i Count of four or five counties which
afterwards
were collectively named
Franche Comté.
Franche Comté.
Cambridge Medieval History - v3 - Germany and the Western Empire
Since his appearance
as Burgundian king in 1031 he had not again visited the country.
## p. 279 (#325) ############################################
Burgundy
279
He kept Christmas (1041) at Strasbourg amid a brilliant gathering
of princes; and when immediately afterwards he entered Burgundy, it
was at the head of armed vassals. We are told by Herman of Reichenau
that the Burgundian nobles made submission, that many were brought
to justice, that Henry entered Burgundy, ruled with vigour and justice,
and safeguarded the public peace; finally Wipo tells us that “he ruled
Burgundy with magnificence. "
Some notion of the state of the land before Henry's arrival may be
gathered by the history of the archdiocese of Lyons. Here Archbishop
Burchard, characterised by Herman of Reichenau as “tyrannus et sacri-
legus, aecclesiarum depraedator, adulterque incestuosus,” and moreover
strongly anti-German, had been cast into prison and chains by Conrad
in 1036. The city was then seized upon by a Count Gerard, who,
desirous it would appear of playing at Lyons the part played by the
“Patrician" at Rome, thrust into the see of Lyons his son, a mere boy.
This boy later secretly fled, and since then Lyons had contentedly lacked
a bishop.
The filling of the see thus left vacant was one of Henry's first cares
in Burgundy: at the recommendation of the Cluniac Halinard of Dijon,
who refused the sacred office for himself, it was given to a pious and
learned French secular priest, Odulric (Ulric), Archdeacon of Langres.
That the
peace
and order enforced under Henry were after all but com-
parative may be judged from the murder of Odulric himself only a few
years later. There was much to attract Henry in Burgundy; for side
by side with its lawlessness and violence were the strivings for peace and
holiness embodied in the “Treuga Dei” and in the austerity of Cluny
and its monasteries. Henry's approbation of Cluniac ideals is evident,
and throughout his whole life he shews real ardour, almost a passion
in his striving to realise throughout the Empire that peace founded
on religion, upon which the Treuga Dei, if in somewhat other fashion,
strove to insist locally.
After some six weeks in Burgundy, he must have heard at Basle on
his way back of the havoc played among the Bavarians on the frontier, a
week earlier, by the new King Obo of Hungary and his raiders. Henry,
himself the absentee duke of the unfortunate duchy, at once handed
it over (without waiting, as it would seem, for the formality of an
election, as right was, by the Bavarians) to Count Henry of Luxemburg,
who was akin to the last Duke Henry of Bavaria, and nephew to the
Empress Kunigunda, wife of Henry II. Trusting to the vigour of the
new duke to protect Bavaria for the time being, Henry next, a few
weeks later, summoned all the princes, including of course Eckhard of
Meissen, to Cologne, there to decide upon further steps to be taken
with regard to Hungary. They unanimously declared for war.
Some four or five months elapsed before the expedition was launched.
From Würzburg, at Whitsuntide, Henry strengthened his hold on
CH. XII.
## p. 280 (#326) ############################################
280.
Hungary
his Burgundian realm by dispatching Bishop Bruno to woo for him
Agnes of Poitou.
A few months he spent in comparative quiet, pro-
bably with his mother, in Thuringia and Saxony; then later, in August
1042, he entered Bavaria and started, early in September, on the Hun-
garian expedition.
It was a success. Henry overcame, not Obo himself, who retired to
inaccessible fastnesses, but at least the Western Magyars. He set up a
new king, not Peter, but an unnamed cousin of his, and then returned fairly
well satisfied to Germany. Directly his back was turned, Obo emerged
from his fastness, and the reign of Henry's candidate came to an abrupt
end. Yet a lesson against raiding had undoubtedly been given to “the
over-daring Kinglet. ”
The king spent the Christmas of 1042 at Goslar; whither in January
came envoys from the princes of the northern peoples. Břatislav of
Bohemia came in person, bearing and receiving gifts. The Russians,
though they bore back to their distant lord far more magnificent presents
than they could have offered, departed in chagrin, for Henry had rejected
their offer of a Russian bride. Casimir of Poland also sent his envoys;
they were not received, since he himself did not come in person. Lastly
Obo too, who had just ejected his second rival king, sent to propose
peace. His messengers received an answer ominously evasive.
Early in the following month, at Goslar, the Empress-Mother died.
That there had been some measure of alienation between Henry and
Gisela is suggested by Wipo's exhortation to Henry to "remember the
sweetness of a mother's name,” and by his recording in his Tetralogus
the
many benefits conferred by Gisela on her son; as well as by Herman
of Reichenau's acid comment. Yet there is no evidence that the aliena-
tion was serious. Henry's grants and charters on his mother's petition
are numerous. In all probability he spent with her the only long interval
of comparative leisure (1042) that he had enjoyed since his accession ;
she died whilst with him at Goslar.
Soon after the funeral ceremonies were over, Henry had his first
meeting with the King of France, Henry I. Its place and object are
obscure; but probably it was on the frontier at Ivois, and it may very
well have been in connexion with Henry's approaching marriage with
Agnes of Poitou.
The king's mind was now bent on the preparations for yet another
Hungarian expedition. Twice Obo sought to evade the conflict. Obo
did not, it is true, shew much tact, if indeed he really desired peace ;
for in his second embassy he demanded that Henry should himself swear
to any terms agreed upon, instead of merely giving the oath in kingly
fashion by proxy; this request was deemed an insult.
The blow when it came was effective. Henry in the space of four
weeks brought Obo to a promise of humble satisfaction, a satisfaction
never made effectual, because the promises of Obo were not fulfilled.
## p. 281 (#327) ############################################
The Day of Indulgence
281
Far more important and of solid and lasting advantage to Germany,
was the restitution by Hungary of that territory on the Danube ceded
to St Stephen “pro causa amicitiae” in 1031.
Since the frontier won by Henry remained until 1919 the frontier
between German Austria and Hungary, it is worth while considering it
in detail.
The land ceded, or rather restored, was “ex una parte Danubii inter
Fiscaha et Litacha, ex altera autem inter Strachtin et ostia Fiscaha usque
in Maraha. " South of the Danube, that is to say, the Leitha replaced the
Fischa as boundary as far south as the Carinthian March. North of the
river, the old frontier line seems to have run from opposite the confluence
of the Fischa with the Danube to a fortress on the Moravian border,
Strachtin or Trachtin. This artificial frontier was now replaced by the
river March. Thus among other things was secured permanently for
Germany the famous “ Wiener Wald. "
The realm was now at peace: Burgundy in order, Italy contented (in
contrast to the early days of Conrad) with German overlordship, not one
of the great princes or duchies of Germany a danger to the realm. The
fame or the arms of the king had induced the princes on its borders to
seek his friendship and acknowledge his superiority. Nothing remained
to mar the public peace save private enmities. To private enemies the
king might, without danger to the commonwealth, offer reconciliation.
On the “Day of Indulgence" at Constance, in late October 1043, Henry
from the pulpit announced to the assembled princes and bishops and to
the whole of Germany, that he renounced all idea of vengeance on any
who had injured him, and exhorted all his princes, nobles and people in
their turn to forget all private offences. The appeal of the king was
ordered to be made known throughout the whole land, and this
day at Constance became known as the “Day of Indulgence” or “Day
of Pardon. "
The object was to abolish violence and private war, and so far the
attempt bears a strong resemblance to the contemporary Franco-Bur-
gundian institution, the “Truce of God," with which, however, it cannot
be confounded, since although the ends were the same, the means were
only superficially alike. Since however the “Indulgence” has sometimes
been confused with, sometimes considered as deliberately rivalling, this
“Treuga Dei,” it is worth while to consider some relations and dis-
similarities between the two movements.
The “Truce of God” endeavoured to mitigate and limit violence by
an appeal to Christian sentiment rather than to Christian principle. The
Christian, under heavy church penalties, was to reverence certain days
and times regarded as sacred by abstaining on them from all violence not
only in aggression but even under provocation. This “Truce” was created
in France, the country where private feuds were most general and
fiercest, and where therefore there was greatest need of it. Its birth-
CH. XII.
## p. 282 (#328) ############################################
282
Peace and Truce of God
9
place was Aquitaine, in the year of Henry's accession; and nowhere was
it more eagerly adopted than in Burgundy, where religious zeal burnt
whitest and private feuds were most universal and devastating.
Now this “Truce of God” was an addition made to the original pro-
clamation of a Peace of God (c. 980), which forbade private violence
against non-combatants, by oath and for a fixed time, as contrary to
Christian precept. Like most medieval legislation, both “Peace" and
“Truce” were largely failures? Henry's “Indulgence” struck at the root
of the evil as they had not. The Indulgence, it is true, was not so
sweeping as would have been the “Peace of God," because no provision
was made for the protection of non-combatants, in case private war did
arrive. The “Indulgence,” being a pardon of actual enemies, could by
its nature refer only to the present and the actual without a word as
to the future, although Henry no doubt hoped that the one must entail
the other.
Another distinction between the "Treuga Dei" and the “Indulgence"
consists in the ecclesiastical character of the former. The “Truce" was
conceived by the Church, proclaimed by the Church, its breach punished
by heavy ecclesiastical penalties. The “Indulgence” was an example and
exhortation from a Christian king to his subjects, compliance being in
appearance voluntary, though royal displeasure might threaten him who
refused it. But the distinction does not, as some have thought, imply
any sort of opposition. Henry approved of the “Truce as churchmen
approved of the “Indulgence. ” One adversary of the Truce opposed it,
indeed, on the ground that by it the Church usurped a royal function.
But this was the ultra-royalist Gerard of Cambray, one of the few
bishops who did not enjoy Henry's favour. On the other hand, the
chief supporters of the Truce in Burgundy were the bishops, firm im-
perialists. Only a year before Henry's visit to Burgundy the Bishops
and Archbishops of Arles, Avignon, Nice, Vienne and Besançon, had
met Pope Benedict IX at Marseilles and had in all probability obtained
his approval for the measure promulgated by the Burgundian synod at
Montriond in 1041, extending the time of the Truce to the whole of
Lent and Advent. Cluny, whose ideal the king revered as the highest
ideal of all monasticism, had, through Abbot Odilo, appealed on behalf
of the Treuga Dei to all France and Italy. Within the French part
of the Empire, in the diocese of Verdun, Henry's friend the Abbot
Richard of St Vannes was a promoter and zealous supporter of the
Truce.
To sum up: Henry knew the working of the “Truce": its friends
were his friends, its aim was his aim. In the same spirit and with the
same object he took a different method, neither identical with, nor an-
1 Cf. Lavisse (Luchaire), Histoire de France, 11. 2, pp. 133 ff. and see also Chapter
XVIII, infra, p. 465.
## p. 283 (#329) ############################################
Empress Agnes of Poitou
283
tagonistic to, the sister-movement in the neighbouring Latin kingdoms,
but worked independently, side by side with it, in sympathy and harmony,
although their provisions were different. Henry was not given to ardours,
enthusiasms and dreams. His endeavours to found a public peace on the
free forgiveness of enemies shews a real belief in the practicability of
basing public order on religion and self-restraint rather than on force.
As little can Henry's “Indulgence” be confused with the Landfrieden
of a later date, which were in the nature of laws, sanctioned by penalties;
not a free forgiveness like Henry's "Pardon. "
This year, 1043, which had witnessed in its opening months the
homage of the North, in the summer the defeat of Hungary, in the autumn
the proclamation of peace between Germans, saw at its close the con-
summation of the policy by which Henry sought to link the South more
closely with the Empire.
His first marriage had allied him with the northern power, whose
friendship from that time on had been, and during Henry's lifetime con-
tinued to be, of great value to the Empire. His second marriage should
strengthen his bond with Italy and Burgundy, and, some have thought,
prepare his way in France. From Constance the king journeyed to
Besançon, and there, amid a brilliant gathering of loyal or subdued
Burgundian nobles, wedded Agnes of Poitou.
Agnes, that “cause of tears to Germany," was a girl of about eighteen,
dainty and intelligent, the descendant of Burgundian and Italian kings,
daughter to one of the very greatest of the French king's vassals, and
step-daughter to another. Her life so far had been spent at the court, first
of Aquitaine, during the lifetime of her father Duke William the Pious;
then of Anjou, after the marriage of her mother Agnes with Geoffrey
the Hammer (Martel). The learning and piety of the one home she ex-
changed for the superstition and violence of the other. For Geoffrey was
certainly superstitious, most certainly violent, and constantly engaged in
endeavours, generally successful, to increase his territory and his power
at the expense of his neighbours, or of his suzerain, the French king.
He and William of Norinandy were by far the strongest of the French
princes contemporary with Henry, so much the strongest, that a great
German historian has seen in the alliance by marriage of Henry with
the House of Anjou a possible preparation for the undermining of the
French throne and the addition of France to the Empire?
The marriage was held in strong disapproval by some of the stricter
churchmen on account of the relationship between Henry and Agnes,
which, although distant, fell within the degrees of kinship which, by
church law, barred marriage. Abbot Siegfried of the reformed monas-
1 Giesebrecht, Kaiserzeit, 11. p. 375.
2 Agnes and Henry were great-grandchildren respectively of two step-sisters,
Alberada and Matilda, granddaughters of Henry the Fowler. They were descended
also respectively from Otto the Great and his sister Gerberga.
CH. XII.
## p. 284 (#330) ############################################
284
Godfrey of Lorraine
tery at Gorze wrote very shortly before to his friend Abbot Poppo of
Stablo, who possessed the confidence and respect of Henry, urging him
even at the eleventh hour, and at risk of a possible loss of the king's
favour, to do all that he possibly could to prevent it. Neither Poppo,
nor Bishop Bruno of Toul (later Pope Leo IX), to whom Siegfried
addresses still more severe reproaches, nor Henry himself, paid much
heed to these representations. The marriage plans went on without let
or hindrance: twenty-eight bishops were present at the ceremony at
Besançon.
Not only the consanguinity of Agnes with the king, but also her
nationality, aroused misgivings in the mind of this German monk. He
cannot suppress his anxiety lest the old-time German sobriety shewn in
dress, arms, and horse-trappings should now disappear. Even now, says
he, the honest customs of German forefathers are despised by men who
imitate those whom they know to be enemies.
We do not know how Agnes viewed the alleged follies and fripperies
of her nation, thus inveighed against by this somewhat acid German saint.
She was pious, sharing to the full and encouraging her husband's devotion
to Cluny; she favoured learned men; her character does not however
emerge clearly until after Henry's death. Then, in circumstances certainly
of great difficulty, she was to shew some unwisdom, failing either to
govern the realm or to educate her son.
After the coronation at Mayence and the wedding festivities at
Ingelheim, Henry brought Agnes to spend Christmas in the ancient
palace at Utrecht, where he now proclaimed for the North the “ Indul-
gence" already proclaimed in the South. So with a peace “unheard of
for many ages" a new year opened. But in the West a tiny cloud was
rising, which would overshadow the rest of the king's reign. For, in
April 1044, old Duke Gozelo of Lorraine died.
Gozelo had eventually been staunch and faithful, and had done good
,
service to Henry's house; but his duchy was over-great and the danger
that might arise from this fact had been made manifest by his hesitation
in accepting, certainly the election of Conrad, and also, possibly, the
undisputed succession of his son. The union of the two duchies of
Upper and Lower Lorraine had been wrung by him from the necessities
of the kings; Henry now determined to take this occasion again to
separate them. Of Gozelo's five sons the eldest, Godfrey, had already
during his father's lifetime been duke in Upper Lorraine, and had
deserved well of the Empire. He now expected to succeed his father in
the Lower Duchy. But Henry bestowed Lower Lorraine on the younger
Gozelo, “The Coward,” alleging a dying wish of the old duke's that his
younger son might obtain part of the duchy. Godfrey thenceforth was
a rebel (sometimes secretly, more often openly), imprisoned, set at
liberty, deprived of his duchy, re-installed, humbled to submission, but
again revolting, always at heart a justified rebel. If, in spite of its
## p. 285 (#331) ############################################
Submission of Hungary
285
>
a
seeming successes, Henry's reign must be pronounced a failure, to no
one is the failure more due than to Godfrey of Lorraine.
The beginning of the Lorraine trouble coincided with the recrudescence
of that with Hungary. Obo, perhaps prevented by nationalist opposition,
had not carried out his promises of satisfaction; there was also growing
up in Hungary a party strongly opposed to him and favouring Germani-
sation and German intervention. Preparations for another campaign
had been going on strenuously in Germany; by the summer of 1044
they were complete. After a hasty visit to Nimeguen, whither he had
summoned Godfrey, and a fruitless attempt to reconcile the two
brothers, Henry with Peter in his train set out for Hungary.
With Hungarian refugees to guide him, he was, by 6 July, on the
further bank of the Raab. There the small German army confronted a
vast Hungarian host, among whom, however, disaffection was at work.
In a battle where few Germans fell, this host was scattered ; and Hungary
was subordinated to Germany. By twos and threes, or by crowds, came
Hungarian peasants and nobles, offering faith and subjection. At
Stühlweissenburg Peter was restored to his throne, a client-king; and
Henry, leaving a German garrison in the country, returned home. On
the battlefield the king had led a thanksgiving to Heaven, and his
German warriors, at his inspiration, had freely and exultingly forgiven
their enemies; on his return, in the churches of Bavaria, Henry, bare-
foot and in humble garment, again and again returned thanks for a
victory which seemed nothing short of a miracle.
It was now that Henry gave to the Hungarians, at the petition of
the victorious party amongst them, the gift of “Bavarian Law," a
Germanisation all to the good. But Hungary was not being Germanised
merely and alone by these subtle influences, by the inclination of its
kings and the German party towards things German, nor by the adoption
in Hungary of an ancient code of German law. After the battle of the
Raab, Hungary was definitely and formally in the position of vassal to
Germany; not only its king, but its nobles too, swore fealty to Henry
and his heirs ; Peter formally accepted the crown as a grant for his life-
time ; and Hungary was thenceforth to pay a regular yearly tribute.
Obo had been captured in flight and beheaded by his rival. The
victory over Hungary seemed even more complete than the victory
over Bohemia; the difference in the duration of their effects was
partly due to a fundamental difference in the character of the two
vassal princes. While Břatislav, a strong man, held Bohemia firmly,
and, giving his fealty to Henry, gave with it the fealty of Bohemia ;
Peter, subservient and cringing to his benefactor, let Hungary slip
through his fingers. Within two years he was a blinded captive in his
twice-lost kingdom ; and Hungary, freed from him, was freed too from
vassalage.
This summer saw the gathering of the western clouds. Godfrey of
>
CH. XII.
## p. 286 (#332) ############################################
286
Rebellion of Godfrey
99
Lorraine had himself taken part in Henry's former Hungarian campaign,
but deeply disappointed by the outcome of the meeting at Nimeguen,
had held himself aloof in stubborn disobedience from this last expe-
dition. He now sent envoys to Henry, who declared himself ready
to forget the duke's contumacy should he at the eleventh hour con-
sent peaceably to the division of the duchies. · But Godfrey would
submit to no “wrong,” and having failed to move Henry, he began
actively and secretly to engage in treason. And here at once becomes
evident the peculiar danger to Germany of disaffection in Lorraine.
For Lorraine was, in truth, not German as the other German lands were
German; and the first ally made by Godfrey was “rex Carlingorum,”
Henry I of France. His other allies, the Burgundian nationalists of
the “Romance " party, were, like himself, of the oft disputed “Middle
Kingdom. ” In his own duchy he prepared for resistance by gaining
from his vassals an oath of unlimited fealty for the space of three years
to aid him against all men whatsoever.
As yet there had been no overt act of rebellion ; but Henry had been
given proof of Godfrey's plots, and in the autumn summoned him before
a great assembly of the princes in Lower Lorraine itself, at Aix-la-
Chapelle. Godfrey could have defied the king and disobeyed the sum-
mons; but to do so would have been to acknowledge his guilt. He
must have hoped that there was no evidence against him, or that the
princes would sympathise with him in his wrongs. He came, was con-
victed, and condemned to the loss of all the lands, including the duchy
of Upper Lorraine and the county of Verdun, which he held in fief
from the king. Godfrey now left Aix, and broke into fierce and open
rebellion. Arms were distributed to the cities and country people, cities
were garrisoned; and the duke fell with fire and sword upon all within
reach who were faithful to Henry.
So ended the year that had seen Hungary subdued. Henry, however,
did not yet foresee the stubborn nature of the danger that threatened
from Lorraine. He spent Christmas 1044 at Spires, “a place beloved
by him. ” It is true that he summoned the princes to consultation over
Godfrey's revolt. Yet, after the feast was over, it was only the forces
of the neighbourhood that he led against the “ tyrant” that threatened
them. Even these forces he could not maintain, because of the terrible
famine in the land. He succeeded, after a short siege and with the
help of siege-engines, in taking and razing Godfrey's castle at Bockel-
heim, near Kreuznach. The seizure of other castles was entrusted to
local nobles, while Henry himself, leaving sufficient men to protect his
people against Godfrey's raids, departed to Burgundy.
Here Godfrey's efforts had borne fruit in feuds which had broken out
in the preceding year between Imperialist and Nationalist partisans.
They ended in victory for the former, for Count Louis of Montbéliard
(who had married Henry's foster-sister) with a small force overcame
## p. 287 (#333) ############################################
Otto of Swabia and his family
287
Godfrey's ally Prince Raynald', who was uncle of Henry's queen and
son of Count Otto-William, the former head of the anti-German party.
When Henry now approached Burgundy, Raynald along with the chief
of his partisans, Count Gerald of Geneva, personally made submission to
him. Thus died out the last flicker during Henry's life of Burgundian
opposition to union with the Empire.
Henry took Burgundy on his way to Augsburg, where he arrived in
February 1045, and whither he had summoned the Lombard magnates
to discuss with them the affairs of Italy. He kept Easter at Goslar.
Here, not wishing to set out for the East without taking steps to pro-
tect the West from Godfrey, he handed over to Otto, Count Palatine
in Lower Lorraine, his mother's native duchy of Swabia, which he
himself had held since 1038.
Otto's mother had been the sister of Otto III. His family was wide-
spread and illustrious. His aunt Abbess Adelaide of Quedlinburg and
Gandersheim, and his brother Archbishop Herman of Cologne (who won
for that see the right to crown the king of the Romans at Aix) were
among Henry's truest friends. His sister, Richessa, had been daughter-
in-law of Boleslav the Mighty; his nephew, her son, was Casimir, Duke
of the Poles. Another nephew, Henry, succeeded Otto in the Palatinate,
and within a year was regarded by some as a fit successor to the Empire.
Yet another nephew was Kuno, whom the king first raised to the
Bavarian dukedom and afterwards disgraced. The youngest sister, Sophia,
about this time succeeded her aunt as Abbess of the important Abbey
of Gandersheim; a niece, Theophano, was Abbess of Essen.
Otto himself had been one of the chief of those in the disputed duchy
whose loyalty to Henry had drawn upon themselves the vengeance of
Godfrey at the beginning of the year. His appointment now to the
duchy of Swabia, so long left without a special guardian, and neigh-
bour to Lorraine, recalls the appointment, when trouble threatened
from the Magyars, of a duke to Bavaria, neighbour to Hungary. He
ruled his new duchy, to which he was a stranger, with success and satis-
faction to its people; not, however, for long, for within two years he
was dead.
One more step Henry took for the protection of the West from
Godfrey. For such (viewed in the double light of Henry's general policy
of strengthening the local defence against Godfrey rather than leading
the forces of the Empire against him, and of Godfrey's policy of winning
the neighbours of Lorraine to his cause) must be considered the grant in
this year of the March of Antwerp to Baldwin, son of Count Baldwin V
of Flanders. The grant of Antwerp, however, instead of attaching
Baldwin to the king's party, increased the power of a future ally of
Godfrey's.
i Count of four or five counties which afterwards were collectively named
Franche Comté. Cf. supra, p. 141.
CH. XII.
## p. 288 (#334) ############################################
288
Germany at peace
Having thus spent the early months of 1045, from Christmas onwards,
in local measures against Godfrey and his allies, Henry after a short visit
to Saxony prepared to spend Pentecost with Peter of Hungary. On
his
way he narrowly escaped death through the collapse of the floor of
a banqueting room, when his cousin Bishop Bruno of Würzburg was
killed. Henry, notwithstanding this calamity, arrived punctually in
Hungary, and on Whitsunday in Stühlweissenburg, in the banqueting-
hall of the palace, Peter surrendered the golden lance which was the
symbol of the sovereignty of Hungary. The kingdom was restored to
him for his lifetime, on his taking an oath of fidelity to Henry and to
his heirs. This was confirmed by an oath of fidelity in the very same
terms taken by the Hungarian nobles present. After the termination of
the banquet, Peter presented to Henry a great weight of gold, which the
king immediately distributed to those knights who had shared with
him in the great victory of the preceding year.
How far was this scene spontaneous, and how far prepared ? The oath
taken by the Hungarian nobles, without a dissentient, points to its
being prepared ; and if prepared, then most certainly not without the
co-operation, most probably on the initiative, of Henry. This is what
Wipo has in mind when he says that Henry, having first conquered
Hungary in a great and noble victory, later, with exceeding wisdom,
confirmed it to himself and his successors. But Henry's victory, on
which so much was grounded, was a success snatched by a brilliant
chance; it could furnish no stable foundations for foreign sovereignty
over a free nation.
More than ever Henry appeared as an all-conquering king; and in
the West even Godfrey “despairing of rebellion " determined to submit.
During July, either at Cologne or at Aix-la-Chapelle or at Maestricht,
he appeared humbly before the king, and in spite of his submission was
sent in captivity to Gibichenstein, the German “ Tower,” a castle-fortress
in the dreary land by Magdeburg beyond the Saale, very different from
his own homeland of Lorraine. “ And so the realm for a short time
had quiet and peace.
Godfrey was perhaps taken to his prison in the train of Henry him-
self. For while he had been schooling himself to the idea of peace, the
further Slavs, growing restive, had troubled the borders of these Saxon
marches on the Middle Elbe. Godfrey's submission perhaps decided
theirs; and when Henry with an armed force entered Saxony from
Lorraine, they too sent envoys, and promised the tribute which Conrad
had imposed on them.
Henry spent the peaceful late summer and early autumn of 1045 in
Saxony. For October he had summoned the princes of the Empire to a
colloquy at Tribur. The princes had begun to assemble, and Henry
himself had reached Frankfort, when he fell ill of one of those mysterious
and frequent illnesses which in the end proved fatal. As his weakness
79
## p. 289 (#335) ############################################
Attempt at settlement in the West
289
a
increased, the anxiety of the princes concerning the succession to the
Empire became manifest. Henry of Bavaria and Otto of Swabia, with
bishops and other nobles, met together and agreed, in the event of the
king's death, to elect as his successor Otto's nephew Henry, who had
followed Otto in the Lorraine palatinate, and was likewise a nephew of
the king's confidant, Archbishop Herman, and a grandson of Otto II.
The king recovered. Happily for the schemers, he was not a Tudor;
but the occurrence must have deepened his regret when the child
just at this time born to him proved to be another daughter. This
eldest daughter of Henry and Agnes, Matilda, died in her fifteenth
year as the bride of Rudolf of Swabia, the antagonist of her brother
Henry IV.
The year 1046 opened again, as so many before and after it, with
misery to the country people. In Saxony there was widespread disease
and death. Among others died the stout old Margrave Eckhard, who,
“wealthiest of margraves," made his kinsman the king his heir.
The king, after attending Eckhard's funeral, turned to the Nether-
lands, where Duke Godfrey's incapable younger brother, Gozelo Duke
of Lower Lorraine, was dead'; here too Count Dietrich (Theodoric) of
Holland was unlawfully laying hold on the land round Flushing, be-
longing to the vacant duchy.
At Utrecht, where he celebrated Easter, Henry prepared one of his
favourite river campaigns against Dietrich. Its success was complete,
both the lands and the count falling into Henry's hands. Flushing was
given in fief to the Bishop of Utrecht, and Henry, keeping Pentecost at
Aix-la-Chapelle, determined to settle once for all the affairs of Lorraine.
The means he used would appear to have been three: the concilia-
tion of Godfrey, the strengthening of the bishops, and the grant of Lower
Lorraine to a family powerful enough to hold it. At Aix Godfrey,
.
released from Gibichenstein, threw himself at Henry's feet, was “pitied,”
and restored to his dukedom of Upper Lorraine. This transformation
from landless captive to duke might have conciliated some; but
Henry did not know his man. Duke Godfrey's hereditary county of
Verdun was not restored, but granted to Richard, Bishop of the city.
Lower Lorraine was given to one of the hostile house of Luxemburg,
Frederick, brother of Duke Henry of Bavaria, whose uncle Dietrich
had long held the Lorraine bishopric of Metz.
At the same assembly there took place an event of importance for
the North and in the history of Henry's own house, viz. the investiture of
Adalbert, Provost of Halberstadt, with the Archbishopric of Bremen,
the northern metropolis, which held ecclesiastical jurisdiction, not only
in the coast district of German Saxony, but in all the Scandinavian
lands and over the Slavs of the Baltic.
For the evidence of Gozelo's death, rather than disgrace, see Steindorff, 1.
p. 293, note.
>
C. MED. H. VOL. III. CH. XII.
19
## p. 290 (#336) ############################################
290
Adalbert of Bremen
Adalbert of Bremen had all virtues and all gifts, save that he was of
doubtful humility, humble only to the servants of God, to the poor and
to pilgrims, but by no means so to princes nor to bishops ; accusing
one bishop of luxury, another of avarice. Even as a young man he
had been haughty and overbearing in countenance and speech. His
father, Count Frederick, was of a stock of ancient nobility in Saxony
and Franconia. His mother Agnes, of the rising house of Weimar, had
been brought up at Quedlinburg, and valued learning. Adalbert quickly
rivalled, or more than rivalled, Archbishop Herman of Cologne in the
councils and confidence of the king. He made many an expedition
“with Caesar" into Hungary, Italy, Slavonia, and Flanders. He might
at Sutri have had from Henry the gift of the Papacy, but that he saw
greater possibilities in his northern see. His close connexion with the
king caused him to be regarded with suspicion, indeed as a royal spy,
by the great semi-loyal Duke of the North, the Saxon Bernard II. It
was Adalbert who moved the bishop's seat from Bremen to Hamburg,
“fertile mother of nations,” to recompense her long sorrows, exposed to
the assaults of Pagan Slavs.
But Henry was not only looking northwards. To this same congress
he summoned to judgment one of the three great Italian prelates,
Widger of Ravenna. He had, before his nomination by Henry to the
see, been a canon of Cologne, and although unconsecrated, "had for two
years inefficiently and cruelly wielded the episcopal staff. ” Wazo, the
stalwart Bishop of Liège, famous as an early canonist, was one of the
episcopal judges chosen, but without pronouncing on Widger's guilt,
he significantly denied the right of Germans to try an Italian bishop,
and protested against the royal usurpation of papal jurisdiction. This
trial is the first sign either of clash between royal and ecclesiastical claims,
or of Henry's preoccupation with Italy, where, while these things were
doing, church corruption and reform were waging a louder and louder
conflict. To Italy Henry was now to pass. Before doing so he once
more visited Saxony and the North. At Quedlinburg he invested his
little eight-year-old daughter Beatrice in place of the dead Abbess
Adelaide, and at Merseburg he held court in June, receiving the visits
and gifts of the princes of the North and East, Břatislav of Bohemia,
Casimir of Poland and Zemuzil of the Pomeranians.
By the festival of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, 8 September
1046, he was at Augsburg, whither he had summoned bishops, lords,
and knights to follow him to Italy. The news of the sudden downfall
of Peter of Hungary grieved, but did not deter, him. Crossing the
Brenner Pass, he reviewed his army before the city of Verona.
When Henry came to Italy (1046), he came to a realm where among
the cities of Romagna and the hills of Tuscany a new age was coming
into life. He had not visited Italy since he had accompanied his father
in 1038, and now the state of things was greatly changed, while his own
## p. 291 (#337) ############################################
Henry, Emperor and Patrician
291
>
a
policy was different from his father's. Conrad had been at strife with
Aribert, the great Archbishop of Milan, but Henry before he left Germany
made at Ingelheim (1039), as the Milanese historian tells us, “a pact of
,
peace with the Archbishop, and was henceforth faithfully held in honour
by him. ” But in 1045, when peace between the populace and nobles of
Milan was hardly restored, Aribert died. Henry rejected the candidate
put forward by the nobles and chose Guido supported by the democracy.
Politics were intertwined with Church affairs, and Henry's dealings with
the Papacy were the beginning of that church reform, which gave Rome
a line of reforming German Popes and led to the Pontificate of Gregory
VII. The story of that progress will come before us later', and this side
,
of the history is therefore here left out. But it was the evil state of
Rome, where the Tusculan Benedict IX, the Crescentian Sylvester III,
and the reforming but simoniacal Gregory VI, had all lately contested
the papal throne and the situation was entangled, that chiefly called
Henry into Italy. By the end of October he was at Pavia, where he held
a synod and dispensed justice to the laymen. At Sutri (20 December
1046) he held a second synod, in which the papal situation was dealt with
and the papal throne itself left vacant. Two days later he entered Rome,
where a third synod was held. No Roman priest was fit, we are told, to
be made a Pope, and after Adalbert of Bremen refused Henry chose on
Christmas Eve the Saxon Suidger of Bamberg, who after “ was elected
by clergy and people,” and became Clement II.
On Christmas Day the new Pope was consecrated, and at once gave
the Imperial crown to Henry; Agnes was also crowned Empress at the
same time. Then too the Roman people made him “ Patrician”: the
symbol of the Patriciate, a plain gold circlet, he often wore, and the
office, of undoubted but disputed importance, gave the Emperor peculiar
power in Rome and the right to control every papal election, if not
to nominate the Pope himself. The new Patrician was henceforth
officially responsible for order in the city; so it was fitting that, a week
after his coronation, he was at Frascati, the headquarters of the Counts
of Tusculum, and that, before leaving for the South, he seized the fort-
resses of the Crescentii in the Campagna. At Christmas-tide Clement II
held his first synod at Rome, and it was significant of the new era in
church affairs that simoniacs were excommunicated, and those knowingly
ordained by simoniacs, although without themselves paying a price, sen-
tenced to a penance of forty days; a leniency favoured by Peter Damiani
as against those who would have had them deprived. After this the
Empress went northwards to Ravenna, while the Emperor along with the
Pope set out for the South.
1 In vol. v.
? This Patriciate was, in this view, a new departure; it goes back not to the
patriciate of Pepin and Charles the Great but to the patriciate of the Crescentii in
the days of Otto III.
CH. XII.
1942
## p. 292 (#338) ############################################
292
Germany and France
At Capua he was received by Guaimar, recognised by Conrad as
Prince of Salerno and also of Capua, from which city Paldolf (Pandulf)
IV had been driven out. But Henry restored Paldolf, “a wily and wicked
prince” formerly expelled for his insolence and evil deeds. Conrad had
also recognised Guaimar as overlord of the Norman Counts of Aversa and
of the Norman de Hautevilles in Calabria and Apulia. Now Ranulf of
Aversa and Drogo de Hauteville of Apulia, as they went plundering and
conquering from the Greeks, were recognised as holding directly from
Henry himself". So at Benevento the gates were shut in the Emperor's
face and he had to stay outside. Thence he went to join the Empress at
Ravenna: early in May he reached Verona and then left Italy. There was
trouble in the South, but otherwise he left Italy “in peace and obedience. ”
In the middle of May he was again home in Germany, which during his
eight months' absence had also been in quiet.
With Henry's return he steps upon a downward path: the greatness
of his reign is over ; troubles are incessant and sporadic; successes scanty
and small. During his absence Henry I of France, with the approval of
his great men and perhaps at the instigation of Godfrey of Lorraine,
made a move towards claiming and seizing the duchies of Lorraine.
When the unwonted calm was thus threatened, Wazo of Liège wrote to
the French king appealing to the ancient friendship between the realms
and urging the blame he would incur if, almost like a thief, he came
against unguarded lands. Henry I called his bishops to Rheims, reproached
them for letting a stranger advise him better than his native pastors,
and turned to a more fitting warfare along with William of Normandy
against the frequent rebel Geoffrey of Anjou. But in his duchy of
Upper Lorraine the pardoned Godfrey was nursing his wrongs : his
son, a hostage with Henry, was now dead, and he also heard that his
name had not been in the list of those with whom Henry at St Peter's
in Rome had declared himself reconciled. Godfrey found allies in the
Netherlands, Baldwin of Flanders, his son the Margrave of Antwerp,
Dietrich, Count of Holland, and Herman, Count of Mons, all united by
kinship and each smarting under some private wrong. Dietrich wished
to recover from the Bishop of Utrecht the land round Flushing; Godfrey
to recover the county of Verdun from its bishop. It was almost a war of
lay nobles against the bishops so useful to Henry in the kingdom. At
the moment Henry was busied in negotiations with Hungary and in
giving a new duke to Carinthia: this was Welf, son of the Swabian
Count Welf, and as his mother was sister to Henry of Bavaria, related
to the house of Luxemburg. Now too Henry filled up a group of
bishoprics. A Swabian, Humphrey, formerly Chancellor for Italy, went as
Archbishop to Ravenna; Guido, a relative of the Empress's, to Piacenza;
a royal chaplain, Dietrich (Theodoric), provost of Basle, to Verdun;
1 For the Norman history in detail see vol. v.
## p. 293 (#339) ############################################
Disorderly vassals
293
*
Herman, provost of Spires, to Strasbourg; another chaplain, Dietrich
(Theodoric), Chancellor of Germany, provost of Aix-la-Chapelle, to Con-
stance, where he had been a canon. Metz and Trèves, two sees important
for Lorraine, were vacant: to the one Henry appointed Adalbero, nephew
of the late bishop, to the other Henry, a royal chaplain and a Swabian.
Henry, now at Metz (July 1047), was thus busy with ecclesiastical
matters and the Hungarian negotiations, when he was forced to notice
the machinations of Godfrey. Adalbert of Bremen had become suspicious
of the Billung Duke Bernard, doubly related to both Godfrey and
Baldwin of Flanders. Much was at stake; so Henry quickly made terms
with Andrew of Hungary, summoned the army intended for use against
him to meet in September on the Lower Rhine, and then went north-
wards to visit Adalbert. Bernard had always dreaded Adalbert and now,
when the Emperor both visited him and enriched him with lands in
Frisia, formerly Godfrey's, his dread turned against Henry too. Thietmar,
Bernard's brother, was even accused by one of his own vassals, Arnold,
of a design to seize the Emperor, and killed in single combat; the feud
had begun. Henry's power was threatened, and the succession was causing
him further anxiety, so much so that his close friend Herman of Cologne
publicly prayed at Xanten, whither Henry had come, for the birth of an
heir (September 1047).
The Emperor had begun the campaign by a move towards Flushing,
but a disastrous attack from Hollanders, at home in the marshes, threw
his army into confusion, and then the rebels took the field. Their blows
were mostly aimed at the bishops, but one most tragic deed of damage
was the destruction of Charlemagne's palace at Nimeguen : Verdun they
sacked and burnt, even the churches perished. Wazo of Liège stood forth
to protect the poor and the churches ; Godfrey, excommunicated and
repentant, did public penance and magnificently restored the wrecked
cathedral. In his own city, too, Wazo stood a siege; with the cross in
his unarmed hand he led his citizens against the enemy, who soon made
terms.
On the return from the Flushing expedition Henry of Bavaria died :
after a vacancy of eighteen months his duchy was given to Kuno, nephew
of Herman of Cologne. Early in October 1047 Pope Clement II died.
Then in January 1018 Poppo, Abbot of Stablo, passed away, the chief
of monastic reformers in Germany, who had given other reforming
abbots to countless monasteries, including the famous houses of St Gall
and Hersfeld.
Against Godfrey Henry held himself, as formerly against Bohemia,
strangely inactive. To Upper Lorraine, Godfrey's “twice-forfeited
duchy," he nominated “a certain Adalbert,” and left him to fight his own
battles. Christmas 1047 Henry spent at Pöhlde, where he received envoys
from Rome seeking a new Pope; after consultation with his bishops and
nobles he “subrogated” the German Poppo of Brixen, and to this choice
CH. XIJ.
## p. 294 (#340) ############################################
294
Fresh troubles in Lorraine
the Romans agreed. Wazo of Liège, great canonist and stoutest of
bishops, had been asked for advice and had urged the restoration of
Gregory VI, now an exile in Germany, and, as he held, wrongly deposed.
This was one of Wazo's last acts, for on 8 July he died. And the new
Pope also died on 9 August 1048. At Ulm in January Henry held a
Swabian diet and nominated to the duchy, which had been left vacant
for four months, Otto of Schweinfurt, Margrave in the Nordgau, a
Babenberg by birth and possibly nephew to Henry's own mother Gisela.
Lorraine remained to be dealt with. In mid-October the two Henries,
of France and Germany, met near Metz: France might easily have
succoured Godfrey who, spreading “slaughter of men and devastation of
fields, the greatest imaginable,” had slain his new rival Adalbert. But
ecclesiastical matters also pressed ; at Christmas the formal embassy from
Rome came to speak of the vacant papal throne. They asked for Halinard,
Archbishop of Lyons and formerly at Dijon. This prelate, a strict re-
former, had refused Lyons in 1041, and asked again to take it later he
refused unless he need swear no fealty to Henry. Most German bishops
disliked this innovation, but Henry, on the advice of Bruno of Toul,
Dietrich of Metz and Wazo of Liège, consented. While archbishop,
Halinard had been much in Rome, where he was greatly beloved. But
he hesitated long to take new and greater responsibilities, and in the
end Bruno of Toul became Pope, and as Leo IX began a new epoch in
the Western Church? .
To Upper Lorraine Henry had given a new duke, Gerard of
Chatenois, who, himself of Lorraine, was brother or uncle of the slain
Duke Adalbert and related to Henry and also to the Luxemburgers,
while his wife was a Carolingian: he was also founder of a dynasty which
ruled Lorraine until 1755. The Bishops of Liège, Utrecht and Metz,
together with some lay nobles, had been preparing the way for a larger
expedition. In the cold winter of 1048–1049, favoured by the lengthy
frost, they defeated and slew Count Dietrich, whose brother Florence
followed him in Holland. Then came a greater stroke and in this, too,
bishops helped, for Adalbert of Bremen was Henry's right hand. He had
already dexterously won over the Billungs; but an even greater triumph
was the treaty he had brought about with Svein of Norway and Denmark,
who had succeeded Magnus in 1047. Svein was in sympathy with the
Empire because of his missionary zeal, and now he brought to its aid
his sea-power as his fleet appeared off the Netherland coast. England too,
which was friendly since Kunigunda's marriage to Henry and had also
seen Flanders under Baldwin become a refuge for its malcontents, kept
more distant guard ; Edward the Confessor “lay at Sandwich with a
multitude of ships until that Caesar had of Baldwin all that he would. ”
Thus Baldwin was unable to "aet-burste on waetere. ” Another kind of
aid was given when Leo IX excommunicated Godfrey and Baldwin at
1 See vol. v.
## p. 295 (#341) ############################################
Birth of Henry IV
295
a
Cologne, where Pope and Emperor kept the feast of St Peter and St Paul
(29 June). Godfrey was smitten with fear and, leaving Baldwin in the
lurch, surrendered. His life was left him, but liberty and lands he forfeited,
“for he merited no mercy because of his cruel deeds. ” He had claimed two
duchies and governed one: he was now for the second time a landless
captive. Then, when Henry systematically ravaged Baldwin's lands, he
too gave in, came to terms and gave hostages for his faith. So the deso-
lating war was over and there was again, for a short time, peace within
the Empire.
Thus the Emperor was free to watch with friendly eye the reforming
work of the German Pope as he held a synod at Rheims (3 October
1049). Here appeared not only French bishops in goodly numbers but
also English because of the friendliness of Edward with Henry; as the
synod was to be “Gallic” there also came to it the prelates of Trèves,
Metz, Verdun, Besançon and Lyons. A fortnight later Leo held a German
synod at Mayence, attended by a throng of bishops and abbots from all
parts of the kingdom. This inner peace Henry secured by outward guard :
he urged the Bavarian princes and nobles to watch the Danube ; he
brought Casimir of Poland to a sworn friendship. Thus he could better
face the threatening Hungarian war. Grievous sickness had again attacked
him when the birth of an heir gave him a new and dynastic interest in
the future.
The young Henry was born on 11 November 1050, at Goslar, the
scene of so many events in his life. “ In the autumn of this year,
says the annalist of Altaich, “the Empress bore a son," and Herman of
Reichenau adds “at last. ” Even before his baptism all the bishops and
princes near at hand promised him faith and obedience. At Easter the
infant prince was baptised at Cologne and Hugh of Cluny, who was
again to be his sponsor at Canossa, was specially summoned to be his
sponsor now. In this year Henry completed his work at Goslar, which
"from a little mill and hunting-box he made into so great a city. ”
Besides the great new palace he built a church, and set up there canons
regular to carry on its work. Two bishops, Benno of Osnabrück and
Azelin of Hildesheim, were placed over the work of the new foundation,
and soon for ardour in learning and strictness in discipline Goslar had no
equal in the province.
After the royal baptism Henry with greater hope for his realm had
started on the Hungarian campaign. But the king, Andrew, partly
withstood and partly eluded him : the German army could only burn
and ravage whole districts until hunger forced their return. Soon after,
Adalbert of Austria made a compact with Andrew and peace ensued.
Lower Lorraine still called for Henry's care. Count Lambert of
Louvain first gave trouble, and then Richeldis, heiress of Hainault and
widow of Herman of Mons, by a marriage with Baldwin's son, the
Margrave Baldwin of Antwerp, roused Henry's fear and local strife.
CH. XII.
## p. 296 (#342) ############################################
296
Hungary; Bavaria
Needed on the Hungarian frontier, Henry took a risky but generous step:
he restored to Godfrey of Lorraine a former fief of his in the diocese of
Cologne and set him to guard the peace against Baldwin. From this
summer of 1051 until his marriage with Beatrice of Tuscany in 1054
Godfrey was outwardly an obedient vassal.
The earlier part of 1052 was marked mainly by ecclesiastical cares
and appointments, and then by another Hungarian expedition. The
siege of Pressburg was begun, when Andrew induced Leo IX to act the
mediator, for which purpose the Pope came to Ratisbon. Andrew had
promised the Pope to give all satisfaction and tribute, but when Henry
had raised the siege he withdrew the promise.
as Burgundian king in 1031 he had not again visited the country.
## p. 279 (#325) ############################################
Burgundy
279
He kept Christmas (1041) at Strasbourg amid a brilliant gathering
of princes; and when immediately afterwards he entered Burgundy, it
was at the head of armed vassals. We are told by Herman of Reichenau
that the Burgundian nobles made submission, that many were brought
to justice, that Henry entered Burgundy, ruled with vigour and justice,
and safeguarded the public peace; finally Wipo tells us that “he ruled
Burgundy with magnificence. "
Some notion of the state of the land before Henry's arrival may be
gathered by the history of the archdiocese of Lyons. Here Archbishop
Burchard, characterised by Herman of Reichenau as “tyrannus et sacri-
legus, aecclesiarum depraedator, adulterque incestuosus,” and moreover
strongly anti-German, had been cast into prison and chains by Conrad
in 1036. The city was then seized upon by a Count Gerard, who,
desirous it would appear of playing at Lyons the part played by the
“Patrician" at Rome, thrust into the see of Lyons his son, a mere boy.
This boy later secretly fled, and since then Lyons had contentedly lacked
a bishop.
The filling of the see thus left vacant was one of Henry's first cares
in Burgundy: at the recommendation of the Cluniac Halinard of Dijon,
who refused the sacred office for himself, it was given to a pious and
learned French secular priest, Odulric (Ulric), Archdeacon of Langres.
That the
peace
and order enforced under Henry were after all but com-
parative may be judged from the murder of Odulric himself only a few
years later. There was much to attract Henry in Burgundy; for side
by side with its lawlessness and violence were the strivings for peace and
holiness embodied in the “Treuga Dei” and in the austerity of Cluny
and its monasteries. Henry's approbation of Cluniac ideals is evident,
and throughout his whole life he shews real ardour, almost a passion
in his striving to realise throughout the Empire that peace founded
on religion, upon which the Treuga Dei, if in somewhat other fashion,
strove to insist locally.
After some six weeks in Burgundy, he must have heard at Basle on
his way back of the havoc played among the Bavarians on the frontier, a
week earlier, by the new King Obo of Hungary and his raiders. Henry,
himself the absentee duke of the unfortunate duchy, at once handed
it over (without waiting, as it would seem, for the formality of an
election, as right was, by the Bavarians) to Count Henry of Luxemburg,
who was akin to the last Duke Henry of Bavaria, and nephew to the
Empress Kunigunda, wife of Henry II. Trusting to the vigour of the
new duke to protect Bavaria for the time being, Henry next, a few
weeks later, summoned all the princes, including of course Eckhard of
Meissen, to Cologne, there to decide upon further steps to be taken
with regard to Hungary. They unanimously declared for war.
Some four or five months elapsed before the expedition was launched.
From Würzburg, at Whitsuntide, Henry strengthened his hold on
CH. XII.
## p. 280 (#326) ############################################
280.
Hungary
his Burgundian realm by dispatching Bishop Bruno to woo for him
Agnes of Poitou.
A few months he spent in comparative quiet, pro-
bably with his mother, in Thuringia and Saxony; then later, in August
1042, he entered Bavaria and started, early in September, on the Hun-
garian expedition.
It was a success. Henry overcame, not Obo himself, who retired to
inaccessible fastnesses, but at least the Western Magyars. He set up a
new king, not Peter, but an unnamed cousin of his, and then returned fairly
well satisfied to Germany. Directly his back was turned, Obo emerged
from his fastness, and the reign of Henry's candidate came to an abrupt
end. Yet a lesson against raiding had undoubtedly been given to “the
over-daring Kinglet. ”
The king spent the Christmas of 1042 at Goslar; whither in January
came envoys from the princes of the northern peoples. Břatislav of
Bohemia came in person, bearing and receiving gifts. The Russians,
though they bore back to their distant lord far more magnificent presents
than they could have offered, departed in chagrin, for Henry had rejected
their offer of a Russian bride. Casimir of Poland also sent his envoys;
they were not received, since he himself did not come in person. Lastly
Obo too, who had just ejected his second rival king, sent to propose
peace. His messengers received an answer ominously evasive.
Early in the following month, at Goslar, the Empress-Mother died.
That there had been some measure of alienation between Henry and
Gisela is suggested by Wipo's exhortation to Henry to "remember the
sweetness of a mother's name,” and by his recording in his Tetralogus
the
many benefits conferred by Gisela on her son; as well as by Herman
of Reichenau's acid comment. Yet there is no evidence that the aliena-
tion was serious. Henry's grants and charters on his mother's petition
are numerous. In all probability he spent with her the only long interval
of comparative leisure (1042) that he had enjoyed since his accession ;
she died whilst with him at Goslar.
Soon after the funeral ceremonies were over, Henry had his first
meeting with the King of France, Henry I. Its place and object are
obscure; but probably it was on the frontier at Ivois, and it may very
well have been in connexion with Henry's approaching marriage with
Agnes of Poitou.
The king's mind was now bent on the preparations for yet another
Hungarian expedition. Twice Obo sought to evade the conflict. Obo
did not, it is true, shew much tact, if indeed he really desired peace ;
for in his second embassy he demanded that Henry should himself swear
to any terms agreed upon, instead of merely giving the oath in kingly
fashion by proxy; this request was deemed an insult.
The blow when it came was effective. Henry in the space of four
weeks brought Obo to a promise of humble satisfaction, a satisfaction
never made effectual, because the promises of Obo were not fulfilled.
## p. 281 (#327) ############################################
The Day of Indulgence
281
Far more important and of solid and lasting advantage to Germany,
was the restitution by Hungary of that territory on the Danube ceded
to St Stephen “pro causa amicitiae” in 1031.
Since the frontier won by Henry remained until 1919 the frontier
between German Austria and Hungary, it is worth while considering it
in detail.
The land ceded, or rather restored, was “ex una parte Danubii inter
Fiscaha et Litacha, ex altera autem inter Strachtin et ostia Fiscaha usque
in Maraha. " South of the Danube, that is to say, the Leitha replaced the
Fischa as boundary as far south as the Carinthian March. North of the
river, the old frontier line seems to have run from opposite the confluence
of the Fischa with the Danube to a fortress on the Moravian border,
Strachtin or Trachtin. This artificial frontier was now replaced by the
river March. Thus among other things was secured permanently for
Germany the famous “ Wiener Wald. "
The realm was now at peace: Burgundy in order, Italy contented (in
contrast to the early days of Conrad) with German overlordship, not one
of the great princes or duchies of Germany a danger to the realm. The
fame or the arms of the king had induced the princes on its borders to
seek his friendship and acknowledge his superiority. Nothing remained
to mar the public peace save private enmities. To private enemies the
king might, without danger to the commonwealth, offer reconciliation.
On the “Day of Indulgence" at Constance, in late October 1043, Henry
from the pulpit announced to the assembled princes and bishops and to
the whole of Germany, that he renounced all idea of vengeance on any
who had injured him, and exhorted all his princes, nobles and people in
their turn to forget all private offences. The appeal of the king was
ordered to be made known throughout the whole land, and this
day at Constance became known as the “Day of Indulgence” or “Day
of Pardon. "
The object was to abolish violence and private war, and so far the
attempt bears a strong resemblance to the contemporary Franco-Bur-
gundian institution, the “Truce of God," with which, however, it cannot
be confounded, since although the ends were the same, the means were
only superficially alike. Since however the “Indulgence” has sometimes
been confused with, sometimes considered as deliberately rivalling, this
“Treuga Dei,” it is worth while to consider some relations and dis-
similarities between the two movements.
The “Truce of God” endeavoured to mitigate and limit violence by
an appeal to Christian sentiment rather than to Christian principle. The
Christian, under heavy church penalties, was to reverence certain days
and times regarded as sacred by abstaining on them from all violence not
only in aggression but even under provocation. This “Truce” was created
in France, the country where private feuds were most general and
fiercest, and where therefore there was greatest need of it. Its birth-
CH. XII.
## p. 282 (#328) ############################################
282
Peace and Truce of God
9
place was Aquitaine, in the year of Henry's accession; and nowhere was
it more eagerly adopted than in Burgundy, where religious zeal burnt
whitest and private feuds were most universal and devastating.
Now this “Truce of God” was an addition made to the original pro-
clamation of a Peace of God (c. 980), which forbade private violence
against non-combatants, by oath and for a fixed time, as contrary to
Christian precept. Like most medieval legislation, both “Peace" and
“Truce” were largely failures? Henry's “Indulgence” struck at the root
of the evil as they had not. The Indulgence, it is true, was not so
sweeping as would have been the “Peace of God," because no provision
was made for the protection of non-combatants, in case private war did
arrive. The “Indulgence,” being a pardon of actual enemies, could by
its nature refer only to the present and the actual without a word as
to the future, although Henry no doubt hoped that the one must entail
the other.
Another distinction between the "Treuga Dei" and the “Indulgence"
consists in the ecclesiastical character of the former. The “Truce" was
conceived by the Church, proclaimed by the Church, its breach punished
by heavy ecclesiastical penalties. The “Indulgence” was an example and
exhortation from a Christian king to his subjects, compliance being in
appearance voluntary, though royal displeasure might threaten him who
refused it. But the distinction does not, as some have thought, imply
any sort of opposition. Henry approved of the “Truce as churchmen
approved of the “Indulgence. ” One adversary of the Truce opposed it,
indeed, on the ground that by it the Church usurped a royal function.
But this was the ultra-royalist Gerard of Cambray, one of the few
bishops who did not enjoy Henry's favour. On the other hand, the
chief supporters of the Truce in Burgundy were the bishops, firm im-
perialists. Only a year before Henry's visit to Burgundy the Bishops
and Archbishops of Arles, Avignon, Nice, Vienne and Besançon, had
met Pope Benedict IX at Marseilles and had in all probability obtained
his approval for the measure promulgated by the Burgundian synod at
Montriond in 1041, extending the time of the Truce to the whole of
Lent and Advent. Cluny, whose ideal the king revered as the highest
ideal of all monasticism, had, through Abbot Odilo, appealed on behalf
of the Treuga Dei to all France and Italy. Within the French part
of the Empire, in the diocese of Verdun, Henry's friend the Abbot
Richard of St Vannes was a promoter and zealous supporter of the
Truce.
To sum up: Henry knew the working of the “Truce": its friends
were his friends, its aim was his aim. In the same spirit and with the
same object he took a different method, neither identical with, nor an-
1 Cf. Lavisse (Luchaire), Histoire de France, 11. 2, pp. 133 ff. and see also Chapter
XVIII, infra, p. 465.
## p. 283 (#329) ############################################
Empress Agnes of Poitou
283
tagonistic to, the sister-movement in the neighbouring Latin kingdoms,
but worked independently, side by side with it, in sympathy and harmony,
although their provisions were different. Henry was not given to ardours,
enthusiasms and dreams. His endeavours to found a public peace on the
free forgiveness of enemies shews a real belief in the practicability of
basing public order on religion and self-restraint rather than on force.
As little can Henry's “Indulgence” be confused with the Landfrieden
of a later date, which were in the nature of laws, sanctioned by penalties;
not a free forgiveness like Henry's "Pardon. "
This year, 1043, which had witnessed in its opening months the
homage of the North, in the summer the defeat of Hungary, in the autumn
the proclamation of peace between Germans, saw at its close the con-
summation of the policy by which Henry sought to link the South more
closely with the Empire.
His first marriage had allied him with the northern power, whose
friendship from that time on had been, and during Henry's lifetime con-
tinued to be, of great value to the Empire. His second marriage should
strengthen his bond with Italy and Burgundy, and, some have thought,
prepare his way in France. From Constance the king journeyed to
Besançon, and there, amid a brilliant gathering of loyal or subdued
Burgundian nobles, wedded Agnes of Poitou.
Agnes, that “cause of tears to Germany," was a girl of about eighteen,
dainty and intelligent, the descendant of Burgundian and Italian kings,
daughter to one of the very greatest of the French king's vassals, and
step-daughter to another. Her life so far had been spent at the court, first
of Aquitaine, during the lifetime of her father Duke William the Pious;
then of Anjou, after the marriage of her mother Agnes with Geoffrey
the Hammer (Martel). The learning and piety of the one home she ex-
changed for the superstition and violence of the other. For Geoffrey was
certainly superstitious, most certainly violent, and constantly engaged in
endeavours, generally successful, to increase his territory and his power
at the expense of his neighbours, or of his suzerain, the French king.
He and William of Norinandy were by far the strongest of the French
princes contemporary with Henry, so much the strongest, that a great
German historian has seen in the alliance by marriage of Henry with
the House of Anjou a possible preparation for the undermining of the
French throne and the addition of France to the Empire?
The marriage was held in strong disapproval by some of the stricter
churchmen on account of the relationship between Henry and Agnes,
which, although distant, fell within the degrees of kinship which, by
church law, barred marriage. Abbot Siegfried of the reformed monas-
1 Giesebrecht, Kaiserzeit, 11. p. 375.
2 Agnes and Henry were great-grandchildren respectively of two step-sisters,
Alberada and Matilda, granddaughters of Henry the Fowler. They were descended
also respectively from Otto the Great and his sister Gerberga.
CH. XII.
## p. 284 (#330) ############################################
284
Godfrey of Lorraine
tery at Gorze wrote very shortly before to his friend Abbot Poppo of
Stablo, who possessed the confidence and respect of Henry, urging him
even at the eleventh hour, and at risk of a possible loss of the king's
favour, to do all that he possibly could to prevent it. Neither Poppo,
nor Bishop Bruno of Toul (later Pope Leo IX), to whom Siegfried
addresses still more severe reproaches, nor Henry himself, paid much
heed to these representations. The marriage plans went on without let
or hindrance: twenty-eight bishops were present at the ceremony at
Besançon.
Not only the consanguinity of Agnes with the king, but also her
nationality, aroused misgivings in the mind of this German monk. He
cannot suppress his anxiety lest the old-time German sobriety shewn in
dress, arms, and horse-trappings should now disappear. Even now, says
he, the honest customs of German forefathers are despised by men who
imitate those whom they know to be enemies.
We do not know how Agnes viewed the alleged follies and fripperies
of her nation, thus inveighed against by this somewhat acid German saint.
She was pious, sharing to the full and encouraging her husband's devotion
to Cluny; she favoured learned men; her character does not however
emerge clearly until after Henry's death. Then, in circumstances certainly
of great difficulty, she was to shew some unwisdom, failing either to
govern the realm or to educate her son.
After the coronation at Mayence and the wedding festivities at
Ingelheim, Henry brought Agnes to spend Christmas in the ancient
palace at Utrecht, where he now proclaimed for the North the “ Indul-
gence" already proclaimed in the South. So with a peace “unheard of
for many ages" a new year opened. But in the West a tiny cloud was
rising, which would overshadow the rest of the king's reign. For, in
April 1044, old Duke Gozelo of Lorraine died.
Gozelo had eventually been staunch and faithful, and had done good
,
service to Henry's house; but his duchy was over-great and the danger
that might arise from this fact had been made manifest by his hesitation
in accepting, certainly the election of Conrad, and also, possibly, the
undisputed succession of his son. The union of the two duchies of
Upper and Lower Lorraine had been wrung by him from the necessities
of the kings; Henry now determined to take this occasion again to
separate them. Of Gozelo's five sons the eldest, Godfrey, had already
during his father's lifetime been duke in Upper Lorraine, and had
deserved well of the Empire. He now expected to succeed his father in
the Lower Duchy. But Henry bestowed Lower Lorraine on the younger
Gozelo, “The Coward,” alleging a dying wish of the old duke's that his
younger son might obtain part of the duchy. Godfrey thenceforth was
a rebel (sometimes secretly, more often openly), imprisoned, set at
liberty, deprived of his duchy, re-installed, humbled to submission, but
again revolting, always at heart a justified rebel. If, in spite of its
## p. 285 (#331) ############################################
Submission of Hungary
285
>
a
seeming successes, Henry's reign must be pronounced a failure, to no
one is the failure more due than to Godfrey of Lorraine.
The beginning of the Lorraine trouble coincided with the recrudescence
of that with Hungary. Obo, perhaps prevented by nationalist opposition,
had not carried out his promises of satisfaction; there was also growing
up in Hungary a party strongly opposed to him and favouring Germani-
sation and German intervention. Preparations for another campaign
had been going on strenuously in Germany; by the summer of 1044
they were complete. After a hasty visit to Nimeguen, whither he had
summoned Godfrey, and a fruitless attempt to reconcile the two
brothers, Henry with Peter in his train set out for Hungary.
With Hungarian refugees to guide him, he was, by 6 July, on the
further bank of the Raab. There the small German army confronted a
vast Hungarian host, among whom, however, disaffection was at work.
In a battle where few Germans fell, this host was scattered ; and Hungary
was subordinated to Germany. By twos and threes, or by crowds, came
Hungarian peasants and nobles, offering faith and subjection. At
Stühlweissenburg Peter was restored to his throne, a client-king; and
Henry, leaving a German garrison in the country, returned home. On
the battlefield the king had led a thanksgiving to Heaven, and his
German warriors, at his inspiration, had freely and exultingly forgiven
their enemies; on his return, in the churches of Bavaria, Henry, bare-
foot and in humble garment, again and again returned thanks for a
victory which seemed nothing short of a miracle.
It was now that Henry gave to the Hungarians, at the petition of
the victorious party amongst them, the gift of “Bavarian Law," a
Germanisation all to the good. But Hungary was not being Germanised
merely and alone by these subtle influences, by the inclination of its
kings and the German party towards things German, nor by the adoption
in Hungary of an ancient code of German law. After the battle of the
Raab, Hungary was definitely and formally in the position of vassal to
Germany; not only its king, but its nobles too, swore fealty to Henry
and his heirs ; Peter formally accepted the crown as a grant for his life-
time ; and Hungary was thenceforth to pay a regular yearly tribute.
Obo had been captured in flight and beheaded by his rival. The
victory over Hungary seemed even more complete than the victory
over Bohemia; the difference in the duration of their effects was
partly due to a fundamental difference in the character of the two
vassal princes. While Břatislav, a strong man, held Bohemia firmly,
and, giving his fealty to Henry, gave with it the fealty of Bohemia ;
Peter, subservient and cringing to his benefactor, let Hungary slip
through his fingers. Within two years he was a blinded captive in his
twice-lost kingdom ; and Hungary, freed from him, was freed too from
vassalage.
This summer saw the gathering of the western clouds. Godfrey of
>
CH. XII.
## p. 286 (#332) ############################################
286
Rebellion of Godfrey
99
Lorraine had himself taken part in Henry's former Hungarian campaign,
but deeply disappointed by the outcome of the meeting at Nimeguen,
had held himself aloof in stubborn disobedience from this last expe-
dition. He now sent envoys to Henry, who declared himself ready
to forget the duke's contumacy should he at the eleventh hour con-
sent peaceably to the division of the duchies. · But Godfrey would
submit to no “wrong,” and having failed to move Henry, he began
actively and secretly to engage in treason. And here at once becomes
evident the peculiar danger to Germany of disaffection in Lorraine.
For Lorraine was, in truth, not German as the other German lands were
German; and the first ally made by Godfrey was “rex Carlingorum,”
Henry I of France. His other allies, the Burgundian nationalists of
the “Romance " party, were, like himself, of the oft disputed “Middle
Kingdom. ” In his own duchy he prepared for resistance by gaining
from his vassals an oath of unlimited fealty for the space of three years
to aid him against all men whatsoever.
As yet there had been no overt act of rebellion ; but Henry had been
given proof of Godfrey's plots, and in the autumn summoned him before
a great assembly of the princes in Lower Lorraine itself, at Aix-la-
Chapelle. Godfrey could have defied the king and disobeyed the sum-
mons; but to do so would have been to acknowledge his guilt. He
must have hoped that there was no evidence against him, or that the
princes would sympathise with him in his wrongs. He came, was con-
victed, and condemned to the loss of all the lands, including the duchy
of Upper Lorraine and the county of Verdun, which he held in fief
from the king. Godfrey now left Aix, and broke into fierce and open
rebellion. Arms were distributed to the cities and country people, cities
were garrisoned; and the duke fell with fire and sword upon all within
reach who were faithful to Henry.
So ended the year that had seen Hungary subdued. Henry, however,
did not yet foresee the stubborn nature of the danger that threatened
from Lorraine. He spent Christmas 1044 at Spires, “a place beloved
by him. ” It is true that he summoned the princes to consultation over
Godfrey's revolt. Yet, after the feast was over, it was only the forces
of the neighbourhood that he led against the “ tyrant” that threatened
them. Even these forces he could not maintain, because of the terrible
famine in the land. He succeeded, after a short siege and with the
help of siege-engines, in taking and razing Godfrey's castle at Bockel-
heim, near Kreuznach. The seizure of other castles was entrusted to
local nobles, while Henry himself, leaving sufficient men to protect his
people against Godfrey's raids, departed to Burgundy.
Here Godfrey's efforts had borne fruit in feuds which had broken out
in the preceding year between Imperialist and Nationalist partisans.
They ended in victory for the former, for Count Louis of Montbéliard
(who had married Henry's foster-sister) with a small force overcame
## p. 287 (#333) ############################################
Otto of Swabia and his family
287
Godfrey's ally Prince Raynald', who was uncle of Henry's queen and
son of Count Otto-William, the former head of the anti-German party.
When Henry now approached Burgundy, Raynald along with the chief
of his partisans, Count Gerald of Geneva, personally made submission to
him. Thus died out the last flicker during Henry's life of Burgundian
opposition to union with the Empire.
Henry took Burgundy on his way to Augsburg, where he arrived in
February 1045, and whither he had summoned the Lombard magnates
to discuss with them the affairs of Italy. He kept Easter at Goslar.
Here, not wishing to set out for the East without taking steps to pro-
tect the West from Godfrey, he handed over to Otto, Count Palatine
in Lower Lorraine, his mother's native duchy of Swabia, which he
himself had held since 1038.
Otto's mother had been the sister of Otto III. His family was wide-
spread and illustrious. His aunt Abbess Adelaide of Quedlinburg and
Gandersheim, and his brother Archbishop Herman of Cologne (who won
for that see the right to crown the king of the Romans at Aix) were
among Henry's truest friends. His sister, Richessa, had been daughter-
in-law of Boleslav the Mighty; his nephew, her son, was Casimir, Duke
of the Poles. Another nephew, Henry, succeeded Otto in the Palatinate,
and within a year was regarded by some as a fit successor to the Empire.
Yet another nephew was Kuno, whom the king first raised to the
Bavarian dukedom and afterwards disgraced. The youngest sister, Sophia,
about this time succeeded her aunt as Abbess of the important Abbey
of Gandersheim; a niece, Theophano, was Abbess of Essen.
Otto himself had been one of the chief of those in the disputed duchy
whose loyalty to Henry had drawn upon themselves the vengeance of
Godfrey at the beginning of the year. His appointment now to the
duchy of Swabia, so long left without a special guardian, and neigh-
bour to Lorraine, recalls the appointment, when trouble threatened
from the Magyars, of a duke to Bavaria, neighbour to Hungary. He
ruled his new duchy, to which he was a stranger, with success and satis-
faction to its people; not, however, for long, for within two years he
was dead.
One more step Henry took for the protection of the West from
Godfrey. For such (viewed in the double light of Henry's general policy
of strengthening the local defence against Godfrey rather than leading
the forces of the Empire against him, and of Godfrey's policy of winning
the neighbours of Lorraine to his cause) must be considered the grant in
this year of the March of Antwerp to Baldwin, son of Count Baldwin V
of Flanders. The grant of Antwerp, however, instead of attaching
Baldwin to the king's party, increased the power of a future ally of
Godfrey's.
i Count of four or five counties which afterwards were collectively named
Franche Comté. Cf. supra, p. 141.
CH. XII.
## p. 288 (#334) ############################################
288
Germany at peace
Having thus spent the early months of 1045, from Christmas onwards,
in local measures against Godfrey and his allies, Henry after a short visit
to Saxony prepared to spend Pentecost with Peter of Hungary. On
his
way he narrowly escaped death through the collapse of the floor of
a banqueting room, when his cousin Bishop Bruno of Würzburg was
killed. Henry, notwithstanding this calamity, arrived punctually in
Hungary, and on Whitsunday in Stühlweissenburg, in the banqueting-
hall of the palace, Peter surrendered the golden lance which was the
symbol of the sovereignty of Hungary. The kingdom was restored to
him for his lifetime, on his taking an oath of fidelity to Henry and to
his heirs. This was confirmed by an oath of fidelity in the very same
terms taken by the Hungarian nobles present. After the termination of
the banquet, Peter presented to Henry a great weight of gold, which the
king immediately distributed to those knights who had shared with
him in the great victory of the preceding year.
How far was this scene spontaneous, and how far prepared ? The oath
taken by the Hungarian nobles, without a dissentient, points to its
being prepared ; and if prepared, then most certainly not without the
co-operation, most probably on the initiative, of Henry. This is what
Wipo has in mind when he says that Henry, having first conquered
Hungary in a great and noble victory, later, with exceeding wisdom,
confirmed it to himself and his successors. But Henry's victory, on
which so much was grounded, was a success snatched by a brilliant
chance; it could furnish no stable foundations for foreign sovereignty
over a free nation.
More than ever Henry appeared as an all-conquering king; and in
the West even Godfrey “despairing of rebellion " determined to submit.
During July, either at Cologne or at Aix-la-Chapelle or at Maestricht,
he appeared humbly before the king, and in spite of his submission was
sent in captivity to Gibichenstein, the German “ Tower,” a castle-fortress
in the dreary land by Magdeburg beyond the Saale, very different from
his own homeland of Lorraine. “ And so the realm for a short time
had quiet and peace.
Godfrey was perhaps taken to his prison in the train of Henry him-
self. For while he had been schooling himself to the idea of peace, the
further Slavs, growing restive, had troubled the borders of these Saxon
marches on the Middle Elbe. Godfrey's submission perhaps decided
theirs; and when Henry with an armed force entered Saxony from
Lorraine, they too sent envoys, and promised the tribute which Conrad
had imposed on them.
Henry spent the peaceful late summer and early autumn of 1045 in
Saxony. For October he had summoned the princes of the Empire to a
colloquy at Tribur. The princes had begun to assemble, and Henry
himself had reached Frankfort, when he fell ill of one of those mysterious
and frequent illnesses which in the end proved fatal. As his weakness
79
## p. 289 (#335) ############################################
Attempt at settlement in the West
289
a
increased, the anxiety of the princes concerning the succession to the
Empire became manifest. Henry of Bavaria and Otto of Swabia, with
bishops and other nobles, met together and agreed, in the event of the
king's death, to elect as his successor Otto's nephew Henry, who had
followed Otto in the Lorraine palatinate, and was likewise a nephew of
the king's confidant, Archbishop Herman, and a grandson of Otto II.
The king recovered. Happily for the schemers, he was not a Tudor;
but the occurrence must have deepened his regret when the child
just at this time born to him proved to be another daughter. This
eldest daughter of Henry and Agnes, Matilda, died in her fifteenth
year as the bride of Rudolf of Swabia, the antagonist of her brother
Henry IV.
The year 1046 opened again, as so many before and after it, with
misery to the country people. In Saxony there was widespread disease
and death. Among others died the stout old Margrave Eckhard, who,
“wealthiest of margraves," made his kinsman the king his heir.
The king, after attending Eckhard's funeral, turned to the Nether-
lands, where Duke Godfrey's incapable younger brother, Gozelo Duke
of Lower Lorraine, was dead'; here too Count Dietrich (Theodoric) of
Holland was unlawfully laying hold on the land round Flushing, be-
longing to the vacant duchy.
At Utrecht, where he celebrated Easter, Henry prepared one of his
favourite river campaigns against Dietrich. Its success was complete,
both the lands and the count falling into Henry's hands. Flushing was
given in fief to the Bishop of Utrecht, and Henry, keeping Pentecost at
Aix-la-Chapelle, determined to settle once for all the affairs of Lorraine.
The means he used would appear to have been three: the concilia-
tion of Godfrey, the strengthening of the bishops, and the grant of Lower
Lorraine to a family powerful enough to hold it. At Aix Godfrey,
.
released from Gibichenstein, threw himself at Henry's feet, was “pitied,”
and restored to his dukedom of Upper Lorraine. This transformation
from landless captive to duke might have conciliated some; but
Henry did not know his man. Duke Godfrey's hereditary county of
Verdun was not restored, but granted to Richard, Bishop of the city.
Lower Lorraine was given to one of the hostile house of Luxemburg,
Frederick, brother of Duke Henry of Bavaria, whose uncle Dietrich
had long held the Lorraine bishopric of Metz.
At the same assembly there took place an event of importance for
the North and in the history of Henry's own house, viz. the investiture of
Adalbert, Provost of Halberstadt, with the Archbishopric of Bremen,
the northern metropolis, which held ecclesiastical jurisdiction, not only
in the coast district of German Saxony, but in all the Scandinavian
lands and over the Slavs of the Baltic.
For the evidence of Gozelo's death, rather than disgrace, see Steindorff, 1.
p. 293, note.
>
C. MED. H. VOL. III. CH. XII.
19
## p. 290 (#336) ############################################
290
Adalbert of Bremen
Adalbert of Bremen had all virtues and all gifts, save that he was of
doubtful humility, humble only to the servants of God, to the poor and
to pilgrims, but by no means so to princes nor to bishops ; accusing
one bishop of luxury, another of avarice. Even as a young man he
had been haughty and overbearing in countenance and speech. His
father, Count Frederick, was of a stock of ancient nobility in Saxony
and Franconia. His mother Agnes, of the rising house of Weimar, had
been brought up at Quedlinburg, and valued learning. Adalbert quickly
rivalled, or more than rivalled, Archbishop Herman of Cologne in the
councils and confidence of the king. He made many an expedition
“with Caesar" into Hungary, Italy, Slavonia, and Flanders. He might
at Sutri have had from Henry the gift of the Papacy, but that he saw
greater possibilities in his northern see. His close connexion with the
king caused him to be regarded with suspicion, indeed as a royal spy,
by the great semi-loyal Duke of the North, the Saxon Bernard II. It
was Adalbert who moved the bishop's seat from Bremen to Hamburg,
“fertile mother of nations,” to recompense her long sorrows, exposed to
the assaults of Pagan Slavs.
But Henry was not only looking northwards. To this same congress
he summoned to judgment one of the three great Italian prelates,
Widger of Ravenna. He had, before his nomination by Henry to the
see, been a canon of Cologne, and although unconsecrated, "had for two
years inefficiently and cruelly wielded the episcopal staff. ” Wazo, the
stalwart Bishop of Liège, famous as an early canonist, was one of the
episcopal judges chosen, but without pronouncing on Widger's guilt,
he significantly denied the right of Germans to try an Italian bishop,
and protested against the royal usurpation of papal jurisdiction. This
trial is the first sign either of clash between royal and ecclesiastical claims,
or of Henry's preoccupation with Italy, where, while these things were
doing, church corruption and reform were waging a louder and louder
conflict. To Italy Henry was now to pass. Before doing so he once
more visited Saxony and the North. At Quedlinburg he invested his
little eight-year-old daughter Beatrice in place of the dead Abbess
Adelaide, and at Merseburg he held court in June, receiving the visits
and gifts of the princes of the North and East, Břatislav of Bohemia,
Casimir of Poland and Zemuzil of the Pomeranians.
By the festival of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, 8 September
1046, he was at Augsburg, whither he had summoned bishops, lords,
and knights to follow him to Italy. The news of the sudden downfall
of Peter of Hungary grieved, but did not deter, him. Crossing the
Brenner Pass, he reviewed his army before the city of Verona.
When Henry came to Italy (1046), he came to a realm where among
the cities of Romagna and the hills of Tuscany a new age was coming
into life. He had not visited Italy since he had accompanied his father
in 1038, and now the state of things was greatly changed, while his own
## p. 291 (#337) ############################################
Henry, Emperor and Patrician
291
>
a
policy was different from his father's. Conrad had been at strife with
Aribert, the great Archbishop of Milan, but Henry before he left Germany
made at Ingelheim (1039), as the Milanese historian tells us, “a pact of
,
peace with the Archbishop, and was henceforth faithfully held in honour
by him. ” But in 1045, when peace between the populace and nobles of
Milan was hardly restored, Aribert died. Henry rejected the candidate
put forward by the nobles and chose Guido supported by the democracy.
Politics were intertwined with Church affairs, and Henry's dealings with
the Papacy were the beginning of that church reform, which gave Rome
a line of reforming German Popes and led to the Pontificate of Gregory
VII. The story of that progress will come before us later', and this side
,
of the history is therefore here left out. But it was the evil state of
Rome, where the Tusculan Benedict IX, the Crescentian Sylvester III,
and the reforming but simoniacal Gregory VI, had all lately contested
the papal throne and the situation was entangled, that chiefly called
Henry into Italy. By the end of October he was at Pavia, where he held
a synod and dispensed justice to the laymen. At Sutri (20 December
1046) he held a second synod, in which the papal situation was dealt with
and the papal throne itself left vacant. Two days later he entered Rome,
where a third synod was held. No Roman priest was fit, we are told, to
be made a Pope, and after Adalbert of Bremen refused Henry chose on
Christmas Eve the Saxon Suidger of Bamberg, who after “ was elected
by clergy and people,” and became Clement II.
On Christmas Day the new Pope was consecrated, and at once gave
the Imperial crown to Henry; Agnes was also crowned Empress at the
same time. Then too the Roman people made him “ Patrician”: the
symbol of the Patriciate, a plain gold circlet, he often wore, and the
office, of undoubted but disputed importance, gave the Emperor peculiar
power in Rome and the right to control every papal election, if not
to nominate the Pope himself. The new Patrician was henceforth
officially responsible for order in the city; so it was fitting that, a week
after his coronation, he was at Frascati, the headquarters of the Counts
of Tusculum, and that, before leaving for the South, he seized the fort-
resses of the Crescentii in the Campagna. At Christmas-tide Clement II
held his first synod at Rome, and it was significant of the new era in
church affairs that simoniacs were excommunicated, and those knowingly
ordained by simoniacs, although without themselves paying a price, sen-
tenced to a penance of forty days; a leniency favoured by Peter Damiani
as against those who would have had them deprived. After this the
Empress went northwards to Ravenna, while the Emperor along with the
Pope set out for the South.
1 In vol. v.
? This Patriciate was, in this view, a new departure; it goes back not to the
patriciate of Pepin and Charles the Great but to the patriciate of the Crescentii in
the days of Otto III.
CH. XII.
1942
## p. 292 (#338) ############################################
292
Germany and France
At Capua he was received by Guaimar, recognised by Conrad as
Prince of Salerno and also of Capua, from which city Paldolf (Pandulf)
IV had been driven out. But Henry restored Paldolf, “a wily and wicked
prince” formerly expelled for his insolence and evil deeds. Conrad had
also recognised Guaimar as overlord of the Norman Counts of Aversa and
of the Norman de Hautevilles in Calabria and Apulia. Now Ranulf of
Aversa and Drogo de Hauteville of Apulia, as they went plundering and
conquering from the Greeks, were recognised as holding directly from
Henry himself". So at Benevento the gates were shut in the Emperor's
face and he had to stay outside. Thence he went to join the Empress at
Ravenna: early in May he reached Verona and then left Italy. There was
trouble in the South, but otherwise he left Italy “in peace and obedience. ”
In the middle of May he was again home in Germany, which during his
eight months' absence had also been in quiet.
With Henry's return he steps upon a downward path: the greatness
of his reign is over ; troubles are incessant and sporadic; successes scanty
and small. During his absence Henry I of France, with the approval of
his great men and perhaps at the instigation of Godfrey of Lorraine,
made a move towards claiming and seizing the duchies of Lorraine.
When the unwonted calm was thus threatened, Wazo of Liège wrote to
the French king appealing to the ancient friendship between the realms
and urging the blame he would incur if, almost like a thief, he came
against unguarded lands. Henry I called his bishops to Rheims, reproached
them for letting a stranger advise him better than his native pastors,
and turned to a more fitting warfare along with William of Normandy
against the frequent rebel Geoffrey of Anjou. But in his duchy of
Upper Lorraine the pardoned Godfrey was nursing his wrongs : his
son, a hostage with Henry, was now dead, and he also heard that his
name had not been in the list of those with whom Henry at St Peter's
in Rome had declared himself reconciled. Godfrey found allies in the
Netherlands, Baldwin of Flanders, his son the Margrave of Antwerp,
Dietrich, Count of Holland, and Herman, Count of Mons, all united by
kinship and each smarting under some private wrong. Dietrich wished
to recover from the Bishop of Utrecht the land round Flushing; Godfrey
to recover the county of Verdun from its bishop. It was almost a war of
lay nobles against the bishops so useful to Henry in the kingdom. At
the moment Henry was busied in negotiations with Hungary and in
giving a new duke to Carinthia: this was Welf, son of the Swabian
Count Welf, and as his mother was sister to Henry of Bavaria, related
to the house of Luxemburg. Now too Henry filled up a group of
bishoprics. A Swabian, Humphrey, formerly Chancellor for Italy, went as
Archbishop to Ravenna; Guido, a relative of the Empress's, to Piacenza;
a royal chaplain, Dietrich (Theodoric), provost of Basle, to Verdun;
1 For the Norman history in detail see vol. v.
## p. 293 (#339) ############################################
Disorderly vassals
293
*
Herman, provost of Spires, to Strasbourg; another chaplain, Dietrich
(Theodoric), Chancellor of Germany, provost of Aix-la-Chapelle, to Con-
stance, where he had been a canon. Metz and Trèves, two sees important
for Lorraine, were vacant: to the one Henry appointed Adalbero, nephew
of the late bishop, to the other Henry, a royal chaplain and a Swabian.
Henry, now at Metz (July 1047), was thus busy with ecclesiastical
matters and the Hungarian negotiations, when he was forced to notice
the machinations of Godfrey. Adalbert of Bremen had become suspicious
of the Billung Duke Bernard, doubly related to both Godfrey and
Baldwin of Flanders. Much was at stake; so Henry quickly made terms
with Andrew of Hungary, summoned the army intended for use against
him to meet in September on the Lower Rhine, and then went north-
wards to visit Adalbert. Bernard had always dreaded Adalbert and now,
when the Emperor both visited him and enriched him with lands in
Frisia, formerly Godfrey's, his dread turned against Henry too. Thietmar,
Bernard's brother, was even accused by one of his own vassals, Arnold,
of a design to seize the Emperor, and killed in single combat; the feud
had begun. Henry's power was threatened, and the succession was causing
him further anxiety, so much so that his close friend Herman of Cologne
publicly prayed at Xanten, whither Henry had come, for the birth of an
heir (September 1047).
The Emperor had begun the campaign by a move towards Flushing,
but a disastrous attack from Hollanders, at home in the marshes, threw
his army into confusion, and then the rebels took the field. Their blows
were mostly aimed at the bishops, but one most tragic deed of damage
was the destruction of Charlemagne's palace at Nimeguen : Verdun they
sacked and burnt, even the churches perished. Wazo of Liège stood forth
to protect the poor and the churches ; Godfrey, excommunicated and
repentant, did public penance and magnificently restored the wrecked
cathedral. In his own city, too, Wazo stood a siege; with the cross in
his unarmed hand he led his citizens against the enemy, who soon made
terms.
On the return from the Flushing expedition Henry of Bavaria died :
after a vacancy of eighteen months his duchy was given to Kuno, nephew
of Herman of Cologne. Early in October 1047 Pope Clement II died.
Then in January 1018 Poppo, Abbot of Stablo, passed away, the chief
of monastic reformers in Germany, who had given other reforming
abbots to countless monasteries, including the famous houses of St Gall
and Hersfeld.
Against Godfrey Henry held himself, as formerly against Bohemia,
strangely inactive. To Upper Lorraine, Godfrey's “twice-forfeited
duchy," he nominated “a certain Adalbert,” and left him to fight his own
battles. Christmas 1047 Henry spent at Pöhlde, where he received envoys
from Rome seeking a new Pope; after consultation with his bishops and
nobles he “subrogated” the German Poppo of Brixen, and to this choice
CH. XIJ.
## p. 294 (#340) ############################################
294
Fresh troubles in Lorraine
the Romans agreed. Wazo of Liège, great canonist and stoutest of
bishops, had been asked for advice and had urged the restoration of
Gregory VI, now an exile in Germany, and, as he held, wrongly deposed.
This was one of Wazo's last acts, for on 8 July he died. And the new
Pope also died on 9 August 1048. At Ulm in January Henry held a
Swabian diet and nominated to the duchy, which had been left vacant
for four months, Otto of Schweinfurt, Margrave in the Nordgau, a
Babenberg by birth and possibly nephew to Henry's own mother Gisela.
Lorraine remained to be dealt with. In mid-October the two Henries,
of France and Germany, met near Metz: France might easily have
succoured Godfrey who, spreading “slaughter of men and devastation of
fields, the greatest imaginable,” had slain his new rival Adalbert. But
ecclesiastical matters also pressed ; at Christmas the formal embassy from
Rome came to speak of the vacant papal throne. They asked for Halinard,
Archbishop of Lyons and formerly at Dijon. This prelate, a strict re-
former, had refused Lyons in 1041, and asked again to take it later he
refused unless he need swear no fealty to Henry. Most German bishops
disliked this innovation, but Henry, on the advice of Bruno of Toul,
Dietrich of Metz and Wazo of Liège, consented. While archbishop,
Halinard had been much in Rome, where he was greatly beloved. But
he hesitated long to take new and greater responsibilities, and in the
end Bruno of Toul became Pope, and as Leo IX began a new epoch in
the Western Church? .
To Upper Lorraine Henry had given a new duke, Gerard of
Chatenois, who, himself of Lorraine, was brother or uncle of the slain
Duke Adalbert and related to Henry and also to the Luxemburgers,
while his wife was a Carolingian: he was also founder of a dynasty which
ruled Lorraine until 1755. The Bishops of Liège, Utrecht and Metz,
together with some lay nobles, had been preparing the way for a larger
expedition. In the cold winter of 1048–1049, favoured by the lengthy
frost, they defeated and slew Count Dietrich, whose brother Florence
followed him in Holland. Then came a greater stroke and in this, too,
bishops helped, for Adalbert of Bremen was Henry's right hand. He had
already dexterously won over the Billungs; but an even greater triumph
was the treaty he had brought about with Svein of Norway and Denmark,
who had succeeded Magnus in 1047. Svein was in sympathy with the
Empire because of his missionary zeal, and now he brought to its aid
his sea-power as his fleet appeared off the Netherland coast. England too,
which was friendly since Kunigunda's marriage to Henry and had also
seen Flanders under Baldwin become a refuge for its malcontents, kept
more distant guard ; Edward the Confessor “lay at Sandwich with a
multitude of ships until that Caesar had of Baldwin all that he would. ”
Thus Baldwin was unable to "aet-burste on waetere. ” Another kind of
aid was given when Leo IX excommunicated Godfrey and Baldwin at
1 See vol. v.
## p. 295 (#341) ############################################
Birth of Henry IV
295
a
Cologne, where Pope and Emperor kept the feast of St Peter and St Paul
(29 June). Godfrey was smitten with fear and, leaving Baldwin in the
lurch, surrendered. His life was left him, but liberty and lands he forfeited,
“for he merited no mercy because of his cruel deeds. ” He had claimed two
duchies and governed one: he was now for the second time a landless
captive. Then, when Henry systematically ravaged Baldwin's lands, he
too gave in, came to terms and gave hostages for his faith. So the deso-
lating war was over and there was again, for a short time, peace within
the Empire.
Thus the Emperor was free to watch with friendly eye the reforming
work of the German Pope as he held a synod at Rheims (3 October
1049). Here appeared not only French bishops in goodly numbers but
also English because of the friendliness of Edward with Henry; as the
synod was to be “Gallic” there also came to it the prelates of Trèves,
Metz, Verdun, Besançon and Lyons. A fortnight later Leo held a German
synod at Mayence, attended by a throng of bishops and abbots from all
parts of the kingdom. This inner peace Henry secured by outward guard :
he urged the Bavarian princes and nobles to watch the Danube ; he
brought Casimir of Poland to a sworn friendship. Thus he could better
face the threatening Hungarian war. Grievous sickness had again attacked
him when the birth of an heir gave him a new and dynastic interest in
the future.
The young Henry was born on 11 November 1050, at Goslar, the
scene of so many events in his life. “ In the autumn of this year,
says the annalist of Altaich, “the Empress bore a son," and Herman of
Reichenau adds “at last. ” Even before his baptism all the bishops and
princes near at hand promised him faith and obedience. At Easter the
infant prince was baptised at Cologne and Hugh of Cluny, who was
again to be his sponsor at Canossa, was specially summoned to be his
sponsor now. In this year Henry completed his work at Goslar, which
"from a little mill and hunting-box he made into so great a city. ”
Besides the great new palace he built a church, and set up there canons
regular to carry on its work. Two bishops, Benno of Osnabrück and
Azelin of Hildesheim, were placed over the work of the new foundation,
and soon for ardour in learning and strictness in discipline Goslar had no
equal in the province.
After the royal baptism Henry with greater hope for his realm had
started on the Hungarian campaign. But the king, Andrew, partly
withstood and partly eluded him : the German army could only burn
and ravage whole districts until hunger forced their return. Soon after,
Adalbert of Austria made a compact with Andrew and peace ensued.
Lower Lorraine still called for Henry's care. Count Lambert of
Louvain first gave trouble, and then Richeldis, heiress of Hainault and
widow of Herman of Mons, by a marriage with Baldwin's son, the
Margrave Baldwin of Antwerp, roused Henry's fear and local strife.
CH. XII.
## p. 296 (#342) ############################################
296
Hungary; Bavaria
Needed on the Hungarian frontier, Henry took a risky but generous step:
he restored to Godfrey of Lorraine a former fief of his in the diocese of
Cologne and set him to guard the peace against Baldwin. From this
summer of 1051 until his marriage with Beatrice of Tuscany in 1054
Godfrey was outwardly an obedient vassal.
The earlier part of 1052 was marked mainly by ecclesiastical cares
and appointments, and then by another Hungarian expedition. The
siege of Pressburg was begun, when Andrew induced Leo IX to act the
mediator, for which purpose the Pope came to Ratisbon. Andrew had
promised the Pope to give all satisfaction and tribute, but when Henry
had raised the siege he withdrew the promise.
