Cristo Raul.org |
Reading Hall The Doors of Wisdom |
|
THE SAXON EMPERORS
Henry the Fowler
The princes, with the exception of Burkhard and of Arnulf, assembled at
Fritztlar, elected the absent Henry king, and dispatched an embassy to inform
him of their decision. It is said that the young duke was at the time among the
Harz Mountains, and that the ambassadors found him in the homely attire of a
sportsman in the fowling floor. He obeyed the call of the nation without delay,
and without manifesting surprise. The error he had committed in rebelling
against the state, it was his firm purpose to atone for by his conduct as
emperor. Of a lofty and majestic stature, although slight and youthful in form,
powerful and active in person, with a commanding and penetrating glance, his
very appearance attracted popular favor; besides these personal advantages, he
was prudent and learned, and possessed a mind replete with intelligence. The
influence of such a monarch on the progressive development of society in
Germany could not fail of producing results fully equaling the improvements
introduced by Charlemagne.
The youthful Henry, the first of the Saxon line, was proclaimed king of
Germany at Fritzlar, A.D. 919, by the majority of votes, and, according to
ancient custom, raised upon the shield. The archbishop of Mayence offered to
anoint him according to the usual ceremony, but Henry refused, alleging that he
was content to owe his election to the grace of God and to the piety of the
German princes, and that he left the ceremony of anointment to those who wished
to be still more pious.
Before Henry could pursue his more elevated projects, the assent of the
southern Germans, who had not acknowledged the choice of their northern
compatriots, had to be gained. Burkhard of Swabia, who had asserted his
independence, and who was at that time carrying on a bitter feud with Rudolf,
king of Burgundy, whom he had defeated, AD 919, in a bloody engagement near Winterthur, was the first against whom he
directed the united forces of the empire, in whose name he, at the same time,
offered him peace and pardon. Burkhard, seeing himself constrained to yield,
took the oath of fealty to the newly-elected king at Worms, but continued to
act with almost his former unlimited authority in Swabia, and even undertook an
expedition into Italy in favor of Rudolf, with whom he had become reconciled.
The Italians, enraged at the wantonness with which he mocked them, assassinated
him. Henry bestowed the dukedom of Swabia on Hermann, one of his relations, to
whom he gave Burkhard’s widow in marriage. He also bestowed a portion of the
south of Alemannia on King Rudolf, in order to win him over, and in return
received from him the holy lance, with which the side of the Saviour had been
pierced as he hung on the cross. Finding it no longer possible to dissolve the
dukedoms and great fiefs, Henry, in order to strengthen the unity of the
empire, introduced the novel policy of bestowing the dukedoms, as they fell
vacant, on his relations and personal adherents, and of allying the rest of the
dukes with himself by intermarriage, thus limiting the different powerful
houses in the state into one family.
Bavaria still remained in an unsettled state. Arnulf the Bad, leagued
with the Hungarians, against whom Henry had great designs, had still much in
his power, and Henry, resolved at any price to dissolve this dangerous
alliance, not only concluded peace with this traitor on that condition, but
also married his son Henry to Judith, Arnulf’s daughter, AD 921. Arnulf deprived the rich churches of great part of their
treasures, and was consequently abhorred by the clergy, the chroniclers of
those times, who, chiefly on that account, depicted his character in such
unfavorable colors.
In France, Charles the Simple was still the tool and jest of the
vassals. His most dangerous enemy was Robert, Count of Paris, brother to Odo,
the late king. Both solicited aid from Henry, but in a battle that shortly
ensued near Soissons, Count Robert losing his life and Charles being defeated, Rudolf
of Burgundy, one of Boso’s nephews, set himself up as king of France, and
imprisoned Charles the Simple, who craved assistance from the German monarch,
to whom he promised to perform homage as his liege lord.
Henry, meanwhile, contented himself with expelling Rudolf from Lotharingia,
and after taking possession of Metz, bestowed that dukedom upon Gisilbrecht,
the son of Regingar, and reincorporated it with the empire. These successes now
roused the apprehensions of the Hungarians, who again poured their invading
hordes across the frontier. In 926, they plundered St. Gall, but were routed
near Seckingen by the peasantry, headed by the country people of Hirminger, who
had been roused by alarm-fires; and again in Alsace, by Count Liutfried:
another horde wag cut to pieces near Bleiburg, in Carinthia, by Eberhard and
the Count of Meran. The Hungarian king, probably Zoldan, was, by chance, taken
prisoner during an incursion by the Germans, a circumstance turned by Henry to
a very judicious use. He restored the captured prince to liberty, and also
agreed to pay him a yearly tribute, on condition of his entering into a solemn
truce for nine years. The experience of earlier times had taught Henry that a
completely new organization was necessary in the management of military affairs
in Germany, before this dangerous enemy could be rendered innoxious, and as an
undertaking of this nature required time, he prudently resolved to incur a
seeming disgrace, by means of which he in fact secured the honor of the state.
During this interval of nine years he aimed at bringing the other enemies of
the empire, more particularly the Slavi, into subjection, and making
preparations for an expedition against Hungary by which her power should
receive a fatal blow.
In the meantime, Gisilbrecht, the youthful duke of Lotharingia, again
rebelled, but was besieged and taken prisoner in Zulpich by Henry, who, struck
by his noble appearance, restored to him his dukedom, and bestowed upon him his
daughter, Gerberga, in marriage. Rudolf of France also sued for peace, being
hard pressed by his powerful rival, Hugo the Great or Wise, the son of Robert.
Charles the Simple was, on Henry’s demand, restored to liberty, but quickly
fell anew into the power of his faithless vassals.
Peace was now established throughout the empire, and afforded Henry an opportunity for turning his
attention to the introduction of measures, in the interior economy of the
state, calculated to obviate for the future the dangers that had hitherto
threatened it from without. The best expedient against the irruptions of the
Hungarians appeared to him to be the circumvallation of the most important districts,
the erection of forts and of fortified cities. The most important point,
however, was to place the garrisons immediately under him, as citizens of the
state, commanded by his immediate officers, instead of their being indirectly
governed by the feudal aristocracy, and by the clergy. As these garrisons were
intended, not only for the protection of the walls, but also for open warfare,
he had them trained to fight in rank and file, and formed them into a body of
infantry, whose solid masses were calculated to withstand the furious onset of
the Hungarian horse. These garrisons were solely composed of the ancient
freemen, and the whole measure was, in fact, merely a reform of the ancient
arrier-ban, which no longer sufficed for the protection of the state, and whose
deficiency had long been supplied by the addition of vassals under the command
of their temporal or spiritual lieges, and by the mercenaries or body-guards of
the emperors. The ancient class of freemen, who originally composed the arrier-ban,
had been gradually converted into feudal vassals; but they were at that time
still so numerous as to enable Henry to give them a completely new military
organization, which at once secured to them their freedom, hitherto endangered
by the preponderating power of the feudal aristocracy, and rendered them a
powerful support to the throne. By collecting them into the cities, he afforded
them a secure retreat against the attempts of the Grafs, dukes, abbots, and
bishops, and created for himself a body of trusty friends, of whom it would naturally
be expected that they would ever side with, the emperor against the nobility.
This new regulation appears to have been founded on the ancient mode of
division. At first, out of every nine freemen (which recalls the decania) one
only was placed within the new fortress, and the remaining eight were bound
(perhaps on account of their ancient association into corporations or guilds)
to nourish and support him; but the remaining freemen, in the neighborhood of
the new cities, appear to have been also gradually collected within their
walls, and to have committed the cultivation of their lands in the vicinity to
their bondsmen. However that may be, the ancient class of freemen completely
disappeared, as the cities increased in importance, and it was only among the
wild mountains, where no cities sprang up, that the centen or cantons and whole districts or gauen of free peasantry were to be met with.
Henry’s original intention in the introduction of this new system was,
it is evident, solely to provide a military force answering to the exigencies
of the state; still there is no reason to suppose him blind to the great
political advantage to be derived from the formation of an independent class of
citizens, and that he had in reality premeditated a civil as well as a military
reformation may be concluded from the fact of his having established fairs,
markets, and public assemblies, which, of themselves, would be closely
connected with civil industry, within the walls of the cities; and, even if
these trading warriors were at first merely feudatories of the emperor, they
must naturally in the end have formed a class of free citizens, the more so,
as, attracted within the cities by the advantages offered to them, their number
rapidly and annually increased.
The same military reasons which induced the emperor Henry to enroll the
ancient freemen into a regular corps of infantry, and to form them into a civil
corporation, caused him also to metamorphose the feudal aristocracy into a regular
troop of cavalry and a knightly institution. The wild disorder with which the
mounted vassals of the empire, the dukes, grafs, bishops, and abbots, each
distinguished by his own banner, rushed to the attack, or vied with each other
in the fury of the assault, was now changed by Henry, who was well versed in
every knightly art, to the disciplined maneuvers of the line, and to that of
fighting in close ranks, so well calculated to withstand the furious onset of
their Hungarian foe. The discipline necessary for carrying these new military
tactics into practice among a nobility habituated to license could alone be
enforced by motives of honor, and Henry accordingly formed a chivalric
institution, which gave rise to new manners, and to an enthusiasm that imparted
a new character to the age. The tournament, from the ancient verb turnen, to wrestle or fight, a public
contest in every species of warfare, carried on by the knights in the presence
of noble dames and maidens, whose favor they sought to gain by their prowess,
and which chiefly consisted of tilting and jousting either singly or in troops,
the day concluding with a banquet and a dance, was then instituted. In these
tournaments the ancient heroism of the Germans revived; they were in reality
founded upon the ancient pagan legends of the heroes who carried on an eternal
contest in their Walhalla, in order to win the smiles of the Walkyren, now
represented by earth’s well-born dames.
The ancient spirit of brotherhood in arms, which had been almost
quenched by that of self-interest, by the desire of acquiring feudal
possessions, by the slavish subjection of the vassals under their lieges, and
by the intrigues of the bishops, who intermeddled with all feudal matters, also
reappeared. A great universal society of Christian knights, bound to the
observance of peculiar laws, whose highest aim was to fight only for God
(before long also for the ladies), and who swore never to make use of
dishonorable means for success, but solely to live and to die for honor, was
formed; an innovation which, although merely military in its origin, speedily
became of political importance, for, by means of his knightly honor, the little
vassal of a minor lord was no longer viewed as a mere underling, but as a
confederate in the great universal chivalric fraternity. There were also many
freemen who sometimes gained their livelihood by offering their services to different
courts, or by robbing on the highways, and who were too proud to serve on foot;
Henry offered them free pardon, and formed them into a body of light cavalry.
In the cities, the free citizens, who were originally intended only to serve as
foot soldiery, appear ere long to have formed themselves into mounted troops,
and to have created a fresh body of infantry out of their artificers and
apprentices. It is certain that every freeman could pretend to knighthood.
Although the chivalric regulations ascribed to the emperor Henry, and to
his most distinguished vassals, may not be genuine, they offer nevertheless
infallible proofs of the most ancient spirit of knighthood. Henry ordained that
no one should be created a knight who either by word or by deed injured the
holy church; the Pfalzgraf Conrad added, “no one who either by word or by deed
injured the holy German empire”; Hermann of Swabia, “no one who injured a woman
or a maiden”; Berthold, the brother of Arnulf of Bavaria, “no one who had ever
deceived another or had broken his word”; Conrad of Franconia, “no one who had
ever run away from the field of battle”. These appear to have been, in fact,
the first chivalric laws, for they spring from the spirit of the times, while
all the regulations concerning nobility of birth, the number of ancestors, the
exclusion of all those who were engaged in trade, etc., are, it is evident from
their very nature, of a much later origin.
Conquests in the Slavian Northeast—Defeat of the Hungarians
The systematic reduction of the Slavs north of Germany beneath his rule
was one of the great projects of the emperor; and, when the recollection of the
unfortunate Slavs nations, thinned by bloody defeats, deprived of their ancient
privileges, forcibly converted to Christianity, and obliged to adopt the German
language, strange and unfamiliar to them, recurs, the barbarity of these
measures would naturally rouse indignation; still, the inquiry whether they
were not induced by necessity or for safety is but just. The Slavs had long
made common cause with the Hungarians, whom they assisted in their predatory
excursions against the Germans, whom they attacked in the rear, while engaged
in defending themselves against their dreaded foe, and the consequent peril in
which the empire stood, together with the alternative of destroying or of being
destroyed, rendered victory necessary at whatever price. The whole of the
empire, as far as Lotharingia and Bremen, was laid waste by the repeated invasions
of the lawless Hungarians and their Slavs allies. The whole of Austria, as far
as the Enns, had been severed from the state by the conquering Hungarians,
while the Slavs attempted to spread themselves northward as far as the Weser.
Had the emperor spared the Slavs, and neglected to disarm them during his truce
with the Hungarians, they would certainly have assisted them in their first
irruption, and might possibly have brought the empire to the brink of
destruction. The subjection of heathen nations was, moreover, regarded in those
times as a meritorious work, inasmuch as they were, by that means, forced to
embrace Christianity.
The ancient Obotrites maintained themselves in Mecklenburg, protected by
their forests and lakes, and by their oft-tried valor, while the disunited
Serbian tribes, the Hevelli on the Havel, the Daleminzii on the Middle Elbe,
and the Redarii on the Priegnitz, whose territory chiefly consisted of open
country, and who, in the moment of danger, were abandoned by their fellow
tribes, could offer but a feeble resistance. It was, therefore, upon them that
Henry first turned his arms. In 926, he marched against the Hevelli, seized
their capital, Brannibor (Brandenburg), converted their country into a frontier
of the empire, placed it under the jurisdiction of a Saxon Markgraf, colonized
it with Christian Germans, and left no means untried in order to Germanize the
inhabitants.
In the following year, AD 927,
he entered Bohemia, and took possession of Prague, where, after the fall of the
Moravian kingdom of the Christian Borziwoi, his son, Spignitew, who had
relapsed into paganism, maintained himself with the aid of the Hungarians, whom
he assisted on every occasion against the Germans. He was succeeded by his
brother Wratislaw, who wedded Drahomira, a pagan Hevellian princess. Drahomira,
inspired by her hereditary enmity against the Germans, caused all the
Christians, among others her mother-in-law, St. Ludmilla, to be assassinated,
and Henry entered the country under pretext of avenging their martyrdom.
Drahomira sought safety in flight. Her son, Wenzel, afterward surnamed the
Holy, took the oath of allegiance to the emperor, and was enabled, by the
successes of the Germans, to make use of peaceable means for the conversion of
his terror-stricken subjects.
The subjection of the Hevelli and of the Bohemians now placed the Daleminzii
at the mercy of the conqueror. Henry invaded their country, AD 928, took Grona,
their metropolis, and built the fortress of Meissen on the Elbe. It appears
that the Slavs Parathani (inhabitants of Baireuth), who are mentioned in the
history of St. Emmeram, had, at an earlier period, been converted by the monks
of Ratisbon and Nuremberg. The fortresses of Saalfeld, Orlamund, Rudolstadt,
Leuchtenburg, Lobeda, Domburg, Naumburg, were erected on the Saal, now become
the line of demarcation between the Germans and the Slavs. Weimar also received
its name from Wenden Mark, or the
Wendian frontier.
The Redarii had driven away their chief, Bernhard, who, there is no
doubt, had embraced Christianity. This brave warrior was sent by Henry against
his countrymen, who, well aware of the fate that awaited them, made such a desperate
resistance at Lunkin (Lenzen) that their whole army, with the exception of eight
hundred, who were made prisoners, fell on the field of battle, AD 930. Numbers flung themselves in despair
into a lake. This terrible defeat filled the neighboring Slavs tribes with
consternation.
The truce had now, AD 933,
expired, and ambassadors were sent from Hungary to demand the payment of the ancient
tribute. According to the legendary account, Henry caused a mutilated mangy dog
to be thrown before them, and declared a deadly war with their nation. The
Hungarians instantly crossed the frontier in two enormous hordes, the lesser of
which, 50,000 strong, was encountered by the arrier-ban of Saxony and Thuringia
near Sondershausen and entirely routed. The other and more numerous body advanced
along the Saal in the vicinity of Merseburg against the emperor, and laid siege
to the fortress of a certain Wido, who, according to Wittekind’s account, had
married a natural daughter of the emperor, and possessed immense treasures.
Henry, meanwhile, entrenched himself on a mountain, since known as the
Keuschberg, or mountain of chastity, owing to the circumstance of no woman
being permitted to enter the camp of the Christians, who strengthened
themselves for the coming conflict by devotional exercises. The news of the defeat
of their countrymen at Sondershausen soon reached the Hungarians, who instantly
kindled enormous fires along the banks of the river, as signals of recall to those
of their number who were engaged in plundering the country, and the battle
commenced with the coming morn. Henry addressed his troops, who unanimously
swore to die on the field or to annihilate their foes. The picture of St.
Michael, the defender of heaven, was borne in the van, as the banner of the
empire. A murderous struggle commenced, the Hungarians shouting, “Hui! Hui!”—the
Germans, “Kyrieleison”. Victory long wavered, but was at length decided by the
discipline and enthusiastic valor of the Germans. Thirty thousand Hungarians
remained on the field of battle; the remainder fled. An immense number of
Christian slaves were restored to liberty. After the victory, Henry knelt, at
the head of his troops, on the field, and returned thanks to their patron
saint. The Hungarians appear to have been everywhere cut down as soon as they
were overtaken. Only seven of their most distinguished chieftains were sent
back alive to their country, deprived of
their hands, noses, and ears, with the injunction for the future to remain
peaceably at home. The terror of the Hungarians now equaled that with which
they had formerly inspired the Germans. In the belief that the angel Michael,
whose gigantic picture they ever beheld borne in the van of the German army,
was the god of victory, they made golden wings similar to those with which he
was represented for their own idols. Germany remained undisturbed in this
quarter during the rest of this reign. An annual festival, held in the village
of Keuschberg, still celebrates the memory of this great victory.
Henry now turned his victorious arms against the Danes, who had secretly
invaded the empire. He pursued them as far as the Slie, on whose banks he
erected the fortress of Schleswig, in which he placed a German garrison, and
forced, AD 934, Gorm the Old to
abolish the horrid national sacrifice, in which ninety-nine men were offered on
the altars of the pagan deities.
The following year, AD 935, a
friendly meeting took place between him and the kings of France and Burgundy on
the Char, a tributary of the Maas. Henry afterward planned a visit to Rome, but
died without accomplishing that project, AD 936, when at the height of his splendor and renown. He was buried at
Quedlinburg, his favorite residence.
Otto the First
Otto, the son of Henry, was unanimously elected as successor to the
throne. The feeling of respect which the newly-acquired greatness of the state
instilled into the minds of his subjects, conspired with his own love of
magnificence and display to render the coronation of this youthful prince a
scene of more than ordinary solemnity. The choice of Aix-la-Chapelle as the
theater on this grand occasion demonstrated the high expectations universally
inspired by this new sovereign, on whom the spirit of Charlemagne seemed to
rest. The entire nation, the clergy, and the nobility, vied with each other in
surrounding their monarch with a splendor equaling that with which the first
emperor had been environed. The gigantic crown of Charlemagne, the scepter, the
sword, the cross, the sacred lance, and the golden mantle, now became objects
of still deeper devotion. The archbishop of Mayence held precedence, by the
ancient respect attached to his dignity, in the ceremony of anointing; the
temporal lords performed their various offices in person; Gisilbrecht of Lotharingia
filled that of chamberlain, Eberhard of Franconia that of carver, Hermann of
Swabia,that of cup-bearer, Arnulf of Bavaria that of master of the horse. These
new and honorable offices were henceforward retained by the dukes. Editha,
Otto’s wife, the daughter of Edmund, king of England, was also crowned.
Although Otto worthily maintained the dignity he inherited from his father, he
scarcely merits the title of Great. He was not endowed with the winning
frankness with which his more simple-minded father had gained every heart. His
manner was cold and haughty; he surrounded himself with etiquette, and,
although by no means wanting in personal bravery, owed his success more to his
craftiness and good fortune than to his generosity and magnanimity.
The death of Henry was the signal for a general insurrection among the
Slavs and Hungarians. The Redarii revolted, AD 936, but were again reduced to submission by a Saxon army sent against them by
the emperor, under the command of Hermann Billung, a brave and skillful leader.
In the following year the Hungarians made an inroad into Saxony, but were
defeated by Otto in an unknown spot, and pursued as far as Metz; the rapidity
of their movements during their predatory incursion having led them across the
Rhine almost to the French frontier.
These events were followed by disturbances in the interior of the
empire, and by family disputes. Henry had, by his first marriage with the
princess of Hatburg, a son named Thankmar (or Tammo), to whom the succession
rightfully belonged, but, becoming enamored of the beautiful Matilda, he
divorced his wife, under pretext of her having been destined for the cloister.
He had three sons by Matilda, Otto, Henry, and Bruno, the first of whom he
named as his successor on the throne, which Matilda coveted for her handsome
and favorite son, Henry. Great family dissensions arose from these
circumstances, not dissimilar to, and as odious, although more fortunate in
their result to the emperor, as those that disturbed the reign of Louis the
Pious.
The fate of the luckless Thankmar excited a feeling of commiseration
equaling that with which Bernhard, the grandson of Louis the Pious, had
formerly been viewed. Not content with having deprived him of the imperial
throne, Otto also seized his large maternal inheritance in Saxony, and bestowed
it upon the Markgraf Gero, who, together with Billung, guarded the Slav
frontier. Thankmar rebelled, and was upheld by the Saxons. He was also joined
by Eberhard, duke of Franconia, the same who, at the desire of his brother, the
Emperor Conrad, transferred the crown to the Saxon Henry. On the death of that
emperor, he attempted to assert his claim to the imperial dignity, being partly
influenced by the hatred he bore to Otto, by whom he had been injured. The
rebels also attempted to gain over Henry, Otto’s younger brother, whom Thankmar
contrived to carry off from his castle of Badliki on the Ruhr. The emperor
marched against the insurgents; Thankmar was besieged in the Eresburg, and
slain at the foot of the altar, whither he had fled for safety; Eberhard,
abandoned by the greater part of his followers, fell at the feet of the
imprisoned Henry, whom he besought to intercede in his behalf with the emperor.
To his surprise, Henry replied that he was willing to join with him in his
designs against Otto, in order to deprive him of the crown, which he coveted
for himself. For the present the two confederates dissembled their projects,
and Eberhard made his submission to Otto with expressions of the deepest
contrition for his guilt.
Henry, meanwhile, strengthened the conspiracy by gaining over to his
party the sons of Arnulf of Bavaria, who had died not long before, Eberhard,
Arnulf, Hermann, and Louis, the archbishop Frederick of Mayence, who aimed at
the attainment of a preeminence in the state similar to that formerly enjoyed
by Hatto and Gisilbrecht of Lothringia. Louis, sumamed “Over the Sea”—a son of
Charles the Simple, who, in his early youth, had taken refuge in England,
whence, after the decease of Rudolf of Burgundy, AD 936, he had been recalled
by Hugo, Count of Paris, surnamed the Great, or the Wise, and placed on the
throne of France— was also invited to join the rebels, but refused, and sought
to strengthen himself by an alliance with Otto. The conspirators now contrived
to draw the emperor to the Rhine, while Gisilbrecht gave the first signal for
revolt, by rising in open rebellion, and at the moment when a division of Otto’s
Saxon army had crossed the Rhine at Zante, Henry, who, under color of aiding
his brother, had marched thither at the head of his vassals, suddenly declared
in favor of Gisilbrecht, and fell upon them sword in hand. In this extremity,
Otto fell upon his knees before the sacred lance, and invoked the aid of
heaven. A Saxon, meanwhile, shouted in Italian, “Run, run”; and the Italian
mercenaries in the Lotharingia army, being seized with a sudden panic at the
cry, instantly ran away. A terrible slaughter ensued. Eberhard and the
archbishop of Mayence, terrified by this unexpected disaster, did not venture
to declare themselves, and Henry, who had been wounded in the melée, fled to
Merseburg, whither the emperor was enticed in order to relieve Gisilbrecht in
his quarters on the Rhine. At the same time, the Slavs were secretly instigated
to revolt. The plot was, however, betrayed to the Markgraf Gero, who invited
thirty of the Slavs princes to a banquet, at which he caused them to be
assassinated when in a state of intoxication, AD 938, and the Slavs attempting to revenge this act of treachery,
Otto was forced to raise the siege at Merseburg, and to march to Gero’s assistance.
He, at the same time, pardoned Henry, in the hope of separating him, by gentle
and conciliatory measures, from Eberhard and Gisilbrecht.
The Hungarians, who, at this time, made a fresh irruption into the
empire, suffered two bloody defeats in the Harz Mountains, near Stetternburg
and in the Drömling, a marshy forest, whence their horses, weary with the heavy
rain and the nature of the ground, were unable to extricate them.
While Otto was engaged in opposing the Slavs, who had entirely cut to
pieces a Saxon army under Haika, and again succeeded, after several severe
engagements, the details of which have not been recorded, in reducing them to
submission, Gisilbrecht won over the French monarch. This intelligence no
sooner reached the ears of Otto than he hastened to besiege Gisilbrecht in the
castle of Chevremont. Gisilbrecht secretly escaped, and Otto, being forced by
the state of affairs in Saxony to return to that country, intrusted the defense
of the western frontier to Immo, the Lothringian Graf, and to the duke of
Swabia, who had remained firm in his allegiance. Louis crossed the frontier at
the head of a numerous army, invaded and wasted Alsace, which was bravely defended
by Hermann, who finally compelled him to retreat. Eberhard, meanwhile, seized
Breisach. Immo was closely besieged. Eberhard was on the point of being
proclaimed and anointed king at Metz. These events quickly recalled Otto from
Saxony, in order to lay siege to Breisach, upon which the archbishop of
Mayence, who, until now, had pretended to favor his party, and who was in his
camp, suddenly threw off the mask, and went over with his numerous adherents to
the enemy, whose principal force was assembled near Andernach, and was merely
opposed by a small body of troops commanded by the Graf Conrad Kurzbold, and by
Udo, brother to Hermann of Swabia, the former of whom, perceiving that his
opponents were spread carelessly feasting on the banks of the Rhine, suddenly
fell upon them. A fearful slaughter ensued; Eberhard fell after a desperate
struggle;'Gisilbrecht was drowned in the Rhine; Otto’s party triumphed;
Breisach surrendered; the archbishop of Mayence was taken prisoner; and Henry,
who had infringed the treaty and again joined the rebels; fled into France. The
rebellion was no sooner crushed than Otto carried his plans into effect. Louis
of France had found means, before the emperor was able to succor Lotharingia,
to seduce Gerberga, the widow of Gisilbrecht, whom he married, in order to
insure the possession of the country. The emperor, however, set up Graf Otto,
who, in his quality of guardian to Henry, the young son of Gisilbrecht, governed
Lothringia, in opposition to him. Although Eberhard’s nearest of kin, and
consequently his heir in Franconia, was his nephew, Conrad the Red, Otto
divided the dukedom, and bestowed a part of the land upon his vassal, Graf Udo
of Swabia. Berthold, the brother of Arnulf, was also created duke of Bavaria,
to the exclusion of his three nephews.
Gero, meanwhile, continued to oppose the Slavs, and again took firm
footing in Brandenburg after the assassination of the last prince of the
Hevelli by the traitor Tugumin, who had been bribed to commit the deed by Gero, AD 940. Otto invaded France in
person, drove Louis as far as the Seine, and made a treaty with Burgundy. After
the death of Rudolf II, king of that country, his son Conrad, who was still in
his minority, was placed in his hands. Henry and the archbishop of Mayence sought
and received pardon; nevertheless, when, in 941, Otto again took the field
against the Slavs, and his troops mutinied on account of the difficulty of
their position, Henry and his coadjutor, the archbishop, placed themselves at
the head of a fresh conspiracy against the emperor, whom they intended to
assassinate during the celebration of Easter at Quedlinburg. The plot was
discovered; Henry fled, but threw himself in penitential garb shortly afterward
at the feet of his injured brother, who once more pardoned him.
A short peace ensued. A personal meeting took place, A.D. 943, at Vouzières
between Otto and Louis of France, and peace was concluded. In 944, the emperor
bestowed Lotharingia, on the death of Henry, the son of Gisilbrecht, and that
of his guardian, Otto, on Conrad the Red, together with the hand of his daughter Luitgarde; an
alliance which united the Franconian party to his family and Lotharingia to the
empire. The old duke, Hermam of Swabia, expired in the course of the same year,
and Ludolf, the emperor’s eldest son, who had married Ida, the duke’s only
child, became duke in his stead. In the following year the death of Berthold of
Bavaria also took place, and Henry, who had already wedded Judith, Arnulf’s
beauteous widow, was named as his successor, to the exclusion of the sons of
both Arnulf and Berthold. The emperor was, by these means, himself duke of
Saxony; his son, duke of Swabia; his brother, duke of Bavaria; his son-in-taw,
duke of Franconia and Lotharingia; and Conrad, the young king of Burgundy,
remained a hostage at his court.
In 944, war again broke out; the Hungarians invaded the empire, but were
defeated in Carinthia by Duke Berthold, who died shortly afterward. France was
also disturbed by the struggle between the unfortunate Louis and the great
Count Hugo of Paris, who was aided by the Normans, for the possession of the
crown. Hugo had, up to this period, been on friendly terms with Otto, whose
sister Hedwig he had received in marriage. Otto, under pretext of rescuing
Louis from the imprisonment in which he was held by Hugo, to whom he had been
delivered by the Normans, invaded France, AD 947, but was unsuccessful in his attacks against Paris or Rouen, the capital of
Normandy. Peace was at length established between the contending parties by Conrad
of Franconia. Hugo voluntarily submitted, and Lothar, the son of Louis,
succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, AD 954. Both of the emperor’s sisters had married a competitor for
the throne of France; Gerberga, Louis; and Hedwig, Hugo. The son of the latter,
Otto’s nephew, the celebrated Hugh Capet, was raised to the throne on the
extinction of the Carolingian dynasty.
The war with the French Normans was scarcely concluded than a fresh one
arose between Otto and their brethren, the Danes, whose king, Harald Blaatand,
or Blue Tooth, conquered Schleswig, and restored the Danewirk. A sanguinary
battle took place, in which Otto was victorious. He afterward marched in
triumph through Jutland as far as the Ottensund, which received its name from
him. Harald was forced to submit to the rite of baptism, and to take the oath
of allegiance to the emperor, who restored the frontier, and erected Schleswig,
Biepen and Aarhus into bishoprics, under the jurisdiction of the archbishopric
of Hamburg, AD 948. A victory was,
during the same year, gained over the Hungarians by Henry of Bavaria, who, AD 950, for the first time, invaded
their territory, whence he returned laden with immense booty, and with the
wives and children of the chiefs. It was about this time that Otto founded new
bishoprics as a means of increasing his power in the conquered territory of the
Slavs, Havelberg in 946, and Brandenburg in 948, within the march of Gero; in
946, he also founded Oldenburg in Wagria, which country had just been reduced
to submission by Hermann Billung, who had taken advantage of the feud that had
broken out between Selibur, prince of the Wagrians, and Mistevoi, prince of the
Obotrites. The latter was persuaded to embrace Christianity, and wedded the
sister of Wago, bishop of Oldenburg. His son, Wislau, relapsed into paganism.
After having thus succeeded in extending and securing the frontiers of the
empire, Otto turned his attention upon Italy.
The Reincorporation of Italy with the Empire
Berengar II had seized the government of Italy. Adelheid, the widow of
Lothar, fell into his hands. The pretensions of this princess to the crown,
which were upheld by a strong, although, at that period, suppressed party, and
her extraordinary wit and beauty, induced Berengar to offer to her the hand of
his son, Adalber, who, being refused, Berengar imprisoned her in a fortress on
the lake of Como, whence she contrived to escape to the castle of Canossa,
where she concealed herself. Otto had, at this time, not long become a widower;
he sought, moreover, to place the imperial power on a firmer basis, by the
addition of great feudal possessions, and by family alliances. In pursuance of
this policy, he had only set governors, who were chosen from among his
trustiest vassals, over Saxony, over which he reigned as hereditary sovereign,
and insured the allegiance of Franconia, Swabia, and Bavaria, by the strict
connection that subsisted between his family and those of their dukes. An
extensive and hereditary feudal tenure in Italy has long been an object of his
ambition. The earnest solicitations of Adelheid for assistance met, therefore, with
a favorable reception, and, AD 951,
he hastened across the Alps to the relief of Canossa, at that time closely
besieged, and was rewarded with the hand of the lovely Adelheid at Pavia. His
son, Ludolf, fearing to share a fate similar to that of the unfortunate
Thankmar, quarreled with his unwished-for stepmother, and suddenly quitted his father,
accompanied by the archbishop of Mayence, who again plotted treason. Otto, suspecting
their designs, and anxious to prevent mischief, returned upon this to Germany,
and entrusted the conduct of the war with Berengar to Conrad of Lotharingia, who,
fully aware of the immense sacrifice necessary for the maintenance of the
emperor’s prerogative in Italy, offered terms of peace, and promised a full
pardon and the possession of his lands to Berengar. These terms offended the
pride of the emperor, who refused his compliance, and threatened again to
invade Italy in person; but his indignation was speedily mollified by the
submissive behavior of Berengar, who repaired to Germany, took the oath of
allegiance at Augsburg, and was permitted to retain undisturbed possession of
his lands. A fresh and alarming conspiracy was, meanwhile, secretly ripening;
Ludolf, whose pride had already been deeply mortified, was now still more
aggrieved by the conduct of his uncle, Henry of Bavaria, who had entered into a
close connection with Adelheid, through whom he governed the emperor. A dispute
that arose between the uncle and nephew concerning the boundaries of their
lands was decided in favor of the former, by the emperor, who, in addition to
the extensive dukedom of Bavaria, which already comprehended Carinthia,
bestowed upon him the meres of Verona and Aquileia.
Ludolf’s sister, the wife of Conrad the Red, to whom Adelheid was
greatly obnoxious, espoused the cause of her brother, who also found an ally in
her husband, whom the emperor had irremediably offended by his invalidation of
the promise made by Conrad to Berengar. The scheme of the conspirators, neither
of whom, at first, dreamed of open revolt, merely extended to the exclusion of
Henry, to whom, as the tool of Adelheid, they ascribed every evil design, from
the imperial council. This they openly declared to the emperor at Ingelheim,
and threatened to imprison Henry if he came thither. Otto, unable to oppose
them on the Rhine, where Conrad and Ludolf ruled in their right as dukes, made
no reply, but, on his return to Saxony, gave full vent to his rage, and deposed
the ungrateful nobles, AD 953. The
Lotharingians instantly rebelled, and attempted to throw off the German yoke,
but were defeated by Conrad on the Maas: the battle lasted a whole day. Flushed
by this victory, Conrad turned against the emperor, who had advanced as far as
the Rhine, and who, aided by Henry of Bavaria, laid siege to Mayence, whose
archbishop favored the rebels, and which was for some time defended by Ludolf
and Conrad against the united imperial forces. Terms of reconciliation were at
length proposed; the two princes came forth, and threw themselves at the feet
of their indignant parent, but refusing to deliver up their adherents, whom
Otto wished to bring to execution, not so much from revenge as from political
motives, in order to weaken their party, they returned to the city without
anything being concluded. Immediately after this, the Bavarians, incited by Arnulf,
the son of the late duke, rose tumultuously in the camp against Henry, and
declared in favor of Ludolf and Conrad, who again quitted Mayence, and took the
field with this new addition to their force, which received a fresh accession
of strength by the desertion of a part of the Saxons under the command of
Ekbert, a nephew of Hermann Billung. A fresh body of troops, dispatched from
Saxony by Hermann Billung, to the assistance of the emperor, was waylaid and
defeated by Ludolf and Conrad. Their commander, Wichmann, another of Hermann’s
nephews, also joined the rebels. Otto, with characteristic prudence, sought to
weaken his opponents by separating their forces, and, with that intent, created
his brother Bruno, the archbishop of Cologne, duke of Lotharingia. Conrad took
the bait, and instantly withdrew across the Rhine, in order to dispute the
possession of that country. Hermann, meanwhile, drew Ekbert and Wichmann toward
Saxony, in order still more to weaken Ludolf and Arnulf, who suffered a defeat
before Augsburg, which city was valiantly defended by Bishop Ulrich and his
vassals, AD 954. The conspirators now
invited the Hungarians— who, headed by their king, Pulzko (Bulgio), spoliated
both friend and foe—into the country, under pretext of aiding Conrad, who
seized and plundered Metz. He was violently opposed by Bruno’s adherents, and
at length became so obnoxious to the people, for having caused this new inroad
of the Hungarians, and so terrified at the cruelties practiced by them, that he
voluntarily quitted his unnatural allies, who, after vainly besieging
Kammarich, returned to their native country through France and Italy, burning
and plundering as they advanced.
The Germans, alarmed by these disasters, and fearful of the event, now
abandoned the leaders of the rebellion, and crowded around the emperor, who
held a diet at Cinna (Zeun), where Conrad and Frederick, archbishop of Mayence,
made their submission. Ludolf and Amulf, nevertheless, obstinately continued to
defend Ratisbon, where, after a desperate resistance, Arnulf was killed when
heading a sally against the enemy, and Ludolf, finding it useless to resist,
took refuge in Swabia. Ulrich, bishop of Augsburg, attempted to bring about a
reconciliation between the emperor and his now penitent son, who, one day, when
the former was hunting, suddenly fell at his feet and begged for pardon. He met
with a favorable reception, but was deprived of the government of Swabia. He
was afterward sent into Italy and entrusted with the command of an army against
Berenger, who had again revolted. He there met with an early death. The dukedom
of Swabia was bestowed upon Burkhard, the son of the elder Burkhard, and a relative
of Bishop Ulrich. The new duke, who had just attained his majority, wedded
Hedwig, the daughter of Henry, who was reinstated in the dukedom of Bavaria.
Conrad was deprived of Lotharingia, which was partitioned between the Grafs
Gottfried and Frederick, the former of whom governed the upper, the latter the
lower country, but were subordinate to Bruno, the archbishop of Cologne, the
first noble who bore the title of archduke. He was also the first churchman
who exercised such great temporal authority, so adverse to the spirit by which
the first preachers of the gospel were guided; but Bruno was the emperor’s
brother, and Otto had learned from experience the importance of entrusting the
ducal power solely to his nearest relatives and best-tried friends. In 954,
Bruno crowned his nephew Lothar, the son of Louis Over-the-Sea, who had just
expired, king of France.
A powerful party in Bavaria, headed by the Count Werner, brother to the
fallen Arnulf, were induced by the hatred they bore to Henry to have recourse
to the Hungarians, whom they invited into the country. Confident of success on
account of their enormous, numerical strength, the arrogant barbarians boasted
that their horses should drain every river in Germany. Augsburg, whose supposed
treasures attracted their cupidity, was besieged by them, but made a brave
defense under the command of Burkhard of Swabia. Their king, Bulzko, was
encamped at Gunsburg. Otto instantly assembled the arrier-ban of the entire
empire; the Bohemians united their forces with his; the Saxons, at that time
engaged in opposing the Slavs, alone failed. The two armies came within sight
of each other on the Lech, near Augsburg. Before the battle commenced, Otto
addressed his troops, as his father had done on a similar occasion, and vowed,
when referring to the victory won by Henry, to found a bishopric at Merseburg,
if God granted him success. It was the 10th of August, 955. The sun poured with
intense heat upon the plain. The Hungarians rapidly crossed the Lech, fell upon
the rear of the German army, dispersed the Bohemians, and were pressing hard
upon the Swabians, when the fortune of the day was again turned by Conrad, who,
anxious to retrieve his fault and to regain the confidence of his master,
performed miracles of valor at the head of the Franconians. The emperor
struggled sword in hand in the thickest of the fight. A vast number of the
enemy were drowned in attempting to escape across the river. Conrad was
mortally wounded in the neck by an arrow aimed at him by one of the fugitives,
when in the act of raising his helmet in order to breathe more freely. A
hundred thousand Hungarians are said to have fallen on this occasion. Two of
their princes, Lehel and Bulcs, were, by the emperor’s command, hanged on the
gates of Augsburg. According to some writers, King Bulzko and four of the war-chiefs
were hanged before the gates of Ratisbon. Werner was killed by the enraged
Hungarians, but few of whom escaped to their country, almost the whole of the
fugitives being slain or hunted down like wild beasts by the Bavarian peasants.
The adherents of the adverse party were mercilessly punished by Henry of
Bavaria, who caused them to be buried alive or burned in beds of quicklime.
Herold, bishop of Salzburg, was, by his orders, deprived of sight, and the
patriarch Lopus of Aquileia met with a still more wretched fate. This was the
last inroad attempted by the Hungarians, who, for the future, remained within
their frontier, on their side equally undisturbed by the Germans. The booty was
so enormous that a peasant is said to have had a silver plow made out of his
share. The innumerable Hungarian horses taken on this occasion also gave rise
to the establishment of the Keferloher horse fair.
Henry of Bavaria, Otto’s brother, died in 955, and was succeeded in the
government of Bavaria and Carinthia by his son Henry, surnamed the Wrangler.
Burkhard, who had succeeded Ludolf in the command of the Italian army, also
expired shortly after, and was succeeded in the dukedom of Swabia by his widow,
Hedwig, Otto’s niece, who was celebrated for her beauty and learning. This is
the first example of an office relating to the empire being filled by a woman.
At Hohentwiel, her residence during her widowhood, she passed her days in
study, and read Virgil with her chancellor Eckhard, who afterward became
chaplain and counsellor to the emperor Otto II, and also served the empress
Adelheid. Franconia remained partitioned between Otto, the son of Conrad, and
his cousin Henry, Markgraf of Sweinfurt, who was also grandson to the emperor
Conrad I, through his father Count Bardo, a son of Burkhard of Thuringia, who
had wedded one of that emperor’s daughters.
The Slavs were again humbled. Ekbert and Wiehmann, Hermann Billung’s
nephews, had after Ludolf’s defeat taken refuge among these people and incited
them to open rebellion. In 954, the Uchri were reduced to submission by Graf
Gero, but in the following year almost every Slav tribe in the country revolted
under Nakko and Stoinef, descendants of the ancient royal Hevellian dynasty.
Hermann Billung was surrounded and besieged at Gartz, and although promised an unmolested
retreat, the garrison was cut to pieces, AD 955. This event called the emperor from the Lech, and the Slavs were quickly
repelled. Stoinef was assassinated while attempting to flee. His head was, by
the emperor’s order, placed upon a stake, and seventy Wends were beheaded in a
circle around it. Nakko w; s also taken prisoner and beheaded. Gero, meanwhile,
zealously labored to confirm Germanic rule and Christianity simultaneously in
the Slav territory, where, besides the tithes, the Grafs exacted the Wogewotinza,
the bishops, the Biscowotinza, two oppressive taxes; to which was added socage, the cruel right of the conqueror
over the conquered, so contrary to the doctrine of Christian love and equality:
hence the hatred with which the clergy were beheld by the Wends. The manner in
which these wretched people were treated is best described by Ditmar of
Merseburg, who remarks in his Chronicle, “The submissive slave must eat hay
like an ox, and be beaten like an ass”. In 957, Wiehmann again incited the
Rhedarii to revolt, but without success.
While these events were taking place in Germany, Berengar remained
unmolested in Italy, more particularly since the death of Ludolf, by whom he
had been narrowly watched. Berengar aimed at the independent sovereignty of
Italy, in which he was upheld by the majority of the people, whose national
pride ill-brooked the despotic rule of either the clergy or the Germans. The
Lombard bishops, enraged at the restriction imposed upon them by Berengar,
sought the protection of the pope, who applied for aid to the emperor. The
family disputes that had so lately troubled Otto’s domestic peace, the struggle
with the Hungarians and the Slavs, had at this juncture been brought to a
favorable termination, and the reincorporation of Italy with the empire again
became the object of his ambition; accordingly, after causing his son, Otto II,
to be crowned king of Germany at Aix-la- Chapelle, and entrusting the
government of the empire to his brother, Bruno, archbishop of Cologne, and to
his illegitimate son, William, who had succeeded Frederick in the archbishopric
of Mayence, he crossed the Alps, AD 961, expelled Berengar, and for the first time entered Rome, where the pope,
John XII (a son of Alberich), was compelled to crown him emperor, and an oath
was imposed upon the Romans rendering it illegal for them to elect a pope
without the consent of the emperor, who no sooner quitted the city than the
pope declared the oath null and void, and retracted his former professions.
Otto upon this returned, convoked a Concilium, and deposed the pope, who was
convicted of the most disgraceful vices. A popular commotion was the immediate
result, and Otto was alone saved by the intrepidity of his troops. The pope was
taken in adultery and struck dead on the spot by the injured husband. The Romans,
without referring to the emperor, elected a new pope, Benedict V, whom Otto
cited to appear before him, with his own hand broke his crosier, banished him to
Hamburg, and raised Leo VIII in his stead to the papal chair. About the same
time, Berengar, after long and valiantly defending the mountain fort of St.
Leo, was compelled to surrender. He was exiled to Bamberg, where he died. His son,
Adalbert, fled to Corsica.
In 965 Otto returned to Germany, and held Whitsuntide at Cologne, where
he was attended by all the German princes, among whom appeared Lothar of
France. Peace and security reigned throughout the empire. Graf Wichmann, to
whom the emperor had extended the pardon granted to his brother Ekbert, alone
sought to disturb the general tranquility, and again joined the pagan Danes,
who were attempting to gain a settlement in Pomerania, where, in the time of
Harald Blaatand, the infamous pirates’ nest, the Jomsburg, near Wollin, had
been built. He may possibly have inspired the Wendi with fresh courage. The
Lusicri and Selpuli in Lusatia commenced a sanguinary war against Gero, by whom
they were reduced to submission. The deep affliction of this Graf, occasioned
by the death of his nephew and of his youthful son, both of whom fell in
battle, induced him on the termination of this war to resign his office, and to
make a pilgrimage to Rome, where he laid his sword, whose notches bore witness
to many a fight, at the foot of St. Peter’s shrine, and ended his days within
the cloister, AD 965. He was the founder
of the convent of Gernrode.
The emperor pursued his ancient policy in his treatment of this new
conquest. The Lausitz was converted into a new frontier, Eastern Saxony, and
placed under the jurisdiction of Hermann Billung. The bishoprics of Merseburg
and Zeiz were also founded, and, in common with all the other bishoprics,
rendered dependent on the great archbishopric of Magdeburg, a city greatly
beautified by the emperor, with whom it was a favorite residence. Bishop Bucco
(Burkhard) of Halberstadt, imagining himself injured by the erection of this
new archbishopric, AD 968, rebelled;
he was taken prisoner; but seizing the opportunity of pronouncing a sentence of
excommunication against the emperor, who chanced to pass his prison window, the
latter ordered him to be set at liberty.
Otto preserved amicable relations with Bohemia, where, AD 936, St. Wenzel was assassinated by
his pagan brother, Boleslaw I, at a baptismal festival, to which he had been
insidiously invited. Boleslaw declared war against Germany, and began to build,
fortified cities, for instance, Bautzen. He was defeated, and compelled to
embrace Christianity, by Hermann Billung. Poland, at that time oppressed by the
Danes and by Wichmann, also entered into alliance with Germany. Miseko, king of
Poland, wedded Dobrowa, AD 966, the
daughter of Boleslaw of Bohemia, who introduced Christianity among the Poles.
Wichmann joined Selibur, the pagan prince of the Obotrites, who was defeated,
and Kethel, a great Slav sanctuary, demolished, with all the heathen deities
contained in it, by Hermann Billung. Wichmann was also defeated by the Poles,
into whose hands he fell during his flight, completely worn out with fatigue
and hunger; he expired amid their insults, after slaying several of his
pursuers. His death confirmed the alliance between Poland and Germany, and
Miseko founded the bishopric of Posen, which was subordinate to the archbishopric
of Magdeburg.
Otto revisited Italy, AD 966,
where Adalbert, the son of Berengar, had raised an insurrection in Lombardy; he
was defeated on the Po by Burkhard of Swabia. Pope Leo VIII was dead; the new
pope, John XIII, the emperor’s creature, who had been expelled from Rome by an
adverse party, had been reinstated by Pandolf, the valiant prince of Benevento,
the last Lombard who preserved his ancestral bravery and fidelity amid the
vices of Italy. Otto’s first act, on his arrival in Rome, was the infliction of
a severe chastisement on the refractory Romans; thirteen of the most
distinguished citizens were hanged. A fresh and closer treaty was concluded
between the emperor and the pope, to whose dominions the territory of Ravenna,
which had been severed from them, was restored, in return for which he solemnly
placed the imperial diadem on the head of Otto II, an incident of rare
occurrence during the lifetime and in the presence of the father. All
opposition to the irresistible power of the emperor had now ceased—the whole of Upper and Central Italy lay in
silent submission at his feet. His first step was the imposition of a new form
of government upon Lombardy. He replaced the great dukes, with the exception of
his ally Pandolf, by numerous petty Markgrafs, the majority of whom were
Germans by birth. He also settled a considerable number of Germans in the
different cities, and thus created a party favorable to the imperial cause that
counterpoised the rebellious spirit of the Lombards and Romans. Pandolf of
Benevento, surnamed Ironhead, and the petty duke, Gisulf of Salerno, whose
imbecility rendered him ever inconstant to his allies, defended the frontiers
of Upper and Central Italy, against the Greeks, who still retained possession
of Lower Italy, and the Saracens, who had already settled in Sicily. Otto and
his empress, Adelheid, visited Pandolf, AD 968, who entertained them with great magnificence. During his residence at
Benevento, Otto undertook the conquest of Lower Italy. Bari, the
strongly-fortified Grecian metropolis, offering a valiant and successful
resistance, he had recourse to his favorite policy, and dispatched his
confidant, Luitprand, the celebrated historian, to the court of Nicephorus, the
Grecian emperor, in order to demand the hand of the beautiful princess,
Theuphano, daughter to Romanus the late emperor, for his son Otto II, probably
in the hope of receiving Italy as her dowry. His suit being contemptuously refused,
Otto undertook a second campaign, during the following year, and chose with
great judgment his line of march along the Alps that separate Lower Italy into
two parts, and that command Apulia to the east and Calabria to the west. Having
thus opened a path, he returned the same way, leaving the conquest of the low
country to Pandolf, who having the misfortune to be taken prisoner before
Bovino, and to be sent to Constantinople, the Greeks, under the patrician Eugenius,
crossed the frontier, laid waste the country in the neighborhood of Capua and Benevento,
and treated the inhabitants with great cruelty. Otto, who was at that juncture
in Upper Italy, sent the Grafs Gunther and Siegfried to oppose them; a splendid
victory was gained, and the victors, animated by a spirit of revenge, deprived
the Greek prisoners of their right hands, noses, and ears. In 970, the Sicilian
Saracens invaded the country, but were defeated at Chiaramonte by Graf Gunther.
At this time, the emperor Johannes, who, after the assassination of Nicephorus,
had ascended the throne of Greece, restored Pandolf Ironhead to liberty,
concluded peace with Otto, and consented to the alliance of Otto II with the
beautiful Theuphano, who was escorted from Constantinople by the archbishop
Gero of Cologne, Bruno’s successor, at the head of a numerous body of
retainers. She was received in the palace of Pandolf at Benevento by the
emperor and the youthful bridegroom. Her extraordinary beauty attracted
universal admiration. The marriage ceremony was celebrated with great magnificence
at Rome, AD 973. This princess
created an important change in the manners of Germany by the introduction of
Grecian customs, which gradually spreading downward from the court, where her
influence was first felt, affected the general habits of the people by the
alterations introduced in the monastic academies. The German court adopted much
of the pomp and etiquette of that of Greece. The number of retainers increased
with increasing luxury, and the plain manners of the true-hearted German were
exchanged for the finesse and adulation of the courtier. The emperor also
adopted the Grecian title of Sacred Majesty (Sacra Majestas). Lower Italy
remained in the hands of the Greeks.
The emperor returned to Germany, AD 973, and besides his lovely daughter-in-law, brought with him a vast quantity
of relics, with which he adorned the churches, most particularly that at
Magdeburg, for which he had a peculiar predilection, and which he intended to
honor with his own remains. He held a great court at Quedlinburg, where he
received the homage of the different nations over whom he ruled, and, after
beholding in peace the fruits of his long and busy reign, expired, AD 973, at Menleben. He was buried,
according to his desire, at Magdeburg. He left the affairs of the empire, whose
frontiers he had considerably extended, in a most prosperous condition.
Christianity was zealously disseminated amid the Scandinavians to the north by
the archbishopric of Hamburg, and amid the Slavs to the east by that of
Magdeburg. Bohemia was transformed into a German dukedom. Poland and Denmark
owed allegiance to the empire. The sovereignty of Lower Italy was in reversion.
In the interior of the state, the power of the sovereign was firmly based. The
government of the most important provinces, the dukedoms and Margraviates, was entrusted
to the trustiest adherents of the reigning house; and by the appointment of
Pfalzgrafs, who managed the imperial allods, royal dues and revenues, in every
part of the empire, the dukes could, in case of necessity, be watched and kept
in awe. The office of Pfalzgraf dates from an earlier period, it merely
received additional importance during this reign. The cities had also increased
in number and wealth. The discovery of the rich silver mines of the Harz
greatly promoted commerce. A nobleman, when riding through the forest,
perceived a piece of silver ore that had been uncovered by his horse’s hoof:
the spot was investigated, and, AD 938, the first mine was opened in the interior of Germany,
Otto the Second and Otto the Third
Otto II was short of stature, but strong and muscular, and of an
extremely ruddy complexion; his temperament was fiery, but modified by the refined
and learned education he had received, and for which he was indebted to the
care of his mother, Adelheid; his wife, Theuphano, also sympathized in his love
of learning. Still, the Italian blood that flowed in his veins estranged him
too much from Germany, and excited in him so strong an inclination for the
south that it became as impossible for his mind to be completely absorbed by
care for the empire, as it was for his rough, but honest German subjects to
adopt the pomp and refinement of his court.
Swabia, on the death of the pious Hedwig, was inherited by Otto, the son
of Ludolf, between whom and Henry the Wrangler, of Bavaria, the ancient feud
that had arisen on account of the extent of their frontiers between their
fathers was still carried on. The emperor decided the question in Otto’s favor,
and the quarrelsome Henry instantly attempted to rouse the ancient national
hatred of the Bavarians, and to stir them up to open revolt. He also entered
into alliance with Boleslaw of Bohemia, but was anticipated in his designs by
Otto, who threw him into prison, bestowed Bavaria on Otto of Swabia, and
Carinthia on a Graf, Henry Minor, the son of Berthold, probably a Babenberger;
this Graf sided with Henry of Bavaria, revolted, and was deposed, AD 974.
Carinthia was, consequently, also bestowed upon Otto. In the following year,
Harald, king of Denmark, suddenly invaded Saxony, whence he was successfully
repulsed. Shortly after this event, Henry escaped from prison, again raised the
standard of rebellion, and was joined by the Bohemians, but again suffered defeat,
and was retaken prisoner, AD 977.
In 978, war again broke out in the west, where Charles, the brother of
Lothar, king of France, attempted to gain possession of Lotharingia, but was
repulsed by Otto, who advanced as far as Paris, and burned the suburbs. The
city, nevertheless, withstood his attack; and on his return homeward, being
surprised by the treacherous Count of Henne-gau, he was compelled to come to
terms with his opponents; Charles was permitted to hold Lower Lotharingia in
fee of the empire, and Upper Lotharingia was granted to Frederick, Count of
Bar.
Otto, whose natural inclinations led him to Italy, was speedily called
there by the affairs of that country. Crescentius had usurped the government in
Rome, and attempted to revive the memory of ancient times by causing himself to
be created consul. The pope, Benedict VII, was assassinated by his orders, and
replaced by a creature of his own, Bonifacius VII, in opposition to whom the
Tuscan imperialists raised Benedict VIII to the papal chair. Otto’s presence in
Rome, AD 980, quickly restored order.
Crescentius was pardoned. Otto was visited during his stay in Rome by Hugh Capet,
Lothar’s secret competitor for the throne of France, whose claim was countenanced
by the emperor, on account of the ingratitude displayed by the French monarch
for the services formerly rendered to his ancestors by the imperial house of
Saxony.
Lower Italy next engaged the attention of the emperor, who attempted to
take forcible possession of his wife’s portion. The Greeks, until now
unceasingly at war with the Arabs, instantly united with them against their
common enemy. Naples and Tarentum were taken by Otto, and the allies were
defeated near Cotrona, AD 981; Abn al
Casem, the terror of Lower Italy, and numbers of the Arabs, were left on the
field of battle. The following campaign proved disastrous to the emperor, who,
while engaged in a conflict with the Greeks on the seashore near Basantello,
not far from Tarentum, was suddenly attacked in the rear by the Arabs, and so
completely routed that he was compelled to fly for his life, and owed his
escape entirely to the rapidity of his horse. When wandering along the shore in
momentary expectation of being captured by the enemy, he caught sight of a
Grecian vessel, toward which he swam on horseback, in the hope of not being
recognized by those on board. He was taken up. A slave recognized him, but
instead of betraying him, passed him off as one of the emperors chamberlains.
The Greeks made for Rossano with the intention of taking on board the treasures
of the pretended chamberlain, who, the instant the vessel approached the shore,
suddenly leaped into the sea and escaped. Lower Italy remained in the hands of
the Greeks, and was governed by an exarch. The Arabians also retained
possession of Sicily. Otto, duke of Swabia and Bavaria, dying during the
campaign in Italy, the emperor bestowed the ducal crown of Swabia on Conrad,
the son of Udo, who was the brother of Hermann of Swabia, and to whom Otto I had
given the Rhinegau and the Wetterau to hold in fee. Bavaria was restored to
Henry Minor, and Carinthia was given to Otto of Franconia, the son of Conrad
the Red, who had fallen valiantly fighting against the Hungarians. Henry the Wrangler
remained a prisoner.
Hermann Billung had been succeeded in Saxony by his son, Bernhard. The
Slav frontiers were, however, divided into several petty Margraviates, that of
Zeiz or Northern Thuringia being governed by Gunther, that of Northern Saxony
or Brandenburg by Dietrich, that of the Lausitz by Ditmar, and that of Misnia
by Riddag. Violence and pillage had become so frequent as to be considered
legitimate in this country. A certain Graf Dedo assembled a force in Bohemia,
surprised and plundered Zeiz, and carried off Oda, the daughter of Dietrich of
Brandenburg, the affianced bride of Miseko, king of Poland. Dietrich emulated
Gero in the cruelty with which he treated the conquered Slavs.
Mistevoi, the valiant prince of the Obotrites, favored the Christian
religion, followed the banner of Otto II, and served under him in Italy; on his
return to his native country, he sued for the hand of Mechtildis, the sister of
Bernhard of Saxony, and on being insulted by the jealous Dietrich, who called
him a dog and unworthy of a Christian or of a German bride, replied, “If we
Slavs be dogs, we will prove to you that we can bite”. The pagan Slavs, who
were ever ripe for revolt, obeyed his call the more readily, on account of the
death of Ditmar, who, with many others of their tyrannical rulers, had fallen
in the Italian war. An oath of eternal enmity against the Germans and the
priests was taken before their idol, Radegast, and suddenly rising in open
rebellion, they assassinated all who fell into their hands, AD 983, razed all the churches to the
ground, and completely destroyed the cities of Hamburg and Oldenburg, besides
those of Brandenburg and Havelburg. The lands of Dietrich became one scene of
desolation. Sixty priests were flayed alive. The rebels were, nevertheless,
completely beaten by Dietrich and Riddag in a pitched battle near Tangermunde.
The emperor, however, more just than his father had been, deprived the cruel
Dietrich of his government, and bestowed it on Hodo. Riddag and his cousin, the
above-mentioned Graf Dedo, remained in Meiesen, whence Riddag was afterward
expelled by the Bohemians. It was regained by his cousin and successor, the
brave Eckhart, whose exploits were equaled by those of Bernhard Billung, who
had returned from Italy in order to oppose the Obotrites on the western
frontier. The obstinacy with which the Slavs, notwithstanding their terrible
defeats still held out, is proved by the fact of Brandenburg having been first
retaken in 994.
The peaceable conversion of the Bohemians and Poles chiefly contributed
to the gradual but complete subjection of the Slavs on the frontiers. The
independence of Bohemia and Poland was only possible so long as the powerful
Slav pagan states existed to their rear. This support was now lost. Poland was already
Christianized, and the bishop of Prague, Adalbert, was a celebrated Bohemian
saint. It was also about this period that Christianity took firm footing in
Denmark, although not without fierce struggles. Harald Blaatand, whom Otto I
had compelled to receive baptism, was, when past his eightieth year, expelled
by his son, Swein Gabelbart, who favored paganism. He died of his wounds, AD.
986. Swein conquered the mere of Schleswig, and caused the Graf Siegfried of
Oldenburg, and several other knights whom he had taken prisoners, to be
deprived of their hands and feet. Saxony and Poland, aided by the Christians of
Scandinavia, under the guidance of St. Poppo, a zealous preacher, rose in arms
against him. Erich, king of Sweden, one of Poppo’s disciples, greatly aided
them, in the hope of gaining possession of Denmark by means of the Christian
party: this project was realized, and Poppo baptized countless numbers of the
Danes in the Hilligbek (heiligen Bach),
sacred fount, between Schleswig and Flensburg. After the death of Erich, his
son, Olaf Schooskonig, who completed the peaceable conversion of Sweden, deemed
it more politic to treat amicably with Swein, and not only bestowed on him the
hand of his mother, Sigrida, but also restored him to the Danish throne, and united
with him against the great northern hero, Olaf Tryggvason of Norway, whose
successes, AD 995, over Hakon Jarl
and the pagan party had roused the jealousy of his neighbors. His bitterest
enemies were the pirates of Jomsburg and their other northern brethren, the
Ascomanni (so named from their great boats, or Aschen), with whom the kings of
Denmark and Sweden entered into alliance, and defeated Olaf Tryggvason in a
naval engagement.
Great changes took place also, at this period, in France. Lothar died, AD 986, and, in the following year, his
only son, Louis V Charles of Lotharingia, Lothar’s brother, aspired to the
throne, but was excluded by the Capetian party. The disesteem in which he was
held on account of his licentious habits, and the refusal of assistance from
Germany, where the emperor, dissatisfied with the conduct of Lothar, no longer
favored the Carolingians, rendered him defenseless; he fell into the hands of
his rival, Hugh Capet, and died in prison, AD 993. His son, Otto, the last of the Carolingian race, died, neglected and
despised, AD. 1004.
The death of Otto II, which was occasioned by the hardships he had
undergone at Basantello, took place in Italy, AD 983. His son. Otto III, a child three years of age, was named as
his successor, under the joint guardianship of Theuphano and Adelheid, who gave
him such a learned education that he received the appellation of the “Wunder-kind”
on account of the precocity of his intellect.
Henry the Wrangler, who aspired to the throne, and seized the person of the
young monarch, had already, by his conduct, estranged from himself his
countrymen the Saxons; the memory of the cruelties practiced by his father also
rendered him unpopular in Bavaria, and he was speedily reduced to submission by
the Franconian party, at whose head stood Willigis, the learned archbishop of
Mayence. He was the son of a wheelwright, and adopted a wheel for the arms of
the archbishopric, with these words, “Willigis, Willigis, remember thy origin”.
Next in rank to this spiritual head of the empire stood Conrad, duke of
Franconia and Swabia, and Henry, duke of Bavaria. Henry the Wrangler was
compelled to deliver up the emperor, and to take the oath of allegiance to him,
in consideration of which he was restored to the dukedom of Bavaria, on the
death of Henry Minor, which was shortly afterward followed by that of Conrad,
who was succeeded in Franconia by his son Conrad, and in Swabia by his nephew
Hermann. The mere of Austria was granted to Leopold I, grandson to Adalbert of
Babenberg, whom Hatto had betrayed. This brave Markgraf displayed so much
activity that in 983 he had driven the Hungarians from the Enns, taken their
royal castle of Molk, and compelled them to keep within the limits of modern
Hungary. Their king, Geisa, followed the example of the sovereigns of Bohemia
and Poland, and received baptism from the hands of Pilgerin, bishop of Passau;
he also sought to preserve peaceful relations with the Germanic empire;
Christianity, nevertheless, first became the national religion during the reign
of his son, St. Stephen, who ascended the throne AD 997, and died AD 1038.
This monarch married Gisela, the daughter of Henry the Wrangler, a union that
strengthened his alliance with Germany.
Leopold planted numerous German colonists in Lower Austria, the country
regained by him from the Hungarians, which was visited by fresh missionaries,
who there left imperishable records of their zeal. In the mountains, St.
Wolfgang performed his miracles on the shores of the lake that still bears his
name; and a monastery, in which the relics of St. Colomannus, a Scotch
missionary, who was murdered by the pagans, were preserved, was raised over the
ruins of the royal castle of Molk.
The scepter of Germany was no sooner again held by a child than the
clergy and the great vassals of the empire sought to regain the power of which
they had been deprived during the preceding reigns. The youthful emperor,
guided by his mother and grandmother, who greatly favored the clergy, bestowed
upon them rich lands and benefices. Peace was, certainly, maintained throughout
the empire, the dukes contenting themselves with confirming their power in the
interior of the state, unopposed by the emperor. War was, however, still
carried on on the Slav frontier, where Otto was occasionally allowed to appear
in person, in order to gain his first spurs. Graf Arnold of Holland, at that
period, AD 993, also attempted the
subjugation of the Western Frisii, by whom he was defeated and slain.
Theuphano and Adelheid, whose thoughts were ever directed toward Italy,
their native land, had not been idle in their endeavors to rouse the ambition
of the youthful Otto, who, on attaining his majority, aspired to the
sovereignty of that country, where, after the death of Otto II, the Italian
party again rose in opposition to that of the emperor. Crescentius, who had
usurped unlimited power in Rome, caused the pope, John XIV, to be assassinated,
and expelled his successor, John XV, who convoked an extraordinary council at
Rheims, AD 995. Hugh Capet, the new
French monarch, who planned the foundation of a Gallican church, independent of
that of Rome, had deposed Arnulf, archbishop of Rheims, a nephew of Charles of Lotharingia,
for his zealous exertions in favor of his unfortunate Carolingian relatives.
The German bishops and the pope, enraged at this conduct, unanimously condemned
him at the council at Rheims, and he was compelled to yield. The pope expired
during the following year, and the emperor marched into Italy for the purpose
of regulating the affairs of the church. Crescentius was speedily overcome and
pardoned. Otto, fired by youthful enthusiasm, imagined that the future
happiness of the world was to be secured by a closer union of the imperial with
the papal power, and with his own hand, although himself scarcely out of his
boyhood, placed the tiara on the head of Bruno, the son of Otto of Carinthia,
who was then in his four-and-twentieth year, and who received the name of
Gregory V. Bruno was grandson to Conrad of Franconia, the hero of the Lech, who
had married Luitgarde, daughter to Otto I. St. Adalbert, who had come from
Prague, AD 996, in order to witness
the ceremony, was enraptured at the sight of these two noble youths. By his
side stood Gerbert, Otto’s preceptor, one of the most profound reasoners of the
age, and the energetic Bishop Notker of Liege, both of whom earnestly sought to
re-establish the fallen power of the church, while the youthful pope, strong in
his native purity, caused even the Italians, in despite of their moral
depravity, to foresee the height to which the church might attain if governed
by German virtue. His first step was to lay France under an interdict until the
reinstallment of Arnulf into his archbishopric, which had been purposely
delayed by Hugh Capet, whose son Robert, his successor, evinced greater
submission to Rome. St. Adalbert visited Prussia, in order to preach the gospel
to the heathen inhabitants, by whom he was murdered, AD 999. His death was a bad omen, for scarcely had the emperor
quitted Rome than Crescentius again raised the banner of insurrection, inflamed
all the dark and fiendlike passions of the Roman populace, already indignant
at the assumption of the tiara by a stranger, and elected another Italian
wretch, John XVI, pope. The emperor instantly returned, and re-entering Rome,
where his presence alone sufficed to calm the uproar, caused the pretender to the
popedom to be deprived of sight, and to be led through the city mounted on an
ass. Crescentius, who had vainly thrown himself into the Castle of St. Angelo,
was executed, AD 998. The
well-founded hopes of the German party were, however, doomed to be frustrated
by Italian wiles, and it is only left for us to imagine what Europe might have
become, had these two noble-minded youths been entrusted, for a longer period,
with her temporal and spiritual welfare. Gregory V expired suddenly, AD 999. His death was, with great
justice, ascribed to poison. Gerbert became his successor, under the name of
Sylvester II. His deep science and learning caused him to be generally regarded
as a wizard. The death of Gregory, the friend of his youth, caused a deep
dejection to prey upon the mind of the emperor, which was still more worked
upon by the approach of the year 1000, the period popularly fixed for the end
of the world, and by the exhortations of two Italian enthusiasts, the saints
Romuald and Nilus, who gained great power over him, and who, being the
fellow-countrymen of Crescentius, reproved him most particularly for the
severity with which he had treated that traitor, which they denounced as a
crime, and he was at length induced to do penance for fourteen days in a
cavern, sacred to the archangel Michael, on the Monte Gargano, in Apulia, and
to perform a pilgrimage to the bones of St. Adalbert at Gnesen, in Poland. He,
nevertheless, reappeared here in his character as emperor, by more strongly
cementing the amicable relations that already subsisted between Germany and
Poland. Besides consecrating there a church to St. Adalbert, and founding the
archbishopric of Gnesen, on which the bishoprics of Breslau, Cracau and Colberg
(at a later period, Kamin) were rendered dependent, he bestowed the title of
king on Boleslaw Chrobry, the son of Miseko and of the Bohemian Dobrowa, and
gave his niece, Bixa, to his son Mieslaus, in marriage. He also, during the
same year, -isited Aix-la-Chapelle, where he caused the tomb of Charlemagne to be
opened. That monarch was discovered seated on his throne. On his return to
Rome, he announced his intention of making her the capital of the modern, as
she had been that of the ancient world, but the Romans were incapable of either
comprehending his grand projects, or of perceiving the advantage that must have
accrued to them had their city once more become an imperial residence. The
senseless and brutal populace again rose in open insurrection. On one occasion,
Otto, addressing them from a tower, upbraided them for their folly, and induced
them to disperse. His death, which took place in 1002, was ascribed to poison,
but was more probably caused by smallpox. (Several chronicles relate that Stephania, the
beautiful widow of Crescentius, whom Otto had taken for his mistress, caused
his death by means of poisoned gloves. But her name was Theodora,
and she was, moreover, at that time a grandmother. It is related of this
emperor that his wife, Mary of Aragon, was faithless to him, and having vainly
attempted to win the affections of a handsome Italian count, falsely accused him
to the emperor, who condemned him to death. The widow of the injured count
appeared before his throne, and offered to prove the innocence of her husband
by undergoing the ordeal. She passed through it unharmed, and the emperor,
convinced of his injustice, sentenced his wife to be publicly burned, AD 996.)
In the following year. Pope Sylvester also expired, and with him every
hope that had been raised for the reformation of the church, which again fell
under Italian influence, and the weak-minded successor to the throne of Germany
became her slave instead of her protector.
Henry the Second, the Holy
Otto dying childless, the succession to the throne was again disputed.
Henry of Bavaria, the son of Henry the Wrangler, claimed it as the nearest of
kin, and was supported by the clergy on account of his piety, and his
munificence toward the church. The next competitor was Hermann of Swabia, who,
although of Franconian descent, was nearly allied to the imperial house. He
was, moreover, the wealthiest and most considerable of the German dukes, and
enjoyed far more popularity among the laity than his rival, Henry. The third
claimant was Eckhart of Meissen, who, for the first time, made use of the
unlimited power he enjoyed as governor of the Slav marches, where the
population was reduced to complete servitude, while the dukes or governors of
the German provinces were ever circumscribed in their authority by the free
spirit of the people.
Henry’s party was considerably strengthened by the adherence of
Willigis, the pious archbishop of Mayence. Eckhart, his most dangerous
opponent, lost his life before he could carry his projects into execution. His
indecorous treatment of Sophia and Adelheid (the sisters of Otto III, who
actively forwarded the interests of his rival, Henry), into whose dining
apartment he forced his way, and destroyed their meal, was avenged by the Saxon
Grafs of Nordheim, who attacked him during the night at Pölde, AD 1003, and succeeded in depriving him
of life after a valiant defense. Henry thereupon repaired to Aix-la-Chapelle,
where he was crowned. Hermann resigned his pretensions and submitted to the new
emperor. He died shortly afterward, leaving Swabia to his son Hermann, who did
not long survive him. He was succeeded by Ernst, the son of Leopold of Austria,
and husband to Gisela, his sister, the daughter of Gerberga, and granddaughter
of Rudolf III of Burgundy. Ernst was killed when hunting, and left the dukedom
to his son Ernst, whose mother, Gisela, married Conrad, Graf of Franconia, who
afterward ascended the imperial throne. His cousin, the Markgraf Henry of
Schweinfurt, demanded, immediately after the coronation of the emperor, the
dukedom of Bavaria, which had become vacant by Henry's accession to the throne,
and which was also aspired to by Bruno, the emperor's brother. Both competitors
met with a refusal from Henry, who bestowed Bavaria upon his brother-in-law,
Henry, Count of Luxemburg, upon which the two rivals entered into a conspiracy
against him with Boleslaw II of Bohemia, who had not inherited the peaceable
disposition of his father. They, were defeated by the emperor near Creusen, AD 1003, and pardoned. Lotharingia, on
the extinction of the Carolingian race, fell to Gottfried of Verdun, the nephew
of Gisilbrecht, and Brabant to Lambert of Louvain, the husband of Gerberga, the
sister of Otto, the last of the Carolingians.
Affairs also wore a different aspect in the East; Boleslaw Chrobry of
Poland, a great conqueror, reduced Kiev in Russia beneath his rule. In Bohemia,
Boleslaw had broken his oath of allegiance to the empire. The ancient race of
Crocus had degenerated. A rival race, that of the Wrssowez, was at the head of
the democratic and pagan party, but could merely offer a weak opposition, by
dint of petty stratagems, to the more powerful Christian party. At length the
assassination of one of the Wrssowez, by the order of Boleslaw, occasioned the
formation of a conspiracy against him; Boleslaw was enticed into Poland, where
he fell into the hands of the enraged Wrssowez, who deprived him of sight, and
placed Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia in the hands of Boleslaw of Poland. A great
reaction ensued. Boleslaw, at the head of the united Poles and Bohemians,
invaded the Lausitz and Meissen. After several severe campaigns, the emperor at
length succeeded in separating Bohemia from Poland, and in placing Othelrich or
TJlrich, the brother of the blind Boleslaw, on the throne of that dukedom.
Othelrich was faithless and tyrannical. In order the more firmly to secure the
possession of the crown, he deprived his second brother, Jaromir, of sight.
Boleslaw of Poland attempted to win him over, and sent his son, Miseko, to
negotiate with him. Othelrich delivered him up to the emperor, who instantly
restored him to liberty. The war, nevertheless, was still carried on. The
emperor suffered a defeat, AD 1015,
probably on the Bober, the half of his army that had crossed the stream being
suddenly attacked by the enemy. Miseko, inspirited by this success, attacked
Meissen: the castle was set on fire, but the conflagration was extinguished by
the women, who poured mead on the spreading flames. The emperor afterward;
undertook a. fresh expedition into Silesia, where le laid siege to the city of
Nimptsch,'but witliout success. Peace was finally concluded with Poland at
Bautzen, AD 1018. In Meissen, the
house of Wettin was raised to the Margravial dignity, in the person of Dedi I,
the brave opponent of the Slavs. A war of extermination was also waged against
the Obotrites and the Wilzi by Bemhard II of Saxony, and Bernhard, Markgraf of
Brandenburg, the son of the deposed Dietrich. Mistevoi, prince of the Obotrites,
whose sway-extended over the whole of the Slav north, weary at length of the
havoc of war, and anxious to secure peace for his people, embraced
Christianity. He was, in consequence, expelled by his subjects. He died at
Bardewik. In order to strengthen himself against the Slavs, the emperor courted
the friendship of the Danes, to whom he gave permission to found, for the first
time, an independent archbishopric of Lund. Up to this period, AD 1004, Denmark had been dependent on
the archbishopric of Hamburg, whose prelate, Liemar, had excommunicated King
Erich, on account of his cruelty.
The Italians, unwearied in their struggle for independence, had, upon
the death of Otto, again raised a king of their own, Harduin, Markgraf of
Ivrea, to the throne of Italy. The bishops, who favored the claims of Henry,
from the same motive which caused them to be upheld by their brethren in
Germany, alone opposed him. Henry marched into Italy, where he overcame every
opponent, and was crowned, AD 1005,
at Pavia. This powerful city rebelled against the foreign invader, and the
citizens so closely besieged the imperial palace, that Henry was compelled to
spring from a window, and lamed himself for life. A dreadful revenge was taken
by his German troops. The emperor, who now beheld Italy with feelings of
disgust, was shortly after recalled into Germany by the outbreak of the Slav
war, and Harduin again caused himself to be proclaimed king. The audacity of
the pretender once more drew Henry into Italy; the rebels were this time
completely reduced to submission, and he visited Rome, AD 1013, where the pope confirmed his claim to the empire, and
placed the crown on his head, and on that of his wife, the pious Cunigunda. It
was on this occasion that the pope bestowed upon the emperor the golden ball,
the emblem of the globe, over which he was destined to rule. It was also at
this period that Henry created Berthold, Graf of Walbek (who was supposed to be
a descendant of the ancient race of Wittekind), Graf of Savoy. Henry revisited
Italy, AD 1021, for the purpose of
reducing the Greeks in Lower Italy to subjection. Melo of Lombardy, who had
resisted their tyranny at Bari, was constrained to flee. At the same time, the
Arabs attacked Salerno, whose duke, Waimar, was unexpectedly saved by a ship
manned by forty Normans, who were returning from the Holy Land. They were sent
away laden with costly gifts, and invited to return. Many of their countrymen
afterward emigrated to Lower Italy, under the command of Prengot and his four
brethren, who joined Melo against the Greeks and Arabs. Drengot fell in battle.
His brother, Rainulf, settled at Aversa, between Capua and Naples. Pandulf,
duke of Capua, however, leagued with the Greeks, but was taken prisoner by
Henry, whose presence alone seemed to insure victory. An epidemic, at length,
which broke out in his camp, compelled him to return to Germany, AD 1022.
Disturbances had, meanwhile, arisen in the Netherlands. A robbery,
committed upon some merchants by the Frisii, had occasioned a feud between
Dietrich, Graf of Holland, and Gottfried of Lotharingia, the latter of whom
suffered a heavy defeat at Merwe, AD 1018.
Adalbero, a descendant of the house of Luxemburg, which was highly favored by
the emperor through the influence of the empress, had, moreover, seized the
archbishopric of Treves; he was deposed by the emperor, who, on the other hand,
created Henry, the brother of Cunigunda, duke of Bavaria. Another Adalbero,
Graf of the Mürzthal, was nominated to the government of Carinthia. Otto, the
son of Conrad of Franconia, had inherited both Franconia and Carinthia, which
were divided between his sons, Henry and Conrad, each of whom had a son named
Conrad, who, displeased with the emperor’s verdict, opposed Adalbero and beat
him at Ulm out of the field, but found themselves unable to drive him out of
his mountain fastnesses. Conrad, the son of Conrad, retained the dukedom of
Franconia. Conrad, the son of Henry, who merely enjoyed the title of Graf, wedded
Gisela, through whom he had a claim upon Burgundy, whose king, Rudolf, had
solemnly sworn that his dominions should be incorporated, on his demise, with
the empire, AD 1018.
Henry was extremely devout, and was consequently idolized by the clergy.
He held five councils in Germany, improved and corrected ecclesiastical
discipline, rebuilt the churches that had been destroyed by the Slavs, and
raised a magnificent monument to his own memory by the foundation of the
bishopric of Bamberg, which he enriched at the expense of the neighboring
landowners, among whom was the bishop of Wurzburg, who obstinately resisted his
innovations until appeased by numerous gifts.
(It is supposed that he sought to expiate the criminal
action of his ancestors against Adalbert of Babenberg by the consecration of
the lands unjustly seized by them to the service of God. An idea in which he
was upheld by Cunigunda. It was on this account that the privileges granted to Bamberg
were called Cunigunda’s silken threads, by which, it was said, the city was
defended better than by towers and walls).
The pope, Benedict VIII, visited Bamberg, AD 1030, for the purpose of consecrating the new establishment. The
empress, Cunigunda, was equally pious. The imperial pair had mutually taken the
vow of chastity, and remained childless. Cunigunda’s virtue, however, did not
escape slander, and she voluntarily underwent the ordeal by fire, and walked
unharmed over glowing iron. Henry, when on his death-bed, named as his
successor Graf Conrad, the husband of Gisela, on account of his being the
ablest descendant of the most powerful race that remained in Germany after the
extinction of that of the Ottos, thus repaying, with equal magnanimity, the
generous conduct of Conrad I, when dying, toward the house of Saxony. He
expired AD 1024, and was interred at
Bamberg. (On his tombstone stands a figure of Justice
with a pair of scales, the index of which inclines a little to one side. As
soon as the poise shall become equal the world will be at an end.)
Immunities—Increasing Importance of the Churches and Cities, and
Consequent Decrease of the Ducal Power
Charters and franchises had been lavishly distributed by the Saxon
emperors, for the purpose of creating a multitude of minor nobles and
corporations, independent of the dukes, against whose power they served as a
counterpoise. This political motive had induced Charlemagne to favor the
bishops: their power was still more increased by the Ottos, who did not yet
foresee the danger to which it might, at some future period, expose the state.
The popes were, moreover, too busily engaged with Italy and too powerless to
excite the jealousy of the emperors, in whose hands the church was a mere tool.
The numerous armed vassals subservient to the bishops and abbots necessarily
diminished the number of those who owed allegiance to the dukes and Markgrafs;
and the greater the extent of the lands beneath the sway of the crosier, so
much the less could, consequently, be under the control of the temporal lords.
To these motives may be ascribed the enormous donations to the church, the
endowment of churchmen with temporal rights and power, the union of the
imperial office of Graf with the ecclesiastical dignity of bishop, and the
immunity or enfranchisement from the supreme authority of the dukes.
The Sendgrafs, or commissioned officers at the crown, created by
Charlemagne, had, under the Ottos, been converted into Pfalzgrafs, or
administrators of the crown lands, revenues, etc., in the different dukedoms,
who, at the same time, in some measure controlled the dukes. Besides them,
Markgrafs, who acted independently of the dukes, were placed in the
newly-conquered frontier provinces, and the elevation within the dukedoms of
powerful Grafs, who, although nominally subservient to the dukes, equaled them
in wealth and influence, and could even compete with them in political power,
was also encouraged by the Saxon emperors, who thus blindly laid a mine
destined to shake the imperial throne. The dukes, whose power merely arose from
the office they held under the crown, and the independent spirit of the nations
to which they belonged, far less endangered the power of the emperor than did
the great families of later date, who were hereditarily possessed of immensely
extensive lands. And while the emperors were thus endeavoring to hasten the
decay of the ancient dukedoms, and to consign the very names of the ancient
nations to oblivion, they were far from foreseeing that the time might arrive
when new names, that owed their origin to some unnoted fort, would lay the
whole empire at their feet.
The ancient division of the empire into dukedoms and provinces (gaue) gradually gave place to one more
complex, caused either by the formation of ecclesiastical and temporal feudal
territories within the provinces and dukedoms, or by the encroachment of one enormous
feudal territory on several of the provinces and even of the dukedoms, while
the ancient uniformity of condition was everywhere destroyed by charters and
franchises or immunities.
The last remnants of the ancient freemen, who had not been gathered into
the cities, had formed themselves into communities of free peasantry, who,
although recognizing a duke or Graf in his judicial capacity as a delegate of
the crown, or a bishop as their spiritual guide, retained their ancient
privileges in all other respects. The repeated attempts of the nobles to reduce
them to a state of vassalage, were, nevertheless, generally successful, and
liberty at length sought refuge amid the peasantry of Lower Saxony and Switzerland.
In AD 922, the western Frisii had
already been reduced to vassalage by Dietrich of Holland, who also made a
similar attempt upon the liberties of the free eastern Frisii, but met with
armed resistance, and was repulsed in several campaigns.
The eastern Frisii consisted of seven petty republics, called the
Seelands, united in the ancient German manner; they held their general
assemblies at the Upstalesbome (Obergerichts
baum, tree of justice), and were governed by their own laws, merely recognizing
the archbishop of Bremen as their patron, the only bond that united them to the
empire. Saxony also still preserved much of her ancient freedom. The Saxon
Grafs, who still, as in times of yore, held their provincial courts of justice
in the open air, with the elected aldermen or Schoppen, in the presence of all
the freemen of the province, were distinguished by the epithet of Freegrafs,
their courts of justice were also called free courts, the aldermen, free
aldermen or Freischoppen, and the seat of justice, the Freistuhl or free seat.
There were also numerous free peasantry in Switzerland and in Swabia, and,
under Otto III, a bloody feud arose in the Thurgau, owing to the attempts of
the nobility and clergy to reduce the people to a state of vassalage. The
peasants, headed by one of their class, Heinz von Stein, rose in open
insurrection, and, AD 992, a battle
was fought near Dies- senhofen, which, although the nobles were victorious,
taught the Alpine shepherds caution, and was merely a prelude to the great
struggle for freedom that arose at a later period. Radbot, the founder of the
Habsburg, may be said to have inoculated, his race with hatred to freedom by
the violent reduction of his free peasantry to a state of vassalage, AD 1018. (Aided by his brother, the influential Bishop
Werner of Strasburg, who built the monastery of Muri with the wealth
gained by the subjection of the peasantry. Their grandfather Guntram the Rich,
had already collected vast treasures.)
While territorial wealth and influence were thus usurped by the clergy
and the nobility, the ancient freemen, collected within the cities, strained
every nerve, not so much, however, in order to protect as in order to extend
their privileges, and to manifest their importance as the third power in the
state. The emperors, perceiving that the most efficient remedy against the
ascendency of the dukes lay in the flourishing state of the cities, greatly
aided their endeavors by the grants and charters freely lavished upon them, and
a number of new cities consequently sprang up, into which all the freemen,
harassed by the feudal lords, quickly thronged. These cities were liberally
chartered by the Ottos. For instance, they granted to townships, that had
gradually grown into cities, and were situated on the territory and within the
jurisdiction of either spiritual or temporal lords, the rights belonging to
free imperial towns, and placed them beneath the imperial jurisdiction; they
also granted privileges to the larger cities, such as the right of coinage, and
that of exacting customs, which were formerly alone conceded to the bishops and
the dukes.
The internal government and legislation of the cities were equally
favored by the charters granted to them by the Ottos. The governor, nominated by
the crown, only nominally held the supreme direction of affairs, and seldom
even resided in the town, but was generally one of the neighboring Grafs, who,
contenting himself with receiving the gifts of the citizens, and with being
entertained by them, left them completely at liberty. Whenever the emperor
chanced to visit a town, the citizens vied with each other in paying him honor,
in return for which he conferred additional privileges upon them. The imperial
governor or Reichsvogt (Walthot, Gewalthote, messenger of power,
in Latin, potestas, in Italian, podesta—missus regius, Sendgraf, royal
messenger, Sendschalk or seneschal),
generally called the Burggraf ov Burgvogt, commanded the city troops in
war time, and exercised the judicial office in the name of the emperor: these
offices were sometimes separate, but usually devolved upon one person. The
twelve aldermen or Schoppen, elected
by the citizens, were next in rank. Their president, the mayor or Schultheiss, at first merely took
cognizance of petty civil matters, but finally either filled the office of the
governor, when absent, or was empowered to replace him by means of an imperial
charter. The mayor and aldermen also formed the town council, to which was
committed the management of the public affairs. In the great cities each parish
had its separate aldermen, who met in a general town council. All the cities
that had originally been governed by an imperial officer remained immediately
under the crown, and were distinguished as free imperial towns. Other cities,
which had sprung up around the imperial palaces, as, for instance, Ulm, finally
became imperial towns, although their citizens were originally merely royal
bondmen. Ducal and episcopal cities arose by means of vassals who had settled
in the vicinity of a bishop’s cathedral, or around the castle of a duke. These
also became gradually free towns, without being immediately under the crown,
and were therefore merely distinguished as free towns.
The citizens everywhere consisted of the proprietors of houses or of
land, part of whom were the oldest Burgenses,
or burgesses, who had divided the ground on which the town or city was to be
raised among themselves, and had built their houses on it; or the proprietors
of land in the vicinity of the city; or else the free landowners who withdrew
into the cities at a later period, and who still retained their landed
property. The ancient Burgenses, now cives or free citizens of the empire, possessed all the power, and formed a class
superior to, and distinct from, that of the bondsmen, who either, acted as
personal servants under the patronage of the different burgher families, or
were people who had placed themselves under the protection of the community,
such as artificers, journeymen, porters, sailors, etc. The tyranny of the petty
landowners drove multitudes into the cities; hence it necessarily happened that
the bondsmen were ten or twenty times superior in number to the ancient
burghers, who, being the sole proprietors of the privileges and wealth of the
city, treated the second class with all the pride attached to free and noble
birth, carefully avoided any connection with them, denominated themselves, by
way of distinction, houses or people of gentle blood, formed themselves into an
aristocratical association united by intermarriage and general commercial
undertakings, and also reserved to themselves the right of holding public
meetings or Richerzeche (corporations
of the rich, Reichen, or of the free
citizens of the empire, Reichsbuürger?),
while they strictly forbade the formation of any kind of association among the
lower classes. The earlier the period, the more distinctly are two different
classes of city families to be distinguished, in which the ancient distinction
that existed between the Edelings and the Frilings is still clearly
recognizable. There was also a third class of knights, probably settlers of a
later date, whose knighthood conferred upon them nobility and freedom, but who
had not as yet intermixed with the old families. The artificers, however, as
they increased in numerical strength, and distinguished themselves in the feuds
that arose between the different cities, gradually obtained greater privileges.
They divided themselves into guilds, and the assembly of the heads of the
different guilds, under the presidency of a burgomaster, ere long threatened
the burghers and their mayor with civil broils, which, at a later period, actually
broke out between them.
The ancient burghers, before taking the entire management of the city
affairs into their hands under the direction of their mayor, had formed themselves
into a mercantile corporation or guild, endowed with peculiar privileges (under
Henry II). Even in later times the city government retained its mercantile
spirit, and the civil and commercial polity generally remained inseparably
united. Even in cases where the burghers appear as landowners distinguished
from the merchants, whose wealth merely consisted in their floating capital,
their interests were ever united, and the merchants seem to have been the
younger sons of the landowners, who sought a respectable employment, or
immigrants who settled in the towns, from whom the inhabitants acquired their
knowledge of commerce. The emperor and the princes appear often to have been induced
to favor the civil liberty of the towns merely on account of commercial advantage.
Commerce made a rapid progress in Germany. It is said that the city of Cologne,
in the eleventh century, numbered upward of five hundred mercantile men within
her walls. Cologne, Hamburg, Schleswig, and Bremen were staple-towns, and as
soon as the piracy of the Norsemen, after their conversion to Christianity,
ceased, their ships and those of the Frieslanders visited the northern seas.
The ships of Friesland touched at Greenland. The cities traded with all the
northern countries, most particularly with England. The intermarriage by which
the imperial house of Germany was allied with that of Greece had rendered the
emperors doubly solicitous to open a line of commerce from the south. In 996,
Otto III gave the Jews, Lombards and French permission to traverse Germany with
their wares: the most remarkable among these traders were those of Cahors in
Guyenne, the Caorsini or Italian peddlers.
The age in which the Saxon emperors reigned is remarkably devoid of men
of science and learning. The schools of Alcuin and of Rhabanus Maurus had
disappeared, while the refinement borrowed from Italy and Greece had been only
partially adopted. The higher ecclesiastical dignities were always held by the
brothers and relatives of the highest and most influential families, so that
the elevation of Willigis, a man of low birth, to the archbishopric of Mayence,
naturally gave rise to much surprise and discontent. These dignitaries,
moreover, merely interested themselves in increasing their possessions, and
preferred war and the chase to study and learning. The people were, naturally,
still more ignorant than the clergy, and rendered wild and uncivilized by the
covetousness of the nobility, who sought to reduce them to a state of
vassalage, similar to that imposed upon the conquered Slavs. The natural
inclinations of each individual are necessarily stronger whenever the intellect
is neglected; the warlike Gero, who laid down his sword and became a monk, is
but one example of the manners of the times, when men, the greater portion of
whose lives had been one continued scene of violence and bloodshed, were driven
by remorse to expiate their crimes in seclusion and by prayer.
The celebrated Gerbert, Pope Sylvester II, exercised but little
influence on his times; that of the Grecian princess, Theuphano, was equally
limited, although ancient authors were studied in some of the monasteries, and
it is probable that, at that time, several manuscripts were brought from the
south into Germany. For instance, the nun, Roswitha, of Gandersheim, AD 980, discovered a manuscript copy of
the comedies of Terence, in which she took such great delight as to translate
them elegantly into Latin. She also composed a song in praise of the Ottos. The
monk Eckehard of St. Gall sang in Latin verse the adventures of Walther of
Aquitania, the first example of heroic poesy. Rather, the Dutchman, who became
bishop of Verona, distinguished himself by some writings, in which he decried
the ignorance, lewdness, and vice of the monks, for which he was grievously
persecuted. Besides these writers, the tenth century could only boast of three
great chroniclers: Luitprand, bishop of Cremona, AD 946, who, being attached to the embassy sent by Otto I to
Constantinople, recorded its fate, and described the manners of the Grecian
court; he also wrote a chronicle and biography of the popes. Wittekind of
Corvey, AD 973, wrote an excellent
history of Saxony. Ditmar, bishop of Merseburg, a descendant of the Salic race,
wrote, AD 1015, an equally famous
account of the Saxon emperors, and particularly mentions the Slavs, among whom
he dwelt. The alliance of the Ottos with Italy and Greece was more favorable to
the development of art than to the progression of science. By their erection of
numerous magnificent churches in the Byzantine and Roman style of architecture,
they gave an impulse to art which, in the following century, produced the true
German or Gothic style, the transition to which is exemplified in the
celebrated cathedral at Strasburg, founded in 1015 by Bishop Werner, and
afterward finished on more extensive plans. Nor does painting appear to have
been unpatronized. Luitprand asserts that the victory won by Henry I in the
vicinity of Merseburg was represented with such truth that the beholder
imagined himself present on the field of battle. Kugler, in his History of Art,
says that sculpture progressed more rapidly in Saxony than in Italy. Music also
was cultivated by Notker and other ecclesiastics.
|