Lothar even if he wished it could not
afford to quarrel with the Church; but to support the orthodox Church
party was natural to him.
afford to quarrel with the Church; but to support the orthodox Church
party was natural to him.
Cambridge Medieval History - v5 - Contest of Empire and the Papacy
The attempt of the Hohenstaufen Emperors to
restore the principle of hereditary succession meets with very limited
success. The Electoral College of princes is gradually forming itself and
establishing its control.
It is fortunate that of an election so important in the history of the
German kingship a detailed and contemporary account has come down
to us? Immediately after the completion of the obsequies of the late
Emperor, writs of summons were issued to the princes to attend an
electoral council at Mayence on the feast of St Bartholomew (24 August).
i Bruno, De Bello Saxonico, SGUS, ed. Wattenbach, p. 67.
2 The author of the Narratio de Electione Lotharii (MGH, Script. xii, 509–512) is
unknown, but he is presumed to have been one of the clergy present at the election
from the diocese of Salzburg, and a member of the extreme Church party.
## p. 335 (#381) ############################################
Election of Lothar of Supplinburg
335
The gathering was a large one'; it included, besides the German princes
and their vassals, two papal legates and Suger, Abbot of St Denis, the
famous minister of the French King Louis VI.
The natural choice would have been Frederick of Swabia. He was
nearly related to the Salian house, he was executor of the late king, heir
to his private estates, guardian of his widow Matilda, the daughter of
Henry I of England, to whose care were entrusted the imperial insignia;
he was well qualified by age—being then thirty-five years old—and by
his personal character and attainments. The head of the house of
Hohenstaufen, he was possessed of considerable private wealth; in addition
to his own duchy of Swabia, he could command the interest of Eastern
Franconia, over which his younger brother Conrad exercised ducal
powers.
But he was out of sympathy with the Church party; and the Church party
was strong under the able leadership of Archbishop Adalbert of Mayence.
Already before the meeting at Mayence Archbishop Frederick of Cologne
had dispatched an embassy to Charles, Count of Flanders, inviting him
to stand for election; the count however declined the offer. Archbishop
Adalbert was more successful. His candidate Lothar commended him-
self to the Church dignitaries on the ground of his enmity to the Salian
house, to the lay princes because he was advanced in years”, destitute of a
male heir, and therefore unable to found a dynasty to deprive them of
their power of election.
At Mayence the business of selection was delegated to a committee
of fortys, ten representatives from each tribe, Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia,
and Saxony. Three names were submitted: Frederick, Leopold, Margrave
of Austria, and Lothar. From this moment the skilful diplomacy of
Archbishop Adalbert comes into play. He had already, by means not
too reputable, if we are to believe Bishop Otto, succeeded in persuading
the Empress to surrender the insignia; now, by addressing awkward
questions to the candidates, he managed to place Frederick in a dilemma.
1 It is often stated, on the authority of Ordericus Vitalis, XII, 43, that 60,000
persons were present at the election. So e. g. Giesebrecht, Kaiserzeit, iv, 7; Zeller,
Histoire d'Allemagne, iv, 9. This figure was however commonly used to denote a
large indefinite number, and very frequently by Ordericus, who e. g. estimates the
attendance at the famous meeting at Salisbury in 1086 at 60,000 (v11, 11), and reckons
also the number of knight's fees in England at 60,000 (iv, 7). The usage may be
traced to the Babylonian numerical system; see Johannes Schmidt, Die Urheimat
der Indogermanen und das europäisch. Zahlsystem, p. 46 sq. in Abhandlungen der
Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin, 1890.
? Probably fifty years of age; he was born according to the Ann. Disibodi a few
days before the battle of the Unstrut, 9 June 1075, at which his father was killed.
Cf. Neu. Arch. XLIII (1922), p. 641.
3 Wichert, Die Wahl Lothars, FDG, XII, 96 sq. , xvi, 374 sqq. and Schirrmacher,
Entstehung des Kurfürstentums, p. 8, hold that the committee was composed of only
ten members in all, that in consideration of the limited number of princes qualified
to vote at the preliminary election the number forty was too large. The committee
of forty is however generally accepted. See e. g. Bernhardi, p. 31 sq.
CH. X.
## p. 336 (#382) ############################################
336
Campaign in Bohemia
Lothar and Leopold had first with unnecessary humility declined to
come forward, and later agreed to abide by the decision of the electors.
Frederick, on the other hand,“ ready to be chosen but not to choose a
king,” refused to give a direct answer to the question whether he would sub-
mit to the result of election; he must, he said, consult his followers; and
he left the council. By this action he lost the confidence of the assembled
princes; he appeared to deny the doctrine of free election and to set his
reliance on hereditary right. The question was settled by the turbulent
mob of Saxons, who broke up the deliberations of the council by their
shoutings and acclamation of Lothar as king. He was raised on the
shoulders of the enthusiastic crowd amidst a tumult only calmed by the
intervention of the papal legate. The Bavarians refused to comply with this
irregular ending of the proceedings in the absence of their duke. But
their duke's son was already the affianced husband of Lothar's only
child; there was no danger from that quarter. The Duke, Henry the
Black, hurried to the scene, and Lothar III was duly elected on 30 August.
A fortnight later, 13 September, he was solemnly crowned at Aix-la-
Chapelle.
The opening years of the reign were marked by widespread unrest. In
Bohemia, in Lorraine, even in his own dukedom of Saxony, the authority of
the new king was disputed or openly disregarded. In Swabia and Franconia
the party of the Hohenstaufen was in the ascendant. Duke Frederick
had eventually done belated homage to Lothar, but almost immediately
quarrelled with him over the issue of the Salian inheritance. After his
coronation the king proceeded to Ratisbon, where he held a diet in
November. To the assembled princes he put the question whether estates
that had been confiscated from outlaws or had been acquired by exchange
with imperial lands should be regarded as imperial or private property.
The problem was raised on general grounds, but its real application was
obvious. The Salian Emperors had largely increased their territorial
position by both these means, and the lands so acquired were included in
the Hohenstaufen inheritance. The diet decided against Frederick ; he
refused to give up the fiefs in question, was found guilty of high treason
at the Christmas court at Strasbourg, and at Goslar in January 1126
was placed under the ban of the Empire.
Lothar's position, by no means strong, was sensibly weakened by the
conspicuous failure of his first military enterprise. It arose over the
question of the succession to the Bohemian dukedom, in which, with
singular lack of judgment, he supported the weaker claims of Otto of
Olmütz against those of the popular candidate, Soběslav, a brother of the
late King Vladislav I (ob. April 1125). Otto appealed, not in vain,
for Lothar's assistance at the diet of Ratisbon. In midwinter the king
crossed the Erzgebirge into Bohemia with a small band of Saxons.
Wearied by long marches through the snow-covered mountains and ex-
hausted by lack of provisions, they emerged into the valley of Kulm to
## p. 337 (#383) ############################################
Possessions of the house of Welf
337
find a large force of Bohemians under Soběslav awaiting their coming
(February 1126). The advanced troops were all but annihilated by the
overwhelming numbers of the enemy; and Lothar had no choice but to
make terms. The death of his protégé on the battle-field facilitated
matters, and Lothar found in his conqueror a submissive and loyal ally.
Soběslav recognised Lothar's election, did homage for his dukedom, and
in after time proved his loyalty by signal services in the field.
The king could not press forward the punitive expedition against
Frederick of Hohenstaufen which had been arranged for Whitsuntide 1126
until his own position in Germany was more secure. The uselessness of
doing so had been proved by an abortive campaign in Swabia in the
autumn of 1126. The prospect brightened a little with the death in
December of Henry the Black, Duke of Bavaria, who shortly before had
withdrawn from the world to spend his closing years in the monastery of
Weingarten. His son and successor Henry, called the Proud, was young
and energetic, the heir to enormous wealth, the chosen husband of
Gertrude, Lothar's only child. His inheritance comprised, in addition
to the duchy of Bavaria, the greater part of the private property of his
family in Bavaria and extensive possessions round Lüneburg in Saxony
which passed to him through his mother Wulfhild, daughter of Magnus
Billung. The rest of the inheritance in Bavaria and Swabia fell to Henry's
younger brother Welf VI'. The projected marriage, which was in after
years to upset the balance of ducal power in Germany by the union of
Saxony and Bavaria in the hands of one man more powerful almost
than the king himself, was carried out on the borders of Swabia and
Bavaria near Augsburg on 29 May 1127. The immediate result was
that Lothar could now in co-operation with Henry of Bavaria prosecute
the war against the Hohenstaufen with vigour and with fair prospects of
success. His position was further improved by his alliance in the same
year with Conrad of Zähringen. In March William, Count of Bur-
gundy (Franche Comté), was murdered. His inheritance fell naturally
to his cousin Rainald, who immediately occupied the lands without
waiting to be formally invested by the king. Lothar took advantage of
this remissness and granted the rectorship of Burgundy to Conrad of
Zähringen who was also connected with the late count, thereby not only
gaining a new ally for himself but also detaching a strong supporter
from the party of the Hohenstaufen.
Yet the tide of events still went against the king. Nuremberg suc-
cessfully resisted his attack. For ten weeks the armies of Lothar,
supported by the levies of Henry and Soběslav from Bavaria and Bohemia,
invested the town. The Bohemian allies ravaged the country, burnt the
1 There were also claims upon lands in Italy through Azzo, Marquess of Este,
who married Cunegunda, sister of the childless Welf III. Henry the Proud and
Welf VI were their great-grandsons. But these claims were not made good
C. MED, H. VOL. V. CH. X.
22
till 1154.
## p. 338 (#384) ############################################
338
War with the Hohenstaufen
churches, and so incensed the population that they had to be sent home.
At last Conrad of Hohenstaufen, lately returned from the Holy Land,
advanced with fresh troops for its relief. Without risking a battle, Lothar
withdrew first to Bamberg, then to Würzburg, whither he was pursued by
Conrad, who however contented himself with celebrating a tournament at
the very gates of the town as a mark of his disdain and returned, as he
had come, to Nuremberg.
The efforts of the Hohenstaufen had met with such success that they
now purposed to wrest the crown itself from Lothar. Frederick waived
his claim of seniority in favour of his brother Conrad, who was duly
elected king by his supporters on 18 December 1127. Spires declared for
him and drove out its bishop; but this was the last triumph of his party.
The election of Conrad was the turning-point in the conflict. By it not
only the German kingship but also the German Church was assailed; the
whole weight of the ecclesiastical power was thrown into the scale on the
side of the legitimate king. Realising that the odds against him in
Germany were too heavy, Conrad, early in the year 1128, crossed the
Septimer to try his fortunes in Italy.
The Rhenish town of Spires now became the centre of the Hohenstaufen
resistance. After a siege of nearly three months the burghers asked for
terms, agreed to give hostages, and made promises for their future loyalty
(November 1128). Lothar was now free to attend to business in other
parts of his kingdom. Lorraine was hostile to him; a rising of the citizens
of Aix-la-Chapelle during his stay in the town in January 1127 was only
pacified by liberal concessions ; Godfrey the Bearded, Duke of Lower
Lorraine, supported the pretensions of the Hohenstaufen. The duke was
drawn into a dispute over the inheritance of Charles the Good, Count of
Flanders, who in March 1127 had been murdered in the church of
St Donatian at Bruges, on the side of William Clito the son of Duke
Robert of Normandy. While he was thus engaged, Lothar seized his duchy
and handed it over to Walram, Count of Limbourg, the son of Henry,
Godfrey's predecessor in the dukedom. Godfrey soon succeeded in re-
covering the greater part of his possessions, and the only result of Lothar's
intervention was the further dismembermentof the old Lotharingian duchy.
In the meanwhile Henry of Bavaria remained in the south to cope
with Frederick of Swabia. The latter was keeping Lent at the monastery
of Zwifalten on the banks of the Danube when Henry happened to be
visiting his family estates in the same neighbourhood. The opportunity
of finding Frederick unaware of his presence and with but a few companions
was too much for his sense of honour. Coming one night to the monastery
with a body of armed followers, he set fire to the dwelling-rooms of the
monks in which he rightly imagined Frederick to be. The latter escaped
from the flames with the help of the monks and took refuge in the church
tower. Henry surrounded the church, broke in the doors, even disturbed
the brethren at their prayers with threats of death, but all to no effect.
## p. 339 (#385) ############################################
Failure of the Hohenstaufen in Germany and Italy 339
Frederick, safe in his tower, defied his sacrilegious assailant, who not only
had to retire in disgust but had to pay for his scandalous behaviour by
forfeiting the advocacy of the monastery. The Hohenstaufen still had a
strong position in Franconia and Swabia; there was yet hope in the Rhine
country in spite of the submission of Spires. The insincerity of the
promises made to Lothar on the occasion of its surrender was revealed
when Frederick proceeded there with the view to making it again the
centre of resistance. The townsmen readily threw over the king for the
duke. The fortifications were strengthened, the garrison increased;
Frederick himself after completing his arrangements departed for Swabia,
leaving the conduct of affairs in the city to his wife Agnes of Saarbruck.
In June 1129 Lothar appeared before the walls. Month after month
the siege dragged on without either side shewing signs of giving in. At
last the king in despair sent an urgent appeal for help to his son-in-law,
who was engaged in besieging a rebellious subject, Frederick of Bogen, in
his castle of Falkenstein. Henry, leaving the siege in charge of his sister
Sophia, responded immediately to the royal summons with a body of six
hundred Bavarian knights. The joint strength of Bavaria and Saxony
turned the scale. From midsummer till past Christmas the townsmen,
under the gallant leadership of Agnes, held out in spite of every hardship
and privation. Eventually deprived of all hope of relief, for a force
brought to their aid by Frederick was driven off, they submitted and on
the feast of Epiphany 1130 opened their gates to the king.
With the capture of Spires the opposition in the Upper Rhineland
was crushed. Before long Nuremberg, the chief strong-point of resistance,
fell before Lothar's attack; and with it went all hopes of success for the
party of the Hohenstaufen in Germany. In Italy too Conrad's initial
success was not long maintained. Notwithstanding his excommunication
by Honorius II he was welcomed at Milan, crowned by its archbishop at
Monza and again in the cathedral of St Ambrose with the Iron Crown
of Lombardy. But this was the limit of his achievement. An attempt
to acquire the possessions of the late Countess Matilda ended in failure
the towns of Lombardy which had at first received him declared against
him; his supporters one by one abandoned his cause and left him almost
alone. In despair he gave up trying to establish himself in Italy and re-
crossed the Alps (1130), only to find that in Germany also the family
cause was as good as lost.
Yet years dragged on before the brothers admitted defeat. Their
opponents were too busily occupied with other matters to press the issue
to a conclusion. The petty quarrels and rivalries of ambitious princes
kept Saxony in ceaseless turmoil. Albert of Ballenstädt and Henry of
Groitsch, Conrad of Wettin and Herman of Winzenburg, each strove
to increase his own power at the other's expense. The murder in one of
these feuds of a trusted follower of the king, one Burchard of Loccum,
by Herman of Winzenburg, Landgrave of Thuringia, called for Lothar's
CH. X.
22-2
## p. 340 (#386) ############################################
340
Destruction of Augsburg and Ulm
intervention in the affairs of his old duchy. Herman was found guilty
of high treason in December 1130, and sentenced to the confiscation of
his fiefs. Before another year was out Albert the Bear for some similar
offence was deprived of the East Mark. The rebellious town of Halle
suffered the severest of punishments. It fell before Lothar's assault, its
inhabitants were put to death, mutilated, or in some cases allowed their
safety on payment of heavy fines. By such stringent methods as these
Lothar restored the peace of Saxony.
The fate of Augsburg affords another example of the stern measures
employed by the king to suppress local risings, but in this instance he
had less justification for his action. On the journey to Italy in August
1132, a dispute arose in the market between the townsfolk and the soldiers
and quickly spread through the whole city. The king, suspecting treason,
ordered the troops to punish the burghers. From noon till night the
town was in a tumult; men, women, and children were massacred in the
streets and houses; churches and monasteries were broken into, plundered,
and burnt. As on previous occasions the Bohemian troops in the royal
army were conspicuous for their barbarity and excess. In a state of com-
plete desolation Augsburg was left as a warning to other towns not to
risk the king's displeasure.
During Lothar's absence in Italy (September 1132-August 1133)
Henry of Bavaria remained in Germany to deal with the Hohenstaufen.
But rebellions in his own duchy kept him too busily occupied to effect a
decision. The appointment of Henry of Wolfratshausen in August 1132
to the see of Ratisbon against the wishes of the king and himself led
to serious trouble. The bishop, aided by his advocate, the duke's old enemy
Frederick of Bogen, made stubborn resistance. For some months fighting
continued, the armies plundering and burning after the manner of medieval
warfare round Ratisbon and Wolfratshausen, a castle near the site
of the present town of Munich. At last the two armies, the bishop's
strengthened by the adhesion of Leopold of Austria, faced each other
on the banks of the Isar to bring matters to a final issue. At the critical
moment Otto of Wittelsbach, the count palatine, intervened as mediator
and reconciled the contending parties.
It was not till August 1134 that the Emperor and his son-in-law
were free to deal decisively with the Hohenstaufen. The Swabian town
of Ulm had now become the centre of resistance. After a short siege
Henry captured the town, which was thereupon almost totally destroyed
by the devastations practised by the Bavarian soldiers. Lothar had in
the meanwhile overrun Swabia without opposition. The brothers were
in desperate straits: their castles were captured; their supporters deserted.
Frederick was the first to realise the futility of further resistance; he
approached the Empress Richenza and begged her to intercede on his
behalf. At Fulda towards the end of October the reconciliation was
effected. The terms of his submission, settled at the crowded diet of
## p. 341 (#387) ############################################
Ecclesiastical policy
341
Bamberg (March 1135), were favourable in the extreme: he was freed
from excommunication, and received back his dukedom and his possessions;
for his own part he had only to promise to accompany the Emperor on
the Italian campaign which had been planned for the next year—a con-
dition imposed no doubt at the request of St Bernard who was present at
the court in the papal interest. Conrad held back for some months longer,
but finally made his peace with the Emperor at Mühlhausen in September
under the same lenient conditions as those imposed upon his brother.
Lothar owed his crown to the support given him by the leaders of
the Church hierarchy. Did he reward their confidence by granting on
that occasion definite concessions? The question is crucial and contro-
versial. That some settlement was reached seems clear, but its precise
nature cannot be determined. We have no reliable information. A famous
passage formulates a position, but it is more likely the position at which
the leaders of the party aimed than the one actually attained? More
profitable results may be found from the evidence of Lothar's actual
relations with the Church during his reign. After his election we are told
he neither received nor exacted homage from the spirituality, contenting
himself merely with the oath of fealty; and even this he remitted in the
case of Conrad, Archbishop of Salzburg, in deference to the latter's
scruples in the matter. The most important change was with regard to
the royal presence at elections. Here again Lothar bent to the wishes
of the Church party and refrained from exercising the right granted him
by the Concordat of Worms. Two elections took place within a month
of his accession-Eichstätt and Magdeburg—and in neither case was he
present. Indeed there is scarcely an instance during the first five years
of his reign of his disturbing episcopal elections by his presence'. The
ecclesiastical princes had no cause to complain of the conduct of the man
they had set upon the throne.
Lothar even if he wished it could not
afford to quarrel with the Church; but to support the orthodox Church
party was natural to him. As Duke of Saxony he had been bred up to
1 Narratio de Electione Lotharii, MGH, Script. xii, c. 6.
2 See Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, IV, p. 118, n. 2. The passage in
the Narratio mentions three points: 1. Free election without the presence of the
king; 2. Investiture with the regalia by the sceptre after consecration ; 3. The right
of the king to exact the oath of allegiance. As the citation of the wording of a
document this breaks down on the second point; for the old practice of investiture
with the regalia before conse ation continued to prevail.
3 Or were the concessions granted in the Concordat by Calixtus II only intended
for Henry V personally, and not for his successors? There is no mention of the
latter in the document, and Otto of Freising (Chron. vii, 16) expressly tells us that
at Rome it was interpreted in this way “hoc sibi soli et non successoribus datum
dicunt Romani. ” See D. Schäfer, Zur Beurteilung des Wormser Konkordates, in
Abhandlungen der Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin, 1905.
4 See Hauck, op. cit. p. 128, n. 1; also for the whole question Bernheim,
Lothar III und das Wormser Concordat, Strasbourg, 1874.
CH, X.
## p. 342 (#388) ############################################
342
Lothar and the papal schism
the traditional policy of opposition to the anti-hierarchical Salians; and
this policy he maintained as king.
When Honorius II died in February 1130 and the two factions in
Rome each chose its own candidate to fill the papal throne, Lothar was
faced with the necessity of making a momentous decision. Though not
as yet crowned Emperor, the long attachment of the imperial title to the
King of Germany gave Lothar the unquestioned position of temporal
ruler of Christendom. The rival Popes Anacletus II and Innocent II, the
one master of Rome, the other a refugee in France, each appealed anxiously
to him for recognition. Each had his supporters in Germany. Ana-
cletus found an advocate of his pretentions in Adalbero, Archbishop of
Bremen, who happened to be in Rome at the critical moment; Innocent
saw his claims upheld by the most advanced Churchmen, represented by
Conrad of Salzburg, Norbert, and Otto of Bamberg. But Lothar hesitated.
Perhaps he feared a split in the ranks of the Church party on whose
support he relied so much. It was not till Louis VI of France at Étampes,
under the influence of Bernard, had declared for Innocent that Lothar,
urged also by Innocent's legate Walter of Ravenna, consented to take
action. He summoned a meeting at Würzburg in October to discuss the
question. Only sixteen bishops presented themselves, but the sixteen
were unanimous for Innocent. Lothar accepted the decision without
hesitation, and immediately sent Conrad of Salzburg and Ekbert of
Münster to carry Germany's recognition to the Pope in France.
At Innocent's suggestion a personal interview between Pope and king
was arranged; Liège near the French frontier was chosen as a convenient
meeting place for both parties. Thither on 22 March 1131 came Innocent
accompanied by thirteen cardinals, a large number of French bishops, and
the indispensable Bernard. Lothar received him with due humility; he
performed the office of groom for the pontiff when he dismounted, signifying
by his act that he claimed to be but the servant of the Bishop of Rome;
he made promises to enter Italy to destroy the invaders of the Holy
See. But these cordial relations were almost upset at the very meeting
which had given them birth. Lothar, it seems, raised the vexed question
of episcopal elections; he evidently wished to recede from the concessions
he had made at the time of his accession, to revive the royal influence
over elections, in short to claim those privileges which the Concordat
had granted to the Crown. A quarrel was prevented by the eloquence
of Bernard. It is impossible to say whether any understanding was
reached. But a change of attitude is perceptible in Lothar’s dealings
with the Church during the year following: he appears to have tried to
exert some control over elections to bishoprics'; but the Church party
1 Notably in the cases of Adalbero of Münsterol to the archbishopric of Trèves
at Easter 1131, and of Henry of Wolfratshausen to the see of Ratisbon 19 August
1132. See Hauck, op. cit. iv, p. 151 sg.
## p. 343 (#389) ############################################
Civilising of the Wendish country
343
resented his action so strongly that rather than quarrel he tacitly re-
linquished his pretensions.
The relations with the Pope continued to be friendly. In August 1132
Lothar carried out his promised campaign in Italy to end the schism, and
on 4 June 1133 at the Lateran received as his reward the imperial crown.
Again Lothar took occasion to raise the crucial subject of episcopal
elections, and, in spite of loud protests from the Gregorian party in
Germany, obtained concessions contained in a document dated 8 June 1133
which amounted to a confirmation to himself of the rights allowed to the
Emperor in the Worms Concordat? We should expect to find a complete
reversal of policy in consequence. Nothing of the sort is perceptible.
Lothar too well realised the value of the Church support; he used his
power with a refinement of tact; he was often present at elections but
his presence was scarcely felt. The settlement at the Lateran, which came
so near to disturbing the peaceful relations between Church and State,
in practice made little or no change in Lothar's attitude of conciliatory
friendship towards the Church. The reign of Lothar from the point of
view of Church politics marks the consummation of the victory of the
hierarchy.
Throughout his reign we see Lothar, with an energy surprising
in a man of his age, busily occupied in a succession of wars both at
home and abroad: now he is campaigning against the Hohenstaufen,
now settling contested claims to an inheritance, now fulfilling the supreme
function of his imperial office by taking up arms against the enemies of
the Church. But more enduring results matured from the work which
alike as duke and king had always been nearest to his heart—the expansion
of Germany eastwards, the revival of German influence, the re-establish-
ment of the Christian religion and civilisation in the Wendish regions.
In this sense an annalist is justified in describing Lothar as “the imitator
and heir of the first Otto. "» Since the tenth century nothing had been
done, and even the districts then brought under German intluence had
since lapsed once more into paganism and barbarism. Lothar was ready
to promote with his support and encouragement every enterprise which
led in this direction. So Otto of Bamberg was able to make his second
journey to Pomerania in 1127, and to see his work established on a firm
basis. So also the Premonstratensians were able to pursue their missionary
labours in Brandenburg with the co-operation of Albert of Ballenstädt,
who in 1134 was enfeoffed with the North Mark as a reward for his services
1 Nos igitur, maiestatem imperii nolentes minuere sed augere, imperatoriae
dignitati(s plenitudinem tibi concedimus et debitas et canonicas consuetudines pre-
sentis scripti pagina confirmamus. Interdicimus autem, ne quisquam eorum, quos
in Teut(onico) regno ad pontificatus honorem vel abbatiae regimen evocari contigerit,
regalia usurpare vel invadere audeat, nisi eadem prius a tua (potes)tate deposcat,
quod ex his, quae iure debet tibi, tuae magnificentiue faciat. MGH, Const. 1, 168 sq.
and printed in Bernheim, Quellen zur Geschichte des Investiturstreites, 11, p. 70.
? Ann. Palidenses sub anno 1125. MGH, Script. xvi, 77.
OH, X.
## p. 344 (#390) ############################################
344
Relations with Denmark
in the Italian campaign, and on the death of Pribislav of Brandenburg
without heirs received that district in addition. The priest Vicelin made
progress in Holstein and the district about Lübeck.
It was the king's activities in Nordalbingia which involved him in
the tangled affairs of Denmark. In 1131 the land was plunged into civil
war by the murder of Canute, the son of the late King Eric, at the hands
of Magnus, the son of the reigning King Niel. Canute was ruling in
Schleswig, and had also been enfeoffed with the county of Wagria and
the land of the Obotrites by Lothar. His firm hand kept the turbulent
Wendish population under control; the country prospered; Christianity
and civilisation began to revive. But the success of his rule and the un-
certainty of the succession to the Danish throne brought upon him the
jealousy of his cousin Magnus. His assassination was the result. Lothar
could not allow the murderer of his vassal to go unpunished. In the
summer of 1131 he advanced as far as the Eider, but being confronted
there not only by the troops of Niel and Magnus but also by rebels
“as innumerable as the sands of the sea,” he wisely contented himself with
a fine of four thousand marks and the homage of Magnus. Canute's
Nordalbingian possessions were divided between two Wendish princes,
Pribislav and Niclot, the former receiving Wagria and Polabia, the latter
the land of the Obotrites. Lothar led his army across the Elbe and
received homage from these princes. But with two Wendish chieftains,
who owed only a nominal recognition to the German king, ruling the
country, the development of civilisation which had been making rapid
progress under Canute and his predecessor, Henry son of Gottschalk,
received a set-back; every hindrance was placed in the way of Vicelin
the German missionary, who brought his complaints and remedial proposal
to the king. His suggestion was the erection of a strong fortress in a
commanding position on a hill, Segeberg, near the banks of the Trave.
To the disgust of Pribislav and Niclot, who saw in the plan the German
yoke falling on them, the fortress was built and garrisoned with Saxons;
with military protection behind him Vicelin was now able to proceed
unhindered on his missionary enterprise.
The pacification of Denmark was likewise unsatisfactory. Niel and
Magnus pursued Canute's brother Eric with relentless hostility. Driven
from Schleswig he took refuge in Zealand, where even his brother Harold
turned against him. The German settlers at Roeskilde on the island
were murdered, mutilated, or expelled. It was clearly time for Lothar
to intervene once more in the affairs of the north. But no campaign
took place. Magnus presented himself at the Easter court at Halber-
stadt, indemnified himself for his misdeeds with large sums of money,
and became the vassal of the German king. Nevertheless, while Niel and
Magnus lived and reigned there could be no peace in Denmark. Their
deaths, the one assassinated by the burghers of Schleswig, the other slain
in battle, cleared the field. Eric, left in undisturbed possession, sent
## p. 345 (#391) ############################################
Death of Lothar III
345
ambassadors to the court at Magdeburg at Whitsuntide 1135 and re-
ceived the Emperor's recognition of his title.
At the same diet a quarrel, in which all the eastern neighbours of
Germany-Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia-were involved, was also
brought within sight of determination. It arose on the death of Stephen II
of Hungary. His crown was disputed between his blind cousin Béla and
his half-brother Boris; the former was supported by Soběslav of Bohemia,
the latter by Boleslav of Poland. All the three countries engaged sent
embassies to Lothar at Magdeburg. But the Emperor required Boleslav's
personal attendance. He appeared at Merseburg in August, paid twelve
years' arrears of tribute, and took the oath of allegiance; he was in some
measure compensated by the acquisition of Pomerania and Rügen as fiefs
of the German crown. An armistice was arranged between Bohemia and
Poland pending a definite peace. Boris gave up the struggle, and Béla
remained in secure possession of the Hungarian throne. To the Merseburg
diet came also ambassadors from the Eastern Emperor John Comnenus
and from the Doge of Venice offering help against their common enemy,
Roger of Sicily. “So highly was the Emperor Lothar esteemed by
kings and kingdoms,” writes the chronicler, " that he was visited with
gifts and embassies from Hungarians, Ruthenians, Danes, French, and
many other nations. The Empire enjoyed peace and plenty, religion in
the monasteries flourished, justice reigned, iniquity was repressed. "ı
The year 1135 was indeed a year of reckonings. It witnessed the
results of a decade of masterful rule. Since the days of Henry III German
prestige had not risen so high. It is marked by the ending of quarrels,
by reconciliations, by peace. At the diet of Bamberg in March, which
brought to a close the long-contested fight with the Hohenstaufen, a
peace to last for ten years was proclaimed throughout Germany. This
state of peace and prosperity the Emperor was only destined to enjoy
for one year more on German soil. Towards the end of the summer of
1136 he crossed the Alps to take the field against Roger of Sicily. On
his return in the following autumn he fell sick at Trent, and barely had
sufficient strength to reach his own country. He died in a peasant's hut
in the Tyrolese village of Breitenwang on 4 December 1137.
Lothar, by an arrangement with the Pope in 1133 had secured under
certain conditions the allodial estates of the Countess Matilda for his
son-in-law Henry the Proud”; he had also before his death granted him
the duchy of Saxony and entrusted to him the imperial insignia, thereby
designating him as his successor to the throne. With two dukedoms,
with extensive possessions of his own in Germany and in Italy, with
rich lands in Saxony by right of his wife, there was no man in Germany
who could compete with Henry in power and wealth. Yet the Church
faction which had raised Lothar to the throne disapproved of his
1 Ann. Saxo, MGH, Script. vi, 770.
2 MHG, Const. 1, 169.
сн. х.
## p. 346 (#392) ############################################
346
Election of Conrad III
ני
appointed heir. On the Italian campaign he had neither shewn defer-
ence to their wishes nor a bearing likely to command their confidence.
Still less was he acceptable to the lay princes; they feared his over-
whelming power; they were above all anxious to avoid the foundation
of a dynasty and to prove their right of election by passing over the
man designated by the dead Emperor. Neither the spiritual nor the
secular princes wanted the Welf candidate.
The see of Mayence was vacant; the Archbishop of Cologne, but just
elected, had as yet not received the pallium; it was only natural in
these circumstances that the direction of affairs should fall to the third
great ecclesiastical prince, Archbishop Adalbero of Trèves, between whom
and Henry a long-standing enmity subsisted. He summoned a meeting
at Coblenz-a singularly unrepresentative gathering, for neither Saxons
nor Bavarians were present—and at his proposal Conrad of Hohenstaufen,
Lothar's rival, was chosen on 3 March 1138. Ten days later he was
crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle by the papal legate. “A mere mockery of
right and custom,”? yet however irregular the procedure may have been
the result was popular. The princes of Germany flocked to the court at
Bamberg on 22 May to do homage to the new king; Leopold of Austria,
Conrad of Zähringen, Soběslav of Bohemia, even the widowed Empress
Richenza, put in an appearance.
Duke Henry was absent from the court at Bamberg; a diet was fixed
to assemble at Ratisbon, and there Henry appeared ready to deliver
up the royal insignia in his keeping in return for confirmation in the
possession of his two dukedoms? . But here lay the difficulty; apparently
already at the diet of Bamberg Conrad had promised Saxony to Albert
the Bear. The king disliked the notion of two dukedoms united in the
hands of one man. He succeeded, nevertheless, by diplomacy, by vague
promises no doubt, in extracting the insignia from Henry, and fixed a
meeting at Augsburg for a final settlement. But here again no agree-
ment was reached. Conrad, fearing Henry's threatening attitude, left for
Würzburg, where the duke was put under the ban (July 1138). Saxony
was bestowed upon Albert; Bavaria, which was confiscated a little later
at Goslar, after a short retention in the king's hands, was disposed of to
Leopold of Austria.
Before the year 1138 was far advanced Saxony and Bavaria were
ablaze with civil war; the old feud of Welf and Hohenstaufen, which
had disturbed the peace during the greater part of the previous reign,
1 Giesebrecht, Kaiserzeit, iv, 171.
2 The accounts of these events differ considerably in their details. The com-
paratively late Annales Palidenses, MGH, Script. xvi, anno 1138, mention that
Conrad besieged Henry at Nuremberg and forced him to give up the insignia;
whereas Otto of Freising, Chron. vii, cap. 23, expressly states that the insignia
were given up at the diet held at Ratisbon. Cf. Giesebrecht, op. cit. iv, 175 sq.
and 459, and Bernhardi, Konrad III, 49 sq.
## p. 347 (#393) ############################################
Hohenstaufen versus Welf
347
broke out once more with renewed bitterness. The Empress Richenza
by her vigorous energy in the cause of her son-in-law won the support of
many of the Saxon princes, who looked upon Albert the Bear as an
upstart. But Albert was too quick for them; he attacked before their
preparations were completed, defeated them decisively, and occupied the
Welfic possessions of Lüneburg and Bardowiek. The king, however,
deceived himself into thinking the opposition in Saxony crushed; the
sudden appearance of the banished duke in his northern dukedom altered
the situation. Town after town fell into his hands, even the lands of
the usurping margrave were no longer secure, and by the spring of
1139 Albert with his chief supporters, Bernard of Plötzke and Herman
of Winzenburg, was driven to seek shelter with the Archbishop of
Mayence at Rusteburg in the Eichsfeld.
The royal army which assembled at Hersfeld in July for the recovery
of Saxony was imposing enough; the Archbishops of Mayence and Trèves,
the Bishops of Worms and Spires, the Duke of Bohemia, the new Dukes
of Saxony and Bavaria, Louis of Thuringia, Herman of Winzenburg, all
appeared with their levies. But a strong army was required, for Henry
had behind him the weight of Saxony, and the history of the past had
shewn that Saxony, when its heart was in the struggle, was all but invin-
cible. The two armies confronted each other at Kreuzburg in Thuringia;
the leaders of the royal army hesitated, a council of war voted for arbi-
tration, finally a day was fixed to settle the issue at Worms at Candlemas.
The conference was however a mere farce, and nothing was done; the two
parties, laying aside the business for which they had come together, gave
themselves over to amusement and feasting, the latter much embellished
by the thirty tuns of wine which, we are told, the Archbishop of Trèves
carried with him on the campaign and lavished upon the negotiators.
He, it is scarcely necessary to add, was the only man to benefit by the
affair; he was rewarded with the abbey of St Maximin at Trèves, the
richest in his diocese, a possession however not entirely advantageous, for
it brought the new possessor into a feud with the monks and their
advocatus which after a long and devastating struggle was only closed,
like many similar feuds, by the Second Crusade. In other respects the
existing state of things continued; Henry remained master of Saxony,
Albert, deserted even by the few Saxon princes who had previously
joined him, had to console himself with the empty and portionless title
of duke.
In Bavaria Henry's supplanter received a warmer welcome. Leopold,
with the help of his brother Bishop Otto of Freising, the historian, had
in a remarkably short time gained a firm hold over his new subjects.
Henry, now secure in Saxony, prepared to recover Bavaria. His army
was mustered in readiness at Quedlinburg when at the moment of starting
he fell sick and died. His youth, the suddenness, the unaccountableness
of his death, most of all the advantage it gave to his antagonists, gave
CH. X.
## p. 348 (#394) ############################################
348
Siege of Weinsberg
rise to the suspicion, whether with justice it is impossible to say, of
poison. His premature end was certainly a terrific blow to the Welf
cause. Henry's heir and namesake was but a boy of ten years old; the
fortunes of his house depended on the resources of two women, the little
Henry's guardians, Richenza and her daughter the duke's widow Gertrude.
Nevertheless the death of Henry the Proud did not have the expected
result upon Conrad's fortunes. Both in Saxony and Bavaria the war
continued with undiminished vigour. The attempt of Albert the Bear
to recover Saxony was a complete failure; he suddenly appeared at
Bremen on All Saints' Day, and put forward his claim at an assembly of
princes and people, but met with the most hostile reception. Surrounded
by enemies, he barely escaped with his life. The Saxon princes under
the leadership of Frederick, the count-palatine, and Conrad, Archbishop
of Magdeburg, firm in their loyalty to the boy-duke, were even strong
enough to take the offensive, and to make plundering raids into Albert's
country, capturing many of his castles. In vain Conrad tried to put an
end to the quarrel, but the Saxon chiefs refused to obey the imperial
summons to diets held at Worms in February and at Frankfort in April
1140. The king's attitude moreover was not conciliatory; he demanded
unconditional surrender and refused a safe conduct to the Saxons for the
negotiations. So the war was pursued with energy; and Albert, driven
from his March, fled to the king for help.
But Conrad's attention was directed to a rebellion in the south which
threatened to be even more dangerous. There Welf, Henry's uncle, had
taken up the family cause, perhaps with the idea of acquiring for himself
the Bavarian dukedom': no friction however appears to have existed
between the two branches of the house at this time, though doubtless
Welf hoped to obtain a share of the family inheritance in the event of
success. In the summer of 1140 he attacked Leopold, who was besieging
a castle on the river Mangfall, and inflicted upon him a defeat which
seemed likely to undermine his authority in the duchy. Conrad, at the
duke's urgent appeal, hastened into Swabia, accompanied by his brother
Frederick, against the Welfic fortress of Weinsberg. In vain he battered
at its strong walls; the stout resistance of the loyal inhabitants parried
every attempt, till he was obliged to turn from the town to face Welf
himself who was hurrying to its relief. The battle that ensued unexpec-
tedly redeemed his fortunes: the defeat was crushing; Welf only with
difficulty effected his escape; Weinsberg despairing of relief opened its
gates on 21 December.
restore the principle of hereditary succession meets with very limited
success. The Electoral College of princes is gradually forming itself and
establishing its control.
It is fortunate that of an election so important in the history of the
German kingship a detailed and contemporary account has come down
to us? Immediately after the completion of the obsequies of the late
Emperor, writs of summons were issued to the princes to attend an
electoral council at Mayence on the feast of St Bartholomew (24 August).
i Bruno, De Bello Saxonico, SGUS, ed. Wattenbach, p. 67.
2 The author of the Narratio de Electione Lotharii (MGH, Script. xii, 509–512) is
unknown, but he is presumed to have been one of the clergy present at the election
from the diocese of Salzburg, and a member of the extreme Church party.
## p. 335 (#381) ############################################
Election of Lothar of Supplinburg
335
The gathering was a large one'; it included, besides the German princes
and their vassals, two papal legates and Suger, Abbot of St Denis, the
famous minister of the French King Louis VI.
The natural choice would have been Frederick of Swabia. He was
nearly related to the Salian house, he was executor of the late king, heir
to his private estates, guardian of his widow Matilda, the daughter of
Henry I of England, to whose care were entrusted the imperial insignia;
he was well qualified by age—being then thirty-five years old—and by
his personal character and attainments. The head of the house of
Hohenstaufen, he was possessed of considerable private wealth; in addition
to his own duchy of Swabia, he could command the interest of Eastern
Franconia, over which his younger brother Conrad exercised ducal
powers.
But he was out of sympathy with the Church party; and the Church party
was strong under the able leadership of Archbishop Adalbert of Mayence.
Already before the meeting at Mayence Archbishop Frederick of Cologne
had dispatched an embassy to Charles, Count of Flanders, inviting him
to stand for election; the count however declined the offer. Archbishop
Adalbert was more successful. His candidate Lothar commended him-
self to the Church dignitaries on the ground of his enmity to the Salian
house, to the lay princes because he was advanced in years”, destitute of a
male heir, and therefore unable to found a dynasty to deprive them of
their power of election.
At Mayence the business of selection was delegated to a committee
of fortys, ten representatives from each tribe, Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia,
and Saxony. Three names were submitted: Frederick, Leopold, Margrave
of Austria, and Lothar. From this moment the skilful diplomacy of
Archbishop Adalbert comes into play. He had already, by means not
too reputable, if we are to believe Bishop Otto, succeeded in persuading
the Empress to surrender the insignia; now, by addressing awkward
questions to the candidates, he managed to place Frederick in a dilemma.
1 It is often stated, on the authority of Ordericus Vitalis, XII, 43, that 60,000
persons were present at the election. So e. g. Giesebrecht, Kaiserzeit, iv, 7; Zeller,
Histoire d'Allemagne, iv, 9. This figure was however commonly used to denote a
large indefinite number, and very frequently by Ordericus, who e. g. estimates the
attendance at the famous meeting at Salisbury in 1086 at 60,000 (v11, 11), and reckons
also the number of knight's fees in England at 60,000 (iv, 7). The usage may be
traced to the Babylonian numerical system; see Johannes Schmidt, Die Urheimat
der Indogermanen und das europäisch. Zahlsystem, p. 46 sq. in Abhandlungen der
Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin, 1890.
? Probably fifty years of age; he was born according to the Ann. Disibodi a few
days before the battle of the Unstrut, 9 June 1075, at which his father was killed.
Cf. Neu. Arch. XLIII (1922), p. 641.
3 Wichert, Die Wahl Lothars, FDG, XII, 96 sq. , xvi, 374 sqq. and Schirrmacher,
Entstehung des Kurfürstentums, p. 8, hold that the committee was composed of only
ten members in all, that in consideration of the limited number of princes qualified
to vote at the preliminary election the number forty was too large. The committee
of forty is however generally accepted. See e. g. Bernhardi, p. 31 sq.
CH. X.
## p. 336 (#382) ############################################
336
Campaign in Bohemia
Lothar and Leopold had first with unnecessary humility declined to
come forward, and later agreed to abide by the decision of the electors.
Frederick, on the other hand,“ ready to be chosen but not to choose a
king,” refused to give a direct answer to the question whether he would sub-
mit to the result of election; he must, he said, consult his followers; and
he left the council. By this action he lost the confidence of the assembled
princes; he appeared to deny the doctrine of free election and to set his
reliance on hereditary right. The question was settled by the turbulent
mob of Saxons, who broke up the deliberations of the council by their
shoutings and acclamation of Lothar as king. He was raised on the
shoulders of the enthusiastic crowd amidst a tumult only calmed by the
intervention of the papal legate. The Bavarians refused to comply with this
irregular ending of the proceedings in the absence of their duke. But
their duke's son was already the affianced husband of Lothar's only
child; there was no danger from that quarter. The Duke, Henry the
Black, hurried to the scene, and Lothar III was duly elected on 30 August.
A fortnight later, 13 September, he was solemnly crowned at Aix-la-
Chapelle.
The opening years of the reign were marked by widespread unrest. In
Bohemia, in Lorraine, even in his own dukedom of Saxony, the authority of
the new king was disputed or openly disregarded. In Swabia and Franconia
the party of the Hohenstaufen was in the ascendant. Duke Frederick
had eventually done belated homage to Lothar, but almost immediately
quarrelled with him over the issue of the Salian inheritance. After his
coronation the king proceeded to Ratisbon, where he held a diet in
November. To the assembled princes he put the question whether estates
that had been confiscated from outlaws or had been acquired by exchange
with imperial lands should be regarded as imperial or private property.
The problem was raised on general grounds, but its real application was
obvious. The Salian Emperors had largely increased their territorial
position by both these means, and the lands so acquired were included in
the Hohenstaufen inheritance. The diet decided against Frederick ; he
refused to give up the fiefs in question, was found guilty of high treason
at the Christmas court at Strasbourg, and at Goslar in January 1126
was placed under the ban of the Empire.
Lothar's position, by no means strong, was sensibly weakened by the
conspicuous failure of his first military enterprise. It arose over the
question of the succession to the Bohemian dukedom, in which, with
singular lack of judgment, he supported the weaker claims of Otto of
Olmütz against those of the popular candidate, Soběslav, a brother of the
late King Vladislav I (ob. April 1125). Otto appealed, not in vain,
for Lothar's assistance at the diet of Ratisbon. In midwinter the king
crossed the Erzgebirge into Bohemia with a small band of Saxons.
Wearied by long marches through the snow-covered mountains and ex-
hausted by lack of provisions, they emerged into the valley of Kulm to
## p. 337 (#383) ############################################
Possessions of the house of Welf
337
find a large force of Bohemians under Soběslav awaiting their coming
(February 1126). The advanced troops were all but annihilated by the
overwhelming numbers of the enemy; and Lothar had no choice but to
make terms. The death of his protégé on the battle-field facilitated
matters, and Lothar found in his conqueror a submissive and loyal ally.
Soběslav recognised Lothar's election, did homage for his dukedom, and
in after time proved his loyalty by signal services in the field.
The king could not press forward the punitive expedition against
Frederick of Hohenstaufen which had been arranged for Whitsuntide 1126
until his own position in Germany was more secure. The uselessness of
doing so had been proved by an abortive campaign in Swabia in the
autumn of 1126. The prospect brightened a little with the death in
December of Henry the Black, Duke of Bavaria, who shortly before had
withdrawn from the world to spend his closing years in the monastery of
Weingarten. His son and successor Henry, called the Proud, was young
and energetic, the heir to enormous wealth, the chosen husband of
Gertrude, Lothar's only child. His inheritance comprised, in addition
to the duchy of Bavaria, the greater part of the private property of his
family in Bavaria and extensive possessions round Lüneburg in Saxony
which passed to him through his mother Wulfhild, daughter of Magnus
Billung. The rest of the inheritance in Bavaria and Swabia fell to Henry's
younger brother Welf VI'. The projected marriage, which was in after
years to upset the balance of ducal power in Germany by the union of
Saxony and Bavaria in the hands of one man more powerful almost
than the king himself, was carried out on the borders of Swabia and
Bavaria near Augsburg on 29 May 1127. The immediate result was
that Lothar could now in co-operation with Henry of Bavaria prosecute
the war against the Hohenstaufen with vigour and with fair prospects of
success. His position was further improved by his alliance in the same
year with Conrad of Zähringen. In March William, Count of Bur-
gundy (Franche Comté), was murdered. His inheritance fell naturally
to his cousin Rainald, who immediately occupied the lands without
waiting to be formally invested by the king. Lothar took advantage of
this remissness and granted the rectorship of Burgundy to Conrad of
Zähringen who was also connected with the late count, thereby not only
gaining a new ally for himself but also detaching a strong supporter
from the party of the Hohenstaufen.
Yet the tide of events still went against the king. Nuremberg suc-
cessfully resisted his attack. For ten weeks the armies of Lothar,
supported by the levies of Henry and Soběslav from Bavaria and Bohemia,
invested the town. The Bohemian allies ravaged the country, burnt the
1 There were also claims upon lands in Italy through Azzo, Marquess of Este,
who married Cunegunda, sister of the childless Welf III. Henry the Proud and
Welf VI were their great-grandsons. But these claims were not made good
C. MED, H. VOL. V. CH. X.
22
till 1154.
## p. 338 (#384) ############################################
338
War with the Hohenstaufen
churches, and so incensed the population that they had to be sent home.
At last Conrad of Hohenstaufen, lately returned from the Holy Land,
advanced with fresh troops for its relief. Without risking a battle, Lothar
withdrew first to Bamberg, then to Würzburg, whither he was pursued by
Conrad, who however contented himself with celebrating a tournament at
the very gates of the town as a mark of his disdain and returned, as he
had come, to Nuremberg.
The efforts of the Hohenstaufen had met with such success that they
now purposed to wrest the crown itself from Lothar. Frederick waived
his claim of seniority in favour of his brother Conrad, who was duly
elected king by his supporters on 18 December 1127. Spires declared for
him and drove out its bishop; but this was the last triumph of his party.
The election of Conrad was the turning-point in the conflict. By it not
only the German kingship but also the German Church was assailed; the
whole weight of the ecclesiastical power was thrown into the scale on the
side of the legitimate king. Realising that the odds against him in
Germany were too heavy, Conrad, early in the year 1128, crossed the
Septimer to try his fortunes in Italy.
The Rhenish town of Spires now became the centre of the Hohenstaufen
resistance. After a siege of nearly three months the burghers asked for
terms, agreed to give hostages, and made promises for their future loyalty
(November 1128). Lothar was now free to attend to business in other
parts of his kingdom. Lorraine was hostile to him; a rising of the citizens
of Aix-la-Chapelle during his stay in the town in January 1127 was only
pacified by liberal concessions ; Godfrey the Bearded, Duke of Lower
Lorraine, supported the pretensions of the Hohenstaufen. The duke was
drawn into a dispute over the inheritance of Charles the Good, Count of
Flanders, who in March 1127 had been murdered in the church of
St Donatian at Bruges, on the side of William Clito the son of Duke
Robert of Normandy. While he was thus engaged, Lothar seized his duchy
and handed it over to Walram, Count of Limbourg, the son of Henry,
Godfrey's predecessor in the dukedom. Godfrey soon succeeded in re-
covering the greater part of his possessions, and the only result of Lothar's
intervention was the further dismembermentof the old Lotharingian duchy.
In the meanwhile Henry of Bavaria remained in the south to cope
with Frederick of Swabia. The latter was keeping Lent at the monastery
of Zwifalten on the banks of the Danube when Henry happened to be
visiting his family estates in the same neighbourhood. The opportunity
of finding Frederick unaware of his presence and with but a few companions
was too much for his sense of honour. Coming one night to the monastery
with a body of armed followers, he set fire to the dwelling-rooms of the
monks in which he rightly imagined Frederick to be. The latter escaped
from the flames with the help of the monks and took refuge in the church
tower. Henry surrounded the church, broke in the doors, even disturbed
the brethren at their prayers with threats of death, but all to no effect.
## p. 339 (#385) ############################################
Failure of the Hohenstaufen in Germany and Italy 339
Frederick, safe in his tower, defied his sacrilegious assailant, who not only
had to retire in disgust but had to pay for his scandalous behaviour by
forfeiting the advocacy of the monastery. The Hohenstaufen still had a
strong position in Franconia and Swabia; there was yet hope in the Rhine
country in spite of the submission of Spires. The insincerity of the
promises made to Lothar on the occasion of its surrender was revealed
when Frederick proceeded there with the view to making it again the
centre of resistance. The townsmen readily threw over the king for the
duke. The fortifications were strengthened, the garrison increased;
Frederick himself after completing his arrangements departed for Swabia,
leaving the conduct of affairs in the city to his wife Agnes of Saarbruck.
In June 1129 Lothar appeared before the walls. Month after month
the siege dragged on without either side shewing signs of giving in. At
last the king in despair sent an urgent appeal for help to his son-in-law,
who was engaged in besieging a rebellious subject, Frederick of Bogen, in
his castle of Falkenstein. Henry, leaving the siege in charge of his sister
Sophia, responded immediately to the royal summons with a body of six
hundred Bavarian knights. The joint strength of Bavaria and Saxony
turned the scale. From midsummer till past Christmas the townsmen,
under the gallant leadership of Agnes, held out in spite of every hardship
and privation. Eventually deprived of all hope of relief, for a force
brought to their aid by Frederick was driven off, they submitted and on
the feast of Epiphany 1130 opened their gates to the king.
With the capture of Spires the opposition in the Upper Rhineland
was crushed. Before long Nuremberg, the chief strong-point of resistance,
fell before Lothar's attack; and with it went all hopes of success for the
party of the Hohenstaufen in Germany. In Italy too Conrad's initial
success was not long maintained. Notwithstanding his excommunication
by Honorius II he was welcomed at Milan, crowned by its archbishop at
Monza and again in the cathedral of St Ambrose with the Iron Crown
of Lombardy. But this was the limit of his achievement. An attempt
to acquire the possessions of the late Countess Matilda ended in failure
the towns of Lombardy which had at first received him declared against
him; his supporters one by one abandoned his cause and left him almost
alone. In despair he gave up trying to establish himself in Italy and re-
crossed the Alps (1130), only to find that in Germany also the family
cause was as good as lost.
Yet years dragged on before the brothers admitted defeat. Their
opponents were too busily occupied with other matters to press the issue
to a conclusion. The petty quarrels and rivalries of ambitious princes
kept Saxony in ceaseless turmoil. Albert of Ballenstädt and Henry of
Groitsch, Conrad of Wettin and Herman of Winzenburg, each strove
to increase his own power at the other's expense. The murder in one of
these feuds of a trusted follower of the king, one Burchard of Loccum,
by Herman of Winzenburg, Landgrave of Thuringia, called for Lothar's
CH. X.
22-2
## p. 340 (#386) ############################################
340
Destruction of Augsburg and Ulm
intervention in the affairs of his old duchy. Herman was found guilty
of high treason in December 1130, and sentenced to the confiscation of
his fiefs. Before another year was out Albert the Bear for some similar
offence was deprived of the East Mark. The rebellious town of Halle
suffered the severest of punishments. It fell before Lothar's assault, its
inhabitants were put to death, mutilated, or in some cases allowed their
safety on payment of heavy fines. By such stringent methods as these
Lothar restored the peace of Saxony.
The fate of Augsburg affords another example of the stern measures
employed by the king to suppress local risings, but in this instance he
had less justification for his action. On the journey to Italy in August
1132, a dispute arose in the market between the townsfolk and the soldiers
and quickly spread through the whole city. The king, suspecting treason,
ordered the troops to punish the burghers. From noon till night the
town was in a tumult; men, women, and children were massacred in the
streets and houses; churches and monasteries were broken into, plundered,
and burnt. As on previous occasions the Bohemian troops in the royal
army were conspicuous for their barbarity and excess. In a state of com-
plete desolation Augsburg was left as a warning to other towns not to
risk the king's displeasure.
During Lothar's absence in Italy (September 1132-August 1133)
Henry of Bavaria remained in Germany to deal with the Hohenstaufen.
But rebellions in his own duchy kept him too busily occupied to effect a
decision. The appointment of Henry of Wolfratshausen in August 1132
to the see of Ratisbon against the wishes of the king and himself led
to serious trouble. The bishop, aided by his advocate, the duke's old enemy
Frederick of Bogen, made stubborn resistance. For some months fighting
continued, the armies plundering and burning after the manner of medieval
warfare round Ratisbon and Wolfratshausen, a castle near the site
of the present town of Munich. At last the two armies, the bishop's
strengthened by the adhesion of Leopold of Austria, faced each other
on the banks of the Isar to bring matters to a final issue. At the critical
moment Otto of Wittelsbach, the count palatine, intervened as mediator
and reconciled the contending parties.
It was not till August 1134 that the Emperor and his son-in-law
were free to deal decisively with the Hohenstaufen. The Swabian town
of Ulm had now become the centre of resistance. After a short siege
Henry captured the town, which was thereupon almost totally destroyed
by the devastations practised by the Bavarian soldiers. Lothar had in
the meanwhile overrun Swabia without opposition. The brothers were
in desperate straits: their castles were captured; their supporters deserted.
Frederick was the first to realise the futility of further resistance; he
approached the Empress Richenza and begged her to intercede on his
behalf. At Fulda towards the end of October the reconciliation was
effected. The terms of his submission, settled at the crowded diet of
## p. 341 (#387) ############################################
Ecclesiastical policy
341
Bamberg (March 1135), were favourable in the extreme: he was freed
from excommunication, and received back his dukedom and his possessions;
for his own part he had only to promise to accompany the Emperor on
the Italian campaign which had been planned for the next year—a con-
dition imposed no doubt at the request of St Bernard who was present at
the court in the papal interest. Conrad held back for some months longer,
but finally made his peace with the Emperor at Mühlhausen in September
under the same lenient conditions as those imposed upon his brother.
Lothar owed his crown to the support given him by the leaders of
the Church hierarchy. Did he reward their confidence by granting on
that occasion definite concessions? The question is crucial and contro-
versial. That some settlement was reached seems clear, but its precise
nature cannot be determined. We have no reliable information. A famous
passage formulates a position, but it is more likely the position at which
the leaders of the party aimed than the one actually attained? More
profitable results may be found from the evidence of Lothar's actual
relations with the Church during his reign. After his election we are told
he neither received nor exacted homage from the spirituality, contenting
himself merely with the oath of fealty; and even this he remitted in the
case of Conrad, Archbishop of Salzburg, in deference to the latter's
scruples in the matter. The most important change was with regard to
the royal presence at elections. Here again Lothar bent to the wishes
of the Church party and refrained from exercising the right granted him
by the Concordat of Worms. Two elections took place within a month
of his accession-Eichstätt and Magdeburg—and in neither case was he
present. Indeed there is scarcely an instance during the first five years
of his reign of his disturbing episcopal elections by his presence'. The
ecclesiastical princes had no cause to complain of the conduct of the man
they had set upon the throne.
Lothar even if he wished it could not
afford to quarrel with the Church; but to support the orthodox Church
party was natural to him. As Duke of Saxony he had been bred up to
1 Narratio de Electione Lotharii, MGH, Script. xii, c. 6.
2 See Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, IV, p. 118, n. 2. The passage in
the Narratio mentions three points: 1. Free election without the presence of the
king; 2. Investiture with the regalia by the sceptre after consecration ; 3. The right
of the king to exact the oath of allegiance. As the citation of the wording of a
document this breaks down on the second point; for the old practice of investiture
with the regalia before conse ation continued to prevail.
3 Or were the concessions granted in the Concordat by Calixtus II only intended
for Henry V personally, and not for his successors? There is no mention of the
latter in the document, and Otto of Freising (Chron. vii, 16) expressly tells us that
at Rome it was interpreted in this way “hoc sibi soli et non successoribus datum
dicunt Romani. ” See D. Schäfer, Zur Beurteilung des Wormser Konkordates, in
Abhandlungen der Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin, 1905.
4 See Hauck, op. cit. p. 128, n. 1; also for the whole question Bernheim,
Lothar III und das Wormser Concordat, Strasbourg, 1874.
CH, X.
## p. 342 (#388) ############################################
342
Lothar and the papal schism
the traditional policy of opposition to the anti-hierarchical Salians; and
this policy he maintained as king.
When Honorius II died in February 1130 and the two factions in
Rome each chose its own candidate to fill the papal throne, Lothar was
faced with the necessity of making a momentous decision. Though not
as yet crowned Emperor, the long attachment of the imperial title to the
King of Germany gave Lothar the unquestioned position of temporal
ruler of Christendom. The rival Popes Anacletus II and Innocent II, the
one master of Rome, the other a refugee in France, each appealed anxiously
to him for recognition. Each had his supporters in Germany. Ana-
cletus found an advocate of his pretentions in Adalbero, Archbishop of
Bremen, who happened to be in Rome at the critical moment; Innocent
saw his claims upheld by the most advanced Churchmen, represented by
Conrad of Salzburg, Norbert, and Otto of Bamberg. But Lothar hesitated.
Perhaps he feared a split in the ranks of the Church party on whose
support he relied so much. It was not till Louis VI of France at Étampes,
under the influence of Bernard, had declared for Innocent that Lothar,
urged also by Innocent's legate Walter of Ravenna, consented to take
action. He summoned a meeting at Würzburg in October to discuss the
question. Only sixteen bishops presented themselves, but the sixteen
were unanimous for Innocent. Lothar accepted the decision without
hesitation, and immediately sent Conrad of Salzburg and Ekbert of
Münster to carry Germany's recognition to the Pope in France.
At Innocent's suggestion a personal interview between Pope and king
was arranged; Liège near the French frontier was chosen as a convenient
meeting place for both parties. Thither on 22 March 1131 came Innocent
accompanied by thirteen cardinals, a large number of French bishops, and
the indispensable Bernard. Lothar received him with due humility; he
performed the office of groom for the pontiff when he dismounted, signifying
by his act that he claimed to be but the servant of the Bishop of Rome;
he made promises to enter Italy to destroy the invaders of the Holy
See. But these cordial relations were almost upset at the very meeting
which had given them birth. Lothar, it seems, raised the vexed question
of episcopal elections; he evidently wished to recede from the concessions
he had made at the time of his accession, to revive the royal influence
over elections, in short to claim those privileges which the Concordat
had granted to the Crown. A quarrel was prevented by the eloquence
of Bernard. It is impossible to say whether any understanding was
reached. But a change of attitude is perceptible in Lothar’s dealings
with the Church during the year following: he appears to have tried to
exert some control over elections to bishoprics'; but the Church party
1 Notably in the cases of Adalbero of Münsterol to the archbishopric of Trèves
at Easter 1131, and of Henry of Wolfratshausen to the see of Ratisbon 19 August
1132. See Hauck, op. cit. iv, p. 151 sg.
## p. 343 (#389) ############################################
Civilising of the Wendish country
343
resented his action so strongly that rather than quarrel he tacitly re-
linquished his pretensions.
The relations with the Pope continued to be friendly. In August 1132
Lothar carried out his promised campaign in Italy to end the schism, and
on 4 June 1133 at the Lateran received as his reward the imperial crown.
Again Lothar took occasion to raise the crucial subject of episcopal
elections, and, in spite of loud protests from the Gregorian party in
Germany, obtained concessions contained in a document dated 8 June 1133
which amounted to a confirmation to himself of the rights allowed to the
Emperor in the Worms Concordat? We should expect to find a complete
reversal of policy in consequence. Nothing of the sort is perceptible.
Lothar too well realised the value of the Church support; he used his
power with a refinement of tact; he was often present at elections but
his presence was scarcely felt. The settlement at the Lateran, which came
so near to disturbing the peaceful relations between Church and State,
in practice made little or no change in Lothar's attitude of conciliatory
friendship towards the Church. The reign of Lothar from the point of
view of Church politics marks the consummation of the victory of the
hierarchy.
Throughout his reign we see Lothar, with an energy surprising
in a man of his age, busily occupied in a succession of wars both at
home and abroad: now he is campaigning against the Hohenstaufen,
now settling contested claims to an inheritance, now fulfilling the supreme
function of his imperial office by taking up arms against the enemies of
the Church. But more enduring results matured from the work which
alike as duke and king had always been nearest to his heart—the expansion
of Germany eastwards, the revival of German influence, the re-establish-
ment of the Christian religion and civilisation in the Wendish regions.
In this sense an annalist is justified in describing Lothar as “the imitator
and heir of the first Otto. "» Since the tenth century nothing had been
done, and even the districts then brought under German intluence had
since lapsed once more into paganism and barbarism. Lothar was ready
to promote with his support and encouragement every enterprise which
led in this direction. So Otto of Bamberg was able to make his second
journey to Pomerania in 1127, and to see his work established on a firm
basis. So also the Premonstratensians were able to pursue their missionary
labours in Brandenburg with the co-operation of Albert of Ballenstädt,
who in 1134 was enfeoffed with the North Mark as a reward for his services
1 Nos igitur, maiestatem imperii nolentes minuere sed augere, imperatoriae
dignitati(s plenitudinem tibi concedimus et debitas et canonicas consuetudines pre-
sentis scripti pagina confirmamus. Interdicimus autem, ne quisquam eorum, quos
in Teut(onico) regno ad pontificatus honorem vel abbatiae regimen evocari contigerit,
regalia usurpare vel invadere audeat, nisi eadem prius a tua (potes)tate deposcat,
quod ex his, quae iure debet tibi, tuae magnificentiue faciat. MGH, Const. 1, 168 sq.
and printed in Bernheim, Quellen zur Geschichte des Investiturstreites, 11, p. 70.
? Ann. Palidenses sub anno 1125. MGH, Script. xvi, 77.
OH, X.
## p. 344 (#390) ############################################
344
Relations with Denmark
in the Italian campaign, and on the death of Pribislav of Brandenburg
without heirs received that district in addition. The priest Vicelin made
progress in Holstein and the district about Lübeck.
It was the king's activities in Nordalbingia which involved him in
the tangled affairs of Denmark. In 1131 the land was plunged into civil
war by the murder of Canute, the son of the late King Eric, at the hands
of Magnus, the son of the reigning King Niel. Canute was ruling in
Schleswig, and had also been enfeoffed with the county of Wagria and
the land of the Obotrites by Lothar. His firm hand kept the turbulent
Wendish population under control; the country prospered; Christianity
and civilisation began to revive. But the success of his rule and the un-
certainty of the succession to the Danish throne brought upon him the
jealousy of his cousin Magnus. His assassination was the result. Lothar
could not allow the murderer of his vassal to go unpunished. In the
summer of 1131 he advanced as far as the Eider, but being confronted
there not only by the troops of Niel and Magnus but also by rebels
“as innumerable as the sands of the sea,” he wisely contented himself with
a fine of four thousand marks and the homage of Magnus. Canute's
Nordalbingian possessions were divided between two Wendish princes,
Pribislav and Niclot, the former receiving Wagria and Polabia, the latter
the land of the Obotrites. Lothar led his army across the Elbe and
received homage from these princes. But with two Wendish chieftains,
who owed only a nominal recognition to the German king, ruling the
country, the development of civilisation which had been making rapid
progress under Canute and his predecessor, Henry son of Gottschalk,
received a set-back; every hindrance was placed in the way of Vicelin
the German missionary, who brought his complaints and remedial proposal
to the king. His suggestion was the erection of a strong fortress in a
commanding position on a hill, Segeberg, near the banks of the Trave.
To the disgust of Pribislav and Niclot, who saw in the plan the German
yoke falling on them, the fortress was built and garrisoned with Saxons;
with military protection behind him Vicelin was now able to proceed
unhindered on his missionary enterprise.
The pacification of Denmark was likewise unsatisfactory. Niel and
Magnus pursued Canute's brother Eric with relentless hostility. Driven
from Schleswig he took refuge in Zealand, where even his brother Harold
turned against him. The German settlers at Roeskilde on the island
were murdered, mutilated, or expelled. It was clearly time for Lothar
to intervene once more in the affairs of the north. But no campaign
took place. Magnus presented himself at the Easter court at Halber-
stadt, indemnified himself for his misdeeds with large sums of money,
and became the vassal of the German king. Nevertheless, while Niel and
Magnus lived and reigned there could be no peace in Denmark. Their
deaths, the one assassinated by the burghers of Schleswig, the other slain
in battle, cleared the field. Eric, left in undisturbed possession, sent
## p. 345 (#391) ############################################
Death of Lothar III
345
ambassadors to the court at Magdeburg at Whitsuntide 1135 and re-
ceived the Emperor's recognition of his title.
At the same diet a quarrel, in which all the eastern neighbours of
Germany-Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia-were involved, was also
brought within sight of determination. It arose on the death of Stephen II
of Hungary. His crown was disputed between his blind cousin Béla and
his half-brother Boris; the former was supported by Soběslav of Bohemia,
the latter by Boleslav of Poland. All the three countries engaged sent
embassies to Lothar at Magdeburg. But the Emperor required Boleslav's
personal attendance. He appeared at Merseburg in August, paid twelve
years' arrears of tribute, and took the oath of allegiance; he was in some
measure compensated by the acquisition of Pomerania and Rügen as fiefs
of the German crown. An armistice was arranged between Bohemia and
Poland pending a definite peace. Boris gave up the struggle, and Béla
remained in secure possession of the Hungarian throne. To the Merseburg
diet came also ambassadors from the Eastern Emperor John Comnenus
and from the Doge of Venice offering help against their common enemy,
Roger of Sicily. “So highly was the Emperor Lothar esteemed by
kings and kingdoms,” writes the chronicler, " that he was visited with
gifts and embassies from Hungarians, Ruthenians, Danes, French, and
many other nations. The Empire enjoyed peace and plenty, religion in
the monasteries flourished, justice reigned, iniquity was repressed. "ı
The year 1135 was indeed a year of reckonings. It witnessed the
results of a decade of masterful rule. Since the days of Henry III German
prestige had not risen so high. It is marked by the ending of quarrels,
by reconciliations, by peace. At the diet of Bamberg in March, which
brought to a close the long-contested fight with the Hohenstaufen, a
peace to last for ten years was proclaimed throughout Germany. This
state of peace and prosperity the Emperor was only destined to enjoy
for one year more on German soil. Towards the end of the summer of
1136 he crossed the Alps to take the field against Roger of Sicily. On
his return in the following autumn he fell sick at Trent, and barely had
sufficient strength to reach his own country. He died in a peasant's hut
in the Tyrolese village of Breitenwang on 4 December 1137.
Lothar, by an arrangement with the Pope in 1133 had secured under
certain conditions the allodial estates of the Countess Matilda for his
son-in-law Henry the Proud”; he had also before his death granted him
the duchy of Saxony and entrusted to him the imperial insignia, thereby
designating him as his successor to the throne. With two dukedoms,
with extensive possessions of his own in Germany and in Italy, with
rich lands in Saxony by right of his wife, there was no man in Germany
who could compete with Henry in power and wealth. Yet the Church
faction which had raised Lothar to the throne disapproved of his
1 Ann. Saxo, MGH, Script. vi, 770.
2 MHG, Const. 1, 169.
сн. х.
## p. 346 (#392) ############################################
346
Election of Conrad III
ני
appointed heir. On the Italian campaign he had neither shewn defer-
ence to their wishes nor a bearing likely to command their confidence.
Still less was he acceptable to the lay princes; they feared his over-
whelming power; they were above all anxious to avoid the foundation
of a dynasty and to prove their right of election by passing over the
man designated by the dead Emperor. Neither the spiritual nor the
secular princes wanted the Welf candidate.
The see of Mayence was vacant; the Archbishop of Cologne, but just
elected, had as yet not received the pallium; it was only natural in
these circumstances that the direction of affairs should fall to the third
great ecclesiastical prince, Archbishop Adalbero of Trèves, between whom
and Henry a long-standing enmity subsisted. He summoned a meeting
at Coblenz-a singularly unrepresentative gathering, for neither Saxons
nor Bavarians were present—and at his proposal Conrad of Hohenstaufen,
Lothar's rival, was chosen on 3 March 1138. Ten days later he was
crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle by the papal legate. “A mere mockery of
right and custom,”? yet however irregular the procedure may have been
the result was popular. The princes of Germany flocked to the court at
Bamberg on 22 May to do homage to the new king; Leopold of Austria,
Conrad of Zähringen, Soběslav of Bohemia, even the widowed Empress
Richenza, put in an appearance.
Duke Henry was absent from the court at Bamberg; a diet was fixed
to assemble at Ratisbon, and there Henry appeared ready to deliver
up the royal insignia in his keeping in return for confirmation in the
possession of his two dukedoms? . But here lay the difficulty; apparently
already at the diet of Bamberg Conrad had promised Saxony to Albert
the Bear. The king disliked the notion of two dukedoms united in the
hands of one man. He succeeded, nevertheless, by diplomacy, by vague
promises no doubt, in extracting the insignia from Henry, and fixed a
meeting at Augsburg for a final settlement. But here again no agree-
ment was reached. Conrad, fearing Henry's threatening attitude, left for
Würzburg, where the duke was put under the ban (July 1138). Saxony
was bestowed upon Albert; Bavaria, which was confiscated a little later
at Goslar, after a short retention in the king's hands, was disposed of to
Leopold of Austria.
Before the year 1138 was far advanced Saxony and Bavaria were
ablaze with civil war; the old feud of Welf and Hohenstaufen, which
had disturbed the peace during the greater part of the previous reign,
1 Giesebrecht, Kaiserzeit, iv, 171.
2 The accounts of these events differ considerably in their details. The com-
paratively late Annales Palidenses, MGH, Script. xvi, anno 1138, mention that
Conrad besieged Henry at Nuremberg and forced him to give up the insignia;
whereas Otto of Freising, Chron. vii, cap. 23, expressly states that the insignia
were given up at the diet held at Ratisbon. Cf. Giesebrecht, op. cit. iv, 175 sq.
and 459, and Bernhardi, Konrad III, 49 sq.
## p. 347 (#393) ############################################
Hohenstaufen versus Welf
347
broke out once more with renewed bitterness. The Empress Richenza
by her vigorous energy in the cause of her son-in-law won the support of
many of the Saxon princes, who looked upon Albert the Bear as an
upstart. But Albert was too quick for them; he attacked before their
preparations were completed, defeated them decisively, and occupied the
Welfic possessions of Lüneburg and Bardowiek. The king, however,
deceived himself into thinking the opposition in Saxony crushed; the
sudden appearance of the banished duke in his northern dukedom altered
the situation. Town after town fell into his hands, even the lands of
the usurping margrave were no longer secure, and by the spring of
1139 Albert with his chief supporters, Bernard of Plötzke and Herman
of Winzenburg, was driven to seek shelter with the Archbishop of
Mayence at Rusteburg in the Eichsfeld.
The royal army which assembled at Hersfeld in July for the recovery
of Saxony was imposing enough; the Archbishops of Mayence and Trèves,
the Bishops of Worms and Spires, the Duke of Bohemia, the new Dukes
of Saxony and Bavaria, Louis of Thuringia, Herman of Winzenburg, all
appeared with their levies. But a strong army was required, for Henry
had behind him the weight of Saxony, and the history of the past had
shewn that Saxony, when its heart was in the struggle, was all but invin-
cible. The two armies confronted each other at Kreuzburg in Thuringia;
the leaders of the royal army hesitated, a council of war voted for arbi-
tration, finally a day was fixed to settle the issue at Worms at Candlemas.
The conference was however a mere farce, and nothing was done; the two
parties, laying aside the business for which they had come together, gave
themselves over to amusement and feasting, the latter much embellished
by the thirty tuns of wine which, we are told, the Archbishop of Trèves
carried with him on the campaign and lavished upon the negotiators.
He, it is scarcely necessary to add, was the only man to benefit by the
affair; he was rewarded with the abbey of St Maximin at Trèves, the
richest in his diocese, a possession however not entirely advantageous, for
it brought the new possessor into a feud with the monks and their
advocatus which after a long and devastating struggle was only closed,
like many similar feuds, by the Second Crusade. In other respects the
existing state of things continued; Henry remained master of Saxony,
Albert, deserted even by the few Saxon princes who had previously
joined him, had to console himself with the empty and portionless title
of duke.
In Bavaria Henry's supplanter received a warmer welcome. Leopold,
with the help of his brother Bishop Otto of Freising, the historian, had
in a remarkably short time gained a firm hold over his new subjects.
Henry, now secure in Saxony, prepared to recover Bavaria. His army
was mustered in readiness at Quedlinburg when at the moment of starting
he fell sick and died. His youth, the suddenness, the unaccountableness
of his death, most of all the advantage it gave to his antagonists, gave
CH. X.
## p. 348 (#394) ############################################
348
Siege of Weinsberg
rise to the suspicion, whether with justice it is impossible to say, of
poison. His premature end was certainly a terrific blow to the Welf
cause. Henry's heir and namesake was but a boy of ten years old; the
fortunes of his house depended on the resources of two women, the little
Henry's guardians, Richenza and her daughter the duke's widow Gertrude.
Nevertheless the death of Henry the Proud did not have the expected
result upon Conrad's fortunes. Both in Saxony and Bavaria the war
continued with undiminished vigour. The attempt of Albert the Bear
to recover Saxony was a complete failure; he suddenly appeared at
Bremen on All Saints' Day, and put forward his claim at an assembly of
princes and people, but met with the most hostile reception. Surrounded
by enemies, he barely escaped with his life. The Saxon princes under
the leadership of Frederick, the count-palatine, and Conrad, Archbishop
of Magdeburg, firm in their loyalty to the boy-duke, were even strong
enough to take the offensive, and to make plundering raids into Albert's
country, capturing many of his castles. In vain Conrad tried to put an
end to the quarrel, but the Saxon chiefs refused to obey the imperial
summons to diets held at Worms in February and at Frankfort in April
1140. The king's attitude moreover was not conciliatory; he demanded
unconditional surrender and refused a safe conduct to the Saxons for the
negotiations. So the war was pursued with energy; and Albert, driven
from his March, fled to the king for help.
But Conrad's attention was directed to a rebellion in the south which
threatened to be even more dangerous. There Welf, Henry's uncle, had
taken up the family cause, perhaps with the idea of acquiring for himself
the Bavarian dukedom': no friction however appears to have existed
between the two branches of the house at this time, though doubtless
Welf hoped to obtain a share of the family inheritance in the event of
success. In the summer of 1140 he attacked Leopold, who was besieging
a castle on the river Mangfall, and inflicted upon him a defeat which
seemed likely to undermine his authority in the duchy. Conrad, at the
duke's urgent appeal, hastened into Swabia, accompanied by his brother
Frederick, against the Welfic fortress of Weinsberg. In vain he battered
at its strong walls; the stout resistance of the loyal inhabitants parried
every attempt, till he was obliged to turn from the town to face Welf
himself who was hurrying to its relief. The battle that ensued unexpec-
tedly redeemed his fortunes: the defeat was crushing; Welf only with
difficulty effected his escape; Weinsberg despairing of relief opened its
gates on 21 December.
