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

by Bayard Taylor

1228. VISIT TO JERUSALEM.

He was instantly excommunicated by Gregory IX., and he replied by a proclamation addressed to all kings and princes,—a document breathing defiance and hate against the Pope and his claims. Nevertheless, in order to keep his word in regard to the Crusade, he went to the East with a large force in 1228, and obtained, by a treaty with the Sultan of Egypt, the possession of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and Mount Carmel, for ten years. His second wife, the Empress Iolanthe, was the daughter of Guy of Lusignan, the last king of Jerusalem; and therefore, when Frederick visited the holy city, he claimed the right, as Guy's heir, of setting the crown of Jerusalem upon his own head. The entire Crusade, which was not marked by any deeds of arms, occupied only eight months.

Although he had fulfilled his agreement with Rome, the Pope declared that a crusade undertaken by an excommunicated Emperor was a sin, and did all he could to prevent Frederick's success in Palestine. But when the latter returned to Italy, he found that the Roman people, a majority of whom were on his side, had driven Gregory IX. from the city. It was therefore comparatively easy for him to come to an agreement, whereby the Pope released him from the ban, in return for being reinstated in Rome. This was only a truce, however, not a lasting peace: between two such imperious natures, peace was impossible. The agreement, nevertheless, gave Frederick some years of quiet, which he employed in regulating the affairs of his Southern-Italian kingdom. He abolished, as far as possible, the feudal system introduced by the Normans, and laid the foundation of a representative form of government. His Court at Palermo became the resort of learned men and poets, where Arabic, Provençal, Italian and German poetry was recited, where songs were sung, where the fine arts were encouraged, and the rude and warlike pastimes of former rulers gave way to the spirit of a purer civilization. Although, as we have said, his nature was almost wholly Italian, no Emperor after Charlemagne so fostered the growth of a German literature as Frederick II.

But this constitutes his only real service to Germany. While he was enjoying the peaceful and prosperous development of Naples and Sicily, his great empire in the north was practically taking care of itself, for the boy-king, Henry, governed chiefly by allowing the reigning bishops, dukes and princes to do very much as they pleased. There was a season of peace with France, Hungary and Poland, and Denmark, which was then the only dangerous neighbor, was repelled without the Imperial assistance. Frederick II., in his first rivalry with Otto, had shamefully purchased Denmark's favor by giving up all the territory between the Elbe and the Oder. But when Henry, Count of Schwerin, returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and found the Danish king, Waldemar, in possession of his territory, he organized a revolt in order to recover his rights, and succeeded in taking Waldemar and his son prisoners. Frederick II. now supported him, and the Pope as a matter of course supported Denmark. A great battle was fought in Holstein, and the Danes were so signally defeated that they were forced to give up all the German territory, except the island of Rügen and a little strip of the Pomeranian coast, beside paying 45,000 silver marks for the ransom of Waldemar and his son.

1230.

About this time, in consequence of the demand of Pope Innocent III. that all heresy should be treated as a crime and suppressed by force, a new element of conflict with Rome was introduced into Germany. Among other acts of violence, the Stedinger, a tribe of free farmers of Saxon blood, who inhabited the low country near the mouth of the Weser, were literally exterminated by order of the Archbishop of Bremen, to whom they had refused the payment of tithes. In 1230, Gregory IX. wrote to king Henry, urging him to crush out heresy in Germany: "Where is the zeal of Moses, who destroyed 23,000 idolaters in one day? Where is the zeal of Elijah, who slew 450 prophets with the sword, by the brook Kishon? Against this evil the strongest means must be used: there is need of steel and fire." Conrad of Marburg, a monk, who inflicted years of physical and spiritual suffering upon Elizabeth, Countess of Thuringia, in order to make a saint of her, was appointed Inquisitor for Germany by Gregory, and for three years he tortured and burned at will. His horrible cruelty at last provoked revenge: he was assassinated on the highway near Marburg, and his death marks the end of the Inquisition in Germany.

In 1232, Frederick II., in order that he might seem to fulfil his neglected duties as German Emperor, summoned a general Diet to meet at Ravenna, but it was prevented by the Lombard cities, as the Diet of Verona had been prevented six years before. Befriended by Venice, however, Frederick marched to Aquileia, and there met his son, king Henry, after a separation of twelve years. Their respective ages were thirty-seven and twenty-one: there was little personal sympathy or affection between them, and they only came together to quarrel. Frederick refused to sanction most of Henry's measures; he demanded, among other things, that the latter should rebuild the strongholds of the robber-knights of Hohenlohe, which had been razed to the ground. This seemed to Henry an outrage as well as a humiliation, and he returned home with rebellion in his heart. After proclaiming himself independent king, he entered into an alliance with the cities of Lombardy and even sought the aid of the Pope.

1235. FREDERICK'S MARRIAGE AT WORMS.

Early in 1235, after an absence of fifteen years, Frederick II. returned to Germany. The revolt, which had seemed so threatening, fell to pieces at his approach. He was again master of the Empire, without striking a blow: Henry had no course but to surrender without conditions. He was deposed, imprisoned, and finally sent with his family to Southern Italy, where he died seven years afterwards. The same summer the Emperor, whose wife, Iolanthe, had died some years before, was married at Worms to Isabella, sister of king Henry III. of England. The ceremony was attended with festivals of Oriental splendor; the attendants of the new Empress were Saracens, and she was obliged to live after the manner of Eastern women. Immense numbers of the nobles and people flocked to Worms, and soon afterwards to Mayence, where a Diet was held. Here, for the first time, the decrees of the Diet were publicly read in the German language. Frederick also, as the head of the Waiblinger party, effected a reconciliation with Otto of Brunswick, the head of the Welfs, whereby the rivalry of a hundred years came to an end in Germany; but in Italy the struggle between the Ghibellines and the Guelphs was continued long after the Hohenstaufen line became extinct.

In the autumn of 1236, Frederick conquered and deposed Frederick the Quarrelsome, Duke of Austria, and made Vienna a free Imperial city. A Diet was held there, at which his second son, Konrad, then nine years old, was accepted as king of Germany. This choice was confirmed by another Diet, held the following year at Speyer. The Emperor now left Germany, never to return. This brief visit, of a little more than a year, was the only interruption in his thirty years of absence; but it revived his great personal influence over princes and people, it was marked by the full recognition of his authority, and it contributed, in combination with his struggle against the power of Rome which followed, to impress upon his reign a more splendid and successful character than his acts deserved. Although the remainder of his history belongs to Italy, it was not without importance for the later fortunes of Germany, and must therefore be briefly stated.