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Rh Henry was a boy of seven when at Kempen, in 1024, Conrad was elected king. In 1026, Conrad, before setting out on his coronation expedition into Italy, named Henry as his successor and gave him in charge to an acute and experienced statesman, Bishop Bruno of Augsburg, brother of the late Emperor and cousin to the Empress Gisela. The energy with which Bruno held views different from those of his brother had, in the last reign, led him into conspiracy and exile. With the same independence in church matters, he, alone in the Mayence province, had taken no part in the collective action of the bishops against Benedict VIII. From such a guardian Henry was bound to receive a real political education. Under his care, Henry attended his father's coronation in Rome. Three months later, Conrad, in accordance with his policy of the absorption of the old national duchies, gave to Henry the Duchy of Bavaria, vacated by the death of Henry of Luxemburg. Then, on Easter Day, 1028, in the old royal Frankish city of Aix-la-Chapelle, Henry, after unanimous election by the princes and acclamation by clergy and people, was, at the age of eleven, crowned king by Pilgrim of Cologne.

In the inscription "Spes imperii" on a leaden seal of Henry's in 1028 Steindorff sees an indication that this election at Aix implied the election to the Empire. He draws attention also to the title "King" used of Henry before his imperial coronation in the Acts emanating from the imperial Chancery in Italy, as well as in those purely German; and to the fact that Henry was never re-crowned as King of Italy. He argues therefore that contemporaries regarded the act of Aix-la-Chapelle as binding the whole of Conrad's dominions, and as a matter of fact this cannot be doubted.

On the death of Bishop Bruno in April 1029, Henry, whose place as its duke was in Bavaria, was placed in charge of a Bavarian, Bishop Egilbert of Freising. Egilbert had in the early years of Henry II's reign taken active part in public affairs, but of late he had devoted himself chiefly to provincial and ecclesiastical duties. Under him Henry played his first part as independent ruler, basing his actions on motives of justice rather than on those of policy. Conrad in 1030 had led an unsuccessful expedition into Hungary; he was planning a new expedition when Henry, "still a child," taking counsel with the Bavarian princes but not with his father, received the envoys of St Stephen and granted peace, "acting with wisdom and justice," says Wipo, "towards a king who, though unjustly attacked, was the first to seek reconciliation."

In 1031 Henry was present with his father in the decisive campaign against the Poles. In 1032 Rodolph of Burgundy died, after a long and feeble rule. Conrad, though he snatched a coronation, had still to fight for his new kingdom against the nationalist and Romance party supporting Odo II (Eudes) of Champagne, and throughout 1032 the imperial diplomas point to Henry's presence with his father, in company with