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216 no rivalry arose between the two kinsmen. For when Henry expressed his readiness to accept Otto as king, the latter declined to come forward and, acknowledging Henry to be the fitter man, urged him to secure election for himself.

But election also was legally necessary: and the magnates were not disposed to let slip the present opportunity of choosing a king at their own pleasure. When therefore the funeral train of the late Emperor reached Augsburg on its way to Aix, Henry, anxious to assert his claim, first took forcible possession of the imperial insignia, and then sought by profuse promises to win over the attendant magnates for the support of his cause, but he met with little success.

Already indeed a formidable rival had appeared. The chief men of Saxony had met at Frohse, and there the Margrave Eckhard of Meissen had revealed his purpose of gaining the throne. He was the foremost warrior of his time; he had fought with distinction against the Saracens in Italy, and at Rome in 998 it was he who had brought about the surrender of the castle of Sant' Angelo and the death of its defender Crescentius. As Margrave of Meissen he had repelled the Wends, reduced Bohemia to vassalage, and restrained the Polish duke Boleslav from assailing the kingdom. Though not of royal descent, he was sprung of an ancient Thuringian stock, and was connected with the Billungs, the new ducal house of Saxony. But a powerful enemy, the Margrave Liuthar of the North Mark, now set himself to frustrate Eckhard's ambitious design. Having secured a sworn promise from most of the Saxon magnates to take no part in electing a king until a further conference, Liuthar secretly visited the Duke of Bavaria, upon whom he urged the necessity of sending an envoy to represent his interests at the postponed meeting. And so skilfully did Henry's emissary, by means of lavish promises, work upon the Saxon nobles when they met at Werla, that he won from them a unanimous recognition of Henry's hereditary right to the throne and a solemn pledge of service. Eckhard's haughty abstention from the meeting had ruined his cause.

By this time a third competitor for the crown was in the field. This was Herman II, Duke of Swabia. Timorous and retiring by nature, Herman had come forward at the suggestion of others. After the obsequies of Otto III had been performed at Aix on 5 April, most of the magnates there present had expressed their disinclination to accept Henry of Bavaria as his successor. In the Duke of Swabia they saw a candidate more to their liking; and certainly Herman's descent from a great Franconian house, one member of which had formerly occupied the throne, and his position as ruler of one of the chief races of Germany were plausible reasons for his elevation. In reality it was his very gentleness of character that recommended him to his proposers, who might hope to find in him a king to be obeyed or not as they pleased.

Through the Duke of Swabia Eckhard hoped to revenge himself upon