The fight with Henry the Lion was immediately renewed, and during the whole of 1192 Northern Germany was ravaged worse than before. In December of that year, King Richard of the Lion-Heart, returning home overland from Palestine, was taken prisoner by Duke Leopold of Austria, whom he had offended during the Crusade, and was delivered to the Emperor. As king Richard was the brother-in-law of Henry the Lion, he was held partly as a hostage, and partly for the purpose of gaining an enormous ransom for his liberation. His mother came from England, and the sum of 150,000 silver marks which the Emperor demanded was paid by her exertions: still Richard was kept prisoner at Trifels, a lonely castle among the Vosges mountains. The legend relates that his minstrel, Blondel, discovered his place of imprisonment by singing the king's favorite song under the windows of all the castles near the Rhine, until the song was answered by the well-known voice from within. The German princes, finally, felt that they were disgraced by the Emperor's conduct, and they compelled him to liberate Richard, in February, 1194.
1197.
The same year a reconciliation was effected with Henry the Lion. The latter devoted himself to the improvement of the people of his little state of Brunswick: he instituted reforms in their laws, encouraged their education, collected books and works of art, and made himself so honored and beloved before his death, in August, 1195, that he was mourned as a benefactor by those who had once hated him as a tyrant. He was sixty-six years old, three years younger than his rival, Barbarossa, whom he fully equalled in energy and ability. Although defeated in his struggle, he laid the basis of a better civil order, a higher and firmer civilization, throughout the North of Germany.
Henry VI., enriched by king Richard's ransom, went to Italy, purchased the assistance of Genoa and Pisa, and easily conquered the Sicilian kingdom. He treated the family of Tancred (who was now dead) with shocking barbarity, tortured and executed his enemies with a cruelty worthy of Nero, and made himself heartily feared and hated. Then he hastened back to Germany, to have the Imperial dignity made hereditary in his family. Even here he was on the point of succeeding, in spite of the strong opposition of the Saxon princes, when a Norman insurrection recalled him to Sicily. He demanded the provinces of Macedonia and Epirus from the Greek Emperor, encouraged the project of a new Crusade, with the design of conquering Constantinople, and evidently dreamed of making himself ruler of the whole Christian world, when death cut him off, in 1197, in his thirty-second year. His widow, Constance of Sicily, was left with a son, Frederick, then only three years old.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE REIGN OF FREDERICK II. AND END OF THE HOHENSTAUFEN LINE.
(1215—1268.)
- Rival Emperors in Germany.
- —Pope Innocent III.
- —Murder of Philip of Hohenstaufen.
- —Otto IV. becomes Emperor.
- —Frederick of Hohenstaufen goes to Germany.
- —His Character.
- —Decline of Otto's Power.
- —Frederick II. crowned Emperor.
- —Troubles with the Pope.
- —His Crusade to the Holy Land.
- —Frederick's Court at Palermo.
- —Henry, Count of Schwerin.
- —Gregory IX.'s Persecution of Heretics.
- —Meeting of Frederick II. and his son, King Henry.
- —The Emperor returns to Germany.
- —His Marriage with Isabella of England.
- —He leaves Germany for Italy.
- —War in Lombardy.
- —Conflict with Pope Gregory IX.
- —Capture of the Council.
- —Course of Pope Innocent III.
- —Wars in Germany and Italy.
- —Conspiracies against Frederick II.
- —His Misfortunes and Death.
- —The Character of his Reign.
- —His son, Konrad IV., succeeds.
- —William of Holland rival Emperor.
- —Death of Konrad IV.
- —End of William of Holland.
- —The Boy, Konradin.
- —Manfred, King of Naples.
- —Usurpation of Charles of Anjou.
- —Konradin goes to Italy.
- —His Defeat and Capture.
- —His Execution.
- —The Last of the Hohenstaufens.
1215. TWO EMPERORS ELECTED.
A story was current among the German people, that, shortly before Henry VI.'s death, the spirit of Theodoric the Great, in giant form on a black war-steed, rode along the Rhine presaging trouble to the Empire. This legend no doubt originated after the trouble came, and was simply a poetical image of what had already happened. The German princes were determined to have no child again, as their hereditary Emperor; but only one son of Frederick Barbarossa still lived,—Philip of Suabia. The bitter hostility between Welf and Waiblinger still existed, and although Philip was chosen by a Diet held in Thuringia, the opposite party, secretly assisted by the Pope and by Richard of the Lion-heart, of England (who had certainly no reason to be friendly to the Hohenstaufens!) met at Aix-la-Chapelle, and elected Otto, son of Henry the Lion.