But now Germany was not
ecclesiastically
at peace either within itself
or with the Pope.
or with the Pope.
Cambridge Medieval History - v3 - Germany and the Western Empire
After two days' rio
the Germans were
victorious but, nevertheless, Henry did not venture to remain longer in
Rome. Only a week had passed since his coronation and already he had
to make sure of his retreat. After another fruitless effort, therefore,
to bring the case between the Crescentian brothers and the Abbot of
Farfa to legal decision, the Emperor, with the concurrence of the Pope
and the judges, as his last act invested Hugh with the possessions
claimed from the Crescentii. Having charged Benedict to give actual
effect to this decision, the Emperor left Rome.
Nearly two months Henry spent in securing his hold upon Tuscany,
the fidelity of which province, as commanding the route between Lom-
bardy and Rome, was of prime importance for him. Since the death in
1012 of the Marquess Boniface, an ineffective ruler and a dissolute man,
the March had remained vacant; and Henry now gave it to Rainier, a
Tuscan, who had lately, through the influence of the Pope, replaced the
Crescentian John as Duke of Spoleto. Since the Marquess of Tuscany
CH. X.
16-2
## p. 244 (#290) ############################################
244
Henry's rule in Italy
enjoyed an authority superior to that of any other lay subject of the
Italian crown, the union in a single hand of these two provinces, which
had not been held together since the time of the Duke-marquess Hugh
“the Great,” gave special significance to the choice of Rainier. In the
new marquess Henry must have expected to find a stout upholder of
the imperial cause. The fact that like Henry he was a generous and
enlightened patron of monasticism, probably recommended him to the
Emperor. The monastic question was acute in Tuscany as elsewhere and
families like the Otbertines, who there held wide territories, had incessant
quarrels over property with the ecclesiastical foundations. At Easter 1014
Henry was again in Pavia. In Lombardy, although his authority was not
openly disputed, and most of the prelates were on his side, and the secular
lords paid outward obedience, disaffection permeated all classes. The
Archbishop of Milan held aloof, some of the great families still refused
submission, and the hatred of the common people was shewn by their
reluctance to furnish supplies. Renouncing therefore any attempt to
crush Ardoin by force, Henry sought to strengthen himself by adminis-
trative measures. He renewed an institution of Otto the Great by
appointing two permanent missi for the counties of Pavia, Milan, and
Seprio. He thus secured for royal officials the exercise of supreme judicial
authority where disaffection was rife, and, significantly enough, Henry
now gave an Italian city its first measure of municipal freedom. The
Aleramids, who were lords of Savona, had not shewn themselves especially
hostile to Henry, and were even now taking some share in the public
administration. Yet just at this time the men of Savona obtained through
their bishop a royal charter which curtailed the feudal rights of the
marquesses over their city, and relieved its inhabitants of many burden-
some imposts. But Henry could not stay in Italy to secure the success
of his administrative acts; after a month's stay in Pavia he passed on to
Verona, and thence to Germany.
Henry's second expedition to Italy, though it fell far short of complete
success, ensured the continuance of the Western Empire. It renewed the
alliance between the Empire and the Papacy, and it vindicated afresh the
pre-eminence of the German monarchy in Western Europe.
But in Lombardy Henry had left his work half done. A hostile
population, an alienated nobility, and an uncrushed rival remained as
proofs of his failure. And hardly had he recrossed the Alps in June 1014
when a fresh outburst of nationalist fury threatened to overwhelm his
adherents. Ardoin at once issued from Ivrea, and attacked Vercelli with
such suddenness that the Bishop Leo scarcely avoided capture. The whole
of that diocese fell into Ardoin's hands. Thence he went on to besiege
Novara, to overrun the diocese of Como, and to bring ruin upon many
other hostile places. Though more of a punitive foray than regular
warfare, this campaign against the imperialists had yet some of the
dignity of a national uprising. For besides the vavassors and small
## p. 245 (#291) ############################################
Disaffection in Lombardy
245
proprietors of his own neighbourhood, not a few nobles in all parts of
Lombardy took up arms on Ardoin's behalf. The four sons of the aged
Marquess Otbert II, Count Hubert “the Red," a man powerful in the
West, with several other counts, and even the Bishop of distant Vicenza,
were of the number. These men, assuredly, were not inspired by pure
patriotism. But their association for a common purpose with other
classes of their fellow-countrymen, under their native king, affords some
proof that they had also in view the higher purpose of throwing off an
alien yoke.
The fury of the nationalists found vent in ruthless devastation of the
episcopal territories, and made them for a few weeks masters of Lombardy.
But sudden dismay fell upon them through the unexpected capture of all
four sons of the Marquess Otbert, the chief pillar of their cause. Though
two soon escaped, the others were sent as prisoners to Germany, whither
Leo of Vercelli also now went to arouse the Emperor's vengeance
against the insurgent Lombards. At his instigation, Henry struck, and
struck hard, at his opponents. At a judicial inquiry held in Westphalia
during the autumn, the Lombard law of treason was invoked against the
captive Otbertines and their associates still in arms. For having waged
war upon their sovereign, they were declared liable to forfeiture. There-
upon, a series of confiscatory charters, mostly drafted by Leo himself,
was issued. Though the full penalty was not exacted of the chief
offenders, the Otbertine family was mulcted of 500 jugera of land, and
Count Hubert the Red of 3000, for the benefit of the see of Pavia; the
Church of Como was compensated out of the private inheritance of Bishop
Jerome of Vicenza; and to that of Novara was awarded a possession of the
archbishopric of Milan. Far more heavily, however, fell the Emperor's
hand upon the lesser men. “They had above all grievously afflicted the
church of Vercelli,” and Bishop Leo was only satisfied with their total
forfeiture. To his see, accordingly, were transferred at a stroke the lands
of some six score proprietors in the neighbourhood of Ivrea, nearly all
men of middle rank.
The recovery of Vercelli itself about this time was an important
success, chiefly because it led to Ardoin's death. The spirit which had
borne him up through so many vicissitudes sank under this blow; and
he withdrew to the monastery of Fruttuaria, where he laid aside his
crown to assume the cowl of a monk. There, fifteen months later, on
14 December 1015, he died.
So passed away the last monarch to whom the title of King of the
Lombards could be fitly applied. Yet for many months after his abdi-
cation the insurgents kept the mastery in Western Lombardy. This
struggle is revealed in a series of letters addressed by Leo to the Em-
peror. They shew Leo, early in 1016, amid serious difficulties. He is
backed, indeed, by some of his fellow bishops, as well as by a few power-
ful nobles; and he can count now upon Archbishop Arnulf and the men
a
;
CH. X.
## p. 246 (#292) ############################################
246
Pacification of Lombardy
a
of Milan, who are kept true by the presbyter Aribert. But he can hardly
maintain himself in his own city; and he appeals to Henry for a German
army. He has against him the brother and the sons of Ardoin, the
astute Marquess Manfred of Turin with his brother, Alric, Bishop of Asti,
and, most dangerous of all, the mighty Count Hubert. These men are
intriguing for the support of King Rodolph of Burgundy, and are even
negotiating for reconciliation with the Emperor through their friends
Heribert of Cologne and Henry of Würzburg. Not only, however, did
Leo repel their attack on Vercelli, but, by a successful offensive, he re-
covered the whole territory of his diocese. Yet the siege of the castle of
Orba, which was undertaken at the Emperor's command by Leo with
other bishops and some lay magnates, including the young Marquess
Boniface of Canossa, ended in an accommodation. At the suggestion of
Manfred of Turin, who was anxious for peace, the rebel garrison was
allowed to withdraw and the castle itself was burnt.
This agreement was the starting point of serious negotiations. On
the one side, the Marquess Manfred and his brother sought the Emperor's
favour, while Count Hubert sent his son to Germany as a hostage ; on
the other, Pilgrim, a Bavarian cleric lately made chancellor for Italy,
was sent by Henry into Lombardy to bring about a complete pacifica-
tion. Pilgrim's success was soon seen in the arrival of Italian envoys at
Allstedt in January 1017 to offer greetings to the Emperor. On re-
turning to Germany in the autumn of 1017 Pilgrim left Upper Italy
at peace, and the release (January 1018) of the surviving captive
Otbertine marked the Emperor's reconciliation with the Lombards.
Leo of Vercelli, indeed, was dissatisfied because no penalty was laid
on Count Hubert, and although he secured a grant to his church of the
lands of thirty unfortunate vavassors, the vindictive prelate was not ap-
peased until, by a sentence of excommunication issued many months
later, he had brought the Count and his family to ruin. Leo's personal
victory indicated the political advantage that had been gained by his
order over the secular magnates. For the Emperor was bent on forcing
the lay nobles into the background by an alliance with the bishops.
Hence the great office of Count Palatine, the chief judicial authority of
the realm, hitherto always held by a layman, now practically ceased to
exist. The granting of palatine rights to bishops, already begun by the
Ottos, was continued ; similar rights were conferred upon missi; while
the presidency of the Palatine Court itself was annexed to the royal
chancery, and thus invariably fell to a cleric.
In Italy not only did Leo of Vercelli regain his lost influence, but
the bishops generally won a new predominance. Yet this predominance
was bound up with control from Germany, whence the Emperor directed
affairs in Church and State, thus working against Italian independence.
The imperial crown enhanced Henry's position in Europe but it added
little to his power in Germany; for seven years after his return from
## p. 247 (#293) ############################################
Peace with Poland; Burgundy
247
Italy he had to face foreign warfare and domestic strife. Polish affairs
claimed him first. Boleslav had not sent his promised help to Italy: he
had tried to win over Udalrich of Bohemia. Henry tried diplomacy and
on its failure set out on a Polish campaign (July 1015). An elaborate
plan of an invasion by three armies did not succeed, and Henry himself
had a troubled retreat.
During 1016 Henry was busied in Burgundy, and Boleslav was en-
tangled with Russia, where Vladímir the Great was consolidating a
principality. In January 1017 Boleslav attempted negotiations, but as
he would make no great effort for peace a new expedition was made in
August 1017, this time by one strong army and with the hope of Russian
help. Sieges and battles did little to decide the issue and Henry again
retreated in September 1017. But now Boleslav was inclined for peace,
since Russia although it had done but little was a threatening neighbour.
The German princes who had suffered heavily were anxious for peace and
at Bautzen (30 January 1018) terms were made: a German writer tells
us they were the best possible although not seemly; he speaks of no court
service or feudal obligations on Boleslav's part. Moreover he kept the
marks he had so long desired. Henry had not gained much military
glory but he had the peace which was needed. He kept Bohemia as a
vassal ; he held firmly the German lands west of the Elbe. For the rest
of the reign he had peace with Poland.
On the western frontier Burgundy had steadily grown more dis-
ordered since 1006. It was the stepping-stone to Italy and Otto the
Great had therefore played the part of a protector and feudal superior
to the young King Conrad. This connexion had continued and it, as
well as disorder, called Henry to Burgundy. The Welf dynasty had lost
its former vigour. Conrad “the Pacific” (937-993) was content to
appear almost as a vassal of the Emperors. His son, Rodolph III, far
from throwing off this yoke became by his weakness more dependent
still. Henry for his part had to support Rodolph unless he meant to
break with the Saxon tradition of control in Burgundy and to surrender
his inherited claim to succession. But in Count Otto-William, ruler of
the counties later named Franche-Comté, he found a resolute opponent.
It is probable that Otto-William, himself the son of the exiled Lombard
King, Adalbert of Ivrea, aimed at the throne, but in any case, like most
of the nobles, he feared the accession of a foreign monarch whose first
task would be to curb his independence.
By 1016 the ceaseless struggle between Rodolph and his unruly sub-
jects had reached a climax. Rodolph sought for aid from Henry: he
came in the early summer to Strasbourg, again acknowledged Henry's
right of succession, and promised to do nothing of importance without
his advice. Henry acted at once on his newly won right by nominating
to a vacant bishopric.
But the proceedings at Strasbourg were met by Otto-William with
CH. X.
## p. 248 (#294) ############################################
248
Turmoil in Lorraine
defiance, and even the bishop whom Henry had appointed was forced to
forsake his diocese. Henry undertook an expedition to reduce Burgundy:
it was unsuccessful and was followed by the renunciation of his treaty with
Rodolph. The moment, however, that the peace of Bautzen left him safe
on his eastern frontier Henry turned to Burgundy again. In February
1018 Rodolph met him at Mayence and again resigned to him the
sovereignty which he himself found so heavy. But once again the
Burgundian lords refused to acknowledge either Henry's authority in
the present or his right to succeed in the future. A fresh expedition
failed to enforce his claims, and he never again attempted intervention in
person. Possession of Burgundy with its alpine passes would have made
the control of Italy easier, but the attempt to secure this advantage had
failed.
Thus in four successive years, alternately in Poland and Burgundy,
Henry had waged campaigns, all really unsuccessful. His own kingdom
meanwhile was torn by domestic strife. Throughout the two Lorraines
and Saxony, above all, disorder ruled. In Upper Lorraine the Luxemburg
brothers still nursed their feud with the Emperor. But on the death
(December 1013) of Megingaud of Trèves, Henry appointed to the
archbishopric a resolute great noble, Poppo of Babenberg. Before long
Adalbero and Henry of Luxemburg both came to terms. At the Easter
Diet of 1017 a final reconciliation was made between the Emperor and
his brothers-in-law, which was sealed in November of the same year by the
reinstatement of Henry of Luxemburg in the duchy of Bavaria. This
submission brought tardy peace to Upper Lorraine, but Lower Lorraine
proved as difficult a task.
Since his elevation in 1012, Duke Godfrey had been beset by enemies.
The worst of these was Count Lambert of Louvain, whose wife was a
sister of the late Carolingian Duke Otto, and whose elder brother
Count Reginar of Hainault represented the original dukes of un-
divided Lorraine. Thus Lambert, whose life had been one of sacrilege
and violence, had claims on the dukedom. He was defeated and killed
by Godfrey at Florennes in September 1015, but another obstinate rebel,
Count Gerard of Alsace, a brother-in-law of those stormy petrels of dis-
content and strife, the Luxemburgers, remained, only to be overthrown in
August, 1017. With all these greater rebellions were associated minor
but widespread disturbances of the peace, and not until March 1018 was
the province entirely pacified, when, in an assembly at Nimeguen, the
Emperor received the submission of the Count of Hainault and established
concord between Count Gerard and Duke Godfrey.
But the duke was soon to experience a temporary reverse of fortune.
In the far north of his province Count Dietrich of Holland, by his
mother (the Empress Kunigunda's sister) half a Luxemburger, had seized
the thinly peopled district at the mouth of the Meuse, made the
Frisians in it tributary, and, violating the rights of the Bishop of Utrecht,
a
## p. 249 (#295) ############################################
Wendish and Saxon troubles
249
built a castle by the river whence he levied tolls on sea-bound craft. On
the bishop's complaint Henry ordered the count to desist and make
amends; when he disobeyed, Duke Godfrey and the Bishop (Adalbold)
were commissioned to enforce order. But their expedition miscarried ;
Godfrey was wounded and taken prisoner. Yet the prisoner interceded
at court for his captor and peace with friendship was restored.
Saxony was disturbed like Lorraine, but chiefly by private quarrels,
especially between lay magnates and bishops. In a diet at Allstedt
(January 1017) Henry attempted a pacification. But a rising of the half-
heathen Wends brought slaughter on the Christian priests and their
congregations, with destruction of the churches. Bernard, Bishop of
Oldenburg (on the Baltic), sought but did not get Henry's help, and
then Thietmar, brother of the Billung Duke Bernard, revolted. After
he had been subdued, his brother the duke himself rebelled, but a siege
of his fortress Schalksburg on the Weser ended in a peace. Emperor and
duke joined in an expedition against the Wends, reduced the March to
order and restored the Christian prince Mistislav over the pagan Obotrites
(Obodritzi, or Abotrites). But though civil order was enforced to the
north, the Wends remained heathen.
Happily the rest of Germany was more peaceful. In Swabia alone
arose difficulty. Ernest, husband of Gisela, elder sister of the young Duke
Herman III, had been made duke, but after three years' rule he died in
the hunting field (31 May 1015). The Emperor gave the duchy to his
eldest son Ernest, and as he was under age his mother Gisela was to be
his guardian. But when she soon married Conrad of Franconia the
Emperor gave the duchy to Poppo of Trèves, the young duke's uncle.
Gisela's new husband, Conrad, afterwards Emperor, head of the house
which sprang from Conrad the Red and Liutgard, daughter of Otto the
Great, had already one grievance against the Emperor. He had seen in
1011 the duchy of Carinthia transferred from his own family to Adalbero
of Eppenstein. Now a second gr
Now a second grievance made him Henry's enemy.
He
had fought alongside Gerard of Alsace against Duke Godfrey: two years
later he waged war against Duke Adalbero. For this the Emperor
banished him, but the sentence was remitted and Conrad henceforth kept
the peace.
Henry's general policy was one of conciliation; as a commander in the
field he had never been fortunate, and therefore he preferred moral
to physical means. He had learnt this preference from his religion and
he well understood how greatly ecclesiastical order could help his realm.
In church reform, greatly needed at the time, he took ever more interest
as his life went on. One question indeed which came up at the synod of
Goslar in 1019 was a foreboding of trouble to come. Many secular priests,
serfs by birth, had married free women: it was asked whether their
children were free or unfree: the synod at Henry's suggestion declared
both mother and children unfree. This decision tended to throw discredit
CH, X.
## p. 250 (#296) ############################################
250
Benedict VIII in Germany
upon marriages which furthered the secularization of the Church. For
married clergy often sought to benefit their own families at the expense
of their churches. But on the side of reform Henry was greatly helped
by the monastic revival which, largely beginning from Cluny, had spread
widely in Lorraine. William, Abbot of St Benignus at Dijon, and
Richard, Abbot of St Vanne's near Verdun, were here his helpers.
William had been called in by the Bishop of Metz: Richard worked in
more than one Lorraine diocese. Outside their own order such monks
influenced the secular clergy and even the bishops. Simony and world-
liness were more widely reproved; Henry would gladly have seen such
a reformation spreading and with some such hope he asked the Pope
to visit Germany.
Benedict VIII was, it is true, more a man of action than a reformer.
He had faced worse foes than the Crescentii at Farfa, for the Saracens
under Mujāhid of Denia (in Spain) had (1015) conquered Sardinia and
were harrying the Tuscan coasts. He urged on the Pisans and Genoese
before their three days' victory at sea (June 1016): a battle which
brought the victorious allies into Sardinia. And he had (1016) made
use of Lombard rebels and Norman help to try and shake the Byzantine
hold upon Southern Italy. But rebels and Normans had suffered defeat
and the Byzantines held their own. Benedict might hopefully turn to
the Emperor for further help: when on Maundy Thursday (14 April
1020) he reached Henry's favourite Bamberg, he was the first Pope to
visit Germany for a century and a half. With him there came Melo,
leader of the Apulian rebels, and Rodolph, the Norman leader, who had
helped them. Melo was invested with the new title, Duke of Apulia,
and held the empty office for the remaining week of his life. Thus
Henry entered into the Italian schemes of Benedict. The Pope on his
side confirmed at Fulda the foundation of Bamberg, taking it under
special papal protection: Henry gave the Pope a privilege nearly
identical with that given by Otto the Great to John XII.
The second half of the year 1020 was spent in small campaigns,
including one against Baldwin in Flanders, where in August the Emperor
captured Ghent. The other was against Otto of Hammerstein, whom
we shall mention later. When Henry kept Easter in 1021 at Merseburg
he could look on a realm comparatively peaceful. His old opponent
Heribert of Cologne had died (16 March 1021) and was replaced by
Henry's friend and diplomatist, Pilgrim. Later (17 August) died Erkam-
bald of Mayence, and was succeeded by Aribo, a royal chaplain and a
relative of Pilgrim's. The three great sees were now all held by Bavarians.
In July a diet at Nimeguen decided on an expedition to Italy. There
the Byzantine forces had occupied part of the principality of Benevento,
drawing the Lombard princes to their side, and (June 1021) the Catapan
Basil seized the fortress on the Garigliano which the Pope had given to
Datto, an Apulian rebel. Thus Rome itself was threatened nearly. In
## p. 251 (#297) ############################################
Henry's third expedition to Italy
251
November 1021 Henry left Augsburg for Italy: early in December he
reached Verona, where Italian princes joined his Lorrainers, Swabians
and Bavarians: among them were the Bavarian Poppo, Patriarch of
Aquileia, and the distinguished Aribert, since 1018 Archbishop of Milan.
Leo of Vercelli of course was there, and if some lay magnates kept away
others made a welcome appearance. Christmas Henry spent at Ravenna
and in January moved southwards. Before he reached Benevento
Benedict joined him. The army marched in three divisions and the one
which Pilgrim of Cologne commanded met with brilliant successes, taking
Capua. Henry himself was delayed for three months by the fortress
of Troia, built with almost communal privileges by the Catapan in
1018 to guard the Byzantine province and strong enough to sur-
render on merely nominal terms. But sickness had assailed the Germans
and after visiting Home Henry came in July to Pavia. So far he had
made Rome safer and had subjugated the Lombard states. Then in a
synod at Pavia (1 August 1022) with Benedict's help he turned to
church reform. Clerical marriage, as common in Lombardy as in
Germany, was denounced. And the ever growing poverty of the Church
was also noted: lands had been alienated and married clerics were
trying to endow their families. As at Goslar it was decided that the
wives and children of unfree priests were also serfs, and could thus not
hold land. These ecclesiastical decrees, meant to be of general force
although passed in a scanty synod, the Emperor embodied in an im-
perial decree. Leo of Vercelli probably drafted alike the papal speech
and the imperial decree and he was the first bishop to enforce the
canons.
Then in the autumn of 1022 Henry returned to his kingdom. The
following Easter he sent Gerard of Cambray and Richard of St Vannes
to beg Robert of France to become his partner in church reform. The
two kings met (11 August) at Ivois just within Germany. It was agreed
to call an assembly at Pavia of both German and Italian bishops: the
assembly would thus represent the old Carolingian realm.
But now Germany was not ecclesiastically at peace either within itself
or with the Pope. Aribo of Mayence, on the death of his suffragan
Bernward of Hildesheim, had revived the old claim to authority over
Gandersheim. But Henry had taken sides with the new Bishop, Godehard
of Altaich, although his settlement left irritation behind. Aribo had
also a more important quarrel with Pope Benedict arising out of a marriage.
Count Otto of Hammerstein, a great noble of Franconia, had married
Irmingard, although they were related within the prohibited degrees.
Episcopal censure was disregarded: excommunication by a synod at
Nimeguen (March 1018), enforced by the Emperor and the Archbishop
of Mayence, only brought Otto to temporary submission. Two years later,
after rejoining Irmingard, he attacked in revenge the territory of Mayence.
At length his disregard of synod and of Emperor alike forced Henry to
CH, X
## p. 252 (#298) ############################################
252
Death of Henry
uphold the Church's law by the sword. But Otto's irregular marriage
a few years later raised even greater difficulties. For the present Henry
had shewn his ecclesiastical sympathies and his readiness to enforce the
Church's decisions even in a field where many rulers disregarded or dis-
liked them. A synod at Mayence in June 1023 separated the pair,
whereupon Irmingard appealed to Rome. This appeal was looked upon
by Aribo as an invasion of his metropolitan rights, and he persuaded a
provincial synod at Seligenstadt to take his view. Here were forbidden
all appeals to Rome made without episcopal leave, and also any papal
remission of guilt, unless the ordinary penance imposed locally had been
first performed. Henry sent the diplomatic Pilgrim of Cologne to explain
matters to Benedict, who nevertheless directed a fresh hearing of Irmin-
gard's case, and also significantly sent no pallium to Aribo. In reply the
Archbishop called his suffragans to meet at Höchst 13 May 1024; and
it was hoped through the Empress Kunigunda to draw thither bishops of
other provinces also: meanwhile all the suffragans of Mayence except
two signed a remonstrance to the Pope against the insult to their metro-
politan. But Benedict died (11 June 1024) before the matter was settled,
being succeeded by his brother Romanus, hitherto called Senator of all
the Romans by Benedict's appointment, who passed from layman to Pope
as John XIX within a day. The new Pope had no religious and few
ecclesiastical interests, and the matter of the marriage went no further.
Soon after Benedict Henry himself passed away. During 1024 he had
suffered from both illness and the weakness of advancing years ; on 13
July the end came. His body was fittingly laid to rest in his beloved
Bamberg, itself an expression of the religious zeal which was shewn so
strongly and so pathetically in his closing years. Religion and devotion
to the Church had always been a leading interest in his active life; as
death drew nearer it became an all-absorbing care. The title of Saint
which his people gave him fittingly expressed the feeling of his age. .
## p. 253 (#299) ############################################
253
CHAPTER XI.
THE EMPEROR CONRAD II.
With the death of Henry II the Saxon dynasty in the male line
became extinct; nevertheless under the Ottos the hereditary principle
had become so firmly rooted, the Teutonic theory of election so nearly
forgotten, that the descendants of Otto the Great in the female branch
were alone regarded as suitable successors to the Emperor Henry II. The
choice of the princes was practically limited to the two Conrads, the great-
grandsons of the first Otto's daughter Liutgard and Conrad of Lorraine.
Both were grandsons of Otto, Duke of Carinthia; the future emperor
through the eldest son Henry who died young, the other, known as Conrad
the Younger, through the third son, also named Conrad, who had suc-
ceeded his father in the duchy of Carinthia. This younger Conrad did
not inherit the dukedom, which was granted on his father's death in 1011
to Adalbero of Eppenstein, but he acquired nevertheless the greater part
of the family estates in Franconia. In wealth and territorial position he
was stronger than his elder cousin ; moreover, since he had adopted the
attitude of Henry II in matters of ecclesiastical politics, he could safely
rely on the support of the reforming party in the Church, which, par-
ticularly in Lorraine, carried considerable weight under the guidance of
Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne. An orphan' with a meagre inheritance,
brought up by the famous canonist, Burchard of Worms, Conrad the
Elder had little to recommend him beyond seniority and personal cha-
racter. On late and unreliable authority it is asserted that the late
Emperor designated him as his successor? , and though it is reasonable to
suppose that Henry II should make some recommendation with regard to
the succession, it is at least remarkable that he should select a man whose
I His father died while he was still a child, and his mother married again and
took no further interest in the child of her first husband.
? Sigebert, Chron. MGHSS. vi. 356. Hugh of Flavigny, Chron. 11. 16, MGHSS. viii.
392. It is accepted as historical by Arndt, Die Wahl Konrads II, Diss. Göttingen,
1861, Maurenbrecher, Königswahlen, and others; Bresslau, from the silence of
contemporaries, and the unreliability of the evidence is led to the conclusion that
no such designation was made. (Jahrbücher, Konrad II, 1. p. 9 f. , also in Hirsch,
Jahrbücher, Heinrich II, 111. p. 356 f. ) Harttung, Studien zur Geschichte Konrads 11,
attempts to prove that the younger Conrad was designated by Henry II; but see
Bresslau, Jahrbücher, Excurs. 11. p. 342 f.
CH. .
## p. 254 (#300) ############################################
254
Election and coronation
a
views both in ecclesiastical and secular politics were diametrically opposed
to his own. Yet this very fact of his antagonism to the reforming move-
ment induced Aribo, Archbishop of Mayence, and the bulk of the episco-
pate, jealous and suspicious of the progress of Cluniac ideas in Germany,
to throw the whole weight of their influence in support of his candidature.
The election took place on the Rhine between Mayence and Worms' on
4 September 1024. Before it took place the elder Conrad had a meeting
with his cousin and apparently induced him to withdraw from the contest.
Conrad the Elder, left in undisputed possession of the field (for the
party of his late rival, the Lorrainers, rather than give him their votes,
had retired from the assembly), was elected unanimously, and received
from the hands of the widowed Empress Kunigunda, the royal insignia,
committed by her husband to her care. The election was a popular one.
Princes and people, spiritual and secular, thronged to Mayence to attend
the coronation festival. “If Charles the Great himself had been alive and
present,” writes Conrad's enthusiastic biographer”, “the rejoicing could
not have been exceeded. " The ceremony of coronation was performed
on 8 September by Aribo in the cathedral of Mayence and was followed
by the customary state banquet and by the taking of the oath of fealty
by the bishops, nobles, and even, we are told, by other freemen of dis-
tinction. One incident marred the general serenity of the proceedings;
Conrad's marriage in 1017 with Gisela, the widow successively of Bruno
of Brunswick and of Ernest II of Swabia, being within the prohibited
degrees, was not sanctioned by the Church. Aribo denied her the crown;
and it was only after an interval of some days that Archbishop Pilgrim
of Cologne, desirous of making his peace with the king he had opposed,
offered to perform the ceremony in his cathedral at Colognes.
The princes of Lorraine, among them Gozelo and Dietrich, the Dukes
of the lower and upper provinces, Reginar V, the powerful Count of
Hainault, and the greater number of the bishops, had, as we have seen,
resisted Conrad's election, and after the event had denied him recognition.
The bishops adopted this attitude on account of Conrad's lack of sym-
pathy with the movement of reform in the Church; when, however, their
1 The exact spot is generally said to be Kamba on the right bank of the river
near Oppenheim. Schädel (Die Königsstühle bei Mainz und die Wahl Konrads II,
Progr. Mayence, 1896) believes the place of election to have been on the left bank
near Lörzweiler. With Wipo (cap. 2) we can leave it “de vocabulo et situ loci
plenius dicere topographis. ” Anyhow "cis et citra Rhenum castra locabant. "
.
Wipo, loc. cit.
% Wipo, Script. Rer. Germ. ed. Bresslau, 1915. See also the editor's preface to
this edition. Wipo is the main authority for the reign; probably a Burgundian by
birth, he held the office of chaplain to the king, and was an eye-witness of many of
the events he records.
3 So Bresslau, 1. pp. 35-37, and Excurs. 11. p. 351, following the account of
Herman of Reichenau (1024, in Bresslau's ed. of Wipo, p. 94). Other authorities
accept the account of the Quedlinburg annals, that Gisela was subsequently crowned
by Aribo at the intercession of the princes (Aun. Qued. 1024, MGHSS, 111. 90).
>
9
## p. 255 (#301) ############################################
The royal progress
255
leader, the Archbishop of Cologne, made his peace with the king, and
when Odilo of Cluny, who had, it seems, been present at the election,
and had been the recipient of Conrad's first charter (a confirmation of
certain lands in Alsace to the Cluniac monastery of Payerne), exerted his
influence in Conrad's interest, the bishops were prevailed upon to make
their submission. Conrad was therefore able to make his royal progress
through Lorraine unhindered.
It was customary for a newly elected king to travel through his
kingdom, dispensing justice, settling disputes, ordering peace. Within
a year of his coronation (he was back in Mayence at the end of August
1025) Conrad had visited the more important towns of the five great
duchies of his kingdom. On his journey through Saxony two significant
events occurred; he received the recognition of the Saxon princes and gave
a decision against Aribo of Mayence, shewing thereby that he was not
to be swayed from the path of justice even in the interests of the foremost
prelate of Germany. Before Conrad's election the Saxon princes under
their Duke Bernard had assembled at Werla, and there decided on a
course of action similar to that which they had pursued on the occasion
of the election of Henry II in 1002. They had, it seems, absented
themselves from the electoral council, with the object of making their
acceptance of the result dependent upon conditions. They required the
king to acknowledge the peculiarly independent position, the ancient and
barbaric law, of the Saxons. They met him at Minden, where he
was keeping his Christmas court. Their condition was proposed and
accepted, and their homage, hitherto deferred, was duly performed to
their now recognised sovereign'.
Since the time of Otto III, the jurisdiction over the rich nunnery of
Gandersheim had been the cause of a fierce dispute between the bishops
of Hildesheim and the archbishops of Mayence. It had been one of the
reasons for the breach between Aribo and the late Emperor, who had in
1022 decided in favour of the Hildesheim claim. While Conrad remained
in Saxony the matter was brought up before him. The outlook was
ominous for Bishop Godehard; Conrad was not likely to give cause for a
quarrel with the powerful archbishop to whom he owed his crown, and
whom he had already favoured by conferring on him the archchancellor-
ship of Italy, in addition to the archchancellorship of Germany which
he had previously held. Moreover, the influential Abbess Sophia, the
daughter of the Emperor Otto II, was known to favour the claims of
Aribo. On the other hand, Conrad could not lightly reverse a decision
made by his predecessor only two years before, and he may also have felt
some resentment towards Aribo for the latter's refusal to crown his
queen.
Postponements and compromises were tried in vain. At last, in March
1 This interpretation of the rather confused evidence is Bresslau's, s. 12 and
n. 7. Cf. also his edition of Wipo, Script. Rer. Germ. 1915, p. 11, n. 1.
сн. XI,
## p. 256 (#302) ############################################
256
The Burgundian Question
1025, at a sparsely attended synod held at Grona, a provisional judgment
was given in favour of the Bishop of Hildesheim; the decision was con-
firmed two years later at a more representative gathering at Frankfort,
but it was not until 1030, a year before his death, that Aribo had a
meeting with his opponent at Merseburg, and finally renounced his claims
which, according to the biographer of Godehard, he confessed that he had
raised “partly in ignorance, partly out of malice. ”
The rebellion, which disturbed the opening years of the new reign,
is closely connected with the question of the Burgundian succession and
with the revolt in Lombardy. Rodolph III, the childless King of Bur-
gundy, had in 1016 recognised his nephew the Emperor Henry II as the
heir to his throne; he maintained however, and probably with justice,
that with the Emperor's death the compact became void. Conrad, on
the other hand, took a different view of the case; the cession, he argued,
was made not to the Emperor but to the Empire, to which he had been
duly elected. Against him stood a formidable row of descendants of
Conrad the Peaceful in the female line, two of whom, Ernest, Duke of
Swabia, whose mother, Queen Gisela, was the niece, and Odo, Count
of Blois, whose mother, Bertha, was the sister of Rodolph, aspired to the
inheritance. To make his intentions clear Conrad, in June 1025, occupied
Basle which, though held by Henry II, actually lay within the confines
of the Burgundian kingdom. As his presence was needed elsewhere, he
left his wife Gisela, herself a niece of King Rodolph', to bring the Bur-
gundian question to a satisfactory issue. The success of her efforts is to
be seen in the Burgundian king's refusal to assist Ernest of Swabia in his
second revolt (1026), in his submissive attendance at the Emperor's
coronation at Rome (Easter 1027), and in his recognition, at Muttenz
near Basle, later in the same year, of Conrad's title to succeed to his
kingdom. Ernest, whose hopes in Burgundy were shattered by the
occupation of Basle, decided to oppose Conrad with arms.
. He allied
himself with Count Welf, with the still disaffected dukes of Lorraine,
and with Conrad the Younger who, having heard no more of the proffered
rewards by which his cousin had secured his withdrawal from the electoral
contest, had openly shewn his resentment at Augsburg in the previous
April
In France, Odo of Blois and Champagne was interested in the downfall
of Conrad; in Italy, the trend of events moved in the same direction.
There the Lombards, taking advantage of the death of Henry II, rose
1 This marriage connexion with the Burgundian house constituted, Poupardin
concludes, Conrad's title to be designated by Rodolph and to be chosen by the
Burgundian princes, but brought with it no actual right of succession. Cf. Pou-
pardin, Le Royaume de Bourgogne, p. 151.
2 Conrad the Younger stood in the same relation to Rodolph Ill as did Ernest;
his mother Matilda was Rodolph's niece. He appears, however, to have raised no
claim to the throne of Burgundy. Cf. Poupardin, loc. cit.
## p. 257 (#303) ############################################
Rebellion of Duke Ernest
257
in revolt against the imperial domination. The men of Pavia, mindful
of the recent destruction of their city at the hands of the late Em-
peror, burnt the royal palace; the north Italian princes, in defiance of
Conrad, offered their crown first to King Robert of France, then, on his
refusal, to William V, Duke of Aquitaine, who accepted it for his son.
The duke's only hope of success in the dangerous enterprise he had
undertaken lay in keeping Conrad engaged in his own kingdom. With
this object he set about organising the opposition in Lorraine, France,
and Burgundy; he met Robert of France and Odo of Champagne at
Tours, and the French king agreed to carry a campaign into Germany.
The combination, so formidable in appearance, dissolved into nothing.
Robert was prevented by the affairs of his own kingdom from taking the
field against Conrad; Odo, engaged in a fierce feud with Fulk of Anjou,
was powerless; William of Aquitaine on visiting Italy found the situation
there less favourable than he had been led to expect, and thereupon gave
up the project; the dukes of Lorraine, no longer able to count on foreign
aid, made their submission to the Emperor at Aix-la-Chapelle (Christ-
mas 1025). After the collapse of the alliance, continued resistance on
the part of Ernest was useless; at Augsburg early in the next year,
through the mediation of the queen, his mother, he was reconciled with
Conrad who, to keep him from further mischief, insisted on his accom-
panying him on the Italian campaign upon which he was about to
embark.
It was a wise precaution, and Conrad would have been better advised
had he retained his ambitious stepson in his camp; instead he dispatched
him to Germany to suppress the disorders which had arisen there in his
absence. Welf, obdurate in his disobedience, had attacked and plundered
the lands and cities of Bruno, Bishop of Augsburg, the brother of the
Emperor Henry II, the guardian of the young King Henry III, and the
administrator of Germany during the king's absence in Italy. Ernest,
back among his old fellow-conspirators and acting, no doubt, on the advice
of his evil genius, Count Werner of Kiburg, instead of suppressing the
rebellious Welf, joined with him in rebellion? The second revolt of
.
Ernest was however as abortive as the first; he invaded Alsace, pene-
trated into Burgundy, but finding to his discomfiture, in Rodolph, not
an ally but an enemy, he was compelled to make a hasty retreat to
Zurich, whence he occupied himself in making plundering raids upon
the
rich abbeys of Reichenau and St Gall. Conrad's return soon ended the
affair. Ernest and Welf answered the imperial summons to Ulm (July
1027), not however as suppliants for the Emperor's mercy, but, supported
by an armed following, with the intention either of dictating their own
1 The attitude of the younger Conrad in this rebellion is ambiguous. Wipo, c. 19,
says of him “nec fidus imperatori, nec tamen multum noxius illi. ” His submission
and condemnation to a short term of imprisonment in 1027, mentioned by Wipo,
c. 21, proves his implication.
17
C. MED, H. VOL. III. CH. XI.
## p. 258 (#304) ############################################
258
Failure and death of Ernest
terms or, failing that, of fighting their way to safety. The duke had
miscalculated his resources; at an interview with his vassals he discovered
his mistake. They were prepared, they said, to follow him as their oath
required against any man except the Emperor; but loyalty to the
Emperor took precedence to loyalty to the duke. Ernest had no choice
but to throw himself on Conrad's mercy; he was deprived of his duchy
and imprisoned in the castle of Gibichenstein near Halle. Welf was
condemned to imprisonment, to make reparation to the Bishop of
Augsburg, and to the loss of a countship in the neighbourhood of
Brixen.
Ernest, after less than a year's captivity, was forgiven and reinstated
in his dukedom. But the course of events of 1026 was repeated in 1030.
Ordered by the Emperor to execute the ban against Count Werner, who
had persisted in rebellion, he disobeyed, and was, by the judgment of
the princes, once more deprived of his dukedom and placed under the
ban of the Empire (at Ingelheim, Easter 1030). After a vain attempt to
persuade Odo of Champagne to join him, he and Werner withdrew into
the Black Forest, where, making the strong castle of Falkenstein their
headquarters, they lived for a time the life of bandits. At last, in
August, the two rebels fell in a fierce encounter with the Emperor's
troops under Count Manegold.
The rebellions of Ernest, dictated not by any dissatisfaction at
Conrad's rule but rather by personal motives and rival ambitions, never
assumed dangerous proportions. The fact that even the nobility of
Swabia, with few exceptions, refused to follow their duke is significant
of the strength and popularity of Conrad's government. The loyalty of
Germany as a whole was never shaken. Duke Ernest, a little undeservedly
perhaps, has become the hero of legend and romance; he has often been
compared with Liudolf of Swabia, the popular and ambitious son of
Otto the Great. The parallel is scarcely a fair one; Liudolf rebelled
but once and with juster cause; and after his defeat, he lived loyally and
died fighting his father's battles in Italy. Ernest, though twice for-
given, lived and died a rebel.
In September 1032 Rodolph III ended a weak and inglorious reign.
Conrad had been solemnly recognised as heir by the late king at Muttenz
five years before and had been entrusted with the royal insignia, the crown
and the lance of St Maurice. Some of the Burgundian nobles had even
already taken the oath of allegiance to the German king; but the
majority both of the ecclesiastical and secular lords, especially in the
romance-speaking district of the south, stood opposed to him. His
powerful rival, Odo, Count of Blois and Champagne, had at first the
advantage, for Conrad at the critical moment was busily occupied with the
affairs of Poland, and when, after the submission of the Polish Duke Mesco,
he hastened to Strasbourg, he found a large part of Burgundy already in
the hands of the enemy (Christmas 1032). In spite of the severity of
## p. 259 (#305) ############################################
Acquisition of Burgundy
259
a
the weather, which was sufficiently remarkable to supply the theme of a
poem of a hundred stanzas from the pen of Wipo, the Emperor decided
to make a winter campaign into Burgundy. He marched on Basle and
proceeded to Payerne, where he was formally elected and crowned by his
partisans; but the indescribable sufferings of his troops from the cold
prevented his further progress, and he withdrew to Zurich.
In the spring, before resuming operations in Burgundy, he entered into
negotiations with the French King Henry I, which resulted in a meeting
of the two at Deville on the Meuse. What actually took place there is
not recorded, but it seems clear that an alliance against Odo was formed
between them.
the Germans were
victorious but, nevertheless, Henry did not venture to remain longer in
Rome. Only a week had passed since his coronation and already he had
to make sure of his retreat. After another fruitless effort, therefore,
to bring the case between the Crescentian brothers and the Abbot of
Farfa to legal decision, the Emperor, with the concurrence of the Pope
and the judges, as his last act invested Hugh with the possessions
claimed from the Crescentii. Having charged Benedict to give actual
effect to this decision, the Emperor left Rome.
Nearly two months Henry spent in securing his hold upon Tuscany,
the fidelity of which province, as commanding the route between Lom-
bardy and Rome, was of prime importance for him. Since the death in
1012 of the Marquess Boniface, an ineffective ruler and a dissolute man,
the March had remained vacant; and Henry now gave it to Rainier, a
Tuscan, who had lately, through the influence of the Pope, replaced the
Crescentian John as Duke of Spoleto. Since the Marquess of Tuscany
CH. X.
16-2
## p. 244 (#290) ############################################
244
Henry's rule in Italy
enjoyed an authority superior to that of any other lay subject of the
Italian crown, the union in a single hand of these two provinces, which
had not been held together since the time of the Duke-marquess Hugh
“the Great,” gave special significance to the choice of Rainier. In the
new marquess Henry must have expected to find a stout upholder of
the imperial cause. The fact that like Henry he was a generous and
enlightened patron of monasticism, probably recommended him to the
Emperor. The monastic question was acute in Tuscany as elsewhere and
families like the Otbertines, who there held wide territories, had incessant
quarrels over property with the ecclesiastical foundations. At Easter 1014
Henry was again in Pavia. In Lombardy, although his authority was not
openly disputed, and most of the prelates were on his side, and the secular
lords paid outward obedience, disaffection permeated all classes. The
Archbishop of Milan held aloof, some of the great families still refused
submission, and the hatred of the common people was shewn by their
reluctance to furnish supplies. Renouncing therefore any attempt to
crush Ardoin by force, Henry sought to strengthen himself by adminis-
trative measures. He renewed an institution of Otto the Great by
appointing two permanent missi for the counties of Pavia, Milan, and
Seprio. He thus secured for royal officials the exercise of supreme judicial
authority where disaffection was rife, and, significantly enough, Henry
now gave an Italian city its first measure of municipal freedom. The
Aleramids, who were lords of Savona, had not shewn themselves especially
hostile to Henry, and were even now taking some share in the public
administration. Yet just at this time the men of Savona obtained through
their bishop a royal charter which curtailed the feudal rights of the
marquesses over their city, and relieved its inhabitants of many burden-
some imposts. But Henry could not stay in Italy to secure the success
of his administrative acts; after a month's stay in Pavia he passed on to
Verona, and thence to Germany.
Henry's second expedition to Italy, though it fell far short of complete
success, ensured the continuance of the Western Empire. It renewed the
alliance between the Empire and the Papacy, and it vindicated afresh the
pre-eminence of the German monarchy in Western Europe.
But in Lombardy Henry had left his work half done. A hostile
population, an alienated nobility, and an uncrushed rival remained as
proofs of his failure. And hardly had he recrossed the Alps in June 1014
when a fresh outburst of nationalist fury threatened to overwhelm his
adherents. Ardoin at once issued from Ivrea, and attacked Vercelli with
such suddenness that the Bishop Leo scarcely avoided capture. The whole
of that diocese fell into Ardoin's hands. Thence he went on to besiege
Novara, to overrun the diocese of Como, and to bring ruin upon many
other hostile places. Though more of a punitive foray than regular
warfare, this campaign against the imperialists had yet some of the
dignity of a national uprising. For besides the vavassors and small
## p. 245 (#291) ############################################
Disaffection in Lombardy
245
proprietors of his own neighbourhood, not a few nobles in all parts of
Lombardy took up arms on Ardoin's behalf. The four sons of the aged
Marquess Otbert II, Count Hubert “the Red," a man powerful in the
West, with several other counts, and even the Bishop of distant Vicenza,
were of the number. These men, assuredly, were not inspired by pure
patriotism. But their association for a common purpose with other
classes of their fellow-countrymen, under their native king, affords some
proof that they had also in view the higher purpose of throwing off an
alien yoke.
The fury of the nationalists found vent in ruthless devastation of the
episcopal territories, and made them for a few weeks masters of Lombardy.
But sudden dismay fell upon them through the unexpected capture of all
four sons of the Marquess Otbert, the chief pillar of their cause. Though
two soon escaped, the others were sent as prisoners to Germany, whither
Leo of Vercelli also now went to arouse the Emperor's vengeance
against the insurgent Lombards. At his instigation, Henry struck, and
struck hard, at his opponents. At a judicial inquiry held in Westphalia
during the autumn, the Lombard law of treason was invoked against the
captive Otbertines and their associates still in arms. For having waged
war upon their sovereign, they were declared liable to forfeiture. There-
upon, a series of confiscatory charters, mostly drafted by Leo himself,
was issued. Though the full penalty was not exacted of the chief
offenders, the Otbertine family was mulcted of 500 jugera of land, and
Count Hubert the Red of 3000, for the benefit of the see of Pavia; the
Church of Como was compensated out of the private inheritance of Bishop
Jerome of Vicenza; and to that of Novara was awarded a possession of the
archbishopric of Milan. Far more heavily, however, fell the Emperor's
hand upon the lesser men. “They had above all grievously afflicted the
church of Vercelli,” and Bishop Leo was only satisfied with their total
forfeiture. To his see, accordingly, were transferred at a stroke the lands
of some six score proprietors in the neighbourhood of Ivrea, nearly all
men of middle rank.
The recovery of Vercelli itself about this time was an important
success, chiefly because it led to Ardoin's death. The spirit which had
borne him up through so many vicissitudes sank under this blow; and
he withdrew to the monastery of Fruttuaria, where he laid aside his
crown to assume the cowl of a monk. There, fifteen months later, on
14 December 1015, he died.
So passed away the last monarch to whom the title of King of the
Lombards could be fitly applied. Yet for many months after his abdi-
cation the insurgents kept the mastery in Western Lombardy. This
struggle is revealed in a series of letters addressed by Leo to the Em-
peror. They shew Leo, early in 1016, amid serious difficulties. He is
backed, indeed, by some of his fellow bishops, as well as by a few power-
ful nobles; and he can count now upon Archbishop Arnulf and the men
a
;
CH. X.
## p. 246 (#292) ############################################
246
Pacification of Lombardy
a
of Milan, who are kept true by the presbyter Aribert. But he can hardly
maintain himself in his own city; and he appeals to Henry for a German
army. He has against him the brother and the sons of Ardoin, the
astute Marquess Manfred of Turin with his brother, Alric, Bishop of Asti,
and, most dangerous of all, the mighty Count Hubert. These men are
intriguing for the support of King Rodolph of Burgundy, and are even
negotiating for reconciliation with the Emperor through their friends
Heribert of Cologne and Henry of Würzburg. Not only, however, did
Leo repel their attack on Vercelli, but, by a successful offensive, he re-
covered the whole territory of his diocese. Yet the siege of the castle of
Orba, which was undertaken at the Emperor's command by Leo with
other bishops and some lay magnates, including the young Marquess
Boniface of Canossa, ended in an accommodation. At the suggestion of
Manfred of Turin, who was anxious for peace, the rebel garrison was
allowed to withdraw and the castle itself was burnt.
This agreement was the starting point of serious negotiations. On
the one side, the Marquess Manfred and his brother sought the Emperor's
favour, while Count Hubert sent his son to Germany as a hostage ; on
the other, Pilgrim, a Bavarian cleric lately made chancellor for Italy,
was sent by Henry into Lombardy to bring about a complete pacifica-
tion. Pilgrim's success was soon seen in the arrival of Italian envoys at
Allstedt in January 1017 to offer greetings to the Emperor. On re-
turning to Germany in the autumn of 1017 Pilgrim left Upper Italy
at peace, and the release (January 1018) of the surviving captive
Otbertine marked the Emperor's reconciliation with the Lombards.
Leo of Vercelli, indeed, was dissatisfied because no penalty was laid
on Count Hubert, and although he secured a grant to his church of the
lands of thirty unfortunate vavassors, the vindictive prelate was not ap-
peased until, by a sentence of excommunication issued many months
later, he had brought the Count and his family to ruin. Leo's personal
victory indicated the political advantage that had been gained by his
order over the secular magnates. For the Emperor was bent on forcing
the lay nobles into the background by an alliance with the bishops.
Hence the great office of Count Palatine, the chief judicial authority of
the realm, hitherto always held by a layman, now practically ceased to
exist. The granting of palatine rights to bishops, already begun by the
Ottos, was continued ; similar rights were conferred upon missi; while
the presidency of the Palatine Court itself was annexed to the royal
chancery, and thus invariably fell to a cleric.
In Italy not only did Leo of Vercelli regain his lost influence, but
the bishops generally won a new predominance. Yet this predominance
was bound up with control from Germany, whence the Emperor directed
affairs in Church and State, thus working against Italian independence.
The imperial crown enhanced Henry's position in Europe but it added
little to his power in Germany; for seven years after his return from
## p. 247 (#293) ############################################
Peace with Poland; Burgundy
247
Italy he had to face foreign warfare and domestic strife. Polish affairs
claimed him first. Boleslav had not sent his promised help to Italy: he
had tried to win over Udalrich of Bohemia. Henry tried diplomacy and
on its failure set out on a Polish campaign (July 1015). An elaborate
plan of an invasion by three armies did not succeed, and Henry himself
had a troubled retreat.
During 1016 Henry was busied in Burgundy, and Boleslav was en-
tangled with Russia, where Vladímir the Great was consolidating a
principality. In January 1017 Boleslav attempted negotiations, but as
he would make no great effort for peace a new expedition was made in
August 1017, this time by one strong army and with the hope of Russian
help. Sieges and battles did little to decide the issue and Henry again
retreated in September 1017. But now Boleslav was inclined for peace,
since Russia although it had done but little was a threatening neighbour.
The German princes who had suffered heavily were anxious for peace and
at Bautzen (30 January 1018) terms were made: a German writer tells
us they were the best possible although not seemly; he speaks of no court
service or feudal obligations on Boleslav's part. Moreover he kept the
marks he had so long desired. Henry had not gained much military
glory but he had the peace which was needed. He kept Bohemia as a
vassal ; he held firmly the German lands west of the Elbe. For the rest
of the reign he had peace with Poland.
On the western frontier Burgundy had steadily grown more dis-
ordered since 1006. It was the stepping-stone to Italy and Otto the
Great had therefore played the part of a protector and feudal superior
to the young King Conrad. This connexion had continued and it, as
well as disorder, called Henry to Burgundy. The Welf dynasty had lost
its former vigour. Conrad “the Pacific” (937-993) was content to
appear almost as a vassal of the Emperors. His son, Rodolph III, far
from throwing off this yoke became by his weakness more dependent
still. Henry for his part had to support Rodolph unless he meant to
break with the Saxon tradition of control in Burgundy and to surrender
his inherited claim to succession. But in Count Otto-William, ruler of
the counties later named Franche-Comté, he found a resolute opponent.
It is probable that Otto-William, himself the son of the exiled Lombard
King, Adalbert of Ivrea, aimed at the throne, but in any case, like most
of the nobles, he feared the accession of a foreign monarch whose first
task would be to curb his independence.
By 1016 the ceaseless struggle between Rodolph and his unruly sub-
jects had reached a climax. Rodolph sought for aid from Henry: he
came in the early summer to Strasbourg, again acknowledged Henry's
right of succession, and promised to do nothing of importance without
his advice. Henry acted at once on his newly won right by nominating
to a vacant bishopric.
But the proceedings at Strasbourg were met by Otto-William with
CH. X.
## p. 248 (#294) ############################################
248
Turmoil in Lorraine
defiance, and even the bishop whom Henry had appointed was forced to
forsake his diocese. Henry undertook an expedition to reduce Burgundy:
it was unsuccessful and was followed by the renunciation of his treaty with
Rodolph. The moment, however, that the peace of Bautzen left him safe
on his eastern frontier Henry turned to Burgundy again. In February
1018 Rodolph met him at Mayence and again resigned to him the
sovereignty which he himself found so heavy. But once again the
Burgundian lords refused to acknowledge either Henry's authority in
the present or his right to succeed in the future. A fresh expedition
failed to enforce his claims, and he never again attempted intervention in
person. Possession of Burgundy with its alpine passes would have made
the control of Italy easier, but the attempt to secure this advantage had
failed.
Thus in four successive years, alternately in Poland and Burgundy,
Henry had waged campaigns, all really unsuccessful. His own kingdom
meanwhile was torn by domestic strife. Throughout the two Lorraines
and Saxony, above all, disorder ruled. In Upper Lorraine the Luxemburg
brothers still nursed their feud with the Emperor. But on the death
(December 1013) of Megingaud of Trèves, Henry appointed to the
archbishopric a resolute great noble, Poppo of Babenberg. Before long
Adalbero and Henry of Luxemburg both came to terms. At the Easter
Diet of 1017 a final reconciliation was made between the Emperor and
his brothers-in-law, which was sealed in November of the same year by the
reinstatement of Henry of Luxemburg in the duchy of Bavaria. This
submission brought tardy peace to Upper Lorraine, but Lower Lorraine
proved as difficult a task.
Since his elevation in 1012, Duke Godfrey had been beset by enemies.
The worst of these was Count Lambert of Louvain, whose wife was a
sister of the late Carolingian Duke Otto, and whose elder brother
Count Reginar of Hainault represented the original dukes of un-
divided Lorraine. Thus Lambert, whose life had been one of sacrilege
and violence, had claims on the dukedom. He was defeated and killed
by Godfrey at Florennes in September 1015, but another obstinate rebel,
Count Gerard of Alsace, a brother-in-law of those stormy petrels of dis-
content and strife, the Luxemburgers, remained, only to be overthrown in
August, 1017. With all these greater rebellions were associated minor
but widespread disturbances of the peace, and not until March 1018 was
the province entirely pacified, when, in an assembly at Nimeguen, the
Emperor received the submission of the Count of Hainault and established
concord between Count Gerard and Duke Godfrey.
But the duke was soon to experience a temporary reverse of fortune.
In the far north of his province Count Dietrich of Holland, by his
mother (the Empress Kunigunda's sister) half a Luxemburger, had seized
the thinly peopled district at the mouth of the Meuse, made the
Frisians in it tributary, and, violating the rights of the Bishop of Utrecht,
a
## p. 249 (#295) ############################################
Wendish and Saxon troubles
249
built a castle by the river whence he levied tolls on sea-bound craft. On
the bishop's complaint Henry ordered the count to desist and make
amends; when he disobeyed, Duke Godfrey and the Bishop (Adalbold)
were commissioned to enforce order. But their expedition miscarried ;
Godfrey was wounded and taken prisoner. Yet the prisoner interceded
at court for his captor and peace with friendship was restored.
Saxony was disturbed like Lorraine, but chiefly by private quarrels,
especially between lay magnates and bishops. In a diet at Allstedt
(January 1017) Henry attempted a pacification. But a rising of the half-
heathen Wends brought slaughter on the Christian priests and their
congregations, with destruction of the churches. Bernard, Bishop of
Oldenburg (on the Baltic), sought but did not get Henry's help, and
then Thietmar, brother of the Billung Duke Bernard, revolted. After
he had been subdued, his brother the duke himself rebelled, but a siege
of his fortress Schalksburg on the Weser ended in a peace. Emperor and
duke joined in an expedition against the Wends, reduced the March to
order and restored the Christian prince Mistislav over the pagan Obotrites
(Obodritzi, or Abotrites). But though civil order was enforced to the
north, the Wends remained heathen.
Happily the rest of Germany was more peaceful. In Swabia alone
arose difficulty. Ernest, husband of Gisela, elder sister of the young Duke
Herman III, had been made duke, but after three years' rule he died in
the hunting field (31 May 1015). The Emperor gave the duchy to his
eldest son Ernest, and as he was under age his mother Gisela was to be
his guardian. But when she soon married Conrad of Franconia the
Emperor gave the duchy to Poppo of Trèves, the young duke's uncle.
Gisela's new husband, Conrad, afterwards Emperor, head of the house
which sprang from Conrad the Red and Liutgard, daughter of Otto the
Great, had already one grievance against the Emperor. He had seen in
1011 the duchy of Carinthia transferred from his own family to Adalbero
of Eppenstein. Now a second gr
Now a second grievance made him Henry's enemy.
He
had fought alongside Gerard of Alsace against Duke Godfrey: two years
later he waged war against Duke Adalbero. For this the Emperor
banished him, but the sentence was remitted and Conrad henceforth kept
the peace.
Henry's general policy was one of conciliation; as a commander in the
field he had never been fortunate, and therefore he preferred moral
to physical means. He had learnt this preference from his religion and
he well understood how greatly ecclesiastical order could help his realm.
In church reform, greatly needed at the time, he took ever more interest
as his life went on. One question indeed which came up at the synod of
Goslar in 1019 was a foreboding of trouble to come. Many secular priests,
serfs by birth, had married free women: it was asked whether their
children were free or unfree: the synod at Henry's suggestion declared
both mother and children unfree. This decision tended to throw discredit
CH, X.
## p. 250 (#296) ############################################
250
Benedict VIII in Germany
upon marriages which furthered the secularization of the Church. For
married clergy often sought to benefit their own families at the expense
of their churches. But on the side of reform Henry was greatly helped
by the monastic revival which, largely beginning from Cluny, had spread
widely in Lorraine. William, Abbot of St Benignus at Dijon, and
Richard, Abbot of St Vanne's near Verdun, were here his helpers.
William had been called in by the Bishop of Metz: Richard worked in
more than one Lorraine diocese. Outside their own order such monks
influenced the secular clergy and even the bishops. Simony and world-
liness were more widely reproved; Henry would gladly have seen such
a reformation spreading and with some such hope he asked the Pope
to visit Germany.
Benedict VIII was, it is true, more a man of action than a reformer.
He had faced worse foes than the Crescentii at Farfa, for the Saracens
under Mujāhid of Denia (in Spain) had (1015) conquered Sardinia and
were harrying the Tuscan coasts. He urged on the Pisans and Genoese
before their three days' victory at sea (June 1016): a battle which
brought the victorious allies into Sardinia. And he had (1016) made
use of Lombard rebels and Norman help to try and shake the Byzantine
hold upon Southern Italy. But rebels and Normans had suffered defeat
and the Byzantines held their own. Benedict might hopefully turn to
the Emperor for further help: when on Maundy Thursday (14 April
1020) he reached Henry's favourite Bamberg, he was the first Pope to
visit Germany for a century and a half. With him there came Melo,
leader of the Apulian rebels, and Rodolph, the Norman leader, who had
helped them. Melo was invested with the new title, Duke of Apulia,
and held the empty office for the remaining week of his life. Thus
Henry entered into the Italian schemes of Benedict. The Pope on his
side confirmed at Fulda the foundation of Bamberg, taking it under
special papal protection: Henry gave the Pope a privilege nearly
identical with that given by Otto the Great to John XII.
The second half of the year 1020 was spent in small campaigns,
including one against Baldwin in Flanders, where in August the Emperor
captured Ghent. The other was against Otto of Hammerstein, whom
we shall mention later. When Henry kept Easter in 1021 at Merseburg
he could look on a realm comparatively peaceful. His old opponent
Heribert of Cologne had died (16 March 1021) and was replaced by
Henry's friend and diplomatist, Pilgrim. Later (17 August) died Erkam-
bald of Mayence, and was succeeded by Aribo, a royal chaplain and a
relative of Pilgrim's. The three great sees were now all held by Bavarians.
In July a diet at Nimeguen decided on an expedition to Italy. There
the Byzantine forces had occupied part of the principality of Benevento,
drawing the Lombard princes to their side, and (June 1021) the Catapan
Basil seized the fortress on the Garigliano which the Pope had given to
Datto, an Apulian rebel. Thus Rome itself was threatened nearly. In
## p. 251 (#297) ############################################
Henry's third expedition to Italy
251
November 1021 Henry left Augsburg for Italy: early in December he
reached Verona, where Italian princes joined his Lorrainers, Swabians
and Bavarians: among them were the Bavarian Poppo, Patriarch of
Aquileia, and the distinguished Aribert, since 1018 Archbishop of Milan.
Leo of Vercelli of course was there, and if some lay magnates kept away
others made a welcome appearance. Christmas Henry spent at Ravenna
and in January moved southwards. Before he reached Benevento
Benedict joined him. The army marched in three divisions and the one
which Pilgrim of Cologne commanded met with brilliant successes, taking
Capua. Henry himself was delayed for three months by the fortress
of Troia, built with almost communal privileges by the Catapan in
1018 to guard the Byzantine province and strong enough to sur-
render on merely nominal terms. But sickness had assailed the Germans
and after visiting Home Henry came in July to Pavia. So far he had
made Rome safer and had subjugated the Lombard states. Then in a
synod at Pavia (1 August 1022) with Benedict's help he turned to
church reform. Clerical marriage, as common in Lombardy as in
Germany, was denounced. And the ever growing poverty of the Church
was also noted: lands had been alienated and married clerics were
trying to endow their families. As at Goslar it was decided that the
wives and children of unfree priests were also serfs, and could thus not
hold land. These ecclesiastical decrees, meant to be of general force
although passed in a scanty synod, the Emperor embodied in an im-
perial decree. Leo of Vercelli probably drafted alike the papal speech
and the imperial decree and he was the first bishop to enforce the
canons.
Then in the autumn of 1022 Henry returned to his kingdom. The
following Easter he sent Gerard of Cambray and Richard of St Vannes
to beg Robert of France to become his partner in church reform. The
two kings met (11 August) at Ivois just within Germany. It was agreed
to call an assembly at Pavia of both German and Italian bishops: the
assembly would thus represent the old Carolingian realm.
But now Germany was not ecclesiastically at peace either within itself
or with the Pope. Aribo of Mayence, on the death of his suffragan
Bernward of Hildesheim, had revived the old claim to authority over
Gandersheim. But Henry had taken sides with the new Bishop, Godehard
of Altaich, although his settlement left irritation behind. Aribo had
also a more important quarrel with Pope Benedict arising out of a marriage.
Count Otto of Hammerstein, a great noble of Franconia, had married
Irmingard, although they were related within the prohibited degrees.
Episcopal censure was disregarded: excommunication by a synod at
Nimeguen (March 1018), enforced by the Emperor and the Archbishop
of Mayence, only brought Otto to temporary submission. Two years later,
after rejoining Irmingard, he attacked in revenge the territory of Mayence.
At length his disregard of synod and of Emperor alike forced Henry to
CH, X
## p. 252 (#298) ############################################
252
Death of Henry
uphold the Church's law by the sword. But Otto's irregular marriage
a few years later raised even greater difficulties. For the present Henry
had shewn his ecclesiastical sympathies and his readiness to enforce the
Church's decisions even in a field where many rulers disregarded or dis-
liked them. A synod at Mayence in June 1023 separated the pair,
whereupon Irmingard appealed to Rome. This appeal was looked upon
by Aribo as an invasion of his metropolitan rights, and he persuaded a
provincial synod at Seligenstadt to take his view. Here were forbidden
all appeals to Rome made without episcopal leave, and also any papal
remission of guilt, unless the ordinary penance imposed locally had been
first performed. Henry sent the diplomatic Pilgrim of Cologne to explain
matters to Benedict, who nevertheless directed a fresh hearing of Irmin-
gard's case, and also significantly sent no pallium to Aribo. In reply the
Archbishop called his suffragans to meet at Höchst 13 May 1024; and
it was hoped through the Empress Kunigunda to draw thither bishops of
other provinces also: meanwhile all the suffragans of Mayence except
two signed a remonstrance to the Pope against the insult to their metro-
politan. But Benedict died (11 June 1024) before the matter was settled,
being succeeded by his brother Romanus, hitherto called Senator of all
the Romans by Benedict's appointment, who passed from layman to Pope
as John XIX within a day. The new Pope had no religious and few
ecclesiastical interests, and the matter of the marriage went no further.
Soon after Benedict Henry himself passed away. During 1024 he had
suffered from both illness and the weakness of advancing years ; on 13
July the end came. His body was fittingly laid to rest in his beloved
Bamberg, itself an expression of the religious zeal which was shewn so
strongly and so pathetically in his closing years. Religion and devotion
to the Church had always been a leading interest in his active life; as
death drew nearer it became an all-absorbing care. The title of Saint
which his people gave him fittingly expressed the feeling of his age. .
## p. 253 (#299) ############################################
253
CHAPTER XI.
THE EMPEROR CONRAD II.
With the death of Henry II the Saxon dynasty in the male line
became extinct; nevertheless under the Ottos the hereditary principle
had become so firmly rooted, the Teutonic theory of election so nearly
forgotten, that the descendants of Otto the Great in the female branch
were alone regarded as suitable successors to the Emperor Henry II. The
choice of the princes was practically limited to the two Conrads, the great-
grandsons of the first Otto's daughter Liutgard and Conrad of Lorraine.
Both were grandsons of Otto, Duke of Carinthia; the future emperor
through the eldest son Henry who died young, the other, known as Conrad
the Younger, through the third son, also named Conrad, who had suc-
ceeded his father in the duchy of Carinthia. This younger Conrad did
not inherit the dukedom, which was granted on his father's death in 1011
to Adalbero of Eppenstein, but he acquired nevertheless the greater part
of the family estates in Franconia. In wealth and territorial position he
was stronger than his elder cousin ; moreover, since he had adopted the
attitude of Henry II in matters of ecclesiastical politics, he could safely
rely on the support of the reforming party in the Church, which, par-
ticularly in Lorraine, carried considerable weight under the guidance of
Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne. An orphan' with a meagre inheritance,
brought up by the famous canonist, Burchard of Worms, Conrad the
Elder had little to recommend him beyond seniority and personal cha-
racter. On late and unreliable authority it is asserted that the late
Emperor designated him as his successor? , and though it is reasonable to
suppose that Henry II should make some recommendation with regard to
the succession, it is at least remarkable that he should select a man whose
I His father died while he was still a child, and his mother married again and
took no further interest in the child of her first husband.
? Sigebert, Chron. MGHSS. vi. 356. Hugh of Flavigny, Chron. 11. 16, MGHSS. viii.
392. It is accepted as historical by Arndt, Die Wahl Konrads II, Diss. Göttingen,
1861, Maurenbrecher, Königswahlen, and others; Bresslau, from the silence of
contemporaries, and the unreliability of the evidence is led to the conclusion that
no such designation was made. (Jahrbücher, Konrad II, 1. p. 9 f. , also in Hirsch,
Jahrbücher, Heinrich II, 111. p. 356 f. ) Harttung, Studien zur Geschichte Konrads 11,
attempts to prove that the younger Conrad was designated by Henry II; but see
Bresslau, Jahrbücher, Excurs. 11. p. 342 f.
CH. .
## p. 254 (#300) ############################################
254
Election and coronation
a
views both in ecclesiastical and secular politics were diametrically opposed
to his own. Yet this very fact of his antagonism to the reforming move-
ment induced Aribo, Archbishop of Mayence, and the bulk of the episco-
pate, jealous and suspicious of the progress of Cluniac ideas in Germany,
to throw the whole weight of their influence in support of his candidature.
The election took place on the Rhine between Mayence and Worms' on
4 September 1024. Before it took place the elder Conrad had a meeting
with his cousin and apparently induced him to withdraw from the contest.
Conrad the Elder, left in undisputed possession of the field (for the
party of his late rival, the Lorrainers, rather than give him their votes,
had retired from the assembly), was elected unanimously, and received
from the hands of the widowed Empress Kunigunda, the royal insignia,
committed by her husband to her care. The election was a popular one.
Princes and people, spiritual and secular, thronged to Mayence to attend
the coronation festival. “If Charles the Great himself had been alive and
present,” writes Conrad's enthusiastic biographer”, “the rejoicing could
not have been exceeded. " The ceremony of coronation was performed
on 8 September by Aribo in the cathedral of Mayence and was followed
by the customary state banquet and by the taking of the oath of fealty
by the bishops, nobles, and even, we are told, by other freemen of dis-
tinction. One incident marred the general serenity of the proceedings;
Conrad's marriage in 1017 with Gisela, the widow successively of Bruno
of Brunswick and of Ernest II of Swabia, being within the prohibited
degrees, was not sanctioned by the Church. Aribo denied her the crown;
and it was only after an interval of some days that Archbishop Pilgrim
of Cologne, desirous of making his peace with the king he had opposed,
offered to perform the ceremony in his cathedral at Colognes.
The princes of Lorraine, among them Gozelo and Dietrich, the Dukes
of the lower and upper provinces, Reginar V, the powerful Count of
Hainault, and the greater number of the bishops, had, as we have seen,
resisted Conrad's election, and after the event had denied him recognition.
The bishops adopted this attitude on account of Conrad's lack of sym-
pathy with the movement of reform in the Church; when, however, their
1 The exact spot is generally said to be Kamba on the right bank of the river
near Oppenheim. Schädel (Die Königsstühle bei Mainz und die Wahl Konrads II,
Progr. Mayence, 1896) believes the place of election to have been on the left bank
near Lörzweiler. With Wipo (cap. 2) we can leave it “de vocabulo et situ loci
plenius dicere topographis. ” Anyhow "cis et citra Rhenum castra locabant. "
.
Wipo, loc. cit.
% Wipo, Script. Rer. Germ. ed. Bresslau, 1915. See also the editor's preface to
this edition. Wipo is the main authority for the reign; probably a Burgundian by
birth, he held the office of chaplain to the king, and was an eye-witness of many of
the events he records.
3 So Bresslau, 1. pp. 35-37, and Excurs. 11. p. 351, following the account of
Herman of Reichenau (1024, in Bresslau's ed. of Wipo, p. 94). Other authorities
accept the account of the Quedlinburg annals, that Gisela was subsequently crowned
by Aribo at the intercession of the princes (Aun. Qued. 1024, MGHSS, 111. 90).
>
9
## p. 255 (#301) ############################################
The royal progress
255
leader, the Archbishop of Cologne, made his peace with the king, and
when Odilo of Cluny, who had, it seems, been present at the election,
and had been the recipient of Conrad's first charter (a confirmation of
certain lands in Alsace to the Cluniac monastery of Payerne), exerted his
influence in Conrad's interest, the bishops were prevailed upon to make
their submission. Conrad was therefore able to make his royal progress
through Lorraine unhindered.
It was customary for a newly elected king to travel through his
kingdom, dispensing justice, settling disputes, ordering peace. Within
a year of his coronation (he was back in Mayence at the end of August
1025) Conrad had visited the more important towns of the five great
duchies of his kingdom. On his journey through Saxony two significant
events occurred; he received the recognition of the Saxon princes and gave
a decision against Aribo of Mayence, shewing thereby that he was not
to be swayed from the path of justice even in the interests of the foremost
prelate of Germany. Before Conrad's election the Saxon princes under
their Duke Bernard had assembled at Werla, and there decided on a
course of action similar to that which they had pursued on the occasion
of the election of Henry II in 1002. They had, it seems, absented
themselves from the electoral council, with the object of making their
acceptance of the result dependent upon conditions. They required the
king to acknowledge the peculiarly independent position, the ancient and
barbaric law, of the Saxons. They met him at Minden, where he
was keeping his Christmas court. Their condition was proposed and
accepted, and their homage, hitherto deferred, was duly performed to
their now recognised sovereign'.
Since the time of Otto III, the jurisdiction over the rich nunnery of
Gandersheim had been the cause of a fierce dispute between the bishops
of Hildesheim and the archbishops of Mayence. It had been one of the
reasons for the breach between Aribo and the late Emperor, who had in
1022 decided in favour of the Hildesheim claim. While Conrad remained
in Saxony the matter was brought up before him. The outlook was
ominous for Bishop Godehard; Conrad was not likely to give cause for a
quarrel with the powerful archbishop to whom he owed his crown, and
whom he had already favoured by conferring on him the archchancellor-
ship of Italy, in addition to the archchancellorship of Germany which
he had previously held. Moreover, the influential Abbess Sophia, the
daughter of the Emperor Otto II, was known to favour the claims of
Aribo. On the other hand, Conrad could not lightly reverse a decision
made by his predecessor only two years before, and he may also have felt
some resentment towards Aribo for the latter's refusal to crown his
queen.
Postponements and compromises were tried in vain. At last, in March
1 This interpretation of the rather confused evidence is Bresslau's, s. 12 and
n. 7. Cf. also his edition of Wipo, Script. Rer. Germ. 1915, p. 11, n. 1.
сн. XI,
## p. 256 (#302) ############################################
256
The Burgundian Question
1025, at a sparsely attended synod held at Grona, a provisional judgment
was given in favour of the Bishop of Hildesheim; the decision was con-
firmed two years later at a more representative gathering at Frankfort,
but it was not until 1030, a year before his death, that Aribo had a
meeting with his opponent at Merseburg, and finally renounced his claims
which, according to the biographer of Godehard, he confessed that he had
raised “partly in ignorance, partly out of malice. ”
The rebellion, which disturbed the opening years of the new reign,
is closely connected with the question of the Burgundian succession and
with the revolt in Lombardy. Rodolph III, the childless King of Bur-
gundy, had in 1016 recognised his nephew the Emperor Henry II as the
heir to his throne; he maintained however, and probably with justice,
that with the Emperor's death the compact became void. Conrad, on
the other hand, took a different view of the case; the cession, he argued,
was made not to the Emperor but to the Empire, to which he had been
duly elected. Against him stood a formidable row of descendants of
Conrad the Peaceful in the female line, two of whom, Ernest, Duke of
Swabia, whose mother, Queen Gisela, was the niece, and Odo, Count
of Blois, whose mother, Bertha, was the sister of Rodolph, aspired to the
inheritance. To make his intentions clear Conrad, in June 1025, occupied
Basle which, though held by Henry II, actually lay within the confines
of the Burgundian kingdom. As his presence was needed elsewhere, he
left his wife Gisela, herself a niece of King Rodolph', to bring the Bur-
gundian question to a satisfactory issue. The success of her efforts is to
be seen in the Burgundian king's refusal to assist Ernest of Swabia in his
second revolt (1026), in his submissive attendance at the Emperor's
coronation at Rome (Easter 1027), and in his recognition, at Muttenz
near Basle, later in the same year, of Conrad's title to succeed to his
kingdom. Ernest, whose hopes in Burgundy were shattered by the
occupation of Basle, decided to oppose Conrad with arms.
. He allied
himself with Count Welf, with the still disaffected dukes of Lorraine,
and with Conrad the Younger who, having heard no more of the proffered
rewards by which his cousin had secured his withdrawal from the electoral
contest, had openly shewn his resentment at Augsburg in the previous
April
In France, Odo of Blois and Champagne was interested in the downfall
of Conrad; in Italy, the trend of events moved in the same direction.
There the Lombards, taking advantage of the death of Henry II, rose
1 This marriage connexion with the Burgundian house constituted, Poupardin
concludes, Conrad's title to be designated by Rodolph and to be chosen by the
Burgundian princes, but brought with it no actual right of succession. Cf. Pou-
pardin, Le Royaume de Bourgogne, p. 151.
2 Conrad the Younger stood in the same relation to Rodolph Ill as did Ernest;
his mother Matilda was Rodolph's niece. He appears, however, to have raised no
claim to the throne of Burgundy. Cf. Poupardin, loc. cit.
## p. 257 (#303) ############################################
Rebellion of Duke Ernest
257
in revolt against the imperial domination. The men of Pavia, mindful
of the recent destruction of their city at the hands of the late Em-
peror, burnt the royal palace; the north Italian princes, in defiance of
Conrad, offered their crown first to King Robert of France, then, on his
refusal, to William V, Duke of Aquitaine, who accepted it for his son.
The duke's only hope of success in the dangerous enterprise he had
undertaken lay in keeping Conrad engaged in his own kingdom. With
this object he set about organising the opposition in Lorraine, France,
and Burgundy; he met Robert of France and Odo of Champagne at
Tours, and the French king agreed to carry a campaign into Germany.
The combination, so formidable in appearance, dissolved into nothing.
Robert was prevented by the affairs of his own kingdom from taking the
field against Conrad; Odo, engaged in a fierce feud with Fulk of Anjou,
was powerless; William of Aquitaine on visiting Italy found the situation
there less favourable than he had been led to expect, and thereupon gave
up the project; the dukes of Lorraine, no longer able to count on foreign
aid, made their submission to the Emperor at Aix-la-Chapelle (Christ-
mas 1025). After the collapse of the alliance, continued resistance on
the part of Ernest was useless; at Augsburg early in the next year,
through the mediation of the queen, his mother, he was reconciled with
Conrad who, to keep him from further mischief, insisted on his accom-
panying him on the Italian campaign upon which he was about to
embark.
It was a wise precaution, and Conrad would have been better advised
had he retained his ambitious stepson in his camp; instead he dispatched
him to Germany to suppress the disorders which had arisen there in his
absence. Welf, obdurate in his disobedience, had attacked and plundered
the lands and cities of Bruno, Bishop of Augsburg, the brother of the
Emperor Henry II, the guardian of the young King Henry III, and the
administrator of Germany during the king's absence in Italy. Ernest,
back among his old fellow-conspirators and acting, no doubt, on the advice
of his evil genius, Count Werner of Kiburg, instead of suppressing the
rebellious Welf, joined with him in rebellion? The second revolt of
.
Ernest was however as abortive as the first; he invaded Alsace, pene-
trated into Burgundy, but finding to his discomfiture, in Rodolph, not
an ally but an enemy, he was compelled to make a hasty retreat to
Zurich, whence he occupied himself in making plundering raids upon
the
rich abbeys of Reichenau and St Gall. Conrad's return soon ended the
affair. Ernest and Welf answered the imperial summons to Ulm (July
1027), not however as suppliants for the Emperor's mercy, but, supported
by an armed following, with the intention either of dictating their own
1 The attitude of the younger Conrad in this rebellion is ambiguous. Wipo, c. 19,
says of him “nec fidus imperatori, nec tamen multum noxius illi. ” His submission
and condemnation to a short term of imprisonment in 1027, mentioned by Wipo,
c. 21, proves his implication.
17
C. MED, H. VOL. III. CH. XI.
## p. 258 (#304) ############################################
258
Failure and death of Ernest
terms or, failing that, of fighting their way to safety. The duke had
miscalculated his resources; at an interview with his vassals he discovered
his mistake. They were prepared, they said, to follow him as their oath
required against any man except the Emperor; but loyalty to the
Emperor took precedence to loyalty to the duke. Ernest had no choice
but to throw himself on Conrad's mercy; he was deprived of his duchy
and imprisoned in the castle of Gibichenstein near Halle. Welf was
condemned to imprisonment, to make reparation to the Bishop of
Augsburg, and to the loss of a countship in the neighbourhood of
Brixen.
Ernest, after less than a year's captivity, was forgiven and reinstated
in his dukedom. But the course of events of 1026 was repeated in 1030.
Ordered by the Emperor to execute the ban against Count Werner, who
had persisted in rebellion, he disobeyed, and was, by the judgment of
the princes, once more deprived of his dukedom and placed under the
ban of the Empire (at Ingelheim, Easter 1030). After a vain attempt to
persuade Odo of Champagne to join him, he and Werner withdrew into
the Black Forest, where, making the strong castle of Falkenstein their
headquarters, they lived for a time the life of bandits. At last, in
August, the two rebels fell in a fierce encounter with the Emperor's
troops under Count Manegold.
The rebellions of Ernest, dictated not by any dissatisfaction at
Conrad's rule but rather by personal motives and rival ambitions, never
assumed dangerous proportions. The fact that even the nobility of
Swabia, with few exceptions, refused to follow their duke is significant
of the strength and popularity of Conrad's government. The loyalty of
Germany as a whole was never shaken. Duke Ernest, a little undeservedly
perhaps, has become the hero of legend and romance; he has often been
compared with Liudolf of Swabia, the popular and ambitious son of
Otto the Great. The parallel is scarcely a fair one; Liudolf rebelled
but once and with juster cause; and after his defeat, he lived loyally and
died fighting his father's battles in Italy. Ernest, though twice for-
given, lived and died a rebel.
In September 1032 Rodolph III ended a weak and inglorious reign.
Conrad had been solemnly recognised as heir by the late king at Muttenz
five years before and had been entrusted with the royal insignia, the crown
and the lance of St Maurice. Some of the Burgundian nobles had even
already taken the oath of allegiance to the German king; but the
majority both of the ecclesiastical and secular lords, especially in the
romance-speaking district of the south, stood opposed to him. His
powerful rival, Odo, Count of Blois and Champagne, had at first the
advantage, for Conrad at the critical moment was busily occupied with the
affairs of Poland, and when, after the submission of the Polish Duke Mesco,
he hastened to Strasbourg, he found a large part of Burgundy already in
the hands of the enemy (Christmas 1032). In spite of the severity of
## p. 259 (#305) ############################################
Acquisition of Burgundy
259
a
the weather, which was sufficiently remarkable to supply the theme of a
poem of a hundred stanzas from the pen of Wipo, the Emperor decided
to make a winter campaign into Burgundy. He marched on Basle and
proceeded to Payerne, where he was formally elected and crowned by his
partisans; but the indescribable sufferings of his troops from the cold
prevented his further progress, and he withdrew to Zurich.
In the spring, before resuming operations in Burgundy, he entered into
negotiations with the French King Henry I, which resulted in a meeting
of the two at Deville on the Meuse. What actually took place there is
not recorded, but it seems clear that an alliance against Odo was formed
between them.
