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
viii Table of Contents

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
xiv Preface

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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe xv

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
xvi Preface

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
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe xvii

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.
xviii Preface

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 Vice-
President, 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'
2 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,
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 3

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
4 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
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 5

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.
6 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
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 7

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 pre-
national 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.
10 Chapter One

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 Scheldt-
Meuse-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, step-
incremental 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
12 Chapter One

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
14 Chapter One

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
16 Chapter One

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.
 The Ottonians 17

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
18 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 19

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
20 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 21

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
22 Chapter One

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,
 The Ottonians 23

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
24 Chapter One

representative of the dynastic continuity, reflected a significant re-

orientation, 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.
 The Ottonians 25

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
26 Chapter One

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 self-
help 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
 The Ottonians 27

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.
28 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 29

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
30 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 31

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
32 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 33

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 lance-
relic, 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.
34 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 35

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
36 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 37

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
38 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 39

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
40 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 41

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
42 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 43

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
44 Chapter One

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 half-
brother Thankmar, who hoped to inherit Meissen.109 Otto preferred to use
 The Ottonians 45

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
46 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 47

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
48 Chapter One

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,
 The Ottonians 49

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 south-
north 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
50 Chapter One

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,
 The Ottonians 51

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
52 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 53

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
54 Chapter One

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 co-
emperor 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
 The Ottonians 55

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 vice-
regal 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
56 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 57

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
58 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 59

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
60 Chapter One

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 highest-
ranking 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.
 The Ottonians 61

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
62 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 63

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
64 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 65

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
66 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 67

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
68 Chapter One

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.
 The Ottonians 69

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
70 Chapter One

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 self-
worth, 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 lesser-
born princess Theophanu was considered an affront and some wanted to
refuse her. Otto I probably insisted on her coronation as a means of
 The Ottonians 71

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,
72 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 73

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
74 Chapter One

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 Montier-
en-Der. Gerbert, the greatest scholar of his day, had been educated in
Aurillac and then in Catalonia, where he came under Arabic influence and
 The Ottonians 75

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 Anti-
Christ 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
76 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 77

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
78 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 79

and played ancillary roles in ruling the kingdom. Adelheit was multi-
lingual 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
80 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 81

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
82 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 83

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
84 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 85

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 (492-
496), 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
86 Chapter One

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.
 The Ottonians 87

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
88 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 89

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
90 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 91

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
92 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 93

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 co-
equal 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
94 Chapter One

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.
 The Ottonians 95

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 in-
laws, 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,
96 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 97

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
98 Chapter One

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 North-
Elbian 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
 The Ottonians 99

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
100 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 101

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
102 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 103

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,
104 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 105

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
106 Chapter One

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.
 The Ottonians 107

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
108 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 109

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
110 Chapter One

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
 The Ottonians 111

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
114 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 115

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
116 Chapter Two

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 blood-
relatives 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
 The Salians 117

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
118 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 119

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
120 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 121

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
122 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 123

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
124 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 125

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
126 Chapter Two

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 co-
king 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
 The Salians 127

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
128 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 129

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
130 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 131

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
132 Chapter Two

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,
 The Salians 133

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
134 Chapter Two

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,
 The Salians 135

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
136 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 137

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 self-
aggrandizement 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
138 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 139

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
140 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 141

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
142 Chapter Two

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.
 The Salians 143

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
144 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 145

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
146 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 147

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
148 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 149

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 twenty-
six 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
150 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 151

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
152 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 153

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
154 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 155

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 socio-
political 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
156 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 157

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
158 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 159

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
160 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 161

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
162 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 163

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
164 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 165

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
166 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 167

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
168 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 169

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
170 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 171

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-
172 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 173

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
174 Chapter Two

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 anti-
Gregorian 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.
 The Salians 175

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 1080-
1089 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
176 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 177

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,
178 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 179

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
180 Chapter Two

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,
 The Salians 181

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.
182 Chapter Two

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.
 The Salians 183

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
184 Chapter Two

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,
 The Salians 185

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 pot-
helmets 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
186 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 187

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
188 Chapter Two

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 self-
condemnation of his entire policy and an agreement to his moral self-
destruction. 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
 The Salians 189

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
190 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 191

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.
192 Chapter Two

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 eight-
year 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
 The Salians 193

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 lay-
investiture. 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,
194 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 195

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
196 Chapter Two

a return to autocratic conditions. The chief characteristic motivating the

political unrest in the realm then was the conflicting mutual territorial self-
interest, 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.
 The Salians 197

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.
198 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 199

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
200 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 201

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
202 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 203

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
204 Chapter Two

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 all-
pervasive 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.
 The Salians 205

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
206 Chapter Two

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
 The Salians 207

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,
210 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 211

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
212 Chapter Three

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.
 The Hohenstaufen 213

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
214 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 215

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
216 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 217

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
218 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 219

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
220 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 221

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.
222 Chapter Three

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 anti-
imperial 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
 The Hohenstaufen 223

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
224 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 225

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
226 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 227

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
228 Chapter Three

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,
 The Hohenstaufen 229

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
230 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 231

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
232 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 233

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 12-
15000 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
234 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 235

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
236 Chapter Three

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.
 The Hohenstaufen 237

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
238 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 239

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
240 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 241

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
242 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 243

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
244 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 245

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,
246 Chapter Three

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.
 The Hohenstaufen 247

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
248 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 249

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
250 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 251

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
252 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 253

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
254 Chapter Three

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 south-
west 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,
 The Hohenstaufen 255

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
256 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 257

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
258 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 259

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
260 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 261

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
262 Chapter Three

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,
 The Hohenstaufen 263

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
264 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 265

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
266 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 267

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
268 Chapter Three

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 Capetian-
Staufen 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.
 The Hohenstaufen 269

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 Capetian-
Staufen 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
270 Chapter Three

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,
 The Hohenstaufen 271

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
272 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 273

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 (1202-
04) 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
274 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 275

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
276 Chapter Three

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 –
 The Hohenstaufen 277

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
278 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 279

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
280 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 281

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
282 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 283

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
284 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 285

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
286 Chapter Three

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 pre-
eminence, 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
 The Hohenstaufen 287

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
288 Chapter Three

heir of the crown of the king of Jerusalem. Rather than being the Anti-
Christ, 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
 The Hohenstaufen 289

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.
290 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 291

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
292 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 293

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
294 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 295

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
296 Chapter Three

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 mytho-
poetic 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
 The Hohenstaufen 297

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 multi-
ethnic 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
298 Chapter Three

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
 The Hohenstaufen 299

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 ibn-
Sina, 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 pre-
programmed. 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
300 Chapter Three

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
302 Conclusion

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
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 303

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
304 Conclusion

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 Staaten-
und 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
306 Notes

'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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 307

35
Beumann, p.9.
36
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 retro-
migrants 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.
308 Notes

47
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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 309

67
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.
310 Notes

89
See Arnold, Medieval Germany, p.49.
90
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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 311

114
D. Salewsky, 'Otto I und der sächsische Adel' in Puhle, p.55.
115
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.
312 Notes

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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 313

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,
314 Notes

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.213-
224, 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.482-
488. 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
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 315

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.
316 Notes

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
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 317

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.
318 Notes

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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 319

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.
320 Notes

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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 321

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.
322 Notes

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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 323

353
Holzmann, II, pp.431ff.
354
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,
324 Notes

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,
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 325

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 751-
1190 (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).
326 Notes

411
W. Urban, The Baltic Crusade (DeKalb 1975), p.7.
412
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., 74-
79.
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
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 327

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.
328 Notes

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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 329

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.
330 Notes

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
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 331

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.
332 Notes

575
Körntgen, p.98. Schulze, p.422f.
576
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 Mid-
Thirteenth 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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 333

604
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,
334 Notes

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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 335

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.
336 Notes

685
Althoff, Heinrich IV, p.31.
686
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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 337

718
Engels, p.21f. Also Opll, p.25.
719
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.
338 Notes

747
Engels, pp.54ff. See Opll, pp.45ff.
748
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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 339

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 Notes

807
Engels, p.105f. See also Opll, pp.245ff.
808
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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 341

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., 220-
302, 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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 343

889
Urban, p.25.
890
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.
344 Notes

920
Stürner, I, pp.141ff.
921
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.307-
317. 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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 345

953
Bayley, p.137.
954
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 .
346 Notes

986
Abulafia, Frederick II, pp.164ff.
987
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.
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 347

1020
Stürner, II, pp.571ff.
1021
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.
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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 Index

223, 228, 231, 264, 268, 286, Bavaria, 10, 22, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30,
293 31, 38, 39, 43, 45, 49, 51, 53,
architecture, 10, 23, 52, 68, 70, 71, 54, 72, 77, 90, 95, 97, 99, 104,
84, 114, 136, 156, 298 107, 111, 120, 126, 130, 138,
Arelat, 230 139, 141, 164, 171, 187, 199,
Aribert of Milan, 122 211, 214, 215, 216, 230, 231,
Aribo of Mainz, 115 239, 277, 278
aristocracy, 62, 122, 128, 166, 196, Bavarians, 23, 35, 39, 85
217 Beatrix, 136, 139, 140, 219, 230,
Aristotle, 299 269
Armenia, 241, 244 Béguines, 255
Arnold of Brescia, 218 Belgrade, 181, 234
Arnulf, 25, 26, 30, 31, 38, 39, 43, bellatores, 178, 245
45, 48 Benedictine Rule, 66, 68, 103
art, 23, 66, 68, 70, 84, 96, 298 Benevent, 129, 135
Ascension, 84 Berengar, 49, 50, 55
asceticism, 67, 84, 89 Bern, 249, 250, 254
Asia Minor, 181, 184, 213, 234 Bernard of Clairvaux, 211, 212,
Askanians, 211, 228, 231 213, 281
astronomy, 75, 282, 298 Bertha of Turin, 136, 140, 147
atrium, 42, 76 Bertha von Sulzbach, 211
audience, 125, 150 Bertha, empress, 174, 175
Augsburg, 53, 55, 72, 95, 125, 142, Berthold von Regensburg, 252
166, 220, 246, 257, 271 Bertold V von Zähringen, 264
Augustus, 90, 288 Besançon, 167, 220, 221
Austria, 10, 53, 211, 214, 228, 230, bishops, 13, 25, 32, 35, 45, 48, 52,
235, 277, 287 61, 62, 68, 89, 101, 103, 105,
autonomy, 25, 32, 35, 54, 74, 78, 106, 107, 108, 109, 117, 120,
102, 103, 134, 147, 149, 158, 122, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128,
204, 247, 248, 278 133, 134, 136, 137, 138, 141,
Averroës, 299 144, 155, 160, 161, 162, 165,
Avicenna, 299 166, 169, 172, 175, 176, 181,
Babenberg, 73, 167, 205, 206, 211, 191, 192, 193, 195, 198, 199,
216, 238 201, 203, 206, 212, 215, 217,
Bad Hersfeld, 102 219, 223, 226, 228, 246, 257,
Bad Wimpfen, 250 267, 269, 278, 292
Baldwin of Flanders, 136, 186 Bohemia, 9, 10, 19, 35, 60, 65, 72,
Balkans, 22, 73, 173, 228, 241 77, 82, 98, 107, 125, 130, 166,
Baltic Sea, 98, 249, 250, 258, 261, 175, 180, 191, 214, 228, 237
262 Bohemians, 19, 44, 53, 125
Bamberg, 33, 57, 99, 104, 108, 110, Boleslav I Chrobry, 82, 90, 98, 107,
111, 116, 129, 133, 154, 170, 119
209, 214, 225, 266 Boleslav II, 72, 96, 98
Basel, 10, 257 Boleslav of Bohemia, 35, 44, 53, 60,
basilica, 224. See cathedral 77
Bologna, 218, 227, 229
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 357

university of, 276 Carolingians, 9, 11, 13, 16, 17, 19,

Bonn, 32, 246 23, 24, 26, 27, 31, 32, 34, 45,
Book of Pericopes, 110 46, 52, 86, 116, 117, 199, 246
Bouvines, battle of, 269, 270 castles, 34, 131, 149, 171, 196, 206,
Brandenburg, 41, 60, 61, 75, 263 207, 210, 212, 239, 249
Braunschweig, 116, 250, 286 cathedral schools, 67, 102, 276
Bremen, 65, 67, 144, 147, 187, 215, cathedrals, 33, 35, 41, 52, 61, 62,
259, 279 64, 66, 90, 96, 99, 104, 108,
Brenner Pass, 55, 230 109, 110, 111, 114, 115, 119,
Brindisi, 284 121, 125, 129, 138, 147, 165,
bronze horses, 274 173, 187, 189, 195, 205, 214,
bronze plate, 173 222, 244, 268, 274, 292, 295
Brotherhood of the Sword of celibacy, 109, 110, 130, 134, 136,
Livonia, 261, 262 153, 155, 156, 158, 159, 176
Brun, 39, 51, 54, 62, 84 chaplains, 15
Brun of Augsburg, 125 Charlemagne, 17, 20, 27, 28, 42, 54,
Brun of Toul, 134 63, 64, 84, 86, 89, 90, 92, 95,
Bulgars, 73, 108, 234 96, 99, 116, 141, 161, 220, 223,
Burg Dürnstein, 238 224, 227, 233, 241, 270
Burggraf, 210 Charles Martel, 53
Burgundians, 36 Charles of Anjou, 296
Burgundy, 10, 33, 38, 40, 48, 54, Charles the Simple, 23, 32, 42
58, 68, 79, 81, 82, 97, 98, 116, chastity, 180
119, 125, 126, 130, 131, 141, chivalry, 124, 247, 283
143, 207, 210, 219, 220, 230, choirs, 100, 173
274, 297 Christ, 15, 30, 55, 65, 75, 86, 88,
Byzantines, 56, 63, 68, 70, 74, 108, 90, 106, 109, 117, 127, 132,
135, 136, 173, 191, 217, 218, 133, 145, 153, 157, 158, 162,
226, 227, 234 165, 180, 192, 233, 283, 288,
Byzantium, 214, 234, 297 289, 291
Cairo, 73, 281 Christendom, 20, 54, 84, 85, 108,
Calixtinum, 203 114, 128, 130, 135, 144, 155,
Canon Law, 52, 101, 137, 143, 151, 158, 174, 177, 186, 204, 212,
156 216, 220, 222, 241, 244, 245,
canonica regula, 104 284, 289, 295
canons, 27, 104 Christianization, 19, 35, 37, 44, 60,
Canossa, 136, 140, 167, 172, 174, 65, 72, 75, 86, 91, 93, 127, 283
285 Christians, 35, 75, 106, 121, 145,
Canterbury, 223 148, 161, 177, 179, 184, 185,
caparisons, 229 211, 271, 285
capella, 102, 210 Christocentricity, 96
Capetians, 32, 79, 225 Church Fathers, 126
cardinals, 129, 144, 172, 174, 194, Church Triumphant, 106
195, 197, 220, 221 Cistercians, 255
Carinthia, 120, 126, 141, 148, 164, cities, 16, 18, 32, 49, 58, 64, 73,
287 105, 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 Index

epic poetry, 36, 66, 228 Frederick I, 206, 207, 209, 214, 217,
Erfurt, 40, 231 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223,
Essen, 67, 95 225, 226, 228, 230, 231, 233,
Estonia, 260, 262 234, 248, 271, 286, 287
Estonians, 258 Frederick II, 140, 209, 242, 260,
Eugene III, 217 261, 267, 268, 269, 272, 274,
excommunication, 21, 69, 111, 114, 275, 278, 283, 286, 287, 288,
145, 149, 155, 160, 161, 164, 296, 297, 299
165, 166, 169, 171, 172, 174, freedom, 257
187, 190, 191, 192, 193, 196, Freiburg, 206, 249, 250, 253, 254,
197, 198, 221, 227, 266, 268, 255, 256
269, 284, 287, 288, 289, 294, Freising, 29, 215
295, 297, 299 frescoes, 119, 154, 218
experience, 37, 52, 97, 126, 146, Fribourg, 249
170, 180, 298 Frisia, 37, 213
falconry, 298 Fritzlar, 30
feudalism, 232 Fulda, 25, 29, 67, 102, 271
fiction, 64, 85, 92, 110 Gandersheim, 27, 67, 95, 116
Fifth Crusade, 281, 286 Gebhard of Eichstätt, 137
filigree, 71 Gelnhausen, 250
Finland, 136, 263 gems, 229
First Crusade, 161, 181, 185, 187, genealogy, 36, 227
190, 211, 270, 283 Genoa, 281, 289
Flanders, 98, 136, 181, 191, 213 Gerberga, 32, 54
Flavia Helena, 33 Gerbert of Aurillac, 74, 86, 88
Florence, 136, 176 Germany, 9, 43, 47, 51, 54, 64, 72,
Forchheim, 23, 170 74, 75, 81, 85, 90, 91, 92, 93,
fortifications, 27, 34, 149, 151, 210, 109, 119, 120, 125, 129, 135,
230, 254, 261 162, 163, 166, 169, 172, 174,
Fourth Crusade, 242, 272, 281 175, 186, 195, 196, 197, 203,
Fourth Lateran Council, 270, 271 204, 206, 207, 210, 211, 212,
France, 9, 22, 44, 47, 48, 54, 73, 74, 219, 222, 223, 226, 236, 239,
79, 98, 106, 126, 129, 131, 136, 240, 241, 256, 263, 264, 267,
161, 176, 181, 191, 192, 205, 268, 272, 274, 276, 277, 278,
211, 212, 222, 223, 228, 233, 286, 288, 292, 296, 297
234, 236, 238, 239, 264, 265, Gernrode, 69
266, 268, 270, 277, 280, 288, Gero, 44, 54, 60, 69
292 Ghibellines, 267, 296
Franciscans, 255, 291 Gieselbert, 32, 43, 47
Franconia, 23, 26, 43, 44, 48, 53 Gisela, 91, 115, 117, 121
Franconians, 23, 26, 30 glory, 18, 65, 86, 88, 114, 224, 245,
Frankfurt, 48, 99, 110, 148, 270, 290
275 Gniezno, 82, 85, 90
Franks, 21, 33, 36, 43, 44, 47, 85, Godfrey of Bouillon, 126, 185, 190
113, 227 Golden Bull of Eger, 269, 270
fraternities, 31, 45, 104 Golden Bull of Rimini, 261, 262
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 361

Golden Rome, 88, 91 115, 116, 120, 125, 154, 155,

Gorze, 68, 102 206, 211
Goslar, 109, 131, 138, 150, 151, Henry II of England, 205, 222, 223,
157, 162, 173, 196, 206, 216, 224, 225, 231
248 Henry III, 63, 111, 113, 114, 118,
Gospels of Otto III, 91 119, 120, 122, 125, 126, 127,
Gothic, 41, 263 129, 130, 131, 133, 134, 136,
Göttingen, 149 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 144,
grace, 24, 31, 78, 90, 120, 168, 215, 149, 155, 156, 168, 175, 286
235, 243, 285 Henry III of England, 292
Gran, 91 Henry IV, 114, 131, 134, 136, 137,
gravity, 17, 26, 61, 74, 242, 274 138, 139, 141, 144, 145, 146,
Greece, 107 147, 148, 149, 152, 157, 159,
Greeks, 68, 85, 213, 236 160, 161, 162, 166, 168, 169,
Greenland, 136 171, 172, 173, 175, 176, 181,
Guelfs. See Welfs 185, 187, 188, 189, 190, 195,
guilds, 247 196, 214, 221, 240, 285
Gunhild, 118, 125, 139 Henry of Augsburg, 142, 143
Habsburgs, 207 Henry the Lion, 211, 213, 214, 215,
Hagenau, 250 223, 225, 226, 229, 230, 231,
Halberstadt, 61, 109 233, 236, 237, 239, 249, 261,
Hamburg, 57, 60, 65, 136, 144, 147, 264
148, 187, 215 Henry the Quarrelsome, 72, 77, 80,
Harald Bluetooth, 60, 72, 80 91, 95
Hartwich of Bremen, 215 Henry V, 113, 114, 153, 157, 187,
Harzburg, 149, 151 188, 190, 191, 192, 193, 195,
Hatheburg, 28, 39 196, 197, 198, 201, 203, 204,
hauberk, 185 205, 206, 209, 210
Hausmacht, 119, 196, 209, 225 Henry VI, 209, 228, 229, 236, 237,
Havelberg, 60, 61, 75 238, 239, 240, 241, 244, 245,
Heavenly Jerusalem, 99, 270 263
Heerschildordnung, 232 Henry VII of France, 259
Heil, 11, 12, 23, 27, 28, 31, 37, 190. heresy, 127, 155, 156, 187, 269,
See felicitas 271, 272, 279, 287, 290
Heinrich Raspe, 293 heretics, 106, 157, 271, 279, 297
Heinrich von Veldeke, 228 Herford, 28, 67
Heinricianum, 108, 203 Heribert of Cologne, 83, 84
Henry (VII), 274, 275, 277, 278, Hermann Billung, 44, 54, 60
279, 280, 299 Hermann von Salm, 173, 175
Henry I, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 38, Hermann von Salza, 124, 131
43, 49, 192 Hildebrand, 129, 134, 135, 144,
Henry I of England, 192, 205 157, 163. See Gregory VII
Henry I of France, 126, 136 Hildegard von Bingen, 214
Henry II, 12, 18, 19, 21, 28, 54, 90, Hildesheim, 67, 102, 104
93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 101, 104,
105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 113,
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 367

Philip II Augustus of France, 235, Celestine III, 237, 241

236, 237, 238, 266, 268 Clement II, 128, 129
philosophy, 74 Clement III, 173, 174, 176, 181,
piety, 29, 63, 68, 83, 98, 100, 103, 186, 187
126, 134, 136, 138, 183, 244, Clement IV, 296
285 Damasus II, 129
pilgrimages, 69, 90, 132, 133, 135, Gelasius I, 20, 85
146, 159, 177, 178, 180, 183, Gelasius II, 197, 198
187, 206, 228, 231, 241, 267, Gregory I, 84, 158
280 Gregory IX, 278, 279, 285, 286,
pilgrims, 108, 132, 133, 178, 182, 287, 288, 289
213, 282, 284 Gregory V, 84, 87
pillars, 51, 202 Gregory VI, 127, 128
Plantagenets, 192, 223, 225, 269, Gregory VII, 114, 128, 148,
286 150, 157, 158, 159, 160,
poets, 228, 280, 297 163, 169, 171, 172, 175,
Poitou, 126, 234, 264 188, 194, 203, 217, 221
Poland, 9, 19, 61, 65, 72, 77, 82, 90, Gregory VIII, 232, 233
92, 96, 107, 119, 125, 150, 155, Hadrian II, 151
166, 175, 191, 214, 263, 294 Hadrian IV, 218, 219, 221
Poles, 19, 61, 98, 107 Honorius II, 145, 206
policies, 18, 19, 24, 32, 36, 37, 39, Honorius III, 271, 274, 276, 284
43, 45, 48, 49, 50, 51, 57, 58, Innocent III, 230, 237, 244, 265,
60, 63, 64, 66, 70, 71, 72, 74, 266, 267, 268, 269, 274
76, 81, 83, 87, 92, 94, 98, 105, Innocent IV, 282, 288, 289, 293,
116, 119, 135, 136, 137, 142, 297
143, 147, 148, 149, 157, 158, John IV, 76
171, 175, 187, 188, 196, 197, John X, 38
198, 204, 206, 207, 212, 217, John XI, 38
219, 221, 222, 225, 230, 232, John XII, 55, 56, 57, 61, 154
237, 241, 246, 257, 266, 268, John XIII, 57, 61, 63, 70, 76
277, 278 John XIX, 117
popes John XV, 84
Alexander II, 145, 148, 157, Leo I, 129
161, 222 Leo IX, 119, 129, 130, 134, 135,
Alexander III, 222, 223, 224, 136, 152, 176, 255, 273
225, 235 Leo VIII, 56
Alexander IV, 295, 297 Nicholas II, 143, 144, 145
Benedict IX, 127 Paschal II, 187, 188, 192, 193,
Benedict V, 57 195, 197
Benedict VI, 74 Paschal III, 223, 225
Benedict VII, 75 Sergius III, 38
Benedict VIII, 107, 108, 109 Sergius IV, 106
Benedict X, 142 Stephen IX, 142
Boniface VII, 74 Sylvester I, 89, 218
Calixtus II, 198 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 Index

Scholasticism, 128 St. Anno, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146,

science, 298 147, 153
screen, 33, 34, 110 St. Benedict, 66, 103
scriptoria, 67 St. Bernward of Hildesheim, 83
sculptures, 41 St. Boniface, 43, 54
Second Crusade, 211, 214, 233 St. Denis, 224
secularia, 192 St. Elisabeth, 263
secularization, 255 St. Gallen, 22, 67, 69, 74
Seltz, 80, 82 St. Laurentius, 60
Sepulcher, 106, 186, 260, 281, 285, St. Mary, 76, 107
286 St. Mauritius, 33, 60
sequences, 67 St. Maximin, 68
Serbs, 234 St. Michael, 37, 53
service, 13, 25, 43, 46, 48, 52, 58, St. Nicholas, 76
62, 67, 69, 101, 105, 122, 131, St. Oswald, 40
140, 142, 160, 164, 178, 180, St. Pantaleon, 76, 80
188, 192, 193, 194, 210, 218, St. Peter, 69, 76, 82, 90, 92, 99, 109,
232, 238, 260, 261, 276, 287 145, 153, 158, 162, 163, 169,
servitium regis, 15, 47, 62, 101, 176
102, 119, 156, 157, 192, 203 St. Peter's, 55, 107, 117, 194, 219
shield order, 232 St. Servatius, 28, 29
Sicilian Normans, 109, 111, 121, St. Sylvester, 154, 218
176, 193, 217, 221, 234, 240 St. Thomas à Becket, 223
Sicily, 10, 22, 73, 109, 135, 214, St. Victor, 129, 143, 221, 222
224, 229, 233, 239, 240, 241, St. Vitus, 35
243, 244, 263, 265, 266, 267, St. Wiperti, 29
268, 274, 276, 283, 286, 287, Staufen. See Hohenstaufen
294, 295, 296, 297 steeples, 99
Siegfried I of Mainz, 147 Strasbourg, 246
Siegfried III of Mainz, 293 stupor mundi. See Frederick II
Silesia, 10, 82, 288 stupor mundi, 297
simony, 56, 120, 121, 127, 130, Styria, 10, 231
134, 136, 137, 143, 144, 148, Suitger of Bamberg, 128
153, 155, 156, 158, 159, 160, surgery, 277, 298
174, 176, 203 Sutri, 127, 145, 156, 218
sinners, 69, 80, 120, 152 Swabia, 10, 22, 23, 24, 26, 30, 31,
Slavs, 10, 19, 22, 23, 34, 35, 44, 47, 43, 48, 49, 53, 116, 118, 120,
51, 53, 60, 65, 75, 76, 80, 89, 126, 141, 148, 164, 170, 171,
98, 108, 141, 213 187, 197, 214, 215, 234, 255,
Spain, 22, 64, 171, 228, 259 264, 274, 277, 295, 296
Speyer, 114, 116, 119, 125, 138, Swabians, 23, 85, 95, 131, 150
147, 167, 180, 189, 195, 205, Sweden, 231, 260
246, 250, 254, 266 Switzerland, 187, 249
sponsorship, 41, 156, 246, 256, 260 Swordbrothers, 260, 262. See
squires, 228, 234 Brotherhood of the Sword of
St. Albanus, 76 Livonia. See Militia of Christ
 The Medieval Empire in Central Europe 371

symbols, 42, 148, 191, 192 Turks, 149, 159, 161, 183, 186, 226,
Synagoga, 106 234
synagogues, 254 Tuscany, 136, 137, 140, 197, 229,
synods, 13, 25, 47, 56, 61, 63, 99, 240, 264, 266
109, 117, 127, 136, 155, 156, Two Authorities, 20, 63, 85, 119,
161, 163, 165, 172, 173, 174, 128, 130, 157, 160, 164, 216,
175, 176 222, 291, 292, 297
Syria, 263 Two Swords, 20, 58, 160, 165, 216
Tancred, 236, 237, 239, 240 Ulrich of Augsburg, 53
temporalia, 191, 192 urban centers, 172, 200, 213, 246,
territorial particularism, 134, 190, 247, 248, 278
194, 200, 202, 205, 243, 270, urbanization, 171, 253, 297
299 Utrecht, 67, 104, 125, 165, 192, 205
tetramorphs, 86 vanity, 88, 169
Thankmar, 28, 39, 44 vassalage, 11, 31, 122, 124, 144,
Thebaic Legion, 33 153, 155, 184, 191, 199, 217,
Theoderic the Great, 117 218, 231
Theodosius, 17 vassals, 25, 46, 52, 105, 121, 122,
Theophanius, 79 125, 135, 136, 159, 169, 199,
Theophanu, 21, 36, 64, 70, 71, 72, 203, 232, 263, 276, 292
73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, Venice, 227, 272, 273
84, 85, 107, 110, 141 Verona, 75, 76
Thietmar von Merseburg, 97 vestments, 100, 165
Third Crusade, 233, 259, 281 Vicarius Christi, 93, 96, 109, 114,
Thomas Aquinas, 277 115, 117, 120, 127, 168
Thuringia, 10, 25, 26, 27, 149, 207, Vienna, 238, 246, 287
293 Vikings, 22, 37, 44, 80
towns, 16, 34, 55, 105, 140, 153, villages, 132, 250
193, 201, 210, 246, 249, 250, Virgin Mary, 76, 100, 107, 115,
251, 255, 256, 279 121, 263
trade, 16, 37, 49, 66, 116, 132, 147, visions, 185
162, 184, 210, 216, 217, 245, vita, 104, 178
248, 249, 250, 258, 261, 272, vita activa, 178
297 vita communis, 104
transitoryness, 94 vita contemplativa, 178
tribal dukes, 45, 48 Viterbo, Godfrey of, 244
Tribur, 139, 148 Viterbo, Rainer of, 290, 292
Trier, 32, 42, 67, 68, 180, 192, 246, Walther von der Vogelweide, 266,
250 277, 280, 296
Trifels, 238, 240 Welfs, 167, 171, 187, 197, 206, 207,
Trinity, 69 209, 211, 215, 216, 225, 230,
troubadours, 228, 229 231, 237, 238, 239, 244, 250,
Truce of God, 132, 133, 135, 175, 260, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268,
177, 180 275, 286
Turin, 136, 140, 167 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