A History of Germany Part 15

Henry V.'s Character and Course. --The Condition of Germany. --Strife concerning the Invest.i.ture of Bishops. --Scene in St. Peter's.

--Troubles in Germany and Italy. --The "Concordat of Worms."

--Death of Henry V. --Absence of National Feeling. --Papal Independence. --Lothar of Saxony chosen Emperor. --His Visits to Italy, and Death. --Konrad of Hohenstaufen succeeds. --His Quarrel with Henry the Proud. --The Women of Weinsberg. --Welf (Guelph) and Waiblinger (Ghibelline). --The Second Crusade. --March to the Holy Land. --Konrad invited to Rome. --Arnold of Brescia. --Konrad's Death.

[Sidenote: 1106. HENRY V. AS EMPEROR.]

Henry V. showed his true character immediately after his accession to the throne. Although he had been previously supported by the Papal party, he was no sooner acknowledged king of Germany than he imitated his father in opposing the claims of the Church. The new Pope, Paschalis II., had found it expedient to recognize the Bishops whom Henry IV. had appointed, but at the same time he issued a manifesto declaring that all future appointments must come from him. Henry V. answered this with a letter of defiance, and continued to select his own Bishops and abbots, which the Pope, not being able to resist, was obliged to suffer.

During the disturbed fifty years of Henry IV.'s reign, Burgundy and Italy had become practically independent of Germany; Hungary and Poland had thrown off their dependent condition, and even the Wends beyond the Elbe were no longer loyal to the Empire. Within the German States, the Imperial power was already so much weakened by the establishment of hereditary Dukes and Counts, not related to the ruling family, that the king (or Emperor) exercised very little direct authority over the people. The crown-lands had been mostly either given away in exchange for a.s.sistance, or lost during the civil wars; the feudal system was firmly fastened upon the country, and only a few free cities--like those in Italy--kept alive the ancient spirit of liberty and political equality. Under such a system a monarch could accomplish little, unless he was both wiser and stronger than the reigning princes under him: there was no general national sentiment to which he could appeal. Henry V. was cold, stern, heartless and unprincipled; but he inspired a wholesome fear among his princely "va.s.sals," and kept them in better order than his father had done.

[Sidenote: 1110.]

After giving the first years of his reign to the settlement of troubles on the frontiers of the Empire, Henry V. prepared, in 1110, for a journey to Italy. So many followers came to him that when he had crossed the Alps and mustered them on the plains of Piacenza, there were 30,000 knights present. With such a force, no resistance was possible: the Lombard cities acknowledged him, Countess Matilda of Tuscany followed their example, and the Pope found it expedient to meet him in a friendly spirit. The latter was willing to crown Henry as Emperor, but still claimed the right of investing the Bishops. This Henry positively refused to grant, and, after much deliberation, the Pope finally proposed a complete separation of Church and State,--that is, that the lands belonging to the Bishops and abbots, or under their government, should revert to the crown, and the priests themselves become merely officials of the Church, without any secular power. Although the change would have been attended with some difficulty in Germany, Henry consented, and the long quarrel between Pope and Emperor was apparently settled.

On the 12th of February, 1111, the king entered Rome at the head of a magnificent procession, and was met at the gate of St. Peter's by the Pope, who walked with him hand in hand to the platform before the high altar. But when the latter read aloud the agreement, the Bishops raised their voices in angry dissent. The debate lasted so long that one of the German knights cried out: "Why so many words? Our king means to be crowned Emperor, like Karl the Great!" The Pope refused the act of coronation, and was immediately made prisoner. The people of Rome rose in arms, and a terrible fight ensued. Henry narrowly escaped death in the streets, and was compelled to encamp outside the city. At the end of two months, the resistance both of Pope and people was crushed; he was crowned Emperor, and Paschalis II. gave up his claim for the invest.i.ture of the Bishops.

[Sidenote: 1122. THE CONCORDAT OF WORMS.]

Henry V. returned immediately to Germany, defeated the rebellious Thuringians and Saxons in 1113, and the following year was married to Matilda, daughter of Henry I. of England. This was the climax of his power and splendor: it was soon followed by troubles with Friesland, Cologne, Thuringia and Saxony, and in the course of two years his authority was set at nought over nearly all Northern Germany. Only Suabia, under his nephew, Frederick of Hohenstaufen, and Duke Welf II.

of Bavaria, remained faithful to him.

He was obliged to leave Germany in this state and hasten to Italy in 1116, on account of the death of the Countess Matilda, who had bequeathed Tuscany to the Church, although she had previously acknowledged the Imperial sovereignty. Henry claimed and secured possession of her territory; he then visited Rome, the Pope leaving the city to avoid meeting him. The latter died soon afterwards, and for a time a new Pope, of the Emperor's own appointment, was installed in the Vatican. The Papal party, which now included all the French Bishops, immediately elected another, who excommunicated Henry V., but the act was of no consequence, and was in fact overlooked by Calixtus II., who succeeded to the Papal chair in 1118.

The same year Henry returned to Germany, and succeeded, chiefly through the aid of Frederick of Hohenstaufen, in establis.h.i.+ng his authority. The quarrel with the Papal power concerning the invest.i.ture of the Bishops was still unsettled: the new Pope, Calixtus II., who was a Burgundian and a relation of the Emperor, remained in France, where his claims were supported. After long delays and many preliminary negotiations, a Diet was held at Worms in September, 1122, when the question was finally settled. The choice of the Bishops and their invest.i.ture with the ring and crozier were given to the Pope, but the nominations were required to be made in the Emperor's presence, and the candidates to receive from him their temporal power, before they were consecrated by the Church.

This arrangement is known as _the Concordat of Worms_. It was hailed at the time as a fortunate settlement of a strife which had lasted for fifty years; but it only increased the difficulty by giving the German Bishops two masters, yet making them secretly dependent on the Pope. So long as they retained the temporal power, they governed according to the dictates of a foreign will, which was generally hostile to Germany. Then began an antagonism between the Church and State, which was all the more intense because never openly acknowledged, and which disturbs Germany even at this day.

[Sidenote: 1125.]

Pope Calixtus II. took no notice of the ban of excommunication, but treated with Henry V. as if it had never been p.r.o.nounced. The troubles in Northern Germany, however, were not subdued by this final peace with Rome,--a clear evidence that the humiliation of Henry IV. was due to political and not to religious causes. Henry V. died at Utrecht, in Holland, in May, 1125, leaving no children, which the people believed to be a punishment for his unnatural treatment of his father. There was no one to mourn his death, for even his efforts to increase the Imperial authority, and thereby to create a national sentiment among the Germans, were neutralized by his coldness, haughtiness and want of principle, as a man. The people were forced, by the necessities of their situation, to support their own reigning princes, in the hope of regaining from the latter some of their lost political rights.

Another circ.u.mstance tended to prevent the German Emperors from acquiring any fixed power. They had no capital city, as France already possessed in Paris: after the coronation, the monarch immediately commenced his "royal ride," visiting all portions of the country, and receiving, personally, the allegiance of the whole people. Then, during his reign, he was constantly migrating from one castle to another, either to settle local difficulties, to collect the income of his scattered estates, or for his own pleasure. There was thus no central point to which the Germans could look as the seat of the Imperial rule: the Emperor was a Frank, a Saxon, a Bavarian or Suabian, by turns, but never permanently a _German_, with a national capital grander than any of the petty courts.

The period of Henry V.'s death marks, also, the independence of the Papal power. The "Concordat of Worms" indirectly took away from the Roman (German) Emperor the claim of appointing the Pope, which had been exercised, from time to time, during nearly five hundred years. The celibacy of the priesthood was partially enforced by this time, and the Roman Church thereby gained a new power. It was now able to set up an authority (with the help of France) nearly equal to that of the Empire.

These facts must be borne in mind as we advance; for the secret rivalry which now began underlies all the subsequent history of Germany, until it came to a climax in the Reformation of Luther.

[Sidenote: 1125. LOTHAR OF SAXONY ELECTED.]

Henry V. left all his estates and treasures to his nephew, Frederick of Hohenstaufen, but not the crown jewels and insignia, which were to be bestowed by the National Diet upon his successor. Frederick, and his brother Konrad, Duke of Franconia, were the natural heirs to the crown; but, as the Hohenstaufen family had stood faithfully by Henry IV. and V.

in their conflicts with the Pope, it was unpopular with the priests and reigning princes. At the Diet, the Archbishop of Mayence nominated Lothar of Saxony, who was chosen after a very stormy session. His first acts were to beg the Pope to confirm his election, and then to give up his right to have the Bishops and abbots appointed in his presence. He next demanded of Frederick of Hohenstaufen the royal estates which the latter had inherited from Henry V. Being defeated in the war which followed, he strengthened his party by marrying his only daughter, Gertrude, to Henry the Proud, Duke of Bavaria (grandson of Duke Welf, Henry IV.'s friend, whence this family was called the _Welfs_--Guelphs).

By this marriage Henry the Proud became also Duke of Saxony; but a part of the Dukedom, called the North-mark, was separated and given to a Saxon n.o.ble, a friend of Lothar, named Albert the Bear.

Lothar was called to Italy in 1132 by Innocent II., one of two Popes, who, in consequence of a division in the college of Cardinals, had been chosen at the same time. He was crowned Emperor in the Lateran, in June, 1133, while the other Pope Anaclete II. was reigning in the Vatican. He acquired the territory of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany, but only on condition of paying 400 pounds of silver annually to the Church. The former state of affairs was thus suddenly reversed: the Emperor acknowledged himself a dependent of the _temporal_ Papal power. When he returned to Germany, the same year, Lothar succeeded in subduing the resistance of the Hohenstaufens, and then bound the reigning princes of Germany, by oath, to keep peace for the term of twelve years.

[Sidenote: 1137.]

This truce enabled him to return to Italy for the purpose of a.s.sisting Pope Innocent, who had been expelled from Rome. The rival of the latter, Anaclete II., was supported by the Norman king, Roger II. of Sicily, who, in the summer of 1137, was driven out of Southern Italy by Lothar's army. But quarrels broke out with the Pisans, who were his allies, and with Pope Innocent, for whose cause he was fighting, and he finally set out for Germany, without even visiting Rome. At Trient, in the Tyrol, he was seized with a mortal sickness, and died on the Brenner pa.s.s of the Alps, in a shepherd's hut. His body was taken to Saxony and buried in the chapel of a monastery which he had founded there.

A National Diet was called to meet in May, 1138, and elect a successor.

Lothar's son-in-law, Henry the Proud, Duke of Bavaria, Saxony and Tuscany (which latter the Emperor had transferred also to him), seemed to have the greatest right to the throne; but he was already so important that the jealousy of the other reigning princes was excited against him. Their policy was, to choose a weak rather than a strong ruler,--one who would not interfere with their authority in their own lands. Konrad of Hohenstaufen took advantage of this jealousy; he courted the favor of the princes and the bishops, and was chosen and crowned by the latter, three months before the time fixed for the meeting of the Diet. The movement, though in violation of all law, succeeded perfectly: a new Diet was called, for form's sake, and all the German princes, except Henry the Proud, acquiesced in Konrad's election.

In order to maintain his place, the new king was compelled to break the power of his rival. He therefore declared that Henry the Proud should not be allowed to govern two lands at the same time, and gave all Saxony to Albert the Bear. When Henry rose in resistance, Konrad proclaimed that he had forfeited Bavaria, which he gave to Leopold of Austria. In this emergency, Henry the Proud called upon the Saxons to help him, and had raised a considerable force when he suddenly died, towards the end of the year 1139. His brother, Welf, continued the struggle in Bavaria, in the interest of his young son, Henry, afterwards called "the Lion."

He attempted to raise the siege of the town of Weinsberg, which was beleaguered by Konrad's army, but failed. The tradition relates that when the town was forced to surrender, the women sent a deputation to Konrad, begging to be allowed to leave with such goods as they could carry on their backs. When this was granted and the gates were opened, they came out, carrying their husbands, sons or brothers as their dearest possessions. The fame of this deed of the women of Weinsberg has gone all over the world.

[Sidenote: 1140. GUELPH AND GHIBELLINE.]

In this struggle, for the first time, the names of _Welf_ and _Waiblinger_ (from the little town of Waiblingen, in Wurtemberg, which belonged to the Hohenstaufens) were first used as party cries in battle.

In the Italian language they became "Guelph" and "Ghibelline," and for hundreds of years they retained a far more intense and powerful significance than the names "Whig" and "Tory" in England. The term _Welf_ (Guelph) very soon came to mean the party of the Pope, and _Waiblinger_ (Ghibelline) that of the German Emperor. The end of this first conflict was, that in 1142, young Henry the Lion (great-grandson of Duke Welf of Bavaria) was allowed to be Duke of Saxony. From him descended the later Dukes of Brunswick and Hannover, who retained the family name of Welf, or Guelph, which, through George I., is also that of the royal family of England at this day. Albert the Bear was obliged to be satisfied with the North-mark, which was extended to the eastward of the Elbe and made an independent princ.i.p.ality. He called himself Markgraf (Border Count) of Brandenburg, and thus laid the basis of a new State, which, in the course of centuries developed into Prussia.

About this time the Christian monarchy in Jerusalem began to be threatened with overthrow by the Saracens, and the Pope, Eugene III., responded to the appeals for help from the Holy Land, by calling for a Second Crusade. He not only promised forgiveness of all sins, but released the volunteers from payment of their debts and whatever obligations they might have contracted under oath. France was the first to answer the call: then Bernard of Clairvaux (St. Bernard, in the Roman Church) visited Germany and made pa.s.sionate appeals to the people. The first effect of his speeches was the plunder and murder of the Jews in the cities along the Rhine; then the slow German blood was roused to enthusiasm for the rescue of the Holy Land, and the impulse became so great that king Konrad was compelled to join in the movement. His nephew, the red-bearded Frederick of Suabia, also put the cross on his mantle: nearly all the German princes and people, except the Saxons, followed the example.

[Sidenote: 1147.]

In May, 1147, the Crusaders a.s.sembled at Ratisbon. There were present 70,000 hors.e.m.e.n in armor, without counting the foot-soldiers and followers. All the robber-bands and notorious criminals of Germany joined the army for the sake of the full and free pardon offered by the Pope. Konrad led the march down the Danube, through Austria and Thrace, to Constantinople. Louis VII., king of France, followed him, with a nearly equal force, leaving the German States through which he pa.s.sed in a famished condition. The two armies, united at Constantinople, advanced through Asia Minor, but were so reduced by battles, disease and hards.h.i.+ps on the way, that the few who reached Palestine were too weak to reconquer the ground lost by the king of Jerusalem. Only a band of Flemish and English Crusaders, who set out by sea, succeeded in taking Lisbon from the Saracens.

During the year 1149 the German princes returned from the East with their few surviving followers. The loss of so many robbers and robber-knights was, nevertheless, a great gain to the country: the people enjoyed more peace and security than they had known for a long time. Duke Welf of Bavaria (brother of Henry the Proud) was the first to reach Germany: Konrad, fearing that he would make trouble, sent after him the young Duke of Suabia, Frederick Red-Beard (Barbarossa) of Hohenstaufen. It was not long, in fact, before the war-cries of "Guelph!" and "Ghibelline!" were again heard; but Welf, as well as his nephew, Henry the Lion, of Saxony, was defeated. During the Crusade, the latter had carried on a war against the Wends and other Slavonic tribes in Prussia, the chief result of which was the foundation of the city of Lubeck.

[Sidenote: 1152. KONRAD'S DEATH.]

King Konrad now determined to pay his delayed visit to Rome, and be crowned Emperor. Immediately after his return from the East, he had received a pressing invitation from the Roman Senate to come, to recognize the new order of things in the ancient city, and make it the permanent capital of the united German and Italian Empire. Arnold of Brescia, who for years had been advocating the separation of the Papacy from all temporal power, and the re-establishment of the Roman Church upon the democratic basis of the early Christian Church, had compelled the Pope, Eugene III., to accept his doctrine. Rome was practically a Republic, and Arnold's reform, although fiercely opposed by the Bishops, abbots and all priests holding civil power, made more and more headway among the people. At a National Diet, held at Wurzburg in 1151, it was decided that Konrad should go to Rome, and the Pope was officially informed of his intention. But before the preparations for the journey were completed, Konrad died, in February, 1152, at Bamberg. He was buried there in the Cathedral built by Henry II.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE REIGN OF FREDERICK I., BARBAROSSA.

(1152--1197.)

Frederick I., Barbarossa. --His Character. --His First Acts. --Visit to Italy. --Coronation and Humiliation. --He is driven back to Germany. --Restores Order. --Henry the Lion and Albert the Bear.

--Barbarossa's Second Visit to Italy. --He conquers Milan. --Roman Laws revived. --Destruction of Milan. --Third and Fourth Visits to Italy. --Troubles with the Popes. --Barbarossa and Henry the Lion.

--The Defeat at Legnano. --Reconciliation with Alexander III.

--Henry the Lion banished. --Tournament at Mayence. --Barbarossa's Sixth Visit to Italy. --Crusade for the Recovery of Jerusalem.

--March through Asia Minor. --Barbarossa's Death. --His Fame among the German People. --His Son, Henry VI., Emperor. --Richard of the Lion-Heart Imprisoned. --Last Days of Henry the Lion. --Henry VI.'s Deeds and Designs. --His Death.

[Sidenote: 1152.]

Konrad left only an infant son at his death, and the German princes, who were learning a little wisdom by this time, determined not to renew the unfortunate experiences of Henry IV.'s minority. The next heir to the throne was Frederick of Suabia, who was now thirty-one years old, handsome, popular, and already renowned as a warrior. He was elected immediately, without opposition, and solemnly crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle. When he made his "royal ride" through Germany, according to custom, the people hailed him with acclamations, hoping for peace and a settled authority after so many civil wars. His mother was a Welf princess, whence there seemed a possibility of terminating the rivalry between Welf and Waiblinger, in his election. The Italians always called him "Barbarossa," on account of his red beard, and by this name he is best known in history.

Since the accession of Otto the Great, no German monarch had been crowned under such favorable auspices, and none had possessed so many of the qualities of a great ruler. He was shrewd, clear-sighted, intelligent, and of an iron will: he enjoyed the exercise of power, and the aim of his life was to extend and secure it. On the other hand he was despotic, merciless in his revenge, and sometimes led by the violence of his pa.s.sions to commit deeds which darkened his name and interfered with his plans of empire.

[Sidenote: 1154. BARBAROSSA'S CAMP IN ITALY.]

Frederick first a.s.sured to the German princes the rights which they already possessed as the rulers of States, coupled with the declaration that he meant to exact the full and strict performance of their duties to him, as King. On his first royal journey, he arbitrated between Swen and Canute, rival claimants to the throne of Denmark, conferred on the Duke of Bohemia the t.i.tle of king, and took measures to settle the quarrel between Henry the Lion of Saxony, and Henry of Austria, for the possession of Bavaria. In all these matters he showed the will, the decision and the imposing personal bearing of one who felt that he was born to rule; and had he remained in Germany, he might have consolidated the States into one Nation. But the phantom of a Roman Empire beckoned him to Italy. The invitation held out to Konrad was not renewed, for Pope Eugene III. was dead, and his successor, Adrian IV. (an Englishman, by the name of Breakspeare), rejected Arnold of Brescia's doctrines. It was in Frederick's power to secure the success of either side; but his first aim was the Imperial crown, and he could only gain it without delay by a.s.sisting the Pope.

In 1154 Frederick, accompanied by Henry the Lion and many other princes, and a large army, crossed the Brenner Pa.s.s, in the Tyrol, and descended into Italy. According to old custom, the first camp was pitched on the Roncalian fields, near Piacenza, and the royal s.h.i.+eld was set up as a sign that the chief ruler was present and ready to act as judge in all political troubles. Many complaints were brought to him against the City of Milan, which had become a haughty and despotic Republic, and began to oppress Lodi, Como, and other neighboring cities. Frederick saw plainly the trouble which this independent movement in Lombardy would give to him or his successors; but after losing two months and many troops in besieging and destroying Tortona, one of the towns friendly to Milan, he was not strong enough to attack the latter city: so, having been crowned King of Lombardy at Pavia, he marched, in 1155, towards Rome.

[Sidenote: 1154.]