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Rh secure himself, took investiture from King Henry, the dispossessed prince sought refuge in Poland. But when Vladivoi's own vices brought his rule to an end early in 1003 and the Bohemians recalled Jaromir and Udalrich, the Polish duke intervened by force, drove the two princes a second time into banishment, and reinstated Boleslav the Red. It was not long before the ferocious vengeance which the restored duke took upon his enemies constrained the Bohemians in terror to implore protection from Boleslav of Poland. Seizing the desired occasion, Boleslav craftily enticed his kinsman into his power, caused him to be blinded, and then, hastening to Prague, secured his own acceptance as duke by the Bohemians. The act was an insolent defiance of Henry's authority; but the king, controlling his indignation, sent envoys to Boleslav offering recognition if the duke would acknowledge himself his vassal. Boleslav, however, haughtily rejected the proposal, and for the time Bohemia was lost to the German crown.

Nothing, indeed, could be done as yet for its recovery because of serious trouble in Germany itself. Already, early in the year, Henry had had to suppress disaffection in Lorraine with a strong hand; and now he learnt that the Margrave Henry, secretly aided by the Polish duke, was in open revolt in the Nordgau. From Bavaria the king took vigorous action against the rebel. But the margrave found two unexpected allies in his cousin Ernest of Babenberg and the king's own brother Bruno. Between King Henry and these three men a petty war was waged during the autumn of 1003, of which the Nordgau, the wide district lying north of the Danube between Bohemia and East Franconia, was the scene. Here the Babenbergs were firmly established; but the king's energy soon forced the margrave to forsake his strongholds for lurking places in the country-side. The operations culminated in the siege of Creussen, a fortified town near the sources of the Main, which was valiantly held against the royal forces by Bucco, the brother of the margrave, while the latter himself harassed the besiegers from outside. A surprise attack on his camp drove the margrave into flight, scattered his followers, and delivered Ernest a prisoner into the hands of the king. Thereupon Bucco surrendered Creussen. Boleslav endeavoured first to seduce Gunzelin into betraying Meissen to him, and on his refusal laid waste an entire gau west of the Elbe. But this diversion brought no relief to the duke's confederates. The margrave gave up further resistance, and, accompanied by Bruno and other rebels, sought safety with Boleslav. Though hostilities were renewed early in 1004 by a fierce attack by Boleslav upon Bavaria, replied to by Henry with an incursion into the Upper Lausitz, which was frustrated by a change of weather, the confederacy was soon after dissolved. Impelled by remorse, the two German nobles sought forgiveness of the king; Bruno through his brother-in-law King Stephen of Hungary, Margrave Henry of Schweinfurt through powerful friends at home. The margrave suffered imprisonment for some months, but both