Conrad the Franconian and Henry the Fowler.
Beginning of the Saxon line.
Hungarian invasion.
The building of towns.
In 911, on the death of Louis, surnamed the Child, the German
or East-Frank branch of the dynasty of Charlemagne had become
extinct. "There remained indeed Charles the Simple,
acknowledged as king in some parts of France, but rejected in
others, and possessing no personal claims to respect. The
Germans therefore wisely determined to chose a sovereign from
among themselves. They were at this time divided into five
nations, each under its own duke, and distinguished by
difference of laws, as well as of origin; the Franks, whose
territory, comprising Franconia and the modern Palatinate, was
considered as the cradle of the empire, and who seem to have
arrogated some superiority over the rest, the Suabians, the
Bavarians, the Saxons ... and the Lorrainers, who occupied the
left bank of the Rhine as far as its termination. The choice
of these nations in their general assembly fell upon Conrad,
duke of Franconia, according to some writers, or at least a
man of high rank, and descended through females from
Charlemagne. Conrad dying without male issue, the crown of
Germany was bestowed [A. D. 919] upon Henry the Fowler, duke
of Saxony, ancestor of the three Othos, who followed him in
direct succession. To Henry, and to the first Otho [A. D.
936-973], Germany was more indebted than to any sovereign
since Charlemagne."
_H. Hallam,
The Middle Ages,
chapter 5._
"In 924, the Hungarians, who were as much dreaded as the angel
of destruction, re-appeared. They came from the grassy plains
of Hungary, mounted on small and ugly, but strong horses, and
swept along the Danube like a hailstorm. Wherever they came
they set fire to farms, hamlets, and towns, and killed all
living creatures or carried them off. And often they bound
their prisoners to the tails of their horses, and dragged them
along till they died from the dreadful torture. Their very
figures inspired disgust and terror, for their faces were
brown, and disfigured by scars to absolute hideousness; their
heads were shaven, and brutal ferocity and rapacity shone out
of their deep-set eyes. And though the Germans fought bravely,
these enemies always overmatched them, because they appeared
now here, now there, on their fleet horses, and fell upon
isolated districts before they were expected or could be
stopped. ... When on a sudden the terrible cry, 'The
Hungarians are coming, the Hungarians are coming,' resounded
through the land, all fled who could, as if the wild legions
of hell were marching through Saxony and Thuringia. King
Henry, however, would not fly, but encountered them in combat,
like a true knight. Yet he lost the battle, either because he
was ill, or because his soldiers were too few, and
unaccustomed to the enemy's mode of fighting, which enabled
them to conquer while they were fleeing. Henry was obliged to
shut himself up in the royal palace of Werla, near Goslar,
which he bravely defended. The Hungarians stormed it again and
again, but they could not scale the walls; while Henry's men
by a daring sally took a Hungarian chieftain prisoner, which
so terrified the besiegers that they concluded a truce for
nine years on condition that their chief should be released,
and that Henry should engage to pay a yearly tribute. Henry
submitted to the dishonourable sacrifice that he might husband
his strength for better times. ... How important it was to
have fortified places which could not be stormed by cavalry,
and therefore afforded a safe refuge to the neighbouring
peasantry, Henry recognised in 929, when the Hungarians
marched through Bavaria and Suabia to Lorraine, plundered the
time-honoured monastery of St. Gall, and burnt the suburbs of
Constance, but could not take the fortified town itself.
Henry, accordingly, published an order throughout the land,
that at suitable places large fortresses should be built, in
which every ninth man from the neighbouring district must take
garrison duty. Certainly living in towns was contrary to the
customs of the North Germans, and here and there there was
much resistance; but they soon recognised the wisdom of the
royal order, and worked night and day with such diligence that
there soon arose throughout the land towns with stately towers
and strong walls, behind whose battlements the armed burghers
defiantly awaited the Hungarians. Hamburg was then fortified,
Itzehoe built, the walls of Magdeburg, Halle, and Erfurt
extended, for these towns had stood since the time of
Charlemagne. Quedlinburg, Merseburg, Meissen, Wittenberg,
Goslar, Soest, Nordhausen, Duderstadt, Gronau, Pölde, were
rebuilt, and many others of which the old chroniclers say
nothing. Those who dwelt in the cities were called burghers,
and in order that they might not be idle they began to
practise many kinds of industry, and to barter their goods
with the peasants. The emperor encouraged the building of
towns, and granted emancipation to every slave who repaired to
a town, allowed the towns to hold fairs and markets, granted
to them the right of coining money and levying taxes, and gave
them many landed estates and forests. Under such encouragement
town life rapidly developed, and the emperor, in his disputes
with the lawless nobility, always received loyal support from
his disciplined burghers. After a few centuries the towns,
which had now generally become republics, under the name of
'free imperial towns,' became the seats of the perfection of
European trade, science, and culture. ... These incalculable
benefits are due to Henry's order to build towns."
_A. W. Grübe,
Heroes of History and Legend,
chapter 8._
At the expiration of the nine years truce, the Hungarians
resumed their attacks, and were defeated by Henry in two
bloody battles.
GERMANY: A. D. 936-973.
Restoration of the Roman Empire by
Otho I. called the Great.
"Otho the Great, son and successor of Henry I., added the
kingdom of Italy to the conquests of his father, and procured
also the Imperial dignity for himself, and his successors in
Germany. Italy had become a distinct kingdom since the
revolution, which happened (888) at the death of the Emperor
Charles the Fat. Ten princes in succession occupied the throne
during the space of seventy-three years. Several of these
princes, such as Guy, Lambert, Arnulf, Louis of Burgundy, and
Berenger I., were invested with the Imperial dignity. Berenger
I., having been assassinated (924), this latter dignity ceased
entirely, and the city of Rome was even dismembered from the
kingdom of Italy. The sovereignty of that city was seized by
the famous Marozia, widow of a nobleman named Alberic. She
raised her son to the pontificate by the title of John XI.;
and the better to establish her dominion, she espoused Hugo
King of Italy (932), who became, in consequence of this
marriage, master of Rome. But Alberic, another son of Marozia,
soon stirred up the people against this aspiring princess and
her husband Hugo.
{1440}
Having driven Hugo from the throne, and shut up his mother in
prison, he assumed to himself the sovereign authority, under
the title of Patrician of the Romans. At his death (954) he
transmitted the sovereignty to his son Octavian, who, though
only nineteen years of age, caused himself to be elected pope,
by the title of John XII. This epoch was one most disastrous
for Italy. The weakness of the government excited factions
among the nobility, gave birth to anarchy, and fresh
opportunity for the depredations of the Hungarians and Arabs,
who, at this period, were the scourge of Italy, which they
ravaged with impunity. Pavia, the capital of the kingdom, was
taken, and burnt by the Hungarians. These troubles increased
on the accession of Berenger II. (950), grandson of Berenger
I. That prince associated his son Adelbert with him in the
royal dignity; and the public voice accused them of having
caused the death of King Lothaire, son and successor of Hugo.
Lothaire left a young widow, named Adelaide, daughter of
Rodolph II., King of Burgundy and Italy. To avoid the
importunities of Berenger II., who wished to compel her to
marry his son Adelbert, this princess called in the King of
Germany to her aid. Otho complied with the solicitations of
the distressed queen; and, on this occasion, undertook his
first expedition into Italy (951). The city of Pavia, and
several other places, having fallen into his hands, he made
himself be proclaimed King of Italy, and married the young
queen, his protégée. Berenger and his son, being driven for
shelter to their strongholds, had recourse to negociation.
They succeeded in obtaining for themselves a confirmation of
the royal title of Italy, on condition of doing homage for it
to the King of Germany. ... It appears that it was not without
the regret, and even contrary to the wish of Adelaide, that
Otho agreed to enter into terms of accommodation with
Berenger. ... Afterwards; however, he lent a favourable ear to
the complaints which Pope John XII. and some Italian noblemen
had addressed to him against Berenger and his son; and took
occasion, on their account, to conduct a new army into Italy
(961). Berenger, too feeble to oppose him, retired a second
time within his fortifications. Otho marched from Pavia to
Milan, and there made himself be crowned King of Italy; from
thence he passed to Rome, about the commencement of the
following year. Pope John XII., who had himself invited him,
and again implored his protection against Berenger, gave him,
at first, a very brilliant reception; and revived the Imperial
dignity in his favour, which had been dormant for thirty-eight
years. It was on the 2d of February, 962, that the Pope
consecrated and crowned him Emperor; but he had soon cause to
repent of this proceeding. Otho, immediately after his
coronation at Rome, undertook the siege of St. Leon, a
fortress in Umbria, where Berenger and his queen had taken
refuge. While engaged in the siege, he received frequent
intimations from Rome, of the misconduct and immoralities of
the Pope. The remonstrances which he thought it his duty to
make on this subject, offended the young pontiff, who
resolved, in consequence, to break off union with the Emperor.
Hurried on by the impetuosity of his character, he entered
into a negociation with Adelbert; and even persuaded him to
come to Rome, in order to concert with him measures of
defence. On the first news of this event, Otho put himself at
the head of a large detachment, with which he marched directly
to Rome. The Pope, however, did not think it advisable to wait
his approach, but fled with the King, his new ally. Otho, on
arriving at the capital, exacted a solemn oath from the clergy
and the people, that henceforth they would elect no pope
without his counsel, and that of the Emperor and his
successors. Having then assembled a council, he caused Pope
John XII. to be deposed; and Leo VIII. was elected in his
place. This latter Pontiff was maintained in the papacy, in
spite of all the efforts which his adversary made to regain
it. Berenger II., after having sustained a long siege at St.
Leon, fell at length (964) into the hands of the conqueror,
who sent him into exile at Bamberg, and compelled his son,
Adelbert, to take refuge in the court of Constantinople. All
Italy, to the extent of the ancient kingdom of the Lombards,
fell under the dominion of the Germans; only a few maritime
towns in Lower Italy, with the greater part of Apulia and
Calabria, still remained in the power of the Greeks. This
kingdom, together with the Imperial dignity, Otho transmitted
to his successors on the throne of Germany. From this time the
Germans held it to be an inviolable principle, that as the
Imperial dignity was strictly united with the royalty of
Italy, kings elected by the German nation should, at the same
time, in virtue of that election, become Kings of Italy and
Emperors. The practice of this triple coronation, viz., of
Germany, Italy, and Rome, continued for many centuries; and
from Otho the Great, till Maximilian I. (1508), no king of
Germany took the title of Emperor, until after he had been
formally crowned by the Pope."
_C. W. Koch,
The Revolutions of Europe,
period 3._
"At the first glance it would seem as if the relation in which
Otho now stood to the pope was the same as that occupied by
Charlemagne; on a closer inspection, however; we find a wide
difference. Charlemagne's connexion with the see of Rome was
produced by mutual need; it was the result of long epochs of
political combination embracing the development of various
nations; their mutual understanding rested on an internal
necessity, before which all opposing views and interests gave
way. The sovereignty of Otho the Great, on the contrary,
rested on a principle fundamentally opposed to the
encroachment of spiritual influences. The alliance was
momentary; the disruption of it inevitable. But when, soon
after, the same pope who had invoked his aid, John XII.,
placed himself at the head of a rebellious faction, Otho was
compelled to cause him to be formally deposed, and to crush
the faction that supported him by repeated, exertions of
force, before he could obtain perfect obedience; he was
obliged to raise to the papal chair a pope on whose
co-operation he could rely. The popes have often asserted that
they transferred the empire to the Germans; and if they
confined this assertion to the Carolingian race, they are not
entirely wrong. The coronation of Charlemagne was the result
of their free determination. But if they allude to the German
emperors, properly so called, the contrary of their statement
is just as true; not only Carlmann and Otho the Great, but
their successors, constantly had to conquer the imperial
throne, and to defend it, when conquered, sword in hand.
{1441}
It has been said that the Germans would have done more wisely
if they had not meddled with the empire; or, at least, if they
had first worked out their own internal political
institutions, and then, with matured minds, taken part in the
general affairs of Europe. But the things of this world are
not wont to develop themselves so methodically. A nation is
often compelled by circumstances to increase its territorial
extent, before its internal growth is completed. For was it of
slight importance to its inward progress that Germany thus
remained in unbroken connexion with Italy?--the depository of
all that remained of ancient civilisation, the source whence
all the forms of Christianity had been derived. The mind of
Germany has always unfolded itself by contact with the spirit
of antiquity, and of the nations of Roman origin. ... The
German imperial government revived the civilising and
Christianising tendencies which had distinguished the reigns
of Charles Martell and Charlemagne. Otho the Great, in
following the course marked out by his illustrious
predecessors, gave it a fresh national importance by planting
German colonies in Slavonian countries simultaneously with the
diffusion of Christianity. He Germanised as well as converted
the population he had subdued. He confirmed his father's
conquests on the Saale and the Elbe, by the establishment of
the bishoprics of Meissen and Osterland. After having
conquered the tribes on the other side the Elbe in those long
and perilous campaigns where he commanded in person, he
established there, too, three bishoprics, which for a time
gave an extraordinary impulse to the progress of conversion.
... And even where the project of Germanising the population
was out of the question, the supremacy of the German name was
firmly and actively maintained. In Bohemia and Poland
bishoprics were erected under German metropolitans; from
Hamburg Christianity found its way into the north;
missionaries from Passau traversed Hungary, nor is it
improbable that the influence of these vast and sublime
efforts extended even to Russia. The German empire was the
centre of the conquering religion; as itself advanced, it
extended the ecclesiastico-military State of which the Church
was an integral part; it was the chief representative of the
unity of western Christendom, and hence arose the necessity
under which it lay of acquiring a decided ascendancy over the
papacy. This secular and Germanic principle long retained the
predominancy it had triumphantly acquired. ... How magnificent
was the position now occupied by the German nation,
represented in the persons of the mightiest princes of Europe
and united under their sceptre; at the head of an advancing
civilisation, and of the whole of western Christendom; in the
fullness of youthful aspiring strength! We must here however
remark and confess, that Germany did not wholly understand her
position, nor fulfil her mission. Above all, she did not
succeed in giving complete reality to the idea of a western
empire, such as appeared about to be established under Otho I.
Independent and often hostile, though Christian powers arose
through all the borders of Germany; in Hungary and in Poland,
in the northern as well as in the southern possessions of the
Normans; England and France were snatched again from German
influence. Spain laughed at the German claims to a universal
supremacy; her kings thought themselves emperors; even the
enterprises nearest home--those across the Elbe--were for a
time stationary or retrograde. If we seek for the causes of
these unfavourable results, we need only turn our eyes on the
internal condition of the empire, where we find an incessant
and tempestuous struggle of all the forces of the nation.
Unfortunately the establishment of a fixed rule of succession
to the imperial crown was continually prevented by events."
_L. Ranke,
History of the Reformation in Germany,
introduction._
See, also, ITALY: A. D. 961-1039;
and ROMAN EMPIRE, THE HOLY.
GERMANY: A. D. 955.
Great defeat and repulse of the Hungarians by Otho I.
See HUNGARIANS: A. D. 934-955.
GERMANY: A. D. 973-1122.
End of the Saxon line.
Election of the Franconians.
Reformation of the Papacy.
Contest of Henry IV. with the Head of the Church.
The question of Investitures.
"Otho II. had a short and troubled reign, 973-983 A. D.,
having to repress the Slavi, the Danes, the Greeks of Lower
Italy, and to defend Lorraine against the French. He died at
Rome in his twenty-eighth year. 983 A. D. Otho III. (aged
three years) succeeded under the regency of his mother,
Theophania (a Greek princess), who had to contend with the
rebellious nobles, the Slavi, the Poles, the Bohemians, and
with France, which desired to conquer Lorraine. This able lady
died 991 A. D. Otho III. made three expeditions into Italy,
and in 998 A. D. put down the republic of Rome, which had been
created by the patrician Crescentius. The resistance of
Crescentius had been pardoned the preceding year, but on this
occasion he was publicly beheaded on the battlements of Rome,
in view of the army and of the people. In 999 A. D. Otho
placed his tutor Gerbert in the papal chair as Sylvester II.
The tutor and the emperor were in advance of their age. The
former had gleaned from Saracen translations from the Greek,
as well as from Latin literature, and was master of the
science of the day. It is supposed that they had planned to
remove the seat of empire to Rome--a project which, had he
lived, he would not have been able to carry out, for the
centre of political power had long moved northward: he died at
the early age of twenty-two, 1002 A. D. Henry II. (the Holy),
Duke of Bavaria, was elected emperor, and had to battle, like
his predecessors, with rebellious nobles, with the Poles, and
Bohemians, and the Slavi. He was thrice in Italy, and died
1024 A. D. 'Perhaps, with the single exception of St. Louis
IX., there was no other prince of the middle ages so uniformly
swayed by justice.' Conrad II. (the Salic) of Franconia was
elected emperor in a diet in the plains between Mentz and
Worms, near Oppenheim, which was attended by princes, nobles,
and 50,000 people altogether. His reign was remarkable for the
justice and mercy which he always kept in view. The kingdom of
Aries and Burgundy was united to the empire, 1033 A. D. He
checked the Poles, the Hungarians, and the Lombards, and gave
Schleswiek to Denmark as a fief. In 1037 A. D. he granted to
the lower vassals of the empire the hereditary succession to
their offices and estates, and so extended the privileges of
the great nobles, as to make them almost independent of the
crown. Henry III. succeeded, 1039 A. D., and established the
imperial power with a high hand."
_W. B. Boyce,
Introduction to the Study of History,
pages 230-231._
{1442}
"Henry III. was, as sovereign, able, upright, and resolute;
and his early death--for his reign was cut short by disasters
that preyed upon his health--is one of the calamities of
history. The cause of the Roman Court he judged with vigor and
good sense. His strong hand, more than any man's, dragged the
Church out of the slough it had fallen into [see ROME: A. D.
962-1057]. ... A few years before, in 1033, a child ten years
old, son of one of the noble houses, had been put on the papal
throne, under the name of Benedict IX.; and was restored to it
by force of arms, five years later, when he had grown into a
lewd, violent, and wilful boy of fifteen. At the age of
twenty-one he was weary of the struggle, and sold out, for a
large sum of money paid down, to a rich purchaser,--first
plundering the papal treasury of all the funds he could lay
his hands on. His successor, Gregory VI., naturally complained
of his hard bargain, which was made harder by another claimant
(Sylvester III.), elected by a different party; while no law
that could possibly be quoted or invented would make valid the
purchase and sale of the spiritual sovereignty of the world,
which in theory the Papacy still was. Gregory appears to have
been a respectable and even conscientious magistrate, by the
standard of that evil time. But his open purchase of the
dignity not only gave a shock to whatever right feeling there
was left, but it made the extraordinary dilemma and scandal of
three popes at once,--a knot which the German king, now
Emperor, was called in to cut. ... The worthless Benedict was
dismissed, as having betrayed his charge. The impotent
Sylvester was not recognized at all. The respectable Gregory
was duly convinced of his deep guilt of Simony,--because he
had 'thought that the gift of God could be purchased with
money,'--and was suffered as a penitent to end his days in
peace. A fourth, a German ecclesiastic, who was clean of all
these intrigues, was set in the chair of Peter, where he
reigned righteously for two years under the name of Clement
II."
_J. H. Allen,
Christian History in its Three Great Periods:
Second period,
pages 57-58._