Thereupon the king, dazed by the unexpected turn of the whole affair, began to waver, to cast about for expedients, to take counsel with his familiars away from the crowd, and full of fear to consider what he must do and how to escape the necessity of so awful a trial. Having gained courage, he began to give the pope as a pretext the absence of the princes, of those princes at least who had shown him unswerving fidelity during his misfortunes; and without whose counsels he could not act; in the absence of his accusers, moreover, as he said, any proof of innocence which he might furnish as to his justification, before the few who were present, would be useless and without avail before the incredulous. Consequently he urgently asked the pope to keep the matter unchanged for the general assembly and a public hearing, that he might openly refute his accusers; and thus test the accusations as well as the accusers, who should previously have been examined according to the laws of the church. Under these conditions alone recognised by the princes of the empire to be fair and just would he be able to exculpate himself.
The pope willingly granted him this request; after accomplishment of the holy offices he invited the king for breakfast, then dismissed him in the kindest manner possible, after having carefully told him all he had to mind, and sent him with his blessing back to his own people, who had remained outside of the castle. He had sent the bishop Eppa of Zeits outside, to release those from the ban who had held communication with the king whilst he had been excommunicated, and this out of kindness, so that he might not soil the just acquired communication with the church.g
The wearer of the imperial crown could no more claim to be the highest power on earth, created by and answerable to God alone. Gregory had extorted the recognition of the absolute superiority of the spiritual dominion; proclaiming that to the pope, as God’s vicar, all mankind are subject and all rulers responsible.j
HENRY’S STRUGGLE TO REGAIN POWER (1077-1090 A.D.)
[1077-1085 A.D.]
Thus the king was freed from the ban, but whilst he was still in Italy, the German princes elected another king, Rudolf of Swabia, his brother-in-law, whom the towns immediately rejected. The pope wished to decide which of the two deserved to be king. At this Henry’s courage awoke and he took up arms. He was again put under the ban, but he continued to fight with exhaustless energy in Germany. The whole land was devastated and much blood was shed. Fortune wavered for a long time from one side to the other and most of the nobles wavered with it. But Henry found a true support in the young Frederick of Hohenstaufen, a Swabian noble, who first brought fame to his house and to whom Henry later gave his daughter in marriage, investing him at the same time with the duchy of Swabia. Bohemia, whose duke he soon invested with the title of king, was faithful to him in the fight. In 1080 Rudolf fell in a battle which bid fair to end victoriously for him at Merseburg, slain it is said by the hand of the young Godfrey de Bouillon, the son of the duke of Lorraine who was later to gain still greater honours.
A German Knight of the Twelfth Century
(From an effigy)
Henry had by this time so far regained his power that he could raise up an anti-pope, and undertake a Roman campaign against Gregory VII. He pressed the latter hard in Rome, but with iron resolution Gregory refused to enter into treaty with the banned. Just when his need was greatest, the Normans who hastened up under their king Robert Guiscard (the son of Tancred de Hauteville) saved him from imprisonment. He died a fugitive amongst them at Salerno (1085) without removing the ban from Henry, and with the consciousness of being a martyr. His indomitable spirit, his high ideas of the papacy, descended to his successor. Henry IV had remained outwardly the victor; he received the imperial crown from the hand of his pope, and was held in respect in Germany for a decade. But various misfortunes shattered his family, and mutual mistrust destroyed the relations between him and the princes; still the cup of misfortune destined for him had not yet been emptied.
[1085-1099 A.D.]
The religious enthusiasm which had originated in Cluny and been carried by Hildebrand and his followers into the church, soon found an extremely visible aim; western Christianity rose up to free the Holy Sepulchre from the infidels. Many thousands took up the cross in response to the preaching of the hermit Peter of Amiens and the exhortations of Pope Urban II. The agitation seized Germany and also lower Lorraine, passing by, singularly enough, without leaving any trace, the mass of the people and the emperor Henry IV; it was almost with astonishment that the unrestrained swarms of the hermit were seen passing through Germany, and next giving vent to their wild religious zeal by murdering the Jews. Then came the regular crusaders’ army under Godfrey de Bouillon, a German imperial prince, who in 1099 really conquered the Holy Sepulchre, and whose brother won the royal crown of Jerusalem.i
Though the death of Gregory VII delivered the emperor from his most dangerous enemy, he found himself compelled to struggle with a rival in the empire, who had been raised by the adherents of the deceased Rudolf. Whilst Henry was busied in besieging Rome, Hermann of Luxemburg received the crown of Germany, and was supported by the Saxon princes, by Welf, duke of Bavaria, and by some of the states of Swabia. The utmost distraction prevailed throughout Germany; and the bishops distinguished themselves by the zeal with which they animated the contending parties. Whilst some, under the influence of the papal legate, upheld the excommunication of Henry, others declared Pope Gregory’s proceedings utterly illegal and void, and recognised the anti-pope Clement III as the true head of the church.
Against the Saxons the arms of the emperor were in the first place turned; but amongst these rebels great discord prevailed; and the anti-cæsar Hermann incurred the censures of the church for contracting a marriage within the prohibited degrees. Many of the Saxons voluntarily returned to their allegiance; and Henry succeeded in mastering the remainder, though not without a severe struggle and a sanguinary defeat at Pleichfeld. Hermann of Luxemburg, now fallen into general contempt, obtained permission from Henry to retire to his patrimony in Lorraine; and perished soon afterwards in a mock attack on one of his own castles (1088).
In the midst of this confusion the emperor had still sufficient authority to dispose of two crowns. Out of gratitude to his faithful ally, Wratislaw, duke of Bohemia, he conferred on him the royal title, and caused him to be crowned king at Prague by the archbishop of Trèves. And at Aachen, Conrad, eldest son of Henry, was anointed king of Germany by the archbishop of Cologne in the year 1087.
Besides the rebellious Saxons the emperor was compelled to take arms against his cousin-german, Eckbert, markgraf of Thuringia, who now aspired to the imperial dignity. Another competitor was also in the field, Ludolf, duke of Carinthia. But these rival claims were without difficulty silenced. Eckbert was surprised and slain in a mill near Brunswick, by the vassals of Adelaide, abbess of Quedlinburg, the emperor’s sister; and Ludolf died about the same period without striking a blow.
HENRY AND CONRAD
[1087-1101 A.D.]
Peace being thus restored in Germany, Henry made haste to revisit Italy, where he hoped to reap advantage from the death of his arch-foe, Pope Gregory VII. After the short pontificate of Victor III, Urban II was raised to the papacy; and, as he seemed resolved to tread in the steps of Gregory, he received the cordial support of the countess Matilda. That princess had entered into a second marriage with Welf, son of Welf VI, duke of Bavaria, a union which ranged one of the most formidable of the German nobles against the fortunes of Henry. After laying waste the estates of Matilda in Lorraine the emperor arrived in Lombardy, besieged and took Mantua, and received considerable encouragement by the rupture of Welf with the countess, and the desertion of the father and son from the papal cause.