The Historians' History of the World 07

For several years Henry’s relations with foreign countries were friendly; but this peace was disturbed from 1051 onwards by the joint attempt of the Poles and Hungarians to shake off German dominion. The Hungarians invaded the empire, and in the year 1051 the emperor took the field against them in person. He advanced into Hungary itself with a great force; and though obliged to withdraw by inclement weather, his retreat was marked by valiant feats of arms on the part of the German army. In the following year, 1052, a second expedition was undertaken against Hungary. Henry III invested Pressburg, but at the intercession of Pope Leo IX he raised the siege and returned to Germany. But a genuine peace could not be brought about merely by the mediation of the pontiff; the enmity continued.

[1052-1055 A.D.]

The Peace of Tribur was finally ratified, and Henry had once more time to devote his energies to the internal affairs of the empire. Down to the year 1055 he worked hard at consolidating the legal system and developing the resources of the nation. Fresh disorders in Italy called him thither. Matters beyond the Alps had been in dire confusion for many years, for Pope Leo IX became involved in a war with the Normans in 1053 and was actually taken prisoner by them. In addition, Gottfried, the deposed duke of Lorraine, who had been reconciled to the emperor in 1050 by the good offices of Leo IX and had then accompanied the pope to Italy, had there married the widow of Marquis Bonifazio of Tuscany and taken possession of her former husband’s dominions. Henry III feared that Gottfried would stir up rebellion in Italy, and this circumstance seemed also to render the emperor’s presence in that country imperative. He had therefore long meditated another expedition across the Alps, but disaffections that arose in Germany itself and various isolated attempts on the part of some refractory nobles decided him not to quit the country.

In the year 1054 Pope Leo died and the Romans again sent an embassy to request the emperor to nominate a new pope. This he at first modestly declined to do; but, yielding nevertheless to their reiterated entreaties, he designated Bishop Gebhard of Eichstädt, his kinsman and friend, as the successor of Leo IX. Gebhard was unanimously accepted in this capacity, and assumed the papal dignity under the title of Victor II, amidst the acclaims of the people. Thus Henry III for the fourth time disposed of the papal office, and for the fourth time conferred it on a German. At the nomination of Victor II Hildebrand himself, the influential counsellor of Leo IX, was with the embassy which besought the emperor to designate the next pope, which proves how little intention Hildebrand had of opposing the will of Henry III. Like the emperor he earnestly desired reform, and showed by this step that he had no fear of undue encroachments on the part of the latter upon the privileges of the church. Thus even the strongest natures in a manner attest their reverence for the great emperor’s character.

German Noble of the Eleventh Century in Court Dress

After the appointment of Pope Victor II, the king of Germany felt himself bound to afford him the protection of his imperial authority, and in the year 1055 he started for Italy, almost at the same time as the pope. In May of that year he appeared on the plains of Roncaglia; and there the princes and feudal vassals of Italy likewise appeared, to offer the homage of sincere reverence to the king of Germany, together with their oaths of allegiance. Pope Victor II convened a synod at Florence, where, in the emperor’s presence, the laws against simony and other edicts of a reformatory tendency were either re-enacted or amplified. An inquiry was then held into the conduct of Gottfried, sometime duke of Lorraine, which ended in the acquittal of the defendant—not, so the old chronicler expressly states, because his innocence was proved, but because his judges feared that if driven to desperation he would make himself the leader of the Normans in lower Italy. His wife Beatrice was carried off to Germany by Henry III, who defended his arbitrary action in this respect by saying that Beatrice had disposed of her hand without his consent, and had moreover bestowed it upon an enemy of her country. Towards the end of the year 1055 the emperor recrossed the Alps. Several nobles were already cherishing schemes of revolt, for a conspiracy had been formed against him under the leadership of Bishop Gebhard of Ratisbon; and Gottfried, assisted by Count Baldwin, once more made his appearance in Lorraine. The schemes of the malcontents were again frustrated by Henry’s firmness; Gebhard was brought to trial and committed to prison, and both Gottfried and Baldwin were defeated in the open field.