of the conflict between its bishop and the city demanded the return of runaway unfree within that time limit, or his ejection from the town. The town's delay in complying with the conditions, may have led the bishop to provoke a crisis, whereupon the town closed the city gates on him. In Minden, citizens and a city council are first documented during the first half of the thirteenth century. By the end of the thirteenth century, the dissension between the bishop and his citizen subjects has become so contentious that the bishop had to locate his residence outside of the city of Minden. He devoted himself to the development and fortification of his territory. The bishops ultimately recovered their jurisdiction over the city of Minden, with the citizenry taking advantage of any leverage it could apply.887 New roads could circumvent princely territories, thereby avoiding their tolls and fees, for protection for instance. With the strengthening of the Staufen position, they also feared the abuse of the royal prerogative, by means of which the crown could set itself up in growing rivalry to the magnates and threaten the established order. Since the church institutions were no longer under royal control, the religious magnates realized their potential loss of power and influence, which the growing towns gradually developed, even on church territories. Formal treaties with negotiated terms attempted to regulate the relationships between bishops and their citizens. Constant strife, escalations and military clashes induced the bishops to pronounce excommunications. By the end of the thirteenth century, communal evolution had progressed significantly, leading to the increasing emancipation from weakening episcopal rule. By then a bishop may have redefined his worldly subjects as his political opponents. However, in the empire, the ecclesiastical magnates also had vast secular territorial authority which secured the position.888

The Teutonic Order and its Activities along the eastern Baltic Coast Western Europe valued furs, honey, wax, leather and amber from Livonia along the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, in return for which German merchants brought iron weapons, cloth, glass objects, and probably wines, brandies and perhaps even beer. Trade allowed the meeting of Russians, Germans and such Scandinavians as Danes and Swedes, as well as native Latvians, Estonians and Livonians in a community of interests in secure harbors and storage depots in transfer points located on islands in the

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Baltic Sea. Personal safety from attack and robbery was essential. Trade also attracted those intent on missionary work and that introduced ecclesiastical interests into the regions along the Baltic coast. Eventually the archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen saw opportunities to convert the pagans there and established suffragan bishoprics in Livonia and Estonia.889 Native resistance to the missionary efforts brought military forces onto the scene, initially interested in gathering loot and tribute before these efforts came to be focused in pilgrimages and crusades during the 12th and 13th centuries. These ventures became the Livonian Crusade and held the same papal guarantees of salutary benefits as did the crusades to the Holy Land. It was a military problem that the military interests tended to be of seasonal duration. As in the Near East, periods of strength alternated with periods of vulnerability, when the crusaders who had arrived in the spring, returned home before the autumn storms set in. The idea surfaced that a permanent military order should come into being which would assume all military responsibilities analogous to those established in the Holy Land. This came about in 1202 with the foundation of the Militia of Christ, the Fratres Militiae Christi. Their white mantle with red insignia, a cross and a sword, gave them the name Swordbrothers.890 The order was composed of men of differing background, mainly minor nobles and ministerials largely of merchant stock, but motivated by the same love of combat, glory and the veneration of the Virgin Mary. Similar needs existed elsewhere and Spanish orders were engaged in the reconquest of Spain. The crusades, mainly seasonal, and the work of these orders proceeded simultaneously. Of lasting effect along the Baltic coast was to be the creation of a third order of knights in the Holy Land, the German Ordo Teutonicorum in 1198. During the Third Crusade, merchants from Bremen and Lübeck among the north German crusaders following the sea route had helped the king of Portugal with the recapture of Silves, and via Marseilles reached Acre. There, in 1190, they had founded a tent-hospital under a large sail. In 1191 Pope Celestine bestowed on them the black cross on the white background. Henry of France superimposed the thin golden cross of Jerusalem on it. In 1192, the nursing order acquired a garden and in 1193 a large section within the walls of Jerusalem, focused on the older church of Santa Maria Alemanorum, which would account for the name of the order as The Knights of the Hospital of St. Mary of the German House. The order gained credibility and imperial and papal support and in 1196 papal protection as well as extensive holdings in many parts of Europe. On March 5, 1198, Conrad von Hildesheim constituted the brotherhood of

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caregivers into an order of knights, with the full official title to stand beside the multi-ethnic Hospitalers, the Knights of the Hospital of St. John and the Templars, the Knights of the Temple of Solomon.891 Its name is usually shortened in English to Teutonic Knights, the accepted rendition of Ordo Teutonicorum. The order practiced two rules – that of the Knights Templars for the members of the order, that of the Knights Hospitalers for the poor and the sick. Until 1244 they followed the service ritual of the Church of the Sepulcher, thereafter they adhered to Dominican practices. As of 1220, they were placed directly under the pope, like the two other orders. In 1221, they were all given equal status. The order enjoyed the particular favor of Frederick II, who added the black imperial eagle on a golden background to the coat of arms at the center of the cross, and under whose sponsorship the order, dedicated to the care of the poor and sick, expanded and flourished. Combatants were attracted from among the crusaders. In 1250, Louis IX of France added golden lily terminals to the superimposed golden cross. This version of the cross was the sole prerogative of the grand master of the order. All other members were identified with the simple black cross with the flaring terminals on the white background.892 The order was acknowledged to have international status and recognition. Waldemar, the king of Denmark established a successful kingdom in Denmark and northern Germany and hoped to be able to gain control over the coast of the Baltic Sea. His north German interest involved him in the conflict between Welfs and Hohenstaufens which followed the death of Henry VI in the time of Otto IV during the first decade of the 13th century. At that time the northern German princes found that the king of Denmark constituted a common threat whom they would not have been able to fight alone had it not been for his preoccupation in Sweden. He was also interested in Estonia as a means to round out his jurisdiction over the whole littoral of the Baltic Sea. By 1217 the Danes were actively pursuing their aim to acquire Estonia. A sequence of campaigns followed involving Danes, Russians, Germans, rebellious Estonians and Latvians as well as crusaders and Swordbrothers. The lands from northern Germany to Estonia were criss-crossed with war. With the imprisonment of king Waldemar, Danish power was receding until Denmark was no longer the dominant power in northern Germany and Livonia. Chaos replaced Danish rule by 1226.893 Already towards the end of 1224 did Livonia become a region of interest to the Papacy, persuaded that secular rule should be under the guidance of the church and the Papacy. In 1225/26 Estonia was removed from the jurisdiction of the bishop of Riga and placed under that of the

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pope instead. Following his release Waldemar, king of Denmark, returned to the attack and shortly regained his former hegemony in northern Germany and the Baltic.894 As was indicated above, of significance were economic interests along the coast of the Baltic Sea, which became part of an eastward extension of settlement and trading interests. Prompted by the ambitions of the kings of Denmark who were expanding eastward along the Baltic Sea and entering the hegemonial areas of the Empire, German sea-faring merchants had set up trade along the Baltic coast, beginning in the time of Henry the Lion, extending from Lübeck to Novgorod. Thus Lübeck traded dried cod from Norway, herring, and salt from Lüneburg in a confluence of interests. Cities were founded as transfer points and trading centers. The expansion was motivated by intensifying religious, political, territorial and economic interests.895 In 1202 these had attracted the protection of the Swordbrothers, the Brotherhood of the Sword of Livonia, established in the region since c.1200. With a total strength of about 110 knights as well as about 500 mounted men of arms of common origin and about 700 mercenary auxiliaries, its members were drawn mainly from among the ministerials.896 The order was growing in numbers, as ever more knights were prepared to winter in Livonia while the citizens of Riga and the order established a community of interests and knights became citizens and the citizens became associate members of the order.897 Financing the order remained a dominant problem since the raising of revenues was insufficient. Additional acquisition of land and its resources became essential and in the spirit of a crusade the order resorted to war and conquest and in conversion by the sword rather than by persuasion.898 The emperor Frederick II confirmed the order, while papal involvement in Livonia brought the Swordbrothers to power. Quite early, the Teutonic Order aimed to gain political identity and in 1211 followed the call of the Hungarian king to fight the Turkish Kumans in the Hungarian Plain. With five fortifications, the knights held back the Kumans and worked towards obtaining independent control over the regained territory. When those expectations proved futile, in 1225 the order accepted the invitation of the Polish duke of Masovia to assist in the fight against the Prussians, who had reverted to paganism, with the promise that the conquered regions would be ceded to the order. In 1226 Frederick confirmed the Teutonic Order, in the Golden Bull of Rimini, on the lands granted to the order by the duke of Masovia along the lower Vistula, which gave the order clear title to the land, free of all feudal services and taxes. The order of the Teutonic Knights established itself

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among the pagan Slavic Pruzzi along the eastern Baltic Sea in 1230. In 1237, the order was joined by the Brotherhood of the Sword, identified by a red cross and sword on a silver backing on their shields, fighting in the Baltic region. Frederick had focused his attention on the north, when c.1220, the Polish duke Conrad of Masovia offered land as a basis of operation Very soon the Prussian Crusade evolved into serious competition for the Livonian Crusade, the lands of the Pruzzi being easily accessible over land, and the recruiting system of the Teutonic Order being much more effective. The grand master would enjoy the rank of a magnate of the realm.899 It led to a strengthening of the imperial presence along the south shore of the Baltic Sea. A key factor for the Swordbrothers was the shortage of money to support their large army, their many castles and the defense of their lands. There were never enough brothers of the order so that mercenaries had to be recruited. A papal decree to return Estonia to the Danish king, to compensate their enemies for their battle losses, ransoms and incomes, sealed their fate. Joining the wealthy Teutonic Order solved most of their problems. By 1236 this new crusading order was appropriating Prussian lands.900 During the coming years mutual warfare characterized the relations of virtually all parties: Danes, Swedes, Estonians, Germans, Livlanders and Russians fought natives, winning and losing, losing battles but winning territories, winning battles but losing much manpower. The Russians of Novgorod feared that the Swedes would seize the rivers and hence interfere with their western trade. A Russian victory on the Neva River earned the Russian commander Alexander the name Nevsky. Subsequently a combined force of Teutonic Knights, Danes, Estonians, German episcopal troops and Russians attacked and seized Novgorod positions from the west and destroyed a relief force. In the following year the fortunes of war favored the prince of Novgorod as he regained his earlier losses. While he held his western prisoners for ransom he hanged the Estonians as rebels and traitors. The Russians then invaded Estonia and met a small western force of about 2000 on Lake Peipus on April 5, 1242. About 6000 Russians defeated the western force on the ice. The battle was made undeservedly famous in a movie by Eisenstein about Alexander Nevsky. 901 Revolts broke out throughout the region as a consequence of this defeat. However, some fifteen years later the Teutonic Knights had gained control for a while over Livonia, Kurland and the regions linking it with the land of the Prussians, and had converted most of the Lithuanians to Christianity. A defeat of the order in July of 1260 reversed the gains of twenty years of warfare, as every defeat led to new rebellions among the natives. However, even though battles were lost,

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enemy casualties were higher and the western warriors could be replaced more easily than the native hostiles. Still the defeat restrained the order from further eastward expansion. Nevertheless by 1290 a stalemate set in which fixed the frontiers.902 The order attracted English and Flemish knights to their cause, as well as German and Flemish peasants to colonize the conquered lands. By 1280, the order had conquered the coastal regions from the river Vistula to the Gulf of Finland, incorporating several German city foundations along the coast, creating a political entity in analogy with the crusader states of Syria. The veneration of the Virgin Mary found an echo in their major foundation, the Marienburg. Eventually the grand master became a vassal of the king of Poland. In an attempt to maintain the link with the Empire, several of its princes became grand masters. It was Albrecht von Brandenburg, of the Hohenzollern family, who on Luther's advice secularized the lands of the order in 1525 into a hereditary duchy, held as a fief of the Polish crown. It was the beginning of Prussia. Black and white were to be its colors. The flared, equal armed black cross was its highest military decoration. Of lasting significance is the building start in 1235 by the Teutonic Order of the church dedicated to St. Elisabeth in Marburg, the first entirely Gothic church in Germany.

Early Stages of Imperial Disintegration – Philip, Otto IV The link with Sicily, changed the nature of the Empire and the imperial authority, but shifted the imperial concerns from the north to become chiefly Italian concerns, so that much of what follows below is only of peripheral interest to this investigative account of Central European interests. On the occasion of his confirmation of the succession to the throne in 1196 in Mainz, Henry's infant son may still have been named Constantine, perhaps in accordance with the kingdom's close association with the Rome of Constantine and the Constantinian monarchy.903 The name was to be changed to conform to the Staufen family name Frederick at his baptism. He was given the names Rogerius Fridericus, the names of his two grandfathers. The records are unambiguously clear here.904 He was to inherit a strife-torn realm in which the throne was to be the prize, as the opposing sides gathered their forces. However, the archbishopric of Cologne had been diametrically opposed to the judicial concepts represented by the Staufen and it had only been the strong personality of Henry VI, which had prevented the factions of the realm from rushing off

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in the different directions of particular interests. He had assumed wrongly his son's position to be secure in Germany, anticipating difficulties mainly from the Papacy. To gain its support, Henry VI had restored to it all disputed territories in Italy, admonished the empress Constance to follow the example of the Norman kings and accept all territories as a papal fief. However, Constance quickly turned to her Sicilian nobles, to drive out the imperial representatives, while the Papacy assumed direct rule over the lands left in its care and by having the population swear the oath of fealty.905 Elsewhere, the Romagna, Tuscany and Lombardy pursued their own interests against Papacy and Empire alike. Henry's brother Philip, duke of Swabia, hurried to Italy, where Constance left for Palermo, and renounced any claims to Germany, even for her son, on the occasion of her oath of fealty to the pope. The magnates in the Holy Land renewed their oath of fealty to the elected Frederick, the archbishop of Cologne accepted her resignation, while the cities of the Lower Rhine, their economic interests in mind, turned to England.906 Richard the Lionheart could only welcome a weakening of the ties between Capetian France and Staufen Germany. The opposition concentrated its dislike of Henry and agreed on a rejection of the Staufen succession, but was most unresolved about any of the other options presented by candidates among the Welfs, Zähringen or Saxons. It seems not to have occurred to the empress Constance to assume the regency for her son. In March 1198, Philip, quite different from his brother, married to a Byzantine, was elected king entirely within the established sequence of the electoral process, yielding to the urging of the Saxons, but missed having himself also crowned at Aachen. In June of that year, the opposition elected the Welf Otto IV, third son of Henry the Lion, king. With the child-king Frederick, there now were three kings claiming the rightful throne. Fifteen years of dissension, war and murder, characterized the schlimme kaiserlose Zeit, the bad times without an emperor. Otto had been raised at the court of Richard the Lionheart and had been enfeoffed with the county of Poitou and named duke of Aquitaine. Richard had even been considered a candidate. While Philip controlled the administrative apparatus of the Staufen with some support from the French, Otto could count on English support under Richard's authority, which, however, may have prevented him from unfolding a rule with specifically Welf accents. Bertold V von Zähringen, one of the contenders for the throne and candidate of one of the oppositional groups, renounced his claim and assured for his house the very existence and independence of the duchy from the dukes of Swabia.907 It was Bertold's design, to extricate his house from the complex relations between Zähringen and the Salians, who had

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awarded them the ducal title without any territorial possession to support it, and the contentious coexistence and shared interests with the Hohenstaufen. In Rome, Staufen and Welf interests were represented by the French and English crown respectively, with the consequence that the pope, Innocent III since January 1198, was able to referee between the camps.908 Constance died at the end of that year and willed the pope to assume the guardianship over Frederick, making him de facto overlord of imperial affairs. Innocent III, a lawyer insistent on all papal rights, saw opportunities for the Papacy to shape Central Europe to his liking, when he recognized the instruments, which the new religious zeal and devotion presented to the Papacy. With it, the Papacy could fulfill the perceived divine plan, as it integrated the religious communities and the currents, which they generated, and gained influence and unlimited power in this time of imperial disintegration. By contrast, Innocent III laid new claim to the fullness of power bestowed upon him. It was a weakness of the underdeveloped electoral kingship, which prevented a clear solution to the disputes concerning the throne, and which demanded papal support for the coronation of one of the candidates. This played into the hands of Innocent III, who was motivated by the conviction that the sacerdotium had precedence over the regnum in any case, and that the latter drew all of its significance from the former. Innocent III virtually ended the Gelasian theory of the “Two Swords” by proclaiming papal sacred and secular power over all aspects of Christianity, designed to curtail imperial power.909 In view of the eschatological perception associated with the Staufen dynasty, Innocent III saw advantages in supporting the weaker Welf, Otto IV, provided Otto's concessions would be binding on all future emperors. In any event, the pope reserved the right to examine each imperial candidate for his suitability, meaning that the selection/election of the king had come completely into the hands of the pope. These views were formulated during 1200-1201 at the end of which consideration Innocent III declared himself for Otto IV, because the Staufen had dominated the church long enough. With king Richard's death in 1199, his brother John submitted to the pressures of the king of France and withdrew his support of his relative, Otto. This had thrown him into the arms of the pope. The Hohenstaufen position represented the continuing threat of a Sicily united with the imperial north, thereby placing the Papacy in a vice. It therefore became papal policy to keep the crown of Germany and Italy constitutionally separate from Sicily, despite the personal union of the Staufen dynasty.910 It was his opinion that the imperial crown was not the property of a specific family, and that in the election it was not a plurality

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of votes, the Staufen position, but very specific votes, which determined the choice. This was a step in the direction reinforcing the move to create the select group of prince electors, whose jurisdiction it would be to elect the king. It was to be papal policy to support the weaker, to counteract the might of the legitimate stronger dynastic party. Hence, the predictable conflict between Empire and church was programmed. The military, partisan conflicts over the crown proved a heavy strain on the social order of the realm. The imperial princes could be swayed in their support of the crown by self-interests, material and territorial gains, and by the Papacy's use of the instrument of excommunication.911 Walther von der Vogelweide left a poetic record of this problematic period and its effects on the human condition. Despite a resolute contrary position taken by the peers of the land at Speyer in 1199, not to surrender the imperial claims to the holdings in the Regnum Italie, in 1201, Philip recognized all papal claims in Italy, supported the pope against Sicily, and agreed to act on the pope's counsel when dealing with Tuscany, Lombardy and France. Innocent III claimed the decisive position in any Anglo-French dealings. Otto IV, on the other hand, was to change from the English to the papal dependency. The papal legate began the conflict with Philip by excommunicating him, in the hope of turning the German episcopate, the foundation of the Staufen kingdom against the ruling house. Under King John, the English position suffered serious reverses against king Philip II Augustus of France and the support for the Welfs crumbled, as even the pope withdrew his support of Otto IV in favor of Philip. Philip laid down his crown and, procedurally correct, repeated his election by all, followed by his coronation by the metropolitan of Cologne at Mainz. Philip had originally been crowned with the royal insignia and had not actually needed to confirm his legitimacy. However, he bowed to the judicial position on which Cologne had insisted. While Philip's relations with the Papacy were improving, the excommunication being removed, Otto's position was disintegrating and he was urged to renounce his claim. Bonding marriages were being negotiated, when on June 21, 2008, in Bamberg, Philip was murdered by the count palatine, Otto von Wittelsbach, out of personal revenge, over a reneged promise of marriage. Philip left no male heirs.912 His Byzantine wife had borne only daughters. Innocent III saw here the convenient intervention of the hand of God. In his re-election, Otto IV had only those magnates vote, who had not voted for him earlier. That many of them had deserted him was ignored. He consolidated his position by marrying one of the daughters of Philip. Concerning the royal concessions, including his promise to set out on

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crusade, Otto was able to string the pope along and rescinded his promises, but obtained his imperial coronation nevertheless in October 1209. That day he secretly took the cross, for he too was motivated by the idea of the eschatological emperor enthroned in Jerusalem, and for several years, he advanced the implementation of these plans. Thus, he sent out a diplomatic advance party, to obtain the acceptance of Otto's suzerainty from the rulers in the east. At the same time, individual magnates conducted their own military pilgrimages to support the conflicts in the Holy Land. His plans waned at the same time the Children's Crusade took shape in 1212.913 His concessions also entailed the end of the German monarchy's control of its church as its rights to appeal were ceded to the Papacy. In Italy, the names of the Staufen and Welf factions were submitted to a name change. Because of the Staufen connection with Waiblingen, they came to be called Ghibellines; the Welfs were named Guelfs, the Italian forms of the German names. As political factions they were to dominate Italian politics for many years.914 During his return north, Otto was reminded of the right to his claim to southern Italy and he launched a campaign in that direction.915 Frederick II was growing up there. With Constance's death at the end of 1198, Innocent III assumed the guardianship over prince Frederick. He was to be under his tutelage until age 14, 1208. Frederick's counselors were German and Italian bishops and peers of the realm, preventing that he grew up solely within the Norman tradition. It follows that the conflicting papal, Staufen and Norman interests of the realm were mirrored in his person. Frederick dealt with them by learning to heed his own counsel. Still he submitted to papal pressure to marry Constance, the sister of Peter, king of Aragon and widow of the king of Hungary. Again, the bride was eleven years older than the groom, but surprisingly, the two fell in love.916 The agreement came with the bizarre condition, that the Sicilian realm pass to Aragon, in the event that Frederick die without a male heir before his wife. It was the pope's intention to remove the German presence from the Sicilian kingdom. On the other hand, with Catalonian help, she was accompanied by 500 knights, Frederick hoped to recover Sicily for the crown. Regrettably, they succumbed to a disease. The rebellious reaction of the Norman nobles invited Otto's intervention and postponement of his return to Germany in 1209. Frederick was prepared to foreswear his German Staufen holdings and to reimburse Otto IV for the reconquest of Sicily. Otto had assumed responsibility for imperial politics, of Staufen origin though they had been, even if it meant to act in contravention to the pope's assumptions. For the pope, this constituted a real threat. Innocent III

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persuaded Philip II Augustus of France to begin hostilities against Otto in the north and to alienate the German magnates from Otto and also anathematized Otto IV, when the latter continued his advances into the Sicilian kingdom. This strongest form of excommunication was only to be removed on his deathbed.917

Frederick II Unexpected help came from Philip II Augustus of France, who urged the pope to side with Frederick.918 In view of the continuing threat, which Staufen policies constituted for the Papacy and its holdings in Italy, Innocent's approval of Frederick was filled with risks. However, some German peers reconfirmed the succession of Frederick II as king in 1211 at Nürnberg and deposed Otto IV, unusual acts, since Frederick had only been confirmed in the succession in 1196 and not yet been elected and crowned king.919 Otto returned immediately from Italy, thereby releasing Frederick from an awkward position. Frederick saw in this unusual step the opportunity to retain Sicily and to regain the rest of the kingdom from Otto IV. The election suggested the need for immediate steps. Just before his departure for Germany, seventeen-year-old Frederick had a son, Henry, (children were still having children) who on the pope's insistence was crowned king of Sicily, to guarantee the separation of Sicily from the Empire. Constance was declared regent of Sicily.920 In Rome, he was hailed future emperor, but in return had to receive Sicily as a papal fief. Frederick's trip to Germany was rather humble and not at all imperial and it took two months to cross the Alps, since the passes were in hostile hands, but his arrival at Constance preceded that of Otto IV by hours. The papal legate renewed Otto's excommunication and quickly the news spread that Frederick had taken possession of the realm. Some lords of the realm gave him precedence and Frederick set out on his triumphal tour along the Upper Rhine. In December 1212, he was crowned in Mainz Cathedral.921 The north-south division of the realm was revived as the north sided with the Welfs, the south with the Staufen. This division had international accents in that the Plantagenet-Welf connection faced the CapetianStaufen opposition. In 1209, Innocent III had excommunicated John of England for not accepting the pope's choice of the archbishop of Canterbury. This was part of Innocent's method to force European royal power to submit to papal power.922 In 1213, he assigned to the king of France the execution of the ban, meaning, that Philip II Augustus should drive John off the English throne.

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To counter this danger, John accepted his kingdom as a papal fief, but out of distrust of the French king's ambitions to acquire Plantagenet lands, and with the support of the Welfs, the northern coalition attacked. The ban on Otto helped clear the way for Frederick. In return for an agreement not to make common cause with Otto or the English king John Lackland against France, Philip provided 20 000 French silver marks, which Frederick had distributed as bribes and rewards among the German nobles.923 This generosity made him most acceptable to the magnates and cleared the way for him. Though John's chances for success were favorable, the English suffered reverses along the Loire, while Otto IV suffered a severe defeat at the Battle of Bouvines, July 27, 1214. Philip II sent the imperial standard with the gilt eagle to Frederick.924 Bouvines underscored the changing power constellation of Western Europe, especially the rise of France. The French victory quadrupled the domain of the French king, while Otto's defeat by the French contributed significantly to the collapse of his position in the Empire. Dejected, he withdrew from any active participation in the affairs of his Empire.925 For Frederick, the victory of the French at Bouvines validated the CapetianStaufen relationship. In the eyes of some contemporaries, the victory was a divine judgment. Frederick was persuaded of this truth and used it as the basis for his generosity. These circumstances induced the hesitant German magnates to join Frederick's advancing forces in increasing numbers. The perception, that he acted with divine approval, made his territorial renunciations and concessions of principles acceptable. Any residual opposition to him, changed to support.926 Soon after Otto's excommunication, his wife Beatrix, daughter of Philip, died, accelerating considerably the desertion of the nobles from Otto's cause.927 Without being able to participate further in any of these imperial developments, Otto IV died in 1218, out of the way and unnoticed.928 Innocent III had offered his intervention in order to obtain for Frederick the submission of the remaining kingdom. It appears he wanted to negotiate a better judicial foundation for the Papal States. In July 1213, Frederick II issued the Golden Bull of Eger, in which he ceded to the pope the claimed territories and rights over the ecclesiastical cities, renounced other claims, including his participation in the election of abbots and bishops, conceded the rights to direct appeals to the Papacy and his assistance in combating heresy. The Bull, followed by the Confederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis confirmed the passage of the monarchy's control of its church to the Papacy. The Concordat of Worms of 1122 had been superseded.929 Frederick II had hoped that his generosity towards the bishops would tie them closer to him. In fact, the agreement was to signal

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the beginning of the growing independence of all territorial princes. In fact, by granting favors to the magnates in order to draw them closer to the monarchy, the Hohenstaufen undermined their own power, while the princes used the opportunity to expand their own territorial particularism at the expense of the empire. In doing so they increased their rivalries which offered the Papacy points of convenient leverage. Although the emperor could preserve a degree of authority over the feuding magnates, it left the empire with an incomplete form of feudalism. The Golden Bull of Eger (1213) and the concessions granted in the Confederatio of 1220 decisively weakened imperial control over the princes of the church.930 It also made clear that this Frederick placed his accents elsewhere. For him, it was not worth fighting over the investiture issues and the abstract primacy of the crown over the church. At the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, the council also established the new dimension that the imperial election had become the jurisdiction of the church. Under Innocent III, the imperial capacity was separated from the royal function, in that the royal coronation no longer needed to be a pre-requisite. Innocent's ambitions recast the idea of the crusades, in that he replaced the national character of the leadership with his own, even though some participation of the monarchs continued to be needed for financial reasons. In 1198, the kings of France, England, and of the Empire were too embroiled with one another to muster sufficient interest in distant projects, which suited the pope, for he blamed the kings and their sinful ostentation for the failures of the crusades. Since the First Crusade, the motivation had changed from its eschatological aim to reach the Heavenly Jerusalem, to a pragmatic emphasis on penance, for the redemption of sins in this life. Poverty and innocence emerged as the desirable prerequisites for the recovery of the holy places. It was this sentiment, which was to bring about the catastrophic Children's Crusade of 1212. However, it became apparent, that the princes heading the feudal infrastructure were needed to recruit the military manpower essential for the crusade. The pope had to exact church taxes to raise the funds. In December 1212, Frederick had been re-elected king at Frankfurt by those additional peers of the realm, who had joined his cause. Using replicas of the insignia, he was crowned at Mainz. Aachen lay in Otto's domain, but following the battle of Bouvines Frederick re-enacted the coronation in Aachen in 1215, with the proper insignia.931 He chose the fiftieth anniversary of the raising of the remains of Charlemagne, to confirm his link with the first emperor, and since he celebrated in him the fighter against paganism, during his coronation Frederick committed himself to a crusade, perhaps intent on anticipating its leadership, which,

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however, he was not to realize for thirteen years.932 The silver shrine in Aachen, commissioned by Fredrick I Barbarossa, containing Charles' skeletal remains and the imperial relics, commemorates the event. At the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215/16 933 Pope Honorius III confirmed such a crusade without mention of Frederick's participation. Frederick set the date of departure for June 1219, but then postponed it indefinitely, asking the pope for dispensation. Repeated delays resulted in hostility between Pope Honorius III and Frederick II. During the Lateran Council the decrees of Pope Innocent III had made heresy its concern. Heresy was considered treason since by questioning the scriptures it questions the claim that rulers derive their authority from God.934 The Council had made confession obligatory along with the performance of the assigned penance and had issued the uncompromising directives for the persecution of heretics and blasphemers, which included those of other faiths, such as Jews and Moslems. These decrees were segregational in that they imposed special garb on the Jews, forbade their visit of Christian baths and inns, their employ of Christian servants and the construction or enlargement of synagogues. These measures contributed to Jewish migration into eastern Europe.935 Both emperor and pope were obliged to defend the church against its enemies. In the Sicilian kingdom, Frederick ordered all Jews, under pain of forfeiture of all property, to be distinguishable from Christians by the wearing of beards and of a light blue over-garment. Jewish women had to wear a light blue ribbon on their clothing or in their hair.936 The fine for the murder of a Jew was half that of the murder of a Christian. Of significance is an episode, which demanded the emperor's judicial intervention. At Christmas 1235, a mill had burned down outside of the city of Fulda, in which five children perished.937 The agitated population immediately blamed local Jews for having needed human blood for their rituals, having killed these children and having set the mill on fire as a cover-up of their deed. Two Jews were forced to confess the deed, whereupon more than thirty Jews were killed in retribution for the crime. The corpses of the children were brought before the emperor with the expectation that he would punish the Jews of the realm for their unacceptable practices. Frederick, familiar with Jewish practices, was not swayed by the charges and was concerned that an objective investigation and assessment of the facts be established. He asked that baptized Jews from other kingdoms appear before him and give unbiased testimony in this matter. Their interrogation made clear that the ritualistic use of human blood was unknown among Jews and actually considered unclean. In July 1236, at Augsburg, the emperor cleared the Jews of Fulda and, indeed, of

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all Germany of such accusations and suspicions, and forbade any future repetitions. Frederick II placed the Jews under his protection as servants of his chamber, which, however, amounted to a curtailment of their freedoms and the imposition of a tax. These measures resulted in their specialization in monetary transactions. In such transactions, Christians were subject to a nominal prohibition of charging interest.938 His grandfather Barbarossa had granted the Jews of Worms certain privileges, Frederick II now extended these privileges to all Jews in Germany and, while he placed special taxes on them, he declared them all to be under the protection of the crown, as the servants of the crown.939 This protection of the Jews encountered the hostility of the church in its pursuit of heresy.

The Fourth Crusade In 1199 leading members of the French nobility took the cross, for what was to be termed the Fourth Crusade,940 and entered into negotiations with the Venetians to arrange naval transport for about 35000 men, and 4500 horses, for the transfer to the Holy Land by Sea, including their provisioning for one whole year, at a cost of 85000 silver marks. The numbers were an exaggerated estimation of the participatory enthusiasm, which brought with it the insufficiency of funds. Constantinople may have rejoiced that the crusade was not going to follow the land route. The date of departure, April 1202, could not be kept. Only 11000 troops assembled in Venice and that fell far short of projections, as large contingents had planned their departure from Marseilles, and the group assembled in Venice could not raise the sum agreed upon, causing a shortfall of 34000 silver marks. It is not surprising that Venice should want to recover some of these costs. Venice had also offered to contribute 50 war galleys, rowed by paid oarsmen, at its own expense, but in return negotiated a 50% compensation for its efforts. In a secret appended agreement it was established that the crusade should be directed against Egypt, rather than to Jerusalem.941 Isolated on an island, some could not get the pope's permission to withdraw from the crusade, others could not produce the funds, yet the expenses of the unproductive delay were rising steadily. However, the crusade could not be cancelled, since the crusaders in Palestine needed relief from their trying situation. Furthermore, the force was too weak to attach Egypt. Venice had gone to great expense to ready the necessary transports, while its maritime trade had been put on hold. The doge of Venice suggested the recapture of the Hungarian city of Zara on the Dalmatian coast as a means to compensate for the shortfall. Even though the opposition to this attack on a Christian city had the support of

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the pope, it was outvoted and a series of Dalmatian ports from Pola to Zara was taken into the Venetian fold. The whole army was excommunicated, though the French and few German contingents were able to have the ban removed. The crusaders spent the winter 1202/03 in Zara. It was during this time that the Venetians found the booty to be inadequate compensation. Coincidentally envoys from king Philip and his brother-in-law, the displaced claimant of the Byzantine throne, Alexios IV Angelos, appeared in Zara, with the proposal to direct this large armed force against Constantinople, to restore the rightful emperor, in return for a payment of 200 000 silver marks. Staufen interests influenced the decision, despite a contrary papal decree. Again, the outrage over this idea was divided and while many crusaders returned home, or found their own way to the Holy Land, the prospects of booty replenishing their exhausted finances persuaded most of those who remained. And then it would only be a postponing detour. The Germans were mainly Staufen supporters.942 It will be recalled that Pope Leo IX had set a precedent, when in 1053 he mobilized a “crusader” army against the Christian Normans. For the business-minded Venetians, the plan projected unique prospects for the realization of their commercial intentions in the eastern Mediterranean. Their presence in Constantinople had not been unproblematic and this course of action promised to remove all obstacles to their ambitions. The speculations over the chronology of the events and the motivation for this move are far reaching.943 In the end, however, the Fourth Crusade (120204) was not directed towards Egypt, but quite cynically against Constantinople. The conquest led to the reinstatement of the emperor, but soon it became apparent that Alexios could not pay the large sum of money, while the opposition to the crusaders led to the murder of the Greek emperor and his son and for three days the usual excesses took their course, culminating in the removal of the Byzantine Empire and the establishment of a Latin kingdom in Constantinople. The Empire was dismembered and divided among the crusading lords.944 The notion of one Latin church and one Empire must have recommended itself to the participants, could, however, not be realized. The pope had sanctioned the division of the spoils and the elimination of the schism by force. Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire were irreparably weakened. Constantinople was rich in relics and great treasures and these now found their way to major churches in the west. Warrior martyrs in particular, such as Sts. George, James and Mauritius came into vogue. Their feast days became days on which the campaigns rallied to depart.945 Of the official loot, estimated at 900 000 silver marks, 500 000 went to Venice. These shares had been pre-approved in the arrangements

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anticipating the conquest. The Venetians were the decisive winners in the partition. Still most noticeable are the four bronze horses over the entrance of St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice. The French contingent in Constantinople was the major force, so that in 1224 Pope Honorius III designated the Latin kingdom of Constantinople as the Nova Francia.946 By 1237, the kingdom had been reduced to Constantinople. Fragments of the kingdom were to survive the fall of Hohenstaufen rule. After the attack on Zara and Constantinople, crusades were preached against convenient Christian targets in Western Europe, as Innocent III resorted to crusades as a weapon against all those deemed to represent a danger to the church and its interests.947

Henry (VII) and the Growth of Territorial Particularism Shortly before his death in 1216, Innocent III, afraid of encirclement, had made Frederick promise that immediately following his imperial coronation, Frederick's son Henry (VII), would receive the kingdom of Sicily as a papal fief, with a chief administrator at his side, acceptable to the pope, while Frederick renounced any claim to its crown. (Map 3-2) Already in the previous year, Frederick had erected a family mausoleum in the cathedral of Palermo. He saw the center of gravity of his realm to lie in the south, without any intention to honor the promises made to the pope.948 Frederick II was to alienate the Empire by raising the imperium out of its royal east-Frankish framework, thereby advancing his father's earlier intention. Linking the imperial dignity with the royal dignity of Sicily, allowed not only a final reduction of the primacy of the imperial authority, but also an estrangement from the concerns of the northern kingdom. The German magnates came to appreciate that Frederick II had no interest in German problems, considering the northern kingdom mainly as a source of men and revenues for his Italian ventures.949 The imperial concerns were to become chiefly Italian concerns. Heir to German and Norman-Sicilian administrative principles, he favored the establishment of a centralist political entity. In the regnum Sicilie, the multi ethnic kingdom of Sicily, he was successful. In the Imperium, he was not. To maintain a modicum of authority in the north, he became vulnerable to the extortion of princely concessions and prerogatives. Innocent III had only just died, when Frederick had his wife and four year old son join him in Germany, where he made Henry king of Sicily and duke of Swabia, and with the end of the Zähringen line, of Burgundy.950 During the following five years, Frederick devoted his efforts to the reestablishment of the monarchy, of a Staufen, centralist

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authority in Germany and over the Imperium.951 Throughout, he treated his magnates with conciliatory firmness, but also as partners in his rule. These efforts were complicated by the fact that any marked success in these respects threatened to rouse the opposition of the secular magnates, fearful for their growing particularism, and especially of the Papacy, in fear of the threat of a personal unification of the rule over Sicily and the Empire, and the feared encirclement of the papal domains. However, Frederick's intention to expand his direct rule over his entire realm was his central motivation. Like other monarchs of the day, Frederick II had reassessed the practicality of his commitment to realize the crusade and had found reasons to blame others for its delay. He now asked the pope to excommunicate him, should he not have departed for the Holy Land by June 14, 1219, a rather short notice. The pope, in turn, was asked to oblige the magnates to participate in the crusade and not waive any oaths of participation. The pope should also persuade the Welfs to surrender the royal insignia. Behind it all lay his intention to coerce his magnates to agree to the coronation of his son and the assurance of the continuity of the dynasty. The departure had to be delayed, as the magnates claimed insufficient time to prepare for the crusade. Their reluctance to absent themselves for such a long time, filled with uncertainties is understandable, when one considers that under the feudal structure, in the event of their death, the king could easily repossess all royal fiefs, thereby strengthening the royal position in the realm. Rivals could contest the ownership of any personal holdings by force of arms, and influence the outcome of disputes currently contested in the courts. In fact, vehement conflicts threatened to break out already, which could only be worsened by the king's prolonged absence from the realm. Crusading enthusiasm was subjected to pragmatic considerations. The nobles insisted on royal and papal guarantees. Frederick was motivated by similar considerations. Anti-kings had been elected before. The question of the succession threatened to draw the pope and the reluctant magnates of the realm closer together, so that Frederick's plans could not be realized until April 1220, when Henry (VII) was finally crowned German king. Little did Henry realize that his father's centralist persuasion and political intention were not going to allow him to step back from his son's German affairs. Even from afar, he would make decisions and contravene those of his frustrated son. In Frankfurt, the magnates had proceeded with the election. By relying on the leading role of the ecclesiastical magnates and by awarding further territorial privileges and liberties to all the magnates, especially to those of the church, Frederick had particularly

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ensured the inviolate nature of all church property. The significance lay in that the practice of granting privileges to particular religious locations was now rationalized and replaced by granting universal privileges to the church of the realm as a whole. Clearly, in Frederick's eyes, the election was crucial and worth all concessions, should the stability of the realm not be jeopardized, in the event of an untoward occurrence during his venture to the east.952 Clearly Frederick used generous concessions to buy the support of the magnates, at the expense of royal power in Germany to near meaninglessness. Having deliberately weakened the crown it fell easy prey to the Papacy and the magnates.953 Thanks to the decisions taken at Frankfurt, Frederick could now proceed to Rome, secure in the knowledge that the affairs of his German kingdom were in some order. The crusade would be launched following his next visit to Rome and his imperial coronation. The Confederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis introduced a period of cooperation between pope and monarch.954 With the child-king left behind in Germany, Frederick set out for Rome in August, and when he presented himself in Rome, in November 1220, Honorius crowned him and Constance emperor and empress.955 His oriental coronation cloak is still extant. Contrary to his predecessors, Frederick did not shy away from performing the strator service, holding the pope's stirrup and leading his horse by the reins, indicating his status as the pope's vassal. As earlier in Aachen, he took the cross. Some four hundred magnates and their knights followed his example to join the proposed crusade.956 After an absence of eight years, during which his German affairs had been settled to a degree, the emperor could play freely the role of absentee king and assume the rule of Sicily during his son's minority and in his imperial person maintain its link with the Empire. Honorius III accepted the new circumstances. Frederick was not to return to Germany for fifteen years, as Italian affairs dominated his attention.957 One illustration would be his interest in education. Following his grandfather's example in Bologna, Frederick founded the university of Naples in 1224, also to offer an emphasis of studies in Roman jurisprudence and church law. Law professors from Bologna were attracted to Naples. Professors from many countries received their call from the emperor personally, were provided with attractive working conditions and guaranteed a fitting remuneration. The emperor's generosity included the availability of stipends for poor and rich students alike. In doing this, he stressed the completely new beginning of the university and avoided any reliance on the clerics of any established religious centers of learning, such as the cathedral schools. To bring justice to the people may have motivated this choice of faculty. The study of the Liberal Arts – grammar, rhetoric, logic and the natural sciences –

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was also represented. Even though theology was not part of the curriculum, the university's most famous graduate was Thomas Aquinas, who between 1239 and 1244 had studied grammar and logic there. The study of theology was mainly the reserve of the Dominicans. Following the prohibitions by the church of the monastic practice of medicine, and especially of surgery on account of blood, at the Council of Tours of 1163 and finally of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, Salerno remained Europe's most famous medical school. The university was not intended to serve primarily as an administrative training school for the kingdom.958 Despite his preoccupation with Sicilian affairs, Frederick's imperial centralizing jurisdiction extended over his son's realm, independent king though Henry (VII) was. It was to be an experiment with unhappy outcome. Without parental guidance, imperial plenipotentiaries surrounded him to rule the realm as “regents” during his minority. The long arm of the emperor reached all corners of the realm. Frederick's envoys made his wishes known and his directives were theirs to implement. Virtually an orphan, at the age of nine he was left alone in Germany in 1220, lost his mother in 1222, and was not to see his father again until 1232. One or the other would maneuver into position to serve as chief administrator with vice-regal powers. Henry had intended to marry a Plantagenet princess, but owing to the long established Staufen link with the Capetian kings of France, such an alliance would have been contrary to Staufen policy. From afar, his father commanded the fifteen-year-old Henry to marry the five years older Margaret, the daughter of Leopold VI, duke of Austria.959 The marriage took place in Nürnberg, in 1226. In March 1227, she was crowned queen in Aachen. Leopold expected to assume the vice-regal powers for Henry, much to the envy of his neighbors, who rejoiced, when Leopold was committed to follow Frederick on crusade instead. Duke Louis I of Bavaria assumed the function. He, however, was among the first to side with the pope, when Frederick was excommunicated. Had Frederick deliberately wanted to create problems in the north, he could not have done worse. Frederick never released his son from his minority. Without a meeting of minds, the rift between father and son was widening, as they worked at cross-purposes, with the older one rejecting, what the younger one had approved. The fault may have been his own. The poet Walther von der Vogelweide thought of this as stupid. Utilizing his father's discomfort and preoccupation with the crusade, Henry (VII) took the opportunity at Christmas 1228, to assume the right to rule for himself, not that that improved conditions. Capable, imperial ministerials exercised the governmental duties over Swabia as well, as long as Henry was not yet

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of age, but even after both Frederick and Henry had sons, the duchy of Swabia remained dependent and unassigned.960 In Germany, Henry (VII) came into conflict with his magnates and advisers, some of whom, such as Louis I, duke of Bavaria, had sided quite early with Pope Gregory IX, against his excommunicated father. The pope was looking for opportunities to exert his influence north of the Alps, and during 1228-9 to encourage dissension under his protection. He may have been seriously intent on the removal of the Staufen line from power and the election of a new king. Henry (VII) had opposed and interfered too strongly in a counter-productive manner with the magnates by siding with the urban centers. Contrary to his father's suspicious policies concerning cities, Henry had favored centripetal policies, which promoted the cities as a means of support, of increasing the cohesion of the kingdom and rewarded them with privileges. He saw in them loyal allies against the centrifugal tendencies favored by the lords.961 The pope and some magnates pursued a common goal. The nobles felt that Henry had to be blocked early in his plans. In some episcopal cities, such as Cambrai and Verdun, the bishops forced him to withdraw the privileges, which he had granted. On the other hand, many of the magnates, loyal adherents of the Staufen dynasty, contributed to the reconciliation between Frederick II and Gregory IX in September 1230.962 A confrontation took place in 1231 at Worms in which the ecclesiastical and secular princes of the realm took a common stand against the king's favor of the cities. Henry had overestimated his strength. That year, a Constitutio in favorum principum reaffirmed and strengthened the control of the princes over their territories.963 The magnates forced him to roll back many of his decisions promoting greater civic autonomy. It led to their recognition as domini terrae, territorial lords, confirmed by royal privilege, which assured them of the king's renunciation of royal sovereignty and granting them their undisputed territorial jurisdiction. It also restrained the royal foundation of new cities, markets, roads and bridges within their territories or those of the church and demanded the king curtail his rights to offer refuge, and the extension of legal jurisdictions on adjoining territories.964 Even though the civilian leadership of the cities supported the Hohenstaufen, Frederick took measures to restrict their autonomy, as he turned the right to found cities over to the territorial lords. Urban foundations were the main supports in the formation and economic stabilization of the emerging territorial states. Despite their ambitions, Fredrick needed the support of the German magnates to implement and consolidate his centralist aims, and consequently disapproved of Henry's measures. In 1232, from Ravenna, perhaps in fear of his royal German

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crown, Frederick II, obliged Henry to exert no more undue pressure on the magnates and stop the reverses which his rule caused the realm and repeated to the magnates the offer of Henry's privileges, giving them nearly unrestrained powers in their territories and over the towns and cities. Town councils, imperial sympathizers, were forbidden and at least one town hall, in Worms, was torn down. As even Frederick curtailed his rights of intervention, city government was subject to the approval of the magnates. Frederick II implemented a policy of less monarchy in the kingdom. Repeatedly the emperor overruled the king and the relationship between father and son deteriorated to the point that the disintegration of royal power in favor of princely power was increasingly evident. Frederick feared for the support of his magnates and their relationship with the church.965 Frederick was blind to the urban developments taking place in Lombardy. Henry was to assume sole blame for all failures and as his father's subordinate, swear unconditional obedience to his father. All this eroded Henry's authority at home even more.966 Pope Gregory IX was asked to excommunicate Henry, should he break his oath. Frederick needed the military support of the nobility for the realization of his crusading plans. Interestingly, Henry (VII) offered his patronage to many named and unnamed minstrels and Minnesänger. He may have composed and sung himself, though there is no documented evidence of that. The church criticized him for allowing such a lifestyle to invade his court.967 Frederick needed the support of the church. In 1231 Pope Gregory IX had charged the Dominican Order with the inquisition of heretics. It was the dawn of the Inquisition, when with papal authorization, accusers could utter charges of heresy and act as judges.968 There could be no appeals. The authorities could only approve. Any defense of people accused of heresy, invited the immediate association and condemnation.969 Any rebellious attitudes against the authority of the church could be termed a heresy. In 1234, the archbishop of Bremen denounced the peasants along the lower Weser River as heretics, because they wanted to protect their freedoms against the bishop. He abused his function, by proclaiming a crusade against them with papal approval, which broke them.970 This crusade had interrupted the flow of volunteers for the Livonian Crusade so that is wasn't until after 1234 that crusaders in significant numbers returned to the Baltic Crusade. To his credit, Henry (VII) opposed the excesses in the fight against heresy, but events attracted the pope's active support and threatened to affect relations between his father and the pope. Once again, Frederick contradicted his son. For him heresy denied royal authority and questioned the relationship between God and man in which the monarch played the

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pivotal role.971 Tensions grew over Henry's persistently erratic administration when dealing with his magnates. In 1234, at his father's instigation, Henry was excommunicated and with the support of many bishops Henry resorted to open rebellion. In 1235 he found support among the Lombard League against his father.972 For Frederick this was high treason, which endangered the Empire. He crossed into Germany like an oriental ruler with a great show of wealth and an impressive, exotic entourage including Saracens and Ethiopians, and an animal menagerie resembling a circus, including a giraffe. For his detractors, this was proof that he traveled in the company of monsters.973 Supporters joined him from all sides, convinced that, with papal support, he would triumph over his son. With much money, he bribed the military forces to take his side. Henry (VII) submitted to his father at Nürnberg, and became his captive. In July 1235, at Worms, his followers were pardoned at a high price in money and goods, while Henry was humiliated, tried, stripped of his kingship without hope of reinstatement and incarcerated for life in several keeps in Germany and southern Italy. During his last transfer, Henry reputedly committed suicide in 1242, by throwing himself off his horse into a crevasse.974 Frederick claimed to have been moved inconsolably by the death of his son, though by making the analogy with David and Absolom, he stressed the violation of God's ordinance for the order of the world. This was a convenient cover for his own failure as a father. The poets of the day provided Henry (VII) with echoes of lament and admiration, attributed virtues to him and blamed his misleading advisers. Walther von der Vogelweide thought him poorly raised, educated and prepared for the task.975

Demise of the Crusades and the final Decline of the Realm Already before 1212, children, the poor and young people of the lower levels of society had gathered in groups to participate in the great acts of faith of the time. In 1212, the Children's Crusade fitted this pattern. Inspired by youthful visionaries, it proceeded without the approval of the church. Against the will of all authorities, the naively pious young were on their way “To God”. They assembled in northern France and the Rhineland, joined by others as they passed. Without leadership and security, they had believed, that their innocence and poverty lent them the ability to recover the holy places, where the mighty had failed. Most attempts to put a halt to this pilgrimage were impeded by the enthusiastic population, caught up in the spiritual fervor of the times. It was an arid summer that year and many perished by the roadside, while other groups

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just scattered. Seven thousand of them arrived in Genoa, where the pilgrimage ended calamitously with the disappointment of its participants, when the waters of the Mediterranean did not part miraculously before them, so that they could not walk from Italy to Palestine on dry land. Nor were ships made available to them. Their traces faded in Italy, only a few returned over the Alps, accompanied by the mockery of those, who had spurred them on enthusiastically a short time earlier. Others appear to have boarded seven ships in Marseilles, of which two were shipwrecked, while the passengers of the others were sold in the slave-markets of North Africa and Egypt.976 In 1218, the Fifth Crusade had been diverted to Damietta on the Nile, in Egypt, where it was intended to march on Cairo and break the power of Islam.977 It had its beginnings in 1213 when Pope Innocent III convoked a council for 1215 to discuss church reforms, a peace program and to promote a crusade initiated, organized and led by the Papacy without the involvement of monarchs. The prospect of dealing with another crusade was so daunting to the sultan in Egypt that he was prepared to surrender Jerusalem, and offered a thirty-year peace, if the crusade was called off. Even though the crusaders were caught in one of the annual Nile floods, they did not at first accept the sultan's terms, as the papal legate did not find this result at all acceptable. It appears he wanted the humiliation and destruction of the infidel more than the recovery of the Sepulcher. In September 1221, the crusaders withdrew from Egypt. The lack of support, of supplies, of reinforcements were cited as reasons for the failure. In retrospect the magnates found it necessary to focus on their own domestic affairs rather than on distant papal adventures. The relative failure of the Third Crusade and the alienation of the Fourth Crusade into a raiding expedition on Constantinople in1204, even the idea that the liberation of Jerusalem was to be replaced by the concern for the individual's soul and the quest for the heavenly Jerusalem, had estranged the crusading spirit among the powerful. The pope's intention was to promote the crusade as an instrument of peace for the reform of Christian society. His vision of Christendom acting in unison at the end of days, to bring about the salvation of the individual was becoming unpersuasive. His lofty analogy, influenced by Bernard of Clairvaux, of knights having put aside their feuds for the sake of peace under pain of excommunication, of the crusader as vassal coming to the aid of Christ, his lord, was no longer compatible with feudal reality.978 In fact, a steady stream of European reinforcements aimed for the Holy Land by means of a regular schedule of departures from Italy, as passage became available in the spring and fall of each year. In early 1217 a fleet

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of 350 coastal freighters set sail loaded with north German, Flemish and English crusaders, led by William of Holland. These generations of pilgrims, however, had something of the crusading tourist about them, wanting to see and pray at the Holy Places and leave, as they arranged their stay to be of seasonal duration, with no intention to stay and settle.979 The gradual assimilation of and growing tolerance among those settled long term and the pursuit of their personal economic and social interests estranged them from the original crusading zeal and goals. In their eyes, the image of the infidel underwent a positive change. Christian propaganda came to be understood for what it was, and the conflict was focused on the threat, which the Moslem fighters posed for Jerusalem, rather than on the elimination of Islam as an abomination. The cultural and scientific experiences in the east, some of them marking the ancient Greek heritage, such as hydraulics and pneumatics, precision mechanics and technology, as illustrated in their ballistic counterweight and leverage artillery, and even canons, rockets, torpedoes and grenades, the more generous personal use of soap and water for hygienic purposes, of irrigation, of astronomy and pertinent instruments, of water and astronomical clocks, of intelligent medical practices based, not on demonology, but derived from translated Arabic texts, of analogous knowledge gained from the dissection of monkeys, diseases of the eye, of fevers, the use of pigeon-post, of cog-wheels and gears, to name just a few, not to mention the extensive vocabulary borrowed from Arabic, such as admiral, arsenal, algebra, alchemy, sugar, compass, cotton, etc., changed the perception of Islam and of its representatives.980 While initially the elimination of the infidel had deemed a necessity, one no longer saw it as such or even as a possibility. As of the early thirteenth century, peaceful Moslems could no longer be attacked because of their religion. War was not waged to convert Moslems to Christianity, but to protect and to preserve the Christian faith against them. Reconquest was permitted, but not unprovoked aggression and conquest. Pope Innocent IV recognized expressly the legitimacy of non-Christian rule. Uncontested Christian rule over the Holy Places, but not necessarily the buildings, was the objective and by the beginning of the thirteenth century, the claim was rejected that a crusade could only serve the liberation of Jerusalem. A crusade could be proclaimed against the enemies of the church, wherever they were to be found beyond the borders of the Holy Land.981 Dependent on a continuing influx of reinforcements, the maintenance of Jerusalem required fighters willing to see it as a domestic problem requiring dedicated attention, but also an opportunity to realize God's offer to gain redemption and salvation. The shining Christian knight was to rise

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against a dark Moslem background. The appearance of the Mongols after 1235 made it vividly clear that there was a darker, more intimidating enemy threatening the Christian world. Nearly a century earlier, the Koran had been translated into Latin. Following the First Crusade in the late 11th century, the Moslems were no longer seen as idolaters, but as monotheists, though with a different conception of Christ. It was this, which made them wrong in Christian eyes. However, the image of the enemy was modified, as the figure of Saladin engendered admiration and as the Islamic knight showed chivalry and honor. Christian knights married Moslem women, even of the highest social stations. In the literary treatments, as in Wolfram's Parzival, Parzival's father marries Belakane, queen of the Moors. The image of chivalry was inspired extensively by the contact with those who represented Islamic culture to the European knights. The Moslem horseman merited respect, even if it was still a long way before the notion of tolerance developed in the west. The war against this enemy no longer seemed so urgent, so that the expenses of his accompanying feudal infrastructure, for which a lord was responsible on the march, made such ventures much less attractive. The early naivety of supporting this cause was being replaced by more sober reflection and calculation of the risks to life and property, as death on crusade meant that under feudal law, the fief reverted to the lord, for redistribution or perhaps confiscation. While this left survivors landless, it made for the upward social mobility of the new beneficiaries. Superior insight would later suggest to the cosmopolitan Frederick II, that conciliatory diplomatic means might be a workable, less costly substitute for failing military initiatives. The Egyptian sultan had made such advances during the Damietta campaign. The failure of such organized crusades under the nominal leadership of the pope, affected the pope's prestige, and was symptomatic of these changing attitudes in secular circles, but also accounted for the pope's relentless pressure to renew the crusade and restore the prestige. The intervals between crusades became noticeably shorter. German interests became increasingly focused on the Christianization and colonization of the regions along the pagan, Baltic coast and less attracted to the Mediterranean. When Frederick promised sincerely to go on crusade, he became associated with the leadership of the crusade. His promises were perhaps not made following sufficient reflection. They were to become a burden in his dealings with the Papacy and in his attempts to mold Sicily to his political vision. He clearly underestimated the length of time needed to become the undisputed ruler of his realm, without which he could not entertain a prolonged absence from his realm. Additionally, it transpired

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that he alone would have to bear the responsibility and costs of the crusade, since none of the other monarchs showed any interest in the venture. While the pope was still trying to motivate Christendom with high principles, the crusades were quickly becoming a practical anachronism, promoted mainly by those, who hoped for personal gain. Without promises of compensation, Frederick could not obtain his magnates' agreement to participate in the crusade. The modest recruiting success repeatedly recommended additional delays and lengthy postponements of the departure. Periodically Frederick did send contingents to the east. At a meeting with the pope in 1223, Frederick promised to set out on crusade in 1225 and removed all doubt, when he swore to marry the fourteen-year-old heiress of the kingdom of Jerusalem, Isabella. The marriage may have been proposed by Pope Honorius III himself, in order to heighten Frederick's eagerness to realize his promises. This meant that the emperor would not be arriving in the Holy Land as conqueror, but as rightful king. But despite the pope's efforts and even the recruiting efforts of the grand masters of the fighting orders, adequate forces of men could not be raised. Once again the departure had to be postponed, but that year Frederick again promised to set out on crusade in 1227, and agreed to raise 1000 knights, with provisions for two years, and to make available transport for 2000 more. That the crusade would be under his sole leadership, was itself something of a victory over the pope. In the event of his failure he posted a surety of 100 000 ounces of gold, and agreed to be excommunicated voluntarily.982 The delay and postponement had become necessary, when a whole range of problems arose for Frederick among the cities of northern Italy, tying up his limited forces.983 The Lombard cities were continuing to pursue their quest for greater independence and in 1226 , when called to the Diet at Cremona, they misinterpreted his intentions, overreacted and actually dealt Frederick a significant setback. They thought their liberties were endangered, refounded the Lombard League, blocked the Alpine passes with the aim to resist Frederick's powers. It would have been foolish to impose the fiscal and political demands that Frederick I originally demanded at Roncaglia, preferring to follow the terms of the Treaty of Constance of 1183.984 Frederick's excommunication on his own initiative was in the air, should he break his vow to set out on crusade. His oath of 1225 to set out in 1227, as well as the settlement of the troubles in northern Italy from which the Papacy benefited, had saved him from the ban. In September 1227, he boarded a fleet in Brindisi, where a disease, typhoid or cholera, raged among the pilgrims. Frederick was affected. Shortly later, the disease flared up aboard the ships and struck Frederick again. Parts of the

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fleet had to return, with the provision to follow during the next spring.985 Despite the mitigating circumstances accompanying this return, the new pope, Gregory IX, chose to exercise the absolute primacy of the Papacy, confronted Frederick's questionable sincerity and suspected his dealings with the Papacy. He saw only his broken promises, rejected all attempts at explanation, called him a false crusader, and pronounced Frederick's excommunication.986 The agreement of 1225 had not foreseen such an event. It was recognized that this was only one rationalization among several in the papal arsenal of possible reasons. Despite the evidence of moneys deposited and a thousand knights sent east, eye witness accounts and arguments met with disbelief, were not accepted and the ban was pronounced in November 1227.987 Frederick refused to submit and display the expected deference and repentant submission to the obstinate pope, and his escalating false charges and demands. For the sake of peace and understanding Frederick remained conciliatory. Not unlike Henry IV before Canossa, Frederick did the unexpected and proceeded with his crusade, to avert the charge that he himself was a heretic. He had to fear his deposition as king of the Sicilian kingdom by the new pope, Gregory IX. Out of papal favor and not permitted to set out on crusade he left even when under the ban,988 Frederick resumed his crusade in 1228 as an imperial expedition, reached Cyprus and the Holy Land and on March 17, 1229, under great rejoicing, as king of Jerusalem entered the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem – by negotiation,989 not at all acceptable to the pope's legate and to the patriarch of Jerusalem. The knights Templar and Hospitalers and their clerics were noticed for the restraint of their enthusiasm to welcome the excommunicated emperor. Much to the ire of the traditional Christians, the political pragmatism of the negotiations had left the Islamic sanctuaries on the Temple Rock in Moslem hands. For crusaders and pilgrims alike, the goal of the crusade – to pray in the Church of the Sepulcher – had been attained, though not all, including the irate pope, were persuaded that “the end justified the means”. To all, the emperor showed himself to be a most Christian monarch. Under the crown of Jerusalem, he circulated an imperial encyclical, in which he expressed the entry into the City of David as a divine miracle, made manifest to all. It was God's work, which favored the emperor and not the pope, and that as Christ-king, the messianic emperor at the end of time had gained Jerusalem.990 He returned to Italy, quite persuaded that his kingdom was the renewal of the Davidic kingdom, lasting onto eternity. Under these considerations, he may have hoped to persuade the pope of his own piety and of God's grace, and thereby obtain the withdrawal of the

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ban. The following day was spent in financial negotiations, when on March 19, 1229, on the patriarch's insistence, the archbishop of Caesarea placed the Church of the Sepulcher and all other churches in Jerusalem under the Interdict, closing them to all. Just liberated, Jerusalem was closed to the crusading pilgrims. Following the hardships of the way, the disappointment and frustration was great. Details are obscure, but that same day Frederick II hurriedly left for Jaffa and Acre and on May 1, he set sail for home, stopping on Cyprus, and reaching Brindisi on June 10. News from Sicily, concerning the pope's agitation, demanded his quick return.991 His excommunication had compromised the success of his crusade, actually an extension of the Fifth Crusade. It had ultimately reached and liberated Jerusalem. Military successes against the forces of the pope and negotiations with the Papacy followed his return. Frederick was persuaded to make numerous concessions benefiting the church, many of which were extraneous to his excommunication, and he was absolved of the ban on August 28, 1229. In 1235, Frederick convoked a splendid assembly to restabilize the realm. The tie between the monarchy and the magnates was given preeminence, meaning that all rights of the magnates, no matter how acquired, were to be considered to have been bestowed by the monarch. This was an application to Germany of measures first instituted by Frederick I Barbarossa in Italy. Similar to other western monarchies, this Landfrieden of 1235 consolidated the nobility, limited royal power, rights and prerogatives. The king, or his designate, was the supreme judge, who could withdraw the judicial authority from those who neglected or abused their duties and presumed unwarranted jurisdictions.992 During that same year the high point of the splendid festivities at Worms was Frederick's marriage to Isabella, the sister of Henry III of England. Pope Gregory IX was instrumental in bringing it about. Though Frederick did have several illegitimate children, and although he was to have other legitimate sons,993 he needed to safeguard the succession, since with Henry's removal, he now only had a nine-year old son, Conrad. His mother Isabella of Jerusalem, Frederick's second wife, had died in childbirth in 1226, but since she was the daughter of John of Brienne, the king of Jerusalem, she had brought the claim to the kingdom of Jerusalem into the Staufen family. Owing to the link between Welfs and Plantagenets, Isabella of England contributed to a reconciliation between the Staufen and Welf families. She also came with a dowry of 30 000 silver marks. Frederick normalized the succession of the Welfs, when he created the duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, by raising Otto von Lüneburg to the highest nobility. This elevation stabilized the northern

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region between the rivers Elbe and Weser.994 Isabella died in childbirth in 1241. At the diet at Vienna in 1237, he had Conrad elected king, already king of Jerusalem through his mother. On the same occasion, Frederick confiscated the duchies of Austria and Styria and placed them under the administration of the realm. For a short while, their duke was reinvested with the holdings, but in 1246, he fell in a Hungarian war. He had no heirs.995 Conrad IV, as king elect, received regal tasks and powers to enact them, but Frederick II withheld the concluding confirmation of a royal election and enthronization. This involved no risks from a competing quarter, since there were no contending families left to issue a challenge. Furthermore, the lack of interest in a royal election furthered in 1237 the formation of the princely College of Electors, the Kurfürsten, as a substitute for the Roman senate.996 In northern Italy, tensions were building, by the end of which Pope Gregory IX denounced Frederick II as the forerunner of the Antichrist. On Palm Sunday 1239, the pope renewed the charge of heresy and his excommunication for disobedience in the Lombard affairs. Blasphemous remarks were added to the accusation. The process had become a political device. Almost immediately, some used the ban to break their oath of fealty. The final conflict was approaching.997 The issue was again the question of the dominium mundi. Frederick II responded by going on the offensive against the church and those in its service in Sicily and imperial Italy. By means of reorganization, a further centralization and increase of his power, he closed the borders, augmented his spy system, expelled the mendicant orders, whom he considered to be the pope's propagandists, ordered the local clergy to ignore the interdict and assumed full charge of any episcopal investitures. He interpreted his situation as an opportunity to centralize Italy as the core of his Empire, considering the Papal States and duchies to be integral parts of his realm. In 1240, he occupied Rome and treated it as his capital. However, he had not counted on the zealous resistance of Pope Gregory IX and the Papacy, which declared the war against Frederick a holy war, a crusade in defense of the faith, with the benefits of the joys of heaven for all those who fell in the cause of the church.998 In the end, Gregory proved more than Frederick's match as the papacy developed its own temporal claims and devalued the prestige of the imperial office.999 To counter the charge of heresy, once again, the imperial prophecy arose and focused on the Staufen dynasty. Similar to Carolingian times, the house of Staufen was seen to merge with the Biblical house of David. Frederick I was the root of a new Tree of Jesse, which projected Conrad as

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heir of the crown of the king of Jerusalem. Rather than being the AntiChrist, the link with the house of David elevated the dynasty into the vicinity of Jesus.1000 The dynasty would witness the fulfillment of the terrestrial order. The representatives of the dynasty were the precursors of Conrad, the messianic emperor, not as Staufen, but as representatives of the imperium. While the Staufen ancestors were forgotten, the idea of the Davidic Kingdom of a new Golden Age gained substance, as the Roman emperors Augustus and Justinian gained prominence in the deliberations, especially as lawmakers. Frederick II placed the Empire under the Law, actually a compendium of the regional laws of the realm. Frederick was persuaded that he represented the law in his own person and as such was the embodiment of God's omnipresence. Initially, the Davidic and Messianic aura was blended with antique, classical notions to make of him the Cosmocrator, the master of the earth and its elements and other exaggerated formulations.1001 Fliers circulated the idea of the emperor as savior and just king. As sacerdotium, the realm was considered to represent the realization of God's realm on earth. The imperial and papal chancelleries praised their respective leaders and fought one another with invectives. In 1241, the pope called a council to Rome to depose the emperor.1002 Vain offers of the crown had gone to Germany and to France, but were rejected. To prevent this council from assembling, Frederick intercepted on land and on sea over one hundred participants and had those, who had not drowned in a sea battle, imprisoned. During Frederick's second attempt to take Rome, Pope Gregory IX died in August 1241. Since Frederick's attack was focused on the person of the pope, he had to await the election of another pope, delayed until 1243, owing to the divided support in the College of Cardinals, when one finally settled on Innocent IV. Though he was not motivated by fanatical zeal, he represented the theory of papal omnipotence. Preliminary negotiations projected the repeal of Frederick's excommunication in return for the restoration of the Papal States. Frederick II, however, remained adamant in his treatment of the Lombard cities, as rebels. In the worsening dispute, the pope fled to France and at Lyon, in June 1245, convoked the council originally scheduled for 1241. Its purpose was to depose the emperor. The Mongols had taken the Russian principalities and by early 1241, had already entered Silesia. Their threat to the west was understood, when they completely annihilated an assembled Christian force. The emperor appealed to the other rulers to combine sufficient forces to stem the pending attack.1003 Christianity again interpreted the Mongol threat as the scourge of God, as punishment for the lapse into sin, as the arrival of the

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Anti-Christ. Gregory IX recommended the trust in God, but blocked a significant military response, since he was suspicious of the emperor at the head of such a force, and the threat, which this would pose to the primacy of the Papacy. Frederick was even suspected of having called in the Mongols, in order to establish his heretical rule over Christendom with their help. His reluctance to bow to the will of the church was proof. The death of the Great Khan in 1242 caused the recall of the Mongol armies to Asia. Surprisingly, Frederick offered immediately to launch a crusade, vacate the Papal Estates and leave the settlement of the Lombard problem to papal discretion. Frederick had behaved in a most compliant manner and even offered to recapture Jerusalem and to stay in the Holy Land until recalled by the pope. He offered to forfeit all of his lands should he return without the pope's permission. This offer was not plausible. Perhaps he had grown tired of submitting to the endless disputes and defamations directed against him. He even offered to abdicate and retire to the orient and a lifestyle that was more compatible with his temperament. But perhaps these offers were a ploy to anticipate the council's objectives. With the proper submission to the church, Frederick agreed to the imposed conditions, and in March 1244 Innocent had announced his reacceptance into the church. Persuaded, in May 1245, Pope Innocent IV ordered the absolution of Frederick.1004 Frederick, however, challenged papal authority by wanting to know the concrete reasons for his excommunication and refused to surrender the territories of the church. These actions were proof of his disobedience. Innocent IV shared the hierocratic belief that Christ wielded unrestrained rule over humanity, that St. Peter was his representative on earth and that the pope therefore had the primacy over the emperor and could force his obedience to himself and sit in judgment over him. To demonstrate his power, the pope released Frederick's subjects from their oath of allegiance to the emperor and requested that an election of a new king be initiated.1005 In the meantime, the pope fled to Genoa and then to Lyon. Suspicion and duplicity colored the papal-imperial relationship, while ever new denunciations, shifting demands and refusals complicated the situation. By then it had become established practice, that the advantageous terms, which the church insisted to be satisfied before the ban was lifted, exceeded the grounds for the initial excommunication. Each time, the church emerged as the clear winner of the dispute. The pope convened a council for June 1245 and commanded an imperial presence to answer charges and hear his verdict. Clearly, Frederick's removal figured prominently on the agenda.

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At the same time the vitriolic cardinal Rainer of Viterbo, with whom Frederick had been embroiled, sent to the council a long litany of old and new accusations and denunciations. These included the charge that the emperor wanted to alienate the Christian community from its faith, as he entertained treasonable relations with Saracen nobles and sinful contact with their women, that he had murdered his three wives and his son, and that his Saracens violated Christian women and maidens in front of the altars. With incendiary imagery, he denounced him as Lucifer, the Apocalyptic dragon, the blasphemous beast, accompanied by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a forerunner of the Antichrist, whose appearance on earth had been prophesied by Joachim of Fiore for the year 1260. On the other hand Frederick was represented as the scourge of a wicked and ungodly church.1006 This view coincided with the idea that the end of the Age of the Spirit had come. For some it was the pope who was the Antichrist, while Frederick's political program aimed to dismantle the church and redistribute its wealth among the poor. To protect itself the church had only one choice, the overthrow of the archenemy and the merciless destruction of his progeny.1007 Once again the emperor's representative promised to make amends and offered all restitution, to recover the Greek church for Rome, to fight the Mongols and all other enemies of the church and especially to restore the glory of Jerusalem at imperial expense. The pope reacted with suspicion and rejection. The question arose by what right a pope could depose an emperor, when his election was the exclusive right of princes. Consequently the deposition was deemed invalid. Frederick's military operations continued. Innocent IV based his right on his apostolic authority and on July 17, 1245, at the papal Council of Lyon, he unilaterally and one-sidedly, with the council merely in ceremonial attendance, deposed the king/emperor for perjury, breach of the peace, sacrilege and heresy. That charge made it possible to launch a crusade against a king who had lost the sympathy of his age. Mitigating grounds, such as the church's share in the crisis, were not taken into consideration.1008 All oaths of fealty were dissolved and the election of a new emperor was authorized. In the emancipatory struggle to free the evolving secular understanding of the state from the domineering attempts of papal control, the primacy pendulum seemed to have swung to the papal side. However, by referring to his divinely ordained status, which placed him above the law and any punishment, Frederick was deeply affected by the charge of heresy and considered the pope's procedure an affront and himself not deposable by any authority on earth. Empire and Papacy were

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for him co-equal authorities ordained by God and only God could sit in judgment over the emperor. He rejected the pope's verdict for having been reached by faulty procedures – no prosecutor and only few, unsuitable witnesses, the absence of the accused - and a disregard for the accepted rules of evidence. He recognized the primacy of the pope in spiritual matters, but denied him the arbitrary authority to name, or penalize and depose princes.1009 He rejected categorically the pope's claim to the final authority and his undifferentiated demands for obedience in all worldly things. Fredrick's German magnates of church and state stayed by his side and the king of France, Louis IX, Saint Louis, ignored the verdict, upset that the pope pursued the crusade against Frederick with more enthusiasm than he supported his own crusade into Egypt.1010 Nor were Frederick's relations with the English crown seriously affected. At first, Frederick was a bit stunned by the verdict and not able to react. However, he then felt freed of all obligations toward the pope and with the help of the expert jurists in his entourage pointed to the pope's presumption and his judicial errors and denounced the church for violations of its bounds in the Gelasian doctrine of the Two Authorities. Having forsaken its pursuit of poverty, it now neglected its imitation of the humble life of Christ, aimed for growing worldliness, greed and hunger for earthly power, accompanied by its neglect of its spiritual obligations. Fredrick tried to assert his secular independence from ecclesiastical control and hoped to gain the support of the other monarchs, by raising the threat posed to them by the church, intent on winning the unjustified power struggle between the ecclesiastical and secular authorities. The maintenance of this emperor's position was the guarantee of their positions. In effect, Frederick's response to the papal verdict was intended to reduce the esteem of the church, coupled with a recommendation for the reform of the whole church. From the Council of Lyons onward, a crusade preached against the emperor was one method to destroy him. It was to be the first time that it was preached as a political, papal instrument against its imperial enemy.1011 The church sent preaching Dominicans and Franciscans as agitator-preachers into the imperial lands, who, with papal authorization, started to sell indulgences and offered time release of forty to fifty days from purgatory for just listening to the hate sermons. Whoever took the cross to fight the emperor could count on the complete remission of all sins. The inability to complete the pledge could be gladly redeemed through a cash payment to the church. Those inclined to the eschatological teachings of Joachim of Fiore would find appeal in their sermons. In return imperial supporters among the mendicant orders reminded their brothers

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of their original purpose to seek poverty and the spiritual life and not to be enmeshed in the affairs of the world, denounced Pope Innocent as a heretic and even as the Antichrist.1012 Frederick turned to the persecution of those preaching against him. The dispute was turning into a conflict about the correct faith, though it did not evolve into an intellectual, theological dispute. In England resentment was growing to the financial demands of the Papacy, while in France opposition grew among the nobility, concerned about its rights in the face of ecclesiastical claims, to the church's interference in purely secular disputes among nobles, lords and vassals. Here too the concerns found expression that the church had strayed from its initial spiritual purpose and exceeded the defining bounds of church law.1013 While in England Henry III placed restrictions on the judicial activities of the church, in France, the pope was able to cater to the interests of king Louis IX and gain the authority for the Dominicans to circulate in France the verdict of Lyon announcing the deposition of the emperor. Louis IX, however, forbade preaching a crusade in France against the emperor. At this time, the cardinal of Viterbo returned to the fray with a circular affirming the justness of the papal position, according to which the sacerdotium defined the imperium. The princes' stubborn refusal to comply with the admonitions of the church, merited their expulsion from the Christian community, outside of which, however, there could be neither regnum, nor Imperium, because outside of the church, God had not provided for such a reign. That path led to Hell. Frederick found that within this interpretation, his continued insistence on the Two Authorities merely confirmed his faulty understanding of the world. Although Frederick tried to distinguish between the pope as individual and the church as universal, in view of the pope's rejection of the Dual Authority, in favor of papal primacy in all spiritual and worldly things, it was not difficult to conclude that Frederick's intention was the subjection of the church rather than its protection.1014 A papal encyclical called upon all the princes to take arms against Frederick, the tyrant. In Germany, the pope generated much ill-will as he eroded the imperial basis, by inducing the imperial episcopate as the archbishops of Mainz, Cologne and Trier to change sides, or to resign or to be replaced by those in the priesthood friendly to the pope. The cathedral chapters came under papal control, as he himself determined the installation of bishops and determined all church activities through his legates. Secular supporters changed sides, as the pope bestowed such favors as church fiefs and other advantages and privileges on them. A system of rewards and punishments made people pliable to his demands, and residual Staufen influence in Germany began

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to disintegrate. Frederick had to admit that he was ill equipped to challenge the pope's claim to omnipotence. Contrary to earlier emperors, he could not consider the deposition of a pope, only the defense of the emperor's independence from the pope's control.1015 Frederick turned to despotic means to cope with such instances of hostility to him, as numerous petty wars in northern Italy, treason, conspiracies and even attempts on his life. In 1245/46, a plot was uncovered to murder him and several members of the imperial family.1016 The affront to his anointed majesty demanded severe measures. Some conspirators were able to flee; others were punished with imaginative cruelty in the fashion of the day: mutilation and blinding before hanging, burning alive or dragging to death by horses. Some were tied into leather bags containing poisonous snakes and thrown into the sea.1017 That a plot to assassinate him should have matured among those who had been his lifelong associates and confidants disturbed him deeply. His “miraculous” survivals, again in 1248 and 1249, were spun into a sign of God's benevolent protection. In February 1249, his trusted personal physician tried to poison him. The doctor was hanged.1018 In his later years, he had been forced into a position in which he could only react to the initiatives of others, rather than to act on his own. His distrust of others induced him to rely on his sons and sons-in-law and to award them high administrative responsibilities and military positions. A quieting status quo settled over Italy. Frederick had estranged his magnates and alienated the support of the peers of the transalpine realm, when he decided to base the Empire on Italy. Fractious decisions gradually turned his German magnates against him, so that the reading of the ban was not suppressed and instead led to opportunistic seizures of holdings. A climate had been created which made it possible for the ecclesiastical kingmakers to bypass the secular magnates entitled to vote, to engineer the election in 1246 of anti-kings. In 1248 the pro-papal princes first elected Heinrich Raspe, landgrave of Thuringia, who, though for a long time the emperor's close and trusted supporter, obtained a marital dispensation and who along with his supporters could not refuse the papal bribes and an offer of 25 000 papal silver marks. Frederick intercepted the money transport. Following Raspe's death after a reign of only nine months, William of Holland was also elected in 1248 by a few papally acceptable episcopal representatives, but no secular magnates. The opportunism of Siegfried III and Conrad, the archbishops of Mainz and Cologne respectively, was instrumental in these events. To weaken the Staufen side further and to gain support for the new king, Innocent IV ordered that a crusade be preached against Frederick, with all the dispensations and rewards usually associated with a crusade to the

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Holy Land. The pope extended his appeal to Italy, Poland and Denmark, and even set aside any German participation in the crusade, which Louis IX of France was preparing, in order not to compromise the resources needed to fight against Frederick. On this occasion, a large contingent of Frisian crusaders, intent on joining Saint Louis' crusade, were diverted by the pope to support his candidate William of Holland in his quest for the German crown. Innocent IV was preparing the conclusion of the dispute by means of a military decision.1019 In this turmoil, Otto II of Bavaria married his daughter Elisabeth to king Conrad IV, and made common cause with that of the Staufen. On his way to Lyon in 1247, to present his case personally to the pope, where with the help of the French king, he hoped to make peace with the pope, Frederick encountered the unexpected hostility of the city of Parma.1020 While several victories against papal forces allowed him to relax his vigilance during the siege, it invited a catastrophic defeat before Parma, which included the loss of personal jewelry, his treasury, his war chest and accented his vulnerability and made him fear the loss of all but Sicily, to which he retired. The defeat marked his loss of prestige and the loss of many supportive cities. His situation improved again through the financial difficulties of the Papacy, the intervention of the king of France from Cyprus, and some military successes by Conrad against William of Holland. In this conflict, the church magnates by necessity sided with William, while the secular magnates largely abstained. However, the imperial ministerials, the burghers of the Staufen cities and the episcopal cities along the Rhine remained loyal to Conrad. They may have been persuaded that their fight on behalf of the Staufen king also entailed a fight for their freedom. Particularly the financial and military efforts of the city of Worms allowed him to protect Staufen interests along the Middle Rhine.1021 The military methods of the day specialized in the devastation of an enemy's territories, with the aim to weaken him economically. Unfortunately, it always was the population on the land, which bore the brunt of these methods, which led to an increase in violence, injustice, political and religious uncertainty and a general breakdown of security. It was an uneven struggle, in which the secular authority fought with the abstractions of the material world, personified by an excommunicated emperor, against which the church could muster the persuasive power of the faith. The church fought psychological and spiritual campaigns with the threat of excommunication, but also with the absolution from sin and the promise of the salvation of the soul and a life everlasting. Frederick appreciated the imbalance in the struggle and prepared to redress the unfavorable situation personally. At the beginning of 1250, the

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news arrived that king Louis' crusade had been a fiasco and from several quarters pressure began to build against the pope and his tenacious but misguided leadership of Christendom. Louis' criticism arrived from Cyprus concerning the poor state of affairs in the Holy Land, for Innocent's refusal to grant Frederick absolution, he being the only one who could redress the Syrian situation. Louis IX may have been about to cancel his hospitality extended to the pope in Lyon.1022 Frederick had been detained by disruptive occurrences in northern Italy, which had lasted nearly two years, but during which time his position had been strengthened militarily. About to set out on the long journey to Lyon, once again to clarify his situation before the unrelenting pope, Frederick died on December 13, 1250, at the age of 56. It was recorded that he was dressed in Cistercian garb.1023 He had belonged to this order for a number of years. He found his last resting place in a porphyry sarcophagus, first prepared by his grandfather Roger, and like his father was placed in the cathedral of Palermo in Sicily. Though he confessed his sins on his deathbed and a bishop absolved him, the pope did not withdraw the excommunication. Shortly after his death, the count of Württemberg visited the pope with the urgent request that never again should an offspring of the Staufen nest of vipers come to rule, not as king or emperor, or even as duke of Swabia. Pope Alexander IV forbade the election of another Hohenstaufen on pain of excommunication.1024

The last of the Hohenstaufen and their mytho-poetic legacy Owing to his election as Roman king, Conrad IV was also the designated emperor. His father had specified the succession, should Conrad die without heir. Conrad was the only legitimate heir, although Frederick declared a number of his other children to be legitimate. One of these, Manfred was designated administrator of Italy and Sicily, whenever Conrad stayed north of the Alps. Conrad did not trust this brother and because the resistance against William of Holland could not be maintained, Conrad set out for Italy in 1251 motivated by the realization that the remaining strength of the dynasty lay south of the Alps, even if its hold on Germany would soon be swept away.1025 He died there of Malaria, at the age of 26, in 1254. It spelled the end of the rule of direct members of the Staufen dynasty as its neighbors greedily plundered, seized and reduced its holdings. In this fashion the duchy of Swabia disappeared as a territorial unit, surviving for centuries to come as territorial fragments. He had never seen his eight-year old son, who was being raised by his wife's

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Wittelsbach family. He was to be known as Conradin, from the Italian for “little Conrad”, Conradino. Such Staufen relations as Richard of Cornwall, the brother of the empress Isabella, and Alfonso X of Castile, the nephew of Philip of Swabia, were encouraged by the pope to lay claim to the Staufen heritage. In 1257 they were elected German kings, thanks in part to the increasing particularist interests of the territorial princes, which allowed some “gentlemen adventurers” like William of Holland (1248).1026 Some unlikely candidatures were sponsored by ecclesiastical electors alone. Dismemberment of the Empire was on any pope's agenda. Already in 1198, Walther von der Vogelweide had condemned the Papacy for the weakening of the kingship. Manfred now represented his own interests and had himself crowned king of Sicily. His effective use of force in Italy caused the Papacy to call for French assistance. In 1265, Pope Clement IV enfeoffed Charles of Anjou, the brother of the French king, with Sicily. The victory in a pitched battle in 1268 ended the Staufen line in southern Italy. Manfred's widow and three children were declared dead, and imprisoned for the rest of their lives. In 1266, Conradin had come of age. Having scored some success in consolidating his position in Germany, loyal Italian Ghibellines invited him to Italy, and with greater enthusiasm than military strength, he wanted to claim by force his parental imperial heritage in Rome. With a motley army, he moved against Charles of Anjou in Italy, but despite an apparent victory, was decisively defeated in 1268. Conradin was taken prisoner. Two months later, he was beheaded in the market square of Naples. The dynasty had ended violently. The death of the duke led to the disintegration of southwestern Germany into that multitude of petty states characterized by their particularist territorial interests.1027 Hereafter the Hohenstaufens melded into one idealized idea, which figured mainly in future myths and legendary fabrications as 'savior heroes' in times of need. A new prediction arose following his death: the Age of the Spirit would dawn in or around the date 1260, when the emperor would return, a resurrected Frederick to complete his unfinished tasks.1028 In the mythopoetic process Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick II blended into one figure. Frederick II had come to place greater emphasis on his Norman descent, on the Empire's association with Sicily than on his link with his and the Empire's Germanic origins in the north. Especially his alienation from this world, signaled by his absolutist methods of administration, was coupled with the Davidic and Messianic notions of the transcendental nature of his person and his realm, placed in an immediately anticipated

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fullness of time. Popes Innocent IV and Alexander IV interfered blatantly in the secular arena, using such punitive means at their disposal as excommunication and crusade for their own interests. They had already forbidden the election of a Staufen to the kingship. By the time of Conradin's death, the estrangement from Germany was complete, and the event barely registered in the north. The century of relations with Italy, Burgundy and Byzantium brought a very clear cultural enrichment to transalpine Central Europe, carried by trade-borne influences and foreign craftsmen. This enrichment unfolded in the various forms of the medieval, secular, courtly culture, advanced by the ideals of knightly society. This enrichment was also carried by advances in agriculture, urbanization, the developments of the money economy, and the trade and acquisition of luxuries, which money made possible. The advances made in the sciences and the arts, and in multiethnic relations, were to make Frederick II appear to be the “wonder of the world”, stupor mundi, as though he had provided the catalyst.1029 It is ironic, that the collapse of the medieval Empire should come so soon after the death of the most brilliant and intellectual figure on the imperial throne. Deeply persuaded of the accepted ideas of divinely ordained medieval majesty inherited from his predecessors, he was conservative in the interpretation of his role as primary ruler of the real world in an equal partnership with the pope as ruler of the spiritual world. He sought compromise in his dealings with the Papacy rather than radical confrontation, yet showed endurance in his dynastic aims, but tenacious resistance to the persistent papal insistence on unconditioned obedience to papal bidding in all things, to its interference and the challenges to his position and the repeated efforts to discredit and revile him and displace him from this role on earth. In this, he had the support of the German contemporary poets, who pointed to the secular independence from ecclesiastical control and criticized the papal violations of the accepted understanding of the Two Authorities. In the kingdom of Sicily, which he could rule without papal interference, he did not present himself as a visionary, but was able to continue the established legal logic of his Norman predecessors inherent in experimental forms of government intent on providing law and justice to his subjects, illustrated by his foundation of the university of Naples, as a means of assuring social peace.1030 In Germany, one hoped in vain for political and judicial reforms in the Sicilian manner. Credited with being tolerant, he was a good son of the church, a sworn protector against its enemies, who did not hesitate to persecute heretics and condemn them to a fiery death. In imperial Italy, he faced challenges to his temporal authority, which he

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could not counter with his legal logic, was repeatedly embroiled in petty wars, which were most often instigated by supporters of the papal opposition. In dealing with these, he revealed himself a man of his age. Paradoxically, he was also hailed to have been the first Renaissance man on the imperial throne, and it is this paradox, which makes him the historical enigma. It was a happy circumstance that the cultural currents of the Mediterranean basin intersected in Sicily. Greek, Arabian, Norman and Latin intellectual currents flowed between the Greek Levant, Arabic Spain and Latin Italy and southern France. These influenced one another, blended and created a complex and exceptional though not unique culture. Frederick II was born into an itinerant court which did not provide a focal center. It remained indebted to the court of Arabized Castile.1031 He was educated in a stimulating multilingual and multicultural world in which Jewish, Islamic and Christian scholars, subject to canon law, helped to shape the development of questioning rational, analytically intellectual attitudes. This environment may have encouraged a methodical skepticism, his talents and broad interests in new ideas, artistic, architectural and scientific developments. Arabic science offered new attractions and realizations. He participated in their realization, in the company of their most important representatives, whom he questioned critically about their knowledge of God and the world. He demonstrated openly, that the human intellect could proceed entirely independently of a higher intelligence, outside of himself. He was an empirical experimentalist interested in facts, who submitted legendary assumptions to early forms of scientific investigation. The speculative intellect had nudged open the door to science, by a crack. His interest in the natural sciences was renowned. It is of great significance that he saw an inherent functional causality in nature, specified by the respective needs of beings, beyond which God need not be troubled. His experimental procedures were subsequently cited by his opponents to illustrate his base and godless nature. He is most famous for his lengthy and closely observed scholarly book, describing his favorite pastime, the “Art of Hunting with Birds”, particularly falcons.1032 While only little of this interest in intellectual activities reached Germany directly, Albertus Magnus was to become its chief representative there. In the kingdom of Sicily, his scientific inclinations favored the pursuit of knowledge outside of scriptures. He participated actively in early forms of the sciences, such as the astronomy of Michael Scotus, and the study of flora and fauna for their beneficial properties, and especially of pharmacy, medicine and surgery, and the training in them, as suggested by Arabic experiential investigation, forbidden elsewhere. Scrutinized

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study and examinations were intended to protect patients from malpractice. Even in this pursuit, he faced the condemnation of the church, since medicine promoted healing without the sole reliance on prayer and God's help. A man of cosmopolitan appreciation and rational analysis, he had enlightened, not to say tolerant, attitudes towards those of other faiths and was open to the influences of Jewish and Arabic scholars such as ibnSina, ibn-Rushd and ibn-Maimun, known in Europe as Avicenna, Averroës and Maimonides and their Aristotle translations and commentaries.1033 This openness unfortunately brought down on him the hostility of adamant Christianity, from which he earned the charge of being akin to the seven-headed beast of the Apocalypse, if not the Antichrist himself. Difficult to understand, however, was the indifference and contrariness, with which he treated his son, Henry (VII), and for whose catastrophic fate he was directly responsible. Himself a highly gifted, contradictory, sometime erratic and puzzling, but dynamic individual, he was confronted by an opposition tied closely to a restrictive, degenerative view of man's loss of Eden and persistent fall into sin and loss of salvation, for which only unquestioning obedience to the will of the church provided a remedy. By virtue of its control of man's souls, by means of its instrument of excommunication, the church had the better leverage. It offered at best a static interpretation of the world order, which held that every thing was “as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” Paradoxically, the Dark Middle Ages as well as the Renaissance began at this time. In many respects, Frederick's brilliant idea of a realm based on justice and peace, was a failure and once he had been demonized, the ultimate defeat of the emperors in the prolonged struggle with the Papacy was preprogrammed. One could ask, whether the great cultural gains were compensation for the great loss of life over four centuries, which sapped the energies of the elites. Did the vain pursuit of peace and justice, part of the universal imperial ideal, mortgage the future of reality and handicap the development of those state institutions that evolved in the other western kingdoms as emerging nation states? Since the twelfth century, individual cultural and political forces affected the other western monarchs to change their understanding of the imperial position. During the reign of Frederick II, the lands north of the Alps, came to be a peripheral territorial patchwork, in which the centrifugal political tendencies allowed the territorial lords, striving for greater self-control and increasing territorial particularism to distance themselves from the imperial cause in its distracting and exhausting struggle with the Papacy. It was to allow them to dominate socio-political developments for centuries to come. While

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other kingdoms were on the way to becoming consolidated nation states, the Empire was to become a patchwork of particularist interests gathered in territorial states. It was ironic that the emperor, who had been hailed as the ruler at the end of time, should have become the last real emperor of his line and time. In 1237, the 'college' of prince electors had been formed, which enabled the magnates to reject the inheritable monarchy and to elect the German kings of their choice. Ironically, in 1273, it elected Rudolph von Habsburg, who was not even a prince of the Empire.1034 In 1300 Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the jubilee of the first Holy Year. Wearing the tiara as a sign of worldly rule he is reported to have assumed the imperial insignia and to have exclaimed that he was Caesar, that he was the emperor. 1035

CONCLUSION

This book aims to offer a representative and informative background of the historical setting. The Historical Setting treats the historical events from c.900 to c.1300 in the pertinent regions of Central Europe: Alsace, Switzerland, Germany and Austria as a dynastic continuum during which the Carolingian East Frankish Kingdom began to operate as an independent elected kingship, dependent on the support of its territorial magnates and its bishops. The kingdom was to retain this basic characteristic, deriving its initial strength and ultimate weakness from it. The kingdom first experimented with the election of its own Franconian king, fended off external threats and established an identity of its own under the Saxon Ottonians (919-1024). These Ottonians restored the credibility of the Papacy, acquired imperial status and the recognition of the Byzantine Empire through marriage. Its cohesion rested on an inherited millennial vision of a Christian realm, the Carolingian Imperium Christianum, in which a 'Golden Rome' awaited the heavenly fulfillment on earth, rather than on the exercise of real power in this world. This was particularly the case with its last two Ottonian king/emperors, Otto III and Henry II. Their Empire was thus an abstract, even mystical ideal, which took for granted that it could control the church in its realm and rely on it as its key support. The justification of this realm lay in its protection of the church and the Papacy as part of the late Classical Augustinian and Gelasian doctrine of the 'Two Authorities' inherited from the Carolingians. In return, the king could attain the imperial dignity by means of which the parts of the realm found their cohesion. At all times the influences from Italy, Burgundy and the Byzantine Empire were a boon to the German north. In this context, it is not entirely accurate to use the term Ottonian Renaissance when describing the cultural developments made north of the Alps. The successor dynasty of the related Franconian Salians (1024-1125) attempted to consolidate the kingdom, but encountered the opposition of its magnates and the determined contrary interests of the strengthening Papacy. This is all the more ironic, if it is considered that the first two kings of this dynasty supported the church reforms, which elevated the popes to a position from which they could clearly contest and rival the historical, imperial claims to primacy. The most celebrated case was to be

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the excommunication of Henry IV by pope Gregory VII, who demanded the total submission and obedience of all. That this was a violation of the Gelasian doctrine of the 'Two Authorities' was now recalled on the royal side. From the royal point of view, considering the traditional opportunistic attitude of the nobility in pursuit of its own particular interests, the Ottonian model, which had placed its reliance on the control of the imperial church, could not be allowed to slip into the papal domain. During the dispute, the question of the legality of the royal investiture of bishops and abbots was discovered by the papal side almost incidentally as it tried to enforce celibacy, prohibit simony and, as a consequence, investiture. The latter two became the instruments with which the Papacy was able to challenge the secular power and ultimately reduce it to ineffective subservience. By this time, royal power was based on feudal landownership and the oath of fealty obtained from secular and religious leaders alike. In return ecclesiastic offices could be bought from the crown – simony, for which the appointee owed royal homage and service. By means of excommunication, the Papacy nullified this oath of fealty and service and rendered the king impotent and even deposed him. By granting exemptions and other papal privileges, the Papacy released church institutions from secular control and placed them under its protection. In order to maintain their bases of support the kings had to surrender land to their magnates, making the royal power very unstable and vulnerable. The creation of the ministerial knights was a means to redress this growing weakness. Once the balance tipped and enough property had been given away, the dynasty was weakened to such a degree, that a new family could affect the election of the next king. By contrast, in addition to royal grants, the church also gained land through private bequests, creating a very stable situation for itself. With the church becoming a most significant landowner in the Empire, its territories free from the control of the secular authority, the royal position was weakened even more significantly. The power of these princes of the church, bishops and abbots, is intimated by the size of their cathedrals and abbey churches. A king could not face their opposition, especially when strong popes arose to dispute the primacy of the king/emperors in the matter of territorial control. Three hundred years earlier St. Boniface had placed the Frankish church under the controlling reserve of Rome. While the Papacy was weak, this had posed only little difficulty for the German king/emperors. Now any strong pope could incapacitate the secular state through the power of excommunication, which cancelled all relationships. Though a compromise became possible, the conflict between kings and popes remained a contentious element in imperial politics. The stability of

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the realm was affected seriously as king, nobility, pope and any other interested party could disturb the compromise. The cultural currents did not favor the royal position, as the emotional and spiritual enthusiasm found overt expression in the Crusades, and clearly sided with the leadership of the church against the weakening claims of the Empire. The fall of Jerusalem to the Turks and their threat to Constantinople was understood by the popes to present a strategic advantage in the Papacy's disputes with the secular Empire. Henry IV was excommunicate and in too weakened a position in any case to even think of assuming the leadership over the surprisingly fervent movement among the laity. Incidentally, the same held true for the king of France. The pope could attract and channel the fighting spirit of the nobility by offering the remissions of sins and salvation in return for military engagement, the emperor could not. While the pope could project his authority onto an international stage, the emperor's problems were of a primary nature, which cost him the reliable support of his lords. The pope had gained the de facto leadership over Christendom. In his entrenched position, the emperor had failed to appreciate the religious enthusiasm of his day. The Salian king Conrad II had chosen to introduce a dependent and dependable ministerial order, loyal only to the crown, as a means of recovering and stabilizing royal power. Astonishing are the building programs for which the mighty ecclesiastical and secular magnates still found the inclination and the resources. Reinterpretations of the Gelasian 'Two Authorities', which embroiled the two in reciprocal conflict before they raised the spiritual authority over the secular one, led to the loss of the religious component of imperial rule. It left the succeeding dynasty with the implementation of the politics of power. Its reign coincided with the period during which the Papacy attained its peak. The Swabian Hohenstaufen dynasty (1152-1250/1268) could not address or resolve the political problems in the traditional fashion. Despite family ties with the Salians, Frederick of Hohenstaufen was not elected immediately. Conditions in Italy had undergone modernizing changes to such an extent, that Frederick I, Barbarossa, appeared to have fallen out of time. It was his policy towards the Regnum Italie, which led to the open, ungrateful resistance of duke Henry, the Lion, of Saxony and Bavaria, when he refused to join Frederick during the siege of Milan. Henry's eastern policy had actually benefited from Frederick's Italian ambitions. The advent of the Crusades helped to accentuate the tensions between the Empire and the Papacy, when the preparedness to participate in them became a question of absolute obedience to the pope. The Hohenstaufen

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policy in Italy made them absentee kings in Germany, beginning with the marriage of Henry VI with Constanza of Norman Sicily. Their son, Frederick II, called stupor mundi, wonder of the world, was later deemed to be the first Renaissance man on the imperial throne. Despite Henry's brief nominal rule over the Christian kingdoms, Italian politics determined Henry's short life. Frederick's reign was dominated by a lengthy dispute with the Papacy, among other things over a contentious diplomatic recovery of Jerusalem. His proximity to Islamic culture brought Moslem influences to his court, which affected his intellectual position on many things. It contributed to his demonization. Father and son were buried in Palermo, Sicily, having been German kings in name only. The northern kingdom had become peripheral in which the actual rule had passed into the hands of its territorial magnates, who pursued their particular, regional interests. These crystallized in the formation of an 'electoral college' of princes, who reserved for themselves the right to reject or elect royal candidates of their choice. Decentralized, these interests contributed greatly to the regional cultural flourish, as the territorial lords of church and state sponsored the arts and architecture. Despite the misfortunes, which affected the historical process, the cultural investments of the church have been much better preserved than the secular effort. Although great losses were sustained over the centuries, the preserved cultural wealth is still immense.

NOTES 1

R. Holzmann, Geschichte der sächsischen Kaiser, 900-1024 (Munich 1971), pp.19-24. See also H. Beumann, Die Ottonen, 2nd. Ed. (Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne 1991), pp.12ff. Also G. Althoff, Die Ottonen. Königsherrschaft ohne Staat (Stuttgart, Berlin, Köln 2000). 2 E. Hlawitschka, Vom Frankenreich zur Formierung der Europäischen Staatenund Völkergemeinschaft 840-1046 (Darmstadt 1986), p.8. See also H. Fuhrmann, Germany in the High Middle Ages, c.1050-1200 (Cambridge 1986), pp.9ff. 3 H. Schutz, The Germanic Realms in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400-750 (New York, Bern, Frankfurt a. M. 2000). Also Tools, Weapons and Ornaments. Germanic Material Culture in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400-750 (Leiden, Boston, Cologne 2001), and The Carolingians in Central Europe, their History, Arts and Architecture. A Cultural History of Central Europe, 750-900 (Leiden, Boston 2004). 4 M. McCormick, Eternal Victory, Triumphal rulership in late antiquity, Byzantium and the early Medieval West. Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Cambridge U.P. (Paris 1987). K. Bosl, Leitbilder und Wertvorstellungen des Adels von der Merowingerzeit bis zur Höhe der feudalen Gesellschaft, (Munich 1974), p.16f. See Fichtenau, pp.157ff., esp. pp.161ff. 5 See H. Mitteis, Die Deutsche Königswahl (Darmstadt 1977), p.76. 6 A. Bauer, R. Rau, Quellen zur Geschichte der sächsischen Kaiserzeit. Widukinds Sachsengeschichte, bilingual edition Latin and German (Darmstadt 1971), p.56f. Widukind 'reports' Conrad's words to his brother in which the lack of royal fortune figures prominently. See also K. J. Leyser, Rule and Conflict in an Early Medieval Society. Ottonian Saxony (Bloomington, London 1979), p.80f. 7 H. K. Schulze, Hegemoniales Kaisertum. Ottonen und Salier (Berlin 1998), p.130. 8 Althoff, Ottonen, p.232. 9 Fichtenau, p.162. See also B. Arnold, Medieval Germany, 500-1300. A Political Interpretation (Toronto and Buffalo 1997), pp.170f., 174f. 10 Schutz, Carolingians, pp.323ff. passim. 11 See Holzmann, pp.24-36, for a brief summary of the inherited economic, administrative and constitutional bases inherited from the Carolingians. See E. Ennen, Die europäische Stadt im Mittelalter (Göttingen 1987), pp.78ff. See C. Meckseper, Kleine Kunstgeschichte der deutschen Stadt im Mittelalter (Darmstadt 1982), pp.47, 50f. Also Hlawitschka, pp.7-27, concerning judicial and social questions. Also Leyser, Rule and Conflict, p.104f. 12 See E. Pitz, Europäisches Städtewesen und Bürgertum (Darmstadt 1991), pp.151ff. German does not know the distinction between cities and towns, having only one word, Stadt, for both concepts. The OED defines cities as having been created by charter, possibly containing a cathedral. A town is an enclosed settlement, in which the word town reflects the German-English consonant shift of

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't' = 'ts'. Thus Germ. 'zaun' meaning hedge, fence, enclosure, derives from OHG zûn. 'Town' derives from the related OE, OS tûn, meaning enclosed settlement. 13 See H. Steuer, 'Das Leben in Sachsen zur Zeit der Ottonen', in M. Puhle, (ed.), Otto der Grosse. Magdeburg und Europa, I, (Mainz, 2001), pp.89ff. See also Holzmann, pp.36-44, who traces the regional consolidation into the tribal duchies. See Hlawitschka, pp.37-43, for a treatment of details concerning the early aristocracy. 14 H. E. J. Cowdrey, Pope Gregory VII, 1073-1085 (Oxford 1998), p.76. See Cowdrey for extensive discussions of all major points concerning Gregory VII. His assessments tend to be pro-Gregorian. 15 G. Althoff, 'Saxony and the Elbe Slavs in the tenth century', in T. Reuter, The New Cambridge Medieval History, III, (Cambridge 1999), pp.267-292. 16 Schutz, The Prehistory of Germanic Europe (New Haven, London 1983), p.271. 17 W. Ullmann, Gelasius I (492-496) (Stuttgart 1981), p.ix, 192-198. 18 See G. Tellenbach, Church, State and Christian Society at the Time of the Investiture Contest, translated by R. F. Bennett (Oxford 1966), pp.33ff. Fuhrmann, p.110. See Leyser, Rule and Conflict, pp.75, 78f. See Ullmann, pp.199ff. Also Schutz, Carolingians, p.68f. See also Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.93f. 19 J.Fleckenstein, M. L. Bulst, Begründung und Aufstieg des deutschen Reiches (Munich 1973); K. G. Beuckers, J. Cramer, M. Imhof, (eds.), Die Ottonen. Kunst – Architektur – Geschichte (Darmstadt 2002). See also T. Reuter, Germany in the Early Middle Ages, 800-1056 (Harlow, Essex 1998), pp.131ff. 20 Beumann, p.27. 21 Holzmann, p.37ff. See Hlavitschka, p.94. 22 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.20. 23 Hlawitschka, p.95f. See B. Schneidmüller, 'Ottonen – Heinriche – Liudolfinger. Ein Herrschergeschlecht aus Sachsen', in A. Wieczorek, H.-M. Hinz, Europas Mitte um 1000, II (Stuttgart, Darmstadt 2000), pp.676ff. 24 See Hlawitschka, p.45ff. 25 Schutz, Germanic Realms, p.100f. 26 W. Goez, Lebensbilder aus dem Mittelalter, Die Zeit der Ottonen, Salier und Staufer (Darmstadt 1998), p.14, suggests that Lotharingia may have seized an occasion to pursue its own opportunities. 27 Holzmann, pp.59-68. See also Hlawitschka, pp.96-103, for a brief summary of Conrad's rule. 28 Schulze, p.120. 29 See Holzmann, pp.44-58, for details concerning the organization of the German diocese and their privileges and responsibilities. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.234, who points out that the bishops and abbots could have vassals, able to raise troops. 30 Holzmann, pp.61ff. 31 See Hlawitschka, p.39f. concerning the history of the Saxon and Bavarian dukedoms. See also Beumann, p.28f. Also Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.21f., 26. 32 Hlawitschka, p.99. See also Beumann, p.29f., and Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.22. 33 Holzmann, p.66. See Althoff, Ottonen, pp.29-35. 34 Beumann, p.21.

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Beumann, p.9. See Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.13-21. See H. Wolfram, 'Bavaria in the tenth and early eleventh centuries', in T. Reuter, The New Cambridge Medieval History, III, (Cambridge 1999), pp.293-309. 37 Holzmann, p.66ff. See H. K. Schulze, 'Sachsen als ottonische Königslandschaft', in Puhle, pp.32ff. 38 L. Körntgen, Ottonen und Salier (Darmstadt 2002), pp.3ff. Also H. K. Schulze, Hegemoniales Kaisertum, Ottonen und Salier (Berlin 1998). See W. Goez, Gestalten des Mittelalters (Darmstadt 1983), pp.3-24. 39 K. G. Beukers, J. Cramer, M. Imhof, (eds.) Die Ottonen. Kunst – Architektur – Geschichte. (Darmstadt 2002), p.46f. 40 Bauer, Rau, p.56f. Widukind committed an anachronism, when he prematurely listed the Holy Lance among the royal insignia . It was not Conrad's to give. During the twelfth century, the legend was made popular that Henry had been catching birds, when the delegation reached him, offering him the crown. To recall his innocent disinterest in the affair, he became known as Henry the Fowler. However, it was just a legend, for he played a significant role in the preceding negotiations. See W. Goez, Lebensbilder aus dem Mittelalter. Die Zeit der Ottonen, Salier und Staufer (Darmstadt 1998), p. 11. For a critical summary of the Ottonian period, see O. Engels, 'Überlegungen zur ottonischen Herrschaftsstruktur', in B. Schneidmüller, S. Weinfurter, (eds.) Otto III – Heinrich III. Eine Wende? (Stuttgart 2000), pp.267-325. See also Althoff, Ottonen, p.37f. who discusses the speech attributed to Conrad by different contemporary historians. 41 Goez, Gestalten, p.3f. discusses the fiction. 42 Beumann, p.22f. follows Wenskus, who proposed that they were among retromigrants from the British Isles. He summarizes the family intertwine between Carolingians and Liudolfingians. See also J. Ehlers, 'Sachsen und Angelsachsen im 10. Jahrhundert', in Puhle, pp.491f. Also Schulze, pp.134ff. 43 Althoff, Ottonen, pp.16ff.. 44 S. Freund, 'Sachsen und das Reich am Todestag Ottos des Großen', in H. Wittmann, Memleben (Petersberg 2001), p.24, n.132. See Leyser, Rule and Conflict, pp.63-73. See I. Crusius, , 'Sanctimoniales quae secanonica vocant. Das Kanonissenstift als Forschungsproblem', in I. Crusius (ed.) Studium zum Kanonissenstift, Studien zur Germania Sacra 24 (Göttingen 2001), p.20. See E. Ennen, Frauen im Mittelalter, 2nd. ed. (Munich 1985). 45 Goez, Gestalten, p.5. 46 J. Laudage, Otto der Große (912-973) (Regensburg , Darmstadt 2001), p.68, argues that Henry's father had suffered territorial losses in preceding feuds and that it was he who urged Henry to repudiate Hatheburg , in order to improve the Liudolfingian territorial position through another marriage. See Schulze, p.137f. for the opposition to this marriage. Also Leyser, Rule and Conflict, p.12. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.23. 36

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Notes

Hlawitschka, p.100f. See also Beumann, p26f., for greater detail concerning the relationships. Also Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.25f. And Laudage, p.124, concerning Thankmar's legitimate claims. See Schulze, map, in Puhle, p.34. 48 Schulze, p.139. 49 See Goez, Lebensbilder, p.16, concerning the accuracy of this term during the tenth century, in the quoted text from the Salzburg Annals. See Medieval Germany, p.4. Again Goez, Gestalten, p.11f. argues, that while other countries derived their name from a leading tribal group, the uncoordinated association of the tribal groups led to an abstract, even arrogant imperial umbrella term, which invited later resentments. 50 Laudage, p.76f. Also Bauer, Rau, p.56-59. Widukind's sentence, ln.25, suggests future probability rather than actuality. 51 Beumann, p.32. See also M. Imhoff, 'Das Zeitalter der Ottonen – Ein Historischer Überblick' in Beuckers, et al., p.27. 52 See Körntgen, p.33. See Schulze, p.142f. who raises several political issues and considerations concerning Henry's refusal. Also S. Patzold, 'Verzeihen, schenken und belohnen', in Beuckers, et al., p.46f. who suggests that Widukind was conscious of a relationship between anointing and coronation as part of a royal elevation, and that later churchmen in their assessments deemed Henry's rejection of the consecration a sin. The essay outlines the detailed coronation ritual. See Reuter, p.140. 53 Bauer, Rau, p.59. See Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.26. Holzmann p.69f. argues that the act of anointing was a ceremony particular for an imperial coronation. Henry's was only a royal coronation. 54 See Goez, Gestalten, p.13f. Also Althoff, Ottonen, pp.43f. 46, who rejects the old view that Henry wanted to distance himself from any dependence on the church. 55 See Beumann, p.33, for a lengthy reconsideration. He argues that the anointing symbolized the king's authority over the church and that in rejecting it, this control remained unexpressed. See Holzmann, p.70. Also Laudage, p.78f. 56 Holzmann, p.67. 57 Hlawitschka, pp.29, 101. 58 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.27. See also Goez, Lebensbilder, p.16. 59 See Fichtenau, pp.152ff. 60 Schulze, p.148. 61 See Goez, Lebensbilder, p.20. concerning the non-aggression pact concluded then. Also Goez, Gestalten, p.16. Schulze, p.150, details the respective entourages. Also Althoff, Ottonen, p.49. 62 Goez, Lebensbilder, p.22. Also Goetz, Gestalten, p.18. Also Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.31f. Also Holzmann, p.81. 63 Goetz, Gestalten, p.19. 64 Holzmann, p.78. Schulze, p.152. 65 Hlawitschka, p.106f. 66 See Mitteis, pp.87ff. Also Althoff, Ottonen, p.52f.

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See Beumann, p.41. It may have served in Italy as supportive relic during the Hungarian raids of the late ninth century. See Goez, Lebensbilder, p.24., who suggests that Henry had to pay for it with the cessation of Basel . Schulze, p.170, suggests that Henry obtained the Holy Lance from his son-in-law Rudolph of Burgundy by coercion. According to Holzmann, p.101, the lance was not presented to Henry until c.935. 68 Laudage, pp.29, 37.. 69 Bauer, Rau, p.63f. Also Hlawitschka, p.109. See Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.34f. Also Goez, Lebensbilder, p.24f. See also Reuter, pp.142ff. As well as Althoff, Ottonen, pp.53ff. 70 Holzmann, pp.84ff. Goez, Lebensbilder, p.24. Laudage, p.89, suggests that the defensive constructions were Widukind 's literary invention and where they existed, archeologically not identifiable as uniquely Ottonian. 71 Schulze, p.158. 72 Bauer, Rau, p.91. Also Holzmann, p.88. 73 Goez, Lebensbilder, p.25. See also Laudage, p.88f. 74 Goez, Lebensbilder, p.25. Also Goetz, Gestalten, p.21. See C. Lübke, 'Die Ausdehnung ottonischer Herrschaft über die slavische Bevölkerung', in Puhle, p.68f. for details. See Schulze, pp.223ff., for a summary of cultural and economic considerations among the Slavs. Also Althoff, Ottonen, p.55. 75 M. Puhle, 'Otto der Große, Magdeburg und Europa', in M. Puhle, (ed.), Otto der Grosse. Magdeburg und Europa, I, (Mainz, 2001),pp.1ff. See also G. Böttcher, G. Gosch, 'Magdeburg im 10. Jahrhundert', in Puhle, p.415. 76 Beumann, p.44f. 77 L. Körntgen, 'Starke Frauen: Edgith – Adelheit – Theophanu', in M. Puhle, p.120f. Also Ehlers, in Puhle, pp.489-502. 78 Ehlers, in Puhle, p.493. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.57f. 79 Bauer, Rau, p.76f. See also, Beumann, p.46f. Also Holzmann, p.93f. and Goez, Lebensbilder, p.26. See also Althoff, Ottonen, pp.60f., 63, for the different accounts left by Widukind von Corvey and Liudbrand of Cremona. 80 Goetz, Gestalten, p.23. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.63f. 81 Althoff, p.64. 82 Bauer, Rau, p.79. Beumann, p.50, suggests that Widukind invented this intention in propagandistic anticipation of Otto's later journey to Rome. Otto would then have fulfilled his father's plan. Widukind's history is marked by such Ottonian predeterminations. 83 Hlawitschka, p.50f. Holzmann, p.98f. See R. Collins, Early Medieval Europe, 300-1000 (New York 1993), pp.344ff., who attributes the story concerning the Pornocracy to the Ottonian partisan Liutprand of Cremona. 84 Holzmann, p.102. See also Hlawitschka, p.108. Also B. Schneidmüller, 'Fränkische Bindungen', in Puhle, pp.507ff. 85 See Laudage, pp.104ff., 231ff. 86 Schulze, in Puhle, pp.37ff. for a summary of Otto's reign. 87 See Schulze, in Puhle, p.37, for a list of her holdings. 88 Laudage, p.125. Also Leyser, Rule and Conflict, p.16f.

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Notes

See Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.49. See H. Kamp, 'Konflikte und Konfliktführung in den Anfängen der Regierung Ottos I.', in Puhle, pp.168ff. 91 Beumann, p.42. 92 M. Imhof, 'Das Zeitalter der Ottonen', in Beuckers, et al., p.18. See B. Ludowici, 'Die Pfalz Ottos des Großen in Magdeburg', in Puhle, pp. 391ff. 93 Ludowici, in Puhle, p.394f. The eastern apse of this edifice may have been washed away by an extreme high water of the river Elbe. The erosion of the embankment may have caused the church to collapse, to be relocated further westward. But see also Böttcher, Gosch, in Puhle, pp.406ff. 94 Steuer, in Puhle, pp.91ff. for a detailed discussion of the urban development of Magdeburg , its industrial and commercial strengths. Because many of the houses were pit-houses, or erected with the post and beam construction, archeology yielded much useful information. See G. Althoff, 'Die Gründung des Erzbistums Magdeburg', in Puhle, p.344ff. 95 Lübke, in Puhle, p.69, reiterates a possible alliance with a Slavic dynasty. 96 Bauer, Rau, pp.84ff. See Laudage, pp.96ff., 99ff. Also Schulze, pp.172ff. And Mitteis, p.56f. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.69f. Also Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.137. 97 See Schutz, Carolingians, passim. 98 Beumann, pp.32, 54f. See Holzmann, pp.109ff. Also Althoff, Ottonen, pp.71f., 75. 99 See Schulze, p.175. 100 Holzmann, p.111f. gives details of the ceremony and the spoken texts. 101 In 937, the archbishop of Mainz was made papal vicar in Germania, an imprecise designation. See Beumann, p.63. 102 Bauer, Rau, p.89. 103 See Mitteis, p.102f, concerning the cultural significance of the number 4. See also Althoff, Ottonen, p.76f. 104 Hlawitschka, p.114. See also Holzmann, p.110f. 105 Körntgen, p. 11f. See Althoff, Ottonen, pp.77ff. 106 Böttcher, Gosch, in Puhle, p.403. 107 Hlawitschka, pp.115ff. 108 Beumann, p.58f. for extensive details concerning the factional disputes. See also Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.44ff. Also Holzmann, p.113f. 109 Laudage, pp.113ff. for a biographical summary. Also Leyser, Rule and Conflict, p.17. See Kamp, in Puhle, pp.168ff. Also Schulze, pp.178ff. 110 Holzmann, p.117, reports that Thankmar stood by the altar and defended himself, when a spear through his back killed him. Killing an unarmed, kneeling figure evokes more legendary pathos. 111 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.46f. Also Holzmann, p.115f., Laudage, p.115f. and Schulze, pp.181ff. 112 Körntgen, pp.26ff. 113 Goez, Lebensbilder, p.18f. for an analysis of the feudal conditions. See Holzmann, p.118f. See especially Laudage, p.122f. 90

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D. Salewsky, 'Otto I und der sächsische Adel' in Puhle, p.55. Fuhrmann, p.32f. 116 See Arnold, Medieval Germany, pp.162ff. 117 W. Metz, Das Servitium Regis (Darmstadt 1978). Körntgen, p.29f. Also Steuer, in Puhle, pp.96ff, concerning mining of silver and the minting of coins. 118 See N. Kruppa, 'Emanzipation vom Bishof. Zum Verhältnis zwischen Bischof und Stadt am Beispiel Minden', in U. Grieme, N. Kruppa, S. Pätzold (eds.), Bischof und Bürger. Studien zur Germania Sacra 26. (Göttingen 2004), p.67. 119 See. H. Flachenecker, 'Die Rolle der bischöflichen Civitates, in U. Grieme, et al., p.11f. 120 Holzmann, pp.119-124.Also Laudage, pp.116ff. See Althoff, Ottonen, pp. 88ff. 121 Holzmann, p.126f. The margrave Gero had pursued a rather brutal policy of conquest against the Elbian Slavs, causing a Saxon revolt against him and his backer, king Otto; see Schulze in Puhle, p.39. Also Althoff, Ottonen, pp.84ff. 122 Laudage, pp.22, 27, 119f. See G. Althoff, Otto III (Darmstadt 1996), p.43, who illustrates that during the tenth century forgiveness was the greatest royal virtue. Clemency involved public prostration and hence submission. See G. Althoff, 'Otto III und Heinrich II in Konflikten', in B. Schneidmüller, S. Weinfurter, (eds.), Otto III, Heinrich II. Eine Wende? (Stuttgart 2000), p.81f. See Kamp, in Puhle, p.174. 123 Laudage, p.128. 124 Beumann, p.61f. See Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.47ff. Also Holzmann, p.137. See S. Weinfurter, The Salian Century, translate from the German Herrschaft und Reich der Salier,(Philadelphia 1999), p.9f. 125 Hlawitschka, pp.117ff. See Laudage, pp.128, 147f. 126 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.52. Also Holzmann, pp.137-147. Also Laudage, pp.158ff., 165f. See also R. Schieffer, 'Das Italienerlebnis Ottos des Großen', in Puhle, pp.446-460. 127 Goez, Lebensbilder, p.69, tell of her physical abuse intended to make her pliable. See Schulze, pp.187ff. See Althoff, Ottonen, pp.93f., 96ff. See Ennen, Frauen im Mittelalter, p.63f. 128 Beumann, p.67. 129 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.53. See Körntgen, in Puhle, p.122f. Also Goez, Lebensbilder, pp.66-82. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.96f. 130 Holzmann, p.142f. mentions the defamation of Liudolf. See Hlawitschka, p.119ff. Also Beumann, p.70. Otto did not await the marriage to act as king of Italy. See H. Keller, 'Die Kaiserkrönung Ottos des Großen', in Puhle, pp.465ff. 131 Goez, Lebensbilder, p.69, tells how in folk lore she, a priest and a maid had dug a passage under the walls and hidden in the grain fields, almost starving to death in the swamps of the Po river, but were saved by a fisherman. See Laudage, p.165f. for the sources of these adventures. 132 Schutz, Germanic Realms, p.358. for the example of queen Theodelinda's choice of Agilulf following the death of Authari. 133 Schieffer, in Puhle, p.449. 134 See Laudage, pp.166-171, for his evaluation of Otto 's marriage and his imperial intentions. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.99f. 115

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135 Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.55ff. mentions seditious talk among Liudolf and likeminded followers over Christmas in 951 and then details the progress of the revolt. See Laudage, pp.146ff.,154ff. who provides a speculative analysis of the motives for the revolt. Also Leyser, Rule and Conflict, p.21. See also Schulze, pp.189ff. 136 Holzmann, pp.148ff. suggests that the revolt was motivated by resentments over the influence which Adelheit and Henry had on Otto. The conspirators wanted to replace their influence by their own. See Laudage, p.148f. 137 Laudage, p.20f. See Althoff, Ottonen, pp.100ff. 138 See Holzmann, p.151f. concerning Brun 's administrative skills, and pp.169ff, concerning the other dukes and their duchies. See N. Hiscock (ed.), The White Mantle of Churches, (Turnhout 2003), p.11f. for a brief biographical sketch. 139 Laudage, p.21. 140 Laudage, p.151. 141 Beumann, p.75f. See also Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.57ff. Holzmann, pp.153ff. traces the disintegration of the revolt. Also pp.173ff. for details on the change of administrative policy . 142 Körntgen, 'König und Priester', in Beuckers, p.61. 143 See Fichtenau, p.235f. 144 Tellenbach, p.91. Körntgen, p.30. See T. Reuter, 'Ottonische Neuanfänge und karolingische Tradition', in Puhle, pp.184ff. for a succinct, 3 points, definition of 'Carolingian' rule: control of the church, annual campaigns and close contact with the nobility. See Fichtenau, pp.191ff. Also Flachenecker, in Grieme, et al. p.13. . 145 See Reuter, p.160f. 146 See M. Springer, '955 als Zeitenwende – Otto I. und die Lechfeldschlacht', in Puhle, pp.199ff. p.204 for the religious legend, which supports the victory. See also Fichtenau, pp.207ff., 218f., concerning fighting bishops. 147 Schulze, p.194ff., calculates a total force, about 10,000 strong. 148 See Springer, in Puhle, p202f. Also Bauer, Rau, p.156f. Holzmann, p.158f. provides details of the battle. 149 Beumann, p.79f. Holzmann, p.159, likens the significance of this victory over the Hungarians to that which Charles Martel gained over the invading forces of Islam at the battle of Tours, 732. 150 See Lübke, in Puhle, p.73. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.108. 151 Hlawitschka, p.124. 152 Bauer, Rau, p.158f. See Schulze, p.195f. concerning Widukind 's notion of Otto as Roman 'soldier emperor'. Widukind makes no mention of Otto's coronation in Rome, as though he preferred a return to the proclamation and elevation of the emperor by his army, as the quotation suggests. See H. Beumann, 'Imperator Romanorum, rex gentium. Zu Widukind III 76', in Kamp, Wollasch, Tradition als historische Kraft (Berlin, New York 1982), pp.214ff., 226f. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.107, who indicates that the royal chancellery did not adopt this title.. 153 Hlawitschka, p.123. Also Beumann, p.80. 154 Hlawitschka, p.124f. See also Schulze, pp.230ff. 155 Schutz, Carolingians, p.74, for details concerning the circumstances.

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156 Goez, Lebensbilder, p.73. Laudage, p.185-191, argues that the date coincides with the presentation of Jesus in the Temple and that there is an analogical relationship here with Otto's 'presentation in the temple', and relates the lengthy coronation procedure. See also Keller, in Puhle, pp.468ff. Also Althoff, Ottonen, p.113, for a summary of terms and conditions. See Ennen, Frauen im Mittelalter, p.63f. 157 Laudage, p.191. 158 Goez, Lebensbilder, pp.83-94. Also B. Schimmelpfennig, Das Papsttum. Von der Antike bis zur Renaissance (Darmstadt 1988), pp.122ff. See Holzmann, pp.190ff. 159 Schutz, Carolingians, p.40f. This donation was based on the forged Constitutum Constantini. See Laudage, pp.180ff. for an analysis of the circumstances leading to the coronation. See Keller, in Puhle, p.472f. for text and depiction of the document. Also Althoff, Ottonen, p.114f. See also Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.85. 160 Schulze, p.201. 161 See Keller, in Puhle, pp.474ff. who suggests that the Italian problematic circumstances transformed the imperial idea by forcing direct imperial intervention in the papal and political affairs of Italy, leading to actual papal depositions. See Also Althoff, Ottonen, p.116. 162 Goez, Lebensbilder, p.92. See also Laudage, pp.197ff. 163 See Schieffer, in Puhle, pp.452ff. for details of Otto's prolonged stay in Italy. See Schulze, p.205, for a short list of the casualties among the Ottonian magnates. 164 Hlawitschka, pp.126f. See also Beumann, p.93, concerning the agreements. Also Goez, Lebensbilder, pp.89ff., concerning the intrigues of the day and the pope's trial. 165 J. Bumke, Courtly Culture. Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages, translated from the German, Höfische Kultur: Literatur und Gesellschaft im hohen Mittelalter (Woodstock, New York, 2000), p.351f. Bumke deals extensively with almost all aspects pertaining to the High Middle Ages. References to this work are intended as suggestions for further reading. Fichtenau, pp.175ff. concerning the role of queens. 166 See Holzmann, pp.132-136. Beumann, p.66, proposes that the joint action of church and state in promoting this missionary work later motivated the imperial policy , which required the control over the Papacy, when it came to the royal foundation of bishoprics. 167 See Althoff, Ottonen, p.120f. refers to a story in which during the installation of his daughter Mathilda as abbess at Quedlinburg, the bishop of Halberstadt, despite the papal encyclical of 962, had protested Otto's plans so vehemently that he placed Quedlinburg under the interdict and Otto under the ban. Otto followed him home and barefoot did penance, promising not to return to the question in the bishop's lifetime. Only then was Otto released from the ban. 168 Laudage, pp.210f., 224ff. presents Wilhelm in a different, less reluctant light. See G. Streich, 'Bistümer, Klöster und Stifte im ottonischen Sachsen', in Puhle,

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pp.77ff. concerning the foundations of Quedlinburg , Merseburg and Magdeburg . See Althoff, in Puhle, pp.346-351. Also Althoff, Ottonen, p.109f. 169 Holzmann, p.180. Reputedly, about 960, a Danish Viking, named Dago had sailed up the Oder River forced several Slavic groups living between the Oder and Wartha rivers to the east, under his rule. The foundation of Poland would then bear a striking resemblance with the foundation of Russia. His Slavic subjects renamed Dago with a Slavic name, Mieszko. This genesis of Poland has been discredited, see Zernack, 'Otto der Große und die Slawischen Reiche', in Puhle, p.517. 170 Körntgen, p.22f. 171 Beumann, p.106. 172 See Althoff, Ottonen, p.112. 173 Laudage, p.215, details the term as a form of hanging. 174 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.73f. See also Beumann, p.102, who reports the proclamation to have been rather theatrical and rhetorical. See Laudage, pp.213224, 229, for a detailed discussion of the contested positions. 175 See Laudage, p.243ff. Also Beumann, pp.74, 107. 176 Streich, in Puhle, p.79f. See Leyser, Rule and Conflict, p.68f. See also Ennen, Frauen, pp.110ff. 177 Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.139. 178 See E. Chrysos, 'Otto der Große aus byzantinischer Sicht', in Puhle, pp.482488. See also Althoff, Ottonen, p.124f. 179 Chrysos, in Puhle, p.486. See Collins, p.349f. concerning Liutprand's embassy to Constantinople. 180 Laudage, p.279f. Schulze, p.219. 181 See Schulze, p.217f. 182 O. Engels, 'Überlegungen zur ottonischen Herrschaftsstruktur', in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, (eds.) p.274f. 183 See Körntgen, in Puhle, pp.127ff. Also M. Sotiriadis, 'Theophanu die Prinzessin aus Ost-Rom', in P. von Steinitz, (ed.), Theophanu. Regierende Kaiserin des Westreichs, fourth edition, (Cologne 2002), pp.8-32.. Also Ennen, Frauen, p.64f. 184 Chrysos, in Puhle, p.485. 185 Laudage, p.286ff. The situations also demanded dealing with rumors of Otto's death in Italy . See Salewsky, in Puhle, p.63. Also Freund, in Wittmann, p.17, who argues that Otto's absences in Italy allowed the magnates to lay the foundations for future conflicts. Schulze, p.241, details the forms of this dissatisfaction with Otto's absence. See also Althoff, Ottonen, p.132f. 186 Beumann, p.111. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.135, for a complete list. 187 Laudage, pp.293-296, summarizes the possible causes of Otto's death. It followed a hunt, where he may have eaten too much rare meat, and suffered an intestinal infection. See also Freund, in Wittmann, pp.9ff. Althoff, Ottonen, p.135, describes Otto's last day, but does not speculate about the cause of death. 188 Hrotsvith von Gandersheim, Sämtliche Dichtungen, translated by O. Baumhauer et al. (München 1966). See also J. Ehlers, 'Magdeburg -Rom-Aachen Bamberg. Grablegen des Königs und Herrschaftsverständnis in ottonischer Zeit', in

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Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, pp.50-55, for Thietmar's von Merseburg admiration of the saintly Edgith. Her cult was fading by 1250. See Ehlers, in Puhle, p.498f. 189 Laudage, p.291. See Ehlers, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, pp.53ff. 190 Fuhrmann, p.34f. Also Freund, in Wittmann, pp.22, 24. 191 Laudage, p.13f. 192 Laudage, p.17. 193 See Bauer, Rau, pp.233-589. Also Laudage, p.16. 194 Bauer, Rau, pp.185-232. 195 J. F. Hamburger, The Visual and the Visionary. Art and Female Spirituality in Late Medieval Germany (New York 1998), pp.58ff. 196 See Fichtenau, pp.251ff. Also N. Hiscock, The Wise Master Builder. Platonic Geometry in Plans of Medieval Abbeys and Cathedrals (Aldershot, Brookfield 2000), pp.28ff. for a compact summary. Also Hiscock, The White Mantle of Churches, p.10. for references to the Ottonian support (Adelheit ) of the Cluniac reforms. 197 Körntgen, p.19. R. McKitterick, 'Ottonische Kultur und Bildung', in Puhle, p.210f. Also Schutz, Carolingians , passim. See D. Luscombe, 'Thought and learning' in Luscombe, Riley-Smith, The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV, pp.464ff. See Garrison, in Hiscock, White Mantle of Churches, p.82. 198 McKitterick, in Puhle, p.220. 199 See Holzmann, p.220f. for a list of pertinent episcopal and monastic schools. 200 See Reuter, pp.242ff. concerning the reorganization of monastic life. Also Miccoli, in LeGoff, pp.66f., 73f. 201 Hlawitschka, pp.59ff. See U.-R. Blumenthal, Der Investiturstreit (Stuttgart, Berlin, Köln Mainz 1982), pp.15-19. Also Hiscock, White Mantle of Churches, p.11f. See also W. Sanderson, 'Monastic Architecture and the Gorze Reform Reconsidered', in Hiscock, White Mantle of Churches,pp.81ff., especially p.84, concerning the distinctions within these movements. 202 Holzmann, p.225. 203 W. Wulf, Romanik in der Königslandschaft Sachsen (Würzburg 1996), pp.95ff. Also C. Warnke, 'Das Kanonissenstift St. Cyriakus in Gernrode', in I. Crusius (ed.) Studium zum Kanonissenstift, Studien zur Germania Sacra 24 (Göttingen 2001), pp.204ff. 204 C. Erdmann, The Origin of the Idea of Crusade. Translated from the German by M. W. Baldwin and W. Goffart (Princeton 1977), p.73. 205 Holzmann, p.224. 206 See Fichtenau, pp.391ff. 207 See Hiscock, White Mantle of Churches, pp.xv ff., 1ff. 208 Hiscock, White Mantle of Churches, and his contributors argue that it was the monastic revival in Ottonian times, which stimulated church architecture rather than any fear of a millennium. See R. Landes, Relics, Apocalypse, and the Deceits of History. Ademar of Chabannes, 989-1034 (Cambridge, Mass. London 1995), pp.16ff. 209 Laudage, p.271. Beumann, 'Imperator', in Kamp, Wollasch, p. 218f. 210 See Holzmann, p.239f. for a summary of Otto's education.

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211 See P. May, 'Theophanu, die Kaiserin des Abendlandes', in P. von Steinitz (ed.), Theophanu, Regierende Kaiserin des Westreichs, p.35, suggests that she was 17 years old. 212 Schulze, p.212. 213 Sotiriadis, in Steinitz, p.11. 214 D. Matthes, Die Heiratsurkunde der Kaiserin Theophanu, 972 April 14, Rom. Eine Ausstellung des Niedersäsischen Staatsarchivs in Wolfenbüttel (Göttingen 1972), pp.34 for the actual text. Hlawitschka, p.130f. Also Beumann, p.108f., and Holzmann, pp.205-212. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.134. 215 Engels, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.290f. n.104. See Sotiriadis, in Steinitz, p.12, for the frequency of the annual references. 216 C. Ruhmann, 'Die Handelnden Personen', in Wemhoff, pp.21ff. for a brief summary of his life. 217 See Althoff, Ottonen, p.137f. 218 Althoff, Ottonen, p.139. 219 Schulze, in Puhle, p.48f. identifies founders and their foundations. 220 Sotiriadis, in Steinitz, p.14. 221 Schulze, p.251. 222 See Althoff, Ottonen, p.148, for some additional detail. 223 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.86. See also Schulze, in Puhle, p.43. 224 Holzmann, p.269f. gives a complete account of the adventure. 225 Holzmann, p.264, summarizes the course of the disputation. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.144. 226 Holzmann, p.263, summarizes Gerbert's scientific biography. See Hiscock, pp.32ff. concerning the state of learning and education and Gerbert's role in their promotion. Also Hiscock, White Mantle of Churches, pp.6ff. for a biographical sketch. 227 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.85f. 228 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.87. Also Althoff, pp.37ff. 229 Schulze, pp.260ff. 230 Schulze, p.211. Also Ennen, Frauen, p.64f. 231 Beumann, pp.113-124. Hlawitschka, pp.132-135. Also Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.81ff. and Holzmann, pp.239-277, who offers extensive detail concerning the major disputes during the reign of Otto II. 232 Holzmann, II, p.280. 233 Althoff, p.40f. See Engels, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.296f. 234 See Althoff, p.44f. for details. Also Beumann, Die Ottonen, p.128, who stresses that on Palm Sunday 984 Henry proposed that the proclamation of his coronation should take place in Quedlinburg at Easter. 235 Althoff, Ottonen, pp.153-158, offers a detailed account. 236 Holzmann, II, p.285. Also Althoff, p47f., who suggests that such was the manner of the day to signal conflict resolution. 237 Althoff, pp.51ff. He suggests a specially designed ritual for Henry and a demonstration of his reinstatement, when he performed the office of Stewart

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during the Easter festivities in Quedlinburg, where only recently he had himself acclaimed king. 238 Bumke, Courtly Culture, pp. 346ff. 239 See Chrysos, p.487. 240 Schneidmüller, in Puhle, pp.514ff. details the process of this crystallization of independent interests. 241 Holzmann, II, p.307. 242 Holzmann, II, p.309. 243 See Althoff, Otto III, pp.126ff. Also Beumann, pp.127-136. Also Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.90-94. Also Holzmann, II, pp.279-311. Hlawitschka, pp.135ff. Also Goez, Lebensbilder, pp.66-82. See also Steinitz, Theophanu, Regierende Kaiserin des Westreichs. 244 Althoff, p.73, indicates that the event is not actually documented. M. de Fernandy, Der heilige Kaiser. Otto III. Und seine Ahnen (Tübingen 1969). B. Schneidmüller, S. Weinfurter, (eds.) Otto III – Heinrich III. Eine Wende? (Stuttgart 2000). Also Beumann, pp. 137-156. Holzmann, II, pp.279-363. Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.95-120. Also Hlawitschka, pp.139-146. Althoff, Ottonen, p.172, rejects the claim that Otto III immediately spurned his grandmother. 245 Schulze, p.268. See also H. Müller, 'Erzbischof Heribert von Köln und der ,Osten' ', in Wieczorek, Hinz, II, pp.774ff. 246 Althoff, pp.190ff. 247 Althoff, pp.199ff. 248 Hiscock, White Mantle of Churches, p.20f. for a brief biographical note. 249 Schulze, p.269f. See also Althoff, Ottonen, p.176. 250 See J. W. Bernhardt, 'Der Herrscher im Spiegel der Urkunden', in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.328f., who tabulates the frequency of Otto's stays in Italy. 251 See Ullmann, pp.198ff. Also Schutz, Carolingians, p.69, n.142. 252 Schulze, p.289. 253 Bernhardt, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.330. 254 Bernhardt, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, pp.333, 335. 255 Beumann, p.140. 256 See J. Snyder, H. Luttikhuizen, D. Verkerk, Art of the Middle Ages (Upper Saddle River, N.J. 2006), p.208, propose these crowned heads to be emperors, perhaps his father and grandfather, their crown being identical to his. They disregard J. Fried, Otto III. und Boleslav Chrobry (Stuttgart 1989), p.11, who summarized the preceding discussion. 257 See Althoff, pp.91-99, for more detailed treatments. Also Althoff, Ottonen, p.177, for a sketch of their relationship. 258 See Schramm, p.81f. Also Althoff, pp.114-125, in which he follows the argument of K. Görich, Otto III. Romanus Saxonicus et Italicus. Kaiserliche Rompolitik und sächsische Historiographie. (Sigmaringen 1993), that the ideas attributed to Otto III are largely the ideas of modern historians. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.183, concerning the first use of this formulation.

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259 See Holzmann, II, p.323, for the church leaders who now joined the ranks of his counselors. 260 Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.141f. 261 See Althoff, Otto III, p.132, n.21. 262 Althoff, p.100f. 263 Beumann, p.148. Crescentius was a descendant of Marozia. See Schulze, p.272, who quotes an eyewitness that the anti-pope was excommunicated, had his eyes gouged, and lips, ears and nose cut off. The anti-pope's parade of infamy consisted of his 'coronation' with a cow's udder, seated backwards on a donkey, his hands tied to its tail, as the donkey was driven through the streets accompanied by the mockery of the bystanders. See also Holzmann, II, p.329. See especially Althoff, pp.105-113, for the reports and explanations of the death of Crescentius. See also Althoff, 'Otto III und Heinrich II in Konflikten', also Engels, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.80 and pp.310-314. Also Althoff, Ottonen, p.181f. 264 The concept of the Renovatio had already been a Carolingian concern, but their models were not the pagan Caesars, but such Christians as Constantine, Theodosius and Justinian and it was the thrust of the Carolingian 'Renaissance' to reactivate the traditions of the late Classical, Christian Rome and not the pagan Rome of Augustus. Carolingian and Ottonian terminology is that used in Christian Imperial Rome. 265 This is actually a disputed point in modern scholarship, which argues strongly that it was Percy Ernst Schramm, who created Otto's vision to make the 'Golden Rome' the capital of his Christian Empire . See Engels in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, pp.305ff. 266 See Holzmann, II, p.332f. for examples and terminology. See Engels, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.324. 267 Schulze, pp.276ff. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.178f. 268 Althoff, Ottonen, p.187. 269 Körntgen, p.44. But see Engels, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.321, concerning other reasons for the choice of name. See also Hiscock, White Mantle of Churches, p.8. 270 Althoff, pp.128ff. discounts political considerations for Otto's journey to the grave of his friend. See p.134f. for other possible motivations, and pp.136-147 for details of the journey. See Schulze, pp.275ff. for a brief synopsis of the life of Adalbert. See J. Fried, Otto III. und Boleslav Chrobry (Stuttgart 1989), pp.15ff. , p.81, who proposes this event to be a consequential moment, leading to the inclusion of the Polish, Bohemian and Hungarian kingdoms in Western, Latin Europe. See also Althoff, Ottonen, pp.189ff. 271 See Fleckenstein, Bulst, who details the proceedings in Gniezno. See Engels, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.324, n.278, concerning the use of the designation servus Jesu Christi. Also Landes, p.18. 272 See Althoff, pp.127, 139ff. who questions the basis for this argument and discusses the later source of the claim. Also Krögner, p.45. See Schulze, pp.280ff. for the emergence of Poland. See also Althoff, Ottonen, p.191f.

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273 Beumann, p.151. See Althoff, pp.149ff. concerning the hagiographical description of the opening of Charlemagne's tomb. No mention is made in the description of the Roman sarcophagus taken to have been his. See Althoff, Ottonen, p.193. 274 Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.59. 275 See Schulze, pp.284ff. concerning the creation of the Hungarian kingdom. 276 See Beuckers, p.2f. The procession of allegories leans heavily on the mosaic of the Three Kings in San Appollinare Nuovo, in Ravenna. 277 C. Smith, Before and after the End of Time. Architecture and the Year 1000 (New York 2000), pp.xi ff., 1f. 278 Althoff, Ottonen, p.185, rejects the idea of a renewed brilliant reconstruction of Rome to be a fabrication of modern scholarly projection. 279 Bernhardt, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.334. 280 Althoff, pp.171ff., 178ff., for a lengthy version of the speech. 281 See Holzmann, II, pp.350f., 355, for an excerpt of the text of the speech. See also Althoff, p.173f. See also Engels, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.319f. who summarizes a discussion, in which the 'Constantinian Donation' was suspect to Otto III, and forfeited, owing to the carelessness of the popes. Bernhardt, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.334, discusses this topic in the context of the renewal of the Christian Roman imperium. See also Althoff, Ottonen, pp.195ff. 282 Engels, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, pp.308ff. summarizes the Byzantine reasons for the delay. 283 Beumann, p.155, but see Holzmann, II, p.362. See also Ehlers, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.58. But also Schulze, p.293. 284 Holzmann, II, p.363, cited by Althoff, p.7f. 285 Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.92. 286 T. Zotz, 'Die Gegenwart des Königs. Zur Herrschaftspraxis Ottos III. und Heinrichs II', in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, pp.372, 383-386, for the itinerary locations of Otto III and Henry II respectively. 287 Bernhardt, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.335, has calculated the percentages of their respective sojourns in Italy : Otto III over 52%, Henry II only 7.5%. See G. Tellenbach, 'Kaiser, Rom und Renovatio' in Kamp, Wollasch, pp.230ff. who itemizes the locations and the little amount of time, which the emperors actually spent in Italy. The long intervals between visits, made them seem as strangers. Among other such intervals, thirty-six years separated the last visit to Rome of Henry III and the first of Henry IV. Rome was never to be the imperial residence, as 18 emperors resided there for a total of only about five years. 288 Althoff, p.208. See also B. Schneidmüller, S. Weinfurter, (eds.) Otto III. Heinrich II. Eine Wende? (Stuttgart 2000), for an extensive review of this discussion. See S. Weinfurter, Heinrich II. Herrscher am Ende der Zeiten (Darmstadt 2002), pp.81ff. who cites references demonstrating Henry's respect for Otto III. Weinfurter cites St. Paul's' Letter to the Romans, 13, 1-2' as the scriptural justification for this argument. See also Althoff, Ottonen, p.207. 289 See H. Seibert, 'Herrscher und Mönchtum im spätottonischen Reich. Vorstellung – Funktion – Interaktion', in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, pp.205-266.

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290 See Hlawitschka, p.146f., for a list of possible claimants. Also Beumann, pp.157ff. Also Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.121f. Bulst speaks of a possible disintegration of the kingdom. Also Holzmann, II, pp.365-371. See Weinfurter, pp.22-37, concerning Henry's youth and early years as duke of Bavaria, and for a list of the claimants. Also B. Schleusing, 'Der Weg Heinrichs II.zum Thron', in Wemhoff, pp.37ff. 291 See Schneidmüller, 'Otto III – Heinrich II', in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.15. n.19, for additional references. 292 S. Weinfurter, 'Otto III and Heinrich II im Vergleich' in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.388f. indicates that the sources do not reveal the nature of Henry's unsuitability, but may have lain with the expected direction of his leadership. Consult J. Kirmeier, B. Schneidmüller, S. Weinfurter, E. Brockhoff, (eds.) Kaiser Heinrich II. 1002-1024. Katalog zur Bayerischen Landesausstellung 2002, Bamberg, 9. Juli bis 20.Otober 2002 (Augsburg 2002). 293 Weinfurter, p.48ff. 294 Holzmann, II, p.372. See Weinfurter, pp.50ff. for the intricacies of the positions. 295 Hlawitschka, p.147. Also Körntgen, p.46ff. See Weinfurter, pp.38ff. Also Schneidmüller, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.17, draws attention to the deliberate continuity and studied indebtedness of the wording of documents issued by Otto III. 296 Weinfurter, pp.54, 127f. provides maps showing the itineraries of the progress. 297 See Mitteis, p.65. 298 Weinfurter, Heinrich II. Also J. Kirmeier, B. Schneidmüller, S. Weinfurter, E. Brockhoff, (eds.) Kaiser Heinrich II, 1002-1024. Also M. Wemhoff, Kunigunde – empfange die Krone (Paderborn 2002). 299 See Weinfurter, p.22f. for calculations concerning his year of birth, perhaps 973. His mother was only about 13 years of age. 300 See Weinfurter, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.400f. indicates that Henry II used the imperial seal as early as 1003, long before his imperial coronation. 301 See L. Körntgen, 'König und Priester. Das sacrale Königtum der Ottonen zwischen Herrschaftstheologie, Herrschaftspraxis und Heilssorge', in Beuckers, pp.51-61. 302 See Althoff, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.94, who discusses at length the manner in which Henry II changed the rules of the monarchic game, by abandoning the royal practice of extending clemency and generosity against those, who had remonstrated against his majesty in any way. 303 Weinfurter, p.191f. Also Weinfurter, in Kirmeier, et al. p.22f. 304 See Weinfurter, p.193f. for the extensive interrelationship of this family. See Beumann, p.168f. Also Holzmann, II, pp.395ff. for the implications of this conflict on Lotharingia. See Althoff, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.85f. for an interpretation of the negotiations. See Weinfurter, in Kirmeier, et al. p.25. 305 Hlawitschka, p.153f. 306 Holzmann, II, pp.369ff. See Weinfurter, pp.206-220, concerning the complicated involvements. See Schulze, p.303f.

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307 Weinfurter, p.219. Althoff, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.87ff. for a summary of the continuing negotiations. 308 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.138. See K. Görich, 'Eine Wende im Osten: Heinrich II und Boleslav Chrobry', in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, pp.95-167, concludes that Henry's policy towards Boleslav did indeed mark a deliberate change from that initiated by Otto III. See also Althoff, Ottonen, pp.208ff., 224f. 309 Beumann, p.160f. Also Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.122ff. 310 See Holzmann, p.432, who sketches a period of devastation and torture, as pagan Slavs wiped out Christian establishments. In 1019 king Canute took the field against these Slavs. 311 Beumann, p.167f. Also Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.126, and Weinfurter, pp.220-226. 312 See Holzmann, II, p.386ff. for this campaign and the bloody events in Pavia. Also Schulze, p.305f. 313 Hlawitschka, pp.148ff. for brief summaries of Henry's international relations, including the 15 year long Polish war. See Beumann, pp.160-167, 169f, for a fuller treatment of the three phases of the conflict. See Holzmann, II, pp.381ff. concerning the details of the prolonged conflict. 314 Weinfurter, pp.226-237. 315 Weinfurter, p.24, indicates that a castle called Papinberg - Babenberg was given to Henry the Quarrelsome. It was the ancestral name of the early dukes of Austria. Papinberg - Babenberg was modified etymologically into Bamberg. 316 Bernhardt, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.339. 317 See Ehlers, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.59f. 318 Imhoff, in Beuckers, et al., p.23. 319 Holzmann, II, pp.379, 410. Concerning an extensive biographical treatment of Kunigunde, see Weinfurter, pp.93-109, 254f. and 258f., for the crucial nature of the Frankfurt synod of 1007. Also Ehlers, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.65. 320 Schneidmüller, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.19, points out that 28 documents issued on behalf of Bamberg after 1007 celebrate the memory of Otto III. 321 Weinfurter, p.94. 322 See Weinfurter, pp.263ff., for a summary of the elaborate consecration of the cathedral and the extensive episcopal personages in attendance. See Zotz, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, pp.374ff. for a detailed list of locations and a summary of the royal presence at religious festivals, factored into the royal itineraries. 323 Weinfurter, pp.263ff. Also Ehlers, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.69f. See G. Althoff, Heinrich IV (Darmstadt 2006), p.284. 324 Körntgen, p.51. See Weinfurter, pp.258ff. for a list and map of the endowments. 325 Bernhardt, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, pp.341, 342ff., for Henry's perception of his God-given mandate. See Körntgen, 'Priester und König', in Beuckers, et al., pp.51-61. 326 Weinfurter, pp.81ff. See pp.85ff. for a review of apocalyptic ideas concerning the release of Satan at the end of the 1000 years stipulated in 'Revelation'. See pp.144ff., for Henry's relationships with his bishops and their attitude towards the investiture.

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327 Beumann, p.159.Holzmann, II, p.376. See Weinfurter, pp.25ff., who supposes that Henry's parents intended him for the clergy, considering the dukedom of Bavaria lost to them 328 Weinfurter, p.176f. 329 Hiscock, White Mantel of Churches, p.5, indicates that after 994, two out of three episcopal appointments came from the members of this capella. See also Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.145f. 330 See Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.131, 134, for the monasteries affected by the reform movement. See Hiscock, White Mantle of Churches, p.12, concerning the interest in reforms of Henry II, when he was still duke of Bavaria. 331 Weinfurter, p.182. 332 Blumenthal, pp.19-28, for its early period. 333 Weinfurter, p.184. 334 Holzmann, II, p.413f. 335 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.132. Also Holzmann, II, pp.377, 411f.. See Schulze, p.314. 336 Hlawitschka, p.154f. Also Körntgen, p.53. 337 Weinfurter, pp.161ff. 338 I. Crusius, 'Sanctimoniales quae secanonica vocant. Das Kanonissenstift als Forschungsproblem', in I. Crusius (ed.) Studium zum Kanonissenstift, Studien zur Germania Sacra 24 (Göttingen 2001), pp.9ff. 339 Weinfurter, p.152f., lists the locations to which the churchmen were dispersed. 340 See Weinfurter, p.153f., for locations to which the revision spread. 341 Weinfurter, pp.155-160. 342 G. Mentgen, 'Kreuzzüge und Judenpogrome', in H.-J. Kotzur, Die Kreuzzüge (Mainz 2004), p.67. See Landes, pp.40ff., 50f., p.154. 343 See Erdmann, p.113. 344 Erdmann, p.116. 345 Holzmann, II, p.416f. 346 C. Meckseper, Kleine Kunstgeschichte der deutschen Stadt im Mittelalter (Darmstadt 1982), pp.253ff. 347 Landes, pp.45ff. 348 Schutz, Carolingians, p.305. 349 Weinfurter, p.56. 350 Holzmann, II, p.419, summarizes the Roman conflicts. Also Schulze, p.306f. concerning the papal rivalries. See also Althoff, Ottonen, p.217f., concerning the peace with the Poles. 351 See Weinfurter, pp. 237ff. for regulatory actions taken in Italy preceding the coronation. See Holzmann, II, p.421, for a brief account of the coronation. Also Weinfurter, in Kirmeier, et al. p.26. 352 Holzmann, II, p.425, indicates that Boleslav was invited to account for not having accompanied the king, his liege lord, to Rome, but again the duke refused to appear, whereupon the king withdrew from the duke his fiefs. See also Althoff, Ottonen, p.221f. for a summary of additional circumstances contributing to the crisis.

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323

Holzmann, II, pp.431ff. Weinfurter, p.243f. 355 Weinfurter, pp.244, 250 ff. See Ehlers, in Schneidmüller, Weinfurter, p.67. 356 See Beumann, pp.173f. for details concerning the south Italian troubles. Also Althoff, Ottonen, p.226f. 357 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.139. See D. Abulafia, Frederick II, A Medieval Emperor (Harmondsworth 1988), p.20f. 358 Fuhrmann, p.35. Holzmann, II, p.454. See Tellenbach, Church, pp.161ff. See Miccoli, in LeGoff, p.76, who defines 'poverty' not as a negation of material goods, but as a rejection of profane society, the renunciation of the mundane, a deliberate espousal of personal asceticism, of obedience and a personal quest for God through the steadfast study of the Scriptures, prayer and contemplation, as well as the adoption of values threatened by sin and the constant temptations of Satan. 359 P. Scendes, Heinrich VI (Darmstadt 1993), p.9. Also Abulafia, Frederick II, p.24. 360 In later times, partly to support Henry's and Kunigunde's canonization, it was told unjustly and continued to be told, that they lived in an entirely platonic relationship. See Holzmann, II, p.379. 361 S. Buckreus, S.Heimann, 'Die Krönung in Paderborn', in Wemhoff, pp.49ff. for a discussion of the order of ceremony and the following festivities. 362 S. Dick, C. Meyer, 'Leben und Nachleben Kunigundes', in Wemhoff, pp.67ff. describe Kunigunde's life as wife and co-ruler. 363 S. Weinfurter, Herrschaft und Reich der Salier (Sigmaringen 1992), p.24. brings a distinct perspective to the treatment of this period. 364 E. Boshof, Die Salier (Stuttgart, Berlin, Köln, Mainz 1987), p.7f. Also Weinfurter, Herrschaft, pp.13ff. Körntgen, p.55f. 365 See W. Stürner, Friedrich II, Teil I, Die Königsherrschaft in Sizilien und Deutschland 1194-1220 (Darmstadt 1992), p.10f., for the philosophical, theological support for the papal position of the day. See especially I. S. Robinson. 'The institutions of the church, 1073-1216', in Luscombe, Riley-Smith, The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV, pp.368ff. 366 See Boshof, pp.8ff. concerning the role of Worms and Speyer as ancestral centers of the Salians. Among the other cathedrals and parish churches one can list Basel, Freiburg. Strasbourg, Murbach, Marmoutier and the many Staufen churches in Alsace, Bonn and Essen cathedrals, Neuss and the many immense parish churches of Cologne, to mention just a few. 367 Weinfurter, Salian Century, p.19. 368 See Boshof, pp.25-32, 36, concerning a century of Conrad's pre-dynastic family history and for possible pre-election agreements. See especially F.-R. Erkens, Conrad II. Herrschaft und Reich des ersten Salierkaisers (Darmstadt 1998), pp.13f., 16, for the genealogy . Also Körntgen, p.56f. Hlawitschka, p.156, argues that it was only the bloodline, which mattered in determining the succession. Boshof. p.33, points to the interlink between elected kingship and hereditary legitimacy as a characteristic of the rules of succession. See Weinfurter, 354

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Herrschaft, pp.13ff. for a Salian family history before their ascent to the throne. See also Leyser, Rule and Conflict, p.93. 369 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.145. Also Körntgen, p.56, for the respective alignments of supporters. Also Hlawitschka, p.156. See Boshof, p.34f. for a list of other possible legitimate claimants to the crown; and p.37f. for a detailed comment on the coronation proceedings. Goez, Lebensbilder, p.128. Also Erkens, pp.14f., 38ff. who indicates that Conrad's biographer Wipo tailored the report of the election to indicate a free vote for all, as though there had been no link with the Ottonians. 370 See Erkens, pp.42ff. for underlying assumptions and coronation procedures. 371 See Weinfurter, Herrschaft, p.27f. for a list of bishoprics under the jurisdiction of Mainz. 372 See Althoff, Ottonen, p.224. 373 Erkens, p.54f. Also Weinfurter, Herrschaft, p.28. 374 Erkens, pp.31ff. provides a more personal discussion of Conrad and Gisela. He discusses the blood relationship more fully. Goez, Lebensbilder, pp.124f., 129. Also Ennen, Frauen, pp.67ff. 375 Erkens, p.34f. indicates that Henry II actively intervened in her affairs. Henry II looked particularly askance at the Hammerstein relationship. 376 Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.31. 377 Hlawitschka, p.157, points to the continuity despite the dynastic change. Körntgen, pp.56, 62.. 378 Erkens, pp.56-67. 379 Boshof, p.40. 380 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.146. Hlawitschka, p.157. See Körntgen, p.58, concerning Pavia. Boshof, p.41f. 381 The literature quotes Conrad's biographer Wipo, Gesta Chuonradi, c.7, for this account. See Boshof, p.41. Erkens, p.66f. 382 Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.32. 383 Boshof, p.47f. 384 Erkens, pp.74-88. See Goetz, Lebensbilder, pp.121ff. for the details of the ensuing quarrels. 385 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.147. Boshof, pp.48ff. Hlawitschka, pp.157f., 160, concerning the list of attendees. Also Schulze, pp.328-337. Erkens, pp.90ff. See Goez, Lebensbilder, p..123f. 386 See Boshof, pp.58ff. concerning the uprising instigated by Conrad's stepson, duke Ernst of Swabia. Also Erkens, pp.69ff. See Goez, Lebensbilder, p.132f., suggests that the source, Wipo, has the vassals claim priority fealty to the king as supreme overlord, rather than to their duke, which would have been an anomaly. Also Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.50f., for Wipo's account of the defensive rationale voiced by the rebels during the Council of Ulm, 1027: as servants they would have been obliged to obey; as free men they were under the protection of the king. Only by deserting him could they lose their freedom and their life. 387 See below, the references to the twelfth century epic of Herzog Ernst. 388 Boshof, pp.64-71, details Burgundian conditions. Hlawitschka, pp.158, 161, concerning the ducal uprisings and the incorporation of Burgundy. Also Körntgen,

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pp.55f., 58, concerning the claims to Burgundy. Also Schulze, pp.341ff. Erkens, pp.68, 158-171, suggests that the weakness of Burgundy required support, if it was not to fall prey to other ambitions. The Salians could make a genealogical claim to it. See Weinfurter, Herrscher, pp.47ff. 389 Erkens, pp.93ff. 390 Boshof, pp.54f., 57. Also Erkens, pp.113ff. One princess had become a nun, the second was at least in her forties and notorious for her riotous living, while the third was not inclined to marriage. Any one of them would have been a presumptive mismatch for the ten-year old prince Henry. See Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.34. 391 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.154. Also Erkens, p.175f. 392 Schutz, Carolingians, pp.179ff. 393 Weinfurter, p.56f. 394 See Boshof, pp.45, 72ff. Also Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.149ff. 395 Hlawitschka, p.159f., concerning the relations with Poland and Bohemia. See Körntgen, pp.70-77. for the extensive royal relations and their intentions. Schulze, pp.339ff., 341ff. Also Erkens, pp.150-157. 396 See Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.34f. 397 P. E. Schramm, Die Deutschen Kaiser und Könige in Bildern ihrer Zeit 7511190 (Munich 1983), p.107. 398 Weinfurter, Herrscher, pp.35, 41. 399 See Erkens, pp. 131ff. concerning the control of dukedoms and counties. 400 See Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp. 154ff. See Hlawitschka, p.159. Boshof, pp.82ff. Also Körntgen, p.77f., and Schulze, p.348f. 401 Fuhrmann, p.39f. Also Boshof, p.85f. See also Körntgen, p.87f. Blumenthal, pp.101ff. See K. Leyser, Communications and Power in Medieval Europe, ed. T. Reuter (London and Rio Grande 1994), p.2f. 402 Fuhrmann, p.33f. 403 Erkens, pp.119ff. 404 Weinfurter, Herrschaft, p.35, and Plates 4 and 5. Also Salian Century, p.32, and Figs. 7 and 8. 405 Erkens, pp.141ff. But see Goez, Lebensbilder, p.131, who stresses the good relations between Conrad II and his bishops. 406 Erkens, p.124. der in ihm wohl vorrangig den gewählten Moderator widerstreitender Interessen und entflammter Konflikte sah - 'who saw in him primarily the chosen moderator of contrary interests and inflamed conflicts'. 407 See Erkens, p.149, for a map of Conrad's itineraries. 408 Boshof, pp.76-82. Also Erkens, pp.141f., 176-184, who argues, that Aribert was guilty of lèse majesté, an affront to the majesty and hence deserving of removal. See also Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.45f. 409 Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.156ff. Hlawitschka, pp.159,161f. Also Körntgen, p.78. Schulze, pp.346, 351f. Erkens, p.184f. Also Boshof, p.80f. and Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.46. Goez, Lebensbilder, p.130f. 410 Fuhrmann, p.36f. See Reuter, p.231f..See especially B. Arnold, German Knighthood,1050-1300 (Oxford 1985).

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W. Urban, The Baltic Crusade (DeKalb 1975), p.7. Arnold, pp.53ff. 413 See Arnold, Medieval Germany, pp.17ff. 414 Arnold, pp.23ff. 415 Arnold, p.103. 416 Arnold, p.56f. 417 See Weinfurter, Herrschaft, p.66f., for the conditions of service. See Csendes, Heinrich VI, p.43. Also F. Opll, Friedrich Barbarossa (Darmstadt 1990), p.246f. 418 Arnold, p.53. 419 Arnold, pp.190ff. 420 Arnold, pp.69f., n.103, 83. 421 Arnold, p.74 422 Arnold, p.160. 423 Erkens, pp.187ff. 424 Boshof, p.88. During the meal at Pentecost, he began to suffer severely from his ailment, from which he could not recover. He died the next day. 425 Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.75. 426 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.160. Hlawitschka, p.163. Schulze, pp.376ff. 427 Hlawitschka, pp.160, 163f. See Boshof, pp.115-121. 428 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p160f. Also Schulze, pp.279ff. 429 Boshof, pp.101-105, 116f. Also Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.161f., and Schulze, pp.382ff. There were three dukes by the name Godfrey. See N. Heutger, 'Der Verteidiger des Heiligen Grabes: Gottfried von Bouillon (*um 1060, †1100)', in Kotzur, pp.166ff. 430 Tellenbach, pp.85ff. Boshof, p.95f. Also G. Tellenbach, The Church in western Europe from the tenth to the early twelfth Century, translated by T. Reuter (Cambridge 1993), p.142f. 431 Boshof, p.96. 432 Boshof, p.56f. 433 Fuhrmann, p.38f. Boshof, p.124f. Also Weinfurter, Herrscher, p78. 434 Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.163ff. Also Schulze, pp.385ff. See especially Blumenthal, p.100, who reviews the traditional doctrine of the inviolate personage of the pope as it contravened the decisions at the Synod of Sutri. 435 Tellenbach, p.130f. Also Tellenbach, The Church, pp.167ff. 436 Fuhrmann, p.44f. See Tellenbach, Church, p.141f. 437 Boshof, p.130. Also Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.79. See Blumenthal, pp.69f., 7479. 438 Tellenbach, pp.89ff. Hlawitschka, p.166f. Also Boshof, pp.125-132. Körntgen, pp.77, 79ff. 439 Tellenbach, pp.106, 126ff. Hlawitschka, p.167. See Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.97. 440 Hlawitschka, p.172. See note 305 above. See Leyser, Communication and Power, p.8f. 441 See Boshof, p.134f. and Goez, Lebensbilder, p. 150-167, for some biographical detail. Brun's father had not joined the revolt of Conrad's stepson. Consequently 412

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the remittance was waived. See especially Blumenthal, pp.80ff. See Tellenbach, Church, pp.186ff. Also Erdmann, pp.118ff. 442 Tellenbach, p.98f. Fuhrmann, pp.45ff. Also Goez, Lebensbilder, p.158. Also Tellenbach, Church, p.146f. 443 Tellenbach, pp. 108ff. 444 Boshof, p.138. See Blumenthal, p.87. Tellenbach, Church, pp.147, 322ff. 445 Körntgen, p.89f. Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.81f. According to Goez, Lebensbilder, p.160, Leo IX crossed the Alps six times during his reign of five years. See Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.36. 446 Goez, Lebensbilder, p.163, enumerates the privileges. 447 Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.173ff., Schulze, p.389f. Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.83. Blumenthal, p.69, does not support this view and offers contrary argumentation. 448 Fleckenstein, Bulst, pp.167ff. 449 Hlawitschka, p.164f. 450 Fuhrmann, p.164. Csendes, Heinrich VI, pp.215ff. See Stürner, I, pp.63, 230. 451 See Arnold, German Knighthood, Passim Also W.H. Jackson, Chivalry in Twelfth Century Germany. The Works of Hartmann von Aue (Cambridge 1994), pp.64-69, 74-77. Also Hlawitschka, p.38f. concerning the nobility as royal officials and representatives of the people. See also O. Engels, Die Staufer, fourth edition (Stuttgart, Berlin, Köln, Mainz 1989), p.11f. 452 Boshof, p.99f. Körntgen, p.74ff. Also Schulze, p.396.Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.85. 453 See Landes, p.15. Also Erdmann, p.71. 454 E.-D. Hehl, 'War, peace and the Christian order', in Luscombe, Riley-Smith, The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV, pp.189ff. See also Fichtenau, pp.432ff. See also G. Duby, The Legend of Bouvines. War, Religion and Culture in the Middle Ages. Translated by Catherine Tihanyi (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1990), pp.61ff. See Landes, pp.28ff. 455 Schulze, p.374, n.1. 456 Boshof, pp.110-115, considers Henry's wish to attain peace to be the central objective. Weinfurter, Herrscher, pp.65f., 87f., suspects an administrative motivation in the king's interest, to impose order from above. See Arnold, Medieval Germany, pp.151ff. 457 Powell, pp.59, 78ff. 458 Erdmann, p.302, suggests that as many as 12 000 pilgrims may have taken part under the leadership of the archbishop of Mainz as well as the bishops of Bamberg, Regensburg and Utrecht. 459 Erdmann, p.303. 460 Erdmann, p.305. 461 See Phillips, pp.53ff. 462 Erdmann, p.87, for a summary of the induction to the order. 463 Boshof, p114. Also Körntgen, pp.63ff. 464 Hlawitschka, p.165f. Körntgen, p.75. Also Blumenthal, p.63. 465 Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.64.

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466 Tellenbach, p.128f. Körntgen, p.88. See especially Tellenbach, Church, pp.172ff. for illustrations of real and false charges of simony. 467 See Erdmann, p.122f. 468 Boshof, pp.139f. Körntgen, p.81. Also Blumenthal, p.91f. 469 Boshof, p.141f. Goez, Lebensbilder, p.165f. Also Blumenthal, p.92f. 470 U.-R. Blumenthal, Gregor VII. Papst zwischen Canossa und Kirchenreform (Darmstadt 2001), p.124f., indicates that such negotiations were being undertaken for some time. 471 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.176. 472 Hlawitschka, p.165, projects a contrary image of the emperor. 473 See Boshof, p..143ff, for developments in Lotharingia. See Goez, Lebensbilder, pp.233-254, for a note concerning the margravine Mathilda. 474 Körntgen, p.66f. A trial by combat was lost by the one accused of the plot. See also Boshof, p.98f. And Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.89. 475 Boshof, pp.106ff. 476 Boshof, pp.147ff. 477 Boshof, p.154. Weinfurter, Herrscher, pp.89ff. 478 Boshof, pp.155-160. Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.95f. 479 Boshof, pp.164ff. 480 Fleckenstein, Bulst, p.177f. Fuhrmann, pp.61ff. Boshof, p.161f. See J. S. Robinson, Henry IV of Germany, 1056-1106 (Cambridge 1999). 481 Boshof, p.162f. The high nobility may have reacted against the seeming favoritism extended to the ministerials. Körntgen, p.83, suggests that this condition may actually have been directed as a caution against the reign of Henry III. Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.89. Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.42, suggests the proviso was a reference to the electoral rights of the magnates. 482 See Opll, p.225. 483 Bumke, Courtly Culture, pp.33ff. See Schmid and Schadek, (ed.) Die ZähringerII (Sigmaringen 1986), p.53f. for a list and map of the Zähringen ministerials. 484 Stürner, I, p.204f. 485 Boshof, p.163f. 486 Körntgen, p.84f. Also Boshof, p.167f. 487 See Boshof, p.168f. The Salian abbess Beatrix of Gandersheim had to concede to the charge of her Saxon canonesses, that she was squandering the abbey's resources on ministerials. The archbishop of Bremen complained that the crown was not intervening on his behalf against the dukes of Saxony, who were encroaching on the archbishopric. 488 See Robinson, pp.33ff. 489 Boshof, p. 169f. Schulze, p.401f. 490 Boshof, pp.170ff. 491 See Boshof, p.176f. concerning the election of the anti-pope Benedict X by the aristocracy of Rome. Also Tellenbach, Church, p.149, concerning the irregularities surrounding the election of several popes.

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492 Tellenbach, Church, pp.152ff. summarizes the period following the death of Henry III and the court's attitude towards papal elections. 493 Boshof, p.172-175, deals with Anno's motivation. Körntgen, p.85f., suggests that Agnes may have welcomed archbishop Anno's act as a clarification of her own troubled situation. Also Schulze, p.401. Weinfurter, Herrscher,p.107, offers a biographical note. See also Robinson, pp.43ff. 494 See Leyser, Communication and Power, p.47. Also Althoff, Heinrich IV, pp.52ff. 495 Körntgen, p.105. 496 Concerning the Annolied, see below. 497 Körntgen, p.87. Also Schulze, p.409. Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.108 indicates that Anno had a ninth of all imperial income transferred to the archbishopric of Cologne, 'for the well-being of the king and the order of the realm'. 498 Blumenthal, Gregor VII, pp.88-93. 499 Blumenthal, p.106. Especially Blumenthal, Gregor VII, pp.98-122, concerning the regulations for communities of canons. 500 Tellenbach, p. 111f. See Boshof, pp.175-180. Schulze, p.404f. See Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.100f. Blumenthal, p.107. Also Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.37. 501 See Boshof, pp. 180-185, for a summary of the sequence of events. Also Schulze, p.405. 502 See Althoff, Heinrich IV, pp.52ff. for the critical comments, describing the political climate. Also von Boeselager, in Grieme, et al. p.93f. 503 Weinfurter, Herrscher, pp.109ff. 504 Althoff, Heinrich IV, pp.23, 63ff. 505 Boshof, p.189f. Körntgen, p.91f. See Blumenthal, pp.118ff. 506 Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.66. 507 Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.71. 508 Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.115, lists some of the accusations leveled against the king. See G. Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.18f, n. 15. 509 See Boshof, pp.190-197. Schulze, p.410. See Robinson, pp.109ff. 510 Robinson, pp.122f., 125. Tellenbach, Church, pp.180f., 228ff. 511 Robinson, p.117-122, for a list of names, occasions and fundamental disputes. See also Cowdrey, Pope Gregory VII, 1073-1085, p.75. See also Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.97. 512 Cowdrey, p.88f., itemizes several of the magnates. 513 Blumenthal, Gregor VII, p.180f. 514 Blumenthal, Investiturstreit, p.132. 515 Tellenbach, Church, pp.181, especially pp.230ff. for the phases of the contest. 516 See Robinson, pp.62-104. Also Althoff, Heinrich IV, pp.75ff., and especially pp.86-115. 517 Cowdrey makes very extensive use of these records. p.vii. 518 See Boshof, p.201. Körntgen, p.92f. Also Schulze, p.415f. Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.116f. especially the map of fortified locations. See Blumenthal, pp.122ff. Also Engels, p.11f. Also Reuter, pp.226ff.

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519 Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.119. See Leyser, Communication and Power, pp.70ff. But see Robinson, p.3f. who questions this tendency. 520 See Boshof, pp.200ff. See Leyser, Communication and Power, pp. 21ff., 33ff. 521 See Leyser, Communication and Power, pp.60ff. 522 Cowdrey, p.90. 523 Blumenthal, Gregor VII, p.181. 524 Boshof, p.205f. Körntgen, p.94. Schulze, p.419f. Leyser, Communication and Power, pp.22f., 48f., argues that the war continued for another 16 years, leaving north-south tensions behind, which it took a very long time to overcome. See also Mitteis, p.87. Also Cowdrey, pp.92ff. 525 Cowdrey, p.105f. note 128. 526 Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.124f. 527 Blumenthal, pp. 101ff., 106. The decree specifies the role of Henry IV. 528 Cowdrey, p.94. 529 Arnold, p.58. 530 Boshof, p203f. 531 U.-R. Blumenthal, Der Investiturstreit (Stuttgart, Berlin, Köln Mainz 1982). See Körntgen, p.114, who supports the argument that the designation ' Investiture Struggle' is a misnomer, since that was not the cause of the conflict. See also Robinson, pp.107-142. 532 Blumenthal, Investiturstreit, p.47. 533 Schimmelpfennig, Papsttum, pp.122-152. 534 See Reuter, p.275. 535 Tellenbach, p.93f. 536 Tellenbach, p.128f. 537 Schimmelpfennig, p.171. 538 Schimmelpfennig, p.204. 539 Tellenbach, p.131. See also Tellenbach, Church, pp.162ff. 540 Tellenbach, Church, pp.164ff. 541 Reuter, p.246. 542 See Robinson, p.6, who indicates that entire counties were conferred on churchmen, in which they functioned as counts . 543 Schimmelpfennig, p.166. 544 Fuhrmann, p.64f. Schulze, p.420. Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.127ff. Robinson, pp.143ff. See Cowdrey, p.134f. 545 Tellenbach, Church, p.155f. concerning the papal election of Gregory VII. See also Cowdrey, pp.37-74. See Erdmann, pp.148ff. 546 Fuhrmann, pp.58ff. Boshof, p.207. Blumenthal, p.125, suggests that a royal vote was not sought, because anyone associating with those excommunicated was equally anathema and to be kept away from religious matters. See also Blumenthal, Gregor VII. p.5, pp.16ff, for Hildebrand's early years and education. See pp.136ff. for his election as pope. 547 Blumenthal, Gregor VII, pp.31-43, discusses the question at length, including his gradual elevation to the highest ecclesiastical rank, even under supposed protest. Tellenbach, Church, pp.205-218, concerning his relations with the

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episcopate. Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.34, supports the argument that the Cluniac reforms were not primarily responsible for the investiture conflicts. 548 Boshof, p.209f. Körntgen, p.96f. Also Schulze, p.425f. See Tellenbach, Church, p.310f. for a summary. Also Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.119f. Also Cowdrey, p. 100. 549 Blumenthal, p.129, speaks of Gregory's mystical cult of St. Peter. Also Blumenthal, Gregor VII, pp.140ff. See also Tellenbach, Church, pp.233f. concerning the growing tensions between Henry IV and Gregory VII. 550 Erdmann, p.163. 551 Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.128. Blumenthal, Gregor VII., pp.10ff., 140ff. See Tellenbach, Church, pp.222ff., 234. 552 See P. Landau, 'The development of law', in D. Luscombe, J. Riley-Smith, The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV (Cambridge 2004), p.121f. 553 Blumenthal, Gregor VII, pp.143-167. See I. S. Robinson, 'Reform and the Church, 1073-1122', in Luscombe, Riley-Smith, The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV, pp. 276ff. concerning the polar polemics of the dispute. See Cowdrey, pp.100ff. 554 Erdmann, pp.164ff. 555 See Körntgen, p.109f., for a summary of the evolving theory. See Blumenthal, p.130. See Blumenthal, Gregor VII, pp.128ff., who indicates clearly, that Hildebrand had assumed military functions on behalf of his papal predecessors Nicholas II and Alexander II. 'Taking the sword' was not an anomaly for him'. 556 Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.119ff. Also Cowdrey, p.95 for details. 557 Cowdrey, pp.100, 110ff. 558 Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.35. 559 Erdmann, pp.95ff. 560 Erdmann, pp.57ff. 561 H. E. Mayer, Geschichte der Kreuzzüge (Stuttgart, Berlin, Köln 1989), p.25. See also Riley-Smith, 'The Crusades, 1095-1198', in The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV, p.536. See also Cowdrey, p.100. 562 Cowdrey, pp.96, 100. 563 See Boshof, pp.210-218, for a summary of the historical circumstances. Körntgen, p.96f. Also Schulze, p.430. Blumenthal, Gregory VII, pp.150ff. 564 Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.126f. 565 Blumenthal, Gregor VII, p.178f. 566 Cowdrey, p.104f. 567 Körntgen, p.97f. Also Schulze, p.420. See also Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.128. 568 Blumenthal, p.132. 569 Tellenbach, Church, p.235f. See Cowdrey, pp.135ff. 570 See Tellenbach, p.143f. for the reaction among the German bishops and their rejection of the papal claim to primacy. Blumenthal, Gregor VII, p.179. 571 Boshof, pp.218-221. Körntgen, p.97. Schulze, p.421. See Robinson, p.11. 572 See Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.98. Also Blumenthal, p.133. Also Blumenthal, Gregor VII, p.181f. See Cowdrey, pp.140ff. 573 Erdmann, p.169. 574 Tellenbach, Church, p.237.

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Notes

Körntgen, p.98. Schulze, p.422f. Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.139. Also Cowdrey, pp.142ff. 577 Boshof, pp.221-225. Körntgen, p.99. Tellenbach, Church, p.238f. Cowdrey, p.144. 578 Boshof, pp.225ff. Körntgen, p.98f. See Althoff, p.146f. for the list of charges raised by Henry's magnates at the Council of Tribur in 1076 against him, justifying his deposition. See Cowdrey, p.145f. 579 Schulze, p.431f. 580 Boshof, p.228. See Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.149. 581 Boshof, p.229. Schulze, p.432. See Cowdrey, p.154, for his itinerary. 582 See Robinson, pp.159ff, for a detailed account. See Cowdrey, p.155. 583 Fuhrmann, p.65f. Boshof, p.231. Schulze, pp.432ff. Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.131. Also Althoff, Heinrich IV, pp.151ff. for a discussion of the sources. 584 See Körntgen, p.69, for Mathilda's family connections. Also Goez, Lebensbilder, pp.234ff. See Tellenbach, Church, p.242, concerning the interpretations of this event. See Cowdrey, p.156, for Gregory's own description of the circumstances. 585 Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.97. 586 Althoff, Heinrich IV, pp.155ff., discusses the argumentation, without resolution. 587 See Cowdrey, p.157f., for the terms of the absolution. 588 Schulze, p.343. See Blumenthal, p.134f. Also Goez, Lebensbilder, p.244f. See Robinson, p.162, for the wording of the oath. Also Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.158. 589 See Cowdrey, pp.158ff. for a favorable assessment of Canossa. 590 C. C. Bayley, The Formation of the German College of Electors in the MidThirteenth Century (Toronto 1949), p.110. 591 Scendes, p.3. See Fuhrmann, p.58. 592 Boshof, pp.232ff. Also Körntgen, pp.95, 100. Also Blumenthal, p.135f. 593 See Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.4. 594 Cowdrey, pp.167, 178. 595 Tellenbach, Church, p.244f. Also Cowdrey, pp.164f., 170ff. 596 Cowdrey, p.172. 597 Boshof, p.236f. Körntgen, p. 105. Blumenthal, p.136. Also Robinson, pp.166ff. 598 Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.132f. 599 Boshof, p.238. 600 Boshof, p.239. 601 Cowdrey, p.177ff. for the renewal of Henry's authority. 602 Engels, p.9, points to the pattern with which the nobility began to leave the tribal consciousness in favor of the selection of a hereditary site, from which they subsequently derived their dynastic name. Zähringen would be another clear example. Also F. Opll, Friedrich Barbarossa (Darmstadt 1990), p.20f. Also Csendes, p.24ff. 603 See Engels, pp.13f., 16ff., for the division of territories in the region of the upper Rhine and their policies of expansion. See Opll, p.22f. See Reuter, p.234, who points to the erroneous credit given to the Salians for the promotion of urbanization. 576

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See K. Schmid (ed.) Die Zähringer. Eine Tradition und ihre Erforschung, in 2 volumes (Sigmaringen 1986). See Engels, p.14f., concerning the Zähringen holdings. Also Csendes, p.25. 605 Cowdrey, p.182f. Also Leyser, Communication and Power, p.72. 606 Boshof, p.242. 607 Cowdrey, pp.190ff. 608 Körntgen, p.117. 609 See Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.168, concerning the reliability of this source. Also Cowdrey, p.194f. 610 Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.158, quotes from the Gregorii Registrum, lib.4, 12a, p.314f. See also Cowdrey, pp.196ff. 611 Boshof, p.243. Schulze, p.437. Cowdrey, p.198, spells out that Rudolph had no status in Italy. See also Erdmann, p.172. 612 Cowdrey, p.199. 613 See Althoff, Heinrich IV, pp.171ff. for a discussion of the consequences of this excommunication. Also Cowdrey, pp.199ff. 614 Tellenbach, Church, p.246. 615 Robinson, pp.203ff., details the battle and its consequences. See Cowdrey, p.206f. for the text of the inscription. 616 Cowdrey, p.208. 617 Boshof, p.246. 618 Cowdrey, p.219. 619 Boshof, p247f. Schulze, pp.439ff. See Althoff, pp.185-192. Also Cowdrey, p.228. 620 Erdmann, p.176. 621 See Boshof, p.249. Also Cowdrey, p.230f. for the Norman sack of Rome. See Tellenbach, Church, p.249, for Gregory's long-term effectiveness. Blumenthal, Gregor VII, makes no mention of a Norman sack of Rome. 622 Tellenbach, Church, p.252. 623 Tellenbach, Church, p.333f. 624 See Robinson, pp.275ff. for the identities of Henry's episcopal choices. See Cowdrey, pp.232ff., for a detailed view of the final conflicts between Henry IV and Gregory VII, and pp.242ff. for a recapitulation of Gregory's relationship with the German church. 625 Boshof, pp.250ff. Also Robinson, p.250f. 626 Robinson, p.290, also Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.207, refer to the empress as Eupraxia, named Adelheit in the west. 627 Boshof, p.254f. Blumenthal p.147. See Tellenbach, Church, p.254, for a brief summary of his career. 628 Boshof, p.257. Körntgen, p.104, offers greater detail concerning Henry's reputed immorality and lasciviousness. Schulze, p.446f. Also Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.115. See Robinson, p.290f. 629 Körntgen, p.109, refers to scholarship, which suggests that disputational materials were meant to bolster the argumentation of respective positions, rather than as a means to circulate invectives. See especially Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.213,

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who accepts the possibility of her group rape, but suggests this to be the mistreatment of a hostage, because the terms of the agreement were not violated. 630 See Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.212. 631 Tellenbach, Church, p.259. 632 Duby, Three Orders, p.198. See Erdmann, p.330. 633 Mayer, pp.11, 13ff., 40ff. See J. Riley-Smith, 'Der Aufruf von Clermont und seine Folgen', in H.- J. Kotzur, (ed.), Die Kreuzzüge (Mainz 2004), pp.51ff. Also Riley-Smith, in The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV, pp.534-563. See Hehl, in The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV, pp.207ff. See J. Phillips, The Crusades1095-1197 (Harlow and London 2002), p.5. 634 Phillips, Crusades, p.17.Also Erdmann, p.343. 635 Landes, p.155. 636 S. Blick, R. Tekippe, Art and Architecture of Late Medieval Pilgrimage in Northern Europe and the British Isles (Leiden, Boston 2005), p.xxiv f. 637 See Duby, Three Orders, p.200f. 638 B. Hechelhammer, 'Frauen auf dem Kreuzzug', in Kotzur, pp.205-211. Joan of Arc was condemned partly for wearing men's clothing 639 Riley-Smith, in Kotzur, p.52. 640 Riley-Smith, in Kotzur, p.54f. See Robinson, pp.302ff. 641 Fuhrmann, p.12f. 642 Mentgen, in Kotzur, p.67f. 643 E. Eickhoff, 'Die Bedeutung der Kreuzzüge für den deutschen Raum', in Haussherr, III, p.241. Also Boshof, p.259f. Körntgen, p.113. Schulze, p.450. 644 Mentgen, in Kotzur, pp.68ff. 645 Mentgen, in Kotzur, p.70f. 646 Mentgen, in Kotzur, p.67f. 647 See Leyser, Communication and Power, pp.81-95, concerning the question of money and supplies during the First Crusade. 648 See Smiley-Smith, in Kotzur, p.57f., who rejects the traditionally held views concerning materialistic motivations for the crusades. 649 Mayer, pp.59-87. 650 Powell, p.90. 651 However, see Powell, p.82, who does not see this to be the rule. 652 K. P. Jankrift, 'Aufbruch ins Ungewisse. Die Kreuzzüge als logistische, transporttechnische und kommunikative Herausforderung', in Kotzur, p.188f., gives several examples of the preparations involved. Also Hechelhammer, in Kotzur, p.205f. 653 See M.-L. Favreau-Lilie, 'Die italienischen Städte und die Kreuzzüge', in Kotzur, pp.193-203. 654 See Phillips, Crusades, p.19, who suggests that a force of c.60 000 set out from western Europe. 655 Leyser, Communication and Power, pp.91ff. 656 Jankrift, in Kotzur, p.190. 657 Riley-Smith, in Kotzur, pp.60ff., indicates that the loss of Jewish lives in 1099 has to be revised downward.

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658 B.U. Hucker, 'Das Grafenpaar Beatrix und Otto von Botenlauben und die deutsche Kreuzzugsbewegung', in Kotzur, pp.25ff. For each of the Crusades Hucker lists the German magnates among the participants. See also Heutger, 'Gottfried', in Kotzur, pp.166ff. 659 Boshof, p.258f. Also Mayer, pp.40-59. See Erdmann, p.350. 660 Riley-Smith, in Kotzur, p.61f. 661 See Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.219. 662 Althoff, Heinrich IV, pp.219ff. 663 Schulze, p.448f. 664 Hucker, in Kotzur, p.25. 665 See Arnold, Medieval Germany, pp.151ff. 666 Körntgen, p.102f. 667 Boshof, p.263. 668 Robinson, p.311. 669 Boshof, p.263. Körntgen, p.117, lends reserved support to the thesis that the falling out between father and son, was motivated by the father's lacking support for the Reform movement. There is, however little evidence, that Henry V supported the reformed church and the reform Papacy. Weinfurter, pp.10, 139 suggests that Henry V placed transpersonal dynastic interests before personal interests. See also Althoff, Heinrich IV, pp.228-239. 670 Althoff, Heinrich IV, pp.236ff. 671 Boshof, p.264f. See also Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.139f. for several judgments of the actions of Henry V against his father. 672 See Althoff, Heinrich IV, pp.241ff., who quotes extensively from the partisan correspondence and the opposing sources. 673 Schulze, pp.451f., 453ff., cites the tumult created among the people of Liège on these occasions. 674 See P. Kidson, 'Architecture and the visual arts', in Luscombe, Riley-Smith, The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV, p.708. Boshof, p.265f. The peasants scraped together earth from his grave and spread it over their fields, or placed seed grain on his bier, in order to improve the harvest. See Robinson, pp.321-344 for a discussion of his last years, and pp.345ff. for partisan remarks concerning his legacy. Also Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.253, concerning his personal care of the injured and poor, whose wounds he bandaged and whom he invited to share his table. 675 Althoff, Heinrich IV, pp.289ff. 676 Boshof, pp.267ff. 677 Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.146. See Blumenthal, p.175. 678 Boshof, p.270f. See Körntgen, p.115f.See Blumenthal, pp.154ff. 679 Boshof, p.272f. Körntgen, p.116f. Blumenthal, pp.163ff. 680 Blumenthal, p166f. 681 Boshof, p.273. Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.147 682 Schulze, pp.458ff. 683 Boshof, p.275. 684 Schulze, p.460.

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Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.31. Fuhrmann, pp.87ff. Boshof, p.275f. Körntgen, p.118f. Schulze, p.462. Blumenthal, p.176. 687 Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.147f. Tellenbach, Church, p.280f. 688 Boshof, pp.276ff. 689 Körntgen, p.118 for an inclusive itemization of the term. 690 Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.33. 691 Boshof, p.279. 692 Schulze, p.464f. 693 Fuhrmann, pp.98ff. 694 See Cowdrey, p.82. 695 Boshof, pp.181-186. 696 Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.67. 697 H. Heinemann, 'Die Zähringer und Burgund', in Schmid, Zähringer I, pp.59-74. See also Robinson, pp.298ff. 698 Leyser, Communication and Power, pp.101ff. 699 Körntgen, p.121. Schulze, p.469f. 700 Boshof, pp.292ff. See Tellenbach, Church, pp.283ff. 701 See Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.191. 702 Leyser, Communication and Power, p.181. 703 Schutz, Tools, Weapons and Ornaments, note 141. 704 Fuhrmann, p.33. Opll, p.226f. Also Csendes, p.212f. See also Flori, in Luscombe, Riley-Smith, The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV, pp.160ff. for its distinct character within the Empire. See also Urban, p.16, n.5. concerning the forms of feudalism. 705 Weinfurter, Herrscher, pp.151, 154. 706 Schulze, pp.272ff. 707 Schulze, p.475. 708 Körntgen, p.121. Schulze, p.475. Also Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.150f. 709 Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.154f. He quotes the Chronicle of Dietmar von Merseburg, 8, 34. See Blumenthal, p.179f. 710 Boshof, p.294ff. Schulze, p.478. Also Arnold, Medieval Germany, pp.100ff. 711 Tellenbach, Church, p.284. 712 Fuhrmann, p.92f. Weinfurter, Herrscher, p.155. 713 See Boshof, pp.297f., 300, for the First Lateran Council. Also Körntgen, p.121f., for details of the First Lateran Council. Schulze, p.478f. See Blumenthal, p.181. 714 Fuhrmann, pp.92ff. 715 Tellenbach, p.125. Also Tellenbach, Church, p.176f. 716 Leyser, Communication and Power, pp.104, 107f. 717 K. Schreiner, 'Die Staufer als Herzöge von Schwaben', in R. Haussherr, Die Zeit der Staufer, III (Stuttgart 1977), p.7f. Boshof, p.303. See Engels, pp.12ff., 20f., for a summary of the rise to prominence of the Hohenstaufen in the kingdom, and the role of Agnes. Also Opll, Friedrich Barbarossa, pp.19ff., 20, for the names of her other celebrated children. See also Goez, Lebensbilder, p.272f. 686

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337

Engels, p.21f. Also Opll, p.25. Fuhrmann, pp.117ff. Also Schreiner, in Haussherr, III, p.10f. 720 Engels, p.22f. See Goez, Lebensbilder, pp.270-281. 721 F. Opll, Friedrich Barbarossa (Darmstadt, 1990), p.22f. 722 Schreiner, in Haussherr, III, pp.8ff. Also D. Mertens, 'Die Habsburger als Nachfahren und als Vorfahren der Zähringer', in Schmid, Zähringer 1, pp.151-174. 723 Schadek, Schmid, Zähringen II, p.77f. 724 Engels, pp.25ff. Also Opll, p.27f. 725 See Schutz, Carolingians, pp.95ff. The Welfs already played important roles in Carolingian times, with Judith becoming the second wife of the emperor Louis the Pious and her sister Hemma, the wife of Louis the German. Engels, pp.27ff. concerning the Welfs and their rise to power. See Csendes, p.26. 726 H. Löwe, 'Die Staufer als Könige und Kaiser', in Haussherr, III, pp.21-34. Also E. Maschke, 'Die deutschen Städte der Stauferzeit', in Haussherr, III, pp.59-73. See Goez, Lebensbilder, p.278. See Opll, p.23. See Fuhrmann, pp.23ff. 727 Engels, p.34f. Goez, Lebensbilder, p.276. Opll, p.28f. 728 Fuhrmann, pp.129ff. See Csendes, p.14f. 729 See Löwe, in Haussherr, III, p.22f. Also Mayer, pp.87-99. Louis had tried in vain to organize an armed pilgrimage without reference to the Papacy, but met with little support from his nobles. See also Hucker, in Kotzur, pp.27ff. 730 Phillips, p.63f. 731 Eickhoff, in Haussherr, III, p.241. Also Mentgen, in Kotzur, p.72f. 732 Opll, p.31. 733 Eichhoff, in Haussherr, III, p.242. Also Engels, p.35. See Hucker, in Kotzur, p.27. Also Phillips, Crusades, p.71f. 734 Phillips, Crusades, p.74 735 Phillips, Crusades, pp.68ff. 736 Fuhrmann, p.130. Hucker, in Kotzur, p.28. Also Riley-Smith, in The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV, pp.552ff. for a concise summary of the Second Crusade. 737 Eickhoff, in Haussherr, III, pp.239ff. 738 Löwe, in Haussherr, III, p.23. Goez, Lebensbilder, p.279f. Mayer, pp.94-98. 739 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.30f. 740 Engels, pp.35-49, summarizes the events preceding the election of Frederick I, Barbarossa. Goez, Lebensbilder, p.281, suggests that for Conrad III the stability of the kingdom had precedence over individual interests. See Opll, pp.32ff., and Csendes, 27. 741 Opll, p.29f. 742 Engels, p.51, suggests that it was a Staufen request, which wanted to see the imperium and sacerdotium restored and to demonstrate the unconditional accord with the magnates. See also Opll, p.38f. 743 Opll, p.34f. 744 von Boeselager, in Grieme, et al. p.95f.. 745 Engels, pp.52ff. Also Opll, p.42f. 746 Fuhrmann, p.141f. 719

338

747

Notes

Engels, pp.54ff. See Opll, pp.45ff. Heinrich Jasomirgott, his nickname giving favorite phrase – yes with God's help – was the son of the empress Agnes issued from her second marriage, making him Barbarossa's close relative. Conrad's wife's sister was the wife of the eastern emperor Manuel. 749 Opll, pp.48ff., 188ff., 256-260.. 750 Engels, p.85f. 751 Schutz, Carolingians, Pl.2. See Opll, p.50f. 752 Fuhrmann, p.143f. Löwe, in Haussherr, III, p.25. 753 Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.105. 754 Stürner, I, p.2. 755 Opll, p.51. 756 Engels, pp.62ff. See Opll, pp.238, for the names of their 11 children and the extent to which their betrothals and marriages played a role in Barbarossa's foreign policy. 757 Engels, pp.67ff. 758 Opll, pp.57f., 205f. Stürner, I, p.12f. 759 Fuhrmann, p.145f. Opll, p.61. Also Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.106. 760 See Opll, pp.227, 258, the list of participating magnates included those of Bohemia , Poland and Hungary, as well as major cities in Germany and Lombardy. 761 Engels, pp.69ff. See Opll, pp.62ff. 762 Opll, pp.68f., 207ff. 763 See Opll, p.53, for a brief biographical note. 764 Engels, p.72f. Also Opll, pp.69ff. See Fuhrman, p.148f. for details. 765 Opll, p.287. The position caused John of Salisbury to challenge the Germans' presumed right to judge other nations. See also Fuhrmann, p.156. 766 Opll, pp.77f., 261. 767 See Fuhrmann, pp.157ff. Also Opll, p.88. 768 Opll, p.289. 769 According to Löwe, 'Die Staufer als Könige und Kaiser', in Haussherr, III, p.25, Frederick encircled pope Alexander III with the sworn intention never to recognize him or his successors as pope. Engels, pp.74ff. Opll, pp.90, 273ff, concerning Barbarossa's foreign politics by means of marriages. 770 Opll, p.223. But see also Geary, Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages (Ithaca 1994), pp.243-256, who suggests that the tradition originated in Cologne and then spread to Milan. 771 Engels, p.77f. According to Opll, pp.93, 289, Charlemagne was celebrated as saint of the realm 772 Engels, p.78f. 773 Opll, pp.94ff. 774 See Fuhrmann, p.154f. concerning Rainald von Dassel. See especially p.159f. Engels, p.79. Opll, p.98, offers a list of religious and secular magnates , who died during this epidemic. 775 See Leyser, Communication and Power, pp.125f., 129. Also Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.70ff. 748

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776 Opll, pp.105, 240. Also Csendes, pp.30f., 35ff., for a list of attendees and a discussion of Henry's precedence over his brother Frederick. Both present the case that the prince Frederick mentioned is actually prince Frederick, duke of Swabia, originally baptized Conrad, born after the death of the first, deceased prince named Frederick. 777 See Leyser, Communication and Power, p.123. See Opll, pp.242f, 245. for a summary of Barbarossa's relationships in the context of the magnates of the Regnum Italie. 778 Opll, pp.111ff. Csendes, p.41. 779 Opll, p.297f. 780 Opll, pp.116ff. 781 Löwe, in Haussherr, III, p.23. Opll, pp.118, 124-133. According to Fuhrmann, p.160f., Henry demanded the city of Goslar and its silver mines before offering military support. See G. Althoff, in G. Althoff, H. – W. Goetz, E. Schubert, Menschen im Schatten der Kathedrale (Darmstadt 1998), p.25f. 782 Opll, p.118f. 783 Löwe, in Haussherr, III, p.26. Engels, p.80f. Also Opll, pp. 119ff., 264. See Abulafia, Frederick II, p.74f. 784 See Schutz, Germanic Realms, pp.218ff. 785 Engels, p.81f. 786 Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.71. 787 Engels, p.97. 788 Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.68. Also Abulafia, Frederick II, p.76. 789 Opll, p.140f. See especially Csendes, pp.46-51. Also Althoff, Goetz, Schubert, Menschen im Schatten der Kathedrale, pp.54ff. 790 Cardini, in LeGoff, pp.114ff. Also Duby, Bouvines, pp.84ff. 103ff. 791 Opll, p.292. 792 Opll, p.266. 793 Engels, pp.89ff. See Csendes, pp.52-62. See Abulafia, Frederick II, p.57, who suggests that her name reflects the Constantinian view of monarchy held by her father Roger II. 794 Csendes, p.58, suggests, that her total dowry was worth 40 000 marks, still an astonishing sum. 795 See Fuhrmann, pp.180ff. Csendes, p.61. Also Abulafia, Frederick II, p.80. 796 See Engels, p.89f. Also Csendes, p.61f. 797 Opll, p.154. Also Csendes, p.61. 798 Engels, p.90. See Csendes, p.56. 799 Opll, p.185. 800 See Opll, pp.234ff. for a summary of the estrangement between the cousins. 801 Opll, p.84. 802 Engels, pp.91ff. 803 Engels, pp.97-102, 104f. Also Opll, p.132f. 804 Hucker, in Kotzur, p.29. 805 See Fuhrmann, p.151, for the sequence of events. 806 See Opll, p.161, for details concerning his re-entry and re-instatement.

340

807

Notes

Engels, p.105f. See also Opll, pp.245ff. Phillips, Crusades, p.138f. 809 Csendes, p.69. 810 Mayer, pp.125-138. See Riley-Smith, in Luscombe, Riley-Smith, The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV, pp.557ff. 811 Löwe, in Haussherr, III, p.27. 812 See Opll, pp.164ff., for a summarizing account of this crusade . Also Csendes, pp.70, 74f. and Hucker, in Kotzur, p.30f., who lists the participants. See Mentgen, in Kotzur, pp.73ff. for a brief sketch of the crusade inspired pogroms in English towns , especially in York, and in France . 813 Eickhoff, in Haussherr, III, p.241. 814 Opll, p.280. Also Mayer, p.128f. 815 It was the standard practice to boil the flesh off a corps, to separate the bones. See Opll, p.170, concerning the lost bones of Barbarossa . 816 Engels, pp.107ff. 817 Mayer, p.133. He also lists the deaths among the leading personalities of this crusade , among the thousands of other casualties. 818 See N. Heutger, 'Die Ritterorden im Heiligen Land: Die Hospitäler und Ordensgemeinschaften', in Kotzur, pp.137-153. 819 See Engels, pp.163ff. Especially Abulafia, pp.428ff. 820 Csendes, pp.76ff. enters into considerable detail. See Stürner, I, pp.34ff. for a summarizing discussion of the concerns of the rivaling factions in the Sicilian kingdom. 821 Phillips, Crusades, p.143. 822 Engels, p.110. 823 See Engels, p.111. Also Csendes, pp.94ff. for details of the ceremonial protocol of the coronation . 824 Engels, p.110f. Also Csendes, pp.100ff. And Stürner, I, pp.36f. The diagnoses of the illness range widely. 825 See Csendes, pp.106ff. Stürner, I, p.38f. 826 Csendes, pp.107-114. 827 Csendes, pp.121f. 828 Phillips, Crusades, p.145. 829 See Phillips, Crusades, p.148. Also Csendes, p.122, n.14. 830 Csendes, p.123. 831 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.69. 832 Hucker, in Kotzur, p.33, calculates that the ransom sum amounted to a mere 34.5 kg of silver, a paltry sum when compared to the 16 hundred weight of gold annually, exacted from Constantinople in 1196. 833 Löwe, in Haussherr, III, p.27. Also Csendes, p.125. And Stürner, I, p.39. The terms of his release and size of the ransom vary in the literature . 834 See Engels, p.112. 835 Csendes, p.127. 836 Engels, pp.111ff. Also Csendes, pp.128, 142. 808

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837 Csendes, p.142, presents this marriage as a love match rather than the usual arranged marriages. 838 Csendes, pp.148ff. It is variously reported, that the royal graves were broken open, the funerary crown removed. Those, who had participated in the coronation of Tancred and his son Roger, were burned at the stake or drowned at sea, or buried alive. Others were blinded and imprisoned north of the Alps. Not even Constance 's relatives were spared. See Stürner, I, pp.51ff., who suggests that the measures served to overcome any last resistance. 839 Stürner, I, p.57f. Also Abulafia, Frederick II, p.12. 840 Engels, p.114. 841 Csendes, p.165, indicates that Henry would be accompanied by 1500 knights and an equal number of foot soldiers. Each knight should have 30 ounces of gold, every foot soldier 10 ounces. 842 Csendes, p.165. 843 Mayer, p.137. 844 See Fuhrmann, p.184. 845 See Hucker, in Kotzur, p.35, for a list of the participants, including members of the middle classes. 846 Csendes, p.211, suggests the name might be associated with his mother Constance . Stürner, I, p.47, points out that the story first appeared some five decades later, with Albert von Stade, no friend of Constance's. Defamatory rumors circulated about her during the thirteenth century. 847 Csendes, pp.171ff. summarizes the concessions and other considerations which came into play on these occasions. 848 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.90. 849 Duby, p.62f. See Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.1, 436. 850 See Abulafia, Frederick II, p.83. 851 Stürner, I, p.63. 852 Löwe, in Haussherr, III, p.28. 853 Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.109. 854 Engels, pp.115ff. Also Csendes, pp.174ff. Also Stürner, I, pp.58ff. 855 See Stürner, I, p.63f. concerning a discussion of the ambiguous claims made concerning this conspiracy. 856 Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.429f., 429f. 857 Csendes, p.224. 858 Csendes, pp.189ff., 219, 223, offers some details concerning the retributions and their justification. 859 Csendes, p.193. Since the imprisonment of Richard, Henry VI was considered excommunicate without right to a Christian funeral. 860 See Fuhrmann, p.185f. Csendes, p.194. Also Stürner, I, p.64f. 861 M. Wehrli, Deutsche Lyrik des Mittelalters (Zürich 1962), pp.86-91. 862 Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.185. 863 See G. Duby, The Three Orders. Feudal Society Imagined. Translated by A. Goldhammer (Chicago and London 1980), pp.5, 40, 48.

342

Notes

864 Weinfurter, p.72f. See also Csendes, p.48f. Also J. Flori, 'Knightly Society", in Luscombe and Riley Smith, The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV, p.148. Also G. Duby, Art and Society in the Middle Ages (Cambridge 2000), p.22. Also Duby, Bouvines, pp.15, 61f. Also Duby, The Three Orders.. See also Fichtenau, p.304. Also LeGoff, pp.17ff. 865 See Ennen, Stadt, pp.145ff. concerning the history of fairs and the formation of hanseatic trading associations. 866 E. Maschke, 'Die deutschen Städte der Stauferzeit' in R. Haussherr, Die Zeit der Staufer , III, (Stuttgart 1977), p.64. See also Ennen, Stadt, pp.150ff. Also Ennen, Frauen, pp.104ff., concerning guilds. 867 Hlawitschka, p.168f. 868 See Opll, pp.250ff. 869 Opll, p.255. Also Stürner, I, p. 7. 870 Boshof, p.92. Also Körntgen, p.112. 871 Flachenecker, in Grieme, et al., p.15. 872 H. Keller, 'Die Zähringer und die Entwicklung Freiburgs zur Stadt', in Schmid (ed.) Zähringer I, pp.17-29. Also Schadek, Schmid, Zähringer II, pp.43ff., 220302, which include maps. See p.263, for details. 873 Bayley, pp.47ff. 874 Maschke, 'Die deutschen Städte der Stauferzeit', in Haussherr, III, p.60-64. Maschke, p.69f., indicates the number of cities among the modern cities, which existed during the Middle Ages. 875 See Gurjewitsch, in LeGoff, pp.274ff. for an extensive discussion of the usurer's position in society. 876 Gurjewitsch, in LeGoff, pp.280ff., 292f. 877 LeGoff, p.17. 878 Meckseper, Stadt im Mittelalter, pp.59ff., 168ff. See Ennen, Frauen, pp.134ff., 230. See also S. Shahar, Die Frau im Mittelalter, transl. R. Achlama (Frankfurt a.M. 1988), pp24ff., 36ff., 44ff., 164ff., 179ff. 879 C. Meckseper, 'Städtebau', in Haussherr, III, p.85. Also Meckseper, Stadt im Mittelalter, p.258. Ennen, Stadt, pp.80ff. See Pitz, p.175f.. 880 Meckseper, Stadt im Mittelalter, p.87f. 881 Meckseper, in Haussherr, III, pp.75-79. Also Meckseper, Stadt im Mittelalter, pp.76ff. 882 Maschke, in Haussherr, III, pp.59f., 66f. Also Engels, pp.134ff. 883 See S. Käuper, 'Aufstand und Kommunebildung im 13. Jahrhundert', in Grieme, et al., p.27ff. See also Ennen, Stadt, pp.142ff. for the evolution of urban administrative councils. 884 Flachenecker, in Grieme, et al., p.22. 885 See Geremek, in LeGoff, p.391f. 886 See Ennen, Stadt, p.124f. for variations of this concept. Also Ennen, Frauen, pp.91ff., for a summary of the attractions offered by urban communities. Also Rossiaud, in LeGoff, p.158f. 887 Käuper, in Grieme, et al., pp.34, 37f. Also Kruppa, in Grieme, et al. pp.79ff. 888 Käuper, in Grieme, et al. p.61f. Also Flachenecker, in Grieme, et al., p.24.

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343

Urban, p.25. Urban, p.44. 891 Csendes, p.201. See also Stürner, I, p.219, and especially Heutger, in Kotzur, p.149ff. See Phillips, Crusades, pp.53ff., 56ff. 892 Details of the coat of arms provided by Kultur- und Verkehrsamt, Bad Mergentheim, permanent seat of the order. Also Heutger, in Kotzur, p.151, for organizational details. 893 Urban, pp.99-122. 894 Urban, p.130. 895 Engels, p.140f. See also Ennen, Frauen, pp.141ff. concerning demographics and the role of women in urban settlements. 896 See Urban, pp.55ff., 136, concerning the rule and social structure of the order. 897 Urban, p.131. 898 Urban, p.85. 899 Stürner, II, p.124f. See also M. Burleigh, 'The military orders in the Baltic', in Abulafia, The New Cambridge Medieval History, V, pp.743ff. 900 Urban, p.156f. 901 Urban, p.168. Eisenstein's rendition of the 'Battle on the Ice' delighted in great detail as the heavily armed knights perished in the frigid waters under the breaking ice. 902 Urban, p.251. 903 Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.34f., 64. 904 Stürner, I, p.48f. 905 See Stürner, I, pp.80ff. for a summary of Constance 's reign in Sicily. See Abulafia, Frederick II, p.92f. for details of her will. 906 See Engels, p.121. 907 Schadek, Schmid, Zähringer II, p.76. Already in 1061, the empress Agnes had realized the promise made by Henry III, and assigned them the duchy of Carinthia , and title, since they could not actually assume possession. 908 See Goez, Lebensbilder, pp.375-388, for a biographical note of this pope. 909 Stürner, I, pp.73, 78. Innocent III used the sun-moon analogy to describe the relationship between church and crown. It was the light of the sun, which lent radiance to the moon. See J.A. Watt, 'The Papacy ', in Abulafia, The New Cambridge Medieval History, V, pp.114ff. on Innocent III and the concept of papal primacy . See Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.107. 910 See Arnold, Medieval Germany, pp.108-111. 911 Engels, pp.119-123. 912 Engels, p.123f. Also Stürner, I, p.79.Also Abulafia, Frederick II, p.105. 913 See Powell, p.9. 914 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.110. 915 Stürner, I, p.126. 916 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.106. 917 Engels, pp.125ff. Also Stürner, I, pp.127ff. 918 See Abulafia, Frederick II, p.112f. 919 See Stürner, I, pp.105ff. for a summation of Frederick's youth and education. 890

344

920

Notes

Stürner, I, pp.141ff. Stürner, I, pp.144-155. Also Abulafia, Frederick II, p.117f. 922 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.110. 923 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.119. 924 Stürner, I, pp.155-165. See Duby, Bouvines. 925 Stürner, I, p.166f. 926 Stürner, I, pp.168ff. 927 Engels, p.125. 928 Engels, pp.126ff. 929 Engels, p.129. See also Abulafia, Frederick II, p.123f. concerning the control of cities. 930 Bayley, p.12. 931 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.120. 932 See Stürner, I, pp.173ff., 176f. for the fervor ignited among the masses by the itinerant preachers of the crusade. Also Abulafia, Frederick II, p.121. 933 Stürner, I, pp.181ff. 934 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.212. 935 Meckseper, Stadt im Mittelalter, p.253. 936 See Abulafia, Frederick II, p.143f. 937 According to Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.244ff. the events took place at Hagenau. 938 Stürner, II, p.13f. Also Meckseper, Stadt im Mittelalter, p.253. 939 Stürner, II, p.321f. 940 See D. E. Queller, (ed.) The Latin Conquest of Constantinople (New York, London, Sydney, Toronto 1971) for a survey of interpretations of circumstances. Also J. J. Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium. (Harmondsworth 1997), pp.307317. Also R. J. Lilie, 'Christen gegen Christen. Die Eroberung Konstantinopels 1203/04', in Kotzur, pp.154-165. 941 Lilie, in Kotzur, p.158. 942 See Hucker, in Kotzur, p.38, for a list of German participants. 943 Mayer, pp.176ff. 944 Lilie, in Kotzur, p.161f. 945 Hucker, in Kotzur, p.39. 946 Mayer, p.184. See also Lilie, in Kotzur, p.163f. 947 See Abulafia, Frederick II, p.98. 948 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.126. 949 Urban, p.151. 950 Engels, p.131f. See Goez, Lebensbilder, pp.437-453, for a biographical note of Henry (VII). See Stürner, I, p.215f., for Frederick's disposition of the Zähringen inheritance. 951 See Stürner, I, pp.198ff., for a discussion of the circle of noble and ministerial advisors around Frederick, entrusted with administrative functions, who would support the rule of the infant Henry (VII). Cistercians in particular provided the clerical and scribal services. 952 Stürner, I, pp.231ff., 237ff. 921

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953

345

Bayley, p.137. Abulafia, Frederick II, p.130. 955 Stürner, I, pp.250ff. Also Abulafia, Frederick II, p.137f. 956 See J. M. Powell, Anatomy of a Crusade 1213-1221 (Philadelphia 1986), p.74f. for a brief list of participating secular and ecclesiastical magnates. 957 Stürner, II, pp.1-84. 958 Stürner, II, pp.47-57. Also Abulafia, Frederick II, p.264. 959 Goez, Lebensbilder, p.440. Also Stürner, II, pp.126ff. 960 Löwe, in Haussherr, III, p.30f. Also Engels, pp.132ff. 961 Stürner, II, p.280. 962 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.201. 963 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.230f. 964 Maschke, in Haussherr, III, p.67. Also Stürner, II, p.280. 965 Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.232, 234.. 966 Goez, Lebensbilder, pp.445ff. Also Stürner, p.285. 967 Goez, Lebensbilder, p.447f. 968 Stürner, II, p.297f. See Abulafia, Frederick II. P.237ff. 969 Goez, Lebensbilder, p.448f. 970 Eickhoff, in Haussherr, III, p.244. Also von Boeselager 'De bischup soll macht hebben in der stad Bremen', in Grieme, et al. p.103f. Also Urban, pp.135, 153ff., who outlines the abuses. 971 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.155. 972 Stürner, II, pp.301ff. Abulafia, Frederick II, p.237f, considers the terminology. 973 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.54. 974 Engels, p.136f. Also Goez, Lebensbilder, p.452. See Stürner, II, p.305f. Also Abulafia, Frederick II, p.241. 975 Stürner, II, p.306f. names the poets who had attended his court and lamented his fate. 976 Mayer, pp.189ff. 977 Stürner, I, p.229f. Also Mayer, pp.191-201. See especially Powell.. 978 Powell, pp.17ff., 47f. 979 Mayer, p.201f. 980 See E.-D. Hehl, 'Die Kreuzzüge. Feindbild – Erfahrung – Reflexion', in Kotzur, pp.238-247; also P. Engels, 'Das Bild des Propheten Mohammed in abendländischen Schriften des Mittelalters', in Kotzur, pp.249-263. See also Kotzur, pp. 287-497, for an illustrated catalogue of scientific and technological instruments available to Arabic-Islamic science , in such areas as mechanics, astronomy , geography, hydraulics, medicine , music, and fortifications , defenses, armaments and weapons, including such fused explosives as hand grenades. 981 Hehl, in Kotzur, p.246f. 982 See Powell, p.197. 983 Stürner, II, pp.98-115. 984 See Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.156-59. 985 Stürner, II, pp.130ff. See also Mayer, pp.203ff. Hucker, in Kotzur, p.42, offers a list of participants aboard the first sailing, including 400 citizens of Worms . 954

346

986

Notes

Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.164ff. See Stürner, II, p.136f., for a summary of the resulting accusations, arbitrary charges and countercharges. 988 Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.152,169.. 989 See Stürner, II, pp.139-157, for a detailed summary of the negotiations. Also Mayer, p. 206f. who argues that by taking the Holy Land Frederick was able to demonstrate his cosmocratic rule and the current eschatological ideas. See also Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.182ff. 990 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.188. 991 Engels, pp.138-147. Also Stürner, II, pp.157-163. Mayer, p.209. See also Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.194f., 196ff. 992 See Stürner, II, p.314f. 993 Stürner, II, p.310f. 994 Stürner, II, p.312f. 995 Stürner, II, pp.326f., 331ff. 996 Engels, p.141. 997 Engels, p.152. Also Stürner, II, pp.329f., 466-476. See Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.124. 998 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.343. 999 See Stürner, II, pp.480ff. Also Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.124. See also Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.341ff. 1000 Stürner, II, pp.485ff. 1001 Löwe, in Haussherr, III, p.32. Also Engels, pp.153ff. 1002 Stürner, II, pp.498-502. Also Abulafia, Frederick II, p.346f. 1003 Stürner, II, pp.502ff. 1004 See Stürner, II, p.521, for the list of required conditions to be fulfilled, before absolution could be granted. Also Watt, in The New Cambridge Medieval History, V, pp.137-145, concerning the Council of Lyon of 1245. 1005 Bayley, pp.16, 140. 1006 Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.430ff. 1007 Stürner, II, pp.474f., 531ff. 1008 Stürner, II, p.537f. See Watt, in The New Cambridge Medieval History, V, p.143f. 1009 Stürner, II, pp.540ff., for a summary of Fredrick's counterarguments. 1010 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.375. 1011 Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.380ff., 386. 1012 Schreiner, in Haussherr, III, p.16. Also Stürner, II, p.546. 1013 Stürner, II, p.547. 1014 Stürner, II, p.550. 1015 Löwe, in Haussherr, III, p.33. 1016 Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.377ff. 1017 Stürner, II, pp.556ff. 1018 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.403, questions this story. 1019 Stürner, II, p.554. Also Hucker, in Kotzur, p.44f. See Abulafia, Frederick II, p.401. 987

The Medieval Empire in Central Europe

1020

347

Stürner, II, pp.571ff. Stürner, II, p.568. 1022 Stürner, II, p.585f. 1023 Engels, p.155f. See Opll, p.219, for the early relations between Staufens and the Cistercian order, of which Bernard of Clairvaux figured in the early life of Barbarossa and the Second Crusade. See also Stürner, II, p.588f., for Fredericks' last will and testament. 1024 Bayley, p.65. 1025 Bayley, p.29. 1026 See M. Toch, 'Welfs , Hohenstaufen and Habsburgs ', in Abulafia, The New Cambridge Medieval History, V, pp.392-398. 1027 Schreiner, 'Die Staufer in Sage, Legende und Prophetie', in Haussherr, III, pp.17f., 249ff. Also Engels, pp.156ff. 1028 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.431f. 1029 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.436 lists some of the image-makers. 1030 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.264. 1031 Abulafia, Frederick II, p.254f. 1032 Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.267ff. 1033 See Luscombe, in Riley-Smith, The New Cambridge Medieval History, IV, pp.484ff. See also A. S. McGrade (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy (Cambridge 2003). 1034 Leyser, Communication and Power, p.185. Also Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.174. 1035 H. Fuhrmann, Einladung ins Mittelalter (Munich 1988), Figure preceding p.237. 1021

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INDEX

Aachen, 32, 42, 54, 61, 64, 70, 73, 75, 76, 85, 86, 89, 90, 92, 95, 96, 99, 104, 107, 108, 116, 118, 139, 141, 175, 209, 215, 224, 225, 226, 246, 264, 270, 276 Aachen, Palace Chapel, 42, 76, 86, 95, 96, 107 abbesses, 67, 95, 100, 103, 116 abbeys, 15, 69, 83, 99, 103, 105, 143, 156, 192 abbots, 52, 66, 67, 68, 69, 74, 80, 103, 120, 124, 133, 134, 139, 141, 142, 155, 167, 193, 198, 199, 203, 228, 269 acceptance, 11, 47, 139, 176, 244, 267 Acre, 231, 238, 245, 259, 286 Adalbero of Laon, 245 Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen, 136, 144, 145, 147, 148, 149 Adalbert of Mainz, 201, 204, 206 Adalbert of Prague, 66, 86, 90 Adam of Bremen, 132 Adelheit, 21, 36, 41, 49, 50, 55, 58, 59, 65, 69, 70, 71, 73, 77, 79, 81, 110 abbess, 92, 93 administration, 13, 18, 46, 56, 57, 62, 68, 82, 85, 91, 93, 102, 120, 121, 125, 131, 134, 137, 143, 146, 189, 225, 236, 240, 287, 296 Adolph von Nassau, 296 adventures, 39, 98, 118, 179, 182, 185, 205, 219, 231 Aeneid, 228 Agnes of Poitou, 126, 139 Agnes, empress, 128, 131, 138, 141, 142, 144, 146, 157, 169

agriculture, 16, 248, 297 Albertus Magnus, 298 Alexander Nevsky, 262 Alexios IV Angelos, 273 Alfred the Great, 35, 40 Alsace, 24, 47, 80, 207, 250, 254 altars, 48, 100, 107, 179, 189, 192, 290 analogy, 78, 94, 100, 127, 132, 263, 280 anathema, 168, 171 Anatolia, 183, 213, 234, 241 Anno of Cologne, 142, 147 Anno shrine, 144 Annolied, 144 anointing, 30, 42, 120, 200, 205 Anselm of Canterbury, 192 Antichrist, 89, 147, 170, 194, 204, 214, 287, 289, 290, 292, 299 anti-king, 26, 113, 140, 141, 150, 169, 171, 173, 175, 176, 196, 200, 205, 207 Antioch, 184, 235 Apocalypse, 290 Apostles, 203 apotheosis, 84, 86, 89 apses, 119, 121 Apulia, 73, 108, 129 Aquileia, 39, 50, 119, 121 Aquitaine, 117, 126, 264 Arabs, 22, 64, 68, 73, 236 Aragon, 267 archbishops, 29, 30, 39, 41, 42, 51, 55, 61, 62, 72, 75, 82, 83, 89, 90, 95, 100, 104, 108, 115, 122, 127, 136, 142, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 153, 155, 171, 173, 188, 192, 197, 204, 206, 215,

356 223, 228, 231, 264, 268, 286, 293 architecture, 10, 23, 52, 68, 70, 71, 84, 114, 136, 156, 298 Arelat, 230 Aribert of Milan, 122 Aribo of Mainz, 115 aristocracy, 62, 122, 128, 166, 196, 217 Aristotle, 299 Armenia, 241, 244 Arnold of Brescia, 218 Arnulf, 25, 26, 30, 31, 38, 39, 43, 45, 48 art, 23, 66, 68, 70, 84, 96, 298 Ascension, 84 asceticism, 67, 84, 89 Asia Minor, 181, 184, 213, 234 Askanians, 211, 228, 231 astronomy, 75, 282, 298 atrium, 42, 76 audience, 125, 150 Augsburg, 53, 55, 72, 95, 125, 142, 166, 220, 246, 257, 271 Augustus, 90, 288 Austria, 10, 53, 211, 214, 228, 230, 235, 277, 287 autonomy, 25, 32, 35, 54, 74, 78, 102, 103, 134, 147, 149, 158, 204, 247, 248, 278 Averroës, 299 Avicenna, 299 Babenberg, 73, 167, 205, 206, 211, 216, 238 Bad Hersfeld, 102 Bad Wimpfen, 250 Baldwin of Flanders, 136, 186 Balkans, 22, 73, 173, 228, 241 Baltic Sea, 98, 249, 250, 258, 261, 262 Bamberg, 33, 57, 99, 104, 108, 110, 111, 116, 129, 133, 154, 170, 209, 214, 225, 266 Basel, 10, 257 basilica, 224. See cathedral

Index Bavaria, 10, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30, 31, 38, 39, 43, 45, 49, 51, 53, 54, 72, 77, 90, 95, 97, 99, 104, 107, 111, 120, 126, 130, 138, 139, 141, 164, 171, 187, 199, 211, 214, 215, 216, 230, 231, 239, 277, 278 Bavarians, 23, 35, 39, 85 Beatrix, 136, 139, 140, 219, 230, 269 Béguines, 255 Belgrade, 181, 234 bellatores, 178, 245 Benedictine Rule, 66, 68, 103 Benevent, 129, 135 Berengar, 49, 50, 55 Bern, 249, 250, 254 Bernard of Clairvaux, 211, 212, 213, 281 Bertha of Turin, 136, 140, 147 Bertha von Sulzbach, 211 Bertha, empress, 174, 175 Berthold von Regensburg, 252 Bertold V von Zähringen, 264 Besançon, 167, 220, 221 bishops, 13, 25, 32, 35, 45, 48, 52, 61, 62, 68, 89, 101, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 117, 120, 122, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 133, 134, 136, 137, 138, 141, 144, 155, 160, 161, 162, 165, 166, 169, 172, 175, 176, 181, 191, 192, 193, 195, 198, 199, 201, 203, 206, 212, 215, 217, 219, 223, 226, 228, 246, 257, 267, 269, 278, 292 Bohemia, 9, 10, 19, 35, 60, 65, 72, 77, 82, 98, 107, 125, 130, 166, 175, 180, 191, 214, 228, 237 Bohemians, 19, 44, 53, 125 Boleslav I Chrobry, 82, 90, 98, 107, 119 Boleslav II, 72, 96, 98 Boleslav of Bohemia, 35, 44, 53, 60, 77 Bologna, 218, 227, 229

The Medieval Empire in Central Europe university of, 276 Bonn, 32, 246 Book of Pericopes, 110 Bouvines, battle of, 269, 270 Brandenburg, 41, 60, 61, 75, 263 Braunschweig, 116, 250, 286 Bremen, 65, 67, 144, 147, 187, 215, 259, 279 Brenner Pass, 55, 230 Brindisi, 284 bronze horses, 274 bronze plate, 173 Brotherhood of the Sword of Livonia, 261, 262 Brun, 39, 51, 54, 62, 84 Brun of Augsburg, 125 Brun of Toul, 134 Bulgars, 73, 108, 234 Burg Dürnstein, 238 Burggraf, 210 Burgundians, 36 Burgundy, 10, 33, 38, 40, 48, 54, 58, 68, 79, 81, 82, 97, 98, 116, 119, 125, 126, 130, 131, 141, 143, 207, 210, 219, 220, 230, 274, 297 Byzantines, 56, 63, 68, 70, 74, 108, 135, 136, 173, 191, 217, 218, 226, 227, 234 Byzantium, 214, 234, 297 Cairo, 73, 281 Calixtinum, 203 Canon Law, 52, 101, 137, 143, 151, 156 canonica regula, 104 canons, 27, 104 Canossa, 136, 140, 167, 172, 174, 285 Canterbury, 223 caparisons, 229 capella, 102, 210 Capetians, 32, 79, 225 cardinals, 129, 144, 172, 174, 194, 195, 197, 220, 221 Carinthia, 120, 126, 141, 148, 164, 287

357

Carolingians, 9, 11, 13, 16, 17, 19, 23, 24, 26, 27, 31, 32, 34, 45, 46, 52, 86, 116, 117, 199, 246 castles, 34, 131, 149, 171, 196, 206, 207, 210, 212, 239, 249 cathedral schools, 67, 102, 276 cathedrals, 33, 35, 41, 52, 61, 62, 64, 66, 90, 96, 99, 104, 108, 109, 110, 111, 114, 115, 119, 121, 125, 129, 138, 147, 165, 173, 187, 189, 195, 205, 214, 222, 244, 268, 274, 292, 295 celibacy, 109, 110, 130, 134, 136, 153, 155, 156, 158, 159, 176 chaplains, 15 Charlemagne, 17, 20, 27, 28, 42, 54, 63, 64, 84, 86, 89, 90, 92, 95, 96, 99, 116, 141, 161, 220, 223, 224, 227, 233, 241, 270 Charles Martel, 53 Charles of Anjou, 296 Charles the Simple, 23, 32, 42 chastity, 180 chivalry, 124, 247, 283 choirs, 100, 173 Christ, 15, 30, 55, 65, 75, 86, 88, 90, 106, 109, 117, 127, 132, 133, 145, 153, 157, 158, 162, 165, 180, 192, 233, 283, 288, 289, 291 Christendom, 20, 54, 84, 85, 108, 114, 128, 130, 135, 144, 155, 158, 174, 177, 186, 204, 212, 216, 220, 222, 241, 244, 245, 284, 289, 295 Christianization, 19, 35, 37, 44, 60, 65, 72, 75, 86, 91, 93, 127, 283 Christians, 35, 75, 106, 121, 145, 148, 161, 177, 179, 184, 185, 211, 271, 285 Christocentricity, 96 Church Fathers, 126 Church Triumphant, 106 Cistercians, 255 cities, 16, 18, 32, 49, 58, 64, 73, 105, 116, 121, 122, 132, 139,

358 162, 169, 180, 184, 210, 212, 217, 221, 222, 223, 225, 226, 229, 243, 246, 247, 250, 251, 255, 256, 264, 278, 284, 288, 294 City of David, 285 clergy, 25, 39, 42, 52, 56, 101, 109, 120, 132, 138, 140, 143, 147, 153, 157, 171, 177, 180, 220, 221, 247, 287 clerics, 15, 131, 132, 144, 164, 191, 192, 197, 246, 276, 285 Clermont, 176 cloak, 109, 115, 236, 276 cloisters, 103, 255 Cluniac Reforms, 69, 82, 103, 131, 132, 148, 164, 170, 175 Cluny, 60, 68, 82, 103, 126, 129, 175, 198 cohesion, 19, 22, 23, 79, 104, 105, 115, 134, 136, 205, 210, 218, 227, 245, 248, 278 College of Cardinals, 129, 134, 144, 154, 288 College of Electors, 287 Cologne, 32, 42, 51, 59, 62, 67, 75, 80, 83, 90, 100, 115, 125, 128, 144, 146, 153, 180, 193, 196, 201, 215, 231, 242, 246, 247, 250, 251, 263, 266, 293 columns, 43, 53, 125 Concordat of Westminster, 192 Concordat of Worms, 12, 202, 203, 205, 210, 215, 216, 269 Confederatio, 269, 270, 276 Conrad I, 21, 23, 24, 48, 170, 205 Conrad II, 111, 113, 115, 117, 119, 121, 125, 134, 140, 205 Conrad III, 209, 211, 213, 214, 216, 230, 256 Conrad IV, 209, 287, 294, 295 Conrad von Hildesheim, 245, 259 Conradin, 209, 296, 297 consensus, 15, 34, 46, 47, 147 consors imperii, 55, 59, 72, 110

Index consorts, 58, 59, 71, 76, 78, 197, 230 Constance, 104, 216, 219, 221, 229, 236, 237, 240, 242, 244, 257, 264, 265, 267, 268, 276 Constance of Aragon, 268 Constance, treaty of, 284 Constantine, 17, 33, 85, 89, 92, 218, 263 Constantinian Donation, 56, 85, 88, 92, 153, 154, 224 Constantinople, 22, 44, 53, 56, 63, 66, 70, 73, 84, 85, 118, 135, 154, 177, 178, 181, 182, 184, 213, 231, 234, 241, 272, 273 Constitutio de feudis, 122 Constitutum Constantini, 55, 85 continuity, 11, 18, 19, 23, 24, 42, 76, 78, 88, 90, 95, 100, 116, 134, 141, 151, 210, 224, 227, 230, 275 coronation, 11, 23, 27, 30, 31, 39, 42, 44, 50, 55, 63, 65, 70, 75, 77, 83, 87, 88, 90, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 103, 107, 110, 115, 117, 118, 119, 120, 128, 144, 153, 154, 171, 175, 193, 195, 200, 205, 207, 213, 216, 217, 219, 220, 224, 226, 229, 230, 237, 242, 263, 265, 266, 267, 270, 274, 275 Coronation Gospels, 43 Corvey, 30, 34, 36, 38, 41, 67, 102, 103 Cosmocrator, 288 Council of Chalcedon, 129 Council of Constantinople, 151 Council of Lyon, 290, 291 counts, 57, 95, 97, 101, 105, 131, 199, 232 courts, 15, 122, 201, 231, 275 craftsmen, 251, 297 Cross of Lothair, 119 crosses, 33, 118, 124 crossing, 115, 166, 230, 233, 249

The Medieval Empire in Central Europe crown, 9, 11, 14, 17, 25, 29, 30, 32, 38, 39, 47, 48, 50, 51, 54, 55, 59, 62, 65, 72, 75, 82, 83, 86, 100, 102, 103, 107, 113, 114, 115, 117, 119, 121, 122, 134, 138, 140, 141, 143, 144, 147, 150, 152, 156, 160, 168, 171, 172, 173, 176, 191, 192, 193, 195, 196, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 207, 210, 211, 219, 220, 221, 224, 226, 227, 228, 230, 233, 239, 244, 258, 263, 265, 266, 267, 270, 272, 274, 279, 285, 288, 291, 294, 296 Crusade, Children's, 267, 270, 280 crusader states, 183, 263 Crusades, 17, 106, 123, 132, 135, 177, 178, 179, 180, 182, 184, 185, 187, 188, 200, 212, 213, 223, 232, 235, 236, 238, 240, 241, 243, 244, 245, 247, 267, 270, 275, 277, 279, 281, 283, 284, 287, 289, 291, 292, 293, 295, 297 crypts, 28, 125, 138, 224 culture, 15, 71, 76, 84, 114, 204, 247, 248, 283, 297 Curia, 154 curriculum, 67, 277 Cyprus, 11, 241, 244, 285, 294, 295 Damascus, 213 Damietta, 281, 283 Danes, 35, 60 Daniel, 17 Book of, 17 David, 66, 127, 280, 285, 287 Denmark, 10, 44, 72, 117, 136, 231, 237, 260, 261, 294 Dictatus papae, 158 discipline, 172, 182, 185 divine grace, 32, 118 divinity, 96 domini terrae, 278 Dominicans, 255, 277, 279, 291

359

dominium mundi, 55, 63, 86, 130, 153, 164, 204, 220, 244, 287 dukes, 24, 26, 28, 31, 36, 40, 43, 45, 49, 50, 57, 73, 75, 82, 126, 130, 136, 141, 145, 148, 164, 167, 187, 199, 211, 228, 230, 232, 238, 249, 264 duty, 14, 17, 72, 117, 133, 146, 199, 228 Easter, 29, 64, 78, 100, 108, 109, 117, 130, 139, 152, 165, 174, 192, 218, 226, 234, 237 Ecclesia, 86, 106 Edessa, 186, 211, 213 Edgith, 35, 39, 40, 48, 49, 64, 84, 113 Edward the Confessor, 136, 224 Eguisheim, 129, 254 Egypt, 272, 281 Eichstätt, 67, 137 Eleanor of Aquitaine, 179, 225, 239 Empire, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 33, 38, 43, 44, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 66, 69, 70, 73, 75, 76, 78, 79, 84, 86, 88, 91, 93, 98, 103, 105, 107, 111, 113, 115, 117, 119, 120, 130, 133, 136, 137, 138, 139, 143, 145, 148, 153, 154, 155, 164, 165, 168, 185, 187, 190, 191, 192, 195, 199, 203, 210, 211, 214, 216, 217, 219, 220, 221, 222, 224, 225, 226, 227, 229, 230, 231, 236, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 250, 261, 263, 264, 266, 268, 270, 274, 275, 276, 280, 287, 288, 290, 293, 296, 297, 300 Empress Maude. See Mathilda of England end of days, 242, 244, 281 England, 35, 80, 117, 136, 171, 181, 192, 213, 222, 228, 229, 233, 234, 236, 239, 244, 264, 270, 286, 292 entrances, 117, 274

360 epic poetry, 36, 66, 228 Erfurt, 40, 231 Essen, 67, 95 Estonia, 260, 262 Estonians, 258 Eugene III, 217 excommunication, 21, 69, 111, 114, 145, 149, 155, 160, 161, 164, 165, 166, 169, 171, 172, 174, 187, 190, 191, 192, 193, 196, 197, 198, 221, 227, 266, 268, 269, 284, 287, 288, 289, 294, 295, 297, 299 experience, 37, 52, 97, 126, 146, 170, 180, 298 falconry, 298 feudalism, 232 fiction, 64, 85, 92, 110 Fifth Crusade, 281, 286 filigree, 71 Finland, 136, 263 First Crusade, 161, 181, 185, 187, 190, 211, 270, 283 Flanders, 98, 136, 181, 191, 213 Flavia Helena, 33 Florence, 136, 176 Forchheim, 23, 170 fortifications, 27, 34, 149, 151, 210, 230, 254, 261 Fourth Crusade, 242, 272, 281 Fourth Lateran Council, 270, 271 France, 9, 22, 44, 47, 48, 54, 73, 74, 79, 98, 106, 126, 129, 131, 136, 161, 176, 181, 191, 192, 205, 211, 212, 222, 223, 228, 233, 234, 236, 238, 239, 264, 265, 266, 268, 270, 277, 280, 288, 292 Franciscans, 255, 291 Franconia, 23, 26, 43, 44, 48, 53 Franconians, 23, 26, 30 Frankfurt, 48, 99, 110, 148, 270, 275 Franks, 21, 33, 36, 43, 44, 47, 85, 113, 227 fraternities, 31, 45, 104

Index Frederick I, 206, 207, 209, 214, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 225, 226, 228, 230, 231, 233, 234, 248, 271, 286, 287 Frederick II, 140, 209, 242, 260, 261, 267, 268, 269, 272, 274, 275, 278, 283, 286, 287, 288, 296, 297, 299 freedom, 257 Freiburg, 206, 249, 250, 253, 254, 255, 256 Freising, 29, 215 frescoes, 119, 154, 218 Fribourg, 249 Frisia, 37, 213 Fritzlar, 30 Fulda, 25, 29, 67, 102, 271 Gandersheim, 27, 67, 95, 116 Gebhard of Eichstätt, 137 Gelnhausen, 250 gems, 229 genealogy, 36, 227 Genoa, 281, 289 Gerberga, 32, 54 Gerbert of Aurillac, 74, 86, 88 Germany, 9, 43, 47, 51, 54, 64, 72, 74, 75, 81, 85, 90, 91, 92, 93, 109, 119, 120, 125, 129, 135, 162, 163, 166, 169, 172, 174, 175, 186, 195, 196, 197, 203, 204, 206, 207, 210, 211, 212, 219, 222, 223, 226, 236, 239, 240, 241, 256, 263, 264, 267, 268, 272, 274, 276, 277, 278, 286, 288, 292, 296, 297 Gernrode, 69 Gero, 44, 54, 60, 69 Ghibellines, 267, 296 Gieselbert, 32, 43, 47 Gisela, 91, 115, 117, 121 glory, 18, 65, 86, 88, 114, 224, 245, 290 Gniezno, 82, 85, 90 Godfrey of Bouillon, 126, 185, 190 Golden Bull of Eger, 269, 270 Golden Bull of Rimini, 261, 262

The Medieval Empire in Central Europe Golden Rome, 88, 91 Gorze, 68, 102 Goslar, 109, 131, 138, 150, 151, 157, 162, 173, 196, 206, 216, 248 Gospels of Otto III, 91 Gothic, 41, 263 Göttingen, 149 grace, 24, 31, 78, 90, 120, 168, 215, 235, 243, 285 Gran, 91 gravity, 17, 26, 61, 74, 242, 274 Greece, 107 Greeks, 68, 85, 213, 236 Greenland, 136 Guelfs. See Welfs guilds, 247 Gunhild, 118, 125, 139 Habsburgs, 207 Hagenau, 250 Halberstadt, 61, 109 Hamburg, 57, 60, 65, 136, 144, 147, 148, 187, 215 Harald Bluetooth, 60, 72, 80 Hartwich of Bremen, 215 Harzburg, 149, 151 Hatheburg, 28, 39 hauberk, 185 Hausmacht, 119, 196, 209, 225 Havelberg, 60, 61, 75 Heavenly Jerusalem, 99, 270 Heerschildordnung, 232 Heil, 11, 12, 23, 27, 28, 31, 37, 190. See felicitas Heinrich Raspe, 293 Heinrich von Veldeke, 228 Heinricianum, 108, 203 Henry (VII), 274, 275, 277, 278, 279, 280, 299 Henry I, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 38, 43, 49, 192 Henry I of England, 192, 205 Henry I of France, 126, 136 Henry II, 12, 18, 19, 21, 28, 54, 90, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 101, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 113,

361

115, 116, 120, 125, 154, 155, 206, 211 Henry II of England, 205, 222, 223, 224, 225, 231 Henry III, 63, 111, 113, 114, 118, 119, 120, 122, 125, 126, 127, 129, 130, 131, 133, 134, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 144, 149, 155, 156, 168, 175, 286 Henry III of England, 292 Henry IV, 114, 131, 134, 136, 137, 138, 139, 141, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 152, 157, 159, 160, 161, 162, 166, 168, 169, 171, 172, 173, 175, 176, 181, 185, 187, 188, 189, 190, 195, 196, 214, 221, 240, 285 Henry of Augsburg, 142, 143 Henry the Lion, 211, 213, 214, 215, 223, 225, 226, 229, 230, 231, 233, 236, 237, 239, 249, 261, 264 Henry the Quarrelsome, 72, 77, 80, 91, 95 Henry V, 113, 114, 153, 157, 187, 188, 190, 191, 192, 193, 195, 196, 197, 198, 201, 203, 204, 205, 206, 209, 210 Henry VI, 209, 228, 229, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 244, 245, 263 Henry VII of France, 259 heresy, 127, 155, 156, 187, 269, 271, 272, 279, 287, 290 heretics, 106, 157, 271, 279, 297 Herford, 28, 67 Heribert of Cologne, 83, 84 Hermann Billung, 44, 54, 60 Hermann von Salm, 173, 175 Hermann von Salza, 124, 131 Hildebrand, 129, 134, 135, 144, 157, 163. See Gregory VII Hildegard von Bingen, 214 Hildesheim, 67, 102, 104

362 Hohenstaufen, 14, 19, 20, 131, 167, 171, 187, 205, 206, 225, 248, 260, 265, 274 Hohenzollern, 263 Holstein, 37 Holy Grave, 132 Holy Lance, 33, 39, 53, 90, 95, 96, 105, 119, 143 Holy Land, 133, 161, 177, 179, 180, 187, 206, 212, 232, 236, 238, 241, 244, 245, 259, 264, 267, 272, 275, 281, 284, 285, 289, 294, 295 Holy Places, 180, 241, 282 Holy Spirit, 158, 180, 195 homage, 42, 47, 52, 78, 96, 98, 101, 114, 116, 120, 123, 126, 129, 139, 143, 152, 153, 156, 159, 160, 161, 164, 172, 188, 191, 192, 206, 211, 228, 230, 231, 237, 238, 240, 244 honor, 55, 60, 162, 201, 216, 274, 283 Hospital of St. Mary of the German House, 234 Hrabanus Maurus, 119 Hrotsvit von Gandersheim, 41, 65 Hugh Capet, 79 Hugh of Cluny, 134, 139, 142, 167 Hugh of Lower Burgundy, 38 Hugh, king of Italy, 49 Hungarians, 10, 22, 23, 24, 33, 34, 36, 37, 44, 51, 52, 56, 60, 125, 181, 216 Hungary, 9, 19, 91, 93, 97, 98, 130, 141, 153, 155, 166, 191, 214, 234, 267 Iceland, 136 Ida, 48, 50 illuminated gospels, 43, 55, 78 illuminations, 84, 86, 91, 96 images, 31, 247, 283 immunities, 52, 62, 102, 135, 159, 238 imperator Romanorum, 222 imperial cross, 118, 143

Index imperial crown, 38, 56, 107, 117, 227 imperial insignia, 33, 159 imperialis philosophia, 86 imperium, 219, 227, 240 Imperium, 274, 288, 292 Imperium Christi, 159 Imperium Christianum, 9, 17, 19, 20, 25, 52, 54, 57, 70, 84, 88, 93, 105, 108, 114, 128, 134, 136, 155, 157, 174, 203, 204, 222 Imperium Sacrum Romanorum, 138 influences, 17, 76, 85, 128, 174, 297 Ingelheim, 126 Inquisition, 279 insignia, 12, 14, 26, 30, 33, 42, 77, 95, 115, 188, 192, 214, 266, 270, 275 instruments, 86 Investiture, 12, 17, 25, 45, 52, 69, 72, 87, 101, 103, 109, 111, 114, 120, 128, 130, 137, 138, 141, 143, 148, 149, 151, 152, 153, 155, 156, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 172, 174, 175, 185, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 198, 201, 203, 204, 205, 215, 216, 237, 248, 270, 287 Investiture Struggle, 12, 120, 130, 172, 203, 204, 205, 216 Isaac, 240 Isabella of England, 286 Isabella of Jerusalem, 284 Islam, 73, 106, 211, 281 Italy, 10, 16, 17, 22, 33, 38, 44, 49, 50, 54, 55, 58, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 72, 73, 74, 76, 77, 81, 83, 84, 91, 92, 93, 98, 107, 108, 111, 116, 119, 122, 125, 129, 135, 136, 140, 143, 147, 153, 154, 167, 171, 173, 176, 186, 195, 197, 198, 199, 204, 207, 210, 211, 216, 217, 218, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 226, 227, 229, 230, 234, 237, 239, 240,

The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 244, 264, 266, 267, 268, 280, 281, 284, 286, 287, 293, 295, 296, 297 itinerancy, 14, 15, 29, 46, 47, 57, 58, 59, 71, 72, 82, 87, 109, 111, 116, 121, 130, 157, 212, 246 itineraries, 15, 16, 102, 210 Jerusalem, 11, 37, 91, 106, 108, 149, 159, 161, 176, 178, 179, 180, 184, 185, 186, 187, 223, 224, 231, 232, 235, 241, 243, 245, 267, 272, 281, 284, 285, 286, 288 Jews, 37, 106, 132, 145, 180, 182, 185, 212, 233, 242, 249, 271 Joachim of Fiore, 244, 290 John Lackland, 238. See King John John of Salisbury, 222 John Philagathos, 77, 83, 84, 87 John Tsimiskes, 70 jousts, 228, 229 Judaism, 106 Justinian, 17, 224, 288 Kaiserslautern, 250 Kaufungen, 110 Kiev, 98, 107, 119, 175, 191 King Canute, 80, 98, 108, 118 King John, 239, 266, 269 King Stephen, 90, 97 Kingdom of Jerusalem, 241 kings, 12, 20, 25, 28, 36, 40, 52, 60, 86, 124, 128, 134, 157, 159, 162, 170, 173, 199, 201, 222, 231, 233, 234, 237, 241, 244, 255, 261, 264, 270, 275, 277, 293, 296, 300 King's Peace, 132 kingship, 11, 14, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 30, 38, 42, 45, 70, 72, 87, 95, 101, 111, 119, 121, 125, 127, 143, 145, 151, 170, 172, 173, 190, 199, 200, 205, 209, 239, 240, 243, 246, 265, 280, 296, 297 knighthood, 129, 228, 233, 297

363

knights, 122, 131, 132, 133, 140, 146, 159, 171, 177, 179, 182, 184, 185, 186, 189, 193, 196, 201, 214, 228, 231, 232, 237, 238, 239, 247, 259, 267, 276, 282, 283, 284, 285 Knights of the Hospital of St. John, 254, 260 Knights of the Hospital of St. Mary of the German House, 124, 131, 235, 258, 259, 261, 262, 263 Knights of the Temple of Solomon, 133, 231, 236, 260 Koblenz, 209 Königsnähe, 48, 52, 65, 110, 142, 171 Krakow, 90, 125 Krems, 238 Kumans, 261 Kunigunde, 96, 99, 106, 107, 109, 110, 111, 115 laboratores, 245 Lake Peipus, battle of, 262 Landfrieden, 187, 286 landgraves, 207 Lateran Council, 144, 203, 277 Latvians, 258, 260 League, Lombard, 225, 226, 248, 280, 284 League, Veronese, 226 learning, 29, 66, 67, 105, 142, 248, 276 legitimacy, 20, 29, 30, 36, 49, 64, 77, 94, 127, 152, 157, 163, 172, 176, 215, 224, 266, 282 Legnano, 226, 231 Lenten Synod of 1076, 163 Leo of Vercelli, 86, 88 Leopold III of Austria, 205, 235 Leopold VI of Austria, 277 Liberal Arts, 276 Liège, 67, 188 Limburg an der Lahn, 191 literacy, 68 literature, 67, 79, 91 Lithuanians, 262

364 liturgical drama, 67 liturgical texts, 101 Liudolf, 27, 41, 44, 48, 49, 50, 55, 59, 66, 70 Liudolfingians, 23, 27 Liutgard, 27, 41, 48, 84, 113 Liuticians, 126, 130 Liutpoldingians, 23 Liutprand of Cremona,, 56, 64 Livonia, 258, 260 Livonian Crusade, 259, 262 Livonians, 258 Lombardy, 17, 39, 49, 55, 99, 122, 162, 197, 207, 218, 220, 221, 222, 225, 227, 229, 248, 264, 266, 279 Longinus, 33 Lothair, 49 Lothar III, 113, 154, 191, 206, 207, 210, 211, 218, 231 Lothar von Supplinburg, 191, 196, 201, 204, 205, 206 Lotharingia, 10, 23, 24, 26, 32, 42, 44, 47, 51, 54, 62, 102, 105, 119, 126, 136, 141, 181, 185, 188, 190 Louis I of Bavaria, 278 Louis IV of France, 42, 47, 48 Louis IX of France, 234, 260, 291, 294 Louis the Child, 22, 23 Louis the Pious, 9, 54, 58, 93, 104, 167 Louis the Younger, 27 Louis V of France, 59 Louis VII of France, 179, 211, 222 loyalty, 11, 32, 42, 45, 48, 52, 56, 74, 77, 105, 107, 121, 123, 134, 140, 145, 171, 190, 195, 217 Lübeck, 216, 231, 249, 250, 255, 257, 259, 261 Luxemburg, 95, 96, 97, 109, 111 Lyon, 288, 289, 292, 294, 295 lyric poetry, 36, 245 macrocosm, 94

Index Magdeburg, 35, 40, 44, 60, 61, 64, 65, 67, 77, 80, 90, 99, 104, 109, 111, 116, 137, 149 Magi. See Three Kings magnates, 11, 13, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 30, 38, 42, 45, 46, 48, 59, 64, 74, 76, 78, 81, 94, 96, 97, 102, 110, 113, 115, 117, 120, 125, 127, 134, 136, 138, 139, 141, 142, 143, 147, 148, 150, 152, 160, 163, 166, 167, 169, 170, 172, 176, 185, 187, 190, 192, 194, 195, 196, 198, 200, 201, 203, 205, 209, 218, 228, 229, 231, 234, 239, 240, 242, 248, 255, 256, 264, 266, 268, 269, 275, 278, 284, 286, 291, 293, 300 Maimonides, 299 Mainz, 41, 42, 55, 61, 70, 72, 78, 100, 106, 114, 115, 125, 142, 153, 165, 171, 180, 187, 188, 192, 193, 201, 206, 212, 223, 233, 243, 246, 250, 266, 268, 270, 293 mandorla, 86, 121 Manfred, 295, 296 manuscripts, 67, 101, 120 Marburg, 263 marches, 10, 35, 44, 55, 60, 98, 130 Margaret of Austria, 277 margraves, 23, 35, 49, 60, 75, 80, 119, 131, 140, 199, 205 margravines, 136, 140, 141, 167, 173, 197, 207 Maria Theotokos, 76, 107 markets, 210, 245, 247, 248, 251, 254 Marozia, 38 Marseilles, 272 marshals, 131 martyrdom, 179 martyrs, 33, 65, 176, 273 Masovia, 261, 262 Mathilda of England, 192, 196, 205, 223, 225

The Medieval Empire in Central Europe Mathilda of Quedlinburg, 77, 81, 83, 87, 92 Mathilda of Tuscany, 167, 173, 176, 195 Mathilda, Saxon queen, 28, 29, 36, 39, 40, 71 medicine, 277, 298 Mediterranean, 22, 184, 214, 242, 273, 281, 283 Meissen, 44, 80, 119 Memleben, 40, 64 merchants, 132, 247, 251, 258, 259, 261 Merovingians, 18, 31, 246 Merseburg, 28, 34, 95, 96, 99, 111, 149, 173, 215 Messina, 235, 236, 244 Metz, 68, 180 Michael Scotus, 298 microcosm, 94 middle class, 181, 189, 201, 247, 248 Mieszko I, 61, 72, 77, 82 Mieszko II, 90, 119 Milan, 117, 122, 147, 148, 162, 176, 193, 217, 220, 221, 223, 229, 237 Militia of Christ, 259 millennium, 20, 69, 91, 133 Minden, 89, 250 ministerials, 34, 122, 123, 124, 131, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 146, 150, 171, 188, 189, 194, 196, 200, 201, 202, 210, 231, 232, 238, 247, 261, 277, 294 Minnesänger, 228, 245, 279 minority, 54, 58, 81, 138, 141, 143, 147, 149, 157, 276, 277 missi dominici, 14 missionaries, 53, 61, 68 missions, 259 monarchs, 14, 18, 21, 50, 58, 67, 69, 155, 157, 221, 248, 270, 275, 284, 291, 299 monarchy, 14, 24, 33, 43, 50, 58, 62, 65, 73, 96, 117, 121, 126,

365

128, 136, 141, 146, 148, 150, 156, 164, 165, 166, 170, 171, 199, 200, 201, 204, 205, 210, 240, 243, 247, 267, 269, 274, 286, 300 monastic reform, 66, 68, 102 money economy, 247, 248, 250, 252, 297 Mongols, 283, 288 monks, 69, 103, 104, 129, 133, 156, 246 Monte Casino, 129 Moravia, 10, 22, 98 Moslems, 73, 185, 213, 235, 242, 271, 282 Munich, 29, 230, 249, 250 Münster, 250 Münzenberg, 233 Naples, 237, 244, 276, 296, 297 university of, 276 Nativity, 107 Near East, 211 nobility, 11, 16, 23, 26, 34, 38, 44, 46, 48, 52, 56, 62, 78, 91, 97, 98, 101, 104, 109, 118, 122, 125, 131, 132, 137, 140, 143, 146, 147, 150, 154, 155, 157, 158, 166, 167, 171, 177, 179, 180, 183, 188, 189, 190, 193, 196, 199, 209, 210, 213, 232, 233, 243, 247, 272, 279, 286, 292 Nördlingen, 254, 256 Norman Sicily, 229, 240 Normandy, 180, 205, 212, 213, 232, 239 Normans, 108, 135, 136, 137, 144, 147, 162, 173, 174, 176, 193, 197, 207, 211, 214, 216, 218, 219, 273 Northumbria, 40 Norway, 133, 261 Novgorod, 261, 262 Nürnberg, 130, 210, 268, 277, 280 Nymwegen, 80, 118, 225, 246

366 oath, 13, 14, 30, 42, 45, 46, 47, 48, 52, 56, 57, 72, 77, 87, 96, 101, 133, 137, 141, 154, 156, 159, 164, 165, 166, 167, 169, 173, 184, 190, 191, 192, 193, 199, 202, 226, 264, 279, 284, 287 obedience, 99, 114, 121, 132, 134, 139, 152, 153, 158, 159, 161, 162, 165, 166, 169, 172, 173, 188, 190, 194, 195, 201, 205, 279, 289, 291, 297 Obodrites, 146 Odilo of Cluny, 80, 103, 128 Ohtrich of Magdeburg, 74 omnipotence, 158, 159, 288, 293 oral tradition, 57 oratores, 245 Ordo Teutonicorum, 235, 259 Original Sin, 155 Ostarichi, 216 Otto I, 21, 29, 33, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 68, 69, 70, 71, 74, 76, 84, 88, 113, 153, 199, 220 Otto II, 21, 35, 42, 50, 55, 59, 63, 70, 72, 73, 74, 76, 81, 84, 102, 119, 125 Otto III, 21, 58, 70, 72, 75, 76, 80, 81, 84, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 98, 99, 103, 104, 108, 119, 154, 214 Otto IV, 209, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269 Otto von Freising, 215 Ottonians, 9, 12, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, 27, 30, 33, 39, 40, 45, 46, 54, 55, 57, 64, 70, 79, 91, 105, 113, 117, 151, 153, 155 Ottonianum, 56, 84, 88, 108, 158 Paderborn, 29, 96, 109, 111 paganism, 19, 75, 161, 213, 233, 261, 270 pagans, 17, 54, 98, 241 palaces, 14, 15, 41, 64, 88, 91, 96, 116, 246, 250

Index Palermo, 240, 242, 244, 264, 274, 295 Palestine, 133, 182, 184, 186, 237, 272, 281 Papacy, 17, 18, 20, 22, 25, 38, 49, 52, 56, 63, 66, 69, 74, 79, 84, 87, 99, 103, 105, 113, 118, 121, 127, 128, 129, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 142, 144, 146, 147, 148, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 158, 160, 164, 165, 167, 168, 171, 174, 177, 189, 190, 192, 195, 198, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 211, 216, 219, 220, 221, 222, 225, 226, 227, 230, 241, 244, 260, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 275, 281, 283, 284, 287, 289, 290, 292, 294, 296, 299 Papal States, 10, 55, 135, 137, 153, 193, 195, 225, 227, 229, 230, 237, 240, 269, 287, 288. See Patrimonium Petri Paris, 73, 224 Parma, 294 Parzival, 283 Passau, 53 Patriarchs, 154 Patrimonium Petri, 55, 121 patrons, 67, 99, 173 Pavia, 50, 55, 78, 79, 81, 84, 86, 99, 109, 116, 218, 222 Peace of God, 131, 175, 177 Peace of the Land. See Landfrieden peasants, 34, 132, 140, 151, 171, 245, 263, 279 penance, 86, 89, 92, 97, 162, 165, 167, 178, 180, 186, 187, 231, 270 Pentecost, 47, 228 Pepin, 21, 31, 56, 154 Peter and Paul, 91, 203 Peter the Hermit, 180 Philip, 176, 209, 240, 264, 266, 296 Philip I of France, 159

The Medieval Empire in Central Europe Philip II Augustus of France, 235, 236, 237, 238, 266, 268 philosophy, 74 piety, 29, 63, 68, 83, 98, 100, 103, 126, 134, 136, 138, 183, 244, 285 pilgrimages, 69, 90, 132, 133, 135, 146, 159, 177, 178, 180, 183, 187, 206, 228, 231, 241, 267, 280 pilgrims, 108, 132, 133, 178, 182, 213, 282, 284 pillars, 51, 202 Plantagenets, 192, 223, 225, 269, 286 poets, 228, 280, 297 Poitou, 126, 234, 264 Poland, 9, 19, 61, 65, 72, 77, 82, 90, 92, 96, 107, 119, 125, 150, 155, 166, 175, 191, 214, 263, 294 Poles, 19, 61, 98, 107 policies, 18, 19, 24, 32, 36, 37, 39, 43, 45, 48, 49, 50, 51, 57, 58, 60, 63, 64, 66, 70, 71, 72, 74, 76, 81, 83, 87, 92, 94, 98, 105, 116, 119, 135, 136, 137, 142, 143, 147, 148, 149, 157, 158, 171, 175, 187, 188, 196, 197, 198, 204, 206, 207, 212, 217, 219, 221, 222, 225, 230, 232, 237, 241, 246, 257, 266, 268, 277, 278 popes Alexander II, 145, 148, 157, 161, 222 Alexander III, 222, 223, 224, 225, 235 Alexander IV, 295, 297 Benedict IX, 127 Benedict V, 57 Benedict VI, 74 Benedict VII, 75 Benedict VIII, 107, 108, 109 Benedict X, 142 Boniface VII, 74 Calixtus II, 198

367

Celestine III, 237, 241 Clement II, 128, 129 Clement III, 173, 174, 176, 181, 186, 187 Clement IV, 296 Damasus II, 129 Gelasius I, 20, 85 Gelasius II, 197, 198 Gregory I, 84, 158 Gregory IX, 278, 279, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289 Gregory V, 84, 87 Gregory VI, 127, 128 Gregory VII, 114, 128, 148, 150, 157, 158, 159, 160, 163, 169, 171, 172, 175, 188, 194, 203, 217, 221 Gregory VIII, 232, 233 Hadrian II, 151 Hadrian IV, 218, 219, 221 Honorius II, 145, 206 Honorius III, 271, 274, 276, 284 Innocent III, 230, 237, 244, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 274 Innocent IV, 282, 288, 289, 293, 297 John IV, 76 John X, 38 John XI, 38 John XII, 55, 56, 57, 61, 154 John XIII, 57, 61, 63, 70, 76 John XIX, 117 John XV, 84 Leo I, 129 Leo IX, 119, 129, 130, 134, 135, 136, 152, 176, 255, 273 Leo VIII, 56 Nicholas II, 143, 144, 145 Paschal II, 187, 188, 192, 193, 195, 197 Paschal III, 223, 225 Sergius III, 38 Sergius IV, 106 Stephen IX, 142 Sylvester I, 89, 218 Sylvester II, 89, 92, 95, 99, 107

368 Sylvester III, 127 Urban II, 83, 133, 175, 176, 177, 180, 186, 187, 191, 194 Victor II, 136, 137, 138, 141, 142, 221 Victor IV, 222, 223 Posnan, 61, 82 Prague, 35, 61, 65, 72, 90, 98, 125, 175, 180 Praxedis, 175, 176 priests, 20, 134, 158, 164 primacy, 18, 20, 24, 26, 33, 40, 48, 55, 61, 63, 85, 87, 91, 92, 93, 113, 121, 128, 129, 135, 144, 153, 154, 155, 158, 163, 167, 169, 171, 175, 190, 200, 201, 204, 205, 218, 220, 221, 257, 270, 274, 289, 291, 292 prince electors, 12, 43, 199, 266, 300 privileges, 14, 72, 96, 107, 111, 113, 130, 155, 172, 181, 194, 210, 218, 220, 221, 231, 241, 243, 247, 248, 256, 272, 275, 278, 292 privilegium Ottonianum, 56, 153 progress, 9, 14, 29, 40, 46, 74, 82, 85, 96, 97, 102, 109, 115, 118, 125, 215 property, 26, 39, 51, 56, 81, 99, 109, 136, 141, 151, 154, 156, 158, 181, 183, 185, 191, 192, 194, 195, 201, 271, 276 Provence, 10, 119, 180 providence, 31, 38, 53, 227 Prüm, 102 Prussian Crusade, 262 Prussians, 90, 261, 262 pulpits, 76, 107 purgatory, 13, 291 Quedlinburg, 28, 29, 39, 64, 67, 77, 81, 83, 87, 95, 116, 139 queens, 12, 29, 36, 58, 78 Rainald von Dassel, 220, 222, 223, 224, 225

Index Ravenna, 61, 63, 74, 75, 86, 88, 92, 117, 127, 173, 278 realism, 93 Redemption, 177, 179, 183, 270, 282 reform movement, 157 reform movements, 60, 62, 67, 69, 103, 120, 122, 127, 132, 137, 139, 144, 145, 153, 156, 192, 204 reforms, 63, 66, 68, 94, 103, 121, 134, 137, 154, 156, 169, 297 refuges, 34, 149 regalia, 14, 30, 42, 118, 173, 193, 194, 203, 218 regency, 22, 23, 54, 77, 78, 82, 85, 138, 141, 145, 146, 157, 264 Regensburg, 53, 67, 99, 102, 104, 125, 180, 188, 210, 216, 233, 246 Regino von Prüm, 66 Regnum, 161, 171, 240, 265, 292 Regnum Burgundie, 98, 116, 118, 126, 203 Regnum Francorum, 23, 24, 32 Regnum Italie, 19, 44, 50, 57, 74, 88, 93, 99, 107, 111, 116, 117, 120, 122, 125, 127, 137, 147, 169, 176, 203, 217, 220, 225, 229, 230, 236, 241, 266 Regnum Sicilie, 229, 242, 243, 274 Regnum Teutonicum, 9, 30, 31, 44, 155, 169, 190, 203 Reichenau, 67, 69, 86, 91, 102 Reims, 42, 198, 237 reintegration, 32 relics, 33, 52, 65, 69, 73, 86, 177, 231, 271, 273 Renaissance, 23, 68, 242, 298 Renovatio, 17, 86, 87, 88, 90, 94, 97, 107 Renovatio Imperii Romanorum, 86, 88, 91, 242 renunciation, 67, 110, 143, 145, 163, 178, 180, 193, 278 resignation, 264

The Medieval Empire in Central Europe rex et sacerdos, 120, 155 Rex Francorum et Italicorum, 50, 59 Rex Romanorum, 125 Rex Teutonicus, 169 Rheinfelden, 142, 249 Rhineland, 114, 180, 185, 207, 212, 280 Ribémont, 10 Richard of Cornwall, 209, 296 Richard the Lionheart, 131, 179, 225, 235, 264 Richenza, 211 Richeza, 90, 119 Riga, 260, 261 Riquewihr, 255 Roma nova, 224 Romanesque, 41, 52, 68, 246 Romans, 55, 63, 68, 85, 87, 90, 91, 92, 128, 135, 163, 174, 216, 227 Rome, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 25, 37, 38, 42, 44, 49, 50, 54, 55, 57, 58, 61, 63, 70, 73, 74, 75, 76, 79, 81, 83, 84, 86, 87, 90, 91, 92, 93, 96, 99, 103, 107, 108, 109, 111, 117, 121, 127, 129, 134, 136, 142, 144, 146, 148, 153, 154, 158, 160, 161, 163, 166, 167, 173, 176, 178, 187, 192, 193, 197, 202, 204, 207, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 237, 241, 265, 268, 276, 287, 288, 290, 296 Roncaglia, 218, 284 Rothenburg, 255 rotundas, 42 Rouen, 180 royal progress, 15. See itinerancy Rudolf II of Upper Burgundy, 33 Rudolf III of Burgundy, 117 Rudolf von Habsburg, 300 Rudolf von Rheinfelden, 113, 141, 148, 170, 205 ruler portraits, 96 Russia, 61, 231 Russians, 258, 260

369

sacerdotal, 14, 18, 19, 25, 28, 52, 65, 87, 93, 100, 101, 104, 114, 118, 119, 120, 136, 137, 152, 157, 169, 199, 204, 215, 247 sacerdotism, 14, 20, 25, 65, 88, 96, 100, 101, 104, 114, 118, 120, 128, 137, 150, 152, 157, 169, 199, 215, 220, 247 sacerdotium, 96, 161, 171, 219, 227, 265, 288, 292 sacramentaries, 55 Sacrum Imperium Romanum, 9 Sacrum Imperium Romanum, 215 saints, 33, 65, 69, 73, 89, 90, 105, 108, 120, 121, 177, 223, 224, 228 Saladin, 226, 232, 238, 283 Salerno, 174, 237, 277 Salians, 14, 20, 48, 113, 114, 115, 170, 196, 200, 206, 209, 225, 248, 264 Salvation, 14, 52, 59, 69, 83, 91, 94, 100, 103, 110, 128, 155, 178, 179, 180, 183, 190, 248, 282, 294, 299 Salzburg, 39, 100, 171, 222, 246 Santi Quattro Coronati, 154, 218 Santiago de Compostela, 178, 228 Saracens, 73, 108, 280, 290 Savior, 181 Saxons, 11, 13, 19, 23, 26, 27, 30, 35, 37, 47, 51, 65, 85, 95, 96, 98, 131, 164, 170, 225, 264 Saxony, 10, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 35, 40, 48, 51, 53, 54, 62, 80, 85, 91, 98, 99, 116, 126, 136, 141, 149, 171, 173, 175, 191, 196, 201, 204, 211, 213, 215, 216, 223, 225, 226, 228, 230, 231, 239 Scandinavia, 65, 136, 171, 215 Scandinavians, 258 scepter, 115, 156, 203 schism, 135, 145, 146, 147, 186, 197, 221, 223, 273 Schleswig, 37

370 Scholasticism, 128 science, 298 screen, 33, 34, 110 scriptoria, 67 sculptures, 41 Second Crusade, 211, 214, 233 secularia, 192 secularization, 255 Seltz, 80, 82 Sepulcher, 106, 186, 260, 281, 285, 286 sequences, 67 Serbs, 234 service, 13, 25, 43, 46, 48, 52, 58, 62, 67, 69, 101, 105, 122, 131, 140, 142, 160, 164, 178, 180, 188, 192, 193, 194, 210, 218, 232, 238, 260, 261, 276, 287 servitium regis, 15, 47, 62, 101, 102, 119, 156, 157, 192, 203 shield order, 232 Sicilian Normans, 109, 111, 121, 176, 193, 217, 221, 234, 240 Sicily, 10, 22, 73, 109, 135, 214, 224, 229, 233, 239, 240, 241, 243, 244, 263, 265, 266, 267, 268, 274, 276, 283, 286, 287, 294, 295, 296, 297 Siegfried I of Mainz, 147 Siegfried III of Mainz, 293 Silesia, 10, 82, 288 simony, 56, 120, 121, 127, 130, 134, 136, 137, 143, 144, 148, 153, 155, 156, 158, 159, 160, 174, 176, 203 sinners, 69, 80, 120, 152 Slavs, 10, 19, 22, 23, 34, 35, 44, 47, 51, 53, 60, 65, 75, 76, 80, 89, 98, 108, 141, 213 Spain, 22, 64, 171, 228, 259 Speyer, 114, 116, 119, 125, 138, 147, 167, 180, 189, 195, 205, 246, 250, 254, 266 sponsorship, 41, 156, 246, 256, 260 squires, 228, 234 St. Albanus, 76

Index St. Anno, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 153 St. Benedict, 66, 103 St. Bernward of Hildesheim, 83 St. Boniface, 43, 54 St. Denis, 224 St. Elisabeth, 263 St. Gallen, 22, 67, 69, 74 St. Laurentius, 60 St. Mary, 76, 107 St. Mauritius, 33, 60 St. Maximin, 68 St. Michael, 37, 53 St. Nicholas, 76 St. Oswald, 40 St. Pantaleon, 76, 80 St. Peter, 69, 76, 82, 90, 92, 99, 109, 145, 153, 158, 162, 163, 169, 176 St. Peter's, 55, 107, 117, 194, 219 St. Servatius, 28, 29 St. Sylvester, 154, 218 St. Thomas à Becket, 223 St. Victor, 129, 143, 221, 222 St. Vitus, 35 St. Wiperti, 29 Staufen. See Hohenstaufen steeples, 99 Strasbourg, 246 stupor mundi. See Frederick II stupor mundi, 297 Styria, 10, 231 Suitger of Bamberg, 128 surgery, 277, 298 Sutri, 127, 145, 156, 218 Swabia, 10, 22, 23, 24, 26, 30, 31, 43, 48, 49, 53, 116, 118, 120, 126, 141, 148, 164, 170, 171, 187, 197, 214, 215, 234, 255, 264, 274, 277, 295, 296 Swabians, 23, 85, 95, 131, 150 Sweden, 231, 260 Switzerland, 187, 249 Swordbrothers, 260, 262. See Brotherhood of the Sword of Livonia. See Militia of Christ

The Medieval Empire in Central Europe symbols, 42, 148, 191, 192 Synagoga, 106 synagogues, 254 synods, 13, 25, 47, 56, 61, 63, 99, 109, 117, 127, 136, 155, 156, 161, 163, 165, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176 Syria, 263 Tancred, 236, 237, 239, 240 temporalia, 191, 192 territorial particularism, 134, 190, 194, 200, 202, 205, 243, 270, 299 tetramorphs, 86 Thankmar, 28, 39, 44 Thebaic Legion, 33 Theoderic the Great, 117 Theodosius, 17 Theophanius, 79 Theophanu, 21, 36, 64, 70, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 84, 85, 107, 110, 141 Thietmar von Merseburg, 97 Third Crusade, 233, 259, 281 Thomas Aquinas, 277 Thuringia, 10, 25, 26, 27, 149, 207, 293 towns, 16, 34, 55, 105, 140, 153, 193, 201, 210, 246, 249, 250, 251, 255, 256, 279 trade, 16, 37, 49, 66, 116, 132, 147, 162, 184, 210, 216, 217, 245, 248, 249, 250, 258, 261, 272, 297 transitoryness, 94 tribal dukes, 45, 48 Tribur, 139, 148 Trier, 32, 42, 67, 68, 180, 192, 246, 250 Trifels, 238, 240 Trinity, 69 troubadours, 228, 229 Truce of God, 132, 133, 135, 175, 177, 180 Turin, 136, 140, 167

371

Turks, 149, 159, 161, 183, 186, 226, 234 Tuscany, 136, 137, 140, 197, 229, 240, 264, 266 Two Authorities, 20, 63, 85, 119, 128, 130, 157, 160, 164, 216, 222, 291, 292, 297 Two Swords, 20, 58, 160, 165, 216 Ulrich of Augsburg, 53 urban centers, 172, 200, 213, 246, 247, 248, 278 urbanization, 171, 253, 297 Utrecht, 67, 104, 125, 165, 192, 205 vanity, 88, 169 vassalage, 11, 31, 122, 124, 144, 153, 155, 184, 191, 199, 217, 218, 231 vassals, 25, 46, 52, 105, 121, 122, 125, 135, 136, 159, 169, 199, 203, 232, 263, 276, 292 Venice, 227, 272, 273 Verona, 75, 76 vestments, 100, 165 Vicarius Christi, 93, 96, 109, 114, 115, 117, 120, 127, 168 Vienna, 238, 246, 287 Vikings, 22, 37, 44, 80 villages, 132, 250 Virgin Mary, 76, 100, 107, 115, 121, 263 visions, 185 vita, 104, 178 vita activa, 178 vita communis, 104 vita contemplativa, 178 Viterbo, Godfrey of, 244 Viterbo, Rainer of, 290, 292 Walther von der Vogelweide, 266, 277, 280, 296 Welfs, 167, 171, 187, 197, 206, 207, 209, 211, 215, 216, 225, 230, 231, 237, 238, 239, 244, 250, 260, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 275, 286 Wends, 213 Wessex, 35, 40

372 Westphalia, 231 Widukind von Corvey, 12, 26, 30, 34, 36, 38, 41, 53, 54, 65 Widukind, duke of Saxony, 28 Wilhelm, 41, 61, 70 William II of Norman Sicily, 229, 236 William of Holland, 282, 293, 295, 296 William the Conqueror, 159, 171 William V of Aquitaine, 126 Willigis of Mainz, 75, 77, 95 Wittelsbach, 228, 231, 266, 296

Index Worms, 12, 33, 34, 51, 55, 70, 78, 114, 115, 125, 146, 152, 163, 165, 180, 202, 242, 246, 247, 250, 254, 272, 278, 280, 286, 294 Würzburg, 67, 99, 197, 201, 212, 219, 232, 247 Yiddish, 234 Zähringen, 167, 171, 187, 197, 207, 230, 237, 249, 250, 254, 264, 274 Zara, 272 Zürich, 207, 250