No More Learning

The man most
capable of maintaining order, Count Adolf of Holstein, had gone off with
Frederick on Crusade, leaving the care of his lands in charge of his
nephew, Adolf of Dassel. The opportunity was too tempting for the
banished Welf; encouraged by the Kings of England and Denmark,
actuated also by the death in the summer of his wife Matilda whom he
had left to manage his affairs at Brunswick, Henry the Lion broke his
oath and returned to Germany (October 1189). At first his enterprise
met with astonishing success; he was welcomed by Hartwig, Archbishop
of Bremen, who enfeoffed him with the county of Stade; he was joined
by many of his old vassals, Bernard of Ratzeburg, Helmold of Schwerin,
Bernard of Wölpe; many of the Holsteiners even transferred their allegi-
ance to him. Town after town fell into his hands, and the helpless Adolf
of Dassel fled with his family to Lübeck. On his way thither in pursuit,
Henry met with resistance at Bardowiek, which he stormed, captured, and
destroyed. When he reached Lübeck in November he found the
inhabitants willing to open their gates on the condition that Adolf should
be allowed to withdraw in safety; this was granted and Henry entered
the town. The successful campaign of the autumn of 1189 was concluded
by an attack on the strong fortress of Lauenburg which Duke Bernard of
Saxony had built on the banks of the Elbe; after a month's siege the
fortress fell. Holstein was his, save only the town of Segeberg which
stood loyally by its absent count. It was while besieging this place that
the tide of fortune turned; the garrison put up a brave resistance, and
Henry's besieging troops were finally defeated by a force under Duke
Bernard (May 1190). Moreover the young king himself had taken steps
to check the progress of the rebellion. At a diet at Merseburg (October
1189) he had proclaimed a campaign; but except the devastation of the
country round Brunswick and the burning of Hanover nothing was
accomplished, and the hardness of the winter made it necessary to post-
pone further operations till the next spring.
In the meantime events had occurred which made the king anxious
for peace: William II of Sicily died on 18 November, and Henry, by right
of his wife, was heir to the Sicilian crown. Through the mediation of the
Archbishops of Mayence and Cologne peace was concluded at Fulda in
July: Henry the Lion agreed to rase the walls of Brunswick and to
destroy the fortress of Lauenburg; he was permitted to retain half the
city of Lübeck on the understanding that Adolf should have undisturbed
possession of the remainder. As surety for the fulfilment of his
obligations, the ex-duke handed over his two sons Henry and Lothar as


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

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

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

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

## p. 463 (#509) ############################################

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Relations with the Eastern Empire
473
The acquisition of Sicily opened up new possibilities for the extension
of the Empire. Henry adopted the traditional policy and aspirations of
the Norman kings towards Africa and the Byzantine Empire-namely,
the establishment of a hegemony in the Mediterranean. Already he had
under his influence two outposts in the eastern Mediterranean, the
kingdoms of Little Armenia and Cyprus, whose rulers, Leo and Amaury
of Lusignan, had received their crowns from him (1194, 1195), thus
recognising their dependence no longer on the Eastern but on the
Western Empire. In pursuance of his ambitious design of extending his
influence over the Byzantine Empire, he sought to profit by the ever-
recurrent revolutions at Constantinople. Isaac Angelus, who ten years
before had deposed and tortured to death the last of the house of
Comnenus, the Emperor Andronicus, was now in his turn attacked,
mutilated, and deposed by his own brother, the Emperor Alexius III.
In his attempt to ward off the approaching danger, Isaac had turned to
Henry VI for help. Henry's demands were of the most extravagant
nature; he regarded himself, writes the Byzantine historian Nicetas, “as
though he were lord of lords, emperor of emperors. ” But Isaac was in no
position to haggle over terms. His daughter Irene, the widow of Tancred's
son Roger, had been found by Henry in the palace at Palermo and
given in marriage to Philip of Hohenstaufen. This pair the hapless
Emperor was prepared to recognise, if we may believe the evidence of
Otto of St Blaise, as heirs to the Byzantine throne; the Eastern and
Western Empires would then be united in the family of Hohenstaufen.
However the success of the revolution which gave the crown to Alexius III
prevented Henry from reaping the fruits of this project. Nevertheless,
by a skilful use of the threat of war he was able to exact from the usurper
large sums of money which helped to finance his Eastern policy. More-
over he had devised other means to obtain the same end. Already before
the fate of deposition had overtaken the hapless Isaac, on Good Friday,
31 March 1195, in the presence of but three chaplains, the Emperor had
received the cross from the hands of the Bishop of Sutri; on Easter Day
the Crusade was publicly proclaimed at the diet of Bari. The Crusade
was to serve a double purpose: besides promoting his Eastern policy, it
was to be instrumental in bringing about a reconciliation with the Pope
which Henry regarded as essential to the successful accomplishment of
his schemes.
Since the conquest of Sicily the papal and imperial courts had
become more than ever estranged. Henry might occupy the Papal States,
but he had no foothold in Rome; there the Pope was secure and
unassailable, and in no immediate need of the Emperor's help. To Henry
on the other hand the Pope's co-operation was all important; he was
strong in Italy, but his position was to some extent unauthorised; his
title to the lands of Matilda had never been admitted, and his right
to the occupied territory in central Italy was more than questionable.
CH. XIV.


## p. 474 (#520) ############################################

474
Preparations for the crusade
Sicily added a new complication: it was a hereditary monarchy, which
hitherto had owed allegiance to the Holy See. Was Henry also to
recognise this papal overlordship? Not only its relation to the Papacy
but also its relation to the Empire presented difficulties; Sicily was
hereditary, Germany and the Empire were elective. Henry wished
Sicily to be an integral part of the Empire. This problem, with many
others which exercised the mind of Henry, would be solved in that most
chimerical of all his ideas, the plan to alter the imperial constitution with
the object of making the Empire itself hereditary in the house of
Hohenstaufen.
For all these reasons friendship with the Pope was an urgent necessity.
Negotiations had been tried, but had failed to bring about the desired
result; the offer to go on crusade was one which Celestine could hardly
refuse to accept. As an earnest of his good faith, Henry had already
issued orders for the recruiting of 1500 knights and as many squires for
the enterprise. Never was a crusade pushed forward so impetuously by
an Emperor or more tardily by a Pope. But little though he might
desire it, Celestine could not resist the friendly overtures of a man who
was prepared to render the highest service to Christendom, and at last,
on 4 August, four months after Henry himself had taken the cross,
Celestine wrote the formal letter to the German bishops bidding them
to preach the crusade.
Towards the end of June 1195 Henry returned to Germany. Here
he busied himself in actively promoting the crusade; recruits were
enlisted, the date of departure was fixed for Christmas 1196; the
enormous wealth of the Sicilian treasury which he had brought to
Germany' provided him with ample resources wherewith to finance the
expedition. But the crusade was not the only nor yet the chief project
which occupied the attention of the Emperor during his year's stay in
Germany. He was anxious above all that the great position he had won
should be retained for ever in his family. His first step was to try to
secure the election of his two-year-old son as king, but when this failed,
apparently owing to the opposition of Adolf of Altena, Archbishop of
Cologne, he brought forward a “new and unheard-of decree" at the diet
of Würzburg in April 1196. The exact nature of this extraordinary
proposal, the circumstances attending it, and the means employed by
Henry to carry it through, have all been matter of keen controversy”.
1 From the treasury at Palermo he brought also the magnificent coronation
robes of Arab workmanship used by the Norman kings since the time of Roger II.
These were deposited in the castle of Trifels, and were used at imperial coronations
for many centuries.
2 See K. Hampe, Zum Erbkaiserplan Heinrichs VI. MIOGF, XXVII, 1906 ;
M. Krammer, Der Reichsgedanke des staufischen Kaiserhauses (Untersuchungen
zur deutschen Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte, ed. Gierke, No. 95), Breslau, 1908; and
especially J. Haller, Heinrich VI und die römische Kirche. MIOGF, xxxv, 1914.


## p. 475 (#521) ############################################

Plan for making the kingship hereditary
475
The sources of our information are meagre, ambiguous, and often con-
flicting; the two principal narrative accounts were written by men
belonging to opposing political parties, the one attached to the Emperor's
court, the other to the court of the Emperor's opponent, Herman,
Landgrave of Thuringia; the one is short and tolerably reliable, the
other is full, but confused and inaccurate. The "new and unheard-of
decree" was no less than a fundamental alteration of the constitution
with the object of making the kingship hereditary. After preliminary
negotiations among the princes who composed the intimate court-circle,
Henry laid the proposal before a full diet at Würzburg, and persuaded
or, the Reinhardsbrunn Chronicle would have us believe, bullied—the
majority of princes, 52 in number, to give a reluctant consent in writing
under seal. In return they were to receive certain concessions, slender,
they seem, when weighed beside what they were asked to renounce—the
most highly valued privilege of electing the king and Emperor designate:
the secular princes were to have the unrestricted right of inheritance in
their fiefs not only in the male but in the female and collateral lines,
the ecclesiastical princes were to have the free testamentary disposal of
their movable property. The true value of these concessions is difficult to
estimate. Strong Emperors no doubt could and did deny inheritance to
other than a direct male heir; only the year before Henry had withheld
the March from the brother of the Margrave of Meissen who died without
a direct heir, absorbed it as a vacant fief, and contrary to custom did not
re-grant it after the lapse of a year and a day; moreover his action gave
rise to no protest. On the other hand some princes, the Duke of Austria
or the Margrave of Namur, for example, already had these rights of
succession by special privilege, and no doubt many others hoped to acquire
them without making so large a sacrifice in return. The Emperor's exer-
cise of the ius spolii, which he was prepared to renounce as a compensa-
tion to the ecclesiastical princes, had long been contested and regarded
as an abuse-it had been one of the grounds of dispute in Frederick
Barbarossa's quarrel with Urban III; the removal of an abuse was scarce
adequate compensation for the surrender of an important and undoubted
privilege. The minority, composed chiefly of princes of Saxony and of
the Rhine country, though inconsiderable in number, could not be ignored;
again it was headed by the Archbishop of Cologne who claimed the right,
sanctioned by long custom, of crowning the king-elect at Aix-la-Chapelle.
This ceremony, hitherto all-important, would lose much, if not all, its
It is the conclusions of this last writer which have been in the main followed in the
text. See also the bibliography of this chapter.
Annales Marbacenses, ed. Bloch, SGUS; Cronica Reinhardsbrunnensis, MGH,
Script. xxx.
2 Cf. however the case at the death of the Landgrave of Thuringia, when Henry
had to yield to the demands of the princes and to grant the vacant fief to the brother
of the late landgrave (1191). See supra, p. 462, note 1.
CH. XIV.


## p. 476 (#522) ############################################

476
Negotiations with Pope Celestine III
significance, would become in fact a mere form, if the person crowned
was inevitably the eldest son of the late monarch.
Without making any attempt to overcome the opposition in Germany,
Henry began once more to negotiate with the Pope. The correspondence
between the two courts was now of a more cordial nature, and Henry
expresses his wish to assist the Pope in the suppression of heresy and even
announces his intention of coming to Italy himself. His intention was
no sooner announced than acted upon, and by the end of June 1196 the
Emperor was on his way to Rome. Far from abandoning his scheme for
a hereditary monarchy, he hoped now to reach it by a different path—by
means of the Pope. Peace with Celestine, which, he repeatedly insists, is
the principal object of the journey, was more essential than ever. The
Emperor was accompanied by only a scanty following, which was the
cause of derision among the Italians; but it was part of his policy. His
object was not to excite alarm, not to use force, merely to seek peace.
His eagerness is remarkable; the sacrifices he was prepared to make are,
at first sight, astonishing. Indeed it required much zeal, much steadfast-
ness of purpose, to persevere in the face of the cold reception his overtures
received at Rome. For Celestine’s letters, judging by Henry's replies, had
assumed once more an antagonistic tone; he raked up a number of old
complaints mainly respecting Henry's government in Sicily and his
brother Philip's encroachments on papal territory. He had no doubt
heard of Henry's new plan and disapproved of it. Nevertheless the
Emperor did not lose heart; he pushed forward up to the very gates of
Rome, and stayed in the neighbourhood of the city for more than three
weeks (20 October-17 November).
The object of the negotiations which passed between the two courts
during these weeks was the baptism and the anointing of the young
prince Frederick as king! The natural person to perform this function
was the Archbishop of Cologne who was himself the leader of the
opposition to the design of a hereditary monarchy; this antagonism
led Henry to try the expedient of getting the Pope to do it instead,
thereby dispensing not only with the German election but with the
German coronation as well. This plan would also serve another purpose.
The union of Sicily with the Empire was an important consideration;
indeed, according to one authority, Henry had promised it to the princes
in return for their surrender of their right of election. Two coronations
would militate against a close union of the two kingdoms. The Arch-
bishop of Palermo, to whom the right of crowning the King of Sicily by
tradition belonged, would not lightly yield his claim to a German bishop,
1 Interim missis legatis suis, imperator cepit cum apostolico de concordia agere
volens, quod filium suum baptizaret,nondum enim baptizatus erat-et quod in
regem ungeret. Ann. Marbac. sub anno 1196. Bloch, Hampe, and others interpret
regem as imperatorem. But the annalist, as Haller, p. 630 points out, is singularly
accurate in his use of titles, and is not at all likely to have written “rex” when he
meant "imperator. ” Cf. also Krammer, Der Reichsgedanke, pp. 13 sqq.


## p. 477 (#523) ############################################

Proposed concessions to the Papacy
477
of
whereas to the Bishop of Rome he could scarcely refuse it. Henry's plan
of a coronation of Frederick as King of the Romans by the Pope was, in
short, a simple method of evading a number of difficulties.
The Pope's co-operation was therefore all-important to Henry's
schemes. But what had Henry to offer in order to induce Celestine to
make such large sacrifices of power as these changes necessarily involved?
The Emperor's personal participation in the crusade was obviously not a
sufficient inducement? Moreover Henry himself asserts that he has
offered to the Roman Church more substantial concessions than
any
his predecessors had done; what these substantial concessions were we
are not so certainly informed. Giraldus Cambrensis, who visited Rome
on three separate occasions between the years 1199-1202 and who may
therefore be presumed to have good information on such matters, speaks
enthusiastically of Henry's good intentions towards the Church; he tells
us further how Henry proposed a plan for the secularisation of the states of
the Church which were in foreign hands (those actually in the possession
of the Church were to remain so). In place of this theoretically powerful
but practically valueless domain, Henry was ready to grant to the Pope
and to the cardinals very material financial benefits from the revenues of
the churches throughout his Empire. In view of the policy which the
Church had pursued for the last hundred years, this suggestion seems
preposterous. On the other hand the territory over which the Papacy
could exercise any real control was exceedingly small, and was indeed to
be retained under Henry's scheme; from the rest little or no revenues
were forthcoming, with the result that the Curia was reduced to con-
siderable financial straits. The Emperor's proposal, though obliging it
to abandon its ambitious claim to be an independent world-power by
becoming a pensioner-and the prospect of independence for the moment
was overshadowed—would at least establish its finances on a sound footing.
The second offer is more startling; and it is the one on which, if
Professor Haller interprets the matter aright, Celestine gave Henry to
understand his plan must stand or fall. This was no less than to concede
to the Pope what Innocent II and Hadrian IV had vainly tried to exact
from Lothar and Frederick Barbarossa, the feudal lordship over the whole
Empire. The evidence for this strange and daring proposal comes from
a no less credible witness than Pope Innocent III himself, who, after
expounding his theory of the translation of the Empire in the opening
sentences of the deliberatio on the respective claims of the rival German
kings, Philip and Otto, proceeds to declare that Henry had recognised
this feudal superiority of the Pope over the Empire and had "sought to be
invested of the Empire by the Pope through the symbol of a golden orb. ”
1 Though this is stated as the inducement in the Marbach Annals.
2 This interpretation of the words of the deliberatio is, however, not free from
difficulties and has been severely criticised by M. Tangl, Die Deliberatio Innocenz III,
SPAW, Lui, 1919. Cf. also Haller's reply in HVJS, xx, 1920.
CH. XIV.