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240 suit prelates and nobles alike to profess to Henry a formal allegiance, few of either order desired his presence among them. To be independent within their own territories was the chief aim of both. The bishops by tradition inclined to the German side. Some few, like Leo of Vercelli, remained steadfast for the German cause from political convictions; while the holders of the metropolitan sees of Milan and Ravenna stood haughtily indifferent to the claims of either king. But if the bishops generally might be counted as in some sort Henry's partisans, this was not true of the great noble families with which they were perennially at strife. Of these, the house of Canossa alone was firmly attached to the German interest; its chief, the Marquess Tedald, and after him his son Boniface, continuing faithful. The rest, the most powerful of whom were those other marquesses who had sprung up in Lombardy half a century before, by accumulating counties and lordships in their own hands, had formed a new order in the State especially inimical to the bishops, although equally ready with them to make outward acknowledgment of Henry. But no class could be less desirous of the reappearance of a sovereign who would be sure to curtail their independence, and, in particular, to check their encroachment on ecclesiastical lands. On the other hand, they had little mind to help Ardoin in regaining an authority which would be exercised over themselves for the benefit of their humbler fellow-subjects. So far as can be discerned, the Aleramids, the progenitors of the house of Montferrat, whose power was concentrated about Savona and Acqui, appear to have played a waiting game; while the Marquesses of Turin, represented by Manfred II, inclined first to the German, and then to the Italian side. Only in the Otbertines, the great Lombard house which held the comital authority in Genoa and Milan, in Tortona, Luni, and Bobbio, whose present head was the Marquess Otbert II, and from which sprang the later dukes of Modena and of Brunswick, can be found some signs of genuine patriotism. But in general, these powerful dynasts, and the lay nobles as a class, had little sense of national duty, and were selfishly content to pursue the old evil policy of having two kings, so that the one might be restrained by fear of the other.

Year after year Ardoin sallied forth from his subalpine fastnesses to attack his enemies and especially the bishops. Leo of Vercelli was forthwith driven out of his city, to become for years an exile. The Bishops of Bergamo and Modena also felt the weight of Ardoin's revenge, and even the Archbishop of Milan, by whom Henry had been crowned, was forced to a temporary recognition of his rival. The Marquess Tefald himself was threatened, while Bishop Peter of Novara only escaped capture by fleeing across the Alps. Yet Ardoin was no nearer being in truth a king. The Apennines he never crossed; the Romagna remained in turmoil. Tuscany obeyed its powerful Marquess.

Henry had never dropped his claim to Italian sovereignty. Royal missi were sent at irregular intervals into Lombardy; Italian bishops took