The assemblies that met at his call to discuss the business of state are now looked back to as the first Reichstags, and his reign is in a sense the starting-point for something approaching a constitutional organisation of Germany.a
Henry was, in 1016, enriched by the donation of another kingdom. Rudolf III, king of Burgundy, having no children, resolved to secure his dominions to the emperor, his nephew; and in spite of the remonstrances of his subjects, who claimed the right of electing their sovereign, surrendered his crown to Henry, reserving to himself for his life the title of king, but submitting to hold that title as a vassal of the empire. Rudolf survived this session sixteen years, and died in 1032, having by his will ratified the donation to the reigning emperor.g
Henry was extremely devout, and was consequently idolised by the clergy. He held five councils in Germany, improved and corrected ecclesiastical discipline, rebuilt the churches that had been destroyed by the Slavs, and raised a magnificent monument to his own memory by the foundation of the bishopric of Bamberg, which he enriched at the expense of the neighbouring landowners, among whom was the bishop of Würzburg, who obstinately resisted his innovations until appeased by numerous gifts. The pope, Benedict VIII, visited Bamberg in 1020 A.D. for the purpose of consecrating the new establishment. The empress Kunigunde was equally pious. The imperial pair had mutually taken the vow of chastity, and remained childless. Kunigunde’s virtue, however, did not escape slander, and she voluntarily underwent the ordeal by fire, and “walked unharmed over glowing iron.” Henry, when on his death-bed, named as his successor Graf Conrad, the Franconian duke, on account of his being the ablest descendant of the most powerful race that remained in Germany after the extinction of that of the Ottos, thus repaying, with equal magnanimity, the generous conduct of Conrad I, when dying, towards the house of Saxony. He expired in 1024 A.D. and was interred at Bamberg.d
RELATION OF ITALY TO THE EMPIRE AT DEATH OF HENRY II
[1002-1024 A.D.]
At the death of Otto III without children, in 1002, the compact between Italy and the emperors of the house of Saxony was determined. Her engagement of fidelity was certainly not applicable to every sovereign whom the princes of Germany might raise to their throne. Accordingly Ardoin, marquis of Ivrea, was elected king of Italy. But a German party existed among the Lombard princes and bishops, to which his insolent demeanour soon gave a pretext for inviting Henry II, the new king of Germany collaterally related to their late sovereign. Ardoin was deserted by most of the Italians, but retained his former subjects in Piedmont, and disputed the crown for many years with Henry, who passed very little time in Italy. During this period there was hardly any recognised government; and the Lombards became more and more accustomed, through necessity, to protect themselves and to provide for their own internal police.
Meanwhile the German nation had become odious to the Italians. The rude soldiery, insolent and addicted to intoxication, were engaged in frequent disputes with the citizens, wherein the latter, as is usual in similar cases, were exposed first to the summary vengeance of the troops and afterwards to penal chastisement for sedition. In one of these tumults, at the entry of Henry II in 1004, the city of Pavia was burned to the ground, which inspired its inhabitants with a constant animosity against that emperor. Upon his death in 1024, the Italians were disposed to break once more their connection with Germany, which had elected as sovereign Conrad, duke of Franconia. They offered their crown to Robert, king of France, and to Guillaume, duke of Guienne; but neither of them was imprudent enough to involve himself in the difficult and faithless politics of Italy. It may surprise us that no candidate appeared from among her native princes. But it had been the dexterous policy of the Ottos to weaken the great Italian fiefs, which were still rather considered as hereditary governments, than as absolute patrimonies, by separating districts from their jurisdiction, under inferior marquises and rural counts.
The bishops were incapable of becoming competitors, and generally attached to the German party. The cities already possessed material influence, but were disunited by mutual jealousies. Since ancient prejudices, therefore, precluded a federate league of independent principalities and republics for which perhaps the actual condition of Italy unfitted her, Heribert, archbishop of Milan, accompanied by some other chief men of Lombardy, repaired to Constance, and tended the crown to Conrad, which he was already disposed to claim as a sort of dependency upon Germany. It does not appear that either Conrad or his successors were ever regularly elected to reign over Italy; but whether this ceremony took place or not, we may certainly date from that time the subjection of Italy to the Germanic body. It became an unquestionable maxim that the votes of a few German princes conferred a right to the sovereignty of a country which had never been conquered, and which had never formally recognised this superiority. But it was an equally fundamental rule that the elected king of Germany could not assume the title of Roman emperor, until his coronation by the pope. The middle appellation of King of the Romans was invented as a sort of approximation to the imperial dignity. But it was not till the reign of Maximilian that the actual coronation at Rome was dispensed with, and the title of emperor taken immediately after the election.h
FOOTNOTES
[145] [But one must remember that the old chronicler who recorded this fact did not see the battle.]
[146] [Though it would seem that some of these claimants preferred a royal title to the imperial one. Cf. Otto I’s first Italian campaign.]
CHAPTER IX
THE FRANCONIAN, OR SALIAN, DYNASTY
[1024-1125 A.D.]
For the epoch of Henry II we have preserved to us the work of Bishop Thietmarb & of Merseburg, which, starting from local and personal points of view and showing the writer’s unwavering loyalty to the king, to whom the bishop owed his position, at once discloses and elucidates in a variety of communications the conditions obtaining in the interior of Germany. Although not unbiassed where the king is concerned, it is yet invaluable in respect of the details it affords; the internal conditions of the empire are clearly mapped out before our eyes. On the other hand, the tendencies which characterise the imperium of Henry II are more or less obscured from view. The bishop, who must be regarded as a contemporary chronicler, was already dead when they had taken definite shape.
On the other hand, Wipo,c the biographer of Conrad II with whom the line of the Salians commences, started entirely from the standpoint of the imperium. He wrote a biography of Conrad after his death for the instruction and edification of his son and successor, Henry III. The aspirations of the Salic house in the direction of world-wide power occupy the chief place in his work. The devolvement of the imperium upon the Salic house was an event of great importance both in German and universal history. Yet there is nothing so very unexpected and extraordinary in the elevation of Conrad II.
The Salians represent one of the parties that had once, under Otto the Great, risen up against him from the very lap of his own family. They are descended, as we have already mentioned, from the marriage of one of Otto’s daughters with the heroic Conrad the Red, the greatest warrior of those times. His son Otto, count in Wormsgau, received Carinthia, an appanage of Bavaria, in fief. He is the father of Bruno, whom Otto III raised to the papal see, as also of Conrad, who on his father’s death succeeded to the dukedom of Carinthia. This Conrad was married to Matilde, a daughter of Hermann of Swabia. Of their union a son was born, known under the name of Conrad the Younger.