A History of Germany from the Earliest Times to the Present Day

by Bayard Taylor

1137.

This truce enabled him to return to Italy for the purpose of assisting Pope Innocent, who had been expelled from Rome. The rival of the latter, Anaclete II., was supported by the Norman king, Roger II. of Sicily, who, in the summer of 1137, was driven out of Southern Italy by Lothar's army. But quarrels broke out with the Pisans, who were his allies, and with Pope Innocent, for whose cause he was fighting, and he finally set out for Germany, without even visiting Rome. At Trient, in the Tyrol, he was seized with a mortal sickness, and died on the Brenner pass of the Alps, in a shepherd's hut. His body was taken to Saxony and buried in the chapel of a monastery which he had founded there.

A National Diet was called to meet in May, 1138, and elect a successor. Lothar's son-in-law, Henry the Proud, Duke of Bavaria, Saxony and Tuscany (which latter the Emperor had transferred also to him), seemed to have the greatest right to the throne; but he was already so important that the jealousy of the other reigning princes was excited against him. Their policy was, to choose a weak rather than a strong ruler,—one who would not interfere with their authority in their own lands. Konrad of Hohenstaufen took advantage of this jealousy; he courted the favor of the princes and the bishops, and was chosen and crowned by the latter, three months before the time fixed for the meeting of the Diet. The movement, though in violation of all law, succeeded perfectly: a new Diet was called, for form's sake, and all the German princes, except Henry the Proud, acquiesced in Konrad's election.

In order to maintain his place, the new king was compelled to break the power of his rival. He therefore declared that Henry the Proud should not be allowed to govern two lands at the same time, and gave all Saxony to Albert the Bear. When Henry rose in resistance, Konrad proclaimed that he had forfeited Bavaria, which he gave to Leopold of Austria. In this emergency, Henry the Proud called upon the Saxons to help him, and had raised a considerable force when he suddenly died, towards the end of the year 1139. His brother, Welf, continued the struggle in Bavaria, in the interest of his young son, Henry, afterwards called "the Lion." He attempted to raise the siege of the town of Weinsberg, which was beleaguered by Konrad's army, but failed. The tradition relates that when the town was forced to surrender, the women sent a deputation to Konrad, begging to be allowed to leave with such goods as they could carry on their backs. When this was granted and the gates were opened, they came out, carrying their husbands, sons or brothers as their dearest possessions. The fame of this deed of the women of Weinsberg has gone all over the world.

1140. GUELPH AND GHIBELLINE.

In this struggle, for the first time, the names of Welf and Waiblinger (from the little town of Waiblingen, in Würtemberg, which belonged to the Hohenstaufens) were first used as party cries in battle. In the Italian language they became "Guelph" and "Ghibelline," and for hundreds of years they retained a far more intense and powerful significance than the names "Whig" and "Tory" in England. The term Welf (Guelph) very soon came to mean the party of the Pope, and Waiblinger (Ghibelline) that of the German Emperor. The end of this first conflict was, that in 1142, young Henry the Lion (great-grandson of Duke Welf of Bavaria) was allowed to be Duke of Saxony. From him descended the later Dukes of Brunswick and Hannover, who retained the family name of Welf, or Guelph, which, through George I., is also that of the royal family of England at this day. Albert the Bear was obliged to be satisfied with the North-mark, which was extended to the eastward of the Elbe and made an independent principality. He called himself Markgraf (Border Count) of Brandenburg, and thus laid the basis of a new State, which, in the course of centuries developed into Prussia.

About this time the Christian monarchy in Jerusalem began to be threatened with overthrow by the Saracens, and the Pope, Eugene III., responded to the appeals for help from the Holy Land, by calling for a Second Crusade. He not only promised forgiveness of all sins, but released the volunteers from payment of their debts and whatever obligations they might have contracted under oath. France was the first to answer the call: then Bernard of Clairvaux (St. Bernard, in the Roman Church) visited Germany and made passionate appeals to the people. The first effect of his speeches was the plunder and murder of the Jews in the cities along the Rhine; then the slow German blood was roused to enthusiasm for the rescue of the Holy Land, and the impulse became so great that king Konrad was compelled to join in the movement. His nephew, the red-bearded Frederick of Suabia, also put the cross on his mantle: nearly all the German princes and people, except the Saxons, followed the example.

1147.

In May, 1147, the Crusaders assembled at Ratisbon. There were present 70,000 horsemen in armor, without counting the foot-soldiers and followers. All the robber-bands and notorious criminals of Germany joined the army for the sake of the full and free pardon offered by the Pope. Konrad led the march down the Danube, through Austria and Thrace, to Constantinople. Louis VII., king of France, followed him, with a nearly equal force, leaving the German States through which he passed in a famished condition. The two armies, united at Constantinople, advanced through Asia Minor, but were so reduced by battles, disease and hardships on the way, that the few who reached Palestine were too weak to reconquer the ground lost by the king of Jerusalem. Only a band of Flemish and English Crusaders, who set out by sea, succeeded in taking Lisbon from the Saracens.

During the year 1149 the German princes returned from the East with their few surviving followers. The loss of so many robbers and robber-knights was, nevertheless, a great gain to the country: the people enjoyed more peace and security than they had known for a long time. Duke Welf of Bavaria (brother of Henry the Proud) was the first to reach Germany: Konrad, fearing that he would make trouble, sent after him the young Duke of Suabia, Frederick Red-Beard (Barbarossa) of Hohenstaufen. It was not long, in fact, before the war-cries of "Guelph!" and "Ghibelline!" were again heard; but Welf, as well as his nephew, Henry the Lion, of Saxony, was defeated. During the Crusade, the latter had carried on a war against the Wends and other Slavonic tribes in Prussia, the chief result of which was the foundation of the city of Lübeck.