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 462 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE and the regency of his kingdom to the pope. During most of Innocent's reign, however, the Kingdom of Sicily and southern Italy remained in a state of anarchy with various persons and parties contending for the control of the person of the young king and disregarding the claims of the pope. Meanwhile in Germany there was a disputed election to the imperial throne. Frederick, who Henry VI had in- ^ .., tended should succeed him, was passed over as The disputed. , . p f * imperial too young, and the majority of the great nobles and clergy chose Philip of Suabia to succeed his brother. But a month later Otto of Brunswick, son of Henry the Lion, the Guelph leader against Barbarossa, was elected by the Archbishop of Cologne and a few lesser princes, and received support outside Germany from Richard of England, who thus had his revenge for the im- prisonment which he had suffered at the hands of Henry VI on his way home from the Third Crusade. Civil war ensued between the adherents of the two candidates and soon Germany was in a state of anarchy. Both sides appealed to the pope, but he, while insisting that there could be no emperor without his approval, failed Innocent's to declare for either of the rivals for three years, interference Meanwhile confusion reigned in Germany and Innocent was free from any imperial interference in Italy. Finally, in 1201, he came out for Otto, the weaker of the two both in right and in might. Otto in return promised to abandon the aggressive Italian policy of Henry VI and to leave Innocent the undisturbed possession of central Italy, or, more specifically, of the Exarchate of Ravenna, the March of Ancona, the Duchy of Spoleto, and the lands of the Countess Matilda of Gregory VI Fs time. Otto, how- ever, was not yet in a position to do more than make prom- ises. Philip of Suabia continued the struggle and was getting decidedly the better of it when in 1208 he was assassinated. Otto now was able to come to Rome and be crowned by the pope in 1209 at St. Peter's, although the hostility of the Romans to him was so great that he did not cross the Tiber and enter the city proper. But Otto, despite his