2 Widow of Lothar, King of Italy.
3 Elected 1127 in opposition to Lotharl accepted as his successor.
4 Elected in opposition to Philip; accepted as his successor, 1208; ruined by battle of Bouvines.
5 King of Naples and Sicily after Conrad IV; killed in battle at Benevento against Charles of Anjou. Manfred's mother was Bianca Langia, daughter of a Lombard noble.
PERIOD III. FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ROMANO-GERMANIC EMPIRE TO THE END OF THE CRUSADES. (A.D. 962-1270.)
CHAPTER I. THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE: PREDOMINANCE OF THE EMPIRE: TO THE CRUSADES, A.D. 1096.
I. KINGS AND EMPERORS OF THE SAXON HOUSE (918-1024).
HENRY THE FOWLER (918-936).—The envoys who carried to Duke Henry of Saxony the announcement of his election as king of Germany are said to have found him in the Hartz Mountains with a falcon on his wrist: hence he was called Henry the Fowler. He is a great figure in mediæval history, and did much to make Germany a nation. He won back Lorraine, which had broken off from the kingdom. With it the Netherlands—Holland, Flanders, etc.—came to Germany. He united all the five great dukedoms, and governed with wisdom and moderation. At the end of five years, the Hungarians poured in with irresistible force. There was no alternative but to conclude with them a truce for nine years, during which he was to pay tribute. He set to work at once, however, to strengthen the defenses of his kingdom. He built walled towns and fortresses in the eastern districts of Saxony and Thuringia, and drafted one out of nine of the men from the population in the marches for military service. The fortresses were to be kept stored with provisions. The oldest towns of Saxony and of Thuringia are of this date. Then he disciplined his soldiers, and trained them to fight, like the Hungarians, on horseback. He conquered the Slavonian Wends who dwelt east of the Elbe and the Saale, and established the margraviate of Meissen to repel their attacks. His victory over the Slaves at Lenzen (929) made the north-eastern frontiers of Germany secure. Eadgyth, the daughter of Edward, king of England, was given in marriage to his eldest son, Otto. Henry now felt himself strong enough to throw off the Hungarian yoke, and answered with defiance their demand for the annual tribute. The struggle with them was hard; but they were completely vanquished at Merseburg in 933, and their camp taken. Henry founded the mark of Schleswig as a defense against the Danes. This wise and vigorous monarch laid the foundations of the German Empire. He was not only a mighty warrior: he built up industry and trade. He was buried at Quedlinburg in the abbey which he had founded.
OTTO I.: THE PALSGRAVES.—Otto I. (936-973) carried forward with equal energy the work which his father had begun. Having been chosen king by the German princes and chiefs at Aix, he was presented to the people in the church by the archbishop of Mentz; and they gave their assent to the election by raising the hand. Otto had a contest before him to maintain the unity of the kingdom. He aimed to make the office of duke an office to be allotted by the king, and thus to sap the power of his turbulent lieges. The dukes of Bavaria and Franconia, with Lorraine, and with the support of Louis IV., king of France, rose in arms against him. He subdued them; and the great duchies which had revolted against him becoming vacant, he placed in them members of his own family. He confirmed his authority by extending the power of the palsgraves, or counts palatine,—royal officers who superintended the domains of the king in the several duchies, and dispensed justice in his name. He favored the great ecclesiastics as a check to the aspiring lay lords. He invested the bishops and abbots with ring and staff, and they took the oath of fealty to him.
WARS OF OTTO I—Against the Hungarians, Otto achieved a triumph. He gained a victory over them at Augsburg in 955, in which they were said to have lost a hundred thousand men. This put an end to their incursions into Germany. He was likewise the victor in conflict with Slavonians. He subdued Boleslav I. of Bohemia, who had thrown off the German suzerainty, and obliged him to pay a tribute. Under the pious Boleslav II., Christianity was established there, and a bishopric founded at Prague (967). The Duke of Poland was forced to do homage to him, and to permit the founding of the bishopric of Posen. Against the Danish king, Harold the Blue-toothed, he carried his arms to the sea, the northern boundary of Jutland. He erected three new bishoprics among the Danes, and founded the archbishopric of Magdeburg, with subordinate sees in the valleys of the Elbe and the Oder. These achievements gave Otto great renown in Western Europe. The kings sent ambassadors to him, and presents came from the sovereigns at Constantinople and Cordova.