The emperor was, meanwhile, engaged with the Saxons. On one occasion Henry narrowly escaped being taken prisoner, being merely saved by the stratagem of his faithful servant, Thiatmar, who caused the emperor to retreat by falsely announcing to him the arrival of a body of auxiliaries. At length a pitched battle was fought near Merseburg between Henry and Eberhard (915 A.D.), the emperor’s brother, in which the Franks were defeated, and the superiority of the Saxons remained, henceforward, unquestioned for more than a century. The emperor was forced to negotiate with the victor, whom he induced to protect the northern frontiers of the empire whilst he applied himself in person to the re-establishment of order in the south.
[917-919 A.D.]
In Swabia, Salomon, bishop of Constance, who was supported by the commonalty, adhered to the imperial cause, whilst the Kammerboten were unable to palliate their treason, and were gradually driven to extremities. Erchanger, relying upon aid from Arnulf and the Hungarians, usurped the ducal crown and took the bishop prisoner. Salomon’s extreme popularity filled him with such rage that he caused the feet of some shepherds, who threw themselves on their knees as the captured prelate passed by, to be chopped off. His wife, Bertha, terror-stricken at the rashness of her husband and foreseeing his destruction, received the prisoner with every demonstration of humility, and secretly aided his escape. He no sooner reappeared than the people flocked in thousands around him: Heil, Herro! Heil, Liebo! (“Hail, master! Hail, beloved one!”) they shouted, and in their zeal, attacked and defeated the traitors and their adherents. Berthold vainly defended himself in his mountain stronghold of Hohentwiel. The people so urgently demanded the death of these traitors to their country that the emperor convoked a general assembly at Albingen in Swabia, sentenced Erchanger and Berthold to be publicly beheaded, and nominated Burkhard (917 A.D.), whose father and uncle had been assassinated by order of Erchanger, as successor to the ducal throne. Arnulf withdrew to his fortress at Salzburg, and quietly awaited more favourable times. His name was branded with infamy by the people, who henceforth affixed to it the epithet of “The Bad,” and the Nibelungenlied has perpetuated his detested memory.
Conrad died in 918, without issue. On his death-bed, mindful only of the welfare of the empire, he proved himself deserving even by his latest act of the crown he had so worthily worn, by charging his brother Eberhard to forget the ancient feud between their houses, and to deliver the crown with his own hands to his enemy, the free-spirited Henry, whom he judged alone capable of meeting all the exigences of the state. Eberhard obeyed his brother’s injunctions, and the princes respected the will of their dying sovereign.
REIGN OF HENRY (I) THE FOWLER (918-936 A.D.)
The princes, with the exception of Burkhard and of Arnulf, assembled at Fritzlar, elected the absent Henry king, and despatched an embassy to inform him of their decision. It is said that the young duke was at the time among the Harz Mountains, and that the ambassadors found him in the homely attire of a sportsman in the fowling floor. He obeyed the call of the nation without delay, and without manifesting surprise. The error he had committed in rebelling against the state, it was his firm purpose to atone for by his conduct as emperor. Of a lofty and majestic stature, although slight and youthful in form, powerful and active in person, with a commanding and penetrating glance, his very appearance attracted popular favour: besides these personal advantages, he was prudent and learned, and possessed a mind replete with intelligence. The influence of such a monarch on the progressive development of society in Germany could not fail of producing results fully equalling the improvements introduced by Charlemagne.
[919-936 A.D.]
The youthful Henry,[144] the first of the Saxon line, was proclaimed king of Germany at Fritzlar (919 A.D.) by the majority of votes, and, according to ancient custom, raised upon the shield. The archbishop of Mainz offered to anoint him according to the usual ceremony, but Henry refused, alleging that he was content to owe his election to the grace of God and to the piety of the German princes, and that he left the ceremony of anointment to those who wished to be still more pious.e
The accession of Henry I is an event of the utmost importance in the history of Germany. From the days of Ludwig the German the eastern Carlovingians had been engaged upon protecting and welding together that eastern section of the empire which to-day we know as Germany. But they had ruled over the various German tribes by the right that Charlemagne had made for himself, and then the right of conquest. This domination of the Carlovingian kings of the Franks over the Germans died out in Arnulf. In the failure of Conrad’s reign the second great step was taken in severing the tie with the past. The domination of the eastern Franks was now to be rejected altogether, and with the substitution of the Luidolfings for the Carolings, the race of Wittekind succeeded to the inheritance that had been seized by Charles.a
THE UNIFICATION OF THE EMPIRE
[916-936 A.D.]
Before Henry could pursue his more elevated projects, the assent of the southern Germans, who had not acknowledged their choice of their northern compatriots, had to be gained. Burkhard of Swabia, who had asserted his independence, and who was at that time carrying on a bitter feud with Rudolf, king of Burgundy, whom he had defeated (919 A.D.) in a bloody engagement near Winterthur, was the first against whom he directed the united forces of the empire, in whose name he, at the same time, offered him peace and pardon. Burkhard, seeing himself constrained to yield, took the oath of fealty to the newly elected king at Worms, but continued to act with almost his former unlimited authority in Swabia, and even undertook an expedition into Italy in favour of Rudolf, with whom he had become reconciled. The Italians, enraged at the wantonness with which he mocked them, assassinated him. Henry bestowed the dukedom of Swabia on Hermann, one of his relations, to whom he gave Burkhard’s widow in marriage. He also bestowed a portion of the south of Alamannia on King Rudolf, in order to win him over, and in return received from him the holy lance, with which the side of the Saviour had been pierced as he hung on the cross. Finding it no longer possible to dissolve the dukedoms and great fiefs, Henry, in order to strengthen the unity of the empire, introduced the novel policy of bestowing the dukedoms, as they fell vacant, on his relations and personal adherents, and of allying the rest of the dukes with himself by intermarriage, thus uniting the different powerful houses in the state into one family.
Bavaria still remained in an unsettled state. Arnulf the Bad, leagued with the Hungarians, against whom Henry had great designs, had still much in his power, and Henry, resolved at any price to dissolve this dangerous alliance, not only concluded peace with this traitor on that condition, but also married his son Henry to Judith, Arnulf’s daughter (921 A.D.). Arnulf deprived the rich churches of great part of their treasures, and was consequently abhorred by the clergy, the chroniclers of those times, who, chiefly on that account, depicted his character in such unfavourable colours.e
With wonderful acuteness of perception Henry comprehended the situation and recognised in what way alone a union of the German tribes was possible; how, in other words, the existence of the east-Frankish, i.e., of the German kingdom, could alone be preserved. He took care not to follow the wrong lead of King Conrad; he struck out new paths for himself with ingenious and undaunted spirit. He did not wish to establish the authority of the state by the subjection of the single stems under one ruling one, as the Merovingians and after them the Carlovingians had done, nor to establish Saxon dominion according to Frankish rule; he did not plan to rule and administer the lands from one centre with the aid of the officials who were dependent on him alone, as had been the way of the Frankish kings. Only through a more liberal organisation of the realm, as Henry saw, could a union of the German people be maintained at the time. The ideal which presented itself to his mind was something as follows: each stem was to stand by itself as far as its own affairs was concerned, and was to rule itself according to old rights and tradition; it was to be ruled and led in times of war and peace by a duke to whom the counts and lords of the land owed military attendance and obedience. This duke was to settle the disputes among the lords of the land at his diets, was to preserve peace and protect his boundaries from the inroads of the enemy; but just as the dukes governed the single stems in the realm, so the king was to rule over all the lands of the empire; he was to be the highest judge and general of the whole people. So it was to be, and so it was.