Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/508

Rh 115’-2-90. Henry the Lion. Frede- rick’s relations to other countries. Internal pros- parity. 490 if resisted, of great harshness, but a passionate lover of justice, witl1 far-reaching ideals, ready to battle with gigantic diflicnlties, yet knowing how to recognize and submit to the inevitable. Allied to the Welfs through his mother, and having a personal regard for Ilenry the Lion, he was anxious to bring to an end the strife of the Welfic aml the Hohenstaufen families, and began his reign by promising to secure for Henry the duchy of Bavaria. For his adventurous and imaginative spirit the splendour of the imperial name had an irresistible charm; and two vears after he ascended the throne, in 1154, he went to vlome to be crowned emperor. After this the best years of his life were spent in Italy, where, in his obstinate struggle with the Lombard cities and with Pope Alexander III., he chiefly acquired his fame. Although it was con- ducted on his side mainly with German troops, it properly comes under Italian history, in which the record of his reign forms a bloody page, while his name is associated with one of the most peaceful and prosperous periods in the internal history of Germany. The promise that Bavaria should be granted to Henry the Lion was not easily fulﬁlled, for Henry J asomirgott doggedly refused to give it up. At last, however, Frederick, after his return from his ﬁrst expedition to Italy, in 1156, recon- ciled the surly prince by detaching Austria, his native march, from Bavaria, and making it a duchy with certain special privileges,—an important step in the process by which Austria gradually became the centre of a powerful state. Henry the Lion then became duke both of Bavaria and of Saxony. This prince often gave offence by a haughty and aggressive disposition, but few German dukes won so true a title to the good-will of posterity. Since the time of Otto II. and Otto III. the Slavonic countries to the east of Saxony had been very imperfectly held in subjection. Henry devoted himself to the conquest of the territory along the shores of the Baltic, and he succeeded as no one before him had ever done. But he was not a mere con- queror; he built towns and encouraged those which already existed, founded bishoprics in the newly-won lands, a.nd planted in them bodies of industrious colonists. Vhilc he was thus at work, a similar task was fulﬁlled a little to the south of him by Albert the Bear, the ﬁrst margrave of Brandenburg, who, by just and energetic rule, worthily pre- pared the land for its great, although far-off’, destinies. Early in his reign, by settling a dispute between two brothers who claimed the crown of Denmark, Frederick brought the king of that country once more into the position of a vassal of Germany. He broke into Poland also, and compelled its ruler to do homage, and, in return for great services rendered in his Polish campaign, raised the duke of Bohemia to royal rank,—a change which in no way affected his duties to the German crown, but which gave him a certain precedence over all other subject princes. The king of Hungary, although no attempt was made to subdue him, became a useful ally of Frederick. Thus the ancient fame of Germany, which was lost during the con- fusion that came after Henry III., was to a large extent restored in the neighbouring countries. Frederick re- asserted the royal authority in Burgundy, and added to the kingdom, by right of marriage, Upper Burgundy, or, as it was afterwards called, Franche Comte. Internal quiet he established by strictly applying such laws as existed against those who should break the peace; and the robber nobles never found a more implacable enemy. The cities flourished during his reign, and he attached them to himself by granting to many of them the very liberties which, by a too literal interpretation of his imperial rights, he withheld from the cities of Lombardy. Yet, with all this, the nobles appear to have been enthusiastically devoted to him. They followed him time after time into Italy, GERMANY [HISTORY. going through incredible sufferings that he might assert claims which were of no advantage to them, and which had been a curse to their nation. On one occasion, when a too conﬁdent legate read before the diet a papal letter, which seemed to imply that the empire was a ﬁef of the-papacy, indignant murmurs broke from the assembly, and the life of the offender was saved only by the intervention of Frederick himself. The secret of this great popularity was partly the national pride excited by his foreign achieve- ments, partly the ascendency which his genius gave him over other minds, partly the conviction that, while he would abate nothing of his rights, he would ask no more than the laws of the empire sanctioned. In the later years of Frederick’s reign, Henry the Lion Fall of The Henry had the misfortune to incur his deep displeasure. duke, rendered _arrogant by success, positively refused, because his conditions were not admitted, to attend the emperor in the Italian campaign which resulted in the fatal battle of Legnano. Ascribing this defeat wholly to Henry, Frederick returned to Germany resolved to work his ruin. Summoned on three different occasions to attend the diet, Henry held aloof; whereupon, by judgment of his peers, he was condemned to the loss of both his duchies. After some resistance he submitted; but the utmost favour he could secure was permission to retain Brunswick and Liineburg, while his term of banishment to England was reduced from seven years to three. Bavaria was granted to Otto of Wittelsbaeh, but it lost much of its importance, for, among other changes, Styria was taken from it and made a separate duchy. Saxony was ﬁnally broken up. The duchy was conﬁned to a comparatively small territory to the east of Brunswick and Li'meburg, and conferred upon Ber- nard, son of Albert the Bear, while most of the western half of the country was attached, as the duchy of Westphalia, to the archbishopric of Cologne. The chief prelates of Saxony, and many of the most important vassals of'tl1e duke, such as the counts of Oldenburg, of Holstein, and of Schwerin, were made virtually independent of all control save that of the crown. Frederick’s object in thus disintegrating the two greatest duchies in the kingdom was, by playing off the nobles against each other, to secure imperial authority. But, in reality, he made it doubly certain that the princes would one day shake oﬁ‘ imperial power altogether; for it was incomparably more difiicult for the sovereign to con- tend with scores of petty nobles than with two or three great lords. Towards the close of Frederick’s career fortune appeared Last lermany was at peace; even in Italy, ."°3T5° to smile upon him. since the force of events had persuaded him that the time was past for too severe a straining of his lawful claims, he had been well received by the cities which had wrought him so much disaster; pope and emperor were temporarily reconciled ; and, by the marriage of his son Henry with the princess Constantia, he had reason to hope that the empire would soon include Naples and Sicily. Resolving that the sunset of his life should be even more splendid than its dawn, he undertook the third crusade, and started with a great army for the Holy Land. When the news reached Germany that he had been drowned, men felt that evil days must come, since the elements of strife could no longer be controlled by his strong hand. Evil days did not, however, come in the time of Henry llenry VI. (1190-97), who, although without his fatl1er’s greatness “- of soul, had his determination and energy. Partly by means of the immense ransom obtained from his prisoner Richard of England, he was able to beat down resist- ance in the south Italian kingdom to which his marriage entitled him; and the papacy was more completely subject to him than it had ever been to Frederick. In Germany he was so powerful that he not only secured the election of