THE FRANKS AND THE SAXONS In the 6th century the predominant peoples are the Franks, Frisians, Saxons, Alamanni, Bavarians, Langobardi, Heruli, and Warni. By the beginning of this century the Saxons penetrated almost, if not quite, to the Rhine in the Netherlands. The old land of the Chatti was included in the kingdom of Clovis and Northern Bavaria was occupied by the Franks. To the east of the Franks, between the Harz, the Elbe, and the Saale, lay the kingdom of the Thuringi. The Heruli also had a powerful king dom in the basin of the Elbe, and to the east of them were the Langobardi. The Warni now dwelt in the regions about the mouth of the Elbe, while the whole coast from the mouth of the Weser to the west Scheldt was in the hands of the Frisians. By this time all the country east of the lower Elbe was Slavonic. Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, endeavoured to form a confederacy with the Thuringi, Heruli and Warni against Clovis in order to protect the Visigoths in the early years of the 6th century, but very shortly afterwards the king of the Heruli was slain by the Lango bardi and their existence as an independent power came to an end. In 531 the Thuringian kingdom was destroyed by the Frankish king Theodoric.
During the 6th and 7th centuries the Saxons were intermittently under Frankish supremacy, but their conquest was not complete until the time of Charlemagne. Shortly after the middle of the 6th century the Franks were threatened with a new invasion by the Avars. In 567-568 the Langobardi, who by this time had moved into the Danube basin, invaded Italy and were followed by those of the Saxons who had settled in Thuringia. Their lands were given by the Frankish king Sigeberht to the north Suebi and other tribes who had come either from the Elbe basin or possibly from the Netherlands. About the same time Sigeberht was defeated by the Avars, and they were followed by a move ment of the Slays, who occupied the basin of the Elster and penetrated to that of the Main.
By the end of the 6th century the whole basin of the Elbe, except the Saxon territory near the mouth, had become Slavonic. The Warni now disappear from history, and from this time the Teutonic peoples of the north as far as the Danish boundary about the Eider are called Saxons. The conquest of the Frisians by the Franks was begun by Pippin (Pepin) of Heristal in 689 and practically completed by Charles Martel, though they were not entirely brought into subjection until the time of Charle mdgne. The great overthrow of the Saxons took place about 772– 773, and by the end of the century Charlemagne had extended his conquests to the border of the Danes. By this time the whole of the Teutonic part of Germany had been brought under his government.
The history begins with the wars of Clovis and his successors against the Alamanni, conquered by Clovis, the Thuringians, and the Bavarians. On the death of Clovis (5 z i) his kingdom was divided, and the Ripuarian, or Rhenish, Franks, together with some of the Alamanni, came under the rule of his eldest son Theodoric I. This was the first of the many partitions which ultimately divided the kingdom of the Franks into an eastern and a western portion, that is to say, into divisions which eventually became Germany and France respectively, and the district ruled by Theodoric was almost identical with that which afterwards bore the name of Austrasia. In S31 he killed Hermannfried, king of the Thuringians, conquered his kingdom, and added its south ern portion to his own possessions. His son and successor, Theo debert I., exercised a certain supremacy over the Alamanni and the Bavarians, and even claimed authority over various Saxon tribes between whom and the Franks there had been some fighting. After his death in 548, however, the Frankish power in Germany sank to very minute proportions, a result due partly to the spirit of tribal independence, which lingered among the German races, but principally to the paralysing effect of the unceasing rivalry between Austrasia and Neustria. From 548 the Alamanni were ruled by a succession of dukes who soon made themselves inde pendent ; and in 555 a duke of the Bavarians, who exercised his authority without regard for the Frankish supremacy, is first mentioned. In Thuringia, which now consisted only of the central part of the former kingdom, King Dagobert I. set up in 634 a duke named Radulf who soon asserted his independence of Dagobert and of his successor, Sigebert III. The Saxons for their part did not own even a nominal allegiance to the Frankish kings, whose authority on the right bank of the Rhine was confined to the district actually occupied by men of their own name, which at a later date became the duchy of Franconia. During these years the eastern border of Germany was constantly ravaged by various Slavonic tribes. King Dagobert sent troops to repel these ma rauders from time to time, but the main burden of defence fell upon the Saxons, Bavarians and Thuringians. The virtual inde pendence of these German tribes lasted until the 8th century. The ducal office was then abolished in Thuringia, a series of wars reduced the Alamanni to strict dependence, and both countries were governed by Frankish officials. Bavaria was brought into subjection about the same time; the Bavarian law, committed to writing between 739 and Q48, strongly emphasizes the su premacy of the Frankish king, whose authority it recognizes as including the right to appoint and even to depose the duke of Bavaria.
After all, however, even the most powerful Frankish conquerors had but imperfect success in Germany. Their power was only secure when they and their armies were actually in the land. One of the chief causes of their ill-success was the continued inde pendence of the Saxons. They were still heathens, cherishing bit ter hatred towards the Franks, whom they regarded as the enemies both of their liberties and of their religion ; and their hatred found expression, not only in expeditions into Frankish territory, but in help willingly rendered to every German confederation which wished to throw off the Frankish yoke. Hardly any rebellion against the dukes of the Franks, or against King Pippin, took place in Germany without the Saxons coming forward to aid the rebels. This was perfectly understood by the Frankish rulers, who tried again and again to put an end to the evil by subduing the Saxons. They could not, however, attain their object. An occa sional victory was gained, and some border tribes were from time to time compelled to pay tribute; but the mass of the Saxons remained unconquered until the reign of Charlemagne.
It was during the time of Pippin of Heristal and his son and grandson that the conversion of the Germans to Christianity was mainly effected. Some traces of Roman Christianity still lingered in the Rhine valley and in southern Germany, but the bulk of the people were heathen, in spite of the efforts of Frankish and Irish missionaries and the command of King Dagobert I. that all his subjects should be baptized. Rupert, bishop of Worms, had already made some progress in the work of converting the Bavar ians and Alamanni, as had Willibrord among the Thuringians, when St. Boniface appeared in Germany in 717. Appointed bishop of the Germans by Pope Gregory II., and supported by Charles Martel, he preached with much success in Bavaria and Thuringia, notwithstanding some hostility from the clergy who disliked the influence of Rome. He founded or restored bishoprics in Bavaria, Thuringia and elsewhere, and in 742 presided over the first Ger man council. When he was martyred Christianity was professed by all the German races except the Saxons, and the church, or ganized and wealthy, had been to a large extent brought under the control of the papacy.
The reign of the emperor Louis I. was marked by a number of abortive schemes for the partition of his dominions among his sons, which provoked a state of strife that was largely responsible for the increasing weakness of the empire. The mild nature of his rule, however, made Louis popular with his German subjects, to whose support mainly he owed his restoration to power on two occasions. When in 825 his son Louis, afterwards called "the Ger man," was entrusted with the government of Bavaria and from this centre gradually extended his authority over the Carolingian dominions east of the Rhine, a step was taken in the process by which East Francia, or Germany, was becoming a unit distinguish able from other portions of the empire. The process was carried farther by the treaty of Verdun in Aug. 843, by which Louis ob tained the bulk of the lands east of the Rhine together with the districts around Mainz, Worms and Spires on the left bank. Although not yet a single people, the German tribes had now for the first time a ruler whose authority was confined to their own lands, and from this time the beginnings of national life may be traced. For 5o years the main efforts of Louis were directed to defending his kingdom from the inroads of his Slavonic neigh bours, and his detachment from the rest of the empire necessitated by these constant engagements towards the east, gradually gave both him and his subjects a distinctive character, which was dis played when, in ratifying an alliance with his half-brother, the West-Frankish king, Charles the Bald, the oath was sworn in dif ferent tongues. The East and West Franks were unable to under stand each other's speech, so Charles took the oath in a Romance, and Louis in a German dialect.
Important as is the treaty of Verdun in German history, that of Mersen (q.v.), by which Louis and Charles the Bald settled, 87o, their dispute over the kingdom of Lothair, second son of the emperor Lothair I., is still more important. The additional terri tory which Louis then obtained gave to his dominions almost the proportions which Germany maintained throughout the middle ages. They were bounded on the east by the Elbe and the Bohe mian mountains, and on the west beyond the Rhine they included the districts known afterwards as Alsace and Lorraine. His juris diction embraced the territories occupied by the five ancient Ger man tribes, and included the five archbishoprics of Mainz, Treves (Trier), Cologne, Salzburg and Bremen. When Louis died in 876 his kingdom was divided among his three sons, but as the two elder of these soon died without heirs, Germany was again united in R82 under his remaining son Charles, called "the Fat," who soon became ruler of almost the whole of the extensive domains of Charlemagne. There was, however, no cohesion in the restored empire, the disintegration of which was hastened by the ravages of the Northmen, who plundered the cities in the valley of the Rhine. It was mainly in the interest of national defence that Arnulf, an illegitimate son of Carloman, the eldest son of Louis the German, led an army of Bavarians against Charles, and ob tained recognition as German or East-Frankish king (887). He was successful in freeing his kingdom for a time from the ravages of the Northmen, but was not equally fortunate in his contests with the Moravians. After his death in 899 his kingdom came under the nominal rule of his young son Louis "the Child," and in the absence of firm rule and a central authority became the prey of the Magyars and other hordes of invaders.
During these wars feudalism made rapid advance in Germany. The different peoples compelled to attend to their own defence appointed dukes for special military services (see DUKE) ; and these dukes, chosen often from members of the old ducal families, succeeded without much difficulty in securing a more permanent position for themselves and their descendants. In Saxony, for ex ample, we hear of Duke Otto the Illustrious, who also ruled over Thuringia; and during the early years of the 1 oth century dukes appear in Franconia, Bavaria, Swabia and Lorraine. These dukes acquired large tracts of land of which they gave grants on condi tions of military service to persons on whom they could rely ; while many independent landowners sought their protection on terms of vassalage. The same process took place in the case of great numbers of freemen of a lower class, who put themselves at the service of their more powerful neighbours in return for pro tection. The dukes became virtually independent, and when Louis the Child died in 911, the royal authority existed in name only.
While Louis the Child lived the German dukes were virtually kings in their duchies, and their natural tendency was to make themselves absolute rulers. But, threatened as they were by the Magyars, with the Slays and Northmen always ready to take advantage of their weakness, they could not afford to do without a central government. Accordingly the nobles assembled at Forchheim, and by the advice of Otto the Illustrious, duke of Saxony, Conrad of Franconia was chosen German king. The dukes of Bavaria, Swabia and Lotharingia were displeased at this elec tion, probably because Conrad was likely to prove considerably more powerful than they wished. The two former dukes yielded, but the duke of Lotharingia transferred his allegiance to Charles the Simple of France ; and it was in vain that Conrad protested and despatched armies into Lorraine.
On the other hand, the rise of the dukes had been watched with extreme jealousy by the leading prelates. They saw that their independence would be much more imperilled by powerful local governors than by a sovereign who necessarily regarded it as part of his duty to protect the church. Hence they had done everything they could to prevent the dukes from extending their authority, and as the government was carried on during the reign of Louis the Child mainly by Hatto I., archbishop of Mainz, they had been able to throw considerable obstacles in the way of their rivals. They now induced Conrad to quarrel with both Swabia and Bavaria, and also with Henry, duke of Saxony, son of the duke to whom he chiefly owed his crown. In these contests the German king met with indifferent success, but the struggle with Saxony was not very serious, and when dying in Dec. 919 Con rad recommended the Franconian nobles to offer the crown to Henry, the only man who could cope with the anarchy by which he had himself been baffled.
In southern and western Germany towns and fortified places had long existed ; but in the north, outside the sphere of Roman influence, they had not yet arisen. As a provision for the defence of the land Henry began the construction of fortresses and walled towns. Of every group of nine men one was compelled to devote himself to this work, while the remaining eight cultivated his fields and allowed a third of their produce to be stored against times of trouble. The necessities of military discipline were also a subject of attention. Hitherto the Germans had fought mainly on foot, and, as the Magyars came on horseback, the nation was placed at an immense disadvantage. A powerful force of cavalry was now raised, while at the same time the infantry were drilled in new and more effective modes of fighting. Before turning his new troops against their chief enemy, the Magyars, Henry used them to punish refractory Slavonic tribes; and he brought under tem porary subjection nearly all the Slays between the Elbe and the Oder. He compelled the duke of the Bohemians to do homage, and he recovered the land between the Eider and the Schlei from Gorm, king of the Danes. His greatest single achievement, how ever, was the victory which he won on March 933, over the Magyars, which freed Saxony and Thuringia from an ever present danger.
Notable as it was, Henry's work concerned the duchy of Saxony rather than the kingdom of Germany. He concentrated all his energies on the government and defence of northern and eastern Germany, leaving the southern and western districts to profit by his example, while his policy of refraining from inter ference in the affairs of the other duchies tended to diminish the ill-feeling which existed between the various German tribes and to bring peace to the country as a whole. It is in these directions that his reign marks a stage in the history of Germany. When he died in July 936 every land inhabited by a German population formed part of the German kingdom, and none of the duchies were at war either with him or among themselves.
Otto's reign is important for the relations of Germany with ex ternal powers. He intervened in the affairs of France where King Louis IV. and his greatest subject, Hugh, duke of the Franks, had each married one of his sisters. His wars with his northern and eastern neighbours were more important. The duke of Bohemia, after a long struggle, was brought to submission in 95o. Among the Slays between the Elbe and the Oder the king was represented by Margrave Gero, who conquered much of the country north of Bohemia between the Oder and the upper and middle Elbe. Mar grave Billung, who looked after the Abotrites on the lower Elbe. was less fortunate, mainly because of the neighbourhood of the Danes, who, after the death of King Henry, often attacked the hated Germans, but some progress was made in bringing this district under German influence. Otto, having profound faith in the power of the Church to reconcile conquered peoples to his rule, provided for the benefit of the Danes the bishoprics of Schleswig, Ripen and Aarhus ; and among those which he estab lished for the Slays were the important bishoprics of Brandenburg and Havelberg. In his later years he set up the archbishopric of Magdeburg, which took in the sees of Meissen, Zeitz and Merse burg.
Having secured peace in Germany and begun the real conquest of the border races, Otto was by far the greatest sovereign in Europe. The latter part of his long reign was largely occupied with his intervention in Italy and its consequences. About 951 Adelaide, widow of Lothair, son of Hugh, king of Italy, having refused to marry the son of Berengar, margrave of Ivrea, was cast into prison and cruelly treated. She appealed to Otto; other reasons called him in the same direction, and in 951 he crossed the Alps and descended into Lombardy. He displaced Berengar, and was so fascinated by Queen Adelaide that within a few weeks he was married to her at Pavia. But Otto's son, Ludolf, who had received a promise of the German crown, saw his rights threatened by this marriage. He went to an old enemy of his father, Fred erick, archbishop of Mainz, and the two plotted together against the king, who, hearing of their proceedings, returned to Germany in 952, leaving Duke Conrad of Lorraine as his representative in Italy. Otto, who did not suspect how deep were the designs of the conspirators, paid a visit to Mainz, where he was seized and was compelled to take certain solemn pledges which, after his escape, he repudiated. War broke out in 953, and the struggle was the most serious in which he had been engaged. Conrad the Red hurried from Italy and joined the rebels; in Swabia, in Bavaria, in Franconia and even in Saxony, the native land of the king, many sided with them. The rapidity and strength of the move ment is extremely remarkable. Otto was, in fact, only saved by the presence of external peril. The Magyars were as usual stimu lated to action by the disunion of their enemies; and Conrad and Ludolf made the blunder of inviting their help. The great battle against the Magyars was fought on Aug. io, 955, on the Lechfeld near Augsburg. The Magyars were defeated, and from this time, they began to settle in the land they still occupy.
Entreated by Pope John XII., who needed a helper against Ber engar, Otto went a second time to Italy, in 961; and on this oc casion he received from the pope at Rome the imperial crown. The significance of this event is discussed elsewhere (see EMPIRE). It gave to Otto certain definite advantages, a general increase of prestige, and new authority over the Church in Germany. Otto bad been led into Italian enterprises by considerations which no one in his position could have resisted, and his coronation was their inevitable consequence. Events were to prove that the asso ciation of Germany and Italy thus established would prevent the creation of a united monarchy in either country. In Otto's time the condition of Italy invited the intervention of a ruler who felt himself competent to establish order and reform the Church.
By the policy of his later years Otto did much to prepare the way for the process of disintegration which he rendered inevitable by restoring the empire. With the kingdom divided into five great duchies, the sovereign could always have maintained at least so much unity as Henry the Fowler had. Yet Otto threw away this advantage. Lorraine was divided into two duchies, Upper Lorraine and Lower Lorraine. In each he appointed a count palatine, whose duty was to maintain the royal rights ; and of ter Margrave Gero died in 965 his territory was divided into three marches, and placed under margraves, each with the same powers as Gero. Otto gave up the practice of retaining the duchies either in his own hands or in those of relatives. Even Saxony, his native duchy and the chief source of his strength, was given to Margrave Billung, whose family kept it for many years. To combat the power of the princes, Otto greatly increased the importance of the pre lates. He undoubtedly felt that, as church lands and offices could not be hereditary, their holders would necessarily favour the Crown. He forgot that the passion for the rights of an order may be not less intense than that for the rights of a family.
During the reigns of Otto II. and Otto III. 1002) much of the work of Henry the Fowler and Otto I. was un done. Otto II. had married Theophano, daughter of Romanus II., the eastern emperor, and his main ambition was the con quest of southern Italy. Otto III. hoped to achieve the unity of Christendom under his authority, and was little interested in the problems of the German kingship. It is not strange that this period is marked by a reaction on the part of the kingdoms on the German border over which Henry and Otto I. had extended their influence and by revolts within Germany itself. The reign of Henry II., the successor of Otto III. (1002-24), was mainly occu pied by an attempt to restore the royal authority over Germany and the border kingdoms, of which Poland (q.v.) was the most dangerous. In this last respect his work was continued by his successor Conrad II., a Franconian noble (1024-39), under whom the eastern border was materially strengthened. In the west, Con rad received the kingdom of Arles by the bequest of its king, Rudolph III. (1032), and in Germany itself he was remarkably successful in regaining control over the duchies. Franconia was under his own rule, and he was able to acquire Bavaria and Swabia for his son Henry. His power was greater than that of any other king since the death of Otto I., and he founded a notable dynasty.
With Henry's reign, the relations between empire and papacy entered on a new phase. It was largely through him that the papacy was enabled to extend its authority over western Europe. In 1046 he entered Italy at the head of an army and secured the deposition of the three contemporary claimants to the papal see. He then bestowed it on Suidger, bishop of Bamberg, who, as Pope Clement II., crowned him emperor ; and after Clement three other German popes—Damasus II., Leo IX. and Victor II.- owed their elevation to Henry. Under them a new era began for the Church, and in thus reforming the papacy Henry III. ful filled what was regarded as the noblest duty of his imperial office, but he was preparing difficulties for his successors. The last yes rs of his reign form a turning-point in German history. Great kings and emperors came after him, but none of them possessed the direct, absolute authority which he freely wielded; even in the case of the strongest the forms of feudalism more and more interposed themselves between the monarch and the nation, and at last the royal authority virtually disappeared. During this reign the towns entered upon an age of prosperity, and the Rhine and the Weser became great avenues of trade.
When Henry died in Oct. Io56, the decline of the royal author ity was accelerated by the fact that his successor was a child. Henry IV., who had been crowned king in IoS4, was at first in charge of his mother, the empress Agnes, but a succession of revolutions at court placed him under the control of Adalbert, archbishop of Bremen. Adalbert's rule was very successful. Com pelling King Solomon to own Henry's supremacy he restored the influence of Germany in Hungary; but in Germany itself and especially in Saxony he made many enemies, and in io66 Henry, who had just been declared of age, was compelled to dismiss him. The Investiture Controversy.—Henry IV. assumed the duties of government soon after the fall of Adalbert. The first ten years of his actual reign were marked by a great revolt in Saxony (q.v.) which ended in the submission of the duchy. In the later part of his reign began the dispute between empire and . papacy commonly known from one of the questions at issue as the Investiture Controversy. Its origin and history are discussed in other articles (see EMPIRE ; PAPACY) . The present article is only concerned with its effect on Germany, which from any point of view was disastrous. It destroyed whatever possibility existed of an effective kingdom of Germany. The authority of later kings like Frederick I. or Henry VI. is more artificial than that of Otto I. or Conrad II., it depends more obviously on the personality of the reigning king, and its sanction has evidently been weakened. Henceforward the German kingship was on the defensive against the papal claim to universal dominion, and the papacy could generally obtain the support of the disaffected elements within Germany. The resistance actually made by Henry IV. to the new claims advanced by the papacy is a testimony to the work of Henry's predecessors. They had made the German kingship a political force, had compelled the most powerful of their princes to show it at least formal respect, and above all had identified it with the security of the German people against attack from the alien peoples of the East. In this their work was never wholly undone. The defence of the eastern borders was always a royal duty, and the marks which were created for their protection were for many years under far more definite subjection to the king than the ancient duchies had ever been. The real damage which Germany suffered through the investiture controversy came through the papal challenge to the respect which had hitherto been accorded to the royal authority implicitly, without specula tion as to its origin or sanction.
Henry IV. died in Aug. 1106. The first years of his successor Henry V. were spent in campaigns in Flanders, Bohemia, Hun gary and Poland and in the establishment of his power in Ger many. His chief supporters were his nephews, the two Hohen staufen princes, Frederick and Conrad, to whose father Frederick the emperor Henry IV. had given the duchy of Swabia when its duke Rudolph became his rival. The younger Frederick succeeded to this duchy in I 105, while ten years later Conrad was made duke of Franconia, a country which for nearly a century had been under the immediate government of the Crown. The two brothers were enthusiastic imperialists, and with persistent courage they upheld the cause of their sovereign during his two absences in Italy.
The investiture controversy—the great outstanding question at issue between pope and emperor—was settled in 1122 by the concordat of Worms, a compromise by which the right of electing prelates was granted to the clergy, and the emperor surrendered the privilege of investing them with the ring and the staff. On the other hand it was arranged that these elections should take place in the presence of the emperor or his representative, and that he should invest the new prelate with the sceptre, thus signifying that the bishop, or abbot, held his temporal fiefs from him and not from the pope. The settlement gave material advantage to the emperor, and he was able to establish good order in Germany before his death in I I 2 5.
Henry the Proud was confident that he would succeed Lothair, who had died on his return from Italy in Dec. I 1 3 7 ; but, by a hasty and irregular election, Conrad of Hohenstaufen, duke of Franconia, was chosen king in March 1138. Henry the Proud re belled and was declared to have forfeited his two duchies, Saxony and Bavaria, the former being given to Albert the Bear, margrave of Brandenburg, and the latter to Leopold IV., margrave of Austria. Henry defended his rights with vigour and once again Germany was ravaged by war, for although he was unpopular in Bavaria he was strongly supported by the Saxons, who, since the time of Henry IV., had always been ready to join in an attack on the monarchy, and he had little difficulty in driving Albert the Bear from the land. However, in Oct. 1139 Henry died suddenly, but his young son, Henry the Lion, was recognized at once as duke of Saxony, while his brother, Welf, upheld the fortunes of his house in Bavaria. The struggle went on until May 1142, when peace was made at Frankfurt. Saxony, with the assent of Albert the Bear, was granted by Conrad to Henry the Lion, and Bavaria was given to Henry Jasomirgott, who had just succeeded his brother Leo pold as margrave of Austria. But this was only a lull in the civil strife, which was renewed after the king had made a successful ex pedition into Bohemia. The princes clerical and lay were fighting against each other, and the Bavarians were at war with the Hun garians who gained a great victory in i 146. Notwithstanding the many sources of confusion Conrad was persuaded by the pas sionate eloquence of Bernard of Clairvaux to take part in the sec ond crusade ; he left for the East in '147 and returned to Germany in 1149, to find Welf again in arms and Henry the Lion claiming Bavaria. The king had done nothing to stem the rising tide of dis order when he died at Bamberg in Feb. '152. During this reign the work of conquering and Germanizing the Slavonic tribes east of the Elbe was seriously taken in hand under the lead of Albert the Bear and Henry the Lion, and the foundation of the margraviate of Brandenburg by Albert tended to make life and property more secure in the north-east of Germany.
Frederick Barbarossa.—After Conrad's death Germany passed under the rule of one of the greatest of her sovereigns, Frederick I., called Barbarossa, nephew of the late king and son of Frederick, that duke of Swabia who had fought along with Conrad against Henry the Proud. Frederick himself had also been closely associated with Conrad, who advised the princes to choose his nephew as his successor. This was done, and the new king was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle in March 115 2. Allied through his mother to the Welfs of Bavaria, and anxious to put an end to the unrest which dominated Germany, especially to the strife between the families of Welf and Hohenstaufen, Frederick began his reign by promising to secure for Henry the Lion the duchy of Bavaria, and by appeasing Henry's uncle, Count Welf, by making him duke of Spoleto and margrave of Tuscany. But the new king had an other, and perhaps a more potent, reason for wishing to see peace restored in Germany. For his adventurous and imaginative spirit Italy and the imperial title had an irresistible charm, and in two years after he had ascended the throne, he crossed the Alps, being crowned emperor at Rome in June 1155. After this event the best years of his life were spent in Italy, where, in his long and obstinate struggle with the Lombard cities and with Pope Alexan der III., he chiefly acquired his fame. Although on the emperor's side this struggle was conducted mainly with German troops it falls properly under the history of Italy.
The promise that Bavaria should be granted to Henry the Lion was not easily fulfilled, as Henry Jasomirgott refused to give up the duchy. At last, however, in 1156, after his return from his first expedition to Italy, Frederick reconciled the latter prince by mak ing Austria into a duchy with certain special privileges, an impor tant step in the process by which that country became the centre of a powerful State. Henry Jasomirgott then renounced Bavaria, and Henry the Lion became its duke. It was, however, in his other duchy of Saxony that the latter duke's most important work was done. Although he often gave offence by his haughty and aggres sive disposition, few German princes have earned so thoroughly the goodwill of posterity. Since the death of Otto the Great the Slavonic lands to the east of the Elbe had been very imperfectly held in subjection by the Germans. Devoting himself to the con quest of the lands lying along the shore of the Baltic, Henry suc ceeded as no one before him had ever done. But he was not only a conqueror. He built towns and encouraged those which already existed; he founded and restored bishoprics in his new territories; and between the Elbe and the Oder he planted bodies of industri ous colonists. While he was thus at work a similar task was being performed to the south-east of Saxony by Albert the Bear, the first margrave of Brandenburg, who, by his energetic rule was preparing this country for its great destinies. Already under Henry V. Pom erania had come under the influence of Christianity, introduced mainly by Otto, bishop of Bamberg (1103-1139) Early in his reign, by settling a dispute over the Crown of Den mark, Frederick brought the king of that country once more into the position of a German vassal. Having spent the year 1156 in settling the Bavarian question and in enforcing order in the Rhine land and elsewhere, the emperor marched into Poland in 1157, compelled its ruler, Boleslaus IV., to do the homage which he had previously refused to perform, and in return for services rendered during the campaign and for promises of future aid, raised the duke of Bohemia to the rank of a king, a change which in no way affected his duties to the German Crown, but which gave him a cer tain precedence over other vassal princes. The king of Hungary, too, although no attempt was made to subdue him, became a useful ally. Towards the west, Frederick asserted his authority in Bur gundy or, as it was sometimes called, Franche Comte. In Germany itself internal order was established by a strict appliance of the ex isting laws against those who broke the peace, fresh orders for its observance were issued, and in Frederick the robber nobles found a most implacable enemy. The cities, too, flourished during this reign. The emperor attached them to himself by granting to many of them the very liberties which, by a strained interpretation of his imperial rights, he withheld from the cities of Lombardy. Yet, not withstanding his policy, in these directions the German nobles ap pear to have been enthusiastically devoted to Frederick. Time after time they followed him to Italy, enduring serious losses and hardships in order that he might enforce claims which were of no advantage to them, and which, previously, had been a curse to their nation. Their loyalty is well illustrated by the famous scene at Besancon in Oct. '157. During a meeting of the diet a papal legate read a letter from Pope Adrian IV., which seemed to imply that the empire was a papal fief. Indignant murmurs rose from the as sembled nobles, and the life of the legate was only saved from their fury by the intervention of the emperor himself.
The central years of his reign were mainly occupied with an at tempt to enforce his rule upon Italy. To these years belong his quarrel with Pope Alexander III. and his wars with the cities of northern Italy (see PAPACY; LOMBARD LEAGUE). In his later years his interests were devoted to German affairs. Here, his chief enemy was Henry the Lion. Rendered arrogant by success and confident that his interests were in northern, and not in southern Europe, the Saxon duke refused to assist Frederick in the cam paign which ended so disastrously at Legnano. Ascribing his defeat to Henry's defection, Frederick returned to Germany full of anger against the Saxon duke and firmly resolved to punish him. The immediate cause of Henry's downfall, however, was not his failure to appear in Italy, but his refusal to restore some lands to the bishop of Halberstadt, and it was on this charge that he was sum moned before the diet. Three times he refused to appear, and early in 118o sentence was pronounced against him ; he was condemned to lose all his lands and to go into banishment. For some time he resisted, but at length the emperor in person marched against him and he was forced to submit; the only favour he could secure when peace was made at Erfurt in Nov. 1181 was permission to retain Brunswick and Luneburg, which have remained in the pos session of his descendants until our own day. Bavaria was granted to Otto of Wittelsbach, but it lost some of its importance because Styria was taken from it and made into a separate duchy. The ex tensive duchy of Saxony was completely dismembered. The name was taken by the small portion of the former duchy which was given to Bernard, son of Albert the Bear, the founder of a new Saxon line, and the extensive western part was added to the arch bishopric of Cologne. The chief prelates of Saxony and many of the late duke's most important feudatories were made virtually in dependent of all control save that of the Crown. Frederick's object in thus breaking up the two greatest duchies in his kingdom was doubtless to strengthen the imperial authority. But in reality he made it certain that the princes would one day shake off the im perial power altogether.
Less serious than the struggle with Henry the Lion was Fred erick's struggle with Philip of Heinsberg, archbishop of Cologne (d. 1191), on whom he had just conferred a great part of Saxony. When the emperor went to Italy in 1184 he left the government of Germany to his son Henry, afterwards the emperor Henry VI., who had been crowned German king in 1169. On all sides, but es pecially in the north-west, Henry was faced with incipient revolu tion, and while he was combating this the quarrel between Fred erick and the papacy broke out again in Italy. At this juncture Philip of Cologne united the German and the Italian oppositions. Several princes rallied to his standard and foreign powers promised aid, but although very formidable in appearance the combination had no vestige of popular support. The greater part of the German clergy again proved their loyalty to Frederick, who hurried to Germany only to see the opposition vanish before him. In March '188, Philip of Cologne submitted at Mainz. Germany was now at peace. With the accession of Gregory VIII. pope and emperor were reconciled, and by the marriage of his son Henry with Con stance, daughter of Roger I., king of Sicily, the emperor had rea son to hope that the empire would soon include Naples and Sicily. In 1189 he started with a great army for the Holy Land. In June 1190 he was drowned in Cilicia.
Great as was Henry's authority, many of the princes refused to recognize his son, Frederick, who had been chosen king of the Romans in 1196. This attitude was probably due to fear that the German princes would be entangled in Italian politics. The friends of the house of Hohenstaufen, convinced that Frederick's kingship was not possible, chose the late emperor's brother, Philip, duke of Swabia, to fill the vacant throne ; soon afterwards the enemies of the house found a candidate in the person of Henry the Lion's son, Otto of Brunswick. Thus the struggle between Welf and Hohen staufen was renewed and civil war broke out at once. Philip's sup porters were the nobles of southern and eastern Germany, while a few cities in the west owned his authority ; Otto's friends were found mainly in the north and the north-west of the country. If Germany had been unconnected with the papacy, or even if the papacy had been as weak as in the days of Henry VI., the issue of the strife would almost certainly have been an early victory for Philip. Most of the princes and Philip II., king of France, were on his side. But Innocent III. declared for Otto in 1201, and civil war was only ended by Philip's murder in June 1208.
Otto was now again chosen German king, and to mark the gen eral reconciliation he was betrothed to Philip's daughter Beatrix. Nearly all the princes acknowledged him, and as pope and king were at peace, Germany enjoyed a period of comparative quiet. This, however, did not last long. Having secured his coronation at Rome in Oct. 1209, Otto repudiated the many pledges he had made to Innocent and began to act in defiance of the papal wishes. To punish him the pope put forward his own ward, Henry VI.'s son Frederick, who was living in Sicily, as a rival king. While Otto was warring in Italy a number of influential princes met at Nuremberg, at the instigation of Innocent and his ally Philip Augustus of France, and invited Frederick to come to Germany. Otto then left Italy hurriedly, but he was quickly followed by his young rival, who in the warfare which had already broken out proved himself a formidable opponent. Seeking to mend his failing fortunes, Otto went to France to support his ally, the English king John, against Philip Augustus, and at the battle of Bouvines (July 27, 1214) his fate was sealed, although until his death in May 1218 he main tained a desultory warfare against Frederick.
Having made peace with Henry, count palatine of the Rhine and brother of Otto IV., and settled a dispute about the lands of the extinct family of Zahringen in the south-west of the country, Frederick left Germany in Aug. engaged in his bitter con test with the papacy and the Lombard cities, in ruling Sicily, and, after several real or imaginary delays, in fulfilling his crusading vow, he did not return to it for 15 years. During this period he was represented by his son Henry, in whose name the government of Germany was carried on by the regent Engelbert, archbishop of Cologne. While Englebert lived the country was in a fairly peaceable condition, although, thanks to the emperor's conces sions, the spiritual princes were predominant, and all possible means were taken to check the growth of the towns, whose inter ests and aspirations were not favourable to this state of affairs. There was, moreover, a struggle between Valdemar of Denmark and some neighbouring German nobles. But after Engelbert's murder (Nov. 1225) there was a change for the worse, and the only success which can be placed to the credit of the German arms during the next few years was the regaining of the lands ceded to Denmark in 1215, lands which included the cities of Hamburg and Lubeck. Under the rule of the new regent, Louis I., duke of Bavaria, confusion reigned supreme, and civil war prevailed in nearly every part of the country.
After the treaty of San Germano, which was made with Pope Gregory in 1230, and the consequent lull in the struggle with the papacy, Frederick was able to devote some little attention to Germany, and in 1231 he sanctioned the great Privilege of Worms. This was a reward to the princes for their efforts in bringing about the peace, and an extension of the concessions made in 1220. The princes, now for the first time referred to officially as domini terrae, were given full rights of jurisdiction over their lands and all the inferior officers of justice were made subservient to them. Practically they became independent sovereigns, and to make their victory more complete serious restraints were laid upon the freedom of the towns. Before this date King Henry had begun to take a personal part in the government and was already involved in a quarrel with Otto II., duke of Bavaria. He disliked the Privilege of Worms and, favouring the towns against the princes, his policy was diametrically opposed to that of the emperor ; however, in 1232 he went to Italy and promised to obey his father's commands. But in 1234, at a time of great and in creasing disorder in Germany, he rebelled ; he appealed publicly to the princes for support, gained some followers, especially in his own duchy of Swabia, and made an alliance with the Lombard cities. Confident of his strength Frederick entered Germany with a few attendants in the middle of 1235, and his presence had the anticipated effect of quelling the insurrection ; Henry was sent a prisoner to Italy and disappeared from history. Then, in Aug. 1235, amid surroundings of great splendour, the emperor held a diet at Mainz, which was attended by a large number of princes. This diet is very important in the legal history of Germany, be cause here was issued that great "land peace" (Landfrieden) which became the model for all subsequent enactments of the kind. By it private war was declared unlawful, except in cases where justice could not be obtained; a chief justiciar was appoint ed for the empire; all tolls and mints erected since the death of Henry VI. were to be removed; and other provisions dealt with the maintenance of order.
In 1236, during another short stay in Germany, Frederick led the imperial army against Frederick II., duke of Austria, who had defied and overcome his representatives; having taken possession of Vienna and the Austrian duchies he there secured the election of his son Conrad, who had already succeeded his brother as duke of Swabia, as king of the Romans (May 1237). But in spite of these imposing displays of power the princes looked with suspicion upon an emperor who was almost a stranger to their country and who was believed to be a renegade from their faith, and soon after Frederick's return to Italy the gulf between him and his German subjects was widened by his indifference to a great danger which threatened them. This came from the Mongols who ravaged the eastern frontiers of the country, but the peril was warded off by the efforts of Henry II., duke of Silesia, who lost his life in a fight against these foes near Liegnitz in April 1241, and of Wenzel I., king of Bohemia.
The emperor's attitude with regard to the Mongol invasion is explained by events in Italy, where Frederick was engaged in a new and, if possible, a more virulent struggle with the Lombard cities and with Gregory IX. As usual, the course of politics in Germany, which at this time was ruled by King Conrad and by the regent Siegfried, archbishop of Mainz (d. 1249), was influenced by this quarrel. Frederick of Austria had allied himself with Wenzel of Bohemia, and spurred on by the papal emissary had tried to set up a rival king; but both the Danish and the French princes who were asked to accept this thankless position declined the invitation, and Frederick and Wenzel made their peace, the former receiving back his duchies. After the defeat of the Mongols, however, there was again the danger of a rebellion based upon a union between the princes and the pope. Siegfried of Mainz deserted his master, and visiting Germany in 1242 Freder ick found it necessary to purchase the support of the towns by a grant of extensive privileges; but, although this had the desired effect, Conrad could make but little headway against the increas ing number of his enemies. At last the papacy found an anti king. Having declared Frederick deposed at the council of Lyons in 1245, Gregory's successor, Innocent IV., induced a number of princes to choose as their king the landgrave of Thuringia, Henry Raspe, who had served as regent of Germany. This happened in May 1246, and the conduct of the struggle against the P f a ff enkonig, as Henry was called, was left to Conrad, who was aided by the Bavarians, until Feb. 1247, when the anti-king died. The papal party then elected William II., count of Holland, as Henry Raspe's successor, and during the state of anarchy which now prevailed in Germany the emperor died in Italy in Dec. 1250.
Upon his father's death Conrad IV. was acknowledged by many as king in Germany, but in 1251 he went to Italy, where he was fully occupied in fighting against the enemies of his house until his death in May 1254. The struggle to maintain the position of the Hohenstaufen in Italy was continued after this event; but in Oct. 1268, by the execution of Conrad's son Conradin, the family became extinct. After Conrad's death William of Holland received a certain allegiance, especially in the north of the country, and was recognized by the Rhenish cities which had just formed a league for mutual protection--a league which for a short time gave promise of great strength and usefulness. In Jan. 1256, however, William was killed, and in the following year there was a double election for the German Crown, Alphonso X., king of Castile, a grandson of Philip of Swabia, and Richard, earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III. of England, being each chosen by parties of electors. Neither obtained permanent recognition in Germany.
The period from the death of Conrad IV. to the election of Rudolph of Habsburg in 1273 is generally called the Great Inter regnum, and it was used by the princes to extend their territories and to increase their authority.
Until this time the territories of a prince were rarely divided among his descendants, the reason being that, although the private fiefs of the nobles were hereditary, their offices—margrave, count and the like—were in theory at the disposal of the king. There was now a tendency to set this principle aside. Otto II., duke of Bavaria, a member of the Wittelsbach family, had become by marriage ruler of the Rhenish Palatinate, and after his death these extensive lands were ruled in common by his two sons; but in 1255 a formal division took place and the powerful family of Wittelsbach was divided into two branches. About the same time the small duchy of Saxony was divided into two duchies, those of Wittenberg and Lauenburg, and there were similar divisions in the less important States. It was thus practically settled that the offices and territories, as well as the private fiefs, of the princes were hereditary, to be disposed of by them at their pleasure. The process of division and subdivision which steadily went on broke up Germany into a multitude of principalities.
On Rudolph's death the electors, fearing the new power which he had founded, passed over his son Albert and elected Adolph, count of Nassau (July I291). Like his predecessor, Adolph wished to secure an extensive territory for his family. Meissen, which he claimed as a vacant fief of the empire, and Thuringia, which he bought from the landgrave Albert II., seemed to offer a favourable field for this undertaking, and he spent a large part of his short reign in a futile attempt to carry out his plan. Nat urally he sought to isolate Albert of Habsburg, who was treating with Philip of France, and this led to an alliance with Edward I. of England. But many of the princes were disgusted with him and at Mainz in June 1298 he was declared deposed. He resisted the sentence, but Albert of Habsburg, who had been chosen his successor, marched against him, and in July 1298, at Gollheim near Worms, he was defeated and killed.
After Adolph's death Albert was again chosen German king, and was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle in Aug. 1298. Like his father Rudolph, the new king made it the principal object of his reign to increase the power of his house, but he failed in his attempt to add Bohemia and Thuringia to the hereditary lands of the Habsburgs, and he was equally unsuccessful in his endeavour to seize the countries of Holland and Zealand as vacant fiefs of the empire. In other directions he was more fortunate. He re . overed some of the lost crown lands and sought to abolish nrw and unauthorized tolls on the Rhine; he encouraged the towns and took measures to repress private war ; he befriended the serfs and protected the persecuted Jews. His greatest danger came from a league which was formed against him in 130o by the four Rhenish electors, who disliked his foreign policy and resented his action with regard to the tolls. Albert, however, supported by the towns, was victorious ; and the revolting electors soon made their peace.
After Albert's murder in May 1308, Henry, count of Luxem bourg, a brother of Baldwin , archbishop of Trier, became king as Henry V II. Although fortunate enough to obtain for his son John the crown of Bohemia, the aggrandizement of his family was not the main object of this remarkable sovereign, the last German king of the old, ambitious type. His interest was not in his territory but in the empire ; from the beginning of his reign he looked forward to securing the Lombard and imperial crowns. His purpose to cross the Alps at the head of a great force was hailed with delight by the Ghibellines, whose aspirations found utterance in Dante's noble prose, but his life was too short for him to fulfil the hopes of his friends. In the autumn of 1310 he went to Italy, and remained there until his death in Aug. 1313. As in former times, the Italian interests of the emperor meant a weakening of royal authority in Germany and Henry's expedition produced some of the difficulties which confronted his successor, Louis of Wittelsbach.
In 1349 Charles of Moravia, son of King John of Bohemia, obtained recognition as king of the Romans. His reign is impor tant in the history of Bohemia (q.v.). In the empire his chief achievement was the issue of the Golden Bull (q.v.). Apart from this, the true interest of the reign lies in the movements beyond the range of the emperor's influence. It is significant that at this time the Femgerichte, or Fehmic Courts (q.v.), vastly extended the sphere of their activities, and that in the absence of a strong central authority they were respected as a check upon the lawless ness of the princes. The cities, notwithstanding every kind of discouragement, formed new associations for mutual defence or strengthened those which already existed. The Hanseatic League carried on a successful war v:ith Valdemar, king of Denmark, and his ally, the king of Norway, while its commerce extended to nearly all parts of the known world. In 1376 some Swabian towns formed a league which, in spite of the imperial prohibition, soon became powerful in south-west Germany and defeated the forces of the count of Wurttemberg at Reutlingen in May 13 7 7. Mean while, the emperor who, unlike his predecessor, avoided conflict with either the papacy or the princes, was steadily increasing the power of his house. When he died in Nov. 1378, he wore the crowns of the empire, of Germany, of Bohemia, of Lombardy and of Burgundy; he had added Lower Lusatia and parts of Silesia to Bohemia ; he had secured the mark of Brandenburg for his son Wenzel in 13 73 ; and he had bought part of the Upper Palatinate.
After the death of Charles, his son Wenzel, who had been crowned German king in July 1376, was recognized by the princes as their ruler. His reign is marked by a confused struggle between the German towns and princes in which the emperor was unable or unwilling to take any consistent part. In the struggle the towns were driven to form associations for mutual support, which anticipate the greater town leagues of the next century (see