Page:Cambridge Medieval History Volume 3.pdf/328

Rh seeming successes, Henry's reign must be pronounced a failure, to no one is the failure more due than to Godfrey of Lorraine.

The beginning of the Lorraine trouble coincided with the recrudescence of that with Hungary. Obo, perhaps prevented by nationalist opposition, had not carried out his promises of satisfaction; there was also growing up in Hungary a party strongly opposed to him and favouring Germanisation and German intervention. Preparations for another campaign had been going on strenuously in Germany; by the summer of 1044 they were complete. After a hasty visit to Nimeguen, whither he had summoned Godfrey, and a fruitless attempt to reconcile the two brothers, Henry with Peter in his train set out for Hungary.

With Hungarian refugees to guide him, he was, by 6 July, on the further bank of the Raab. There the small German army confronted a vast Hungarian host, among whom, however, disaffection was at work. In a battle where few Germans fell, this host was scattered; and Hungary was subordinated to Germany. By twos and threes, or by crowds, came Hungarian peasants and nobles, offering faith and subjection. At Stühlweissenburg Peter was restored to his throne, a client-king; and Henry, leaving a German garrison in the country, returned home. On the battlefield the king had led a thanksgiving to Heaven, and his German warriors, at his inspiration, had freely and exultingly forgiven their enemies; on his return, in the churches of Bavaria, Henry, barefoot and in humble garment, again and again returned thanks for a victory which seemed nothing short of a miracle.

It was now that Henry gave to the Hungarians, at the petition of the victorious party amongst them, the gift of "Bavarian Law," a Germanisation all to the good. But Hungary was not being Germanised merely and alone by these subtle influences, by the inclination of its kings and the German party towards things German, nor by the adoption in Hungary of an ancient code of German law. After the battle of the Raab, Hungary was definitely and formally in the position of vassal to Germany; not only its king, but its nobles too, swore fealty to Henry and his heirs; Peter formally accepted the crown as a grant for his lifetime; and Hungary was thenceforth to pay a regular yearly tribute. Obo had been captured in flight and beheaded by his rival. The victory over Hungary seemed even more complete than the victory over Bohemia; the difference in the duration of their effects was partly due to a fundamental difference in the character of the two vassal princes. While Břatislav, a strong man, held Bohemia firmly, and, giving his fealty to Henry, gave with it the fealty of Bohemia; Peter, subservient and cringing to his benefactor, let Hungary slip through his fingers. Within two years he was a blinded captive in his twice-lost kingdom; and Hungary, freed from him, was freed too from vassalage.

This summer saw the gathering of the western clouds. Godfrey of