No More Learning

THE EMPEROR HENRY VI.
The Emperor Henry VI presents both in character and appearance a
striking contrast to his father; instead of the fine figure, the attractive
mien, the charm of manner which distinguish the personality of Frederick
Barbarossa, we are confronted with a man, spare and gaunt, of an unpre-
possessing appearance, which thinly disguised the harsh, cruel, unrelenting
qualities of his character. Instead of the fearless and skilful soldier, the
very personification of all that was knightly in an age of knights, we see
a man whose honour even among friends could not be trusted, whose
cruelty would stop short at nothing when it suited his purpose; a man
who cared not for the field of battle, and whose only active pursuit was
falconry and the chase. Certainly it was not Henry's personal attributes
that made him a great Emperor, nor was it in field-sports or deeds of
arms that Henry excelled; it was as a man of learning, as one “more
learned than men of learning," as a man of great business capacity,
that Henry impressed his contemporaries. One writer will dwell on his
eloquence and on his prudence, another will praise his intellectual attain-
ments, his knowledge of letters and of canon and secular law. “I rejoice,”
writes Godfrey of Viterbo in his dedication of the Speculum regum to
Henry, “that I have a philosopher king. ""
But if the characters of the two Emperors have so little in common,
there is a striking similarity in their political outlook. Henry inherited
from his father not only the problems that required solution, but the
methods and the ideas with which to solve them. The Peace of Venice,
though the end of one phase of the struggle, was also the beginning of
another. Frederick's last years, which coincide with Henry's first, are
occupied with the solution of the old problem on new lines; the three
powers whose combined strength had defeated him, the Papacy, the Lom-
bards, and the Normans, must be separated and separately dealt with. The
first step in this direction was achieved when Alexander III, who had
long been excluded from his capital, and who hoped with the Emperor's
aid to become once more master in Rome, was induced to sign the Peace
of Venice from which the Lombards and the Normans were excluded.
These had to content themselves with truces, the former for six, the latter
for fifteen years. As in the famous dramatic episode at Canossa a hundred
1 “Literatis ipse literatior. ” Gervase of Tilbury.
2 MGH, Script. xxii, 21. Cf. also Memoria seculorum, MGH, Script. xxII, 103,
"Tu vero, Henrice regum omnium felicissime, sicut a pueritia curasti phylosoficis
inherere doctrinis. ”


## p. 455 (#501) ############################################

Results of the Peace of Venice
455
years before, the Emperor cloaked a diplomatic triumph under the guise
of abject humility. Considered by results it is not too much to say, with
a recent writer', that the Pope entered Venice as judge and left it as pro-
tégé of the German Emperor. That Frederick remained with the upper
hand seems proved from the fact that, in spite of the agreement at
Anagni, he refused to evacuate the terra Mathildis which he claimed as of
right to be imperial territory. Moreover Alexander gained little by his
compliance; he was, it is true, reinstated at Rome by Christian of Mayence
and German soldiery, but only to be hounded once more from the city to
die, two years later, in exile at Civita Castellana. Alexander's successor,
Ubald, Cardinal-bishop of Ostia, who took the name of Lucius III, was
a man of advanced years and well-disposed towards the Emperor; he
would, he declared, deny him nothing; nor could he well do otherwise,
for he too after a short struggle was forced to abandon Rome, a fugitive
from the hostile Romans. Pope and Emperor were now working for the
same object-a durable peace; but there were still questions to be settled,
above all the question of the lands of Matilda. In the course of the
negotiations which occupied the years 1182–3 the Emperor through his
representatives suggested two solutions: first, that the disputed territory
should be definitely assigned to him, while he in return should compensate
the Pope with a tenth, the cardinals with a ninth, of the revenues; or
secondly, that a commission appointed from both parties should revise the
boundaries and, by means of mutual exchanges, arrive at a settlement
agreeable to both of them. However, neither plan commended itself to
Lucius, who proposed a personal conference at Verona, where he had taken
up his residence in July 1184 and whither the Emperor came in the
following October.
Here the issue was complicated by new difficulties: the demand of
Frederick for the reinstating of the Bishops of Metz, Strasbourg, and
Basle, who had been deposed in accordance with the second decree of the
Third Lateran Council (1179) which pronounced the ordinations by
schismatic Popes to be invalid; the demand for the imperial coronation
of the young King Henry; the question of the disputed election at Trèves.
Lucius was prepared to fall in with Frederick's wishes as far as he could,
but he was old, weak, and procrastinating; he would gladly restore the
deposed bishops, but a decision of a General Council could only, he
thought, be reversed by a similar body. He may not have been entirely
averse to crowning the young king, and according to one authority it was
the cardinals and not the Pope who stood in the way; but he soon seems
to have come round to the view that there could not be two Emperors
reigning simultaneously, and that Henry could only acquire the title if
Frederick was himself ready to abdicate in his favour. As regards the
Trèves election dispute there is little doubt that Lucius had every inten-
tion of satisfying the Emperor, was willing, that is to say, to consecrate
1 Haller, Heinrich VI und die römische Kirche, MIOGF, xxxv, p. 388.
CH. XIV.


## p. 456 (#502) ############################################

456
Policy of Pope Lucius III
the imperial candidate; but the matter was not a very simple one. In
June 1183 one party of the electors had chosen Folmar, the archdeacon,
the other party the provost Rudolf. The dispute was referred to the
Emperor, who decided for the latter and forthwith invested him with the
regalia of his see; the disappointed Folmar thereupon appealed to the
Pope. Lucius procrastinated more curiae, as the Trèves historian com-
ments. At last the cardinals decided that as the appeal had been made
the case must, at least as a matter of form, be heard, and Rudolf was
summoned to Verona; this all meant further delay, and no decision was
reached when Frederick in November 1184 left the conference. But what
is of importance is that Frederick left Verona under the strong impression
that all was going well, that a decision favourable to him would ulti-
mately be pronounced; and so no doubt it would, had not Henry taken
precipitate action in Germany—he treated Folmar and his supporters as
traitors and seized their property—and had not, soon after the news of
this ill-judged act reached the papal Court, the well-intentioned Lucius
died.
It has been generally stated that the mild old man sitting at Verona
was struck as it were by a thunderbolt by the news from Augsburg of
the betrothal on 29 October 1184 of Henry with the aunt and heiress of
the reigning King of Sicily, and in consequence all hope of a peaceful
settlement between Pope and Emperor was at an end'. At one blow the
Curia would be deprived of its strongest ally, the Empire of its most
formidable enemy; in the next phase of the papal-imperial contest the
southern kingdom would be on the side of the Emperor, the Pope would
be between two fires. But it must be remembered that Lucius meant that
there should not be another phase of the hitherto incessant struggle.
Professor Haller has gone far to prove that this betrothal was not, as
usually supposed, a devastating blow to the Pope-for the simple reason
that the Pope himself had planned it? Nor was the event so certainly to
lead to the union of the Empire and Sicily. When the scheme was set on
foot, Constance was not heir-apparent but merely presumptive, and the
presumption rested on the fact that William II and Joanna, whose re-
spective ages in 1183 were 30 and 18, would die childless: the birth of
an heir was still within the bounds of possibility, even of probability;
Constance herself at the age of 40 gave birth to the future Emperor
1 This hypothesis suggested by Adolf Cohn in 1862 (FDG, 1, p. 441) was accepted
as a fact by all writers for half a century, until Haller re-examined the whole
evidence in 1914 (MIOGF, xxxv, pp. 414 sqq. ).
? This view rests principally on the testimony of Peter of Eboli (the physician
and court-poet of Henry VI), Liber ad honorem Augusti, lines 21-24,
Traditur Augusto coniunx Constantia magno;
Lucius in nuptu pronuba causa fuit;
Lucius hos iungit quos Celestinus inungit;
Lucidus hic unit, Celicus ille sacrat.


## p. 457 (#503) ############################################

، به
Marriage of Henry and Constance/
457
Frederick II in the ninth year of her married life. Barbarossa was in-
fluenced, no doubt, by the results the alliance might yield, but he must
also have been aware that the incorporation of Sicily in the Empire was as
yet but a possible eventuality. Lucius was perhaps less far-sighted; he saw
that the independent kingdom in the south was an obstacle in the way of
a durable peace with the Empire, that the surest way to attain his object
was to unite the two enemies in a family alliance, and he laid his plans
accordingly. While he was conferring with the Emperor over the
boundaries of papal territory at Verona, the seal was set to his marriage-
project at Augsburg. A year later, 25 November 1185, Lucius died,
believing till the end that his cherished scheme for a lasting peace
between the spiritual and temporal rulers of Christendom would yet
come to pass.
At Rieti on 28 August 1185 Constance was handed over to the
German envoys, who conducted her to Milan. This town, the arch-
enemy of Frederick in the days of the Lombard League, had been won
over to the imperial friendship by the grant of a comprehensive charter
of privileges in February 1185, and here, at the request of the Milanese
themselves, Constance and Henry were married on 27 January of the
year following, in the presence of a large concourse of German and
Italian princes. The marriage festival marks the triumph of Frederick’s
diplomacy. The enemies who had threatened his position in Italy for
twenty critical years of his reign were now bound to him by close ties of
friendship The ceremonies were concluded by three coronations:
Frederick himself received the Burgundian, Constance the German, Henry
the Italian crown. If Henry had been denied by the Pope the insignia,
he had now at least the substance, of imperial power. Since the age of
four he had been King of Germany; he was now King of Italy also. For
all practical purposes he was co-Emperor. He was given in fact the title
of Caesar. When Frederick in the following August returned to Germany,
Henry remained behind in charge of the administration of the an
kingdom.
In spite of his strong position in Italy, the task was not altogether
an easy one. Urban III, who had succeeded Lucius on the papal throne,
did not succeed to his policy; he was an old enemy of the Hohenstaufen;
he was a Milanese, and his family had suffered in the destruction of
Milan at Frederick's hands in 1162. He hated the Sicilian marriage,
hated too, no doubt, the cordial relations of his native city with the
Emperor. On personal grounds, if not on political, he was determined to
resist the rapidly developing imperial domination in Italy. Henry's
ambassador, Conrad of Mayence, with untiring patience tried to reach a
settlement by mutual concessions: Urban should cede the lands of Matilda,
while Henry in return should subdue Rome and restore the Pope to his
1 The marriage commended itself to William II, who required the support of
Frederick in his designs against the Eastern Emperor.
CH. XIV.


## p. 458 (#504) ############################################

458
Urban III's hostile attitude towards the Emperor
capital. But Urban was not of a conciliatory turn of mind; he raised new
issues, the renunciation of the ius spolii among others; he demanded the
unconditional surrender of the occupied territories; and on 17 May he
took the decisive step-he confirmed the appointment of Folmar, and
a fortnight later consecrated him Archbishop of Trèves. It was a
declaration of war, and he risked the inevitable break, relying on the
difficulties with which the Emperor was faced. There were weak links in
the imperial armour: there were popular risings in the Tuscan towns,
especially in Siena; the rebuilding of Crema led to the revolt of its rival
Cremona; in Germany the rebellion of Philip of Cologne threatened to
become generall. These rebellions the Pope fostered by every means in
his power; he forbade the towns and bishops under threat of excommuni-
cation to assist in the suppression of Cremona. But he had underrated the
strength of his opponent. Henry in alliance with the Tuscan nobility
speedily put down the rising of the Sienese, and deprived them of many
of their privileges; while his father, after a siege of a few weeks, forced
Cremona to submission. By way of retaliation for the part the Pope had
played in the revolts, Frederick commanded his son to overrun the
Campagna. Henry carried out his task with a thoroughness which
characterised all his actions; he devastated the country to the frontier of
Apulia, received the oath of allegiance from the towns and nobles of the
Campagna and Romagna, and by the end of the year 1186 almost the
whole of northern and central Italy were under imperial control.
Urban's efforts to promote discontent in Germany met with little
better success. Though the new issues he had raised, the question of the
ius spolii, of the lay advocacies, of the taking of ecclesiastical tithes by
laymen, all long-standing grievances of the clergy, were framed with the
object of winning the German Church to his side, the bishops, with but
few exceptions, stood firmly by Frederick (Gelnhausen, December 1186).
Urban, isolated and deserted at Verona, perhaps in a moment of weakness,
perhaps under pressure from the imperialist section of the cardinals,
changed his front, abandoned Folmar, and agreed to a new election.
This was in the summer of 1187. But before his death in the following
October he had once more reverted to his former attitude of bitter
hostility. He left the imperialist Verona for the papalist Ferrara, where
he died, cogitating, it is said, the excommunication of both the Emperor
and the king.
That the cardinals sympathised little with Urban's policy seems clear
from their choice of a successor. The aged Albert of Morra, who now as
Pope took the name of Gregory VIII, had been the chief confidant of the
Emperor among the cardinals; Gervase of Canterbury would even have
us believe that he kept the Emperor informed of the secret counsels of
the Curia, and in his official capacity of papal Chancellor he would have
the best opportunities of furnishing him with accurate reports. But
1 See supra, Chapter XII, pp. 408 sq.


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Gregory VIII and Clement III
459
from political as well as from personal motives Gregory was anxious to re-
store the harmony between Empire and Papacy. The Christians in Syria
had been defeated at Hițțīn on 4 July 1187, and the ill-tidings are said
to have hastened the death of Urban; on 3 October Jerusalem was in
the hands of Saladin. Gregory devoted the last energies of his life to the
organisation of the Third Crusade, for the success of which the co-opera-
tion of Frederick was essential. In his two months' pontificate he worked
hard to undo the mischief done by his predecessor; the question of the
disputed lands falls into the background, papal support is withdrawn
from the anti-imperialist Archbishop of Trèves, and the scribes of the
papal Chancery are bidden to address King Henry as Roman Emperor-
elect. Frederick on his side was not behindhand in meeting the Pope's
advances; he sent instructions to Leo de Monumento, the Roman Senator,
and to other princes to conduct the Pope to his capital, and it was on
the way thither that Gregory died at Pisa on 17 December.
Clement III, equally well-disposed towards the Emperor, continued
the work of conciliation which his predecessor had begun. He regained
Rome, not by the help of German arms but by a somewhat disgraceful
bargain with the Romans; he agreed to sacrifice the loyal Tusculum,
totally to demolish it in the event of its falling into his hands, and, if it
should not, to excommunicate its inhabitants and to employ the troops
of the Papal States to accomplish its ruin. The terms, which, to their
honour, Alexander and Lucius had refused as the price of recovering
their capital, were ultimately carried into effect by Clement's successor
in co-operation with Henry VI. The negotiations between Pope and
Emperor dragged on for another year; but the fruits of that year's work,
engrossed in a document dated at Strasbourg on 3 April 1189, mark the
final triumph of the imperial policy. The Emperor agreed to evacuate
the Papal States with a reservation of imperial rights; Folmar, who had
failed to answer the Pope's summons to Rome, was set aside, and John
the imperial Chancellor became Archbishop of Trèves with the Pope's
sanction; finally, Clement promised the imperial crown to King Henry
when he should come to Rome to obtain it.
Henry was not, however, destined to be crowned Emperor while his
father yet lived; after the latter's departure for the Holy Land at Easter
1189, the king took over entire charge of the affairs of the Empire, and
the work kept his hands fully occupied. Frederick, before he left, had
done all in his power to smooth the path; unity between Empire and
Papacy had been completely restored, the troublesome affair of the Trèves
election had been happily solved, Philip of Heinsberg, Archbishop of
Cologne, had made his submission, and remained a loyal supporter of the
crown during the rest of his life; the difficulties in the lower Rhenish
districts had been peaceably settled"; the leader of the Welfs, Henry the
Lion, had withdrawn once more into banishment at the English court.
1 See supra, p. 410.
CH. XIV.


## p. 460 (#506) ############################################

460
Rebellion of Henry the Lion
Nevertheless, in spite of Frederick's wise precautions, Henry's task was
not altogether an easy one. Saxony and the neighbouring districts to the
east had been in a perpetual state of unrest since the fall of Henry the
Lion in 1180. Bernard of Anhalt, the new Duke of Saxony, was at once
unpopular and inefficient, lacking in decision and judgment, and his
authority was disregarded by princes and people alike. The man most
capable of maintaining order, Count Adolf of Holstein, had gone off with
Frederick on Crusade, leaving the care of his lands in charge of his
nephew, Adolf of Dassel. The opportunity was too tempting for the
banished Welf; encouraged by the Kings of England and Denmark,
actuated also by the death in the summer of his wife Matilda whom he
had left to manage his affairs at Brunswick, Henry the Lion broke his
oath and returned to Germany (October 1189). At first his enterprise
met with astonishing success; he was welcomed by Hartwig, Archbishop
of Bremen, who enfeoffed him with the county of Stade; he was joined
by many of his old vassals, Bernard of Ratzeburg, Helmold of Schwerin,
Bernard of Wölpe; many of the Holsteiners even transferred their allegi-
ance to him. Town after town fell into his hands, and the helpless Adolf
of Dassel fled with his family to Lübeck. On his way thither in pursuit,
Henry met with resistance at Bardowiek, which he stormed, captured, and
destroyed. When he reached Lübeck in November he found the
inhabitants willing to open their gates on the condition that Adolf should
be allowed to withdraw in safety; this was granted and Henry entered
the town. The successful campaign of the autumn of 1189 was concluded
by an attack on the strong fortress of Lauenburg which Duke Bernard of
Saxony had built on the banks of the Elbe; after a month's siege the
fortress fell. Holstein was his, save only the town of Segeberg which
stood loyally by its absent count. It was while besieging this place that
the tide of fortune turned; the garrison put up a brave resistance, and
Henry's besieging troops were finally defeated by a force under Duke
Bernard (May 1190). Moreover the young king himself had taken steps
to check the progress of the rebellion. At a diet at Merseburg (October
1189) he had proclaimed a campaign; but except the devastation of the
country round Brunswick and the burning of Hanover nothing was
accomplished, and the hardness of the winter made it necessary to post-
pone further operations till the next spring.
In the meantime events had occurred which made the king anxious
for peace: William II of Sicily died on 18 November, and Henry, by right
of his wife, was heir to the Sicilian crown. Through the mediation of the
Archbishops of Mayence and Cologne peace was concluded at Fulda in
July: Henry the Lion agreed to rase the walls of Brunswick and to
destroy the fortress of Lauenburg; he was permitted to retain half the
city of Lübeck on the understanding that Adolf should have undisturbed
possession of the remainder. As surety for the fulfilment of his
obligations, the ex-duke handed over his two sons Henry and Lothar as


## p. 461 (#507) ############################################

Election of Tancred of Lecce
461
hostages. Peace was restored, but Henry the Lion felt no compunction
in disregarding the terms; he delivered over his sons, one of whom-
Henry-was destined to accompany the Emperor on his first Italian ex-
pedition, to escape, and to play a part in the mighty conspiracy of 1192;
but the walls of Brunswick continued to stand, the fortress of Lauenburg
remained undestroyed, nor had Henry the least intention of sur-
rendering half of Lübeck, as he had promised, or indeed any other of
the Holstein lands he had occupied, to the absent Count Adolf.
It was the situation in Sicily which hurried King Henry into con-
cluding a makeshift treaty with the Welfs. It was at once clear that the
inheritance of his wife was not to be won without a struggle. There was
a curiously strong national sentiment among the heterogeneous popula-
tion which composed the kingdom of Sicily; correspondingly, there was a
deep hatred, especially manifest in the island, to the idea of German
domination, which the succession of Constance would inevitably bring
with it; the children, we are told, were terrified by the raucous tones of
German speech. Constance herself was not disliked; she was a member
of the family of Hauteville, the founders of Sicilian greatness; but it
was her German husband against whom their patriotic feelings revolted.
Constance had been recognised conditionally by her nephew William II
as his heir, and the chief barons had taken to her the oath of allegiance';
the oath seems to have been repeated by some of the barons, and among
them Tancred of Lecce, at Troia immediately after William's death. But
the national party under the able leadership of the Chancellor Matthew
of Ajello had soon brought nationalist candidates into the field. Two
names were proposed: Count Roger of Andria and Count Tancred of
Lecce. Tancred, both because he was of royal blood-he was a natural
son of Duke Roger of Apulia, the son of King Roger—and because he
was the choice of the clever and influential Matthew, was selected. The
consent of Rome was secured', and at Palermo in January 1190 the
Archbishop Walter placed the crown of Sicily on the head of Tancred.
“Behold an ape is crowned," wrote Peter of Eboli, and indeed, if the
illuminator of Peter's manuscript portrays him with any faithfulness, the
simile is not inept. The small, misshapen, and horribly ugly appearance
of Tancred disguised, however, a fine and brave character. His military
1 This probably happened in 1174 after the death, a couple of years before, of
William's brother, Prince Henry of Capua. See Haller, op. cit. p. 429, and the
evidence of the Gesta Henrici II et Ricardi I (Rolls Series, ed. Stubbs), 11, pp. 101 sq.
That homage was done to Constance at Troia in 1186, as is usually stated (e. g.
Toeche, Heinrich VI, p. 127; Chalandon, Hist. de la Domination Normande en Italie
et en Sicile, 11, p. 387), is unlikely. Cf. Haller, op. cit. pp. 425 sqq.
2 The motives of Clement in thus turning round against the Emperor, whose
interests he had hitherto been so anxious to promote, are difficult to perceive. It
may have been, as one contemporary suggests, that out of the confusion wbich was
bound to follow he hoped to be able to appropriate Apulia, and to add it to the
States of the Church. Seo Haller, op. cit. pp. 550 sq.
CH XIV.


## p. 462 (#508) ############################################

462
Situation in Sicily and South Italy
prowess had won for him in the past high commands both on land and
sea; his practical efficiency had been rewarded by the grant of administra-
tive posts of great responsibility. He was in fact Grand Constable and
Master Justiciar of Apulia and of the Terra di Lavoro. He was a man,
too, of some intellectual capacity, familiar with the Greek tongue, versed
in a knowledge of astronomy and of the peculiar Arabic-Byzantine culture
which characterised the Norman kingdom of Sicily and South Italy.
Tancred's election had not been carried through without the shedding
of blood; and much more was to be spilt in his attempts to maintain
himself on the throne thus won. In Sicily the Saracens, seizing the
favourable opportunity to pay off old scores--in particular a massacre of
their people perpetrated by the Christians of Palermo-revolted. The
suppression of the Muslims occupied Tancred's attention during the
greater part of the year 1190. In the Norman provinces of South Italy,
in Apulia, Salerno, and Capua, Tancred's election was regarded with
disfavour. The supporters of Constance and the supporters of the rejected
candidate, Count Roger of Andria, made common cause, and under the
leadership of Count Roger himself the malcontents took up arms. Then,
in May 1190, Henry of Kalden, Marshal of the Empire, crossed the
Norman frontier near Rieti with the first detachment of German troops.
In conjunction with Count Roger of Andria, the German commander
pushed along the coast of the Adriatic for the invasion of Apulia. At
first he encountered but little resistance; when, however, he struck west-
ward across the Apennines to join forces with the rebels of Capua and
Aversa, he received a check. And the German army had to retire before
the attack of Count Richard of Acerra, the brother-in-law of Tancred;
the Count of Andria fell into a trap, was captured, and shortly afterwards
put to death. The optimistic report, omnia facilia captu, of Henry's
Chancellor Diether, who was sent in the summer to reconnoitre the
position, was hardly warranted by the facts.
In September Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur-de-Lion arrived
at Messina on their way to Palestine. Their presence, especially that of
the English king, was an additional embarrassment to Tancred; there
were constant broils between the unpopular English troops and the
people of Messina and the surrounding districts; Richard himself made
extravagant demands on Tancred both on his own behalf and on that of
his sister Joanna, the widow of William II, whom Tancred had imprudently
thrust into prison. At last, however, in November the two kings came
to an agreement, and a treaty was concluded according to the terms of
which Richard promised, so long as he remained in the Norman dominions,
to lend aid to the Sicilian king in his struggle with Henry VI.
With the opening of the new year Henry had entered in earnest upon
the long-delayed' Italian campaign; be spent a month in strengthening
1 The army was assembled at Augsburg in the autumn, and everything was in
readiness to start when news arrived of the death before Acre of the Landgrave


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Demolition of Tusculum
463
his position in Lombardy; he secured on 1 March the assistance of the
Pisan fleet for the conquest of Apulia by the confirmation and augmenta-
tion of the charter of privileges granted by Frederick Barbarossa in 1162;
he then resumed his journey Romeward. He was, it appears, already in
communication with Clement, who seems to have been prepared to fulfil
his earlier promise to grant Henry the imperial crown, stipulating only
for the confirmation of the rights and possessions of the Romans.
Then in the spring, towards the end of March, Clement died; and
for the better part of a month Henry was forced to linger in the neigh-
bourhood of the city, while a successor was appointed and new con-
ditions for Henry's coronation were arranged'. Clement, whether from
inability or from disinclination it is impossible to say, had not carried
out the compact, by which he had gained admission into his capital in
1188, with regard to Tusculum. Nor yet had Henry complied with the
condition of the Peace of Strasbourg (1189) which related to its evacua-
tion, for there was now a German garrison in the fortress. The vigorous
old cardinal Hyacinth—he was well past eighty years old--who was now
Pope Celestine III, belonged to the family of Bobo, a branch line of the
Orsini; the interests of the Roman Senate were the interests of his own
house. Perhaps, too, he still had dim memories of how in his youth he
had espoused the cause of Arnold of Brescia and brought upon himself
thereby the rancour of St Bernard? . It was no doubt the Senate that
urged him to make Henry's coronation conditional upon the surrender of
Tusculum. Henry complied, for not otherwise could he acquire the
imperial title which he regarded as indispensable; but by his compliance
he suffered something in prestige. So at least thought the chroniclers of
the next generation. “He had,” they said, “brought not a little dis-
honour upon the Empire. ” But were it not for the high reputation
Celestine enjoyed for honourable conduct-“to see or hear him was to
learn the meaning of honour,” wrote a contemporary-one would impute
rather to him the responsibility for the black deed; for he it was who
delivered the hapless town, as the price of his own security in his capital,
to the mercy of the Romans. But the Romans shewed no mercy; not a
stone was left standing, scarcely a man left alive or unmutilated.
Louis of Thuringia without direct heirs. Henry hurried northward to attempt to
get the vacant fief into his own hands. However, in deference to the strong
protests of the princes, who thought that the hereditary character of fiefs was
endangered, he was forced to grant it to Herman, brother of the late landgrave.
This affair delayed the Italian campaign for two months.
1 The statement of Arnold of Lübeck, v, 4, which has been followed by the
majority of recent historians, that Celestine III postponed his own consecration in
order to avoid crowning Henry is probably mere gossip. Celestine was elected
probably on 30 March; it is quite understandable that he should postpone his
coronation for a fortnight in order that the ceremony might take place on Easter
Day, which fell in that year on 14 April. See Haller, op. cit. pp. 556 sq.
2 John of Salisbury, Historia Pontif. cap. 31.
CH, XIV.


## p. 464 (#510) ############################################

464 Failure of Henry VI's first campaign in South Italy
The significance of this event lies in the fact that the Pope was now
once more reconciled with the Romans. Safe in Rome he could steer his
course independently of the Emperor; he could and did defy the Emperor,
and spent the closing years of a long life in championing the cause of the
Church against his encroachments. He failed, but his failure was due
not to his own lack of effort but to his opponent's strength. His work
was not wholly unrequited, for by his policy he prepared the way for
the triumph of his successor Innocent III.
On 15 April Henry was crowned; a fortnight later, in spite of the
Pope's remonstrances, he, with the Empress Constance and the German
army, crossed the Norman frontier at Ceprano. The bulk of the feudal
aristocracy of southern Italy stood, it appears, on the side of the Emperor;
Tancred therefore looked chiefly to the towns for support, and won their
interest by lavish grants of privileges. He organised his defences round
two strong points: first round a group of towns in the heel of the penin-
sula, Brindisi, Taranto, Lecce, and secondly round Naples. Henry delivered
his attack against the latter point, which was defended by Tancred's
brother-in-law, Richard, Count of Acerra. The campaign opened
propitiously: Arce after a short siege, Monte Cassino, San Germano,
Capua, Aversa, and many other towns, opened their gates; and an ever-
increasing number of the Norman feudatories deserted Tancred to swell
the ranks of the imperial army; the walls of Naples were reached with
scarcely any serious resistance. But the fortifications of Naples were
strong and withstood Henry's repeated attacks; only by cutting off
supplies from the sea could the place be captured. But the Pisan fleet
deputed for this task was defeated by Tancred's admiral Margaritus, and
the Genoese, whose aid was bought by the grant of a charter on 30 May,
arrived too late. The siege dragged on; the summer came, and with it
disease and death. Many perished, not a few deserted; to crown all, the
Emperor himself was attacked by the prevailing sickness; and the Welf
hostage, the younger Henry, escaped from the camp at Naples to spread
wild rumours in Germany of the Emperor's death and of the crushing
disasters which had befallen his army. In the face of these overwhelming
troubles he could do nothing else than raise the siege and make his way
back to Germany (August). But before he quitted the Norman dominions
he received yet another blow; the people of Salerno had revolted and had
captured the Empress Constance who had taken up her residence there
during the siege of Naples. By the end of the year 1191 most of the
German garrisons left in the captured towns, in spite of the efforts of
Diepold of Vohburg, had been expelled by Tancred's generals. In
the course of the following year the Pope took a more decided line with
regard to Sicilian affairs; he excommunicated the monks of Monte
Cassino and placed the abbey under interdict for favouring the cause of
Henry; he attempted mediation and failed; and finally he took the
decisive step-he invested Tancred with the kingdom of Sicily. But


## p. 465 (#511) ############################################

Disturbances in Germany
465
although Tancred now had official recognition of his status, the concordat
sealed at Gravina in June 1192 robbed him of many of the valued
privileges which his predecessors had wrung from former Popes. Celestine
continued to intrigue in the hope of getting Henry to renounce his
claims; with this end in view, he induced Tancred to liberate the
Empress Constance, intending himself to use her as a pawn in the
negotiations; but Constance eluded him on her road to Germany.
In the meanwhile, the Emperor had hastened homeward, stopping
only at Pavia and Milan to settle disputes which had arisen during his
absence among certain of the Lombard cities. Before Christmas 1191 he
was once more in Germany. It was but a gloomy prospect that awaited
him here: the north-east of Germany was in a state of the wildest con-
fusion; nobles formed themselves into bands to rob and plunder their
neighbours; families were divided amongst themselves; Albert of Wettin,
for example, had to return from Italy to defend his March of Meissen
against the attacks of his brother Dietrich. In Saxony the war continued
unabated. Adolf of Holstein, hearing at Tyre that his lands had been
invaded by the Welfs, had hurried home; before Christmas 1190 he was
in Germany, but barred from entry into his own territory by Henry the
Lion, who was in possession of the strong places around the mouth of
the Elbe. However, with the help of the brothers Bernard, Duke of
Saxony, and Otto, Margrave of Brandenburg, he succeeded at last in
forcing his way through, and at once set to work to recover Holstein.
Lübeck, the first object of his attack, resisted all attempts made against
it, and even when the sea-approach was blocked by a boom thrown across
the mouth of the Trave, it continued to hold out until relief came.
But the tide of events now turned in Adolf's favour; he won a decisive
victory at Boizenburg on the Elbe; he captured the town of Stade; and
Lübeck itself at last capitulated. With the fall of Lübeck, Adolf was
once more master of his country. Nevertheless, the position of the
Welfs was far from hopeless; the political situation in the Empire gave
them ample ground for encouragement. The Pope, anxious above all
things to frustrate the Emperor's Sicilian policy, was secretly abetting
the disturbances in Germany; in August 1191 he granted to Henry the
Lion a privilege protecting him and his sons against ecclesiastical
punishments. Moreover the Welfs were able to rely on the support of
powerful secular princes, of Tancred and of Tancred's ally, Richard of
England, with whom they were connected by ties of blood, and of Canute
of Denmark. Henry VI's high-handed methods had alienated not a few
of his earlier supporters; the Landgrave of Thuringia and even the Duke
of Saxony appear to have sympathised with the opposition which was
rapidly forming against the Emperor. Unhappily also, the wisest and the
most loyal of the royal supporters in that region of discontent, Wichmann,
Archbishop of Magdeburg, who had, by his moderation and skilful
management of affairs, many a time saved the Emperor and his father
C. MED. H. VOL. V. CH. XIV.
30


## p. 466 (#512) ############################################

466
Disputed election to the see of Liège
from critical situations, died in the summer of 1192. The death of old
Duke Welf VI in December 1191 was more cheerful news for the Emperor
in these months of gloom; for his rich property in Swabia and his
numerous fiefs were a substantial accession of strength to the house of
Hohenstaufen which he had made his heir,
As so often in the twelfth century, a disputed election to a bishopric
played a prominent part in the great rebellion which now broke out
against the Emperor. With regard to ecclesiastical appointments Henry
adopted the policy established and maintained with such success by his
father. He took care that candidates to his liking were chosen; occa-
sionally he would himself be present at the electoral gathering; in 1190
he even went so far as to procure the see of Würzburg for his brother
Philip, a boy of some fourteen years of age. His influence was often re-
sisted, sometimes with success: Bruno of Berg in 1191 was elected to the
see of Cologne against the imperialist candidate Lothar of Hochstadt.
In cases of dispute he himself exercised the right of nomination on
his father's principle of the devolutionsrecht, and it was on this principle
that he acted, with the express consent of the German bishops, in the
case of Liège. The electors were divided; the majority gave their votes
for Albert, brother of Henry, Duke of Brabant, the minority for Albert,
uncle of Baldwin, Count of Hainault. Both appealed to the Emperor, and
both were set aside in favour of a third, Lothar of Hochstadt (Worms,
13 January 1192). Albert of Brabant refused to submit to the decision;
he appealed to the Pope, went himself to Rome, and there obtained con-
firmation of his election. The appeal to Rome was in itself an attack on
the imperial position in regard to Church matters; still more so was the
Pope's method of executing his judgment. He ordered the Archbishop
of Cologne to consecrate Albert, but, in the event of his expected refusal,
he directed that the ceremony should be performed by the Archbishop of
Rheims; and by this prelate Albert was duly consecrated at Rheims in
September 1192.
War between the two parties was the result; Albert, it seems, was
regarded by the Emperor as guilty of high treason; the property of
certain of his supporters at Liège, we are told, was confiscated; he himself,
though vigorously backed by Celestine, who pronounced excommunication
against those who denied his claims, and by the majority of the nobles in
the district of the lower Rhine, was driven from his diocese, while his
brother, Henry of Brabant, was forced to take the oath of fealty to
his rival Lothar of Hochstadt. Prospects were brightening for Henry,
when the untoward event occurred: Albert was murdered at Rheims by
a party of German knights on 24 November 1192. The Emperor, it
was said, had a hand in the deed; the charge, thɔugh in all probability
groundless, was given countenance by the fact that Henry only inflicted
slight punishments on the perpetrators, and it had the serious effect of
uniting together the various elements of opposition.


## p. 467 (#513) ############################################

Insurrection against the Emperor
467
Frederick in his last years had been at pains to promote rivalry and
so to keep apart the two centres of danger to the Hohenstaufen power-
Saxony and the lower Rhine—the combination of which it had been the
aim of Philip of Cologne to achieve. This unlucky incident of the murder
of Albert brought about the result which Philip had struggled for in
vain: it united the Welfs with the princes of the Netherlands—a union
which was responsible for such influence as in after years the Emperor
Otto IV was able to exert. Then in December Richard of England, re-
turning from the Crusade, fell into the hands of Duke Leopold of
Austria, who agreed to surrender his prisoner to the Emperor (Würzburg,
14 February 1193). The imprisonment of a crusader was regarded almost
as an act of impiety, and the resentment against Henry was increased.
These events were the signal for a general and widespread insurrection,
in which many of the leading nobles from all parts of Germany were
ready to play a part: the Archbishop of Mayence, the Landgrave of
Thuringia, the Margrave of Meissen, the Dukes of Bohemia and Zähringen,
were to be found on the side of the malcontents; deposition and a fresh
election were freely discussed. The rebels could moreover rely on the
sympathetic encouragement, if not the active support, of Pope Celestine,
from whom Henry was now definitely estranged. For he had answered the
Pope's enfeoffment of Tancred by aggressive measures: he had prevented
the German clergy from going to Rome; he had captured and imprisoned
the papal legate, Octavian, Cardinal-bishop of Ostia; for two years
negotiations with the papal Court entirely ceased. Celestine threatened
the Emperor with excommunication, but he could do no more, for he was
weak in Italy and Henry was strong; the infirmity of old age no doubt
prevented him from promoting the rebellion in Germany by more energetic
methods. He probably realised too that the political situation required
careful handling. Henry's position in the winter and spring of 1193 was
certainly extremely critical. But Richard's capture had supplied him with
a trump card, and with skilful play the game might yet be his. It was
indeed the masterful manner in which Henry, armed with his valuable
prisoner, dealt with the situation that saved him his kingdom.
What the Emperor's enemies feared, what the Pope, the Welfs, the
princes of the lower Rhine, the regents in England, dreaded above all, was
that Richard should be handed over to Philip Augustus, an event which
seemed only too probable considering the friendly understanding which
already existed between him and the Emperor. Philip himself made over-
tures to Henry with this object; he and the treacherous Prince John offered
large sums of money for Richard's person or, failing that, for the prolonga-
tion of his captivity. It was necessary for Richard's allies to prevent this
1 Such was their anxiety to gain this end that in January 1194-a month before
Richard's final release—they were prepared themselves to pay the full amount of
the ransom, 150,000 marks, for the surrender of Richard to them or for his reten-
tion by the Emperor for the space of another year. Hoveden, 111, 229.
CH. XIV.
30-2


## p. 468 (#514) ############################################

468
Imprisonment and release of Richard I
at whatever cost. Henry could therefore impose almost any terms he chose
to dictate, holding the threat of the surrender of Richard to the French
king over the heads of his opponents. The negotiations were opened
on behalf of Richard by Savaric, Bishop of Bath, a kinsman and trusted
friend of the Emperor. But the issues were complicated; many interests
were involved; and it was not till 29 June at Worms that the terms of
release were finally settled; and even then many months had to elapse
before Richard gained his liberty on 3 February 1194 at Mayence. In
addition to the payment of an enormous ransom—100,000 marks of
silver-Richard had to yield up his kingdom and to receive it back as a
fief of the Empire; he had further to undertake the submission of the
Welfs and to throw over his former ally, Tancred. His honour, however
forbade him to comply with the condition of assisting personally in the
conquest of Sicily, and he procured his release from it by the payment of
an additional 50,000 marks.
The conditions were certainly hard, but a great advantage had been
gained: the alliance between the Hohenstaufen and the Capetian was,
temporarily at least, broken. The suddenness of the event is striking;
a meeting of the two sovereigns was arranged to be held between Toul
and Vaucouleurs on 25 June. That meeting did not take place; instead
on that very day the imperial court assembled at Worms, and after a
discussion lasting four days agreed to the terms of Richard's liberation.
The proposed meeting near Vaucouleurs was certainly meant as a threat,
and it had its effect inasmuch as Richard and his friends hastened to
bring about the much desired reconciliation between the Emperor and the
kinsmen of the murdered Bishop of Liège, and it also made them listen
more readily to the exacting terms which were pronounced at the meeting
at Worms. But welcome and important as these results were to Henry,
they do not adequately account for the complete reversal of his policy
towards the King of France; other considerations must have influenced
his mind. It was in this same summer of 1193 that Philip Augustus
sought a second wife, and he sought her in Denmark. The political motive
clearly was to detach Canute VI from alliance with the Welfs and with
England, but the alliance of France and Denmark could not but be
regarded as threatening to the security of Germany as well. Henry's
sudden abandonment of the Capetian alliance was no doubt also and
mainly due to his policy of universal empire. Richard with his extensive
dominions in France was now his vassal; through him he intended to
bring the French King himself to subjection. Innocent III writing to
Philip Augustus some years after Henry's death asserted that Henry had
declared that he would force Philip to shew fealty to him', and he was
1 Affirmans quod te de cetero ad fidelitatem sibi compelleret exhibendam. Reg.
Innocent. III de negotio Romani Imperii, No. 64 (MPL, cexvi, col. 1071). Cf.
Hoveden, 111, 301. Notum enim erat regi Angliae, quod praedictus imperator super
omnia desiderabat, ut regnum Franciae Romanorum imperio subiaceret.


## p. 469 (#515) ############################################

Closing years and death of Henry the Lion
469
not using mere idle words. The Emperor's whole attitude to Richard
points in the same direction; he was continually urging him to fresh
activities against the King of France'. This too was the object of the
enfeoffment of Richard with the kingdom of Arles. German control over
Burgundy, never very great, had sensibly decreased since the time of
Frederick Barbarossa; the policy of strengthening it by setting up a
strong vassal-power there had been attempted with some success by the
Emperor Lothar in his grant to the Dukes of Zähringen; Henry had the
same end in view when he proposed to transfer the Burgundian crown to
Richard, who as Duke of Aquitaine had already a strong position in the
south-east of France. But the scheme never matured; it died as soon as
it was conceived.
When the King of England was finally liberated in February 1194
the Welfs were still unreconciled with the Emperor. It was a slow and
difficult business, but the marriage in 1193 between Henry, the eldest
son of Henry the Lion, and the Emperor's cousin Agnes, the daughter
of Conrad, the Count-Palatine of the Rhine, made it easier, and at last
it was accomplished in March 1194 at Tilleda near the Kyffhäuser; the
eldest son of the old duke agreed to prove his loyalty by accompanying
the Emperor on his campaign to South Italy, the other two sons, Otto
and William, were retained as hostages. Henry the Lion himself in the
absence of his sons was sufficiently powerless to be left with his liberty;
he was indeed old and worn out and well content to spend his closing
days quietly at Brunswick. There he busied himself in intellectual and
artistic pursuits; the magnificent church of St Blaise, which he had
begun on his return from Palestine in 1172, he now had leisure to com-
plete; under his direction his chaplain prepared a kind of encyclopaedia
of knowledge to which Henry gave the title Lucidarius, a book which is
not without interest as an early example of a prose work in the middle
high German dialect; he also, we are told by the annalist of Stederburg,
ordered “the ancient chronicles to be collected, transcribed, and recited
in his presence, and engaged in this occupation he would often pass the
whole night without sleep. " Poets and Minnesingers thronged his
court, where they looked upon the old duke as their enlightened patron
and made him the hero of their ballads and legends. Thus peaceably he
ended his long and stormy career; he died on 6 August 1195 and was
buried beside his second wife, the English Matilda, in his church of
St Blaise at Brunswick.
In the meanwhile, in Sicily and South Italy Tancred had been
i In 1195 he used his authority as overlord to prevent Richard from making
peace with Philip. Hoveden, mı, 302.
2 It is perhaps noteworthy in this connexion that Hoveden (iv, 30) speaks of
Savaric, Bishop of Bath, as the Emperor's Chancellor of Burgundy in the year 1196.
3 MGH, Script. xvI, p. 230. The editor, Pertz, suggests that perhaps the Anna-
lista Saxo is referred to.
CH, XIV.


## p. 470 (#516) ############################################

470
Conquest of the Sicilian kingdom
strengthening his position in every possible way. He had entered into
alliance with the Eastern Emperor, Isaac Angelus, and had married
his elder son Roger to the Emperor's daughter Irene. His armies had
constantly harassed the imperial troops left by Henry to guard the
frontier fortresses. But the German position had sensibly improved since
the disastrous winter of 1191-2, and much ground had been recovered
by the active imperial commanders, Diepold of Vohburg, Conrad of
Lützelinhard, and Berthold of Künsberg. Tancred indeed found himself
obliged to visit the mainland in person to restore his fortunes. His cam-
paign was a rapid series of successes. Berthold, the ablest of the German
commanders, died at Monte Rodone. Conrad was less capable and less
popular, and there were desertions from the German ranks; one after
another of the fortified places surrendered to Tancred. His triumphant
progress was only checked by sickness. He was compelled to return to
Palermo, where he died on 20 February 1194.
Freed from enemies at home, Henry could once more turn his attention
to the conquest of the Sicilian kingdom. The project was supported by
the princes of Germany; it was financed by English gold. No obstacle
now lay in the path of success. In the campaign of 1191 Henry had been
dogged by misfortune at every step, in the campaign of 1194 he was
favoured by fortune in an astonishing degree. His enemies, through his
diplomacy, were now isolated; they had been deprived of their former
allies, the King of England and the Welfs; they could not expect the
Lombards to put any check or hindrance in the way of Henry's advance,
for Henry had secured their loyalty by the treaty of Vercelli in the
previous January. And now with Tancred's death they were left leaderless;
the elder son, Roger, had died a few weeks before his father, and the
younger, William, was still a mere boy when he was called
upon
to
repre-
sent the interests of the national party in Sicily. Nor was this all: the
young William III was left without experienced advisers, for Matthew of
Ajello, the Chancellor, to whose skilful statesmanship was due in large
measure the transient success of Tancred, had himself died in the summer
of the previous year. His son Richard, who succeeded to his office, was
not possessed of his father's ability; certainly neither he nor the Queen-
mother were capable of handling the almost desperate situation in which
they found themselves on Tancred's death.
Henry's task was therefore an easy one. At the end of May he crossed
the Splügen pass; by Whitsuntide he was at Milan. On his way south-
ward he secured the very essential co-operation of the fleets of Genoa and
Pisa. The delicate business of getting the two rival maritime powers to
work in concert was achieved by the Steward of the Empire, Markward
of Anweiler, who was entrusted with the command of the joint fleets.
Naples, whose obstinate resistance had caused the failure of Henry's first
attempt to conquer the kingdom, surrendered at once; Salerno tried in
vain to hold out, but it was taken by storm, sacked, and in part destroyed,


## p. 471 (#517) ############################################

Conduct of the campaign
471
in revenge for its perfidious action of delivering the Empress Constance
over to the enemy. The fate of Salerno effectively crushed any inclination
to resist which the towns of Apulia and Calabria may have entertained. It
was a triumphant progress rather than a campaign; by the end of October
the Emperor had crossed the Straits to Messina, was master of South
Italy, and prepared for the conquest of the island. The only serious engage-
ment that took place was a long and bloody battle between the Pisan and
Genoese fleets. But before Henry had landed, the subjugation of Sicily
was already well advanced; Markward, with the fleet of Genoa, had re-
ceived the submission of Catania and Syracuse; when the feeble opposition
raised by the Queen Sibylla had been suppressed the road to Palermo
was open. Henry had but to enter the capital. He was met on his approach
by a delegation of citizens offering their submission; the Queen and her
family fled to Caltabellotta; the Admiral Margaritus surrendered the
castle; and on 20 November Henry entered the town. On Christmas
Day he was crowned King of Sicily in the cathedral of Palermo.
The whole campaign had been carried through with the greatest
moderation. With the exception of the destruction of Salerno, for which
there was ample justification, no scenes of violence, no acts of wanton
cruelty, no plundering or devastation, defile the history of the conquest of
the kingdom of Sicily. This fact must be borne in mind in judging the
Emperor's conduct towards the family of Tancred. They were at his
merry in the castle of Caltabellotta; he could have attacked the place,
and it would have fallen instantly. Instead, he opened negotiations and
offered generous terms: the young William was to receive his father's
county of Lecce together with the principality of Taranto. The terms
were accepted and Sibylla, her son, three daughters, her daughter-in-law
Irene, and a number of Sicilian barons, returned to Palermo to be present
at Henry's coronation. We next hear, a few days later, of the whole
party being seized and sent into exile in Germany on the pretext of
conspiracy. It is possible, and not out of keeping with Henry's character,
to conceive that the charge was trumped up as a means of clearing the
field of persons who were likely to be the source of danger and rebellion
in the future. On the other hand it would have been contrary to the
policy which Henry had hitherto pursued on the Sicilian campaign; his
object had been, not to terrorise, but to conciliate the Norman population.
It seems more reasonable to believe, as indeed Innocent III himself believed,
that a conspiracy actually had been formed against the Emperor, and
that the latter was acting only with justifiable prudence when he banished
the remnant of the royal house of Sicily and their adherents to Germany.
In the spring of 1195 a great diet was held at Bari to complete the
arrangements for the administration of the newly-won country. The
government was entrusted to the Empress Constance who, Norman by
blood and sentiment, was well qualified to continue the tradition of the
Norman kingdom. The German commanders who by their services during
CH. XIV.


## p. 472 (#518) ############################################

472
Extent of Henry's Empire
the campaign had earned the Emperor's gratitude were either now or
shortly before rewarded with fiefs and administrative offices: thus
Diepold of Vohburg became justiciar of the Terra di Lavoro, Conrad of
Lützelinhard became Count of Molise. The latter had previously held
the March of Ancona and the Romagna, which now with the additional
title of Duke of Ravenna was bestowed upon the man to whose enter-
prise was largely due the success of the campaign-Markward of An-
weiler; besides these tokens of Henry's favour he was granted his
freedom-he had been hitherto an unfree ministerialis—and raised to
the position of prince of the Empire. Conrad of Urslingen, who since
1183 had held the duchy of Spoleto, was made vicegerent (vicarius) of
the kingdom of Sicily, and finally Philip of Hohenstaufen, who after the
death of his brother Frederick (ob. 1191) had abandoned his ecclesiastical
career, was granted the duchy of Tuscany. The whole of southern and
central Italy therefore was dominated by a group of German officials,
and Rome was isolated.
At the same time that a large concourse of nobles was assembling
at Palermo to witness the coronation of Henry VI as King of Sicily, a
numerous gathering of distinguished persons was collecting round a tent
erected in the midst of the public square of the little town of Jesi in the
March of Ancona. The object of this gathering, which is said to have
included no less than fifteen cardinals and bishops, was to witness the
birth of the last Hohenstaufen Emperor (26 December 1194). The
number of credible witnesses seems a surprising but, as after events shewed,
a not unwise precaution; Constance was not young, and she had been
married and childless for nine years; it was only natural that enemies of
the house of Hohenstaufen should call in question the legitimacy of the
all-important child. Even such careful precautions did not prevent a
relatively honest man like Innocent III or a sinister figure like John of
Brienne from uttering their disbelief in Frederick's legitimacy, or monastic
chroniclers from weaving elaborate tales to explain Frederick's origin
froin other than royal parents.
Henry's rule now stretched from the North Sea to the coast of Africa,
for the Almohades of North Africa sent embassies and paid him tribute.
England was his vassal kingdom and he had, as we have seen, the intention
of reducing France to a similar state of dependence. He had designs also
of extending his power beyond the Pyrenees; the overlordship of the
kingdom of Aragon he had proposed to include in the grant of the
Arelate to Richard of England; when this plan failed he tried another.
The Genoese had been cheated of their promised rewards in the Sicilian
kingdom; they had already been established by Henry on the Burgundian
coast--at Monaco and elsewhere; they were now by way of compensa-
tion given authority to conquer the kingdom of Aragon? The maritime
republic however did not avail itself of Henry's offer.
1 Otobonus, MGH, Script. xviii, 112.


## p. 473 (#519) ############################################

Relations with the Eastern Empire
473
The acquisition of Sicily opened up new possibilities for the extension
of the Empire. Henry adopted the traditional policy and aspirations of
the Norman kings towards Africa and the Byzantine Empire-namely,
the establishment of a hegemony in the Mediterranean. Already he had
under his influence two outposts in the eastern Mediterranean, the
kingdoms of Little Armenia and Cyprus, whose rulers, Leo and Amaury
of Lusignan, had received their crowns from him (1194, 1195), thus
recognising their dependence no longer on the Eastern but on the
Western Empire.