A History of Germany Part 17

[Sidenote: 1220.]

For nearly three years, the two rivals watched each other without engaging in open hostilities. The stately bearing of Frederick, which he inherited from Barbarossa, the charm and refinement of his manners, and the generosity he exhibited towards all who were friendly to his claims, gradually increased the number of his supporters. In 1215, Otto joined King John of England and the Count of Flanders in a war against Philip Augustus of France, and was so signally defeated that his influence in Germany speedily came to an end. Lorraine and Holland declared for Frederick, who was crowned in Aix-la-Chapelle with great pomp the same year. Otto died near Brunswick, three years afterwards, poor and unhonored.

Pope Innocent III. died in 1216, and Frederick appears to have considered that the a.s.sistance which he had received from him was _personal_ and not _Papal_; for he not only laid claim to the Tuscan possessions, but neglected his promise to engage in a new Crusade for the recovery of Jerusalem, and even attempted to control the choice of Bishops. At the same time he took measures to secure the coronation of his infant son, Henry, as his successor. His journey to Rome was made in the year 1220. The new Pope, Honorius III., a man of a mild and yielding nature, nevertheless only crowned him on condition that he would observe the violated claims of the Church, and especially that he would strictly suppress all heresy in the Empire. When he had been crowned Emperor as Frederick II., he fixed himself in Southern Italy and Sicily for some years, quite neglecting his German rule, but wisely improving the condition of his favorite kingdom. He was signally successful in controlling the Saracens, whose language he spoke, whom he converted into subjects, and who afterwards became his best soldiers.

The Pope, however, became very impatient at the non-fulfilment of Frederick's promises, and the latter was compelled, in 1226, to summon a Diet of all the German and Italian princes to meet at Verona, in order to make preparations for a new crusade. But the cities of Lombardy, fearing that the army to be raised would be used against them, adopted all possible measures against the meeting of the Diet, took possession of the pa.s.ses of the Adige, and prevented the Emperor's son, the young king Henry of Germany, and his followers, from entering Italy. Angry and humiliated, Frederick was compelled to return to Sicily. The next year, 1227, Honorius died, and the Cardinals elected as his successor Gregory IX., a man more than eighty years old, but of a remarkably stubborn and despotic nature. He immediately threatened the Emperor with excommunication in case the crusade for the recovery of Jerusalem was not at once undertaken, and the latter was compelled to obey. He hastily collected an army and fleet, and departed from Naples, but returned at the end of three days, alleging a serious illness as the cause of his sudden change of plan.

[Sidenote: 1228. VISIT TO JERUSALEM.]

He was instantly excommunicated by Gregory IX., and he replied by a proclamation addressed to all kings and princes,--a doc.u.ment breathing defiance and hate against the Pope and his claims. Nevertheless, in order to keep his word in regard to the Crusade, he went to the East with a large force in 1228, and obtained, by a treaty with the Sultan of Egypt, the possession of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and Mount Carmel, for ten years. His second wife, the Empress Iolanthe, was the daughter of Guy of Lusignan, the last king of Jerusalem; and therefore, when Frederick visited the holy city, he claimed the right, as Guy's heir, of setting the crown of Jerusalem upon his own head. The entire Crusade, which was not marked by any deeds of arms, occupied only eight months.

Although he had fulfilled his agreement with Rome, the Pope declared that a crusade undertaken by an excommunicated Emperor was a sin, and did all he could to prevent Frederick's success in Palestine. But when the latter returned to Italy, he found that the Roman people, a majority of whom were on his side, had driven Gregory IX. from the city. It was therefore comparatively easy for him to come to an agreement, whereby the Pope released him from the ban, in return for being reinstated in Rome. This was only a truce, however, not a lasting peace: between two such imperious natures, peace was impossible. The agreement, nevertheless, gave Frederick some years of quiet, which he employed in regulating the affairs of his Southern-Italian kingdom. He abolished, as far as possible, the feudal system introduced by the Normans, and laid the foundation of a representative form of government. His Court at Palermo became the resort of learned men and poets, where Arabic, Provencal, Italian and German poetry was recited, where songs were sung, where the fine arts were encouraged, and the rude and warlike pastimes of former rulers gave way to the spirit of a purer civilization.

Although, as we have said, his nature was almost wholly Italian, no Emperor after Charlemagne so fostered the growth of a German literature as Frederick II.

But this const.i.tutes his only real service to Germany. While he was enjoying the peaceful and prosperous development of Naples and Sicily, his great empire in the north was practically taking care of itself, for the boy-king, Henry, governed chiefly by allowing the reigning bishops, dukes and princes to do very much as they pleased. There was a season of peace with France, Hungary and Poland, and Denmark, which was then the only dangerous neighbor, was repelled without the Imperial a.s.sistance.

Frederick II., in his first rivalry with Otto, had shamefully purchased Denmark's favor by giving up all the territory between the Elbe and the Oder. But when Henry, Count of Schwerin, returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and found the Danish king, Waldemar, in possession of his territory, he organized a revolt in order to recover his rights, and succeeded in taking Waldemar and his son prisoners. Frederick II. now supported him, and the Pope as a matter of course supported Denmark. A great battle was fought in Holstein, and the Danes were so signally defeated that they were forced to give up all the German territory, except the island of Rugen and a little strip of the Pomeranian coast, beside paying 45,000 silver marks for the ransom of Waldemar and his son.

[Sidenote: 1230.]

About this time, in consequence of the demand of Pope Innocent III. that all heresy should be treated as a crime and suppressed by force, a new element of conflict with Rome was introduced into Germany. Among other acts of violence, the Stedinger, a tribe of free farmers of Saxon blood, who inhabited the low country near the mouth of the Weser, were literally exterminated by order of the Archbishop of Bremen, to whom they had refused the payment of t.i.thes. In 1230, Gregory IX. wrote to king Henry, urging him to crush out heresy in Germany: "Where is the zeal of Moses, who destroyed 23,000 idolaters in one day? Where is the zeal of Elijah, who slew 450 prophets with the sword, by the brook Kishon? Against this evil the strongest means must be used: there is need of steel and fire." Conrad of Marburg, a monk, who inflicted years of physical and spiritual suffering upon Elizabeth, Countess of Thuringia, in order to make a saint of her, was appointed Inquisitor for Germany by Gregory, and for three years he tortured and burned at will.

His horrible cruelty at last provoked revenge: he was a.s.sa.s.sinated on the highway near Marburg, and his death marks the end of the Inquisition in Germany.

In 1232, Frederick II., in order that he might seem to fulfil his neglected duties as German Emperor, summoned a general Diet to meet at Ravenna, but it was prevented by the Lombard cities, as the Diet of Verona had been prevented six years before. Befriended by Venice, however, Frederick marched to Aquileia, and there met his son, king Henry, after a separation of twelve years. Their respective ages were thirty-seven and twenty-one: there was little personal sympathy or affection between them, and they only came together to quarrel.

Frederick refused to sanction most of Henry's measures; he demanded, among other things, that the latter should rebuild the strongholds of the robber-knights of Hohenlohe, which had been razed to the ground.

This seemed to Henry an outrage as well as a humiliation, and he returned home with rebellion in his heart. After proclaiming himself independent king, he entered into an alliance with the cities of Lombardy and even sought the aid of the Pope.

[Sidenote: 1235. FREDERICK'S MARRIAGE AT WORMS.]

Early in 1235, after an absence of fifteen years, Frederick II. returned to Germany. The revolt, which had seemed so threatening, fell to pieces at his approach. He was again master of the Empire, without striking a blow: Henry had no course but to surrender without conditions. He was deposed, imprisoned, and finally sent with his family to Southern Italy, where he died seven years afterwards. The same summer the Emperor, whose wife, Iolanthe, had died some years before, was married at Worms to Isabella, sister of king Henry III. of England. The ceremony was attended with festivals of Oriental splendor; the attendants of the new Empress were Saracens, and she was obliged to live after the manner of Eastern women. Immense numbers of the n.o.bles and people flocked to Worms, and soon afterwards to Mayence, where a Diet was held. Here, for the first time, the decrees of the Diet were publicly read in the German language. Frederick also, as the head of the Waiblinger party, effected a reconciliation with Otto of Brunswick, the head of the Welfs, whereby the rivalry of a hundred years came to an end in Germany; but in Italy the struggle between the Ghibellines and the Guelphs was continued long after the Hohenstaufen line became extinct.

In the autumn of 1236, Frederick conquered and deposed Frederick the Quarrelsome, Duke of Austria, and made Vienna a free Imperial city. A Diet was held there, at which his second son, Konrad, then nine years old, was accepted as king of Germany. This choice was confirmed by another Diet, held the following year at Speyer. The Emperor now left Germany, never to return. This brief visit, of a little more than a year, was the only interruption in his thirty years of absence; but it revived his great personal influence over princes and people, it was marked by the full recognition of his authority, and it contributed, in combination with his struggle against the power of Rome which followed, to impress upon his reign a more splendid and successful character than his acts deserved. Although the remainder of his history belongs to Italy, it was not without importance for the later fortunes of Germany, and must therefore be briefly stated.

[Sidenote: 1237.]

On returning to Italy, Frederick found himself involved in new difficulties with the independent cities. He was supported by his son-in-law, Ezzelin, and a large army from Naples and Sicily, composed chiefly of Saracens. With this force he won such a victory at Cortenuovo, that even Milan offered to yield, under hard conditions.

Then Frederick II. made the same mistake as his grandfather, Barbarossa, in similar circ.u.mstances. He demanded a complete and unconditional surrender, which so aroused the fear and excited the hate of the Lombards, that they united in a new and desperate resistance, which he was unable to crush. Gregory IX., who claimed for the Church the Island of Sardinia, which Frederick had given as a kingdom to his son Enzio, hurled a new excommunication against the Emperor, and the fiercest of all the quarrels between the two powers now began to rage.

The Pope, in a proclamation, a.s.serted of Frederick: "This pestilential king declares that the world has been deceived by three impostors, Moses, Mohammed and Christ, the two former of whom died honorably, but the last shamefully, upon the cross." He further styled the Emperor, "that beast of Revelations which came out of the sea, which now destroys everything with its claws and iron teeth, and, a.s.sisted by the heretics, arises against Christ, in order to drive his name out of the world."

Frederick, in an answer which was sent to all the kings and princes of Christendom, wrote: "The Apostolic and Athanasian Creeds are mine; Moses I consider a friend of G.o.d, and Mohammed an arch-impostor." He described the Pope as "that horse in Revelations, from which, as it is written, issued another horse, and he that sat upon him took away the peace of the world, so that the living destroyed each other," and named him further: "the second Balaam, the great dragon, yea, even the Antichrist."

[Sidenote: 1241. CAPTURE OF THE POPE'S COUNCIL.]

Gregory IX. endeavored, but in vain, to set up a rival Emperor: the Princes, and even the Archbishops, were opposed to him. Frederick, who was not idle meanwhile, entered the States of the Church, took several cities, and advanced towards Rome. Then the Pope offered to call together a Council in Rome, to settle all matters in dispute. But those who were summoned to attend were Frederick's enemies, whereupon he issued a proclamation declaring the Council void, and warning the bishops and priests against coming to it. The most of them, however, met at Nice, in 1241, and embarked for Rome on a Genoese fleet of sixty vessels; but Frederick's son, Enzio, intercepted them with a Pisan and Sicilian fleet, captured one hundred cardinals, bishops and abbots, one hundred civil deputies and four thousand men, and carried them to Naples. The Council, therefore, could not be held, and Pope Gregory died soon afterwards, almost a hundred years old.

After quarreling for nearly two years, the Cardinals finally elected a new Pope, Innocent IV. He had been a friend of the Emperor, but the latter exclaimed, on hearing of his election: "I fear that I have lost a friend among the Cardinals, and found an enemy in the chair of St.

Peter: no Pope can be a Ghibelline!" His words were true. After fruitless negotiations, Innocent IV. fled to Lyons, and there called together a Council of the Church, which declared that Frederick had forfeited his crowns and dignities, that he was cast out by G.o.d, and should be thenceforth accursed. Frederick answered this declaration with a bold statement of the corruptions of the clergy, and the dangers arising from the temporal power of the Popes, which, he a.s.serted, should be suppressed for the sake of Christianity, the early purity of which had been lost. King Louis IX. of France endeavored to bring about a suspension of the struggle, which was now beginning to disturb all Europe; but the Pope angrily refused.

In 1246, the latter persuaded Henry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia, to claim the crown of Germany, and supported him with all the influence and wealth of the Church. He was defeated and wounded in the first battle, and soon afterwards died, leaving Frederick's son, Konrad, still king of Germany. In Italy, the civil war raged with the greatest bitterness, and with horrible barbarities on both sides. Frederick exhibited such extraordinary courage and determination that his enemies, encouraged by the Church, finally resorted to the basest means of overcoming him. A plot formed for his a.s.sa.s.sination was discovered in time, and the conspirators executed: then an attempt was made to poison him, in which his chancellor and intimate friend, Peter de Vinea--his companion for thirty years,--seems to have been implicated. At least he recommended a certain physician, who brought to the Emperor a poisoned medicine.

Something in the man's manner excited Frederick's mistrust, and he ordered him to swallow a part of the medicine. When the latter refused, it was given to a condemned criminal, who immediately died. The physician was executed and Peter de Vinea sent to prison, where he committed suicide by das.h.i.+ng his head against the walls of his cell.

[Sidenote: 1249.]

In the same year, 1249, Frederick's favorite son, Enzio, king of Sardinia, who even surpa.s.sed his father in personal beauty, in accomplishments, in poetic talent and heroic courage, was taken prisoner by the Bolognese. All the father's offers of ransom were rejected, all his menaces defied: Enzio was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and languished twenty-two years in a dungeon, until liberated by death.

Frederick was almost broken-hearted, but his high courage never flagged.

He was encompa.s.sed by enemies, he scarcely knew whom to trust, yet he did not yield the least of his claims. And fortune, at last, seemed inclined to turn to his side: a new rival king, William of Holland, whom the Pope had set up against him in Germany, failed to maintain himself: the city of Piacenza, in Lombardy, espoused his cause: the Romans, tired of Innocent IV.'s absence, began to talk of electing another Pope in his stead: and even Innocent himself was growing unpopular in France. Then, while he still defiantly faced the world, still had faith in his final triumph, the body refused to support his fiery spirit. He died in the arms of his youngest son, Manfred, on the 13th of December, 1250, fifty-six years old. He was buried at Palermo; and when his tomb there was opened, in the year 1783, his corpse was found to have scarcely undergone any decay.

Frederick II. was unquestionably one of the greatest men who ever bore the t.i.tle of German (or Roman) Emperor; yet all the benefits his reign conferred upon Germany were wholly of an indirect character, and were more than balanced by the positive injury occasioned by his neglect.

There were strong contradictions in his nature, which make it difficult to judge him fairly as a ruler. As a man of great learning and intelligence, his ideas were liberal; as a monarch, he was violent and despotic. He wore out his life, trying to crush the republican cities of Italy; he was jealous of the growth of the free cities of Germany, yet granted them a representation in the Diet; and in Sicily, where his sway was undisputed, he was wise, just and tolerant. Representing in himself the highest taste and refinement of his age, he was nevertheless as rash, pa.s.sionate and relentless as the monarchs of earlier and ruder times. In his struggle with the Popes, he was far in advance of his age, and herein, although unsuccessful, he was not subdued: in reality, he was one of the most powerful forerunners of the Reformation. There are few figures in European history so bright, so brave, so full of heroic and romantic interest.

[Sidenote: 1250. KONRAD IV.'S REIGN.]

Frederick's son and successor, Konrad IV., inherited the hate and enmity of Pope Innocent IV. The latter threatened with excommunication all who should support Konrad, and forbade the priests to administer the sacraments of the Church to his followers. The Papal proclamations were so fierce that they incited the Bishop of Ratisbon to plot the king's murder, in which he came very near being successful. William of Holland, whom the people called "the Priests' King," was not supported by any of the leading German princes, but the gold of Rome purchased him enough of troops to meet Konrad in the field, and he was temporarily successful.

The hostility of the Pope seems scarcely to have affected Konrad's position in Germany; but both rulers and people were growing indifferent to the Imperial power, the seat of which had been so long transferred to Italy. They therefore took little part in the struggle between William and Konrad, and the latter's defeat was by no means a gain to the former.

The two rivals, in fact, were near their end. Konrad IV. went to Italy and took possession of the kingdom of his father, which his step-brother, Manfred, governed in his name. He made an earnest attempt to be reconciled with the Pope, but Innocent IV. was implacable. He then collected an army of 20,000 men, and was about to lead it to Germany against William of Holland, when he suddenly died, in 1254, in the 27th year of his age. It was generally believed that he had been poisoned.

William of Holland, since there was no one to dispute his claim, obtained a partial recognition of his sovereignty in Germany; but, having undertaken to subdue the free farmers in Friesland, he was defeated. While attempting to escape, his heavy war-horse broke through the ice, and the farmers surrounded and slew him. This was in 1256, two years after Konrad's death. Innocent IV. had expended no less than 400,000 silver marks--a very large sum in those days--in supporting him and Henry Raspe against the Hohenstaufens.

[Sidenote: 1256.]

Konrad IV. left behind him, in Suabia, a son Konrad, who was only two years old at his father's death. In order to distinguish him from the latter, the Italians gave him the name of _Conradino_ (Little Konrad), and as Konradin he is known in German history. He was educated under the charge of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, and his uncle Ludwig II., Duke of Bavaria. When he was ten years old, the Archbishop of Mayence called a Diet, at which it was agreed that he should be crowned King of Germany, but the ceremony was prevented by the furious opposition of the Pope.

Konradin made such progress in his studies and exhibited so much fondness for literature and the arts, that the followers of the Hohenstaufens saw in him another Frederick II. One of his poems is still in existence, and testifies to the grace and refinement of his youthful mind.

After Konrad IV.'s death, the Pope claimed the kingdom of Naples and Sicily as being forfeited to the Church, but found it prudent to allow Manfred to govern in his name. The latter submitted at first, but only until his authority was firmly established: then he declared war, defeated the Papal troops, drove them back to Rome, and was crowned king in 1258. The news of his success so agitated the Pope that he died shortly afterwards. His successor, Urban IV., a Frenchman, who imitated his policy, found Manfred too strongly established to be defeated without foreign aid. He therefore offered the crown of Southern Italy to Charles of Anjou, the brother of king Louis IX. of France. Physically and intellectually, there could be no greater contrast than between him and Manfred. Charles of Anjou was awkward and ugly, savage, ignorant and bigoted: Manfred was a model of manly beauty, a scholar and poet, a patron of learning, a builder of roads, bridges and harbors, a just and n.o.ble ruler.

Charles of Anjou, after being crowned king of Naples and Sicily by the Pope, and having secured secret advantages by bribery and intrigue, marched against Manfred in 1266. They met at Benevento, where, after a long and b.l.o.o.d.y battle, Manfred was slain, and the kingdom submitted to the usurper. By the Pope's order, Manfred's body was taken from the chapel where it had been buried, and thrown into a trench: his widow and children were imprisoned for life by Charles of Anjou.

[Sidenote: 1268. KONRADIN IN ITALY.]

The boy Konradin determined to avenge his uncle's death, and recover his own Italian inheritance. His mother sought to dissuade him from the attempt, but Ludwig of Bavaria offered to support him, and his dearest friend, Frederick of Baden, a youth of nineteen, insisted on sharing his fortunes. Towards the end of 1267, he crossed the Alps and reached Verona with a force of 10,000 men. Here he was obliged to wait three months for further support, and during this time more than two-thirds of his German soldiers returned home. But a reaction against the Guelphs (the Papal party) had set in; several Lombard cities and the Republic of Pisa declared in Konradin's favor, and finally the Romans, at his approach, expelled Pope Urban IV. A revolt against Charles of Anjou broke out in Naples and Sicily, and when Konradin entered Rome, in July, 1268, his success seemed almost a.s.sured. After a most enthusiastic reception by the Roman people, he continued his march southward, with a considerable force.

On the 22d of August he met Charles of Anjou in battle, and was at first victorious. But his troops, having halted to plunder the enemy's camp, were suddenly attacked, and at last completely routed. Konradin and his friend, Frederick of Baden, fled to Rome, and thence to the little port of Astura, on the coast, in order to embark for Sicily; but here they were arrested by Frangipani, the Governor of the place, who had been specially favored by the Emperor Frederick II., and now sold his grandson to Charles of Anjou for a large sum of money. Konradin having been carried to Naples, a court of distinguished jurists was called, to try him for high treason. With one exception, they p.r.o.nounced him guiltless of any crime; yet Charles, nevertheless, ordered him to be executed.

[Sidenote: 1268.]

On the 29th of October, 1268, the last Hohenstaufen, a youth of sixteen, and his friend Frederick, were led to the scaffold. Charles watched the scene from a window of his palace; the people, gloomy and mutinous, were overawed by his guards. Konradin advanced to the edge of the platform and threw his glove among the crowd, asking that it might be carried to some one who would avenge his death. A knight who was present took it afterwards to Peter of Aragon, who had married king Manfred's eldest daughter. Then, with the exclamation: "Oh, mother, what sorrow I have prepared for thee!" Konradin knelt and received the fatal blow. After him Frederick of Baden and thirteen others were executed.

The tyranny and inhuman cruelty of Charles of Anjou provoked a conspiracy which, in the year 1282, gave rise to the ma.s.sacre called "the Sicilian Vespers." In one night all the French officials and soldiers in Sicily were slaughtered, and Peter of Aragon, the heir of the Hohenstaufens, became king of the island. But in Germany the proud race existed no more, except in history, legend and song.

CHAPTER XIX.

GERMANY AT THE TIME OF THE INTERREGNUM.

(1256--1273.)

Change in the Character of the German Empire. --Richard of Cornwall and Alphonso of Castile purchase their election. --The Interregnum.