No More Learning

386 (#432) ############################################

386
The Danish civil war
generations back, Cunegunda, sister of the childless Welf III, had married
Azzo, Marquess of Este, and through her the line descended. While the
imperial army was encamped near Verona, Henry the Lion had a meeting
with his Italian cousin and acquired the family inheritance in return for
a payment of 200 marks. At the same time his uncle Welf VI, with
Frederick behind him, was able to make good his claim to the wide pos-
sessions of the Countess Matilda.
Heinricus Leo dux Bawariae et Saxoniae : such was the name now
borne by the great Welf. He ruled an imperium in imperio, but he did
not abuse his privileged position; his rule for the twenty years which
followed the settlement of Ratisbon was beneficial to Germany, if it was
detrimental to the interests of individual princes. Henry threw himself
with all his energy into the work of German expansion, the promotion
of commercial enterprise, the development of municipal life.
The northern frontier had been disturbed for ten years past by a civil
war in Denmark. Eric III died in 1146, and Svein the son of Eric II and
Canute the son of Magnus disputed for the throne. The rivals had laid
their pretensions before Frederick at his first diet at Merseburg (18 May
1152), but the decision had satisfied the successful hardly more than the
defeated candidate; for Svein in return for the recognition of his claims
had had to acknowledge himself the vassal of the German king, and to
compensate his opponent with the island of Zealand. Their feud unap-
peased, the rival claimants continued their war of devastation, now one,
now the other, gaining a temporary advantage. In 1154 Svein, alienated
from his subjects on account of his cruelty, and at the end of his re-
sources, fled to Saxony, where he lived for upwards of two years with his
father-in-law, Count Conrad of Wettin. In 1156, when the latter with-
drew to a monastery which he had founded at Lauterberg, Svein again
went in search of help to recover his lost throne. He found the Saxon
princes ready for the enterprise; the services of Henry, just returned
triumphant from the Diet of Ratisbon, were easily secured in considera-
tion of a subsidy. The campaign was opened with success ; Schleswig
and Ripen fell into Svein's hands; but a national resistance and the
treachery of the Slavs serving in the German host checked its progress.
They withdrew therefore with hostages from the captured towns. Henry,
however, did not relinquish his efforts on behalf of his allies ; with the
help of the Slavonic prince Niclot and by judicious bribery he once more
gained a foothold on Danish territory. Thus matters stood when the
Danish Church under the guidance of the Bishop of Ripen exercised its
influence to end the terrible disorders by means of compromise. There
were now three aspirants to the throne, for Waldemar, the son of Canute,
the late Duke of Schleswig', had recently advanced his claim. Among
these three the country was equally partitioned. Three days later, 7 May
1157, Svein's character was revealed in its true colours. Suddenly, at
1 See supra, p. 344.
I


## p. 387 (#433) ############################################

Disturbances in the diocese of Mayence
387
a feast held in honour of the reconciliation, he fell upon his opponents :
Canute was killed, Waldemar, though wounded, managed to escape under
cover of darkness. Svein's conduct effectively disposed of his chances of
the throne. His disgusted supporters deserted in numbers to Waldemar,
who was able to win a decisive victory at Viborg. Svein was killed in
the battle, and Waldemar, the sole survivor of the three rivals, became
the undisputed sovereign of Denmark.
In the exhausted state of the country the new king was powerless to
withstand the constant attacks of the Slavonic pirates upon the Danish
coasts. He put himself therefore under the protection of the man most
capable of defending his kingdom, Duke Henry. In this way Henry
established that influence in Danish politics which was to continue for
more than twenty years. The influence certainly was not always con-
genial to Waldemar, who on one occasion even took arms against his
protector. He had in 1168 with the help of Henry's vassals captured
the island of Rügen ; Henry demanded in accordance with an alleged
covenant a half-share in the conquest. The king's refusal caused a war
which lasted till 1171. Then at a conference on the Eider the old alliance
was restored ; Waldemar yielded to the duke's demands, and the relations
were drawn still closer by the marriage of their children, Canute and
Gertrude, the widow of Frederick of Rothenburg.
In the intervals between his Italian campaigns Frederick paid hurried
visits to Germany to set in order what had gone amiss during his absence.
While he was in the kingdom the peace was well kept, but when he was
safely beyond the Alps the old feuds broke out once more; private war
for the righting of wrongs, for the settlement of disputes, was too much
engrained in the feudal nobility to be crushed out in a moment by peace
ordinances or by the rule of a strong but absent Emperor. The diocese
of Mayence affords a good example of this. Archbishop Arnold soon
after his election quarrelled with the nobles of the surrounding country,
at the head of whom was Herman of Stahleck, Count-Palatine of the
Rhine; on his return from his first Italian expedition Frederick sup-
pressed the rebellion with strong measures at the Christmas court (1155)
at Worms. There was an old custom among the Franks by which men
found guilty of offences of this kind were obliged to undergo the ignominy
of carrying certain objects varying according to their rank: for the noble
it was a dog, for the ministerialis a saddle, for the rustic the wheel of
a plough. It was this penalty that Frederick imposed on the Count-
Palatine; he and ten other counts, his accomplices, carried dogs for
a full German mile. When, we are told, this dreadful punishment was
made known, “all were seized with such terror that they preferred to
live at peace than to devote themselves to the turbulence of war. Soon
after, the Count-Palatine died, and Frederick strengthened his own re-
sources by conferring the Palatinate on his half-brother Conrad, who,
since the death of the old “one-eyed” Duke Frederick II of Swabia, had
CH. XII.
25-2


## p. 388 (#434) ############################################

388
Feuds among the German princes
come into the Hohenstaufen patrimony in Rhenish Franconia. The
difficulties of the Archbishop of Mayence were not, however, at an end;
in 1158, when somewhat reluctantly he had obeyed the imperial summons
to take part in the second Italian campaign, Arnold imposed a war tax
on the ministeriales and citizens of Mayence. Again there was rebellion
and terrible disorders throughout the city. The climax was reached when
the archbishop returned triumphant after the fall of Milan. He laid
the city under an interdict, but the trouble continued; he prepared for
war, but was himself attacked; he sought sanctuary at the monastery of
St James, but the monastery was put to the flames and he was butchered
at the gates by the infuriated mob (1160)”. Not only the perpetrators
but the whole town suffered punishment for the infamous act when the
Emperor returned from Italy in 1163; many were fined, the city was
deprived of its privileges, and its walls were destroyed. Two elections to
the see were quashed before a man was found who met with the Emperor's
approval; and even he, Conrad of Wittelsbach, had afterwards to be re-
moved for the offence of espousing the cause of Pope Alexander III. The
diocese of Mayence had a stormy history until in 1165 it fell into the
capable hands of Archbishop Christian.
During the third Italian expedition the peace of Germany was dis-
turbed by a feud between Duke Welf and Hugh of Tübingen, the latter
supported by Frederick of Rothenburg, Duke of Swabia; the Emperor
settled the affair when he was back in Germany in the autumn of 1164,
but he was no sooner off again to Italy than it broke out afresh with
renewed vigour and on a wider field, for now the house of Zähringen was
enlisted on the side of Welf and the King of Bohemia lent aid to Hugh.
It was not until 1166 that the Emperor, by severe punishments, forced
Hugh to submit. These are but instances; there were many other similar
quarrels : Rainald of Dassel against the Count-Palatine of the Rhine,
Henry the Lion against the rival princes of Saxony. They were the
inevitable consequence in these times of the absence of a king from his
kingdom. A king was accounted to have done well if he succeeded in
maintaining the peace when he was at home and was strong enough to
restore order when he returned after an absence.
The border countries of Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary had been
the source of much trouble to Frederick's predecessors; their rulers found,
however, that disobedience to Frederick was a more serious matter. In
Poland, Boleslav, having driven out his refractory elder brother Vladislav
(Wladisław), had acquired the government himself (1146); he now refused
to pay homage and the accustomed tribute of 500 marks. In the summer
of 1157 Frederick set out across the Elbe to punish him for his defiance;
in a letter to Wibald of Stablo he describes the difficulties of the journey
through the dense forests, the surprise and dismay of the Poles when
1 Cf. Vita Arnoldi Archiepiscopi, ed. Jaffé, Bibl. rer. Germ. it; and for the value
of this source, P Amandus G’sell, OSB, in Neu. Arch. xlni, 1920-1.


## p. 389 (#435) ############################################

Relations with Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary 389
they saw the German army reach the Oder and the soldiers in their
eagerness leaping into the great river and swimming across; he describes
the flight and the pursuit to Posen and the humble submission of the
duke. Boleslav had to pay a heavy price for his rashness: he not only
had to do homage, but also to pay large fines, 2000 marks of gold to
the Emperor, 1000 to the princes, 20 to the Empress, and 200 marks
of silver to the court. He had further to allow his brother to return
from exile and to bring the complaint he had against him before the
imperial court at Magdeburg the following Christmas; finally he engaged
himself to accompany Frederick on the forthcoming Italian expedition.
The Emperor then returned, taking with him hostages as an assurance
of the duke's good faith. Gésa II of Hungary, who had been for some
time past on bad terms with the Empire, voluntarily presented himself at
a diet at Würzburg and promised to join the Italian expedition. In re-
turn for the cession of Bautzen and the elevation of his duchy into a
kingdom, Vladislav II (I) of Bohemia made a similar promise of assistance.
He alone of the three princes who had promised to take part in the second
Italian campaign fulfilled his engagement.
During the rest of his reign Frederick had need to pay little attention
to the affairs of his eastern neighbours. In 1172 he was called upon to
settle an internal feud in Poland and a disputed succession in Hungary:
but in each case he managed to avoid recourse to armed interference. In
Bohemia the cordial relations established in 1158 continued till the ap-
pointment in 1168 of Vladislav's son, Adalbert, to the archbishopric of
Salzburg. Adalbert, being a supporter of Alexander III, was soon deposed,
and an estrangement sprang up between the two courts. Without con-
sulting the Emperor or the Bohemian nobles, Vladislav abdicated in
favour of his son Frederick; the Emperor cancelled the arrangement and
appointed Soběslav II, the son of that Soběslav who preceded Vladislav II
in the Bohemian duchy, as the successor to the dukedom. But he was so
unpopular among his subjects, and made himself so troublesome to his
neighbours, that not long after he was removed from his position. Vladis-
lav's son Frederick was now raised to the dukedom with the Emperor's
approval and was duly enfeoffed. Peace was thus satisfactorily restored.
The German kings had never succeeded in making their authority felt
in their Burgundian kingdom. Lothar had improved the position by be-
stowing on the powerful Swabian house of Zähringen the title and duties
of rector Burgundiae (1127), and Duke Conrad had striven hard to se-
cure the interests of Germany; but Conrad was dead (1152), and his son
Berthold IV had not yet been able to establish his influence in Burgundy.
Trouble arose in the county of Burgundy. Count Rainald died leaving
only a daughter Beatrix; his brother Count William of Mâcon not only
seized the custody of the inheritance but thrust the heiress into prison
and tried to get her possessions permanently into his own hands. It was
to the interest of Frederick no less than of Berthold that strong measures
CH, XII.


## p. 390 (#436) ############################################

390
Frederick's marriage with Beatrix of Burgundy
should be taken. At the Diet of Merseburg in 1152 the authority of
Berthold as Rector was confirmed and extended; he was to be practically
autonomous in Burgundy and Provence in the absence of the Emperor; for
his part he agreed to assist Frederick in the projected Italian campaign with
a Burgundian contingent of 500 heavy-armed knights and 50 archers. The
difficulties with regard to the Count of Mâcon were to be settled by the
judgment of the princes when Frederick should himself visit Burgundy
in the following year. In accordance with this plan, in February 1153
Frederick held his court at Besançon; many Burgundian nobles assembled
to do him homage, and among them William of Mâcon; but whether any
action was taken against the latter on this occasion, or who retained
possession of the countship of Burgundy, is a matter of uncertainty. It
appears at any rate that the bargain made at Merseburg was not carried out.
It was not till the troublesome Count William was dead that Frederick
inaugurated any real change in his Burgundian relations, and the motive
was a new one. Some years previously, at Constance in 1153, the Emperor,
under circumstances none too creditable it would seem, divorced his first
wife Adelaide of Vohburg. He turned to Burgundy in 1156 with the object
of making the rich and attractive Beatrix his wife. The pair were married
in gala fashion at Whitsuntide in the town of Würzburg. The lands which
thus came under his sway by right of his wife became the nucleus of a real
imperial power over Burgundy; an independent authority such as the
Zähringen had possessed no longer suited the Emperor's schemes, and the
compact of 1152 remained unfulfilled; by way of compensation Berthold
received the advocateship of the three sees of Lausanne, Geneva, and Sion.
The eventful Diet of Besançon in October 1157, with its brilliant
gathering of representatives from all parts of Italy, from France, England,
and Spain, was no doubt held with a view of impressing upon the in-
habitants of the newly-acquired county a sense of the imperial power.
The papal legates brought with them letters from Pope Hadrian com-
plaining of an outrage which had been perpetrated against Eskil, the
Archbishop of Lund, in imperial territory. The aged prelate, while
journeying homewards after visiting the Pope, was attacked by bandits;
his property was seized, he himself, after some rough handling, was carried
off into captivity. Hadrian's letter complains of the fact that, although
he had informed the Emperor of these distressing events, the perpetrators
remained unpunished. The Pope continues by reminding Frederick of his
previous kindness towards him in those famous words which hastened on
the rupture of the friendly relations which till now had existed between
Pope and Emperor. He speaks of “conferring the imperial crown” and
of his willingness to bestow upon him “even greater beneficia if it were
possible,” and concludes by imputing the blame for Frederick’s lapses to evil
counsellors—a dark reference no doubt to the Chancellor, Rainald of
Dassel, Archbishop of Cologne. Now the words conferre and beneficium
have technical meanings: they are the terms used in feudal phraseology


## p. 391 (#437) ############################################

Diet of Besançon
391
to connote the grant of a fief by a lord to his vassal. It will never be known
what Hadrian himself meant to imply. If he intended his words to be
interpreted in the sense that he had bestowed the Empire upon Frederick
as a papal fief, there was an end to all amicable relations between the
ecclesiastical and secular lords of Christendom. And such indeed was the
interpretation put upon it by one of his envoys, in all likelihood Cardinal
Roland: “From whom then does he hold it if not from the Pope? " Feeling
ran high among the outraged German princes, and Otto of Wittelsbach
would have run the audacious prelate through the body had not Frederick
himself interposed to prevent the shedding of blood. The Emperor was,
however, deeply incensed; the legates were sent packing to Italy with all
haste. He realised that a rupture with the Papacy was imminent, and took
steps to secure the loyalty of the German Church by stating his case in a
letter. He relates the episode of the Besançon diet; he tells how he has
searched the baggage of the cardinals and has found many other letters
of a similar tenour and even blank mandates, sealed by the papal Chancery,
for the legates to fill in arbitrarily to supply a sanction for their nefarious
work of despoiling the churches of Germany? Frederick concludes by
refuting the papal claims of overlordship and by stating his own theory
of the Empire: it is the doctrine of the two swords, the Empire is an in-
dependent and divinely instituted lordship held direct “from God alone
by the election of the princes. ” Frederick's attitude was upheld by the
German bishops; their reply to Hadrian's letter soliciting their support,
though moderate in tone, was an emphatic assertion of their belief in the
Emperor's right. Hadrian did not feel sufficiently prepared for the contest
which he had brought upon himself, more especially as he could not count
on the support of the clergy beyond the Alps; more tactful legates were
dispatched, who, after suffering capture and robbery at the hands of Alpine
brigands, ultimately succeeded in reaching the Emperor's court at Augs-
burg. Frederick, like Hadrian, had no wish to precipitate a struggle. He
was willing enough to listen to the conciliatory letter read out by Bishop
Otto of Freising: beneficium, the letter stated, in Rome, as in the Scriptures,
had not the technical feudal sense; it implied simply a bonum factum, a
good deed; the crowning of the Emperor was admittedly “a good deed. ”
When we say “we have conferred” the crown, we merely mean “we have
imposed” the crown upon the royal head. By such quibbles the Emperor's
anger was appeased, and the legates returned to their master loaded with
gifts and messages of friendship.
Ever since the time of Gregory VII extreme papalists had been arguing
1 Cf. H. Schrörs, Untersuchungen zum Streite Kaiser Friedrichs 1 mit Papst
Hadrian IV (1157-1158), Bonn. Univ. Progr. 1915. The Curia, following on the success-
ful advance made in its position in the time of Conrad III, proposed to undertake a wide
visitation of the churches in the Empire by its legates. This fact helps to explain
the blank mandates with which the legates were armed. Frederick's measures were
directed against further encroachments of papal influeuce.
CH, XII.


## p. 392 (#438) ############################################

392
Ecclesiastical policy
the theory of the feudal subjection of the Empire to the Papacy. Pope
Innocent II had caused the coronation of Lothar III to be commemorated
in a picture hung in the palace of the Lateran. The Emperor was portrayed
kneeling and receiving the crown from the enthroned Pontiff; below was
inscribed this significant couplet:
Rex venit ante fores, iurans prius Urbis honores,
Post homo fit Papae, sumit quo dante coronam.
A picture and inscription so derogatory to the imperial dignity was, we
need scarcely remark, destroyed at Barbarossa’s instance; but it revealed
a tendency, and with this in our minds it is difficult to avoid the inference
that the Curia, in dispatching the famous letter, had intended to set a
subtle trap into which it was hoped the Emperor would fall and, by
accepting the letter, would tacitly acknowledge the papal overlordship
claimed in those both vague and technical phrases. Frederick’s legal mind
and his astute Chancellor Rainald were not to be so easily caught, and the
Curia had to recede along the path of verbal sophistry.
The royal influence in ecclesiastical matters had sensibly diminished
during the reigns of Lothar and Conrad III. St Bernard had jealously
guarded the Church's interests, and even the rights left to the king by the
Worms Concordat were by no means always enforced. Gerhoh of Reichers-
perg, the powerful champion of Church pretensions, was able to write in
Conrad's time: “Thanks to God, episcopal elections now take place without
the presence of the king. "1 But Bernard died in 1153, and a man was on
the throne of Germany who would brook no interference with his rights
or what he deemed to be his rights, would suffer no encroachments upon
the position the law allowed him. Frederick was determined that his in-
Auence should be felt in the elections of bishops and abbots. Within two
months of his accession he interfered, and interfered with success, in the
election to the vacant see of Magdeburg. The votes of the Chapter were
divided between the provost, Gerhard, and the dean, Azzo. Frederick him-
self appeared in the midst of the wrangling electors and recommended
Wichmann, Bishop of Zeitz, who was duly chosen and immediately invested
with the regalia of his see. It was a bold stroke, justified, it is true, so
far as interference in a disputed election went, by the Concordat; but
his action was open to attack on other grounds: it was contrary to Canon
Law to translate a bishop without a licence from the Pope. Wichmann's
election, though upheld by the German bishops at Ratisbon, was denied at
Rome. Eugenius III remained firm till his death in the summer of 1153;
but his more compliant successor Anastasius IV yielded, and granted the
pallium to the archbishop of Frederick's choice. But the king would
not often disturb the electoral gathering with his presence; he would
rather work through trustworthy representatives, or he would send letters
indicative of his will. So on the death of Rainald he wrote to the electors
1 Gerhoh, MGH, Libelli de Lite, ui, 280.


## p. 393 (#439) ############################################

Frederick's claims
393
of Cologne recommending his Chancellor Philip of Heinsberg as his
successor, “him only and no other we wish to be elected without delay";
Arnold was appointed to the archbishopric of Trèves in succession to
Hillin “at the suggestion or advice of the Emperor. ” The Concordat
had also conceded to the king the right of deciding disputed elections—a
right which Conrad had allowed to slip from his grasp. As we have seen,
Frederick had exercised his authority in this respect in the case of the
disputed election to the see of Magdeburg soon after his own accession,
and had established a practice known as Devolutionsrecht to meet such
cases, whereby the nomination devolved upon the Emperor; both can-
didates were set aside and a third, his own nominee, was chosen.
This policy, boldly and successfully carried out, completely changed the
character of the German episcopate. The bishops of Frederick's choice are
men of practical experience, of administrative ability, men trained in the
imperial Chancery; Philip, the Chancellor, is appointed to the metropolitan
see of Cologne for his skill in statecraft. Frederick's bishops are politicians
first, and only in the second place good churchmen. But they are never-
theless distinguished men-Rainald of Dassel and Christian of Mayence
are notable examples; they are men capable of governing the extensive
dioceses of Germany.
Moreover he made the weight of his influence felt in other spheres of
the Church's work; he claimed certain powers of jurisdiction over the
clergy. In the peace ordinance of 1152 it is laid down that a clerk com-
mitted for breach of the peace shall be punished in the local lay court, that
of the count of the district, and in case of disobedience he shall be deprived
of his office and benefice. At Ulm in the same year it was decreed that a man
accused of damaging the property of the Church shall only be punished if
he is found guilty in the lay court. He clung tenaciously to the rights of
regalia and spolia. A doctrine had been growing up that property once
bestowed upon the Church belonged to the Church for ever without the
re-grant to a new bishop'; this theory made the investiture of the regalia
by the Emperor a matter of mere formality. Frederick determined that
it should be a real thing, and heavily fined a bishop, Hartwig of Ratisbon,
for disposing of the fiefs of his church before he had been duly invested
with them. Further, he claimed that what he had granted he could like-
wise take away from those who did not fulfil their duties of vassalship.
So in 1154 he deprived Hartwig of Bremen and Ulrich of Halberstadt
of the regalia for refusing to perform their military service on the Italian
campaign. He appropriated the revenues of vacant churches and the move-
able property of deceased bishops, and in the exercise of this last right,
the ius spolii, caused much bitterness among the bishops; nevertheless,
though strongly attacked by Urban III, the vexatious practice continued.
These measures and these claims are characteristic of Frederick's whole
attitude towards the relations of Church and State; the exercise of a certain
1 Gerhoh, loc. cit.
CH. XII.


## p. 394 (#440) ############################################

394
The German clergy and the Schism
control over the affairs of the Church was part of his duty as Emperor.
His ecclesiastical policy was essentially conservative: he wished only to
recover and to retain that authority over the Church which had been
wielded by his predecessors; he looked back to the tradition of the great
Emperors of the past, of Henry III, of Otto I, perhaps even of Charles the
Great whom he caused to be canonised in 1166. We are struck by the
boldness of such a policy, but more surprising still is the ready compliance
with which it was received by the German episcopate, and the compara-
tively mild treatment meted out by the Curia. The legates at Constance
in March 1153 had no doubt their own axe to grind, but it is indeed ex-
traordinary to find them a month or two later sanctioning the deposition
of Henry of Mayence on the sole ground that he had opposed the election
of Frederick Barbarossa; moreover the royal nominee, the king's own
Chancellor Arnold, was raised to the thus vacated archbishopric without
the slightest demur. Several others on purely political grounds were re-
moved from their sees, Henry of Minden, Burchard of Eichstätt, Bernard
of Hildesheim. Frederick began his reign with a definite and reactionary
Church policy, and he carried it through with remarkably little opposition.
The Gregorian party could count but few sympathisers among the German
bishops; those who, like Eberhard of Salzburg or Eberhard of Bamberg,
approved of the hierarchical views of the Curia, were unfitted to organise
and lead a great political party; they were not militant, they were not
politicians, perhaps they were too loyal. At any rate Frederick in these
early years was able to establish his control firmly over the German Church,
firmly enough to be able to count on its support when at a later time he
was to create a schism in Europe. The schism, it is true, roused Eberhard
of Salzburg to declare himself openly on the side of Alexander III, and
his example was followed by the Bishops of Brixen and Gurk; but his
influence did not penetrate beyond the boundaries of his province. The
rest of Germany stood firmly by Frederick and his Pope Victor IV till the
latter's death in April 1164. Then it was that the German clergy adopted
a different attitude; the bishops, who had readily accepted Victor, found
a difficulty in accepting Paschal III. Not only was his election outrageously
uncanonical, but an obvious opportunity of ending the schism had been
allowed to slip by owing to the headstrong action of Rainald of Dassel.
Opposition to Frederick's policy was no longer confined to the province of
Salzburg. The Archbishops of Mayence, of Trèves, and of Magdeburg
changed sides; the Archbishop of Cologne, the promoter of Paschal, stood
alone among the metropolitans of Germany to champion the imperial
cause. It required much compulsion and not a few depositions to bring
the German clergy to heel. The oath of Würzburg, May 1165, never to
recognise Alexander or one of his party as Pope, was extorted from an
unwilling clergy and a not over-zealous laity under threat of the severest
punishments. But it was Frederick’s strong personality and his immense
energy which carried the day in Germany. Resistance continued only in


## p. 395 (#441) ############################################

Success of Frederick's ecclesiastical policy
395
the province of Salzburg, and with this Frederick dealt with a high hand.
The fiefs of the Church were confiscated and given to laymen; the Arch-
bishop himself, Conrad, Eberhard's successor, was declared an enemy to the
Empire and was obliged to flee his diocese to the shelter of the monastery
of Admont where he died shortly after (1168). His place was taken by
Adalbert, a son of King Vladislav of Bohemia and a nephew of the Emperor;
when he too declared for Alexander, in spite of his personal relationship
to Frederick, he lost his see; but he was a young man and lived to be
reappointed to his archbishopric ten years later, when the struggle had
long passed by, and to hold it till the end of the century.
Thus Frederick’s position in Germany was gradually retrieved; vacant
sees were filled with staunch imperialists, and Frederick could once more
enter Italy with the solid support of the German episcopate at his back.
But if the German bishops stood loyally by Frederick, he stood loyally
by them. He might have made a satisfactory, if not a glorious, peace
1169 by the sacrifice of his bishops. Alexander refused to admit the
validity of their ordination, while Frederick made it an essential prelimi-
nary to peace. The negotiations of 1175 broke down on the same point.
After Legnano, Wichmann of Magdeburg, Conrad of Worms, and, a little
later, Christian of Mayence, proceeded to Anagni to discuss terms. Both
Frederick and Alexander were anxious for peace; the Pope's authority
and prestige had suffered more from the schism than had the Emperor's;
peace was even more essential to the conqueror than to the conquered'.
The crucial question of the German bishops was again raised, and this
time not in vain; the bishops were confirmed in their sees. The authority
which Frederick had acquired over the German Church survived the peace
of Venice unchanged. Frederick continued to control elections, to insist
that no vacancy should be filled without his consent, to exact homage and
the oath of fealty from the bishop-elect before consecration; he continued
to claim and to exercise the right of nomination in cases of disputed
elections. In one instance of this kind Frederick was near being beaten;
in 1183 the electors to the archbishopric of Trèves were divided; the
Emperor supported one candidate, the other appealed to Rome, and after
a struggle won his case. But even on this occasion Frederick eventually
had his way, and the papal candidate had to give place to one who met
with the Emperor's approval. So Frederick’s ecclesiastical policy from
the beginning to the end of his reign was successful. Nevertheless, it is
open to much criticism: it was too conservative, too reactionary; it took
no account of changed conditions; it could be maintained by a strong per-
sonality such as Frederick possessed, but it could not last. The forces to
which Frederick’s predecessors had submitted, and against which Frederick
himself had striven, would revive ere long and ultimately triumph.
That Frederick weathered the many storms to which the papal schism
gave rise was due in large measure to his own personality and force of
302.
1 Hauck, iv,
CH. XII.


## p. 396 (#442) ############################################

396
Rainald of Dassel
character; but a share, and a large share in the success of the Emperor's
policy must be set to the credit of his Chancellor, Rainald of Dassel.
The well-built, thick-set figure of Rainald is ever at the Emperor's hand.
He was a man of learning and of great statesmanlike qualities; in character
headstrong, but generous, cheerful, and affable. Trained, like his great
opponent Alexander III, in the schools of Paris, and with practical ex-
perience gained as provost of the cathedral churches of Hildesheim and
Münster, he was raised in 1156 to the office of Imperial Chancellor.
Henceforth he devoted all his energy and all the ability with which he
was so plentifully endowed to the service of the Empire. He is diplomat,
administrator, organiser of the imperial policy; he is a good soldier too,
fearless and unhesitating in battle. His obstinacy of purpose carried his
master through the difficult crises which the schism engendered, carried
him farther perhaps than he would himself have liked to go. Had it not
been for the influence of Rainald the schism might well have died with
Victor IV in 1164; it is perhaps idle to speculate whether, had Rainald
not succumbed to the pestilence in 1167, Legnano might not have been
an imperial victory, the peace of Venice an imperial triumph'.
It is Rainald who is entrusted with the delicate negotiations which
brought about the numerous changes in the imperial foreign relations
during the schism. Frederick was guided in his policy by the attitude
adopted by the European powers towards the schism. Conrad III's last
efforts had been directed towards a close understanding with the Byzantine
Emperor, and on his death-bed he had urged his successor to continue
this policy. The interests of both Empires were alike threatened by the
Norman kingdom. Frederick, though less eager than Conrad, was not
averse to the alliance, and in 1153 he even sent ambassadors to Constan-
tinople with proposals for a marriage with a Byzantine princess. On the
other hand neither Pope nor Emperor wished to see a revival of Greek
influence in South Italy; and this was soon manifestly revealed as Manuel's
intention. By the compact of Constance (1153), therefore, both Pope and
Emperor bound themselves to concede to Manuel no Italian territory and
to expel him if he should attempt a landing. This was virtually the end
of the friendly relations between the Eastern and Western Empires. It
was followed by the renewal of the Papal-Norman alliance, the victory
of the Normans over the Greeks, and, as a result, a truce between these
two powers. The Pope and the Eastern Emperor, who at the outset of
the reign were allied with Frederick against the Normans, were now allied
with the Normans against Frederick. With the schism came the need for
allies. The Emperor therefore turned his attention to the West of Europe,
to the Kings of France and England. Louis VII and Henry II were keen
rivals; neither was anxious for a German alliance or to recognise an im-
perial Pope, but still less did either wish to see the other reap the advan-
i See the laudatory verses of the Archipoeta, ed. Manitius Münchner Texte, vi,
1913.


## p. 397 (#443) ############################################

Foreign relations
397
tage which such an alliance would yield. So their attitude remained
undecided; the attempt of Henry of Troyes, Count of Champagne, to
bring Frederick and Louis together on the Saône (1162) broke down.
The quarrel of Henry II and Thomas of Canterbury made the prospect
of an English alliance more hopeful; in 1165 Rainald of Dassel visited
England and succeeded in bringing about the desired result; the English
ambassadors at the Würzburg diet went so far as to promise recognition
to Paschal. But the alliance served little useful purpose and was soon at
an end. More important and more permanent results emanated from the
second attempt on the part of the Count of Champagne to bring about
an alliance between the Hohenstaufen and the Capetians; a meeting of
the two monarchs actually took place on 14 February 1171 between Toul
and Vaucouleurs. The friendly relations established on this occasion
matured later (1187) into a close alliance. Louis VII was now dead, but
his son and successor Philip Augustus met Frederick in a conference near
Mouzon on the Meuse and there the alliance was sealed. It was a natural
one; both kings had over-powerful vassals to cope with, and these vassals,
Henry II of England and Henry the Lion of Saxony, were united by a
marriage tie, the importance of which was disclosed after the fall of the
Saxon Duke. It was to endure, in spite of rash attempts of King Henry
to interfere in French affairs on behalf of Philip's enemies in 1185-6, till
the joint forces of Welf and Angevin were finally shattered on the field
of Bouvines in 1214.
While Frederick was engaged in fighting for his imperial rights in the
Lombard plains, Henry the Lion was building up a strong, well-ordered
state in the north-east of Germany. The conquest of the Wendish lands
beyond the Elbe, which had never hitherto been successfully achieved,
was now systematically undertaken. For the first time in history this
country became permanently subjected to German rule. Instead of the
haphazard plundering raids, useless burnings, and wholesale massacres
which characterised the border warfare of the past, Henry employed the
most up-to-date methods of military science; he had learnt at the sieges
of Milan and Crema how a siege should be conducted, and the strongholds
of the Slavs could not stand against the new forms of siege-engines and
battering-rams which he applied to their walls; organised campaigns
rapidly put an end to such resistance as they were able to make in the
open. They had no choice but to submit or to retire into the swamp and
forest land of the interior. There were of course outbreaks of rebellion.
In Henry's absence in the south the Slavs would strike a blow for their
lost independence, would take to their ships and ravage the coasts of Den-
mark; but the years 1160–1162 saw the last serious attempt to throw off
the German yoke. In the summer of 1160 Henry crossed the Elbe, while
his ally Waldemar advanced with Danish troops from the coast; the Slav
strongholds, Ilow, Mecklenburg, Schwerin, and Dobin were abandoned
and destroyed; the Slavs themselves retired inland as the German army
CH. XII.


## p. 398 (#444) ############################################

398
Subjection of the Wends
advanced. At Mecklenburg the sons of Niclot, the chief of the Obotrites,
attempted to resist, but they were easily defeated, and Niclot himself fell
in a skirmish with a foraging party. So ended the campaign of that year.
But the sons of the fallen chief, Pribislav and Vratislav, were yet to give
trouble. Of their father's possessions the fortress of Werla alone had been
restored to them; the rest Henry had bestowed upon his followers, the
most conspicuous of whom, Guncelin of Hagen, became Count of Schwerin,
and it was against him that the attack of 1161 was in the main directed.
Count Adolf with his Holsteiners penetrated into the swampy waste
whither Pribislav had withdrawn, while Henry and Guncelin attacked
Vratislav in his fortress of Werla. After an obstinate resistance the place
fell into Henry's hands, and with it Vratislav whom Henry retained a
captive at Brunswick. His brother held his own for another year. In
February 1162 he attacked Mecklenburg, captured and burnt the town,
massacred the garrison, enslaved the women and children. The prompt
action of Guncelin of Hagen alone prevented further calamities; marching
straight for Ilow, the place next threatened, he frustrated the attempts
of the Slav prince and compelled him to retreat. Vratislav was hanged
for complicity in the plans of his elder brother. Then Henry himself,
supported by many of the neighbouring princes, Waldemar, Albert the
Bear, and Adolf of Schauenburg, took the field. The previous tactics were
again adopted: the Danish king attacked by sailing up the river Peene,
Henry by marching across country against the fortress of Demmin. An
advance guard was sent forward under Adolf, Guncelin, and Christian
of Oldenburg. The necessary precautions were, however, neglected, and
a catastrophe followed. On the morning of 6 July, the camp was sur-
prised and, in spite of a brave defence, in which Count Adolf lost his life,
the Slavs were temporarily successful. But while the victors were scattered
through the camp in search of booty, the German troops rallied under
their leaders, made a counter-attack, and little by little regaining the
lost ground, finally turned the disorganised ranks of the enemy to flight.
Henry arrived in the evening to find the day which had begun so disas-
trously ended in a brilliant success. Having joined forces with Waldemar,
the duke followed up the victory and drove the Slavs, who had fired the
fortress of Demmin and retired inland, to surrender. Thus ended the last
serious campaign which Henry had to make on his eastern frontier. But
its success was overcast by a great blow, the death of Count Adolf of
Schauenburg. He it was who had been responsible for much of the
development in the Wendish country. Holstein under his organisation
had prospered as it had never done before; however, the young colonies
no longer needed his firm hand and his watchful care; they were now,
thanks to him, strong enough to continue their growth unaided.
Christianity too made rapid progress. The Church in Slavonia had
passed through many vicissitudes. The see of Oldenburg, founded by
Otto I in 968, was divided by Adalbert, Archbishop of Bremen, into


## p. 399 (#445) ############################################

Progress of Christianity among the Wends
399
רי
three parts, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, and Ratzeburg (1052-1054); but,
shortly after, the three bishoprics became vacant and remained so for 84
years until they were re-established by Hartwig of Bremen in 1149. Their
existence nevertheless continued to be precarious, and it was only when
at the Diet of Goslar in 1154 Henry, in spite of the protests of Arch-
bishop Hartwig, was granted the right of investiture to the three bishoprics
and to any others which should be founded in the Wendish country
hereafter, that substantial headway could be made? . This imperial con-
cession moreover later received papal confirmation. That the administra-
tion of Church and State should be controlled by one hand was almost
essential to the success of a country in the earliest stages of its civilisation,
and henceforth the missionary work in Slavonia made steady progress.
Henry was content not merely with sanctioning appointments made by
the Chapter, but himself took the initiative; Gerold, for example, Vicelin's
successor at Oldenburg, was the duke's chaplain and formerly scholasticus
and a canon at Brunswick. The task of this new bishop was not an easy
one; he arrived at Oldenburg to find, instead of the flourishing town of
Vicelin's day, a deserted ruin; a half-destroyed chapel alone stood to mark
the once busy missionary centre. There can moreover have been little
real enthusiasm among the Slavs for the new religion. Life was difficult;
taxation was onerous; the new civilisation brought with it new burdens.
Henry was a hard task-master; obedience to him was all they understood.
“There may be a God in Heaven,” Niclot answered to Henry's exhorta-
tions, “he is your God. You be our God, and we are satisfied. You
worship Him, we will worship you. ” Nevertheless, in spite of all, progress
was made; the churches were rebuilt, and received generous endowment
from Henry's treasury.
Moreover there was peace in the land. Helmold, the simple parish
priest of Bosau, who chronicled the events that were passing in the country
around him, speaks with unbounded enthusiasm of the great duke and of
the beneficial results of his energy and enterprise. “He says peace, and
they obey; he commands war, and they say: 'we are ready. ” So he
writes at the conclusion of his Chronicle of the Slavs. And again, “All
the region of the Slavs from the Eider, which is the boundary of the
kingdom of the Danes, extending between the Baltic Sea and the Elbe
through long tracts of country to Schwerin, once bristling with snares and
almost a desert, is now, thanks to God, become one united Saxon colony,
and cities and towns are built there, churches and the number of Christ's
servants are multiplied. " These words contain no exaggeration. West-
phalian, Frisian, and Flemish colonists had now firmly established them-
1 This is not an isolated example of the grant of such a privilege: similar grants
were made to Count Thierry of Flanders in respect of the bishopric of Cambray and
to Duke Berthold of Zähringen in respect of the bishopric of Lausanne; the former
privilege was afterwards revoked in deference to the protest of the bishop concerned.
See Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, iv, 210.
CH. XII.


## p. 400 (#446) ############################################

400
Foundation and prosperity of Lübeck
selves in the newly-acquired territory; the country was administered and
kept at peace from strongholds such as Schwerin, Malchow, and Ilow,
fortressed and garrisoned by German troops. Even in distant Pomerania
a significant advance was made when in 1163 it became subject to Henry;
German influence began to penetrate deep, and the Cistercians and the
Premonstratensians successfully pushed forward the work of conversion.
Of the numerous activities of Henry the Lion perhaps his patronage
of commercial and municipal development had the most lasting results.
In this direction, it must be admitted, his policy was often carried out at
the expense of others. The new city of Lübeck, founded by Count Adolf
of Schauenburg in 1143, was already shewing signs of its future commercial
greatness and was rapidly absorbing the trade of the Baltic; the duke's
town of Bardowiek suffered in consequence. Henry demanded a half-share
in the profits of the market of the city; the demand not unnaturally was
refused, and the market of Lübeck was closed by the duke's order (1152).
A fire destroying the greater part of the city completed its ruin. At the
request of the citizens a new town was built for them in the neighbourhood,
called after its founder Löwenstadt. But the narrowness of its harbour,
which could admit only the smallest ships, hampered its trade, and the
town failed. Nevertheless it served its purpose, for Count Adolf was forced
to yield to the duke's will. The abandoned city was rebuilt under the
auspices of Henry, the burghers returned, and trade once more flourished
in the port of Lübeck'. Under Henry's patronage the town developed
with extraordinary rapidity; in 1160, by the removal thither of the seat
of the Bishop of Oldenburg, Lübeck acquired an ecclesiastical, in addition
to its commercial, importance. In Bavaria also Henry stimulated trade,
and it was to a trade dispute between the duke and Bishop Otto of Freising
that Bavaria owes the early prosperity of its modern capital. The rich
supplies of salt from the Reichenhall mines were carried along the road
from Salzburg to Augsburg and crossed the Isar at Vehringen, a little town
belonging to Bishop Otto, who drew a handsome revenue from the tolls.
By the building of a bridge at Munich, then an insignificant village, and
by the destruction of the old one, Henry not only diverted the trade
1 Henry's charter to Lübeck contained the grant of mint, toll, and market.
Rietschel in a paper on the town policy of Henry the Lion read before the International
Historical Congress at Berlin, 1908, tried to prove that Henry was the first to develop
the constitution of the Rath. His evidence is the charter of 1188 to Lübeck in which
Frederick concedes omnia iura que primus loci fundator Heinricus quondam dux Saxonie
eis concessit et privilegio suo firmavit. The charter, however, though partly based on
a genuine original, is a forgery of the years 1222–5. The Rath does not emerge until
the last fifteen years of the twelfth century, and then it makes its first appearance in
the Rhine district-between 1185-1198 at Basle, Strasbourg, Worms, Spires, and
Utrecht. The first evidence for it at Lübeck is in 1201. Cf. Hermann Bloch, Der
Freibrief Friedrichs I für Lübeck und der Ursprung der Rathverfassung in Deutschland.
(Zeitschrift des Vereins für Lübeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde, Vol. xvi,
Lübeck, 1914. )


## p. 401 (#447) ############################################

Oppressive rule of Henry the Lion
401
through his territory and the revenues to his treasury, but raised the
little place to a city of the first importance. The bishop's remonstrances
went unheeded by the Emperor, who sanctioned Henry's arrangements at
the court at Magdeburg in 1158.
But Henry's rule threatened the independence of the nobility; for he
did not confine his almost sovereign power to the frontier and to the newly-
won Wendish lands, but exercised it in Saxony itself. The traditional
policy of the Billung dukes had been to interfere very little in the affairs
of the duchy except on the border and in their own personal posses-
sions. Henry, regardless of tradition, interfered everywhere, strained
the use of his jurisdiction to the utmost limits, and attempted even to
transform the countships into administrative offices under his immediate
control. He sought further to increase his power and possessions by
claiming the inheritance of counts who left no direct male heir. As early
as 1144 he had thus laid claim to the inheritance of the murdered Count
Rudolf of Stade, territory of the first importance to him, for it commanded
both banks of the mouth of the Elbe, but by so doing he involved himself
in a life-long feud with the count's brother, Hartwig, afterwards Arch-
bishop of Bremen; he laid claim to the lands of Christian of Oldenburg
despite the claims of the count's son who was a minor (1167); to those
of the Count of Asseburg despite the claims of the count's daughter (1170).
Had it not been for the imperial support, Henry could not have stood
against the opposition he was creating; but for the first twenty-five years
of the reign Emperor and duke were the best of friends. The success of
their respective activities depended largely on this mutual understanding;
Frederick, relieved of the burden, which had borne heavily on his pre-
decessors, of protecting the eastern frontier of his kingdom, of maintaining
the peace of Germany, could devote himself whole-heartedly to his Italian
policy; Henry with the free hand allowed him by the Emperor could in-
crease and consolidate his unrivalled position north of the Alps.
Nevertheless the Saxon princes were not prepared to stand idle when
their independence was at stake. Conspiracies were common, and when the
Emperor left for Italy in the autumn of 1166 the struggle began in earnest.
Many princes and bishops were united against him: Wichmann of Magde-
burg and Herman of Hildesheim; Louis, the Landgrave of Thuringia, and
Henry's old associate in the Slav campaigns, Christian of Oldenburg; and
there was of course Henry's keenest rival in East Saxony, the Ascanian,
Albert the Bear, and his four sons, each of whom was to rise to a power-
ful position after the death of their father four years later. Fighting at
first centred round Haldensleben, Goslar, and Bremen; with these attacks
Henry was well able to cope, but the prospect looked more serious when
the Archbishops of Magdeburg and Cologne joined in an offensive and
defensive alliance directed at his overthrow. The sudden death of Rainald
in Italy in 1167 and of Hartwig in the following year relieved the situation,
and the return of Frederick settled the matter in Henry's favour. For the
C. MED, H. VOL. V. CH, XII.
26


## p. 402 (#448) ############################################

402
Breach between Frederick and Duke Henry
moment there was peace; Albert the Bear, the leader of the opposition
among the East Saxon princes, died in 1170, so that Henry could safely
leave the charge of his affairs to his English wife Matilda, daughter of
Henry II, whom he had married in 1168 at Brunswick, and could set off
on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (1172).
On Henry's return to Germany there are no obvious signs of a change
of attitude in his relations with the Emperor. They meet frequently, and
apparently on cordial terms of friendship. There were nevertheless grounds
for friction. Old Welf Vi, since the loss of his son by the pestilence in
Italy (1167), thinking that in his advanced age he could make better use
of money than of land, resolved to sell his inheritance. He offered it first
to Henry who, though accepting the proposal readily enough, was tardy
in the matter of payment; Welf therefore approached his other nephew,
Frederick, who concluded the bargain forth with. Henry was thus deprived
of a rich portion of the estates of his family, lands on both sides of the
Alps, on which he had surely counted. This was a grievance but not the
only one that rankled in the heart of Henry. Frederick had attempted,
it was said, to get into his hands the disposal of Henry's inheritance in the
event of the latter's death in the Holy Land. Nor was the bitterness all on
one side; the Emperor too had cause to complain of his cousin. Henry had
been drawn into relations with foreign powers who were not in sympathy
with Frederick’s Italian policy-with the Eastern Emperor Manuel who
was aiding the Lombards, with Henry II of England, his father-in-law,
who had recognised Alexander III.
So the breach widens. The collapse of the great Welf power was at
hand. A campaign to Italy was arranged for the autumn of the year 1174,
and in this campaign Henry took no part. Frederick, whose Lombard
adversaries had grown in strength, had become more united, more stub-
bornly resolved to resist to the last, could ill afford to dispense with the
troops which Henry could bring into the field. It is unlikely that
he willingly left the duke in Germany even for so important a task
as the maintenance of peace; nor in the circumstances was Henry,
surrounded as he was by personal enemies, very likely to succeed in this.
The two met for the last time on terms of friendship at Ratisbon in May
1174. Their next meeting, if indeed it is historical, is the famous inter-
view at Chiavenna. This is altogether a very mysterious episode. The
chroniclers who refer to it are so confused in their knowledge that many
scholars are led to the conclusion that the whole thing is a myth, a legend
spread by ballad singers after Henry's death in 1195; and their contention
is so far supported in that we possess no account of it written near the time
it was supposed to have taken place. With the exception of Gilbert of
Mons, who probably wrote in 1196, and the Marbach Annals, which are
attributed to the year 1184, all our authorities belong to the first quarter
of the thirteenth century. Yet it is difficult to understand how such a
widely, though inaccurately, known story could have arisen entirely with-


## p. 403 (#449) ############################################

The meeting at Chiavenna
403
out foundation. It was after his army had suffered severe losses at the
siege of Alessandria that Frederick in the spring of 1176 sought a personal
interview with his cousin. They met at Chiavenna, and the Emperor
begged for the other's assistance; he even humbled himself before his proud
subject, for, it seems, he realised that he must make amends for something,
presumably his conduct while Henry was in Palestine. Henry, on the other
hand, felt himself in a position to dictate terms, and he demanded the
restoration of Goslar, which he had ceded to the Emperor as the price of
peace in 1168, as a fief; the terms were too heavy, and the two parted in
enmity. So runs the story and, in spite of the difficulties, we may accept
the substance of it. Moreover it has an important bearing on what
followed. Though the refusal of help and the subsequent trial cannot be
regarded as cause and effect, it is impossible to deny the influence of the
one on the other. The breach between the former friends was now almost,
if not quite, irreparable; the Emperor would no longer arbitrate in the
duke's quarrels as a friend, not even as an impartial judge, but as a man
determined on the duke's ruin; and it was a quarrel between the duke and
the Saxon princes which gave rise to the famous trial.
The quarrel centred round the bishopric of Halberstadt. Its Bishop,
Ulrich, as long ago as 1160 had been deprived of his see for the attitude
he had adopted in the papal schism; for he had recognised Alexander III.
His place had been filled by one Gero, a close friend of the duke. By the
terms of the agreement reached at Anagni and confirmed at Venice, Ulrich
was restored to his old see, and he immediately set about undoing all the
acts of the usurper; he claimed back the fiefs of his church which had been
granted to Henry; he dismissed from their benefices the clergy appointed
by Gero under the duke's patronage. Henry was engaged in a campaign
in Pomerania, and was besieging the fortress of Demmin, when the news
of these events reached him. Having hurriedly concluded a truce with the
Slavs, he hastened back to Saxony. The last move of the bishop was still
more threatening; on a hill in the near neighbourhood of Halberstadt
he built a fortress, obviously as a basis of operations against the duke.
Twice was the stronghold destroyed and twice rebuilt. A command from
the Emperor in Italy, bidding the princes to refrain from repairing the
obnoxious fortress, for the moment restored peace. But Henry's position
was becoming daily more hazardous; a portion of his army had suffered
a severe defeat and the loss of more than four hundred prisoners at the
hands of Bernard of Anhalt; then early in the year 1178 an offensive and
defensive alliance was concluded against him at Cassel between Ulrich and
the formidable Philip of Cologne. The duke's castles and lands in West-
phalia were attacked and plundered, and it was only with difficulty that
Archbishop Wichmann of Magdeburg succeeded in preventing further
hostilities till the Emperor's return. He returned towards the end of
October, and both parties laid their complaints before him at a diet held
at Spires on 11 November 1178.
CH. XII.
26-2


## p. 404 (#450) ############################################

404
Proceedings against Henry the Lion
We are now launched into a sea of uncertainty and doubt. Innumer-
able questions arise: What was the Emperor's attitude? What were the
grounds of complaint against the duke? What course did the proceedings
follow? According to what law was he judged? Where and when was the
case heard?