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292 At Capua he was received by Guaimar, recognised by Conrad as Prince of Salerno and also of Capua, from which city Paldolf (Pandulf) IV had been driven out. But Henry restored Paldolf, "a wily and wicked prince" formerly expelled for his insolence and evil deeds. Conrad had also recognised Guaimar as overlord of the Norman Counts of Aversa and of the Norman de Hautevilles in Calabria and Apulia. Now Ranulf of Aversa and Drogo de Hauteville of Apulia, as they went plundering and conquering from the Greeks, were recognised as holding directly from Henry himself. So at Benevento the gates were shut in the Emperor's face and he had to stay outside. Thence he went to join the Empress at Ravenna: early in May he reached Verona and then left Italy. There was trouble in the South, but otherwise he left Italy "in peace and obedience." In the middle of May he was again home in Germany, which during his eight months' absence had also been in quiet.

With Henry's return he steps upon a downward path; the greatness of his reign is over; troubles are incessant and sporadic; successes scanty and small. During his absence Henry I of France, with the approval of his great men and perhaps at the instigation of Godfrey of Lorraine, made a move towards claiming and seizing the duchies of Lorraine. When the unwonted calm was thus threatened, Wazo of Liège wrote to the French king appealing to the ancient friendship between the realms and urging the blame he would incur if, almost like a thief, he came against unguarded lands. Henry I called his bishops to Rheims, reproached them for letting a stranger advise him better than his native pastors, and turned to a more fitting warfare along with William of Normandy against the frequent rebel Geoffrey of Anjou. But in his duchy of Upper Lorraine the pardoned Godfrey was nursing his wrongs: his son, a hostage with Henry, was now dead, and he also heard that his name had not been in the list of those with whom Henry at St Peter's in Rome had declared himself reconciled. Godfrey found allies in the Netherlands, Baldwin of Flanders, his son the Margrave of Antwerp, Dietrich, Count of Holland, and Herman, Count of Mons, all united by kinship and each smarting under some private wrong. Dietrich wished to recover from the Bishop of Utrecht the land round Flushing: Godfrey to recover the county of Verdun from its bishop. It was almost a war of lay nobles against the bishops so useful to Henry in the kingdom. At the moment Henry was busied in negotiations with Hungary and in giving a new duke to Carinthia: this was Welf, son of the Swabian Count Welf, and as his mother was sister to Henry of Bavaria, related to the house of Luxemburg. Now too Henry filled up a group of bishoprics. A Swabian, Humphrey, formerly Chancellor for Italy, went as Archbishop to Ravenna; Guido, a relative of the Empress's, to Piacenza; a royal chaplain, Dietrich (Theodoric), provost of Basle, to Verdun;