Divisions of Germany.
When Clovis, or Chlodovech, became king of a tribe of the Salian Franks
in 481, five years after the fall of the Western empire, the region
afterwards called Germany was divided into five main districts, and its
history for the succeeding three centuries is mainly the history of the
tribes inhabiting these districts. In the north-east, dwelling between
the Rhine and the Elbe, were the Saxons (q.v.), to the east and south of
whom stretched the extensive kingdom of Thuringia (q.v.). In the
south-west the Alamanni occupied the territory afterwards called Swabia
(q.v.), and extended along the middle Rhine until they met the Ripuarian
Franks, then living in the northern part of the district which at a
later period was called after them, Franconia (q.v.); and in the
south-east were the Bavarians, although it was some time before their
country came to be known as Bavaria (q.v.).
The wars of Clovis.
Clovis was descended from Chlogio, or Clodion, who had ruled over a
branch of the Salian Franks from 427 to 447, and whose successors,
following his example, had secured an influential position for their
tribe. Having obtained possession of that part of Gaul which lay between
the Seine and the Loire, Clovis turned his attention to his eastern
neighbours, and was soon engaged in a struggle with the Alamanni which
probably arose out of a quarrel between them and the Ripuarian Franks
for the possession of the middle Rhine. When in 496, or soon afterwards,
the Alamanni were defeated, they were confined to what was afterwards
known as Swabia, and the northern part of their territory was
incorporated with the kingdom of the Franks. Clovis had united the
Salian Franks under his rule, and he persuaded, or compelled, the
Ripuarian Franks also to accept him as their king; but on his death in
511 his kingdom was divided, and the Ripuarian, or Rhenish, Franks as
they are sometimes called, together with some of the Alamanni, came
under the rule of his eldest son Theuderich or Theodoric I. This was the
first of the many partitions which effectually divided the kingdom of
the Franks into an eastern and a western portion, that is to say, into
divisions which eventually became Germany and France respectively, and
the district ruled by Theuderich was almost identical with that which
afterwards bore the name of Austrasia. In 531 Theuderich killed
Hermannfried, king of the Thuringians, a former ally, with whom he had
quarrelled, conquered his kingdom, and added its southern portion to his
own possessions. His son and successor, Theudebert I., exercised a
certain supremacy over the Alamanni and the Bavarians, and even claimed
authority over various Saxon tribes between whom and the Franks there
had been some fighting. After his death in 548, however, the Frankish
power in Germany sank to very minute proportions, a result due partly to
the spirit of tribal independence which lingered among the German races,
but principally to the paralysing effect of the unceasing rivalry
between Austrasia and Neustria. From 548 the Alamanni were ruled by a
succession of dukes who soon made themselves independent; and in 555 a
duke of the Bavarians, who exercised his authority without regard for
the Frankish supremacy, is first mentioned. In Thuringia, which now only
consisted of the central part of the former kingdom, King Dagobert I.
set up in 634 a duke named Radulf who soon asserted his independence of
Dagobert and of his successor, Sigebert III. The Saxons for their part
did not own even a nominal allegiance to the Frankish kings, whose
authority on the right bank of the Rhine was confined to the district
actually occupied by men of their own name, which at a later date became
the duchy of Franconia. During these years the eastern border of Germany
was constantly ravaged by various Slavonic tribes. King Dagobert sent
troops to repel these marauders from time to time, but the main burden
of defence fell upon the Saxons, Bavarians and Thuringians. The virtual
independence of these German tribes lasted until the union of Austrasia
and Neustria in 687, an achievement mainly due to the efforts of Pippin
of Heristal, who soon became the actual, though not the nominal, ruler
of the Frankish realm. Pippin and his son Charles Martel, who was mayor
of the palace from 717 to 741, renewed the struggle with the Germans and
were soon successful in re-establishing the central power which the
Merovingian kings had allowed to slip from their grasp. The ducal office
was abolished in Thuringia, a series of wars reduced the Alamanni to
strict dependence, and both countries were governed by Frankish
officials. Bavaria was brought into subjection about the same time; the
Bavarian law, committed to writing between 739 and 748, strongly
emphasizes the supremacy of the Frankish king, whose authority it
recognizes as including the right to appoint and even to depose the duke
of Bavaria. The Saxons, on the other hand, succeeded in retaining their
independence as a race, although their country was ravaged in various
campaigns and some tribes were compelled from time to time to pay
tribute. The rule of Pippin the Short, both before and after his
coronation as king, was troubled by constant risings on the part of his
East Frankish or German subjects, but aided by his brother Carloman, who
for a time administered this part of the Frankish kingdom, Pippin was
generally able to deal with the rebels.
The Saxons remain independent.
After all, however, even these powerful Frankish conquerors had but
imperfect success in Germany. When they were present with their
formidable armies, they could command obedience; when engaged, as they
often were, in distant parts of the vast Frankish territory, they could
not trust to the fulfilment of the fair promises they had exacted. One
of the chief causes of their ill-success was the continued independence
of the Saxons. Ever since they had acquired the northern half of
Thuringia, this warlike race had been extending its power. They were
still heathens, cherishing bitter hatred towards the Franks, whom they
regarded as the enemies both of their liberties and of their religion;
and their hatred found expression, not only in expeditions into Frankish
territory, but in help willingly rendered to every German confederation
which wished to throw off the Frankish yoke. Hardly any rebellion
against the dukes of the Franks, or against King Pippin, took place in
Germany without the Saxons coming forward to aid the rebels. This was
perfectly understood by the Frankish rulers, who tried again and again
to put an end to the evil by subduing the Saxons. They could not,
however, attain their object. An occasional victory was gained, and some
border tribes were from time to time compelled to pay tribute; but the
mass of the Saxons remained unconquered. This was partly due to the fact
that the Saxons had not, like the other German confederations, a duke
who, when beaten, could be held responsible for the engagements forced
upon him as the representative of his subjects. A Saxon chief who made
peace with the Franks could undertake nothing for the whole people. As a
conquering race, they were firmly compact; conquered, they were in the
hands of the victor a rope of sand.
Christianity in Germany.
It was during the time of Pippin of Heristal and his son and grandson
that the conversion of the Germans to Christianity was mainly effected.
Some traces of Roman Christianity still lingered in the Rhine valley and
in southern Germany, but the bulk of the people were heathen, in spite
of the efforts of Frank and Irish missionaries and the command of King
Dagobert I. that all his subjects should be baptized. Rupert, bishop of
Worms, had already made some progress in the work of converting the
Bavarians and Alamanni, as had Willibrord among the Thuringians when St
Boniface appeared in Germany in 717. Appointed bishop of the Germans by
Pope Gregory II., and supported by Charles Martel, he preached with much
success in Bavaria and Thuringia, notwithstanding some hostility from
the clergy who disliked the influence of Rome. He founded or restored
bishoprics in Bavaria, Thuringia and elsewhere, and in 742 presided over
the first German council. When he was martyred in 755 Christianity was
professed by all the German races except the Saxons, and the church,
organized and wealthy, had been to a large extent brought under the
control of the papacy. The old pagan faith was not yet entirely
destroyed, and traces of its influence may still be detected in popular
beliefs and customs. But still Christianity was dominant, and soon
became an important factor in the process of civilization, while the
close alliance of the German church with the papacy was followed by
results of the utmost consequence for Germany.
The work of Charlemagne.
The reign of Charlemagne is a period of great importance in the history
of Germany. Under his rule the first signs of national unity and a
serious advance in the progress of order and civilization may be seen.
The long struggle, which ended in 804 with the submission of the Saxons
to the emperor, together with the extension of a real Frankish authority
over the Bavarians, brought the German races for the first time under a
single ruler; while war and government, law and religion, alike tended
to weld them into one people. The armies of Charlemagne contained
warriors from all parts of Germany; and although tribal law was
respected and codified, legislation common to the whole empire was also
introduced. The general establishment of the Frankish system of
government and the presence of Frankish officials helped to break down
the barriers of race, and the influence of Christianity was in the same
direction. With the conversion of the Saxons the whole German race
became nominally Christian; and their ruler was lavish in granting lands
and privileges to prelates, and untiring in founding bishoprics,
monasteries and schools. Measures were also taken for the security and
good government of the country. Campaigns against the Slavonic tribes,
if sometimes failing in their immediate object, taught those peoples to
respect the power of the Frankish monarch; and the establishment of a
series of marches along the eastern frontier gave a sense of safety to
the neighbouring districts. The tribal dukes had all disappeared, and
their duchies were split up into districts ruled by counts (q.v.), whose
tendencies to independence the emperor tried to check by the visits of
the _missi dominici_ (q.v.). Some of the results of the government of
Charlemagne were, however, less beneficial. His coronation as Roman
emperor in 800, although it did not produce at the time so powerful an
impression in Germany as in France, was fraught with consequences not
always favourable for the former country. The tendencies of the tribe to
independence were crushed as their ancient popular assemblies were
discouraged; and the liberty of the freemen was curtailed owing to the
exigencies of military service, while the power of the church was rarely
directed to the highest ends.
Louis I. and his sons.
The reign of the emperor Louis I. was marked by a number of abortive
schemes for the partition of his dominions among his sons, which
provoked a state of strife that was largely responsible for the
increasing weakness of the Empire. The mild nature of his rule,
however, made Louis popular with his German subjects, to whose support
mainly he owed his restoration to power on two occasions. When in 825
his son Louis, afterwards called "the German," was entrusted with the
government of Bavaria and from this centre gradually extended his
authority over the Carolingian dominions east of the Rhine, a step was
taken in the process by which East Francia, or Germany, was becoming a
unit distinguishable from other portions of the Empire; a process which
was carried further by the treaty of Verdun in August 843, when, after a
struggle between Louis the German and his brothers for their father's
inheritance, an arrangement was made by which Louis obtained the bulk of
the lands east of the Rhine together with the districts around Mainz,
Worms and Spires on the left bank. Although not yet a single people, the
German tribes had now for the first time a ruler whose authority was
confined to their own lands, and from this time the beginnings of
national life may be traced. For fifty years the main efforts of Louis
were directed to defending his kingdom from the inroads of his Slavonic
neighbours, and his detachment from the rest of the Empire necessitated
by these constant engagements towards the east, gradually gave both him
and his subjects a distinctive character, which was displayed and
emphasized when, in ratifying an alliance with his half-brother, the
West-Frankish king, Charles the Bald, the oath was sworn in different
tongues. The East and West Franks were unable to understand each other's
speech, so Charles took the oath in a Romance, and Louis in a German
dialect.
Louis the German and his successors.
Important as is the treaty of Verdun in German history, that of Mersen,
by which Louis and Charles the Bald settled in 870 their dispute over
the kingdom of Lothair, second son of the emperor Lothair I., is still
more important. The additional territory which Louis then obtained gave
to his dominions almost the proportions which Germany maintained
throughout the middle ages. They were bounded on the east by the Elbe
and the Bohemian mountains, and on the west beyond the Rhine they
included the districts known afterwards as Alsace and Lorraine. His
jurisdiction embraced the territories occupied by the five ancient
German tribes, and included the five archbishoprics of Mainz, Treves
(Trier), Cologne, Salzburg and Bremen. When Louis died in 876 his
kingdom was divided among his three sons, but as the two elder of these
soon died without heirs, Germany was again united in 882 under his
remaining son Charles, called "the Fat," who soon became ruler of almost
the whole of the extensive domains of Charlemagne. There was, however,
no cohesion in the restored empire, the disintegration of which,
moreover, was hastened by the ravages of the Northmen, who plundered the
cities in the valley of the Rhine. Charles attempted to buy off these
redoubtable invaders, a policy which aroused the anger of his German
subjects, whose resentment was accentuated by the king's indifference to
their condition, and found expression in 887 when Arnulf, an
illegitimate son of Carloman, the eldest son of Louis the German, led an
army of Bavarians against him. Arnulf himself was recognized as German
or East-Frankish king, although his actual authority was confined to
Bavaria and its neighbourhood. He was successful in freeing his kingdom
for a time from the ravages of the Northmen, but was not equally
fortunate in his contests with the Moravians. After his death in 899 his
kingdom came under the nominal rule of his young son Louis "the Child,"
and in the absence of firm rule and a central authority became the prey
of the Magyars and other hordes of invaders.
Feudalism in Germany.
During these wars feudalism made rapid advance in Germany. The different
peoples compelled to attend to their own defence appointed dukes for
special military services (see DUKE); and these dukes, chosen often from
members of the old ducal families, succeeded without much difficulty in
securing a more permanent position for themselves and their descendants.
In Saxony, for example, we hear of Duke Otto the Illustrious, who also
ruled over Thuringia; and during the early years of the 10th century
dukes appear in Franconia, Bavaria, Swabia and Lorraine. These dukes
acquired large tracts of land of which they gave grants on conditions of
military service to persons on whom they could rely; while many
independent landowners sought their protection on terms of vassalage.
The same process took place in the case of great numbers of freemen of a
lower class, who put themselves at the service of their more powerful
neighbours in return for protection. In this manner the feudal tenure of
land began to prevail in almost all parts of Germany, and the elaborate
social system which became known as feudalism was gradually built up.
The dukes became virtually independent, and when Louis the Child died in
911, the royal authority existed in name only.
Conrad I.
While Louis the Child lived the German dukes were virtually kings in
their duchies, and their natural tendency was to make themselves
absolute rulers. But, threatened as they were by the Magyars, with the
Slavs and Northmen always ready to take advantage of their weakness,
they could not afford to do without a central government. Accordingly
the nobles assembled at Forchheim, and by the advice of Otto the
Illustrious, duke of Saxony, Conrad of Franconia was chosen German king.
The dukes of Bavaria, Swabia and Lorraine were displeased at this
election, probably because Conrad was likely to prove considerably more
powerful than they wished. Rather than acknowledge him, the duke of
Lotharingia, or Lorraine, transferred his allegiance to Charles the
Simple of France; and it was in vain that Conrad protested and
despatched armies into Lorraine. With the help of the French king the
duke maintained his ground, and for the time his country was lost to
Germany. Bavaria and Swabia yielded, but, mainly through the fault of
the king himself, their submission was of brief duration. The rise of
the dukes had been watched with extreme jealousy by the leading
prelates. They saw that the independence they had hitherto enjoyed would
be much more imperilled by powerful local governors than by a sovereign
who necessarily regarded it as part of his duty to protect the church.
Hence they had done everything they could to prevent the dukes from
extending their authority, and as the government was carried on during
the reign of Louis the Child mainly by Hatto I., archbishop of Mainz,
they had been able to throw considerable obstacles in the way of their
rivals. They had now induced Conrad to quarrel with both Swabia and
Bavaria, and also with Henry, duke of Saxony, son of the duke to whom he
chiefly owed his crown. In these contests the German king met with
indifferent success, but the struggle with Saxony was not very serious,
and when dying in December 919 Conrad recommended the Franconian nobles
to offer the crown to Henry, the only man who could cope with the
anarchy by which he had himself been baffled.
Henry the Fowler.
The nobles of Franconia acted upon the advice of their king, and the
Saxons were very willing that their duke should rise to still higher
honours. Henry I., called "the Fowler," who was chosen German king in
May 919, was one of the best of German kings, and was a born statesman
and warrior. His ambition was of the noblest order, for he sank his
personal interests in the cause of his country, and he knew exactly when
to attain his objects by force, and when by concession and moderation.
Almost immediately he overcame the opposition of the dukes of Swabia and
Bavaria; some time later, taking advantage of the troubled state of
France, he accepted the homage of the duke of Lorraine, which for many
centuries afterwards remained a part of the German kingdom.
Henry and the Magyars.
Having established internal order, Henry was able to turn to matters of
more pressing moment. In the first year of his reign the Magyars, who
had continued to scourge Germany during the reign of Conrad, broke into
Saxony and plundered the land almost without hindrance. In 924 they
returned, and this time by good fortune one of their greatest princes
fell into the hands of the Germans. Henry restored him to his countrymen
on condition that they made a truce for nine years; and he promised to
pay yearly tribute during this period. The barbarians accepted his
terms, and faithfully kept their word in regard to Henry's own lands,
although Bavaria, Swabia and Franconia they occasionally invaded as
before. The king made admirable use of the opportunity he had secured,
confining his efforts, however, to Saxony and Thuringia, the only parts
of Germany over which he had any control.
Henry's work in Saxony.
In the southern and western German lands towns and fortified places had
long existed; but in the north, where Roman influence had only been
feeble, and where even the Franks had not exercised much authority until
the time of Charlemagne, the people still lived as in ancient times,
either on solitary farms or in exposed villages. Henry saw that, while
this state of things lasted, the population could never be safe, and
began the construction of fortresses and walled towns. Of every group of
nine men one was compelled to devote himself to this work, while the
remaining eight cultivated his fields and allowed a third of their
produce to be stored against times of trouble. The necessities of
military discipline were also a subject of attention. Hitherto the
Germans had fought mainly on foot, and, as the Magyars came on
horseback, the nation was placed at an immense disadvantage. A powerful
force of cavalry was now raised, while at the same time the infantry
were drilled in new and more effective modes of fighting. Although these
preparations were carried on directly under Henry's supervision, only in
Saxony and Thuringia the neighbouring dukes were stimulated to follow
his example. When he was ready he used his new troops, before turning
them against their chief enemy, the Magyars, to punish refractory
Slavonic tribes; and he brought under temporary subjection nearly all
the Slavs between the Elbe and the Oder. He proceeded also against the
Bohemians, whose duke was compelled to do homage.
The Magyars return.
The truce with the Magyars was not renewed, whereupon in 933 a body of
invaders crossed, as in former years, the frontier of Thuringia. Henry
prudently waited until dearth of provisions forced the enemy to divide
into two bands. He then swept down upon the weaker force, annihilated
it, and rapidly advanced against the remaining portion of the army. The
second battle was more severe than the first, but not less decisive. The
Magyars, unable to cope with a disciplined army, were cut down in great
numbers, and those who survived rode in terror from the field. The exact
scenes of these conflicts are not known, although the date of the second
encounter was the 15th of March 933; but few more important battles have
ever been fought. The power of the Magyars was not indeed destroyed, but
it was crippled, and the way was prepared for the effective liberation
of Germany from an intolerable plague. While the Magyars had been
troubling Germany on the east and south, the Danes had been irritating
her on the north. Charlemagne had established a march between the Eider
and the Schlei; but in course of time the Danes had not only seized this
territory, but had driven the German population beyond the Elbe. The
Saxons had been slowly reconquering the lost ground, and now Henry,
advancing with his victorious army into Jutland, forced Gorm, the Danish
king, to become his vassal and regained the land between the Eider and
the Schlei. But Henry's work concerned the duchy of Saxony rather than
the kingdom of Germany. He concentrated all his energies on the
government and defence of northern and eastern Germany, leaving the
southern and western districts to profit by his example, while his
policy of refraining from interference in the affairs of the other
duchies tended to diminish the ill-feeling which existed between the
various German tribes and to bring peace to the country as a whole. It
is in these directions that the reign of Henry the Fowler marks a stage
in the history of Germany.
The growth of towns.
When this great king died in July 936 every land inhabited by a German
population formed part of the German kingdom, and none of the duchies
were at war either with him or among themselves. Along the northern and
eastern frontier were tributary races, and the country was for the time
rid of an enemy which, for nearly a generation, had kept it in perpetual
fear. Great as were these results, perhaps Henry did even greater
service in beginning the growth of towns throughout north Germany. Not
content with merely making them places of defence, he decreed that they
should be centres for the administration of justice, and that in them
should be held all public festivities and ceremonies; he also instituted
markets, and encouraged traders to take advantage of the opportunities
provided for them. A strong check was thus imposed upon the tendency of
freemen to become the vassals of great lords. This movement had become
so powerful by the troubles of the epoch that, had no other current of
influence set in, the entire class of freemen must soon have
disappeared. As they now knew that they could find protection without
looking to a superior, they had less temptation to give up their
independence, and many of them settled in the towns where they could be
safe and free. Besides maintaining a manly spirit in the population, the
towns rapidly added to their importance by the stimulus they gave to all
kinds of industry and trade.
Otto the Great.
Before his death Henry obtained the promise of the nobles at a national
assembly, or diet, at Erfurt to recognize his son Otto as his successor,
and the promise was kept, Otto being chosen German king in July 936.
Otto I. the Great began his reign under the most favourable
circumstances. He was twenty-four years of age, and at the coronation
festival, which was held at Aix-la-Chapelle, the dukes performed for the
first time the nominally menial offices known as the arch-offices of the
German kingdom. But these peaceful relations soon came to an end.
Reversing his father's policy, Otto resolved that the dukes should act
in the strictest sense as his vassals, or lose their dignities. At the
time of his coronation Germany was virtually a federal state; he wished
to transform it into a firm and compact monarchy. This policy speedily
led to a formidable rebellion, headed by Thankmar, the king's
half-brother, a fierce warrior, who fancied that he had a prior claim to
the crown, and who secured a number of followers in Saxony. He was
joined by Eberhard, duke of Franconia, and it was only by the aid of the
duke of Swabia, whom the duke of Franconia had offended, that the rising
was put down. This happened in 938, and in 939 a second rebellion, led
by Otto's brother Henry, was supported by the duke of Franconia and by
Giselbert, duke of Lorraine. Otto again triumphed, and derived immense
advantages from his success. The duchy of Franconia he kept in his own
hands, and in 944 he granted Lorraine to Conrad the Red, an energetic
and honourable count, whom he still further attached to himself by
giving him his daughter for his wife. Bavaria, on the death of its duke
in 947, was placed under his brother Henry, who, having been pardoned,
had become a loyal subject. The duchy of Swabia was also brought into
Otto's family by the marriage of his son Ludolf with Duke Hermann's
daughter, and by these means Otto made himself master of the kingdom.
For the time, feudalism in truth meant that lands and offices were held
on condition of service; the king was the genuine ruler, not only of
freemen, but of the highest vassals in the nation.
Otto's wars with France and with the Slavs.
In the midst of these internal troubles Otto was attacked by the French
king, Louis IV., who sought to regain Lorraine. However, the German king
was soon able to turn his arms against his new enemy; he marched into
France and made peace with Louis in 942. Otto's subsequent interventions
in the affairs of France were mainly directed towards making peace
between Louis and his powerful and rebellious vassal, Hugh the Great,
duke of the Franks, both of whom were married to sisters of the German
king. Much more important than Otto's doings in France were his wars
with his northern and eastern neighbours. The duke of Bohemia, after a
long struggle, was brought to submission in 950. Among the Slavs between
the Elbe and the Oder the king was represented by Margrave Gero, a
warrior well fitted for the rough work he had to do, loyal to his
sovereign, but capable of any treachery towards his enemies, who
conquered much of the country north of Bohemia between the Oder and the
upper and middle Elbe. Margrave Billung, who looked after the Abotrites
on the lower Elbe, was less fortunate, mainly because of the
neighbourhood of the Danes, who, after the death of King Henry, often
attacked the hated Germans, but some progress was made in bringing this
district under German influence. Otto, having profound faith in the
power of the church to reconcile conquered peoples to his rule, provided
for the benefit of the Danes the bishoprics of Schleswig, Ripen and
Aarhus; and among those which he established for the Slavs were the
important bishoprics of Brandenburg and Havelberg. In his later years he
set up the archbishopric of Magdeburg, which took in the sees of
Meissen, Zeitz and Merseburg.
Otto in Italy.
Having secured peace in Germany and begun the real conquest of the
border races, Otto was by far the greatest sovereign in Europe; and, had
he refused to go beyond the limits within which he had hitherto acted,
it is probable that he would have established a united monarchy. But a
decision to which he soon came deprived posterity of the results which
might have sprung from the policy of his earlier years. About 951
Adelaide, widow of Lothair, son of Hugh, king of Italy, having refused
to marry the son of Berengar, margrave of Ivrea, was cast into prison
and cruelly treated. She appealed to Otto; other reasons called him in
the same direction, and in 951 he crossed the Alps and descended into
Lombardy. He displaced Berengar, and was so fascinated by Queen Adelaide
that within a few weeks he was married to her at Pavia. But Otto's son,
Ludolf, who had received a promise of the German crown, saw his rights
threatened by this marriage. He went to an old enemy of his father,
Frederick, archbishop of Mainz, and the two plotted together against the
king, who, hearing of their proceedings, returned to Germany in 952,
leaving Duke Conrad of Lorraine as his representative in Italy. Otto,
who did not suspect how deep were the designs of the conspirators, paid
a visit to Mainz, where he was seized and was compelled to take certain
solemn pledges which, after his escape, he repudiated.
The civil war.
Defeat of Magyars.
War broke out in 953, and the struggle was the most serious in which he
had been engaged. In Lorraine, of which duchy Otto made his brother
Bruno, archbishop of Cologne, administrator, his cause was triumphant;
but everywhere else dark clouds gathered over his head. Conrad the Red
hurried from Italy and joined the rebels; in Swabia, in Bavaria, in
Franconia and even in Saxony, the native land of the king, many sided
with them. It is extremely remarkable that this movement acquired so
quickly such force and volume. The explanation, according to some
historians, is that the people looked forward with alarm to the union of
Germany with Italy. There were still traditions of the hardships
inflicted upon the common folk by the expeditions of Charlemagne, and it
is supposed that they anticipated similar evils in the event of his
empire being restored. Whether or not this be the true explanation, the
power of Otto was shaken to its foundations. At last he was saved by the
presence of an immense external peril. The Magyars were as usual
stimulated to action by the disunion of their enemies; and Conrad and
Ludolf made the blunder of inviting their help, a proceeding which
disgusted the Germans, many of whom fell away from their side and
rallied to the head and protector of the nation. In a very short time
Conrad and the archbishop of Mainz submitted, and although Ludolf held
out a little longer he soon asked for pardon. Lorraine was given to
Bruno; but Conrad, its former duke, although thus punished, was not
disgraced, for Otto needed his services in the war with the Magyars. The
great battle against these foes was fought on the 10th of August 955 on
the Lechfeld near Augsburg. After a fierce and obstinate fight, in which
Conrad and many other nobles fell, the Germans were victorious; the
Magyars were even more thoroughly scourged than in the battles in which
Otto's father had given them their first real check. The deliverance of
Germany was complete, and from this time, notwithstanding certain wild
raids towards the east, the Magyars began to settle in the land they
still occupy, and to adapt themselves to the conditions of civilized
life.
Otto crowned emperor.
Entreated by Pope John XII., who needed a helper against Berengar, Otto
went a second time to Italy, in 961; and on this occasion he received
from the pope at Rome the imperial crown. In 966 he was again in Italy,
where he remained six years, exercising to the full his imperial rights
in regard to the papacy, but occupied mainly in an attempt to make
himself master of the southern, as well as of the northern half of the
peninsula.
Connexion of Germany with the Empire.
By far the most important act of Otto's eventful life was his assumption
of the Lombard and the imperial crowns. His successors steadily followed
his example, and the sovereign crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle claimed as his
right coronation by the pope in Rome. Thus grew up the Holy Roman
Empire, that strange state which, directly descending through the empire
of Charlemagne from the empire of the Caesars, contained so many
elements foreign to ancient life. We are here concerned with it only as
it affected Germany. Germany itself never until our own day became an
empire. It is true that at last the Holy Roman Empire was in reality
confined to Germany; but in theory it was something quite different.
Like France, Germany was a kingdom, but it differed from France in this,
that its king was also king in Italy and Roman emperor. As the latter
title made him nominally the secular lord of the world, it might have
been expected to excite the pride of his German subjects; and doubtless,
after a time, they did learn to think highly of themselves as the
imperial race. But the evidence tends to show that at first at least
they had no wish for this honour, and would have preferred their ruler
to devote himself entirely to his own people.
There are signs that during Otto's reign they began to have a distinct
consciousness of national life, their use of the word "deutsch" to
indicate the whole people being one of these symptoms. Their common
sufferings, struggles and triumphs, however, account far more readily
for this feeling than the supposition that they were elated by their
king undertaking obligations which took him for years together away from
his native land. So solemn were the associations of the imperial title
that, after acquiring it, Otto probably looked for more intimate
obedience from his subjects. They were willing enough to admit the
abstract claims of the Empire; but in the world of feudalism there was a
multitude of established customs and rights which rudely conflicted with
these claims, and in action, remote and abstract considerations gave way
before concrete and present realities. Instead of strengthening the
allegiance of the Germans towards their sovereign, the imperial title
was the means of steadily undermining it. To the connexion of their
kingdom with the Empire they owe the fact that for centuries they were
the most divided of European nations, and that they have only recently
begun to create a genuinely united state. France was made up of a number
of loosely connected lands, each with its own lord, when Germany, under
Otto, was to a large extent moved by a single will, well organized and
strong. But the attention of the French kings was concentrated on their
immediate interests, and in course of time they brought their unruly
vassals to order. The German kings, as emperors, had duties which often
took them away for long periods from Germany. This alone would have
shaken their authority, for, during their absence, the great vassals
seized rights which were afterwards difficult to recover. But the
emperors were not merely absent, they had to engage in struggles in
which they exhausted the energies necessary to enforce obedience at
home; and, in order to obtain help, they were sometimes glad to concede
advantages to which, under other conditions, they would have tenaciously
clung. Moreover, the greatest of all their struggles was with the
papacy; so that a power outside their kingdom, but exercising immense
influence within it, was in the end always prepared to weaken them by
exciting dissension among their people. Thus the imperial crown was the
most fatal gift that could have been offered to the German kings;
apparently giving them all things, it deprived them of nearly
everything. And in doing this it inflicted on many generations
incalculable and needless suffering.
Otto and the duchies.
By the policy of his later years Otto did much to prepare the way for
the process of disintegration which he rendered inevitable by restoring
the Empire. With the kingdom divided into five great duchies, the
sovereign could always have maintained at least so much unity as Henry
the Fowler secured; and, as the experience of Otto himself showed, there
would have been chances of much greater centralization. Yet he threw
away this advantage. Lorraine was divided into two duchies, Upper
Lorraine and Lower Lorraine. In each duchy of the kingdom he appointed a
count palatine, whose duty was to maintain the royal rights; and after
Margrave Gero died in 965 his territory was divided into three marches,
and placed under margraves, each with the same powers as Gero. Otto gave
up the practice of retaining the duchies either in his own hands or in
those of relatives. Even Saxony, his native duchy and the chief source
of his strength, was given to Margrave Billung, whose family kept it for
many years. To combat the power of the princes, Otto, especially after
he became emperor and looked upon himself as the protector of the
church, immensely increased the importance of the prelates. They
received great gifts of land, were endowed with jurisdiction in criminal
as well as civil cases, and obtained several other valuable sovereign
rights. The emperor's idea was that, as church lands and offices could
not be hereditary, their holders would necessarily favour the crown. But
he forgot that the church had a head outside Germany, and that the
passion for the rights of an order may be not less intense than that for
the rights of a family. While the Empire was at peace with the popes the
prelates did strongly uphold it, and their influence was unquestionably,
on the whole, higher than that of rude secular nobles. But with the
Empire and the Papacy in conflict, they could not but abide, as a rule,
by the authority which had the most sacred claims to their loyalty. From
all these circumstances it curiously happened that the sovereign who did
more than almost any other to raise the royal power, was also the
sovereign who, more than any other, wrought its decay.
Otto II.
Otto II. had been crowned German king at Aix-la-Chapelle and emperor at
Rome during his father's lifetime. Becoming sole ruler in May 973, his
troubles began in Lorraine, but were more serious in Bavaria, which was
now a very important duchy. Its duke, Henry, the brother of Otto I., had
died in 955 and had been succeeded by a young son, Henry, whose
turbulent career subsequently induced the Bavarian historian Aventinus
to describe him as _rixosus_, or the Quarrelsome. In 973 Burchard II.,
duke of Swabia, died, and the new emperor refused to give this duchy to
Henry, further irritating this duke by bestowing it upon his enemy,
Otto, a grandson of the emperor Otto I. Having collected allies Henry
rebelled, and in 976 the emperor himself marched against him and drove
him into Bohemia. Bavaria was taken from him and given to Otto of
Swabia, but it was deprived of some of its importance. The southern
part, Carinthia, which had hitherto been a march district, was separated
from it and made into a duchy, and the church in Bavaria was made
dependent upon the king and not upon the duke. Having arrived at this
settlement Otto marched against the Bohemians, but while he was away
from Germany war was begun against him by Henry, the new duke of
Carinthia, who, forgetting the benefits he had just received, rose to
avenge the wrongs of his friend, the deposed duke Henry of Bavaria. The
emperor made peace with the Bohemians and quickly put down the rising.
Henry of Bavaria was handed over to the keeping of the bishop of Utrecht
and Carinthia received another duke.
Otto and France.
In his anxiety to obtain possession of southern Italy, Otto I. had
secured as a wife for his son and successor Theophano, daughter of the
East Roman emperor, Romanus II., the ruler of much of southern Italy.
Otto II., having all his father's ambition with much of his strength and
haughtiness, longed to get away from Germany and to claim these remoter
districts. But he was detained for some time owing to the sudden
invasion of Lower Lorraine by Lothair, king of France, in 978. So
stealthily did the invader advance that the emperor had only just time
to escape from Aix-la-Chapelle before the town was seized and plundered.
As quickly as possible Otto placed himself at the head of a great army
and marched to Paris, but he was compelled to retreat without taking the
city, and in 980 peace was made.
Otto in Italy.
At last, after an expedition against the Poles, Otto was able to fulfil
the wish of his heart; he went to Italy in 980 and never returned to
Germany. His claims to southern Italy were vehemently opposed, and in
July 982 he suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of the East Roman
emperor's subjects and their Saracen allies. The news of this crushing
blow cast a gloom over Germany, which was again suffering from the
attacks of her unruly neighbours. The Saxons were able to cope with the
Danes and the German boundary was pushed forward in the south-east; but
the Slavs fought with such courage and success that during the reigns of
the emperors Otto II. and Otto III. much of the work effected by the
margraves Hermann Billung and Gero was undone, and nearly two centuries
passed before they were driven back to the position which they had
perforce occupied under Otto the Great. Such were the first-fruits of
the assumption of the imperial crown.
Otto III.
About six months before his death in Rome, in December 983, Otto held a
diet at Verona which was attended by many of the German princes, who
recognized his infant son Otto as his successor. Otto was then taken to
Germany, and after his father's death he was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle
on Christmas Day 983. Henry of Bavaria was released from his confinement
and became his guardian; but as this restless prince showed an
inclination to secure the crown for himself, the young king was taken
from him and placed in the care of his mother Theophano. Henry, however,
gained a good deal of support both within and without Germany and caused
much anxiety to Otto's friends, but in 985 peace was made and he was
restored to Bavaria. While Theophano acted as regent, the chief
functions of government were discharged by Willigis, archbishop of Mainz
(d. 1011), a vigorous prelate who had risen from a humble rank to the
highest position in the German Church. He was aided by the princes, each
of whom claimed a voice in the administration, and, during the lifetime
of Theophano at least, a stubborn and sometimes a successful resistance
was offered to the attacks of the Slavs. But under the prevalent
conditions a vigorous rule was impossible, and during Otto's minority
the royal authority was greatly weakened. In Saxony the people were
quickly forgetting their hereditary connexion with the successors of
Henry the Fowler; in Bavaria, after the death of Duke Henry in 995, the
nobles, heedless of the royal power, returned to the ancient German
custom and chose Henry's son Henry as their ruler.
The character of Otto.
In 995 Otto III. was declared to have reached his majority. He had been
so carefully trained in all the learning of the time that he was called
the "wonder of the world," and a certain fascination still belongs to
his imaginative and fantastic nature. Imbued by his mother with the
extravagant ideas of the East Roman emperors he introduced into his
court an amount of splendour and ceremonial hitherto unknown in western
Europe. The heir of the western emperors and the grandson of an eastern
emperor, he spent most of his time in Rome, and fancied he could unite
the world under his rule. In this vague design he was encouraged by
Gerbert, the greatest scholar of the day, whom, as Silvester II., he
raised to the papal throne. Meanwhile Germany was suffering severely
from internal disorders and from the inroads of her rude neighbours; and
when in the year 1000 Otto visited his northern kingdom there were hopes
that he would smite these enemies with the vigour of his predecessors.
But these hopes were disappointed; on the contrary, Otto seems to have
released Boleslaus, duke of the Poles, from his vague allegiance to the
German kings, and he founded an archbishopric at Gnesen, thus freeing
the Polish sees from the authority of the archbishop of Magdeburg.
Henry II.
When Otto III. died in January 1002 there remained no representative of
the elder branch of the imperial family, and several candidates came
forward for the vacant throne. Among these candidates was Henry of
Bavaria, son of Duke Henry the Quarrelsome and a great-grandson of Henry
the Fowler, and at Mainz in June 1002 this prince was chosen German king
as Henry II. Having been recognized as king by the Saxons, the
Thuringians and the nobles of Lorraine, the new king was able to turn
his attention to the affairs of government, but on the whole his reign
was an unfortunate one for Germany. For ten years civil war raged in
Lorraine; in Saxony much blood was shed in petty quarrels; and Henry
made expeditions against his turbulent vassals in Flanders and
Friesland. He also interfered in the affairs of Burgundy, but the
acquisition of this kingdom was the work of his successor, Conrad II.
During nearly the whole of this reign the Germans were fighting the
Poles. Boleslaus of Poland, who was now a very powerful sovereign,
having conquered Lusatia and Silesia, brought Bohemia also under his
rule and was soon at variance with the German king. Anxious to regain
these lands Henry allied himself with some Slavonic tribes, promising
not to interfere with the exercise of their heathen religion, while
Boleslaus found supporters among the discontented German nobles. The
honours of the ensuing war were with Henry, and when peace was made in
1006 Boleslaus gave up Bohemia, but the struggle was soon renewed and
neither side had gained any serious advantage when peace was again made
in 1013. A third Polish war broke out in 1015. Henry led his troops in
person and obtained assistance from the Russians and the Hungarians;
peace was concluded in 1018, the Elbe remaining the north-east boundary
of Germany. Henry made three journeys to Italy, being crowned king of
the Lombards at Pavia in 1004 and emperor at Rome ten years later.
Before the latter event, in order to assert his right of sovereignty
over Rome, he called himself king of the Romans, a designation which
henceforth was borne by his successors until they received the higher
title from the pope. Hitherto a sovereign crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle had
been "king of the West Franks," or "king of the Franks and Saxons."
Henry was generous to the church, to which he looked for support, but he
maintained the royal authority over the clergy. Although generally
unsuccessful he strove hard for peace, and during this reign the
principle of inheritance was virtually established with regard to German
fiefs.
Conrad II.
After Henry's death the nobles met at Kamba, near Oppenheim, and in
September 1024 elected Conrad, a Franconian count, to the vacant throne.
Although favoured by the German clergy the new king, Conrad II., had to
face some opposition; this, however, quickly vanished and he received
the homage of the nobles in the various duchies and seemed to have no
reason to dread internal enemies. Nevertheless, he had soon to battle
with a conspiracy headed by his stepson, Ernest II., duke of Swabia.
This was caused primarily by Conrad's avowed desire to acquire the
kingdom of Burgundy, but other reasons for dissatisfaction existed, and
the revolting duke found it easy to gather around him the scattered
forces of discontent. However, the king was quite able to deal with the
rising, which, indeed, never attained serious proportions, although
Ernest gave continual trouble until his death in 1030. With regard to
the German duchies Conrad followed the policy of Otto the Great. He
wished to control, not to abolish them. In 1026, when Duke Henry of
Bavaria died, he obtained the duchy for his son Henry, afterwards the
emperor Henry III.; later, despite the opposition of the nobles, he
invested the same prince with Swabia, where the ducal family had died
out. Franconia was in the hands of Conrad himself; thus Saxony,
Thuringia, Carinthia and Lorraine were the only duchies not completely
dependent upon the king.
The neighbouring countries.
When Conrad ascended the throne the safety of Germany was endangered
from three different points. On the north was Denmark ruled by Canute
the Great; on the east was the wide Polish state whose ruler, Boleslaus,
had just taken the title of king; and on the south-east was Hungary,
which under its king, St Stephen, was rapidly becoming an organized and
formidable power. Peace was maintained with Canute, and in 1035 a treaty
was concluded and the land between the Eider and the Schlei was ceded to
Denmark. In 1030 Conrad waged a short war against Hungary, but here also
he was obliged to assent to a cession of territory. In Poland he was
more fortunate. After the death of Boleslaus in 1025 the Poles plunged
into a civil war, and Conrad was able to turn this to his own advantage.
In 1031 he recovered Lusatia and other districts, and in 1033 the Polish
duke of Mesislaus did homage to him at Merseburg. His authority was
recognized by the Bohemians, and two expeditions taught the Slavonic
tribes between the Elbe and the Oder to respect his power.
Conrad in Italy.
In Italy, whither he journeyed in 1026 and 1036, Conrad was not
welcomed. Although as emperor and as king of the Lombards he was the
lawful sovereign of that country, the Germans were still regarded as
intruders and could only maintain their rights by force. The event which
threw the greatest lustre upon this reign was the acquisition of the
kingdom of Burgundy, or Arles, which was bequeathed to Conrad by its
king, Rudolph III., the uncle of his wife, Gisela. Rudolph died in 1032,
and in 1033 Conrad was crowned king at Peterlingen, being at once
recognized by the German-speaking population. For about two years his
rival, Odo, count of Champagne, who was supported by the
Romance-speaking inhabitants, kept up the struggle against him, but
eventually all opposition was overcome and the possession of Burgundy
was assured to the German king.
The nobles and the land.
This reign is important in the history of Germany because it marks the
beginning of the great imperial age, but it has other features of
interest. In dealing with the revolt of Ernest of Swabia Conrad was
aided by the reluctance of the vassals of the great lords to follow them
against the king. This reluctance was due largely to the increasing
independence of this class of landholders, who were beginning to learn
that the sovereign, and not their immediate lord, was the protector of
their liberties; the independence in its turn arose from the growth of
the principle of heredity. In Germany Conrad did not definitely decree
that fiefs should pass from father to son, but he encouraged and took
advantage of the tendency in this direction, a tendency which was,
obviously, a serious blow at the power of the great lords over their
vassals. In 1037 he issued from Milan his famous edict for the kingdom
of Italy which decreed that upon the death of a landholder his fief
should descend to his son, or grandson, and that no fiefholder should be
deprived of his fief without the judgment of his peers. In another
direction Conrad's policy was to free himself as king from dependence
upon the church. He sought to regain lands granted to the church by his
predecessors; prelates were employed on public business much less
frequently than heretofore. He kept a firm hand over the church, but his
rule was purely secular; he took little or no interest in ecclesiastical
affairs. During this reign the centre and basis of the imperial power in
Germany was moved southwards. Saxony, the home of the Ottos, became less
prominent in German politics, while Bavaria and the south were gradually
gaining in importance.
Henry III.
Henry III., who had been crowned German king and also king of Burgundy
during his father's lifetime, took possession of his great inheritance
without the slightest sign of opposition in June 1039. He was without
the impulsiveness which marred Conrad's great qualities, but he had the
same decisive judgment, wide ambition and irresistible will as his
father. During the late king's concluding years a certain Bretislaus,
who had served Conrad with distinction in Lusatia, became duke of
Bohemia and made war upon the disunited Poles, easily bringing them into
subjection. Thus Germany was again threatened with the establishment of
a great and independent Slavonic state upon her eastern frontier. To
combat this danger Henry invaded Bohemia, and after two reverses
compelled Bretislaus to appear before him as a suppliant at Regensburg.
The German king treated his foe generously and was rewarded by receiving
to the end of his reign the service of a loyal vassal; he also gained
the goodwill of the Poles by helping to bring about the return of their
duke, Casimir I., who willingly did homage for his land. The king of
Denmark, too, acknowledged Henry as his feudal lord. Moreover, by
several campaigns in Hungary the German king brought that country into
the position of a fief of the German crown. This war was occasioned by
the violence of the Hungarian usurper, Aba Samuel, and formed Henry's
principal occupation from 1041 to 1045.
Henry's internal policy.
In Germany itself Henry acquired, during the first ten years of his
rule, an authority which had been unknown since the days of Otto the
Great. Early in his reign he had made a determined enemy of Godfrey the
Bearded, duke of upper Lorraine, who, in 1044, conspired against him and
who found powerful allies in Henry I., king of France, in the counts of
Flanders and Holland, and in certain Burgundian nobles. However, Godfrey
and his friends were easily worsted, and when the dispossessed duke
again tried the fortune of war he found that the German king had
detached Henry of France from his side and was also in alliance with the
English king, Edward the Confessor. While thus maintaining his authority
in the north-east corner of the country by alliances and expeditions,
Henry was strong enough to put the laws in motion against the most
powerful princes and to force them to keep the public peace. Under his
severe but beneficent rule, Germany enjoyed a period of internal quiet
such as she had probably never experienced before, but even Henry could
not permanently divert from its course the main political tendency of
the age, the desire of the great feudal lords for independence.
Henry's wars.
Cowed, but unpacified and discontented, the princes awaited their
opportunity, while the king played into their hands by allowing the
southern duchies, Swabia, Bavaria and Carinthia, to pass from under his
own immediate control. His position was becoming gradually weaker when
in 1051 he invaded Hungary, where a reaction against German influence
was taking place. After a second campaign in 1052 the Hungarian king,
Andrew, was compelled to make peace and to own himself the vassal of the
German king. Meanwhile Saxony and Bavaria were permeated by the spirit
of unrest, and Henry returned from Hungary just in time to frustrate a
widespread conspiracy against him in southern Germany. Encouraged by the
support of the German rebels, Andrew of Hungary repudiated the treaty of
peace and the German supremacy in that country came to a sudden end.
Among the causes which undermined Henry's strength was the fact that the
mediate nobles, who had stood loyally by his father, Conrad, were not
his friends; probably his wars made serious demands upon them, and his
strict administration of justice, especially his insistence upon the
maintenance of the public peace, was displeasing to them.
Henry and the church.
At the beginning of Henry's reign the church all over Europe was in a
deplorable condition. Simony was universally practised and the morality
of the clergy was very low. The Papacy, too, had sunk to a degraded
condition and its authority was annihilated, not only by the character
of successive popes, but by the fact that there were at the same time
three claimants for the papal throne. Henry, a man of deep, sincere and
even rigorous piety, regarded these evils with sorrow; he associated
himself definitely with the movement for reform which proceeded from
Cluny, and commanded his prelates to put an end to simony and other
abuses. Then moving farther in the same direction he resolved to strike
at the root of the evil by the exercise of his imperial authority. In
1046 he entered Italy at the head of an army which secured for him
greater respect than had been given to any German ruler since
Charlemagne, and at Sutri and in Rome he deposed the three rival popes.
He then raised to the papal see Suidger, bishop of Bamberg, who, as Pope
Clement II., crowned him emperor; after Clement three other German
popes--Damasus II., Leo IX. and Victor II.--owed their elevation to
Henry. Under these popes a new era began for the church, and in thus
reforming the Papacy Henry III. fulfilled what was regarded as the
noblest duty of his imperial office, but he also sharpened a weapon
whose keen edge was first tried against his son.
The last years of Henry III. form a turning-point in German history.
Great kings and emperors came after him, but none of them possessed the
direct, absolute authority which he freely wielded; even in the case of
the strongest the forms of feudalism more and more interposed themselves
between the monarch and the nation, and at last the royal authority
virtually disappeared. During this reign the towns entered upon an age
of prosperity, and the Rhine and the Weser became great avenues of
trade.
The minority of Henry IV.
When Henry died in October 1056 the decline of the royal authority was
accelerated by the fact that his successor was a child. Henry IV., who
had been crowned king in 1054, was at first in charge of his mother, the
empress Agnes, whose weak and inefficient rule was closely watched by
Anno, archbishop of Cologne. In 1062, however, Anno and other prominent
prelates and laymen, perhaps jealous of the influence exercised at court
by Henry, bishop of Augsburg (d. 1063), managed by a clever trick to get
possession of the king's person. Deserted by her friends Agnes retired,
and forthwith Anno began to rule the state. But soon he was compelled to
share his duties with Adalbert, archbishop of Bremen, and a year or two
later Adalbert became virtually the ruler of Germany, leaving Anno to
attend to affairs in Italy. Adalbert's rule was very successful.
Compelling King Solomon to own Henry's supremacy he restored the
influence of Germany in Hungary; in internal affairs he restrained the
turbulence of the princes, but he made many enemies, especially in
Saxony, and in 1066 Henry, who had just been declared of age, was
compelled to dismiss him. The ambitious prelate, however, had gained
great influence over Henry, who had grown up under the most diverse
influences. The young king was generous and was endowed with
considerable intellectual gifts; but passing as he did from Anno's
gloomy palace at Cologne to Adalbert's residence in Bremen, where he was
petted and flattered, he became wayward and wilful.
Henry's personal rule.
Henry IV. assumed the duties of government soon after the fall of
Adalbert and quickly made enemies of many of the chief princes,
including Otto of Nordheim, the powerful duke of Bavaria, Rudolph, duke
of Swabia, and Berthold of Zahringen, duke of Carinthia. In Saxony,
where, like his father, he frequently held his court, he excited intense
hostility by a series of injudicious proceedings. While the three Ottos
were pursuing the shadow of imperial greatness in Italy, much of the
crown land in this duchy had been seized by the nobles and was now held
by their descendants. Henry IV. insisted on the restoration of these
estates and encroached upon the rights of the peasants. Moreover, he
built a number of forts which the people thought were intended for
prisons; he filled the land with riotous and overbearing Swabians; he
kept in prison Magnus, the heir to the duchy; and is said to have spoken
of the Saxons in a tone of great contempt. All classes were thus
combined against him, and when he ordered his forces to assemble for a
campaign against the Poles the Saxons refused to join the host. In 1073
the universal discontent found expression in a great assembly at
Wormesleben, in which the leading part was taken by Otto of Nordheim, by
Werner, archbishop of Magdeburg, and by Burkhard II., bishop of
Halberstadt. Under Otto's leadership the Thuringians joined the rising,
which soon spread far and wide. Henry was surprised by a band of rebels
in his fortress at the Harzburg; he fled to Hersfeld and appealed to the
princes for support, but he could not compel them to aid him and they
would grant him nothing. After tedious negotiations he was obliged to
yield to the demands of his enemies, and peace was made at Gerstungen in
1074. Zealously carrying out the conditions of the peace, the peasants
not only battered down the detested forts, they even destroyed the
chapel at the Harzburg and committed other acts of desecration. These
proceedings alarmed the princes, both spiritual and secular, and Henry,
who had gained support from the cities of the Rhineland, was able to
advance with a formidable army into Saxony in 1075. He gained a
decisive victory, rebuilt the forts and completely restored the
authority of the crown.
Pope Gregory VII.
In 1073, while Germany was in this confused state, Hildebrand had become
pope as Gregory VII., and in 1075 he issued his famous decree against
the marriage of the clergy and against their investiture by laymen. To
the latter decree it was impossible for any sovereign to submit, and in
Germany there were stronger reasons than elsewhere for resistance. A
large part of the land of the country was held by the clergy, and most
of it had been granted to them because it was supposed that they would
be the king's most efficient helpers. Were the feudal tie broken, the
crown must soon vanish, and the constitution of medieval society undergo
a radical change. Henry, who hitherto had treated the new pope with
excessive respect, now announced his intention of going to Rome and
assuming the imperial title. The pope, to whom the Saxons had been
encouraged to complain, responded by sending back certain of Henry's
messengers, with the command that the king should do penance for the
crimes of which his subjects accused him. Enraged by this unexpected
arrogance, Henry summoned a synod of German bishops to Worms in January
1076, and Hildebrand was declared deposed. The papal answer was a bull
excommunicating the German king, dethroning him and liberating his
subjects from their oath of allegiance.
Effect of Henry's excommunication.
Never before had a pope ventured to take so bold a step. It was within
the memory even of young men that a German king had dismissed three
popes, and had raised in turn four of his own prelates to the Roman see.
And now a pope attempted to drag from his throne the successor of this
very sovereign. The effect of the bull was tremendous; no other was ever
followed by equally important results. The princes had long been chafing
under the royal power; they had shaken even so stern an autocrat as
Henry III., and the authority of Henry IV. was already visibly weakened.
At this important stage in their contest with the crown a mighty ally
suddenly offered himself, and with indecent eagerness they hastened to
associate themselves with him. Their vassals and subjects, appalled by
the invisible powers wielded by the head of the church, supported them
in their rebellion. The Saxons again rose in arms and Otto of Nordheim
succeeded in uniting the North and South German supporters of the pope.
Henry had looked for no such result as this; he did not understand the
influences which lay beneath the surface and was horrified by his
unexpected isolation. At a diet in Tribur he humbled himself before the
princes, but in vain. They turned from him and decided that the pope
should be asked to judge Henry; that if, within a year, the sentence of
excommunication were not removed, the king should lose his crown; and
that in the meantime he should live in retirement.
Scene at Canossa.
Next came the strange scene at Canossa which burned itself into the
memory of Europe. For three days the representative of the Caesars
entreated to be admitted into the pope's presence. No other mode of
escape than complete subjection to Gregory had suggested itself, or was
perhaps possible; but it did not save him. Although the pope forgave
him, the German princes, resolved not to miss the chance which fortune
had given them, met in March 1077, and deposed him, electing Rudolph,
duke of Swabia, as his successor. But Henry's bitter humiliations
transformed his character; they brought out all his latent capacities of
manliness.
The struggle over investitures.
The war of investitures that followed was the opening of the tremendous
struggle between the Empire and the Papacy, which is the central fact of
medieval history and which, after two centuries of conflict, ended in
the exhaustion of both powers. Its details belong more to the history of
Italy than to that of Germany, where it took the form of a fight between
two rival kings, but in Germany its effects were more deeply felt. The
nation now plucked bitter fruit from the seed planted by Otto the Great
in assuming the imperial crown and by a long line of kings and emperors
in lavishing worldly power upon the church. In the ambition of the
spiritual and the secular princes the pope had an immensely powerful
engine of offence against the emperor, and without the slightest scruple
this was turned to the best advantage.
Henry IV. and the anti-kings.
When this struggle began it may be said in general that Henry was
supported by the cities and the lower classes, while Rudolph relied upon
the princes and the opponents of a united Germany; or, to make another
division, Henry's strength lay in the duchies of Franconia and Bavaria,
Rudolph's in Swabia and Saxony. In the Rhineland and in southern Germany
the cities had been steadily growing in wealth and power, and they could
not fail to realize that they had more to fear from the princes than
from the crown. Hence when Henry returned to Germany in 1078 Worms,
Spires and many other places opened their gates to him and contributed
freely to his cause; nevertheless his troops were beaten in three
encounters and Pope Gregory thundered anew against him in March 1080.
However, the fortune of war soon turned, and in October 1080 Rudolph of
Swabia was defeated and slain. Henry then carried the war into Italy; in
1084 he was crowned emperor in Rome by Wibert, archbishop of Ravenna,
whom, as Clement III., he had set up as an anti-pope, and in 1085
Gregory died an exile from Rome. Meanwhile in Germany Henry's opponents
had chosen Hermann, count of Luxemburg, king in succession to Rudolph of
Swabia. Hermann, however, was not very successful, and when Henry
returned to Germany in 1084 he found that his most doughty opponent,
Otto of Nordheim, was dead, and that the anti-king had few friends
outside Saxony. This duchy was soon reduced to obedience and was treated
with consideration, and when the third anti-king, Egbert, margrave of
Meissen, was murdered in 1090 there would have been peace if Germany had
followed her own impulses.
Henry and the Papacy.
In the Papacy, however, Henry had an implacable foe; and again and again
when he seemed on the point of a complete triumph the smouldering embers
of revolt were kindled once more into flame. In Italy his son, Conrad,
was stirred up against him and in 1093 was crowned king at Monza; then
ten years later, when Germany was more peaceful than it had been for
years and when the emperor's authority was generally acknowledged, his
second son, Henry, afterwards the emperor Henry V., was induced to head
a dangerous rebellion. The Saxons and the Thuringians were soon in arms,
and they were joined by those warlike spirits of Germany to whom an age
of peace brought no glory and an age of prosperity brought no gain.
After some desultory fighting Henry IV. was taken prisoner and compelled
to abdicate; he had, however, escaped and had renewed the contest when
he died in August 1106.
The First Crusade.
During this reign the first crusade took place, and the German king
suffered severely from the pious zeal which it expressed and
intensified. The movement was not in the end favourable to papal
supremacy, but the early crusaders, and those who sympathized with them,
regarded the enemies of the pope as the enemies of religion.
Henry V. in Germany.
The early years of Henry V.'s reign were spent in campaigns in Flanders,
Bohemia, Hungary and Poland, but the new king was soon reminded that the
dispute over investitures was unsettled. Pope Paschal II. did not doubt,
now that Henry IV. was dead, that he would speedily triumph; but he was
soon undeceived. Henry V., who with unconscious irony had promised to
treat the pope as a father, continued, like his predecessors, to invest
prelates with the ring and the staff, and met the expostulations of
Paschal by declaring that he would not surrender a right which had
belonged to all former kings. Lengthened negotiations took place but
they led to no satisfactory result, while the king's enemies in Germany,
taking advantage of the deadlock, showed signs of revolt. One of the
most ardent of these enemies was Lothair of Supplinburg, whom Henry
himself had made duke of Saxony upon the extinction of the Billung
family in 1106. Lothair was humbled in 1112, but he took advantage of
the emperor's difficulties to rise again and again, the twin pillars of
his strength being the Saxon hatred of the Franconian emperors and an
informal alliance with the papal see. Henry's chief friends were his
nephews, the two Hohenstaufen princes, Frederick and Conrad, to whose
father Frederick the emperor Henry IV. had given the duchy of Swabia
when its duke Rudolph became his rival. The younger Frederick succeeded
to this duchy in 1105, while ten years later Conrad was made duke of
Franconia, a country which for nearly a century had been under the
immediate government of the crown. The two brothers were enthusiastic
imperialists, and with persistent courage they upheld the cause of their
sovereign during his two absences in Italy.
The concordat of Worms.
At last, in September 1122, the investiture question was settled by the
concordat of Worms. By this compromise, which exhaustion forced upon
both parties, the right of electing prelates was granted to the clergy,
and the emperor surrendered the privilege of investing them with the
ring and the staff. On the other hand it was arranged that these
elections should take place in the presence of the emperor or his
representative, and that he should invest the new prelate with the
sceptre, thus signifying that the bishop, or abbot, held his temporal
fiefs from him and not from the pope. In Germany the victory remained
with the emperor, but it was by no means decisive. The Papacy was far
from realizing Hildebrand's great schemes; yet in regard to the question
in dispute it gained solid advantage, and its general authority was
incomparably more important than it had been half a century before.
During this period it had waged war upon the emperor himself. Instead of
acknowledging its inferiority as in former times it had claimed to be
the higher power; it had even attempted to dispose of the imperial crown
as if the Empire were a papal fief; and it had found out that it could
at any time tamper, and perhaps paralyse, the imperial authority by
exciting internal strife in Germany. Having thus settled this momentous
dispute Henry spent his later years in restoring order in Germany, and
in planning to assist his father-in-law, Henry I. of England, in France.
During this reign under the lead of Otto, bishop of Bamberg (c.
1063-1139), Pomerania began to come under the influence of Germany and
of Christianity.
The reign of Lothair the Saxon.
The Franconian dynasty died out with Henry V. in May 1125, and after a
protracted contest Lothair, duke of Saxony, the candidate of the clergy,
was chosen in the following August to succeed him. The new king's first
enterprise was a disastrous campaign in Bohemia, but before this
occurrence he had aroused the enmity of the Hohenstaufen princes by
demanding that they should surrender certain lands which had formerly
been the property of the crown. Lothair's rebuff in Bohemia stiffened
the backs of Frederick and Conrad, and in order to contend with them the
king secured a powerful ally by marrying his daughter Gertrude to Henry
the Proud, a grandson of Welf, whom Henry IV. had made duke of Bavaria,
a duchy to which Henry himself had succeeded in 1126. Henry was perhaps
the most powerful of the king's subjects, nevertheless the dukes of
Swabia and Franconia withstood him, and a long war desolated South
Germany. This was ended by the submission of Frederick in 1134 and of
Conrad in the following year. Lothair's position, which before 1130 was
very weak, had gradually become stronger. He had put down the disorder
in Bavaria, in Saxony and in Lorraine; a diet held at Magdeburg in 1135
was attended by representatives from the vassal states of Denmark,
Hungary, Bohemia and Poland; and in 1136, when he visited Italy for the
second time, Germany was in a very peaceful condition. In June 1133
during the king's first visit to Italy he had received from Pope
Innocent II. the imperial crown and also the investiture of the
extensive territories left by Matilda, marchioness of Tuscany; and at
this time the pope seems to have claimed the emperor as his vassal, a
statement to this effect (_post homo fit papae, sumit quo dante
coronam_) being inscribed in the audience hall of the Lateran at Rome.
(_Continued in volume 11 slice 8._)