Still less was he acceptable to the lay princes; they feared his over-
whelming power; they were above all anxious to avoid the foundation
of a dynasty and to prove their right of election by passing over the
man designated by the dead Emperor.
whelming power; they were above all anxious to avoid the foundation
of a dynasty and to prove their right of election by passing over the
man designated by the dead Emperor.
Cambridge Medieval History - v5 - Contest of Empire and the Papacy
Month after month
the siege dragged on without either side shewing signs of giving in. At
last the king in despair sent an urgent appeal for help to his son-in-law,
who was engaged in besieging a rebellious subject, Frederick of Bogen, in
his castle of Falkenstein. Henry, leaving the siege in charge of his sister
Sophia, responded immediately to the royal summons with a body of six
hundred Bavarian knights. The joint strength of Bavaria and Saxony
turned the scale. From midsummer till past Christmas the townsmen,
under the gallant leadership of Agnes, held out in spite of every hardship
and privation. Eventually deprived of all hope of relief, for a force
brought to their aid by Frederick was driven off, they submitted and on
the feast of Epiphany 1130 opened their gates to the king.
With the capture of Spires the opposition in the Upper Rhineland
was crushed. Before long Nuremberg, the chief strong-point of resistance,
fell before Lothar's attack; and with it went all hopes of success for the
party of the Hohenstaufen in Germany. In Italy too Conrad's initial
success was not long maintained. Notwithstanding his excommunication
by Honorius II he was welcomed at Milan, crowned by its archbishop at
Monza and again in the cathedral of St Ambrose with the Iron Crown
of Lombardy. But this was the limit of his achievement. An attempt
to acquire the possessions of the late Countess Matilda ended in failure
the towns of Lombardy which had at first received him declared against
him; his supporters one by one abandoned his cause and left him almost
alone. In despair he gave up trying to establish himself in Italy and re-
crossed the Alps (1130), only to find that in Germany also the family
cause was as good as lost.
Yet years dragged on before the brothers admitted defeat. Their
opponents were too busily occupied with other matters to press the issue
to a conclusion. The petty quarrels and rivalries of ambitious princes
kept Saxony in ceaseless turmoil. Albert of Ballenstädt and Henry of
Groitsch, Conrad of Wettin and Herman of Winzenburg, each strove
to increase his own power at the other's expense. The murder in one of
these feuds of a trusted follower of the king, one Burchard of Loccum,
by Herman of Winzenburg, Landgrave of Thuringia, called for Lothar's
CH. X.
22-2
## p. 340 (#386) ############################################
340
Destruction of Augsburg and Ulm
intervention in the affairs of his old duchy. Herman was found guilty
of high treason in December 1130, and sentenced to the confiscation of
his fiefs. Before another year was out Albert the Bear for some similar
offence was deprived of the East Mark. The rebellious town of Halle
suffered the severest of punishments. It fell before Lothar's assault, its
inhabitants were put to death, mutilated, or in some cases allowed their
safety on payment of heavy fines. By such stringent methods as these
Lothar restored the peace of Saxony.
The fate of Augsburg affords another example of the stern measures
employed by the king to suppress local risings, but in this instance he
had less justification for his action. On the journey to Italy in August
1132, a dispute arose in the market between the townsfolk and the soldiers
and quickly spread through the whole city. The king, suspecting treason,
ordered the troops to punish the burghers. From noon till night the
town was in a tumult; men, women, and children were massacred in the
streets and houses; churches and monasteries were broken into, plundered,
and burnt. As on previous occasions the Bohemian troops in the royal
army were conspicuous for their barbarity and excess. In a state of com-
plete desolation Augsburg was left as a warning to other towns not to
risk the king's displeasure.
During Lothar's absence in Italy (September 1132-August 1133)
Henry of Bavaria remained in Germany to deal with the Hohenstaufen.
But rebellions in his own duchy kept him too busily occupied to effect a
decision. The appointment of Henry of Wolfratshausen in August 1132
to the see of Ratisbon against the wishes of the king and himself led
to serious trouble. The bishop, aided by his advocate, the duke's old enemy
Frederick of Bogen, made stubborn resistance. For some months fighting
continued, the armies plundering and burning after the manner of medieval
warfare round Ratisbon and Wolfratshausen, a castle near the site
of the present town of Munich. At last the two armies, the bishop's
strengthened by the adhesion of Leopold of Austria, faced each other
on the banks of the Isar to bring matters to a final issue. At the critical
moment Otto of Wittelsbach, the count palatine, intervened as mediator
and reconciled the contending parties.
It was not till August 1134 that the Emperor and his son-in-law
were free to deal decisively with the Hohenstaufen. The Swabian town
of Ulm had now become the centre of resistance. After a short siege
Henry captured the town, which was thereupon almost totally destroyed
by the devastations practised by the Bavarian soldiers. Lothar had in
the meanwhile overrun Swabia without opposition. The brothers were
in desperate straits: their castles were captured; their supporters deserted.
Frederick was the first to realise the futility of further resistance; he
approached the Empress Richenza and begged her to intercede on his
behalf. At Fulda towards the end of October the reconciliation was
effected. The terms of his submission, settled at the crowded diet of
## p. 341 (#387) ############################################
Ecclesiastical policy
341
Bamberg (March 1135), were favourable in the extreme: he was freed
from excommunication, and received back his dukedom and his possessions;
for his own part he had only to promise to accompany the Emperor on
the Italian campaign which had been planned for the next year—a con-
dition imposed no doubt at the request of St Bernard who was present at
the court in the papal interest. Conrad held back for some months longer,
but finally made his peace with the Emperor at Mühlhausen in September
under the same lenient conditions as those imposed upon his brother.
Lothar owed his crown to the support given him by the leaders of
the Church hierarchy. Did he reward their confidence by granting on
that occasion definite concessions? The question is crucial and contro-
versial. That some settlement was reached seems clear, but its precise
nature cannot be determined. We have no reliable information. A famous
passage formulates a position, but it is more likely the position at which
the leaders of the party aimed than the one actually attained? More
profitable results may be found from the evidence of Lothar's actual
relations with the Church during his reign. After his election we are told
he neither received nor exacted homage from the spirituality, contenting
himself merely with the oath of fealty; and even this he remitted in the
case of Conrad, Archbishop of Salzburg, in deference to the latter's
scruples in the matter. The most important change was with regard to
the royal presence at elections. Here again Lothar bent to the wishes
of the Church party and refrained from exercising the right granted him
by the Concordat of Worms. Two elections took place within a month
of his accession-Eichstätt and Magdeburg—and in neither case was he
present. Indeed there is scarcely an instance during the first five years
of his reign of his disturbing episcopal elections by his presence'. The
ecclesiastical princes had no cause to complain of the conduct of the man
they had set upon the throne. Lothar even if he wished it could not
afford to quarrel with the Church; but to support the orthodox Church
party was natural to him. As Duke of Saxony he had been bred up to
1 Narratio de Electione Lotharii, MGH, Script. xii, c. 6.
2 See Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, IV, p. 118, n. 2. The passage in
the Narratio mentions three points: 1. Free election without the presence of the
king; 2. Investiture with the regalia by the sceptre after consecration ; 3. The right
of the king to exact the oath of allegiance. As the citation of the wording of a
document this breaks down on the second point; for the old practice of investiture
with the regalia before conse ation continued to prevail.
3 Or were the concessions granted in the Concordat by Calixtus II only intended
for Henry V personally, and not for his successors? There is no mention of the
latter in the document, and Otto of Freising (Chron. vii, 16) expressly tells us that
at Rome it was interpreted in this way “hoc sibi soli et non successoribus datum
dicunt Romani. ” See D. Schäfer, Zur Beurteilung des Wormser Konkordates, in
Abhandlungen der Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin, 1905.
4 See Hauck, op. cit. p. 128, n. 1; also for the whole question Bernheim,
Lothar III und das Wormser Concordat, Strasbourg, 1874.
CH, X.
## p. 342 (#388) ############################################
342
Lothar and the papal schism
the traditional policy of opposition to the anti-hierarchical Salians; and
this policy he maintained as king.
When Honorius II died in February 1130 and the two factions in
Rome each chose its own candidate to fill the papal throne, Lothar was
faced with the necessity of making a momentous decision. Though not
as yet crowned Emperor, the long attachment of the imperial title to the
King of Germany gave Lothar the unquestioned position of temporal
ruler of Christendom. The rival Popes Anacletus II and Innocent II, the
one master of Rome, the other a refugee in France, each appealed anxiously
to him for recognition. Each had his supporters in Germany. Ana-
cletus found an advocate of his pretentions in Adalbero, Archbishop of
Bremen, who happened to be in Rome at the critical moment; Innocent
saw his claims upheld by the most advanced Churchmen, represented by
Conrad of Salzburg, Norbert, and Otto of Bamberg. But Lothar hesitated.
Perhaps he feared a split in the ranks of the Church party on whose
support he relied so much. It was not till Louis VI of France at Étampes,
under the influence of Bernard, had declared for Innocent that Lothar,
urged also by Innocent's legate Walter of Ravenna, consented to take
action. He summoned a meeting at Würzburg in October to discuss the
question. Only sixteen bishops presented themselves, but the sixteen
were unanimous for Innocent. Lothar accepted the decision without
hesitation, and immediately sent Conrad of Salzburg and Ekbert of
Münster to carry Germany's recognition to the Pope in France.
At Innocent's suggestion a personal interview between Pope and king
was arranged; Liège near the French frontier was chosen as a convenient
meeting place for both parties. Thither on 22 March 1131 came Innocent
accompanied by thirteen cardinals, a large number of French bishops, and
the indispensable Bernard. Lothar received him with due humility; he
performed the office of groom for the pontiff when he dismounted, signifying
by his act that he claimed to be but the servant of the Bishop of Rome;
he made promises to enter Italy to destroy the invaders of the Holy
See. But these cordial relations were almost upset at the very meeting
which had given them birth. Lothar, it seems, raised the vexed question
of episcopal elections; he evidently wished to recede from the concessions
he had made at the time of his accession, to revive the royal influence
over elections, in short to claim those privileges which the Concordat
had granted to the Crown. A quarrel was prevented by the eloquence
of Bernard. It is impossible to say whether any understanding was
reached. But a change of attitude is perceptible in Lothar’s dealings
with the Church during the year following: he appears to have tried to
exert some control over elections to bishoprics'; but the Church party
1 Notably in the cases of Adalbero of Münsterol to the archbishopric of Trèves
at Easter 1131, and of Henry of Wolfratshausen to the see of Ratisbon 19 August
1132. See Hauck, op. cit. iv, p. 151 sg.
## p. 343 (#389) ############################################
Civilising of the Wendish country
343
resented his action so strongly that rather than quarrel he tacitly re-
linquished his pretensions.
The relations with the Pope continued to be friendly. In August 1132
Lothar carried out his promised campaign in Italy to end the schism, and
on 4 June 1133 at the Lateran received as his reward the imperial crown.
Again Lothar took occasion to raise the crucial subject of episcopal
elections, and, in spite of loud protests from the Gregorian party in
Germany, obtained concessions contained in a document dated 8 June 1133
which amounted to a confirmation to himself of the rights allowed to the
Emperor in the Worms Concordat? We should expect to find a complete
reversal of policy in consequence. Nothing of the sort is perceptible.
Lothar too well realised the value of the Church support; he used his
power with a refinement of tact; he was often present at elections but
his presence was scarcely felt. The settlement at the Lateran, which came
so near to disturbing the peaceful relations between Church and State,
in practice made little or no change in Lothar's attitude of conciliatory
friendship towards the Church. The reign of Lothar from the point of
view of Church politics marks the consummation of the victory of the
hierarchy.
Throughout his reign we see Lothar, with an energy surprising
in a man of his age, busily occupied in a succession of wars both at
home and abroad: now he is campaigning against the Hohenstaufen,
now settling contested claims to an inheritance, now fulfilling the supreme
function of his imperial office by taking up arms against the enemies of
the Church. But more enduring results matured from the work which
alike as duke and king had always been nearest to his heart—the expansion
of Germany eastwards, the revival of German influence, the re-establish-
ment of the Christian religion and civilisation in the Wendish regions.
In this sense an annalist is justified in describing Lothar as “the imitator
and heir of the first Otto. "» Since the tenth century nothing had been
done, and even the districts then brought under German intluence had
since lapsed once more into paganism and barbarism. Lothar was ready
to promote with his support and encouragement every enterprise which
led in this direction. So Otto of Bamberg was able to make his second
journey to Pomerania in 1127, and to see his work established on a firm
basis. So also the Premonstratensians were able to pursue their missionary
labours in Brandenburg with the co-operation of Albert of Ballenstädt,
who in 1134 was enfeoffed with the North Mark as a reward for his services
1 Nos igitur, maiestatem imperii nolentes minuere sed augere, imperatoriae
dignitati(s plenitudinem tibi concedimus et debitas et canonicas consuetudines pre-
sentis scripti pagina confirmamus. Interdicimus autem, ne quisquam eorum, quos
in Teut(onico) regno ad pontificatus honorem vel abbatiae regimen evocari contigerit,
regalia usurpare vel invadere audeat, nisi eadem prius a tua (potes)tate deposcat,
quod ex his, quae iure debet tibi, tuae magnificentiue faciat. MGH, Const. 1, 168 sq.
and printed in Bernheim, Quellen zur Geschichte des Investiturstreites, 11, p. 70.
? Ann. Palidenses sub anno 1125. MGH, Script. xvi, 77.
OH, X.
## p. 344 (#390) ############################################
344
Relations with Denmark
in the Italian campaign, and on the death of Pribislav of Brandenburg
without heirs received that district in addition. The priest Vicelin made
progress in Holstein and the district about Lübeck.
It was the king's activities in Nordalbingia which involved him in
the tangled affairs of Denmark. In 1131 the land was plunged into civil
war by the murder of Canute, the son of the late King Eric, at the hands
of Magnus, the son of the reigning King Niel. Canute was ruling in
Schleswig, and had also been enfeoffed with the county of Wagria and
the land of the Obotrites by Lothar. His firm hand kept the turbulent
Wendish population under control; the country prospered; Christianity
and civilisation began to revive. But the success of his rule and the un-
certainty of the succession to the Danish throne brought upon him the
jealousy of his cousin Magnus. His assassination was the result. Lothar
could not allow the murderer of his vassal to go unpunished. In the
summer of 1131 he advanced as far as the Eider, but being confronted
there not only by the troops of Niel and Magnus but also by rebels
“as innumerable as the sands of the sea,” he wisely contented himself with
a fine of four thousand marks and the homage of Magnus. Canute's
Nordalbingian possessions were divided between two Wendish princes,
Pribislav and Niclot, the former receiving Wagria and Polabia, the latter
the land of the Obotrites. Lothar led his army across the Elbe and
received homage from these princes. But with two Wendish chieftains,
who owed only a nominal recognition to the German king, ruling the
country, the development of civilisation which had been making rapid
progress under Canute and his predecessor, Henry son of Gottschalk,
received a set-back; every hindrance was placed in the way of Vicelin
the German missionary, who brought his complaints and remedial proposal
to the king. His suggestion was the erection of a strong fortress in a
commanding position on a hill, Segeberg, near the banks of the Trave.
To the disgust of Pribislav and Niclot, who saw in the plan the German
yoke falling on them, the fortress was built and garrisoned with Saxons;
with military protection behind him Vicelin was now able to proceed
unhindered on his missionary enterprise.
The pacification of Denmark was likewise unsatisfactory. Niel and
Magnus pursued Canute's brother Eric with relentless hostility. Driven
from Schleswig he took refuge in Zealand, where even his brother Harold
turned against him. The German settlers at Roeskilde on the island
were murdered, mutilated, or expelled. It was clearly time for Lothar
to intervene once more in the affairs of the north. But no campaign
took place. Magnus presented himself at the Easter court at Halber-
stadt, indemnified himself for his misdeeds with large sums of money,
and became the vassal of the German king. Nevertheless, while Niel and
Magnus lived and reigned there could be no peace in Denmark. Their
deaths, the one assassinated by the burghers of Schleswig, the other slain
in battle, cleared the field. Eric, left in undisturbed possession, sent
## p. 345 (#391) ############################################
Death of Lothar III
345
ambassadors to the court at Magdeburg at Whitsuntide 1135 and re-
ceived the Emperor's recognition of his title.
At the same diet a quarrel, in which all the eastern neighbours of
Germany-Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia-were involved, was also
brought within sight of determination. It arose on the death of Stephen II
of Hungary. His crown was disputed between his blind cousin Béla and
his half-brother Boris; the former was supported by Soběslav of Bohemia,
the latter by Boleslav of Poland. All the three countries engaged sent
embassies to Lothar at Magdeburg. But the Emperor required Boleslav's
personal attendance. He appeared at Merseburg in August, paid twelve
years' arrears of tribute, and took the oath of allegiance; he was in some
measure compensated by the acquisition of Pomerania and Rügen as fiefs
of the German crown. An armistice was arranged between Bohemia and
Poland pending a definite peace. Boris gave up the struggle, and Béla
remained in secure possession of the Hungarian throne. To the Merseburg
diet came also ambassadors from the Eastern Emperor John Comnenus
and from the Doge of Venice offering help against their common enemy,
Roger of Sicily. “So highly was the Emperor Lothar esteemed by
kings and kingdoms,” writes the chronicler, " that he was visited with
gifts and embassies from Hungarians, Ruthenians, Danes, French, and
many other nations. The Empire enjoyed peace and plenty, religion in
the monasteries flourished, justice reigned, iniquity was repressed. "ı
The year 1135 was indeed a year of reckonings. It witnessed the
results of a decade of masterful rule. Since the days of Henry III German
prestige had not risen so high. It is marked by the ending of quarrels,
by reconciliations, by peace. At the diet of Bamberg in March, which
brought to a close the long-contested fight with the Hohenstaufen, a
peace to last for ten years was proclaimed throughout Germany. This
state of peace and prosperity the Emperor was only destined to enjoy
for one year more on German soil. Towards the end of the summer of
1136 he crossed the Alps to take the field against Roger of Sicily. On
his return in the following autumn he fell sick at Trent, and barely had
sufficient strength to reach his own country. He died in a peasant's hut
in the Tyrolese village of Breitenwang on 4 December 1137.
Lothar, by an arrangement with the Pope in 1133 had secured under
certain conditions the allodial estates of the Countess Matilda for his
son-in-law Henry the Proud”; he had also before his death granted him
the duchy of Saxony and entrusted to him the imperial insignia, thereby
designating him as his successor to the throne. With two dukedoms,
with extensive possessions of his own in Germany and in Italy, with
rich lands in Saxony by right of his wife, there was no man in Germany
who could compete with Henry in power and wealth. Yet the Church
faction which had raised Lothar to the throne disapproved of his
1 Ann. Saxo, MGH, Script. vi, 770.
2 MHG, Const. 1, 169.
сн. х.
## p. 346 (#392) ############################################
346
Election of Conrad III
ני
appointed heir. On the Italian campaign he had neither shewn defer-
ence to their wishes nor a bearing likely to command their confidence.
Still less was he acceptable to the lay princes; they feared his over-
whelming power; they were above all anxious to avoid the foundation
of a dynasty and to prove their right of election by passing over the
man designated by the dead Emperor. Neither the spiritual nor the
secular princes wanted the Welf candidate.
The see of Mayence was vacant; the Archbishop of Cologne, but just
elected, had as yet not received the pallium; it was only natural in
these circumstances that the direction of affairs should fall to the third
great ecclesiastical prince, Archbishop Adalbero of Trèves, between whom
and Henry a long-standing enmity subsisted. He summoned a meeting
at Coblenz-a singularly unrepresentative gathering, for neither Saxons
nor Bavarians were present—and at his proposal Conrad of Hohenstaufen,
Lothar's rival, was chosen on 3 March 1138. Ten days later he was
crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle by the papal legate. “A mere mockery of
right and custom,”? yet however irregular the procedure may have been
the result was popular. The princes of Germany flocked to the court at
Bamberg on 22 May to do homage to the new king; Leopold of Austria,
Conrad of Zähringen, Soběslav of Bohemia, even the widowed Empress
Richenza, put in an appearance.
Duke Henry was absent from the court at Bamberg; a diet was fixed
to assemble at Ratisbon, and there Henry appeared ready to deliver
up the royal insignia in his keeping in return for confirmation in the
possession of his two dukedoms? . But here lay the difficulty; apparently
already at the diet of Bamberg Conrad had promised Saxony to Albert
the Bear. The king disliked the notion of two dukedoms united in the
hands of one man. He succeeded, nevertheless, by diplomacy, by vague
promises no doubt, in extracting the insignia from Henry, and fixed a
meeting at Augsburg for a final settlement. But here again no agree-
ment was reached. Conrad, fearing Henry's threatening attitude, left for
Würzburg, where the duke was put under the ban (July 1138). Saxony
was bestowed upon Albert; Bavaria, which was confiscated a little later
at Goslar, after a short retention in the king's hands, was disposed of to
Leopold of Austria.
Before the year 1138 was far advanced Saxony and Bavaria were
ablaze with civil war; the old feud of Welf and Hohenstaufen, which
had disturbed the peace during the greater part of the previous reign,
1 Giesebrecht, Kaiserzeit, iv, 171.
2 The accounts of these events differ considerably in their details. The com-
paratively late Annales Palidenses, MGH, Script. xvi, anno 1138, mention that
Conrad besieged Henry at Nuremberg and forced him to give up the insignia;
whereas Otto of Freising, Chron. vii, cap. 23, expressly states that the insignia
were given up at the diet held at Ratisbon. Cf. Giesebrecht, op. cit. iv, 175 sq.
and 459, and Bernhardi, Konrad III, 49 sq.
## p. 347 (#393) ############################################
Hohenstaufen versus Welf
347
broke out once more with renewed bitterness. The Empress Richenza
by her vigorous energy in the cause of her son-in-law won the support of
many of the Saxon princes, who looked upon Albert the Bear as an
upstart. But Albert was too quick for them; he attacked before their
preparations were completed, defeated them decisively, and occupied the
Welfic possessions of Lüneburg and Bardowiek. The king, however,
deceived himself into thinking the opposition in Saxony crushed; the
sudden appearance of the banished duke in his northern dukedom altered
the situation. Town after town fell into his hands, even the lands of
the usurping margrave were no longer secure, and by the spring of
1139 Albert with his chief supporters, Bernard of Plötzke and Herman
of Winzenburg, was driven to seek shelter with the Archbishop of
Mayence at Rusteburg in the Eichsfeld.
The royal army which assembled at Hersfeld in July for the recovery
of Saxony was imposing enough; the Archbishops of Mayence and Trèves,
the Bishops of Worms and Spires, the Duke of Bohemia, the new Dukes
of Saxony and Bavaria, Louis of Thuringia, Herman of Winzenburg, all
appeared with their levies. But a strong army was required, for Henry
had behind him the weight of Saxony, and the history of the past had
shewn that Saxony, when its heart was in the struggle, was all but invin-
cible. The two armies confronted each other at Kreuzburg in Thuringia;
the leaders of the royal army hesitated, a council of war voted for arbi-
tration, finally a day was fixed to settle the issue at Worms at Candlemas.
The conference was however a mere farce, and nothing was done; the two
parties, laying aside the business for which they had come together, gave
themselves over to amusement and feasting, the latter much embellished
by the thirty tuns of wine which, we are told, the Archbishop of Trèves
carried with him on the campaign and lavished upon the negotiators.
He, it is scarcely necessary to add, was the only man to benefit by the
affair; he was rewarded with the abbey of St Maximin at Trèves, the
richest in his diocese, a possession however not entirely advantageous, for
it brought the new possessor into a feud with the monks and their
advocatus which after a long and devastating struggle was only closed,
like many similar feuds, by the Second Crusade. In other respects the
existing state of things continued; Henry remained master of Saxony,
Albert, deserted even by the few Saxon princes who had previously
joined him, had to console himself with the empty and portionless title
of duke.
In Bavaria Henry's supplanter received a warmer welcome. Leopold,
with the help of his brother Bishop Otto of Freising, the historian, had
in a remarkably short time gained a firm hold over his new subjects.
Henry, now secure in Saxony, prepared to recover Bavaria. His army
was mustered in readiness at Quedlinburg when at the moment of starting
he fell sick and died. His youth, the suddenness, the unaccountableness
of his death, most of all the advantage it gave to his antagonists, gave
CH. X.
## p. 348 (#394) ############################################
348
Siege of Weinsberg
rise to the suspicion, whether with justice it is impossible to say, of
poison. His premature end was certainly a terrific blow to the Welf
cause. Henry's heir and namesake was but a boy of ten years old; the
fortunes of his house depended on the resources of two women, the little
Henry's guardians, Richenza and her daughter the duke's widow Gertrude.
Nevertheless the death of Henry the Proud did not have the expected
result upon Conrad's fortunes. Both in Saxony and Bavaria the war
continued with undiminished vigour. The attempt of Albert the Bear
to recover Saxony was a complete failure; he suddenly appeared at
Bremen on All Saints' Day, and put forward his claim at an assembly of
princes and people, but met with the most hostile reception. Surrounded
by enemies, he barely escaped with his life. The Saxon princes under
the leadership of Frederick, the count-palatine, and Conrad, Archbishop
of Magdeburg, firm in their loyalty to the boy-duke, were even strong
enough to take the offensive, and to make plundering raids into Albert's
country, capturing many of his castles. In vain Conrad tried to put an
end to the quarrel, but the Saxon chiefs refused to obey the imperial
summons to diets held at Worms in February and at Frankfort in April
1140. The king's attitude moreover was not conciliatory; he demanded
unconditional surrender and refused a safe conduct to the Saxons for the
negotiations. So the war was pursued with energy; and Albert, driven
from his March, fled to the king for help.
But Conrad's attention was directed to a rebellion in the south which
threatened to be even more dangerous. There Welf, Henry's uncle, had
taken up the family cause, perhaps with the idea of acquiring for himself
the Bavarian dukedom': no friction however appears to have existed
between the two branches of the house at this time, though doubtless
Welf hoped to obtain a share of the family inheritance in the event of
success. In the summer of 1140 he attacked Leopold, who was besieging
a castle on the river Mangfall, and inflicted upon him a defeat which
seemed likely to undermine his authority in the duchy. Conrad, at the
duke's urgent appeal, hastened into Swabia, accompanied by his brother
Frederick, against the Welfic fortress of Weinsberg. In vain he battered
at its strong walls; the stout resistance of the loyal inhabitants parried
every attempt, till he was obliged to turn from the town to face Welf
himself who was hurrying to its relief. The battle that ensued unexpec-
tedly redeemed his fortunes: the defeat was crushing; Welf only with
difficulty effected his escape; Weinsberg despairing of relief opened its
gates on 21 December. Two legends make the siege of Weinsberg
'famous in history and romance. In the heat of the fierce fight on the
banks of the Neckar the rival leaders, it is said, urged on their followers
with the battle cries of “Hi Welf! ”“Hi Weibling! ”—the first time, if there
1 Hist. Welf. Weingarten, MGH, Script. xxi, 467, "ipse enim Gwelfo praefatum
ducatum iure hereditatis ad se spectare proclamans. ” Cf. Otto of Freising, Chron.
VII, 26.
## p. 349 (#395) ############################################
Settlement of Frankfort, 1142
349
be truth in it, that these names, so famous in after years, were used to
designate the opposing factions in German politics. Jacob Grimm has
included among his Märchen the story of the capitulation of the Weins-
bergers. The tale, though seemingly unhistorical, has a basis in an early
authority. The women alone were spared with what they could carry
away with them. The sturdy Swabians, it is said, came down from the
town bearing their condemned husbands upon their shoulders”.
The effects of Conrad's victory were far reaching. It not only crushed,
for the moment at least, the rebellion in the south, but it also changed
the aspect of affairs in the north. It is significant that many Saxon
princes presented themselves at the Whitsun feast at Würzburg in 1141,
though no solution to the questions at issue was then reached. The
Welfic cause suffered another severe blow by the death on 10 June of the
Empress Richenza, by whose energy and enterprise the struggle had been
maintained and the diverse elements of the opposition to the Hohen-
staufen had been kept together. Her daughter Gertrude, who had shared
with her the guardianship of the young Henry, was a woman of a different
stamp; incited by no inveterate hatred, like Richenza, to the Hohen-
staufen, actuated rather by personal animosities than by the interests of
her family, she was in no way qualified to act as the leader of a great
party. The number of her supporters dwindled; the war was pursued
but half-heartedly. However with Richenza's death the greatest obstacle
to a compromise was removed. The moment was favourable. In the
south after a period of intermittent warfare Duke Leopold had died in
October. Conrad granted the margravate of Austria to Leopold's brother
Henry Jasomirgott, but kept the duchy in his own hands, pending a
decisive settlement. Marculf, a skilful diplomat who had recently been
raised to the primacy of Mayence, was entrusted with the negotiations.
Preliminaries were drawn
up,
and a diet was summoned at Frankfort in
May 1142 to give effect to them. Henry received Saxony, Henry Jaso-
1 It is condemned as unhistorical by Jaffé, Konrad Ill, p. 35, n. 22. It is first
mentioned in 1425 by Andreas presbyter Ratisponensis, Schilter, Script. rer. Germ.
1702, p. 25, “clamor vero exhortationis ad resistendum et fortiter pugnandum, in
exercitu Welfonis fuit talis: Hye Welff. Unde Fridericus ad confusionem Welfonis
praecepit clamari in exercitu suo, Hye Giebelingen. ”
2 The truth of the story rests on the question whether the passage in the
Chronica Regia Coloniensis “descendebant viros humeris portantes” existed in the
contemporary annals of Paderborn, which is the original source of the Cologne
chronicle for these years. The Pöhlde annals which drew their information from
the same source say nothing of the Weinsberg women. Scheffer-Boichorst, who
reconstructed the text of the Annales Patherbrunenses, accepts the story. Bernheim,
Historisches Taschenbuch, 1884, p. 13 sq. is sceptical. The point has been much
under discussion of recent years, but the two articles by R. Holtzmann, Die Weiber
von Weinsberg. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Kritik der Paderborner Annalen (Stuttgart,
1911), and Die Trauen Weiber von Weinsberg, HVJS, xviii, 1918, have gone far to
prove the presence of the passage in the contemporary annals, and so the authen-
ticity of the story.
CH. X.
## p. 350 (#396) ############################################
350
Difficulties in Lorraine
mirgott Bavaria, while Albert the Bear, who had, since the end of the
previous year, renounced the title of duke, was re-established in the North
Mark. A general pardon was granted to all who had taken part in the
rebellion, and finally a seal was set upon the general pacification by a
marriage, which immediately followed at Frankfort amid great festivities,
between Gertrude and the new Duke of Bavaria.
The settlement appeared more complete than in fact it was. Otto of
Freising gives the truer interpretation of the results when he concludes
his account of these events with the remark: “it was the seed of the
greatest discord in our land. ” It failed to satisfy any of those concerned;
Welf refused to accept the alienation of Bavaria from his family, and
soon reopened the struggle against the new duke. Frederick of Swabia
was dissatisfied; he grudged the favour shewn to Henry Jasomirgott and
threw in his lot with the Welfs. Although soon reconciled, he was never
again a trusted friend to Conrad; later he even appeared together with
Welf in alliance with Conrad's dangerous enemy Roger of Sicily. Further,
it remained to be seen whether the young Duke of Saxony, when old
enough to manage his own affairs, would be content with the portion of
his father's possessions allotted to him. Finally, the peaceful designs of
Conrad received a fatal blow by the death of Gertrude. She died in
childbed, when journeying to Bavaria to join her husband on 18 April
1143.
The struggle of the two great families of Welf and Hohenstaufen was
not the only source of trouble which disturbed the peace of Germany.
Since the king's accession Lorraine was the scene of a civil and an
ecclesiastical dispute. The deaths of Walram in 1138 and of Godfrey a
few months later gave rise to a conflict between their successors, Henry
and Godfrey the younger; the former, who had held the ducal title
during his father's lifetime, was naturally dissatisfied with the king's
action in granting the duchy of Lower Lorraine to the latter? . War was
the result, and Henry of Limburg was compelled to renounce his claim
to the title. Godfrey, however, only enjoyed his dukedom for a short
while; he died in 1142 and was succeeded by his one-year-old son.
The ecclesiastical difficulties were less easily ended. The gift of the
abbey of St Maximin to the Archbishop of Trèves, already mentioned, was
bitterly resented by the monks themselves, who found a keen champion
of their rights in their advocatus, Henry, Count of Namur and Luxemburg.
The election of an abbot without the knowledge of the archbishop brought
the matter to Rome. Innocent II took up the cause of the monks, and
in May 1140 issued a bull in which he declared the monastery to be
subject only to Rome and the Empire; at the same time he wrote to
Adalbero bidding him remove the sentence of excommunication which he
had imposed upon the newly appointed abbot. The truculent archbishop
1 The reason may be found for this in the marriage connexion between Conrad
and the young Godfrey; the latter had married the king's sister Ermingarde.
## p. 351 (#397) ############################################
Relations with Poland and Bohemia
351
treated the Pope's missives with open defiance, refused even to obey a
summons to Rome, and was in consequence suspended from his office.
Luckily for him, however, his cause was taken up by St Bernard, whose
influence with Innocent was predominant. The suspension was removed,
and a bull, dated 20 December 1140, was issued cancelling the previous
one and granting the posssession of the abbey of St Maximin to the arch-
bishop and his successors in perpetuity. It was a solution, but not one
which was acceptable to the monks or their advocate. For seven years
the rich lands round the Moselle were laid waste by incessant war, until
at the great diet held at Spires in December 1146 for the proclamation
of the Crusade the two antagonists, at the instance of St Bernard, agreed
to lay aside their quarrels and allow peace to be restored to their im-
poverished country.
Conrad's difficulties may in large measure be attributed to his family
connexions. His mother Agnes had married, after the death of Frederick
of Swabia, Leopold III of Austria; by the two marriages she was the
mother of twenty-three children. The elevation of his family seems to
have been a guiding motive with the king; we have already noticed how
the grant of the duchy of Lower Lorraine to his brother-in-law Godfrey
led to a feud in that country. The situation in Bavaria was complicated
by the establishment of the Austrian Babenbergers, half-brothers of the
king, as Bavarian dukes. The marriages of two half-sisters, the one to
a claimant of the dukedom of Poland, the other to a claimant of the
dukedom of Bohemia, involved Conrad in wars with these countries.
The death of a ruler in the half-civilised lands which bordered the
German kingdom to the east was almost inevitably followed by a war of
succession. Boleslav of Poland died in October 1139, leaving a disposition
whereby the country was to be partitioned among his four sons, the
eldest of whom, Vladislav, was to have a certain pre-eminence with the
title of grand-duke. This prince at once attempted to use his exalted
position to develop his own power at the expense of his brothers, an
enterprise in which he confidently relied on the support of Conrad, his
brother-in-law. Early in the year 1146 he appeared at the German
court and was enfeoffed with the whole of Poland. A strenuous and not
unsuccessful resistance was made by his brothers, Boleslav and Mesco;
Posen withstood his attack, the Archbishop of Gnesen excommunicated
him, his own town of Cracow was taken and destroyed; finally, he himself
was driven into exile. Conrad made a campaign into Poland on behalf
of his vassal, but, unable to make any headway, entered into negotiations
and withdrew to Germany with Vladislav, who continued to live in exile
while his victorious brothers established their authority securely in Poland.
The only result which emanated from Conrad's intervention was the
diminution of German influence in that region.
The king's dealings with Bohemia had a more successful end. When
Soběslav appeared at the diet of Bamberg in 1138, Conrad guaranteed
CH. X.
## p. 352 (#398) ############################################
352
Relations with Hungary
the succession of the dukedom to his son Vladislav. On Soběslav's death
in 1140 Conrad, despite his former promise, disposed of the dukedom to
a nephew of the late duke also named Vladislav who had married his
half-sister Gertrude. Dissatisfaction at his rule led to a rebellion in the
interests of the other Vladislav instigated by Otto of Olmütz, the son
of that Otto who fell in Lothar's army at Kulm. Vladislav the son
defeated Vladislav the nephew of Soběslav at Wysoka to the west of
Kuttenberg on 25 April 1142. The latter fled to Germany to seek
help from Conrad; the king took up his cause and accompanied him
back to Bohemia. The rebellion collapsed without a fight; on 7 June
the royal army entered Prague and restored Vladislav II securely in his
duchy.
Boris, the unsuccessful aspirant to the Hungarian throne whose pre-
tensions Lothar had set aside, again came forward, backed by the support
of Duke Vladislav II of Bohemia and the influential Babenbergers. By
a lavish distribution of money he had built up a strong position for
himself; he was regarded with favour by Conrad, with whom he had an
interview at Aix-la-Chapelle early in the year 1146. A band of his
followers, among them a number of ministeriales of Henry Jasomirgott
returning to Hungary, made a sudden night attack upon the frontier
fortress of Pressburg. The garrison was killed, captured, or dispersed.
Géza, the Hungarian King, collected an army, moved on Pressburg, and
recaptured it. He imputed, not without good grounds, the blame for
this outrage to Conrad and the Duke of Bavaria, and only awaited
an opportunity to take vengeance upon them. The moment came in
September 1146. With an army reckoned at the incredible figure of
seventy thousand men the King of Hungary crossed the frontier, fell
upon the duke's army near the banks of the Leitha, and after a fierce
battle threw the German soldiers into confusion; the victory was complete;
the Duke of Bavaria himself only with difficulty reached the shelter of
Vienna.
The Babenbergers, who had thus been largely responsible for Conrad's
implication in the affairs of Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary, had in
their own duchy of Bavaria disturbed the peace by a bitter feud, the
origin of which is unknown, with the Bishop of Ratisbon. The city of
Ratisbon was besieged by Duke Henry; the country was burnt and
plundered. The duke and his supporters, among them his brother-in-law
the Duke of Bohemia, Frederick of Bogen, the cathedral advocatus,
and Otto of Wittelsbach, the count-palatine, were placed under the ban
of the Church by the bishop and his metropolitan Conrad of Salzburg.
Conrad at last intervened, held a diet at Ratisbon, and reconciled the
contending parties.
To add to the misery of war and devastation from which the country
suffered, a famine of unheard-of severity broke out and spread through
the whole of Germany. Every chronicler fills his narrative of the year
## p. 353 (#399) ############################################
The Second Crusade
353
1146 with lamentations over the afflictions and misfortunes which heavily
oppressed their unhappy land. Prices rose to unprecedented heights; in
one place thirty-four shillings had to be paid for a measure of wheat;
many
sustained life merely on a diet of roots and herbs; many succumbed
to a death from starvation.
But the troubles which beset Germany lost significance in the minds
of men when the news of great disasters in the East reached Europe.
Edessa fell in 1144; Jerusalem itself was threatened. Pope Eugenius III
entrusted to Bernard of Clairvaux the preaching of a Crusade. In France
the project was taken up with enthusiasm, and Louis VII himself took
the cross at Easter 1146. The crusading spirit spread across the Rhine,
but there St Bernard's emissary, Ralph, a monk of Clairvaux, damaged
the cause by raising the cry against the Jews instead of against the
Turkish infidel. Persecution of the unhappy Israelites was the first sign
of crusading ardour among the German people. St Bernard himself
had to hasten into the country to counteract the misplaced zeal of
his fellow-worker; but he had another end in view in this visit-it
was to win Conrad for the enterprise. Early in November he reached
Mayence, and proceeded almost at once to Frankfort, to meet the king.
But Conrad hesitated; the condition of his kingdom hardly, he thought,
justified his absence. At home and abroad he was faced with deter-
mined enemies; the Welfic party, still unsubdued, were in the pay
of
Roger of Sicily, who hoped that by subsidising Conrad's opponents at
home he might prevent him from coming to Italy. However at the
Christmas festival he was won over by the eloquence of the great preacher
in the cathedral of Spires! The danger of leaving Germany at such a
critical time was much lessened by the fact that many of the chief princes
of the Empire, among them Welf and Henry, Duke of Bavaria, had
either already taken the cross or now prepared to follow their king's
example. A great diet was held at Frankfort in the following spring
(19 March 1147) to make the necessary arrangements for the expedition
and for the government of Germany in the king's absence. Conrad's
son Henry, a boy of ten years old, was elected king and crowned a week
later at Aix-la-Chapelle; he was entrusted to the care of the Archbishop
of Mayence, while the direction of the affairs of the kingdom was placed
in the capable hands of Abbot Wibald of Stablo. To lighten the burdens
of government a general peace was proclaimed throughout Germany.
The large concourse of crusaders came together at Ratisbon in May
1147. Conrad himself by boat, the army along the bank, set out down
the Danube, pursuing the overland route to Constantinople and Pales-
1 According to H. Cosack, Konrads III Entschluss zum Kreuzzug, MIOGF, xxxv
(1914), the decision was due not to the preaching of Bernard but to the news that
Conrad's enemy Welf VI had taken the cross on Christmas Eve. On the other
hand, it is by no means certain that Conrad was in possession of this information
when he took the decisive step.
23
C. MED, H. VOL. V. CH.
the siege dragged on without either side shewing signs of giving in. At
last the king in despair sent an urgent appeal for help to his son-in-law,
who was engaged in besieging a rebellious subject, Frederick of Bogen, in
his castle of Falkenstein. Henry, leaving the siege in charge of his sister
Sophia, responded immediately to the royal summons with a body of six
hundred Bavarian knights. The joint strength of Bavaria and Saxony
turned the scale. From midsummer till past Christmas the townsmen,
under the gallant leadership of Agnes, held out in spite of every hardship
and privation. Eventually deprived of all hope of relief, for a force
brought to their aid by Frederick was driven off, they submitted and on
the feast of Epiphany 1130 opened their gates to the king.
With the capture of Spires the opposition in the Upper Rhineland
was crushed. Before long Nuremberg, the chief strong-point of resistance,
fell before Lothar's attack; and with it went all hopes of success for the
party of the Hohenstaufen in Germany. In Italy too Conrad's initial
success was not long maintained. Notwithstanding his excommunication
by Honorius II he was welcomed at Milan, crowned by its archbishop at
Monza and again in the cathedral of St Ambrose with the Iron Crown
of Lombardy. But this was the limit of his achievement. An attempt
to acquire the possessions of the late Countess Matilda ended in failure
the towns of Lombardy which had at first received him declared against
him; his supporters one by one abandoned his cause and left him almost
alone. In despair he gave up trying to establish himself in Italy and re-
crossed the Alps (1130), only to find that in Germany also the family
cause was as good as lost.
Yet years dragged on before the brothers admitted defeat. Their
opponents were too busily occupied with other matters to press the issue
to a conclusion. The petty quarrels and rivalries of ambitious princes
kept Saxony in ceaseless turmoil. Albert of Ballenstädt and Henry of
Groitsch, Conrad of Wettin and Herman of Winzenburg, each strove
to increase his own power at the other's expense. The murder in one of
these feuds of a trusted follower of the king, one Burchard of Loccum,
by Herman of Winzenburg, Landgrave of Thuringia, called for Lothar's
CH. X.
22-2
## p. 340 (#386) ############################################
340
Destruction of Augsburg and Ulm
intervention in the affairs of his old duchy. Herman was found guilty
of high treason in December 1130, and sentenced to the confiscation of
his fiefs. Before another year was out Albert the Bear for some similar
offence was deprived of the East Mark. The rebellious town of Halle
suffered the severest of punishments. It fell before Lothar's assault, its
inhabitants were put to death, mutilated, or in some cases allowed their
safety on payment of heavy fines. By such stringent methods as these
Lothar restored the peace of Saxony.
The fate of Augsburg affords another example of the stern measures
employed by the king to suppress local risings, but in this instance he
had less justification for his action. On the journey to Italy in August
1132, a dispute arose in the market between the townsfolk and the soldiers
and quickly spread through the whole city. The king, suspecting treason,
ordered the troops to punish the burghers. From noon till night the
town was in a tumult; men, women, and children were massacred in the
streets and houses; churches and monasteries were broken into, plundered,
and burnt. As on previous occasions the Bohemian troops in the royal
army were conspicuous for their barbarity and excess. In a state of com-
plete desolation Augsburg was left as a warning to other towns not to
risk the king's displeasure.
During Lothar's absence in Italy (September 1132-August 1133)
Henry of Bavaria remained in Germany to deal with the Hohenstaufen.
But rebellions in his own duchy kept him too busily occupied to effect a
decision. The appointment of Henry of Wolfratshausen in August 1132
to the see of Ratisbon against the wishes of the king and himself led
to serious trouble. The bishop, aided by his advocate, the duke's old enemy
Frederick of Bogen, made stubborn resistance. For some months fighting
continued, the armies plundering and burning after the manner of medieval
warfare round Ratisbon and Wolfratshausen, a castle near the site
of the present town of Munich. At last the two armies, the bishop's
strengthened by the adhesion of Leopold of Austria, faced each other
on the banks of the Isar to bring matters to a final issue. At the critical
moment Otto of Wittelsbach, the count palatine, intervened as mediator
and reconciled the contending parties.
It was not till August 1134 that the Emperor and his son-in-law
were free to deal decisively with the Hohenstaufen. The Swabian town
of Ulm had now become the centre of resistance. After a short siege
Henry captured the town, which was thereupon almost totally destroyed
by the devastations practised by the Bavarian soldiers. Lothar had in
the meanwhile overrun Swabia without opposition. The brothers were
in desperate straits: their castles were captured; their supporters deserted.
Frederick was the first to realise the futility of further resistance; he
approached the Empress Richenza and begged her to intercede on his
behalf. At Fulda towards the end of October the reconciliation was
effected. The terms of his submission, settled at the crowded diet of
## p. 341 (#387) ############################################
Ecclesiastical policy
341
Bamberg (March 1135), were favourable in the extreme: he was freed
from excommunication, and received back his dukedom and his possessions;
for his own part he had only to promise to accompany the Emperor on
the Italian campaign which had been planned for the next year—a con-
dition imposed no doubt at the request of St Bernard who was present at
the court in the papal interest. Conrad held back for some months longer,
but finally made his peace with the Emperor at Mühlhausen in September
under the same lenient conditions as those imposed upon his brother.
Lothar owed his crown to the support given him by the leaders of
the Church hierarchy. Did he reward their confidence by granting on
that occasion definite concessions? The question is crucial and contro-
versial. That some settlement was reached seems clear, but its precise
nature cannot be determined. We have no reliable information. A famous
passage formulates a position, but it is more likely the position at which
the leaders of the party aimed than the one actually attained? More
profitable results may be found from the evidence of Lothar's actual
relations with the Church during his reign. After his election we are told
he neither received nor exacted homage from the spirituality, contenting
himself merely with the oath of fealty; and even this he remitted in the
case of Conrad, Archbishop of Salzburg, in deference to the latter's
scruples in the matter. The most important change was with regard to
the royal presence at elections. Here again Lothar bent to the wishes
of the Church party and refrained from exercising the right granted him
by the Concordat of Worms. Two elections took place within a month
of his accession-Eichstätt and Magdeburg—and in neither case was he
present. Indeed there is scarcely an instance during the first five years
of his reign of his disturbing episcopal elections by his presence'. The
ecclesiastical princes had no cause to complain of the conduct of the man
they had set upon the throne. Lothar even if he wished it could not
afford to quarrel with the Church; but to support the orthodox Church
party was natural to him. As Duke of Saxony he had been bred up to
1 Narratio de Electione Lotharii, MGH, Script. xii, c. 6.
2 See Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, IV, p. 118, n. 2. The passage in
the Narratio mentions three points: 1. Free election without the presence of the
king; 2. Investiture with the regalia by the sceptre after consecration ; 3. The right
of the king to exact the oath of allegiance. As the citation of the wording of a
document this breaks down on the second point; for the old practice of investiture
with the regalia before conse ation continued to prevail.
3 Or were the concessions granted in the Concordat by Calixtus II only intended
for Henry V personally, and not for his successors? There is no mention of the
latter in the document, and Otto of Freising (Chron. vii, 16) expressly tells us that
at Rome it was interpreted in this way “hoc sibi soli et non successoribus datum
dicunt Romani. ” See D. Schäfer, Zur Beurteilung des Wormser Konkordates, in
Abhandlungen der Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin, 1905.
4 See Hauck, op. cit. p. 128, n. 1; also for the whole question Bernheim,
Lothar III und das Wormser Concordat, Strasbourg, 1874.
CH, X.
## p. 342 (#388) ############################################
342
Lothar and the papal schism
the traditional policy of opposition to the anti-hierarchical Salians; and
this policy he maintained as king.
When Honorius II died in February 1130 and the two factions in
Rome each chose its own candidate to fill the papal throne, Lothar was
faced with the necessity of making a momentous decision. Though not
as yet crowned Emperor, the long attachment of the imperial title to the
King of Germany gave Lothar the unquestioned position of temporal
ruler of Christendom. The rival Popes Anacletus II and Innocent II, the
one master of Rome, the other a refugee in France, each appealed anxiously
to him for recognition. Each had his supporters in Germany. Ana-
cletus found an advocate of his pretentions in Adalbero, Archbishop of
Bremen, who happened to be in Rome at the critical moment; Innocent
saw his claims upheld by the most advanced Churchmen, represented by
Conrad of Salzburg, Norbert, and Otto of Bamberg. But Lothar hesitated.
Perhaps he feared a split in the ranks of the Church party on whose
support he relied so much. It was not till Louis VI of France at Étampes,
under the influence of Bernard, had declared for Innocent that Lothar,
urged also by Innocent's legate Walter of Ravenna, consented to take
action. He summoned a meeting at Würzburg in October to discuss the
question. Only sixteen bishops presented themselves, but the sixteen
were unanimous for Innocent. Lothar accepted the decision without
hesitation, and immediately sent Conrad of Salzburg and Ekbert of
Münster to carry Germany's recognition to the Pope in France.
At Innocent's suggestion a personal interview between Pope and king
was arranged; Liège near the French frontier was chosen as a convenient
meeting place for both parties. Thither on 22 March 1131 came Innocent
accompanied by thirteen cardinals, a large number of French bishops, and
the indispensable Bernard. Lothar received him with due humility; he
performed the office of groom for the pontiff when he dismounted, signifying
by his act that he claimed to be but the servant of the Bishop of Rome;
he made promises to enter Italy to destroy the invaders of the Holy
See. But these cordial relations were almost upset at the very meeting
which had given them birth. Lothar, it seems, raised the vexed question
of episcopal elections; he evidently wished to recede from the concessions
he had made at the time of his accession, to revive the royal influence
over elections, in short to claim those privileges which the Concordat
had granted to the Crown. A quarrel was prevented by the eloquence
of Bernard. It is impossible to say whether any understanding was
reached. But a change of attitude is perceptible in Lothar’s dealings
with the Church during the year following: he appears to have tried to
exert some control over elections to bishoprics'; but the Church party
1 Notably in the cases of Adalbero of Münsterol to the archbishopric of Trèves
at Easter 1131, and of Henry of Wolfratshausen to the see of Ratisbon 19 August
1132. See Hauck, op. cit. iv, p. 151 sg.
## p. 343 (#389) ############################################
Civilising of the Wendish country
343
resented his action so strongly that rather than quarrel he tacitly re-
linquished his pretensions.
The relations with the Pope continued to be friendly. In August 1132
Lothar carried out his promised campaign in Italy to end the schism, and
on 4 June 1133 at the Lateran received as his reward the imperial crown.
Again Lothar took occasion to raise the crucial subject of episcopal
elections, and, in spite of loud protests from the Gregorian party in
Germany, obtained concessions contained in a document dated 8 June 1133
which amounted to a confirmation to himself of the rights allowed to the
Emperor in the Worms Concordat? We should expect to find a complete
reversal of policy in consequence. Nothing of the sort is perceptible.
Lothar too well realised the value of the Church support; he used his
power with a refinement of tact; he was often present at elections but
his presence was scarcely felt. The settlement at the Lateran, which came
so near to disturbing the peaceful relations between Church and State,
in practice made little or no change in Lothar's attitude of conciliatory
friendship towards the Church. The reign of Lothar from the point of
view of Church politics marks the consummation of the victory of the
hierarchy.
Throughout his reign we see Lothar, with an energy surprising
in a man of his age, busily occupied in a succession of wars both at
home and abroad: now he is campaigning against the Hohenstaufen,
now settling contested claims to an inheritance, now fulfilling the supreme
function of his imperial office by taking up arms against the enemies of
the Church. But more enduring results matured from the work which
alike as duke and king had always been nearest to his heart—the expansion
of Germany eastwards, the revival of German influence, the re-establish-
ment of the Christian religion and civilisation in the Wendish regions.
In this sense an annalist is justified in describing Lothar as “the imitator
and heir of the first Otto. "» Since the tenth century nothing had been
done, and even the districts then brought under German intluence had
since lapsed once more into paganism and barbarism. Lothar was ready
to promote with his support and encouragement every enterprise which
led in this direction. So Otto of Bamberg was able to make his second
journey to Pomerania in 1127, and to see his work established on a firm
basis. So also the Premonstratensians were able to pursue their missionary
labours in Brandenburg with the co-operation of Albert of Ballenstädt,
who in 1134 was enfeoffed with the North Mark as a reward for his services
1 Nos igitur, maiestatem imperii nolentes minuere sed augere, imperatoriae
dignitati(s plenitudinem tibi concedimus et debitas et canonicas consuetudines pre-
sentis scripti pagina confirmamus. Interdicimus autem, ne quisquam eorum, quos
in Teut(onico) regno ad pontificatus honorem vel abbatiae regimen evocari contigerit,
regalia usurpare vel invadere audeat, nisi eadem prius a tua (potes)tate deposcat,
quod ex his, quae iure debet tibi, tuae magnificentiue faciat. MGH, Const. 1, 168 sq.
and printed in Bernheim, Quellen zur Geschichte des Investiturstreites, 11, p. 70.
? Ann. Palidenses sub anno 1125. MGH, Script. xvi, 77.
OH, X.
## p. 344 (#390) ############################################
344
Relations with Denmark
in the Italian campaign, and on the death of Pribislav of Brandenburg
without heirs received that district in addition. The priest Vicelin made
progress in Holstein and the district about Lübeck.
It was the king's activities in Nordalbingia which involved him in
the tangled affairs of Denmark. In 1131 the land was plunged into civil
war by the murder of Canute, the son of the late King Eric, at the hands
of Magnus, the son of the reigning King Niel. Canute was ruling in
Schleswig, and had also been enfeoffed with the county of Wagria and
the land of the Obotrites by Lothar. His firm hand kept the turbulent
Wendish population under control; the country prospered; Christianity
and civilisation began to revive. But the success of his rule and the un-
certainty of the succession to the Danish throne brought upon him the
jealousy of his cousin Magnus. His assassination was the result. Lothar
could not allow the murderer of his vassal to go unpunished. In the
summer of 1131 he advanced as far as the Eider, but being confronted
there not only by the troops of Niel and Magnus but also by rebels
“as innumerable as the sands of the sea,” he wisely contented himself with
a fine of four thousand marks and the homage of Magnus. Canute's
Nordalbingian possessions were divided between two Wendish princes,
Pribislav and Niclot, the former receiving Wagria and Polabia, the latter
the land of the Obotrites. Lothar led his army across the Elbe and
received homage from these princes. But with two Wendish chieftains,
who owed only a nominal recognition to the German king, ruling the
country, the development of civilisation which had been making rapid
progress under Canute and his predecessor, Henry son of Gottschalk,
received a set-back; every hindrance was placed in the way of Vicelin
the German missionary, who brought his complaints and remedial proposal
to the king. His suggestion was the erection of a strong fortress in a
commanding position on a hill, Segeberg, near the banks of the Trave.
To the disgust of Pribislav and Niclot, who saw in the plan the German
yoke falling on them, the fortress was built and garrisoned with Saxons;
with military protection behind him Vicelin was now able to proceed
unhindered on his missionary enterprise.
The pacification of Denmark was likewise unsatisfactory. Niel and
Magnus pursued Canute's brother Eric with relentless hostility. Driven
from Schleswig he took refuge in Zealand, where even his brother Harold
turned against him. The German settlers at Roeskilde on the island
were murdered, mutilated, or expelled. It was clearly time for Lothar
to intervene once more in the affairs of the north. But no campaign
took place. Magnus presented himself at the Easter court at Halber-
stadt, indemnified himself for his misdeeds with large sums of money,
and became the vassal of the German king. Nevertheless, while Niel and
Magnus lived and reigned there could be no peace in Denmark. Their
deaths, the one assassinated by the burghers of Schleswig, the other slain
in battle, cleared the field. Eric, left in undisturbed possession, sent
## p. 345 (#391) ############################################
Death of Lothar III
345
ambassadors to the court at Magdeburg at Whitsuntide 1135 and re-
ceived the Emperor's recognition of his title.
At the same diet a quarrel, in which all the eastern neighbours of
Germany-Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia-were involved, was also
brought within sight of determination. It arose on the death of Stephen II
of Hungary. His crown was disputed between his blind cousin Béla and
his half-brother Boris; the former was supported by Soběslav of Bohemia,
the latter by Boleslav of Poland. All the three countries engaged sent
embassies to Lothar at Magdeburg. But the Emperor required Boleslav's
personal attendance. He appeared at Merseburg in August, paid twelve
years' arrears of tribute, and took the oath of allegiance; he was in some
measure compensated by the acquisition of Pomerania and Rügen as fiefs
of the German crown. An armistice was arranged between Bohemia and
Poland pending a definite peace. Boris gave up the struggle, and Béla
remained in secure possession of the Hungarian throne. To the Merseburg
diet came also ambassadors from the Eastern Emperor John Comnenus
and from the Doge of Venice offering help against their common enemy,
Roger of Sicily. “So highly was the Emperor Lothar esteemed by
kings and kingdoms,” writes the chronicler, " that he was visited with
gifts and embassies from Hungarians, Ruthenians, Danes, French, and
many other nations. The Empire enjoyed peace and plenty, religion in
the monasteries flourished, justice reigned, iniquity was repressed. "ı
The year 1135 was indeed a year of reckonings. It witnessed the
results of a decade of masterful rule. Since the days of Henry III German
prestige had not risen so high. It is marked by the ending of quarrels,
by reconciliations, by peace. At the diet of Bamberg in March, which
brought to a close the long-contested fight with the Hohenstaufen, a
peace to last for ten years was proclaimed throughout Germany. This
state of peace and prosperity the Emperor was only destined to enjoy
for one year more on German soil. Towards the end of the summer of
1136 he crossed the Alps to take the field against Roger of Sicily. On
his return in the following autumn he fell sick at Trent, and barely had
sufficient strength to reach his own country. He died in a peasant's hut
in the Tyrolese village of Breitenwang on 4 December 1137.
Lothar, by an arrangement with the Pope in 1133 had secured under
certain conditions the allodial estates of the Countess Matilda for his
son-in-law Henry the Proud”; he had also before his death granted him
the duchy of Saxony and entrusted to him the imperial insignia, thereby
designating him as his successor to the throne. With two dukedoms,
with extensive possessions of his own in Germany and in Italy, with
rich lands in Saxony by right of his wife, there was no man in Germany
who could compete with Henry in power and wealth. Yet the Church
faction which had raised Lothar to the throne disapproved of his
1 Ann. Saxo, MGH, Script. vi, 770.
2 MHG, Const. 1, 169.
сн. х.
## p. 346 (#392) ############################################
346
Election of Conrad III
ני
appointed heir. On the Italian campaign he had neither shewn defer-
ence to their wishes nor a bearing likely to command their confidence.
Still less was he acceptable to the lay princes; they feared his over-
whelming power; they were above all anxious to avoid the foundation
of a dynasty and to prove their right of election by passing over the
man designated by the dead Emperor. Neither the spiritual nor the
secular princes wanted the Welf candidate.
The see of Mayence was vacant; the Archbishop of Cologne, but just
elected, had as yet not received the pallium; it was only natural in
these circumstances that the direction of affairs should fall to the third
great ecclesiastical prince, Archbishop Adalbero of Trèves, between whom
and Henry a long-standing enmity subsisted. He summoned a meeting
at Coblenz-a singularly unrepresentative gathering, for neither Saxons
nor Bavarians were present—and at his proposal Conrad of Hohenstaufen,
Lothar's rival, was chosen on 3 March 1138. Ten days later he was
crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle by the papal legate. “A mere mockery of
right and custom,”? yet however irregular the procedure may have been
the result was popular. The princes of Germany flocked to the court at
Bamberg on 22 May to do homage to the new king; Leopold of Austria,
Conrad of Zähringen, Soběslav of Bohemia, even the widowed Empress
Richenza, put in an appearance.
Duke Henry was absent from the court at Bamberg; a diet was fixed
to assemble at Ratisbon, and there Henry appeared ready to deliver
up the royal insignia in his keeping in return for confirmation in the
possession of his two dukedoms? . But here lay the difficulty; apparently
already at the diet of Bamberg Conrad had promised Saxony to Albert
the Bear. The king disliked the notion of two dukedoms united in the
hands of one man. He succeeded, nevertheless, by diplomacy, by vague
promises no doubt, in extracting the insignia from Henry, and fixed a
meeting at Augsburg for a final settlement. But here again no agree-
ment was reached. Conrad, fearing Henry's threatening attitude, left for
Würzburg, where the duke was put under the ban (July 1138). Saxony
was bestowed upon Albert; Bavaria, which was confiscated a little later
at Goslar, after a short retention in the king's hands, was disposed of to
Leopold of Austria.
Before the year 1138 was far advanced Saxony and Bavaria were
ablaze with civil war; the old feud of Welf and Hohenstaufen, which
had disturbed the peace during the greater part of the previous reign,
1 Giesebrecht, Kaiserzeit, iv, 171.
2 The accounts of these events differ considerably in their details. The com-
paratively late Annales Palidenses, MGH, Script. xvi, anno 1138, mention that
Conrad besieged Henry at Nuremberg and forced him to give up the insignia;
whereas Otto of Freising, Chron. vii, cap. 23, expressly states that the insignia
were given up at the diet held at Ratisbon. Cf. Giesebrecht, op. cit. iv, 175 sq.
and 459, and Bernhardi, Konrad III, 49 sq.
## p. 347 (#393) ############################################
Hohenstaufen versus Welf
347
broke out once more with renewed bitterness. The Empress Richenza
by her vigorous energy in the cause of her son-in-law won the support of
many of the Saxon princes, who looked upon Albert the Bear as an
upstart. But Albert was too quick for them; he attacked before their
preparations were completed, defeated them decisively, and occupied the
Welfic possessions of Lüneburg and Bardowiek. The king, however,
deceived himself into thinking the opposition in Saxony crushed; the
sudden appearance of the banished duke in his northern dukedom altered
the situation. Town after town fell into his hands, even the lands of
the usurping margrave were no longer secure, and by the spring of
1139 Albert with his chief supporters, Bernard of Plötzke and Herman
of Winzenburg, was driven to seek shelter with the Archbishop of
Mayence at Rusteburg in the Eichsfeld.
The royal army which assembled at Hersfeld in July for the recovery
of Saxony was imposing enough; the Archbishops of Mayence and Trèves,
the Bishops of Worms and Spires, the Duke of Bohemia, the new Dukes
of Saxony and Bavaria, Louis of Thuringia, Herman of Winzenburg, all
appeared with their levies. But a strong army was required, for Henry
had behind him the weight of Saxony, and the history of the past had
shewn that Saxony, when its heart was in the struggle, was all but invin-
cible. The two armies confronted each other at Kreuzburg in Thuringia;
the leaders of the royal army hesitated, a council of war voted for arbi-
tration, finally a day was fixed to settle the issue at Worms at Candlemas.
The conference was however a mere farce, and nothing was done; the two
parties, laying aside the business for which they had come together, gave
themselves over to amusement and feasting, the latter much embellished
by the thirty tuns of wine which, we are told, the Archbishop of Trèves
carried with him on the campaign and lavished upon the negotiators.
He, it is scarcely necessary to add, was the only man to benefit by the
affair; he was rewarded with the abbey of St Maximin at Trèves, the
richest in his diocese, a possession however not entirely advantageous, for
it brought the new possessor into a feud with the monks and their
advocatus which after a long and devastating struggle was only closed,
like many similar feuds, by the Second Crusade. In other respects the
existing state of things continued; Henry remained master of Saxony,
Albert, deserted even by the few Saxon princes who had previously
joined him, had to console himself with the empty and portionless title
of duke.
In Bavaria Henry's supplanter received a warmer welcome. Leopold,
with the help of his brother Bishop Otto of Freising, the historian, had
in a remarkably short time gained a firm hold over his new subjects.
Henry, now secure in Saxony, prepared to recover Bavaria. His army
was mustered in readiness at Quedlinburg when at the moment of starting
he fell sick and died. His youth, the suddenness, the unaccountableness
of his death, most of all the advantage it gave to his antagonists, gave
CH. X.
## p. 348 (#394) ############################################
348
Siege of Weinsberg
rise to the suspicion, whether with justice it is impossible to say, of
poison. His premature end was certainly a terrific blow to the Welf
cause. Henry's heir and namesake was but a boy of ten years old; the
fortunes of his house depended on the resources of two women, the little
Henry's guardians, Richenza and her daughter the duke's widow Gertrude.
Nevertheless the death of Henry the Proud did not have the expected
result upon Conrad's fortunes. Both in Saxony and Bavaria the war
continued with undiminished vigour. The attempt of Albert the Bear
to recover Saxony was a complete failure; he suddenly appeared at
Bremen on All Saints' Day, and put forward his claim at an assembly of
princes and people, but met with the most hostile reception. Surrounded
by enemies, he barely escaped with his life. The Saxon princes under
the leadership of Frederick, the count-palatine, and Conrad, Archbishop
of Magdeburg, firm in their loyalty to the boy-duke, were even strong
enough to take the offensive, and to make plundering raids into Albert's
country, capturing many of his castles. In vain Conrad tried to put an
end to the quarrel, but the Saxon chiefs refused to obey the imperial
summons to diets held at Worms in February and at Frankfort in April
1140. The king's attitude moreover was not conciliatory; he demanded
unconditional surrender and refused a safe conduct to the Saxons for the
negotiations. So the war was pursued with energy; and Albert, driven
from his March, fled to the king for help.
But Conrad's attention was directed to a rebellion in the south which
threatened to be even more dangerous. There Welf, Henry's uncle, had
taken up the family cause, perhaps with the idea of acquiring for himself
the Bavarian dukedom': no friction however appears to have existed
between the two branches of the house at this time, though doubtless
Welf hoped to obtain a share of the family inheritance in the event of
success. In the summer of 1140 he attacked Leopold, who was besieging
a castle on the river Mangfall, and inflicted upon him a defeat which
seemed likely to undermine his authority in the duchy. Conrad, at the
duke's urgent appeal, hastened into Swabia, accompanied by his brother
Frederick, against the Welfic fortress of Weinsberg. In vain he battered
at its strong walls; the stout resistance of the loyal inhabitants parried
every attempt, till he was obliged to turn from the town to face Welf
himself who was hurrying to its relief. The battle that ensued unexpec-
tedly redeemed his fortunes: the defeat was crushing; Welf only with
difficulty effected his escape; Weinsberg despairing of relief opened its
gates on 21 December. Two legends make the siege of Weinsberg
'famous in history and romance. In the heat of the fierce fight on the
banks of the Neckar the rival leaders, it is said, urged on their followers
with the battle cries of “Hi Welf! ”“Hi Weibling! ”—the first time, if there
1 Hist. Welf. Weingarten, MGH, Script. xxi, 467, "ipse enim Gwelfo praefatum
ducatum iure hereditatis ad se spectare proclamans. ” Cf. Otto of Freising, Chron.
VII, 26.
## p. 349 (#395) ############################################
Settlement of Frankfort, 1142
349
be truth in it, that these names, so famous in after years, were used to
designate the opposing factions in German politics. Jacob Grimm has
included among his Märchen the story of the capitulation of the Weins-
bergers. The tale, though seemingly unhistorical, has a basis in an early
authority. The women alone were spared with what they could carry
away with them. The sturdy Swabians, it is said, came down from the
town bearing their condemned husbands upon their shoulders”.
The effects of Conrad's victory were far reaching. It not only crushed,
for the moment at least, the rebellion in the south, but it also changed
the aspect of affairs in the north. It is significant that many Saxon
princes presented themselves at the Whitsun feast at Würzburg in 1141,
though no solution to the questions at issue was then reached. The
Welfic cause suffered another severe blow by the death on 10 June of the
Empress Richenza, by whose energy and enterprise the struggle had been
maintained and the diverse elements of the opposition to the Hohen-
staufen had been kept together. Her daughter Gertrude, who had shared
with her the guardianship of the young Henry, was a woman of a different
stamp; incited by no inveterate hatred, like Richenza, to the Hohen-
staufen, actuated rather by personal animosities than by the interests of
her family, she was in no way qualified to act as the leader of a great
party. The number of her supporters dwindled; the war was pursued
but half-heartedly. However with Richenza's death the greatest obstacle
to a compromise was removed. The moment was favourable. In the
south after a period of intermittent warfare Duke Leopold had died in
October. Conrad granted the margravate of Austria to Leopold's brother
Henry Jasomirgott, but kept the duchy in his own hands, pending a
decisive settlement. Marculf, a skilful diplomat who had recently been
raised to the primacy of Mayence, was entrusted with the negotiations.
Preliminaries were drawn
up,
and a diet was summoned at Frankfort in
May 1142 to give effect to them. Henry received Saxony, Henry Jaso-
1 It is condemned as unhistorical by Jaffé, Konrad Ill, p. 35, n. 22. It is first
mentioned in 1425 by Andreas presbyter Ratisponensis, Schilter, Script. rer. Germ.
1702, p. 25, “clamor vero exhortationis ad resistendum et fortiter pugnandum, in
exercitu Welfonis fuit talis: Hye Welff. Unde Fridericus ad confusionem Welfonis
praecepit clamari in exercitu suo, Hye Giebelingen. ”
2 The truth of the story rests on the question whether the passage in the
Chronica Regia Coloniensis “descendebant viros humeris portantes” existed in the
contemporary annals of Paderborn, which is the original source of the Cologne
chronicle for these years. The Pöhlde annals which drew their information from
the same source say nothing of the Weinsberg women. Scheffer-Boichorst, who
reconstructed the text of the Annales Patherbrunenses, accepts the story. Bernheim,
Historisches Taschenbuch, 1884, p. 13 sq. is sceptical. The point has been much
under discussion of recent years, but the two articles by R. Holtzmann, Die Weiber
von Weinsberg. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Kritik der Paderborner Annalen (Stuttgart,
1911), and Die Trauen Weiber von Weinsberg, HVJS, xviii, 1918, have gone far to
prove the presence of the passage in the contemporary annals, and so the authen-
ticity of the story.
CH. X.
## p. 350 (#396) ############################################
350
Difficulties in Lorraine
mirgott Bavaria, while Albert the Bear, who had, since the end of the
previous year, renounced the title of duke, was re-established in the North
Mark. A general pardon was granted to all who had taken part in the
rebellion, and finally a seal was set upon the general pacification by a
marriage, which immediately followed at Frankfort amid great festivities,
between Gertrude and the new Duke of Bavaria.
The settlement appeared more complete than in fact it was. Otto of
Freising gives the truer interpretation of the results when he concludes
his account of these events with the remark: “it was the seed of the
greatest discord in our land. ” It failed to satisfy any of those concerned;
Welf refused to accept the alienation of Bavaria from his family, and
soon reopened the struggle against the new duke. Frederick of Swabia
was dissatisfied; he grudged the favour shewn to Henry Jasomirgott and
threw in his lot with the Welfs. Although soon reconciled, he was never
again a trusted friend to Conrad; later he even appeared together with
Welf in alliance with Conrad's dangerous enemy Roger of Sicily. Further,
it remained to be seen whether the young Duke of Saxony, when old
enough to manage his own affairs, would be content with the portion of
his father's possessions allotted to him. Finally, the peaceful designs of
Conrad received a fatal blow by the death of Gertrude. She died in
childbed, when journeying to Bavaria to join her husband on 18 April
1143.
The struggle of the two great families of Welf and Hohenstaufen was
not the only source of trouble which disturbed the peace of Germany.
Since the king's accession Lorraine was the scene of a civil and an
ecclesiastical dispute. The deaths of Walram in 1138 and of Godfrey a
few months later gave rise to a conflict between their successors, Henry
and Godfrey the younger; the former, who had held the ducal title
during his father's lifetime, was naturally dissatisfied with the king's
action in granting the duchy of Lower Lorraine to the latter? . War was
the result, and Henry of Limburg was compelled to renounce his claim
to the title. Godfrey, however, only enjoyed his dukedom for a short
while; he died in 1142 and was succeeded by his one-year-old son.
The ecclesiastical difficulties were less easily ended. The gift of the
abbey of St Maximin to the Archbishop of Trèves, already mentioned, was
bitterly resented by the monks themselves, who found a keen champion
of their rights in their advocatus, Henry, Count of Namur and Luxemburg.
The election of an abbot without the knowledge of the archbishop brought
the matter to Rome. Innocent II took up the cause of the monks, and
in May 1140 issued a bull in which he declared the monastery to be
subject only to Rome and the Empire; at the same time he wrote to
Adalbero bidding him remove the sentence of excommunication which he
had imposed upon the newly appointed abbot. The truculent archbishop
1 The reason may be found for this in the marriage connexion between Conrad
and the young Godfrey; the latter had married the king's sister Ermingarde.
## p. 351 (#397) ############################################
Relations with Poland and Bohemia
351
treated the Pope's missives with open defiance, refused even to obey a
summons to Rome, and was in consequence suspended from his office.
Luckily for him, however, his cause was taken up by St Bernard, whose
influence with Innocent was predominant. The suspension was removed,
and a bull, dated 20 December 1140, was issued cancelling the previous
one and granting the posssession of the abbey of St Maximin to the arch-
bishop and his successors in perpetuity. It was a solution, but not one
which was acceptable to the monks or their advocate. For seven years
the rich lands round the Moselle were laid waste by incessant war, until
at the great diet held at Spires in December 1146 for the proclamation
of the Crusade the two antagonists, at the instance of St Bernard, agreed
to lay aside their quarrels and allow peace to be restored to their im-
poverished country.
Conrad's difficulties may in large measure be attributed to his family
connexions. His mother Agnes had married, after the death of Frederick
of Swabia, Leopold III of Austria; by the two marriages she was the
mother of twenty-three children. The elevation of his family seems to
have been a guiding motive with the king; we have already noticed how
the grant of the duchy of Lower Lorraine to his brother-in-law Godfrey
led to a feud in that country. The situation in Bavaria was complicated
by the establishment of the Austrian Babenbergers, half-brothers of the
king, as Bavarian dukes. The marriages of two half-sisters, the one to
a claimant of the dukedom of Poland, the other to a claimant of the
dukedom of Bohemia, involved Conrad in wars with these countries.
The death of a ruler in the half-civilised lands which bordered the
German kingdom to the east was almost inevitably followed by a war of
succession. Boleslav of Poland died in October 1139, leaving a disposition
whereby the country was to be partitioned among his four sons, the
eldest of whom, Vladislav, was to have a certain pre-eminence with the
title of grand-duke. This prince at once attempted to use his exalted
position to develop his own power at the expense of his brothers, an
enterprise in which he confidently relied on the support of Conrad, his
brother-in-law. Early in the year 1146 he appeared at the German
court and was enfeoffed with the whole of Poland. A strenuous and not
unsuccessful resistance was made by his brothers, Boleslav and Mesco;
Posen withstood his attack, the Archbishop of Gnesen excommunicated
him, his own town of Cracow was taken and destroyed; finally, he himself
was driven into exile. Conrad made a campaign into Poland on behalf
of his vassal, but, unable to make any headway, entered into negotiations
and withdrew to Germany with Vladislav, who continued to live in exile
while his victorious brothers established their authority securely in Poland.
The only result which emanated from Conrad's intervention was the
diminution of German influence in that region.
The king's dealings with Bohemia had a more successful end. When
Soběslav appeared at the diet of Bamberg in 1138, Conrad guaranteed
CH. X.
## p. 352 (#398) ############################################
352
Relations with Hungary
the succession of the dukedom to his son Vladislav. On Soběslav's death
in 1140 Conrad, despite his former promise, disposed of the dukedom to
a nephew of the late duke also named Vladislav who had married his
half-sister Gertrude. Dissatisfaction at his rule led to a rebellion in the
interests of the other Vladislav instigated by Otto of Olmütz, the son
of that Otto who fell in Lothar's army at Kulm. Vladislav the son
defeated Vladislav the nephew of Soběslav at Wysoka to the west of
Kuttenberg on 25 April 1142. The latter fled to Germany to seek
help from Conrad; the king took up his cause and accompanied him
back to Bohemia. The rebellion collapsed without a fight; on 7 June
the royal army entered Prague and restored Vladislav II securely in his
duchy.
Boris, the unsuccessful aspirant to the Hungarian throne whose pre-
tensions Lothar had set aside, again came forward, backed by the support
of Duke Vladislav II of Bohemia and the influential Babenbergers. By
a lavish distribution of money he had built up a strong position for
himself; he was regarded with favour by Conrad, with whom he had an
interview at Aix-la-Chapelle early in the year 1146. A band of his
followers, among them a number of ministeriales of Henry Jasomirgott
returning to Hungary, made a sudden night attack upon the frontier
fortress of Pressburg. The garrison was killed, captured, or dispersed.
Géza, the Hungarian King, collected an army, moved on Pressburg, and
recaptured it. He imputed, not without good grounds, the blame for
this outrage to Conrad and the Duke of Bavaria, and only awaited
an opportunity to take vengeance upon them. The moment came in
September 1146. With an army reckoned at the incredible figure of
seventy thousand men the King of Hungary crossed the frontier, fell
upon the duke's army near the banks of the Leitha, and after a fierce
battle threw the German soldiers into confusion; the victory was complete;
the Duke of Bavaria himself only with difficulty reached the shelter of
Vienna.
The Babenbergers, who had thus been largely responsible for Conrad's
implication in the affairs of Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary, had in
their own duchy of Bavaria disturbed the peace by a bitter feud, the
origin of which is unknown, with the Bishop of Ratisbon. The city of
Ratisbon was besieged by Duke Henry; the country was burnt and
plundered. The duke and his supporters, among them his brother-in-law
the Duke of Bohemia, Frederick of Bogen, the cathedral advocatus,
and Otto of Wittelsbach, the count-palatine, were placed under the ban
of the Church by the bishop and his metropolitan Conrad of Salzburg.
Conrad at last intervened, held a diet at Ratisbon, and reconciled the
contending parties.
To add to the misery of war and devastation from which the country
suffered, a famine of unheard-of severity broke out and spread through
the whole of Germany. Every chronicler fills his narrative of the year
## p. 353 (#399) ############################################
The Second Crusade
353
1146 with lamentations over the afflictions and misfortunes which heavily
oppressed their unhappy land. Prices rose to unprecedented heights; in
one place thirty-four shillings had to be paid for a measure of wheat;
many
sustained life merely on a diet of roots and herbs; many succumbed
to a death from starvation.
But the troubles which beset Germany lost significance in the minds
of men when the news of great disasters in the East reached Europe.
Edessa fell in 1144; Jerusalem itself was threatened. Pope Eugenius III
entrusted to Bernard of Clairvaux the preaching of a Crusade. In France
the project was taken up with enthusiasm, and Louis VII himself took
the cross at Easter 1146. The crusading spirit spread across the Rhine,
but there St Bernard's emissary, Ralph, a monk of Clairvaux, damaged
the cause by raising the cry against the Jews instead of against the
Turkish infidel. Persecution of the unhappy Israelites was the first sign
of crusading ardour among the German people. St Bernard himself
had to hasten into the country to counteract the misplaced zeal of
his fellow-worker; but he had another end in view in this visit-it
was to win Conrad for the enterprise. Early in November he reached
Mayence, and proceeded almost at once to Frankfort, to meet the king.
But Conrad hesitated; the condition of his kingdom hardly, he thought,
justified his absence. At home and abroad he was faced with deter-
mined enemies; the Welfic party, still unsubdued, were in the pay
of
Roger of Sicily, who hoped that by subsidising Conrad's opponents at
home he might prevent him from coming to Italy. However at the
Christmas festival he was won over by the eloquence of the great preacher
in the cathedral of Spires! The danger of leaving Germany at such a
critical time was much lessened by the fact that many of the chief princes
of the Empire, among them Welf and Henry, Duke of Bavaria, had
either already taken the cross or now prepared to follow their king's
example. A great diet was held at Frankfort in the following spring
(19 March 1147) to make the necessary arrangements for the expedition
and for the government of Germany in the king's absence. Conrad's
son Henry, a boy of ten years old, was elected king and crowned a week
later at Aix-la-Chapelle; he was entrusted to the care of the Archbishop
of Mayence, while the direction of the affairs of the kingdom was placed
in the capable hands of Abbot Wibald of Stablo. To lighten the burdens
of government a general peace was proclaimed throughout Germany.
The large concourse of crusaders came together at Ratisbon in May
1147. Conrad himself by boat, the army along the bank, set out down
the Danube, pursuing the overland route to Constantinople and Pales-
1 According to H. Cosack, Konrads III Entschluss zum Kreuzzug, MIOGF, xxxv
(1914), the decision was due not to the preaching of Bernard but to the news that
Conrad's enemy Welf VI had taken the cross on Christmas Eve. On the other
hand, it is by no means certain that Conrad was in possession of this information
when he took the decisive step.
23
C. MED, H. VOL. V. CH.
