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

by Bayard Taylor

Just at this crisis, Innocent III. became Pope. He was as haughty, inflexible and ambitious as Gregory VII., whom he took for his model: under him, and with his sanction, the Inquisition, which linked the Christian Church to barbarism, was established. So completely had the relation of the two powers been changed by the humiliation of Henry IV. and Barbarossa, that the Pope now claimed the right to decide between the rival monarchs. Of course he gave his voice for Otto, and excommunicated Philip. The effect of this policy, however, was to awaken the jealousy of the German Bishops as well as the Princes,—even the former found the Papal interference a little too arbitrary—and Philip, instead of being injured, actually derived advantage from it. In the war which followed, Otto lost so much ground that in 1207 he was obliged to fly to England, where he was assisted by king John; but he would probably have again failed, when an unexpected crime made him successful. Philip was murdered in 1208, by Otto of Wittelsbach, Duke of Bavaria, on account of some personal grievance.

1208.

As he left no children, and Frederick, the son of Henry VI., was still a boy of fourteen, Otto found no difficulty in persuading the German princes to accept him as king. His first act was to proceed against Philip's murderer and his accomplice, the Bishop of Bamberg. Both fled, but Otto of Wittelsbach was overtaken near Ratisbon, and instantly slain. In 1209, king Otto collected a magnificent retinue at Augsburg, and set out for Italy, in order to be crowned Emperor at Rome. As the enemy of the Hohenstaufens, he felt sure of a welcome; but Innocent III., whom he met at Viterbo, required a great many special concessions to the Papal power before he would consent to bestow the crown. Even after the ceremony was over, he inhospitably hinted to the new Emperor, Otto IV., that he should leave Rome as soon as possible. The gates of the city were shut upon the latter, and his army was left without supplies.

The jurists of Bologna soon convinced Otto that some of his concessions to the Pope were illegal, and need not be observed. He therefore took possession of Tuscany, which he had agreed to surrender to the Pope, and afterwards marched against Southern Italy, where the young Frederick of Hohenstaufen was already acknowledged as king of Sicily. The latter had been carefully educated under the guardianship of Innocent III., after the death of Constance in 1198, and threatened to become a dangerous rival for the Imperial crown. Otto's invasion so exasperated the Pope that he excommunicated him, and called upon the German princes to recognize Frederick in his stead. As Otto had never been personally popular in Germany, the Waiblinger, or Hohenstaufen party, responded to Innocent's proclamation. Suabia and Bavaria and the Archbishop of Mayence pronounced for Frederick, while Saxony, Lorraine and the northern Bishops remained true to Otto. The latter hastened back to Germany in 1212, regained some of his lost ground, and attempted to strengthen his cause by marrying Beatrix, the daughter of Philip. But she died four days after the marriage, and in the meantime Frederick, supplied with money by the Pope, had crossed the Alps.

1212. FREDERICK GOES TO GERMANY.

The young king, who had been educated wholly in Sicily, and who all his life was an Italian rather than a German, was now eighteen years old. He resembled his grandfather, Frederick Barbarossa, in person, was perhaps his equal in strength and decision of character, but far surpassed him or any of his imperial predecessors in knowledge and refinement. He spoke six languages with fluency; he was a poet and minstrel; he loved the arts of peace no less than those of war, yet he was a statesman and a leader of men. On his way to Germany, he found the Lombard cities, except Pavia, so hostile to him that he was obliged to cross the Alps by secret and dangerous paths, and when he finally reached the city of Constance, with only sixty followers, Otto IV. was close at hand, with a large army. But Constance opened its gates to the young Hohenstaufen: Suabia, the home of his fathers, rose in his support, and the Emperor, without even venturing a battle, retreated to Saxony.

1220.

For nearly three years, the two rivals watched each other without engaging in open hostilities. The stately bearing of Frederick, which he inherited from Barbarossa, the charm and refinement of his manners, and the generosity he exhibited towards all who were friendly to his claims, gradually increased the number of his supporters. In 1215, Otto joined King John of England and the Count of Flanders in a war against Philip Augustus of France, and was so signally defeated that his influence in Germany speedily came to an end. Lorraine and Holland declared for Frederick, who was crowned in Aix-la-Chapelle with great pomp the same year. Otto died near Brunswick, three years afterwards, poor and unhonored.

Pope Innocent III. died in 1216, and Frederick appears to have considered that the assistance which he had received from him was personal and not Papal; for he not only laid claim to the Tuscan possessions, but neglected his promise to engage in a new Crusade for the recovery of Jerusalem, and even attempted to control the choice of Bishops. At the same time he took measures to secure the coronation of his infant son, Henry, as his successor. His journey to Rome was made in the year 1220. The new Pope, Honorius III., a man of a mild and yielding nature, nevertheless only crowned him on condition that he would observe the violated claims of the Church, and especially that he would strictly suppress all heresy in the Empire. When he had been crowned Emperor as Frederick II., he fixed himself in Southern Italy and Sicily for some years, quite neglecting his German rule, but wisely improving the condition of his favorite kingdom. He was signally successful in controlling the Saracens, whose language he spoke, whom he converted into subjects, and who afterwards became his best soldiers.

The Pope, however, became very impatient at the non-fulfilment of Frederick's promises, and the latter was compelled, in 1226, to summon a Diet of all the German and Italian princes to meet at Verona, in order to make preparations for a new crusade. But the cities of Lombardy, fearing that the army to be raised would be used against them, adopted all possible measures against the meeting of the Diet, took possession of the passes of the Adige, and prevented the Emperor's son, the young king Henry of Germany, and his followers, from entering Italy. Angry and humiliated, Frederick was compelled to return to Sicily. The next year, 1227, Honorius died, and the Cardinals elected as his successor Gregory IX., a man more than eighty years old, but of a remarkably stubborn and despotic nature. He immediately threatened the Emperor with excommunication in case the crusade for the recovery of Jerusalem was not at once undertaken, and the latter was compelled to obey. He hastily collected an army and fleet, and departed from Naples, but returned at the end of three days, alleging a serious illness as the cause of his sudden change of plan.