Page:Cambridge Medieval History Volume 3.pdf/282

Rh ready to make use of local disloyalty. Against him in August 1010 Henry assembled an army of Saxons and of Bohemians under Jaromir. The sickness of the king and many of his troops made this campaign fruitless, and others were as futile. The Saxons were slow to aid; Henry was often busied elsewhere; and when Jaromir was driven from Bohemia his help was lost. Henry, anxious for peace towards the East, recognised the new Duke Udalrich, and Jaromir remained an exile. Thus Bohemia was an ally and the Lyutitzi had long been such. Peace with Poland was therefore easier. And on Whitsunday 1012 Boleslav did homage to Henry at Merseburg, carried the sword before his lord in the procession, and then received the Lausitz as a fief. Boleslav promised help to Henry in Italy whither the king had long been looking: Henry promised a German contingent to Boleslav against the Russians. Henry had gained peace, but Boleslav had won the land he had fought for.

Within the realm Henry's firmness was forming order: he was able to rule through the dukes. In Saxony a faithful vassal, Bernard I, had died (1011) and was succeeded by his son Bernard II. When in Carinthia Conrad (1004-11), Otto's son, died, Henry passed over his heir and nominated Adalbero of Eppenstein, already Margrave there. The next year, with the boy Herman III, Duke of Swabia, died out a branch of the Conradins, and perhaps with Duke Otto of Lower Lorraine, a branch of the Carolingians. To Swabia Henry appointed Ernest of Babenberg, an old rebel (1004) but brother-in-law of Herman, and to Lower Lorraine Count Godfrey of the Ardennes, sprung from a family marked by loyalty and zeal in monastic reform. The duchy of Bavaria he kept in his own hands, and thus all the duchies were safe under rulers either proved or chosen by himself. Upon Godfrey of Lower Lorraine a special burden lay, for Trèves was disaffected and the Archbishop of Cologne was hostile. In the other arch-see of Mayence Willigis died (1011) after thirty-six years of faithful rule. As his successor Henry chose Erkambald, Abbot of Fulda, an old friend in affairs of state and a worthy ecclesiastic. Next year Henry had twice to fill the see of Magdeburg, naming Waltherd and then Gero. Early in 1013, too, died Lievizo (Libentius) of Hamburg, where Henry put aside the elected candidate and forced on the chapter a royal chaplain, Unwan. When (1013) all these appointments had been made, Henry could feel he was master in his own house, and able to turn towards Italy. For a year at least he had felt the call. The years between 1004 and 1014 were in Lombardy a time of confusion. Ardoin had broken out from his castle of Sparone (1005), only to find his authority gone; in the west he had vassals and adherents; some greater nobles, bishops, and scattered citizens wished him well. But he was only the king over the middle and lower classes, and even that only for a small part of the realm.

Yet even so, Henry was only nominally Italian king. Real power rested with the ecclesiastical and secular magnates; and though it might