MEDIAEVAL
POPES, EMPERORS, KINGS,
AND
OR,
GERMANY,
ITALY, AND PALESTINE,
FROM A.D. 1125 TO A.D. 1268.
BY MRS. WILLIAM BUSK,
VOL. IV.
BOOK IV (continued).
CHAPTER X.
FREDERIC H.
PAGE
Conflict
between Gregory and Frederic.—Gregory’s Search for an Emperor—Unsuccessful.—War
in Italy.—Siege of Ferrara—of Ravenna— of Faenza.—Affairs of Germany.—Albert
Beham’s Extravagance— Results.—Marians in Prussia [1239—1241] 1
CHAPTER XI.
%
FREDERIC II.
Mongol
Invasion.—Russia Subjugated.—Poland Overrun.—Battle of Liegnitz.—Devastation of
Hungary.—Affairs of the East.—Council foiled.—Death of Gregory IX.—of Celestin
IV.—Conclave.—Mongols in Austria............... [1241—1242]
28
CHAPTER XII.
FREDERIC II.
Election of Innocent
IV.—Negotiations.—Innocent's Flight—Hostility to the Emperor.—Affairs of the
East.—Position of Christians and Mohammedans.—Minor
Crusades.—Kharizmians.—Mongols. [1242—1245] 51
CHAPTER, XIII.
FREDERIC II.
PAGE
Conduct
of Innocent.—Council of Lyons.—Innocent’s Manoeuvres—his Deposal of the
Emperor—Consequences.—Conduct of Lewis IX—of Germany—of the Sicilies [1245—1246] 80
CHAPTER XIV.
FREDERIC II.
Strife
between Pope and Emperor.—Conspiracies.—Reciprocal Accusations.—War in
Lombardy.—Search for an Anti* King—Henry Raspe elected—his Success—and Death. .
. . [1246—1248] 104
CHAPTER XV.
FREDERIC II.
Affairs
of Germany—of Austria.—Innocent IV’s Cabals.—William Earl of Holland,
Anti-King.—Affairs of Italy.—Captivity of Enzio.—Fall of Pietro deile Vigne.—Crusade
of Lewis IX.—Disasters.—Death of Fre* deric II ......... [1248—1250] 128
CONRAD
IV WILLIAM RICHARD.
CHAPTER I.
CONRAD IV.
End of Lewis
IX's Crusade.—State of Germany.—Conrad and William.
—Innocent’s
Return to Italy.—Manfred’s first Regency—Difficulties —Exploits—Negotiations [1250—1252] 15
CHAPTER, II.
CONRAD IV.
PAGE
Conrad in
Italy—in Apulia.—Innocent’s Inveteracy.—Innocent and
Brancaleone.—Negotiations—Accusations and Recrimination.—Conrad’s
Death,—Affairs of Germany.—William of Holland’s Struggles.—
Affairs
of Italy [1251—1254] 183
CHAPTER, in.
WILLIAM—RICHARD.
Berthold’s
Regency.—Innocent’s Hostility.—Manfred’s Regency.—Innocent in
Apulia.—Manfred’s Dangers—Flight—War with the Pope.—
Death
of Innocent IV.—Alexander IV.—Manfred’s-Struggles—Success —Election......... [1254—1258] 212
CHAPTER, IV.
WILLIAM RICHARD.
State of
Germany.—Death ofWilliam.—Election of Richard of Cornwall— of Alfonso of
Castile.—Bavarian Tragedy.—German Leagues.—State of Eastern Empire—of the
Levant.—End of Caliphate.'—State of Lombardy.—Papal Measures.—End of the
Romanos [1254—1260] 245
CHAPTER V.
MANFRED.
Negotiation
with the Pope.—Revolution in Tuscany.—Manfred’s growing Power in Italy.—Death
of Alexander IV.—End of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. — Syro-Franks and
Mamelukes. — Election of Urban IV—his Enmity to Manfred . . . [1260—1262] 274
CHAPTER VI.
MANFRED.
Papal Offers
of the Sicilies.—Refusal of Lewis IX.—Bargaining with Charles of Anjou.—Clement
TV Pope.—Preparations of Manfred—of Charles.—Charles at Rome.—Lombard Interests
[1262—1266] 296
CHAPTER VII*
MANFRED.
PAGE
Provensal
Array in Italy.—Ghibeline Treachery.—Coronation of Charles and Beatrice. —
Manfred’s Preparations. — Invasion of Apulia. — Treachery of Nobles.—Passage of
the Garigliano.—B attle of Benevento.
—Fate of
Manfred.—Treatment of his Family—of Prisoners in general.
[1265—1266]
318
CHAPTER VIII.
RICHARD.
Affairs of
Germany—of Austria—of Thuringia.—Spirit of Confederation.
—Position
ofConradin.—Affairs of Italy—of Lombardy.—Fate of Enzio.
—Affairs of
Florence.—Charles’s Tyranny—Ambition.—Malcontents invite Conradin.—Conradin in
Lombardy—Deserted by German Relations.—Preparations of Charles ....
[1266—1267] 343
CHAPTER IX.
RICHARD.
Conradin
in Tuscany—at Rome.—Success in Sicily.—Battle of Taglia- cozzo.—Flight of
Conradin—and Capture.—Tyranny of Charles.—Fate of Conradin—of his Friends—in
Sicily.—St. Lewis’s last Crusade.— Sicilian Vespers... [1268] 373
CONCLUDING
CHAPTER ... .408
Notes....... 463
General
Index . 489
POPES, EMPERORS, KINGS,
& CRUSADERS,
CHAPTEK X.
FREDERIC II.
Conflict
between Gregory and Frederic—Gregory''s Search for an Emperor—Unsuccessful—War
in Italy—S'>ege of Ferrara— of Ravenna—of Faenza—Affairs of Germany—Albert
Behams Extravagance—Result—Marians in Prussia.
[1239—1241.
The Pope did
not sink to rest after hurling the Church thunderbolt at the Emperor. He next
declared, that a sentence of excommunication included forfeiture of the Empire;
and directed the German Princes to proceed to a new election, that of Conrad
being, by the deposal of his father, virtually annulled. He further endeavoured
to facilitate the task thus assigned them, by providing a candidate for the
high station which he pronounced vacant; and invited Abel Duke of Schleswick, a
younger son of Wal- demar of Denmark, to cotne forward in that capacity,
trusting to Papal support. Against such a competitor for that station, as
Frederic II, the invitation was not irresistibly tempting; and the Duke, or
his royal father for him, prudently declined the proffered croun. Gregory thereupon
transferred the tender to the Duke of Brunswick, VOL. iv. 1
who, as prudently, answered, thr.t he felt no inclination to involve
himself in such troubles, as had been the lot of his uncle, the late Emperor
Otho.
If these refusals painfully surprised and disappointed Gregory, so did
the general resistance, that his anti-imperialist measures encountered :n
Germany; for this, he might, indeed, have been prep&red, by the earnestly
respectful remonstrance upon his unpaternd treatment of the Emperor, which the
first tidings of the excommunication had produced from the Princes, spiritual
and temporal, sitting in Diet at Eger. In fact, Frederic’s abilities, energy,
and power, appear to have, for the moment, vanquished the restless ambition
usually actuating that body. Robbers of all grades, and extortioners
(leuteschinder) rejoiced, indeed, at the news of his deposal; but they were the
only class that did so. If a few princes of the Empire shrank from
acknowledging an excommunicated sovereign, the great majority resented this
Papal invasion of their rights. In answer to the Pope’s command to elect a new
emperor, they wrote, that the right of placing the Imperial crown upon the head
of the elected German monarch, could not empower his Holiness to depose the
lawfully elected monarch; observing, in regard to his alleged grounds for the
deposal, that the relation of the Lombard cities to the Empire, being a subject,
only by the Emperor and the Estates of the Empire, in Diet assembled, to be
decided, or even considered, could not possibly be submitted to arbitration;
Fredcric II’s yieldingness, upon that point, appeared to them his sole fault.
Discomfited in Germany by these, unexpectedly refractory, princes,
Gregory turned his thoughts to France, with the new idea, seemingly, of
dissevering the Empire from Germany. He commissioned the Cardinal Bishop of
Palestrina, his Legate at the French Court, to inform Lewis IX, that, having,
with the concurrence of the College of Cardinals, for notorious heresy and
other sins, deposed the Emperor Frederic, he had—not recommended to the choice
of the electors, but—appointed the King’s brother, Robert Comte d’Artois,
Emperor in his stead; and expected so magnificent a spontaneous gift, to be
accepted with joyful gratitude. Bat again his offers met with a Digitized by
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OFFERS 01 THE
EMPIRE.
3
reception disappointing to the irascible pontiff. However disposed Earl
Robert might be to accept the Imperial crown, Lewis IX, despite his piety,
despite even his devotion to the Roman See, did not like the Pope’s assumption
of a right to depose sovereigns. Hi* nobility appears to have sympathized with
him upon the subject; and the Legate had alienated the body (hat might have
favoured pontifical views, the clergy of France, by a demand of one fifth of
their income towards defraying the expense which his quarrel with the Emperor
had brought upon the Pope: with those expenses, the}’ alleged they had no concern,
because temporal weapons were not to he employed in spiritual disputes.
Accordingly, a Council, held by the King to deliberate upon the Pope’s offers,
declared that, even if the Emperor were guilty of crimes for which he deserved
to lose his crown, the Pope, singly, could not, and only in an (Ecumenic
Couueil could, pronounce iiis doom and exact the forfeiture. It was resolved
further, that no man was to be condemned upon the mere accusation of his enemy;
and that the Pope had shown himself an enemy to the Emperor, of whom no evil
was known; who had been a good neighbour to France, and whose Crusade went far
towards proving him a good Christian. Still, out of respect for the Holy
Father, his offer was not at once declined, but, ia the first instance, an
embassy was sent to the Emperor, for the purpose—strangely anomalous, if not
impertinent, as in these days it must appear—of investigating the orthodoxy or
heterodoxy of his religious opinions.
The proceedings of thi° singular embassy were as undiplomatic, in the
ordinary acceptation of the w ord, as its object. The chief embassador, the
Bishop of Langres, frankly informed Frederic of the Pope’s offer, the accusation
upon which it was based, and the consequent inquiry as to the truth of that
accusation, committed to him. Frederic, though necessarily aware of Gregory's
previous attempts, seems not to have anticipated this additional instance of
restless animosity. 1-or the Bishop’s official report states, that he lifted up
liis hands in amazement, tears of mingled indignation and sorrow running down
his chteks, whilst he said: “ My dear friends and neigh-
bours, God he judge betwixt me and him, who undermines my honour,
slanders my character, and thirsts for my blood! From that Faith, which so many
admirable Fathers of the Church have taught, which all my ancestors have
professed, never have I deviated, to tread in the steps of the accursed. I
heartily thank you, for having sought my answer upon so momentous a point, ere
coming to any decision. Nevertheless should you attack me, marvel not at my
defending myself, for I am constantly resolved to maintain all my rights and
dignities unimpaired. God, the protector of innocence, will be my stay in this
just endeavour.” The Bishop adds, that, with deep emotion, he rejoined; “God
forbid that, without just cause, we should wage war upon a Christian prince!
Neither can we be moved by ambition, holding our hereditary king far superior
to an elected emperor. Prince Robert may rest content with his dignity, as son
to such an one and Comte d’Artois.” Lewis, in his brother’s name, upon
receiving this report, declined the Pope’s offer.
This third refusal appears to have convinced the implacable pontiff of
the impossibility, for the moment at least, of disposing of the Empire at his
pleasure; and, temporarily abandoning that scheme, he applied himself to
depriving Frederic of his southern kingdom, which, through his suzerainty, he
held to be more feasible. To the Venetian government, he now proposed the
division of the Sicilian realms, between the Roman See and the Republic; and
the Republic, unscrupulous as ambitious, and confident in her strength, at
once closed with the proposal. A treaty, regulating both the mode of effecting
the conquest and the subsequent allotment of the spoils, was signed by the
Pope and the Doge, in September, 1239* Gregory is said to have disposed of yet
other provinces that were not his to bestow; viz. to have offered the sovereignty
of Lombardy to .James Xing of Aragon, who eagerly accepted it; but was
deterred, by apprehensions both of the Emperor’s power and of the Lombards’
turbulence, from visiting Italy to take possession of the gift.(*) Frederic,
on the other hand, If he now appeared resolute to defy the enmity uhich he had
so sedulously endeavoured to avert, still confined himself to defensive
measures.
Refusing to acknowledge an excommunication, which, because unjust, he
deemed invalid, he commanded all the rites of the Church to be celebrated as
usual throughout his dominions; imposing fines upon priests who left their
regular professional duty unperformed. He forbade, his subjects to visit the
Papal Court without express permission, recalling, with few exceptions, ail
then at Rome ; and he forbade, under pain of death, the introduction of panal
bulls into his realms. As a further guard, against the modes of exciting
sedition, employed by Gregory in their former war, he banished the Mendicant
Orders from Sicily and Apulia, suffering only two friars to remain as
care-takers in each cloister; and, to the Dominican Professors in the
Neapolitan University, he substituted Benedictines of Montecassino, whom he
required, with all monks in his dominions, to give security for their loyalty.
The severity of the Emperor’s measures, against the Mendicant Orders, was
approved, as, under the circumstances, indispensable, by the Father-Guardian of
the Franciscans—the title of General seems as yet not taken—the before-named
Elias of Cortona, who now pronounced the Emperor’s com. plaints of the Pope’s
conduct well-founded, and bis excommunication, as unjust, invalid. Gregory,
thereupon, excommunicated him also; the Franciscans, thus sanctioned, deposed
their Superior anew; and Eliiis, as ex- Father-Guardian, thenceforward attached
himself wholly to Frederic.
But the value of the deposed Father-Guardian, as a faithful friend, was
moral, not mi’itary; lj ing Mainly in his judgment as a Counsellor, and in the
weight, which his character and former position gave to his sanction of Frederic’s
self-vindication from the charges of heresy and atheism. The active support
wanted, was to be sought amongst the Ghibelines of northern Italy. In their
ranks, to the surprise as well as satisfaction of Frederic, appeared the
Marquess of Este, who declared himself cordially reconciled to the Signori di
Romano, and consequently loyal. But neither reconciliation nor loyalty were
long- lived, though, upon which party rests the blame of the new rupture, may
seem questionable. Azzo paid a visit to the Conte di San Tionifazio, averred
that the Emperor had, to
his certain knowledge, projected his assassination,—for which, if the
Marquess were faithful, he could have no motive—and again deserting a
sovereign, whom he had, he said, found so unworthy of his services, he once
more joined the Lombard League. The visit to San Bonifazic had probably
awakened doubts of the Marquess’s steadiness to hi? newly professed
Ghibclinism; for Frederic had thereupon ordered his son, llinaldo de Este, with
his Romano wife, to be seized and carried to Apulia; as hostages for the
fidelity of the house of Este. In those days, parental affection, however
potent as an incentive to revenge, appears so inadequate to induce any
sacrifice for the preservation of children, that, holding a son as a hostage
was little security for the father’s fidelity. The only notice, taken by
Marchese xVzzo of this measure of precaution, was renewing his prohibition,
under pain of death, to utter the Emperor’s name: and Alberico di Romano, professedly
in resentment of his daughter’s captivity, deserted the Sovereign upon whose
pleasure her life depended, surprised Treviso, expelled that Sovereign’s
garrison, and held it, in defiance of his authority. Frederic, without present
means of recovering the city, made a present of it to Padua, as a valuable
possession, easy to be conquered; and denounced the ban of the Empire against
Azzo, Alberico, San Bonii"azio, and some others.
The ban of the Empire and the Papal excommunication were, for the
moment, alike disregarded by their intended victims. The Ghibeline clergy
performed, as usual, all the rites of religion in the Emperor’s presence; and
hostilities proceeded without any decisive result. Frederic made himself master
of divers Bolognese castles, and Ezze- lino, occupying the Tyrol, kept the
communication with Germany open. But Venetian fleets, conformably with the
treaty with the Pope, menaced and ravaged the Apulian coasts, though attempting
no conquest there; the Guelphs triumphed over the Ghibelines at Ravenna : and,
at Milan, where a Cardinal-Legate and a Minorite Friar, with infectious
violence, preached a crusade against the excommunicated Emperor, cal'ing upon
even ecclesiastics to take the cross and bear arms in the cause of the Church
against her matricidal son, enthusiasm rose to fever heat. Intel- Digitizecl
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ligence of the movements, there preparing, drew Frederic towards
Milan; but, not having numbers to master so strong a city by assault, he merely
took up a strong position in the immediate vicinage, whence the attack might
at any moment be made. The citizens, trusting to the protection of their
walls, declined encountering the Imperial forces in (he field; and thus the
autumn passed unprofit ably, if not without incidents characteristic of the
times and of the parties.
Of this kind, was the banding themselves, by Milanese warriors, into
confraternities; one, self-entitled The Strong (I Ford), bound by oath not to
leave an individual of the hostile army alive; and another, of only six
knights, sworn to seek out the Emperor in the midst of his host, and there slay
him. But none of these pledged champions had yet found an opportunity of
putting their sanguinary designs in execution, when a German knight challenged
any pugnaciously disposed Milanese to meet him in single combat. The challenge
was accepted, and the German, victorious, presently drove his fugitive antagonist
into the camp, even into close proximity with the imperial tent. Frederic came
forth and questioned the Milanese: “Didst thou voluntarily undertake this
duel?” The republican, though conquered, unbroken in spirit, replied: “ As a
favour, I obtained the preference over a thousand competitors.” The Emperor
observed, “ I trust, nevertheless, to subdue you.”—“Never!” was the undismayed
rejoinder of the Milanese. “ Patriotism, and love of liberty will insure our
victory over thee!” Frederic smiled, presented the bold, if unskilful,
citizen-warrior with a fine horse, and dismissed him.
The Emperor found his most efficient assistant in his gallant son Enzio,
whom he had named Lis Vicar, or Lieutenant in Italy; with authority, alike
civil and U’ilitary, to appoint judges and commandants, to decide appeals from
inferior tribunals—a very few cases, that he reserved for his own
consideration, excepted—in short, had empowered to supply his own place
wherever he was not.(2) Enz;o, whilst his father was menacing,
rather than besieging, Milan, had invaded the March of Ancona, and, notwithstanding
the exertions of Cardinal Coloima, had mastered
nearly the whole. Ghibeline Modena and Ferrara about the same time
triumphed over the Bolognese army; and vhe attempts of the Pope’s troop? upon
the Apulian territories were repulsed. And now the Emperor- having, b) the
renunciation of some disputed claim in right of his deceased wife, Yola'nthe,
recalled the Marquess of Mont- ferrat to the usual loyalty of his race,
withdrew from his camp before Miiati, and leaving Lombardy to the care of
Ezzelino, and of Marquesses Palavicino and Lancia, visited Tuscany.
At Pisa “he kept his Christmas,” not only “with mirth and princely
cheer;” but likewise, despite his excommunication, with all the • tes, and
ceremonial observances, with Which the Roman-Catholic Church, celebrates this
high Christian festival. lie gained over Lucca, Sienna, and Arezzo. He is said
to have appointed another of his illegitimate sons, Frederic of Antioch, Vicar
of Tuscany; but Frederic of Antioch, the sou of a noble lady—if not a princess—of
Antioch, whose acquaintance the Emperor only made during his Crusade, was
younger even than Conrad, and could bear the name only of an office, exercised
through a governor.
The Emperor then left the maintenance of the Imperial authority in
Tuscany, nominally, to the boy-Vicar; and, in January, 1240, entered the
territories of the Roman See, where, conjointly with the King of Sardinia, he
attacked and took several towns. At one of these, Foligno, he convened an
assembly of deputies from the others, and also from as many, still unsubdued
Papal cities, as should please to participate therein. This assembly Pietro
delle Vigne rhetorically admoni*hed to be loyal to their true Lord and
Sovereign, the Emperor, and to cultivate peace amongst themselves. The conquered
towns, of course, promised compliance, and, to Gregory’s bitter mortification,
so did some of the unconquered; even that esteemed most faithful, Viterbo,
declaring for the Emperor; less indeed from loyalty or Ghibelinism, than from
enmity to the Romans, who at that moment professed attachment to the Pope.
Gregory had alarmed them, by representations of the great power of the
Lombards; had worked upon their superstition and their love of Digitized by
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EMPEROK.
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exhibitions, with threats of an interdict; and had li'red them with
concessions, such as administration of justice by municipal tribunals, the
election of senators—there now were tvo—right of coining, exemption from excommunication,
with others less important; all -which, though contined to the precincts of the
Eternal City, must have sorely galled his pride. By these means, he had
obtained possession, if not of Rome,- yet of one of his Roman palaces, the
Transteverine Vatican; whence he again fulminated anathemas against the
invaders of the Estates of the Church, Frederic, Enzio, and their accomplices.
This reinstallation of Gregory had been achieved prior to Frcderic's last
triumph at Foligno; strong i>' which, he now, by letter, addressed the
language of re*,-ike and exhortation to the Romans. lie reproached them with
such degeneracy from their glorious ancestors, conquerors and lords of the
world, as tame submission to an usurping and tyrannical old priest. He reminded
them of the intimate ronnexion that ought to subsist between them and their
Emperor; called upon them to assist in reuniting to the Empire all territories
stolen or torn away; announced the progress he had made in recovering those
formerly granted in vassalage to more loyal pones, which their disloyal successors
pretended to hold in independent sovereignty. In conclusion, he bade them send
their most distinguished citizens to his court or camp, there, in accordance
with ancient custom, to be appointed proconsuls over provinces and cities. Ke
gave his reprimands and exhortations weight, partly by a profuse distribution
of gifts, as e.g., a valuable fief and a considerable ecclesiastical benefice
to two of the influential Frangipani,and partly by requesting a loar. of money,
fioro wealthy Romans, upon such usurious terms, as made lending the money and
supporting him, for their advantage.
These measures were successful. The Romans again professed ardent
imperialism, and the Pope, through fear of the ill usage hourly threatening,
was a prisoner in his own palace. But his spirit was indomitable, and he knew
the Romans. lie one day issued, quite unexpectedly, from the gates of the
Vatican, or rather of the adjoining Basilica, St Peter’s, attended by
cardinals, arch-
1 &
bishops, bishops, abbots, and the whole body of Roman clergy, bearing
croziers, crosses, crucitixes, and preceded by the most venerated of the holy
relics, namely, the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul In solemn procession,
amidst waving of censers, with uninterrupted chaunting of psalms and litanies,
he paraded this visible Church through the streets of Rome, traversing the
city’s whole length, to the Lateran. Vainly did the Ghibelines, dreading the
effect of this show, endeavour to turn the performance into ridiculc, and
excite the populace to execute their previous threats against the detested,
usurping pontiff. The susceptible, and tickle, Romans, deeply impressed by the
solemn procedure, followed, awe-stricken, to the Lateran. ri here,
upon the steps of the mother-church, or Cathedral of Rome, the Basilica of St.
John—averred to have been built by the first Christian Emperor, Constantine—the
nonagenarian Pope addressed the multitude. With dignified mien, impressive from
his great age, and in emphatic strain, he enumerated the offences of which he
accused Frederic, and painted the sufferings of the Church. As he concluded his
oration, the erst passionptely Imperialist Romans took the cross against the
Emperor.
Only in words, could Frederic, for the moment, give vent to his
indignation, at the levity of these would-be masters of the w orld; the
necessity of checking the mischief, wrought by papal intrigue suddenly
recalling him to Apulia. There, the ex-Duke of Spoleto, w ho had originally
embroiled him with Gregory, now, seduced by emissary friars, deserted him to
head the rebellion that the Clergy had excited. Frederic hastened to the scene
of danger; summoned the Estates of the realm to assemble at Foggia, in order to
supply him with the funds which the emergency required; caused all suspected
persons to be incarcerated; denounced pain of death against all partisans of
Duke Reginald; and banished the Bishop of Ceplialudia, with his kindred, as
partisans of the Pope, lie surprised the revolted city of St. Angelo, razed the
walls, and burnt the houses of the ringleaders; some of whom he executed,
branding those who bore the Cross upon their garments, as Crusaders against
himself, with a cross upon the forehead ;(3) and he gave command
that the
place should, as a warning to others, remain permanently in ruins. He
next laid siege to Benevento, the possession of which hy the Roman See, was a
constant vexation and source of annoyance to the government. This, Gregory and
the Guelphs represented as a sacrilegious attempt to rob the Church, such as
only Atheists or Mohammedans could venture upon.
But Gregory’s wrath was unavailing; he gained as yet few partisans either
in Germany or in Italy; and the treacherously achieved triumph of his allies at
Ferrara— the first reverse suffered by the Emperor after this second rupture
with the Pope—was due rather to commcrcial rivalry, than to zeal for the
popedom, or even to Guelph passion. That reverse is now to be narrated.
Ferrara, under the wise and len'ent government of Salin- guerra,—who
seems to have ruled by his influence over his fellow-citizens, without the
positively acknowledged title of Signore,—had risen to an extraordinary degree
of prosperity. Her Easter and Martinmas fairs were attended by merchants from
ail parts, not only of Italy, but of Europe ; and this thriving trade had
enriched the citizens without hardening or narrowing tlieir hearts ; so that,
whilst the onto'flowing coffers of the State afforded a monthly distribution
of money to the indigent, the affluent, in every season of scarcity, following
the example of Salmguerra, opened their granaries, if not giving away their
corn, selling it so freely and cheaply, as to keep the price down within the
reach of the working classes. It may here be observed, by the way, that, not
only was the science of political economy then undreamt of, but no one had yet
discovered that half a loaf daily, till the next harvest,— the economical
result of high price—was better than a whole loaf daily for one half the year,
and no bread at all for the other. And, perhaps, in an age of very limited intercommunication,
so local might plenty and scarcity be— supplies, possibly, attainable almost
froin the next province —as to prevent this form of benevolence from converting
scarcity into actual famine, bv quickening the consumption of the deficient
supply. The only cause of complaint the Ferrarese could find, was, in the
tolls, dues, indeed the whole system cf imposts being, disgracefully low, and
utterly disproportionate to the dignity of' the town Meanwhile, this
growing prosperity and consequent importance av.oke envy in the neighbouring
commercial cities; ir. Fcrrera herself, impatience at the degree of sovereignty
claimed over her by Venice and Ravenna. No attempt at breaking the yoke was,
however, in the first instance, made, beyond demanding the free navigation of
the Po for Ferrarese vessels. Even this demand was treated by Venice as an act
of insurrection ; a war ensued, in which four Lombard cities and Marehese Azzo
eagerly joined, against the hated, because Ghibeline, Ferrara. Venice equipped
rn army, with the best battering train then in existence, and placed it,
reinforced by Lombard auxiliaries, under the command of one of her nobles,
Stefano Badoero, to form the siege of the presumptuous city; at which military
operation, Cardinal Montelonga attended, as Legate, to assert the pretensions
of the Roman See to Ferrara, when taken.
But Salinguerra, like Gregory IX, retained, at eighty years of age, all
the energetic activity of manhood’s summer strength. He had foreseen the
impending storm, and, by strenuous exertion, had abundantly provided the city
with every requisite for standing a long siege. Frederic sent him 500 horsemen,
and an ample pecuniary supply; he obtained auxiliaries from Modena and lieggio,
and conducted, as vigorously as he had prepared, the defence. Two attempts to
storm were gallantly repulsed, aud the confederates saw no prospect of early
success.
Tiepolo, Doge of Venice, now repaired in person to the camp of the
besiegers, to remedy the neglect or the blunders of Radoero, which alone, the
Venetian government concluded, could have disappointed the well-founded expectations
of prompt triumph. The Doge himself proved, however, as unfortunate as his
reprimanded officer, and the siege threatened to be of spirit-wearying length,
if not ultimately a failure. But Tiepolo had taken Philip of Macedon for his
master in the besieger’s art; he managed to send, if not a loaded ass, yet
offers of gold, into Ferrara, and found a traitor there to accept them. Ugo
Kampcrti, next to Salinguerra in authority over his fellow citizens, but
envious of the superior influence of his aged Digitized by Microsoft ©
rival, and filled with a very unholy hunger for gold, grasped at the
proffered bribe, which he amply earned. Iu the Great Council he now declared
for peace at any and every price, proposing to make overtures to the Doge or
the Cardinal. Salinguerra represented the danger of betraying despondency by
seeking to negotiate, and the impossibility cf obtaining security for the
observance of terms when granted. In vain ! Ramperti frightened the timid,
bribed the venal, excited in the merchants impatience of the interruption to
trade, and carried the day. Salinguerra finally yielded, with the words: “ A
capitulation will, to me, be a sentence of nullity, to you a brand of infamy.
Mine will be the easier doom.” Proposals of capitulation were thereupon sent to
the besiegers, who promised immunity of person and property to all; to
Salinguerra, protection from injustice, together with a safe conduct to bis
home.
The Council having agreed to these terms, Salinguerra Ment forth to
surrender the city to the Doge. Tiepolo received him courteously in his tent,
but refused to accept the keys, saying : “ Not to me ! Venice fights but in the
cause of the Church. To the Pope’s Legate must Ferrara .surrender, and in his
hand swear fealty.” The Doge’s sole object, if should seem, was to
crush a possible rival to Venice, which he might think effected by subjection
to the Pope, who probably furnished the gold for Ram- perti’s bribe. To the
Cardinal, therefore, Salinguerra delivered the keys; and on Whit-Sunday
conducted the leaders of the besieging army into the city, where a spendid
banquet was prepared for their reception. Amidst the festivity, Traversario,
the mahi instigator of Ravenna’s • revolt from the Emperor, advanced some
complaint against Salinguerra. The venerable nobleman attempted to justify
himself, but his words were drowned in a general clamour. Some of the victors,
stimulated, it is said, by the Legate, asserted that the promise of a safe
conduct had been fully redeemed by his return, free and unharmed, from the camp
to his own house in Ferrara; whence it followed that there was no longer any
impediment to punishing him as he deserved. Azzo di Este, the hereditary enemy
of Salinguerra, honourably opposed
such gross equivocation, but was overborne; and the Legate openly
vindicated this shameful paltering “ in a double sense.”(4)
Fortunately for the aged subject of this treachery, his enemies retained so
much sense of the ignominy they vrere incurring, as sufficed to prevent their
delivering liirn to his virulent accuser, Traversario, or to the Cardinal.
Salinguerra was committed to the Doge’s custody, and conveyed to Venice; where,
although a pri soner, he w as treated with respectful kindness, during the
four years that he survived; and where, in July, 1244, he tranquilly expired.
His prediction was as literally fulfilled i» regard to Ramperti and
Ferrara as to himself. The traitor was, as usuu., loathed even by those who had
purchased his treachery, and yet more by his fellow-citizens, when taught to
repent of their dastardly surrender. He fell into poverty, and died a despised
beggar. The folly of trusting to a conqueror’s promises was a lesson early
taught the Ferrarese. Badoero, the first Podesta given them, subjected their
trade to oppressive restrictions for the benefit of the Venetians. Marchese
Azzo, the next, extorted heavy pecuniary contributions, seizing the goods,
cattle, &c., of those who would not or could not pay his demands; and
exacted the continuance of his salary after lie had laid down his office;
whilst the Pope was deterred, by the fear of alienating valuable allies, from
interfering to protect the helpless town, now his own. Ferrara sank into
insignificance, and, some twenty years later, was obtained by Azzo’s son, in
vassalage of the Pope. He banished 1,300 Ghibeline fam';;es, whose property lie
confiscated, and divided amongst his Guelph partisans.
Ezzelino was earnestly preparing to relieve his brother- in-law, when
Ramperti forestalled his projected operations. Various circumstances had
prevented his undertaking them earlier, even had he conceived, which he could
not, Salinguerra’s need to be urgent. When Ferrara was attacked, he was engaged
in defending his own dominions against the. Guelphs; and succeeded in
preserving Padua, but iost Mantua, which remained subject to San Boni- fazio.
Ferrara being surrendered, and Salinguerra a prisoner, Ezzelino besieged Agna,
took Giacomo di Carrara Digitized by Microsoft ®
prisoner in a sally, and executed him as a traitor. Upon the Joss of the
Commandant, Agna opened ts gates; but the women of the captured city sought to
escape the consequent outrages that they dreaded, hv crossing the adjacent
lake. Crowding for this purpose into a sloop, they unhappily so overloaded the
little vessel that she foundered, and all were lost. A calamity apparently as
much laid to Ezzelino’s charge, as the execution of Carrara.
Whilst these things were passing in central and northern Italy, Frederic
had re-established tranquillity in the south, and raised a new Apulian army,
with w hich he hastened back to the chicf theatre of the war. He encamped
before Ravenna, where Traversario had died since his triumph at Ferrara. The
c'ti^ens, no longer stimulated by him, were alarmed at the vigorous
preparations making to assail the:r walls, and repented of having
given ear to his Guelph seductions. They flocked into the Imperial camp, to
surrender at discretion, and implore their pardon, which Frederic, in
consideration of their past loyalty and present penitence, freely granted. Upon
the 22nd of August, he again took possession of Ravenna.
If the gain of this town did not counterbalance the loss of Ferrara and
Mantua, the difference sufficed not to make the Pope’s position satisfactory.
The Estates of the Church were ravaged; the impression made upon the Romans had
naturally been but ephemeral; ho was in daily apprehension of a new revolt, and
utterly destitute of the sinews of war. He was, therefore, very desirous of a
suspension of hostilities, and upon one point he made up his mind to yield.
From the time of his excommunication, the Emperor had been constantly
demanding the convocation of an Gicumenic Council, which should reform all
abuses in the Church, and judge between him and the Pope. Gregory, to whose
despotic temper a deliberative, legislative assembly, was most repugnant, had
as constantly refused or eluded compliance. But he well knew that his refusal
was generally condemned, was disapproved even by, the devout, as unquestionably
orthodox, Lewis IX; and now, in his difSeuIties, he resolved to give way. He
summoned a Council to meet at Easter of the next
year, 1241 ; and, for the intermediate six months, he commissioned
Cardinal Colonna to negotiate a truce with the Emperor.
Frederic, sensible how detrimental to his interest was a war with the
Holy See, earnestly desired peace, and readily listened to the Cardinal’s proposals.
The six months’ truce was promptly concluded; but with respect to the Council
he was far from satisfied. It seems to have been previously customary, though
not invariably so, to give the Fathers of the Church a year’s notice of their
intended assembling; whether simply as due to the solemnity of an (Ecumenic
Council, and of the topics upon which they were to deliberate and decide ; or
whether, according to the means cf mediaeval international communication and
locomotion, a year was not much more than tbt time required for bringing
together prelates from the more distant regions of Christendom. Six months’
notice might seem a limitation devised in order to compose a Council, falsely
called (Ecumenic, wholly of prelates within easy reach of Rome; who, being
mostly creatures of the Pope, would, at his bidding, snatch from the Emperor
the power, now almost within his grasp, of controlling the ambitious and
implacable pontiff. Frederic, though expecting more justice from a Council
than from Gregory, could not be without fears of his influence over
ecclesiastics; and appears to have caught at this irregularity, as an escape
from pledging himself to be bound by the Council’s decision.
With this view, probably, he addressed letters to the Kings and Prnces of
Europe, representing the necessary unfairness of a Council convoked in this
manner. Others he addressed to the Cardinals, reminding them that they, who by
their very name, were the hinges (cardines) upon which the business of the
world turned, should not suffer the reverence, justly claimed by the occupant
of the Holy See, to degenerate into subserviency to the passion or the
prejudices of an unreasonably violent and ambitious Pope, or injustice towards
a wronged Sovereign. With less dignity, he employed Pietro delie Yigne’s pen,
to dissuade, in a very whimsical circular, the European Clergy from obeying the
papal summons. In this strange document, Digitized by Microsoft <®
the Sicilian Grand-Justiciary and Protonotario dwells upon the perils by
sea, from winter storms, and the Imperial fleets; by land, from the Imperial
troops ; at Rome, from malaria, venomous reptiles, the catacombs, and the
character of the treacherous and sanguinary Romans. He concluded in a more
diplomatic style, by pointing out to the intended members of the Council, that
the unscrupulously ambitious Pope, even if he should employ bribes and
promises rather than violence, to obtain a decision in his own favour, would,
having obtained it, indubitably extort immense contributions from them, as
necessary to carry out that decision.(5) To this circular Gregory opposed
another, rebutting every argument of Pietro- delle Vigne, loading the Emperor
with obloquy, and insisting upon obedience to his summons. The Emperor
retaliated by calling upon all his faithful lieges to prevent the repair of
prelates to the Council.
A favourable change, in one respect, had, mtanwhile, occurrcd in
Gregory’s condition. In England, Henry III, professing a vassal’s obedience to
the Pope, had assisted the Legate to wring from his reluctant clergy the fifth
of their income, demanded for the purpose of despoiling his sister’s husband,
and prospectively, her children, of the Imperial dignity. The sum thus
obtained, together with a profuse sale of indulgences, had replenished
Gregory’s coffers ; and no sooner were his pecuniary embarrassments relieved,
than the truce he had solicited became odious to him; and, upon the plea that
it did not include the Lombards, he disowned it The negotiator, Cardinal
Colonna, incensed at this disavowal of his authorized act, is reported to have
thus remonstrated: “ Holy Father, I will have no appearance of perfidy thrown
upon me by such a violation of my plighted word; and belter befitted it your
Holiness to make peace, than to send a reverend Cardinal back to a great
monarch with so unseemly a message,” Gregory wrathfully exclaimed: “ If thou
obey me not I will no longer acknowledge thee as a Cardinal!”—“ Nor I you as
Pope !” Colonna abruptly retorted; and with an immense’ train of relations, connexions,
dependants, and followers, quitting the Papal Court, be thenceforward attached
himself to the Emperor,
Other Cardinals began, about the same time, to complain of the Pope’s
obstinacy, and Ghi’oeline murmurs were again heard in the streets of Rome.(°)
Cardinal Colonna, when, with purpose thus changed, he again sought the
Emperor, found him before Faenza, which, upon the surrender of Raveuna, he had
proceeded to besiege. But before narrating the course of the siege, the
assistance, however small, received from Germany for forming or conducting it,
deserves specific mention, as coming solely from the three Swiss Cantons, since
so celebrated for their love of liberty—which was not disloyalty—SchVviti, Uri,
and Untcrwalden. Their faithful services upon this occasion were rewarded with
a charter that secured them, permanently, against transfer from immediate
vassalage to mesne vassalage under any Prince of the Empire.(7) To
withstand the violation of this charter, by such a transfer of their vassalage
from the Empire to Austria, these Cantons, under Tell and his confederates,
rose in arms, within' the century.
Faenza had expelled all those of her children who discovered any
Ghibeline predilections, and now boasted a population of 3(1,000 Guelphs, with
the. bold Venetian, Michele Morosini, tor their Poaesta. Their defence was as
gallant and almost as pertinaciously persevering as the siege, which continued
through eight months. The besieged were long encouraged by the pecuniary
straits of the Emperor, who only at such cruelly usurious interest could obtain
a loan, that the transaction has been adduced in proof of his profligate
extravagance and general maladministration. 'Phis is the occasion upon which
he was driven to coin leather; an expedient successful beyond his hupes. For
when the Faenzarts, relying upon his want of money, saw this intrinsically
worthless substitute, received, upon his word, as a satisfactory representative
of the gold angustale, their courage fell with their confidence. Overtures for
a negotiation were made, and the citizens would probably have at once
surrendered at discretion, as required by the Emperor, had not Greg.pry’s usual
emissaries, Mendicant Friars, stolen into the town, and by assurances that the
Milanese and the Bolognese were hastening to their relief, persuaded them to
renew their resistance.
These assurances proved fallacious. Direct assistance FaenZa received
from none; and indirect, only from Venice, through her prosecution of her own
schemes. The Doge, resuming the execution of his treaty with Gregory, for the
division of Frederic's Norman heritage, between the Popedom and the Republic,
led a Venetian tleet again to ravage the Apili'an coast. Several towns, easily
accessible from the sea, were burnt, and the inhabitants carried off to be sold
as slaves—probably, in defiance of papal prohibition, to Mohammedans—several
Apulian ships perished in the flames, and their crews with them. But no
diversion was thus wrought for Faenza. The Einpcror took such measures as he
judged necessary for the protection of his own dominions, but kept his army in
his camp, as though leaving the defence of Apulia to the Apulians. In divers
ways he retaliated the aggression; to compel a different employment of the
Venetian fleet, he stimulated other mercantile cities to send out cruizers,
harassing the trade of Venice ; he instigated Zara to revolt, again exchanging
Venetian, for Hungarian sovereignty; he requested his ally, the King of Tunis,
to break off all commerce with the republic, and desired his son-in-law,
Vatazes, to attack her Oriental factories. Finally, he ordered the son of the
Doge, who had been hitherto kept in honourable captivity, to be taken to the
sea-shore, there exhibited to his countrymen, to his father, as imperilled by
their hostility; and, should the menace prove unavailing, to be executed before
their eyes. To the policy of his country and his father, the unfortunate
prisoner was thus sacrificed.(8) Faenza’s last hope now rested upon
the approaching winter. But Frcderic ordered his men to make themselves huts
in which they might brave the inclemency of the season, and this hope vanished.
Hunger, in those days of unscientific war, the wonted conqueror of beleaguered
towns, now began to be felt within the walls; and the citizens sought to
lighten its pressure by sending away the women and children, with all non-combatants.
But, piteous as were the supplications of these outcasts, the Emperor refused
their petition for a passage through his lines; he would not, by relieving the
helpless, enable the strong to hold out the longer, shedding more
of his faithful warriors’ blood. Reduced to the last extremity, the
Foenzans now offered to surrender, merely soliciting permission to evacuate
the town in personE.1 safety, leaving all their property to the victors. But
Frederic, sternly enumerating their offences against himself, including an
attempt at assassination, and an insult formerly offered to his mother, ended
.with these words : “ In their arrogance they have, to the utmost of their
ability, sinned against me, and with me must it rest to inflict w’hat chastisement
I will.’’ The walls were in many places breached, mines were ready to be opened
into the very heart of the city, where famine now reigned. Resource there was
none, and, upon the 14th of April, 1(241, Faenza surrendered at discretion. In
gloomy resignation the citizens went forth, as to certain death. What words can
express the general revulsion of feeling, when Frederic pronounced their un-
condi.ional pardon? He could freely forgive, but would be neither bullied, nor
bargained with, by rebels. Can it be doubted that this had been his purpose
towards Milan?
Almost simultaneously with Faenza, Benevento surrendered to the Apulian
army; and there, by his orders, the walls were razed, and the citizens
disarmed. Frederic, confident of immediate powerful reinforcements from Germany,
now directed his march towards Rome, deeming the war well-nigh ended, and even
the obdurate pride of Gregory subdued. But a tearful storm was gathering in the
north, ere describing the progress of which, a retrospect of the state of
Germany, during the Emperor’s absence, will be necessary.
Conrad had, like his elder brother before Km, been left there, that the
name and presenceof the Kingof the Romans —child as tie was—might strengthen
the hands, to which the government of Germany was really committed. But,
•whilst the imperial father, influenced by political motives, thus severed his
child from his own superintendence, the bitter recollection of the crimes into
which, he had seen hi* first-born seduced, redoubled his anxiety in regard to
the education of the younger: and amidst the multifarious cares, toils, and
dangers besetting him, during his conflict with the Pope, he never lost sight
of this parental duty. He ordered Conrad to be early inured to the fatigues of
a campaign, and the terrors of the battle-field. At one time, being: led
to fear that the royal boy, even at his early age, was acquiring the German
vice of hard drinking, he ifldignsfntly sorrowful, ordered all, who could be
suspected of thus degrading the young King’s childish innocence, to be
separated from him, and sent to Naples, there to suffer condign punishment;
directing his future associates to be selected amongst persons distinguished
fo»- virtue and wisdom, who, both by precept and example, would lead him in a
right course. He himself constantly wrote the boy letters inculcating the
purest virtue, and breathing a high moral sense of kingly duty; warning him
against flattery and calumny, by the sad example of his unfortunate elder
brother—unfortunate only because criminal—and also against over indulgence and
idly neglecting his studies, to which offence, whether or not to drinking, an
eleven or twelve years old King may fairly be supposed prone.(,9J
Conrad does not appear to have benefited, as might have been hoped, by
such tuition. But, even had he more closely resembled his ancestors in
intellect and energy, he could at the period in question have no share in the
government, being a mere schoolboy; although historians, forgetting his age,
habitually write : Conrad held Diets, Conrad led an army, &c. All power was
vested in his guardians, who, by the Emperor’s commands, took him to the scene
of business, whether pacific or sanguinary. But this vicarious government was,
as usual, inadequate to repress feuds among the princes of the Empire: of which
the most material were the Duke of Austria’s with his neighbours. Frederic the
Combative began his operations for recovering his forfeited duchy, more
dexterously than might have been anticipated from his character. Whilst the
conflict with the Pope insured the Emperor’s absence, he won the loyal Duke of
Bavaria’s favour, by assisting him, to the utmost of his reduced means, against
his enemies, the Archbishop of Mainz and the Bishop of Freising; and then
induced him to unite with the Legate, in mediating his own reconciliation to
the Kingof Bohemia; which was effected by atfiancing his niece Gertrude, the
daughter of his deceased brother, with a promise of the
districts north of the Danube for her portion, to Pribislaf, or
Wladislas, eldest son and heir of King Wencesias. But the Bohemian succours,
that were to he the first fruit of this marriage, fell short of Duke Frederic’s
expectations; he reinstalled himself more by his own exertions than by their
aid, and, upon this ground, withheld, according to custom, the promised
portion. Hence he was again at war with Wencesias. Other feuds, then
troublesome, were those cf the Margraves of Brandenburg with the Archbishop of
Mainz and the Margrave of Misnia; of the Duke of Brabant with the Countess of
Flanders, concerning the double election of a Bishop of Liege; and of the
flourishing city of Lubeck, with her neighbours, the Earl of Holstein and the
King of Denmark.
But far more annoying to Conrad’s government than these evcr-recurring
broils, were the incessant intrigues of Gregory and his emissaries, to procure
among the princes a candidate for the Empire, and to induce the others to elect
him. The pontifical efforts thus to supplant both Frederic and Conrad were
unchecked by either disappointment in the search for an Emperor, or the
remonstrances of the German princes, ecclesiastical and lay, who adhered to their
chosen sovereign. A candidate for the crown was indeed found in the person cf
Frederic of Austria, to whom, holding his duchy in contravention to a decree
of the Diet, a chance of empire was ample inducement to incur additional risk;
but, entangled in his quarrel with Wencesias, he was unable immediately to come
forward. The Emperor, availing himself of this circumstance, commissioned the
Archbishop of Salzburg to negotiate a reconciliation with the Duke of Austria;
authorizing him, of course, to cancel the confiscation of the duchy. The
prelate, easily persuaded Frederic, despite his surname of the Combative, to
purchase the imperial sanction to his recovery of his principality, by
renouncing his more ambitious aspirations. The Duke never again forfeited his
allegiance.
Gregory was again without a candidate; but, exasperated by
disappointment, he was only the more immutably determined to triumph over the
Emperor. He now selected, as his chief agent in ssducing the German princes,
one Albert Behatn, Archdeacon of Passau; a man of
reckless audacity, unprincipled and crafty. By intrigues, bold, clever,
and varying, as required by the character of the individual attacked, Beham
succeeded in luring many to the pontifical side, and when he saw himself supported
by a party, respectable in point of numbers, he, hi Gregory’s name, threatened,
that if the whole body would not, in obedience to the papal mandate, elect a
new King of the Romans, the Pope would, by his own sole authority, appoint a
new Emperor, transferring the imperial crown to fin- other nation. Although his
having already vainly attempted so to do was known, this menace appears to have
literally frightened some of the most loyal princes out of their senses. Even
the Duke of Havana, terrified by the very idea of such a catastrophe, is
reported to have exclaimed: “ Let him then chuse his Emperor from amongst
ourselves!” Bitterly did Frederic feel the ungrateful desertion or Otlio, who
owed the ducal rank to Frederic Barbarossa’s gift of the Bavarian ducliy to a
Bavarian Palsgrave. But remonstrance and representation were powerless, as was
the prospect of seeing the imperial crown upon his daughter’s brow, by her
nuptials with the juvenile King of the Romans, to recall him to I is
allegiance. Gregory now anticipated a complete revolt, as certain; but his own
wrongheaded pertinacity and sanction of violence, in his agents, disappointed
his hopes.
The Pope, pleased with Beham’s successful adroitness in intrigue,
ventured to confer upon him spiritual power, interfering with that of the
Archdeacon’s ecclesiastical superiors. This, as a general rule, pontifical
policy avoided; habitually, as before stated, conferring the lega- tine
authority in every realm upon a national prelate; except when, especial occasion
requiring more direct intervention, a Cardinal, a I'rince of the Church,
superior in dignity to all prelates, was sent, as Legate, a latere, from Rome.
But now, Gregory, if he did not actually give Archdcacon Bcham the title,
invested him with the full authority of a Legate; which the insolently^ bold
Archdeacon exercised, as though >ntoxicated with the possession of such
power over his superiors. For refusing to elect a second King of the Romans, he
excommunicated bishops, and archbishops, who, naturally enough, treated
their excommunication by an inferior, as an idle insult. The Pope, as if
further to alienate and exasperate the prelate-princes of Germany, allowed his
Legate in France, a Cardinal, to summon them to Paris, there, in a country with
which they had no connexion, to give an explanation of their conduct. Upon
their disregarding the summons, the Cardinal both excommunicated them, and
sentenced them to discharge the debts he himself had contracted, with some
merchants of Sienna.
These proceedings fired the whole ecclesiastical body throughout Germany
with indignation. Their usual antiimperialist propensities were forgotten, and
at Beham’s repeated excommunications of the Emperor, in which he. now included
all who should dare to pray for him, they only laughed. Incensed at this
disregard of his legatine authority, the Archdeacon next deposed the Bishops,
whom he accused of imperialism, commanding the Abbots of Germany to publish and
repeat his sentences. Almost to a man the Abbots refused; and he now deposed
them also, ordering the monks to elect new abbots. Again, almost everywhere,
the monks, either sympathizing with their superiors, or fearing tbeir power
more than that of the distant Pope, in their turn refused obedience. Only some
few prelates upon the banks of the Rhine professed willingness to comply with
the papal mandate; for the most part adding, that their flocks forcibly
prevented their obeying; the cities, as usual, adhered steadily to the Emperor,
notwithstanding the decrees, adverse to their wishes, that he had deemed it
necessary to ratify. At Passau, the Chapter proved its loyalty, by expelling
the arrogant Archdeacon, whether spontaneously, or upon a hint from the
Emperor’s representatives. The incensed Beham hurried to the spot, to protest
against such a deprivation of his right, and there presumed to interrupt the
Bishop, whilst celebrating mass; when he was corporally ejected from the altar
and the church, by the athletic prowess of the episcopal arm.
The anti-papal excitement, thus produced by the irrational violence of
Gregory’s agent, could not but be shared by the lay Princes of the Empire ; and
VVenceslas of Bohemia, renouncing the factious disposition he had betrayed,
again
declared himself loyal. In the autumn of 1240, he, together with the
Saxon, Brandenburg, and Misnian Princes, attended a Diet held by the Archbishop
of Mainz at Eger; before which the Duke of Bavaria, whom two prelates, the
Archbishop of Salzburg and the Bishop of Ilatisbon, had vainly endeavoured to
win back to loyalty, was summoned, to answer the charge of treason. Otho, in
great alarm, hastened to Bohemia, not to present himself before the Diet, but
to claim the protection of his kinsman, Wen- eeslas. During his absence, the
young King of the Romans visited his kinswoman, the Duchess of Bavaria, to
remonstrate with her upon the Duke’s ingratitude, and point out to her, that
the same power which had raised the Wittelsbachs to ducal rank, could throw
them back into their pristine inferiority. And here Conrad may be presumed to
have actually performed the part assigned him by chroniclers; this remonstrance
being no more than what a clever, carefully educated boy, of twelve years old,
yet earlier initiated into public business, might feel, think, and say. Duchess
Agnes, though weak and bigoted, is believed to have been much impressed by the
words of her young cousin a,id affianced son-in-lawT; but her influence
with her husband was not what, from the splended portion—the palatinate—that
she had brought him, had been hoped. Otho was obdurate; and being disappointed
in his expectations from the King of Bohemia, applied to the Pope for support,
avowing that he could not, singlehanded, maintain the papal cause against
united Germany. And, in April 1241, at the very moment when Faenza and
Benevento were surrendering to the Emperor, Albert Beham wrote to Gregory, to
the same effect. Apparently sacrificing his own pride and ambiticn to promote
the success of his patron’s projects, he declared that unless Duke Otho
received effectual support, such as sending a Cardinal-Legate to Germany, armed
with power and authority to coerce the princes into electing a new sovereign,
the majority of them would assuredly cross the Alps, to reinforce their
Emperor.
One of Frederic’s steadiest, as well as most active and valuable friends,
will have been missed in this retrospect cf German affairs. Hermann von Salza
was no more;
VOL.
iv. 2
having died at Rome in 1240, whilst zealously, but ineffectually,
striving to soften the inveterate obstinacy of the Pope, and reconcile him to
the Emperor. As GrandMaster of the Teutonic Knights, he was succeeded by
Landgrave Conrad ; who, though firmly attached to Frederic, residing at Rome
and engrossed by the missionary war, and other concerns of his Order, took
little part in German politics. The main body of the Marians, under the
Landmeister, Hermann Balk, was domiciliated in the Polish province of Kulm, and
in Prussia; where, assisted by the Crusaders whom, in 1231, Gregory had called
forth, and by those whom the Knights’ high reputation, and the prospect of
booty, attracted, they had conquered and converted half the natives. The war
they carried on —no easy one, the Heathen Prussians fighting stoutly for their
idols and their liberty—was characterized by traits of chivalrous gallantry and
self-sacrifice that the historian of the Order may well delight to record. The
temptation to share his Drivilege may, perhaps, even in a more general history,
be so far indulged, as to allow mention of two instances. Upon one occasion, a
small party of these warrior-missionaries being defeated by the Prussians, two
Marians, taking post in a narrow defile, held it against the host of pursuers,
covering the retreat of their comrades, till these had reached a place of
safety; and they themselves, riddled with wounds, lay dead in the pass they had
defended. Upon another, when the provisions in a castle besieged by swarms of
Heathen were consumed, the garrison, much too small to confront the enemy without
the walls, retreated silently by night, to make their way, unobserved if
possible, to another fortress. An old blind knight, as the only way in which he
was still able to serve his Order, remained behind, to avert discovery of his
comrades’ departure, by ringing an alarm bell and signal bells, as though the
ordinary garrison business were proceeding. So he rang; his comrades effected
their escape unsuspected, to prosecute the war of conversion ; and he rang on,
until the Prussians, perceiving at dawn the walls to be unoccupied, scaled them
and cut him down at his post.
But on all sides the Marians were embroiled. The Digitized by
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Polish Dukes, who now felt themselves safe from Prussian aggression, fell
out with both the Pope anil the Emperor, touching the suzerainty over Prussia,
claimed the restitution of Kulm, and refused the Order further assistance. The
Polish bishops wanted back the lands ceded to procure defenders. The very
clergy, followers of the Knights’ career of conquest, denied and resisted the
Order’s ecclesiastical privileges; Bishop Christian, Intoxicated apparently by
his early success, taking the lead in opposition to the champions, whose aid he
had so earnestly solicited. The scene of their operations became moreover exceedingly
extended. In Livonia, the Sword-bearers, having proved unequal to contend with
the Heathen natives on the one hand, and the schismatic Russians on the other,
invited the Teutonic Knights to assist thorn. They sent a detachment thither
accordingly, who soon became all powerful; and, in 1237, the Brothers of the
Sword gladly merged in the more important Order. A body of Marians, under a
separate, but subordinate Landmaster, was thenceforward established in Livonia;
where, whilst the Bishop of Riga contested their rights, privileges, and
exemptions, they waged war, “ never ending, still beginning,” with the natives
and with Russians; occasionally battling with Swedes and Danes.
FREDERIC II.
Mongol
lntanion, — Russia subjugated—Poland overrun — Battle of IAegnttz—Devastation
<f Hungary—Affairs of Italy—(Jvuncil foiled—Ueath of Gregory—of CelesHn, IV
—Conclave—Mongols in Austria. [1241—1242.
The calamities, that
interrupted the victoriou scareer of the Emperor, and arrested Germany’s
preparations to support him against the inveterate Pope, are now to be related.
They appeared as forerunners, announcing the imminent annihilat ion of European
enlightenment and progressive civilization, by a second deluge of barbarism
and ignorance, yet more destructive than the first. The savage Mongols, after
the momentary halt occasioned by the death of Gengis Khan, a.d. 1227, had
resumed their torrent-like career, sweeping away all that obstructed their
onward course. In 1237, Gengis Khan’s son, Oktai, sent his son or grandson,
Batu, to complete the subjugation of Russia. Again the several Princes,
thinking more of internal broils, than of the common danger from barbarians,
whom as such they disdained, suffered the Mongols to advance, almost
unopposed, till the eastern provinces were a desart, and the Grand-Prince,
George Wsewolodowitz, in an attempt at resistance, was slain. In the following
year, 1238, the stand made by a Tartar tribe, called indifferently the
l’olowzans or Kumans,(10) and dependent upon a Russian principality,
caused another momentary stoppage in Mongol progress. During this respite,
Jaroslaf Wsewolodowitz succeeded his brother George, as Grand-Prince: but no
measures were taken
for profiting bv the manful struggle of the Polowzar.s, to
1 ° ■VigitizeaoyMidt'dsoftw ’
unite the forces of the several principalities, and stem the advancing
inundation. The western princes of northern Russia, heedless of the advancing
Mongols, were engrossed by wars with the Teutonic Knights, and with the Swedes,
for possession of Livonia.
The stoppage was, indeed, but temporary; the Polow- zans were
overwhelmed, and those of the tribe who would not submit to slavery under the
Mongols, fled with thcii Khan to Hungary. Bela IV gladly welcomed them as an
accession to the deficient population of his kingdom; and, upon condition of
their receiving baptism, gave them lands by the, to them familiar, Tartar name
of Kumans.
Bela appears, for the mument at least, to have found this increase of his
numbers more noxious than beneficial. The Kumans, unaccustomed to strict laws
concerning landed property, often preferred their neighbours’ fields to their
own, for pasturing their cattle; and we not seldom accused of offering violence
to the wives and daughters of those neighbours; an offence most intolerable to
the Magyars, who never, amidst the wildest excitement of victory, and in their
most savage state, were charged with anything of the kind.
In 1239, Batu, having mastered the Polowzans, again overran Russia,
pouring southwards. Jaroslaf now exerted himself to unite his vassal-princcs
for defence; but in vain. The Princes of Kiew' and of Halitsh, almost alone,
strove to aid him. Halitsh was one of the most powerful of the southern
principalities, apparently claiming—in opposition to Poland, Hungary,
Bulgaria, the Eastern Empire, and the provinces themselves—to include part of
Walachia, Moldavia, and Bessarabia.(u) Its Prince, Daniel, sought
support from his neighbour and ally, Bela; but Bela either trusted for safety
to the Carpathian mountains, the impracticable nature of which might be
expected to turn the torrent aside from his dominions, or was loth so to
provoke the resentment of the terrible barbarians, as to make them disregard
the di faculties of that natural rampart. He left his ally to his fate ; and
the only measure of precaution adopted by him, that of guarding the passes of
the Carpathian range, was taunted as cowardice, both by l.is subjects and by
his
German neighbours—alike rontemnors of dangers, unappreciated and still
remote.
Ultimately, Belas selfish policy availed him not, and either Daniel or
the Prince of Kiew, is believed, in order at once to bailie it, relieve Russia,
and punish the ally who failed them at their need, to have caused so alluring a
picture of Hungary to be placed before Mongol cupidity, as directed the course
of the deluge upon that country. Whether so instigated, or merely pursuing his
southward way, the mighry swarm proceeded towards Hungary; and Bela applied
himself diligently to repairing and improving all fortifications, in his
northern provinces. But Poland, as easier of access, again changed the course
of the Golden Horde, taking precedence in suffering. For the moment Hungary
escaped.
Boleslas V was at this time Duke of Cracow, and suzerain, although lie
cannot be called Sovereign, of Poland, seeing that the other Dukes, if they did
not deny his right to obedience, paid no attention to his commends. Thus,
Poland, as disunited as Russia, and far inferior in strength, was a vet more
inviting prey. Everything east of the Vistula was overrun and devastated;
Boleslas fled to Hungary, as several princes of southern Russia had done; and
the more manly Waiwode* of Cracow and Sandomir, who, with a hastily collccted
army, endeavoured to oppose the progress of the Mongols, were defeated with
great loss. No further resistance was there attempted. Bat the north-western
provinces of Poland did net attract the conquerors, nor did these, as yet,
assail the mountain barrier of Hungary. Moving onward, to the south-west, they
poured into Silesia. And, now, first taking alarm, Germany called upon the
Emperor for the help, she had been upon the point of effording him.
Whether the Silesit'.n duchies were then Polish or German principalities,
might be hard to say. The Dukes merely followed the example of the decidedly
Polish Dukes, in paying little of either allegiance or homage to their kinsman,
the Duke of Cracow; but they married German princesses; became daily more
German in mrnners, feelings, and interests ; and invited German and Flemish
colonists to settle in their dominions, the latter, as manu- Digitized by
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facturers and agriculturists, the firmer as miners; Slavonian skill
being then inadequate to extracting the mineral riches of the Silesian mountains.
Both classes of colonists were every way favoured and encouraged; the bulk of
the population, however, still consisting of the descendants of the original
Poles, was Polish at heart.
Henry the Pious, the son of Henry the Bearded, and of the since canonized
Iledwig, daughter of the Duke of Meran, and aunt of St. Elizabeth, was then
Duke of Lower Silesia. He saw that upon his small duchy the storm must next
burst, and prepared, as he best could, to meet it. lie summoned subjects,
kinsmen, and allies, to assemble round him at Liegnitz. His Poles and his
German miners crowded to his standard. His cousin, Micislas Duke of Upper
Silesia, and his nephew, Boleslas Margrave of Morav’a, hurried to '^in him,
with the forces they could gather upon the emergency, as did, under their
Ileermeister, Poppo, a small troop of Teutonic Knights(lz)— all that
could be spared from the separate conflicts of the Order—and some few German
nobles with their vassals; whilst the King of Bohemia, arming hastily, though
with less precipitation, premised to bring reinforcements, without delay, to
Liegnitz. To the more distant Princes of the Empire, now at length roused, from
their unaccountable apathy, to a sense of fast approaching danger, the Mongols
left no time for affording assistance.
In the very beginning of April, 1241, the whole Horde of these Asiatic
Barbarians, crossed the Oder and advanced upon Breslau. Part of the inhabitants
fled ; the rest took refuge in the castle; and the Mongols burnt the undefended
town. Whether they did or did not attempt tc besiege the castle seems doubtful
;(13) not so, that they could have neither the means nor the
knowledge requisite for conducting a siege; and that, leaving it untaken, they
speedily proceeded towards Liegnitz. Here, Duke Henry, at the head of 30,000
men, all that he had as yet been able to draw together, awaited the savage
host, variously estimated at from 200,000 to 450,000 men
Earnestly was the Duke advised to remain within the walls of Liegnitz,
thus avoiding an engagement, until reinforced, at least by Wenceslas and his
Bohemians. But
Henry the Pious, a tender father of his people, was no experienced
warrior; their sufferings, from the ravages of the Mongols, wrung his heart;
and, forgetting that his defeat must increase those sufferings tenfold, he
persisted in going forth, to do battle for their protection. As his army
marched out of the town, a tile from the ronf of a church fell at his feet.
Those about him, see’.ng an inauspicious omen in the accident, again urged him
to pause, and await the Bohemian succours, ere he engaged. But Henry, dauntless
as pious, perhaps needed no omen to tell him that he led the forlorn hope of
Western Europe; he had resolved upon his course, and he persevered.
His choice of a field of battle, like hi-s haste to encounter the
invaders, betrayed utter ignorance of the first rudiments of the military art.
Upon an extensive plain, that gave the Mongols the full benefit of their
tremendous numerical superiority, he met them ; but his arrai gements for the
shock of war discovered more judgment. The Mongols did not, as might be
imagined, trust wholly to their numbers; habitually employing stratagem to insure
their victory. The stratagem being, however, always the same, was by this time
sufficiently known to be guarded against. It consisted in sending forward a division
of their host, which, after a short combat, pretended flight, luring the
self-supposed victors, disordered by the ardour of pursuit, into the midst of
their swarms, where they were at once surrounded and crushed without a possibility
of resistance. Duke Henry, aware of this Mongol strategy, had earnestly warned
all his leaders against being so deceived; whilst, as a further preventive, he
divided his own army into several bodies, forbidden to attack simultaneously ;
so that, if one corps fell into the snare, still all would not be lost
Upon tfce 9th of April, 1241, the armies met upon the ill-selected plain.
Batu being absent, the command of the Mongols devolved upon Peta or Baydar, as
the name is diversly given. He, whether in imitation of the Christian array,
or that such was the Mongol practice, divided his host, likewise, into several
bodies, each of which was superior in number to the whole force opposed to him
; and one of these bodies he, as usual, sent forward to
attack. Boleslas, at the head of his Moravians, began the. battle by
gallantly encountering and defeating this body; but when his opponents fled,
he, in the exultation of success, forgot all warnings, all predetermined
caution: impetuously pursuing, he found himself, with his now disordered
troops, in the very midst of the Mongol myriads, ready to exterminate
assailants. All who were not fully protected by defensive armour, and many who
were, including the Margrave himself, fell under the tempest of their blows and
missile weapons. But, by the Duke’s arrangement, the destruction of One
division was not defeat; the whole army was, by this time, engaged, and
fighting valiantly. Micislas, of Upper Silesia, hastened forward to receive and
rally the fugitive Moravians, and still the fortune of the. day was uncertain.
The Mongols, unaccustomed to such resolute antagonists, were shaken; and Duke
Henry’s rashness seemed about to be crowned with victory, when Feta again had recourse
to artifice. A Mongol, who had acquired some words of Slavor:an,
crept amongst the Christian ranks, and, in that language, shouted, “Fly! fly
!’’(14) The influence of such a cry, the fatally contagious nature
of panic, are but too well known, and the utmost effect that could be hoped
appears to have been produced. All who heard the words, fled. Duke Micislas,
who saw the movement, without suspectnig the cause, concluded that a retreat
was ordered, and fell back, only Duke Ilenry, with his especial division, still
fighting. But so deterininately did they fight, that the Mongols, immeasurably
superior in numbers, as they were, again had recourse to art. They were
acquainted with some secret for producing sudden flames—possibly the Greek
fire, which the Mongols might have brought with them, even from China. The
Silesians are said to have been bewildered and terrified by the sudden appearance
of a dragon, vomiting tire,(15) over the heads of their enemies.
This would, in their eyes, be sorcery,—as such, probably irresistible; at
least, a proof that they were struggling against the allies of the Pow ers of
Evil. Even this division, therefore, now losing all selt-possession, fled. The
Duke was deserted by all, save the very few whom personal affection attached
to his side. Preferring death to the
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31
MONGOLS
OPPOSED IN MORAVIA. [1211
shame of retreat before barbarisms, with these few he stood at bay,
tighting on desperately, till each man lay a corse on the ground.
Again the Mongols were victorious; but a victory so obstinately disputed,
and by a force comparatively so small, was even more unsatisfactory than new to
them They tried, nevertheless, to turn it to account. Cutting off the Duke’s
head, they Axed it upon a pole, and, displaying their bloody trophy before the
walls of Liegnitz, summoned the citizens, upon this demonstration of their
prince’s death, to open their gates. But the newly- widowed Duchess, Anne, who,
with her children, was there sheltered, p.nd to whom the summons was reported,
was congenial in spirit to her lost consort. She felt that death was far
preferable to slavery amongst Barbarians. The answer she sent was : “ If the
Duke be slain, four princely heirs survive, whom the brave garrison and
citizens of Liegnitz will defend to the last drop of the^- blood.”
This was the very crisis of Germany’s fate, perhaps of Europe’s;
unconscious as the wrangling, more western sovereigns seem still to have been,
of the tremendous evils, hanging over them. Amazement, at the resolute tcne of
the heroic widow, deepened the impression made upon the Mongols, by the
unwontedly high price, at which they had purchased their victory, over the
despair of the heroic husband. And when, the next day, the King of liohemia
appeared with a new army, prepared to defend Liegnitz and oppose their advance
westward, which would have brought them upon his kingdom, they abandoned their
long steady movement in that direction, and turning to the South, ravaged Upper
Silesia and Moravia in their passage. In Moravia, indeed, they again
encountered more resistance than was agreeable to them ; Margrave Jaroslaf, who
had there succeeded to Bolcslas, repulsed them from the vicinity of Olrnutz,
and, surprising their camp by night, slew some of their leaders. They hastened
to resume their southward course, and now, despite the Carpathian banier,
poured into Hungary.
In eastern Europe the horrors of a Mongul invasion, and its imminence,
were by this time pretty generally Digitized by li/nciosoft ®
appreciated; and preparations were there actively making for defence.
They were equally appreciated by the Pope and the Emperor Frederic, by letter,
admonished all Christian kings and princes, of the urgency of their common
danger, exhorting them to cooperate in averting it Gregory ordered his Legates
to prcach a Crusade against these Heathen Barbarians; visiting, for that
purpose, the more central and western regions, where the impending catastrophe
seemed unthought of. The imperial letters and the Legates’ preaching seem to
have made little impression upon those, from whom the storm was still distant:
and Lewis IX is said to have satisfied himself with the remark, that, if the
Tartars came to France, either they would be sent back to their native
Tartarus, or they would send the French, as martyrs, to Heaven.(16)
Success was confined to those provinces where, from proximity to Silesia, the
peril was felt imminent. In some Saxon states the whole population, men, women,
and children, took the Cross. Conrad and his Counsellors convoked a Diet, to
decide upon the most effective means of averting the impending evils; and at
this Diet, he, and almost all the princes present, similarly took the Cross,
protesting that they did so, not in obedience to a hostile Pope, but actuated
solely by patriotic and religious motives. This anxiety to guard against any
suspicion of yielding to papal commands was presently justified by the conduct
of this little-Christian Head of Christer>dom. As though repenting of the
one measure suited to that character, i.e. the publishing a Crusade against
Heathen invaders who menaced the religion, as well as the lives and property
of the people, he again concentrated his enmity upon the Emperor. Even at this
moment, when only the union of all Christian realms seemed to offer a chance of
preserving Christianity itself, and with it, all that had been acquired or
recovered of knowledge and civilization, from extinction, the Pope accused the
Emperor of exaggerating the danger, in order to raise an army, with which to
attack the Holy See! Frederic actually dared not leave Italy at the mercy of
such a successor of the Apostle, even to superintend the defence of his
trarsalpine dominions, against the dreaded Mongols. He was fain to trust that
defence to
the temporary union, which clanger, and anger at the Papal pretensions,
had produced among the German Princes, and to the instructions he had sent
Conrad, for his conduct. The chief of these were to avoid pitched battles with
the invaders (had Honorious III or Innocent III still occupied St. Peter’s
Chair, the Emperor’s presence might have controlled Duke llenry, and the defeat
of Liegnitz have been escaped) and to guard, as far as might be, by prohibiting
all unnecessary consumption of corn, as in brewing and the like, against the
famine that must be expected, as the consequence of such general devastation as
marked the track of the Mongols,—who apparently desired to annihilate
agriculture as well as towns, leaving open plains, like the steppes of Asia,
for their herds of cattle
The calamity of Hungary, however, afforded Germany a respite; and of
this, although apparently but momentary, Albert Beham availed himself to urge
the Princes of the Empire to support the Yicar of Heaven against the excommunicated
Emperor, before turning their arms against the Asiatic savages, w ith whom the
Hungarians were very able to deal. Whether this might or might not have been
the case, had Bela, thus cruclly deserted, been suffered to follow out the
course he had prescribed for himself, is a problem now insoluble; but he was
not permitted so to act, and fearfully was Beham’s assertion confuted.
Bela, in accordance with Frederic’s plan of defence, avoided risking his
whole force 111 a pitched battle; hut in the eyes of the arrogant Magyars this
was rank cowardice, as had been his endeavour to guard the Carpathian passes.
So was it in the Duke of Austria’s, when, conscious that he must be next
attacked, he disregarded the Archdeacon’s exhortations, and hastened to the
assistance of his neighbour. Many detached bodies were encountered and defeated
by Frederic the Combative, who here displayed his accustomed headlong valour;
and ir, one of these partial engagements with the enemy, he took, amongst
other prisoners, two leaders. One of these proving to be a Kuman, he inferred
that the abhorred Kumans had entered Hungary only to betray it to the
Mongols—although half the nation remaining in Russia, subjects of the Mongols,
the captive probably belonged to that half: Duke Frederic and the Magyars
with him, hereupon murdered the Khan of the Hungarian Kumans with his whole
family, before Bela could interfere for their protection; and, most
unaccountably, as though this supposed detection and punishment of Kuman
perfidy, had averted all danger of Mongol conquest, and Hungary was rescued for
a bulwark of Germany, the Austrians went home.
The Hungarians seemingly adopting this view, forgot the Mongols, to
employ themselves in massacring Kumans; who therefore, instead of reinforcing
Bela, against their own old enemies, were either fighting wkh his subjects, or
seeking an asylum in Bulgaria. Bela, thus weakened, was compelled by his army
to give battle, the result of which naturally was defeat and ruin. His family
fled for shelter to Vienna; town after town fell, the country was laid waste,
and the Mongols seemed to intend exterminating the inhabitants, in accordance
rather with the original instructions of Gengis Khan—who pronounced compassion
the characteristic of a weak mind—than with their late, less sanguinary,
proceedings in Russia. The horrors perpetrated are sickening to record or to
read of; but what was Impending over Europe, what Gregory risked, rather than
forego or postpone his vengeance upon the Emperor, ought to be known. The
common practice was to divide the captured inhabitants into lots, according to
their age and sex, when the men capable of bearing arms were cut down without a
moment’s delay. The gieybeards were used as targets for practice ; being
ordered to hold up the left arm, whilst arrows were aimed at their hearts The
women and children were committed to the tender mercies of the Mongol women,
who accompanied their husbands and fathers upon this awful migration. These
female demons put all the young and good looking of their own sex, in whom they
could apprehend rivals, to death, keeping the old and ugly as slaves, after
first mangling them, as if for amusement. The children they obliged to sit
down, armed their own progeny with clubs adapted to their strength, and, as a
practical lesson, bade them beat out the brains of the infant prisoners. And
happy might young and old, thus promptly butchered, esteem themselves!
For many were lingeringly tortured to death, that their agonies might
divert the conquerors
Numbers of Hungarians, abandoning all ;dea of resistance to
these calamities, fled from them into Austria. The Duke is accused of having
plundered these refugees, the royal family included, and constrained the men to
take service under him. However detestable, if true, the first act laid to his
charge, the second is excusable if not absolutely justifiable; since in his
dominions, probably, was the next stand against the savage horde to be made.
Bela himself now fled ; and, after a short visit to Vienna sought shelter in
the Dalmatian islands. The Dalmatians still boast their exemption from Mongol
conquest ;(17) the invaders, occupied, and, for the moment, content
with ravaging Hungary, either not pursuing the fugitive King, or making an
inroad so slight, as to be easily repelled. From this asylum. Bela applied to
Pope and Emperor for aid, which he offered to repay by holding Hungary in
vassalage of the imperial crown. An ofier little calculatcd to obtain the
solicited Crusade-bull against the Mongols.
Bela’s petition found Italy convulsed by the civil war, which left the
Pope and the Emperor no more leisure now, to oppose the devastation of Hungary
by the Mongols, than previously, to strive against their ravages in provinces
more interesting to Frederic; to wit, Silesia and Moravia. He had no means of
succouring Bela, beyond the exertions which he had directed the German
government to make for the occasion; and could only inforce, by repeating,
those directions. In addition to the military calls upon his time and thoughts,
the Emperor was much occupied and troubled by the convocation of the Council.
The Pope’s epistles and the exertions of his Legates, had, throughout Europe,
been, for the most part, more influential with the clergy, than the imperial
adtnon'tions. In the very opening of the year 1‘241, Cardinal Otho, a son of
the Marquess of Montferrat, but, despite his relationship to the Emperor and
the renewed Ghibelinism if his family, a Guelph, left England, bringing Gregory
both a considerable sum of money, again extorted from the English Clergy, and
as many English prelates,(18) as he could persuade to accompany
him, for the express purpose of
dethroning their Sovereign’s brother-in-law. The Cardinal- Bishop of
Palestrina, who, if he had failed at the French Court, had succeeded in
obtaining, from the French clergy, both pecuniary contributions and members for
the Council, set out at the head of a large company, taking his way by Nice.
Cardinal Montelonga, upon hearing of their progress, quitted the scene of his
easier labours, Lombardy, and hastened to Genoa, there to announce that the
Pope Ijad explicitly forbidden the prelates tc traverse Italy, lest they should
fall into Frederic’s hands ;—he more dreaded their having an amicable interview
with him ;—and therefore, by arguments, promises, and if necessary, menaces, to
procure from the Republic the loan of a fleet, for the conveyance of the
Fathers of the Church to the mouth of the Tiber.
The F/mperor, learning the route of the Cardinals with thei*1
detachments of prelates, now adopted a more dignified and manly, if less
argumentative line of conduct- He sent messengers to the intended members of
the Council, to exhort or entreat them (Matthew Paris says, “ modestly and
humbly not to embark at Genoa, but to prosecute their journey by land, and
visit him on their way; thus to afford him an opportunity of explaining the
falsehood of the accusations brought against him, as well as the various other
injuries, done him by the Pope. They were to add, that, in case of the
Prelates’ compliance, the Emperor would not only guarantee, in whatever way
they pleaded, the safety of their whole journey, but pledge himself
unhesitatingly to obey whatever decision they, having heard both sides, should
pronounce. But that, if refusing this fair offer, they endeavoured to reach
Rome by sea, without hearing his statements, as he must hold them enemies, his
fleets would seek to intercept them; and should they chance to escape capture,
he would never submit to a verdict pronounced upon hearing one side only. The
prelates, under the influence of the Cardinals, refused to trust the promises
of an excommunicated man, and adhered to their original intention.
But not yet did the Emperor remit his endeavours to prevent this lostile
course. Pisa, by his desire, sent an embassy to Genoa, to remonstrate with her
great rival upon lending her fleet to convey prelates, so determinately
prejudiced against their sovereign, in order to constitute an unfair
Council; and, further, to intimate, that if she should, Pisa would be under the
painful necessity of endeavouring to prevent the vessels from reaching their
destination. The Genoese repulsed the warning as an insult, and Gregory, whose
chief fear seems to have been au interview between the Emperor and the future
Fathers of tbe Council, triumphed. But now Frederic ordered his Apulian and
Sicilian fleets, under the command of his son Enzio and of the Grand-Admiral of
Sicily, Ansaldo di Mare, to unite with the Pisan, under Ugolino Buzache- rini,
and, if possible, intercept the inimical prelates. The certain imminence of the
threatened danger was speedily reported at Genoa, .where the prelates still
awaited more of their brethren, and occasioned no little commotion there. Many
of the reverend fathers were alarmed and turned back, even from this advanced
stage of their journey. And, when it was generally known in Genoa, that the
Podesta had actually signed a convent:ou with Cardinal Montelonga
for the conveyance of those who persevered, an insurrection, provoked by fear
of the Imperial arms, broke out. But in a city so innately Guelph, this was
speedily quelled.
Civil and maritime authorities joined with the ecclesiastical, in
persuading themselves that the Emperor could have no naval force equal to
confronting the Genoese; and that even if he had, upon the wide sea there could
be 110 difficulty in avoiding his cruisers. Trusting to these opinions, the
prelates, upon the 2oth of April, scarcely more than a fortnight after the
fatal defeat of the Christians at Liegnitz, in the magnificent bay of Genoa,
amidst the acclamations of half the city, stepped on: board a fleet
of thirty sail. Prior to making Purto Venere they were met by the unlooked for
news, that the combined fleets of the Sicilies and of Pisa, consisting, the
former of twenty- seven, the latter of forty vessels, lay in wait for them near
Meloria, a small rocky island not far from Porto Pisano. Doubts and fears,
before unthought of, and consequent dissensions now arose. The prelates looked to
speed as offering the best chance of escaping the Imperialists. Many of fhe
Genoese Captains were for taking shelter in Digi zed ■by Microsoft ®
Porto Venere, until jo:ned by the reinforcements then in process of
equipment at Genoa. Others proposed to elude the Imperialists by steering; away
to the west; thus, circuitously, to reach Ostia or Civita Vecchia, whilst the
Imperialists were scouring the Mediterranean in search of them. But all these,
more or less judicious, plans were overruled by the Admiral, Guglielmo
Ubriacchi, who, as if to prove the figurative, if not the literal fitness of
his name (anglice, drunkard) to his character, (19) disregarding
alike the disparity of numbers, the terrors of his reverend and unwarlike
passengers, and the importance to the Guelph cause of their safe arrival,
insisted upon giving battle. He was quickly gratified; the first rumour of his
vicinity bringing forth his antagonists to meet him.
Upon the 3rd of May, the hostile fleets engaged off Meloria, and, as was
to be expected from the immense disparity of numbers, thirty against
sixty-seven, the Genoese suffered a total defeat. Three of their ships
foundered with their ecclesiastical freight, twenty-two were taken with theirs,
and only live, escaping by flight, carried theirs off safe. Three
Cardinals—Otho of Mont- ferrat, Gregorio de IVIontelonga, and the Bishop of
Palestrina, though whether all three were already cardinals is questioned—the
Archbishops of Rouen, Bordeaux, and Besanoon—the last, as a Burgundian prelate,
a vassal of the Empire—the Bishops of Agde, Carcassonne, Nismes, Tortona, and
Pavia, were amongst the prisoners, with many abbots, and deputies from Lombard
cities. No names of English prelates occur in this list; nor does Henry III
appear to have made, like Lewis IX, any demand for the release of English
captives; f20) whence may be inferred that, their original
reluctance being increased by the unwonted difficulties of the journey, how
much soever they had prepared for them, they either formed part of the band
that turned back from Genoa, or at least 'ingered in that neighbourhood, to
await the result of their brethren’s embarcation.(21)
The prisoners, both ecclesiastics and laymen, were
carried by the victorious fleet to Naples, and there closely confined; but so
roughly are they said to have been handled by the sailors—who, as their
Emperor’s bitter . Digitized by
Microsoft ®
enemies, hated them—that they felt their terra firmer prison a happy
asylum. Here, their treatment appears to have been regulated by the greater or
less degree of animosity they discovered towards the Emperor; some of the most
fiercely inimical are said to have been murdered, either by violunee or by
starvation. (!S) That Frederic was, by this time, thoroughly
exasperated against Gregory and his creatures, there can be no doubt; as
little, that, in those days, the servants of absolute monarchs would, far more
than now, serve the passions of their masters, beyond even those masters’
wishes; aad that human life was not then much respected. Still, as no names of
the slain are given, and the Cardinals who had been most virulently active
against him will be found uninjured, this accusation seems to class itself
amongst the ever-recurring exaggerations of faction. Other prelates, on their
way to Rome, turned back upon hearing of their brethren’s disaster; the Council
was thus indefinitely postponed, and the Pope’s enmity towards the Emperor
envenomed.
Lewis of France immediately demanded the release of his prelates, who
could not, he urged, be considered as enemies to the Emperor; since, even if
the Pope had acted unbecomingly, the charges, advanced by his Legates against
the Emperor, had been constantly repelled by the French Co art. Frcderic
replied, that he was justified in considering and treating as enemies those
who, when invited to judge him. refused to hear his defence ; and, for the
present, he detaired the French prelates with his other captives.
The victory at sea was quickly followed by one on land, which the army of
Pavia gained over the Milanese, 350 of whom they made prisoners, with their
banners and implements of war. In the Estates of the Church the Imperial
forces were equally successful, taking one town after another, till at length
Rome was well nigh blockaded by them.
The Emperor h.inself was then in Sicily, where, about this ti;ne, he was
visited by an English brother -in-law, Richard Earl of Cornwall, who, upon his
return from a crusading expedition to Palestine, landed at Palermo, to see his
sister, the Empress Isabella. The Earl was Digitized by Microsoft ®
cordially received and magnificently entertained; being himself a
troubadour of some reputation, he was a congenial as well as welcome guest, at
the literary, if luxuriously gay, Imperial court. Quickly conceiving both a
high esteem and a warm affection for his able an friendly brother-in-law, he
eagerly undertook to effect his reconciliation with Gregory. As the brother of
Henry III—a monarch so implicitly obedient to the Pope—and as a Crusader, he
felt himself entitled to influence, at Rome; not to be destroyed even by his
having performed his vow in the Holy Laud, when the Pope, still trusting
Jerusalem to the Mongols, required all Crusaders to turn their arms against hiw
personal enemy. Thus, in full confidence of success, since Frederic desired
only what was equitable, the Earl visited the Holy Father. Cut the Romans,
being at the moment upon good terms with their pontifical sovereign, received
him with insult and mockery ; and Gregory, more i.icensed than ever by the
defeat of his intended subservient Council, denounced the capture of the
prelates as a flagrant crime, and declared, that he could now' listen to no
proposal from the Emperor, short of an actual surrender at discretion. The Earl
of Cornwall returned in great wrath to the Court of Frederic, who merely
observed, that he was glad his brother-in-law was now satisfied of the Pope’s
inveterate hatred for himself.
1 his was about the last occasion upon which that hatred could be
displayed. The vicinity of the victorious I mperial troons prevented Gregory
from leaving Rome during the sultry months; and the malaria there prevalent in
summer, combining with vexation at Frederic’s triumph, and, perhaps, with
consciousness of his own unbecoming supinencss even in sight of the
all-destroying Mongols, proved too much for a frame bnrthened with nearly a
hundred years, and suffering under one of the most painful diseases to which
humanity is liable; if indeed at that age it be necessary to seek extraneous
causes of death. Upon the 21st of August, 1241, Gregory IX—indomitable as ever
in spirit, after causing an encyclical epistle to be addressed to the faithful
children of the Church, exhorthig them not to be depressed bv seeming
misfortune—expired.
The Emperor, when the tidings of this event reached him, declared that,
his dissensions having been with the Pope, not with the Holy See, and entirely
the result of Gregory’s idiosyncrasy, his wrongs would, he was convinced, be
immediately redressed by an upright pontiff; and suspended hostilities. He now
despatched Enzio, with 4000 horsemen, to assist Conrad against the Mongols, and
withdrew the remainder of his forces into his own dominions. It may, at the
first blush, seem extraordinary that he did not immediately hasten to Germany,
to direct iu person the defensive war against those terrible barbarians. But
he feU that lie had given Conrad an efficient coadjutor and guide in his
gallant son Enzio; a youthful veteran, in whose abilities he had perfect
confidence ; and who, as he could have no separate interest, must gain more
influence over his brother than the ablest, merely vassal- prince. And when the
evils be himself individually, as well as his realms, had suffered from the
enmity of the deceased Pope are considered, it is evident that whilst a matter
so momentous, as the selection of the spiritual Head of Christendom was in
suspense, he must needs be unwilling to cross the Alps.
The Cardinals, who had been present with Gregory at his death, were, bv
the Roman Senator and people concurrently, immediately shut up in Conclave.
But, being few in number, they entreated the Emperor to release their captive
brethren, that the award of a larger body might give more validity to the
impending election. Those captive Cardinals had shown themselves the especial
enemies of the Emperor, and their imprisonment was not likely to have softened
their hostility. Yet he immediately complied with a request—of which he
probably felt the justice—simply requiring each Cardinal individually to pledge
himself to return to his prison when the election should be over, unless chosen
Pope.f'3)
Of the ten Cardinals now forming the Conclave, five voted for Cardinal
Goffredo Castiglione, a Milanese, nephew to Urban III, and three for Cardinal
Romano The agreement of two thirds of the Cardinals, in Conclave assembled,
being indispensable to a valid election, neither of these was such, and both
were, accordingly, disclaimed by Die, jzed by Microsoft ®
the Romans. But however invalid the elections, Cardinal Otho thought
himself bound by his word to return to his prison upon their announcement; and
so pleased was the Emperor with this scrupulously honourable conduct, that
forgetting all past hostility, he treated him thenceforward with confidence
and respect. In regard to the double election itself, he decidedly objected to
Cardinal Romano, upon several grounds; such as, that he had instigated and
fomented the dissensions between the late Pope and himself* that he had
persecuted the University of Paris, and that he had insulted the Queen of
France with solicitations, peculiarly indecent in an ecclesiastic, &c. The
Cardinals remaining in Conclave, meanwhile, pressed by the discomfort of their
position, and by fear of the impatient Romans, on the l6th of October, concentrated
the requisite number of suffrages upon Castiglione. He was proclaimed and
acknowledged Pope, by the name of Celestin IV. If the other Cardinals were out
upon parole, tliev, like Otho, now returned to prison.
Celestin IV, though in comparison with his predecessor hardly to be
called old, was far advanced in life, and whether he would have realized
Frederic’s professed expectations from an upright Pope, time was not allowed
him to show. Scarcely had he consecrated a few bishops, and performed some
other urgently needed papal functions, ere he sank under the addition of
excitement and business to the burden of years. Upon the 2nd of November,
after a pontificate of seventeen days, he expired. The Cardinals, dreading a
repetition of their recent annoyances, fled from Rome before the event w*s
generally known; and again, upon the former conditions, Frederic permitted his
captives to attend the Conclave. But without those annoyances which the Princes
of the Church had avoided, the requisite degree of unanimity seemed to be
unattainable : neither during the remainder of the current year, nor in the
whole course of the next, could two thirds of the votes be united upon one
individual.
That this long papal interregnum (to use an analogical if inaccurate
word,) should prove as favourable to the recovery of lay supremacy, as the
contest for the empire had been to the establishment of ecclesiastical
domination,
might well be expected. But, either from a genuine religious reluctance
to be the aggressor in such a quarrel, or from conviction that if he were so,
he must incur the reprobation and enmity ot Christendom, the Emperor did not
thus profit by the opportunity. Professing friendship for the Holy See, and a
fixed determination to act as its official guardian, whilst helpless, because
vacant, he quietly awaited the issue of the Conclave’s deliberations. That he
equally neglected the opportunity relatively to the Lombards, making 110
attempt to crush their insurrection whilst destitute of papal support, leaving
the war with them wholly to Ezzelino, seems more extraordinary in so sagacious
a statesman : and the historian looks round for a probable cause. The only one
offering is, that in those days of small armies, whose chief strength lay in
their cavalry, the absence of Enzio with his 4000 horsemen, may have so reduced
Frederic’s force, as imperatively to require his limiting his military
operations to the prosecution of the war with Genoa: a war best carried on by
sea, the situation of the city and its territories—-guarded and well nigh
encircled by the Apennines—rendering an attack by land very difficult. The
indefatigable activity of his Grand-Admiral, Ansaldo ui Mare, incessantly harassed,
not only the Genoese navy but the Genoese coast; which, the moment he had
driven or lured away the protecting ships, he visited and ravaged. lie thus
penetrated into the very harbour of Genua, destroyed the merchant vessels
there lying, and escaped before the returning Genoese fleet could surprise him
in thpt hazardous position. The fruit of these brilliant exploits was the
securing to the Emperor, jointly with Pisa, the command of that part of the
Mediterranean, and the suzerainty over Enzio’s kingdom of Sardinia.
Neither was the opportunity altogether neglected with respect to
Lombardy. Whilst throughout Italy Frederic gained ground, Ezzelino was
extending his own dominions, at the expense of the House of Este, and strengthening
his power by a severity, which, if measured by the standard of the nineteenth
century, becomes unscrupulous cruelty. For instance, he put the young Conte di
Panego to death, without trial, upon an accusation of having sold Digitized
by Microsoft ®
Verona to the
Lombard League; and an architect, u hose offer to build him dungeons and
torture chambers,more horrible than had yet been devised, he had accepted,
he—as a classic tyrant of antiquity had done before him—made the first sufferer
from his own hateful ingenuity. In Tuscany, the Imperialists were decidedly the
masters. At Bologna, a Gliibeline faction was beginning to create disturbances,
though inefficacious. Irnola and Fano, openly deserting the republican
confederation, declared for the Emperor, who rewarded their conversion with
divers rights and privileges. Milan, his most inveterate enemy, distracted and
enfeebled by the internal contentions of all classes with each other, was at
this time unable to oppose him. The nobles, appearing lukewarm republicans to
the industrial portion of the community, were fiercely attacked by all the
non-noble; who again were disunited among themselves, the ultra-democrat'c
small shcpiveepers being dissatisfied with all above them. Combining together,
therefore, they constituted themselves the Association of St. Augustine, thus
to resist and control ail who had any share in the government. The superior
portion of traders thereupon formed an opposition Society, entitled La Mota,
equally hostile to the nobility. And nowwas Milan often rather distracted than
governed with two Podestas—each party electing its own, each with his own set
of officers— until in 1240, Pagano della Torre being elected Capitano del
Popolo, democracy gained the ascendancy. A contest for the vacant
archiepiscopal see, increasing after the tumults, ended somewhat whimsically.
Wearied with contention, all parties agreed, as a compromise, to intrust the
choice of their prelate to a Minorite Friar, influential through his sanctity,
his tloquence, and yet more through his ultra- Guelphism, Fra Leone da Perugia:
when, to the general amazement, the Friar nominated himself: chasing well.
These disorders, if they weakened Milan’s powers of insurgency against the
Emperor, interfered not with the wars she waged against her neighbours;
individual petty passions being, in these cases, more keenly excited. If the
haughty city, yielding to necessity, had made peace with Pavia, she was
actively engaged in hostilities with Como.
18
FAMILY
MISFORTUNES.
[1241
Any
exultation in which Frederic, might have indulged upon his deliverance from his
inveterate enemy, Gregory IX, and the advancement of his interests in Italy,
was damped by domestic afflictions. In the closing week of the year 1241, he
lost the Empress Isabella—apparently much the best beloved of his royal
wives—who expired in giving birth to a daughter; i*nd little mors than a month
afterwards, on the 12th of the following February, died his guilty eldest son,
King Henry. Respecting the manner of this death, writers differ. Boccaccio,
who, if not a contemporary, lived so near these times as to be something of an
authority,—he was bom a.d. 1313—says
that Frederic, judging liis first-born sufficiently punished, now summoned him
to his presence, intending to pardon and liberate him; but that Ilenry,
uninformed of the paternal design, in the terror of his father’s continued
wrath, looked to death as an escape. Therefore, watching his opportunity, he
flung himself from a bridge that he was crossing with his escort, and was
drowned. Giannone, on the ether hand, writing four or five centuries later, but
from documents unknown to Boccaccio, says, that he died in prison; and this
account, which most historians follow, best agrees with probability ; the
election of Conrad seeming to preclude the intention of setting so formidable a
rival, as a legally elected and acknowledged elder brother, at liberty.' et the
heart of the parent, softened by his recent bereavement, might deeply feel and
wish to alleviate the doom incurred by his criminal offspring; whose death,
whether natural or suicidal, he appears to have deeply regretted. As evidence
of such regret, he issued a singular proclamation, in which he first apologizes
at some length for being overpowered with sorrow at the death of an undeserving
son, pleads parental affection in excuse, and ends thus : “ Therefore do I
command, that, throughout my empire, masses for his soul be said, and all the
hallowed rites of mourning be observed; and as my faithful subjects cordially
rejoice with me in all my joys, so may they now prove their hearty sympathy
with me in my grief.”
About this
time the Emperor was solicited by the Palestine Barons, to appoint Simon de
Montfort, Earl of
Leicester,
who had insinuated himself into their good graces during a Crusade, Regent of
the kingdom of Jeru salem, until Conrad should be of age to assume the government
Rut Frederic had no inclination to int”ust so important an office to any alien,
least of all to a son of the despoiler of the Earls of Toulouse.
In Germany
the succours brought by Enzio had been much wanted, and proved very effective.
No sooner was the pressure of instant danger removed, by the diversion of the
Mongols to the destruction, rather than subjugation, of Hungary, than the zeal
of the German princes relaxed. And only, when from devastated Hungary the
tierce Horde fell upon Austria, had a crusading array assembled to withstand
the impending iuin. This army Enzio joined^ with his cavalry; and, under his
guidance, Conrad led the united forces to encounter the Mongols, as they
pursued their desolating course up the Danube. Being now in sufficient
strength, he gave them battle, and gained a victory that determined them to
fall back upon Hungary. Austria was onae more free; and though the Barbarians
remained masters of the adjoining kingdom, showing themselves savage as ever,
the general impression seems to have been, that the victory was, and must be,
decisive; that ttie Mongols were finally repulsed, a^d Germany was safe. The
Princes of the Empire at once returned home, the Crusaders, dispersing, did the
same, and those most exposed were left to ward off the evil as the) might.
Even whilst
the Mongols were overrunning Austria, and threatening the rest of Germany,
Albert Beham was authoritatively inculcating upon all who would listen to him,
that insurrection against the Emperor, the first of duties, was far more
imperative than resistance to the savage invaders. He thus completely and
irrecoverably alienated most Germans, from himself and his office. Vague suspicions
of some ulterior, nefarious design being now conceived, his letters to the
Papal Court were intercepted, produced at a Ratisbon Diet, and when publicly
read, were finnd to contain calumnies of his principal protector, Duke Otho.
The ducal protection being now—if it had not previously, when the
legatine-Archdeacon’s preaching ex-
VOL.
iv. 3
cited
disorders in Bavaria, been—withdrawn, the firebrand and his partisans were laid
under the ban of the Empire. Protection, however, he still found, and that in
ths Bavarian Castle of Wasserburg; but in it he was besieged and taken. After
such public proceedings, it seems strange to add, that his end is involved in
obscurity; but such is the fact. Some accounts make the vindictive Duke of
Bavaria put him at once to a cruel death; some let him effect his escape, after
an imprisonment, respecting the length of which historians differ; some
describe his subsequent seizure by the citizens of Passau, whilst imprudently
traversing a town where he was so well known, and being there flayed alive;
and finally others place him, years afterwards, under the wing of a pontiff,
far more unscrupulous than Gregory IX, to wit, Innocent IV. But, whatever were
the fate of Beham, his last offence effectually recalled the Duke of Bavaria
from his newly embraced Guelphijm to the grateful loyalty of his race.(24)
With respect
to the Mongols, in 124‘2 they again invaded Austria, and threatened Vienna. But
the emergency roused all neighbouring Crusaders, ho hastened to swell the
ranks of the army, which Conrad and Enzio, again accompanied by the princes of
eastern Germany, led to support the Duke. He himself, alarmed by the continuous
occupation of Hungary, had remained in a defensive attitude; and, under the
walls of Vienna, the combined forces met the invaders. The Horde was there
defeated, yet more thoroughly than the preceding year, and the reiterated
lesson proved efficacious. Driven back into Hungary, they did not again venture
to attack any German province; but Hungary groaned through very many more
months, under their ravages, and the natural consequence, famine.
FREDERIC II.
Election
of Innocent IV—Negotiations—Linocent’s Might— Hostility to the Emperor—Affairs
of the East—Position of Christians a>id M.ohammedam—Minor Crusades—Kharis-
mians—Mongols. [1242—1245.
The unaccustomed delay in lilling the vacated Chair
of St. Peter, had now begun to astonish and dissatisfy Europe. The Cardinals
imputed this dilatoriness in performing their most important function, partly
to the inconvenience of being absent from Rome—the Conclave sat at Anagni,
which they represented as, not their own act, but a compulsory escape from
Roman violence—chiefly however, to the incompleteness of their body, through
the Emperor’s imprisoning, amongst the Fathers of the intended Council, some
members of the Conclave. This last allegation—even supposing that their
Eminences thought irore of their own excuNation than of strict veracity—is
somewhat perplexing. ’;".ie Cardinal of Palestrina is the only member of
the Conclave whom there seems to be any reason—and that doubtful^5)—for
supposing detained in custody by Frederic; and that the absence of a single
Cardinal—if real—should be made so important, is, at least, strange. Or could a
release upon parole be considered a moral imprisonment, a duresse nullifying
votes ?
But, whatever
the plea, upon which the Conclave chose to transfer the blame of
procrastination from itself to the Emperor, the light in which the accusation
Mas regarded generally, or even by the devout Lewis IX, is by no means certain.
A letter, addressed in that Sovereign’s name to the Princes of the Church, is
indeed extant, in
which, after
rebufcmg them for thus long keeping Christendom without the Spiritual Head so
greatly needed, he promises them, ami the Tope they shall elect, his protection
against any monaich, who should aspire to unite the incompatible spiritual and
temporal sovereignties But 2ritic.1l inquirers entertain great doubts of the
genuineness of this letter; the tenor of which, in regard to the Emperor, is
little consonant with the sainted King’s previous or subsequent, conduct,
towards his brother Sovereign. He might, however, think the encouragement,
afforded by slightly disguising his real sentiments, indispensable to the
Cardinals ; and he might just then be indisposed to a favourable view of
Frederic’s proceedings, by anger at the seemingly causeless, protracted
detention of the French prelates, captured at Meloria, whose liberation he had
vainly demanded; whilst there assuredly was some reason to suppose that a monarch,
so cruelly persecuted by one Pope, would hardly promote the election of
another. There is, nevertheless, in Frederic’s conduct, nothing to justify such
a suspicion. He was constantly urging the Cardinals to fix their choice : ana,
in 1242, he nearly, if not quite, annihilated the plea, for their complaints of
himself as the real impediment to an election, by setting almost all the
captive prelates at liberty. But neither this removal of the alleged principal
obstacle, nor the exhortations of the new Grand-Master of ihc Teutonic Order,
Gerhard von Malbe.rg, whom he sent to urge the performance of this momentous
duty, had any perceptible effect in expediting the movements of the Conclave;
and the Emperor now addressed a rebuke, sharper than the French King’s, to the
Cardinals. He explicitly taxed them, with grudging each other the exaltation
that each desired for himself; and, little heeding, amidst this selfish
strife, the perils to which they were exposing the Church, the souis committed
to their care, and Christendom’s sell. This epistle proving as inefficacious
as Lewis’s, Frederic now, as a coercive process, invaded the Estates of the
Church; where, in the course of the summer and autumn, he took several towns;
but still their Eminences deliberated, apparently unmoved. He then turned his
arms against the possessions of individual
Cardinals ;
and this measure was not without influence. The Conclave petitioned the Emperor
to withdraw his truops, promising to elect a Pope without fuither delay. The
Emperor complied; but the hesitation of the Conclave was not at an end. The
spring of 1243 passed away; the summer began, arid still Christendom was
without a Spiritual Head. Not till the latter end of June was the Cardinals’
promise fulfilled, and Sinibaldo Fiesco, Conte di Lavagna, and Cardinal of San
Lorenzo, proclaimed Pope, by the name of Innocent IV.
The family of
the Fieschi belongs to the nobility of Genoa; but, as descending from the
vassal-sovereigns of Bavaria, and therefore ranking with the Princes of the
Empire, looks down upon those nominal compeers. Sinibaldo, the fifth son of
Conte Ugo, had been educated in all the general learning of the times, as well
as specifically for the Church. Civil and canon law he had studied at Bologna,
under the most celebrated professors of that tlourish;ng University;
and was distinguished alike for legal and theological science. He was renowned
not only as a friend and patron of the learned, but as having fixed his own
rank amongst them, by Commentaries upon the Decretals, and by Expositions of
some parts of the Bikle. Cardinal Ugolino, when commissioned to mediate a
peace between Pisa and Genoa, found him so able and, though a Genoese, so
impartial an assistant, that Honorius III, then Pope, recompensed his services
with the post of Vice-Chancellor of the Holy See ; and Cardinal Ugolino
himself, when, as Gregory IX, ha succeeded Honorius, immediately created him
Cardinal of San Lorenzo in Lucina; habitually availing himself of his abilities,
in all thorny and tangled negotiations ; provided they were not inimical to the
Emperor. The Fieschi being so thoroughly Ghibeline, that one branch of the
family had quitted Genoa solely to avoid the Guelphism of their native city;
domiciliating themselves at Parma, then eminently loyal. Individually, the
Cardinal of San Lorenzo had ever been a zealous adherent of the Emperor, and,
as such, highly favoured by him.
Great,
therefore, was the joy which the tidings of Cardinal Fiesco’s election diffused
through the Imperial
INNOCENT IV
POPE.
[1243
Court, and
globing were the congratulations offered to the Sovereign upon the accession of
a friendly Pope, under whose pontificate all difficulties and annoyanccs mast
needs disappear. Frederic, clearer sighted than his courtiers and ministers, as
tc the character, whether of the man or of the papacy, shook his head, as he
replied, “ Rather lament that I have lost a powerful friend in the College of
Cardinals. No Pope can be a Ghibe- line.” But this answer was given only to his
most trusted councillors, prudence requiring the concealment of this
conviction. lie wrote to divers prince*, expressing his hopes that peace in the
Church would be the fruit of Cardinal Sinibaluo’s election lie ordered public
thanksgivings for this result of the Conclave’s deliberations, which he
celebrated by a grend festival. He sent an embassy, composed of his most
distinguished vassals and ministers, as the Teutonic Grand-Master, the
Archbishop of Palermo, the Grand-Adr-iiral Ansaldo di Mare, Pietro delle Vigne,
and Taddeo da Suessa, the Apulian Grand- Judge, to congratulate the new Pope
upon hi.s election, and to negotiate the revocation of the anathema under which
he lay, together with the restoration of peace between the two Heads of
Christendom. They were likewise bearers of an autograph letter from the
Emperor, expressing his hope that he should now find in the Church no longer a
stepmother, but a genuine parent; to whom, in that trust, he proffered filial
love and duty, hailing the name, Innocent, as an auspicious omen, auguring the
reign of peace, justice and friendship, between the Popedom and the Empire.
Bat
Frederic’s secret fears, not his professed hopes, were prophetic, and the name
chosen was an omen, far less auspicious than it might seem. The new Pope meant
to show that he took Innocent III, as his prototype; but he imitated him only
in his ambition, and his determination to exalt the papal above all temporal
sovereignty. He was, in truth, a caricature of the faults of that really great,
and, despite his errors, virtuous, pontiff; destitute of his excellences, of
his personal disinterestedness, of his conscientiousness, and, above all, of
his pure and lofty, if impracticable, views of papal sovereignty. The am-
bition of
Innocent IV was of coarser kind, aggressive and worldly in character, like
Gregory VII’s; unsusceptible of the spiritual tone distinguishing Innocent
Ill’s, even when directed to temporal acquisitions. Moreover, in opposition to
both those Popes, the ambition of Innocent IV, was wholly for the Pope, not
for the Church; and he oppressed the clergy, nearly as much as he endeavoured
to oppress princes.
The Imperial
mission crossed, upon the road, a Papal mission to the Emperor, bearing
analogous professions of good will, thinly veiling those altered views that
Frederic apprehended. Innocent IV, anxious for the peace of Christendom,
paternally invited Frederic II, to say, what satisfaction he proposed making to
the Church, for his offences against her; and indulgently added, that, should
Frederic deny that he was it>. fault, fancying the Church had wronged him,
though this was manifestly imDOSsible, the Pope would frankly call upcn ell
Christian Kings and Princes, to assemble and judge between them; when he would
accept whatever terms of reconciliation they should pronounce just, provided
every friend of the Church were included in the treaty.
When the
negotiation really began, even these paternal professions melted away, and
httle prospect of a reconciliation appeared. The Imperial Envoys had
complaints to make, instead of any specific satisfaction to offer; and Innocent,
instead of inviting a congress of sovereigns to judge between himself and the
Emperor, required the latter, as a preliminary, to evacuate the Papal
dominions, and submit his differences with the Lombards unreservedly to his
own arbitration. The Imperial Envoys observed that Frederic had already taken
the initiative in conciliation, by freely releasing all the captured prelates,
and, instead of finding his liberality reciprocated, saw his faithful vassal,
Salinguerra, who was accuscd of nothing but loyalty, still pining in exile and
prison; whilst, w ith respect to the Lombards, when his differences with them
were before unreservedly submitted to a Pope’s arbitration, the umpire had not
previously, by pronouncing or maintaining a sentence of excommunication
against the Emperor, shown himself his enemy; and yet, even then, had the
arbitra-
5G
BALDWIN;S
VAIN INTBEvEMION.
[1242
tion been
unfair. The Pope urged that he was pledged not to treat for peace separately
from his allies, the Lombards ; the Envoys rejoined, that rebellious vassals
must be judged by their peers, the Estates of the Empire, before thsir liege
Lord, the Emperor, could treat with them. The Pope doubted, whether the
Lombards were so completely vassals of the Empire, as to require such a course
; and the Envoys received the doubt as an insult to their Sovereign,
Baldwin II,
of Constantinople, and Raymond VII, of Toulouse, uninvited, interposed their
good offices, in the hope of softening the Pope. The Earl felt that the enormous
sacrifices made by his father and himself to conciliate the Church, entitled
him to some consideration on her part, 1 and Baldwin was under obligation to
Frederic. He had endeavoured to take advantage of a war between Vatazes and the
other Greek Princes, by proposing to Kai Khos- rou, Sultan of leonium, aji
offensive alliance against the neighbour of the cne, the rival—for the Eastern
Empire —of the other. The Sultan, whose mother was a Greek Christian, declared
himself well disposed to such an alliance, provided that a Christian Princess
were, as a preliminary, given him to wife—apparently a taste of the Iconium
Seljuks(26)—pledging his word for her enjoying the free exercise of
her religion, with all necessary attendance of priests, &c. And he further
promised, in consideration of such a marriage, to place his Christian sub
jects under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Baldwin, having no daughter of fitting age, requested n:s sister and
her husband, Eudes de Montaigne, to send bin? one of theirs, through whom he
might become the Moslem Sultan’s uncle and ally: and he entreated the pious mother
of the pious Lewis IX, to influence them to comply with his request. Again, no
repugnance tc the connexion appears; but, whilst this treaty was pending,
Vatazes had made peace with his compatriot foes, and was pressing Baldwin so
closely, that the imperilled Byzantine Emperor, unable to await its result, had
no immediate resource, save obtaining, through Frederic’s intervention, a
year's truce from Vatazes. This respite he had employed, in visiting western
Europe, there Digitized by Microsoft ®
to seek the
assistance requisite for the preservation of his throne; and he saw that,
whilst the Pope should be engrossed by his quarrel with the German Emperor,
such assistance vi as unattainable. His interest, therefore, combining with
gratitude for Frederic’s mediation, he zealously endeavoured to effect their
reconciliation. But hiu efforts, and those of the Earl of Toulouse, were
fruitless. Innocent grew more and more unyielding, as his intrigues, in the
cities that had either been conquered by, or declared in favour of, Frederic,
ripened.
Amongst these
towns, Viterbo, which the Emperor, during a brief sojourn, had captivated by
his majestic courtesy, and to which he had by charter granted unusually large
rights and privileges, seemed the most firmly attached to him. But even there,
the Bishop, Cardinal liainiero Capocci, had created, or revived, a factious
Guelph spirit, which he was gradually extending. At his instigation,
complaints of oppression by the Governor, Simone di Theano, were addressed to
the Emperor; who, alive to the importance of conciliating Viterbo, without
inquiring into the justice or injustice of the complaints, appointed the Conte
di Caserta to supersede him. Bat before Caserta could arrive to take his place,
Capocci had succeeded in provoking a Guelph outbreak. Theano was suddenly
accused of threatening to destroy the town; was attacked by the factious,
defeated, compelled to shut himself up in the castle, and there besieged.
Caserta, who had been prepared only for the peaceable occupation of an otfice
peaceably resigned to him by his predecessor, learning upon liis road what had
happened, felt that he, with only his small escort, was unable to relieve
Theano. He requested reinforcements of the Emperor, and halted to await them.
Frederic brought them in person, and the Cardinal, whose utmost efforts the
castle still defied, taking fright at the idea of the Emperor’s presence,
entreated the Patriarch of Antioch to interpose, and, upon the plea of Theano’s
tyranny, appease, if possible, the Imperial resentment. The Patriarch replied,
that the plea was worthless, inasmuch as the Emperor had already, upon their
complaint, superseded Theano, before the Viterbans took the redress of their
supposed grievances into their
own hands,
and declined to interfere. The Cardinal then sought help from Innocent, who,
unprepared as yet for an open breach with Frederic, would not publicly
countenance such proceedings; but, by a secret pecuniary supply, enabled him to
raise troops for the defence of Viterbo. With the means of paying, Cardinal
Capocci procured recruits from the veriest rabble of Rome—Ghibeline as Rome
then professed herself—as well as from the vagabonds and ruffians of the
neighbourhood.
Frederic
appeared before Viterbo at the head of an army; but, being far more anxious to
relieve Theano and his troops, who might, he feared, be starved in the castle,
than to punish the mutineers, he offered liberal terms of capitulation. The
Cardinal, now confident in his numbers, mads the Viterbans believe these
offers perfidious, and their destruction predetermined. They therefore rejected
the Emperor’s clemency. A desperate assault was the answer to this rejection;
it was as desperately resisted, and ultimately repulsed. The siege was now
regularly formed, and all the improvements, to which military engineering had
yet attained, were brought into play on both sides. The besiegers lilled the
ditch with fascines, which enabled them to bring the moveable towers and their
scaling ladders on wheels, close up to the walls, over which they threw Greek
lire—here seemingly, first employed by western Europeans—and to station carts
laden with combustibles almost in contact with the gates intended to be burned.
The besieged extinguished the Greek fire with vinegar, abundantly provided
for the purpose, and by secret communication with the ditch, set the fascines
on fire. But this conflagration, whilst repulsing the assailants from the
walls, equally rendered them untenable for their defenders; and hostilities
were unavoidably suspended. Tiie Imperialists made the most strenuous exertions
to rescue theii endangered machinery; but at this critical moment the wind
changed, breeze fro.n the north blowing the flames outward from the town wall,
left the station of the besieged clear, and again the Viterban archers and
engineers plied the besiegers—whom their anxious labours amidst perils from
fire, exposed unprotected—with darts and stones. One
of these
stones unfortunately struck a knight who in person greatly resembled Frederic.
As he fell from his horse, a cry of, “The Emperor is slain'” resounded; and the
troops, in utter dismay, abandoning their engines, fled for shelter to their
entrenched camp.
Frederic was
greatly depressed by this accident, which reduced him to beginning even his
preparations over again, and he next day gladly received overtures from the
Pope, through Cardinal Otho. Innocent—who professed to retain his old affection
for the Emperor, and doubtless did wish rather to coerce him into thorough
subserviency, than to crush him—proposed a suspension of hostilities, in order
to treat; with free egress from the Castle of Viterbo for Theano and his
troops. To this the Emperor will'ngly acceded, and Otho entered the town to
enforce observance of the convention. The result was not encouraging. The
little garrison, in reliance upon the terms, left their stronghold, carelessly
straggling through the town on their way to the Imperial camp; when the
Viterbans and their auxiliary rabble suddenly fell upon the incautious
Imperialists, plundering, butchering, and throwing, those whom they did not
massacre,into prison; CardinalCapocci is accused of purposely exciting this
treacherous, sanguinary riot, though guilty,perhaps, only ol'neither guarding
against nor checking it. Cardinal Otho, at the risk of his own life, strove to
supply the last omission, and rescue the assailed, but in Vain. And in
bitterness of spirit Frederic wrote to him: “Tell me, what am I to expect, to
hope, to fear; if truth, shame, oaths, and conscience, be no longer of avail?
By what bonds shall men be held, when a holy Legate, yea, a Cardinal, a name
venerated by the nations, violates his promise.”
The
successful revolt of Viterbo proved the signal for others. In Lombardy,
Vercelli and Alessandria again joined the League; the Marquess of Montferrat
again deserted his imperial kinsman, and the long-faithful Marquess Malaspina
followed his example. Even the Queen of Sardinia, regardless of her husband
Enzio, who, fighting his father’s battles, was absent from her, sought a
reconciliation with the Pope. Innocent, 011 his part, overpowered the
opposition of the Frangipani, and on the
15th of
November, in great pomp, made bis entry into Home. A sedition was, indeed,
provoked by his delaying to pay a debt cf 40,000 marks, incurred by Gregory IX,
to some Roman traders; but quickly suppressed by his energy and address.
When the Pope
was thus established in his metropolis, the Emperor sent Pietro delle Vigne and
Taddeo da Suessa, in company with the Earl of Toulouse, to renew the interrupted
negotiations; not only pledging himself to accept any conditions to which they
might’agree, but undertaking that the Princes of the Empire should be security
for hi.s so doii'g. Trusting that these offers must satisfy Innocent, and be
met by moderate terms, he invited the German Princes to Verona, that they might
there in person guarantee brm to the Pope; and requested his brother-in-law,
the King of England, to witness, through a special embassy, the final
settlement of dissensions so momentous, and his readmission into the bosom of
the Church; thus to enhance the solemnity of the transaction.
The Imperial
plenipotentiaries seem to have thought that, whatever the price, the Emperor
mvst be 'relieved from excommunication; so absolute v, as the submission
required by the terms, to which, in his name, they agreed. Dictated by
Innocent, these were as follow:
The Emperor
shall, first, restore all conquests made since his excommunication:—secondly, shall
declare that, not out of disrespect for the Church had he slighted his excommunication
by Gregory IX ; but this not being regular!;,' announced to him, he had
considered it as non-existent; confessing that herein he had erred, since he
knows and firmly believes the Pope to possess, in spiritual concerns, absolute
authority over him, as over all Christians, kings and princes, clergy and
laity:—thirdly, shall in satisfaction of this error supply the Pope with
whatever troops and money he may require, keep fasts, and give alms according
to the Pope's directions, submitting humbly to his sentence of excommunication,
until the Holy Father may see fit to relieve him :—• fourthly, shall make
compensation to the captured prelates for loss of property, to churches and
ecclcsiasfics for damage suffered, according to the assessment of the Pope and
three Cardinals: —5thly, shall build and endow churches and lios-
1245]
FRliDEitlc’s
ENVOYS PLEDGE HIM.
Cl
pitals, as
the Pope may require :—sixthly, shall withdraw his garrisons from all
fortresses not his own :—seventhly, shall allow divers nobles of northern and
central ItdU to do homage vicariously :—eighthly, shall conjointly with the
Pope, appoint an Italian Judge to decide al sn.ts, civil and criminal, between
Italiar Guelphs and Ghibe- lines:—and, finally, shall release all prisoners,
canccl all convictions, and, grant the fullest amnesty conceivable. Upun these
conditions the Emperor was to retain his honours, rights and dominions, and to
be formally relieved from excommunication.
To these
terms, upon the 31st of March, 1244, in presence of the Emperor Baldwin, of
the Roman Senator, and of an immtnse concourse of the Roman people, the
Imperial Embassadors, by oath, plsdged the Emperor. Frederic had engaged to
abide by what they should conclude : and to the mortii’ying terms he made no
objection ; but he raided a question respecting two points which were left
unsettled; to wit, the order i i w hich the conditions were to be executed, and
the future relation of the Lombards to the Empire. The Emperor averred, that he
could not be expected to evacuate all his conquests, release all his prisoners,
&c. &c., without receiving some security for the promised subsequent
relief from excommunication ; but he proposed to restore part of those
conquests, if the Holy Father would then receive him back into the bosom of the
Church; anil meet him, when thus freed from excommunication, in a personal
interview, conjointly to arrange the mode of execufng the other conditions, and
determine the relation of the Lombards to the Empire.
Innocent, on
the other hand, asserted, that should he revoke the excommunication before the
conditions were fulfilled, he should have no security for the subsequent
execution—an evidently fictitious difficulty; since nonexecution of the terms
would abundantly justify the renewal of the anathema. The advantages which the
Emperor was required preliminarily to give up, could not be thus easily
regained. An interview the Pope seemed billing to grant the Emperor, even
whilst excluded by the ban of the Church from Christian fellowship; he
authorized Cardinal Otho to intimate that, for the sake of easier ccmmu-
nieation, he
would remove from Home to Civita Castel- lana ; bat, unless the Lombards were
satisfied, peace could not be restored. Freduric’s anxiety for his
reconciliation to the Church may be appreciated, from his now consenting to
submit his quarrel with the Lombards, as it stood before his last
excommunication, to the arbitration cf the Pope, unfriendly as he showed
himself. If he afterwards somewhat modified the concession, by observing, that,
a treaty concluded, as was the Peace of Constance, under the sanction of the
Diet, he had no power, save with the concurrence of the Di?t, to alter; he
added that, to whatever the Princes of the Empiie should approve, he would
consent.
Whilst the
negotiations were thus advancing, some degree of reciprocal irritation, the
offspring of trifles, chiefly of words reported, and probably exaggerated, by
individuals, who found war more profitable than peace, was arising. No doubt,
many an ejaculation of anger, at the concessions extorted from him as the price
of sheer justice, would escape the Emperor, and be carried to the Pope; whilst
many an arrogant speech of Innocent’s, such as, that his seizure of the
prelates should cost Frederic
400,000 marks; that vainly should he implore the
settlement of the Lombard question ; and the like, would be as diligently made
known to the Emperor. Notwithstanding these rubs, the negotiation advanced. If
Frederic had not begun the promised evacuation, he had proposed that two
Cardinals should be appointed by the Pope, to arrange with him the order of
proceeding; Innocent had approved the idea; and, though he had not yet selected
the Cardinals, announced his purpose of removing to Sutri for yet speedier
intercourse. All appeared happily progressive ; when, early on the morning of
the 30th of June, 1244, the astounding intelligence reached the Imperial Court,
that the Pope had vanished! Astounding it seemed to Guelph as to Ghibeline.(27)
Innocent,
haughtily self-confident, as the hard terms so arbitrarily dictated to the
Emperor exhibit him, had, durirg the whole negotiation, felt himself really in
the power of the monarch, whose troops occupied his dominions, and had,
therefore been preparing for flight. By patriotic letters, addressed upon his
election, to his native Digitized by Microsoft ®
Genoa, taking
the Republic under the immediate and especial patronage of the Holy See, he had
stimulated the Guelph zeal of his countrymen to enthusiasm. He had since,
probably upon Frederic’s declining; implicitly to trust his promise, sent Fra
Bojolo, a Minorite, secretly to Genoa, bearing his request for rescue through a
fleet, from the imminent danger of imprisonment, by the faithless because
Godless, Emperor. The Friar upon his arrival solicited and obtained a private
audience of the Podesta, Filippo Vicedominio, a nobleman of Piacenza; who at
once assented to the Holy Father’s desire. But, perfect secrecy being held
ind'spensable to the success of the scheme, the Podesta sought to deceive the
Emperor by affecting animosity to the Pope. To this end, he positively refused
to one of the Pope’s nephews, the publicly solicited permission to attend the
wedding of a relation, resident at Parma; whilst a fleet was, with quiet
diligence, equipped. When all was ready for sea, innocent’s nephews, with a few
of his most devoted partisans, embarked, and sailed for a destination, known
only to themselves. Upon the 27th ot June the fleet made Civita Vecchia, when
the Fieschi, landing with their companions, sent the Pope word, that three
nephews and twenty-two Genoese ships awaited his commands. It was the receipt
of this message, that determined the Supreme Pontiff, upon the pretence of
expediting his intercourse with Frederic, to set out for Sutri; which, lying
nearer the sea, would bring him thus far on his way, without awakening a
suspicion of his design. At Sutri, he declared, that two hundred Imperialist
horse were, he heard, moving in that direction, who must, unquestionably, be
sent to take him prisoner. He thereupon threw aside his pontifical attire,
assumed the ready-prepared garb of a layman, mounted his fleetest horse, and
galloped off. Outstripping his train, he reached Civita Vecchia alone, late at
night, and instantly embarking, requested that no time might be lost in
putting.to sea. Those who had landed, were recalled, and got on board, as they
collected; so did the Pope’s train, as it scatteringly tame up, and the
squadron was actually weighing anchor, at dawn of June the 30th, when six
Cardinals, who had followed the Pope, arrived, and were the last to embark. (2S)
The weather
was unpropitious to the fugitive Pope; tempests driving the shins for shelter
into a Ghibeline port. But the confident expectations of peace, at that moment
insured Guelph vessels against hostile treatment, there; and, news travelling
slowly in those days, no suspicion of the quality of the important passenger,
or of the altered aspect of affairs, occurred. Upon the 7th of July, Innocent
landed at Genoa, where he was received with pomp and enthusiasm. Here the Earl
of Toulouse presently waited upon him, to express the Emperor’s astonishment and
regret at the tlight of his Holiness, as also, his willingness still to abide
by the treaty, provided he could have any security, that he really should, when
his part was performed, be relieved from excommunication. He further entreated
that the Holy Father would, for the convenience of the negotiation still
necessary upon this point, return to Rome. The Pope’s answer was, that he had
been too often deceived to confide anew, and would not incur perils which,
through his person, menaced the rights of the Church.
Frederic
afterwards offered, with as little success, to cor,unit the negotiation to some
of the Cardinals; promising to be content with any arrangements that did not
impair the Imperial dignity. But he, at the same time, ordered the port of Genoa
to be closely blockaded by his fleet, and the passes of the Alps and Apennines,
especially those lea&ir.g towards France, to be as closely watched by his
troops, in order to prevent the Pope from leaving Italy. The Pope represented
these precautionary measures, as corroborations of the Emperor’s design to make
him a prisoner; and again boldly asserted that he had never dreamt of flight,
till forced to escape, as he best could, from the two hundred horse sent to
seize him at Sutri. The practical refutation of his assertion, contained in the
presence of the Genoese fleet,he endeavoured to rebut, by declaring this to
have been accidental. But it was only of the manner of Innocent's departure
from Sutri, and of the cause assigned, that Frederic had just reason to
complain. The Pope certainly treated under great disadvantage, in a province,
of which the Imperial troops had the command; and his desire to escape from
such a position, by removing
to Genoa or
to France, was as reasonable, as the Emperor’s, to preserve his advantage by
detaining him. Doubtless, this was Innocent’s real motive, whatever personal
fears he chose to allege, for flying to Genoa; and, that Frederic was aware of
its being so, appears from his own word? upon first hearing of his antagonist’s
evasion : “ Hitherto,’ said he, * when I have played at chess with the Pope, I
have check-mated him, or at least taken his castle; now, the Genoese have laid
a hand upon the board and spoiled my game.”
At Genoa,
Innocent was seized with a dangerous illness, from which he could scarcely be
called convalescent, since still confined to his bed, when he was informed of
the strict watch kept upor. his movements. Such a blockade convinced him that
he was not yet beyond the reach of the Imperial forces: whilst consciousness of
the grievous offence he had given might now really inspire the previously
pretended fears of capture. He resolved, at all hazards, to plaoe a greater
distance betwixt himself and the Imperialists. He ordered his bed to be laid
upon a litter, carried by men : thus, October 5, he quitted Genoa; and thus was
he borne along bye-paths, upon which no traveller was looked for, eluding the
vigilance of the Emperor’s troops. Thus he crossed the Apennines, and pursued
his journey, resting at Guelph cities, as Astri, Alessandria, Turin; and Susa.
To secure the House of Savoy to his interest, he, during these pauses, arranged
the marriage of a richly portioned niece, with the influential brother of
Amedeo IV, Conte. Tommaso, the seccnd husband of Joanna Countess of Flanders,
and now a widower. Then, tolerably recovered, he crossed the Alps, and, on the
2nd of December, arrived at Lyons.
That a Pope,
flying from the power of the Emperor, should fix his abode, even temporarily,
in the Arelat, still part of the Empire, and ir. a city, whose archbishop owed
unusual rights and privileges to the Emperor’s grand father, Frederic
Barbarossa, may, at first sight, seem irrational. But the choice was really
judicious. Whilst divers Burgundian great vassals were, even then, meditating
the transfer of their allegiance from the Emperor to the King of France,
Lyons—whose suburbs west of the Saone were.
G6 INNOCENT AT LYONS. [1242
already in
France—aspired to independence ; in fact, acknowledging no authority but that
of her archbishop, who, as a churchman, despite the obligations of his see to
the Swabian dynasty, was a partisan of the Pope’s. Moreover, the close
proximity of the French territory, secured a pontiff resident at Lyons from being
completely blockaded by Imperialists, so long as the devout Louis IX sat upon
the French throne
In addition
to these recommendations of Lyons, Innocent proposed to convoke a Council,
partly, perhaps, that it might share the responsibility of the steps he
purposed taking against the Emperor; ar.d Lyons was conveniently accessible
from all parts of Europe, without danger of such disasters to the Fathers of
the Church as had prevented the sitting of the Council convoked by Gregory IX.
Upon the 30th of January, 1245, the Pope published a summons to the kings,
princes, and prelates of Christendom, to assemble in an CEcmneuic Council at
Lyons, upon the festival cf St. John the Baptist, otherwise Midsummer-day,
next ensuing, in order to deliberate upon the situation of the Holy Land, of
the Latin East- Roman Empire, and also, upon the dangers to be apprehended, as
well from the Mongols, as from the existing dis- sensionsbetween the Holy See
and the Holy Roman Empire.
J5ut, even
whilst thus professing to refer the questions in dispute betwixt himself and
Frederic to the future Council, Innocent, forestalling not only th^ judgment of
the Fathers of the Church but, their investigation of the case, fulminated anew
the sentence of excommunication against his antagonist. This injudicious step,
which may be presumed a mere ebullition of temper, appears to have been, openly
or secretly, very generally blamed. By none more boldly,or more whimsically,
than by a Parisian priest; who, when he obeyed the papal command to publish the
sentence at the altar, added to the denunciation these words: “ That the Pope
and the Emperor are quarrelling and persecuting each other, 1 know, but not
which of the two is in the wrong; wherefore I excommunicate him who is guilty,
whichever that may be, and absolve him who is guiltless.” For this commentary
upon his appointed task, the priest was, as might be anticipated, severely
reprimanded by the Digitized by Microsoft ® *
1245J FREDERICKS
DEFENSIVE MEASURES. C7
Pope, and
handsomely rewarded by the Emperor. In Germany, the majority of the Princes of
the Empire, ecclesiastical as well as lay, boldly reprobated the sentence,
avowing unshaken loyalty; and if, again, a few of the, always Guelph, Rhine
prelates, deserted the common cause, their enmity to their Sovereign was again
more than neutralized by their own cities, like all others, with scarcely an
exception, ardently loyal.
The impending
storm was foreseen by Frederic, when the Pope’s second flight was made known to
him; and he prepared to meet it. Leaving to Vitale d’Aversa the command of the
troops occupying the Estates of the Church, he hastened, in the first place, to
his materncl heritage, there to make all requisite arrangements. Amongst
others, he granted new favours and privileges to the Saracens in the
Capitanata, whose grateful affection for himself must, he felt, be
strengthened, whatever confidence he might place in their abhorrence for the
sovereignty of an intolerant Christian Priest. Thence he repaired to Verona,
whither he had summoned the Princes of the Empire.
Lombardy,
taken largely as rest, was a prey to the usual disorders, if these were not
rather increasing in acrimony; for, in the feud that Bologna and Parma were
then fighting out, prisoners of war on both sides were slaughtered. At Milan,
the most democratic had by this time placed the supreme authority in the. hands
of Pagano della Torre—whether still only as Capitano del Popolo, or as Podesta
also, seems doubtful—and this haughty Republic had, excepting in name, ceased
to be one. Verona, amidst the general distractions, was enjoying an internal
calm, due to the policy of Ezzelino, who had won the hearts of the people by
opening the Great Council, previously consisting exclusively of nobles, not
only to the most opulent traders, but to all who were solvent and of legitimate
birth.
At Verona,
the Signor di Romano received bis Imperial father-in-law with his accustomed
loyal magnificence; and there the chief of the German princes, the few still
faithful Italian vassals, and Emperor Baldwin, met him. Various affairs, both
German and Italian, were regulated at this assembly, which hardly was, perhaps,
a regular Diet, and Digitized by Microsoft ®
a fourth
marriage is said to have been there projected, for the Emperor. The proposed
bride was Gertrude, the childless widow of the Bohemian heir-appartnt, daughter
of the Duke of Austria’s deceased brother, and who, the Duke still being
without legitimate offspring, might, by a slight deviation from the strict law
of Austrian succession^29) or through his bequest, be his heiress.
It is said to have been upon this occasion, that the Emperor, at the Duke’s
request, set Queen Margaret and her sous (his own grandchildren), who had
hitherto remained in confinement, at liberty.(30) But the
matrimonial scheme was still inchoate, when, the Duke abruptly quitting Verona,
it dropped.
The departure
of Frederic the Combative is variously explained. Most writers assign, as the
motive, resentment for the death of a noble Austrian vassal, slain in a street
broil betwixt the Germans and the Veronese; for which broil different causes
are again found. Some Guelph writers assert, that it was provoked by the
Emperor, for the idle purpose of trying whether he or Ezzenno were the most
powerful in Verona; whilst others, of the same party, attribute it to Ezzelino,
in the wanton indulgence of Lis sanguinary temper* Both accounts imputing, at
such a crisis, downright childish folly, rather than wickedness, to men, whose
political sagacity their bitterest enemies never disputed ! And, w hen it is
recollected, that the Italians appear to have hated the Germans quite as cordially
in the thirteenth century,as they do in the nineteenth, and that numbers of the
lowest military followers of German princes must now have been crowded into
Verona, what need to seek other cause of quarrel between them and the like
class of Italians, quickly growing into open hostilities, and costing the life
of any noble, who either joined his countrymen as a partisan, or endeavoured to
separate the combatants? But,without reasoning upon the improbability of
either of those accounts, or upon the impossibility of another, an Italian
statement, that, allowing the affray to be casual, sends the Duke of Austria
away in anger, that the rioters who had killed his nephew—he having none but
the Emperor’s grandsons and Albert, afterwards Margrave of Misnia—were, at
Ezzelino’s request, pardoned Digitized by Microsoft ®
The history
of Austria will supply a motive, totally unconnected with either the Emperor or
his princely host,(31) for Duke Frederic’s abrupt departure. To
explain this, the narrative* must revert to the Mongols and Hungary- . .
If Austria
had, since the second defeat of her barbarian invaders, remained free from
their devastating inroads, Hungary, for upwards of two years, groaned under the
burthen of their presence: Bela’s efforts for the relief of his kingdom
availing only to make Dalmatia, where he had found an asylum, a partaker,
though casually and slightly, in the sufferings of Hungary and Transylvania.
But, early in 1244, the death of Octai Khan recalled Batu, with his portion of
the Golden Horde, to Tartary, for the election of a new Grand Khan. If he
expected to obtain that dignity for himself, he was disappointed ; but he succeeded
in securing a separate empire, of which Crim Tar- tary was a principal part,
and Russia a tributary dependency. Content, seemingly, «ith such dominions, he
thenceforward left the rest of Europe untroubled.
Upon the
departure of the Mongols, Bela returned, to find his realm devastated and
nearly depopulated But he procured food from other countries, to relieve the
famine consequent upon such devastation; whilst numbers, who, having
disappeared, were supposed to be slain, hastened home from the mountain
recesses, amongst which they had taken refuge. The Kuinans brought their herds
back from Bulgaria; and, either the Mongols having, by the slaughter of rival
proprietors, provided ample pasture grounds for their cattle, or, they themselves
having gradually imbibed something of the principles and habits of the
Christian religion, which they had so recently embraced, they henceforward
lived in as much amity, as was then usual, with their neighbours. Bela invited
colonies of Germans to settle upon the unoccupied, ownerless, lands, with other
portions of which he largely endowed the Knights of St John of Jerusalem.
Hungary, thus aided, so rapidly recovered from her sufferings, that, in the
spring of 1245, Bela found himself able to indulge the vindictive feelings
towards the Duke of Austria, provoked by his rapaciously turning to his own
advantage, the distress he had
70
FREDERIC AT
TURIN.
[1212
caused, or at
least helped to increase, by stirring up discord between the Magyars and the Kumans,
when the Mongols first entered Hungary. He bad, therefore, conjointly with the
King of Bohemia, taken the opportunity of Frederic the Combative’s absence at
Verona, to invade Austria. This invasion it was, that suddenly called the Duke
back to the defence of his dominions, and subsequently prevented his attending
the Council of Lyons. That his departure might occur simultaneously with a
broil between Germans and Italians at Verona, which cost a transalpine nobleman
his life, is as likely as not.
When the time
appointed for the meeting of the Council drew near, the assembly at Verona
broke up. The German princes returned home; Baldwin betook himself to Lyons to
prosecute his suit for European assistance; and Frederic, with his principal
councillors, temporarily fixed his quarters at Turin, for the sake of more
convenient communication with his representatives at the Council. At Turin he
quickly revived the loyalty of the Marquess of Mont- ferrat and the Earl of
Savoy, the latter having only the preceding year been drawn over to the adverse
part)- by his brother, Tommaso, husband of Innocent’s neice. His
influence the Emperor seems to have counteracted by giving Amedeo, now a
widower, another of his own illegitimate daughters, and creating him Duke of
Aosta and Chablais.(ss) The title hardly appears in history, perhaps
dying with Amedeo’s childless son. At Turin, the Emperor received the homage
of Charles of Anjuu for the county of Provence ; his marriage with the heiress,
Beatrice, having been celebrated, either in 1243, when her elder sister,
Saneha, married Richard, Earl of Cornwall, or in the current year, 1245.(33)
But before
relating the transactions of the memorable Council of Lyons, inasmuch as the
interests of Palestine were named amongst the important subjects to be considered,
a brief survey of the condition of that scarcely existing kingdom must be
taken. A condition growing worse from day to day. Filangieri,the Governor
appointed by Frederic, found even a shadow of sovereign authority denied him;
whilst all parties, united only against him, were embroiled amongst themselves.
The Patriarchs of
Jerusalem ana
Antioch quarrelled respecting the limits of their respective provinces. The
Templars and Hospitalers, upon every occasion, in every war of Christians or cf
Mohammedans, embraced opposite sides, and had forfeited, by their rapacity and
licentiousness, the veneration and universal confidence they once enjoyed. The
Hospitalers were taxed with accepting lands from the schismatic Vatazes, as the
price of helping him to recover the Eastern empire from the Rornan-Catholic,
Baldwin ; and laboured, moreover, under accusations, akin, although lighter, to
those which, at a somewhat later period, rightfully or wrongfully, formed the
plea for the spoliation and atrocious extermination of the Templars. The
Marians, whom both alike hated, having mainly' transferred themselves and
their exertions to a more promising field in Europe, were, in Palestine, too
few to be of much account; but those few were loyal to the Emperor-King of Jerusalem,
and obedient to his Lieutenant.
It may seem
strange, that the Mohammedans should not haye taken advantage of these
weakening dissensions, to expel the intrusive Latin Christians from Syria. But
the most powerful of the Moslem Princes, Kameel, Sultan of Egypt, was
honourably .restrained by the truce he had concluded with Frederic and his
Lieutenants; and the wars, in which the Sultans of Damascus and Aleppo were
constantly engaged with each other, or with him, insured for some years their
observance of that truce, although not parties to it. In 123G-7-8, these three
Sultans successively died, and the second death, that of Daher of Aleppo,
appeared to the Templars a favourable opportunity, his sons being young children,
of conquering his dominions. Little caring whether there were or were not a
truce with Aleppo, they at once attacked the capital; but his widow, a daughter
of Malek el Adel, proved worthy of her race. Resolutely she defended the town,
repulsing the assailants with the loss of upwards of 100 knights. She was,
nevertheless, unable to save the territories of Aleppo from the fate undergone
by all the dominions of Saladin’s descendants; to wit, further division amongst
heirs, consequent upon these deaths, producing increase of discord and of
weakness amongst these Mohammedan States.
The following
year, 1239, one of the latest royal troubadours, Thibalt Earl of Champagne and
King of Navarre—in right of his mother, Blanche, eldest daughter, and
eventually heiress, of Sancho VII—took the Cross, together with many French
knights and nobles, amongst whom was Amauri de MontforO, eldest son and heir of
Simon the Crusader, who had ceded the earldom of Leicester to his younger
brother, as incompatible with his French fiefs. Lyons had been designated as
the place of meeting, and thither caine Crusaders from every part of Francc,
again, it is said,beginning their holy war by the massacre of all Jews
(pregnant women included), domic?liated in the provinces through which they
passed. The further report, that they burnt the Jews’ sacred books(34)
is more difficult to believe, since whatever their mistakes touching the creed
of heretics, that the Jewish Bihi.e was
the Old Testament could hardly be
unknown. The massacre and book-burning may, however, have been unauthorised
acts of the ignorant multitude; but Theobald himself, the Spanish king, French
peer, and troubadour, thought to propitiate the Deity, and duly prepare for his
hallowed enterprise, by sanctioning and witnessing, at Vertu, in Champagne, the
day before his departure, the burning of 18:5 of his vassals, as heretics. A
contemporary chronicler calls this wholesale execution “ a mighty sacrifice
pleasing to God.‘’(35) At Lyons, the Crusaders, in lieu of the encouragement
and assistance, which Gregory IX’s repeated calls upon Europe to arm on behalf
of the Holy Land, entitled them to expect, found, Gregory’s object being
changed, a papal bull, forbidding them to undertake that remote expedition at
this juncture, and enjoining them rather to defend the Latin Empire of
Constantinople, then in danger from the schismatic Greeks. They likewise found
letters from the Emperor, regretting that the posture of his affairs rendered
his leading their Crusade, as he had intended, impossible; and earnestly
warning them against being hurried, with inadequate forces, into any rash
enterprise. Many were disheartened by -mch disappointments, and turned back;
but the King of Navarre, and all those who, by great sacrifices, had equipped
themselves for the holy war, that was to earn them Heaven,
and made
arrangements for a prolonged absence, resented being thus treated as puppets of
the Pope’s caprice, and persevered. But they ceased to form ail united body,
and therefore an available crusade Some embarked for Syria, at Marseilles;
others traversed Italy, to take shipping at Brindisi ; and others, again,
lengthened their pilgrimage by taking their way through Sicily, where they saw
and received all practicable assistance from the Emperor.
Upon landing
in Palestine, the fervent zeal that had prompted the enterprise, triumphed, as
might be anticipated, over the pruderce which Frederic had endeavoured to
impress upon the Crusaders. The ten years’ truce, renewed when it expired, and
still subsisting, ended, according to its terms, upon the arrival of a
crusading army headed by a monarch. There was, therefore, nothing but their own
discretion to check their martial ardour, and at once they invaded the Moslem
states. They were defeated, with great loss, by the far mere numerous Mohammedans,
whom the common danger momentarily reunited. The resumption of hostilities
had, however, the beneficial effect of inducing the Jerusalemites to repair the
walls of the Holy City, which had hitherto remained
!as
when it was restored by KameeLp5) But this measure of forethought,
be.ng too late begun, was imperfectly executed. And again, as the pressure
ceased, with the danger vanished Syro-Frank care of the fortifications.
Dissensions revived amongst the victors, and war raged anew between the Sultans
of Egypt and Damascus. The Templars presently joined the latter, whereupon the
Hospitalers offered their alliance to the former; and even '’rusaders, though
some carried on active hostilities against both, took service on either side,
satisfied that they were still fighting against unbelievers,(37) and
well paid for so doing. All was sanguinary disorder. Jerusalem, after a
possession of twelve years, was again lost, only the tower of David being still
held by an Imperialist garrison. To increase the confusion, Alicia Queen of
Cyprus, stimulated by the Yenet-ans, whose extravagant pretensions Filangieri
was disposed to resist, again advanced her preposterous claim to the crown of
Jerusalem; and, by way of securing a champion, married Raoul Comte da Sois-
vol. iv. 4
sons, one of
the Crusaders. The Baronage of Palestine allowed him, apparently, to assume the
government, merely protesting, that they did so without prejudice to Conrad’s
right. But Raoul soon discovered, that the autho-ity thus committed to him was
altogether nominal, every one still doing just what he pleased, regardless of
the ruler ho acknowledged, whether Alicia’s consort, or the vicegerent of
Yolanthe’s widower, or son, Weary of so unsubstantial a royalty, he presently
deserted his royal wife, returning, with his brother Crusaders and the King of
Navarre, to Europe.
In 1240, the
opulent Earl of Cornwall undertook his already mentioned Crusade, at the head
of a body of belligerent pilgrims, volunteers, and mercenaries. He led them
across France, to embark at a Mediterranean port for Syria, and at St. Gilles,
in Languedoc, was, like Thibalt, met upon his road hy a message from Gregory ,
prohibiting the employment of his arms in the defence,of the Holy Land; Earl
Richard being commanded, instead, to join the Pope’s forces in attacking his
sister’s husband, the Emperor. He similarly disregarded the prohibition, and,
embarking with his troop, landed in Palestine. But, in the impossibility of
reconciling the Templars and Hospitalers, he speedily found an insuperable
obstacle to effecting anything against the Mohammedans, without au actual army
of crusaders; inasmuch as the high pay offered by the Moslem princes, in the
wars which they were waging against each other, not against Christians, tempted
the martial portion of the people, knights and nobles included, to enlist under
their respective hostile banners. He therefore, following Frederic’s example,
had recourse to negotiation, and was at the head of forces sufficient to
insure success in that direction. From the Sultan of Egypt, hard pressed by his
rival kinsmen, he obtained, as the price of renewing the truce, ended by the
King of Navarre’s Crusade, the restoration of Jerusalem, with the placcs
between the Holy City and Acre, to Filangieri, as Governor, for the King of
Jerusalem ; as also the release of the bulk of his Christian prisoners,
especially of Thibalt’s captured Crusaders. The Earl next interred the remains of
the Christians, who, having fallen in a defeat near Ascalon, Digitized by
Microsoft ®
still lay on
the field of battle. He fortified Ascalon, built a castle there, delivered over
the place, so strengthened, to the officers of his Imperial brother-in-law, and
embarked for Europe. He was scarcely at sea, when Baiian d’Ibeliij and Philip
de Moutfort expelled those officers, seizing this important fortress in the
name of Queen Alicia, whose pretensions Gregory now countenanced, as though the
boy Conrad had, by his father’s excomuiu ncation, forfeited his maternal
heritage.
Tit esc
internal dissensions invited the destruction evi dentlv impending over the
remnant of the Syro-Latin States. The Mongols were pressing closer and closer
upon Western Asia, driving conquered nations before them; and the Korasmians or
Khariamkns were thus brought into fearful proximity to Syria. Eyub, Sultan of
Egypt, who had not without difficulty made head against the Sultans of Damascus
and Aleppo, was driven to actual desperation by an incursion of the Templars,
directly violating the armistice, just renewed by the Earl of Cornwall and
Filangieri. Distracted with terror, he, as his last ctiancc, offered his
alliance and friendship to the homeless vagrant nation, together with his advice,
to conquer and settle in the dominions of his Christian, if not also of his
Moslem, enemies. The Kharizmians needed no pressing; they poured into
Palestine, ravaging and destroying, on their way, as might be expected from a
barbarous tribe, and directed their course towards Jerusalem. A body of
7,000 Christians, flying thcnce too late,
-encountered them, and, with the exception of the children of both sexes,
reserved for slaves, was massacred. In the month of August, 1244, it should
seem, the precise date being uncertain, they entered the undefended Holy City,
plundered houses and churches, broke open the tombs of the kings, destroyed the
Holy Sepulchre—either in search of treasure or in mere wantonness—and
butchered the inhabitants they found, male and female, Christian and Moslem,
with the same exception of children as before. The Sultan of Damascus and the
Princes of Karak and Emesi, being now thoroughly alarmed for themselves,
hastened to the assistance of their Christian neighbours; and, entering
Palestine, united their forces with the Syro-Frank warriors,
not far from
Gaza. There, upon the 18th of October, they conjointly gave 'oattle to the far
more numerous Khariz- mians, reinforced by Egyptian troops, and were defeated
with the loss of 10',OOO men. The two, or according to some writers, three
Grand-Masters (the emergency having brought the Marian, with his disposable
knights to their original scene of duty, the Iloly Land) the Archbishop of
Tyre, and most of the great vassals were amongst the slain, or the prisoners.
Certainly 312 Templars, and 325 Hospitalers fell; and, of the three military
Orders, only eighteen of the former, sixteen of the latter, with a few Marian
esquires, appear to have survived this fatal battle. The Patriarch and the Constable
are said to have reached Acre with about 100 fugitives.
Among the
prisoners was Gaultier de Brienne, the son, either of the late ex-King of
Jerusalem and Emperor of Constantinople, or of the Coate' di Lecce, who had
obtained the county of Joppa as the portion of his wife, a daughter of the
Queen of Cyprus. He was carried in chains to Joppa, there fastened to a
gallows, and ordered, on pain of instant death, to make the town surrender.(38)
He bade the citizens defend themselves without regard to him; and his courage
awakening respect, he was spared; unfortunately but for days. The Christian
prisoners were delivered up, by previous agreement, to the Sultan ot Egypt;
who, upbraiding them with their breach of the truce, their treason to their
lawful sovereign, the Ernperor- King, and their disregard for the precepts of
the Bible, which they professed to obey, told them that nothing short of the
intercession cf that Emperor-King, Frederic, whom he esteemed and respected,
could soften their lot. They were made slaves, kept to severe labour, and
scantily fed ; the gallant Earl of Joppa was, at the especial request of some
merchants, whem he had, it seems, individually offended, made over to them, and
they murdered him in his prison. Notwithstanding the Sultan’s professed implacability,
the Minorite Friars, who, with genuine apostolic zeal, ventured into the power
of the Mohammedans in order to afford their suffering brethren the consolations
of religion and thus maintain them steadfast in their faith, were freely
permitted to visit the prisoners. It is to be
hoped that
their self-sacrificing charity was recompensed by the consciousness of having
strengthened many to prefer martyrdom to apostacybut despite their admonitions,
in many endurance failed; numbers sought alleviation of their misery by
abjuring Christianity. The Emperor-K'ng of Jerusalem, persecuted by the Pope,
was then in no condition to make effective intercession for his own or his
son’s rebellious subjects. He indeed applied to the Sultan, who had professed
respect for him; but he could not menace ; Eyub was no Kameel or Malek el Adel,
and only a few were released upon his interposition.
When the
Kharizmians had so thoroughly devastated Palestine that impending famine drove
them away, and bad quarrelled with Eyub for inadequately remunerating their
services ir. the battle of Gaza and the subsequent capture of Damascus, they
fell upon Egypt. But Egypt, no longer harassed by a formidable Moslem and
Christian confederacy, now opposed a resistance for which they were unprepared.
They were repulsed, and seemingly disheartened; for they forthwith broke up
into separate bands : some of which took scrvice under divers small potentates;
some became robbers, and the greater number joining the Mongols, were
incorporated with the Horde or made slaves. The Kharizmians. as a nation,
disappear from history.
Jerusalem,
thus abandoned by her conquerors and not yet seized by the Egyptians, might
again have been occupied by Christians, though of Christian warriors to defend
it, none remained. But a little to the north of the line, previously followed
by the Kharizmian migration, was advancing a more terrific danger. The
Mongols, whom Gregory IX had represented as virtually protectors of Palestine,
and likely soon to become Christians, were now spreading desolation far
westward. The Hvro-F/ank state first found on their way was Antioch ; and,
whilst devas tating the territory, they required the Prince to redeem himself
and subjects from utter annihilation, by razing the walls and fortifications of
all his towns, and delivering up to them, not only all the gold and silver in
his dominions, but also 3,000 virgins. This demand was just made at the moment
of the assembling of the Council of Lyons, and,
like the
destruction of the Kharizmians, could not be yet known in Europe. Still, the
condition of the Syro-Frank States, the prospects of Christianity itself, in
the East, might, it should seem, have furnished the Head of the Church with
more important subjects to lay before the embodied Church, than his own
personal quarrels with his proper protector and champion, the Emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire.
One measure
of Innocent’s, with respect to the threatening barbarians, was, however,
correctly pontifical. Partly adopting his predecessors views relative to the
Mongols, he sent a company of Mendicant Friars to convert the Grand-Khan to
Christianity. These bold missionaries were better received than might
reasonably have been expected, inasmuch as they did not suffer death, for such
actually incomprehensible presumption, as visiting them with a purpose so
audacious, must have appeared to the Mongols. But the answer they brought back
was : “ To me, has God committed the task of exterminating corrupt nations. For
the prevention of war let the Pope come hither, and acknowledge me as the Lord
of the earthy let the Ernperor surrender his dominions to me, and both shall
have office at the Mongol Court.” When Frederic heard of tne mission and its
results, he laughed, and observed: “ As I understand the management of birds,
perhaps I may hope to be the Grand-Khan’s Falconer.” But, if unsuccessful in
the task assigned them, the Friars’ expedition was not altogether useless.
Having taken their way, as directed by Innocent IV, through Russia, some of
their number were left in that country, the conversion of which to the Church
of Rome might, it was hoped, be facilitated by the sufferings consequent upon
Mongol domination. Daniel of Halitsh, alone among the Russian princes, was won
by them to renounce the schismatic Greek Creed; and the Pope rewarded him with
the title of King, and the promise of a Crusade to be preached against his
oppressors, the Mongols:—all that Daniel gained by his comersion, or apostacy.
But this Romanist triumph did not occur till a few years later. The immediate
fiuit of the mission was geographical information.
Some Greek
and Svrian monks who, actuated solely by
their own
zeal, undertook a similar mission to a nearer body of Mongols, were not so
easily dismissed. This Mongol leader sneeringly remarked, that the greatest
kindness he could do them must surely be to send them to their God, and
ordered them to be burnt to death. Singular, that he should pitch upon the
mode of execution, selected in Europe as the punishment of misbelievers!
FUEDEItia II.
Conduct
of Innocent—Council of Lyons—Innocent’s Manceavres —His Deposal of the
Emperor—Consequences—Conduct of Lewis IX—of Germany—of the Sicilies.
[1245—1246.
As the time
prefixed for the meeting of the (Ecumcnic Council approached, the Pope appears
to have felt, if no misgivings as to his ultimate success, yet apprehensions of
a hard struggle awaiting him, ere the anticipated triumph should be achieved.
Such prescience arose out of what he everywhere saw, as he looked around him.
Naturally rapacious he might not be; but to promote his ambitious projects
money was wanted; and the heavy demands upon the coffers of the clergy, to
which this need gave birth, alienated a large part of that body. The right,
claimed by Adrian IV, and extended by Innocent III, of appointing, under
certain circumstances, to benefices, became, in the hands of Innocent IV, the
usurpation of almost all church-patronage whatsoever; and he so used this assumed
power, as to offend clergy and laity alike. Now, to win or to reward a
partisan, now, to provide for a relation, he obtruded priests, regardless of
their fitness or unfitness, upon sees, abbeys, chapters and rectories; upon the
last, often such as were unacquainted with even the language of the flocks
committed to their charge. With the same recklessness of all the duties and
purposes for which churchmen are trained and endowed, did he, simo- niacally,
seek the means of defraying his ambitious schemes for the papacy; extorting
such gratuities from his nominees, from beneficed aliens nearly a fifth of
their income^39) as left him little claim to gratitude.
Thus was the
very city, in which Innocent sought
ALIENATION
Fit Oil INNOCENT.
81
security and
independence, alienated. Upon the Chapter of Lyons he had forced Canons, whom,
as illegally appointed, the Chapter refused to admit: and when the see became
vacant, he arbitrarily named a younger brother of the Earl of Savoy—then not
even in Orders—archbishop. And, whilst the Pope himself thus offended the
clergy, the insolence of his train exasperated the laity of Lyons. Long before
midsummer, the general ill-w ill was so apparent, that the Pope, deeming a
change of residence advisable, wrote to the Kings of England, France, and
Aragon, proposing to visit their several dominions. The last-named monarch
simply declined the honour in respectful terms, without assigning any reason.
Lewis IX, in his answer, explained that being under the necessity, ere he could
offer his Holiness an asylum, of consulting the Estates of the Kingdom, they
had positively refused to admit him. Finally, Henry III, who—inferior to Lewis
in understanding as in genuine piety—was highly flattered by the idea of
harbouring the Head of the Church, found his wishes similarly opposed by the
magnates of his realm. The English Barons exclaimed: “ Already have Italians
and Itomans overmuch polluted Englr.nd with their usury, robbery, and simony !
It needs but the coming of the Pope in person, to complete the waste and
exhaustion of the substance of church and kingdom!” Henry, like Lewis,
confessed himself unable to receive the honour designed him. Nor were the
Barons content with this rebuff to the Pope. Burning with indignation at
John’s degrading his independent kingdom to vassalage under the Iloman See,
they determined at least to prevent the exportation of the large sums, again
wrung by the Legate from the English clergy. For this purpose, having sedulously
and successfully watchcd the ports, they next proceeded to frighten away the
Legate nimself; a person seemingly, like Beham, of inferior condition,
designated only'as Martin. A Knight, one morning abruptly entering his chamber,
thus announced the will of the nation: r If you and your train do not quit this
country within three days, you will all be cut to pieces. This have the
confederated Baronage and Chivalry resolved.” The terrified Legate hurried to
the King, to
4 §
82
ATTEMPTS AT
NEGOTIATION.
[1243
inquire
whether he had sanctioned such a resolution: “By no means,” said Henry; “but I
can neither carb my nobility, nor compel my clergy longer to submit to your
immoderate extortion,” In momentarily increasing terrors, Martin now besought a
safe conduct with which to leave the kingdom, and received for answer: “
Diabolus te ad Inferos inducat et perducat.”(11') The boon was.
however, granted.
Innocent
suspeeted, not without reason, that for these refusals he was partly indebted
to the representations and remonstrances of Imperial envoys. He appears, nevertheless,
to have been tar more incensed against those who, with inferior pretensions to
sovereignty, presumed to resist his will; being reported to have said: “ We
must compound w ith the Emperor; for, when the Dragon is once crushed, or
pacified, these petty serpents will be speedily trampled under foot.” In
consonance with this speech, he now commissioned the Patriarch of Antioch to
visit the Emperor, and renew his former offer of relief from excommunication,
as soon as the Estates of the Church should be evacuated, all the captive
ecclesiastics released, and security given for the due fulfilment of the
remaining conditions. The Emperor still saw very decided objections to parting
with the advantages in his hands, without obtaining, at least, some actual
guarantee for the consequent repeal of his excommunication : but instead of
rejecting the offer, he merely stipulated, that, in requital of his acceptance,
those, who had incurred excommunication by fidelity to him. should with him be
relieved, and that, as the Pope himself had said there could be no peace unless
the Lombards were included therein, the maintenance of the Treaty of Constance
should be assured to him. To demands so moderate Innocent demurred; and this
was the state of the negotiation, when the appointed Midsummer-day arrived.
The Council,
vihen assemhled, comprised the Emperor Baldwin, the Patriarchs of
Constantinople, Antioch, and Aquileia, a hundred and forty Archbishops and Bishops,
besides Abbots, deputies from cloisters, the neighbouring Earls of Toulouse and
Provence, and embassadors from most of the States of western Europe. For the
whole of
Christendom
the number of prelates seemed inconsiderable ; but the northern states, even
those belonging to the Roman Church, do not appear to have concerned themselves
about Councils; ard attendance from the cast was hindered by invasion of
Kharizmitns and Mongols, past, present, or imminent, so that the Patriarch of
Antioch and the Bishop of Bervtus were the only members of the Asiatic
hierarchy present. Frederic, though he sent an embassy, headed by Taddeo da
Suessa, to defend him against the Pope’s expected accusations, did net, seemingly,
chu.se that his own prelates should take part in the transaction? of a Council,
convoked by his almost avowed, inveterate e.iemy. Nor could an Imperial
prohibition be required to prevent most of the ecclesiastical Priiices of ihe
Empire from implicating themselves with the acts of a Council, which, they were
assured, neither would nor could decide fairly between the Pope and the
Emperor. Sicily and Apulia had no representative there, but the seditious
Archbishop of Palermo.
Upon the
Monday after St. John the Baptist’s day, a preliminary consultation was held in
the refectory of the abbey of St. Just. Here the Patriarch of Constantinople,
who thought the dangers of the Latin Church and Empire, in Greece, the most
important of the concerns to be considered, rose to represent their
deteriorated and perilous condition. He stated that out of thirty suffragan
bishops, he had only three remaining; that the Greeks had recovered
everything, to the very gates of the capital; and that the Latin Empire was
tottering on the brink of ruin. Innocent cannot be supposed indifferent to so
great a papal object as the reunion of Greecc with the Roman Catholic Church;
but he had another, more personal, for which, and not for that reunion, he had
convoked the Council: he took no notice of the Patriarch's speech. The English
prelates then brought forward their chief business; to wit, the canonization of
Edmund, the lately deceased Archbishop of Canterbury; and the Pope, seizing the
opportunity, said, that the time, for considering all such matters would be,
when affairs of more importance w ere disposed of.
Taddeo da
Suessa then rose, apologized, on the plea of
Jlness, for
the absence of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and in his name proffered
peace and friendship, the restoration of the papal dominions, 'with compensation
for any casual injuries . demanding, in return, relief from the sentence of
excommunication denounced against himself and his adherents; and he further
pledged the Emperor, when readmitted into the bosom of the Church, to send
succours against the Mongols, wherever needed, re-establish the Latin Empire of
Constantinople, and recover the Holy Land. Innocent inquired, whether the Envoy
had authority to make such offers. Taddeo affirmed that he had, exhibiting a
document to which wa3 ap pended the golden bulla, or Imperial seal. The Pope
then evasively exclaimed: “ Large and splendid are the Emperors offers, were
they ever to be fulfilled! Now thai the axe is at the root of the tree, he
would fain delude the Council, gaining t:me till It shall be dissolved.
Should I concede all he asks, what security have I that his fickle spirit will
not retract? Who shall compel him to keep his promises, if reluctant ?” Almost
interrupting the Pope, Taddeo cried. “ The Kings cf England and Prance will be
his guarantees, and, if necessary, compel the fulfilment of his engagements. ”
The Pope, shaking his head, rejoined: “And so, when the Emperor breaks his
word, as he certainly will, the Church must attack his guarantees; and instead
of one, will have three enemies, all so powerful that none in Christendom can
mate them. I refuse vnur guarantees.” With this rejection of the Emperor’s
offers, the preliminary conference ended.
Upon the
following Wednesday, the Council was solemnly opened. The members, assembling
in the Church of St. John, arranged themselves according to their rank; the
Emperor Baldwin’s place being at the Pope’s right hand; when, prior even to the
first formal ceremonies, the solemn tranquillity was disturbed by a dispute
relative to precedency. The Patriarch of Aquileia had caused his seat to be
prepared beside those of the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Antioch, with
whom he naturahy enough claimed equal rank. But the title, although allowed to
survive the patriarchate of Aquileia, did so as an empty title • the real
Patriarchs, therefore, ordered his 1 - jigiUzeaby Mia
seat to be
overthrown; and, amidst a prodigious tumult, he was forced back into the
second, or episcopal line; which the Pope adjudged to be his proper station,
since he possessed no patriarchal jurisdiction. This disturbance allayed, the
invocation to the Holy Ghost was chaunted, prayers were offered up, and the
rites, customary upon such occasions, were celebrated.
The Council
bting now opened and ready to proceed to business, a long silence ensued,
designed to enhance ihe effect of that which was to break it. Then the Pope,
weeping bitterly, arose, and delivered an indictment of the Emperor, in the
form of a political sermon, too characteristic of Innocent IV, of papal
animosity to Frederic If, and of the times, to be omitted He took, for his
text, part of the 12th verse of the 1st chapter of the Lamentations of
Jeremiah : “ Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there
be any sorrow like unto my sorrow;” and thus proceeded: “Even as Christ was
transpierced with five wounds, so am I with five griefs. My first grief, is
that the Mongols with savage cruelty devastate Christian lauds; my second, that
the Greeks scorn the bosom of their mother Church, ay, even attacking her as a
stepmother; my third, that heresy is gaining the upper hand, especially in the
Lombard cities, and manifold abuses are everywhere springing up; my fourth,
that the Godless brood of Kharizmia occupy the Holy Land, extirpating
Christians and Christianity in Christianity’s birthplace; my fifth and last
grief relates to the Emperor He, the Head of all temporal power, the bounden
protector and chamjjion of the Church, is become her fiercest adversary, and
the avowed enemy of all her servants. The Church has ever desired peace; has
ever been ready to make compensation, if, which seems impossible, she should
chance to have wronged any one; but Frederic has hardened his heart, and rushed
from sin to sin. He can be proved a perjured traitor, a violator cf treaties, a
sacrilegious robber of churches, a defiler of the sanctuary, a heretic. He
took the oath of allegiance to Innocent III, for Apulia and Sicily, promised a
yearly tribute, confirmed the right of the Holy See to Ancona, Ravenna,
Sjpoleto, and other places; he swore faithfully to protect
Hcnonous til;
at his reconciliation with Gregory IX, he swore to obey the commands of the
Church, not to harrt) her partisans, or infringe her liberty. The very last
year, through his plenipotent'ar:es,hf renewed all those promises)
but which of all these solemnly sanctioned documents” (holding up a number of
parchments) “has he ever observed? What treaty of peace has he not broken?
What oath has he sworn and not been perjured? Violently he seizes upon Church
domains and Church treasures ; rapaciously he keeps bishoprics and rectories
vacant to the perdition of souls; ecclesiastics he taxes and drags before lay
tribunals; church vassals he compels to do him homage, and he encroaches upon
the rights of the military Orders, those champions of Christendom. Prelates,
whoj in dutiful obedience to a papal command, -were hastening to form a Council
and deliberate upon momentous questions, relative to concerns the most sacred,
he captured, and leaves to pine in vrrctched dungeons. Nay, the Popes
themselves have not escaped his calumnies, insults, and persecutions. In
defiance of his excommunication, he causcs the divine rites to be celebrated in
his presence, boldly asserting, contrary to the indisputable word of oui Lord
Jesus Christ, that the successor of the Apostle Peter has no power to bind or
to loose. Yet has the Church, consonantly to her conciliatory nature and
functions, offered to this prince, rather to this sacrilegious polluter of the
sanctuary, to show him all the grace and lenity that may consist with God’s
honour and her own, requiring only the instant release of the imprisoned
prelates; when she will mercifully agree to a compromise upon all other points,
or submit them to the judgment of impartial spiritual and temporal princes.
But the more is spontaneously offered to the Emperor, the higher rise his
usurping demands, and none can mistake liis ultimate object, to wit, to
eradicate the Church, and, with her, all worship of God from the earth, :n
order that he alone, a detestable idol, may be adored by a miserable and
forlorn generation. In his realms he founds, not holy cloisters, but Mohammedan
tow 1X8. To the disgrace and ruin of Christianity, he gives the Holy Land to a
Mohammedan, as is proved by his offer to recover it. lie commits his Christian
wife
to the
custody of Mohammedan eunuchs; gives his daughter in marriage to an
excommunicated heretic [Vatazes], follows Mohammedan manners and customs* and
is not ashamed, he, the temporal Head of Christendom, of illicit connexions
with Mohammedan harlots.”
As the Pope
resumed his seat, Taddeo rose to reply; but to accusations, as vague as they
were bitter,1 he could make oulv vague answers. lie denied the charges generally
; asserted that innocent actions had been misrepresented and distorted into
criminality; that the Pope, not the Emperor, had been the violator of treaties;
that conventions with Mohammedans were customary in Palestine, and had been
approved by Popes; that Mohammedan maidens had attended the court for no
unchaste purpose, but solely on account of their skill in feminine arts, such
as dancing, embroidery, &c., and that even these artists had been
dismissed, when found to give umbrage to the austere morality of his Holiness.
He ended by demanding tim», for the Emperor either to send definite answers to
the charges, or to visit Lyons and vindicate himself in person This last
proposal Innocent scarcely suffered the speaker to enunciate, interrupting him
with the passionate exclamation • “ God forefend ! 1 dread the snares I have
hardly escaped. If he comes, I go! 1 would not yet be a martyr, nor even
immured in a dungeon.”
Some
wrangling between creatures of the Pope’s and the Imperial Embassador ensued. A
fugitive Sicilian prelate accused the Emperor both of licentiousness, and of
plundering for the purpose of impoverishing the Church ; but was silenced by
Taddeo’s statement, that the accuser had fled his country, a convicted traitor.
To a Spaniard, fiercely denouncing the capture of the intended Fathers of the
Council, he answered, that those prelates had proved themselves personal
enemies of the Emperor, by refusing, upon their way to joiii an assembly almost
avowedly hostile to him, to hear his explanatory vindication of his conduct;
and yet had the Emperor, after a brief captivity, released all except his-
virulent enemy, the Cardinal- Bishop of Palestrina, who, to his face, had anew
and repeatedly anathematized him, and a very few of the preDigitized by Mic
;oft
lates, who
had displayed similar insolence and acrimony.^1) The Pope rejected
Taddeo’s pleas, and pronounced, that, for the seizure of the members of a
Council, and ir numerable other crimes, the Emperor deserved to be deposed.
These words
roused the Embassadors of England and of France;; the first, apprehending that
the proposed dethronement of the Emperor, must imply the degradation of the
children of the English princess, Empress Isabel; the second, simply resenting
the Pope’s assumption of a power, alike dangerous and deteriorating to temporal
sovereignty. They joined Taddeo and his colleagues in pleading for, at the
least, such s delay, as might allow the Emperor time to appear in person, if he
chose so to do, or to prepare and send a specific answer. The devoted partisans
of Innocent opposed even this modest demand; but the crafty pontiff' knew
better how to effect his purpose, whilst throwing a false hue of moderation
over his real violence. He granted a delay of twelve days, which, in that unexpeditious
age, barely sufficed to convey information of the papal charges and purposes
across the Alps, to Turin, and bring back, what might be termed, an
sxtemporaneous answer; but not to allow time, either for the deliberation
indispensable upon "an occasion so momentous, or for an Emperor's journey
in the style befitting his station.
CJualtiero di
Ocra, Grand-Chancellor of Sicily, one of the Imperial embassy, hastened to
Turin, with his report of \\ hat had occurred; and the Emperor’s Council was much
divided upon the question, whether he should in person repair to Lyons, or
merely despatch new envoys thither, fully instructed to clear him of the
imputed offeices. Frederic himself inclined to the first course, and bad even
given orders for his journey ; but he was dis suaded by representations, that
his personal appearance might be construed as an actual acknowledgment of
authority in a Church Council to try and sentence bun, whilst a mission to
vindicate his conduct would less imply subjection. This consideration was
decisive. To the original embassy, Frederic added Ileinrich von Kohenlohe, the
recently elected Grond-Master of the Teutonic Order,
whom the
critical static of his affairs bad called to his side, the Bishop of Freising,
and Pietro delle Vigne, giving them full powers to speak, treat, and conclude
for him. But even this brief deliberation had, as the Pope, when so graciously
granting time, had confidently anticipated, consumed more than the allotted
hours; at the close of the twelfth day, the new envoys, bearing the Emperor's
answer, had not appeared
Innocent,
meanwhile, turned this interval to good account, in personal intercourse with
all the prelates, not already blindly devoted to him. By dilating upon Frederic’s
faults, and giving the worst colour to his every act, by working upon their
attachment to the Church, and awakening fear for her interests and her
usefulness, should any temporal supremacy be established over her, as well as
upon their more selfish feelings, he convinced numbers that the power of
deposing monarchs ought to be, and therefore was, vested in the Pope and
Council conjointly. He skilfully excited the amhition of some Cardinals to exercise
such power, by encouraging them to look forward to a prospect of the papacy,
stimulated the vanity of the more vulgar-minded, by appropriating visible,
palpable ensigns to their high station, as Princes of the Church—the red hat
and stockings distinguishing Cardinals, are said to have been first assigned to
their dignity, at this Council. One way or another the Pope was sc successful,
that upon the 17th of July, ^ hen the twelve days expired, he felt little doubt
of the Council’s being ready to assume, and exercise as he should dictate, the
right of deposing sovereigns.
Vainly did
Taddeo represent the impossibility of receiving a deliberate answer from Turin
in the short space of time allowed, and implore a further delay of three days,
within which, he was confident, either the Emperor himself or an Imperial
messenger would reach Lyons. Innocent wou'd not resign the advantage he
derived from the non-appearance of either the Emperor or his specific answer to
the charges.Iff2) Inexorably he proceeded to open the thi”d session;
hut did so in appearance pacifically, and as if solely for the arrangement of
affairs, untroubled by clashing interests. He proposed regulations touching the
recovery and defence of the Holy Land, and touching the
90
INNOCENT
CONDEMNS
[1215
celebration
of the festival of Our Lady’s Nativity. When these were agreed to, be ordered
documents respecting the territorial possessions of the Holy See, to be laiu
before the Fathers of the Church, for their signature. Against this act, which
was the actual prejudication of one of the questions in dispute betwixt the l’ope
and the Emperor, by ratifying all the contested papal pretensions, relative to
the Matildan heritage, Taddeo instantly and strongly protested. Innocent,
disregarding this protest, repeated his call upon the prelates to sign. They
obeyed; and as they signed, Taddeo, with a loud voice exclaimed: “ I appeal
from this Council, at which so many prelates, so many lay embassies, are
wanting, to a future, more truly (Ecumenic, and more independent Council. I
appeal from I’upc Innocent, the inveterate enemy of my Lord the Emperor, to a
future, milder, and more Christianly- tempered Pope.”
Innocent
replied: “All prelates have been summoned, and of those wanting most are kept
away by Frederic’s tyranny. Too long, and not without manifold inconveniences
and sacrifices, have Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, Princes, and princely
Embassadors, already waited and waited in vain, for his humble submission. No
longer shall his arrogance, wickedness, and deceit, elude their merited
punishment.”
At this
juncture, the Pope, while preparing to pronounce the sentence, was
unexpectedly interrupted: William of Poweric,(43) one of the English
envoys, rose, and announcing himself as the plenipotentiary of the English
nation, as well as of the English King, laid before the Council the complaints
of the clergy, nobility, and people of England. These complaints re - ted to
the arbitrary and oppressive conduct of the Legate Martin, and the countless
swarms of Italinns, who, ignorant of the English language, as of English
customs and usages, were intruded by Innocent into the various benefices of the
English Church, carrying off annually upwards of GO,000 lbs. of silver from the
impoverished country. The complainants, he said, declared the irrevocable
resolution of the whole nation, with the single exception, perhaps, of the
King—a too submissive son of the Church !.—no Digitized by Microsoft®
longer to
endure such wrongs; but, also, their reliancc upon the paternal clcmency of his
Holiness, for the redress of those wrongs, by which he would knit all England
in bonds of gratitude to himself.
A long
silence followed this speech. Then Innocent, observing that the .natters thus
brought forward were o a kind to require much and leisurely consideration,
despite the Englishman’s urgency, deferred that consideration to a future
session, and returned to his former topic, hi» denunciation of the Emperor. He
now, beginning with an assumed mildness that gradually changed into virulence,
again rehearsed the previously enumerated charges against the Emperor, with the
addition of having employed an assassin to murder the late Duke of Bavaria;
concluding as follows: “ For these, and many other abominable, execrable crimes
and outrages, we, after diligent inquiry and mature deliberation with our brothers
the Cardinals and the holy assembly of the Church here present, n virtue of the
authority conferred by our Lord Jesus Christ upoii St. Peter and his
successors, pronounce that this prince, who has shown himself unworthy of the
Empire and of his kingdoms, as of all dignities and honours, and who for his
sins is already rejected by God [meaning excommunicated], is deprived of, and
deposed from, all these, his rightfully forfeited dignities and honours.(44)
All persons, bound or pledged to him by oath of allegiance or otherwise, we
release and free from the bends of such oaths and duties; and, in the fulness
of our apostolic power, distinctly and positively command, that no one
henceforward obey him as Emperor or King. Whoever, slighting or evading this command,
shall obey, or, either by act or word, assist him, shall thereby incur excommunication.
In Germany, let those Princes, in whom is vested the right of election,
forthwith elect a new king. For the Sicilian realms, we, with the assistance of
our brothers the Cardinals, will provide.”
This violent,
and, in the details, unprecedented., proceeding of the Pope’s, appears,
notwithstanding his preparatory labours, to have taken the great majority of
the Council by surprise, and to have shocked and revolted the feelings even of
those members whorn he had won to his
side, filling
them with alarm and regret. But no idea of resistance was therebj- awakened;
even the Imperial Envoys only beat their breasts, lamenting over the harsh and
unjust treatment of their sovereign, and the probable consequences. To these
emotions Taddeo gave audible utterance, ejaculating, “ Oh day of wrath, of
calamity, of woe! Now will the heretics rejoice, the Kharizmians tyrannize over
the Holy Land, the horde of Mongols overwhelm Europe !” Unheeding the general
consternation, the Pope sternly resumed: “ My part I have done: the rest God
will direct according to His holy will.” Hereupon he began the Te Demi, and all
who thought with him joined in chaunting that hymn of exultation and thanksgiving
j which assuredly, could, under no aspect of the transaction, be other than
most unseasonable and indeccnt. Even had the Emperor been as criminal as
Innocent depicted him, the guilt and punishment of a Christian Sovereign should
have been matter of regret and lamentation, not of rejoicing. When the chaunt
ceased, another solemn pause ensued. Then, the Pope and the prelates flung
lighted torches upon the ground, to extinguish by trampling upon them ; in
token that thus were the Emperor’s earthly success and Splendour extinguished.
This act and joining in the Te Deum were the whole share taken by the Counc'l
in deposing the Emperor; and the haughty Pope would, very probably, have
considered any more active participation, an encroachment upon his prerogative.
if the
personal ill-will to Frederic II—which Innocent IV appears to have inherited
from Gregory IX— prompted this assumption of power to depose monarchs, yet was
its exercise not confined to his case. Some nobles and prelates of Portugal laid
before the Council complaints of misgovernment by their King, Sancho II:
whereupon the Pope—uninfluenced upon this occasion by preconceived, or
official prejudice, but glad, perhaps, of an opportunity to make manifest
similar implacable severity, and the same assumption of power, where no
suspicion of personal feelings could exist,—-without any investigation of the
truth or falsehood of these complaints, at once, as though undisputed and
absolute master of Europe, pronounced Digitized by Microsoft ®
the reigning
monarch deposed, and the kingdom of Portugal transferred to his brother, the
Lifante Don Alfonso In like manner, he relieved the kingdom of Hungary from the
vassalage to the Empire, always claimed by the emperors, and recently, as the
ptico of assistance against the, Mongols, offered by Bela.
With regard
to the business, for which professedly the Council had been convoked, i.e. the
support of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the recovery of the Holv Land,
and the defence of Europe against the Mongols, this was quickly despatched when
its real purpose, concurrence in the deposal of Frederic by the Pope, was
accomplished. To Baldwin, in order to afford him the means of enlisting
mercenaries for the support of hit tottering throne, was assigned half a year’s
income of every Canon absent, without \ alid cause, from his Cathedral. For
the recovery of the Holy Land, the Council decreed, that, during the next four
years, no war should be waged, no tournament held, throughout Europe ;(46)
but all men’s energies be exclusively devoted to the organization of a Crusade
for this great object, towards which, the Pope and Cardinals should, during
those years, contribute a tenth of their respective incomes, and all other
ecclesiastics, a twentieth of theirs. Pilgrims were forbidden to visit
Palestine until the Crusade, which they were directed to join, should be
ready. With regard to the Mongols, the danger of Europe appeared to be
diminishing; and, though the anti-Mongol Crusade, the promise of which had
converted the Prince of Halitsh, was virtually proclaimed, by assuring to the
defenders of Europe against the Golden Horde, all the indulgences granted to
defenders of the Holy Land, it was not inforced as an imperative duty; and
Daniel erelong recanted Ins desertion of the Greek Communion. This relapse into
schism, when ii, somewhat later, occurred, Innocent endeavoured to compensate,
by sending the Father-Guardian of the Minorites, with some of his friars, to
convert Vatazes to the Roman Catholic Church—of course, a fruitless mission
When the
extraordinary proceedings of the Council, sanctioning the refusal to wait for
his answer, the renewal of his excommunication, and his deposal, were reported
to
the Emperor,
they calltd forth the burst of anger to be expected. Iiut the mode in which
that anger expressed itself in remarkable, as showing, even if the speech
ascribed to Frederic be the recording chronicler’s invention, the immense, the,
to modern apprehension inconceivable, value, attached, in early ages, to
symbols. The enlightened Frederic is reported to have exclaimed: “ Me, have
the Pope and his Council deposed 1 Me, have they despoiled of my
crowns ! Bring me my crowns ! Let me see if they be lost!” Hiss several crowns
were immediately produced; when, snatching one, he placed it on his head, and
in raised accents resumed: “ My crowns I still have, and neither Pope nor
Council shall rob me of them without a sanguinary struggle ! What impudently
arrogant presumption, to think with words, empty as they are wantonly
arbicrary, to hurl me, whose equal none amongst the princes of the earth
presumes to call himself, from the pinnacle of Imperial sovereignty! But I
ought to thank the Pope for thus proving himself as unjust a judge as he is a
bitter enemy; and so, releasing me from the restraint imposed by veneration for
his sacred office, leaving me at full liberty to hate, and wage war against
him.”
Both Pope and
Emperor now appealed, as usual, to the kings and princes of Christendom, if
indeed the papal announcement of an act of authority to be passively received,
may be so termed; for such was Innocent’s communication to them. The
simultaneous address of the Emperor, was a sort of protest against the Pope’s
assumption of power to which he was not entitled, and against the contempt of
all established and recognised forms of law, with which the Council, neither
examining competent witnesses, nor nearing his justification, and treating imputations
that he denied, and could have disproved, as admitted and notorious facts, had
condemned and sentenced him. He added a warning to all princes, that, if such
usurpation were tolerated, all, in their turn, must suffer. To this protest
Innocent replied in an encyclic epistle, some passages of which must be
translated to exemplify the extravagant pretensions of a pope, whose
aspirations to despotic authority far transcend those of any of his
predecessors; and are, likewise, far more prac- Digitized by Microsoft ®
tical. In one
place he says: “The Emperor denies that all things, all persons, are subject to
the Holy See; as if he, who shall hereafter judge the angels of Heaven, should
not be entitled to judge earthly princes. Even in the Old Testament priests
depose unworthy kings; how much more is the Vicegerent of Christ authorized to
deal with him, v’ho, having hereticallv abandoned the Church of Christ, is
self-doomed to Hell. The assertion that Constantine first invested the Roman
See with temporal power, is erroneous ; this having been naturally and
unconditionally conferred upon the first occupant of that See, by Christ
himself, the true King and Priest, of the order of Melchisedech. Christ founded
not merely a pontifical, but also a regal sovereignty, and gave, to St. Peter
and his successors, power over the realms of earth and of Heaven, as is
sufficiently indicated by the plurality of the keys.” In another place is found
: “ The elective kingdom of Germany is united to the Empire, which latter
dignity the Pope transferred, as a fief or henefiaium, from the East to the
West. No one disputes the Pope’s right to crown the elected King, Emperor; and
he, by receiving the Imperial crown from the Pope’s hand, binds himself, as
antiquity teach':s and time present confirms, in the bonds of allegiance and
subjection (fidelitatisetsvhjee.t'mm) to the Pope.” It may here be worth while
to mention, in proof of the absolute novelty of such pretensions, that St.
Bernard— whose doctrine the Church, by his canonization, clearly recognised as
hers,—not only, as may be remembered, urged Lothur not to adm r the Pope’s
claim to the suzerainty of Sicily,(*6) but actually denied all
temporal authority whatever to the Pope, as completely as Arnold of Brescia
himself. In a treatise dedicated to Pope Euge- nius Ill,(47) he thus
addresses him: “ Try, as a temporal ruler, to be the successor of the Apostle,
or, as the successor of the Apostle, to exercise temporal authority, and you
fail. Grasping at both loses both.” To return from the Saint to the Pope: after
the above extracts from Innocent's address to the sovereigns of Europe, can
his assertion, that the deposed Emperor naJ had the benefit of every law,
form, &c.; since, whenever his guilt had been dis
cussed in the
Pope’s Council, some of the Cardinals had been directed to plead his cause;
which (without his instructions) they, of course, did much better than his own
embassadors, with them, or he himself, could have done, be worth adding ?
Of the
sovereigns of Europe thus audresssd, only the Kings of England and Franco
appear to have concerned themselves about the dissensions between Pope and Emperor.
Or rather only the last, for Innocent so wantonly exasperated England, that
Henry's interference presently merged in a separate short-lived quarrel with
the See of Rome. By alternate threats and promises—although refusing formally
to redress the evils complained of, he solemnly assured the Envoys that such
evils should not recur—he had cajoled the English prelates into affixing their
signatures both to the excommunication of their liege Lord’s brother-in-law,
and to the document by which King John had promised tribute. But no sooner had
they departed upon their return home, than he not only broke these engagements,
persevering in every abuse against which they had protested, but sent a requisition
to every English prelate, to furnish him, vassai-like, troops for his war
against the Emperor. Again, King, nobility, and clergy, jointly and separately,
respectfully represented their wrongs to the Pope, soliciting redress. The only
answer, if answer it can be called, to their remonstrating petitions, was a
letter to a Cistertian Abbot, commanding him directly, to send to his Holiness,
a supply of the beautiful gold ornamental trimming that he had noticed upon
the garments of the English ecclesiastics—probably the gold lace before
mentioned as a celebrated English manufacture, or the gold wrought robes, that
had so dazzled the Normans and French.(4>i) This was followed,
erelong, by a demand for the property of all eccle siastics dying intestate,
and for a sum of GOOO marks within the month. Even the feeble-minded Henry now
shared the general .ldignation ; and Innocent, enraged at such resistance to
his will, despite the remonstrances of the Cardinals against alienating, at so
critical a juncture, the only really obedient country, was about to lay England
under an interdict,
■when
Henry took fright, and averted the evil by abandoning the cause of his
subjects, with that of his Imperial brother-in-law.
Upon the
unhesitating acceptance of the Council’s decrees by the devout Lewis IX,1
nnocent had fully relied, notwithstanding the monarch’s previous rejection of
the pope-offered Empire, for his brother, the Comte d’Artois. And well might he
so rely, the royal piety being such, as seemed incompatible witb resistance to
the Head of the Church; whilst Innocent himself, fearing to provoke additional
hostility, had, like Gregory IX, sedulously avoided irritating kingly
susceptibility, by any interference with his church-patronage. Neither Pope
had, indeed, sanctioned the claim of right, but they had connived at his
nominations. The excessive devotion of Lewis gives so much weight to the
favourable view, which he will be found to have taken of Frederic’s conduct
upon this occasion, and to his disapprobation of Innocent’s, that it must be
demonstrated by an instance or two.
St. Lewis did
not quite emulate St. Elizabeth in her exaggeration of duties inculcated by
Christianity, or by Romanism, but, at a distance, he trod in her footsteps.
His submission to the penances imposed by his confessor went far beyond fasting
at his command, even to allowing himself to be by him scourged; ay, and
scourged so severely, that, upon the death of one confessor, amongst the sins
he revealed to the successor, is said to have been his great dislike of the
pain he suffered under the operation. He performed in person many of those
services in the tendance of the sick, in which she had delighted; and so
scrupulously went through the regular Passion-week ceremony of washing the
feet of twelve pnor men, that, upon occasion of a beggar, whose pedal ablution
had been committed to one of his courtier-associates in the office, complaining
that, in his case, the purification of the digital interstices had been
omitted, the King with his 6 n royal fingers made good the neglect of his less
self-sacrificing partner. Again, he was, as a penance, making a sort of
pilgrimage, barefoot, to divers churches, when a leper, from the opposite side
of a very muddy street or road, solicited alms of him. The established mode of
giving
VOL.
IV. ft
to those
wretched sufferers, personally, from the supposed infectious nature of their
malady, as much abhorred as dreaded, was to fling down money upon the ground,
which they were not even to pick up until the donor should be at a safe
distance. But Lewis waded through the mire across the street, and kissed the
leper’s hand, in which he placed the money.
Could such
piety have been susceptible of increase, in a man of reasonably good
understanding, it must at this moment have sprung up from his firm belief that,
recently, in the last agonies of a deadly malady, even whilst his attendants
were disputing whether life were or were not extinct, he hail been miraculously
cured, either by contact with the relies of St. Denis, or by mentally vowing a
Crusade, to utter which vow was the first use he made of his restored speech.(19)
And yet this monarch— who moreover nourished a bigot’s antipathy to the troubadours,
musicians, &c.,(5n) forming the delight of Frederic and hia
court, and who hardly seems to have dared dispute the Pope’s abstract right to
depose guilty sovereigns—felt that Innocent had acted harshly, and
unreasonably, if not guilty of actual injustice, towards Frederic; and he zealously
endeavoured to soften the acrimonious pontiff. Might not this simple fact be
almost accepted as the Emperor's acquittal—not assuredly of all faults; one,
that he unfortunately shared with many great men, viz., levity, at least, with
respect to women, being undeniable; but— of the heavy charges brought against h:m
by Gregory IX and Innocent IV ?
The Emperor
despatched Pietro delle Vigne, with oChor envoys, of higher birth if cf
inferior abilities, to the French Court, to confirm and improve the King’s
favourable disposition. They were instructed to represent strongly the
necessity of resisting such papal attacks upon monarchs ; and to implore Lewis,
instead of permitting a Crusade against a Christian sovereign instead of
against misbelievers, to be preached in France, to persuade the Pope to revoke
his excommunication of the Emperor. They were further instructed to offer the
royal Crusader, even under existing circumstances, all the assistance in ships,
recruits, and provisions, at the Emperors disposal—and
1246]
TO APPEASE
INNOCENT IV.
09
few single
fleets could now compete with the Sicilian— assuring him at the same time,
that, could he obtain the desired revocation, the Emperor would either again
take the Cross himself, or send his son, the King of the Romans, with a large
army to assist him in the recovery of the Holy Land.
The zealous
Crusadei neither lost a moment, r.or neglected any means at his command, to
achieve, if possible, this important and genuinely Christian object. He hastened,
about the end of November, to visit the Pope at Clugny, whither the IIolv
Father had removed from Lyons. And it may be stated, as illustrating the size
and magnificence, already mentioned, of this mother Abbey of the Order, that
the Pope, bring there domiciliated with his whole papal Court, then composed of
twelve cardinals, two patriarchs, three archbishops, fifteen bishops, with
their several trains, besides mitred abbots and others of less dignity,
received the Kirg of France with his Court—including those of the two Queens,
his mother and his wife, and his brothers and sisters with their
attendants—Baldwin of Constantinople and the Infantes of Castile and Aragon
with their several trains, besides individual nobles, knights, and
ecclesiastics. Anti all these persons, the Abbot of Abbots of Clugny is averred
to have lodged, without disturbing a single monk, or giving up a single room or
cell appropriated to conventual use. During seven days, the pious King
laboured, in private interviews, to assuage Innocent’s enmity to a prince, whom
he had once professed to love, and who was disposed to render such services to
the great cause of Christendom. But Innocent was immoveably bent upon the
destruction, or at least the dethronement, of the Swabian dynasty, and the utmost,
that Lewis could wring from him, was the adjourning of his final decision until
Easter; against which epoch, Lewis would endeavour to obtain yet larger concessions
from the Emperor.
At Easter,
the French King again visited the Pope, authorized to make every concession
consistent with the rights of the Empire, and the honour cf the Emperor.
Amongst others, to offer Frederic's resignation of the whole of his European
dominions to hi“ son, Conrad, in order to Di gitized y Microi
spend the
remainder of his life in warring with the Mohammedans for his kingdom of
Jerusalem.(51) Rut no concession, at least none that Lewis deemed
it fitting to ask of a Sovereign—and, indeed,what greater could he ask?—allayed
the rancour of the Pope, w ho now declared that Frederic had too often broken
his promises to Gregory IX and to himself, ever again to he believed ; (°2)
and that never, under any circumstances, would he cancel the excommunication
of either father or son, Conrad being at this time a sinner hardened by about
seventeen winters.
Lewis,
notwithstanding his veneration for the successor of St. Peter, was shocked at
such unchristian implacability in the self-entitled, and
generally-acknowledged, vicegerent of Him, who redeemed mankind with his own
blood. Ilis less bigoted great vassals were yet more disgusted; their
perceptions of the Pope’s injustice and arrogance being quickened by their
having personal grievances—if the King had not—of which to complain. Innocent
had not been as forbeariugwith respect to their rights of church- patronage, as
he had in regard to the monarch’s, but had rather superseded than encroached
upon them; and a number of the most aggrieved had confederated for the
maintenance of these rights. Headed by the Dukes of Burgundy(83) and
of Britany, and the Earls of Angouleme and St. Pol, they now announced their
determination to adopt, in their own principalities and fiefs, the Siciran laws
relative to clerical encroachment and assumption of privileges; solemnly
swearing to stand by each other, w';lh sword and purse.
But innocent
IV, as sagacious and crafty as he was violent, found means to disperse the
threatening storm lie cajoled the French King, he caressed and flattered L'm.
granting him, individually, every immunity and privilege in ecclesiastical
affairs, that he so fiercely denied to the Emperor, or that so bigoted a Papist
could desire. The nobles he more openly bribed, dealing with them separately,
granting indulgences and church fiefs, even giving money to such as were under
pecuniary embarrassments. One by one they dropped off, till the confederation
ceased to exist. The King, though he never condemned, or took
1216]
IMPERIAL
RETALIATION.
101
part against,
the Emperor, tacitly abandoned his cause, devoting himself exclusively to preparations
for his Crusade.^*)
Throughout
the dominions of the Emperor, the effect, wrought by the audacious sentence
pronounced against him and the Kirg of the Romans, appears to have varied,
nearly according to the interests of the parties concerned. In Germany, the
deposal of the sovereign, in virtue of the renewed excommunication, by a
Council, calling itself (Ecumenic, though hardly containing any prelate oi' the
Empire, and promulgated by an alian—the Italian Bishop of Ferrara was the
Legate appointed for this purpose— appears to have exasperated almost all the
iav princes, as an impudent attempt to usurp their rights. But, on the other
hand, the loyalty of those, to whom the attainment of the office conferring
such despotic power was open, to wit, the spiritual princes, was evidently
shaken.
In the
Sicilies, the people, happy and prosperous under Frederic’s equal
administration of the just laws he had published, seem to have troubled
themselves but little, about the Pope’s endeavours to deprive them of their
sovereign. The chief effect there was, that the Emperor, as before intimated,
discarded the forbearance he had hitherto observed towards ecclesiastics. He
had, in some measure, connived at—rather repressing than denying—their claim
to exemption from taxation and lay jurisdiction ; he now placed them, in those
respects, upon a footing more nearly approaching to equality with the laity. He
caused friars, monks, and even prelates, to be tried (*5)—conformably
to his code—by the ordinary tribunals, when accused of treason; and, when
convicted, to be either executed or banished, according to the degree of their
criminality; for prelates, deprivation of their sees and exile were the common
doom. He denounced the penalties of confiscation and exile, against whomsoever
should be found publishing the papal sentence of excommunication and deposal,
in his realms. He required the taking of a new oath of allegiance to himself
and his son, and pledged his word never to make peace with the Pope, without
securing the safety of his loyal clerical subjects.
In northern
and central Italy, the sentences of excom-
muuicatiou
and deposal were received, as might be expected, with acclamations by one
party, with indignation by the otber. Intelligence of a treaty of alliance,
offensive and defensive, concluded between the Pope and the Lombard League,
binding both parties not to treat for a separate peace with him, had reached
the Emperor simultaneously with those sentences. lie did not give the allies
time to begin hostilities; but, falling back upon Pavia, summoned the GFbelines
around him, gathered together the forccs of Bergamo, Cremona, Lodi, Parma, and
lleggio, in addition to those of Pavia, divided them into two separate armies,
with one of which he felt upon the Milanese territory from the south-west,
whilst Enzio led the other across the Adda, to invade it from the east. Milan,
if somewhat disconcerted by this twofold attack, was so but for the moment. She
was then in the fresh vigour of despotism, grafted upon democracy. The League
at large was unusually confident, having, m addition to its flatteringly
important alliance with the Pope, established a good understanding, fast
ripening into confederacy, with some German malcontents: whilst any misgivings,
that might chance to arise, were speedily dispersed by the vehement
exhortations of Cardinal Gregorio di Montelonga; whom, as though to justify
Frederic’s detention of his bitter enemies, Innocent had again sent to
Lombardy, to stimulate the Guelph spirit of ambition commonly there prevalent.
The autumn
was consumed in much fighting, without any useful resuit. In one of these
indecisive actions, Enzio, too eagerly pursuing the defeated and fugitive
Lombards, was made prisoner by the Milanese, and rescued by the men of Reggio
and Parma. At least, this is the generally credited account of the occurrence,
and that most consonant with subsequent events; although some, bitterly Guelph,
writers have asserted, that he obtained his liberty by pledging the Emperor, as
well as himself, never again to set foot on Milanese territory.(56)
Had lie done so, the breach of his pledged faith would assuredly have been
brought forward, as a plea for his subsequent hard doom.
Amidst these
hostilities, Frederic was informed by the
Earl of
Savoy, that he had captured the Venetian members of the hostile Council, as
they crossed his dominions upon their way hnme. The Emperor thanked the Earl
for this mark of attachment, but requested him to dismiss his prisoners. The
desire was obeyed ; and the Venetians visited the Imperial camp, to express
both their gratitude for their release, and their disapprobation of the
proceedings of the Pope and Council: when a conversation is reported to have
taken place, showing something of the usual mediaeval notions relative to
political economy, intermingled with ideas considerably in advance of the age.
The Emperor is saic1, after complaining of Venice for having, at
least tacitly, concurred in those proceedings of the Pope and Council, which
they now condemned, to have remarked, that peace was as much the interest of
that commercial republic, as of his own dominions, ending in these words: “I
know that Venice derives great profit from her trade with my kingdoms, but I am
quite aware that my subjects profit equally thereby; and, if you are content
with what is reasonable, and advantageous to both parties, I am ready to treat
for peace.” One of the deputation, Canari, frankly acknowledged, that trade
with the Emperor’s realms was very beneficial to Venice ; when his colleague
Renier, of a less advanced school of statesmanship, endeavoured, by winks and
signs, to check a degree of candour, that he deemed impolitic. Neither the
action nor the motive escaped Frederic, who, laughing, said: “Never mind; he
tells me nothing that I do not already know.” And a commercial treaty, upon
equal terms, was concluded.
FREDERIC II.
Strife
letween Pope and Emperor—Conspiracies—Eeciprocal Accusations— War in
Lombardy—Search for an Anti-King— Henry Raspe elected—his Success—and
Ikath—Siege of Parma. [1246—1248.
If
in northern and central Italy, no decided preponderance had as yet been gained
by either party, the balance of success had been in favour of the Empercr. In
the March of Ancona, the Guelphs had been defeated in a pitched battle. At
Parma, the Fieschi, whose Ghibeline politics had been completely changed by the
elevation of their kinsman to St. Peter’s Chair, were foiled in an attempt made
by them and their kinsman, the Bishop, Alberto Sanvitale, son of a sister of
Innocent’s, to excite a Guelph rebellion The Ghibeline spirit of the city
proved too strong for them. They were defeated and expelled; their houses were
demolished, the revenue of the see was confiscated, at least for the life of
the rebel prelate, and the publication of the papal sentence, excommunicating
and deposing the Emperor, was prohibited on pain to the transgressor of losing
his hand.
At Florence,
indeed, a struggle between Guelphs and Ghibelines, originating in disagreement
as to the treatment of heretics, had ended differently. Kattiarist doctrines
had for very many years been covertly spreading in that city, and Innocent IV,
soon after his election, as if to neutralize the accusation repeatedly brought
against Popes, of connivance at heresy in Milan, ordered a strict inquisition
into religious opinion, at Florence. He committed the business chiefly to the
Bishop ; who perfornicd Digitized by Microsoft <8f
the duty
enjoined him with horrible alacrity; with a zeal quickened by previous restraint;
he and his subordinate assistants seemed to revel in the horrors day by day
more characterizing Inquisitorial procedure, as this gradually developed itself
into what ultimately became the one universal as terrific tribunal. Especially
they stimulated delation in fai ::lies. Persecution, as ever, inflamed enthusiasm
; Katharists of both sexes now boldly avowed opinions which, till then, they
had cautiously dissembled; at Florence, executions by fire became the order of
the day, notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of the Imperial Podesta; who,
however, confined his efforts to remonstrance, respectful though earnest. At
length sectarian fortitude began to fail, and about the time of the assembling
of the Counqil of Lyons, many of those who were summoned before the dreaded
Inquisitors, professed repencancc of their past errors, soliciting readmission
into the bosom of the Church. But the Emperor, when deposed by the Pope in
Council, no longer repressed his philosophic tendency to toleration in- the
vain hope of conciliating a determinedly implacable enemy. He now commanded the
Podesta, positively to forbid the infection of death for erroneous belief. The
Papal Judges did not submit to this prohibition. They knew that an immense
majority of the Florentines were both Orthodox and Guelph; and, calling them
together, they twice gave battle to the Ghibelines and Katharists, who, from
their inferior numbers, were defeated upon both occasions. The Pope’s faction
triumphed, and at Florence, in defiance of the Emperor’s commands, heretics
were either converted, or burnt.
This change
in Frederic’s conduct, rather than in his principles, with respect to the
treatment of mistakes in religion, was not confined to Tuscany. In Sicily and
Apulia, notwithstanding his quarrel with Gregory IX and Innocent IV, heresy had
hitherto been held a crime. Persons suspected of this offence had there been
brought before prelates appointed to investigate their faith, who were ordered,
if they found it erroneous, to endeavour, conformably to the system of Innocent
III, by admonition, explanation, and reasoning, to convert them. This pious
labour was
not to be impatiently abridged •, bui, when clearly inefficacious, the
convicted heretics had been delivered over to the lay tribunals, for sentence
and execution ; which, in compliance with papal requisition, had generally
implied death. This cruel compliance henceforward ceased, secondary punishments
superseding the flames. In fact, in this and other respects, Frederic now acted
as, virtually if not nominally, Head of the Church there. He even took upon
himself to apportion the expense of the religious instruction of his subjects
to their wants; and, j-dging the number of bishoprics, and other ecclesiastical
benefices, In his southern realms, excessive, he left those, which he deemed
superfluous, vacant. His enhancing the stringency of a former edict,
prohibiting money payments to the Roman Sec was no innovation, but consonant to
the policy of divers monarchs, whose orthodoxy never was questioned.
Apprehending that it had been disobeyed, he now affixed heavy penalties, in
purse and person, to the transgression of thu law; and ordered a strict guard
to be kept upon ports and high roads, sanctioning, when suspicion of
surreptitious transmission of the suns claimed by the Pope was strong, the
examination cf the books of merchants and money-changers—then the officiated as
bankers.
Innoccnt IV,
following the example of Gregory IX, now let a sviarm of Mendicant Friars loose
upon Apulia and Sicily. Their instructions were to traverse both realms in all
directions, make the excommunication and deposal of Frederic publicly and
universally known, excite the common people against him, and at the same time
collect money for the Pope’s exchequer. Frederic, who was now in Apulia,
finding it impossible to repress the active enmity of these emissaries,
declared that no one could claim toleration in a land, of which he stubbornly
refused to obey the laws; and therefore ordered the Mendicant Friars, upon w
hom all warnings to this effect were vain, to be safely conveyed beyond the
frontiers of his dominions : a measure approved by the secular clergy, seldom
well disposed towards the friars, who officiously interfered with their
parochial functions. During their expulsion, many of the friars publicly cursed
the sovereign who banished
them ; and
one, chancing to meet him, clutched the bridle of his horse, to pour forth a
turreut of vituperative execrations in his face. The exasperated attendants
were about effectually to prevent a repetition of the offence, by the
individual offender; but Frederic checked -heir lage, quietly saying: ‘‘Let him
alone! lie would fain be a martyr, and thus a saint; but not through me shall
he earn the honours of canonization.” The majority of the friars, however,
submitted meekly to their expulsion, observing that, in this world, their home
was everywhere and nowhere. The only consequent inconvenience was the loss of
the theological professors to the University of Naples, in which capacity the
Emperor had again habitually employed Dominicans. Again, he applied to the
Abbot of Montecassino for substitutes; end again the place of the exiles was
ably supplied by monks from that erudite monastery.
Innocent had,
in like manner, to find demagogue substitutes for his banished friars, and he
sought them everywhere. He addressed epistles to the prelates, the parochial
clergy, the nobles, the municipal authorities, and even to the whole population
of Apulia and Sicily, in which he loaded the Emperor with opprobrium, and commanded
the receiver, or reader, of his letters, immediately to rise, “ shake off the
yoke of the accursed Nero, to whom they were no longer bound by any oath,” and
return "nto the fold of the Church. He moreover authorised Cardinals
Riniero Capoccio, an Apulian, and Stefcno de Romania, or Romagna, to raise
armies against Frederic in hi.5 own dominions; and employ such other means as
they might think expedient, for converting Ghibelines, spurring Guelphs to
action, and accomplishing the overthrow of the Emperor.
The papal
letters and the means which the Cardinals deemed it proper to
employ, proved efficacious to a degree which, one would fain hope, exceeded the
wishes entertained by the Spiritual Head—if not of Christendom, yet of the
largest body of Christians. But the most devout Papists can hardly indulge such
a hope. Individuals in whom Frederic reposed most confidence, as Pandolfo
Fasanella,
for years his faithful anti active Tuscan Pcdesta, Giacomo Morra, one of his
most trusted counsellors, and Andrea di Cigala, Grand-Constable, were seduced
into a conspiracy with the Conte di San Severino, the head of an hereditarily
and inveterately Guelph family, for, not the dethronement only, hut, the
assassination of their anathematized liege Lord and benefactor. During the
winter of ! 24,5-6, the plot ripened in secrecy. Cardinal Kiniero assembled an
army, with which he held himselt in readiness to join and support the
conspirators, as soon as they should throw off the mask; and all arrangements
were complete for the perpetration of the regicidc at Grosseto—a town of
central Italy, where Frederic then resided—seemingly by Fasanella and Morra
themselves, whose high position afforded them ample opportunity for the crime
So certain was the success of the plot deemed, that the Bishop of Bamberg, as
he returned home from the Papal Court at Lyons, publicly announced the
immediate death of the Emperor by the hands of his own vassals; thus proclaiming
the foreknowledge there obtained of the contemplated murder.
At this
juncture, very little prior to the moment prefixed for the perpetration,
something awakened the suspicions of the Countess of Caserta, a high minded,
loyal woman. She followed up the casually obtained clue; satisfied herself that
some nefarious design was in agitation, and communicated such information as
she possessed to her sovereign. Inquiries were nstantly set on foot, which
resulted in the corroboration of her intelligence, by the confession of some of
the conspirators, under the influence of either repentance or fear. The
murderous portion of the plot, was of course foiled; and Frederic hastened to
seek the more distant culprits. He had no difficulty in finding them. So
securely had the Apulian confederates built upon the consummation, at the
preconcerted time, of the murder, by those who had undertaken it, that, upon
the day appointed, they rose in arms, announcing by proclamation the death of
Frederic; Cigala, in virtue of his authority as Grand-Constable, took
possession, unopposed, of several castles, and Cardinal Capoccio advanced from
Perugia with
his auxiliary army, fully confident that the continental portion, at least, of
the Sicilian Kingdom, was recovered for the Holy See.
His
exultation was ephemeral. From his visionary triumph he was startled by the
appearance of Fasanella and Morra, who, fugitives from the lot of detected
guilt, and unwelcome heralds of the Emperor’s advance in full force against
their confederates, met h'm on his march. For so well and promptly had Frederic
arranged his repressive measures, and so cordially was he supported by the
Apulians, indignant at the treason which they now learned had been brooded
amidst them, that scarcely had the assembled conspirators time to take refuge
in the two strong castles of Scala and Capoccio. The first of these was
speedily mastered; and, on the 31st of March, 1246, the Cardinal's army was
completely routed by the Imperial General Eboli. On the other hand, Capoccio was
resolutely defended by San Severino and others of the revolted nobles ; and
for months resisted all the battering engines, as well as the repeated
assaults, of the equally resolute besiegers. But at length its provisions were
exhausted, and, upon the 18 th of July, the noble ringleaders, with their
little garrison of about 1j0 men,
surrendered at discretion. In the castle were found some twenty ladies, and
Frederic’s Lombard hostages, whom it had naturally been an object with the
rebels to rescue from his power. That they were alive in Apulia, to be so
rescued, when it is recollected that the Lombards had for months been at war
with the Emperor, abundantly proves Frederic's clemency, whilst again renewing
our surprise at the habitual disregard of the safety or peril of hostages, by
their insurgent kindred. But there were also found (what it is painful to
believe) letters from the Pope, not only containing general instructions for
the conduct of the rebellion, but sanctioning the intended regicide.
When the
castle fell, the remaining members of the San Severino family were hastening,
with the forces they had at length succeeded in raising, to relieve the last
stronghold of their chicf and his faction. On their way they encountered a body
of Imperialists, by whom they
were
defeated, and those, who were not slain in the acvion, were made prisoners-
Frederic, to
whom, as appears by hit-' letters, his Sicilian kingdom on either side the
Faro was as the apple of bis eye, felt this Apuiian treason, not only as “the
unkindest cut of all,” but as a sort of parricide. His resentment was
embittered by the fact, that most of the ringleaders were men whom he had
highly favoured, in whom he had entirely confided; and he made up his mind to
suffer the law to take its stern course. He proposed to have the ringleaders,
prior to their execution, paraded through the country, with the papal letters
of approbation and encouragement borne before them, as a justification of his
own revolt against Innocent’s authority. Hut his Council judged it inexpedient
thus to delay their final punishment, and they were at once put to death w ith
the preliminary and concomitant horrors that still too generally, if not
universally, form part of the sentence for high treason. Of the house of San Save-
rino there now remained only a boy about nine years old, w hom the friends of
his family committed to the care of the Pope, as the last scion of a race
martyred in his cause. Innocent educated the boy, and, as soon as he was of
fitting age, married him to one of his nieces. The female prisoners were sent
to Palermo, there to pass the rest of their days in conventual imprisonment.
Innocent
could hardly deny his participation, proved by his own letters, in the plot,
even in that for the assassination of Fredcric; and the utmost attempted by
his apologists, or his eulogists, is to affirm that his name was used by the
Mendicant Friars, without sufficient authority. But Innocent himself does not
appear to have complained of forgery, and he probably coloured the projected
murder to his own mind, as the mere execution of the Council’s decree. At all
events he retaliated the charge threefold upon Frederic; but resting his
accusation upon grounds such as could command the belief only of impassioned
Guelphs.
His stories
were these. At Lyons, two newly arrived strangers w ere asserted by the Pope to
be emissaries of the Emperor’s, sent to murder him: they were seized and
imprisoned;
but no proof of guilt was adduced, nor do they appear to have been, either
publicly tried, or, without trial, executed, or in any way punished. This accusation
rests wholly upon Innocent’s professed conviction; the other two were more
plausible. One Radulf, an inferior attendant in the Imperial service, having
quitted it, as he said, on account of some irregularity to the payment of his
salary, had betaken himself to the thronged seat of the General Council, in
search of employment. Here Gual- tiero di Ocra, one, it will be recollected, of
the Imperial envoys, engaged him, as Innocent averred, by extravagant promises
of reward, to undertake the assassination of his former master’s enemy. An
innkeeper, whom Radulf admitted into his confidence, falling sick, revealed the
plot in confession to his priest. The secret of confession was not inviolable,
towards the Vicar of Heaven; and Radulf, upon the denunciation of the
innkeeper’s confessor, was arrested. He boldly denied the imputed guilt; was
tortured, and upon the rack owned whatever was desired. The third story is,
that two Italians, members of a confederacy of forty men, pledged to remove
Innocent IV from a world he so grievously disturbed,—an act which would, they
were convinced, be pleasing to God and man— revealed the conspiracy. Nor in
those days of vehement and little restrained passion, is such an association unlikely
to have been formed amongst fiery Italian Ghibelines ; but neither are the
betrayers of their confederates reported to have implicated the Emperor, as
even cognisant, much less as the instigator, of the design; nor did the Pope
himself charge him with having actually employed Radulf. Vaguely, however, he
imputed all three attempts, whether real or imaginary, to Frederic, professed
himself terrified, filled his palacc with armed men, and scarcely ventured
abroad, even to attend mass.
Frederic
judged it necessary, how evidenth' soever groundless the accusations, to
exculpate himself io his former advocate, the French King; and in a letter addressed
to him for this purpose, he. asks: “ What rational man can suppose I would seek
the death of an adversary, in a manner that must both embitter, and render
eternal, the existing enmity? And what should I gain by his
death r”(57)
Thinking it quite as essential to clear him self from the charge of heresy, as
from that of employing assassins, he desired to be examined by competent,
judges upon all points of the Christian faith. The Archbishop of Palermo, the
Bishop of Pavia, the Abbots of Montecassino, Cava, and Casanova, and the
Predicant Friars, llolr.ndo and Nicola, assembled for this purpose. They
questioned the Emperor closely, wrote down Lis answers, signed the document,
which the}' esteemed proof positive of the calumniated monarch’s orthodoxy,
and carried it to Lyons. But Innocent sternly rebuked these volunteer Inquisitors,
for presumptuously intruding themselves into an office, that he had not
assigned them, and for holding intercourse with an excommunicated individual,
whom, in disobedience to the Holy See, they dared to call the Emperor; and
refused to receive their report. They did not abandon the cause, but strove to
appease the Pope ; and, at length, their humble apologies and earnest
intercession so far prevailed, that he appointed three Cardinals to hear what
they had to say. These Princes of the Church avowed themselves fully satisfied
by the report, as to Frederic’s religion; and they laid before the Pope his
offers, made through his examiners, to attend his Holiness wherever he should
appoint, in order, in his presence, to clear himself from all suspicion of
heresy, Mohammedanism, and atheism, simultaneously, and therefore somewhat
contradictorily, imputed to him; and further, when in consequence, relieved
from excommunication, to join the Crusade which the King of trance was then
organizing; nay more, if required, to divide his European dominions between his
two sons, Conrad and the younger Henry—thus fulfilling hi« early, unwilling
promise—and devote himself thenceforward exclusively to the defence of the
Holy Land.(58) But not even this report, speaking the conviction of
his own Cardinals, and these offers, could satisfy Innocent. More obstinate,
because less bonest in his prejudice than Gregory IX, he, despite ail the
representations of the deputed Cardinals, on the 23rd of May, 1246, declared,
that Frederic had, upon notorious tacts, been pronounced a heretic ; that he
had not even yet renounced his friendly relations with
Infidels;
that his vindication, attested by persons subject
to his
terror-spreading tyranny, who had presumed to examine him without a papal
commission, and who styled him Emperor, bore the strongest marks of deception;
for which reasons the excommunication remained in force. He concluded with the
following strangely ungracious concession : “Although, for these reasons,
Frederic deserves no hearing, yet will we not refuse to allow him, at some day,
to appear, unarmed and nearly unattended, before us, when we ourself will
listen to him upon this matter, if lawful, and as lawful.” (09) It
were difficult not to suspect that Innocent, actuated by personal hatred of the
friend whom he had abandoned—no uncommon sentiment—was unwilling either to find
Frederic a faithful son of the Church, or to see him abjure errors hitherto
entertained.
The P.mperor
seems to have adopted this opirion; as he thenceforward desisted
from his previously repeated efforts to effect a reconciliation. He saw that
the fortune of arms must again decide between himself and the Pope, and he took
measures for securing a favourable decision. To divers Italian cities, Rome
being one, he addressed epistolary exhortations to loyalty, with promises of
remission and diminution of tolls, &c.; and he raised forces to give weight
to his letters. One body of troops he sent to co-operate with the numerous
Ghibeline Fuornnciti (a word so characterizing the language and habits of
mediaeval Italy’s ever-factious, republican cities, that ;t really must be
borrowed) from Viterbo, in recovering that town. The siege was formed, and
hunger soon produced a desire to capitulate. But if the Cardinal-Bishop was
absent, the Consuls were determined Guelphs, and the terms otfered, including a
demand that the b’mperor’s epistle should be read to the whole population, were
rejected. Hunger, however, proved stronger than consular authority; individual
citizens found means to visit the besiegers’ camp, where they were fed by, and
conversed with, their acquaintance. Food, representations of the injustice
under which the Emperor was suffering, and arguments upon the impossibility of
Viterbo’s singly resisting the imperial armies, gradually overpowered party
spirit,; and the gate to which, a day or two afterwards, the besiegers
advanced, was thrown open amidst shouts of “ Peace 1 peace f ’ The Digitized
by Microsoft®
Emperor’s
offered pardon waa joyfully acceptcd, and, in proof of loyalty, Cardinal
Capoccio’s episcopal palace was laid low.
Frederic next
ordered his son, Frederic of Antioch, Imperial Vicar, it will be remembered, in
Tuscany, to possess himself of Florence, reinforcing him for that purpose. The
young Vicar (now about seventeen,) guided, it may be presumed, by counsellors
somewhat older than himself, hastened to obey; defeated his opponents, and,
upon the 20th of December, triumphantly entered Florence. He expelled the heads
of the Guelph faction, and razed theii fortresses within the walls, thirty-six
in number.^60) Tuscany was now unanimously loyal. But such successes
were not of magnitude materially to influence the issue of the contest; in
Lombardy the fortune of war, as usual, fluctuated, and with it, equally as
usual, the fidelity of some of the great vassals. In the course of one season,
two Marquesses Malaspina, brothers, deserted the Emperor's cause for the
Pope’s, and again the Pope’s, for the JOinperor’s.
Whilst, in
Italy, Frederic was thus resolutely struggling to defend his sovereignty, in
Germany, the new Legate, the Bishop of Ferrara—whom even Guelph writers describe
as a man addicted to violent measures, because almost always under the joint
influence of a gloomy temper and the morbid irritation consequent upon Intemperate
habits—was seeking an anti-king. He, and the jrelates who acted with him, first
applied to the Duke of Bavaria, both as the most powerful of the princes of the
Empire, and as having shown himself, in his recent seduction by Albert Beham,
accessible to such lures. Those lately ardent loyalists, the Archbishop of
Salzburg and the Bishops of llatisbon and Freising, now laboured to impress
upon the Duke, the duty of following their example, in recognising the validity
of the sentence of the Pope in Council. But Otho answered: “ When I adopted the
papal party, you called the Holy Father Antichrist, demonstrating to me that he
was the source of all evil, all crime. I changed sides at your persuasion, and
now you depict the Emperor as the worst of criminals, the harbinger of
Antichrist. With you, what was right yesterday is wrong to-day; but I cannot
be thus blown * Microsoft
hither and
thither, at the dictates cf your selfish expectations.”^1)
Unexpected as
was this repulse, in a quarter where the Legate and his associated prelates
looked for joyful acceptance, they were not tlieieby discouraged. But this was
not the only disappointment they were destined to experience. They proffered the
crowns of Germany and the Empire, successively, to the Kiiig of Bohemia, to the
Dukes of Saxony, Austria, Brunswick, and Brabant, and to the Margraves of
Brandenburg avid Misnia. All these I'/iiices had been both incensed and
alarmed, by the absolute authority to which the Pope pretended, and by the
preponderance which the clergy had acquired, into at least a temporary oblivion
of their own ambitious aspirations. They severally refused, either to accept
the proffered crowns, or to admit the validity of the sentence, deposing the
Sovereign whom ecclesiastics and laity had unanimously elected. Still
Innocent’s canvassers for a candidate emperor did not despair: but, somewhat
discouraged, they descended a step lower, and now' tendered the often rejected
crowns to the Landgrave of Thuringia.
The young
Landgrave Hermann, son to Lewis the Holy and St. Elizabeth, in 1241, when fast
approaching the. age at which he would expect to assume the government, had
died, whether poisoned by his Regent uncle, as was generally believed
inThuringia, or not. This uncle had ever since uncontestedly possessed both
title and power. Henry Raspe was an able ruler, and, as such, when Archbishop
Siegfried of Mainz, young Conrad's first Guardian or Counsellor, died, was one
of those selected by Frederic to supply his place:—an argument surely— though
standing alone against much concurrent testimony— that there is some
exaggeration in the accounts of his ill usage of the widowed Landgravine, whom
Frederic so highly admired, Agaiti they met with a refusal; but one that, being
prompted solely by personal and prudential considerations, instead of by
grateful loyalty or enlarged views of policy, did not seem invincible. Henry
llaspe declined, because neither strong enough nor rich enough to contend with
the Emperor. He was answered, by offers of ample pecuniary supplies from the
Pope, and by assurances of the active Digitized by Microsoft ®
support of
the whole body of German ecclesiastics, high and low,—of the whole Church, if
necessary; and, cloaking his gratified ambition under a show of humble
devotion, he rejoined : “ I obey; and would though I had not another year of
life before rae.” The words were afterwards deemed unconsciously prophetic.
Innocent now
addressed himself to securing the election of his hardly obtained candulate,
for the proudest crown in Christendom, lie wrote to all the German princes severally,
exhorting and commanding them to acknowledge as just and lawful the sentence he
had pronounced upon Frederic; and to prove themselves faithful sons of the
Church, by forthw ith unanimously electing Henry, Landgrave of Thuringia,
King. lie sent the Legate all the money extorted from the different states of
Europe, therewith, as should seem most expedient, either to purchase votes or
to hire troops for Henry Raspe; he despatched a host of Friars to effcct this
latter object more cheaply, by preaching a crusade against Frederic and Conrad;
he forbade the Crusade for the Holy Land to be preached, until Frederic’s
rebellion against the Holy See should be crushed; and upon the strength of this
postponement, he appropriated to Henry Raspe’s service, the funds that had been
intrusted to him, for the defence of the Holy Land, and the maintenance of
indigent pilgrims, willing to devote themselves to the same sacred duty, but
without means of support.
Innocent’s
words and bribes were naturally ineffective with princes, who, feeling
themselves entitled to succeed in ease of a vacancy, had declined accepting the
crown which they deemed lawfully the sovereign’s, to whom they themselves had
given it. No temporal prince attended the Electoral Diet, convoked by the
Archbishop of Mainz, to meet, not at Mainz or Frankfort, probably through fear
of the cit'zens’ loyalty, but at a somewhat insignificant j lace called
Hochheim. There the Archbishops of Mainz, Treves, Cologne (who, having been one
of the captured Fathers of the Council, had upon his release sworn un-
deviating fidelity to Frederic) and Bremen, and the Bishops of Metz, Spires,
and Strasburg,(62) assembling upon the day after Ascension-day, a.d. 1246, elected Henry Raspe. In
consequence of this exclusively ecclesiastic election, he
was generally
designated as the Pfuffedkunig or Parsons’- King.
Kenry Raspe’s
first steps were to concludc an alliance with the Lombard League, and to raise
troop*. In July, he repaired to Frankfort, there to hold a Diet of his partisans,
whose numbers the Pope’s various measures, open and secret,for
alluring,overawing, and terrifying opponents, had by this time considerably
augmented. Conrad, now just eighteen, had meanwhile been assembling his
father’s faithful friends and vassals, at whose head he appeared on the 5th of
August, before Frankfort. Henry, well knowing that much from the success of
intrigue amongst the supposed loyal ranks of his adversary, victory was
assured to him, came forth to give battle. Some hard fighting there
nevertheless was, and Conrad even flattered himself that the day was his, when
two of the principal Swabian vassals of his family, the Earls of Wuriemberg and
Groningen, whom Innocent had bought with (jOOO marks and the promise of the
duchy of Swabia to divide between themselves, tied with the 2000 men they had
brought into the field. This seems to have been a large proportion of the
Imperial army, but still Conrad fought on desperately, with the really loyal
remainder, till a disorderly attack upon hiy flanks utterly disheartened the
small body of troops hitherto standing by him. They fled, irresistibly carrying
him along wi,;h them, and leaving their tents and baggage to the enemy.
The
consequences of this defeat were more disastrous than, from the apparently
small numbers engaged, might have been anticipated. It shook the constancy of
many who till then had been loyal. The Margrave of Baden, son of Frederic’s
zealous and well-recompensed friend, now declared for Henry Raspe, as did the
previously steadfast-seeming Sw abian prelates; and many inferior nobles
accepted the imperial fiefs lavished by the Antiking upon all deserters from
the Emperor. Conrad, a gallant youth, was, however, undismayed. He found a
powerful and nuw staunch supporter in the Duke of Bavaria, with whose daughter
Elizabeth, he i :i the autumn of this year, completed his long since contracted
marriage.^3) He found the customary vigorous and zealous
adherents of
the ' wperial cause in the German cities, which, whatever old Guelph
chroniclers, biassed by faction, or modern historians, dazzled by the names of
free Republics, and of Italy, may aver to the contrary, certainly esteemed the
Swabian Emperors protectors of their rights and privileges. (61)
They treated the papal excommunication and interdict as invalid, almost
everywhere compelling the clergy to celebrate all rites of religion as usual:
and. in some places, where the churches were pertinaciously kept shut, the
people built others, tv hich they invited Gbibcline priests to serve. Frankfort
declared for the Emperor, the moment the departure of the Anti-king and his
army freed the citizens from constraint; the episcopal cities especially
distinguished themselves by their loyalty ; and, the Bishop of Ratisbon dying
about this time, the people could hardly be prevailed upon to ailow him decent
obsequies. The peasantry, though often forced by their Lords to fight against
the cause they favoured in their hearts, were in general as loyal as the
citizens; ard most especially were the Freemen so of the small Swiss Cantons
and the Grisons.
Henry
llaspe had quitted Frankfort to follow up his victory, and, inarching
southward, he laid seige to Reut- lingen, in Swabia. The Emperor had fortified
Reutlingen, besides granting it the ordinary rights and privileges of Free
Imperial cities, and the inhabitants were grateful. Their answer to the
Anti-king’s summons ran : “ To us, the oath of allegiance that we sw ore to our
Emperor is sacred, in spite of papal dispensations, and wc have vowed the
Blessed Virgin a church, if she will deliver us out cf the hands of an usurping
I’arsons’-King.” Their courage corresponded to their loyalty; they repulsed
every assault, and after a while Heniy llaspe, abandoning all hopes of
Reutlingen, raised the siege. lie next attacked U'.m, where he encountered
similar resistance ; and here Conrad, at the head of a new and more uniformly
faithful army, sought him. Another battle was fought, in which Henry Raspe was
defeated and wounded, lie retreated to Thuringia, and, on the way, a fall from
his horse so inflamed his wound, as to cause his death upon the 17th of
February,
1247. "
The defeat
and death of the Parsons’-King seem at once to have neutralized the effect of
the Pope’s 1 ribes, and of his partisans' arts. Even the clergy, at least of
the inferior class, began to murmur at the heavy demands upon their income, for
no Church interest, but for the personal quarrel of its Head. The vacillating,
amongst the lay princes were confirmed in their allegiance, and those, who felt
that they had cause to fear the Emperor’s resentment, sought to expiate their
offences, upon the persons of their ecclesiastical seducers. The degree, to
which this species of easy and not unpleasant expiation, was carried, may be
inferred from a ludicrous anecdote, with which history has enlivened, and some
may think, degraded, her pages.
The Legate,
terrified at what he saw of the form taken by this burst of reviving loyalty,
had sheltered himself,dn a Minorite cloister; then, recollecting that the
Pope’s Legate might naturally be sought amongst Friars devoted to the Papal
See, he resolved, at all risks, to leave both cloister and town. The
Father-Guardian, thankful to bo rid of a guest, at that conjuncture, bringing
danger to his hosts, conducted him secretly, at dusk, to the town gate ; but,
contrary to custom, it was shut, possibly, for the very purpose of preventing
the Legate’s escape; and dejectedly was the liishop of Ferrara returning to the
asylum he judged insecure, when, upon He way,
he espied a large dog creeping through a hole in the outer wall. Terror had.
for the moment, extinguished arrogance, and eagerly did the bestower of Empire
drop on his hands and knees to crawl after his canine guide. But the
representative of the Supreme Pontiff being, as has been intimated, addicted to
the indulgence of his appetite, was more corpulent than the hound, and stuck in
the aperture, unable either to advance or to retreat. The case was desperate,
for whatever might be the intentions of the magistracy, detection in an attempt
to escape, so laughably foiled, must provoke ill- usage, if nothing worse, from
the rude and loyal populace. In an emergency so critical, the Father-Guardian
mastered the respect due to the representative of the Head of the Church, and,
applying his foot to the nearest part of the episcopo-legatine person,fairly
pushed him out through the inconveniently narrow aperture
Throughout
the whole of this vigorous papal attempt to dethrone the Emperor, the onlv
mention, that occurs of his former steady supporters, the Teutonic Knights, records
their positive refusal to join Innocent against him. Of actively aiding him,
they seem not to have thought; being, apparently, with the exception of the
small detachment still in Palestine, almost, if not wholly, absorbed in
conquering and converting their allotted vassals. Although their Grand-Masters
individually often interfered in behalf of the Emperor, the Order no longer
appears as acting in the general politics of Germany.
Innocent,
whilst his anti-king was struggling against Conrad, in Germany, and Frederic
was slowly gaining ground in Italy, had not been inactive. lie had employed the
time in levying an army, of which he now gave the command to Cardinal Ottaviano
Ubaldini, with orders to cross the Savoy Alps, into Lombardy; obtain an
interview with Conte Amedeo, on his passage, and recall him, a task presumed
easy, to Guelph principles. But. Frederic had found means further to 800111*0
the fidelity of his Savoyard great vassal and son-in-law. He had asked the hand
of the youthful dowager, Beatrice Marchioness of Saluzzo, Amedeo’s daughter by
a former marriage, for his own half legitimate, or legitimated and favourite
son, Manfred, then about fifteen years old, whom at hi;'- wedding, he created
Marchese di Alessandria,(65) promising the young couple a
considerable Italian principality. But Manfred is too important a personage in
the later scenes of this whole grand drama, to be thus slightly introduced.
Upon the
degree and manner of his legitimacy considerable obscurity rests; but that
Manfred’s position was very different from that of Frederic’s illegitimate
offspring, is evident from his being the only child, not the issue of one of
his three royally horn Empresses, provided for, or even mentioned, in his will.
In the same obscurity, some writers have further involved the identity of Manfred’s
mother.(06) But what appears to be most like the truth, upon both
points, is, that he was Frederic’s son by Bianca di Lancia, daughter of
Bonifazio Marchese di Lancia, and that she was united to her sovereign, in some
form, analogous to what is now termed a morganatic marriage, per-
formed,
either by the Archbishop of Palermo himself, or under his sanction. The real
question appears to be, when did the ceremony take place? Manfred was clearly
born prior to his father’s thi -1 marriage with Isabella of England, and his
mother was alive after Isabella’s death ; whence the probability seems to be,
that his birth was illegitimate, but that the Emperor, when again a w idower,
for the sake of this, his darling child, wedded the mother, which, by the civil
law, it will be remembered, legitimates previously-born children. But whenever,
or however, wedded, the not-royally born Bianca never bore the title of
Empress, and only Jamsilla places Manfred, in any respcct, upon a legal
equality with Conrad and Henry.
That
Manfred,—thought so well named Frederic’s hand or mind (matins or mens
Frederici).^*) and described as resembling Frederic more than any of his sons,
not excepting the admired Enzio—well deserved to have his condition thus
raised, will be seen hereafter. Enough for the present, to mention that, at
the early age of eleven, his extraordinary endowments began curiously to
manifest themselves. Being present in one of the many actions fought by his
brother Enzio, in their father’s cause, he chanced to be taken prisoner by
Marchese Azzo, who, looking upon him as a valuable hostage, committed him, for
safe custody, to Conte Berardo, a member of the house of Este. But, in lieu of
extorting any concession from the Emperor, in ransom for a darling child, he
lost a partisan by the precaution. The captive boy’s eloquence won his jailer,
not only to release him, but to conduct him in person to his father, and
thenceforward, attach himself loyally to the Emperor’s service.
Amedeo, who
gladly assented to the Emperor’s proposals for their children, was now again
appointed Imperial Vicar in Lombardy ; and, by raising difficulty after
difficulty touching the passage of the Pope's army through Savoy, he,
temporarily at least, prevented its crossing the Alps. Frederic profited by the
delay to enter Lombardy in arms; and the Lombards, discouraged by the failure
of the expected auxiliaries, following upon the discomfiture of their German
confederates, professed a desire to treat Frederic avowed himself impatient to be
freed from such
troublesome,
because incessantly renewed, hostilities, and therefore as ready as the
Lombards for negotiation. At the, same time, he announced that, so soon as
peace was restored in Italy, he should lead his army through Savoy to Lyons ; there,
pacifically, though in force, vindicate himself to the Pope’s satisfaction from
the absurd charges brought against him ; and then proceed, with the same army,
to quell the disorders still troubling Germany.
All these
consequences of the proposed pacification of Lombardy were as distasteful to
Innocent IV, as to a right-minded Supreme Pontiff they would have been gratifying;
and he took measures for impeding Frederic’s appearance art Lyons. lie
endeavoured to alarm Lewis, in regard to the intentions with which the Emperor
was leading an army into the immediate vicinity of the French frontier; and
simultaneously to frighten away the Emperor, by proclaiming that the French
monarch had raised an army for the purpose of both guarding an exiled Pope, at
Lyons, and escorting him back to Rome. Yet so little confidence did he really
feel, in the pious King’s thus vaunted devotion to his cause; so conscious was
he that Lewis inly condemned his conduct towards the Emperor, more towards
young Conrad (whose kingdom of Jerusalem he had now pronounced forfeited and
transferred to Alicia’s son, Henry King oi’ Cyprus), and most, perhaps, his
postponing the recovery of the Holy City itself, to, at best, a mere papal
quarrel; that he was even then secretly deprecating the approach of the French
troops to Lyons, unless upon his own prayer for protection.
The Pope’s
conduct in these respects, his treatment of the Emperor, and neglect of the
Syro-Frank states, revolted all such Oriental ecclcsiastics as were unbiassed
by faction. The Catholicos of the Armenians addressed to Innocent an admonition
to obey the precept of Hm whose vicegerent he entitled himself, and forgive the
Emperor, even if he had offended seventy times seven times. Of this admonition
Innocent tcok no notice; but it might be as a show of counterpoise to his
postponement of the Interests of the Asiatic Christians to his o%vn, that he,
about this time, despatched Minorites to most of the
Saracen
Princes, to attempt converting them to Christianity. He had too much worldly
knowledge to cxpcct such conversions; but this the Syro-Franks would hardly
discover ; and at any rate he would hope to obtain through these missionaries,
information relative to the actual condition of those princes, aud of
Palestine, by which to regulate, perhaps to justify, his measures.
Meanwhile,
the Pope’s alarms were relieved by the difficulty of arranging the
pacification of Lombardy. Both Guelphs and Ghibelines professed their desire
for peace; and well they might, if the consequences of the incessant
hostilities are truly described-; '■when we are told that the labours of
the husbandman, here neglected, there left to women, could nowhere be carried
on without military protection; that bands of robbers desolated the country,
carrying off captives, whom they tortured to extort exorbitant ransom ; that
in many places—so scanty was the. remaining population—wolves boldly entered
the cottages, and devoured infants in the cradle. Yet these sufferings could
not inducc reciprocal concessions, sufficient for the foundation of a stable
peace. Hostilities continued; the Imperial troops still occupied great part of
Lombardy ; Enzio was besieging Brescia, and Frederic of Antioch, after baffling
a Guelph attempt to surprise Florence, was ravaging the territories of Perugia.
But the wheel of Fortune now turned in favour of Innocent and the Guelphs. This
first appeared at Parma.
Innocent’s
kinsmen, whom the loyal citizcns of Parma had expelled, plotted the surprise of
the city during the festivities, with which the Commander of the Imperial
force, there quartered, celebrated his daughter’s marriage. They effected their
entrance as proposed, aud instantiy attacked the Ghibelines. The Podesta and
the Imperial General hastened to allay the tumult: when, in the very beginning
of the affray, the former was slain and the latter dangerously wounded. The
distraction and despondency of the troops, thus deprived of their leaders, and
the hesitat lg of the bulk of the population, whether from the confusion of a
surprise, the effects of the festivities, or sheer popular mutability, insured
the success of the attempt. The Fieschi recovered their possessions, Digitized
by Microsoft ®
gained the
ascendancy, reinstalled the Bishop, and carried the election of a Guelph
Podesta. Such a reverse could not be suffered to pass unavenged; and the
Emperor, deferring all thoughts of peace, made the recovery of Parma his first
object.
He at once
led his own army against the offending city, and summoned his two illegitimate
sons and other detached commanders, to join h:m with their
divisions. So rapid had these movements been, that Parma was very inadequately
victualled, and great hopes were entertained that famine would compel an early
surrender. The League made vigorous exertions to retain the newly gained prize;
but Enzio defeated a body of Lombards hastening to the relief of the city, and
a speedy triumph appeared certain. These hopes were disappointed by Cardinal
Montelonga, ■whose zeal, in Innocent’s eyes, appears to have fully atoned
for a libertinism,(67) far exceeding—in a Churchman !—that for
which Frederic was so sternly condemned. This energetic partisan having managed
to enter the town, by his passionate eloquence excited and maintained a determined
spirit of resistance; 'whilst Cardinal Ubaldini hastened to supply liis place
in Lombardy, and prevent Guelph ardour from flagging at a crisis so momentous.
He, a better politician than general, perhaps, when he despaired of forcing the
passage of the Alps, had left his army to await fresh instructions from the
Pope, or to c’is- band; and, making his ow n w ay nearly unaccompanied, reached
his proper scene of action. Arriving there, he reenkindled the spirits of the
League, depressed by the late defeat, collected another army sufficient to
overpower the body of Imperialists stationed to oppose his progress at a bridge
over the Po, and threw ample supplies into Parma. The prospect of surrender
from famine was now evidently remote; but the Emperor marked his determination
not to raise the siege, by building a town of wooden huts, In which to carry it
on throughout the wintcr^and, to prove his confidence of success, he named this
camp-town Vit- ioria. He seems at the same time to have dismissed his sons to
their respective commands—another analogous indication.
Unfortunately
these disappointments, joined to the ini*
placability
of cbe Pope, appear to have gradually exasperated the Emperor, provoking him
to ants of a cruelty quite foreign to his character and habits. Something of
this the regicide plot in Apulia, had produced, which again shows itself during
the tedious siege of Parma; though whether even here he were the aggressor, or
again only retaliated barbarity, as at Brescia, has been questioned. He ordered
i'artiiesan prisoners to be executed, two every day, in sight of the walls,
thus, by fear for the lives of their friends, to coerce the citizens into
surrendering; and he is said to have increased the numbers for execution,
sometimes, by ordering natives of Farnia to be seized wherever found, even at
the Modenese University,(6S) sometimes by the addition of Mantuan,
and other captive rebels, to the sons of the besieged city. Parma, either in
the enthusiastic Guelphism inspired by the Cardinal’s eloquence, or in
reliance upon the Emperor’s latent generosity, sent a deputation to implore
him to spare the helpless prisoners, uselessly sacrificcd, since not even to
save their lives would the town surrender. The prayer was granted, and a stop
put to the diurnal executions.
Thus passed
the end of the year 1247. During the first few weeks of 1248 the Emperor was
confided to his bed by a dangerous malady, and all active operations were
suspended. When he began to recover he was medically advised to hasten his
convalescence by refreshing hitnselt with his favourite pastime, haw king; and,
w ith this object, on the 13th of February, leaving Yittoria and the conduct of
the blockade to his Grand-Judge, Taddeo da Suessa— talent in those days did not
confine its action to one department—he repaired, well accompanied, to a spot
some miles distant, adapted to the sport. Whereupon the army, seemingly with
the permission of Taddeo, who relied upon the habitual inertness of the
besieged—their resistance, however invincible, having hitherto been of a
passive character—proceeded to celebrate the sovereign’s recovery with mirth
and festivity.
The Emperor’s
temporary absence and the imprudent revelry of the troops, were noticed by the
watchman upon a tower of Parma, and no sooner were the facts known, than the
fiery exhortations of the impetuous Cardinal Mon-
telonga
stirred up the citizens to risk what they had not before dreamt of, to wit, a
sally upon the besiegers. The sally was accordingly made, and the besieged had
actually penetrated into Vittoria, before they were discovered: Taddeo holding
them in such indiscreet contempt, that when told they were assaulting the camp,
he laughed as he observed: ‘‘ So the mice have crept out of their holes at
last.” He hurried forth, nevertheless, to remedy the evil consequences of
negligence. But the mice, as he called them, were r.rmed and in order of
battle; his warriors unarmed, and immersed in the pleasures of the table,
where not in the helplessness of ebriety. The assailants increased the
confusion of surprise, by setting the wooden huts on fire. Taddeo collected,
and as he best could, arrayed those who w ere in a state to defend themselves;
but w hilst issuing orders, encouraging his men, and fighting gallantly at their
head, he fell severely wounded, and from that moment resistance bccauie hopeless.
The troops, without a lender, and bewildered by the double danger;
were beaten, routed^ slaughtered, before they well knew against what they had
to defend themselves.
T he first
intimation Frederic received of the disaster was the sight cf an immense column
of smoke in the direction of his town-like camp. He instantly galloped back
with his whole company and escort, at the utmost speed of their horses, but was
too late to stem the torrent. The camp was both on fire and in the hands of the
rebels, before he arrived. To rally the fugitives for immediately renewed
action, he found impossible; and could only accompany the flight of the main
body, gathering the scattered survivors together, rallying, ordering, exhorting,
as they went along, so as to bring this wreck of an arinv, in some sort of
decent form, to Cremona, There he halted, to reassemble and reorganize the
dispersed bands His loss amounted to 4,000 men killed or taken; but the
heaviest part, one of the heaviest losses he had yet suffered, was that of
Taddeo da Suessa, who, since the death of Hermann von Saiza, had been his most
confidential friend and counsellor; and deservedly so, notwithstanding the
calamity now caused by the supercilious neglect of Digitized by Microsoft ®
due caution,
for which hi: himself paid dear. Taddeo had not been killed by the blow that
struck him to the ground ; but he was wounded beyond all power of exertion, and
in that state left by the flying troops, who probably thought him dead. He
therefore fell irrecoverably into the hands of the Guelphs, was dragged a
prisoner into Parma, inhumanly mangled, and, it is averred, actually cat to
pieces at the instigation of the leaders, lest his honied eloquence,(®) should
win his captors back to loyalty.
The booty in
arms, cattle, and baggage of all descriptions, made by the men of Parma, was
immense ; the spoils that most elated them, being the Imperial crown and seal,
found in the Emperor’s tent. These prizes were, of course, carefully preserved
amongst the city trophies. Of the ordinary plunder, each man was required to
make over half his share to the public treasury; and, so enthusiasts was the
zeal excited by the Cardinal, that this was done, it is said, fairly, and
without murmur1 cr dispute. During the siege, the citizens had
consecrated a silver model of Parma to Our Lady, the Deliverer, whose protection
and active aid they implored. And now, in gratitude for their deliverance,
which they mainly attributed to her intervention, they placed in their
Cathedral a picture of the Madonna, accompanied by St. John the Baptist and St,
Hilarius, with an inscription, purporting, that the enemies of Parma fly,
because thp Blessed Virgin protects the city.
FUEEERIC II.
Affairs
of Germany—of Avstria—Innocent IV s Cabals—Wit- liam Bari of Holland,
Anti-King—Affairs of Italy—Captivity iof Enzio—'Fall of Pietro delle
Yigne—Crnsade of Lewis IX—Disasters—heath of Frederic II.
[1248—1250.
Evekt whilst hope still brightened the Emperor’s prospects
in Italy, and yet more after so heavy a disaster had overclouded them, Germany
remained a prey to Irnocent’s unceasing cabals. Upon the failure of the Apulian
plot, and the death of Henry Raspe, he had ordered the active Cardinal Capoceio
thither, to supersede the unsuccessful Bishop of Ferrara, as both a blundering
and a timid politician; and had invested this new Legate with full powers to
plant and cultivate, to eradicate and extirpate, to scatter and annihilate, at his
aiscretion. In the exercise of these powers Capoccio was not abstemious; and
the employment of calumny, to alienate the affections of Germany from her
sovereign, is one of the flagitious modes of hostility with which he is
charged. For the dissemination of calumny, he had recourse to the then
established papal means, viz., dispersing a swarm of friars, chiefly
Franciscans, through the country; and, although it may be surmised that these
emissaries exceeded their instructions, when they accused Frederic of such
crimes, as, training young boys for assassins; defiling a church by offering
the last outrage to a virgin, under the efiigy of Our Lady, upon the very altar
consecrated to inviolate purity, deified in her form; feeding young girls, the
destined wives cr mistresses of his enemies, upon poiscn, that their embraces
might be death-fraught; and the like; still,
,
he, who
throughout supported the defamers, cannot escape the responsibility even of
these most extravagant falsehoods.
Meanwhile,
these multifarious efforts to overthrow an heroic race, had exhausted the fruit
of the Pope’s pecuniary exactions ; and to procurc means of continuing the
attack, he was again driven to irritate the clergy of various realms, by heavy
demands upon their purses. He was driven, further, to do that which produced
more permanent disaffection to the See of Rome; namely, to the commission of
every simoniacal offence, with which he and Gregory IX had charged Frederic II,
and represented as a main cause of their enmity to him; as sell: ng benefices
to improper persons, keeping others vacant—regardless of the souls of flocks
thus left without a pastor—in order to appropriate their incomes, and similar
practices. In fact, under Innocent IV—through his obstinate determination to crush
the Swabian dynasty, and apparent hatred of the friend he had injured—many, if
not most, of the abuses, imputed to the Roman See, reached their culminating
point.C70) In Germany, one immediate consequence of these abuses was
a great increase of heretics. These heretics naturally held the excommunication
of the Emperor and his son invalid, and were staunch loyalists; a circumstance,
of which the Cardinal and his Friars took advantage, proving Frederic an
infidel, from his connexion with heretics, as well as with Saracens.
To enhance
the distraction of Germany, occurred two disputed successions; one of which
Innocent, if guiltless of producing it, turned to good account. The first arose
upon the death of the anti-king. Though thrice married, Henry Raspe left no
child; anil, in his disappointment of heirs, the Thuringians saw the judgment
of Heaven upon his conduct towards his deceased brother’s family, his attempted
usurpation of the principality and poisoning his nephew. His younger brother,
Landgrave Conrad, a bachelor when he entered the Teutonic Order, died as
Grand-Master. The claimants of the landgra- viate, the Saxon palatinate, and
the ample allodial family estates, were, therefore, females or sons of females,
and of these there were four. The first was Sophia, eldest daughter of
Landgrave Lewis, married to the Duke of
Brabant, a
widower v ith children—her sisters were nuns ; the second, Hermann, Margrave of
Misnia, surnamed the Illustrious, on account of the frequency and magnificence
of his tournaments, claimed, as the eldest son of Jutta, eldest sister of tne
two deceased Landgraves, Lewis the Holy and Henry Raspe; the third was Hermann,
Graf von Ilenneberg, eldest son of the same Jutta by a second marriage ; and
the fourth, Henry, Graf von Anhalt, eldest son of Irmengard, younger sister of
Jutta and of the deceased Landgraves. Against ail tour, the imperial tribunals
claimed the landgraviate and palatinate, as lapsed, being sword fiefs, to the
crown ; considering the allodial domains as all that the pretenders were
contending for. Indeterminate and vague as was then the law of succession i;
regard to collaterals, the third and fourth candidates appear to have been at
once dismissed; but thetitlescf the daughter, and of the eldest sister’s eldest
son, seemed both so indisputable, that to decide between them was next to
impossible. In Thuringia, the preference for a male over a female ruler, and
the consequent inclination to reject the asserted right of a daughter, as an
irrational encroachment upon the prerogative of the stronger sex, were somewhat
counterbalanced, in favour of Sophia,—whose son was an infant, in capable for
years of taking his mother’s place—by veneration for St. Elizabeth, and a
desire to be governed by her offspring. To the decision of an Emperor, who not
only claimed the principalities as lapsed fiefs, but, being deposed by the
Pope, was disowned by half the German
princes, neither party was willing to subm't; and Conrad had too much
upon his hands to be willing, even by inforcing the imperial right, much more
by deciding between the claimants, to provoke the enmity of Brabant or of
Misnia, if not of both. Frederic proposed to give bis young daughter by the
late Empress Isabella, Princcss Margaret, in marriage to Margrave Hermann's son
Albert, with the landgraviate and palatinate as her portion; leaving the
allodial territories to Sophia, or to be divided, fcome of the Thuringian great
vassals proposed reserving the question, for the judgment of an universally
acknowledged Emperor. But neither party was inclined to give way, and the
civil war went on between the two candidates and the>r par-
tisans. Those
of the Margrave were found chiefly in the eastern districts, adjacent to
Misnia; those of the Duchess _n the western, where lay the chief of the
allodial property, and where St. Elizabeth had latterly liv ed and had died.
The other
disputed succession occurred in Austria, where, in 1245, the Duke was left
defending himself against the Kings of Hungary and Bohemia. Frederic the
Combative made head against them for many months, lung enough, as was seen, to
afford him the opportunity of refusing the Imperial crown, and professing his
immoveable tidelit*. to the unjustly excommunicated and deposed Emperor. But in
the following year, when nearly triumphant over his enemies, his own rashness
cost him his life. Positively refusing to wait for his daily expected
reinforcements, he attacked the Hungarians with very inferior numbers, and his
temerity succeeded; notwithstanding the disparity of force, he gained the
victory. But, in the eagerness of pursuit outstripping the best mounted of his
army or train, he was separated from his own troops, at the moment, when his
horse, either wounded or chancing to stumble, fell, and before he could
disengage himself from the animal, he received his death-blow,—from what hand
is still matter of dispute. It was dealt, according to some writers, by a noble
vassal of his own, whose kinswoman he had forcibly dishonoured; according to
Hungarian historians, by one of the Hungarian leaders, a Frangipani, of a
branch of this Roman family, settled amongst the Magyars; (71) an
opinion adopted by Austrian authorities.
The right of
female succession had, at the creation of the duchy of Austria, been limited,
it may be recollected, to the daughters of the last Duke ; and Frederic the Combative
had none Neither had he made use of the other privilege, then granted to the
posterity of Henry Jasomir. and which, at Verona, the Emperor, in consideration
of his heirless position, had confirmed to the Duke anew, the privilege of
bequeathing his dachy. Thinking he had plenty of time before him, he deferred
making his will, and Austria was thus, dearly, a lapsed fief. As such, the
Emperor—although a few Austrian nobles solicited him to send them his eldest
grandson, the son of the deceased
Duke’s eldest
sister, as his uncle’s heir—appointed Graf von Eberstein its Governor,
directing him to divide the allodial possessions of the Babenberg family, amongst
the three co-heiresses, viz., the two sisters of the deceased Duke, Margaret,
the w idowed Queen of the Romans, and Constance, Margravine of Misnia, and
their niece Gertrude, the widow of the Bohemian prince, who had been proposed
to the Emperor as his fourth wife. But neither were the Estates of Austria
satisfied to be governed by the Lieutenant of a distant Emperor, or given away
at the imperial pleasure, nor could Innocent endure to see the power of the
enemy, whom he had exasperated by persecution, thus strengthened; and both the
Pontiff and the Estates of the duchy endeavoured to obviate the evil they
dreaded. The Pope’s measures appear somewhat inconsistent. Even whilst exciting
the Kings of Hungary and Bohemia to invade, conquer, and divide the duchy,
between their kingdoms, he pronounced the limitation of female succession by
Frederic Barbarossa, when creating the duchy, illegal and invalid; and
encouraged, strangely enough, not one, but two, of the female claimants, to
stand forward. These were, Gertrude, who, but for the special limitation,
would have been the natural heir, and Queen Margaret. The latter, upon her
liberation, had retired to a convent at Treves, her sons remaining, it should
seem, though not positively said, with their imperial grandfather. She had not
yet pronounced her vows as a nun, having, when upon the point of so doing, been
strictly forbidden by the Pope, thus to bind herself to seclusion.
Why Innocent
brought her forward—whose succession would transmit the duchy to one of
Ilohenstaufen race, besides weakening, by division, the Austrian party that
wished for a Babenberg heir, even if a female,—is not explained; but it may be
surmised, that he either hoped thus to create disunion in the imperial family,
or thought, that the more complicated the question, the more numerous the
claimants, the more certainly must the ultimate decision rest with him. But,
by whatever motive originally actuated, he speedily cast Margaret aside,
concentrating his patronage upon Gertrude. For her, he now sought a husband,
able to inforce her pretensions; fixed upon Her- Digitize by Micrpsi ft
mann,
Margrave of Baden, nephew of the Duchess of Bavaria; and, upon tlieir marriage,
proclaimed them lawful Duke and Duchess of Austria. Yet, even then, with
continuous seeming inconsistency, unless distrusting the power of his proteges
to resist the Emperor, he is said tc have exhorted tlie Kings of Hungary and
Bohemia not to evacuate the districts, of which they were in possession.
Or this step
may, only a little later, have been taken as a resource against greater evils,
when Innocent found that Hermann and Gertrudewere unacceptable to the majority
of the Estates of the duchy. They wanted a Duke of the Babenberg race, but not
a woman, nor a stranger, as the husband of their Duchess, to rule them; and
with the full concurrence of one very considerable party, GrafEber- stein
hastened to the Emperor, to urge his acknowledging his eldest grandson
Frederic, Henry and Margaret’s eldest son, as Duke, and allow ing him to take
the prince, so invested, back with him.(V2) Innocent thereupon again
extended his patronage to Margaret, as second rival to her own son ; and now
looked around for a husband, calculated to give weight to her pretensions. In
this he had not ^yet succeeded, wh-eii another Austrian party, dissatisfied
with all these proposals, determined to offer their duchy to Albert, the son of
Margaret’s younger sister, Constance, Margravine of Misnia. The deputation,
sent to invite this prince, took its way through Bohemia,—Wencesias, not having
followed the Pope’s advice, it must be inferred, if really given, but, at
least, suspended hostilities, upon the death of his restless neighbour. He novv
drew the deputation to his Court, entertained the members splendidly, and, ere
long, persuaded thnrn that, Albert of Misnia being far too young for their
purpose, a much better plan would be, to declare Margaret her brother’s
heiress, marrying her to his second son, now, by the death of the eldest, his
heir, Przemisl (Germanice, Ottocar), then in the very prime of manhood; an
arrangement that would insure to Bohemia and Austria, thus united, the command
of Germany. The deputies were convinced, and returned to communicate their
conviction to their constituents. In this they succeeded; Margaret, who had
then seen seven- and-forty winters, was invited from her convent, to accept
the addresses
of a young libertine, Ottocar, arid claim the duchy of Austria.
The Pope
seems to have fully sanctioned these proceedings. The Emperor, admitting none
of the pretensions thus advanced, maintained the duchy to be, according to its
original constitution, a lapsed fief, and committed the assertion of the
Empire’s disputed right to the Duke of Bavaria, whom the Pope had previously encouraged
to reclaim the provinces, ceded by Henry the Lion to the margraviate, when it
was made a duchy. But Othoj if he acted vigorously enough against the partisans
of Margaret, showed little eagerness to prevent the aggrandisement of his
wife’s nephew, Hermann of Baden; and the civil war became more and more
complicated. Of Stj-ria, which Frederic now again severed from Austria, Mein-
hard, Graf von Gorz, held possession, as Imperial Governor, without much
disturbance.
Innocent’s
active hostility to the Emperor was ne'ther glutted by, nor absorbed in, these
endeavours to dispossess him of a lawfully lapsed, mighty fief. From the day of
Henry Raspe’s death he had been diligently seeking another anti-king; and, as
before, distrust either of his right or of his power to bestow Germany and the
Empire, had induced disinclination to accept the splendid gift. Successively
to the Earls of Guelders and of Cornwall, to the King of Norway, and, again, to
the Duke of Brabant, did he offer this magnificent sovereignty. But the example
of Henry llaspe was not inspiriting: and all declined the donation of crowns,
which, when accepted, had to be wrested from their able and powerful wearer,
against the will of, certainly, the majority of the subjects, nominally thus transferred.
In this
dearth of anti-kings, an idea was entertained of seducing Conrad to revolt,
like his elder brother Henry. To this end, he was offered not only relief from
the sentence of excommunication under which he lay, but the sanction and
support of the Pope, as, at least, independent King of Germany. The idea would
be the more readily adopted by Innocent, from his knowledge of Lewis IX’s
disgust, at the unoffending boy’s being included ]n the sentence pronounced
against the father: and overtures
to this
effect were made to the King ot' the Homans, by some German leaders of the
Papal faction. But Conrad, more dutiful or wiser than Ilenry, answered : “ Of a
truth,
I shall not
play my father and myself false, to please a pack of traitors.” And again an
anti-king had to be sought.
The Duke of
Brabant, decidedly as he himself preferred his duchy to so precarious an
empire, suggested that his nephew, William, Earl of Holland, being only
nineteen years of age, ambitious, and boyishly fond of war, iright prefer the
prouder title, to hiss own. The Archbishop of Cologne eagerly caught at the
idea; he wanted a king, under whom the real authority would be his; and as a
lad of nineteen promised to be precisely such a king, the offer was made. The
young Earl’s passion for war must have been inordinate, indeed, if unsatisfied
with what he already had upon his hands; inasmuch as he was then engaged ip
hostilities, w ith the far more pow erful Countess of Flanders and Hainault. In
these counties, Margaret had succeeded to her sister, Joanna, who, in 1244.,
died without children by either of her husbands, the Infante of Portugal, or
Earl Thomas of Savoy. William had not done homage to her for Zealand, which the
Earls of Holland held of those of Flanders, thinking probably, to emancipate
himself from vassalage under a female mesne suzerain; and the haughty Margaret
»as determined to deprive him of Zealand, if he persisted in his refusal. But,
whatever might be the ease with his martial impulses, Earl William’s ambition
was not damped by his involvements; and he eagerly accepted the offered crown.
To Innocent,
under existing circumstances, any candidate for empire was welcome; and he may
even have preferred one, who must needs be completely dependent upon his
support. Zealously he wooed the princes, upon whom the election depended; and
it was to gain the vote of King Wenceslas, that ho had invited him to conquer
and annex Austria to Bohemia—the canvass for an anti-king having preceded his
protection of Gertrude as heiress ot that duchy. Cardinal Capoccio addressed
himself to the ecclesiastical princes of Germany, and prevailed upon several
to be content with the papal candidate—the only one obtainable
—for their
crown. When thus assured of success, an Electoral Diet was convoked by the
Archbishop of Mainz, and again was a place of no account appointed for its
meeting: Woringen, near Cologne, being upon this occasion selected, a here he, with the Archbishops of
Treves and Cologne, the King of Bohemia, and a few prelates and princes who did
not habitually claim a voice in the election of a sovereign, the Duke of
Brabant being one, and some immediate vassals of inferior power and dignity,
proceeded, upon the 3rd of October, 1247, to elect William Earl of Holland,
King of Germany and of the Romans. The official document states the election
to have been by the general consent of the princes present. The circumstance is
not surprising, as only princes determined to vote for the papal candidate
attended: but is worth recording, as tending to show the rights of suffrage
not yet definitively vested in the seven electors of the golden bull, or even
limited to that number. The new King was then knighted with the accustomed
ceremonies, accompanied by great banquetting and other festivities ; amidst
which, the intention of proceeding directly to Achen, there to solemnize his
coronation, was announced.
The
annunciation was somewhat premature, for Achen, faithful as a true German city
to the Emperor, closed her gates against the Anti-king and his partisans. The
coronation was unavoidably postponed, until the proper theatre should be in
the hands of the Guelph faction. Achen was regularly besieged and gallantly
defended. In fact, the preponderance of the Imperialist over the Papal party,
throughout Germany, was at this time very decided; invigorated, probably, by
anger at the election of a prince so inconsiderable in dominions, age and
reputation, as Wdliam of Holland. Franconia, Swabia, Styria, and, In part, Austria,
were chiefly under Imperial otficers ; the Free Imperial Cities were loyal; and
the Dukes of Saxony and Bavaria, the Margraves of Brandenburg and Misnia, the
Archbishop of Magdeburg, and the Bishops of Passau and Freising, loudly
protested against the recent pretended election, as in every way illegal, and
therefore null. Even P-'nce Ottocar of Eohem’a publicly reprobated his father’s
share »n the transaction; and. partlv, perhaps, to punish
his
opposition, Innocent now proposed a marriage between Margaret, Queen Dowager ot
the Romans, and Ear! Florence, a younger brother of the Anti-king. William
shrank from the risk of offending the King of Bohemia, and the proposal
dropped. The Pope, resuming hi3 former practices, gradually gained a few
partisans; but still William was the weakest, and as such was driven to all
means of bribing adherents. He lavished grants of every description, of
imperial fiefs, of tolls, dues, and what rot; he made unprecedented, if not
actually unlawful, transfers of suzerainty over immediate vassals, as
cloisters, knights, and even one Free Imperial City,—Nimeguen; and, in direct
opposition to this last act, he raised Flemish towns to the rank of Free
Imperial Cities. But Countess Margaret, —though herself, like her father and
sister, extremely liberal of charters to her towns—denied the right of even the
most legally elected and universally acknowledged Emperor, thus to emancipate
her subjects from her authority; and speedily compelled the Anti-king, not only
to cancel his charters to Flemings and Hainanlters, but to purchase peace, and
her recognition of his title, by concessions unbecoming a monarch who called
himself her sovereign.
The Pope
sought, at least, to lessen the need of such waste of imperial possessions and
power, by supplying liis Anti-king vlth money, wrung from the clergy; but even
in this he was not uniformly successful. The sums that he ordered to be
remitted from Italy, were frequently intercepted by Cor.te Amedeo ; and, to
Innocent’s r.o small mortification, diverted to the service of the Emperor, for
whose overthrow they had been designed. Only what was extorted from the German
clergy certainly reached the intended receiver. Cheaper succours he provided
by commanding, rather than permitting, all those, who had taken the Cross for
the recovery of the Holy Land, to perform their Vow at the siege of Achen. A
singular commentary upon the Council’s prohibition of war in Europe, for a
certain period, lest it should interfere with the enterprise contemplated for
this object. But to what anomalies will not passioii give birth !
That Lewis IX
paid no attention to this papal injunction hardly need be said. But, being
welcome to the idle, as to
the lukewarm,
amongst vowed Crusaders — it brought William reinforcements, that seemed to
render further resistance on the part of the besieged unavailing. Yet they
still replied to the Anti-king’s summons, that they would neither violate nor
palter with their oath of allegiance. And still they defended their walls: nor,
till the building— or the breaking down—of a dam turned a torrent of water into
the town, not only tilling the collars, but so completely inundating the lower
parts, as actually to drive the inhabitants to the upper stories of their
houses, and by destroying the contents of many provision-magaz'nes, to producc
famine, could the besiegers, with all their accumulation of forces succeed.
Upon the 1 tith of October,
1248, Achen, after a year’s siege, surrendered,
and William, in the joy of being at length enabled to solemnize his coronation
in the only place where the ceremony was deemed valid, otfered the citizens a
free pardon. They were too high-m.ndedly unflinching in their allegiance to
accept it. They had yielded only to the irresistible coercion of hunger; and
the majority, with their famines, in appearance more like shadows than living
human creatures, now quitted Achen, carrying their moveable property with them,
again to tender their services to their lawful sovereigns, Frederic and Conrad.
In
Charlemagne's Cathedral, the Archbishop of Mainz, upon the 1st of November,
anointed William of Holland, and the Archbishop of Treves placed the crovi n
upon his head. Henry llaspe had never achieved his coronation; and the Pope,
therefore, hoped that even those, who had .•efused to acknowledge an uncrowned
king, might be expected to submit to a successor, duly crowned at Achen. He
was disappointed; the Imperialists admitted no power in a coronation-ceremony,
however regular—and this was imperfectly so, the proper regalia being in the
possession of Frederic or Conrad — to heal the defccts of an llegal, invalid
election; much less to cancel oaths of allegiance to living sovereigns. They
still called William, as they had called Henry, both Anti-king and Parsons’
King.
When Achen
surrendered, these perverted Crusaders deemed their vow fulfilled, and, not
being Papal partisans, dispersed : by their desertion leaving William too weak,
to
attempt, at
this time, anything further towards establishing his authority. It is likewise
said, that the Archbishop
to crush his
antagonist, his party being 'ndisposed to vigorous exertions in his cause;
resting nearly eontant with petty hostilities against Guelph neighbours, and
compelling the clergy to baptize, marry, bury, and say mass, as though neither
excommunication nor interdict existed. Germany remained therefore harassed by
civil war, general but indecisive.
One growth
from these disorders, or rather from their parent, the suspension of the
sovereign-authority, had already been the increase of robber-knights, and—if
the epithet be applicable to all extorters of money from strangers— of
robber-nobles. A second product, the offspring of the first, was, that the
towns had been driven to measures of defence, new in Germany. The Graf von
Katzencllcnbogen having unlawfully imposed, at Castle llheinfels, an unwonted
anu heavy toll upon the llhine, Mainz. Frankfort, and Worms sent an army, or
rather three allied bands, against him The allies were repulsed. Then a
patrician burgher of Mainz, Arnold von Ttiurn, proposed a confederation of
th<_ cities upon the Rhine, regularly organized after the manner of the
Lombard League, but more completely so, and with a purely lawful object, viz.,
conjointly to equip an army under one general, and a fleet under one; admiral,
for the protection of their trade from plunder. In ihe preceding year, 1247,
his plan had been adopted, and was now in full and successful activity, having
compelled the Earl to give up his toll,, This was a state of affairs that could
not fail of being propitious to Conrad
Another
occurrence that about this time promised materially to increase his
preponderance, was the death ot Siegfried, Archbishop of Mainz, the most
warlike of Innocent’s ecclesiastical partisans in Germany. The Chapter
selected the Archbishop of Cologne as his successor, and —from the objections
made by the Pope to their choice—
it should
seem, not as translated to the higher metropolitan See, but to hold Mainz
together with Cologne The Holy Father, objecting upon just principle to pluralities,
positively forbade such an accumulation of powerful archbishoprics, from which
he is said to have feared the rise of a patriarchate beyond the Alps, capable
of resisting, if not of throwing otF, the papal authority. Annulling the
election, lie commanded the Mainz Chapter to proceed to a new one. Their choice
then fell upon their own Provost, another Graf Christian, an ecclesiastic of a
meeker and more religious nature than either his namesake or his more immediate
predecessor, and who, shrinking from a post so responsible in times so
critical, sincerely and repeatedly declined the dignity ; at last accepting it,
really upon compulsion.
In Italy, a
little more activity prevailed, but with results scarcely more decisive. Enzio
gained victories, and Ezzc- lino took cities’;' but so did Cardinal Ubnldini,
whose troops, by circuitous routes, at length joined him. The Pope obtained,
from the Bolognese, an oath to confiscate all Ghibeline property upon their
territories, and ordered a new’ swarm of friars into Apulia and Sicily, there
to excite new rebellions. These emissaries were often severely punished by the
tribunals, ecclesiastical as well as lay, and vet oftener very roughly handled
by the loyal populace. Their endeavours appear, however, to have alarmed Frederic;
for he made over the conduct of his troops in the northern and central
provinces, to his two sons, Enzio and Frederic, named Amedeo of Savoy Tmnerial
Vicar in Lombardy, and hastened to his southern kingdom. There he speedily
baffled and checked the manoeuvres of the friars, whose success had been
triflii;c j and thence he renewed his intercourse with Lewis IX, touching that
monarch’s Crusade, offering him all assistance in his power, and regretting the
impossibility, caused by the Pope’s enmity, of Ins joining him.
This Crusade
was now really beginning; the French King having, at length, surmounted the
opposition of his mother and his council. Such an attendance of nobles, as
seemed requisite, he had, since his own assumption of the Cross, secured by a
ludicrous stratagem, and noticeable, be-
cause
characterizing an age, of whose religiously chivalrous ideal Lev is might be
termed the impersonation. It was customary for the King to give, as a sort of
Christmas-box, new dresses to all who kept, with him, that soiemn wintel
festival. Having drawn as many of the nobility to court as passible, he
secretly ordered a Crusader’s Cross to be affixed upon the mantles, completing
these dresses; and then caused these Christmas-boxes to be delivered before
dawn, on Christmas-day, with a message, requiring each receiver’s instant
attendance upon hnn, to mass. Unsuspicious of the snare, the receivers hurried
on the new dresses in the dark, and, when they had light enough to distinguish
their garments, found themselves,unconsciously as urintentionally, pledged
Crusaders.p) This occurred at the close of 124,5, about a year after his own
vow and it was not until 1248, that he was ready to set forward, with an army
really wearing the aspect of pilgrim-warriors. Following the King’s example,
every appearance of splendour was discarded; no furs or gold ornaments were
worn, not even the highly-prized, golden spurs of knighthood ; and coarse grey
cloth superseded scarlet velvets and satins, in the mantles and doublets.
This arrny
proceeded by different routes. The King, with the main body, embarked at
Aiguesmortes, his only port upon the Mediterranean, for Cyprus; which he had
appointed as the rendezvous, as well with his other divisions as with the
Syro-Frank magnates, whom, prior to finally arranging his proceedings, he
wished to consult respecting the direction his armament should take. II is
brother, the Comte de Poitiers, being appointed to march through Italy, was
invited by the Pimperor to embark at an Apulian port, where he would furnish
him shipping. Nor was this his only service to the Crusade. Understanding that
the King’s stay in Cyprus had, unexpectedly, beten so prolonged, as to cause a
distressing scarcity in the island, Frederic nut only sent Lewis a large supply
of provisions, but gave the Venetians,—who, despite the commercial treaty, were
again at war with him—safe-conduets, that the recurrence of such an
inconvenience might be prevented, by their feeding the Crusaders in the way of
trade. ('*) Both Lewis, upon his holy expedition, and the Re-
gent, Queen
Blanche, at heme, wrote earnest expostulations to the Pope, against his
persecution of so truly Christian a prince as the Emperor, the benefactor of
Christendom,{?*) In vain ! Innocent had already shown, by granting
dispensations from their crusading vow to as many French Crusaders, as
acknowledged the wish to evade what all then esteemed an essentially religious
duty, how little be cared for the defence or recovery of the Holy Land, in
comparison with the overthrow of those steady opponents of papal aggression,
the Swabian En.perors. He paid 110 attention to these grateful remonstrances of
the truly pious royal Crusader, and his universally revered mother.
The
Pope’s schemesfor destroying the race were beginning to prosper. Calamity, that
had first visited Frederic li at Parma, now pressed, well-nigh uninterruptedly
upon the indefatigable, tb.e long invincible monarch. Modena, being at war with
Bologna, and besieged by the forces of her far stronger antagonist, entreated
inDerial succours, which, readily granted, Enzio hastened to afford. The
besieged, conscious of their relathe inferiority, had attempted nothing beyond
the defencc of their walls, until the Bolognese, from one of their mangonels,
hurled a dead ass, bound with silver fetters, into a favourite fountain, in the
very heart of the town. The insult overpowered all prudence; and the Modenese,
in a bold sally, destroyed the offending engine. But they were too much elated
by this success to rest content with it, especially when Enzio, bringing a body
of Germans to their aid, raised them to a numerical equality with the foe.
Eager, moreover, to profit by the presence of the Emperor’s warrior son, they
issued forth to try the fortune 01 arms in the open field. The hostile armies
met upon the small river Scultenna, which Enzio had proposed to cross at a
ford, sufficiently distant from both parties, to be unw atched. Ilis plan being
traitorously revealed to the Bolognese Podesta, the intended surprise failed,
and the action that ensued was, in fact, a drawn game. Shortly afterwards a
pitched battle was fought, of which, during nearly the whole day, the issue
w'as doubtful But, towards evening, Enzio himself being engaged hand to hand
with Antonio Lambertazzi, a Bolognese, his Digitized by Microsoft ® .
unchivalrous
adversary stew his horse, and he, falling with the animal, vanished for an
instant from the eyes of the army. Such an accident seems, at this epoch, to
have been always fraught with irretrievable ruin. Enzio was, indeed, quickly
relieved from the dying steed, and remounted by his Germans; but the momentary
disappearance of him, upon whom alone their hopes rested, had so disheartened
the Modenese, that they were already rather living, than retreating. The
infection of fear, and the desertion of half the army, irremediably disordered
the remainder. Enzio and his chief officers, Marino di Eboii and Buosc da
Doaria, strove in vain to check the panic; the rout was not to be stemmed,
and—far more fatal to the Imperialists! —they themselves were surrounded and
taken.
Unbounded was
the exultation of the victors, who led their prisoners in triumphant procession
to Bologna. First w ent the eagles and other minor trophies; then the Imperial
Carroecio, which—having accompanied Enzio to the field— borne upon its
elephant, towered above all others; the captured troops followed, Enzio and his
two friends, in full panoply and bearing all marks of dignity, closed the
train. The Grand-Council ot the city assembled to receive the victors,
and—startling to civilized ears !—to decide upon the fate of prisoners of war.
Those who deliberate upon that which admits not of hesitation, are proverbially
lost to honour and honesty : accordingly the fate determined upon, for the
gallant, as handsome, King of Sardinia, who had scarcely yet seen
four-and-twenty summers, and whose sole offence was helping the friends,
against the enemies, of his father, was lifelong captivity.
Whether any
amount of instantly offered ransom and flattery, could have softened this
determination, dictated, partly by the inveteracy, which Innocent IY had
instilled into many of his partisans, and partly by the politic desire to
weaken the Emperor, by depriving him of his best captain, may be doubted: but
certainly the measures, to which the first burst of paternal grief and anger
impelled Frederic, were injudicious. He authoritatively demanded his son’s
release, threatening terrible vengeance if it were denied or delayed; and the
triumphant Bolognese, convinced that, w ith such a hostage in their hands, he
dared
not attack
them, answered with insulting taunts. The imperial father, then perceiving that
violence was worse chan useless, tendered ample ransom, to which Enzio proposed
to add a silver ring, of magnitude to encircle Bologna, and the proffers were
scornfully rejected. Still Frederic despaired not. lie had a son of the
Marquess of Montferrat, new a confirmed Guelph, in his hands, and trusted,
through the interest which the Marquess must needs have with his new friends,
to effect the exchange of their captive chili1 ren. The Marquess was
naturally willing; Enzio was, however, thought of more importance than the
adhesion of Montferrat; and this hope was blighted.
But, if Enzio
languished in seemingly perdurable captivity, that captivity was neither
lonely nor cheerless. The brilliant and fascinating qualities, that he
inherited from his father in a greater degree than any of his brothers, except
Manfred, won the hearts of the Bolognese youth of both sexes. The sons of the
noblest courted the prisoner’s socictj'j and the fairest of their daughters,
Lucia Yiadagola, yielded him her heart. Whether their loves w ere sanctioned by
religious rites, is a disputed question, there being no doubt that Enzio might
hold himself free to contract a new marriage; his Queen, Adelasia, having,
apparently', found little satisfaction in her union wilh a husband, w'hom his
father’s affairs kept habitually absent from her, is accused of early seeking
consolation in the society of one Michele Zanchi, her Seneschal, a brutal
Sardinian, placed by Dante amongst the worst traitors.(76) When
Innocent excommunicated her Imperial father-in- law, she, although mother of a
daughter by Enzio, applied to the l’ope for a divorce, upon the ground of
having been ill-used and even imprisoned by her husband.(7') What
foundation there might be for her complaints is unknown, but her application
was successful, and she had already given her hand to Zanchi, as her third
husband. It is even said that, in consequence of Adelasia’s divorce, a
marriajre with a daughter of the house of Romano had been proposed for Enzio,
the treaty pending when interrupted by his capture.(7S) It is
therefore to be hoped, that he made his fair consoler his w ife; for.
married or
not, from their loves the noble Bolognese family of Bentivcglio is believed to
spring. In a prison thus replete with solace, Snzio seems for a while to have
patiently abided., looking forward to political casualties, that, if they did
not actually win Bologna to their side, yet might so restore her enmity, as to
induce acceptance of the ample ransom, repeatedly offered by his father, and
subsequently by his brothers, Conrad and Manfred.
Enzio’s
capture had been speedily, followed by the fall of Modena; despairing of
relief, she was now compelled to submit to the domination of Bologna, and
desert the Imperial, for the Papal party. But this consequence at least of the
loss of his son, was, to the Emperor, fully compensated 5' liavenna and
Faenza, which had again become Guelph, forsaking the Pope about this time, once
more to profess themselves Ghibeline; an example followed by Lodi and Piacenza,
a few months later, a.d. 12,50,
when Marchese Oberto Palavicino, Podesta of Cremona, defeated the troops of
Parma, even capturing their Car- roccio. These successes encouraged Frederic in
the exertions he was, with still uncompromising energy, making, in his
southern dominions, for the vigorous prosecution of the war, to which he must
now have looked as the best, if not the only, way of recovering Enzio.
But the
wound, inflicted by his son’s captivity, was to be envenomed by ihe discovery,
real or delusive, of treason, in one of his most favoured, most trusted,
friends and servants. Whether Pietro delle Vigne actually were a traitor, and
if he were, what might be the extent and degree of his treason; or whether he
were skilfuily made to appear one, and again if so, whether by envious rivals,
or by the machinations of the Papal faction ; are all questions upon which
contemporary authorities of course differ, according to their Guelph or
Ghibeline prepossessions; and they are variously followed by later historians;
even that laborious investigator, liaumer, confessing himself unable to find
conclusive evidence amidst the Italian archives that have been laid open to
him. The assertion that he fell, altogether unsuspected, a victim to Frederic’s
tyrannous rapacity, may assuredly be pronounced a calumny advanced by Innocent
IV, but uncredited even by most Guelp’ns,(79) vol. iv. Digitized by Microsoft 7
and Giannnne
observes that, if the Protonotario and Grand-* Judge wus, indeed, innocent,
many others of the Emperor’s courtiers and ministers were indisputably sold to
the Pope.
The low
station (Guido Bonatti says that of a famished beggar) *'rom which the Emperor
had raised Pietro delle Vigne to the exalted posts of Grand-Judge and, in fact,
Secretary of State, if not to that of Grand-Chancellor, will not have been
forgotten; and he appears to have valued him as a companion and
brother-songster, almost as highly as in his capacity of statesman. But, like
most upstarts, whatever their abilities and merits, the poetic minister was
arrogant and rapacious. Of the latter vice he is fully convicted by the
uncontestcd fact, that, besides enriching many members of his family, the
penniless student had accumulated wealth, such as to excite the cupidity, not
only of the courtiers (whose enmity he thus provoked), but, according to the
Pope, of the Emperor himself; a charge he could not have dreamt of ir.al ing,
had the fortune in question been moderate.(s0) The former,
arrogance, is said to have been manifested, offensively to Frederic, in so
altering and modifying imperial measures, decrees, &c.,as to adapt them
more to his own views than to the Emperor’s: such presumption appears to have
been overlooked or pardoned, in consideration of his abilities and valuable services,
or of the pleasure afforded by bis society. When doubts of this favourite
servant’s fidelity were first conceived by Frederic, or iirst instilled into
him, either by rival politicians, by courtiers, or by the bribed tools of Innocent,
is uncertain. The Grand-Judge lias indeed been accused of suspicious
intercourse with the Pope during his mission to Lyons, in 1245 ;(81)
but if so, it is e\ideut that either Frederic rejected the accusation, or the
accused justified himself, since he retained his master’s confidence long after
that mission, certainly up to, if not till after, the siege of Farina The first
manifestation of such doubts, with their simultaneous supposed corroboration,
is thus recounted.
Ore member of
the Protonotario Grand-Judge’s household was a physician of superior skill,
whom Frederic, when indisposed, as he now seems often to have been
occasionally
consulted. Being taken ill at Capua, in the year 1‘249, he sent for him.
Accompanied by Pietro delle Vigne, who was uneasy about the Emperor’s health,
the Doctor came, prescribed, ai.d proceeded to compound the necessary potion.
Whilst ho was preparing it, Frederic, who had been previously assured that the
leech, if not the minister, was suborned by Innocent to poison him, looking
fixedly at the man nf medicine, said: “ Friend, my soul trusts you, yet beware
that you give me not poison, in lieu of healing drugs.” The Minister, startled
by such an admonition, exclaimed: “My Liege, so often as he has administered
healing draughts to you, why such an apprehension?” Without answering him, the
Emperor again addressed the leech: “Drink half the potion, then give me the
other half.’’ As, preparatively to obeying the command, the physician, with
the goblet in his hand, hastily advanced, he stumbled, fell, and spilt us contents:
not completely however, and Frederic, his suspicions increased by the seeming
accident, ordered the small remainder to be given to a criminal, then under
sentence of death. It was done, and the man died. Upon this, to his mind “
confirmation strong as proof of Holy Writ,” Frederic burst into a flood of
scalding tears, w rung his hands, and cried: “Woe is me ! If ihose nearest and
dearest to me thus seek my life, in whom shall I trust! How can I ever more
rejoice in gladness!” Amidst such lamentations, he commanded his Minister
either to be thrown into prison, or confined in his own splendid Capuan
mansion: and it seems probable that he further caused his eyes to be put out;
no uncommon punishment in those days, as sparing life, whilst rendering the.
dreaded individual innoxious through helplessness. But, sightless or seeing,
Pietro in his captivity is said to have found means of committing suicide,
whether by strangling himself, dashing his brains out against the wall of his
dungeon, or flinging himself down from the roof of his palace, just as Frederic
was riding past.(82)
In this whole
story, the only points actually certain are, the captivity and suicide of
Pietro delle Yigne; and concerning even these, some discrepancies still exist;
some, writers asserting, that Frederic, being then at Pisa,
148 DOUBTS RESPECTING HIS GUILT. [1248
merely gave
Pietro into the hands of the Pisans, who imprisoned and ill-used him. The
incident of the poisoned cup is averred io rest upon the single authority of
Matthew Paris, and, even if true, is not conclusive against the minister, whose
physician might be suborned without his knowledge; nay,the potion might be
salutiferous, and the poison substituted by an enemy, amongst those commissioned
to try it upon the criminal: as, indeed, seems most l'kely, from so deadly an
effect being ascribed to the small remainder of the dose to be administered.
Dante, who, though not a contemporary of Frederic and Pietro, had all
opportunity of conversing with those who were—he held public office at Florence
before the end of the century— acquits Pietro, ascribing his fate to the
manoeuvre.-; and intrigues of envious rivals, and throwing doubt over his
privation of sight.(83) Nevertheless, his suicide, taken in
combination with his enormous wealth, must be owned to afford presumption of
conscious guilt; and, without imputing to the favoured friend and minister a
crime so atrocious as projecting the murder of his benefactor, it may be
surmised, that, alarmed at the effects of the excommunication, seeing
Frederic’s health fail, and knowing Conrad, though brave and not deficient in
talent, unequal to supplying his father's place, he might be tempted, at once
to secure himself from future danger, and to receive the profuse rewards with
which Innocent would purchase such an ally, by betraying his master’s counsels,
though not by poisoning him. But, on another hypothesis, how easily might
Innocent and his agents write answers, to suppositious treasonable offers from
the incorruptible Frotonotario Grand-Judge, and play their letters into the
Emperor’s hands.
The guilt,
real or fictitious, of his long-trusted Minister, involving the loss of a
favourite companion, and of confidence in all around him, was a heavy blow to
the Emperor, depressed as he already was by Enzio’s captivity, and, although
only in his 55th year, weakened in constitution, by the incessant fatigues and
anxieties of his life. An attack of erysipelas ensued, from which he recovered
to display his wonted energetic activity, raising troops in Italy, and
procuring reinforcements of Saracens from
Africa to
form an army, with which he again occupied the greater part of the Papal
dominions. But he does not appear to have ever regained his bodily vigour.
Still his affairs looked promising ; Conrad was decidedly superior to the
anti-king, in Germany; and south of the Alps, Ezze- lino was now lord of the
whole country, from the Oglio to Trent in the Tyrol, where Holsano likewise
scarcely disputed his authority. Victory seemed about to recompense his long
struggle ; but whilst it was yet inchoate, his pleasure in the fair prospect
and the actual success was damped by ill news from his, now, true friend, Lewis
IX; and yet more by the cruel calumny, for which Innocent IV found occasion, in
the disasters of the Crusade.
The royal
Crusader had received, at Cyprus, an embassy from one of the Mongol Chiefs,
announcing an inclination on his part towards Christianity, derived from a
Christian motherland inviting the King of France to attack Sultan Eyub,
simultaneously with his own intended attack upon the Caliph at Bagdad, th«s to
prevent the former from assisting his spiritual Head. This proposal suiting
well with the opinion held by the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Grand-Masters
of the Templars and Hospitalers—whom he had laboured, at length successfully,
to reconcile—that Egypt, now the principal seat of Moslem power, must be
conquered, to render the existence of the kingdom of Jerusalem possible, lie
sailed from Cyprus, in May, 1249, for one of the mouths of the Nile, and, after
a gallant struggle, happily made himself master ot Damietta Here the progress
of Christian Europe i» civilization and humanity appeared, in his forbidding
the massacre of women and children, whom he ordered to bn made prisoners, and
converted; even of men, recommending the capture and conversion rather than the
slaughter. (81) But as though it were due to the Roman See to tread
in a Legate’s footsteps, he loitered at Damietta, even as Cardinal Pelayo had
there loitered, throwing away the opportunity'—offered by the death
of Eyub, the absence of his son Turanshah, and the consequent cabals and
intrigues amongst the Mamelukes—for striking a blow; and, again like Pelayo,
began his march to Cairo just before the periodical rise cf the river Upon his
way. he wasted more Digitized by Microsoft ®
time in
constructing a dam or d.vke across a canal that impeded his progress; and he
suffered a heavy loss through the obstinate imprudence of his brother, the
Comte d’Artois, in rashly pursuing a fugitive troop of Mamelukes. An obstinacy
oddly explained by Jouiville, the noble chronicler of this Crusade, as
resulting from the deafness of the knight, who led
the Prince’s hor^e; and who heard neither the furious clamours of the
Templars, against such a violation of their rights as thus preceding them in
action, nor the commands of the King’s messenger to return, nor the cries to
stop, of the obedient Robert himself. All this can, however, ouly be
conjecture, as both Prince and knight, rushing into the midst of the
Mohammedans, were slain. A. series of subsequent idle delays and injudicious
measures finally placed Lewis, in spite of great gallantry, in the precise
position, in which Jean de Brienne and Cardinal Pelayo had been before him.
Hemmed in between the waters of the Nile and the daily increasing hosts of the
enemy, unable to advance or retreat, or to procurc provisions for his army, he
was compelled to open negotiations, and offer ransom for leave to evacuate the
country.
Frederic,
upon learning the melancholy condition of the Crusaders, despatched an embassy
to the Sultan of Egypt, to mediate in his name in behalf of the French King; to
whom he at the same time transmitted a sum of money, to facilitate the payment
of ransom, by wh.ch alone he could hope to escape. Whilst he was thus
generously exerting himself to help the royal Crusader out of the difficulties
in which he had so unwisely involved himself, Innocent loudly accused him of
having, in the first place, caused the disaster, by betraying Lewis to the
Sultan, and in the next set on foot intrigues with the same Saltan, in order to
prolong, if not to perpetuate, the captivity of the King and his army. That he
would, as bound by treaty, give Eyub notice of the termination of the truce by
a royal Crusade—though the information must surely have been
supererogatory—need net be disputed; but that Egypt was threatened—the
direction of the enterprise having been decided only in Cyprus, and probably
put in execution before known in
Italy—he
could not warn him- Cleanly no warnings had
I prevented
the capture of Damietta, alter which there was nothing to betray. Frederic
appears to have felt this imputation mere keenly, than any of the preceding
calumnies heaped upon him.
Perhaps the
declining state of his health, and the afflictions that within, the last two
or three years had so rapidly accumulated around him, might have rendered him
more sensitive, and the consequences of that sensitiveness were now about to
reach their climax. Upon the 2'lth of Novemher, 1250, at Firenzuola, not far
from Luceria, the Emperor was taken ill. How long he struggled against the
fatal disease seems not quite certain; for. whilst the 13th of December is most
generally named as the day of his death,and often noticed as the anniversary
of that lamented event, Christmas day is so called upcn many occasions. But
whether the illness lasted a fortnight only, or nearer to a month, during its
coutinuance, the Archbishop of Palermo, who, years before had satisfied
himself of the orthodoxy of his sovereign's faith, solemnly relieved him from
excommunication, re-admitting him into the bosom of the Church. His body was
conveyed to his favourite residence, Palermo, pnd there, in the month of
February next ensuing, with all the rites and ceremonies of religion, interred.
The Sicilian magnates recorded their estimate of their lost Sovereign upon his
monument.(hR)
Of all
Frederic’s numeroiis children, only his favourite son Manfred was with him
during his illness, to watch by his side and close his eyes. And as he most
especially inherited, with his father’s talents and powers of captivation, the
papal hatred for the heroic house of Swabia, Innocent and the Guelph faction
took advantage of the circumstance to charge him with parriride ; asserting,
some that he administered poison to his slightly indisposed father, others,
that he smothered him with a pillow.(fc') Why a son, not the heir,
shou'd murder a fond parent, from whose affection and power he had everything
to hope, in order to transfer the sovereignty to a half brother whom'—living
and reigning in Germany, whilst he himself was growing up in Italy—he scarcely
knew, the Pope,
his original
accuser, did not take the trouble of explaining. Ghibeline writers equally
ascribe Frederic’s premature death, at the age of 06, to poison, but charge the
crime more plausiblv upon the hostile Pope or his agents, not upon the
sufferer's favourite child.(sa)
During his
last illness, Frederic made a will, which in various respects claims notice. In
those days, kingdoms were considered as royal property,(**9) and the
Emperor bequeathed his realms and subjects, as he would manors and cattle. His
old engagement, to sever the Sicilies from Germany, he might naturally deem
cancelled by the persecution he had undergone from the Popes, Gregory IX and
Innocent IV; and, taking no notice of any such intention, he names, as
universal heir, his eldest surviving son, Conrad; in case of Conrad’s dying
without children, his youngest son, Henry; and in case of his ako dying childless,
Manfred. This nomination of Manfred as a possible hoir, yet postponing him to
his younger brother, the son of the Empress Isabel, seems clearly to mark the
imperfect legit’macy of his birch. The children of his guilty eldest son,
Henry, are wholly omitted in the series of successive heirs to the crown; the
father’s forfeiture of his birthright having, apparently, annihilated all the
pretensions of his posterity. A few lesser bequests follow; they are, to
Henry, at Conrad’s choice, either the kingdom of Arles or that of Jerusalem, to
be held in vassalage of Conrad, as Emperor, with a sum of 10,000 ounces of
gold; to Manfred, the principality of Tarento and some Apulian and Sicilian
counties, in vassalage to Conrad, as King of Sicily; and a direction that,
whenever Conrad shall be in Germany, Manfred shall be his Lieutenant or Vicar,
011 either ■■(ide the Faro; employing their younger brother, Henry,
as his substitute in insular Sicily, when he should himself be on the
continental side—(a singular provision as in conjunction with the kingdom
bequeathed Henry); to his grandson, Frederic, the eldest son of his deceased,
eldest son Henry, he bequeathed the duchy of Austria, to which he had already
nominated him, with 10,000 ounces of gold, intended, probably, in his case, as
in his uncle Henry’s, to assist the legatee m taking possession of his
bequeathed dominions. Neither legitimate daughters Digitized by MicrosolFW
"
nor
illegitimate children are mentioned in the will, its further provisions
relating chiefly to the allotment of 100,000 ounces of gold to the recovery of
the Holy Land, and instructions relative to the rebuilding of ruinous churches,
the restoration of such ecclesiastical rights as might be compatible with those
of the Empire ar.d the Emperor— conditions possibly of his relief from
excommunication—a bequest to the see of Palermo—which might be in acknowledgment
of the Archbishop’s so relieving him—directions for the treatment of vassals,
of all classes, according to the laws of the country, and a command to release
all prisoners except traitors.
Of a iran so
eminent and so variously appreciated, it is impossible to take leave, without a
further glance at the opinions entertained of him, by his contemporaries and by
posterity. Perhaps, the most striking point in those opinions is the
highpraise, finally bestowed upon h:m, even by those, who have most
reprobated his conduct throughout their narrative. Viliam, who taxes Frederic
II, besides other crimes, with the murder of his second wife Yolanthc, with
falsely accusing his eldest son of rebellion, and then causing him to be
murdered in his prison, winds up by allowing him talent, wisdom, learning,
generosity, and other good qualities, blaming only his addiction to sensual
pleasures, and his scepticism touching a future state. (90)
Malaspina, who adopts most of Innocent IV’s accusations, says, that he was
valiant, frank, naturally most wise, generous, and courteous, well versed in
science, and master of six languages, viz., Latin, Italian, German, French,
Greek, and Saracenic. Jamsilla, a more favourable historian, especially lauds
his justice, which he says was such, “ that any man might appeal to the
tribunals against the Emperor, whose rank gave him uo advantage, and no lawyer
feared to undertake the cause of the meanest of these arraigners of their
sovereign. Yet did his clemency often temper the rigour of his justice.” Dante
places him in the realms of eternal perdition,but solely as a heretic; and of
two modern writers republican in principle, the Italian Arrivabene says, that
Frederic II’s only heresy w as banishing the Mendicant Orders; whilst the
Swiss, Zschockke, thinks, that he respected all the just rights of the Church,
but provoked
censure by his disdain, too openly shown, for all prejudices. In the last
century, Muratcri, naturally, from his position in the service of the Guelph
house of Este, opposed to the Emperors, after saying: “ I vim di Federico eran
mnjuscoli” observes: “Convien dire che la Storia di questi tempi e alterata di
troppo dalle passioni, dalle calunnie, dalle dicene, che non ci lasciano
discernere la verita di tutte le raagagne d’allora.” That, in him, great faults
were blended with great virtues and splendid talents, ■will now hardly be
questioned; but perhaps those faults have less affected his reputation, than
his being too much in advance of his age to be understood by his contemporaries.
Thence his want of needful influence.
A few words
mure, touching the love of science so generally attributed to Frederic—even if
it should be thought that such notice properly belongs to the Chapter upon the
condition of the century in relation to science and other kindred subjects—may
be here indulged to the interest awakened by this remarkable Sovereign. His
patroi’age of learning and letters, as shown in his foundation of the
Neapolitan University, in his zealous and liberal exertions to foster the
studies to which it was dedicated, and yet more, perhaps, in his gift of
translations made by his orders for their promotion in his own University, to
the rival Guelpli, University of Bologna, has been already mentioned. So has
his love and talent for poetry, his inviting poets to his court, and there
contending with them for the laurel crow n, and his cultivation of the living
languages of his dominions. It may, however, be added, that, although his
Latin verses are not held n much esteem by later critics, those in the vulgar
tongue of Sicily are judged by the same authority, Tiraboschi, to show' fancy,
a lively sense of the beauties of nature, and poetic feeling. Whether he, or
Pietro delle Vigne, were the inventor of the sonnet, in its true Italian form,
is still a question, although the oldest specimen extant be from the pen of the
Judge : but if this especial proof of creative genius be denied him, Frederic
devised various complicated metres, in the admired troubadour style.
But Frederic,
busy, agitated, and even harassed, as was his life, did not confine his intellectual
efforts to the
lighter
branches of literature. lie preceded Albertus Magnus, and Friar Bacon, as well
as Lord Bacon, in substituting observation to speculation. He occupied himself
much with astronomy, which he studied independently of astrology. He made a
philosophic use of his friendly relations w ith Oriental princes, very
materially to enlarge his knowledge of Natural History, by obtaining from them
animals then unknown in Europe, as elephants, camels, lions, tigers, even
camelopards, and various others, which were carefully tended in gardens, or
Menageries. He himself wrote a book upon falconry; as did his Marshal,
Giordano Rufo, under his superintendence and instruction, one upon the horse;
which are said to show, the first, such perspicuous views of ornithology, and
both, such intelligent perceptions in comparative anatomy, as entitle the
Emperor to a very high place amongst early Naturalists. This spirit of physical
investigation led to various useful experiments, and to some idle ones,—if, .n
the then state of scientific ignorance, any cau justly be termed idle—which
last were distorted by his enemies into crimes. A single instance of each may
suffice. He ordered two dogs to be similarly fed, and the one immediately
taken a-hmiting whilst the other slept; then both to be killed and opened, in
order to ascertain which process was the most favourable to digestion. The
Minorite, Salimbeni, who, contrary to general testimony, makes two condemned
criminals the subjects of this investigation, as bitterly condemns the
following. In order to ascertain which is the natural or original language, he
had two children reared from their birth by mutes, and their first words sedulously
watched for.(,91) This attempt proved ar. absolute failure; both
children dying, perhaps for want of tender nursing, but, the Franciscan thinks,
as the inevitable consequence of such inhuman silence.
Patrons of
the Fine Arts other monarclis had so far been, as to build churches, castles,
and palaces; decorating their architectural works with sculpture and painting,
such as they then were. But so destitute had they been of the sense of beauty
in these arts, that the most exquisite temples and theatres remaining as
specimens of the masterpieces of classical antiquity, had, together with the
statues
contained in them, been considered merely as magazines of stone, whence
building materials might be procured more conveniently and cheaply than from
distant quarries. Frederic II appears to have been nearly the first person who
perceiv ed the marvellous beauty of these remains, their ineffable superiority
to all subsequent productions ; and he ordered excavations in search of
sculpture to be made in various places, chiefly in Sicily. He found a congenial
spirit in the artist, Nicola Pisano, who, waiting upon him to submit
architectural designs for churches, castles, and palaces, to his inspection,
was immediately taken into his service and employed to execute some of his
plans. Thenceforward Nicola was Frederic V principal architect, sculptor,
goldsmith, and civil engineer; and, conscious of ihe excellence of the
ancients, he laboured to form himself upon their model. The degree to which he
succeeded can be appreciateJ only by those who have had an opportunity of
comparing his carvings with those of Lis predecessors and contemporaries.
Frederic’s beautiful gold coin, the already-mentioned augustale, despite the
Angevine usurper’s endeavours to suppress it, still exists to exhibit Nicola’s
skill in that department. But in the Arts, as in Literature, Frederic was not a
mere patron; the designs for some of his edifices were his own; nor did he give
his attention to the ornamental alone. He built and repaired towns. He employed
Nicola as an engineer, amongst other things to repair the gigantic Roman works
for preventing the destructive overflow of the lake Celano. He himself is said
to have devised improvements in fortification, and a monument of his own
engineering taient remains in the bridge over the Yolturno, at Capua, said to
have been wholly built from his own plans. Upon this bridge the grateful
Capuans placed statues of the Emperor and his two Italian Judges, Pietro delle
Vigne and Taddeo da Suessa, though whether the work of Nicola Pisano himself, or
of his scholar, Nicola Matuccio, is a question upon which connoisseurs were
divided as long as the statues were extant, the bent of opinion being fur the
latter. Undecided it must now be laid to rest; the image of Frederic, which
alone of the three had survived the Injuries of time, having, in the maniac
antipathy to royalty
and
antiquity, with which, at the close of the last ccntury, the first French
revolution had filled the minds of the ignorant, been thrown down, mutilated,
and finally destroyed. Fortunately, the Neapolitan historical antiquary,
Daniele, bad, some time before, had a cast of the head taken, and a ring cut
from the cast. The cast, like the statue is lost, but the ring still exists, in
the possession of one well entitled to the relic, namely, the German historian
of the House of Ilohenstaufen, -’riedrich von Itaumer The resemblance between
the head upon the ring and the head upon the remaining augustali, or rather
their identity, is said to be striding.
Frederic’s
chief musicians appear to have been Saracens ; but he himself was, in
contemporary judgment, only too successful as an amateur; his skill in this art
being, in the eyes of Salimbeni and Gregory IX, nearly as heinous a sin as his
employment of Moslem performers, probably hia instructors. The acme of hb
offences in this kind, however, was the appearance at Lis court of dancing
girls, sent him by his Moslem allies—Aline, it may be presumed from Egypt—and
the sole extenuation of this offence against Christian decorum, must be sought
in the description, given by Matthew Paris, of their performance before the
Earl of Cornwall when visiting his sister Isabella. This entertainment was
given by the Emperor, not to the Earl, but to the Empress, in her private
apartment—to which, according to mediaeval custom, she seems to have been then
confined by expectation, not actually immediate, of an increase of family—and
she invited her brother to enjoy it with her. She would hardly have been tliua
gracious, relatively to the fair dancers, if jealous of them. The historian,
who is likely to have received the account from the Prince’s lips, represents
the dance as alike beautiful and marvellous; and also, by implication, at
least, as free from the customary objectionable character, no idea of pain to
the modesty of an English princess, appearing. He says, that two wondrous fair
Saracen maidens presented themselves, standing each upon two balls. Upon these
balls they moved over a polished floor, striking their cymbals in harmony with
their gay song; fled each other, sought each other, intertwined their arms in
divers pretty
attitudes;
then, discarding a ball apiece, gracefully pursued the discarded balls, each
moving upon her single remaining ball; recovered the others, and began a new
series of dances in various fashions.
Frederic’s
love for the favourite mediaeval pastimes, the chase and hawking, shows itself
in his treatise on falconry, in his extant letters, dated from the most
distant parts of his dominions, inquiring after particular hawks and their
broods, giving directions for their management, &c., and in the numerous
train of falconers, huntsmen, dogs, birds, trained leopards—Oriental were
superadded by him to the European forms of tne chase—that accompanied him w
herever he went The main difference, in this respect, betwixt him and his
contemporaries, princes or subjects, being, that his pastime was to them an
engrossing pursuit, and that he sought rest from its fatigues in pleasures
somewhat mure intellectual than those of the wine-cup. Though keeping a table
described as delicately magnificent, he was remarkably temperate in his habits.
COKRAD
IV—WILLLUf—JB.ICI1AED.
CHAPTER I.
CONRAD IV.
End
of LeirU IX’s Crv.sade—State of Germany—Conrad and William—Innocent’s Return to
Italy—Manfred's first Regency—Difficulties—Exploits—Negotiations. [ 1250—
12.52.
It may be well, ore proceeding with the history of
the Holy Roman Empire and the Sicilies, succinctly to narrate the conclusion of
the canonized French King's Crusade, with which the history has no further
connexion. And, first, a word relative to the Moslem rulers of Egypt Eyub, the
Sultan whom Lewis attacked, had looked upon the Mamelukes as both his most
efficient force, and that in which—from their insulated position, as slaves purchased
iu childhood and trained solely for war—he might place most confidence. In this
belief, he had so augmented their numbers, that now—Eyub himself having, as
before said, died during the royal Crusader’s delay at Dambtta, and his only
son, Turanshah or Moattam, as he is diversly named, being in Syria—they were
really masters of Egypt. For the moment, however, the deceased Sultan’s
favourite wife, Chajahreldor, (in English) the Pearl-tree, managed to elude
their sovereignty. Having no son of her own for whom to seek the throne, she
resolved to secure it
for the right
heir. To him she instantly despatched intelligence of his father’s death;
whilst al home, carefully concealing that event, she, in the name of Eyub, issued
orders to Bibars Bondokdar, the chief Emir of the Mamelukes, to swear
allegiance to Turanshah, and make his subordinate Emirs do the same. Not till
he and they had thus pledged themseives and their men, did she reveal the fact
that the Sultan was no more:(92) and, feeling themselves bound,
they attempted not to oppose Turacshah’s accession.
Army, court,
and country were now anxiously expecting the new monarch; so were Lewis and
liij Crusaders, whose fate, helmed in, as they were, beyond the possibility of
escape, and hourly looking for massacre or actual starvation—only by the
surrender of their arms could they, so situated, purchase food—hung upon his
nod. But not in inaction did the Mamelukes expect him. They meditated the
recovery of Damietta, by such a detachment as could safely be spared from the
business of watching the Christian army. Had they succeeded, their next measure
would, no doubt, have been the butchery of their actual, and of their virtual
prisoners, whom they kept in suspense, until the issue of the dash upon
Damietta should be known.
Connected
with this attempt is one of the incidents that characterize the Middle Ages.
Queen Margaret hf>d accompanied her consort upon his Crusade: but, being
far advanced in pregnancy, when the army quitted Damietta, she was judged unfit
to encounter the fatigues and dangers of the march to Cairo; and left there to
await, as was supposed, in quiet security, the birth of her child. There she
learned the King’s disasters, and the threatening approach of the Mamelukes;
and, immediately sending for an old Knight, especially charged with her
protection, she knelt at his feet, and required him to bind himself by a solemn
oath to grant her a yet unspoken boon. lie of course took the required oath,
and she asked her boon. It was that he would on no plea stir from her
apartment; and, should the infidels master the town, would strike his sword to
her heart, before they could reach her chamber. The old Knight, far from
expressing admiration cr sur- i b] '
prise at her
prayer, or any reluctance to perform the dreadful office he had blindly
undertaken, quietly answered, “ Madam, I had already thought of so doing.”
Happily, the garrison showed itself prepared to make a resolute defence; and
the Mameluke detachment—that had calculated upon either a surprise, or the
discouragement caused by the King’s position, for the success of tneir enterprise—felt
that they were foiled. They abandoned their enterprise and retreated.
During this
interval, Turanshah had rcached Cairo, and, upon the repulse of the attempt to
surprise Damictta, the negotiations with the French King assumed more activity.
The terms, to which the young Sultan acceded, w ere, owing perhaps to the
intervention of the Emperor Frederic, who was greatly respected by Levantine
Moslem sovereigns, more liberal than invaders, so completely in his power, had
any right to hope for. They were, that the royal Crusader should ransom himself
and his host for a sum of 80,000 gold bezaunts—worth at that time somewhere about
£50,000 sterling- and swear to evacuate Egypt, Damietta of course included.
Further, all prisoners on both sides, made since the signature of the treaty
with the Emperor Frederic, were to be released, and ail things replaced, as far
as might be, in the state ordered by that treaty. Whether Turanshah, like his
grandfather, had Jerusalem to give, may be questionable; but the dissolution of
the ephemeral Khprizmian domination seems to have left the city, for the
moment, open to the first occupant: whilst the Sultan of Egypt was the
strongest of those at hand to profit by the opportunity.
But all was
not done when these terms were agreed upon. Scarcely was the treaty concluded,
on neither side as yet confirmed by oath, when one of the contracting parties
ceased to exist. The young Sultan had offended both her to whom he owed his
crown, and those upon whom his retaining it depended. He demanded of his
stepmother an account of his father’s treasures: she replied, “ They were spent
in defending Egypt from the invader;” and became his enemy. He had brought
Syrian courtiers and attendants with him to Cairo, and the favours lavished
upon them irritated the Egyptian
162
NEW
DIFFICULTIES
[1250
Emirs. He
betrayed dislike and contempt for the rude Mamelukes; and headed by their Lmir.
Bibars Bonduk- dar, they murdered him.
Turanshah
MoaUam had been an only child, and in his baste to secure his heritage, he bad
left his family in Syria. There was, therefore, no heir present to claim the
succession. Eyubite princes, descendants of both Saladin and Malek el Adel,
still, indeed, abounded: but they were absent, and do not appear to have been
even thought of, upon this occasion Moreover, Bibars w as now all powerful,
and though he chose not, then, to usuqj the throne, he did chuse to seat
thereon a sovereign, whose total want of birthright must insure submission to
his will. To this end he proclaimed Eyub’s widow, Chajahreldor, Sultana, giving
her in marriage to an eminent Emir, named Asseddin Aibek; (**) puppets, who
could, he was certain, move, but as he should pull the wires.
Whilst
Bibars was thus arranging die government which he, as yet, shrank from openly
assuming, Lewis and his Crusaders, having long since given up their arms as the
main price of their daily bread, stood upon the brink of the grave. The
Mamelukes, their appetite for blood quickened rather than slaked by the taste
which they had bad of Turanshah’s, now thirsted for that of the Christians;
who, disarmed and helpless, saw 110 chance of escape from ihe swords and
daggers on all sides menacing them. But Bibars Bondokdar well knew the value of
80,000 gold besaunts: and, hearing of their danger, hastened to avert their
loss. With some difficulty could even he persuade the Mamelukes, that a large
sum of money, and the peaceable surrender of Daraietta, from before which
their comrades had been repulsed, were advantages amply repaying the sacrifice
of the pleasure anticipated in butchering Christians. That done, he, through
his creatures, Chajahreldor and her husband, confirmed Turaushah’s treaty. •
But
now again arose a difficulty. The mistrustful Emirs of the Mamelukes insisted,
that, to the usual oath, Lewis should add these words: “ If I keep not this engagement,
may I be esteemed not only perjured, but a '"hristian who denies God,
God’s law, and his own bap- Digitized by Microsoft® •
tism,
spitting and trampling upon the Cross!” offering in return, to bind themselves
by a similar imprecation with regard to Mohammed. But Lewis positively refused
to utter such blasphemy; and his refusal enhancing the mistrust that, had
dictated the demand, Emirs and Mamelukes, with drawn swords, menaced instant
death in case of noncompliance. Lewis, answered: “ God has made you masters
of my body, but not of my soul; that is in no ha.ids but his alone.” The
Mamelukes, imputing this refusal to the admonitions of the l’atriarch of
Jerusalem, seized the old man, and bound his hands behind his back so tightly,
that the blood burst from his fingers. The tortured octogenarian prelate
entreated the King to pronounce the imprecation, since, as he meant honestly
to fulfil his promises, the penalty could never be incurred; adding that if sin
there were in uttering the horrid words, that sin he took upon his own soul.
Still the King hesitated, partly lest accident should prevent fulfilment to the
letter, in ever} the most minute point, and he should thus incur the penalty,
partly from sheer horror at uttering blasphemy. And at length his persisting in
scrupulosity convinced the Mamelukes that he must be honest. (94)
They were now satisfied with an ordinary oath.
The Crusaders
were now amply supplied both with provisions and with boats to convey them
down the Nile. Lewis, upon reaching Dainietta, surrendered it, and embarked v.
ith his family and his army for Acre. There he found the Pisans and the
Genoese, still, as they had foi weeks been, reckless of the distressed
Crusaders in Egypt, and employing all the artillery- -if so it may be called—
then known, in battering each other’s piece of the town. Nor in other respects
were the prospects of the new comers cheering. From the Prince of Antioch,
reduced to the condition of a tributary to the Mongols, no assistance could be
hoped. The Mongol Khan, who had sought Lewis’s cooperation, had failed to
perform his share of the engagement; and despondency prevailed amongst the
Crusaders. Even the King’s survhing brothers, the Earls of Poitiers and Anjou,
were so infected with this feeling, that from Acre they returned to France,
taking with them all who chose to think their vow discharged by the suffer-
ings and
perils undergone in Egypt. Lewis himself felt that his Crusade was thus far a
failure; and that he must accomplish something, ere he could reputably leave
the East, as having achieved his adventure. Thus impressed, he remained behind
with that portion of the army, which either sympathized with, or was bound to
him.
In France,
the tidings of the Egyptian disaster had given rise to great disorders. A new
Crusade, for the King’s rescue, was, without any authority, vehemently preached
by an old Cistcrcian monk, usually called the Hungarian Magister, or Master,
who asserted that he was coir missioned so to do, by the Blessed Virgin, in an
autograph letter. He addressed the most ignorant of the people, as ploughmen,
shepherds (who took the cross in such numbers as to give his rabble the name of
Ci-oisade des Pastoureav.x), shepherdesses, and children. For a while the
Regent Blanche seems, from their professions and decent conduct, to have
believed that their leaders meant well, though she could surely expect no
advantage from their untaught zeal. But presently, either maniacs, or designing
robbers, with criminals of all kinds, joining them, diverted their crusading
zeal from the deliverance of their holy monarch, to the profitable punishment
of more accessible misbelievers. They now plundered and murdered Jews; then—by
some hallucination inconceivable in Crusaders— upon an ecclesiastical student’s
disputing their leader’s mission; turned their rage against the clergy, who
suffered all sorts of ill usage at their hands.(95) Government now
interfered; troops were sent against the Postourecmx', the leaders were slain
or titken, and the. rabble dispersed.
This strange
insurrection furnished the Queen Regent with a plea, upon which earnestly to
entreat that her son would return home. Lewis submitted the question to his
noble fellow-crusaders, when a large majority decided for compliance with the
Queen’s wishes. A small minority, including Joinville, the biographer and
friend of his sainted King, objected, because Queen Blanche had proved herself
fully equal to governing France ; and for a monarch to quit Palestine, without
leaving any memorial of his efforts in behalf of the Holy City, were
disgraceful. They spoke the very sentiments of Lewis, and he determined to re-
■ Digitized by Microsoft ®
main,
allowing those ■oho blamed his resolution to returr. home.
But still
Jerusalem was not restored, and Lewis, deserted by so many, was quite unequal
to attempting a siege. He would now fain have made a pilgrimage thither, upon
the plighted word of its Moslem masters and neighbours for his security; but,
against thus risking bis life upon Mohammedan safe-conducts, all unanimously
remonstrated. The argument most influential, probably, with the devout King,
was, that future crusaders might make his example a precedent, for holding
their crusading vow thus easily fulfilled. He wept over his disappointment,
made his pilgrimage to Nazareth, and occupied himself with fortifying
Caesarea, Joppa, and Sidon.
The alliance
of the King of France was now sought by the Sultan of Aleppo, against the
Mameluke murderers of his cousin Turanshah. Bibars Bondokdar, through Cha-
jahreldor and Asseddin, offered him more advantageous terms to join them,
against Aleppo. Lewis, unblamed by Pope, Patriarch, or Military Orders,—all of
whom had so furiously attacked Frederic for those treaties with Mohammedans,
by which he had recovered a large portion of the Kingdom of Jerusalem with the
Holy City itself,—negotiated with both parties, asking Jerusalem and little
more than a line of communication with Acre, as the price of his alliance.
Neither party agreed to his terms. The Saltan of Aleppo, aided by the Turkmans,
drove the Mamelukes out of Palestine, but kept his conquest for himself. And
tidings of the death of Queen Blanche, in December, ]‘252,—whose place, as
regent of France^ there was none to supply, inasmuch as the King durst not
trust his brothers with such authority,—compelled Lewis to return home, without
any compensation whatever for his disappointment; in fact » ith the mortifying
consciousness of not having accomplished anything.
To resume the
more especial subject of these pages. Conrad, upon receiving the intelligence
of his father’s death, al once committed his affairs, south of the Alps, as
ordered by the late Emperor’s will, to the conduct of his half-brother, Manfred
; devoting his own time and thoughts solely to the establishment of his
authority in Germany.
This he might
fairly hope would not be a very tedious or difficult task, his prospects there
being at least not discouraging. With respect to external relations he was at
ease. His most powerful neighbour, France, grateful for the late Emperor’s good
offices, was kindly disposed towards him, and had she been the reverse, the
prolonged absence of the King, with some of his best warriors, incapacitated
her for hostile enterprise. Waldemar of Denmark had never been able to regain
the Slavonian provinces, surrendered as the price of his release from
captivity; and, since his decease, a.d. 1241,
his sons, scarcely one of whom died a natural death, had been at war with each
other for the crown; Eric, his heir, the best of them, being presently murdered
by his brother Abel. Nothing but the weakness of the Empire, caused by papal
persecution of the Emperor, had saved Denmark from being again reduced to
vassalage; and, this weakness long continuing and increasing, Danish history is
henceforward as unconnected with that of Germany, as can well be that of
&ny two neighbouring states. Poland, similarly engrossed with the broils of
her many Dukes, who ruled now conjointly, now independently, and with dread of,
or resistance to, the ever-recurring inroads of the Mongols, similarly escaped
renewed vassalage, solely by the debility of the Empire.
Russia was
now enslaved by that division of the Mongols which had settled upon the Volga,
and not even at peace in her slavery. The north-western Vassal Princes, were
generally at war with Sweden or the Teutonic Knights, or with both together,
for sovereignty over the still independent Heathen tribes, inhabiting the
eastern shores of the Baltic. In the south, Daniel of Halitsh showed some disposition
to meddle with German affairs; but his real object was security at home. In the
hope of obtaining efficient allies against his Mongol masters, he had taken an
active part with Bela of Hungary, and Wenceslas of Bohemia in their quarrel
with the Duke of Austria, as he now did in asserting Ottocar’s pretensions to
the duchy.
Hungary, as
yet only recovering, and that slow ly, from Mongol devastation, limited her
interference w ith German affairs to the struggle for the adjacent Austrian
duchy Digitized by Microsoft ®
The Eastern
Empire, for which several Greek princes were contending, whilst Baldwin II
hardly maintained himself within the walls of Constantinople, could scarcely
be said to exist; and Servia and Bulgaria felt their independence more secure.
Germany
itself was much in its ordinary condition. The disputed succession to Thuringia
remained undecided, although the division, in which it eventuated, had already
in a manner taken pluce. The Margrave of Misnia had at length accepted the
Saxon palatinate and the eastern province, with the hand of the Imperial
Princess, for his son and heir Albert: and, this half of the principality being
absorbed into the margraviate of Misnia, the name of this once mighty kingdom,
duchy, and lastly landgraiiate of Thuringia, vanishes from the map of Europe. Not
so, however, the latter title; it was merely limited to the western provinces,
of which the Duchess of Brabant held possession; and, as the landgraviate of
Hesse, they, in the end, became the portion of her son, Henry, surnamed the
Child:—a son of the Duke’s prior marriage inheriting Brabant. But this
division, though existing as a fact, was not yet legalized by a Diet, or
recognised by the parties : both of whom still claimed the whole ; or, at the
very least,the Duchess, the eastern allodia; the Margrave, a large shaie of the
western fiefs. Tranquillity was therefore far from restored.
But, if some
prospect of subsidence appeared in Thuringia, in Austria the contest became,
from day to day, more complicated. Those who desired a hereditary Duke were now
divided, some acknowledging Margaret, on condition of her mairiage to Gttocar,
others her son Frederic, and others again her niece Gertrude. Gertrude indeed
soon alienated her partisans. She had lost her second husband, the Margme of
Baden; and, leaving her infant children by him, Frederic and Agnes, to the care
of his aunt, the Duchess of Bavaria, she remarried with a son of the Russian
Prince of Halitsh, greatly offending the Austrians. To anticipate a little, in
order to have done with this uninteresting princess, her Russian consort, when
he found her pretensions unpopular, deserted her; whereupon she, in utter
regardlessncss of her children’s interests, her
own dignity,
and her maternal duties, sold her birthright to Bela IV for a mess of porridge,
or in other words for support and protection. Thenceforward, those who had been
her partisans were divided between Bela, who at once put forward his claim, and
her son, another Fredcric.
The ducal
title of Meran was extinct, with the race that bore it; having expired in the
person of the only son of Duke Otho and Beatrice of Hohensta’ifen, King
Philip’s niece; as if nuptials, so inauspiciously solemnized, could not escape
the doom of those who bad stained them with blood. The large widely scattered
possessions of the Andechs family were divided amongst sisters of the last
Duke, and collaterals.
The
confederation of towns, self-entitled the Rhine League, was prosperous and
increasing; comprising, about this time, nearly sixty cities. Divers Saxon
towns followed the example set them on the Rhine, as did, a little lpter,
others in Franconia. But all alike, though, with scarcely an exception, loyal
to Conrad, were absorbed in the especial business of the Leagues ; to wit, m
repressing the noble marauders who were fostered by the debility of the sovereign
authority. Throughout most German provinces the usual broils existed; and,
whilst nearly every vv here the clergy, at Innocent’s bidding, supported the
Anti-king, his uncle the Duke of Brabant, with some few Lotharin- gian
connexions, alone amongst the Princes deserted the Imperial cause.
Innocent,
upon learning the death of his mighty antagonist, resolved, with a view to
deriving tha greatest possible advantage from the event, to resume his station
in Xtaly without loss of time; and at once despatched the Archbishop of
Ravenna thither, to prepare the way for him. But he likewise felt it
indispensable before he left the vicinity of Germany, to place his Anti-king in
a position similarly to profit by that event. His first measures in Italy,
therefore, were taken from Lyons; and all of them clearly proved that his
fiercc persecution of Frederic II, was not provoked by sinfulness, heresy,
misbelief, or disbelief, a him, but originated solely in the desire to overthrow
a dynasty, whose power and individual energies opposed a formidable and
increasing barrier against panal
usurpation of
sovereignty. lie persecuted the youthful Conrad, whom he charged with no
personal fault, as inveterately as his father, lie addressed letters to the
Apulians and Sicilians, containing the most inflated, and really brutal
congratulations upon their deliverance from the storais that had so long
desolated the land; to which were added information that the deposal of
Frederic included that of his son Conrad, and a consequent positive prohibition
to acknowledge any king of the Hohenstaufen race, or indeed any authority but
that of the Pope, as Lord Paramount. The letters concluded with a command immediately
to set up the standard of the Church, his Holiness having determined never
more to grant Sicily or Apulia to emperor, king, duke, or earl, but to
incorporate those countries indissolubly with the Estates of the Crunch.(9B)
At the same time he is said to have covertly instigated the towns, that had
greatly thriven under Frederic’s liberal policy, to aim at the republican
forms and independence of the Lombard cities.^) Probably he thought awakening
such aspirations the only chance of alienating them from Frederic’s son, while
such feeble republics could never, without external protection, resist the will
of a pope.
To Germany he
addressed epistles equally violent and imperious, commanding every prince,
prelate, noble, city, town, and village, as they would, here and hereafter,
escape the severest pains and penalties of the Church, to forsake Conrad, the
excommunicated son of an excommunicated father, and acknowledge William as
their king. He commanded the Margrave of Misnia to break otf the matrimonial
contract between his son and the deposed Emperor’s daughter; or, if the
marriage were unfortunately already solemnized, to beware that he be not
thereby seduced from his allegiance to King William He inforced the interdict
upon all places that should adhere to Conrad; further commanded all the
possessions of Ghibelines to be confiscated ; and pronounced the private
property of the House of Hohenstaufen, in Swabia, Franconia, and elsewhere,
forfeited, as well as its crowns.
If Innocent
failed in his endeav our thus to raise up an
vol. iv. 8
enterprising
party for his anti-king in Germany, he succeeded in checking the activity of
these who would not desert the lawfully elected monarch, to whom they had sworn
allegiance. The Margrave of Misnia celebrated his son’s union with Conrad’s
half-sister, but took so little share in the contest for the Empire, that he
might be called neutral. Of the Duke of Bavaria, though perforce staunch to his
imperial son- in-law, much the same might be said; his wish to secure the ducal
hat of Austria to the son of his wife’s nephew, an orphan domiciliated in his
palace, and like a child of his own, engrossing his energies. If the loyalty of
Conrad’s connexions and relations was* thus passive, what could be expected from
others? Some of the cities upon the Rhine, indeed, expelled their bishops for
publishing the bull of excommunication against the young, unoffending monarch,
to whom all had sworn allegiance ; but most of his adherents were content to
wish him well in silence. Even in his own Swabia, where the democratic Swiss
cantons, Schwitz,TJri, and Zurich, confederated to support their sovereign,
(the flrst Swiss confederation known), several great vassals, allured by the
prospect of dividing the Hohenstaufen domains, forsook him ; and the majority
of the lower nobles desired only to prolong that absence of controlling
authority, v. hich left free scope to their tyrannical, as to their marauding
propensities.
But the now
impatient heads of the Papal faction, without waiting to ascertain the result
of the various endeavours to gain partisans, adopted against Conrad the nefarious
projects that had scarcely been disowned against his father. The loyal citizcns
of Katisbon had solicited the protection of Conrad and Duke Otho against the
oppression of their Guelph, eeclcsiastical superiors, their Bishop, and the
Abbot cf St. Emeran. The armed intervention of the King and the Duke, driving
the prelates out of the town, compelled them to sue for peace; when a reconciliation
between the parties was seemingly effected. The Bishop, upon returning to his
palace within the walls, found it, as he must have expected, materially damaged
by the triumphant hostile party. It is asserted that his exasperation at this
very common-plaec incident of civil war, was so excessive, as to give
consistency to a vague
project,
already floating in his mind; and, with more devotion to Innocent, than to Him, whose ordained min:s-
ter, Innocent like himself, was, he resolved that Conrad, as an enemy of the
Church, should be sacrificed, i.e., murdered, for the honour of (iod. The
opportunity seemed favourable, as the young sovereign, unapprehensive of danger
amongst the loyal citizens of Katisbon, occupied a house so small, as not to
afford nocturnal accommodate n for more than himself and four attendants.
In the middle
of the night, when all Ratisbon slept, a band of armed men, vassals and
hirelings of the Bishop and the Abbot, attacked the house, broke down the outer
door with axes, killed the first servant who attempted to oppose their
entrance, made prisoners of the other three, burst into the royal bedchamber,
and plunged their swords and daggers into the body of its occupant, as he lay
asleep Then, rushing into the street, they roused the eitizens from their
slumbers, with the tnumphant announcement, that they had delivered the Empire
from the excommunicated, intrusive prince, a sacrilegious rebel against the
Tope. In this they were mistaken. A devotedly loyal vassal of his lawful,
though excommuircpted, sovereign, a Graf von Eberstein, Evershcim, or Wysheim,
for unhappily such dh-cordance touching the name of this hero exists amongst
the old chroniclers, discovered the scheme, so completely at the last moment,
that he had barely time to get into the king’s quarters, before the assassins
appeared. There was nut a moment to awaken the neighbourhood, or in any way to
seek assistance; he therefore merely persuaded Conrad not to attempt resistance
against overwhelming numbers, but to foil the muiderers, by so concealing
himself as to elude their search. Conrad followed his counsel. But this
genuinely loyal vassal and devoted friend well knew that no concealment could
long escape discovery, if the search were, as it would be, vigorously
prosecuted; therefore, lying down in the bed his King had just quitted, he
silently, in apparent sleep, received the wounds designed for his liege Lord.
When Conrad
learne the price at which he had been saved, his grief and rage were unbounded;
but his position and his public duties compelled him to restrain
these
feelings. His friends urged that, excommunicated as he already was, to risk
further alienating the clergy by shedding ecclesiastical blood, would really be
rendering the sacrifice by which he had been rescued of no avail. The Bishop
was suffered to fly; and he fled, uncensured by the unapostolic successor of
St. Peter, for either his intended regicide, or the actual murder committed by
his orders. lie took refuge in Bohemia; and as, encouraged, perhaps, by
impunity, he subsequently perpetrated crimes less venial than regicide ■n
Innocent’s eyes, he ended by being deprived of hi< see, and compelled to
take the monastic vow. The Abbot of St. Emeran was less fortunate. By the
orders of the King and the Duke he was seized, deposed, and punished, though
not capitally; the rights and privileges of the Abbey were pronounced
forfeited; and only the humbly earnest prayers of the monks saved the abbey
itself from destruction. The house, the scene of the flagitious deed, was
razed, and a chapel built upon its site. This attempt upon Conrad’s life was
made upon the 28th of December, 1250, in one fortnight after the death of his
father.
Meanwhile
both King and Anti-king were diligently preparing for a trial of strengh. The
Pope’s orders to all the ecclesiastical princes, to appear in arms with every
vassal they could command or 'influence, were stringent. The newly elected
Archbishop of Mainz, nevertheless, positively refused to raise troops for any
anti-king, grounding his refusal upon the scriptural injunction aginst unsheathing
the sw ord; he added the remark, that the business of the Supreme Head of the
Church was to make peace, not war. Innocent instantly deposed him, appointing
in his stead a Graf von Eppcnstein, of course a partisan of William’s, and who,
it is alleged, helped on his nomination by the payment of a handsome sum of
money into the papal treasury. Such a contribution was much needed; for so
exhausted was the Anti-king’s exchequer, that, in order to take the field, he
was, even then, mortgaging Burgundian and Arelat towns, namely, Arles,
Besanson, and Lausanne, to the French Duke of Burgundy, for 10,000 marks of
silver. The fugitive Bishop Digitized by Microsoft ©
of Ratisbon,
as yet exulting at the Court of Bohemia, in his impunity, was otherwise serving
the Papal cause there, by exciting Wenceslas to invade Bavaria; thus to deprive
Conrad of his father-in-law’s forces, by keeping them at home for the defence
of his own duchy.
Whilst Conrad
was weakened by the compulsory absence of Duke Otho, and the reluctance of
many of his friends to come forward, the Bishop of Metz brought .William
considerable reinforcements from Lorrain. In the spring of 1251, the
adversaries met near Oppenheim, and Conrad, again placed in disadvantageous
circumstances, again suffered a defeat. The triumphant Antiking hastened to
Lyons to exchange congratulations with Innocent. He was received with all the
honours that a Pope could, without detriment to his own asserted supremacy,
pay an Emperor; and in return readily acknowledged, as lawful, all papal
encroachments and usurpations in Germany. Could he do less, when to such an
usurpation of the rights of the Chapter of Mainz he was, perhaps, indebted for
his recent victory ?
Innocent now
felt that he had one enough for his German dependent, to allow of leaving him
to his own resources; and, immediately after this interview, set out for Italy.
He took his way through Savoy, in order to win that powerful county back from
the Ghibeline interest; nor was this difficult. Amedeo was dead; his heir,
Bonifazio, a minor; and the regency in the hands of the boy’s uncle, Conte
Tommaso, the husband of Beatrice Fiesca. The only remaining Ghibeline tye of
the family was the marriage of Bonifazio’s sister, Beatrice, to Manfred ; anil
the minor had no voice in the matter.
Innocent next
visited Milan, where he was received with seeming cordiality, rtfsch festivity,
and extraordinary honours ; the baldacchino, or state canopy, is said . to have
been invented upon this occasion, expressly for him—a report that may be
questioned—and he was requested to name the Podesta for the ensuing year. But
his enjoyment of this reception was somewhat disturbed, by a request for the
repayment of expenses incurred in his cause. He pleaded the exhausted state of
his finances, through his exertions in Germany for the common good,
that is to
say, for the relief of the Empire, on both sides of the Alps, from a race of
ambitious, rapacious, irreligious tyrants; he promised largely for the future,
and hurried forward to avoid further urgency. When safe beyond the territories
of his creditors, he, rather indiscreetly, retaliated the unwelcume demand for
money, by attacking some lute Milanese encroachments upon ecclesiastical
jurisdiction ; the consequence of which was, that in this virtual metropolis ol
Lombardy, Guelphisrn cooled down to the degree of selecting a Ghibeline, an
uncle of Manfred’s, Marchese Lancia, as Captain-General of the Lombard League.
At Bologna,
the Pope made a politic display of clemency by soliciting the release of
Enzio’s fellow prisoner, Buoso da Do&ro—Kboli seems to have been early
ransomed or exchanged. This was granted: but his hopes of similarly obta.ning
the lestitution of some portions of the Papal dominions, which this city had
seized, were disappointed. In fact, his journey was by no means one of
unalloyed satisfaction to Innocent. He had, iti its course, by his arrogance
and exorbitant expectations of support, alienated many of his partisans ;(9S)
and he discovered that Guelph cities were Guelph—or in words more to the
purpose, supported the Pope—only when to do so suited their own interest or
passions. Fiurcnce he did not visit, perhaps thinking her securely Guelph and
disagreeably democratic. There, upon the first news of the Emperor’s death,
the Guelphs had discarded their compelled tranquillity, and driven av.ay both
the Podesta appointed by Frederic of Antioch and the Ghibeline citizens,
re-establishing their bi-mensually changed Anziani, vrith other ultra-popular :nstitutions.
The Romans
now invited the Pope to return to the metropolis of Christendom. But in that
really papal metropolis, Innocent IV did not chuse, unless as its sovereign,
to reside; and for this the season seemed unpro- pitious. The Romans had,
during his absence, indulged in such thoroughly anarchal licence, their ideal
of liberty, that they themselves, growing weary at length of their own
\ioience, sought peace and security in submission to despotic control To this
end they appointed a sole Digitized by Ml ^rosort ®
senator, an
officer analogous, it vill be remembered, to the Lombard Podesta, being
similarly invested with temporary absolute authority. The person they selected
for their Senator was Brancaleone d’Andalone, Conte di Casalecchio, a Bolognese
nobleman, distinguished for his wealth, his virtue, his inflexibility in the
administration of justice, and his arbitrary temper. Brancaleone w aged war
upon offenders of all kinds and of ail classes ; vanquishing and severely
punishing alH alike. Tranquillity was restored; but Innocent looked upon the
sovereign power of the Senator as more inimical to the papacy than the frequent
insurrections of the turbulent Romans. For the present, he judged that he had
enough upon his hands, without engaging in a struggle with the Conte di Casa-
lecchio for supremacy in Pome ; and he preferred taking up his abode
momentarily at Perugia or Anagni, whence he could as conveniently conduct his
designs upon the Sicilian kingdom ; whilst awaiting the hour, not very dis-
tantj he presumed, when the Romans should be tired of tbeir Senator’s rigorous
justice.
The execution
of his designs upon the Sicilies, the Pope flattered himself, could not be
difficult, the government having devolved upon a youth — Manfred — scarcely
eighteen years of age, and holding ovily imperfect, because delegated,
authority. But what Manfied was, how truly the son of his father, or how ready
H ere the great qualities he. inherited from that great father to be elicited
by the first emergency, the supreme Pontiff had yet to learn. And so had friend
as well as foe ; perhaps ever. Manfred was to be indebted to Innocent IV, for a
thorough knowledge of himself. In proportion, as these paternal qualities developed
themselves, the hatred, borne him merely for his father’s sake, increased in
acrimony. The aggregate of . the sins, habitually laid to the charge of the
deceased Emperor, became too small a mass of guilt when imputed to his sen; and
Manfred was further accused,, as has been seen, of parricide, as will be seen,
of fratricide and r.epo- .ticide. Yet, as in regard 10 Frederic II, the same
chroniclers, w ho impute to Manfred such fearful crimes, superadded to
manifold ordinary offcnces, depict him as wise, valiant, charitable to the
poor, liberal in rewarding merit.
a patron of
the arts as of the science (") of the age, both a patron and a cultivator
of literature, easy of access, courteously affable in his demeanour, and
naturally beloved by all who approached him. It were needless to consult
Ghibeline writers for the character of their hero, when thus described by his
Guelph calumniators.
Upon first
undertaking the government, the y outhful Regent found the kingdom prosperous,
tranquil, and loyal; in spite of factious misrepresentation, and the exertions
of friars, so satisfactory to his subjects had been the rule of Innocent's
reviled and excommunicated Nero, whose death had, as a happy riddance, been
made matter of congratulation. Manfred retained all his father’s ministers, sedulously
trou in his father’s footsteps in the government of the kingdom, and gloried,
as much as he delighted, in the peaceful happinesss he saw around him in
Apulia, whilst Germany, like Lombardy, was torn with civil war. The state of
Sicily, if equally satisfactory in regard to Conrad’s interest, was, to Manfred
individually, less so. His brother Henry, a boy of about eleven years, was of
course only nominally his deputy, the administration of affairs being really
intrusted to the young Prince’s counsellor or tutor, the Marshal of Sicily.
This officer was one Pietro Ruffo, or Matteo Rufo, as the name is variously
given, another man of inferior birth, but of great talent and industry, whom
Frederic II—the fosterer, unheeding adventitious circumstances of ability
wherever met with —had raised to high posts. But Ruffo was ambitious; he
probably, like Innocent, despised Manfred, as a mere youth, placed by parental
fondness 'n a situation to which he must be unequal: thus the able, upstart
thought the opportunity favourable for acquiring more independent power; and
whilst firmly maintaining Conrad’s sovereignty, and resisting Papal usurpation,
he disowned, as far as might be without an open breach, the young Regent’s
superior authority. He evaded giving Manfred’s uncles, Galvano and Federigo
Lania, possession of the Sicilian domains bestowed upon them by the late
Emperor, and yet more obstinately, those added since his death, by their
nephew. But Manfred was prudent beyond what could have been anticipated at his
age; he made, for the moment.
no attempt to
coerce Ruffo, anil the island remained undisturbed.
But Manfred’s
task of vicarious sovereignty was destined to be arduous, and Innocent did not
long permit him to reign in peace. He began the war, by once more tilling the
kingdom, on both sides of the strait, with swarms of Mendicant Friars,
commissioned to disseminate the opinions and inforce the commands, contained in
his, before-mentioned, epistles. He recalled Cardinal Capoccio from Germany,
that he might direct the proceedings of these emissaries in Apulia, and assume
the government as his Vicar or Lieutenant. By a proclamation, lie annulled,
rather than repealed, all that portion of Frederic’s code which related to
ecclesiastics, because a layman, from his inferior position, could not
interfere with the laws of God, as set forth by the Church. lie renewed and
aggravated the interdict upon all places that should acknowledge, as king, a
prince incapacitated by excommuiiicution, as was Conrad IV, from succeeding to
the throne. If by all these measures the Pope did not succeed to his wish in
alienating the kingdom from its hereditary sovereign, he did in exciting
doubts, dissensions, discontent, and impatience of the continuous interdict:
as also iii persuadi'ig some ambitious nobles, and a few very prosperous towns,
that they would enjoy more power and more liberty, as Papal vassals, than under
the sway of the mighty and unyielding German heirs ot the Norman kings, His
chief success was with the clergy, to great numbers of whom, independence of
the state appears to have been an irresistible lure; though the wiser, and the
higher members of that body, like far the larger part of the baronage,
dreaded, for themselves, the despotism, which they saw buldly exhibited, in
this arbitrary disposal of kings and emperors.
Manfred was
speedily informed of the spirit of disaffection, thus generated in the reaims
committed to his charge; and it appears to have alarmed him, the rather, from his
consciousness, that he could not rely upon the obedience, or even upon the
cordial co-operation, of the Marshal of Sicily. Therefore, w hen he found that
Naples and Capua, at the instigation of Papal emissaries, had so far for-
§) 8 §
gotten their
wonted loyalty as to close their prates against himself, the Regent appointed
by the late Emperor, his alarm became serious. Under such circumstances, he
shrank from a contest, as Regent, with the Pope, as Lord Paramount; and judged
the personal presence of the actual sovereign necessary to counteract papal
'ntrigue, and confirm the wavering fidelity of liis people. Earnestly,
therefore, did he entreat Conrad to visit his Sicilian kingdom forthwith; as a
preliminary step, sending him the ratification of all their father’s charters,
whether to town or to noble, and of all his final commands; also of all the
measures that he, Manfred, had taken, or might in case of emergency find it
expedient to take. At the same tine, being fully aware of the popular impatience
provoked Dy any privation of religious rites, he would not delay seeking a
reconciliation with the Pope. As a first move towards this important object, he
caused overtures to be secretly mrde to Innocent, and inquiries as to the
terms, upon which the excommunication and interdict would be revoked.
But, whilst
awaiting the result of these applications, and hoping that his father’s death
might have somewhat allayed the pontiff’s animosity, Manfred did not for an
instant relax his preparations for defence. He exhorted barons, citizens,
clergy, a.nd peasants, to bear in mind the allegiance they had sworn to Conrad,
as the lawful heir and successor of their long line of Norman Kings. In the
Saracens, to whom the idea of a papal government must needs be odious, as
necessarily fraught with intolerance of their religion, probably with expulsion
from their homes, and confiscation of their property, he knew that he might
feel perfect confidence; and he stationed them wherever he most distrusted the
people. The German legion, which the late Emperoi had brought to Apulia, he
likewise believed to be staunch, and he left it encamped beside the ill-disposed
city of Troja, whilst he himself repaired to Foggia, to raise more troops.
But, ere he
could make any progress in this business, the Germans, whose pay was much in
arrear, leaving Troja uncontrolled, appeared in battle array before Foggia,
demanding their due, which they well knew Manfred had a by ■
not to give
them, and threatening, in case of non-compii- ance, to procure it for
themselves, by sacking the town. Upon this trying occasion the young Regent,
who had no troops to oppose to them, displayed the spirit and genius of his
race, lie took no such precautionary measures, as betray the alarm that
dictates them; but calmly sent the following message to the mutineers : “ Why
come ye in rrms against me? Have ye forgotten that 1 am your Emperor’s son ? If
ye persist in disobedience, I shall punish von more severely than ye expect. If
ye want your pay, depute, as is fitting, four unarmed men to present your
request, and I wili return you a fitting answer.” The leaders of the mutiny had
now learned that the Regent, if a boy he were, was not to be bullied, and
repented of their attempt to turn his inexperience to their advantage. They
sent their request in the manner he commanded, and received the small portion
of their arrears, that deficient funds end the exigencies of the moment would
allow.
Scarcely was
this riot quelled, where a sedition, accompanied, as usual, with outrage,
broke out at Andria, and thither, with the troops immediately at hand, Manfred
hastened. The conscious offenders fled from the wrath they had provoked,
leaving only women and children in the town. But Manfred, as wisely clement as
he was energetic, sought rather to conciliate than terrify. He iiivrted the
fugitives to return, and, beyond a heavy fine, .iifiicted no punishment, even
upon the ringleaders.
But his
satisfaction, in the bloodless reduction of Andria to obedience, was early
interrupted by information, that, no sooner had he quitted Foggia, than the
inhabitants had begun to prepare for future rebellion, by fortifying their
town. He led back his little army duiitig the night, and at daybreak the
Foggians were startled by the sight of the" oilended prince at the
city-gate, ready to chastise their projected revolt. Their walls were of course
as yet hardly rising from the ground, and they had no alternative ; submission
was unavoidable. The women, with dishevelled hair, and accompanied by a deputation
from the magistracy, hurried forth, to throw themselves at his feet, and
implore pardon. It was granted, upon condition of the Digitizecfby Microsoft
®
citizens
destroying with their own hands the incipient wall, and paying a heavy fine;
Manfred thus making the efforts to throw off his authority, the means of
supplying him with those s;..e\Vs of war, in which he was most deficient,
viz., ready money.
Not quite so
easily quelled were the disturbances at Baroli (or Barletta, for some
uncertainty exists as to which was their scene). The citizens had deposed the
magistrates appointed by Frederic, and elected others, to whom they committed
the administration of justice and the government of the town; professedly,
however, without prejudice to their loyalty to Conrad. Manfred summoned a deputation,from
a town of such peculiarly, complexioned loyalty, to attend him. He seems to
have deemed it prudent to take very little notice of their unlawful
proceedings, but, reminding them that they had sworn allegiance to his brother,
he required them, in discharge of a long established and acknowledged duty, to
co-operate with him in the maintenance of the royal authority, and afford their
assistance in reducing Naples and Capua, then in open rebellion, to obedience.
The deputies promised faithfully to report the Regent’s words to their
fellow-citizens, and return with the answer. When they did so, they found, to
their no small surprise and annoyance, Manfred ready to receive ’t within a few
miles of the town, and at the head of his forces. The message with 'which they
were charged was so vague, that, despite all reverential humility of
phraseology, Manfred judged it designed only to gain time, whilst preparations
might be made for resistance. He sent them back, with orders to bring him a
categorical answer. But many Apulian cities, including both Baroli and Barletta
had now, seduced by Innocent, formed a confederacy in emulation of the Lombard
League; and the citizens, trusting to the succours of their confederates, refused
to alter their answer, or to hold any further communication with the Regent..
Manfred
hastened forward, but found the gates closed against him. lie called upon the
townsmen to open them to the representative of their King, and the reply was a
flight of arrows mingled with a shower of stones. He now commanded the walls to
be scaled: the troops
advanced, but
recoiled from the tempest of missiles that met them; whilst some German
veterans are reported to have loudly grumbled, at being ordered to storm well-
defended walls by a beardless boy, reared in the lap of luxury, and sitting on
his horse, aloof from danger. But, amidst these murmurs, they suddenly beheld
that reprobated beardless boy—who, on seeing them fall back, had dismounted—rush
forward to lead the storming party. They felt the rebuke, and no man hesitated
to follow their late Emperor’s gallant orphan. The walls, though stoutly
defended, were scaled, and still Manfred led; Manfred was the first, who
entered the town as victor. The chief punishment inflicted upon the citizens,
in addition to the regular and useful tine, was the demolition of the walls
that had encouraged their rebellious arrogance. (1M0)
In all these
difficulties and dangers, the Regent had received no help from Sicily. In the
beginning of the struggle he had demanded reinforcements thence, and summoned
the Marshal to Apulia, that they might, in a personal interview, concert
measures for maintaining the royal authority, on both sides the Faro ; naming Galvano
Lancia to act as Ruffo’s deputy, during his brief absence. But Ruffo declared,
that he could neither spare troops, nor quit his post, even for an hour, to
confer with Manfred; and, at Messina, he excited such a riotous sedition
against Lancia, who had landed there upon his mission, as drove him from the
island. The Regent had no present means of chastising this insubordinate
officer, or compelling his obedience, and for such conduct in Iluffo he was
probably prepared. But grievously had he been disappointed by the failure of
support from two powerful noblemen, upon whom he was well entitled to reckon as
his firm friends and allies, to wit the Earls of Caserta and of Aquino, the
husbands of two of the late Emperor’s illegitimate daughters, Violante and
Anna. These gentlemen, though they certainly did not profess themselves
partisans of the Pope, joined the malcontents, loudly complaining of being ill
used, as well in not having received larger portions with their wives, as in
seeing their juvenile brother-in-law preferred to one of themselves, as Regent
of the kingdom.
Bat,
notwithstanding these disappointments of the help he ought to have_ received,
Manfred’s heroic gallantry, judicious measures, and rapid success, aided fay
that of his German officer, the Margrave of Hohenberg, who reduced Avcllino
simultaneously with his own conquest of Baroli or Barletta, checkcd the
seditious spirit, that had, for a iroment, seemed to be gradually pervading the
kingdom. The confederated cities dissolved their League, Naples and Capua
nearly alone persisting in their republican aspirations and open revolt. The
Regent blockaded the first, and ravaged the territories of the second, whilst
expecting the arrival of Conrad, or the means of besieging both at once.
This w'as
Manfred’s position, when the Pope’s answer to his overtures reached him. It
was, that, upon his delivering over Apulia and Sicily to Papal officers,
taking the oath of allegiance, and doing homage to the Holy See, he, Manfred,
should be ’ndividuallv relieved from his inherited excommunication, and the
principality of Terento should be conferred upon him. Need it be said, that he
declined to purchase a part of his father’s bequest, the principality of which
he was in possession, by betraying the trust which his father and his brother
had reposed in him ? Renouncing, fnr tne present at least, every idea of
reconciliation with the inveterate pseudo-Father of Christendom, the Regent
devoted his thoughts to the blockade of Naples, and looked impatiently for
Conrad, to whom even the refractory Marshal of Sicily would not, he felt
assured, deny obedience and reinforcements.
*
COXRAD IV.
Conrad
in Italy—m Apv.Ua—Innocent’s Inveteracy—Innocent and
Brancaleone—Negotiation*—Accusations and Recriminations—Conrad’»
Iieatk—Affairs of Germany—William of Holland’s Struggles—Affairs of Italy. [1251—1254.
Manfred's struggle, ■with the various
difficulties surrounding him, was cheered and supported by letters from
Conrad, announcing his early arrival. The young King, convinced by his
brother’s assurances of the urgent necessity for his presence in the Sicilies,
determined to visit them ; and, ;n the winter of the year 1251, committing the
contest with the Anti-king in Geimany, during his temporary absence, to his
father-in-law, the Duke of Bavaria, he set forward for the South. His consort
Elizabeth, being then in immediate expectation of presenting him with the first
fruit of their marriage, her accompanying him was deemed too hazardous, and she-likewise
was left to the care and protection of her father. Little would the royai
imperial pair anticipate that, for this world, their separation was final.
In December,
Conrad reached Verona, where he was received by his brother-in-law Ezzelino,
with tha accustomed magnificent hospitality of that family, and with the most
gratifying demonstrations of' loyalty. Some writers have charged the Signor di
llomano, with, even at this rime, projecting his complete emancipation from
feudal subjection to the Emperor, and acting in all his relations witn Conrad,
rather as the ally of a monarch, whose interests were closely involved with
his own, than as a vassal. That, after Conrad’s death, he entertained such
schemes, Digitized by Microsoft
there is no
doubt. They would be encouraged; if not generated, by the circumstance that
the sovereign who then challenged his homage was an aijti-king, set up by a
detested pope, in opposition to Selvaggia’s father and brother—Frederic II and
Conrad IV—for the avowed purpose of destroying those imperial connexions, w
hose claims to his attachment and his duty he fully acknowledged. Such schemes
would be ripened, by the absolute want of all supreme controlling authority,
during the ensuing interregnum, which produced analogous designs in princes,
inferior to Ezzelino in the means of executing them. To the Italian heir of
these connexions, Manfred, who never was even King of the Homans, he owed no
allegiance, but was a faithful brother and ally. No act of P.zzelino’s is recorded,
indicating disloyalty towards Conrad.
At Verona,
Conrad had interviews with the Magistrates of the Ghibe'iine cities, and with
Marchese Palavicino. They all represented the condition and yet more the prospects
of their party in Italy, as good. Ezzelino’s dominions extended from the
Venetian lagoons far northward into the Tyrol, and westward to the vicinity of
Milan; that city,besides being much less Guelph than usual, was, like Guelph
Florence, at this lime w eakened by internal struggles for power between the
nobles and the people; and the only piece of ill fortune, that had recently
befallen the Ghibelines, was the subjugation of two or three small towns by
Guelph Genoa. There w as in all this nothing to shake Conrad’s
predetermination, not to suffer any other interest, not the most vital of
Lombardy, or even of the Empire, to divert him from his present object, namely
the defence of his southern patrimony against Papal usurpation. Having
therefore confirmed and secured the attachment of the Ghibeline Lombard
vassals of the Empire, Conrad prosecuted his journey.
But Pesaro,
Fano, Fossombrone, Jesi, and Ancona, had formed a Confederation, which, if not
avowedly .against the young King himself, was indisputably Guelph; and, when
considered in connexion with the open hostility of Bologna, and the doubtful
disposition of Rome, then courting the return of the Pope, threatened all the
delay,
inseparable
from the necessity oi’ forcing a passage. He resolved therefore to proceed by
sea ; the Venetians offered him the use of four galleys, to convey himself and
his small escort ;(101) and, accepting the loan, he embarked for
Apulia. He landed at Siponto, where he found Manfred awaiting him.
Nothing could
be more satisfactory than the meeting of the brothers ; nothing could promise
better. Manfred had prepared everything for the most honourable reception of
the Sovereign; again, with a discretion yet more surprising at his age nan his
military and political skill and energy, avoiding all that could bear the most
remote appearance of rivalry, or assumption of authority. The ex-Regent, in
person, held his royal brother's stirrup. Conrad, on the other hand, gratified
by the unexpected progress that he found made in subjugating and pacifying the
kingdom, and not less so, perhaps, t<y the perfect propriety with which the
youthful and triumphant Regent sank into his subordinate position, displayed
the warmest fraternal affection for him, constantly placed him by his side,(102)
and professed his determination to be guided upon all points by his advice.
Together the brothers now traversed the continental portion of the realm,
compelling to submission not only all minor dissatisfied nobles and cities,
but even the powerful husbands of their two half-sisters; an object the mure
material, as much of the land upon the Garigliano, the Apulian frontier against
the Papal territories, was the property of Caserta. Capua was now forced to
surrender, and only Naples still persevered in rebellion.
But, amidst all
this success, Conrad, like Manfred, knew the importance of a reconciliation
with the Pope, if attainable ; of which, never having personally given
offence, he saw no reason to despair. He accordingly offered Innocent all the
rights and privileges ever enjoyed by Popes in Apulia and Sicily, under his
Norman ancestors ; including even those wrested from the maternal anxieties of
his dying grandmother, the Empress-Queen, Constance. The arrogant pontitf did
not condescend to notice the proposal, but, treating Conrad as incapacitated to
succeed, both by his excommunication, and bv his father’s deposal, acted as
sole,
undisputed sovereign of the Sicilies. Lavishly he granted fiets to his
creatures, or to those whom he wished to make such, and, amongst others—Manfred
having rejected his terms, to wit, thp grant of Tarento in Papal vassalage —he
gave that principality to one of the Frangipani, as a bribe, which would not
only lure the whole family from their grateful attachment to Frederic and his
posterity, but. through their conflicting claims to the possession, produce
hostilities between the grantee and the actual holder. Nevertheless, when he
saw how prosperously Conrad, supported and guided by Manfred, was establishing
his authority, he felt that his own unaided power was insufficient to wrest
the Sicilies from the lineal heir ; and, abandoning, however reluctantly, the
idea of incorporating this kingdom with the Estates of the Church, he looked
out for a substitute vassal-king, who should be able to supply the strength in
which he himself was deficient.
The Pope now
proffered the crown of the Sicilies to Charles. Earl of Anjou, brother of the
absent royal Crusader. Charles was most willing to accept the offered crown,
how onerous soever, the conditions upon which granted, how great and perilous
soever, the obstacles to be overcome, in gaining possession of the granted
kingdom. He, indeed, probably saw an advantage in the King’s absence; judging
that he might more easily obtain the assistance he wanted from his mother, the
Queen Hegent. Hut Blanche, if something of a bigot, had no inclination to be
made the blind tool of a Fope. Neither had she forgotten her eldest son’s
obligations to the Imperial father of the King, now to be despoiled; nor would
she permit any of her other children to risk implicating France in schemes of
foreign conquest, whilst their King and brother, still absent 011 his Crusade,
involved in difficulties and dangers, might at any moment need the undivided
force of the realm. She obliged Charles to refuse the profl’ered crown; ana,
when some French knights and nobles acceptcd the Papal pay and the spiritual
indulgences promised to whoever should enlist under the banner of the Keys,
she sternly said, that those, who preferred the service of the Pope to that of
their own natural sovereign, the Pope might maintain; and confiscated their
fiefs. The Digitized by Microsoft ®
great vassals
followed the Queen’s example with respect Uo the vavassors, and the Keys lost
their charm.
Innocent’s next
offer was made to the opulent Earl of Cornwall, brother to Henry HI and to the
deceased Empress Isabella. Earl Richard does not appear to have felt any
scruples cf conscience, touching the lawfulness of such a transfer of another
man’s property, and of I113 own nephew’s contingent birthright; but lie clearly
saw the difficulty of effecting it, and required that the Pope should take upon
himself a share of the expense, giving him hostages and fortresses, as
security for the fulfilment of his engagement. The Legate expressed
considerable doubts of the Holy Father’s acceding to such unexpected demands ;
and the Earl rejoined: “ Then is his Holiness’s gift much like saying, ‘ I give
you the moon, you have only to reach it down.’ ”
This answer
was most annoying to Innocent, the disappointment producing a good deal of
hesitation as to his next move. He even thought of limiting his persecution of
the Swabian dynasty to the two active elder sons of the late Empercr, Conrad
and Manfred, and conferring the vassal kingdom upon the'r uninr brother, Henry,
the nephew of the King of England. In order to reconcile this act of clemency
to the interests of his family, if not of his See, he thought of marning the
juvenile usurper to one of his own nieces. He even proceeded so far with the
scheme, as to have some of the chief nobles, and the young Prince himself,
sounded upon the subject. Cut Henry, a fine boy about twelve years old, showed
little inclination to provoke a fratricidal war, and forfeit the affection of his
family and friends, for the chance ot' being able to usurp a crown, not merely
in vassalage, but in absolute slavish dependence, upon a Pope, whom he had
probably been taught to abhor, as his father’s bitterest enemy. His virtual
tutor, Ruffo, moreover, remained loyal to Conrad, although envious of Manfred;
and the Barons spurned the idea of such a marriage, as derogatory to the royal
blood.
Innocent,
again disappointed, abandoned this project, and proposed the Sicilian crown to
the King of England, for his second son, Prince Edmund. The weak Henry III,
unchecked by either conscientious scruples or prudential
considerations,
snapped at the glittering bait. He at once accepted the Pope’s offer, never
afterwards gave the boy any name but his Iloiteletr (may this
diminutive of the regal title be Englished, Kingling?) and transmitted to the
Papal Court all the money in his treasury, together with all that he could
borrow of the Earl of Cornwall and other wealthy individuals, or extort, either
from Jews, or, through the agency of unjust judges in the shape of fines, from
his natural subjects, to be employed in despoiling the son of his late
brother-in-law.
During these
various inimical negotiations, Conrad had remitted neither his efforts to
accomplish a reconciliation with the implacable pontiff, nor his military
operations. The former have been seen unavailing, and Innocent flattered
himself, that pecuniary embarrassments would insure the dispersion of the
troops opposed to him But a loan, seasonably obtained by Conrad from the
merchants of Sienna, again foiled the Pope’s schemes; and, in the autumn of
1252, the King, master of Capua, joined the corps encamped before Naples. This
city was still obstinately defended; every assault was repulsed, and, as long
as the sea was open, the land blockade was laughed at. But the Marshal of
Sicily, obedient to the King as he had been the reverse to the Regent, brought
his fleet to perform the service required of him; and, obstructing the port,
completed the previously imperfect blockade. Famine now gradually rendered
further resistance impossible; and, upon the 10th of October, 1253, Naples
surrendered at discretion.
Upon entering
the pertinaciously rebellious city, Conrad is, by most -writers, allowed to
have inforced the strictest discipline amongst his troops, and prevented
individual outrage. But he assembled his councillors and judges, to deliberate
concerning the punishment'proper to be inflictcd upon such obstinate
disloyalty, as Naples had exhibited; and this was decided to be, razing the
fortifications, as usual in such cases, imposing a heavy tine upon the whole
population, and selecting the ringleaders of the revolt to be dealt with more
severely. Of these a very few were executed, and the others banished; but no
distinction was upon this occasion made betwixt clergy and Digitized by
Microsoft®
laity,(103)
which from old chroniclers elicits the observation,
‘ Conrad
acted as if there were no Pope in the world.” Conrad is said by these writers,
to have destroyed any good effects that such moderation in punishment might
have produced upon the Neapolitans, by ‘wanton, as inc is- creet, mockery; he
ordered the horse in the market-place, the emblem of the city,to be bridled. (lw)
Some writers lay a great degree of harshness, others of cruelty, towards the
•vanquaished Neapolitans, to his charge, which alienated the Apulians, and
checked his prosperous career.(105)
Conrad had by
no means foi gotten, nor was he likely to be permitted to forget, that there
was a Pope in the world ; but,being now master of his Ital'an kingdom, he felt
himself in a better position, and able to assume a somewhat lofiier tone
towards the intractable pontiff, than he had previously dared to hazard. In a
letter addressed to the Cardinals, he says: “ I am an orthodox Christian, and
wish to put an end to these hateful dissensions w ith the Pope. But let not his
Holiness tancy that he may venture to do whatever he pleases, or I must appeal
to God, to a future Pope, to an Gicumenic Council, to the Princes of the
Empire, to all kings and princes in the world; ay, and to all Christian
people.” This language he held, in the conviction that even Innocent must, by
this time, be willing to desist from hostilities with an adversary, as successful
as he was pacifically disposed ; inasmuch as the Pope’s position had been
deteriorating during the time, though not quite in the proportion, thac his own
had been improving. Whilst vainly striving to acquire a kingdom, Innocent
seemed more completely than before to have lost the capital of the papacy.
The Homans,
after repeatedly inviting the Pope to return to the proper metropolis of
Christendom, had subjoined to their last invitation, or rather summons, such
menaces of coercion in case of refusal, as were by no means alluring to
domiciliauon amongst them. Since then, they had again changed their tone. They
had reelected Brancaleone d’Andalone sole Senator; whom his experience of
their temper induced to decline the appointment, except upon his own conditions.
Of these, the first was that the office should be secured to him, not for one
year, but for
three years; the shortest term in which he thought anything could possibly be
effected towards establishing the sovereignty of the law, and subduing the turbulence
of either patricians or plebeians. Moreover, as he foresaw that in his
endeavours to accomplish this great good, he must needs provoke much dangerous
enmity, he required that hostages for his safety should be sent to Bologna.
Both com'itions were agreed to, and, when Conrad thus addressed the Cardinals,
the Senator
• was successfully inforcing law and order,
upon high and low, in republican Rome; where the Pope’s authority v.as,
henceforward, to be purely spiritual. The Romans seemed to feel the improvement
in their condition, to a degree which might have been expected to give it
stability.
But the
advantages which the King should have derived from the change in the relative
positions of the Pope and self, he forfeited by the weakness with which lie allowed
himself to be drawn into the snares of those who studied their own interests
exclusively. Already had he thus, from hostile insinuations, imbibed distrust
and jealousy of the brother to whose abilities and energy he owed his success,(106)
and who, had he wished to usurp his crown or his authority, would hardly, he
might have judged, have pressed him to come and take all power out of his
hands. Conrad now suffered himself to be impelled, as much probably by these
feelings, as by the advice of the individuals who had !nsidiously
instilled them into him, to acts of injustice towards Manfred and his friends,
alienating some previously active supporters. lie thus gradually chilled the
zeal of his half-brother.
The most
indefatigable undcrminer of the Prince of Tarento’s influence was the Marshal
of Sicily. Upon Conrad’s arrival, he had hastened over, to forestall the anticipated
accusations of disobedience to the Regent, and ingratiate himself with the
young King, whom he appreciated more justly, than he had his still younger
brother, the ex-Regent. He easily persuaded the monarch, that he had withheld
the succours demanded by Manfred, and refused to obey his summons, not at the
instigation of jealousy, but simply from a strong sense of his own duty; the
disturbed state of Sicily, of which the Prince of
Tarento could
have no knowledge, prior to the insurrcc- ’.oii at Messina against Lancia,
having made it indispen- nable to keep all the forces at his disposal within
the island, and to remain in person at his post. For refusing to give he
Lancias possession of the domains granted them, ne had likewise an excellent
reason, to which he gradually induced Conrad to listen. He knew, he asserted,
that the the deceased Emperor had latterly discerned and disliked the grasping
disposition of the Lancias, who had, since his decease, been coaxirg fresh,
immoderate grants, out of the Prince of Tarento's love for his mother, and
consequently for her family; wherefore he had judged it best to reserve the
whole matter for the decision of the King, when he should arrive. RufTo thus so
thoroughly cleared himself in Conrad’s eyes, that he was created Conte di
Catanzaro as the reward of his services; and now proceeded to attack Manfred
h>mself. lie dared not, indeed, impute selfish designs to the rival he
sought to overthrow the brother, to whom the King vividly felt, that he owed a
deep debt of gratitude; but to make the consciousness of such indebtment—too
cften burdensome to ungenerous minds—galling, and to excite jealousy of that
brother’s popularity, was not difficult. In these machinations Ruffo had a
coadjutor, who, whilst far from wishing to play into his hands, was actuated by
similar motives. This was Margrave Berthold of Ilohenberg, or Hochberg, a relation
of the Bavarian Wittelsbachs, and the commander of Frederic's German legion,
who, though he had frankly cooperated with, and obeyed Manfred as Regent, and,
having married a Lancia, might have been expected to take his part, was, like
the Marshal, envious of the Prince’s influence over the King,and hoped, by
rendering him snobjcct of jealousy, to supplant him.
Thus wrought
upon, Conrad ascribed all the pecuniary difficulties that had so crampcd
himself in Germany, ar.d Manfred in Apulia, to the iate Emperor’s inconsiderate
liberality; and w as persuaded that ne might justifiably resume, what ought not
to have been given. He announced to Manfred, as a financial scheme, calculated
to prevent the recurrence of such annoyances, his intention of cancelling many
of their father’s latest grants, and
requested
him, in fraternal kindness, to facilitate so unpopular a measure, by the
voluntary surrender of his own bequest. Manfred unhesitatingly complied, when
his royal brother took from him the counties of Monte, St. Angelo, Gravina,
Tricarieo. and Montescaglione, leaving him only . his principality of Tarento;
and even this he impaired, not only severing Brindisi from it, but, enforcing
the late Emperor’s laws against especial privileges and exemptions, such as
Tarento had hitherto enjoyed, he taxed this principality like the rest of the
kingdom, and sent a royal judge thither, to administer criminal justice,
leaving the adjudication of civil suits only, to the Prince’s tribunals. Still
Manfred quietly submitted, either in loyal obedience, or from consciousness
that family disunion must betray the kingdom into the Pope’s hands; or,
perhaps, impressed 'with a statesman-like conviction, of the propriety of abolishing
all exceptions from the general law of the land. But his friends and kindred,
who were similarly deprived of what Frederic might, perhaps, too lavishly have
bestowed upon them, were less patient under what they deemed his wrongs as well
as their ow'n. The Lancias, especially, with indiscreet vehemence, resented the
spoliation of the nephew in whom they gloried, and whom they had expected to
see loaded with additional, well-earned honours and riches; they were,
possibly, still more irritated by the high favour which they saw their personal
enemy, the new Conte di Catanzaro enjoying. With imprudent vindictiveness, they
gave utterance to wishes that an illness, under which Conrad was then, during
the siege of Naples, labouring, might prove such as would seat him, who as
Regent had shown himself so well fitted to govern a kingdom, upon the throne of
the Norman monarchs; thus proposing to supersede Henry, the next heir, who had
never given them offence. The words were of course diligently reported to the
King, who instantly banished the whole Lancia family, as traitors. The exiles
betook them to the court of Vatazes, whose youthful consort, Anna, being
Manfred’s full sister, was their k’nswoman, and where, therefore, they were
cordially received. But such was not the exile that Conrad, whose mind had been
so skilfully imbued with hatred of his brother 3 maternal relations, had inDigitized
by Microsoft ® ^
tended. It
irritated him; and he authorized Margrave Berthuld to inform Vatazes, that,
although the King of the Romans, of Jerusalem, and of Sicily, Emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire, could not presume to dictate to the Emperor of Nicsea, who
should or should not be entertained at his court, he must look upon such a
welcome to traitors, banished for ihcir treason, as a demonstration of
Hostility. This kind of conduct had begun prior to the surrender of Naples and
became more decided when that event had seemed to secure Conrad’s throne.
That Manfred
was deeply offended, and his affection for hi*> royal brother cooled by this
treatment of his mother's kindred, cannot be doubted, but he does not, appear
to have shown resentment otherwise than by withdrawing from councils, swayed by
his personal enemies. And about this time Conrad, already suffering from the
fever, that ultimately, proved fatal, was softened towards Manfred, by the loss
of another brother. Henry the younger, whom Ruffo appears, when lie obeyed his
sovereign’s summons, to have brought with him from Sicily, died in December,
12j3, and his tiro, unhappily alienated, brothers were reunited by their
common sorrow for this, the second family affliction, that had befallen them
since the loss of their father. Their nephew Frederic, the recently appointed
Duke of Austria, had preceded his youthful uncle to the tomb by a few months;
dying not, as might be supposed, in Austria, struggling for his duchy, but, at
his uncle’s court. Conrad’s genuine sorrow for young Henry’s face, appears in
the very pathetic letter he wrote the lost boy’s uncle, Henry of England, upon
the occasion; although perfectly aware of that monarch’s league with the Pope,
against himself. The misfortune, that revived the King’s fraternal affection
for Manfred, likewise stimulated him to fresh endeavours in behalf of another
brother, Enzio, whilst confidence i.i his present regal position encouraged him
to expect success, from the liberal offers of ransom he pressed upon the
Bolognese magistracy. But, although he had given no offence to Bologna, his
proposals were as pertinaciously rejected as had been his father’s.
Whilst Conrad
and Manfred ware mourning over the
vol. iv. 9
death of
tlieir younger, and striving to effect the iiberatiori of their elder brother,
tlieir enemies were industriously disseminating reports that the one or the
other, or both conjointly, had poisoned young Ilenry, now, as they had their
nephew Frederic, and perhaps his brother Henry, before. It may seem wasting
tima to investigate charges unsupported by a shadow of even presumptive proof,
the only attempt at anything cf the kind being by a later historian,^07)
who, after stating that Conrad—Manfred he does not accuse—committed this
fratricide to avoid giving his brother the vassal-kingdom bequeathed him by
their father, proves his guilt by the observation, that remorse prevented his
ever again smiling after Henry’s death. But the extraordinary manner, in
which, a few years later, when Manfred, by his splendid abilities and his
success, had monopolized Guelph and Papal hatred, such accusations were accumulated
upon him, must apologize for the desire to illustrate their frequent utter
groundlessness, by exhibiting upon the present occasion their contradictory
variety.
Conrad being
at this moment the more important personage, to him were there two
supposititious murders imputed by Innocent, and some contemporaneous annalists;
and whilst they consider Frederic’s being the son of his elder brother—legally
forfeited as was that brother’s birthright—sufficient inducement for Conrad to
stain his soul with his nephew’s blood, a motive of anger was found for the
supposed fratricide. It was accounted for, under the Pope’s sanction, as is
averred, by the following anecdote. Henry, when accompanying his royal
brotberuponasporting excursion, was guilty of some blunder in his falconry',
fur which the King sharply reproved him. The Prince returned an answer so
pertly petulant, that the offended monarch ordered him to be put to death. No
one asserts that the deed \\as done upon the spot in a moment of irritation,
and how effected, whether through the instrumentality of the royal boy’s
former guardian, Ruffo, or of one Giovanni il Moro—of whom more
hereafter—"whether 'by poison or by strangulation, are points upon which
these annalists disagree. They do so likewise upon another point; to wit,
whether Conrad murdered only one nephew, Frederic, leaving his younger nephew,
another Henry, to Digitized by Microsoft® ' •
inherit
whatever rights made Frederic worth murdering, or he extended the measure to
Ilenry; concerning whom the probability seems to be, though the date of this
Iienry- death is very uncertain, that he survived his supposed murderer.^1015)
Of those who afterwards attributed these crimes to Manfred, one relates that in
1238—when he, who in 1250 was only eighteen, must have been a mere child, more
precocious ,u guilt than even in argumentative eloquence—he poisoned both the
sons of the elder Henry, then sharing their father’s prison; another, that
their mother sent them to their uncle's Court in 12,31, why is not explained,
and that Manfred then perpetrated the atrocious, as to him unprofitable, deed ;
and others again confine their inculpation to the murder of his elder nephew
and younger brother, the last of whom certainly did stand before him in the
line of succession.(1U9)
During all
this time, negotiations with the Pope were still pending; Conrad still urgently
pressing to be, at least, informed of the terms upon which a reconciliation was
attainable; to which request, Innocent at length replied, by a statement of the
reasons, that altogether precluded reconciliation. These were six, being as
many crimes, of which he accused the King. The first, that, being excommunicated,
he had heard mass, compelling priests to celebrate this holy rite in his
presence, thus proving himself a heretic. The second, that he had suffered
heretical doctrines to be preached amongst his partisans in Lombardy. The
third, that he had poisoned his nephew Frederic. The fourth, that he had kept
his brother Ilenry a prisoner (no hint of fratricide, which, had the Pope
believed tiie imputation, there surely must have been—an observation equally
applicable to the alleged breach of capitulation at Naples). The fifth, that he
had appropriated church property, conferred benefices by his own usurped
authority, and withheld them from persons lawfully therewith invested. The sixth,
more vague, that he had opposed the Church ; had otherwise committed such
atrocities in Apulia and Sicily, as incurred the forfeiture of those Church
fiefs ; and had attempted much, contrary to the dignity of the Holy Roman
Empire.
To these six
charges, the following six answers were
returned. To
the first, that the King could noi. acknowledge an excommunication,
irregularly pronounced, without his hearing justification, and never regularly
notified to him; but he had never forced a priest to officiate, though he had,
as the duty of a good Christian, attended mass : and he was ready to prove
himself no heretic, by a profession of his faith. To the second, that the King
had always opposed heresy in Germany, and would do so in Lombardy, when he
should have power to do so: but, must respectfully observe to his Holiness,
that, heresy was at least as publicly taught at Milan, and in other Guelph
oties, as at Ycrona. To the third, that superfluous and derogatory to his
character and station, as was a vindication from so foul and notoriously
groundless a charge, the King was ready to refute the calumny in any and every
the most formal and circumstantial manner. To the fourth, that the King had
never imprisoned Prince Henry, but had always loved, and honourably treated
him, and would have continued so to do, had God not recalled him to himself. To
the fifth, that the King had done nothing of the kind; had merely exercised his
hereditary right of administering the estates of vacant benefices; and even
this he wTas wi'ling to resign, contenting himself with the rights
enjoyed by the Kings of France and England in such matters. To the sixth, that
in his hereditary kingdom the King had never wronged the Fope, or any of his
own subjects, always governing according to law, and had been equally careful
of the dignity of the Holy lloman Empire, which, as its legally elected
sovereign, he would maintain and defend against everv one. To these specific
answers, Conrad added a protest against the Pope’s right to call his conduct in
question, as before a tribunal, ar.d an assertion, that his known character
ought to be a sufficient protection against the unsupported calumnies of individual
slanderers.
These
accusations, ar.d somewhat retaliatory answers, offered little promise of a
reconciliation: but immediate actual war w*as averted by the intervention of
two great Guelph nobles, connected by marriage with Conrad. These were the
Earls of Savoy and Montfort, the last of whom appears to have married a
half-sister of Conrad’s
mother, the
offspring of Jean de Brienne's third marriage. But all that the importunity of
these powerful nobles could wring from the imperious Innocent, was the delay of
a few months. In compliance with their urgent and repeated prayers, he gave
Conrad till the 19th ot the following May, for his complete vindication, or
rather his final submission.
A respite
from present annoyance was the only advantage derived by Conrad from this
concession. The fever that had attacked him the preceding autumn had, from his
frequent relapses, assumed so alarming a charactcr, that, his only child being
an infant in arms, born since he had left Germany, the regency duri’ .g this
heir’s long minority, was now the chief, if not the sole, object of interest
amongst the royal Councillors and courtiers. There could be but two pretenders
to the office, namely, the paternal uncle of the future King, the Prince of
Tarento, whom the late Emperor had named to the one regency, which alone he
could anticipate, and this future King’s remoter maternal relation, the
Margrave of Hohenberg. Berthold, it has been seen, had successfully nnderr
lined Conrad’s trust in Manfred ; but his policy appears to have been, not to
alarm the royal invalid, by any measure, that could awaken the idea of his
being in danger. He had, probably, sufficient experience of Italian antipathy
to German officers, even if no longer to a German or half-German sovereign, to
perceive that his appointment would, if opposed by a popular, compatriot
Prince,be utterlyunavailii'g. Therefore, with a crafty cleverness, usually
esteemed more congenial to the Italian than to the Teutonic character, he
sought, whilst strong in the reigning monarch’s favour, to obviate the future
contest that he dreaded. lie courted Manfred’s friendship, and, aided by the
Prince’s placable temperament, easily re-established some show of familiar
intercourse: then, he one day inquired, professedly in confidence, whether,
upon his royal brother’s evidently fast- approaching dissolution, he intended to
resume the regency, during his infant nephew’s minority ? The question did not
take the Prince by surprise; he had seen through the Margrave’s ambition, and
marked the manoeuvres by which, undermining him, he had removed an
obstacle to
its gratification. Thus forewarned, and assisted by tipwards of three years’
experience, since his father’s death had placed the helm of state in his then
boyish hands, he had maturely considered the prospects of the kingdom, as
affected by the impending demise of the crown. He thought that, ki the actual
state of the relations with the Roman See, the preservation of his little
nephew’s patrimony, from the grasp of the Pope, must mainly depend upon the.
fidelity of the German legion; and he too well knew the attachment of the
legion to its compatriot Commander, the Margrave, to rely upon its fidelity in
any struggle, even against a third party, if the Margrave disputed his
authority. His mind being, therefore, made up, to avoid present contest,
awaiting the chances of the future, he at once replied, that so arduous a task
required Margrave Berthold’s experience and wisdom.
Thus secure
against rivalry, the Margrave had no occasion to disturb the repose of the
dying King; who, upon the ‘21st of May, 1254, just two days after the ex-
pii-aticn of the delay granted him by the Pope, breathed his last, in the 26th
year of his age. The length and vacillations of Conrad’s illness might have
been supposed sufficient, young as he was, to prevent, in his case, the
habitual suspiciou of poison. But few' indeed were those who, during the Middle
Ages, ascribed the death of a king of five-£.nd-twenty io natural causes.(un) That lie was poisoned was
the general opinion ; the only question being as to the. poisoner; the
Ghibelines denouncing Innocent, (IU) upon the authority, as
reported, of Conrad himself, who imputed his malady to poison, administered at
his instigation ;(lHj the Guelphs, naming Manfred. And one of these gives so
circumstantial a detail of the detection of his fratricidal purpose, long prior
to its perpetration, as might be calculated to gain belief, did not such
detection seem, in the first place, to render the perpetration impossible ;
and, in the second, did not the chronicler betray an ignorance, as to the
position of the principal persons, little consistent with correct knowledge of
the facts. The story,(113) which is worth relating, if only as a new
illustration of the perplexities besetting
mediaeval
history, is this. Manfred and the Margrave of Brandenburg jointly addressed
letters to the King of England, in which they accused Conrad of the murder of
his young brother, Henry, the English monarch’s nephew, and of the intention of
murdering themselves; avowed thtir purpose of revenging Prince Henry, and
securing their own lives, by putting Conrad to death, and asked whether, in
case of failure, they might rely upon an asylum in England. • The messenger
bearing these guilt-, danger-, and death-fraught epistles, chancing to die at
Verona, his despatches fell into the hands of Marchese Pala- vicino, who
immediately transmitted them to Conrad. He, on his part, upon reading them,
banished all the friends and relations of Manfred, and surrounded him and the
Margrave with spies, in the conviction that, by being constantly informed of
their every movement, he might avert all mischief from their treasonable
conspiracy. Finally, the Prince and the Margrave, suspecting they were
betrayed, instantly, in spite of the vigilance of the spies, opened a
negotiation with the royal physician, then attending the King for a slight
fever, and engaged him to make away with his patient. Upon this story, the
first remark is, that there was at the time no Margrave of Brandenburg in
Italy; and, if it be urged that the name may be a mere verbal mistake for
Hohenburg by a supercilious Italian, who could not trouble himself to distinguish
one tramontane barbarian appellation from another; the second remark is, that
this Margrave, being unconnected with Prince Henry, and, as Conrad’s prime
favourite, having, probably, more to lose than to gain by his death, was not
very likely to seek the office of his accuser and murderer, especially in
conjunction with his own chief rival, whom he must suppose that he had, by his
machinations, made his person;'! enemy; the third, that Verona belonged to
Ezzeliuo da Romano, not to Marchese Palavicino; and, finally, that the exile of
the Lancias preceded the death of Prince Henry. To say nothing of spies,
placed, as his only measure of defence, by a fratricide, around criminals,
against whom he had evidence amply sufficient to justify their imprisonment, if
not their execution ; and spies, *ho look idly on, whilst their employer’s
death is
plotted, arranged, and effected, by those they are watching.
But, whether
slair by poison or a fever, Conrad died; and his corse was conveyed, as that of
his father had been, to Sicily; where, far from being, as averred,(114)
rejected, and thrown into the sea by the Messinese- as the dust of an
excommunicated enemy of the Church, the royal remains were reverently interred,
and a magnificent monument was erected to the memory of Conrad, King of Sicily
and of the Romans. This monument, with the church containing it, was
subsequently destroyed by fire. Great as were the ensuing calamities, the death
of Conrad IV can hardly be called a serious misfortune, since, though not
destitute of talent and courage, he must be held a degenerate Hohenstaufe The
dissensions with the Pope would assuredly have been the same had he survived,
but the abilities and energies opposed to, and long powerfully counteracting
Papal aggression and intrigue, would scarcely have been the same. Conrad has
been taxed with great cruelty;(Ui) but nothing beyond the ordinary
temper of the age appears. No particular instances are comme.mo- rated, and the
historian, who so taxes him, makes this accusation in reference to his other
charge, namely, the alleged violation of the Neapolitan capitulation.
Material
changes had taken place in Germany since Conrad had crossed the Alps. Innocent
had not been so absorbed in Italian politics, as to forget that his antiking
still needed support from him; ard had accordingly sought >ti various ways
to strengthen him. He endeavoured so to do, ip, the first place, by a
matrimonial connexion; to which end he had asked for him, successively, the
hand of a Danish and of a Saxon princess. But neither King nor Duke judged the
pretender to a crown, lawfully worn by another, a desirable son-in-law; and the
next application was made to the Duke of Brunswick. This prince was the father
of many daughters, and—notwithstanding the many years of peace and apparent
amity, that, suspending transient enmity, had seemingly revived the old ties of
tindred betwixt YVelf and Hohenstaufen —was still, at heart, the hereditary foe
of the House of Swabia; and from him William of Holland obtained a
bride. His marriage
with Elizabeth of Brunswick was celebrated in January, 1252, and attended by
circumstances so inauspicious, as to chill every Guelnh heart. The curtains of
the nuptial bed took fire, am! the just wedded pair hardly escaped in their
night-clothes, from the flames; in which some of their attendants perished, and
William5* crown and sceptre were consumed or lost. Not the crown and
sceptre of Charlemagne; the proper regalia, whether or not quite so ancient,
being safe in Conrad’s possession; but, that these had been made expressly for
the coronation of the Anri-king, rendered theii destruction yet more personally
ominous.
For awhile,
however, the bridegroom’s iH luck seemed to have expended itself in this
disaster; for, whilst Conrad’s absence left Germany more open to him, his
marriage gained him some powerful partisans. The uncles of the bride, the two
joint Margiaves of Brandenburg, now first deserted the Imperial cause; and even
the Duke of Saxony, who had refused the Anti-king h:s own daughter,
as the new Queen’s brother in-lawj felt interested in the success of so near a
connexion: thus, by the month of July, the greater part of northern Germany had
acknowledged William as King. In this month he held a Diet at Frankfort, which
of course only his own party attended. The Diet, so constituted, pronounced
that Conrad had forfeited both his duchy of Swabia and his various fiefs, by
neglecting to obtain investiture of thim from King William, and that his
adherents had, by the same neglect, similarly forfeited their fiefs. All these
forfeitures, with the exception of the duchy, which it seems to have been
judged wiser to break up, the Anti-king freely distributed as rewards or as
bribes; and it was upon this occasion, that the fulfilment of former promises
raised the Earl of Wurtemberg to pre-eminence, above the great body of Swabian
noblemen. The same penalty of forfeiture, was denounced, prospectively, against
all vassals failing to seek, within the year, investiture of their fiefs from
William. It was even proposed to denounce the ban of the Empire against the
Duke of Bavaria, Rhine-Palsgrave; but he was a potent adversary, whom, already
hostile enough to his son-in-law's rival, it was unadvisable further to
provoke: the
majority deprecated the measure as rash. William would fain have had the Diet
pass a sentence of forfeiture against the Countess of Flanders and Hainault,
in whose chil war with some of her sons, he had become more a principal than an
auxiliary. This family v. ar requires a brief explanation.
Countess
Margaret, born after the departure of her father, Earl Baldwin, for the Crusade
that made him an Emperor, was, almost in her childhood, by the authority of her
Suzerain, the French King:, married to her guardian, Bouquard d’Avesnes, a nobleman
of Hainault. She was the mother of three chiidrcn by him when the fact, that
d’Avesues was in dcacon’s orders at the time of the marriage, vas discovered.
Joanna, enraged at having been deceived into sanctioning an illicit connexion
for her sister, insisted upon the instant separation of the not really wedded
couple, and the restoration of Margaret to her care; whilst she applied to
ecclesiastical authority, to pronounce the nullity of the pretended marriage.
This last was a matter of no difficulty; but d’Avesnes resisted the decision ;
whereupon Joanna imprisoned, and finally, but not till long after her sister
was again a wife, beheaded him, Margaret, upon the dissolution of the bonds
uniting her to d’Avesnes, was given in marriage by her sister to Guillaume de
Dampierre, a French ncbleman; and of this marriage three sons and two daughters
v ere the fruit. She was a widow, when, in 124-1, upon the death of Joanna
without children, she succeeded to the counties of Flanders and Ilainault; and
immediately fierce quarrels for her heritage broke out between the offspring of
her two husbands. The d’Avesnes, who had always protested against the sentence
of nullity, claimed as her eldest, the Dampicrres, as her only legitimate,
sons, and all parties appealed to the ope and the Emperor. Frederic II, and
Innocent IV, concurrently, declared Jean d’Avesnes the rightful heir, the
nullity of a marriage contracted in good faith not necessarily importing the
illegitimacy of its issue. To this sentence the Dampicrres would not submit,
and civil war distracted the two counties. Margaret, offended by the
proceedings of her elder children, which
implied a
censure of her second marriage, was gradually alienated from them: though she
seems to hava always intended dividing her splendid principality, leaving
IJainault to Jean d'Avesnes, Flanders to Guillaume de Dampierre, respectively
the eldest of either of her two families. Rut still she inclined to favour the
Dampitrres, and Jean d’Avesnes strengthened himself by marrying a sister of his
mother’s refractory vassal, the Earl of Holland. When his brother-in-law
became Anti-king, so confident did he feel in his support, that he called upon
his mother, not merely to acknowledge him her heir, but instantly to abdicate
in his favour. He armed to inforce his demand, and was cordially supported by
the Hai- naulters, as his countrymen King William, by way of helping him,
immediately required the Countess to do homage, for her Imperial fiefs, and to
leave the question of succession wholly to him, as Lord Paramount. Margaret
replied, that the Emperor’s right of sovereignty over her dominions was
doubtful; William’s to be Emperor, still more so; and instead of her doing
homage to him for her principalities, he must ao her the hitherto omitted
homage, due for the fiafs, held by the Earls of Holland under the Earls of
Flanders. This was the state of the quarrel when the angry William laid it
before his D:et; and easily obtained the sentence he desired, to
wit, that Margaret, by her refractory conduct, had forfeited all her Imperial
fiefs; of which, as an act of grace and favour, her eldest son and heir, Jean
d’Avesnes, might be permitted to take immediate possession.
The ’naughty
Countess, as might be expected, did not submit to the sentence of a Diet she
deemed illegal. She retaliated by confiscating William’s Flemish fiefs; and
raising an army, which she next year sent, under her Dampierre sons, Guv and
John (William was dead), to seize and occupy these fiefs. The projected
enterprise was betrayed to those who were to have been surprised and Jean
d’Avesnes, with a Dutch army, awaited his half-brothers. When their vessels
made the coast of Zealand, which was by far the most considerable of the fiefs
in question, he attacked them in the rnidst of the operation of disembarking;
and as the troops landed in small parties,
easily
defeated them before the whole force could be •arrayed in order of battle,
making prisoners of his two brothers. The victors now thought that Margaret
might, by threatening the lives of her favourite sons, be compelled to submit
to William, and in person ask his pardon. But not even thus was her lofty
spirit to be subdued; .she refused to redeem her best-loved children at such a
price, addressing her refusal to Jean dJAvesnes, who had the custody
of his brothers, in words which, though scarcely an unsuitable answer to a
menace of fratricide, cannot, in the nineteenth century, without great
difficulty, be believed to have been, under any provocation, or in any century,
those of a mother. She is a\ erred to have written : H Not even to save my
sons, will I yield! Slay thy brothers, savage hangman as thou art! Boil the one
with garlic, broil the other with pepper, and devour them !”(uo)
The
Dampierres were neither eaten nor even slain, their value as hostages tor the
mother’s forbearance being appreciated. Nevertheless, the wrathful matron, to
purchase a champion who might both avenge their capture and rescue them, in the
spring of 1254, offered Charles of Anjou the bequest of Hainault. as the price
of his vanquishing her rebellious sons, the d’Avesncs, and delivering their
captive brothers, the Dampierres. Charles accepted the offer, invaded
Hainault, and seemed likely, w ithout rescuing the prisoners, to possess himself
of the county, earlier than the Countess intended. The Anti-king now interposed
intehalf of his sister’s husband ; but Charles refused to give up any of his
conquests; and in this posture of affairs, the news of Conrad’s death arrived,
to invigorate his competitor. Negotiations ensued and lasted for some t'me;
but as this quarrel will hardly need to he again mentioned, the end, by a
compromise, may be here stated. Lewis IX obliged his brother to renounce
conquests to which lie had no lawful claim, and Margaret, in compensation,
asked a daughter of Charles's in marriage for her grandson, Robert de
Dampierre, Guy’s eldest son, and, as she now announced the prospective
division of her dominions after her death, the future Earl of Flanders. The
reciprocal demands of homage were tacitly dropped.
To return to
the Frankfort Diet. As if indelibly to
brand himself
and his party, the mere tools of an ambitious priest, William sent all the
decrees passed by this assembly to Innocent, for his approbation and sanction.
Thus laying the Imperial throne prostrate, at the foot of the Popedom ! But
in fact only the support of the Church could make the Anti-king aught better
than a lawless rebel, at least durmg the life of Conrad. Innocent’s approbation
and sanction were of course promptly given ; but not even his vigorous support
could breathe vigorous life into his puppet’s prosperity.
The
Anti-king’s father-in-law died during the sitting of the Diet, and bv his will
divided his duchy betwixt his two sons, thus making two insignificant Dukes, of
Brunswick and of Luneberg respectively, instead of one tolerably powerful
Duke of Brunswick. The gradually increasing prevalence of such divisions,
dictated, in direct opposition to the spirit of feudalism, by paternal affection,
was a main cause of the innumerable, ludicrously small principalities, into
which the original five duchies crumbled, weakening Germany by destroying
every vestige ol enlarged nationality. The new Duke of Brunswick, indeed.
supported by his brother, anil acting in conjunction with the Earl of Holstein,
his neighbour, and with the flourishing Free Imperial City, Luback, was well
able to guard his Slavonian provinces from Abel of Denmark; whose possession of
them would have been very detrimental to the interests of both Earl and town.
But the support, upon which the Anti-king had reckoned from his wife’s family,
was prodigiously reduced by the death of her father; and still further, by the
incessant feuds that arose between her connexions, the Saxon and the Brandenburg
descendants of Albert the Bear, leaving them little leisure to attend to his
claims upon them.
But yet more
hurtful to William was the long-growing, and now great oissatisfaction of the
very author of his kingship. The Archbishop of Cologne complained that the
inferior prince, whom he had seated on the imperial throne, was ungrateful for
the benefits conferred upon him; that his unpaid troops devoured the substance
of the Cologne vassals; that this dependent parsons’-king, was more burthensome
to his archiepiscopal principality
than had been
the proudest Swabian Emperor. The Archbishop of Mainz, w ho felt that his
nomination to his see had saved William from defeat and utter ruin at
Oppenheim, joined loudly in these complaints. And it was rumoured, that the
Cologners even ordered a house, occupied by the Anti-king, to be set on fire,
at night, to get rid of him by burning him in his bed, though the Legate,
■who slept in the same mansion* ran the risk of sharing his fate.(117)
The example of desertion set by these mighty ecclesiastical princes was quickly
followed. Such disorders broke out, that at Utrecht, even in the Cathedral,
William was struck on the head with a stone. His Queen was attacked, near
Gderheim, by a robber-knight, named Hermann von Rittberg, seized, and obliged
to ransom herself by the surrender of all her jewels to her captor. Innocent’s
bulls were as unavailing, as William’s threats, to repress these outrages. The
only efficient stand against them, was made, not in support of his authority,
but in self-defence and for the protection of the makers’ trade, by the Rhine
League and its imitators, all staunch Ghibe- lines. So beneficial was the
opposition offered by these Leagues to the depredations and oppressions of the
rob- ber-knights, felt to be, that the members of the associated cities
steadily increased ; and, how offensive and insulting soever such burgher
presumption might appear to the inferior class of nobility, the great princes
were evidently beginning to look upon their operations with favour.
To
counterbalance this deterioration of his condition, the Anti-king gained the
support of Bohemia, and about this time secured that of Austria. The
distractions of that duchy—drawing Bohemia into their vortex - together with Ottocar’s
opposition, had long prevented VVenceslas from assisting the monai'ch whom he
had helped to place in the hazardous position of anti-king. They now seemed to
be subsiding; the Emperor Frederic’s testamentary appointment of his grandson,
as Duke, being generally satisfactory. But Duke Frederic had died, probably at
his uncle’s court, without receiving investiture. Upon his death, Conrad again
claimed the duchv as a lapsed fief, and all the conflicting pretensions
revived. The Duke of Bavaria limited the assistance he afforded Conrad’s
Lieutenant in Austria,
the Earl of
Gorz, to conquering for himself the provinces west of the Ens, and Gorz was
speedily driven out of the duchy. The partisans, of Gertrude had diminished in
numbers, and cooled in attachment, upon her Russian marriage, and yet more when
she transferred her owo and her children’s rights to a foreign king. Scarcely
any one acknowledged Bela’s pretensions; but many of those who disowned the
Hungarian, felt coldly towards her son Frederic, as a prince of Baden, whom no
one knew; Margaret, therefore, whose accession promised increase of strength
and power by union with Bohemia, was now the favourite candidate. In April of
this same year, 1252, and prior even to the death of her son, Duke Frederic,
she had been induced, very much by the influence of the Pope, to give her hand,
at the age of forty-six, to Ottoeai of Bohemia, who had barely seen his
twenty-second birthday ; and thus, to sufier herself to be brought forward as
the rival of her own child. In the course of the year, Ottocar made great
progress in possessing himself of the wedding portion that he had dearly
purchased with his liberty; and, in 1253, Innocent, who, in 1248, had pronounced
Gertrude the lawful heir, first required a solemn pledge from the King of
Bohemia and his son steadily to support William, an<^ then proclaimed
Ottocar and Margaret, Duke and Duchess of Austria, commanding all Aus- trians
to acknowledge and do homage to them. In the bull so proclaiming them, the
Pope, as if in demonstration of his right thus to dispose of principalities,
entitled himself Vicegerent of the true God upon this earth, presiding over the
universal republic,(118)
The duchy
made no objection to an authority, which, however arbitrary and usurped, was
exercised conformably to the general inclination; and the only remaining difficulty
related to Styria. The new Duke chose to consider this duchy as inseparably
united to Austria, w hilst the Estates of Styria, alleging both their original
independence, and their legal severance by the late Emperor, Frederic II,
exerted the elective franchise,'that he had confirmed to them, and chose Henry,
second son of Gtl.o of Bavaria, and sor.-in-law of Bela of Hungary, for their
Duke. Henry
hastened to
take possession of his new duehj,and flattered himself that he might rely upon
the support of his -wife's father, as well as of his own. But the King of
Hungary was determined to acquire something, by Gertrude’s transfer of her
pretensions to him; and now, despairing of Austria, invaded Styria, which was
fearfully ravaged by Bavarians, Austrians, Bohemians, and Hungarians. In
November, the death of Duke Otho recalled Henry to Bavaria, to assert his
right, according to the testamentary dispositions of his father, either to
reign jointly with his elder brother Lewis, as co-dukes, or to receive a share
of the family dominions as a separate duchy. Eventually, this last was the
arrangement that the brothers preferred; Lewis, as the eldest, took the palatinate
of the llhine with Upper Bavaria, and Henry was Duke of Lower Bavaria. \\ hilst
they had been contending for their patrimony, Styria was left to be fought for
by Bela and Ottocar, till, in April 1254, they likewise made peace, Ottocar
leaving that duchy to the King of Hungary, and contenting himself perforce wjtb
the acquisition of Austria.
Whilst these
contests were going on, the Mongols had frequently harassed Moravia; but, being
in small bands, the murgraviate was able to defend itself, repulsing the
invaders without assistance; and Ottocar, like the Antiking and the
Imperialists, left it to its own resources.
This was the
situation of Germany when Conrad’s death left the Empire for the moment without
a lawful Head, whether King or Emperor. This circumstance, without remedying
the decided illegality of the election, which allowed Wil iani of Holland to
entitle himself King of Germany and the Romans, induced a disposition to escape
the anarchy and bloodshed inseparable from a double or disputed election, by
acknowledging the Antiking. The only lawful convoker of an Electoral Diet, the
Archbishop of Mainz, as a patron of that Anti-king, of course convoked none.
The Confederation of the Rhine, now including several Earls, at once owned him
as the deceased monarch’s lawful successor; and William, to whom the League
transferred its civic loyalty, delighted at such an accession of strength,
instantly sanctioned the
League, as an
institution essential to the peace of the Empire. The example was influential
and slowly followed.
In Italy, the
power of the Lombard League died away during Conrad’s short and troubled reign;
in part, probably, from the absence of the formidable power, as a counterpoise
to which it had been created; but n part, likewise, from the internal troubles
of Milan, that interfered with her domination over her neighbours. In thi-
state of Lombardy, most of the leagued cities were severally subjugated by
individual powerful nobles. The intestine broils, fettering the ambition of
Milan, still arose from the struggle of the city nobles to maintain their
prescriptive privileges against plebeian encroachment. When Conrad passed
through Lombardy, in the winter of 1251, the Guelph, Pagsno, or according to
some writers, Guido, della Torre, at the bead of the popular party, was Lord of
the city, by the title of Anziano della Credenza, literally, Elder of the
Council of Secrecy, which might be modernized, President of the Privy Council;
and savagely he tyrannised over nobles and Ghibelines, polluting the sanctity
of thiir homes by his licentiousness. They naturally resisted his authority ;
and, in the course of the next year, the whole nobility, Archbishop Leo at
their head, were expelled. Martino della Torre, a brother or nephew of
Pagano's, next reigned supreme as Podesta, the first recorded native Podesta.
He was an able man, but so was the Archbishop, who, with the nobles, again
obtained admission into Milan, and recovered the ascendancy: ere long the
popular party again triumphed; and thus they continued alternately to master
each other, till the death of Conrad.
The Regent of
Savoy, having been at war with his nephew’s vassals, was now a prisoner in
their hands, from which the promises of the Pope, and the personal exertions
of his ow n brother-in-law, Cardinal Ottobuono Fiesco, were unavailing to
rescue him. The Marquess of Mont- ferrat was a rainor; Palavicino, who—from an
origin so poor, that one of his eyes is said to have been picked out by a cock,
that found access to him, as he lay unattended
in his
cradle—had, by his talents and energy, raised himself to the rank of a
Marquess, and whom Conrad, in 1253, made Imperial \ icar in Lombardy, was
master of several considerable cities, as Piacenza, Cremona, Tortona,
&c.,being Podesta in some, Signore perpetuo in others. So that the powerful
and affluent Tuscan, Conte di Guido Guerra, w as glad to cbtain the hand of his
sister: while the daily expenditure of his household, independently of the
meat and wine consumed, the produce, probably, of the lands he had acquired,
was estimated at 25 lb. of silver.
Ezzelino di
Romano had, by this time, attained well nigh to the height of his power. He was
Lord of almost all that, subsequently, constituted the continental dominions of
Venice, with the southern or Italian part of the Tyrol. But, as his power
increased, his character seems gradually to have deteriorated; a desire for
despotic authority keep- •ng pace with that increase. His despotism provoked
rebellions, or rather plots for the assassination of the dreaded despot, the
form rebellion was apt to take in early times and in small states ; -whilst the
severity, with which such plots, when detected, were punished, provoked new'
plots, till despotism became tyranny. Yet worse, perhaps, the base adulation
resorted to by many, in the hope of averting suspicion or winning favour, inspired
a contempt for mankind, that hardened Ezzelino’s heart. And now his strict as
vigorous administration of justice, especially against robbery, and his
abstinence from the sensual excesses, then so prevalent, arc said to have been
the only good qualities left to balance the ruthlessly sanguinary cruelty,
staining the once gallant, clement, magnincent, and cheerful husband, of a
glorious Emperor’s beautiful daughter. But Ezzelino himself appears, even upon
the testimony of his enemies, to have been convinced, that his cruelty was
simply inexorable justice. He held hinself a second Attiia, “ the scourge of
God;” saying: “ The sins of the people call fcr the vengeance of Heaven, and to
inflict it are we sent into the world.” Again, hearing that in a satire he had
been callcd a hawk, whom doves had made their King, he observed: “ I am no hawk
who devours his doves, but the father of a family, who
must clear
his house of serpents, scorpions, and other noxious reptiles.” He was steadily
loyal to his brother- in-law, Conrad; but, after his death, persevering in the
refusal to acknowledge William of Holland, and no scion of the Swabian dynasty
then claiming the Empire, he felt that he had no Sovereign, and assumed
independence.
WILLIAM—RICHARD.
Berthuld’s
Regency—Innocent’s Hostility—Manfred’s Regency —Innocent in Apulia—Manfred's
Bangers—Flight—War with the Pope—Death of Innocent If■—Alexander IV—
Manfred’s Struggles—Success—Flection. [1254—1258.
The last injunctions of Conrad to Margrave Berthold,
were, to announce his death without delay to the Pope; stating that, with his
dying breath, he had committed, spiritually and feudally, his infant heir, the
son he had never seen, to the paternal care and nrotecr.ion of his Holiness:
even as his grandmother, the Empress-Queen Constance, had committed his father,
Frederic II, to the paternal care and protection of Innocent III. These
injunctions were punctually obeyed by Berthold,w ho had probably suggested
them, in the hope of thus rendering the regency, which he at once assumed, an
easier office, by disarming papal enmity. Innocent, if internally he welcomed
the intelligence, that he had weaker adversaries—a babe beyond the Alps, and
d> regent hated by the people as a foreigner, instead of a young and active
monarch—to contend with, replied to the attempt at propitiation by two acts of
hostility, the one open, the other underhand. He instantly despatched missives
to Germany, imperatively prohibiting a new election; yet more imperatively, any
attempt to treat the child of the late excommunicated and deposed monarch, as heir
to the crow n ; by a prodigious stretch of clcmency, allowing him to inherit
the duchy of Swabia and the kingdom of Jerusalem. Had Duke Otho been alive,
this assumption of authority to despoil an infant would, perhaps, have been
differently received. But the orphan Digitized by Microsoft®
heir—named
Conrad after his father, from whom the Italians distinguished him by their
pretty ditnii utive, Corra- dino, which other rations have generally adopted
under the form of Conradin—had. a few months before his father’s ueath, lost
the maternal grandfather who might have actively asserted his right to the
throne of his ancestors. His two uncles were fully engrossed by their own
interests, the division of their heritage between themselves, and cared not to
move in their nephews’ behalf, In Germany, therefore, the Pope’s commands,
having almost been forestalled, vs ere obeyed. In Italy, Innocent adopted a
covert line of policy. He saw the means of faci'itating the eventual
incorporation of the Sicilies with the Estates of the Church, in habituating
both parts of the kingdom to the rule of papal officers. He accordingly replied
to the Margrave, that the kingdom itself, as well as the suzerainty,
appertained to the Holy See, wherefore he should both hold and govern it, as
part of the Papal dominions; but that, when the child should attain to man's
estate, he would show him grace and favour, relatively to his pretensions to
the vassal crown, and consider what might fittingly be granted him. He added,
that, as a present concession to this hypothetical claim, he would, in the oath
of allegiance to the Holy See, admit the qualifying
* words, “ Without prejudice to the possible
rights of the alleged heir, Conradin.” To all Christendom the Pope addressed an
eulogistic statement of the extraordinary forbearance and placability
displayed by the Church in these transactions.
By the
forbearance and placability, such as they were, upon which Innocent thus prided
himself, he accomplished his present purpose. By obviating the objection of
those persons, who, whilst fully acknowledging the Papal suzerainty, asserted
the son's right to succeed to his father, and his father’s ancestors, he
obtained, throughout the kingdom, oaths of allegiance to himself: and to secure
the taking of such an oath, however qualified, was a great step towards the
consummation of his schemes. His anxiety to accomplish this step was increased,
by the awkwardness of his position as a temporal Prince, excluded, in that
capacity, at least, from his proper capital. A sove
reign, so
situated, could not but consider any progress as a gain, cheaply purchased by
temporizing.
The oath,
thus qualified, was readily taken throughout Apulia; and this appearance of
moderation in the Pope, combining with Italian hatred of transalpine
foreigners, and consequent dislike of Berthold as Regent, produced a general,
leaning towards the Papal cause, or at least an inclination for Papal
government, during Conradin’s nonage. The Margrave, who, though unopposed by
the Prince of Tarento, could not expect very cordial support from the rival he
had so artfully supplanted, knew not how to forbid the taking of an oath, that
reserved his ward’s rights; and found his self- imposed task more irksomely
difficult than he had at all anticipated. A mudern Bavarian writer (119)
says, that the widowed Queen Elizabeth was entreated to bring the little King
to Sicily, and assume the regency during his minority. Such an invitation is
not mentioned by historians in general: and, if indeed given, must have been
addressed to her by her kinsman Berthold, who might think to excite Italian
loyalty, by the presence and education of the baby sovereign ill Italy; whilst
fie retained, in the mothers name, the authority, that he felt slipping from
his grasp. But, whether i.ivited or not, certainly Elizabeth never trusted her
boy or herself amongst a people, who had been so little true to her consort.
Information
now reached the Margrave, that the Pope was raising an army, at the head cf
which, a Cardinal would take possession of the kingdom, and govern it as papal
Lieutenant. The Regent felt, that the almost universal dissatisfaction
disabled him for the struggle which must ensue ; and, by a deputation of si ill
loyal noblemen, he offered the surrender of his arduous post, to the Prince of
Tarento; pledging himself, if the Prince would undertake the office, to deliver
into his hands the public treasure then in his own custody, and secure him the
support of his Germans. Berthold's subsequent conduct awakens a suspicion, that
his purpose, in this message, was merely, by a show of disinterestedness, to
conciliate his Italian messengers; and, perhaps, obtain more vigorous
assistance from Manfred. Such seems, indeed, to have been the opinion of
Manfred himself; for he peremptorily refused.
spontaneously
to take upon himself, amidst the evidently impending disasters, the
responsibility propcrlyresting upon the acknowledged Regent, under whose
government the affairs of the kingdom had assumed so menacing an aspect. But
the negotiators were in earnest, whatever their employer might be, and
vehemently did they urge upon the Prince, the duty of exerting the powers, with
which God had endowed him, to preserve the patrimony of his helpless, orphan
nephew, and to rescue an independent kingdom, his own native country, and
possible future heritage, from thraldom under an ambitious priest. The greater,
, the more imminent the dangers, the more should they fire one so gifted for
the contest to the encounter; or would he, they asked, tamely desert his
brother’s child; tamely yield his own right, in case of Conradin’s
decease?—then currently reported; Innocent having, for the chance of thus
dispiriting and disuniting the loyal, put a rumour of the kind into
circulation. To such remonstrances, Manfred, naturally nothing loth, yielded,
lie assumed the regency, and zealously the vassals swore allegiance to
Conradin, as their King, obedience to Manfred, as his representative and
vicegerent during his nonage or absence; adding a distinct recognition of the
Prince’s right of succession, should the young King die childless. Bertliold’s
oath pledged him to fulfil the engagements he had proffered.
Intelligence
of this change quickened Innocent’s movements. He named the festival of the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin, the loth of August, as the last day, upon which the
submission of the late, or of the present unauthorized Regent, could be
accepted. The day passed without notice on their part, and he excommunicated
both, pronounced their Sicilian and Apulian possessions forfeited, and
commanded King William, now without a rival in Germany, to confiscate whatever
fiefs or ether property, might belong to either of them in that country. Upon
the 5tli of September he named Cardinal Fiesco his Lieutenant in Apulia,
investing him with full powers to govern the realm, and even to deal with
church property at his discretion. He opened a negotiation with Conte Catanzaro
for the recognition of his authority in Sicily;
and he gained
not a few partisans by large gifts and larger promises of fiefs, dignities, and
offices. Amongst others, he renewed or confirmed his former grant of Manfred’s
principality of Tarento to one of the i'rangipani, and of his county of Lesina,
a fief of Tarento, to Borello d’Anglone. This last grantee was a person whom
Frederic 1[ had, for some offence, justly punished by the confiscation of his
fiefs; who, since the Emperor’s death, had insulted Manfred, by calumi :as
touching his birth and character, and had not only been pardoned by him, during
his first brief regency, but had obtained from him the restitution of some cf
hi^ justly forfeited possessions, with other grants as compensation for what he
could not restore, for all which Borello proved his gratitude, by immediately
joining the hostile Papal party. The Margrave, or
the other hand, fulfilled none of his engagements. He kept possession of
the public treasure, that he had promised the Regent, and made overtures to the
Pope, for readmission into the Church.
Manfred, meanwhile,
had been diligently performing his task, and traversing the kingdom in all
directions, to quell every symptom of incipient insurrection. Rut Ber- thold’s
breach of promise thwarted all his efforts. The Germans and Saracens were the
only troops upon whom he could at all rely ; the. former, without pay, were, he
well knew, more fora idable to friend than to foe, and Berthold withheld his
funds. He parted with his own plate, jewels, and whatever he could sell, to
supply their place; but this was a resource quickly exhausted; anu, as he had
apprehended, he found himself without forces to oppose the invading army,
admitted into the kingdom, by a nobleman, of the name of Montenegro, through a
pass, the defence of which was intrusted to him:—one main evil of the Papal
claim to suzerainty, was giving a plausible colour to treason. Thus, on all
sides deserted, circumvented, betrayed, even the energetic Manfred again saw no
resource but negotiation ; and he employed his uncle Galvano Lancia,—the
family having returned upon Conrad’s death—to treat with the Pope. To Innocent,
possession upon any terms, was, as has been seen, the great object. He agreed,
in a form so explicit, to reserve Conradin’s claims for future investi-
ga*ion, that
Lancia was satisfied Manfred might submit, and acknowledge the sovereignty of
the Roman See,without sacrificing his nephew’s rights or his own, or at all precluding
himself from the subsequent assertion of them.(l2°) Th-s being
distinctly understood, Lancia, on the 27th of September, in his nephew’s name,
signed a treaty, by which he acknowledged the Pope’s sovereignty; Innocent, on
his part, relieving Manfred from excommunication, binding himself to restore
liis principality and counties, adding thereto the county of Andria, and to
appoint him Lieutenant of the continental portion of the kingdom, the Abruzzi
excepted, with an animal salary of 80(X> ounces of gold. Manfred, when he
ratified the treaty, repeated Conrad’s expressions touching the committal of
Conraain to the Pope, as his own grandmother, the Empress- Queen, Constance had
committed his father. Frederic II, to Innocent III.
Peace being
thus restored, Innocent immediately visited Apulia. Manfred met him upon the
frontier, and, according to papal etiquette, led his palfrey from Ceperano to
the bridge over the Garigliano. That upon this progress the Cross, borne cn
high before the Pope, broke from the fastenings and fell to the ground, was
deemed an evil omen. At Capua, the Pope just halted, to court popularity by
confirming the charters of divers towns, and repealing the taxes, which his own
virulence had obliged Fredcric and Conrad to impose. lie there dismissed
Manfred, and proceeded to Naples; where he received Margrave lierthold back
into the pale of the Church, and amply rewarded his very early submission, with
not only the ratification of all Conrad’s grants to him and his farrily, but
additions to them, including the adequately salaried, high cilice of
Grand-Seneschal of both Sicily and Apulia. From Naples he announced to Ruffo
the conditions upon which he would confirm the government of Sicily to him.
And hence he wrote to the King of England, that, great as had been the success
of his arms, he needed succours in men and money, to preserve his recovered
sovereignty, and if Henry did not exert himself to furnish both, he must resume
his gift, to be bestowed upon a more
VOL.
iv. 10
efficient
candidate. A strange commentary upon the reservation of Conradin’s right.
Seated in the
Neapolitan palace of Frederic and Conrad, with half the Apulian nobility
bending in homage before him, whilst the most adverse shrank from resistance,
Innocent IV might well feel exultation. His natural arrogance increased, as did
the congenial arrogance, and also the ambition, cf his family. His nephew, Cardinal
Fiesco, had, frora the moment of his entrance into the kingdom with his army,
demeaned himself as though he were to be the tributary monarch ; and now
required from aH the great vassals, net excepting even the Prince of Tarento,
an oath of subjection, such as was taken to a King. Manfred remonstrated, that
the postponement of the investigation of Conradin’s birthright, required an
equal postponement of all innovation in the oath, till that question should be
deo'ded. His representations were disregarded, and his personal treatment was
consonant to such disregard. The Cardinal encouraged his uncle’s courtiers to
withhold, from the refractory Prince, the marks of deference due to his rank;
and Manfred, even before he left Capua, found himself treated, not as the son
and possible heir of a mighty Emperor, but as one of the Pope’s vassals, the
compeer of his household officers, in all this, the Cardinal certainly did not
run counter to the Pope’s intentions, but he may have advanced faster than
Innocent judged expedient.
In such a
posture of affairs, the one drop only was wanting to overflow the cup. It was
promptly supplied. Manfred, upon receiving the renewed grant of his principality,
had not disputed the Pope’s sub-grant of Lesina to Borello; but he required the
grantee to do homage for this Tarento fief to himself, as Prince of Tarento,
and therefore his feudal superior. Borello insolently answered, that Manfred
was merely his equal, the Pope being their common Lord; and sent troops to occupy
his new county. The Prince appealed to the Pope, and was assured; somewhat
equivocally, that his Holiness had not transferred any of the Prince’s rights
to Borello. Manfred’s friends were enraged, and would fain have, inforced his
disputed
rights in arms;
but the motives, that had induced him to submit, still existed; and he refused
to take any violent step, unless actually unavoidable. He resolved to consult
■with the Margrave, who still professed friendship for him, and was now
high in favour at the papal court, intending, should he, indeed, find him
amicably disposed, to request his intervention. He knew that a meeting between
Innocent and Berthold was appointed at Capua, whither the triumphant pontiff
was returning; and, with a smali escort, set forth to intercept and converse
with the Margrave, then stationed at a considerable distance beyond that city,
on his way thither.
The read led
through a narrow pass, which, when first seen by the Prince’s party, appeared
to be occupied; and those sent forward to ascertain the character of the occupants,
reported them to be Borello and his men. Upon Manfred’s betraying some
irritation at this show of- hostility, one of his company, a friendly nephew
of the Pope’s, named Tizio, earnestly dissuaded any act of violence, which must
needs injure him with the Holy Father. But even whilst he was speaking, a part
of the escort had galloped forward, and Borello, whose courage kept not pace
with his insolence, apprehending their intentions to be warlike, instantly fled.
Whatever might have been the original purpose of this volunteer forlorn hope,
so suddenly did an affray, produced, seemingly, by liis flight, ensue, that a
dart overtook the fugitive, slightly wounding him ia the back; and before
Manfred and Tizio could interfere to stay the tumult, a few of Borello’s people
were prisoners ; the rest, like their Lord, had fled. The captives petitioned
for their liberty and their horses, which were esteemed the lawful booty of the
captors. The Prince, thinking, perhaps, thus to lessen the mischief caused by
the indiscreet zeal of his escort, granted the petition, dismissing them with
the words: “ Go, warn your Lord to desist from his iniquitous folly, and, out
of respect for my Lord the Pope, I will take no further notice of it.”
The message
never reached Borello’s ears. He had sought refuge at Teano, where, whether
from his vain boasting, whether disseminated by him with some ulterior,
fraudulent design, or by unaccountable accident, a mmoui Digitized by
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got into
circulation that he had slain Manfred. Teano was ardently loyal to King and
Regent; and the population, rising in a body, tore the supposed assassin to
pieces. When intelligence of a catastrophe, seemingly to ruinous to all the
Prince’s hopes, reached the travellers, Tizio hastily left his friend, trusting
to forestall misrepresentation, by being the first to announce, and truthfully
relate, the disaster, to the Pope. Manfred prosecuted his journey and original
purpose.
His direct
way was by Capua, which, as Innocent, he knew, bad not yet arrived there, ha
thought, rashly perhaps, that he might venture to traverse. The approaching
armed party, when seen from the walls, was supposed to be the Pope’s; and the
Cardinals there, awaiting their sovereign, hastened forth from the city to
receive him. A report of Borello’s death had already reached them, and upon
recognising the Prince of Tarento, they turned aside to deliberate, whether
they should not profit by the presence of a respectable body of Papal troops,
to take him prisoner. Manfred mistrusted their intentions; but he had no
alternative ; there was as yet 110 open rupture; to betray consciousness of
having offended, by turning oaek, would have been to invite destruction; and he
rode steadily forward. Presently, suspicion became apparent certainty ; the
city gates opened, and, in a mingled mass, equestrians and pedestrians poured
forth. Manfred looked for an overpowering onset, but calmly advanced, prepared
to defend himself to the last extremity; when his alarm was agreeably
dissipated by the sound of music and joyous acclamations. It was the population
of Capua, eagerly hurrying to make proof of new-born loyalty, by their
reception of the son, brother, and uncle of their Kings, their actual Governor
under the Pope.
Thus
supported, the Prince rode up to the Cardinals, to offer the courteous
salutation of a passing traveller, and impart the object of his journey; to
wit, a visit to the Margrave of Ilohenberg. He was as courteously answered, but
with a coldness, indicating that the Princes of the Church meditated using
their momentary superiority of force, to his injury. He left them, intending
to ride swiftly through Capua, and interpose the greatest Digitized by
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possible
distance betwixt his little band and the hostile troops ; but the same display
of loya! attachment that had protected him, interfered with this prudent
design. The (Japuans, desirous, probably, to obliterate the recollection of
their former rebellion against Conrad, and unsuspicious of danger to a Prince
reconciled to the Pope, and for him Governor of Apulia, were bent upon doing
him honour ; and, in case of a renewal of hostilities with the Pope, which
Manfred must now have anticipated, their attachment was too important, to risk
chilling, by apparently avoiding it. With cheerful acceptance, therefore, he
met their ‘ unseasonable liemonstrations. He restrained his horse’s pace to
that of the pedestrian multitude, escorting him with shouts and songs, to his
own Capuan mansion ; and there he remained, gaily exchanging expressions of
goodwill, till he felt that the citizens were satisfied with his cordiality.
Then, pleading pr.blic business, to the success of which a moment’s further
delay might, be fatal, and thanking them for their loyalty to his nephew and
goodwill to himself, he rode oif.
Gladly he
found himself without the city walls, but not yet was the danger past. The
Cardinals, after wasting in deliberation the time during which the Prince was
within their reach, finally ordered out troops to pursue ai;d take him
prisoner. He had not advanced many miles when he was informed that his baggage
was seized and a body of horse in pursuit of him. He sent back a score of bis
men, by skirmishing to delay the pursuers, and steadily, though rapidly,
proceeded. Presently, one of the small detachment overtook him, exclaiming: “
We are all prisoners !’* Unruflled, Manfred replied: “Not all since thou art
free,” and soon afterwards drew his rein ai the foot of a narrow bridge, to
regulate and superintend the passage, lest impatience to get over, should
produce obstruction and delay. He was the last man who crossed. Thus, ere his
pursuers had found an opportunity of attacking him at disadvantage, or made up
their m-nds to engage hand to hand in a fair field, he had entered Acerra.
Acerra was a strong town, belonging to a friendly brother-in-law. Here,
therefore, despite the vicinity of Capua and Naples, he -was for the moment
safe. The Papal cavalry turned back disappointed.
Berthold, who
about the same time reached Arienzo, a neighbouring town, expressed his full
approbation of the Prince’s conduct, and his satisfaction at the fate that Bo-
rello’s insolence had brought upon him. lie declined an interview with Manfred
lest any appearance of friendly intercourse betv.'ixt them should impair his
own fav.our at the Papal Court, and thus lessen his power of serving him in so
ticklish an affair; but promised cordially to support any negotiators Manfred
might send to vindicate his conduct. to Innocent.
These
negotiators were, again his uncle Galvano Lancia, and anothei of his many
brothers-in-law, Filangieri> who hastened to Capua, where the Pope had now
arrived. But far from finding the promised assistant, in the Margrave, they
were led to suspect that the adv'ce he pressed upon the Holy Father was, not to
miss such an opportunity, as this affray and Eorello’s violent death offered,
of freeing the country from the sole instigator of all disturbance, by making
Manfred a prisoner, if he presented himself, or banishing him, if he failed to
appear. The course, which the business took, was calculated to corroborate such
suspicions.^21) Innocent, influenced, perhaps, by Tizio’s
representations, had at first treated the whole affair lightly, saying, if the
Prince were not altogether blameless, r.here was much tc palliate his offence.
But, when Manfred’s envoys, admitted to an auaience, narrated the transaction
as it had occurred, and announced the Prince’s willingness to attend for its
full investigation, provided he received a written, or even a verbal assurance,
that his person should be safe, and the investigation conducted according to
legal form, the Pope coldly replied that the Prince of Tarento should have
justice: refused the requested assurance, and, finally, required Manfred to
appear and plead, not before himself, out before any persons whom he should
appoint to conduct the inquiry ; naming Aversa, as the theatre of this judicial
inquiry.
Lancia was
incensed at the indignity offered to his princely nephew, in the yery
suggestion that he should plead before papal officers; but he was likewise
alarmed. This insulting demand, combined with the refusal of a safe conduct,
with various indications of a hostile disposition,
and the
evident favour enjoyed by Borello’s connexions, convinced both him and
Filangieri, that evil designs were maturing. In person, therefore, the younger
of Manfred’s two deputed kinsmen bore the papal mandate to Acerra, in order to
impress, upon the mind of his brother-in-law, their joint conviction of his
danger, of the necessity for instant removal beyond Innocent’s reach, and the
utmost caution in his movements; since they were assured that a strict watch
was kept upon him. Filangieri added that, the more effectually to lull
suspicion, Lancia would remain at Capua, where he would insure his own safety,
by professing himself a convert to the papal party, in resentment of being
recklessly exposed to danger by his nephew’s flight.(122)
To no light
step was Manfred thus urged by his kinsmen. He saw, that the mere refusal, to
vindicate himself in the manner prescribed, was a virtual disclaimer of the
Pope's authority; but he likewise saw, that net only was the present, probably,
the last moment at which it would be in his power to assert his nephew’s right
to the crown, but, that his own liberty, if not his life, might be forfeited,
if he shrank from the risk. lie was, moreover, confident of finding determined
enemies to Papal sovereignty, in the priestly Apulian Saracens. Thus environed
by perils, he promptly decided upon choosing that, which offered a chance of
triumph, and, even in case of failure, insured a glorious, instead of an
ignominious end.
Manfred’s
first object was, therefore, to surround himself n ith Saracens; and the first
step towards such a position, was to avert suspicion, by apparent, implicit
submission. To effect this, he sent part of his household to Aversa, to make
all preparation for his sojourn there, whilst he secretly despatched a letter
to the Commandant of Luceria, to inquire whether, in that Saracen stronghold,
he might rely upon protection and support. This Commandant was the already
mentioned Giovanni il Moro, the lowest of those humbly born, whom, for
distinguished abilities of various kinds, Frederic II had raised to official
importance. lie was the illegitimate and deformed, but highly talented,
offspring, of a Negro slave girl. Both Manfred and Conrad, like their father,
had employed him,
the late King
making him Commandant of Lueeria, where he had latterly assumed almost
independent authority. II Moro answered Manfred’s inquiries by professions of
unbounded devotion to his benefactor’s son; and within the walls of Luceria, at
whatever hazard, Manfred determined to shelter himself, and proclaim Conradin.
That hazard
was not small, for the road from Acerra thither, if passing near some
possessions of his own and of his partisans, traversed the very heart of tho.se
of the Hohenbergs, "whom he now believed to be his enemies. But, two
brothers of the ever loyal Capece family, who, from their estates lying in that
district, bad, amidst the pleasures of the chase, become intimately acquainted
with its topography, undertook to pilot him safely, through all the dangers of
this part of his journey. Under their guidance, Manfred, mourning with very few
attendants, left Acerra at midnight; and, so romantically perilous was this
decisive step, that, like the important results of the semewh&t minute, but
thronging occurrences of the single month, that had elapsed since the Pope’s
entrance nto Apulia, it may be presumed to excuse an, otherwise disproportionate,
circumstantiality of detai1.
At first,
trusting to the protection of darkness, the little party ventured to keep the
high road, even taking their way along the one narrow street of the small
Ilohenberg town of Marliatio. Their horses’ hoofs disturbing the nocturnal
repose, they heard the awakened inhabitants, asking each other from their
windows, what these belated travellers could be, and whether, notwithstanding
the professed peace, they ought not to arrest them, as, perhaps, the
Margrave’s enemies. But, whilst they, like the Cardinals at Capua, were
deliberating, their proposed captives had left Manliano far behind. They were
already approaching Monforte, a castle bestowed by Conrad upon Berthold’s
brother, Margrave Lewis. The Capece deemed the garrison adversaries not to be
encountered, and, shunning their vicinity, turned aside Into the recesses of
the Apennines. The fugitives now traversed the mountains, by ascents and
descents so abruptly steep, that every man, dismounting, carefully led his
horse, along ' Digitized by
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paths,
sometimes following or crossing the sharp ridge, and sometimes clinging,
half*way up, to the precipitous side ot’ the ravine, so narrow as barely to
afford foothold, whilst oa the one hand, a wall of rock towered above, on the
other, the abyss yawned below. The moonbeams, as they fittull.v broke through
the clouds, seemed rather to enhance the terrors of the difficulties they
revealed, than to show how they might be avoided or overcome. The sounds were
appalling, as the sights. The roar of the waterfalls, the howl'ng of the wind,
pent in the gorges of the mountain, and the cries cf the birds of prey,
startled from sleep by this unwonted intrusion into their scarcely disputed
domains, bewildered the travellers.
But these
were risks which the Capece, from their own experience, averred superable by
care and courage, and Manfred followed them with confidence. They found
themselves in jeopardy cf a different, and more alarming description when, at
daybreak, they reached a second Hohenberg fortress, Mercogliano, which, for
some unexplained reason, it was judged advisable to ride through to the
question, “ Who were they?” put to them at the gate, they boldly answered: “
Margrave Berthold’s men, riding upon his business.” The statement was doubted,
the gate remained shut, and the constituted author.ties of Mercogliano, in
their turn deliberated whether the party should not be detained, until the
truth or falsehood of their account of themselves was ascertained. But to them
the hesitation had been ample warning; and the Capcce led the way, by a path
hardly practicable, along the side of the ditch, and so round the town. Here,
however, man and horse had light, to see and surmount these difficulties ; and
again Manfred was far advanced on his road, before the deliberators had come to
any determination. Again the adventurous band took to the mountains to avoid
Avel- lino. another Hohenberg fortress; but, under the cheerful rays of the
sun, that displayed, with the obstacles half blocking the mountain paths, the
means of extricatiun, they rode gaily through defiles and perils, such as had
depressed them amidst night and darkness. Wearied and exhausted, but delighted
to have achieved thus much of
theii arduous
enterprise, they by noon reached Atripalde, a Capece castle, then jointly
tenanted by the families of the two brothers.
Joyfully the
nobie ladies welcomed their lords and their princely guest, and would fain have
detained them. But Atripalde lay too near the II o hen berg domains, and, after
a few hours of needful rest and refreshment, the adventurous journey was
resumed. Not till he reached Nusco, a fortress belonging to the Conte di
Acerra, did Manfred t’eel any security from pursuit. At Nusco, therefore, he
slept the second night of his perilous expedition, and made inquiry into the
inclinations of the neighbourhood. They proved far from uniform. Some places
professed willingness to rise, at Manfred’s call, in arms for Conradin: but
Melfi, the most powerful of these towns, refused to break the oath of
allegiance, sworn to the l’ope ; and at Guardla, a town of Manfred’s own, his
messengers were informed by the inhabitants, that Cardinal Fiesco threatened
to visit them with the Papal army on the morrow , if they did not that very day
declare for the sule sovereignly of the Church; and they avowed that, though
heartily loyal to their Princc, they were unable to resist, unless he were in
force to protect them. Manfred saw that, when in arms, the vicinity of Nusco
might afford him reinforcements, but was not the place -n which to set up his
nephew’s standard; and he prosecuted his journey.
The direct
road to Luceria was now by Ascoli, and Manfred sent to explore the temper and
condition of this town. The report brought him was that—so devoted was Ascoli
to the Papal cause—upon hearing of his flight from a Papal summons, the
population had tumultuously risen and slain their Governor, a loyal vassal of
Conradin’s The Prince’s emissaries w ere accompanied, at their return, by a
nephew of the murdered Governor, who proposed surprising the town amidst the
disorder, consequent upon the crime just perpetrated there. The proposal was approved
; and the eager young man preceded the little troop now materially increased in
numbers, to ascertain the possibility of reaching the gates undiscovered. But
he quickly came back with the mortifying intelligence, that a
third
Hohenberg, Margrave Otho, had, during this brief interval, appeared with 500
horse at Corneto, near Ascoli, ivhither he was invited by the mutineers.
Manfred could not dream of encountering such a force, and instead of surprising
Ascoli, was again obliged to consult his safety by quitting the direct road to
Luceria, and throwing himself into the mountains.
At Lavello
and Yenosa, he was received as rightful mesne lord and Prince, but, at the
latter place, was met by two very annoying pieces of information. The one, that
MelH having invited or commanded this town to join a confederation in support
of the Pope, Ver.osa, being utterly unable to cope with its potent inviter, had
perforce complied, with reservation of the Prince of Tarento’s rights; a
condition testifying the faithful attachment of the citizens, hut insufficient
to render it a safe resting place for Manfred. The other, that il Moro was gone
to Capua, as he gave out, to promote Manfred’s interests, but, as was
suspected, to ask Luceria and its dependencies for himself as a lief of the
Church ; and had required from Marchisio, whom he had named Lieutenant-Governor
during his absence, an oath not to receive any one, not even the Frince-Regent
in person, into the town, whilst he held the ccmmand. This was embarrassing,
since, in the position in which he found himself, to win Luceria by the sword
was out of the question; whilst only if supported by the Saracens, durst he
hope to break the Papal yoke. Pausing, he sent forward confidential attendants,
to sound the inhabitants of the town, and ascertain thsir sentiments touching
the respective so\ ereignties of Conradin or Innocent. Ilis messengers brought
back urgent entreaties that the Prince-Regeut would hasten to Luceria, where
the faithful Saracens would spare neither blood nor purse, in the cause of
their iatc gracious and beloved Emperor’s son and grandson.
Manfred felt
no hesitation as to complying with this call, hut much as to the mode of so
doing. The question was, should he seek to insure his safe passage between the
novr papal Ascoli and Foggia, where Margrave Otho was stationed, by numbers, or
by eluding observation? All his friends strenuously advised the first course;
but how,
without
ruinous delay, could a troop adequate to cope with Otho’s in the field, be
collected? Manfred saw that this was one of the occasions where seeming
temerity is real prudence. lie adopted the second plan, but kept his resolution
to himself.
With the
utmost care and secrecy he prepared for this, the most hazardous part of his
adventurous attempt Guarding alike against indiscretion and treachery, he
concealed his design from his most trusted friends, with the exception of
three, who*n he had selected as his companions ; and to do this the more
effectually, he issued orders for a movement, in an opposite direction, next
morning. He spent the remainder of the day in business^ and towards evening of
the 'st of November, mounted with the chosen three, as if for a short ride. But
scarcely had they passed the town gates, when they were overtaken bj a small
band of his followers, who would not permit their Prince to venture outside of
the walls unescorted. Their officious zeal baffled the one or the other of
Manfred’s precautions; if he took them with him, his augmented numbers might
attiact the notice he shunned; if he sent them back, he must tell them why, and
thus risk the premature disclosure of his project. This he judged to be the
greater evil of the two; and he accepted their escort, trustirig to his
proposed avoidance of public roads for escaping observation.
As one of his
three companions, he had taken Adenolfo Pardo, the Bead of his father’s hunting
establishment in these parts. Adenolfo, familiarly acquainted with the
mountains, amidst whose ravines and recesses he had so often followed the Imperial
hawks and hounds, had boldly undertaken to conduct him to Luceria by mountain
tracks where no enemy was to be feared. And as long as the faintest twilight
enabled lrm to discern the accustomed landmarks, he led the way steadily and
securely through difficulties similar to those which Manfred had surmounted
under the guidance of the Capec But night closed in, the clouds gathered, and
presently the rain poured down with the violence of southern storma. The
mountain brooks, swelling to torrents, obstructed or actually washed away
their precipitous paths; and the Digitized by Microsoft ®
obscurity
became so intense, that, only bv incessant shouting to each other, could the
entire dispersion of the little company be averted. Adenolfo himself was now bewildered,
and they rode on, in utter uncertainty of their
I direction, upon the correctness of which
everything depended. At length a flash of lightning revealed the distant
glimmer of something white; pronounced by Adenolfo to be one of the late Emperor's
hunting lodges. But which ? Several were scattered through the district, and
one lay near to Foggia. At all risks Adenolfo rode up, when it proved to be
that situated in the direction of St. Agapito, and occupied by a loyal old
forester. They had strayed but little from their proper course, and gladly the
drenched and weary party sought, momentary shelter under a friendly roof,
Long before
dawn, however, they remounted, and, when near Luceria, Manfred dismissed his
unintended escort, bidding them repair to Bibip.no, a town of his ow n not far
distant, whence, if successful, he would presently summon them, where, if
unsuccessful, he would join them. Then, with his three, originally selected
companions, he rode up to the gate of Luceria., which he reached about
daybreak. The gate being of ccurse shut, the Prince of Tarento announced
himself, and aemanded admittance.
The Saracens,
probably. expected him to appear at the head of an army, and the guard at the
gate could, at first, hardly be persuaded that an individual, presenting
himself in such humble guise, was really the son of the Emperor, twice the
Regent, and now the deputed Governor, of the kingdom. But, when Manfred was
recognised by warriors who had fought under his banner, they welcomed him with
joyous shouts, and were about sending to Marchisio for the keys, that they
might admit him. Their eagerness was checked by a more thoughtful veteran, who
observed: “ Marchisio having sw orn net to admit any one, will not give the
keys; the Prince must be in Luceria, before Marchisio knows of his corning; he
must be introduced without keys, and, once amongst us, all difficulty is over.”
This last assertion none disputed; but howwas the Prince to come amongst them
if the gates were not Opened. The prudent as faithful greybeard, pointed to the
mouth of a
drain
immediately without the wall, and implored his Prince, with so great an object
as breaking the yoke of ail usurping, tyrannical priest, in view, not to shrink
from the seeming indignity of passing through the drain, since what really
mattered was, that he should be in Luceria, not how he should enter.
Manfred
would not be baftled in an important enterprise, by any superable obstacle,
however momentarily revolting the means of surmounting it to his pride or his
delicacy. He alighted and approached the designated spot. But the loyal zeal of
the Saracens, whose numbers were every instant increasing, as the news of his
presence spread through the town, blazed out at the sight. With one accord they
cried, “ Never may we suffer cur Prince thus to debase himself! Break down the
gate, and bring him in, as beseems our Emperor’s son 1” So said, so done. The
soldiers, of whom a considerable body had now assembled, burst the gate open,
rushed out, and lifting Manfred on to their shoulders, bore him thus triumphantly
into the. town. Thus triumphantly, they paraded him through the streets, whilst
men, women, and children thronged around, to see. touch, and greet him, till he
was well nigh smothered with pure love. .
The uproar
had by this time awakened Marchisio, and although confounded at the report of
Manfred’s actual presence in Luceiia, whilst the keys of the well-secured gates
were safe in his custody, he armed, mounted, and sallied forth to meet and
expel the intruder. But quickly did he find himself, on the contrary, coerced
into affecting sentiments, in unison with those on all sides so clamour- ously
and so unanimously proclaimed. The tumultuous crowd encircling Manfred, loudly
commanded him to alight, and kneel in homage to thcr beloved Prince- Kegent;
and Marchisio, helpless in their hands, promptly obeyed. (13S)
Manfred was
now installed in the Imperial Palace, from a window of which he forthwith
addressed the people. He related Borello’s rebellious insolence and accidental
end ; he told of the Pope’s usurping pretensions; and announced his own
determination to maintain the indisputable hereditary right of his nephew, as
also his own, together
with the
rights and liberties of the kingdom. And unanimously the Lucerians swore to be
true to him, against the whole v, orld.
By the
timehefelt himself in secure possession cf a strong, well-garrisoned fortress,
he was informed that Margrave Otho, at the head of a body of troops, was before
one of the gates, demanding possession of the town, as Governor for the Pope,
whose sovereignty he called upon the inhabitants to acknowledge. That he was
authorized by II Moso to claim Marchisio’s compliance, is not stated, but seems
likely, as he was only attended by a troop, so utterly inadeauate to
compelling Lueeria to obedience, that he shrank even from the battle, eagerly
offered him without the walls by the Saracens; evading the challenge by a
retreat, so precipitate as to resemble flight.
At Lueeria,
Manfred found, besides a numerous body of warriors, attached as brave, military
stores of all kinds, and a well-filled treasury; the known strength of the
place, and the approved fidelity of the Saracen garrison and inhabitants having
rendered it a favourite repository of the Sovereign’s valuables, money
included. Frederic II and Conrad, as well as II Moro, had there secured theii
exchequers. He was now, therefore, in a condition to offer the German legion
pay, and generally to raise mercenary trcops, in addition to those, whom a
pure spirit of loyalty, or of patriotism , might bring to the standard of
tlieii hereditary King, tlis reputation for daring heroitm had rendered him so
favourite a leader with all martial spirits, —though such favour, as he had
painfully learned, was no substitute for pay —that, as soon as he was known to
have full coffers, his ranks were thronged. Many Germans, even from the legion
then constituting, under the Hohenberg brothers, the strength of the Papal
army, as well as others who were preying as marauders, upon all parties,
hastened to engage in iiis service.
Cardinal
Fiesco’s want of military talent left the Prince of Tarento leisure thus to
prepare for the impending conflict; and Berthold, in his anxiety tc keep well
with both sides, so that, whoever carried the day his immense estates might be
secure, actually facilitated these preparations. Repairing to Foggia, there, as
he thought, to join his
brother, he
found, not Otho resolutely defending it—for he, continuing his retreat, had
evacuated the town—but, the magistrates busied in assessing and levying the
contributions, required by Manfred. The Margrave, betraying neither
disappointment nor surprise, as though this state of affairs had been precisely
what he expected, officiously assisted in completing the operation, and sent
the Prince of Tarento a friendly proffer of his services, as mediator in
negotiating his reconciliation with the Pope. To Manfred a negotiation could
not but be profitable, since, if it failed to produce the object of his desires,
i. e., the recognition of Conradin as King of the Sicilies by Innocent, it must
at least afford himself more time for gathering strength, and he thankfully
accepted the proffer. This delay was the only advantage he derived from it.
The Cardinal
had, like him, been occupied in recruiting his force; the means he employed
being the preaching of a crusade against Manfred, with all crusading
indulgences to those wrho should engage in this misnamed holy war
The measure was, as usual, temporarily successful; and, in the pride of
conscious superiority, he now advanced to Troja ; whence he ordered Margrave
Otho again to occupy and fortify Foggia. He thought thus to shut up Manfred in
Luceria; but the opportunity for so doing, if it ever existed, was past. The
Prince, on the other hand, resolved to engage his enemies separately, and to
begin with the weakest by attacking Foggia, before Otho could have made much
progress in the task of fortification enjoined him.
Upon the 2nd
of December, Otho, unsuspicious of the immediate vicinity of an enemy, led a
considerable body of his men out of the town, fell into an ambuscade, and, thus
surprised, was quickly overpowered and routed. His troops fled in all
directions, he himself taking the road to Canosa. Scarcely had some of the
fugitives brought the news of their disaster to Foggia, when their pursuers
were already storming the unfinished works, on one side, and a detachment,
previously sent round by Manfred for the purpose, doing the same on the other.
Confusion prevented even a thought of resistance; the town was taken, and such
of the. garrison, as did not, v* ith the priests, seek
a refuge in
the castle, were made prisoners. As Manfred had no intention, whilst
anticipating a decisive action with the Cardinal, still far superior to himself
in numbers, of weakening his own army by putting a garrison into Foggia, he did
not attempt the castle; but content to have attained his end, in dispersing one
division of the enemy, returned to Luceria in the evening.
But the
victory over Otho, which Manfred had considered as merely prel.rainarv to Lis
great battle with the Cardinal proved, very unexpectedly, to be itself the
decisive action. When known at Troja, every bosom «as filled with dismay.
Fiesco immediately issued orders for a nocturnal retreat; obeyed as, by half
disciplined troops, like his panic-stricken crusaders, such orders commonly
are. Whoever could procure a horse, saddled or unsaddled, galloped off. Of
those who marched out of the town with some appearance of military form, many
threw away both arms and baggage upon the road, by thus lightening themselves
to expedite their arrival at some place of shelter ; and, long befcrc the
leaders and the more soldierly portion of the Papal army reached their first
appointed halt, the bulk of the forces had disappeared.
At Luccria,
next morning, Manfred was preparing to march forth, for the purpose of risking
a decisive battle with his supposed formidable antagonist, when a deputation
from Troja solicited an audience. Their welcome tidings were, of that
antagonist’s retreat: of the town’s instant declaration, in favour of Copjadin
as King, and himself as Regent; and, further, of the town’s example having been
promptly followed by the Papal Commandant and garrison of the castle. The
garrison cf the castle of Foggia fled upon hearing what had occurred at Troja,
and thus, in one day, both towns were Manfred's.
These
reverses fell like a thunderbolt upon Innocent, even as he was exulting in the
full success of all his projects : and he lacked the firm nerve to support
them, perhaps because he lacked the honesty, of that one amongst his
predecessors, whom in his hard, aggressive ambition, he most resembled, Gregory
VII. A violent illness ensued, which shortly proved fatal; and the few sayings,
recorded of his deathbed, mark this difference bstween
him and that
predecessor, who died boldly asserting the rectitude both of his motives and of
his conduct.(121) Innocent l\r, on the contrary,
betrayed a consciousness of guilt in some measure resembling remorse, saying
with heavy sighs: “ Lord God, for mine unrighteousness hast thou thus smitten
me ! ” And, in a less Christian mood, he is reported to have thus rebuked, the
noisy lamentations of his kindred: “ What are ye clamouring for, wretches that
you are ? Do 1 not leave you all rich r ” He expired at Naples, on the 13th of
December, 1254, the fourth anniversary, t was observed, of the Empercr
Frederic’s death, and in the palace of Pietro delle Vigne; one of his victims,
assuredly, in whatever way, whether by corrupting or by calumniating him, he
wrought his destruction.
Innocent IV’s
patronage of, and proficiency in, learning have been already noticed, and it
may suffice here to observe, that, from his Work, Commentaries upon the Dicketals, he was entitled Monarch of
Lav, Lord of Canonists, a light of spiritual law, and a father and instrument
of truth. But, from the rapacity generated by schemes originating in inordinate
ambition, he tyrannized over the impoverished clcrgy, and carried every abuse
connected with the popedom—many of which he first devised— well nigh to their
culminating point. He is even accused of proposing to an English monastery, to
divide the income of a living in the gift of the Ahbot, leaving the flock
pastorless. In short, notwithstanding his indisputably great abilities, such
was his maladministration of the pontificate, that he alienated half Germany,
and even the Franciscan Salin:bcni quotes, as just, the following epigram,
untranslatable as a play upon words :
Curia Romana
non curat ovem sine lana ;
Mus fit
elephas, fasque nefas, de Simcone Cephas.(125)
One truly
pontifical act of this, generally speaking, very unapostolic Pope is, however,
recorded, and must not be omitted. The conquered Prussians appealed to him, a.d. 12-19, against the oppressive
tyranny of the Marian Knights, who enslaved their proselytes; and with the Digitized
by Microsoft ®
weapons of
the Church he compelled the Order to assure tocsery genuine convert, personal
liberty and possession of his property.
The
Cardinals, stunned by such an accumulation of calamities, would fain have
abandoned all schemes of conquest, and fled to Rome. But Innocent’s Podesta of
Naples, Tavernano, was of a bolder spirit; he closed the gates of the city,
thus compelling them to form a Conclave; and there detained them, in a sort of
honourable captivity, till, on Christmas day, they gave the Church a new Head.
Their choice fell upon C ardinal Rinaldo, of the Segni family; a nephew of
Gregory IX, who took the name of Alexander IV. He is generally represented as a
\ery learned Theologian, of cheerful temper and pleasing manners, but
avaricious, and easily swayed by flatterers. (,26) Alexander IV,
upon assuming his high, as holy office, announced liis intention of carrying out
all his predecessor’s schemes; whilst, in his conduct, he discovered all the
unscrupulous ambition of Innocent IV, although neither his great talents nor
his inflexible resolution.
Whilst the
election was pending, Giovanni i! Wcro reaped the due reward of his disloyalty.
Casually meeting some of his former troops at Acerenza, he was instantly slain
by the indignant Saracens, who set his head up, over one of the town gates, as
a w arning to traitors. (,27) By his death, the strong castles and
ample domains, granted him by the late Emperor and his son Conrad, and
garrisoned by Saracens, fell into Manfred’s hands. And now, city after city
was taken, by the hourly increasing royal prmy, or spontaneously proclaimed
Conradin King, Manfred Regent. Promptly was the Prince of Tarento master of the
central provinces; and, to complete his satisfaction, he was joined by his
uncle Galvano Lancia, who, though his dissimulation had saved him from ill
usage, had been too much distrusted to be able to effect his escape from the
Papal court, until the rejoicings upon Alexander’s election afforded the opportunity.
Manfred now
received overtures from the Cardinals, more pacifically disposed than their
last, or, seemingly, than their present, Head. They sent him, by two of his
brothers-in-‘aw, Acerra and Filangieri, a vague message.
implying
their wish, that he would offer the new Pope congratulations upon his election,
which might open the way; tor negotiation. Manfred, confident in his altered
position, replied, that the only point, requiring negotiation, was the amount
of the snnual tribute to the Homan See, his nephew’s ght to the crown and his
own to the regency, being unquestionable. This answer was deemed throwing down
the gauntlet, and, upon the 2d of February, 1255, Alexander formally summoned
the Prince of Tarento before his tribunal, to vindicate himself touching the
murder of Borello d’Anglone, and his subsequent revolt. Manfred, at
first,refused to vindicate himselfin any way, save writing; but, after some
hesitation, deputed Gervasio di Martino and Goffredo di Cosenza to plead, or
treat, as should seem opportune, in his name. lie refused to suspend
hostilities during this inquiry into his conduct; but, whilst, in com- pfianee
with the Pope’s request, he evacuated the Terra di Lavoro, occupied himself
with reducing the more remote prov inces to obedience.
During all
these transactions, Huffo, now Conte di Catan- zaro, had kept aloof from both
parties, whilst negotiating with both. Innocent had offered him the government
of Sicily, under the Church; but upon terms which lie would not accept, though
neither would he positively reject them. Manfred, upon setting up his standard
at Luceria, had announced the fact to him, as Marshal of Sicily, upon whom he
called to arm for Conradin; and this Ruffo professed eagerness to do. But, to
unprincipled ambition, the crisis was seductively promising: he caballed with
the towns that aspired to republican independence under the nominal sovereignty
of the Pope; and represented their rebellious propensities to Manfred, as
necessitating his presence, and that of his troops, in the island; and he
secretly solicited of Innocent the insular kingdom, in vassalage, whilst
publicly acknowledging as King, the distant boy Conradin, who could exercise no
present control over him, even through a Regent, fully occupied in Apufia.
At the moment
of Innocent’s death, the Conte di Catanzaro seemed to have a chance of success;
but his various complicated intrigues counteracted each otner.
The encouragement
he had given, to the aspirations of the cities, had excited them beyond all
restraining prudence. Palermo declared herself a republic, under Papal
suzerainty; other wealth}' towns followed the tempting example; and RuiFo
trembled for bis own authority, when he learned that., even at Messina, so long
invinc".>ly loyal, an insurrection was in course of organization He
flew thither, invited those designated as the ringleaders to either a. banquet
or a conference,(,28) treacherously imprisoned them, and flattered
h'mself that he was the master. Bui; the whole city rose upon him, forcibly
released his captives, proclaimed itself a republic, and, as a great favour,
permitted him to leave the inland in company with the royal Governor of
Messina, whom they further allowed to carry his family and his personal
property away with him. Sicily was now a nest of unconnected republics; but,
ere long, Palermo and Messina subjected their feebler neighbours to
themselves. Alexander sent a Minorite, Ruffino da Piacenza, thither, as Papal
Vicar, who for the next two years exercised some influence rather than
authority over them.('29)
The Marshal,
thus expelled from his government, passed over tc Calabria, and, as though
failure had but stimulated his ambition, strove, still professing loyalty, to
raise the province against both Pope r.nd Regent. He occupied every place of
which he could possess himself, in the name of Conradin; but turned out
Manfred's ifficers, owning no superior except the infant King. Then, finding
the enterprise beyond his strength, he made overtures to the Pope, for holding
his acquisitions under him. Manfred now felt the danger serious; and, suspending
the operations in which he was engaged against Brindisi and Oria, detached two
of his German officers, brothers, named Conrad and Bernhard Truich, with a body
of troops, against liuffo. Supported by the attach ment of the Calabrians to
both King and Regent, they thoroughly baffled and defeated the rebel, driving
him to seek safety in flight. He got on board a small vessel, repaired to
Naples, and sheltered himself in the Papal Court.
But not yet
was Calabria secured. The Messinest,
proud of
their triumph over Marshal, Governor, and neighbours, as of their new
independence, indulged the ambition and arrogance ordinarily characterizing
republics; they attempted that, in which their banished Marshal had failed, to
wit, the conquest of the province facing them. Calabria, however, proved more
loyal than they had imagined. The victorious brothers Truich routed and expelled
the republican invaders; and, with the single exception of Reggio, Calabria now
acknowledged Conradin and Manfred.
The new Pope,
meanwhile, was far from supine. The negotiation with Manfred’s deputies made no
progress, but that with the Hohenberg brothers, all the more; and he secured
them as his partisans, by not only ratifying, but extravagantly adding to, the
immense grants they had obtained from Conrad, and extorted from Innocent IV. He
was, nevertheless, alarmed by Manfred’s success, into abandoning the scheme of
incorporating the Sicilies with the Estates of the Church ; and sent envoys to
Bavaria, with offers to the mother and uncles of the little heir, of conferring
the Sicilian crow n upon him, when of due age, provided the boy were at once
committed to his sole care, and sent to his court for education. This proposal
seems, but too certainly, to have been a mere device for getting possession of
the royal orphan, as an instrument to be used against Manfred; since,
simultaneously with making this offer, Alexander revived the negotiation with
Henry III,for conferring upon an English Prince that very orphan’s heritage.
Manfred, probably to counteract these various machinations, now requested his
sister-in-law to send or bring him the young King, in order to stimulate the
loyalty of his vassals, by the presence of the monarch, in whose cause they
were required to shed their blood. He pledged himself, if she would trust him
with the boy, to be a father to him; and likewise, whether she complied or
refused, to strain every nerve for the maintenance of his nephew’s birthright.
He at the same time desiied tc have an embassador, from the Queen-mother and
the Dukes of Bavaria, resident with him, and recommended for the office their
kinsman, Margrave Berthold, whom he hoped thus to gain over from the papal to
the royalist side.
Some Guelph
writers have asserted, that Elizabeth and her brothers always suspected Manfred
(of whom they knew little, save that he was the next heir, and had once been an
objccc of jealousy and distrust to Conrad), of designing to usurp his nephew’s
crown. But, however they might doubt his truth, the discovery of the Pope’s
double-dealing, which accidentally or intentionally was revealed to them,
convinced them that, to appear, at least, as placing confidence in the uncle,
was the only chance of the nephew’s preserving his patrimony. Therefore, though
the mother refused to risk her child amidst the convulsions of civil war, they
sent the Prince of Tarento an instrument, dated April 20th, 1255, drawn up in
the name of Conradin, ard signed by, or more likely for, the three-year-old
boy, appointing him Regent of the kingdom during the minority of the King, and
guardian of the royal person, when in the Sicilies; investing him with the
fullest powers of royalty, and ratifying everything he had done, or should
hereafter do.(130)
The Pope’s
negotiations prospered better in England, than in Bavaria. Henry III again
accepted for his son the vassal kingdom of Sicily, upon conditions, of which,
as they never took effect, only one need cumber these pages ; this one was,
that an English army, duly equipped and provided, was to be in the kingdom
before Michael mas, 1256, under pain of excommunication. This treaty enabled
Alexander to obtain the pecuniary supplies, of which he was so sensibly in
want. He renewed Innocent’s command to the clergy to mortgage church lands, if
they could not otherwise raise the sums required of them for Prince Edmund’s
enterprise, under pain of being summoned to Rome, to answer for thdr
delinquency; and in England these commands, backed by the royal authority,
produced a considerable sum. Elsewhere they did not prove as invariably
successful as the Pope had expected Hakoa Hakonson, King of Norway, who had
previously declined Innocent IV’s offer of the Imperial crown, when asked to
iufcrce the demand, quietly observed, that he was bound to fight only the
enemies of the Church, not all whom the Pope might have provoked.(l31)
But, upon the security of the King of England, Alexander could, and
MILITARY
OPERATIONS [1254
0
did, borrow
largely in Italy; and, whilst he recruited his ranks by the preaching of
another crusade against Manfred, he augmented his means cf hiring more,
efficient soldiers, by accepting money, as a full equivalent for the
performance of a crusading vow, in behalf of the Holy Land. Thus provided,
Alexander renewed the war with vigour. One army, under Cardinal Ubaldir.i, he
sent into the Abruzzi, and two i.ito Calabria : the one by land under the
Archpriest of Padua, the other by sea under two chiefs, one of whom, at least,
was a military man, Ruffo being joined in command with the Archbishop of
Cosenza.
If the scheme
of operations were the Marshal’s, he had formed it without reference to the
description of generals (tyros and churchmen), upon whom the execution rested.
The Prince of Tarento no sooner heard of tha Cardinal’s advance through the
Abruzzi into the Capitanato, than, raising the siege of Oria, which he had resumed,
he hastened to oppose his progress. His very decided numerical superiority
could not encourage his eminence singly to encounter his audacious adversary ;
but taking up a strong position, which he further fortified, at Frigento, he
sent the Arch-priest orders to join him Even thus reinforced he dared not stir
from behind his entrenchments : whilst Manfred, who, with far inferior numbers,
could not think of assaulting a well-posted and well-defended camp, took up
another strong position adjacent to Cbaldini’s, whence he watched the invaders.
The Cardinal’s timidity, thus keeping two of the three Papal armies inactive
and interrupting all operations, baffled the whole plan of campaign. In 1 ula-
bria, the double invasion had at first promised to be successful. Throngs of
Crusaders, swelling the ranks, rendered the Papal armies fearfully large,
whilst reports, craftily disseminated by Ruffo—as of a third Papal army, or a
second Papal fleet, with auxiliaries, being on their way—of a body of Manfred’s
troops being defeated—of Manfred himself being besieged in Guardia—had scared
the population from resistance. The Archbishop and the low-born Earl mastered
Cozensa without opposition. But the loss of the preconcerted co-operation, by
the withdrawal of the Arch-priest’s forces, and the decided enrr lty of the
Calabrians—abundantly displayed upon finding the reports
that had
depressed them, false—combined with counterreports, which Manfred’s Commanders
in the province, taking a leaf out of their enemy’s book, disseminated ia their
turn, so disheartened the invaders, that they hastily re-embarked, and, being
refused permission to land at Tropea, returned to Naples.
In the
Capitanata, meanwhile, diplomacy had succeeded to the clash of arms. The
widowed Queen, and her brother, Duke Lewis, had sent an ambassador to treat,
conjointly with the Prince of Tarento, for Conradin’s recognition as
vassal-King, by the Pope; this embassador put himself in communication with the
Cardinal His Eminence, influenced by Berthold, who had joined him, readily
listened to these overtures; when, in order to give the Bavarian time, not
merely to visit the Papal court, but also there to open the negotiation, a
truce was concluded, and confirmed by oath, requiring five days’ notice prior to
the resumption of hostilities. Trusting to this solemn engagement, Manfred
left his camp, to attend to other affairs elsewhere. Alexander IV received the
Envoy courteously, but referred him back to the Cardinal, who had, he said,
full powers to treat for peace, but none to conclude a temporary suspension of
warlike operations; wherefore he rejected the existing truce as invalid. Upon
the strength of this rejection, the Cardinal, without giving the stipulated
notice, or indeed any, whatever, availed him self of Manfred’s absence to seize
Foggia by surprise, and threaten Luceria.
Manfred,
however confounded, was not of a temper to be discouraged by the perfidy of his
priestly adversary. Hastily gathering such forces as he could, upoii the
instant, draw round him, despite the occupation of the passes by Papal troops,
he broke through all opposition, and flew to defend Luceria. Then, as corps
after corps joined him, he was able to besiege the prelate in Foggia, where,
the place not being adequately victualled, symptoms of scarcity soon appeared.
The Margrave, who, simultaneously with the Cardinal’s surprise of Foggia, had
possessed himself of some towns upon the eastern coast of Apulia, soon found
that, without his ecclesiastical coadjutor’s co-operation, he could not hold
his conquests. Evacuating them, he busied himself in preparing to free the
\OL.
iv. 11
warlike
priest; whilst he sent his Lancia wife, Iselda, to negotiate a fallacious
reconciliation with her cousin, the Prince of Tarento. To Manfred, such a
lessening of the number of his enemies, was most desirable; but he soon
discovered, that Berthold’s sole object was again to delude him; and that,
whilst the wife was treating, perhaps honestly, with him, the husband was secretly
collecting provisions; for the relief of Foggia. Manfred silently watched his
movements, and laid an ambush upon the road, by which his convoy must proceed
Bertliold in person led the escort, more numerous than the ambushed troops;
but, in the nocturnal surprise, his men were taken at such disadvantage, that
the escort was completely routed, the convoy, and a great number of prisoners,
the Margrave included, remaining in the victors’ hands.
This disaster
constraining Foggia to capitulate, the Cardinal now dealt frankly with the
Prince and the Bavarian Envoy. As all parties were in earnest, the difficulties
seemed to have vanished. Conradin, alias Conrad II, was acknowledged as King of
Sicily, n vassalage to the Holy See; and it was agreed that the whole kingdom,
with the exception of the Terra S. Laroro, reserved by the Church, should be
restored to Manfred, as liegent for the infant King; Manfred covenanting for
liberty, :f the Pope should not ratify the treaty, to conquer that
province. The Cardinal, in execution of the treaty, withdrew into Terra di
Lavoro.
But
Alexander, at this moment, flattered himself that, through the agency of his
Franciscan Vicar and the Archbishop of Messina, he had woo the Sicilians to
his interest. In the elation of spirit consequent upon this success, he chose
to trust to the promises of one, who had shown himself so unable to fulfil bis
engagements, as Henry III, and rejected the peace, which he had so lately
declared the Cardinal fully empowered to sign. Whethei a couple of domineering
republics, under Papal suzerainty, formed a proper half of the kingdom, he was
pledged to give Prince Edmund, he did not trouble himself to inquire. Nor was
he ever obliged to do so, for Henry, always involved in political and
pecuniary embarrassments, had neither men nor money to send—his term had not
yet ex
pired, but he
remained equally unable to supply them at its close. The short remainder of the
year, 12.35, passed in a virtual suspension of hostilities.
Manfred
devoted this respite, to quieting and regulating the provinces subject to his
authority. In February,
1256, he held at Barletta an assembly of the
Estates of the kingdom, in which rewards were adjudged to the loyal subjects of
Conradin, and condign punishment to the chief rebels. Conte Catanzaro was
outlawed, and the Margraves of Hohenberg, all of whom had been made prisoners,
were sentenced to death. But Manfred desired not the blood of his rivals, still
less of his young Sovereign’s kinsmen, if they could be otherwise rendered
innocuous; and he commuted their doom to life-long imprisonment.
In the
summer, the Regent, invading Terra di Lavoro with increased forces, subdued it
with little difficulty. Capua freely opened her gates to him, and even Naples
deserted the Pope. Alexander withdrew to the Estates of the Church, and
continental Sicily was Conradin’s and Manfred’s. Federigo Lauuia was soon
afterwards as successful in the insular half. He recovered old, and gained new
partisans, induced or obliged one republican town after another to swear
allegiance to Conradin, defeated the Papal army, compelled even Messina to
submit, and took the Papal Vicar, Friar Rutfino, prisoner. Sicily, on both
sides the Faro, was-now Couradin’s. The Pope, indeed, at Easter, 1257, again
excommunicated Manfred, again formally pronounced all his possessions
forfeited. But, if the voice of rebellion were not yet quite silenced throughout
the land, the Regent was substantially master, for his nephew, of the Norman
portion of his heritage, and the church thunderbolt fell harmless.
But now,
those whom the Regent had led to victory, conjointly with whom he had
reconquered the independence of their country, began to utter aioud the
probably long-cherished wish, that the Hero they knew, loved, and revered,
should he their King, rather than a child, unknown to all, and growing up
amongst the contemned and abhorred, tramontane barbarians. This wish daily
gained strength, and in an assembly of the Estates of the realm—comprehending
nobles of all degrees, prelates, and
deputies from
the ehicf cities(13e)—was energetically expressed. The speakers
urged: “ Manfred fa the best beloved son of our great Emperor, the offspring of
lawful, if unequal, wedlock, with a countrywoman of our own, and educated
amongst us. Hence he has an hereditary right to the throne. As a youthful hero
he has rescued the kingdom Irom foreign thraldom and tyranny, raising himself
from the lowest depth of oppression and degradation, to princely power. This
gives him an individual right to the throne. We, the Barons and Prelates of the
kingdom, must not suffer cur country, surrounded by difficulties and dangers,
to be abandoned to uncertain chances, but must now, like our fathers of yore,
place the best man at her head. This is our right of election. Then, by
hereditary right, by the individual right of desert, and by our right of
election, be Manfred our King.”
Manfred is
said to have urged his nephew’s birthright, m opposition to these gratifying
arguments ; but his very doing so would enhance the desire to seat him on the
throne. This desire became immutable determination, upon a rumour, now again in
circulation, of Conradin’s death; and the only ascertained fault, imputable to
Manfred upon the occasion, is, having too lightly given credence to a report,
that authorized his acceding to the general wish.(W) And, in palliation of this
fault, be it recollected, that neither Conrad nor Elizabeth had, by treating
him with the confidence to which, then at least, he was entitled, strengthened
the bonds of duty w:th the tyes of affection. His position was
analogous to his great-uncle, Philip’s; and he might reasonably fear, that the
attempt to reserve the throne for his nephew would enable the Pope to wrest it
from both. Upon the 10th of April, L258, at Palermo, Manfred was, with the
accustomed rites and ceremonies, crowned King of Sicily and Apulia.
WILLIA3I—RICHARD.
State
of Germany— Death of William—Election, of Richard of Cornwall—ef Afonso of
Castile—Bavarian Tragedy—German, Leagues—State of Eastern Empire—of the
Levant— End of Caliphate—State of Lombardy—Papal Measures— E,id of the
llomanos. [12.54—■12fiO.
Again has unwillingness to interrupt, by extraneous
incidents, the continuous narrative of a continuous struggle—in this instance
the Papal struggle to wrest the Sicilies from the orphan heir—left the history
of other lands in arrear. This seemed the less important, because, after the
death of Conrad IV, the connexion of the Holy Roman Empire with the House of
Swabia and its other dominions, if still considerable, is less intimate.
Manfred, reigning in the Norman kingdom, not in virtue of his father’s
testamentary dispositions, but simply as elected King of Sicily, professed to
hold Conradin his proper heir, in preference to any son of his own; but
meanwhile advanced no pretension to the Empire. And Conradin— whose right of
succession, to all the crowns of both his parents, the whole Ghibeline party
deemed unquestionable—being an infant, his champions, his nearest relations
included, postponed all assertion of his right, until he should be of age to
bead the movement. The disorders of Gtrmany must now be brought down to the
epoch of Manfred’s coronation.
At the moment
of Conrad IY’s death, many circumstances in the condition of that country
favoured Innocent IV’s views; and his imperative prohibition to think of a new
election, comprehending his repeated, equally
imperative
command to acknowledge King William, was generally obeyed. Even the Dukes of
Bavaria rejoiced that their nephew’s infancy, by deferring the necessity of
advancing his claims, enabled them, whilst engrossed by their own affairs and
dissensions, to submit, in appearance, to the Pope’s injunctions.
William thus
found himself relieved from the brand of rebel and anti king; but seems to have
gained littie more by his rival’s death. The summons from Innocent, to receive
the Imperial crown in Italy, he perforce neglected, for lie had neither money
for the customarily expensive coronation-progress, ncr power to insure the attendance
of those formidable priuces whose presence, as vassals and electors, w as
indispensable. He remained daring the year 1254, powerless and inactive in
Germany, amongst princes and great vassals, who, having acknowledged him,
either troubled themselves no further about him, or rejoiced in his weakness.
He attempted, indeed, to assume the Emperor, though not crowned such, naming
the Bishop of Spires and the Conte di liomaniola, Imperial Vicars in Italy;
nominally conferring fiefs and privileges upon the Ear! of Savoy; and
denouncing the ban of the Empire against Ezzelino di Komano. South of the Alps
his gifts, dooms, and other acts, were completely ignored.
The following
year, William was wholly occupied with the affairs of his hereditary county,
Holland; where he would fain have compelled the ever republican and somewhat
rude Prieselanders, to receive the feudal system. Stubbornly they resisted, and
ths contest was obstinate. The marshy nature of their country being one of the
defences upon which they relied for security, the King thought to take
advantage of the winter’s frost, crusting over every swamp, to subjugate them,
and planned his invasion accordingly, for the close of 1255. But, the winter
did not fulfil the royal expectations. Upon the 28th of the following January,
hurrying forward, seemingly unattended in advance of his army, he attempted to
ga’lop across a frozen morass; when the ice broke under his charger’s feet.
Horse and rider alike struggled desperately, but vainly, to extricate themselves.
In this most awkward and undignified predicament, William was surprised by the
Frieselanders.
He offered enormous sums for his ransom ; but they, who dreamt not that, in
this enswatnped knight- errant, they beheld the King, or even a great nobleman,
laughed at his offers as idle, and slew him.
A new
election was now unavoidable, and Alexander admonished the princes, to emulate
the despatch with which the Princes of the Church had given Innocent IV a
successor, instead of leaving the empire destitute? of a head. He at the same
time warned the Archbishops, on |jain of excommunication, not to suffer
Conradin to be even mentioned as a candidate for the throne of his ancestors.
A Head really capable of controlling the members, tho Princes, who had now for
years enjoyed virtual independence, were little disposed to give themselves.
Hence the Swabian heir, as a child, was not undesirable; but to attain the
object aimed at, without offending the Pope, would be better. An idea that the
Germanic federation might dispense with a Head was thrown out; but this was
also contrary to the Pope’s commands, as well as to established custom. The
idea was rejected as too bold ; and a weak Head, dependent upon them for
everything, easily controlled, and wholly unable to control them, was deemed a
sutficientlv satisfactory change from the powerful and energetic Swabian
Emperors. But, how to insure such weakness in the selected emperor was the
embarrassment, since the pride of the greater princes revolted from giving to
an inferior, a petty prince, even the name of their master, (134)
They shrank from renewing the mortification they had felt when required to
acknowledge the late antiking, a mere Earl of Holland, as their monarch. The
remedy that occurred was, to select as emperor a foreign prince, whose other
affairs must so distract his attention, as to leave Germany in fact without a
sovereign.
Whilst these
ditficultiei were under discussion, a new and most disgraceful measure was
suggested; this was, in lieu of chaffering with the candidate for the crown,
for privileges and prerogatives, to trust, in regard to these, to future
opportunities of usurpation, and fairly to sell the empire to the best bidder,
among suitable candidates; each elector putting his own price on his vote. This
base idea is believed to have originated with Gerhard von Eberstein,
Archbishop of
Mainz; who, having been taken prisoner in an linustifiable attack upon the Duke
of Brunswick, had not in his exhausted coffers wherewith to ransom himself.
13ut he, a helpless captive, could only suggest, it was Conrad von Hochstetten,
or Ilochstaben, Archbishop of Cologne, who carried out his suggestion. It is
sad to lay unchristian ambition and shameless rapacity to the charge of the
last-named prelate, who, in his enlightened patronage of the arts vied with
Frede ric II; and who, if he did not actually design the splendid, still
unfinished, Cathedral of Cologne, understanding, approving, and accepting, the
plan of an abler architect, had, a.d. 1248,
in the presence of the anti-king, William, laid the first stone. But he it
likewise was, who, after placing the Earl of Holland, as his intended puppet on
the throne, made anarchy permanent, by selling the empire to a foreigner. He
represented to his brother-electors that all the requisites were found united
in Richard, Earl of Cornwall, who had immense wealth, w ith which to purchase
their suffrages; together with valour and talent, sufficient to justify thoir
choice; whilst, Ix'ing without domains or vassals in Germany, he could not
attempt to coerce any prince, unless by the help of the others; who would,
moreover, be much required to England, by his extensive estates there, thus
leaving the German magnates completely their own masters: and who must surely
be acceptable to the Pope, both as a Crusader, and as uncle to the Prince he
had selected for King of Sicily; to the Guelphs, as a relation of the Duke of
Brunswick; ■whilst, to the Ghibeliies, as a brother-in- law and friend of
the late Emperor, he could not be unacceptable.
The scheme
was cordially approved, and Archbishop Conrad despatched a confidential person
to England, commissioned to propose the purchase of the empire to the Earl of
Cornwall. The Earl judged this a more reasonable project than Innocent IV’s
offer, of a kingdom to be conquered ; a kiugdom too, which he had seen thriving
and happy under . e lawful rulers, whilst Germany, oppressed amidst anarchy,
offered a field in which much good might be done.(135) The prelate’s
messenger was, therefore, accompanied, on his return home, by an envoy Digitized
by Microsoft ®
of the
Earl’s, authorized to treat with the several princes for their votes. Bargains
were concluded, with the Archbishop of Cologne for 12,000 marks, with the
Archbishop of Mainz for 8000, of which the Duke of Brunswick was to receive
-5000, as the prelate’s ransom; and for the same sum cf 8000 marks with the
Archbishop of Treves, the King of Bohemia, the Dukes of Saxony and Bavs?ria,(136)
and the Ma.’graves of Brandenburg; the Dukes of Bavaria obtaining, in addition,
a promise of the investiture of the duchy of Swabia, for their nephew Conradin.
And here it is to be observed, that, in this dishonourable transaction, are,
fcr the first time, found distinctly specified as Electors, those seven princes
to whom the Golden Bull afterwards permanently assigned the title and high
otfice; to wit, the three Archbishops of Mainz, Treves, and Cologne, the
Palsgrave of the Rhine—really, although the Prince who held that dignity
appears under the older title of his own family—the Duke of Saxony, the
Margrave of Brandenburg, and the King of Bohemia. And, as if to mark a change,
they are stated to have consulted with the other princes, a somewhat ironical
compliment after selling their votes. It is further to be observed, that the
admissibility of the Duke of Bavaria’s claim to two votes, one for the Rhine
palatinate and one for the duchy, was, seemingly, left undecided; as
immaterial, perhaps, so long as the duchy and the palatinate were held by one and
the same individual. The Electoral Diet, in which the Electors were to earn the
money promised them, was convoked to meet at Frankfort, in January, 1267
But even the
large sums promised by Earl Richard had not secured unanimity in his cause.
Arnold von Isen- berg, Archbishop of Treves, was jealous of the leading part,
taken by the Archbishop of Cologne, in the business : and not less so, of his
having obtained for his own voice, half as much more as his co-electors were to
receive. Arnold ofTreves, accordingly declared himself unsatisfied touching the
Earl of Cornwall’s fitness for a station so exalted as Head of the Holy Roman
Empire, recommending in his stead Alfonso X, King of Castile; and that upon
divers grounds. By his mother, Beatrice, the youngest daughter of the murdered
King Philip, Alfonso
11 $
descended
from the Swabian dynasty of Emperors; he bore the honourable surname of the
Wise—the Learned., rather, then,however, deemed nearly synonymous;—and he would
much more certainly be detained in Spain by the affairs of his hereditary
kingdom, than Richard in England by pecuniary concerns and his brother’s civil
wars.
This opposing
prelate was the tirst of the Electors te reach Frankfort, where the Duke of
Saxony, bearing the conjoint proxy of his cousins, the brother Margraves of
Brandenburg, and an embassador from the King of Bohemia, successively joined
him. By holding out the prospect of larger bribes, he speedily prevailed upon
the new comers to adopt his views; and when the Archbishop of Cologne and Duke
Lewis of Bavaria shortly afterwards presented themselves, they came attended by
trains so considerable, that he as easily persuaded the Frankfort magistracy to
believe their admission, en masse, fraught with perii to the liberties of the
Free Imperial City. The offended Princes refused to separate from their
escorts; and some far from satisfactory communications took place between the
colleagues within, and those without the walls.
The latter
party first proceeded to action; and upon Franconian soil, though not in
Frankfort, they went through the forms of election. Upon the 13th of January,
1257, the Archbishop of Cologne and the
Rhine-Palsgrave- Duke of Bavaria, in their own names and in that of the still
captive Archbishop of Mainz, proclaimed Richard Earl of Cornwall, duly elected
King of Germany and of the Romans. But Archbishop Arnold did not therefore hold
himself beaten. To every elector who voted for Philip’s grandson, the King of
Castile, he, in the name of this royal candidate, promised 20,000 marks; and
the larger sum was, by these trafficking princes, naturally preferred to the
smaller. After many weeks consumed in negotiation, he, nearly three months
subsequent to the election of Richard, upon the 1st of April, conjointly with
the Duke of Saxony, the embassador of the King of Bohemia, and the Margraves of
Brandenburg by proxy, in the regular locality at Frankfort, elected Alfonso X
of Castile, King of Germany and of the Romans.(I37)
Whilst the
Archbishop of Treves was still negotiating,
his Cologne
rival had acted. Passing over into England with several princes and prelates
of'his party, he had done homage to Richard, and received handsome presents
from him, together with a promise that he would hasten to Germany; as well for
his coronation, as to fulfil the engagements made in his name. A deputation
from the opposite party repaired something later to Castile, to inform
iAlfonso X of his election, and concert their future measures with him. But
still the Cologner had the start of his antagonists. Whilst they were
consulting in Castile, Richard presented himself in Germany, bringing with him
twenty-two, or twenty-eight tons of hard cash,(13S) the contents of
which many of his Castilian rival’s partisans, amongst others King Wenceslas,
found irresistible. At Achen, upon the 13th of May, Richard was, with all the
rites and ceremonies, crowned by tho two Archbishops most connected with the
solemnity, namely, those of Mainz—Gerard being now ransomed—and of Cologne.
Alfonso,
meanwhile, accepted the offered crown upon the Archbishop’s terms. He confirmed
Ihe promises made in his name, assumed the title of Emperor, and exercised—
nominally at least—some rights of Imperial sovereignty, such as conferring
lapsed or forfeited fiefs upon his partisans. But, as he never, formally or
informally, was crowned, and never even visited Germany, he is not reckoned
amongst her emperors or kings. His grants were of no avail at the time; and no
attention was paid, either then, or subsequently, to any of his acts as
Emperor. Richard, on the contrary, was crowned King of Germany and of the
Romans; and, how small soever his power, all his acts— including his
renunciation, at a Nuremberg Diet, of the right, already greatly restricted by
Erederic II, of interference in the marriage of heiresses—were recognised as
law by his successors. Both Princes sent envoys to the Papal Court, where they
strove hard to obtain the decision of the Church in favour of their respective
masters. But alike in vain ! Alexander would not risk offending either party,
by sanctioning the pretensions of the other; and was delighted to see the
German monarch incapacitated for interference with his schemes. lie professed
himself insufficiently informed as to the merits of the case, and
deferred his
decision to a future aay, distant enough to allow time for investigation.
The Pope’s
procrastination, combined with the selection of foreign monarchs, helped the
double election to answer every object of the German Princes, and of the Roman
See. Alfonso was an absolute nullity in Germany; the chief, if not the only
results of his election were filling the purses of his partisans, and w
eakening his rival. Richard, if not quite as satisfactorily nugatory, found his
authority so impaired and hampered by the existence of a rival, to w hom many
adhered, and was so incessantly recalled, by his own or his brother’s affairs,
to England, tnat his determination to be really a king when present, did not
counterbalance his tons of coin. But, whilst several of Alfonso’s original
partisans gradually came over to him, Richard alienated the Dukes of Bavaria,
by breaking his promise to invest Conradin with Swabia, and, like his
predecessor William, claiming the duchy as a lapsed fief, through Conrad’s not
having done homage for it, to that insurgent against his father. Upon this
question, he, however, secured the Swabian great vassals to his side, by
ratifying all William's grants to them ; and only a few, holding ducal
household offices, remained faithful to the son and heir of their Dukes. Most
of the considerable Swabian towns were, by this time, Free Imperial Cities.
But, if
alienated from Richard, Bavaria was rather neutral than hostile. The power of
the duchy, and the interest taken by Duke Lewis in his nephew’s cause, appear
to have been not a little, the one diminished, the other chilled, by the
consequences of the horrible tragedy, of which the Bavarian court had recently
been the theatre. Duke Lewis had, a.d. 1254,
married Mary of Brabant, granddaughter, or great granddaughter to King Philip;
a princess unanimously described as a model, not less of feminine virtue than
of courtly propriety, and devotedly attached to her husband. The Duke’s
Wildgraf or Raugraf—feudal titles for the Head of the hunting establishment—Graf
Conrad von Kirchberg,(139) being received into the society of the
Duchcss, and in the habit of playing at chess with her, one day ventured to
solicit, as a mark of her favour, that she would address him in the familiar
style of the
second person singular, instead of the second or third person plural; or, Sir
Toby like, to “thou him ;” in German, dutzeu, in French, tutoyer. Mediaeval
social habits are too imperfectly known, to afford an accurate estimate of the
degree of presumption there might be in this request; but that none, amounting
to real impropriety, could be addressed to a Princess of unblemished fame, in
presence of her whole court, is self evident. Hence, the probable conjecture
is, that such was the style in which Princesses spoke to the great officers of
their own household, as did ladies to their domestics, which would make the
YVildgraPs petition, a prayer to be treated as if attached to her especial
service; or if it were for more, to be marked as her accepted knight, in all
honour and virtue. But, whatever the import, the Duchess appears to have deemed
it presumptuous; for she made no answer, and continued to say “you” as before.
Soou
afterwards, Duke Lewis took the field in a feud against the city of Augsburg,
attended as usual by Kirch- berg, and exposed himself so recklessly, that the
Duchess, informed of his temerity, wrote to implore hirn to be more careful of
a life in which hers was wrapt up. She learned that her entreaties were
disregarded; and, when addressing a second letter to him upon the same subject,
she, in her conjugal anxiety, wrote another to Graf Conrad, ill which she
briefly said, that, if he could prevail upon her consort to end the feud, and
return home, she would grant his boon. Her messenger being unable to read, she
sealed the two letters w .rh wax of different colours, and explained to him
whi< h was for the Duke, which for the Earl. Unluckily, the man’s memory
was inadequate to supply the place of reading, and he delivered the wrong
letter to the Duke.
The
unexplained promise awakened in the husband the most insane jealousy. Having
slain the blundering messenger on the spot, he galloped off to Donauwerth,
where, with nis widowed sister, the Empress or Queen Elizabeth, his Duchess
held her court. In the evening of the 18th of January, 1256, he rushed into the
castle,loudly accusing his wife of adultery. The Seneschal, who respectfully
met him as he entered, he ran through the body with his
sword, as a
negligent guardian of princely honour. One of the Durhess’s Maids of Honour met
him on the stairs, and was stabbed to the heart as a pandar to the guilt of her
mistress. Four other ladies of her court he flung from the battlements, with
the same vituperative exclamation. He bade a servant fetch the Duchess down to
the castle yard, and there strike off her head. His imperial sister fell at
his feet, imploring jdstice for liis wife, demanding an investigation into her
conduct, for the purity of which she pledged herself. In vain! Ele was deaf
with rage, and Marj of Brabant’s head fell. Then, his thirst of vengeance
slaked, the Duke cooled sufficiently to explain his enfrenzied jealousy, and
listen to the explanations poured upon him. His remorse Mas now as violent as
his jealousy had been. It is said, that Duke Lewis, then barely twenty-seven
years old, came forth next morrJ.ng with the white hair of old age. As an
expiatory penance, he built and endowed the cloister of Fiirstenberg; but that
his penitence was not of the kind which chastens and softens the character,
teaching the necessity of self-control, is apparent from much of his subsequent
conduct. One instance of this may bo given from his war with Ottocar of
Bohemia, when he burnt a Jroup of fugitive. Bohemians, in the building where
they had sought shelter. He seems never to have rega ued the love and
confidence of his vassals, which his inhumanly precipitate and groundless
vengeance, had forfeited. To complete the tragedy, the fate of Kircliberg must,
by anticipation, be here added. Having fortunately escaped the first burst of
the Duke’s fury, he everywhere zealously proclaimed the innocence of the
Duchess, and also of his own suit. Nevertheless, long years afterwards, Maiy’s
son, Duke Rudolph, who appears to have inherited his father’s violence, slew
this champion of his mother, as the cause, however unintentionally, of her
death.
The Rhine
League continued to flourish, increasing in numbers and reputation throughout
this period. 1-ing William had, indeed, declined the invitation to become its
head, more specifically than he already was, as King; hut professed much
approbation of such a protective federation, to which he showed all favour.
Before William’s
death, the
League comprised seventy clt>es, mostly on the Rhine, Maine, Necker, and
Danube; but even the remoter Nuremberg was one. And so useful did the League
prove, in repressing the marauding habits of Robber-k nights and petty nobles,
that the Archbishops of Mainz, Treves, and Cologne, the Rhine-Palsgrave, and
the Landgravine of Hesse, avowed themselves its protectors; many prelates and
nobles, ranking next to these princes in dignity, became members; and Graf von
Waldeek accepted the headship declined by the King. Trie Rhine League was now
a more completely organized body than the Lombard League had ever been; with
quarterly meetings of deputies, in a sort of Rhine-League Diet, held
successively at Cologne, Mainz, Worms, and Strasburg, for the regulation of
federal proceedings. Upon William’s death, the League exhorted the Princes not
to distract the Empire by a double election; and when Richard was elected, at
once acknowledging, strenuously supported him; naturally they opposed the
subsequent election of the King of Castile.
That this
League acted most beneficially at the time, protecting trade, and even
agriculture, by repressing the Robber-knights, there can be no question; in an
historical point of view, however, it might be more memorable, if ir really
had given birth, in addition to its undoubted offspring of less note than
itself, to the far more widely and permanently important Hanse League. But the
parentage of this last seems to be traced with more certainty to an association
of merchants of northern Germany, who, under the designation of Communes Mercatores,(140)
had a factory in Gothland ; and, Brunswick being a sort of emporium upon one
line of traffic, between Venice and the German Ocean or the Baltic, her princes
took an especial interest in this Gothland factory. And accordingly Henry the
Lion had always favoured the Communes Mercatores, ind granted them large
privileges in his duchies, besides interfering in a quarrel, and compelling
their island hosts to do them justice. The Hanse itself was, at the period
under consideration, still in its infancy, although as early as the year 1210,
incipient, in the.intimate alliance then formed by Lubeck and Hamburgh, for the
protection of the trade of their respective citizens This alliance
became vet
more intimate, during the Danish civil wars betwixt Err and Abel, when, a.d. 1241, each city undertook the
protection of the other’s subjects; and at the epoch of the double election in
Germany, a few towns upon the Baltic had sought admission into this League, as
had a few more in Flanders, where the politic as haughty Margaret, favoured
such federations for mutual protection. In ' 252, at the petition of two
deputies, a Lubecker and a Ham- burgher, she granted the juvenile Hanse
considerable privileges, such as exemptions from tolls, &c., in her
states.
The Westphalian
League seems to have been in alliance with the Hanse; whilst the Slavonian, or,
more properly the Vend towns, had ar. independent League of their own, of
which, likewise; Lubeck was a member But, however efficient for
self-preservation, such leagues were of no avail to counteract the general
anarchy. Unlike Gregory VII7 who wished to hold a powerful emperor
in subjection to the Papacy, Alexander IV, seemingly, exulted in the impotence
to which the Popes had reduced their spiritual children, albeit that impotence
had not produced obedience to the pontifical authority ; papal legates
appearing, amidst the continuous disorders ensuing upon the double election of
absent kings, to have been ill-used by the princes upon the slightest cause of
offence.
Baldwin was
still struggling, almost hopelessly, to defend his Constantinopolitan empire
against Vatazes. For the moment, indeed, the dissensions of the latter with the
other Greek princes, and with the dreaded enemy of Latin and Greek alike, the
King of Bulgaria, enabled him to preserve his crown; but it tottered upon his
head.
The Mongols
were tyrannizing over Russia, and harassing Poland with incursions ; but they
no longer threatened as far west as Germany. Their conquests were now confined
to Asia, where Haithon, King of Lesser Armenia, upon the strange, though then
prevalent, idea, that every enemy to the Mohammedans must needs be a friend to
the Christians, if not half a proselyte, had visited the Grand Khan, Mangu,
Genghis Johan’s grandson, to invite his co-operation against the Moslem
neighbours of Armenia. Mangu accepted the proffered alliance,, and, in 1256,
sent his brother Hulaku westward, who.
ravaging and
devastating as he advanced, in 1258 destroyed the chief seat of the Ismaelites
(otherwise the Assassins) in Irak, and presented himself before Bagdad. Why he
chose to employ treachery against a city, of which he had but to walk in and
take possession,—the Commander of the Faithful, who once ruled half the then
known world, having then hardly troops enough to man, without attempting to
defend, the walls of his one, solitary city,—is not explained; but he might be
actuated by a barbarian’s pride in superior craft. The idolater Hulaku thought
proper to profess great reverence for the Caliph Moastasam, to whom he
proffered friendship, and the hand of a daughter of his own, for the Caliph’s
son and successor. Moastasam, too happy so easily to escape dangers against
which he knew himself unable to contend, gladly assented to the proposal; and v
hen Hulaku, thereupon, invited him to the Mongol camp, pledging his word for
his safety there, the Caliph, willingly or not, hastened thither, attended by
his emirs and other chief officers. The Khan received him with ail the respectful
friendliness that could be desired, and after awhile requested him to order the
population of Bagdad to display the boasted immensity of their numbers, by
appearing without the city gates, and, to avert the possibility of an
accidental collision, by appearing unarmed. The Commander of the Faithful might
think the request idle, but, in the Mongol camp, he was not to refuse
compliance with the Khan’s idlest fancies; the order was issued and obeyed. And
then —Hulaku’s promise had been carefully worded : the Mongols fell upon the
defenceless people, massacring, to the amount, it is said, of 100,000. The town
was sacked during six weeks, and treasures of Oriental art and Oriental
learning were recklessly, unconsciously destroyed by the ignorant barbarians. Hulaku
still kept the “word of promise to the ear,” wofully “breaking it to the sense.1’
The Caliph, though imprisoned, was mocked with a show of profound respect; his
table served with numerous dishes, but they contained only gold, and Moastasam,
the fifty- seventh and last Caliph, was literally starved to death.(Hi) In
Egypt, the Mamelukes were undisputed masters. There Chajahreldor, having, in a
fit of conjugal jealousy,
murilered her
husband, Asscddin, Bibars took the opportunity to get rid of her. lie punished
her crime with death, and raised Kotuz, a young son of Turanshah’s, to the
Sultanship. In his name, Bibars was now extending Mameluke domination
northward, as if to meet the Mongols 11: Palestine, where the constant broils
and feuds of the Venetians and the Genoese greatly enhanced the difficulties
of the depressed and scarcely struggling Syro- Franks.
To return to
Europe, and that part of the Holy Roman Empire, with which Manfred was more
connected than with Germany, viz., those provinces of Italy, which did not
acknowledge his authority. Milan, beginning to' tire of the unceasing struggles
for supremacy of her nobles and plebeians; or rather of the unceasing
alternations of government from one faction to the other; in the year 125G,
resorted to the former compromise, of each party naming a Podesta,
contlictingly rather than conjointly, to rule the republic: for their incessant
attacks upon each other must have been anticipated. In V-257, upon a nobleman’s
murdering a troublesome creditor, seemingly no uncommon mode of settling
debts, (142j both parties flew to arms; when the plebeians, led by
Martino della Torre, and, so far, with justice on their side, triumphed: but
then the Podesta of the nobles w*as put to death, and the nobles, with the Archbishop
at their head, were expelled. The city being now weary of warring Podestas, it
was proposed to reconcile the adverse factions by Martino s marrjinga sister of
Paolo di Soresina, the leader of the nobles, and the division of all posts of
authority betwixt the respective partisans of the brothers-in-law. Alexander IV
earnestly recommended this scheme, with cordial reconciliation. The first steps
were taken, but no cordial reconciliation followed. A Pope had little real
'-lfluence in Milan; Torre and his democratic faction could no longer brook the
equality they had once demanded; and in a very few months, the nobles, with the
brother-in-law of the triumphant rival leader at their head, were again
expelled. Martino della Torre remained absolute master of Milan, though bearing
no higher title than Signore and Capitano del Popolo. The dexterity with which
he rendered his despotism more
than
endurable, even agreeable to the people, may be inferred from his mode of
driving an obnoxious greedy legate out of Milan; and an anecdote, so
illustrat've of the times, although something premature, may be here admitted.
In 1262, ;he Legate in question importuned the Chapter of Milan to give, or
sell him cheap, a valuable jewel, the property of the Cathedral. The Chapter
complained to Martino; he assembled the people, made thr Chapter’s complaint
known, and led them to the Legate’s door. Oncc there, he offered him neither
violence nor even remonstrance, but respectfully informed his Reverence, such
was the veneration the Milanese felt for him, that, since he was determined or
obliged to leave them, which all deeply deplored, they would not suffer h' n to
e’epart, save escorted by the whole population. The Legate admired whilst
detesting the politic device, making resistance impossible, and. so escorted,
sorely against his will departed.
The other
cities, both Lombard and Tuscan, were mostly engaged in their wonted feuds,
prosecuted with the wonted virulence, and the wonted cruelty towards prisoners
of war. The complete suspension of the Imperial authority was most welcome to
all, and so was the double election in Germany. Richard or Alfonso was acknowledged,
as interest or caprice dictated ; but neither was obeyed. Even the Ghibelines,
apparently, delighted in an emperor, whose impotence enabled them to combine
professed loyalty with virtual independence. Venice and Genoa were eugaged, a.d. 1258, not in their old habitual
broils, but in the first of their many regular wars of commercial rivalry ;(Ii3)
which, from the real power possessed by these republican cities, had less the
character of civil war, than the feuds of the smaller towns. The Lombard League
was virtually dissolved, since there was no Emperor to dread ; and the most
habitual of its noble members, the Marchese d’Este, at once acknowledging
Manfred as King of Sicily, made considerable, though fruitless efforts, to
accomplish his reconciliation with the Pope. Palavicino lost his imperial
viearship by Conrad’s death, but was still one of the chief Lombard nobles, and
sti! professed himself a Ghibeline, although, whether influenced by his Guelph
connexion,
Conte GuidoGuerra,or from some clashing of his ambition with Ezzelino’s, his
friendship with the house of Romano was broken, and he had allied himself,
instead, with Martino della Torre.
Ezzelino’s
faults were still, it is said, increasing, and, what was politically worse, he
was becoming responsible for those of others, of which, personally, he was
guiltless. He had placed his nephews as Podestas, in several subject towns, and
they, as such favoured holders of delegated power too often will, indulged
their passions and caprices, unrestrained by that sense of accountableiiess to
God, if not to man, rarely quite unfe’t by actual rulers. These nephews
caricatured his worst qualities, being destitute of the good., as of the great,
that still adorned, at least, his cruelty; one of them, Ansedisio di Guidotti,
superadding cowardice and treachery. The vengeful plots which this tyranny
produced may be imagined; their consequence was, that every incautious word,
which legions of spies were on the alert to catch, perhaps to provoke, was punished
with death, occasionally en hanced byprevious torture, by the horrid manner of
infliction—burning or fastening to a horse—then very general, or subsequent
mangling of the senseless corse. And now the once admirable Ezzelino, if he
knew what these nephews’ government was, did, indeed, merit his surname. lie
had been excommunicated by Innocent IV, as an adherent of Conrad’s, and a protector
of heretics; he retaliated, and envenomed the hatred which the Pope bore him,
by plundering church property and persecuting ecclesiastics.
After
Conrad’s death, Alberico di Romano, professing unbounded devotion to the
Church, severed himself from his excommunicated brother, and made his
submission to the Pope; whereupon he was not only relieved from excommunication,
but recompensed with a grant from King William of all the Romano dominions. But
neither could he take, nor could Pope and King together give him, possession
of his grant. Innocent negotiated an alliance between the Lombard League and
the Marquess of Este, against the redoubted Ezzelino; and this proved equally
impotent. The only result of all these measures was, that whilst one brother
menaced the Pope and the Guelphs
with
destruction, the other persecuted the Ghibelines, emulating his ferocity;
whilst a shrewd suspicion was entertained, that the fraternal quarrel was a
mere strptagem, to dupe, and thereby detect, secret enemies.
in 1258,
Ezzelino besieged Mantua; when the prospect of such an addition to his already
formidable power alarming liis politic neighbours, the Venetians, a hope of
their co-operation dawned upon his enemies. The spirits and courage of
Alexander IV, depressed by his discomfiture in Sicily and Apulia, revived, and
he . roceeded to action against this less potent adversary. He ordered a
crusade to be preached against the Signor di Jlomano, ar.d gave the command of
the forces t-ius raised, comprising, as usual in papal hosts, the most ruthless
banditti, to the Archbishop of Ravenna, assisted by the once potent, but long
forgotten, and now utterly uninfluential, Fra Giovanni. They laid siege to
Padua, of which Ansedisio was Podesta; and Ezzelino being still occupied with
the siege of Mantua, which he hoped to take before the crusaders could even
attempt any important operation, the chief command remained w ith him.
Ansedisio represented to the Paduans, that the crusading army was a mere rabble
of banditti in search of plunder, led by priests better versed in saying mass
than in conducting a campaign or controlling troops; and the Paduans, cordially
as they hated their Podesta, defended the town stoutly. But, presently, the
casual burning of one of the city gates dispiriting them, a principal citizen
proposed to capitulate. Ansedisio stabbed hi'n; but the deed was the impulse of
passion, not the deliberate act of reckless determination; for having committed
the crime, he fled, deserting alike the post intrusted to him by his uncle, and
the interests of his family. Padua surrendered, and found that Ansedisio,
whatever bis faults, had spoken but too truly. The Archbishop was powerless,
and Fra Giovanni still more so, to prevent or check the sacking of the city,
which lasted through a whole week, reducing some of the wealthiest inhabitants
to beggary. But, if one of the most enthusiastic amongst modern votaries of
mediaeval liberty (1M) is to be implicitly trusted, the hundreds
upon hundreds of sufferers from the tyranny of either uncle or nsphew, whom the
Crusaders’
victory
released from prison, amply compensated the impoverished, hut disinterestedly
Guelph Paduans for all their sufferings.
When Ezzelino
learned the danger of Padua, he instantly- raised the siege of Mantua, and
hastened to the relief of perhaps the most important of his own cities. Upon
his /oad its loss was publicly announced to him, by a messenger, whom, to
obviate the disheartening influence of such disastrous tidings upon his
troops, he ordered to be instantly executed as a liar. The terrible lesson
effectually taught subsequent bearers of evil tidings, to reserve their communications
for a private audience. lie non’ proposed to recover the city, he had been too
late to save; and, upon the 30th of August, attempted to carry Padua by storm.
But the citizens dreaded his vengeance for their dastardly surrender, and
hatred fired the released prisoners to the most desperate resistance. More to
this hatred and to those terrors, than to the courage or prowess of the
Crusaders, was the success of Padua in ultimately bathing the efforts of her
assailants, probably due. Ezzelino reluctantly raised the siege, relieving his
mortification by the execution or mutilation of the Paduans m his army, whom,
upon the firs! intelligence of the city’s surrender, he had imprisoned, to the
amount, according to Guelph writers, of 11,000. An incredible number to suffer
themselves to be thus treated! But he is said, by dividing them into classes,
to have induced the dastardly majority always, in the hope of thus atoning for
their own offences, to sacriiice the single clas& demanded.(145)
And these were the men, whom the enthusiastic historian of the Italian
Republics, and his school, esteem worthy, esteem capablc, of republican
liberty! Ansedisio’s cowardly desertion of his post, his uncle punished with
death.
This double
triumph, the capture, and subsequent successful defence of Padua, inflated the
arrogance of the Guelphs, and convinced the Ghibeline leaders, that all private
resentment against Ezzelino must be sacrificed, to avert the common peril.
Palavicino and Iiuoso da Doara renewed their interrupted, friendly relations
with him; and Alberico, alarmed by the dangers threatening the House of Romano,
forsook his Guelph patrons, from w hum Diaitized by Microsoft ®
he had
derived little advantage, returning to his fraternal allegiance, and share of
despotic power. The reinforcements brought Ezzehno, by these recovered allies,
did not join in time to save Brescia; but with the capture of this town ended
the success of the Crusade. The Archbishop, elated with his triutnjjhs, which
he ascribed wholly to his own military talent, now fancied himself more than a
match for Ezzelino in generalship; therefore, when the Ghibeline army appeared
before Brescia, despite the diminution of his own force bv the desertion of
Crusaders, hurrying home to secure their booty, despite the warnings of' more
experienced warriors, leaving the shelter of the city walls, he, upon the 1 st
of September, marched forth to give battle He was defeated, as might be
expected, and taken prisoner, and a prisoner he remained to the end of his
days, the allies refusing—why, it were hard to say— to accept ransom for him.
They are reported to have generally treated him with courtesy, though net
always able to refrain from taunting him with his military genius, with the
discipline of his army, and with the frightful sack of Padua.
In Tuscany,
the determinedly Guelph Florence appeared irresistibly predominant. In 125G,
she had forced Pisa, so long her superior, rather than rival, to make peace
nearly upon her own terms, giving the use of her seaports to Florentine
commerce, for the importation and exportation of merchandize, duty free; and
only by a series of stratagems could Pisa evade the actual cession of a seaport
to this upstart republic, previously too much disdained to awaken an idea of
rivalry. In Florence itself, the Guelphs had, ever since the death of the
Emperor Frederic, been tyrannizing over the Ghibelines; banishing some,
executing others with a mockery of judicial forms, demolishing their mansions,
the materials of which were used in repairing and strengthening the city walls.
Nay, so far was this petty spite carried, that the sites of the ruined dwellings
were ordered to lie permanently waste, and the architect. Arnolfo de' Lapi,
employed to build a palace for the residence of the little more than ephemeral
magistracy, now the Palazzo Yecchio, was compelled to alter, and greatly
deteriorate his plan, to avoid honouring part of the site of
the
demolished residence of the Ghibeline Uberti, by placing thereon a corner of
his building.
In the Papal
dominions, the March of Ancona was stubbornly contending against the authority
of Alexander’s nephew, Annibale Annibaldeschi, whom he had named Governor for
the Church, and to whom he was endeavouring to give that province. The towns
of Romagna were striving to break the papal yuke, whilst Rome halt’ repented of
having done so. The inexorable justice with which Bran- caleone punished
malefactors, whether high or low, exasperated nobles and populace alike. In
the course of his three years’ rule he razed 1 10 urban fortresses, and hung
many of their noble proprietors; his treatment of vulgar criminals may be
inferred. Nearly the whole population rose against him, imprisoned, and but for
the energetic activity of his wife, would have slain him. She prevailed upon
the Bolognese magistrates to incarcerate the hostages and assure their friends,
that all shoidd be executed, if a hair of the Conte di Casalecchio were
touched. Alexander, in his zeal to conciliate the Romans, cared little for the
Senator’s danger, and commanded the Bolognese to release the hostages. But the
Bolognese, preferring the safety of their distinguished countryman to the
Pope’s pleasure, instead of releasing the hostages, exerted themselves so
happily to increase their number, that they got hold of two kinsmen of the
pontiifs, whom they held as additional security for the Senator’s life. The
Romans, accordingly, contented thimselves with keeping him a prisoner, and
naming Manuele Maggie, a Brescian, Senator in his stead. The new Senator, like
his predecessor, to the utmost of his power, supported the Pope’s antagonist,
Manfred, as Regent of the Sicilics. But at home, Maggio favoured the nobles,
and the popular party forgot their old anger at Branealeone, in the heat of
their new anger at his successor. They brought the deposed Senator from his
dungeon, reinstalling him in office, and his justice was even more inexorable
than before. He hung two of the Annibaldeschi, nephews of Alexander IV; and
open war now raged between the Pope and his most especial flock, headed by
their Senator, who immediately acknowledged Manfred, as King of Sicily.
Manfred was
no sooner crowned than he returned to Apulia, to quench the few, still
smouldering, embers of rebellion; and this was speedily accomplished, everywhere,
except at Aquila, where revolt against one of the Swabian dynasty could least
have been anticipated. Aquila was a town built by Conrad IV, for the protection
of the Abtuzzan frontier, made independent, save of the Sovereign, and
fa\oured to a degree that should have insured grateful loyalty. Yet the
inhabitants, forgetful of their obligations to the late King, had declared that
duty to the Church must supersede the claims even of his family, and had
refused to acknowledge his son as king, or obey his brother as regent. But the
neighbouring Barons, whose power and consequence were impaired by the rights
and privileges Aquila enjoyed, gladly lent their aid to humble such
pretensions, arid compel submission. The whole kingdom, on both sides of the
Strait, was now peaceful and loyal
Still,
however, the Pope claimed the kingdom for the English Prince upon whom he had
bestowed it, and was, consequently, still at war with Manfred, although not a
rebel remained in arms to support him. Excommunication and sentence of
forfeiture w’ere the only weapons left Alexander, with which further to wage
this war; and Henry III grew* impatient of incurring ail the odium of the
flagrant extortion practised by the legates upon the English clergy, without
any countervailing benefit to his son. Therefore, seeing Manfred in apparently
secure possession of the kingdom, nominally Edmund’s, he proposed to the Pope
to arrange a marriage between this son of his and Constance, the only child of
Manfred by his Savoyard wife—whom he seems to have early lost—• assuring to the
young couple the succession to the crown. There was nothing in this scheme to
gratify papal hatred of Frederic II and his descendants; and Alexander, already
annoyed at the English monarch’s supineness, in a matter so nearly concerning
himself,- began to look around for another vassal-King of Sicily. Henry,
alarmed at the Pope’s displeasure, retracted the obnoxious proposal, and the
negotiation fell back into its former state.
Manfred was
unwilling to exasperate the Pope, and
vol. iv.., 12
throughout
the year of his coronation the war languished; but still irritation was
accumulating on both sides. Manfred deemed himself justified by pontifical
example in making his clergy contribute towards the cost of his neces sary
defensive measures, ar>d now kept rectories and sees vacant, appropriating
the revenues to these purposes. Alexander renewed his excommunication,
extending it to all the loynl clergy, and especially, by name, to the Archbishop
of Agrigento, the Bishop of Sorrento, and the Abbot of Montecasuino, Manfred
thereupon employed his Saracen troops to chastise such of- the cloisters and of
the clergy, as the Pope’s promises had lured, or his anathemas scared, into
disloyalty.
Such
proceedings naturally led to more active military operations. In the spring of
12 j<J, Manfred, secure at home, seems to have indulged aspirations after
the sovereignty, which bis father had claimed over the whole peninsula, and
enjoyed nearly everywhere, save in the Estates of the Church and the
territories of the Lombard League. That, only as Emperor, Frederic claimed this
sovereignty, and that he had little chance of obtaining the Imperial crown from
Alexander IV or Lis successors, he must have known; but may have looked to the
Italian Ghibelines’ need of a monarch’s support, and to the general Italian
hatred of transalpine domination, for facilitating the transfer of Italian
suzerainty to the Sicilian crown. He sent a distant relation of hi* mother’s,
the Conte di San Sevcrino, as his Lieutenant into Tuscpny, apparently to lure
the Tuscan GhiDelines into owning him as Lord Paramount. A more stirring
mission be committed to Peicivalle dell’ Oria, whom, with the title of his
Lieutenant, in the March of Ancona, the duchy of Spoleto, and Romagna, he sent,
at the head of an army, to invade the instates of the Church. Oria turned his
arms first against the March of Ancona. That province, as before said, was far
from thoroughly Guelph, or attached to the papal government, and at this time
inclined rather to accept Manfred’s authority than to oppose invasion in arms.
What the March really desired was independence; but the harsh severity, with
which Oria punished the first unsuccessful resistance that he encountered,
alienated the inhabitants, checking their dispo- Digitized by M 'tosoft<
*,
sition to
change their masters. The Pope, alarmed by the invasion, offered his
discontented vassals large concessions of rights and prhileges; and the balance
turned in his favour; but the March long remained the theatre of desultory
warfare.
'I'hcie,
Alexander, for the present, looked for nothing beyond the prevention of any
rapid success of „he enemy. It was upon northern Italy, where the power of his
great adversary, Ezzelino da Romano, was seriously threatened, that his hopes
were fixed. There many of the cities, subjugated by Ezzelino, had risen in
confederation against the oppression under which they groaned. Palavicmo and
Buoso da Doara, irritated by his usurpation of their shares of the common
conquests, had renewed their alliance with his hereditary foe, Azzo d’Este,
inviting Manfred to join their league. He declined, regarding Ezzelino as his
brother-iu-law, and the faithful adherent of his father ; but the allies felt
that, taking the opportunity of this ins'jrrec- tior., they were strong enough,
even without royal aid, to accomplish their object. Ezzelino was aware of the
enmity gathering around him; but he would not ask assistance from Manfred,
lest he should be betrayed into acknowledging a suzerainty to which the King
of Sicily had no right; he was now evidently determined to hold his
principality in absolute independence. He was even brood- big a scheme, which
would have made him virtually monarch of all northern Italy, thus raising him
far above the reach of the antagonists arrayed against him. The noble fmrmnii
of Milan had, it way be remembered, sought refuge under his protection: through
their instrumentality, he now meditated possessing himself of the mighty
capital of Lombardy ; and this great adventure he thought to achieve, before
the allies could be prepared to act against himself.
Those allies
took the field earlier than the Signor di Romano had anticipated; but this only
necessitated some alteration in the measures devised for the execution of his
project, apparently rather favourable than otherwise. He now proposed to turn
the enemy’s posiiions by a more distant, circuitous route, and surprise Milan,
defenceless, in the absence of the Milanese warriors.
The scheme
was well conceived, and, all but successfully executed; for he crossed the
Oglio and the Adda undiscovered; but treachery then revealed his movement to
the allies, and his further advance was impeded by their numbers. To surprise
Milan was now out of the question, and. without a battle against a far superior
force, he could neither regain his own dominions, nor cover his magazines,
keeping his communication with them open. But from no act of boldness, even to
temerity, did Ezzelino know wliat it was to shrink, though his prudence was
ever exerted to lessen the hazard incurred. After much skilful marching and
counter-marching, the main strategy seemingly of the age, he led his troops to
attack the bridge over the Adda at Cassano, and had carried it, when he was
severely wounded and fell from his horse. Such an accident seems in those days
invariably fatal. He was borne to the rear, and in the confusion, the momentary
discouragement that ensued, the confederates recovered the bridge.
The next day
found Ezzelino, wounded as he was, at the head of his little army. The bridge
being now strongly guarded, he crossed the Adda by a ford at some distance, and
though immediately encountered by his enemies, arranged his far smaller force
so judiciously, and fought so valiantly, that he had nearly won the victory,
when a body of his men, the Brescians, who had been seduced by Pala- vicino,
and Buoso da Doara, deserted him, passing over to the allies. They were as much
re-animated by this accession of numbers, as the yet faithful Romano warriors
were dispirited, even more than by the desertion, by the apprehension awakened
of further treachery in their own ranks. Still, however, the conflict was
resolutely maintained, until Ezzelino, fighting in the thickest of the battle,
was again wounded, stunned by a blow upon the head, and, whilst insensible,
made prisoner. Now all was indeed over, he himself being the whole strength of
his party. His army instanilv two Ira and fled.
The
Marquesses of Este and Palavicino protected their important captive from
ill-usage, and provided him with all needful medical attendance. Nor were his
spiritual wants overlooked. Franciscans and Dominicans pressed Digitized by
Microsoft ®
into his
prison, exhorting, imploring him to confess his sins, do penance, and receive
absolution. But Ezzelino, whether in sheer obduracy, as his Guelph contemporaries
aver, or in self-delusion as to the character of his cruelties, consonant with
his already recorded view of his own acts, or really being calumniated,
replied: * I have 110 sins to confess, save that I have taken insufficient
vengeance upon mine enemies, and have so far erred in the conduct of my army,
that 1 have suffered myself to be betrayed. Therefore am I a prisoner—-penance
sufficient!” Having thus spoken, he remained thenceforward deaf to their
remonstrances, gloomily and invincibly silent. He refused to take nourishment
or medicine; but, growing impatient of so tedious a form of suicide, during the
tenth night of his captivity, he tore the dressings from his wounds. The
following morning, the 27th of September, 1259, he was found dead by his
gaolers.
As the house
of Romano now disappears from history, the fate which, in the following year,
befel Alberico and his children, may as well be at once briefly recorded. He
had secured a fragment of his brother’s possessions, but not taken warning from
his brother’s catastrophe, to use his power more leniently. His tyranny
provoked a rebellion, quickly so successful that he was driven to take refuge
with his family in the castle of San Zeno, which, being built upon the nearly
inaccessible summit of a rock, and amply provided with all necessaries, was
deemed an impregnable fortress. He was besieged there by the conquerors of
Ezzelino, whom his owii revolted subjects had joined; but he laughed at the
vain attempts of the assailants, until treason opened gates, inexpugnable by
force. Alberico had just time to secure himself with those belonging to him in
the dungeon-keep, which again appears to have defied assault. ;>rt this
tower had not been independently victualled for a separate siege, and by the end
of three days, hunger and thirst rendered further resistance impossible.
Alberico now
authorized his people to purchase their own liberty by delivering himself and
his family up to the besiegers, merely stipulating that they should remind the
Marquess of Este, that his, Alberico’s daughter, was the
widow of the
Marquess’s son, the mother of his grandson and heir, praying him to protect the
maternal kindred of rhat grandson from personal ill-usage. Rinaldo d’Este
having died whilst detained in Apulia as a hostage, the Emperor had sent his
widow, with her orphan boy back to the Marquess. But, either the remaining followers
of the erst mighty house of Uomano were too much absorbed in securing
themselves, to heed their master’s message or fate, or Azzc, gloat'ng over the
fall of the last of the rival house, cared little for the feelings of his son’s
widow—for, that absence prevented him from protecting her parents, brothers,
and sisters can hardly be supposed, since Albenco’s message implies his
knowledge of Azzo’s presence with the besiegers. Thus Alberico, with his wife
and children, fell unprotected into the hands of his enemies; and sickening is
the bare idea of the treatment they underwent. But still must it be
remembered, that, only through knowledge of such frequent atrocities, can the
strangely mixed character of the times be understood, or the men of those times
justly appreciated. Henry VI and Ezzeiino were not the prodigies of cruelty
that modern writers often represent them; but simply a little more reckless of
human suffering, than their contemporaries. In very truth, the study of the
past provokes a painful, hardly to be repressed, suspicion, that humanity is
not, as its name imports, an integral element of human nature, but a sheer
product of civilization.
The first act
of the drama of vengeance took the form deemed sportive. Marco Eadoero, Podesta
of Treviso, ordered a horse’s bit to be put into Albsrico’s mouth, in token of
subjection, when the inferior rebels completed the jest, by throwing him down
upon his hands and knees, bestriding him, ar.d with whips, goads, and spurs,
forcing him to crawl about upon all-fours, bearing a man upon his back. When
satiated with insults to the master at whose frown they had recently trembled,
they, with a mockery of judicial forms, tried his six sons, sentenced them to
death, and literally tore them to pieces before the eyes of their father, whose
cheeks they buffeted with the dissevered and mangled limbs of his children.
Next, his wife, and his two, st'II unmarried, beautiful daughters were
completely
stripped, and
thus exposed to the polluting gaze of a licentious rabble of all classes; then
bound to a stake, and actually burnt alive. When vengeance, maliciously savage,
was glutted with the mental tortures endured by the husband and father, the
exulting victors proceeded to the infliction of bodily anguish, llis flesh was
torn ofl with red hot pincers, till his tormentors grew weary of the amusement;
when, to make an end, he was tied to the tail of a horse, and the animal driven
wildly forth to drag him along the ground whilst any spark of life, or vestige
of the human form, remained. This brutally atro- c’ous scene was enacted in
August, 1260.
If Alexander
was not disappointed in his hopes of Ezzelino’s overthrow, he was grievously so
lti the resuits of the catastrophe. Of the power and possessions of the House
of Romano he gained nothing. Palavicino and Buoso da Doara, staunch Ghibelines
as ever, appropriated far more of the conquests than could Azzo d’Este. I lie
largest share fell to Palavicino, whom Manfred found it expedient to appoint
his Lieutenant in Lombardy, in the eastern portion cf which the Ghibeline party
still preponderated. The towns that had freed themselves from the Romano yoke,
remained unconnected with Lombard League or Guelph lords, intent only upon
recovering the'r right of chusing their despot, in a podesta, and, if he
displeased them, punishing him at their own discretion. They elected those
Podestas from amongst themselves, unheeding either counsel or recommendation of
legates. At Verora, Martino della Scala was raised to that office, being the
first appearance upon the stage of public life of this great Ghibeline family,
which really did, ere long, succeed to much of the Romanos’ power. The booty,
collected in the war against the extinguished rate, the conquerors divided
amongst themselves; no restitution appearing to have been mane to any of those,
for plundering whom the brothers had been excommunicated and overthrown; not
even churches and cloisters recovered anything.
But, if those
times were characterized by ruthless cruelty, so were they by passionately deep
religious feelings ; and even whilst the worse than butchery of the last of the
Romanos was perpetrating, this intense devotion burst
forth in a
new guise. At this very time, appeared at Perugia a long procession of men and
women, their faces un- discoverably muffled up in hoods, but uncovered from the
neck to the hips, scourging their naked bodie3, till the blood flowed, and
chaunting or shouting: “Blessed Mary, mother of God, have mercy upon us, and
entreat thy son, Jesus Christ, to pardon us!” Admiration of this splendid, self
imposed penance was universal; sympathy with the Flagellants, as they called
themselves, equally so, and the example was everywhere followed. From Italy,
this penitential mania spread through France and Germany, even til to Hungary
and Poland. High and low mingled, undistinguished as undistinguishable, in the
procession, and everywhere thousands of Flagellants were to be seen, proceeding,
as if upon a pilgrimage, from town to town, headed, sometimes by priests, but
oftener by hermits, all bearing crucifixes or censers, and marking their path
with the blood that streamed from their self-lacerated flesh. In this burst of
remorseful piety, scenes, analogous to those produced by the preaching of Fra
Giovanni, occurred. Not only did ordinary sinners vow amendment, usurers are
said to have restored their unlawful gains, and robbers their booty, to those
whom, after their several fashions, they had plundered ; whilst the wrong-doer
presented his sword to the injured, who, in lieu of taking the offered revenge,
fell upon the neck of his pardoned oppressor.
Gradually,
however, the genuine repentance, that had originally given birth to this moral
phenomenon, was superseded by pride, in the spontaneous atonement, which their
extraordinary penance offered. The Flagellants began to scotfat the customary
rites of religion, as tame, puerile, worthless, in comparison with their public
self-scourging. This arrogance called forth the censures of the Church; and, at
the very time that princes who laboured under excommunication, as ftlanfred,
the Duke of Bavaria, and Marchese Palavicino, were taking repressive measures,
in regard to these penitents, fearing that their collective numbers mipht be
easily made available, to Alexander’s purposes, against themselves; the very
Pope who had excommunicated them, was denouncing such self-imposed penances as
heretical, because undertaken without ecclesiastical Digitized by Microsoft
®
sanction. His
censure checked the admiration that supported the Flagellants under their
voluntary sufferings; and the passion for this description of masquerading martyrdom,
died of inanition. After the lapse of a few months, not a single Flagellant was
to be seen, and crime and cruelty prevailed as before.
MAJfFBED^
Negotiation
with the Tope—Revolution in Tuscany—Manfred's <jrowing Power in Italy—Death
of Alexander IV—End of Latin Empire of Constantinople—Si/ro-Franh and Mamelukes—Election
of Urban IV—his Enmity to Mo.nfred.
'
[1260—1262.
Alexander IV,
deeply mortified by the failure of his own, and even of the triumph,
anticipated from the long- dreaded Ezzelino di Romano’s downfall, was induced,
early in 1260, to make overtures to the King of Sicily. They were eagerly met,
for Manfred was painfully sensible of the evils which the sentence of
excommunication, howevei unjustifiable, had brought upon his father, his
brother, and himself. But one of the conditions upon which his re-admission
into the bosom of the Church was to depend, in fact, the sine qua non
condition, was, the expulsion of all his Moslem subjects from his dominions.
This was requiring from Manfred, not only the violation of his plighted faith,
as well as of all the ties of gratitude, but an actual surrender'at discretion.
If he thus deprived himself of the only troops upon whom, in any future quarrel
with the Roman See, he could rely, he would really lay his crown at the Pope’s
feet. He positively rejected the condition, adding, in his anger, the
injudicious retort, that he would rather invite double their number from
Africa. The negotiation was broken off, and in the course of the summer,
Manfred, having reinforced his army with Africans, as threatened, made various
inroads upon the estates of the Church.
But, to the
Sicilian monarch, the most important event of the year was a revolution in
Tuscany, that proved very advantageous to his interests. The Ghibeline fuorusciti
of Florence,
with Farinata degli Uberti (celebrated by Dante146) at their head,
growing restless in their asylum at Sienna, determined to make an effort for
the recovery of their country, their property, and their rights. But, well
knowing, that in this they could not hope to succeed unaided, they sought
assistance from Manfred. He, occupied by his war with the Pope, and straitened
in his resources, could spare them no more than one hundred of his German
horse; and succour so small, the disappointed, and therefore angry, exiles,
were inclined to refuse.
1
he clearer-sighted Farinata calmed them with the remark “ Let us only have his
banner with us, and we will quickly get more troops out of him.” As the politic
Florentine had expected, the appearance of even the hundred horse at Sienna,
with the royal banner of Sic'lv, gave their little band of refugees both
spirits and consequence. So much, indeed, of the latter, that their confidence
proved infectious, and the Siennese marched out, with the Ghibelines, and the
Germans, to encounter the ruling Florentines, who, on their part, were hurrying
to chastise Sienna for sheltering those whom they had cbosen to banish.
Farinata is said to have intoxicated the Germans for tha occasion, both with
wine and with gold—mounds in perspective—as the reward of victory; thus
impelling them to almost superhuman feats of temerity, rather than courage.
They were supported by the exiles, as also by the Siennese ; and, after an
obstinate struggle, victory declared for the Ghibeline side; but the Germans,to
whom this triumph was mainly due, were slain to a man, and the Sicilian banner
fell into the hands of the routed Florentines, who solaced the vexation of
their discomfiture by offering insults, through his royal banner, to the head
of Italian Ghibelines, tha son of the Emperor, whom they had alike dreaded and
abhorred.
In the
general elation produced by this victory, Farinata obtained from the principal
Siennese merchants, the Sa- iimbeni, a loan of 20,000 gold pieces. This sum he
sent Manfred, to defray, as he said, the expense of the troops, whose
assistance he vehemently implored ; confident that, thus strengthened, the
Florentine fuorusciti could take ample vengeance, both for the loss of the
Germans, whose valour he extolled to the skies; and for the infamous treat-
ment of the
royal banner by the Guelphs; who, even in defeat, had triumphed in their power
of thus insulting the King of Sicily. The seasonable supply of money afforded
Manfred the means of complying with the prayer so supported, and duly
punishing the slayers of his soldiers and insulters of his banner, whilst
helping the Ghibelines tc humble the Guelphs. He named one of his most trusted
officers, Giordano, Conte d’Anglone, his Lieutenant in Tuscany, giving him a
respectable body of German troops, horse and foot, with which to second the
operations of the Ghioeliiie fuoiusciti, revenging both their slaughtered
countrymen, and the insulted banner of Sicily.
As, even thus
rcinforced, Farinata did not feel equal to besieging Florence, his next
business was, to lure forth the Guelphs, in order to engage them in the opsn
field To this end, he persuaded the Siennese to besiege Montalcino, a town, the
dependent ally of Florence, lying to the south of Sienna. But the Florentines
had no inclination for an action with the exiles, supported by such a body of
Germans : and Montalcino was exhorted to hold out, until Manfred should be
under the necessity of recalling his detachment. Disappointed, but not
baffled, Farinata had recourse to stratagem, anti the whole transaction is
characteristic of age and country. He prevailed upon some members of the
Siennese magistracy, to address a letter to the Florentine magistracy,
professing, under the seal of secrecy, and in the name of s. large portion of
their fellow-citizens as w ell as their own, attachment to the Guelph cause,
especially to the ultra-Guelph government of Florence; and offering, in proof
of such sent:ments, to open one of the gates of Sienna to the
Florentine army, if, under colour oi passing by, on the way to throw provisions
into Montalcino, the leaders could manage, without awaken:.ng
suspicion, to approach near enough to take advantage of the act.
This letter
was intrusted to two Minorite Friars, who were taught to believe the treachery,
the precise nature of which was concealed from them, sincere. They were
instructed to say, that the despatch contained a proposal, momentously
beneficial to Florence, but to the success of which, as also to the personal safety
of the writers, such Digitized by
Microsoft ®
impenetrable
mystery was indispensable, that they were forbidden to deliver it, until
satisfied as to the persons to -whom the knowledge of the contents would be
intrusted and confined.
The Anziani
of Florence, upon receiving this communication, selected two of their own
ultra-democratic body, designated as Calcagni and Spedito, if, indeed, these be
not mere nicknames, for the oifice of perusing and judging the epistle. They
withdrew to read, and were dazzled out of all caution by the brilliant
prospect, of simultaneously crushing the expelled Ghibelines, and subjugating
Sienna. Hastily forming their plan, they flew to the General Assembly, to urge
the rejection of all those prudential considerations, relative to Manfred’s
German troops, that had hitherto prevented their victualling Montalcino, where,
distress for provisions must now be so great, that only immediate relief could
prevent its surrendering.
A popular
assembly is generally enterprising, if not enduringly courageous ; the advice
of the twn Anziani was received with acclamations, and the despatch of an army,
escorting a convoy, clamorously demanded. Conte Guido Guerra, indeed, and other
experienced warriors, objected, reminding their countrymen, that an hundred
German auxiliaries had lately given the victory to their enemies, who were now
supported by a much larger body of German soldiers formidable, but could hardly
retain these auxiliaries for any length of time. Such remonstrances were met by
violence; Spedito coarsely taunting Tegghaio Aldobran dini,(147) the
sturdiest of the objectors, with cowardice, who coolly replied : “ Go thou as
far as 1 do .n the battle, and thou shalt be called a brave man.'^ Cece
Gheraruini rose to insist upon the same objections, when the Anziani forbade
him to speak, under penalty of a heavy fine: “ 1 will pay the fine rather than
be silent to the injury of my country,” cried Cece. The fine v as doubled,
trebled ; stil) in vain; till at length the Anziani commanded him, upon pain of
death, to hold his peace. This insolent democratic tyranny was clamorously
applauded, and, with heedless temerity, the relief of Montalcino decreed.
The war-bell,
surnamed la Martinella, was rung, the Car- roceio was solemnly drawn forth, and
from every family,
according to
their pecuniary means, horsemen and footmen presented themselves. The subject
allies of Florence throughout Tuscany, and beyond its present limits, as Lucca,
Pistoia, Arezzo, Volterra, Perugia, Orvieto, with other towns of both
descriptions, of less note, sent their contingents, and, by the end of August,
the Podesta Ran- goni and the Capitano del Popolo, Monaido Monaldeschi, marched
southward, at the head of 3000 horse and 30,000 foot. They halted near
Monlaperto, where they took up a strong position, equally adapted for
protecting convoys to Montalcino, repulsitig an attack, and awaiting the result
of their presumed intelligence with Siennese traitors; the secret being,
perforce, imparted to the Florentine Generals.
Perhaps, when
Farinata and his Siennese confederates beheld the unexpectedly great success of
their fraudulent invitation, they may have wished the letter unwritten; since,
for the defence of Sienna itself, they could not muster much more than half
the numbers, encamped so menacingly near. But, whatever their thoughts, they
betrayed, no symptoms of alarm ; neither did the other Magistrates, who were
ignorant of the lure that had brought such an army upon them. The Florentine
leaders, having, it should seem, forgotten that not to awaken suspicion of
hostile intentions was part of the scheme, or being unable to control their
troops, now sent an 'nsulting message, requiring the Sit nnese to expel the
Ghibehnes, raise the siege of Montal-- oino, and, renouncing every other
alliance, conclude a league, offensive and defensive, with Florence, of course
in subcruina'ion to her. The Magistrates promptly returned a bold refusal.
Even before this answer could have reached the camp, another message,
transcending the first in arrogant insolence, was delivered in Sienna. By this,
the ;mmediate, unconditional, surrender of the city, with the
demolition of such a portion of the wall as might suffice to admit the
triumphal entry of the victorious Florentine cavalry, was demanded. A
suspicion new arose amongst the citizens, that, in nothing short of a
traitorous correspondence with persons within their walls, cnuld so
preposterous a demand have originated; but the suspicion neither chilled the
courage nor checked the defensive preDigitized by Microsoft ®
parations of
the Siennese, merely stimulating to greater watchfulness.
The Salimbeni
came gallantly forward to supply pecuniary wants; and the aid of religion, to
sanctify military measures, was called in after a fashion which, it
irresistibly provoking a smile from the weakest aud most superstitious in the
nineteenth century, exercised a salutary influence over mind and spirits of the
wisest, in the thirteenth. With solemn procession and holy rites, the Blessed
Virgin was appointed the Gracious Guide, and Sovereign Ladv of Sienna, when the
keys of the city-gates were most reverentially placed in the hand of her
image. This done, the subjects of the Virgin transmitted their second answer to
the hostile camp; to wit, that Sienna would be defended with the wonted
courage, and it was hoped, with the wonted success. Whilst all this was in
progress, the fuorusciii had found means, notwithstanding the increased
vigilance, to establish a channel of secret communication with those of thtir
kinsmen and friends, who, having, apparently, by a false show of Guelphism,
avoided the fate of their compatriot Ghibelines, were present with the Florentine
arnoy. The object of this intercourse was, the regulation of the conduct of
this party during the impending; action. Presently, one of the number,
deserting, brought to Sienna intelligence of great dissensions amongst the
hostile leaders ; and the tidings reviving the confidence of the Viennese, the
threatened multitude shouted as clamorously for battle, as the threateners had
before.
The army,
with which the Siennese Podesta, Troghisio, lloffredo d’lsola, the Capitano del
Popolo, the Conte d’An- glone, and Farinata degli Uborti, were to encounter the
Florentine host, amounted only to 17,000 men, but of these 1,500 horse, and
2,000 foot were the German veterans, whose great superiority to the burgher
militia of the enemy, made them an army in themselves. Further to
counterbalance so alarming a disparity of numbers, -100 German horse, and 800 Siennese
foot were ordered to pass out by a remote gate, and, taking a circuit, fall
upon the enemy from an unexpected quarter. These arrangements completed, the
above-named chiefs, on the '1th of September, led forth their t.roops in
martial array: and, to the no
small
perplexity of the Florentine generals, came against them through the very gate,
\vliieh they were expecting to see treacherously opened for their admittance.
But they felt strong in their numerical advantage—being nearly two to one,—as n
theii well-chosen position; and the troops, unconscious of the disappointment
of their leaders, fought gallantly. For a -while, the fortune of the day was
theirs.
But now
d’Anglor.e charged with his dreaded horsemen, and at the same instant, the
Ghibelines in the Guelph ranks executed their preconcerted movement. One of
them, named Bocca d’Abat:, rode up to Pazzi, the leader of the Florentine
cavalry, and, unresisted because unsuspected, with one sweep of his sword cut
off the arm, which, at that very instant, was waving the colours of his corps.
Their fall dispirited the whole body; and Bocca d’Abati’8 party, simultaneously
tearing off their Florentine cockades, mounted that of the King of Sicily,
whilst shouting: “Down with the Guelphs!” Indescribable confusion ensued
amongst the Florentine cavalry, and presently, without striking another blow,
they fled. The infantry more perseveringly maintained the contest, and was
still fighting, when the detached division, reaching the field, fell upon their
flank. This unexpected attack consummated the bewilderment of the Guelphs; and
the foot, following the example of the horse, in their turn fled. In vain, the
heroic septuagenarian Tornaguinci, Commander of the Car- roccio guard, gave his
own life, his son’s, and those of three kinsmen, in defence of his charge. In
the utter rout, their resistance became hopeless, and both Carroccio and Mar-
tinella were the victors’ prize. The loss of the Florentines has been variously
estimated, at from 2500 killed, and 1600 taken, up to 10,000 killed and 20,000
taken; and, considering the customary slaughter of fugitives, may be safely
reckoned at about 15,000 altogether. The loss on the Ghibeline side was
trifling, and the Siennese exultingly instituted an annual celebration of their
victory, by religious rites and martial games.
Montalcino,
despairing of relief, surrendered : but the next fruit of the victory was far
otherwise important. The hitherto sovereign Guelph faction shrank, notwith-
standing the
unimpaired condition of the walls, from the task of defending Florence against
the attack they expected; and, upon the 13th of September, evacuated the town,
retiring to Lucca. Upon the l6th, the Ghibeline fuorusciti, escorted by
Manfred’s Germans, and conducted by his Lieutenant, d’Anglone, entered Florence
in pacific triumph The whole population swore fealty to Manfred, as suzerain of
Italy: as though the sovereignty of Italy really were transferred from the
Imperial crown to the Sicilian. Tiie great Tuscan Ghibeline, Conte Guido No-
vello, was placed at the head cf the Florentine government,—in some degree of
subordination, however, to d’Anglone, the King’s representative in Tuscany;—and
the town undertook to pay a German garrison for two years. Th.-;
boundary fortresses betwixt Florence and Sienna were dismantled, in token of
the intimate union of the two cities; and the whole of Tuscany, with the
exception of Lucca, acknowledged the suzerainty of Manfred, looking more to
Sienna than to Florence as the intermediate head. The Pope instantly
interdicted all commercial intercourse between his faithful children, and the
allies or the tbralls of the excommunicated usurper.
This
interruption of trade was not the only inconvenience experienced in Tuscany,
where tranquillity could hardly be said to reign. At Lucca, indeed, the
despondent Guelphs, for the moment, merely wrangled amongst themselves,
casting the faults and blunders, that had ied to their disaster, in each
others’ teeth, which they did, when practicable, by means of a proverb, or old
saw. Thus contemporaneous chroniclers report that Aldobrandini, taunting
Spedito with the results of his policy, wound up his speech with an Italian
proverb, purporting, that fools commit follies and wise men suffer from them;
when Spe- d'to retorted by another, that to be led by a fool is yet worse than
to be one. In other places, more effective hostilities were either carried on,
or attempted. Pisa and Sienna flattered themselves the time was come, for wreaking
their long-nursed vengeance upon Florence. They represented to Conte Giordano
that she was still Guelph at heart, and would assuredly again join this
faction, when relieved from the constraint of his dreaded Germans.
Therefore,
they argued, must Florence be rendered impotent ; and, to effect th;« purpose,
they advised treating her much as Miian had treated Lodi and Como, and been
treated by Frederic Barbarossa; viz., reducing her to the condition of a \
illage. The bare suggestion aroused the indignation of Farinata degli Uberti.
He exclaimed, that he had fought not to consummate the ruin of his native city,
but to enhance her prosperity and glory; and that, even should be stand alone,
he would again fight to the last drop of his blood in her defence. His
patriotic ardour carried the day, and d’Anglone rejected the proposal^148)
And now, w ith an incident or two, half pleasingly, half revoltingly, as
characteristic of the times, as the proverb- fraught satire, or rhetoric, the
affairs of Tuscany may, for the present, be dismissed.
If tha
Ghibeline Tuscan cities were not indulged with the destruction of their rising
rival, in the gratification of more individual or private enmities they were;
ay, even after the object of such enmity was gone to his last account. As for
instance, a question had some years back been mooted in the Florentine
Councils, respecting the expensive maintenance of a castlc, situate near the
Pisan frontier, and the authorities had decided upon its demolition. Pisa had
long felt this castle a thorn in her side; and, unsuspicious of a determination
so congenial to her wishes, had at this very time offered a large bribe to one
Ottobuono, an influential man of the lower orders, to procure its destruction.
Enlightened by the offer as to the real importance of the stronghold, Ottobuono
hastened to the Great Council, and, by his vehement remonstrances, obtained the
rescinding of the previous resolution. This incorruptible patriot bad now been
three years dead and buried. The Pisans dug up his corse, which tliey dragged
ignotuinioudy through the streets, and flung into a ditch.
The
Florentine Ghibelines, as a matter of course, retaliated their sufferings to
the uttermost upon the Guelphs, destroying all property of their vanquished and
fugitive adversaries, upon which they could lay hand, and extorting immoderate
ransoms from their prisoners. One of them, Gherardino Cerchio, was weighed, and
required to balance himself with gold in the opposite scale, as the price of
bis Digitized by Microsoft ®
liberty. But
to shed Guelph blood was* seemingly, a pleasure too exquisite to be generally
relinquished, even for sueh a prise. Farinata degli Uberti, having captured
Cecc Buondelmonte in a skirmish, took him up on the crupper of his own horse,
to carry him to a. place of safety. The act incurred universal reprobation, as
a display of clemency, so mischievously unseasonable, that Farir.aiu’s
brother,Asino degli Uberti, galloping after them, with a stroke of his
batile-axe, slew Cece, even whilst clinging to Farinata for protection.
To Alexander
IV, this revolution in Tuscany was a heavy blow; the evil consequences of which
he vigorously exerted himself to remedy. He addressed the most urgent
exhortations to the Guelphs congregated at Lucca, to recover their lost
domination at Florence, and he reiterated tho excommunications launched against
Manfred, and all who held faith or intercourse witn that enemy of religion. But
the fuorusciti at Lucca were too few to act openly, Manfred’s partisans were
inured to such ecclesiastical thunderbolts;—in fact, the lavish as profligate
use made of those church-weapons, in quarrels purely temporal, for purposes
purely selfish, by Innocent IV and Alexander IV, had gone so far towards
desecrating their character, that they were losing their terrors, save when
supported by the passions of the people. Whilst thus striving for more
extensive power, Alexander still durst not risk his person amongst the
turbulent Romans, though unremitting in his efforts to pave the way for so
doing. Through his various emissaries, he prevailed upon one party to nominate
King Richard to the then vacant post of Senator ; thinking thus to obtain an
efficient protector. But another, and far more numerous party, elected Manfred
to the senatorship; and he, with power and influence daily increasing
throughout Italy, was at hand to inforce his claims; whilst Richard was not
tempted by an invitation so partial, to involve himself in the troubles of
Italy, superadded to those of Germany and England. In the ensuing month of
March, 1201, Alexander IV died, at Viterbo.
During the
few months that the Roman See remained vacant the long-tottering Latin Empire
of Constantinople expired. Baldwin II had, for years, been soliciting aid
trom the
different European sovereigns. From the devout French King he had hoped again
to purchase succours with the nost revered of the relics he still possessed;
but all they purchased him was a subsistence for himself; neither an auxiliary
army, nor the means of hiring mercenary troops, for the defence of his crown,
were to be wrung from St. Lewis. At length the death of his competitor, the
active Vatazes, speedily followed by that of his son and successor, Theodore
Lascaris, leaving only an infant heir, promised an interval, at least, of
peace; and Baldwin returned home, to prepare, during the respite, for the
resumption of hostilities. But, in such a state of destitution did he return,
that he W’as reduced to the necessity of cohung lead, taken from the roofsof
churches andpalaces, into money, and destroying fine houses to supply h’mself
with firewood; until at length, by giving his son Philip in person as a
guarantee, he obtained a loan from the Venetian house of Capelli.
The smaller
Greek princes meanwhile encroached upon the very limited territories that had fallen
to the Emperor's share, till the dimensions of his empire were actually ludicrous;
but Constantinople was spared, perhaps respected. The respite from bolder
hostilities proved too short to be of value. In 1258, Michael Paleologus,
descended through females from the Comneni, dethroned the minor, Theodore
Lascaris, possessing himself of the Nicene empire; when, his ambition merely
whetted by the dignity he had acquired, he meditated wresting Constar'jnople
from the Latin usurpers. He sought and found useful allies in the Genoese, who,
nearly excluded by the Venetians and Pisans from the ports of Tyre and Acre,
and w holly by the Venetians from those of the Eastern Empire, where they
monopolized all trade, were reedy, in their jealous hatred of commercial
rivals, to co-operate with the Greeks in overthrowing Latin sovereignty at
Constantinople, by which Venice, and Venice alone, hud profited. They gladly
supplied the vessels wanted by the Emperor of Nicsea, to transport his troops
across the Euxine. He sought allies and auxiliaries even amongst the Mongols,
of whom the Asiatic Christians seem still to have enter- tianed no fears.
Nogai, one of the Mongol chiefs, having Dig, ■ i - Micros ti
established
an independent state, if a nomade community merit the name, in advance of the
main horde, Michael secured his friendship, by giving him his illegitimate
daughter, Euphrosyne, to wife.
But it was to
the old East-Roman, not merely to the Constantinopoluan empire of the Flemish
and French Earls, that Michael aspired, and he began by making himself roaster
of some of the European provinces, before he risked alarming western Europe bv
an attack upon the capital. In 1259, he conquered the kingdom of Thessa-
lonica, from his own kinsman and namesake, Michael Comnenus, the despoiler of
the infant heir of Boniface. To the acquisition of Greek territories from Greek
princes, Europe paid little attention; and now he turned hio thoughts to
Constantinople. But in this he seems to have contemplated a difficult and
hazardous operation i for, selecting his most cautious general, Alexius
Strategopulos, esteemed even superlatively so, he sent him with a small body
of troops, hardly even to make an inroad upon the Latin empire, but to explore
the state of the country in the neighbourhood of the capital; ascertain, as far
as might be, the prospect of success in an attempt upon the city ; and judge,
both as to the manner in which such an attempt should be made, and of the force
that would be requisite;
But, once
across the Bosphorus, Strategopulos found himself surrounded by crowds of
malcontent Greeks and disbanded soldiers—deserters from a service in which pay
was seldom forthcoming—all prepared to join an invader So strongly did they
represent to him the disaffection of the Greek inhabitants of the, metropolis
towards their alien rulers, the paucity of Latin inhabitants, and the well-
nigh total deficiency of troops—Venice seems to have neglected her share of the
capital, and her fleet was in the Euxine—that even this hyper-cautious leader
was tempted to risk a bold stroke. In the night of the 24th of July, 1261, by a
forced march, he reached the metropolis of the once mighty umpire. The gates
were locked, hut not a sentry gave notice of an approaching foe, the few
appointed watchers being apparently fast asleep. One division of the small
troop, commanded by Strategopulos, scaled the
unoccupied
walls, others broke open the long-walled-up Golden Gate, and all, as they
entered, set the adjoining houses on fire, to increase the confusion and alarm.
A bewildering tumult ensued. Baldwin himself, the Latin Patriarch, and the
principal Hatin nobles, conscious of their unpopularity, appear to have been
literally frightened out of their wits. They all fled for shelter on board the
Venetian trading vessels in the port; and, in the morning of the 25th,
Strategopulos found himself undisputed master of Constanlinople. Thus expired
the Latin Empire of the East, after lingering through an imperfect existence of
57 years, 3 months, and a few days. Baldwin II and his son Philip spent the
remainder of their lives in vainly soliciting European assistance to recover
their lost throne; and the daughter of the latter, Catherine ds Courtenay, by
her marriage with Charles de Valois, grandson of St. Louis, and younger brother
of Philip IV, ultimately vested the pretensions of her family to the East-Koman
Empire, in that branch of the third royal dynasty of France, which, under the
name of Valois, ascended the throne.(U9)
To return to
the year 1261. Michael Paleologus hastened to seat himself upon the
unexpectedly recovered throne of his ancestors; and, at once to adorn, honour,
and sanctify his triumphal entry, a picture of the Virgin—again the reputed
work of St. Luke, being the third found at Constantinople —was borne before
him. But the empire thus recovered was dissimilar indeed 10 the realm of those
ancestors, even to that lost by Murzuflos. The Asiatic portion, with few
exceptions beyond the fragmentary empires of Nictea and of Trebizonil—this
last an independent rival state—had long been in the hands of Turks, '1 urk-
rnans, and Tartars. In Europe, small Greek and Latin princes held really
independent states throughout Grcece, Epirus, and Thessaly; the Venetians, for
the present his determined enemies, were Lords of the islands and of part of
the Morea; for Dalmatia, he had to wage war with both Venice and Hungary, as
for nearly all the rest with Bulgaria. Even of Constantinople itself, he was
obliged to cede a suburb, Galata, to the Genoese, in addition to exemption from
tolls, and a monopoly of the commerce of the Euxine, as the due remuneration of
their services.
Every chance
of the reunion of the Greek with the Latin church was, by this catastrophe,
finally extinguished; and, to the absorption of recent Popes, in purely papal,
if not actually personal interests and passions, may this reinvigoratiun of the
schism be, in some measure, imputed. So may, in the same degree, the daily
increasing distress and danger of the remnant of the kingdom of Jerusalem; but
there, as at Constantinople, many were the conspiring sources of evil. The
insanely virulent and pertinacious conflicts between the Venetians, the Pisans,
and the Genoese, deprived the royal officers of the dear- bought support of
those commercial states; whilst the equally and more criminally virulent and
pertinacious conflicts of the Templars and the Hospitalers—in the year 1261,
the Hospitalers vanquished the Templars in an affray so bloody as to leave but
one Red-Cross Knight in Syria, till the European preceptories sent others to
supply the place of the skin—was calculated to chill the sympathy and even the
compassion for the Syro-Franks, that might have been awal encd by the constant
progress of the Mamelukes under Bibars Bondocdar. This formidable leader of a
formidable body, in the y ear 12(i0, had defeated the Mongols, driving them out
of Syria, of which the Mamelukes remained nearly undisputed masters. And now,
feeling no further need of veiling his object, he completed his series of
murders, committed or instigated, with that of the Eyubite prince, Kotuz, and
assumed the Sultanship of Egypt and Damascus.
Many of the
Popes introduced to the reader in these pages, if not endowed with the
qualities most to be desired 'n the Head of the Christian Church, have been
remarkable men; and another such man, the successor of Alexander IV, though
eiected by accident, not choice, certainly was. At the death of the last
pontiff the sacred college consisted of only eight Cardinals, some of whom were
favourably disposed towards Manfred and the Ghi- belines: wherefore, that this
small conclave should ever agree in the selection of a new occupant for St.
Peter’s (’hair, seemed hopeless. At length, wcarv of three months’ confinement,
amid protracted dissension rather than deliberation, the members devised a
species of lottery, which,
debarring
them from all choice, as from all present chance of the tiara, should compel
unanimity, and thus terminate the strife of clashing interests. They resolved
to accept as the Pope designated by Heaven, the first eligible subject, who,
upon the 29th of August, should knock at the door of the conclave. This
fortunate individual proved to be Jacques Pantaleon, a low-born Frenchman,
already Patriarch of Jerusalem: and he was immediately proclaimed Pope, as
Urban IV.
But, if
accident placed the papal tiara upon i.he head of a cobbler's son, it was to
talent, combined with great energy and diligence, that the cobbler’s son owed a
position, rendering such an accident possible. As a humble priest he had,
amidst difficulties and dangers, successfully taught Christianity, in heathen
Prussia and Livonia; he had been equally successful in political missions; and
his abilities and indefatigable assiduity, thus proved, had procured him the
bishopric of Verdun, followed by the patriarchate of the Holy Land. Two answers
of his, illustrative of his character, have been recorded. Being taunted, when
Patriarch, with the meanness of his family, he is said to have replied: “ Noble
birth is the gift of nature; to become noble, the work of virtue and
intellect.” The second speech was addressed to a sycophant, who eagerly
congratulated him upon his exaltation to the papacy, and was: “The external
splendour of a position strikes ever}’ eye, and seems enviable; the internal
duties, cares, and perplexities, are unknown to all, and can be shared by
none.” That Urban, with his experience, and so just a view of the pontifical
office, should have adopted the policy of his predecessors in regard to the
Suevo- Norman race, is no slight exemplification of the almost impossibility of
any change in the Papal system, or principles of government. The fears of the
overwhelming power of Frederic II, should he, by subjugating Lombardy, effect
the virtual union of his southern with his northern realm, which actuated
Gregory IX and Innocent IV, and had been entertained by Innocent III and
Honorius III, had for Urban no existence. The very occupation of the Sicilian
throne by Manfred, whose imperfect legitimacy would bo a bar to any pretension,
on his part, to Germany Digitized by Microsoft ®
or the Holy
Roman Empire, and who advanced none, really consummated the severance of the
crowns for w hich Innocent III had been anxious. Yet did Urban IV, without
other intelligible object than to tread in the footsteps of Alexander i\T
and Innocent IV, carry out their system, with a recklessness as to the means,
and persecute Manfred with a frank intensity of inveterate hatred, scarcely
comprehensible in a man so sensible of the duties imposed upon him bj his
assumption of universal spiritual paternity.
The
continuous disturbances at Rome making a residence there inconvenient as well
as hazardous, Urban established his court at Orvieto. This done, his first measure
was, to give the sacred College a more decidedly Guelph aspect, by creating
nine new Cardinals, all thoroughly devoted to the exaltation of the Papacy.
1'he second, less easy of accomplishment, was a strenuous endeavour to relieve
the Holy See from the various burthens, debts, and embarrassments, consequent
upon the expensively ambitious schemes of Ins twro immediate
predecessors. Even when possessed of funds sufficient to repay the money
borrowed upon security of Church lands, the mortgagees were often unwilling to
restore the estates that they held in pawn, and long defied his efforts to
recover them. Further to straiten bis resources, claims to many Church fiefs,
as gifts, were advanced by relations of several deceased Popes.
But, thus to
free his dominions from the load cramping him, was with Urban only the means to
an end; and— strange to say !—this end, beyond all others—beyond even that
properly favourite papal object, the organization of a Crusade to protect
Palestine—was the dethronement of Manfred, the utter ruin of the Suevo-Nor.nan
dynasty. By such persecution Alexander had driven Manfred, who would probably
have been content with reigning quietly over the Sicilies, into seeking, in
sheer self-defence, to extend his sovereignty. And so succcssful had his
endeavours been, that one modern writer ascribes the death of Alexander IV, to
vexation at Manfred’s virtues and power.(1;50)
Manfred’s
anxiety, for relief from excommunication and interdict for himself and his
subjects, now setms to have
been the only
alloy to his prosperity. Having early lost his first wife, Beatrice of Savoy,
he had, the year after hi3 coronation, married Helena, daughter to the Greek
Prince of Epirus and Etolia. Helena was reputed the most beautiful princess, as
was Manfred the handsomest prince, of the day; and the deeply enamoured,
newly-wedded pair wished but to enjoy their connubial happiness, amidst the
pleasures of their gay, luxurious, literary, and, comparatively speaking,
polished court. But these pleasures were of the kind, so acrimoniously
condemned by the Popes at Frederic IPs Court, of which theirs was the reflex or
continuation : Manfred, being, like his father, a patron and a votary of
letters and the arts, had, also like him, surrounded himself with poets,
musicians, prtists of all descriptions; and contended with troubadours, or
their Italian rivals for, the laurel crow n of poesy, w hilst admiring the
graceful movements and the skill of the Saracen dancing girls, who would
naturally be recalled by Fredetic to amuse his few hours of repose and
recreation, when his sacrificing them failed to propitiate Innocent IV. That
there might be much in the song and the dance probably offensive to an austere
churchman, as it would be to both the taste and the delicacy of a more relined
age, is indisputable, since coarseness, such as might almost deserve the name
of licence, seems the usual style of imperfect civilization. The Guelph
writers, who reprobate the Sicilian Court as a sink of iniquity, do so in
language that, in a latter generation, would prove complete destitution of
decency. During this phase of civilization, mixed companies of men and women,
the most highly educated and polished of their day, are found discussing
subjects such as now car. hardly be indicated. No grounds for suspecting
Manfred’s court of immorality appear. Manfred himself is repeatedly said to
have inherited all his father’s great and fine qualities, unblemished by his
laxity of principle relative to women; a felicitous deficiency in his heritage,
a confirmation of which is afforded, both by the evidently close and happy
union in which he lived with his Queen—of his first marriage little is known,
but Helena died of his loss—and by his stringent laws for the protection of
female chastity. He suffered no
difference of
rank to palliate the guilt of seduction, or to exempt the proudest noble from
repairing by marriage the injury, which the reputation of the meanest maiden
had suffered from him, provided that her reputation were otherwise
unblemished. So strictly did he inforce this law, that his own Chamberlain,
Conte Amelio di Molise, vainly endeavoured, by a great pecuniary sacrifice, to
escape taking to wife a girl of previously unimpeaehed fame, with whom he had been
surprised ;(151) Manfred unprisoned him until he married her. And so
effective, did the operation of such a law, so inforced, prove, that the
chastity of Manfred’s court is eulogized by a contemporary, in language too
plain for translation or transcription; thus vividly demonstrating the
compatibility of virtue with inde'icacy, in the unrefined.
But Manfred
allowed neither such pleasures, nor the happiness of his domestic life, to
interfere with the duties of his station. He regularly administered justice in
person, then held to be one of the highest of those duties, and he studied in
every way to promote the interests of his kingdom He repaired the damage Naples
had suffered from the wrath of his harsher brother, and brought back to its
original seat his father’s University, which Conrad, as part of the merited
punishment of her disloyalty had transferred to Salerno. There Manfred left
only that which was there before the transfer, namely, the school of medicine,
with its necessary adjuncts ; compensating the Salernitans for the privation by
so improving their harbour, as to attract commerce thither. He founded many
schools of humbler description, thus to extend the benefits of education to
the lower orders; and. understanding that the health of the inhabitants of
Siponto was seriously injured by the proximity of noxious marshes, he built
upon a hill at some little distance, a town, named after himself Manfredonia,
to which he removed the suffering Sipontans. But, amidst his enjoyments and his
occupations, excommunication and interdict pressed upon him like a nightmare.
Even his own clergy he could not everywhere induce to treat them as invalid,
because grounded upon injustice; and where he could not, the district suffered
under the privation of the rites of religion. The more bigoted of his subjects
shud- Digitized by Microsoft ®
dcred at
living under an excommunicated King, and deemed the sentence rightfully
incurred by his toleration of Mohammedans. Whilst to many, who had 110
fanatical horror of their Saracen fellow-countrymen, or of the style of their
monarch’s court, the degree of refinement marking it, being uncongenial, was
matter of censure, or of ridicule, as unmanly.
Manfred
joyfully hailed the election of a new pope as affording reasonable hopes of
reconciliation, and re-admission into the Church. Early in 1262, he sent a congratulatory
embassy to Urban, bear.:;g the most libera! offers,—the immediate evacuation of
the Estates of the Church by his troops, included—in return for the repeal of
the sentences of excommunication and interdict, which, with the recognition of
Manfred as King of Sicily, they w ere to solicit. But, some disturbances just
then occurring in the insular half of the kingdom, the Guelphs flattered
themselves that these foreboded the overthrow of the monarch and the
Ghibelines. Under this illusion, Urban advanced preposterous pretensions, and,
upon the Envoy’s remonstrating, broke off the negotiation.
The hopes of
the Guelphs were disappointed. The Conte di Bizano, Lieutenant or Governor of
Sicily, was indeed assassinated by a German follower of the Hohenbergs; but the
expected rebellion did not ensue. The murderer tied to Trapani, 'vhich Bizano’s
successor, Federigo Lancia, besieged and took ; immediately executing him and
his accomplices. The Sicilian malcontents shortly after this discomfiture
lighted upon a beggar, who, as it chanced, bore to the deceased Emperor a
resemblance, sufficient to offer means of exciting troubles. They disseminated
rumours of Frederic II having resolved to expiate his manifold sins by a
pilgrimage of several years’ duration, and caused liis death to be announced,
in order to facilitate his departure unattended and unknown; from which pilgrimage,
having performed his vow, he had now returned to resume the government of his
realms. No tale is too extravagant to find believers, amongst those whose
interests would be advanced by its truth. The fictitious emperor was presently
encircled by a band of fidelity-vowing vassals, deceived, or deceivers; but the
beggar, like the German
assassin, was
speedily captured by Lancia, tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and
executed, with eleven of his accomplices. Manfred now visited Sicily, and, from
the enthusiastic loyalty of his reception, Urban might judge that the troubles
from which he had anticipated the overthrow of the race, hated of Popes, had
rathe, confirmed and strengthened his authority.
Manfred’s
royalty and power received at this time the sanction of foreign admittance: James
of Aragon asking the hand of Constance, the only child of Manfred’s first
marriage, for his own son and heir, Don Pedro. The proposal is commcnly
ascribed to the princess’s being her father’s heir; and that Helena, at the
moment, had not produced a son, to supersede her, seems as certain, as that,
eventually, the calamities of her family replaced her more decidedly in that
position. But leaving Conradin. whom Manfred called his heir, out of the
question, the daughter of a man not yet thirty years of age, recently married
to a wife under twenty, would scarcely be sought as an heiress. The King of
Aragon’s proposal, whatever the motive, appears to have been most displeasing
to Urban, who endeavoured, in a very prolix epistle, to persuade him to recall
it. To this end he taxed Manfred with the usurpation of liis nephew's
birthright—a strange charge from him who disputed, almost denied, Conradin’s
right to anythiug but his grandmother’s kingdom of Jerusalem—with the murder
cf Borello d'Anglone, and of a Bavarian envoy; with the invasion and partial
occupation of the dominions of the Church ; and with the persecution of
ecclesiastics, in addition tc heresy, cruelty, and voluptuousness ; winding up
the whole with an accusation of offering delusive terms of peace, which he was
predetermined to break.(’52) King James, though a pupil of Simon de
Montfort, seems to have paid little attention to this papal exhortation ; for
it is dated April 27th, J202, and upon the ISth of June the wedding was
splendidly celebrated at Naples.
The degree of
Urban’s anger, at the failure of his interposition, may be estimated from his
endeavour to punish Don Jayme’s obduracy in regard to the marriage of his son,
by breaking off his daughter’s, and thus disappointing
his hopes of seeing
her Queen of France. She was affianced to Lewis IX’s eldest son and heir,
Philip surnamed le Uardi, and Urban pressed the saintly King, to break off his
engagement with a refractory monarch, who had sought an excommunicated
usurper’s child for his son. But the bigotry of Lewis never made him the blind
thrall of a Pope, and the marriage of Philip to Isabel of Aragon, followed Don
Pedro's to Constance of Sicily, in the very teeth of Urban’s admonitions.
Indeed, the manner in which this really pious monarch, the personified devotion
of his age, ventured to judge for himself touching excommunications,
disregarding such as appearedto him unjustly denounced, is not a little
remarkable.
The new
accusation brought by Urban against Manfred of murdering his sister-in-law’s
embassador—it may be observed that, tacitly, he acquits him of parricide,
fratricide, and nepoticide—requires a little explanation. Some Guelph
hisrorians relate(353) that the widowed Fimpress, when informed of
Manfred’s having, upon a report of Conradin’s death, ascended the throne, sent
two embassadors, named by some Krokkus and Boascianus, by others, Bussarus and
Groffius, to contradict the report, and claim the Sicilies for ber living son;
and that Manfred, after vainly trying to incite his partisans amongst the
Roman nobility to waylay these dreaded revealers of his fraud, if not of his
attempt to murder Conradin, hired a nephew of the opulent and highly respected
Cardinal Annibale, to assassinate them. Such a tale is hardly susceptible of
disproof; and as the relators adduce no evidence in its support, all that can
be done, is to state such admitted facts, in any way bearing thereon, as may
have been distorted or exaggerated into the accusation.
One such fact
is, that Elizabeth did send an embassy to Manfred upon his election, which
embassy reached his Court in perfect safety, and there, apparently in a public
audience, announcing that Conradin was alive and well, demanded the restoration
of the kingdom. Manfred’s answer is thus recorded:(!51) “By hard
fighting I conquered this kingdom from two Popes, W'ho positively refused to
cede a single foot of It to Conradin; and it was moreover committed to me bv
the Heads of the natior
Upon these
grounds I claim the sovereignty for myself during my life; but, at iny death,
let the nephew succeed co the uncle. If, however, my nephew desires to be a
fitting and efficient King of these realms, he must come hither, and learn our
manners and customs.” Now such an embassy having been courteously received,
and, after being allowed publicly to announce Couradin’s life, and advance his
claim, dismissed with an invitation to the claimant to come and be educated as
heir, what possible motive could Manfred have for murderiag others, sent either
for the same purpose, or to carry a rej jinder to his reply? But there exists a
letter, addressed by Italian Guelphs to Conradin, relating an occurrence, that
might easily be transformed into this sanguinary violation of the law of
nations by Manfred. The letter, which is professedly official, states that
persons, calling themselves envoys from Conradin, and leaders of a small troop,
had visited the writers, and made them proposals for conjointly attacking
Manfred; but that Manfred had sent a band of mercenaries against these
belligerent envoys, who were all slain. These self-entitled envoys are probably
those mourned over by Urban and the Guelph historians; and they clearly could
not even pretend to the sanctity of the ambassadorial character. Whether
authorized or not by Conradin’s mother and uncles, they were simply either
partisans, or leaders of mercenaries, trying to recruit their numbers for an
inroad upon Apulia, or perhaps merely to sell their services; and either way
enemies in arms, whom Manfred was perfectly justified in opposing by armed
troops.C5'3)
MANFRED.
Papal
Offers of the Sicilies—Refusal of Lewis IX—Bargaining v/tth Charles of
Anjou—Clement IT Rope—Preparations of Manfred, — of Charles—Charles at
Rome—Lmabard Interests. [1262—1260'.
Urban, more
irritated than depressed by his disappointments, strained every nerve to wrest
the Sicilian kingdom from Gonradin, whose right his letter to the King of
Aragon admits, as well as from Manfred; the sole purpose of the admission had been
to incriminate Manfred, the Pope evidently hating the child-riephew as bitterly
and i.nplacably as the accused uncle. Alexander IV had long been impatient of
Henry Ill’s inactivity in regard to his son’s royal prospects; and Urban now
offered Sicily, on either side of the Faro, to his own natural sovereign, Lewis
IX, for one of his sons. But the French King’s piety, being genuine, inspired
morality; and he refused to accept the property of another; urging that,
however unlawful Manfred’s title might be, the right of Conradin was
indisputable; and, could it even be deemed forfeited, which he denied, the
Popes themselves had transferred the kingdom to Prince Edmund of England. He
urged further, that the chief duty, at that time, of every Christian potentate,
was to maintain peace throughout Christendom, and devote himself to the rescue
of the Holy Land from Mohammedans and idolaters; as a step towards which
hallowed end the Latin empire of Constantinople should first be restored.(I56)
The spiritual
sovereign, instead of profiting by the example and the admonition of his
temporal brother sove-
reign, sought
to remove the layman’s conscientious scruples. He directed his Legate to inform
the King, that he and his Cardinals, having duly considered his right to
transfer a fief of the Holy See, were satisfied as to the lawfulness of the
transaction ; end, even were there a possibility, which there was not, of their
being mistaken, and the transfer sinful, the responsibility for that sin they
took wholly upon their own souls. The Emperor Baldwin, who was then at the
French court, and had educed rheering hopes for limi- self from the king’s
answer, took alarm at these vehement exhorfaiions, which, from the acknowledged
spiritual Head of the Church, must, he feared, so influence the devout monarch,
cs to divert him from, the evidently contemplated recovery of Constantinople,
to a long struggle for Sicily. He wrote to Manfred, of whom since the death of
Vatazes without offspring by Anna, he felt no distrust, to warn him of the
impending danger, apparently in the idea that thus cautioned, he might in some
way avert his danger. The letter was intercepted by Urban’s emissaries; hut innocuously,
for here no danger threatened. St. Lewis was not to be lured from the path of
duty, when, as now, distinctly seen. He persisted in his refusal, even after
Urban had, through his Legate, Bartolommeo Pignatelli, Archbishop of Cosenza
(one of Manfred’s rebellious prelates,) extorted, from Henry III and his son,
the renunciation of their claim to Sicily.
But, if from
this quarter Manfred had nothing to fear, the case was very different when the
Pope, finding the King immoveable by either sophistical casuistry or ecclesiastical
authority, revived Innocent IV’s proposals to Charles of Anjou. The righteous
monarch, of course, positively objected to h:s brother’s accepting
the offers, which he had refused for his own sen. But Charles, now master of
his wife’s patrimony, was no longer as dependent upon his royal brother as he
had beer at the time of Innocent’s overtures—although in one point of view he
might seem to be more so, not now, as then, having one liege Lord to oppose to
another; for, taking advantage of the suspension or the weakness of the
Imperial authority, he had renounced the homage previously done to the Emperor
for Provence, in order to be solely a French Prince—and,
in himself,
he was precisely the man for Urban’s purpose. A» unscrupulous as Lewis was the
reverse, he was daring, able, and energetic; whilst his utter indifference to 1
pleasures w hataoever, lawful or unlawful, intellectual or sensual, even to the
prime joy of the Middle Ages, field sports, left all his powers of body and
mind free, to be exclusively dedicated to the gratification of his sole passion,
inordinate ambition. Even his inexorable severity in punishing malefactors,
beari*ig the character of strict justice, helped to give him the aspect of
austere morality, and ascetic devotion, befitting the champion and favourite of
the Pope. Yet the equally savage punishments, inflicted by his orders for the
slightest faults, might have indicated recklessness of human suffering, as the
true source of both. And this portraiture of Charles of Anjou is taken, be it
observed, not from Ghibelines, mourning over the vanquished,but from Guelph
writers, his partisans.
Had the
ambition of this bold, bad man needed a spur, it would have been found in the
vanity of his vs ife. Her tbre« elder sisters were Queens, respectively of
France, of England, and of Germany and the Romans—the third, Kaneha, being wife
to Richard of Cornwall. The county of Provence had been settled upon Beatrice,
although the youngest, at her marriage.; perhaps as a compromise with the
powerful Lewis IX, to make the principality French, w ithout merging in the
kingdom, as it must have done, if inherited by the eldest sister.(157)
Beatrice could not brook a title inferior to that borne by her sisters, and a
seat of inferior dignity when they met at festivals. Rapturously welcoming
Urban’s proposal, which was to raise her to their level, she looked upon the
injustice of the scheme, the difficulties impeding its execution, and even the
hard conditions attached to success, as dust in the balmice, and was eager to
hazard her patrimonial principality for the chance of an usurped kingdom.
Charles,
however, if equally eager for the prize, did not chuse to have the crown
impaired upon coming into his possession; and so earnestly did he object to the
terms, to which Urban pertinaciously adhered, that the negotiation was thereby
verv materially protracted. And well
might he
object; for the Pope proposed, in the first place to grant the kingdom of the
Two Sicilies (the title seems to have been adopted about this rime,) to
Charles, Comte d'Anjon et de Provence, and his descendants, as a masculine
fief, only, and without the Terra di Lavoro, which, ncluding Naples itself, was
to be incorporated with the Estates of the Church. Secondly, he required from
the Ku.g an annual tribute of 8000 ounces of gold, any delay in the payment of
which was to incur personal excommunication; a second delay bringing an
interdict upon the kingdom: he demanded, further, a distinct sutn of 50,000
marks, to be paid down upon achieving the conquest; and a v hite palfrey
presented every third year in token of vassalage. Thirdly, the King was to
furnish the Pope, whenever required, and at his own expense, with a corps of
.‘300 knights, each having four horses, and the due number of armed men, or a
fully equipped fleet of correspondent force, at the Pope’s choice. Fourthly,
all Church rights and Church property were to be restored, and such laws of
Frederic’s and Manfred’s, as restricted ecclesiastical privileges, rescinded;
all differences upon such points being referred to the Legate. Fifthly, the
King of the Sicilies was never, on pain of forfeiting his kingdom, to accept
the title of Emperor, King of Germany, or Lord of Lombardy or Tuscany, or any
high office in any of those countries, or in the dominions of the Church; nor
was he, without the express consent of the Pope, to give a daughter in marriage
to any one holding such dignity, or such office; or to conclude any alliance
detrimental to the Pope. Sixthly* Urban required, that the Barons and the
Estates of the kingdom should swear to the observance of these conditions by
the King; and further that, in case of their transgression by him, they would
adhere to the Pope ; renewing this oath every ten years. And, finally, the
whole treaty was to be null and void, should Charles not set forth within , the
year, at the head of 1000 knights and 4000 horse, for the conquest of the
Sicilies.(158)
Urban
proposed, on his part, to assist Charles, when he should have accepted these
conditions, in various ways. First, by the especial weapons of the Church,
excommunication of Manfred and his partisans, and the proclamation
of a Crusade
against him; next, by granting Charles for three years a tenth of all
ecclesiastical revenues in Anjou, Provence, Sicily, Apulia, and indeed throughout
Italy; and lastly, by a gross breach of trust; to wit, giving him, to defray
the expense of his aggressive war against a Christian prince, the money
subscribed, and often painfully scraped together by devout individuals, and
deposited in the Pope’s hands, for the ransom of captive Crusaders. He offered
farther—incredible as it seems—to pledge himself never, under any
circumstances, to receive Manfred, Conradin, or any of their race, into the
bosom of the Church.(159) Despite these liberal promises, Charles demurred
to conditions, that deteriorated the sovereignty offered him; and a full year
seems to have been lost to both parties, in chaffering for another man’s
dominions.
Whilst the
negotiation was in progress, Urban sought to give his unlawful and arbitrary
measures a varnish of plausibility. To this end, he formally summoned Manfred
to appear before his tribunal, and either clear himself of the crimes laid to
his charge, or submit to the pains and penalties that he had incurred. This
summons he caused to be affixed to the door of the cathedral of Orvieto, a town
appertaining to the Papal dominions, and, at the time, his own residence;
omitting—purposely, who can doubt ?— to take any steps, e ither by mission or
by letter, for making it known to the summoned. But Manfred's anxiety for a
reconciliation with the Holy See, which would avert the impending storm,
counteracted and foiled this informal ty. Availing himself of the summons, he
despatched envoys to the Pope, requesting the appointment of time and place for
his appearance ; when, upon receiving a safe conduct, he would hasten to plead
his own cause before his Holiness, assured that he could fully justify himself.
Urban, even had he net been entangled in his negotiations with Charles, had no
desire to see the King of Sicily justified. He therefore answered abruptly,
that Manfred having made himself unworthy of pardon, the excommunication could
not be revoked; and at once dismissed the envoys, without even an affectation
of paternal regret for necessary sev erity. Manfred, thus cut off from all hope
of peace, collected his forces and occupied the March of Ancona. Urban com-
plained
loudly of whr.t he called an act of unprovoked aggression; which he preceded to
visit with condign punishment. He convoked an assembly of Ecclesiastics and
leading Guclphs, in which, after a long enumeration of the crimes imputed to
Manfred and his father, the deceased Emperor, he solemnly deposed the whole
race of Ilohen- staufen, and transferred the kingdom of Sicily and Apulia to
Prince Charles of France, Comto d’Anjou et de Provence.
There
seemed, at that moment, good reason to hope that the sentence would prove
nugatory, for Manfred’s power was increasing from day to day. Lucca, taking
alarm at her insulation as the only Guelph city in Tuscany, had concluded a
treaty with d’Anglone, the King’s Lieutenant in that duchy, or marquisate, by
which she agreed to deliver up her castle and Ghibeline prisoners tu u’m, expel
all alien Guelphs, then within her walls, and join the Ghibeline League. The
Florentine fuorusciti had now to seek safety and the means of existence
elsewhere. At the impulse of party spirit, they assisted the Guelphs of
Romagna, in subjecting that whole province to the Pope’s authority; but erelong
their destitution led them to hire out the r services to any belligerent
Italian potentate, great or small, without any regard to his political
principles; as, soon after this epoch, regular Condottieri and their bands habitually
did, throughout Italy. One of these Guelph bands has been seen offering their
arms to Conradin, for the recovery of his kingdom from Manfred ; but, whatever
distrusts the despoiled heir’s guardians might entertain of the Je facto King
of Sicily, they never were betrayed into either uniting with the bitter enemy
of the nephew, as of the uncle, against the latter, or facilitating, by a
separate attack, the Pope’s usurpation of the prize for which they contended. '
About this
time occurred an incident, which, for a moment, seemed likely to revolutionize
all existing interests. A new Roman Senator was to be elected, and a determination
that he should be of royal birth, was general; but the Ghibclines were
unluckily divided as to the individual prince; some wishing again to confer the
ofiice upon the King of Sicily, others upon his son-in-law, Don Pedro of Digitized
by Microsoft ®
Aragon, and
their disunion enabled the Guelphs to carry the election of Charles of Anjou.
Eagerly he accepted a post, which he had, most likely, under hand solicited, as
conceiving it one that would make him less dependent upon the Pope in Italy;
the very reason, for which Urban had so comprehensively covenanted against his
holding Italian offices. Charles sent a deputy in all haste to Rome, to act for
him until he himself should arrive. The pontiff was angered by this
contravention of the pending negotiations; his confidence in Charles was
shaken, and he assembled the Cardinals, to deliberate upon the measures
required by this altered position. Several Princes of the Church urged his
Holiness to break off the treaty with the rapacious French prince, to w hich
they had always felt conscientiously repugnant. But, the majority being
devoted, even more to the passions of the Pope, than to the interests of the
Papacy, the decision taken was merely, by further negotiation, to obviate the
evils apprehended from this accession of power to the future vassal-King of
Sicily.
For this
purpose, Simone, Cardinal di Sta. Cecilia, was despatched to Provence, with
instructions to insist upon Charles’s limiting his acceptance of the
senatorship to five years. Should the office be already accepted for life, he
was to exact his solemnly plighted word, under penalty of forfeiting his
promised kingdom, to lay it down when in possession of so much of the realm, as
would justify him in assuming the title of King of the Sicilies-! and to assist
the Pope in recovering his sovereign authority over the Romans. Simone was
likewise to offer Charles, in Urban's name, a dispensation from the shackles of
any oath contrary to these demands, that he rir.ght have sworn. Charles had
assuredly meant not to lose the Sicfiies for the Senatorship, but neither would
he gratuitous^- relinquish the advantages the latter gave h.m. He endeavoured
to make his compliance with the Pope’s present demands, the price of
considerable relaxation in the original terms; and still the negotiation
lingered, each party strhing to outwit the other. Urban sought to turn the
delay to account, by redoubling his epistolary efforts, to persuade Lewis IX to
assist his brother in his unjust enteiprise, and the French clergy to submit
quietly to paying large
contributions
towards the expense of a crusade against a Christian king, whom he chose to
designate as “ a Saracen, sunk in every description of vice.”
In the end,
the Cardinal abandoned the claim to the whole of Terra di Lavoro, contenting
himself, in the Pope’s name, with Benevento and its territory; and Charles
acceded to the other conditions, which, his subsequent conduct seems to indicate,
that he looked forward to observing or breaking, as should seem convenient,
when secure of his kingdom. Hut many months elapsed ere this compromise was
effected; Charles, probably, taking his chance, at least till he should himself
be ready to act, of Urban’s giving way. For this he diligently laboured :
Beatrice eagerly pawning her jewels, and coi'curr.ng in every possible measure
for raising money, how tyrannical and ruinous soever, throughout her
principality. Thus the requisite preparations proceeded with all practicable
despatch.
Manfred, on
the other hand, was striving hrrd to benefit by the time, which this diplomatic
haggling afforded him, and bought bv vigorous hostilities to extort peace from
Urban, before the Earl’s armament could be completed. With this view he had
organized, for the campaign of 12t>4, a threefold invasion of the Papal
dominions, which two armies were to enter, severally, from the eastern and the
western side of his own dominions, and a thiid from Tuscany, under Giordano d’Anglone.
The great vassals, who were still bound to assist in the defence of their
invaded country, refused indeed to cross the frontier, asserting that their
service was due only for the defence of the kingdom, and unable or unwilling to
understand that a diversion upon the enemy’s territory, might be an essen tial
part of the best system of defence. But for this refractoriness Manfred found a
remedy ; through his brother-in-law, Caserta, he borrowed from each of the
nobles the sum provided for a campaign at home, with W’hich he hired troops to
supply the place of the vassalage.
And now the
plan was put in execution. Tne second and third of the invading armies, namely
the western and the Tuscan, met with some success; but their operations were
designed to be subsidiary only to those of the first,
under
Manfred’s favour'te general, Parzivale d’Oria, wherefore a most unfortunate
accident, the consequence of this general’s kindheartedness, foiled the whole
scheme. D’Oria, marching through the Abruzzi to attack Spolcto, had crossed the
mountains and reachcd the river Neri. This stream was to be forded ; it was
passed, and, with the bulk of his forces, he was safe upon the further bank,
when he observed a single horseman in the middle of the river, evidently in
difficulty replete with danger. The chivalrous General instantly rode back in
person to his assistance, when his horse stumbled and fell in the water. Hi
those days of heavy armour such an accident has been seen all but irremediable;
and Parzivale d’Oria, unable to disengage Limself from his fallen charger, was,
like Frederic Barbarossa, drowned ere his troops could rescue him. The loss cf
their general disheartening the troops, numbers deserted ; and Maneria,
d’Oria’s successor, durst not lead a reduced and dispirited army :nto
the enemy’s country.
Charles, far
from being ready to act against these armies of his antagonist, had not, at the
moment, yet signed his treaty with the Pope ; and was, in fact, hoping:, that
Manfred’s success might frighten Urban into placability with regard to
conditions. But the indulgences promised to crusaders against Manfred had
collected an army of adventurers of all nations, though mostly French; and at
their head, Charles’s son-in-law, Karl Robert of Flanders, entered Italy.
Towards achieving the object of the Crusade, the conquest of Apulia and
Sicily, he, indeed, did little; but he acted vigorously against the Ghibelines
in northern Italy, and against the invaders of the Papal territories, until
his success was stopped by an incident unusual, though not unprecedented, in
crusading annals. (lco) These crusaders appear to have been chiefly
mercenaries,: who exnected regular pay as well as
spiritual rewards; and when tney found Urban unwilling, and Earl Robert unable,
to supply the requisite funds, they dispersed; the larger part returning home
dissatisfied.
An attempt to
wrest Rome from Charles’s deputy- Senaior, was about this time planned by
Giordano d’Anglone, and Pietro di Vico,—one of the most powerful barons of the Roman
See, who had been Manfred’s '
deputy during
his senatorship—in co-operation with the Ghibelines in the city. It failed,
from some defect either in arrangement or in punctuality. Yieo, at the head of
his vassals, effected his entrance, before cither d’Awglone had arrived to
support him, or his friends within the walls were ready to receive him. Finding
himself, therefore, with a in ire handful amidst the hostile faction, he was
glad to make his way safely out again.
Notwithstanding
these mischances, Manfred’s success was still sufficient to alarm the Pope,
whose hopes the disappearance of the crusading army had cruelly disappointed.
lie addressed vehement complaints to the Earl of Anjou and Provence, relative
to the expense of the war, and his own embarrassments, pecuniary and polit'cal;
declaring that, did the future King not arrive at the head of an army before
Michaelmas, he must adopt a different course. In addition to other annoyances,
Urban was under personal apprehensions. He dreaded, if besieged at Orvieto, to
be betrayed by the Grvietans into Manfred’s hands; and departed in haste for
Perugia, which he deemed a safer residence. Upon the road, he was taken ill,
and, upon the 2d of October, 1264, the day after his arrn al at Perugia, Urban
IV died. A comet had been visible from July till September, “with fear of
change perplexing monarchs;” and the opinion now generally adopted was, that it
bad both foreboded the death of the Pope, and proclaimed the divine
disapprobation of his rancorous persecution of tlie heroic Swabian dynasty of
Emperors; a persecution so entirely objectless since the death of Conrad IVy as
to be attributable only to personal prejudice and passion. But, prior to
finally dismissing this nnamiable, though talented Pope, the praise to which he
's en.itled must be given him. A genuine patron and lover of learning, Urban,
disregarding the strictncss of papal ceremonial, invited philosophers to his
table, making them engage in logical contests for his instruction or amusement;
and he employed Thomas Aquiuas, sur- named the Angelic Doctor, to write
commentaries upon Anstotle,(161) probably with the view of
correcting the non-Christian notions of the Heathen Sage,—whom Gre
gory IX had
vainly endeavoured to exclude from universities and schools—into litness for
the study of Christians.
Those, who
had beheld in the comet a herald of divine displeasure, flattered themselves
that a new Pope would adopt a more lenient policy; and the Conclave took four
months to decide who this new Pope should be. But fear of Manfred’s revenge for
the persecutions he had undergone, appears to have been the dominant feeling,
at least of the majority of Urban’s newly created Cardinals, mostly his
countrymen; whence their deliberations eventuated in the. triumph of the
Guelphs and the French party. Upon the 5th of February, 1265, they elected the
son—according to some, of a Toulouse lawyer, according to others,—of a
second-rate Toulouse nobleman, named Foulcaud The new Pope, not being
originally intended for the Church, had in his youth studied law at Paris;
where he so distinguished himself as a jurist, that Lewis IX made him a Privy
Councillor, and employed him in many weighty affairs. During this period he had
married very happily; but, losing his wife, the passionate depth of his grief
impelled him to abandon the world for the gloomy solitude—solitude amidst a
brotherhood !—of a Carthusian monastery. Tlr.s step naturally enhanced the
saintly monarch’s value for his former Councillor, who was not permitted to
bury his talent in a cell. He was successively raised to the dignities of
Bishop of Puy, Archbishop of Narbonne, and Cardinal of Sta. Sabina; was
employed by both the French King and the Pope upon many arduous missions, and
always found equal to his task. At the moment of his election, one of these missions
had taken him to England, where he learnt his awful exaltation.
That the
papacy in those times was a heavy burthen, none could be more thoroughly aware
than the Cardinal of Sta. Sabina. Fain would he have declined it; not in the
affected humility of the established Nolo episcopari, but honestly shrinking
from the arduous duties, the heavy responsibility, weighing upon the spiritual
Head of Christendom. And, though he did accept the fearfully lofty office,
with all those duties and respons'b:' ties, his regret
ful anxiety
in so doing, is apparent iji a letter, written by him soon afterwards to one of
his nephews, part of which may not inappropriately be here inserted. The new
Pope says: “ Whilst others are rejoicing at my elevation, I feel the immensity
of the burthen laid upon me; and what awakens joy in others, awakens in me onlj
fear and anxiety. That thou mayst know how to behave upon this occasion, I say
unto thee, be yet humbler than heretofore, for I will not suffer my family to
exult in an event that so depresses me, or to forget that the honours of this
world are transient as morning dew. Come not to me, neither thou nor any of my
relations, without my express command; for he, who should, would lind himself
disappointed, and return home crest-fallen. Seek not for thy sister a husband
above her station; only if she marries the son of an ordinary knight, will I
endow her with a portion of 300 marks; if aspire higher, ye get no penny for
her from me. Ye must live and act as if I were still a poor priest. Thou must
solicit for none; from none accept money for th) good word; for to do otherwise
would but shame thee and thy favoured petitioner.”!162)
The newly
elected Pope did not at once assume, as might be expected, the insignia of his
exalted office, and journey towards Rome, with the dignity beseeming the Head
of the Church — though not triumphantly, like Alexander HI and Innocent IV, men
of another temper— acting, from the first, in that sacred character. But lu is
said to have entertained apprehensions, according to some writers, of so
general &n indisposition to the Guelph cause, according to others of
emissaries of Manfred’s, as would render such a papal progress dangerous. Such
truculent animosity he was not disposed to encounter; and, far from setting
forth as Pope, exchanged even his cardinal's hat for the monk’s cowl: m this
lowly but still ecclesiastical garb, he travelled, until safely housed at
Perugia, which he, like Urban, preferred as a residence, for the moment, at
least, to Rome.
There he was
consecrated; and, as Clement IV, assumed the dignity and the responsibility of
a successor of St. Peter; and, simultaneously, this practical teacher of
Christian humility, adopted the ambition and the enmities
of Innocent
IV, Alexander IV, and Urban IV. Neglecting the Holy Land, where one after
another of the few remaining possessions of the Christians was daily falling
into the hands of the Mohammedans or of Idolaters, regardless of Mongol hordes
that still threatened Hungary, still harassed Poland, whilst domineering over
Russia, he devoted his time and thoughts to the destruction of Manfred. In
order to promote Charles of Anjou’s unjust enterprise, he enjoined his Legates
everywhere rigorously to exact the tenth of all ecclesiastical incomes, for
defraying the expense of a new crusade against Manfred. In France the demand
was now promptly complied with.; in other countries it was resisted; and in
Scotland, King Alexander III, with the concurrence of his clergy, excluded the
Legate sent to inforcc the exaction, from his kingdom.
That long
projected expedition w as now really begun. In February, 1265, whilst Clement
was upon his road to Italy, Charles at length agreed with Cardinal Simone
respecting the terms—in other words submitted to the conditions—upon which the
Pope would invest him with the two Sicilies. (163) Pending the
negotiation he had, by papal grants, loans, and his wife’s exertions and
sacrifices, raised a sum of money sufficient for the most urgent necessities
of his armament. He had likewise collected troops. By the promise of fiefs in
the fair South, he had lured many of his own, as of Beatrice’s vassals, to
support him in his enterprise. She had induced some nobles to declare themselves
her knights, and, in that character, undertake the adventure of winning her a
queenly crown. And, again, the prospect of easily earning spiritual indulgences,
had drawn together a considerable body of crusaders. But still Charles deemed
his numbers insufficient; and, his bargain scaled, he repaired to the French
court to try the power of a brother’s prayers, in addition to a Pope’s
remonstrances—aided, it is averred, bv liberal bribes to the whole court—upon
the mind of Lewis IX. And influence they had ; he still refused to assist in,
or sanction, the attempt upon Conradin’s heritage; but he did not prevent the
acceptance of his brother’s offers, by his knights or nobles. Charles thus
obtained verv important accession Digitized by Microsoft
of
fb"ce. According to some historians, Lewis, anxious to occupy so
dangerously ambitious a prince out of France, even supplied him with the money
he still wanted.(lw)
But still the
Earl of Anjou and Provence did not feel himself strong enough to deteat and
break through the Ghibelines of northern Italy, so as to reach Rome by the time
Urban had appointed ; whilst he was deeply impressed with the urgent need of
his yet earlier presence there, both to secure, as Senator,the fidelity of the
ever-mutable Romans, and to counteract Manfred’s unremitting efforts to achieve
his reconciliation with the Pope. He resolved therefore to proceed thither by
sea, with only an escort of about lOuO knights, leaving the army—which is
variously estimated at from 5000 horse and 25,000 foot, to 40,000 anil even
*9(0,000. men—to cross the Alps under the command of Far' Robert of Flanders,
with Gilles le Brun, Constable of France, for bis Counsellor; Guy de Montfort,
Farl Simon’s grandson, joining them soon afterwards, obtained the separate
command of the cavalry. He himself, quitting Paris upon the 5th of April,
hastened with his thousand knights to Marseilles, which city, as also Arles,
previously republics, vassals of the Empire, he had reduced to the condition of
his subjeets,(ie5) and there his fleet awaited him.
At Marseilles
ho found various pieces of undesirable intelligence. One, that an officer,
whom, as his harbinger, he had sent with a very smell troop to Rome, having
imprudently attacked the Ghibelines there, had been defeated, taken, and sent
prisoner to Apulia. Another, that Manfred was actively preparing for defence ;
raising trocps, obstructing the mouth of the Tiber, and, in Tuscany, whither he
had lately gone, winning “ golden opinions from all sorts of people,” winning even
the Guelphs to his side, by the :ustice tempered with mercy of his
government. The last and worst, was that the united Sicilian and Pisan fleets,
amounting to eighty sail, were at sea, for the purpose of intercepting his
passage, should he attempt the voyage thence to the mouth of the Tiber. For his
defence against these eighty vessels he had only twenty ; and all his friends
and counsellors dissuaded him from incurring so great a risk as the sea voyage.
But Charles knew that, whilst a rapid Digitizi d by Microsoft
land journey
was impossible, delay was pregnant with certain evils, far outweighing the
uncertain danger of inability to elude an enemy upon the broad bosom of the
Mediterranean.
He embarked
with a tan wind; by steering a very eccentric course, eluded, as he had hoped
to do, the combined fleets, and flattered himself he had escaped all the
perils with which he bad been threatened; when the prospect, was suddenly
overshadowed; a storm drove him from the projected track, dispersing his squadron,
and so shattering his own ship, that she was compelled to seek temporary
shelter with only two others, in Porto Pisano. Intelligence of his exposed
situation was quickly conveyed to Pisa, where Conte Guido Novello, who appears
to have succeeded to the Conte d’Anglone as Manfred’s Lieutenant in Tuscany,
was then stationed; and he, with his Germans, was hastening to capture his
sovereign’s worst enemy, when one of the untoward accidcnts, often baffling projects
apparently certain to succeed, prevented his thus ending the war at a blow. The
Pisans, selfishness overpowering their loyalty, closed their gates against his
egress, demanding, as the price of opening them, various privileges iind
prerogatives, which he could hardly have authority to grant. At all events, the
time lost in the discussion enabled Charles to put to sea again. Thus the ever
Ghibeline Pisa caused the destruction of the monarchs to whom she was
faithfully attached. She had ample cause to repent of her narrow policy, having
sunk, with the decline of the Ghibelines, when, by the downfall of the Swabian
Emperors, deprived of imperial support, into insignificance, the Guelph
Florence rising upon her ruins. But to Manfred, this future retribution for the
disastrous results of Pisa’s bargain driving was not to afford even prospective
atonement.
Far within
the time prefixed by Urban, as early as the 21st of May, Charles of Anjou was
in sight of Rome; and the Eternal City being then Guelph, he was met by nearly
the whole population, male and female, and escorted in procession to the
Capitol. There, with all imaginable rites and ceremonies that could enhance the
dignity of the
office, he
was installed jn his senatorship. The Pope,
uiyTtizod
rjy Jvfici < so?1
having no
confidence in the Uuelphism of the Romans, nor perhaps much in the honour of
the vassal-King selected by Popes, did not meet him; but charged a deputation
of Cardinals with the final arrangement of every prelir.. - nary to his
investure with the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and consequent coronation.
Charles’s actual presence at Rome, in possession of senatorial authority and
hourly expecting his army, procured him some modification of the terms upon
which he was to receive the grant. Clement agreed to the crown’s continuing to
be heritable in the female as well as the male line, and, should Charles leave
no children, by one of his brothers; but by no more distant relation, and
amongst Charles’s own descendants, he limited the right of collateral
succession to the fourth degree of consanguinity. But on the other hand the stipulations
concerning the money payments, on which point he most distrusted his future
vassal, were made more stringent, since, if excommunication and interdict
failed to produce the desired effect withiq six months, the kingdom was to be
ipso fucto, forfeited. Charles was likewise restrained from making treaties
with Mohammedans, heretics, or any enemies of the Church.
This treaty w
as concluded in the first week of Charles’s sojourn in Rome, but months elapsed
before it was ratified by the Pope, who saw much to displease him in the Earl’s
conduct. He was dissatisfied at his being unaccompanied by an army, and
insufficiently provided with money—which looks not as if Lewis had, from any
motive, good or bad, supplied him. He was irritated by the cool insolence displayed,
prior to the arrival of Charles himself, by his deputy Senator, in demanding,
not requesting, pecuniary supplies from the papal exchequer, found empty by Clement,and
not yet replenished; and sorely w as he offended at the presumption that
impelled Charles, notwithstanding the opposition of the proper officers, to
take up his quarters in the Lateran. The Sovereign Pontiff' is said at this
time to have repeatedly expressed a wish, that the Earl had declined an
enterprise, evidently beyond his means; but he v\ould not break with him,
though he would neither see him, nor by ratifying the treaty, commit himself.c
Whilst Charles was waiting at Home for his troops and
his
investiture, Manfred, however mortified at the twofold escape of his enemy, was
active as ever in preparing for his reception. He would not besiege him in
Rome, lest ths consequent inconveniences to the inhabitants should wholly
alienate the Romans; but he strove by repeated inroads and alarms to provoke
him to an action, or at least, to a skirmish in the field. Charles was too wary
to incur the smallest useless risk, or to fight without either necessity or
advantage. Disappointed in this, somewhat idle hope, Manfred now contented
himself with guarding the mountain passes between his dominions and the Pope’s;
arranging similar measures in regard to the Alps, wiih trusty friends in
Northern Italy ; and striving, by amicable negotiations and great liberality,
to gain new allies throughout the peninsula. Hence, a glance at the state of
Lombardy, at this time, must precede the march of the Provencal army.
At the
Eastern extremity, Venice, though interfering but little with Italian politics,
had generally favoured the Guelphs. Latterly, her attention had been nearly
absorbed by her rivalry with Genoa, ;n the Levant, and by her struggles both to
preserve her acquisitions made in the fourth Crusade, and. if not to retain all
the privileges enjoyed during the Latin eastern partnership sovereignty, at least
to participate .n those granted to Genoa. The principal part taken by Venice
in the conquest of Constantinople, her consequent intimate alliance with its
Latin Emperors, her continued possession of so many Greek territories, and even
the title s^Ill borne by the i)oge of Signore of Three Eighths of the Eastern
Empire,(l66) naturally indisposed the Greek Emperor Michael, tow
ards this powerful republic. But a short experience convinced him, that the
competition of two or more commercial states, even should one of them be
hostilely disposed towards himself, would be preferable to the monopoly cf his
subjects’ trade, enjoyed even by a friend. With respect to trade, therefore,
he, in 106.5, placed Venice and Pisa upon a level with Genoa, allowed them factories
in Constantinople, and recognised the right of \ enice to her possessions in
the Morea and the islands, subject of course to his own sovereignty. Naturally,
such an Digitized by Microsoft®
arrangement
did not interrupt the incessant affrays between the Venetian andGenoese fleets;
and this continuous warfare with the Guelph Genoa, gradually alienating Venice
from that faction, she willingly concluded a treaty with Manfred, by w hich she
engaged never to grant his enemies a passage; upon condition that Sicilian
ships should never bring Sicilian produce, cxcept to Venice, beyond a line upon
the Adriatic, marked by Ancona on one shore, and Zara on the other; nor foreign
produce even to Venice, without paying heavy duties.
Genoa,
though her professed Guelphism sufficed to make 'Venice Ghibeline, had, since
the death of Innocent IV, scarcely concerned herself with Italian politics.
What attention the citizens could spare, from strife ■with Venice and
their own mercantile affairs, was engrossed by civil, or rather civic, broils.
In 125?, Boccanegro, a noble, had, by courting the lower orders, obtained the
post of Capi- tano del I'opolo for ten years, hampered, indeed, by association
with a sort of Council, of thirty-two Anziani, selected from the different traders.
But he speedily shook off their control, possessing himself of such absolute
power, that he tyrannized over nobles, consuls, and podestas, laughed at the
decrees of the Great Council, arbitrarily disposed of offices, dictated
verdicts to the legal tribunals, and contracted alliances by his private
authority. At length the hatred, which the higher classes had long borne him,
was shared by the lower, and, in 1 2ti2, the resentment he had provoked,
proved fatal to Boccanegro. But upon his fall the feuds and broils, that his
despotism had coerced into quiescence, broke out afresh. The lowering of the
urban fortresses of nobles and wealthy merchants, which had been one of his
beneficial if despotic acts could not save the city from renewed distraction; the
Grhnaldi, on one side, contending against the Fieschi, d’Grias, and Spinolas,
on the other, until a Spinola became Capitano del Popolo, witti power similar
to Boeca- negro’s. Then followed a tiy ranny likew ise similar to his;
weariness of which, in 1265, produced a compromise between the hostile
factions, which did not prove longer lived than such compromises usually were.
Genoa, under vol. iv. 14
such
circumstances, though no friend, could hardly be callcd an enemy, to Manfred.
Strange as it
seems, after the important part played by Milanese Guelphisrn in these pages,
Manfred was not without well-grounded hopes that Milan might oppose the passage
of his enemies from Provence. A variety of cir- cumstanccs had, since Frederic
ll’s death, concurred to alter the political bias of that ambitious, and
despotic, city. The prosperous citizens, habituating themselves more and more
to wage, through hired mercenaries, the wars in whch they delighted, in 1259,
engaged Marchese Pala- vicino, as their Captain-General for five years. He,
then Lord of Cremona, and one of the most powerful Lombard nobles, brought, of
course, a respectable body of his own troops to the service of his employers.
He was still, despite the temporary aberration, provoked by anger at Ezzelino, innately
and intrinsically a Ghibeilne, and the influence he gradually acquired in the
city, gave his opinions a weight which there was now little or nothing to
counteract. Since the fall of the Romanos had disappointed the hopes of the
Milanese refugees, they had sunk into such helplessness, that the irritation of
the triumphant Guelph party had subsided. Manfred was r.o Emperor claiming
sovereignty over Lombardy; and the Popes had deeply offended Martino delia
Torre. Alexander IY had refused to sanction the election of another Torre,
Martino’s brother, to the arc’uiepiscopal see of Milan; and Urban IV had gone
further; wroth at the engagement of Palavicino, a Gliibeline, tolerant of
heretics,(l67) certainly, and a suspected Paterene, he consecrated
Otho Visconti to the see. The Visconti, whose power had long been gradually
increasing, were the only family Martino feared as rivals. One Eliprando,
having in the eleventh century been appointed Tice comes of Milan, his grandson
Guido, a.d. 1142, assumed the Italian
form of that title as his patronymic, and the Archbishop was this first
Visconti’s grandson. The Pope’s preference of a Visconti, disposing Martino to
desert a party so little grateful for his support, all prosecution of heretics
immediately ceaaed; and this retaliation of offence was visited
by
excommunication. Disputes arose, however, betwixt Martino and Palavicino as was
to be expected; nor were they extinguished by the death of the former, in 1263.
Martino was succeeded by his brother Filippo, who, strong in such an appearance
of established, hereditary sovereignty, first ventured to assume the title of
Signor Peqietuo, or Permanent Lord, of Milan. The next year l'alavicino’s term
of service expired, and Filippo dismissed him. But the installation of
Archbishop Otho, to whom all the nobles at once attached themselves, somewhat
cramping his authority, kept liis resentment agi'"ist the papacy alive;
and, in 1205, he seemed to be quite undetermined as to which side he should
take in the impending contest.
Palavicino,
after quitting the service of Milan, remained the independent Lord of several
towns in western Lombardy, and Manfred’s cordial friend. In the eastern portion,
Martino della Scala, Lord of Verona, had subjugated divers neighbouring towns,
and seemed likely both to succeed to the authority of Ezzelino, and, through
greater moderation, to hold it more securely and permanently. He likewise was a
firm ally of Manfred’s, and expelled all Guelphs from his territories. Tuscany
was, it will be remembered, i.i some measure subject to the King of Sicily.
But the
monarch bad one bitter and active enemy amongst the Italian magnates. This was
Obizzo dJEste, grandson and heir of the last Azzo, and, if hardly
more ambitious, far more ardently Guelph than his predecessor. The
grandfather’s Guelpbism, being little more than envy and hatred of the Romanos,
evaporated with their power; the grandson had married another niece of Innocent
IV?a, and liis was a fiery Guelph zeal, unallayed by the Romano blood of his
mother. In Rome, upon the 26th of August, Obizzo d’Este signed a treaty with
Charles of Anjou, by which he undertook for the passage of the Provencal army
through Lombardy; the Earl and Marquess further agreeing jointly to declare w
ar against Manfred, Palavicino, and Buoso da Doara, and pledging themselves not
to make peace separately. Obizzo prevailed upon the Marquess of Montferrat and
upon Mantua to join the alliance, as did several cities, former members of the
Lombard League.
The smaller
nobles and towns followed in the wake of their mightier neighbours.
Manfred had
sent troops to co-operate with Palavieind and Doara in the defence of the
mountain passes, which they had undertaken to guard. But, in the reigning
fami’y of Savoy, Manfred’s father-in-law and brother-in-law, Amedeo and
Bouifazio, were dead, and Conte Filippo, Amedeo’s next surviving brother, was
well pleased to see his niece, Countess Beatrice, Queen of Sicily. The Piedmontese
passes, therefore, the nearest, were open to the Provengal army, and it was not
until his troops should actually be in Italy, that Charles apprehended their encountering
opposition. And this also he flattered himself that his active negotiations,
during his seemingly inactive sojourn in Rome, had now obv'ated.
Palavicino,
an able man, saw, not only the imminent calamities, but apparently the long
enduring evils, the sad and degrading lot menacing the fair land of his birth
and his affections, from this new and utterly unjustifiable invasion of
southern Italy by the Gauls. Zealously he laboured to avert the destiny he
anticipated. He repeatedly implored King Lewis to prevent his brother’s
lawless aggression upon an excellent monarch and a happy country. He exhorted
all Italians to forget the rivalries and animosities, that might be termed
famiiy quarrels, and combine against the impending danger. He told them that,
so soon as the French should once have successfully poured down, in a
devastating torrent, from the Alps, over the fair and fertile Southern region,
their greedy appetite for its fruits and wealth, their innate, insatiable
rapacity, would stimulate the invading nation to incessant repetit ens of such
inroads. That, in lieu of the German emperors, who, though not without right to
the sovereignty they claimed, were often execrated for their intervention in
Italian affairs, the French, as full of levity as they were impetuous and
selfish, would force themselves upon Italy, a greater evil, taking the place of
a lesser; then the Germans would oppose the French, and the peninsula be either
destroyed, as the theatre of their wars, or successively, if not
simultaneously, enthralled by both. But when, in the most enlightened times,
did far-sighted, political wisdom,
obtain &
hearing amidst the clamour of faction ? Enough to say, Palavicino’s v, arniugs
fell upon deaf ears, and the Guelphs assisted the French invaders, as
determinedly as the Ghibelines prepared to resist them.
To meet
friend and foe, those invaders were now hastening. In June, of this same year,
126j, the Prove^al troops were joined by the French knights, whom Lewis had
permitted to swell the ranks of his rapacious brother. The army, thus
completed, seems to have numbered 40,000 men; “ and only, therefore,” says a
modern Italian writer, “ were they denominated an army, and not a band of
robbers.” (16S) But of these robbers, as he calls them, some were of
the highest nobility, as the Earls of Ven- dome and Suissons, Marshal de
Mirepoix, the Bishop of Auxerre, net to speak of that first of French functionaries,
the Constable ; and of these many bore crosses on their cloaks, as though they
had been .n arms to redeem the Holy Sepulchre from misbelievers, not to despoil
a Christian prince, extinguishing the Iasi hope of a helpless boy, whom their
revered monarch deemed unjustly dispossessed of his birthright.
MANFRED.
Provencal
Arms in Italy—GMbeUite Treachery—Coronation of Charles and Beatrice—Manfred’s
P'reparations—Invasion of Apulia—Treachery of Noll'es—Passage of the
Oarigliano—1 Buttle of Benevento—Fate of
Manfred-—Treatment of his Family—of Prisoners in general. [12ti5—1206.
The Provencal host of crusaders and adventurers took
its way by Savoy, and, finding the Alpine passes open, poured down into
Piedmont, without having seen a shadow of the opposition which Manfred hoped
that he had provided, At Turin, where they arrived unmolested, the Marquess of
Saluzzo did homage for his marquesate to the triumphant representative of
Charles, but whether as the Earl of Provence, or as the future King of Sicily,
who had solemnly abjured all suzerainty over, or interference with, central and
northern Italy, seems uncertain. The towns that had professed neutrality,
hastened to meet the invader’s advance, with their submission. At Asti, the
naturally Ghibeline, Marquess of Montferrat, joined them with his troops;
Vercelli was taken by storm ; the passage of the Sesia forced; and even the
Lancias, usually powerful in those parts, and of course zealous for their
royal nephew, deemed resistance in Piedmont, which one of the family had gone
thither to organize, hopeless. Upon the Ticino the invaders halted to await the
result of negotiations at Genoa and Milan.
'1 he
Provenijal envoys despatched to Genoa were commissioned, by large offers of
participation in all expected conquests, to purchase, if possible, her
co-operation. But the Genoese, whose forefathers had thus been duped, Digitized
by Microsoft ®
by Henry VI,
were unwilling to embroil themselves with either party, and returned a civil
answer, declining the proposal, but implying, if not promising neutrality; thus
relieving the dread of a formidable enemy in the rear Milan still hesitated
which side to take, the Signor 1’er- petuo and the Archbishop alternately
prevailing. During eleven days the Provencal envoys vainly awaited their
answer.
The southern
French are, avowedly, the most impetuous of the impetuous French nation. The
invaders could control their impatience no longer; and. rcckless of what Milan
might ultimately resolve, crossed the Ticino, entered upon her territory, and
advanced to the Oglio- The passage of this river, Palavieino, in concert with
Buoso da Doara, was prepared to dispute, having collected for that purpose all
the Ghibelines within reach, in addi'ior; to Manfred’s troops. He had takeu up
his position at Soncino, his right flank covered by Brescia, his left by
Cremona; and he hoped to defeat the enemy, how numerous soever, should he
attempt to force the bridge. The invaders paused, as shrinking from this step,
and Palavieino was btrong iu hope, but he had a traitor for his colleague.
Buoso da Doara is believed to have been corrupted by either the gold of
Charles—habitually employed rather to bribe enemies than to pay troops—or by
his large promises ; and he damped the spirit of enterprise, delaying every
movement, wl-'lst communicating every pro’ect to the hostile lenders. (169)
Although delay is usually the true policy of the; invaded state, the peculiar
circumstances of the case reversed this maxim. The loss of time, thus caused,
enabled the Marquess of Este and the Legate to assemble a large Guelph force at
Mantua, upon Palavicino’s flank, if not quite in his rear. The invaders,
apprised of the position of their friends, making a movement to cheir left,
crossed the Oglio a little above Soncino, where its defence was committed to
Buoso, who offered no opposition. Este advanced simultaneously; and
Palavieino, greatly outnumbered, and in danger of being surrounded, Was obliged
to shelter his troops behind the walls of Cremona. In the signory of this city,
Buoso was his
colleague;
but of his colleague’s subsequently detected treachery, he entertained no
suspicion.
The hostile
army now marched on unimpeded. To avoid the resistance that must ha\e been
encountered in Tuscany, the leaders—keeping clear of Venice—passed over to the
eastern side of Italy, where Guelph views were predominant, and the house of
Este supreme. They thus proceeded unopposed southwards, but did not reach Rome
till near Christmas. The army had, upon its march, dearly discovered its
character, and, its purpose of living upon Ttaly, or, in modem phraseology,
making the war defray itself. The troops had treated the friendly country
through which the route, for the most part, lay, as though hostile, everywhere
levying oppressive contributions, and ill-using the inhabitants, the clergy not
excepted. At Cavrioli, where the municipal authorities had executed a soldier
for some act of marauding violence, the whole population, men, women, and
children, were, in retaliation, put to the sword. On all sides complaints of
intolerable outrage resounded, and Clement addressed earnest remonstrances to
Charles, against his tolerance of a licentiousness, so unbecoming the
character of Crusaders, of Champions of the Church, or of Christians.
Remonstrances
were necessarily unavailing. To the most humane and most energetic of
commanders, the task of maintaining strict discipline amongst ill-paid troops
has always proved difficult, if not ■mpossible; and Charles of Anjou was
nearly as destitute of money, as of humanity; whilst his deputed commanders
appear equally deficient in energy and in authority—to him who was nominally supreme,
Earl Kobert, little if any power being, as before said, intrusted. Accordingly,
the ravenous Provencal adventurers and French volunteer auxiliaries contiuued
to plunder and maltreat, nut only in the Campagna. but in the Eternal City
itself, as lawlessly as elsewhere. Thus, although to Charles, involved in ever
renewed dissensions with the Pope, upon questions relative both to pecuniary
concerns and to authority in the Papal capital, the arrival of his army brought
very material support aiid alleviation of embarrassments, the relief was not
without drawbacks.
Clement waxed
more and more wroth, his reproofs and complaints more and more bitter; and the
French prince, who, moreover, knew not how long he might be able to keep his
heterogeneous host together, judged that it was time to quit Rome,—time,
notwithstanding the winter season, to prosecute his enterprise. But he likewise
judged the receiving investiture of the Sicilies from the Pope, as Lord Paramount,
indispensable, prior to invading the kingdom. Ever since his arrival, he had
been urging Clement to come to Rome and crown him, and the Holy Father evading
compliance with his entreaties, by alleging, first, his fear of the insalubrity
of Rome in summer, and, then his reluctauce to trust himself in the hands of
the Romans: he was, perhaps, yet more reluctant to incur the ridicule of
crowning a pretender, who came, apparently, singlehanded, to conquer a
kingdom. If this last, uiiavowed, objection were removed by the presence of the
army, another was created; the total want of discipline amongst the champions
of the papacy very decidedlj increasing the Pope’s reluctance to visit Rome;
which his desire for an interview with a selected vassal, whose whole conduct
had hitherto been dissatisfactory to him, could not counterbalance. He however
acknowledged the propriety of giving his public formal sanction to the
invasion, by the coronation of the chosen king; and refusing now more
pertinaciously than ever to risk a visit to Rome, amidst Crusaders and
citizens, he appointed five Cardinals as conjointly representing him, to
officiate at the ceremony. By these Cardinals, Charles and Beatrice—who had
joined him in September—were, in St. Peter’s Basilica, solemnly crowned King
and Queen of the Two Sicilies, upon the (3th of January, 1266. In gratitude for
this decisive act, the former spontaneously promised a yearly gift of 50 oz. of
gold to the Basilica of St. Peter, in addition to his yearly tribute.
It was the
end of the month, before Charles, after receiving from the Cardinals
absolution for all past sins, quitted Rome to lead his army against Manfred.
The restored amity betwixt the priestly protector and the royal protege was but
ephemeral. During the last weeks of Charles’s residence at the Lateran, as well
as upon his
14 §
subsequent
inarch to the Apulian frontier, the total want of discipline in his army,
together with bis own perfect indifference to the outrages committed by his
troops, and disregard of Clement’s complaints, remonstrances, and injunctions,
had thoroughly alienated him from the chosen champion of his predecessor. So
completely was he disgusted with Charles, that, even at the risk of seeming to
censure liis predecessor, he, upon the 2ist of February, proposed to the
consistory, as a question for discussion, whether it might not still be best to
treat with Manfred, making his solemn abjuration of heresy, the single indispensable
condition of his reconciliation with the Church and recognition as King of the
Sicilies. That this more Christian idea of the lir.e of conduct, beseeming the
spiritual Head of Christendom, even occurred to the Holy Father, may perhaps
be allowed some weight in considering the credit due to the accusations heaped
upon Manfred; that it occurred too late to be acted upon, was the King’s
misfortune, assuredly not bis fault, for never had he relaxed his endeavours to
obtain relief from excommunication. Even during his rival’s sojourn at Rome,
he had envoys at the Papal court soliciting, as a favour, a trial, and
consequent relief from, or confirmation of the anathema under wl tch he lay.
They were further commissioned to treat, if possible, with the rival in
person, and visited him at the Lateran for this purpose : but the only answer
they received from him, was: “Tell the Sultan of Nocera, that 1 shall send him
to hell or he me to heaven.”(1"0)
When Manfred
saw the many obstacles, by which he had hoped to impede the invader’s progress
through northern and central Italy, sink before Charles’s craft and skill, he
recalled his scattered troops from the Pope’s dominions, and devoted his
attention wholly to the defence of his frontier. The mountain range, which,
running from the shore of the Adriatic to the western coast, severs the kingdom
of the Two Sicilies from the territory of the Church, formed a barrier
insuperable, save in a very few places, to an army. Of these few passes two
only, those of Tagliacozzo and Ceperano, were conveniently situated for
Charles. Both of these Manfred diligently fortified, but
especially
the latter, which he i udged the most likely to be attempted. Whilst these
measures were in progress, he established his head quarters at Benevento, as a
point well suited for the general superintendence of all necessarj defensive
operations; and thither he summoned the great vassals of the kingdom, with
deputies from the provinces and towns, and the leaders of his German and Italian
mercenaries. When assembled, he is said to have harangued them; showing the
necessity of unanimity and combined exertion against the invaders, by pointing
out the consequences of their success: viz., the improbability that an usurper
should, when the monarch was overthrown, leave the subjects in quiet
possession of estates, which he must needs want for the remuneration of the
greedy adventurers, to whose swords he would be indebted for Ins conquest; an
improbability, converted into a certainty, by the invader’s own character, and
that which his army was displaying in the territories of friends ; thus ending:
“ Let us then, for our common interest, our common rights, our common honour,
manfully resist insolent injustice; let us, upon this, their first attempt,
scare away from these madly rapacious Frenchmen, and scare away for ever, the
notion that they, at their will and pleasure, can enthrall the independent
kings and states of our beautiful Italy.”
These glowing
words were answered with enthusiastic cheers; and Manfred, relying upon the
cordial co-operation of his people, dismissed the assembly, to do, each man his
own part, towards the defenc? of his country, and the repulse of the invaders.
But seldom have appearances been more delusive. Letters, emissaries, promises,
on the part of Charles, on the Pope’s, representations of Manfred’s imputed
crimes, irrdigion, usurpation, and disobedience to his liege Lord, had long
been at work amongst all classes, not least amongst the higher; and they had
not worked in vain. If in the majority of cheerers the enthusiasm was genuine,
in few only was it efficient or enduring: in too many nothing more than an
evanescent reflexion of the eloquence of passion, and in some altogether
fictitious: a mask, behind which lurked treason, self-justified by bigotry and
superstition.
Manfred had
fixed upon Capua, as the point upon which the force of the kingdom should
collect, as being a central position, whence succours could be readily sent
whithersoever needed. But very slowly the troops congregated, some through
sheer dilatory habits, some in non-appreciation of a danger that seemed remote,
as from Calabria and Sicily ; others through treachery, or the leaders’ fear of
committing themselves, in case of the worst. Nevertheless, body after body of
men gradually came in. Charles, meanwhile, was advancing by Frosinone towards
Ceperano. Manfred, however disturbed at the smallness of the army that he could
as yet bring into the field, and at his consequent Inability to encounter the
far stronger foe, was under no apprehension for that well-guarded as momentous
pass. Of the two fortresses that detended and commanded it, San Germano,
protected by mountains on one side, on the other by morasses, was abundantly
garrisoned, armed, and victualled; whilst Rocca d’Arce, if less strong by
nature, was equally well provided. The bridge over the Garigliano he had
committed, with the very flower of the Apulian army, to his uncle, Conte
Giordano Lancia, and his brother-in-law, Ricciardo Conte di Caserta, whose
large estates lay upon that frontier.
Could
arrangements be better made, commanders for the most critical post better
chosen? It is asserted that a knowledge of the King’s judicious measures,
together with the aspect of the local and physical difficulties presented by
the high piled rocks, the deep and rapid river, and the strongly guarded
bridge, shook the confidence of the adventurers. But even here had corruption
been at work. Caserta had given ear to the offers of Charles; he was in correspondence
with him, and coloured his treachery, even to himself, perhaps as to his
seducer, by professing jealousy of the warm affection subsisting between
Manfred and his sister Violante,—who for seventeen years had been Countess of
Caserta,—suspicions that theirs was not a fraternal but a criminal affection.
Had such jealousy been suspected by the accused parties or their friends, or
Manfred been conscious of giving cause for resentment, Caserta would hardly
have been selected for so important a post, or trusted, as ii will be seen he
vi as, byLancia.(l?1) But whether Digitizej b) ' toft
really
jealous, or impelled to his breach of trust solely by French gold and French
promises, Caserta certainly un dertook to open the bridge to Charles; and made
use of his superior military reputation to delude his unsuspecting colleague,
Lancia, into acquiescence in the preliminary steps.
Upon the 6th
of February, 12(3fi, Caserta represented to Lancia, that by merely guarding the
bridge they could not even weaken the enemy, whom they desired to annihilate;
that they were merely protracting the war, and, perhaps, giving Charles time to
discover some other, less securely defended, entrance into the kingdom; whilst
by suffering part of the hostile army to cross unopposed, and then falling upon
that detachcd portion, they could cut them off to a man. Lancia yielded to the
admitted strategy of a colleague, whose fidelity he dreamt not of mistrusting.
As corps after corps passed the bridge, he vehemently urged Caserta to begin
the slaughter; but for awhile was put off with the remark, that to effect their
purpose they must wait until so many should have crossed, as to make their
destruction a crippling blow to Charles. Then, when Lancia’s patience was quite
exhausted, suddenly exclaiming that the numbers on their side of the river
were an overmatch for their force, he tied with his vassals and his division of
the army. Lancia, thus deserted, felt himself so really overmatched by those
who had already crossed, that to attempt resistance would bp 'dly throwing away
the lives of men, who might elsewhere bo efficiently useful. He therefore
retreated in the best order he could, to join Manfred. Charles made no pursuit;
well satisfied to be master of this, reputed inexpugnable, pass, without the
loss of a man; and well aware, moreover, that the two fortresses must be taken
ere he advanced another step.
To these he
now directed his attention and seized Rocca d’Arce by surprise, inasmuch as,
relying upon the defence of the bridge, neither commandant nor garrison thought
precautions necesssary against an enemy, believed to be still beyond the
Garigliar.o. The command of Rocca d’Arce Charles gave to a brother of the
Pope—whose family benefited apparently by his elevation to St. Peter’s Chair,
whether with or without his concurrence—and
turned to San
Germane ; but here he paused. His proximity was now known, and his approach
prepared for. The Governor proved as inaccessible to corruption, as were his
walls to assault,, and doubt and hesitation prevailed in the l.ivader’s camp.
But fortune favoured Charles, where bribery failed him. Betwixt the Christians
and Mohammedans in the mixed garrison, dissensions had arisen from the moment
of their being shut up together; which, if they did not lessen their common
hatred and contempt tor the crusading enemies of their King, had probably much
to do with the absence of discipline, by which Charles profited. But of benefit
from their disorders, he saw little hope, since against him Christians and Mohammedans
were united. Scoffs and taunts were exchanged betwixt those who manned the
walls, and those who would fain have scaled them, and the mutual exasperation
thus produced was at its height, when some horseboys of the Provencal army were
observed by the garrison, fetching water from the immediate vicinity of the
town. A sudden unauthorized sally was made by a handful ot' men to capture
them ; the masters of the rash water-seekers saw the danger of their servants,
and hastened to protect them, whereupon more of the garrison hurried out to
support their comrades ; until gradually, on either side, considerable numbers
were engaged in the affray. In the confusion of this unpremeditated action, the
gate by which the garrison had sallied remained open and inadequately guarded.
Ven- dome noticed the neglect, and collecting a troop of bold fellows, rushed
upon the weak post, overpowered the guard, forced his way in, and whilst
holding possession of the gate, planted his banner 011 the wall directly above
it. The sight excited the besiegers as much as it dismayed the besieged. More
and more of the assailants poured in through the mastered gate, and the
struggle was now within, instead of without the walls. All advantage of
position was thus heedlessly sacrificed, and though the Apulians, especially
the Saracens, fought most resolutely, they could not, without such advantage,
stand against the enormous disparity of numbers, a garrison against an army.
Upwards of 1000 of the besieged were slain, ultimately more fled; and upon the
iOtn of February, four
days after
the passage of the Garigliano, San Germano was losfcp)
Disasters so
thoroughly unexpected spread alarm and discouragement through the kingdom. The
reputation of the French for superior valour, already a cause of apprehension,
was naturally heightened, whilst the outrages committed by the victors, similar
to those by which they had. for the moment, alienated so many Italian Guelphs,
increased the growing terror. Men, whom desperation should have nerved to stubborn
resistance, began to think of conciliating by submission; and many places, the
reputed impregnable Gaeta one, opened their gates. Wherever this was done,
Charles’s deputies received the oaths of allegiance to the vassal-King of the
Roman See, and extorted heavy contributions for his service.
But, if his
subjects wert discouraged, Manfred was not. The line of the Garigliano being
lost, he took up that of the Volturno. He improved the fortifications of Capua,
and of its bridge over this river; whilst he drew, with all practicable
despatch, fresh troops to his new central, and now most important, point. Here
there was no treason to undermine strength of position ; and Charles was
assured, both by his spies, and by the Apulian traitors, that to force the Capuan
bridge was impossible But he was, unluckily, as able a general as Manfred, and
did not attempt to take the bull by the horns. He caused the whole neighbouring
district to be explored, whilst for some days he remained quietly at San
Germano. At length, at a spot high up amidst the mountains, which the
extraordinary mildness of the winter left just accessible, by difficult tracks
rather than paths, the river was reported fordable. Upon the ljtli, Charles
received this report, and commenced his mountain march towards the ford of the
Volturno, by which he was to turn the King’s, otherwise inexpugnable, position.
When Manfred
learned this movement, at once seeing, he prepared to baffle, his enemy’s
design, by quitting Capua, and leading his army forward to Benevento, upon
Charles’s line of march. This he reached, took up a Sew position, covering the
city, and made his arrangements for receiving the invaders. He had time to
complete them;
for the
circuitous march proved yet more difficult of execution than was anticipated.
The path, which in summer might have presented few obstacles, in the month of
February was just not impracticable. The way led amongst and over mountains, by
nearly impassable tracks, through a barren, thinly inhabited district,
affording food, at this season of the year, neither for man nor for beast.
Gradually all baggage was left behind; Charles lost his horses, some literally
starved to death for want of forage, others killed for food by his
half-famished soldiers. Nor could the weary, hungry troops at night find
shelter; but, during almost the whole of this eleven-days’ march, slept in the
open air, upon the bare ground. Had not fortune again favoured Charles iu the
unwonted soft temperature of this month of February, of 1266, Manfred would
have had little to apprehend from the hostile army at the end of its mountain
march.(173)
As it was,
when, upon the 26th of February, the invaders, after fatigues and hardships
scarcely to be endured, reached, about noon, the brow of the last ridge, and
looked down upon the plain of Hcnevento, which, amidst plenty and comfort, they
thought to cross, they beheld the Sicilian army awaiting them m battle-array.
Vehement dissensions now arose, amongst the Provenoal and French leaders, as to
the expediency of instantly attacking, or of affording rest to men and horses,
by deferring the action until the morrow. Those, who advocated delay, urged the
folly of leading troops, fuint with hunger aiid fatigue, against a fresh,
well-fed army, evidently far more numerous than they had been taught to expect.
Their opponents replied, that if less weary on the morrow, the men would be
more hungry, since they had breakfasted this morning, but had neither victuals
left, nor means of procuring any; and the Constable Le Brun, who--an honest
bigot, perhaps the only one in the army—really deemed himself the champion of
the Church, exclaimed: “Were I here alone, I would on the instant attack them,
in the name of the Holy Christian Church; and in that name should assuredly
conquer !”
The boldness
of this extravagant fanaticism called forth an answering enthusiastic burst;
and Charles, seizing the
& 5 6
opportunity,
is reported to have thus addressed his council of leaders^174) “The
long wished for day of battle has at last dawned, and we must now conquer or
die! Only because we are conquerors, do the towns and states of Italy receive
us with any show of respect; should we ever be defeated, their ingrained hatred
and wonted fickleness would break out anew, and not one of us escape open
attack or secret snares ; not one of us ever again behold his distant home.
Better to die in battle, honourably and together, than miserably, singly, in
disgraceful flight. Fear not your foes ! At Ceperano, where a handful might
have withstood myriads, they fled like cowards; why should thej be bolder now ?
You arc of a race whose renown for valour fills the world with dread; oar
enemies are of different blood and country. We fight, as good Christians, in a
hallowed cause, and blessed by the Church ; they are of other creeds, bowed
down to the earth by the weight of their guilt, and doomed to eternal perdition.”
Having thus spoken, Charles gave directions touching the order of battle, and
conferred knighthood upon several aspirants to its honours, upon some in
recompense of past achievements, upon others as a spur to new’ ones. Then the
Bishop of Auxerre, as Legate, solemnly granted the whole army absolution of
their sins prospectively, or contingently, that is to say, when they shouid
have expiated them according to his injunction, by gaining a complete victory
over the enemy of the Church.
Similar
dissensions as to attacking or awaiting attack were held in the royal camp,
upon the invader’s appearing in sight. Some objected to giving battle before
the junction ot the reinforcements, daily expected out of Sicily and Calabria,
and even then to fighting an enemy who must needs die of hunger, if he cou’ I
be detained for a few days where he was. Others judged that to cut hungry,
weary, sickly troops to pieces would be child’s play; and to endure the
devastation of their native land for another day, disgraceful. But it is
alleged that such arguments weighed little in the deliberation; the advice to
engage or to procrastinate being mainly determined by the private designs of
the several speakers; by their fidelity to King and country, or their
contemplated 'reachery. Some per. Digitized by Microsoft ®
sons amongst
the latter seem scarcely to have disguised their criminal intentions, since
they are said to have insolently taunted Manfred with being governed by an
astrologer :(175) declaring that they held it a more imperative
duty to protect their own domains, vassals, and families, than to share in
calamities caused by the King’s perverse policy, and disobedience to the Iloly
See; some even telling the monarch that he had better give up the contest and
fly.
Deeply must
Manfred have felt this disloyalty, in which he could hardly fail to dee the
fruit of his imperfect title to the crown ; of his one unjustifiable, if venial
act, accepting the b ■ thright of his infant nephew. But whatever he
felt, manfully and royally he answered: “ Rather may I die here, as befits a
King, than wander, a beggarly fugitive, through foreign landsAnd if, amongst
his counsellors, were found too many evil disposed, others there were more
worthy of their gallant Sovereign. The Laucias, the Roman, Tebaldo di Annibale,
with a few congenial spirits, stood forward, exclaiming: “ Lord King, th}’ life
is our life, thy safety our safety. Without thee, nought but infamy and misery
await us. For thee will we fight, and this very hour conquer or die 1”
Enkindled by their honest zeal, many re-echoed the cry. as did the fugitives
from San Germano and Ceperano, who felt that they had a blot to efface from
their names. And thus, by a burst of sentiment, rather than upon any grounds of
strategy or policy, did those, whose interest almost invariably dictates
avoidance of a pitched battle and w'earying out the enemy; namely the invaded,
resolve to engage at once.
Manfred has
been much blamed for assenting to this injudicious resolution; and very
possibly, disgust at the perfidy he discovered around him, niav have given impatience
to have his fate decided, the ascendency over his prudence, or he might fear
that delay would give time for such desertion, as must dishearten the whole
nation. According to contemporary chroniclers, having- so assented, he thus, in
a sort of counterpart of Charles’s bombast,(176) encouraged his
troops: “ At length our enemies are before us, but where are their renowned
strength and beauty? How small and poor are their horses!
How easy must
victory bp, provided we leave them not time to gain life and vigour in our fair
and fertile land! Only the first attack of the French is impetuous and formidable
; when they unexpectedly encounter steady resistance, their foolhardy temerity
soon gives place to incredible cowardice. And we—let us, as a worthy posterity,
recollect the deeds of our progenitors ! We, whose ancestors so often
vanquished the Gauls,(177) can we fear them as adversaries? We,
hitherto free and independent, shall we bow down our necks to their tyranny ?
Shall we prolong a degraded existence with the alms of strangers? Compared with
such life, death were a gain; and manf ully will we wrest victory from them, or
find liberty in death F
Respecting
the numbers on cither side, there seems to be no authentic account. Manfred’s
were computed by the French, ard by Guelph writers, who,to enhancetheir victory,
of course made the most of them, at 5000 horse, and 10,000 Saracen archers;
infantry, besides these Saracens, is not named in any statement of the
composition of the army, though mention of infantry, apparently distinct from
them, occurs in the description of the engagement. The cavalry, whatever the
amount, Manfred divided into three battles, as such bodies were then called.
The first, consisted of his Germans, in whose fidelity he had full confidence,
and in whose ranks fought, it is said, as a friend and kinsman, his father’s
godson—the future Emperor,—Rudolph of Habsburg :(m) which, if true,
is some presumption that the circumstances, leading to Manfred’s acceptance of
his nephew’s crown, were generally thought much tc palliate the deed; since Rudolph
as pious as he M as chivalrous, would harldly, upon his return from an
expiatory crusade against the Prussians, have volunteered offending the Pope,
by such support to the treacherous despoiler of his godfather’s lawful heir.
The command of this body Manfred gave to his uncle, Galvano Lancia. The second,
comprising the Lombard and Tuscan Ghibelines was under his uncle Giordano, who
was on fire to redeem the shame of having been so unfortunately duped upon the
Garigliano. Apulians and Saracens composed the third, at whose, head the King
placed himself. The Saracen archers, and
whatever more
infantry he had, seem to have been apportioned amongst these three bodies of
cavalry.
The highest
Ghibeline estimate of Charles’s army at this date, does not exceed 30,000 men,
and this is generally thought an exaggeration ; but the Guelph accounts, that
reduce it lowest, (179) still make the numbers very superior to
Manfred’s. This army likewise was divided into three, if not four battles; the
first consisting of French horse under the Marechal de Mirepoix ; the second,
of Provencal horse, under Guy de Montfort; the third, of Flemings, Brabaiifons,
Picards, and Savoyards, under Earl Robert and his military tutor, the Constable
Le Brun; —their delegated supreme command of course ceasing when they joined
its delegator, Charles. The fourth battle, or detached corps, if too
inconsiderable for the former name, although to this body some Italian writers
give the chief, if not the whole credit of the victory,(lh0) was formed
solely of 400 Tuscans; those Florentine fuo- rusciti, who—if become a
Conchttiere band—were, as such, now fighting for the cause they naturally
supported, and were commanded by their natural leader, Conte Guido Guerra. The
infantry, from the great loss of horses, unusually numerous and important, was
distributed amongst the three battles.
Yet after all
this circumstantial detail of deliberation on both sides, of concurrent
decision by both to engage on the instant, and of consequent arrangements, the
same authorities make the fatal action, like that which resulted in the capture
of San Germano, altogether the work of aocident.(181) The French
light infantry appear, whilst awaiting their orders, to have indulged their
hatred and contempt for Mohammedans, by volunteering, as a pastime, an
onslaught upon the Saracen archers. The Saracens, excited by the advance of
the foe, equally without orders, hastened to meet them ; and, being first-rate
marksmen, their arrows wrought such havoc amongst the assailants, as thiew
them into confusion. Mirepoix saw the disarray and danger of his own infantry,
and still without orders from Charles, led his horse to their protection. The
archers’ shafts were powerless against plate or chain
armour, and
the Saracens, in their turn, were giving way in disorder before a charge, then
generally esteemed irresistible, when Galvano Lancia observed the state of
affairs, and, again without orders, galloped forward with his Germans to
encounter the French cavalry, and avert imminent destruction from the archer*;.
This was the fourth spontaneous attack, and, like two of its predecessors, was
temporarily successful. Both French and Germans were hrave and practised
knights, but the Germans were better equipped, and both men and horses in
better condition, than their antagonists. The victory seemed already theirs,
when Charles himself took part in the combat. W1 List about to assail Manfred’s
own corps with the Provencal division, he saw- the French chivalry, upon whom,
himself a Frenchman, he had mainly relied, all but defeated, (’hanging his
purpose, he flew with the Provenyaux to their support. But even this
reinforcement was insufficient to turn the scale in their favour; the Germans
were still victorious, when Charles, no scrupulous observer of the law's of
knightly etiquette, gave orders to kill the horses.(’*2) This
unprecedented behest was obeyed; numbers of Germans fell with their slain
steeds; and could not, burthened as they Mere with armour, extricate themselves
from beneath the dead or wounded animals.
Victory now
as manifestly inclined to Charles, as previously to Manfred, who, in his turn,
prepared to afford his personal aid. He was issuing preliminary orders for his
whole force to bear down upon the point, where the Germans were unhorsed by
the unehivalrous proceeding of the enemy, when he noticed, it is said, another
of their divisions approaching the scene of action, and asked : “ Who are
those, so superior in horses and in armour?” He was told, the Tuscan Guelphs,
who had juined the Provencal army in Lombardy; and exclaimed : “ Laudable
fidelity ! But where are the Tuscan Ghibelines, whom I have so strenuously
supported with purse and blood ?(,S3) Why do they not render me the
like service?” The reported question and remarks—little consonant with one
third of his army’s consisting of those upbraided Ghibelines—rest upon Guelph
authority. So do the reported rejoinder: “ We see Ghibelines, too, in the
enemy’s ranks;” and the
King’s
reproachful ejaculation : “ Faithless ingrates ! They think thus, whoever be
the victor, to secure themselves!” It is more certain, that, with his division,
Manfred now rushed upon the enemy. '
The weak and
weary French horse were broken by the charge, and this seasonable succour by
clearing the ground, enabled the fallen Germans to rise. The struggle was
renewed, and again the fortune of the day fluctuated. Impatiently, Manfred
expected the supporting charge of the remainder of his army, w hich he had
ordered. But for this critical moment had the traitorous or cowardly Apulian
Barons waited, to make their treason decisive ; and suddenly one of Manfred’s
knights cried : “ Oh ! see, see, Lord King ! What a body of your troops are
passing over to the enemy ! Oh ■ what numbers are deserting like traitors
!” As Manfred turned to look, the royal cognisance, a silver eagle that adorned
his helmet, fell on to the pommel of h:s saddle, and the enlightened Manfred
was startled by the accident as ominous. Mournfully he said: “ This is a
warning trom God. Securely as with my own hands I had fastened on the eagle, it
could not have fallen naturally.”('-4) Then turning to an elderly
warlike noble, named Occursio, who had been chief cup-bearer to Frederic II, he
asked counsel of him, in the name of his duty to the deceased Emperor. Angrily
as sadly, Occursio replied: “ It is too late for counsel to avail. Where are
now your fidlers and rhy mesters, that you loved better than knights or
soldiers? Call them! Let them try if Charles will dance to their music! But your
life, Lord King, I will redeem with my own!” So saying, he snatched up the
fallen eagle, affixed it to his own helmet, and galloped into the thickest of
the fight, to be slain for the King. Sluin Occursio was, but his object was not
thus accomplished. Manfred, surrounded by treason and discontent, felt that for
him life was not worth preserving; the general’s part was over; a soldier’s
death, all that remained. He likewise, followed only by the Roman, Tebaldo di
Annibale, galloped into the thickest of the fight, and was seen no more— alive.
The struggle
had ceased; the victor}7, the kingdom, were the Earl of Anjou’s. Of
Manfred's best and bravest Digitized by Microsoft ®
warriors,
3000 lay dead upon the field ; whilst, according to some authorities, the victors
lost but one man.(1S5) An account not easily reconciled with the
havoc wrought at the first onset by the Saracen archers. Amongst the slain some
writers name Frederic of Antioch; whom others state to have died suddenly, soon
after Manfred's coronation, and this is virtually confirmed by the anonymous
continuator of Jamsilla’s Chronicle; who speaks of Frederic of Antioch’s son,
Conrad, Conte d’Alba, as already fatherless, when appointed by Manfred Captain
of the March. Amongst the prisoners vere at least two Lancias, Giordano and
Bartolommeo, one of the Uberti, and numbers of gallant nobles from all parts
of Italy. But amongst them Manfred was not. Neither had he been found amongst
the slain; and Charles seems to nave felt his victory incomplete, even his
final success still uncertain, if Manfred were alive and at liberty. Hence,
possibly, his gloomy answer to the congratulations thronging around him; to
wit: “To the valiant a w'orld seems little; what is it then to conquer one
man?”
For nearly
two days, the fate of the King remained shrouded in mystery. Towards the close
of the second, the captive Lancias, who had secretly cherished a hope that
their royal nephew might have escaped, suddenly recognised his charger, ridden
by a trooper of Picardy. Anxiously they stopped him, to inquire bow he had got
the horse, and what he knew of its rider in the battle. The man replied: “
During the beat of the battle that knight, with a single companion, burst into
our squadron, loudly calking his countrymen to follow him. Had they done so
and fought like him, in good sooth I tell you, the victory had been yours. But
they came not at his call; iny spear w ounded his horse; and rearing, it fell
back upon the rider, whom my comrades slew and plundered, as he lay unable to
defend himself. The steed and this belt were my share of the booty.fu
The dialogue,
importing the death of the still dreaded Manfred, had drawn the attention of
the victors; and numbers eagerly followed the Picard, to the site of the
adventure he had described. There lay two corses, completely stripped. The
exulting conquerors flung that,
which the
Picard pointed out as the rider of his steed, across an ass, and, as they drove
the animal before them, one of them, in savage insolence of exultation, set up
a cry of “ Who’ll buy Manfred ? Who’ll buy Manfred? ” But a French baron, who
had joined the party, chastised him on the spot, and the body, without further
insult, was borne to the presence of Charles. When laid down, two mortal wounds
appeared in the head and breast; and the Sicilian vassals, prisoners and
traitors alike, were summoned, to say whether in this corse they recognised
their King. A melancholy affirmative was the general answer; whilst Giordano
Lancia, sobbing out, “ Oh my dear Lord and King,” (188) covered his
face with his hands, and burst into a passion of tears, that awakened
reverential sympathy in the French chivalry; who could not, perhaps would not,
conceal their disgust, at the heartless indifference with which Caserta
identified the slain brother in-iaw, whom he had betrayed to destruction.
The French
knights now surrounded Charles with urgent, petitions, to inter the gallant
monarch with the rites and ceremonies due to his high station and character;
but he coldly answered, that an excommunicated man could neither be borne to
the grave with Christian rites, nor lie in consecrated ground. By those who had
loved and honoured him, therefore, was Manfred obscurely buried, at the foot of
a bridge over the Calore, beside the battle field. The last class, those who
honoured him, included well nigh the whole French army. The soldiers were
indignant at seeing the valiafrt King, their heroic foe, consigned to an
outcast's grave, and they heaped stones over his lowly resting place; whilst
the native peasantry, whom he had protected from feudal oppression, planted
rose-bushes around it, until the spot gained the name of the Rock, or Field, of
roses.(187) Are not such regrets Manfred’s best vindication from
Guelph accusations ? The honours thus spontaneously paid to the dead victim of
papal inveteracy, exasperated his old rebel and enemy,, the Archbishop of
Cosenza. He declared that the excommunicated tvrant must not repose within his
usurped kingdom, desecrating the property of the Church; and ordered the corse
to be exhumed and re-bm-ied just beyond the frontier.
The second
grave was situated in a remote, narrow glen, near a lonely mill; hut, even in
that rude and sequestered mountain ravine, tradition dwelt, and even to the
present day, as is reported, still dwells, upon the wisdom, the beauty, and the
misfortunes of il Re Manfredi.
To
return to the field, and the day of battle. The Sicilian fugitives sought
shelter in Benevento, but finding none. For Benevento, trusting that the
Champion of the Church, came as a friend, to take pacific possession, for the
Pope, of the principality he had ceded to the Roman See, threw open her gates
to the victor, whom her clergy hurried forth, to meet, in procession, and
congratulate upon his victory. But the Champion of the Church gave up
Benevento, the acknowledged property of his protector, to be sacked for a week,
and looked calmly on, whilst, during an hole week, Church Crusaders revelled
unchecked in robbery, murder, and atrocities of every kind. These flagitious
deeds are recorded in a letter from Clement IV, which might almost be the
answer to Charles’s announcement of his victory. The Pope, after reproachfully
observing, that the joy, inspired by the victory at Benevento, was suddenly
troubled by the continuous sacking of the city, thus rebukes the conqueror, his
chosen vassal: “Ye have spared neither ecclesiastical nor lay property, neither
statiun, age, nor sex! Crusaders, especially bound to protect churches and
cloisters, have stormed and plundered them, have burnt the efligies of saints,
and perpetrated the last outrage upon virgins consecrated to God. And these
horrible crimes, of all descriptions, robbery, murder, sacrilege, were not the
mere outbreak of violence in the intoxication of battle and of victory; they
were continuously committed, for eight whole days, under thine own eyes, and
not a step vias taken to repress them. Yea, it is averred that these things w
ere of set purpose connived at, because the city was the Pope’s property, not
the King’s. Of a truth, never did the Emperor Frederic II, as the enemy of the
Church, act so nefariously.” Who can chuse but rejoice, at even this small
degree of commending “ the ingredients of the poisoned chalice, to ” the papal
“lips,” though wishing that the airy chalice had been more poisoned, and the
lips those of Clement’s more guilty prede- vol, lv. Digitized by Mici 15
cessor? The
contents heel thus been tasted not vicariously, but by the individual
concoctorof the dose, though to him, perhaps, the pain had been less.
The fate of
the royal family of Sicily mty be briefly told. Queen Helena, with her children
and her sister-in- law, Anna, the widow of Vatazes—who, upon his death, had
sought her brother's protection—had been sent during the campaign to Luceria,
as the place of greatest security. The news of her consort’s death threw Helena
into a death-like swoon, and returning consciousness discovered to her the
desertion of courtiers ar.d servants, who— “ summer friends ” indeed !—had
hurried away to tender their submission to the dreaded conqueror. But
altogether forsaken the unhappy widow' and orphans w ere not. A loyal citizen
of Trani, Munualdu by name, chanced to be at Luceria with his wife AmundiUa,
and they took charge of the slain monarch’s desolate family. Deciding that the
only safe asylum for them was the court of Helena’s father, for which they must
embark at Trani, they sent to another worthy citizen of that town, to provide a
vessel for the sad fugitives, against their arrival. This was done; but
contrary winds so long prevented their sailing, that it was thought prudent to
forestall a discovery, in perhaps hostile temper, by placing confidence in the
Governor of the castle. Here again Helena found the appearance at least of
honest loyalty; the Governor received his slain King’s widow, children and
sister, with due respect, and pledged himself to insure their escape. Eat still
adverse winds prevailed; to leave the harbour was still an impossibility; and
meanwhile a rumour of the whereabouts, as of the purposed flight of the royal
family, stole ahroad. Some of the Mendicant Friars w ho had long been
obediently employed in stirring up rebellion against Manfred in every part of
the kingdom, hastened to Trani to prevent the escape of those, who might
hereafter become rivals to the Pope’s King. The Governor’s loyalty was not
proof against the art with which they worked upon his piety, and liis fears. He
now detained his helpless royal guests; and, upon the fith of March, delivered
them up to the new King’s messengers. The Champion of the Church, bearing a
cross upon his shoulder in testimony of transcendent Christianity,
forthwith
incarcerated the two widows, and the four orphans^168) in the
CasteUo dell’ Uovo, at Naples, where the bereaved Queen is known to have
presently sunk under her sorrows, though the precise date of her decease is uncertain.
She left her children and her imperial sister-in- law to pine in hopeless
captivity.
The
captive nobles, prisoners, Charles sent to his French dominions, where they
were thrown into dungeons, and treated with the utmost barbarity, whilst the
confiscation of their property deprived them of all hope of ransoming themselves.
At length, driven to despair, they rose upon their jailers, overpowered them,
broke out of prison, and fled. But, in France, they had no friends to aid or
shelter them, and by far the greater number were retaken. Either in punishment
of this attempt at escape, or to prevent its repetition, Charles, declaring
that their lives were forfeited at theii original capture, being taken in open
rebellion, ordered their eyes to be put out, and of each a hand and foot to be
cut off. From this state of misery the mangled vict'ms speedily, if sinfully,
effected tlieir escape. They refused ali nutriment, and starved themselves to
death. Of these wretched suicides, Bartolommeo Lancia was certainly one;
whether Giordano was, or was not, seems doubtful; in fact, some strange
confusion seems to exist upon this subject— Giordano is said to have again appeared
upon the political stage,, and to have been taunted by Charles as a prison-
breaker. On the other hand, it is said, that when Galvano and Federigo Lancia,
from Terracina, where they had found refuge after the fatal defeat, concluded a
treaty with a Marshal of Charles’s, who guaranteed their lives, Charles refused
to ralify it, because Galvano was a fugitive from his French prison. Now this
treaty, and Charles’s refusal to be bound by it, are facts established by a
letter, in Martene’s Collection, from Clement IV to Charles, rebuking him
sharply for various acts of tyranny, especially for his non-observance of this
treaty. That historians have evidently confounded one brother with the other,
is obvious, since the capitulation of Federigo and Galvano must needs have been
long prior to the prison-breaking in Provence or Anjou. The probability is,
that Giordano was one of the wretched suicides in Charles’s dungeons, Digitized
by Microsoft ® "
although it
is possible that some of the prison-breakers, and he for one, might escape
their pursuers.
Clement
appears to have well judged his protego’s motive, in allowing his Crusaders to
glut their rapacity and brutality upon Jienevento; for Capua, that likewise
opened its gates, hut in fear only, not in even professed loyalty, seems to
have suffered nothing of the kind. Naples followed the example of Capua, and
into this-, capital of the continental portion of the kingdom Chailes,
accompanied by Beatrice, made a ceremoniously triumphal entry. The keys of the
citv were presented to the conqueror by Francesco di Roffredo, with a
harangue—in French !(189).—and che whole kingdom, on both sides of
the Faro, without striking a second blow, without an attempt at dcfence,
submitted.
One exception
to the general, dastardly non-resistance there, however, was, in the person of
Manfred’s Grand- Admiral, Filippo Chir.anJi,—who so unhappily missed Charles
upon his passage—and his undeviating fidelity met with a return as cruel, as it
was unexpected. Chi- nardi thought to rescue his sovereign’s fleet from the
usurper’s grasp, and secure, for the royal children, the Greek domains that
Helena had brought Manfred as her portion, by at once making sail for Epirus.
There, the Queen’s father, Michael, received him with the warmest expressions
of gratitude., for such loyal exertions in behalf of his bereaved daughter and
grandchildren; giving him, in acknowledgment, a sister of his own wife in
marriage. But, having thus lulled him into perfect security, he caused his new
brother-in-law to be assassinated, thinking that his taking possession of'-.is
widowed daughter’s portion, and his slain son-in-law’s fleet, would then be
unopposed. It is some consolation to add to the relation of such sickening
perfidy, that this heartlessly selfish traitor did not gain the prize that had
tempted him. The Italian commanders on shore surrendered the province they
could not save for the right owners, to the Emperor Baldwin (if the continuator
of Ville-Hardouin may be relied upon), and those at sea, preferring the
declared foe to the false friend, acknowledged Charles.
'ihe
meanness, with which Apulians and Sicilians offered
psgiuzea
>y * w
their necks
to the yoke, Muratori would fain attribute to hatred, provoked by the cruelties
of Frederic and Conrad, and inherited by Manfred; but he Admits that fear of
French prowess, hope of favour from the conqueror, and love of change,
contributed their share. The French chivalry were disgusted; and the French
chroniclcr of Charles’s conquest writes: “It is the habit and nature of the
people of this country, that when need is, no reliance car. be placed upon
them, and that they would have a new master every day.”(l9'J)
Strange, that the nation should have retained this character even to the
present day, notwithstanding the lesson Charles gave them, and the early,
bitter repentance, of their fickleness, attested, even by Guelph writers, that
the said lesson produced.(191) Adulation and meanness were
unavailing, alike to the nation at large, and to the individual officers in
authority under Manfred. These last were, almost to a man, dismissed, and their
places tilled, either by indigent as rapacious French and Provencal
adventurers, often of the lowest grade— appointed, not like Frederic IPs
low-born officers, for talent, but because tyranny frequently prefers, as
instruments, those who, save as its creatures, are nothing—or by such
Sicilians, as Caserta and others, whose treason to their native, freely chosen
sovereign had previously secured its recompense.
The words, almost
to a man, weid advisedly used, for one of those officers Charles retained. This
was GezeKno di Marra, Grand Chamberlain, with whose financial skill and
knowledge he could not for the moment dispense, and who, :f not one
of the previous traitors, very promptly declared his willingness to surrender
his late sovereign’s treasure to bis sovereign’s conqueror. The treasure was so
considerable,—Manfred having carefully provided the means of carry'ng on a
prolonged war against inveterate enmity and actual invasion—that, when
surrendered, it dazzled the eyes of the avaricious Charles. The better to gloat
over such riches_, he ordered the coffcrs of money to be emptied out on to the
floor, in the presence of himself, his Queen, and several knights; one of whom
he desired to take scales and weigh the gold. But the good knight, Sir Huaues
de Yaux, with a proper chivalrous Digitized by Microsoft ®>
disdain of
Mammon and Mammon-worshippers, cried: “What have I to do with weighing your
gold!” Then, kicking it into three heaps, he resumed: “ There! you can take one
parcel, jour Queen another, and your knights the third.” The disrespect of this
answer Charles certainly did not punish, accepting, it may be presumed, de
Vaux’s satisfactory principle of division as compensation ; but, whether he
revv arded the bold speaker with the county of Avc’u no, is a disputed point,
being asserted by some historians, and denied by others.
RICHARP.
Affairs of Germany—of Austria—of Thuringia—Spirit uf
Confederation—Position, of Conradm—Affairs of Italy—of Lombardy—Fate of
Enzio—Affairs of Florence— Charles’s Tyranny—Ambition—Makonteats invite
Conradin— Con- radin in Lombardy—Deserted hj German Belatums—Preparations of
Charles. [ 1266—1267.
In Germany,
during the whole period of Manfred’s reign, the state of anarchy described as
prevalent at the time of his election, had been continuous. The strong
oppressed the weak, princes and nobles were at war with each other; and the
strangely arbitrary acts in which they were able to indulge themselves may be
judged from a single instance. In 1259, Conrad von Hochstaden, the already
mentioned Archbishop of Cologne, without a shadow of pretext, se’zed a sou of
Abel King of Denmark—on his way home from studying at the Paris
University—thus to extort a ransom, so enormous, that the raising it, provoked
a rebellion in Denmark, ultimately causing the murder of the king, and the
accession of his brother Christopher. To heighten the confusion, the
archbishops and bishops were for the most part at feud with their chapters;
which chapters, when vacancies occurred, usually contributed tlieir quota to
the general distraction, by double elections. Why Alexander IV and Urban IV did
not take the opportunity offered them, of confirming, by exercising, the supremacy
that Innocent IV had claimed over the Empire, and decide between the rival
sovereigns elect, neither of whom was in a position to excite apprehension of
his power as emperor, is a mystery. Some writers suggest, ,hat Richard, who was
held to Digitized by Microsoft ®
be the more
lawfully elected of the two, had offended the Popes by declining to plead his
cause before their tribunal ; but the probability seems to be, that they
thought to derive more advantage fiom the anarchy of the Empire, than fronx such
an exercise of authority. Certainly they, like Clement IV, indefinitely
postponed the task of deciding ; and thus, in fact, sanctioned the German
princes in withholding obedience. They thus neutralized all Richard’s best
efforts to restore order, and obliged him rather to augment the evil he wished
to remedy, by reducing him to the necessity of courting the powerful, at the
expense of the weaker, vassals.
When, in
1264, Richard was recalled to England by his brother Henry, to assist him
against the angry Barons, and with him taken prisoner at the battla of Lewes,
the Dukes of Bavaria deemed the opportunity favourable for bringing forward the
claims of their nephew, then a fine boy about twelve years old, to his
ancestors’ throne. It has been thought that the great vassals, even the
Ghibelines, were unwilling to make any change in a government, to them
perfectly satisfactory, by two emperors, the one fast- bound in Spain, the
other a prisoner in England.(192) But their conduct need not be
imputed to fear of control by a boy-emperor, for, why should they brave
excommunication, merely to seat a nearly friendless youth upon his forefathers’
throne? And with threats of such sentence Urban inforced his prohibition of a
new election; Richard’s captivity, ho asserted, not :mpairing his
right to the crown, if he had any, and still less Alfonso’s. To this general
prohibition he added one more specific and yet more imperative against ever,
under any circumstances, electing Conradin ; against even granting him his
patrimonial fiefs; in a sort of circular Philippic, addressed to all the German
Princes, he treats the young representative of the house of Swabia, as the heir
only to the crimes and anathemas of his race The Pope added a vehement
reprimand to Eberhard. Truchsess von Waldburg, Bishop of Constance —with whom
the scheme of then advancing Conradin’s claim appears to have originated—for
defending the interests of the persecuted orphan in Swabia, as hereditary
Duke. Conradin’s uncles quietly subm'tted, and the
anarchy was
merely a little heightened during Richard’s fifteen months’ captivity. In
10,65, the King of the Romans recovered his liberty; and visited Germany, as
before. Alfonso, as before, remained in Castile, exercising such acts of
sovereignty as, at that distance, he conveniently could; for instance, at
Toledo he gave the Duke of Upper Lorrain investiture of his duchy—now the only
duchy of Lorrain—and received his homage; but the Duke stipulated that, if
Alfonso did not appear in Germany, as King of ths Romans, or Emperor, within
two years, his homage should be null.
To detail the
condition of Germany with respect to feuds, even as succinctly as heretofore,
were needlessly tedious; that condition is no longer essential to the appreciation
of individual Emperors; whilst the state of society is fully pourtrayed, when
said to continue what these pages have depicted. But a few words touching two
of ths feuds, with which the reader is already acquainted, may not be
unseasonable.
In Bohemia,
Ottocar had succeeded to his father, and continued, for a while, at war with
the King of Hungary and the Duke of Bavaria. But at length, finding peace indispensable
to him, he negotiated with his most formidable enemy, his western neighbour,
who, obtaining the restoration of the originally ceded provinces upon the Ens,
acknowledged hitn as Duke of Austria. Bela IV, upon whose eastern frontier, as
upon Poland’s, the Mongols again hung so threateningly, that w estern Germany
awoke from her dreain of security, seemed little iu condition for vigorous
hostility. Nevertheless, he refused to acquiesce in the King of Bohemia’s
acquisition of Austria, without obtaining, like Duke Lewis, some share of the
spoils. Whilst the Archbishop of Mainz was labouring, if not, as might be
expected, to arouse his fellow-princes to arm for the common defence, yet, by
processions and other religious ceremonies, to avert a calamity so frightful
as subjugation, or destruction, by savages ; Bela, regardless of the impending
danger, and the horrors which he knew from experience, thought only of
enlarging his menaced dominions by wresting Styria from Ottocar. This war was
marked by all the cruelty, but too often commemorated in
these pages:
the Czechs being represented as worthy rivals therein of the Mongols. Though
professedly Christians, they, like them, desecrated churches by the massacre
of those who hud hoped protection from the sanctity of the altar; and, upon
one occasion, are reported to have carried babies, dragged by the feet from
their cradles, to the Cathedral, there to dash their brains out agaiust the
pillars, or the pavement.(m)
At length, ii
1261, Ottoear, as warlike as Bela, and, being younger, more alert, had so
decidedly the advantage, that the Hungarian monarch, tinder Mongol pressure,
sued for peace. lie offered to renounce his pretensions to Styria, and, by way
of cementing the union of the t« o kingdoms, Hungary and Bohemia, to give his
beautiful granddaughter, Cuneguuda, -11 marriage to Ottoear, if freed from his
elderly wife, Queen Margaret. Under Popes such as Innocent IV, Alexander IV,
and Urban IV, a prince, whose good will was thought desirable, found the
sacramental character of matrimony no insuperable obstacle to a release from
its shackles. Ottoear, upon the double plea of Margaret’s sterility—which might
have been anticipated when the marriage was proposed—and of her having
pronounced, not the irrevocable nun’s vow, but some preliminary vow, from which
she had been expressly relieved by Innocent IV, with a positive injunction not
to bind herself further, obtained his divorce. That, in repudiating the
Duchess of Austria, he kept her duchy, to which he could no longer advance any
shadow of a claim, scarce need be said. Discarded and despoiled, Margaret retired
to the convent, which, unwillingly,and for herself unfortunately, she had left
to w ed him. King Richard was but too happy to purchase the support of Bohemia
and Austria by sanctioning any, the most extravagant, of Ottocar’s pretensions,
and durst not oppose the further increase of this, now formidable, vassal’s
power, when the childless Duke of Carinihia dying, bequeathed him, as next of
kin, his duchy. It was probably to expiate the above-mentioned sacrilegious
desecration of a Cathedral, that Ottoear, 111 the year 12()5, undertook a
Crusade, in aid of the Marians, against the Heathen Prussians. Urban IV gave
him beforehand all he should conquer; and, in his conquest, he Dh. zi
1267] QUESTIONS
COMPROJlISiSD. 347
'0
founded
Konigsberg. Upon this Crusade Rudolph of Habsburg accompanied Ottocar, having
to obtain relief from a two-fold excommunication, incurred by two offences —the
first, his fidelity to his imperial Godfather: the second, burning a nunnery,
in the course of his war with the Bishop of Basle. The only drawback to
Oftocar’s prosperity, at this time, appears to have been the conduct of his
beautiful Hungarian consort, who is said to have amply revenged the wrongs of
her predecessor.
The contest
for Thuringia ended, in 120’S, in the tiual joint acceptance of the compromise
often previously proposed. half agreed to, and again broken off, which
assigned the western provinces, as the landgraviate of Hesse, to Sophia,
Duchess of Brabant, and the eastern to Hermann, Margrave of Misnia, to be permanently
absorbed in his margraviate. The ultimate adoption and ratification of this
arrangement was effected by the intervention of Albert Duke of Brunswick, whose
sister was now married to Henry the Child, Sophia’s son and her heir, though,
having an elder half-brother, not of Brabant.
In the
north-east, the Teutonic, or Marian Knights, as Immediate vassals of the
Empire, were rapidly conquering and converting Prussia, Esthonia, and Livonia.
The last process they sought to facilitate, as well as to establish more
securely their own domination (against which Gttocar never seems to have
advanced any claim upon the strength of Urban’s grant), by colonizing those
countries with Germans They built tuwns for tlieir colonists, and for their
conquered subjects; but, perceiving in them no tendency towards the prosperity
which the German to\i ns derived from their commerce, these military monks, bv
a curious anomaly, solicited and obtained, from Urban IV, permission to traue
in ships of their own, freighted with their own produce, without derogating
from their knighthood, or their nobility.
The
development of civic power, so seemingly incongruous v ith the feudal system,
yet, at this epoch, so important and peculiar an element of feudal Germany, was
now rapidly progressive. The Rhine League, and the imitations to which,
throughout Germany, its success had given birth, were flourishing. The
Westphalian towns Digitized by Microsoft
had a league
with each other, with towns upon the Elbe,^ and with others upon the Baltic.
The Slavonian towns upon the Baltic formed a separate federation, as the
Wendisch League. Other Leagues arose; as one of German seaport towns upon the
Baltic and upon the Ocean, with Dutch, Flemish, and even Brabant towns; making-
war or peace at their discretion with the Kings of Denmark and Norway; and
highly favoured by Countess Margaret. Others, less considerable, consisted of
Saxon and of Prussian towns. None of these leagues were individually permanent,
but in themselves, or through the habits and opinions which they indicated and
fostered, they all contributed to the development of the long-enduring and
mighty Hanseatic League; which now,in the second half of the thirteenth
century, w as growing into strength. But, during the distracted period under
consideration, the German spirit of federation was not confined to towns. The
robber-knights, and petty plundering nobles, against w hose marauding propensities
the towns had leagued themselves, being struck with the efficiency of such
co-operation, formed counterleagues amongst themselves, to enable them to
prosecute their system of highway robbery, in spite of all the defensive means
of their intended prey.(191) The laws passed at a Synod held in
1266, by Engelbert von Falkenberg, Archbishop of Cologne,for the repression of
violent outrages perpetrated upon, and also by, ecclesiastics, are alone
sufficient proof of the need there was for defensive confederation.
That the
Bishop of Constance had undertaken the charge of Conradin's interests in his patrimonial
duchy has been said. The duchy—already much reduced, and claimed as a lapsed
fief by the King of the Romans, when Alexander IV forbade his giving the heir,
according to promise, investiture,—the prelate did not judge the time
propitious to any attempt at recovering; but he encouraged the disinherited to
assume his birthright, by acting as Duke, in every way that might gain him
partisans. Thus guided, Conradin appointed the chief Swabian noble, the Graf
von Wiirtemberg, Marshal of Swabia, and Graf von Lichten- berg, Landgrave of
Lower Alsace. But if these, appointments and his hopes of the duchy were
shadowy, Bishop Eberhard had recovered for him his allodial heritage there*
together with
several family fiefs; and was anxiously watching for an opportunity to seat him
upon his ancestral throi:e.
Meanwhile,
Conradin remained under the sole guardianship of his uncle, Duke Lewis, to
which his mother left him The gloom of the Bavarian court, after the dreadful
catastrophe of Duchess Mary, and the horror felt by the widowed Elizabeth for
her brother, as the assassin of his innocent wife and her ladies, are the
alleged motives for her second, very inferior marriage. Upon the 6th of
October, 1259, the widow of Conrad IV, gave her hand to Meinhard, Graf von
Gorz, and followed him to his county, abandoning her son to the care of that
brother, from whom she herself shrank. But the royal orphan was not, therefore,
neglected. Duke Lewis caused him to be carefully educated, in companionship
with a kinsman, two or three years older than himself, one of the many pretenders
to the duchy of Austria. This was Frederic, the son of Gertrude, by Margrave
Hermann of Baden ; whom with his sister, upon becoming for the second time a
widow, she had, as before said, made over to their father’s aunt Agnes, now7
dowager-Duchess of Bavaria. The warmest friendship appears to have united these
highborn, but unfortunate, fatherless, and, virtually, motherless, youth?,
doubly related to each other, through both parents; and of whom one, Frederic,
seems to have been wholly dependent upon the Duke of Bavaria for support and
education, though wherefore, being a prince of Baden, is not explained.
Conradin, thanks to the exertions of the Bishop of Constancc, was not so
destitute ; but, even the fragments that he possessed, of the splendid heritage
to which he was born, excited general cupidity. Privileges, concessions,
promises, were extorted from the boy; and his two maternal uncles themselves,
Dukes Lewis and Henry, required him to make a will by which, should he die
childless, he bequeathed them his allodial property, and pledged himself to
endeavour to obtain for them the inheritance of his fiefs, partly as next of
kin, and partly in consideration of what they had done for him. The young
testator reserved to himself the power of providing for a wife, or rather for a
widow, and of endowing pious institutions.
This had been
the state of Germany during Manfred’s reign, and there his fall had no
influence. In northern and central Italy the case was different; but Milan, the
great Lombard leader of Guelph interests, even had she retained her pristine
ardour in the cause, was in no position to triumph in the Ghibeiine
catastrophe. But the quarrel with the Pope, consequent upon his consecrating a
Visconti her Archbishop, and the interdict laid upon the city for expelling,
instead of acknowledging, the prelate, had so far changed the sentiments
entertained by the Milanese towards Manfred, as to prevent their holding any
intercourse with the Provencal invading army; though not sufficiently to elifit
assistance in opposing its progress. Presently, however, resentment against
their ex-Captain- General Palavicino, so thoroughly overpovred this lukewarm
regard for Manfred, that Napoleone Torre, who had either succeeded to Filippo,
or been admitted by him as a colleague, not only concluded a treaty with
Charles, during his sojourn at Rome, but solicited and received a Podesta frcm
Milan at his hands. Charles appointed an actual foreigner, a new phenomenon in
Italian history. Enguer- rancl or Carral, or Et'iberra— the name being thus
variously given—de Vaux, a Provencal, whose virulent persecution of
Ghibelines so disgusted the Milanese, as again to damp their Guelph zeal. lie
literally tortured to death fifty-two persons for no other offence than kindred
with Ghibelines; (l0s) and Torre, to whom he owed his power, cried
in horror : “ The blood of these innocent persons will be required of my
children i? whilst the indignant multitude expelled their foreign Podesta. The
citizens are said, m this surfeit of Guelphism, to have wavered between che two
parties; but every Torre was innately Guelph, and Napoleone was moreover
anxious for the revocation of the Late*diet; wherefore, he both offered the
sovereignty of the city to Charles, and, on the £3d of March, of the following
year, 1267, concluded a treaty with the Marquesses of Lste and Montferrat, and
with Vercelli, Lodi, Padua, Mantua, Modena, Reggio, Bologna, Ferrara, and with
otiier nobles and cities of less note; by which such authority over northern
Italy was granted to the new King of the Two Sicilies, as had not, sincc the
civil war under Digit 'zed oJ M cl osof' a
Henry IV,
been conceded to the Emperors, the acknowledged lawful sovereigns of Lombardy.
Charles, in
direct violation of his treaty with the Pope, accepted this protectorate of
Lombardy, and, in his new capacity, added embassadors of his own to those
despatched by Milan, to treat with Clement, relatively to th? interdict and the
rival archbishops. The Envoys urged that, had the Torri and Milan aided the
Ghibelines, Charles’s army could not have passed through Lombardy; consequently
Manfred could not have been conquered; and that services so momentous should not
be overlooked, for the sake of an Otho Visconti, whose friends and family were
attached to that protector of heretics, that arch-enemy of the Church,
Palavicino. They therefore prayed that his Holiness would revoke the interdict,
depose Otho de’ Visconti, and consecrate Raimondo della Torre, Archbishop of
Milan. Otho, who was present, alleged in reply, that, by the tyranny of the
Torri alone, had his family been compelled reluctantly to seek the protection
of Palavicino ; whose principles the)' abhorred, and to whom the Torri had, on
the contrary, voluntarily given the command of Milan. Clement, whose
determination had been previously formed, listened quietly to the arguments on
both sides, and then said: N ot till the earth have ceased to bear fruit, the
stars to shine, and tempests to disturb the air, will I relieve the Torri from
the justly incurred anathema of the Church.” Hereupon, the plenipotentiaries of
the house of Torre made unconditional submission; and the Pope, despite his
just professed implacability, granted the solicited relief. Rut neither their
readmission into the pale of the Church, nor Charles’s excrcise of his
sovereign authority, availed to quell the violence of the factions distracting
Milan.
The
depression of the Lombard Ghibelines, upon Manfred's overthrow, was
proportionate to the exultation of the Guelphs. In utter despondency,
Palavicino sought and obtained a reconciliation with the Church; but benefited
little thereby. x\nd he, so lately the Lord of Cremona, Brescia, Piacenza,
Pavia, Alessandria, Tortona, and temporarily even of Milan, saw his dominions
reduced to tw o insignificant castles. Amidst this series of disasters
there is some
satisfaction in adding, that Doara’s treachery procured hi:n no better fortune
; he lost his share of the seig- nory of Cremona, and with it all consequence
in Lombardy.
If Bologna
could not be made more. Guelph than she was, one melancholy consequence, of the
more than melancholy catastrophe, attested the fierceness of her party
spirit.- The captive Enzio, soothed and cheered by love and friendship, had
thus far borne his imprisonment patiently, in confident hope, that the
extravagant offers of ransom incessantly tendered, by his father- and his halfbrothers,
Conrad and Manfred, must, as passion subsided, be ultimately accepted. Manfred,
less sanguine in this respect, had projected bi* release by aims, at the very
moment when the aggress’on of Charles perforce confined his attention to the
defence of his own realms. But, with Manfred, fell Eazio’s last hope from his
family, whose power he saw transferred to their worst enemies; and he resolved
to liberate himself. Two of his friends, named Gonfaloniere and Asinelli,
agreed to assist his escape, even at the price of accompanying his flight as exiles,
and a cooper, named Philip, of extraordinary bodily strength, who habitually
brought casks of win* to the prison, having frequently expressed deep
commiseration for the young King’s lot, was fixed upon as the active agent. A
large reward was offered him if he would carry Enzio out in a supposed empty
cask, when, as he must needs avoid punishment by flight, the rescued King
would take him into his own service. The cooper consented, and the execution of
the scheme was cautiously prepared. For a length of time, Philip regularly
supplied Enzio with wine—which, as he was allowed to entertain his friends, was
largely consumed—bringing a full cask upon his back, and carrying the empty
cask in like manner away. W hen the guards and prison authorities, accustomed
to the process, had ceased to pay attention to Philip’s movements, the day was
fixed. Gonfaloniere stationed himself, with four fleet steeds, at the place to
which the prisoner was to be carried, whilst Asinelli. in the prison, helped to
pack Enzio into the cask, and superintended Philip’s exit. All went well. The
robust cooper carried his heavy load as though it had been a feather, passed
jailers and soldiers, as usual,
exchanging
jokes with them, and was hastening to the appointed spot, saunteringly followed
by Asinelli, when either a soldier or a servant girl, fur upon this point authorities
differ, exclaimed that a lock of fair hair hung down from the cask. Philip was
still near enough to the prison guards, for the exclamation to be fatal. He
w'as called back and the cask opened. Enzio was thenceforward buried in a
dungeon, inaccessible to love or friendship. Of his intended deliverers,
Gonfaloniere heard a rumour of detected plots, in time to escape upon one of
the horses provided for the party : the complicity of Asinelli and the cooper
being flagrant, they expiated, the one h:s friendship, the other his mercenary
compassion, with their lives. As Enzio now fimaliy disappears from the stage,
it may here, if somewhat prematurely, be stated, that in his dungeon he lived,
or languished, four years, and, in 1271, died, leaving one child by Adelasia; a
daughter named Helena, married to a Conte Donoratieo of Pisa, a son of the
Coiite Ugolino Donoratieo, whose atrocious doom Dante has celebrated.CM)
Her husband was not amongst his father’s companions in the tower of Hunger,—but
one of her sons was. To Helena’s husband, as such, Enzio bequeathed the
kingdom of Sardinia. Whether any descendants of her sons still exist, is
uncertain.(197)
In Tuscany,
no immediate fruits of Manfred’s destruction appeared, save in ever-Guelph
Florence, whence the slain monarch's Lieutenant, Conte Guido Novello, w as
promptly expelled. The other Ghibeline authorities were, for the moment,
suffered to remain ; party triumph being temporarily satisfied with a sort of
compromise, to \\it, giving the Ghibeline Podesta a colleague, in the person of
a second Podesta, a Guelph; and hampering both with what might be called an
Executive Council, consisting of thirty-six Priors, elected indiscriminately
from all classes,(198) and changed every two months, superadded to
the regular popular Councils. As a further step in democracy, Consuls, flags,
and Gonfalonieri (standard-bearers) to carry them, were at this time assigned
severally to the seven Artl Maggiori, or Chief Trades, as the words must, comprehensively,
be rendered, although the list includes professions, the seven Arii Maggiori
being those of Lawyers, Digitized by Microsoft ®
Merchants,
Bankers or money-changers—usually goldsmiths—V\ ool-manufacturers,Physicians-
-comprehending apothecaries and druggists, if such separate departments
existed,—Silk-manufhcturers,and Furriers, or rather dealers in skin, since the
tanners ranked with the furriers. The more moderate Florentine democrats hoped,
that the extensive participation ’n the exercise of authority, resulting from
the last but one of these arrangements, and the facility of communication and
co-operation afforded by the last, might so far check the mama for innovation,
as to produce some degree of tranquillity. But Florence was too passionately
Guelph to be tranquil, whilst Ghibelines polluted her atmosphere. Broils arose,
and, within the year, the Ghibelines were expelled, and again admitted; upon
which last occasion the plan for procuring quiet, that had failed at Milan, was
adopted; to wit, blending the factions by intermarriages.
If Charles,
when he felt himself securely seated upon the throne of the Two Sicilies,
disowned the engagement— which the Popes had made a sine qua non condition of
the grant—to confine his power and influence within the limits of that kingdom,
his promise to abrogate those laws of Frederic IPs, that restricted Church
rights and privileges, lie faithfully kept. Not that his bigotry was honest
enough to induce the sacrifice of his own authority to the Pope; the laws,
which restored regal power at the expense of the papd, were perhaps the only
part of the new Code that he would willingly have preserved. But his intensely
jealcus hatred of Frederic and Manfred impelled him, at whatever cost, to
destroy every work of theirs, effacing, if possible, their very names from the
memory of their former subjects. Hence the more of the “divine Swabian Code”(199)
he could annihilate, the more agreeable to him. Thus actuated, not even the
amount of power and patronage, to be surrendered, prevented his executing this
condition; and he abrogated Frederic's laws restrictive of papal authority and
ecclesiastical exemptions, confirming all the concessions wrung from the dying
Empress-Queen’s maternal anxieties, of lights enjoyed by her Norma.i ancestors.
Having thus
far rescinded new code to his own detriment, Charles proceeded to do so for
his advantage. Digitized by Microsoft ®
He resumed
all the oppressive feudal prerogatives of the crown that Frederic had
renounced, adding others previously unknown in Italy, though not uncommon in
France; such as compelling corn to he ground at the royal mills, pasturing
royal flocks and herds in vassals’ fields, even of green corn, and the like. He
reimposed upon the nobles the feudal services from which Frederic had relieved
them.retaining t he money payments that should purchase the relief; gnd, either
as part of thii system of abrogation, or in some measure to reconcile the Great
Vassals to increased burthens, he restored all the inconvenient and
disorder-generating rights of jurisdiction, annihilated or controlled bv the
code. If he did not abrogate the provincial diets instituted by Frederic, for
the prevention of local abuses, the redress oflocal grievances, &c.,he
insured their falling into desuetude by never assembling them. In fact, he had
filled the offices, which these diets were intended to superintend and control,
with the foreign adventurers to whose swords, ar.d with the native traitors to
whose treason, he owed his kingdom; and to free their wanton tyranny from legal
restraint was, in his eyes, a cheaper remuneration than lavish grants of
confiscated fiefs. For the same economical reason, perhaps, he suffered
Manfred’s laws for the protection of female chastity to fall into desuetude;
that they did slumber unexecuted, being evident from the complaints, ere long
so i.umcrous, of French and Provencal licentiousness, displayed in violence as
well as seduction. He endeavoured to force trade to those seaports exclusively,
which were Crown property, by laying embargoes upon all others; whilst
discovering his motive, by imposing heavy tolls, duties, &e., upon all
transactions in those belonging to the crown; these he rendered yet more
onerous, by the inode of levying them, by hampering restrictions, and
otherwise. All tolls, duties, &c., with taxes of all descriptions, and even
judicial fines, were farmed out to the highest bi.ider; whilst the King tried
other modes, legal and illegal, of raising and of sparing money. lie compelled
all neighbours of crown lands to rent those lands at an exorbitant rate, and
he manned his fleets by a species of arbitrary conscription, imprisoning the
whole family of such as Digitized by Microsoft ®
absconded. He
endeavoured at once to relieve his constant pecuniary wants, and to ’’ndulge
his own and the Pope’s hatred of the splendid dynasty of sovereigns whom he had
supplanted, by calling in Frederic’s beautiful golden augustali, which he,
first, intrinsically depreciated, by diminishing the quantity of gold they
contained, and then, disfiguring them with a new stamp, reissued as Carlini,
nominally at their original value. He endeavoured to change the name of
Manfred’s new-built town from Man- fredonia to Siponto Nuovo ; but here even
his despotism was foiled by the stronger despotism of habit, ai.d to this day
Manfredonia remains Manfredonia. He was more successful in the annihilation of
public documents, relative to the reigns of Henry VI, Frederic II, Conrad IV,
and Manfred ; for, whilst those of the Norman monarchs abound, and some even of
Lombard princes exist, of the four Swabian reigns only the decrees issued
during two years, by Frederic, can be found in the Neapolitan archives; and the
Sicilian contain ncthing, that could indicate the island’s having ever been
governed by a single Swabian heir of those Norman kings.
Yet, with all
these varied forms of oppression and extortion, combined with his own habitual
frugality, and his study to satisfy his followers with other tnan pecuniary
rewards, so extravagant were the demands made upon him by adventurers and
traitors, that, whilst Manfred had derived ample means from moderate duties,
&c., Charles, with far heavier, seems always in difficulties, borrowing on
every side. In borrowing of his own subjects, noble or mercantile, his object
might indeed be supposed, to secure their fidelity through theii interest; but
he borrowed likewise of independent states, granting, as a premium,
commercial advantages, injurious to his own subjects ; and, finally, he
borrowed of usurers.
In order to
characterize Charles’s government, his various modes of oppression have been
given collectively ; although, of course, they did not burst at once, as a
whole, upon the Sicilies. Enough, however, did, to fill the nation with
repentance for having deserted Manfred. Knowing that his urgent need of money,
like his father's, had invariably been caused by the eumity of popes, the
Sicilians had
thought to escape all demands upon the purse when their King should be the
friend of the Pope Great was their disappointment. Upon one portion of
continental Sicily, however, Charles pressed with peculiar tyraiiny ; this—need
it be said ?—was Luceria, where tbe Saracens, gratefully loyal to the memory of
Frederic II, Conrad IV, and Manfred, if they did not singly attempt to resist
the conqueror, submitted in gloomy silence, looking anxiously for some heL* of
the race they loved and revered. The sentiments they betrayed, Charles punished
by every kind of oppression; and Clement, far from blaming this display of
tyranny, seems to have thought that he himself reached the extreme verge of excusable
toleration, when be forbore to require from Charles, that which Manfred had
been excommunicated for refusing ; to wit, their expulsion from the kingdom.
But, if in
this respect blameless in the eyes of the Pope, Charles taught bis suzerain,
nearly as early as his subjects, to regret his, perhaps unavoidable, adoption
of Lis predecessors’ policy. He delayed the payment of tbe stipulated tribute
far beyond the stipulated time. He altogether resisted the claim to the
covenanted additional 50,000 marks, even when Clement offered, by way of
composition, to accept 40,000; and he refused to fulfil the engagement, to
which he had pledged himself, of resigning tbe Roman Senatorship. Upon this,
solemnly and repeatedly promised, resignation, Clement positively insisted.
Charles proposed that the Pope should privately invest him with the office he
then held, and would still seem to hold, by popular election : which
investiture, constituting him a papal officer, his receiving it would be, on
his part, a full acknowledgment of the Holy Father’s temporal sovereignty over
Rome. The appropriate answer was, a dignified reprimand, purporting, that to
say one thing in public and do the direct contrary in private, was unbeseeming
the papal or the kingly character. Charles then professed to comply and resign
the office; but neither recalled his appointed deputy from Rome, nor ceased to
entitle himself Senator.
In Tuscany,
likewise, Charles violated or evaded, as he had previously done in Lombardy,
the compact in virtue
of which he
was king; but did so in a less glaringly offensive style; and Clement rather
sanctioned than blamed his proceedings. The Florentine Guelphs, growing impatient
of the attempt to reconcile them to the Ghibelines, had sought aid against
their fellow-townsmen from the new King of Sicily; who sent them 800 French
horse under Guy de Montfort, and the very rumour of their approach again
expelled the Ghibelines. The fuorusciti retired to Pisa and Sienna—then the
only cities in Tuscany avowedly of their party, though a few more were so,
secretly; and through the intervention of Clement and Charles, as if by a final
arrangement, to preclude their ever being readmitted, one third of their
property was confiscated to the public treasury, one third assigned, as
compensation, to those Guelphs whose possessions they had devastated, and the
remaining th rd, liberally granted to the owners themselves for their support.
In Tuscany,
Charles having, thus far, acted in perfect concert with the Pope, can hardly be
said to have infringed his promise of non-intervention. But his position there
was unsatisfactory to the King, who aimed at the authority that Manfred had
exorcised over Florence, whilst Ghibeline; and the success of the secret
emissaries he employed, to obtain this authority, is an instance of the
suicidal absurdities into which the excited spirit of faction can be betrayed.
The hyper-ultra-democrat'c—if such a mongrel re-dup!ication of prefixes be
admissible—passion reignng in Florence, is apparent in the device for letting
the whole population paiticipate, momentarily at least, in the government. Yet
did Charles’s emissaries, erelong, by intrigue, and skilful stimulation of
Guelph hatred for Ghibelines, seduce these republicans into making the King a
spontaneous tender of sovereignty over their city. Charles played coy, professing
to desire only the hearts and good will of the Florentines; but, being pressed,
accepted the office of Podesta for ten years, and instantly appointed a deputy
to exercise the authority intrusted to him. Other Tuscan towns followed the
example of Florence ; and Charles, no longer affecting to decline, gave them
creatures of his own, either as Podestas, subject to his dictation, or as his
Governors. But the most remark-
able part of
the affair is, that Clement betrayed no displeasure at these repeated violations,
by his self-willed and unscrupulous vassal, of what had been esteemed ail
indispensable article of the convention. The explanation may, perhaps, be,
that, finding protest and remonstrance fruitless, he sought, by sanctioning,
to regulate, what he was powerless to prevent. Certain it is, that in the
summer of this year, 12G7, he appointed Charles to one of those posts in
Tuscany, from which by treaty he, as well as Urban, had so carefully excluded
him, although what that post was, at least in name, is disputed. Some writers
say, that of Imperial Vicar,(2'XI) to ■which Popes have
claimed the right of appointing, when there was no Emperor; and this Clement
held to be the case, until he should have decided between Richard and Alfonso.
But a different and altogether novel title, that of Conservator of the Peace
for a period of three years, has likewise been given to this office,(201)
with the addition, that the Pope, in conferring it, bound Charles by oath both
to execute it literally, under pain of excommunication for every act tending to
provoke hostilities, and, within a month after his decision between the
candidates for the Empire, to lay it down—a natural condition if the title were
Imperial Vicar, not otherwi.se—neither retaining a fortress in Tuscany, nor
taking any money thence.
Charles now,
for the first time, visited his great benefactor; and at Viterbo, upon the 4th
of June, 12G7, signed a convention touching his c-ffice in- Tuscany, accepting
all the restrictions the Pope had attached to the appointment. In this
interview he appears to have so completely gained the good will and good
opinion of Clement, that, by relieving him from all embarrassments at home, to
render his whole force disposable in Tuscany, a body of Papal troops was sent
to hold the still sullen and disturbed Saracens of Luceria in check.
Charles then
repaired to Florence, where he was received with all imaginable honours, and
the citizens swore obedience to him and to the Church ; abjuring any possible
connexion with the orphan heir of the Swabian Emperors, and pledging
themselves never to acknowledge any German monarch, v, hose claims weuc not
sanctioned by the Pope.
And now the
Conservator of the Peace, as if in mockery of the title, and in breach of all
his compacts, even the last, with Clement, attacked every Tuscan town and
castle that had given shelter to Tuscan Ghibelines, destroyed the weaker, and
waged war against the still formidable Pisa. Nor was any semblance of
moderation observed in the conduct of hostilities so wantonly begun by this
Conservator of Peace. All possible damage vt as done to the possessions of
Ghibelines, w hilst in regard to the persons of the vanquished, men, women,
children, and even ecclesiastics, were tortured or massacred without mercy. In
one captured town, Santo Uario, 400 human beings were thus butchered.P'2)
Again Clement
rebuked, remonstrating against the aggressive course pursued by the Conservator
of the Peace in Tuscany; against the King’s savage treatment of his Siciiian
prisoners in France ; against bis breach of engagements entered into by his
own officers; against his tyranny, and general misgovernment in his vassal
kingdom, as e.g., his neglecting the advice of his official councillors to
follow that of sycophants ; his arbitrary imposition of taxes, and his
connivance at the violence and the vices of his licentious followers, who
plundered the rich, oppressed the poor, and outraged women. Finally, he
admonished him that he had better be beloved than dreaded. The letters containing
these remonstrances still exist, as evidence to the truth of the charges
brought by Ghibelines against Charles of Anjou. But the Holy Father
remonstrated and admonished in vain. The King, who no longer needed his support,
had chosen his course, and pursued it.
J<or was
Charles content with the authority which, in direct violation of his plighted
oaths, he had acquired over Italy. In September of this same year, 1267, he
advanced a claim, the ground of which eludes all power of conjecture, to
Sardinia; and was opposed by two rivals, the one, namely, tiia Infante Don
Ilenrique of Castile, upon grounds equally inconceivable; the other, Don Jayme,
King of Aragon, upon the plea, then deemed irrefragable, save against the Papal
See, that his ancestors were amongst the original reconquerors of the island
from the Moslem.
All three
referred their pretensions to the Pope, as suze
rain of
Sardinia; but Clement was unwilling to pronounce, and the strange claim would
be of no moment, did it not appear a principal cause of the quarrel that ensued
between Charles, and his kinsman and ally, Don Henrique; concerning who ft* a
few words bccoine necessary.
Don Henrique
was nearly related to both Charles and Conradin, his grandmother, Queen
Berengaria, being the elder sister of Charles’s mother, Queen Blanche, whilst
his own mother was Beatrice, daughter to the murdered King Philip. A defeated
insurrection having, some years since, driven him from Castile, he had, with a
younger brother, Don Fadrique, and a band, probably of his confederates,
passed over into Afriea.(203) There, he had been engaged, with his
band, as a Condotfiere, by the Moslem King of Tunis, had fought in
his wars, and in his service had accumulated considerable wealth. Charles’s
projected invasion of the Sicilies, when reported at Tunis, opened a new scene
of action to the Infantes; and Don Henrique, leaving a division of his band
wiili Dor. Fadrique in Afrira, passed over to Italy with the larger part, from
800 to 800 horsemen, mostly Spaniards, and proffered the use of his lances,
and, what was even more acceptable, the loan of some 60,000 or 80,000
doubloons, to his enterprising relation. Don Henrique’s voluntary subordinate
connexion with a Mohammedan sovereign, might be supposed objectionable ir. the
eyes of those who deemed the toleration of Mohammedan subjects a sin so
irremissible, as to require the excommunication of the infant descendant of the
offenders. But no, the fierce bigot, Charles, thankfully accepted both offers,
with large promises of punctual repayment and ample remuneration ; whilst
Clement seems to have been passive in the arrangement. (2n4) It has
been asserted that each party endeavoured to overreach the other; but in what
way the Prince could overreach the King does not appear; that Charles had his
Spanish kinsman’s money is certain; as also that he evaded the promised
repayment, and, in various ways, thwarted the lender’s views, relying upon the
possession of his money for binding him, till repaid, to the interest of his
roval debtor. When he found the resigna-
VOL.
iv. 16
tion of the
Roman senatorship unavoidable, he served himself by promoting the election of
Don Henrique in his stead. This the Pope resolutely opposed—as rendering the
resignation nugatory—but could not prevent; and the new Senator, accustomed to
control the unruly, showed himself so well qualified for his office, administering
justice impartially, and re-establishing order amongst the turbulent Romans,
whilst in various ways conciliating their good will, that Clement was speedily
reconciled to his appointment.
Such was the
state of affairs \vhen the conflicting claims to Sardinia were advanced. Don
Henrique demanded his doubloons of the King of the Two Sicilies, therewith to support
his pretensions, but read'ly acquiesced in the proposed reference to the papal
tribunal. Of payment from Charles he naturally found less chance than ever;
but, had the Pope been compelled to give Sardinia a king, he must have
preferred Don Henrique, as ‘;he safest of the three, whilst his royal vassal,
whose insatiable ambition excited his daily increasing alarm, «as evidently the
most objectionable. Unsatisfied with Italy and its islands, he had concluded a
treaty with the ex-Emperoi of Constantinople, Baldw in II, whom he pledged
himself to assist vigorously in recovering his throne, in consideration, not so
much of the marriage of one of his own daughters to the Latin ex-Emperor's son
and heir, Philip, as of this Emperor’s engagement to cede to the Sicilian
crown the districts of Epirus that had formed Helena’s wedding portion, if not
the principalities of Achaia and the Morea, still held by their Latin
conquerors, and one third of any future conquests; the choice of the third
being with the King of the Sicilies.
Deeply indeed
was Clement by this time displeased with Urban’s selected vassal monarch, who
manifest^ aimed at power as formidable as ever had been that of the German
Emperor-King of Sicily; and very general was the sympathy' with his dissatisfaction.
The regrets of the Sicilians and Apulians for their Suevo-Normau sovereigns
were gradually assuming an active form. Even the Guelphs, 111 most parts of
Italy, were beginning almost to share the Ghibeline abhorrencc for the Guelph
prince, raised upon
the ruins of
a House, so long the object of their dread and aversion. All eyes now turned to
the last scion of that House for relief. It may seem strange that Italian eyes
should not have turned to Manfred’s sons, as compatriots, rather than tc
Conradin, who had once been rejected as the German boy. But Manfred’s children,
with the exception of his eldest daughter, the Crown- Princess of Aragon,
besides being mere infants, unable even to appear as leaders, were prisoners in
the hands of Charles, and to name them as rivals, would have sealed their death
warrant; whilst Manfred's open recognition of Conradin, as liis rightful heir,
might not be without influence in their selection of him.
A Ghibeline
mission to Germany was committed to Manfred’s two surviving gallant uncles,
Galvano ai.d Federigo Lancia, who had one mangled, suicide-brother, if not two,
as well as their royal nephew, to avenge, and to his tv\o equally gallant
friends, Marino and Corrado Capece, the guides of his flight to Luceria. With
some companions of less note, they started for Germany, bearers of the
nation's invitation to the heir of two splendid dynasties, to place himself at
their head, ;>nd expel the usurper ot his birtnright.(205) They
visited Pisa on their way. This Ghibeline vassal-republic had never ceased to
deplore the selfish impulse that had prevented the capture of Charles of Anjou
by Guido Novello, and gladly adjoined two of her citizens, charged with liberal
proffers of ships, men, and money, to the Sicilian deputies. Sienna followed
the example of Pisa, as did the Ghibelines of Lombardy. This deputation from
half Italy reached the Court of Bavaria, and laid the wishes and entreaties of
their party before the heir and his guardian uncle. A family council was immediately
assembled to deliberate upon so momentous a proposal,
To this
Council, the Envoys of public feeling and opinion, rather than of any formed
confederacy, passionately depicted the intense detestation that Charles had
already excited throughout the Sicilies, where the whole nation would rise as
one man, at first sight of the lawful heir of their beloved native Kings,
Frederic, Conrad, and Manfred. They averred that throughout Italy, whilst the
Guelph usurper was hourly more and more alienating the Digitized by
Microsoft«
Guclp’ns, the
oppressed and scattered Ghibelines, weak only from their dispersion, were
sighing for a leader, around whom they would instantly congregate; end thus so
numerously reinforce any body of Germans Conradin might be able to bring with
him, as at once to redeem the enterprise from any reproach of temerity, could
such be cast upon the assertion of an indisputable birthright. To these last
representations the city deputies, and especially the Pisans, gave weight, by
the promises of effective support with which they were charged.
Conradin, now
in his fifteenth year, eager for action, as every clever, high-spirited boy
will be, and further excited by the achievements of his grandfather, Frederic
II, w hen only one year older than himself, would have instantly closed wiA the
proposals of those who invited him to be their leader, their suzerain, and
their king. But his mother, the w idowed queen, shuddered at thus risking her
sen, the only fruit of her splendid marriage w ith the husband of her youth.
She dreaded the country, ever inimical if not fatal to the Swabian dynasty, the
country where Henry VI and his grandson, her own Conrad, had, under very
suspicious circumstances, died in the prime of life; where her son's
grandfather, tbe mighty Frederic II, bad been persecuted and betrayed, till,
worn into premature decay, he expired, an old man at little more than fifty
years of age; where his uncle Manfred, who, whatever bis faults towrards
bis nephew, was an able, valiant warrior and an excellent sovereign, had so
recently perished in the toils of the blackest perfidy and treason ; where
another gallant uncle, Enzio, was pining in hopeless captivity,
notwithstanding the incessant efforts of his father and brothers to ransom him.
Earnestly she pressed these Italian tragedies upon her brothers and upon her
boy, whom she implored to prefer moderate domains in cheerful Swabia, to a
kingdom in a land undermined by the powers of darkness; to pass his life
amongst honest German kinsfolk and vassals, rather than in a never-ending struggle
for an object, probably unattainable, amongst doubtfully loyal subjects,
intermingled with known enemies, and worse, with lurking traitors.
The mother’s
prudence was disdained a? mere feminine
cowardice.
Conradin’s youthful eagerness, in wh:ch his cousin Frederic of
Austria fully sympathized, was irresistible, perhaps infectious; even his
austere uncle, Duke Lewis, and his step-father, Earl Meinhard, both men of an
age at which caution usually tempers rashness, and uu- dazzled by personal
interest, pronounced the prospect of success so satisfactory, that they would
take part in the adventure. Conradin immediately assumed t’nc title of King of
Sicily, and the deputies were joyfully dismissed to prepare his Italian
partisans, as well as his vassals and subjects, for co-operation in his
hazardous undertaking. Corrauo Capece was named Viceroy of Sicily, and despatched
to collect, as he best could, such a body of troops as might enable him., in
spite of the Angevine officials, to land, raise the island on behalf of the
rightful heir, and so possess himself of his viceroyalty. To Galvano Lancia
were committed friendly overtures to the Roman Senator, whose dissatisfaction
with Charles was matter of public notoriety.
Even whilst
these preliminary arrangements were in progress, from the very moment that'the.
determination to attempt the adventure was known, knights poured in from all
sides, tendering their swords to seat the last of the House of Hohenstaufen
upon the throne of his Norman ancestry; where he would, it was hoped, gather
strength to recover the grander heritage, the Empire, bequeathed biro by bis
Swabian and Franconian anccstry. All necessary preparations were soon
completed; and, at the head of an army, amounting to 10,000 men, Conradin,
accompanied by his uncle Lewis, his step-father, and his young kinsman,
Frederic of Austria, in the autumn of 3267, crossed the Alps by the Tyrolese
pass.
With this
army, Conradin, on the 20th of October, reached Verona, <\nd was received by
the new Ghibeline Lord of the city, Mast mo della Scala, with both the cordiality
and the honours due to the heir of so many mo narchs, the natural Head of the
Ghibelines. Here Conradin paused to concert measures with his Italian partisans,
and arrange his future proceedings. And, when he saw deputies from all Lombard
Ghibelines gathering around him, he might well feel confident in the promised
success.
To Verona
came deputies from Palavieino. also from Doara; the Legate, by tricking out of
his own share of Cremona, after employing him to steal Palavicino’s, had
revived his Ghibelinism ; and, in expectation of Conradin’s triumph over the
usurper, anxious to clear liimself from suspicion, founded or unfounded, of
treachery towards Manfred. Thither came, likewise, deputies from Vicenza,
Padua, and Mantua, from the fuorusciti of Ferrara, of Brescia, and of Bergamo;
Mantua and Brescia having changed sides since last they were named. These
deputies, in the names of their respective senders, professed the warmest joy
at the presence in Italy of the heir of the Swabian Emperors and the Norman
Kings, together with the most fervent zeal in his cause. At Verona lie received
an envoy from Don Ilenrk/ue, who saw hia German kinsman’s enterprise with satisfaction,
as likely to promote his own vengeance upon his tyrannical and selfish French
kinsman; and cared little for the future pleasure or displeasure of a Pope from
whom he despaired of obtaining an adjudication in his favour, touching
Sardinia. He had therefore readily given ear to Lancia; and, as soon as he
learned that Conradin had actually crossed the Alps, prepared actively to
promote the success by which he hoped to profit. To this end he had, in the
first place, invited the principal Roman Guelphs to a banquet at the capitol;
and, when they appeared, seizing his unsuspecting guests, had thrown them into
prison. Having thus guarded against any opposition to his measures, he
appropriated to his military purposes the hoarded treasures of churches and
cloisters, and despatched the envoy in question, to offer Conradin his own and
his band’s services, including those of his brother, Don Fadrique. and the
troop left with him in Africa. To Conradin no offer could have been more welcome;
it was thankfully accepted, and a treaty of alliance concluded between the two
cousins; which Galvano Lancia, who had returned to the young King of Sicily
either with, or before the Envoy, carried to Rome. He w as there received as
the representative of royalty, and the Swabian banner was displayed upon the
city walls. From Apulia, likewise, good tidings reached Verona; tidings that,
no sooner did the Lncer.’an Saracens hear the heir of
the monarch
they loved and reverenced was in arms to assert his birthright, than they
openly rose against the usurper, the, to them hateful, creature of a Pope, whom
they alike dreaded and detested, and whose troops they appear to have driven
away. Many of their Christian neighbours were reported to be secretly in
correspondence with the Saracens.
The young Adv
enturer’s heart swelled high with exultation, whilst the pontiff and his royal
vassal were seriously alarmed. But not therefore were the mother's forebodings
proved idle: the ground was hollow under the sanguine Conradin’s feet.
Party spirit
in Italy, high as it runs, seldom appears to be quite disinterested. Most of
Conradin’s zealous partisans expected money, with which at least to equip
themselves and their followers, from him ; and he, far from having any to give
them, had on his part relied upon pecuniary assistance from them, to facilitate
his operations. But, if these clamorous demands, and the hesitation consequent
upon his inability to satisfy them, seemed thus early to justify the widowed
Queen’s distrust of Italian loyalty, her confidence in the honest affcction of
her simple-minded German kindred, for which she would have had her son forego
the prospect of winning his patrimonial crown, was not similarly justified. In
the Duke of Bavaria, remorse had not produced liberality or disinterestedness.
If he did not refuse his nephew the further supply of cash wanted for the
relief of his most pressing necessities, he required, as security for the loan,
a mortgage of all his remaining yet unincumbered Swabian property. Graf Meinhard
is said, in like manner, to have obtained from Conradiu a bequest or assignment
of his Tyrolese county of Botzen (Ualicc, Bolsano).(20fi) The uncle
and stepfather, having thus secured to themselves, in case of the worst, the
wholi of the royal and imperial orphan’s actual possessions, alleged such a
pious dread of excommunication, as compelled them, upon being threatened with
the sentence, immediately to return home with their vassals, leaving the two
lads, the eldest under nineteen years of age, ungrided, unfriended, amidst the
difficulties and perils into which they had deliberately led them, or at Digitized
by Microsoft ®
least
encouraged them to plunge. A desertion, that- seems almost as unaccountable, as
heartless; for—though Clement was prodigal of excommunications, interdicts and
deposals from dignities, lay or ecclesiastical, towards Conradin’s friends, as
of vituperation towards the yet innocent boy, to whom he imputed all the sins
habitually laid by Gue’phs to the charge of his race—the Duke and Earl could
not but kuovr, when they embarked in the enterprise, that they were ’.icurring
there sentences. And, even were the atrocious cor’ecture, relative to the
uncle, admitted, that he promoted an attempt which he judged desperate, in
order to free himself from the burthen of his nephew and cousin, whilst
inheriting the property of the former, the step-father could, originally,
anticipate no advantage to himself from the destruction of his wife’s son. It
is possible, however, that, having built upon a spontaneous rising of half
Italy, they may have taken fright at the preliminary demand for money, and thus
their conduct have simply been, first, rash and next dastardly, rather than
originally treacherous or perfidious. Cf the volunteer knights, many had by
this time exhausted their own resources, and would be disappointed at not
being permitted to live at free quarters upon the Italians, whose good will was
Conradm’s main reliance; others were discouraged by the desertion of two
powerful princes, the young leader’s pseudo-paternal relatives and chief
supporters; and all these followed their example, abandoning the enterprise, to
return home.
Conradin’s
German army w as thus reduced from 10,000 to 3000 men; but in the 5000, who had
stood the trial, justly did the royal Adventurer feel implicit confidence.
Amongst them some writers have again numbered Rudolph of Ilabsburg, who
assuredly might feel his service due to Frederic It’s despoiled grandson and
heir. But the report does not rest upon good authority; that he should have
joined the two armies of Manfred and of Conradin seems unlikely; his name
never occurs in the narrative of the expedition; and he does not appear to
have again been excommunicated, after his Prussian crusade, as he surely would
have been, if with Conradin. Whether Rudolph were with him or not, however,
Frederic of Austria remained; and Frederic, whose three years’ elder-
ship gave
him, in his younger kinsman’s eyes, all the dignity and weight of manhood, was
everything to Conradin. Moreover, the Italian Ghibelines knew that they were
already committed, beyond hope of pardon from Charles and Clement; and saw,
that, if they suffered the present, in many respects favourable, opportunity,
to pass unused, they would thus renounce the last chance of, regaii -ig the
ascendency, or even of recovering their property. Therefore, how grievously
soever disappointed and dissatisfied at the meagre support obtained from
Germany, they exerted themselves vigorously.
The efforts
of the Lombard Ghibelines were early cheered by success in Sicily. Capece had
obtained from Pisa the ioan of a squadron of ships, with which he had visited
Tunis; where the Moslem sovereign, either in kindness to the Castilian
jirinccs, who had so long faithfully served him, or to revenge, the fall of his
old ally, Manfred, readily permitted Don Fadrique to embark with the remainder
of the band, consisting of Moors and Spaniards. These, united to Capece’s
Germans and Italians, made a force of from 800 to 1000 men, but so cramped do
they seem to have been for suip-room, that their horses, with the exception of
some twenty, were perforce left in Africa. This little army effected a landing
in Sicily, where Capece announced himself as Viceroy for King Conrad II—his
father Conrad, the fourth, as Emperor, was, there, the first of the name.
Charles’s governor, Foulque de Puyregard, well knowing the hatre 1
borne by the Sicilians to the French, marched to defeat this handful of
invaders before an organized insurrection should supply them with the numbers
in which they were deficient. But he was too late to forestall that already
organized insurrection. No sooner was the battle fairly engaged, than the
Sicilian Barons and their vassals in Puyregard’s ranks, tore their Angevine
flags to pieces, and displaying Suevo- Norman colours, turned against the
French. The abhorred foreign intruders were completely defeated. Puyregard took
refuge in Messina, wh'ch, trembling under a French garrison, professed loyalty
to Charles. But in the course of November, 1267, every part of the island that
was not
so coerced,
declared for Conradin, acknowledging Capece as his lit utenant.
Charles was
pursuing his triumphant, anti-Ghibeline career in Tuscany, when he heard of Don
Henrique’s deserting his cause, of the insurrection at Luceria, and of Lhe
landing in Sicily. The Pope earnestly pressed him to leave the independent
Tuscans to themselves, and return home to prepare, by quelling the
insurrection, for the defence of his kingdom. But Charles, looking upon Con-
raditi himself as the sole source of danger, judged that, could he be
intercepted, and either destroyed or forced to abandon his attempt and retreat,
the insurrection would spontaneously fall to pieces. He therefore persevered in
his endeavours, to foil any hopes his rival might entertain of help from Tuscan
Ghibelines; and his plans seemed most successful; for in the course of January,
1268, he compelled the most formidable of these Tuscan Ghibelines, the Pisans,
to sign a treaty of alliance with him. And well pleased was he to have
accomplished this, when he found other expectations disappointed. He and
Clement had trusted to the known Guelph temper of the lately revived Lombard
League, for at least impeding Conradin’s advance from Verona. But the anger of
Torre at the Pope’s pertinacious rejection of his brother, in favour of the detested
Visconti, as Archbishop of Milan, conquered his party spirit; and he refused to
arm in the cause of the Pope and his King. The influence of Milan induced tbe
League to remain neutral, and Charles was stunned by the intelligence, that,
upon the 20th of this same January, Conradin and his army, marching unopposed,
as amongst friends, through Lombardy, had reached Pavia.
Much had now
been achieved on both sides, but neither could as yet feel success insured.
Charles, conscious that he was far from having crushed the Tuscan Ghibelines,
saw the importance of excluding his rival from a country that swarmed with
secret foes, ready to join any one against himself. He accordingly devoted the
months of February and March to guarding those passes of the Apennines, that
lead from the vicinity of Pavia into Tuscany. Then, satisfied that every
reasonable precaution had been taken, and all
he could hope
to do there done, he followed the Pope’s advice, and prepared to put down
rebellion at home. Again he visited Viterbo on his way, and found Clement, in
his horror of the Swabian monarchs, unusually disposed to overlook his royal
vassal’s offences against truth and humanity. As soon as Charles was secure of
cordial cooperation in this quarter, he hastened to his own dominions;
despatched part of his army to reinforce his Lieutenant in Sicily, whom he
exhorted to mistrust every ore, and make the securing Messina his especial
business. This done, he led his remaining troops against the Saracens of
Lueeria.
RICIIAHD.
Conradin in Tvscany—at Rome—Success in Sicily—Battle
of Tagliacozzo—Flight of Conradin—and Capture—Tyranny of Charles—Fate of
Conradin—of his Friends—in Sicily— St. Lewis’s last Crusade—Sicilian Testers. [1268.
Whilst Charles was thus actively preparing to defend
his usurped kingdom, Conradin and his friends were dell berating at Pavia,
where his enterprise M as really to begin, upon plans for baffling his
adversary’s precautions, and penetrating into Tuscany, there to gather the
Tuscan (it i - belines round their standard. It was a move that requ'red
deliberation; even the fiery impetuosity of youth acknowledged, that such an
adventure, as Conradin had undertaken, could not be achieved by objcctless
fighting, at every opportunity ; that the plan of the expedition must be, to
reach, in unbroken force, the kingdom of Conradin’s ancestors, and there, by
presenting the lawful heir to the discontented people, excite a general insurrection
; which, supported by the Italian Ghibelines, the Germans, and the Roman
Senator, should overthrow the usurper. Hence followed, that Conradin’s life,
the life upon which hung all the hopes of the Apulians, Sicilians, and Italian
Ghibelines, was not to be idly risked, before the destined sccne of action was
attained. But the problem was how, without fighting, to attain that scene of
action; how to reach even the frontier of that kingdom, preliminarily effecting
a junction, first with the Tuscan Ghibelines, next with Don Henrique? Only two
roads offered; the one, by the virulently Guelph Bologna, where Conradin’s
uncle, Enzio, lay ruthlessly immured; the other through Tuscanv, w here Pisa,
not deeming ■ ° r .iv s01.
herself bound
by a compulsory treaty, and having already supplied Capece with vessels,
eagerly invited the presence of the hereditary Emperor to whom she renewed her
offers of assistance. But access to Tuscany by land, was, if not imnossible,
yet hazardous, far beyond what the last of his race could be suffered to dare.
The envoys of Pisa proposed that the young King should journey with the utmost
secrecy, therefore, almost unaccompanied,f*17) to some safe point of
the Ligurian coast, where Pisan vessels should meet him, ■whilst the army
endeavoured to avoid, or, if therein baffled, to break through the guarded
passes of the Apennines. This plan was adopted.
But. still,
all was not clear; for, which was the safely accessible Ligurian point? Genoa
still hesitated which side to take, and enmity to Pisa seemed likely to turn
the scale against Conradin. Genoa was therefore to be shunned, and Yado, a
small town situate between Savona and Finale, upon the Riviera, or line of
coast strctching from Nice to the Gulpli of Spezzia, was selected. Thither
Conradin, accompanied by Frederic, who couid not be dissuaded from seeing him
safe on board, was securely escorted by the Ghibeline Marchese di Caretta,
through whose territory his road lav there, upon the 22nd of March, he embarked
in a Pisan ship, which, convoyed by nine others, transported nim to Pisa, where
he landed upon the 5th of April. Frederic parted from him at the sea side,
returning to Pavia, lest the seeming defection of both princes, should depress
the troops. The army then immediately marched, and, guided by Ghibeline mountaineers,
skilfully shunning the guarded passes, crossed the mountains by tracks known
only to the natives, and entered Tuscany unopposed. As successfully—aided by
the mental disturbance, which the sudden appearance of the Ghibeline forces in
a locality whence they were thought excluded, produced amongst their
enemies—they eluded all the attempts of Charles’s Lieutenant, Marechal
Bciselve, to check their advance within its frontiers, rejoining Conradin at
Pisa.
Again Pisa
did not neglect her own interests, but her care of them at the present
opportunity, not being so reckless of consequences, wrought not results as
disastrous as upon the ’•ecent occasion Having obtained from Con-
rudin,
prospectively, against he should be Emperor, a charter granting her large
privileges, she frankly gave him the use of a numerous, well appointed and well
manned, fleet intrusting the command and employment—whether clearing Sicily of
the French, or otherwise—as should be deemed most expedient to Federigo Lancia-
Conradin then
began his march for Rome, at the head of his army, still small, though
materially reinforced by Tuscan Ghibelines. He first alarmed Lucca—whence
Boiselve withdrew to Florence—and then, turning short southward, proceeded
towards Ghibeline Sienna, leaving Charles’s Marshal upon his left hand. The
shortest road to Rome was now, at least as far as Viterbo, open to the rightful
heir of the Sic'liea ; but his adversary still hoped, by following another line
in the same direction, to harass and impede his progress, finally, perhaps,
inclosing him between his own army and the strongly garrisoned Viterbo. With
this object, Boiselve quitted Florence; but, actuated by arrogant confidence in
his numbers and generalship, from Monte- varehi he, most unaccountably, sent
back the Florentine troops that had thus far accompanied him, refusing all
reinforcements whatever.
These
movements of the French were reported to Cou- radin, in whose little countil it
was resolved, that the opportunity, imprudently offered them, of freeing themselves
from an enemy ever hanging upon either their flank or their rear, must not be
neglected. A considerable detachment was sent, under one of the Ukerti, to lie
in ambush near Ponte di Valle, where that enemy would probably cross the Arno.
Upon the 25th of June, Boiselve reached Ponte di Valle, unsuspicious of the
proximity of a foe, and marching in disorderly confusion. Uberti burst from his
ambuscade, and, faU’ng suddenly upon the disorderly hostile troops, completely
routed them. Boiselve himself was taken prisoner with 300 knights ; l’Etendart,
the second in command, fled; and, with the greater part of the army, reached
Viterbo.
Tuscany was
now free from Charles’s foreign mercenaries, and the spirits of the Ghibelines
rose, as much as those of the Guelphs sank. At Sienna, Conradin spent some
days, and sought to secure active support by granting liberal charters. Thus,
again prospectively, as Em-
peror, he,
upon the 7th of July, exempted the Siennese from all imperial tolls and duties.
From Sienna, he pursued his route as far as Acquapendente unmolested ; filling
the Papal Court with alarm, notwithstanding the increase of numbers that
I’fetendart’s flight hfd brought, to the previously very sufficient garrison.
Immediately
upon the appearance of Conradin, in warlike guise, south of the Alps, Clement
had commanded him to disband hip army, and attend, singlj and unarmed, at the
foot of the pontifical throne, there to receive his just sentence. This thrice
repeated command being, of course, disregarded, he had, on Easter day, punished
the disobedience of this refractory representative of a refractory race, by
excommunicating him and his partisans, and depriving him of the kingdom of
Jerusalem, to which alone, of all his widely spread pattiinony, the Popes had
hitherto admitted his right. Clement now endeavoured to allay the terror of his
court bj oracular assurances, that the boy was hurrying to Apulia as to a
slaughter-house. His endeavours were unavailing, and it was Conradin who
relieved their fears. Even ha it been consistent with the plan of the
expedition to spare the time requisite for besieging a strong, amply provided,
and amply garrisoned town, and had Conradin himself not shrunk from an attack
upon the Pope in person, he must have dreaded, by such sacrilegious audacity,
to alienate all pious minds from his cause. He turned off to the right, and
leaving Viterbo upon his left, marched by Toscaneila and Vetralia to Rome.
At Rome, the
Senator, having resolved that Conradin's entry should eclipse the glories of
Charles’s, prepared to receive the Heir of so many Emperors with Imperial
honours. The whole male population of Rome, in military array, but softening
their martial appearance with nosegays and wreaths of flowers, marched forth,
as far as the foot of Monte Malo, to meet the acknowledged, lawful King of the
Sicilies. Thence they escorted him in triumphal procession to the city gate,
where the fairest daughters of Rome, maids and matrons, divided into companies
distinguished by different uniforms, welcomed him with song and dance. Then,
both bands, male and female, forming themselves in marching order, and resuming
the
triumphal
procession, attended him through festally adorned streets, carpeted with
flowers, hung, on either side; with tapestry, precious stuff*,
purple silks, and gold-wrought, &c., intermingled with garlands of flowers,
with branches of laurel, amidst which glittered and sparkled jewellery of al.l
descriptions; and canopied overhead with the same costly materials, to protect
the triumpher from the scorching rays of tbe sun. Thus was the young Adventurer
conducted to the Capitol, where the Senator, with all the Italian Ghibelines
and Apulian malcontents he could assemble, awaited him. And now Conradin,
surrounded by German, Sicilian, and Apulian nobles, by the most illustr:ous
Italian Ghibelines, by kinsmen of his own imperial blood, legitimate and
illegitimate, stood upon the spot whence the world had so long been governed.
Young and old made the welkin ring with acclamations in honour of the handsome,
as daring boy, of the despoiled heir of so many crowns, of the hitherto
successful your.g hero, gallantly seeking his heritage. The youthful heart
swelled high with present triumph, as with proud anticipations.
Historical
partisans of Couradin’s have thrown doubts upon the s’neerity of Don Henrique’s
friendship for his German cousin, imputing to the Spaniard, if not actual
collusion with Charles, yet Machiavelian plans for using and diappointing the
royal Adventurer, overthrowing, first, Charles, by Conradin, then Conradin, and
ultimately possessing himself of tbe Sicilies, to which be could not by
possibility devise the shadow of a pretension. The Infante appears to have been
a selfish, recklessly bold, and, perhaps, unprincipled Condottiere, who would
unquestionably" have claimed exorbitant recompense for his services !
Sardinia and the Senatorship for life at the least. But, that be had no secret
understanding with Charles, is proved by his fate; and to suspect him of
plotting against the life of Conradin under the very eye of Galvano Lancia, or,
according to some of his accusers, with that seduced Envoy, whose fidelity to
Conradin, his own and his son’s blood attested is surely to revel in gratuitous
suspicion. At all events, if the purposed first move was, to seat Conradin on
the Sicilian throne, any ulteriur scheme could not affect his conduct in the
present expedition.
'
The general
exultation at Rome was heightened by tidings from Sicily. Federigo Lancia,
atter sailing along the Neapolitan coast, everywhere alaming Charles’s officers
and partisans and arousing the discontented to thoughts of action, had turned
to Sicily and anchored oft Milazzo. Capece and Don Fadrique, with the loyal insurgents,
had now superior numbers, and a decisive blow might, at that moment, have been
struck, had the authority been concentratcd in a single hand. But neither Don
Fadrique, as a prince, and leader of a band of auxiliaries, alike independent
and important, noi Lancia, as Admiral of the Pisan fleet, was willing to
acknowledge the superior authority claimed by Conrad Capece, as the Lieutenant
appointed by the young King, whilst, according to some chroniclers, another
Conrad, the Conte di Alba, Frederic of Antioch’s son, autonomically assumed the
title of Viceroy. The four Chiefs differed as to the course to be pursued, and
the consequent delay gave time for a Provencal fleet of twenty-two sail, under
the command of llobert Lavenu, a Provencal legist, suddenly transformed into
an admiral, to arrive. A squadron of Charles’s, stationed in the harbour of
Messina, immediately joined the new comers.
At sea, the
superiority was now cn the side of the French; who knew that, on land, Capece
was unable to control even the insurrection that he had called into existence,
or to repress the prevalent auarchy. They therefore held themselves supeiior on
both elements, on the one to a fleet inferior kn numbers, on the other, to a
disorderly mob of royalists; and eagerly they prepared to engage on land and at
sea simultaneously. But the approach of danger had banished dissension and
jealousy from amongst the leaders of Conradin’s forces; and, as eagerly as the
French, they prepared for the double encounter. The 11th of August was fixed,
it might almost seem by common consent, for the struggle The naval action took
the lead, and for a while, ruin lowered over the rightful cause. One halt of
the Pisan fleet attacked the Provencal, the other the Messinese vessels; the
first division, manifestly unequal to the Proven5aux, was maintaining its
ground with difficulty, when the second, to the consternation of their Digitized
by Microsoft ®
friend* on
shore, and the exuberant joy of their enemies every where, giving way before
the Messinese, fled, impetuously pursued. The French fancied the victory
theirs ; but it was the old stratagem of the one Iloratius against the three,
unequally wounded, Curiatii. The impetuosity of pursuit scattered the Messinese;
and upon this had the veteran sailors of Pisa reckoned. They now turned upon
their pursuers, assailed the dispersed ships singly, or in small detachments,
successively captured or sunk them, and then hastened to assist their
countrymen against the Provenjaux. But their assistance was no longer needed.
The courage of the lawyer-admiral being cooled by the disaster of his allies,
he had already fled, and few indeed of Charles’s Provencal ships escaped
capture cr destruction.
Puyregard,
dispirited by the issue of the naval battle, abandoned all thoughts of
engaging, and retreated, as fast as was consistent with good order, to
protection within the walls of Messina. Had the victors been discreet, he might
have found that an unsafe asylum; inasmuch as the Messinese were even then
meditating to seek in French property compensation for the loss of their navy,
by delivering up the town, upon condition of being so compensated, to the
officers of their lawful, hereditary King. But the Pisans, their selfishness
uncured even by experience of its baneful consequences, would not let slip an
opportunity of crippling the mercantile marine of a rival, though that rival
was about to become a friend. Favoured by the wind, they set the captured
vessels on fire, in a position whence they drifted into the port of Messina,
against the merchantmen there moored, and close to houses built along the
shore. The flames caught the shipping and the houses on the quay, doing great
damage ; and the citizens, thus irritated against the allies of him to whom
they were about to swear allegiance, were half reconciled to their French
masters. But, if Conradin thus failed at once to win Messina, the rest of
Sicily was indisputably his; for his Pisan fleet rode mistress of the sea, and
the French soldiers lurked, in very doubtful security, behind the walls of
towns, mostly hostile to them.
When Rome
heard these glad tidings, Conradin was preparing to prosecute his enterprise,
but not by the road
which treason
had two years before opened to his enemy. Don Henrique knew that Charles; had
conccntrated nib defensive efforts upon the pass, Which, had bribery failed, he
could not, he was well aware, without ar immense cost of time, labour, and
blood, if with it, have forced. Con- radin’s Council resolved, therefore, to
avoid the strongly guarded road by Ceperano and the bridge over the Garig-
liano, attempting the next pass of the mountain range, at all practicable for
an army. This pass was, in many respects, preferable, though by nature far
more difficult, and therefore, perhaps, neglected by Charles. Lying fifty miles
cast of Ceperano, it led into the Abruzzi, towards the very part of the
kingdom, where insurrection in favour of the heir of the Suevo-Norman Kings,
might most confidently be expected; viz., the Capitanata, where Saracens and
their Christian confederates were already in arms.
Upon the 18th
of August, just a week after his naval victory, Conradin, hitherto successful
beyond all reasonable calculation, even to the utmost of his inviters’ promises,
and reinforced by his Spanish kinsman’s band of veterans, quitted Rome to
consummate bis daring enterprise. He marched up the fair valley of the
Teverone, passing Tivoli, to Cursoli. Thence, with painful toil, but unopposed
by man, and contending only against natural obstacles, the little army
penetrated into the very heart of the mountains. They struggled through gorges
and ravines, barely admitting two abreast, between the torrent and the
vertically rising rock, along the side of precipices, up and down sheep, or
rather goat tracks, of steepness well nigh perpendicular, in short through
difficulties analogous to those that had impeded Manfred's flight, but more su-
perable in broad daylight and with abundant assistance.
At length,
all were surmounted. The royal youth stood upon the summit of the last,
loftiest, and most abrupt range, with the beautiful land, for which he came to
fight, outspread beneath his gaze. In the distance, encircled by cultivated
fields ntermixed with vineyards, with groves of fig, olive, and orange, lay the
fair lake of Celano, reflecting the bright blue of a southern sky, whilst, in
every cosy nook of the surrounding mountains, nestled a village, and upon many
a boldlv projecting crag, half way to the
summit,
perched another. The road to Sulmone seemed open before him, ard, at Sulmone,
he was to find himself in the midst of the most loyal subjects of his
forefathers. The boy-hero felt his daring adventure achieved, felt one
ancestral crown already upon his brow. But, as he descended from the Apennine
ridge, he learned that actually open the Sulmone road was »iot; that Charles
was hurrying, with what troops he could upon the sudden emergency collect, to
oppose his further progress. Therefore passing Tagliacozzo, one of the Just
described mountain nests, he encamped not far from Scurcola, upon a plain, the
extent of which, nearly inclosed as it was by the mountains, afforded a decided
advantage to his army, superior in numbers, especially in cavalry, to that
which was con.:ng against him. Ilis camp was strongly posted ;
protected by a stream, the Salto, and by the inaccessibility of the sheltering
mountains.
Charles,
expecting Conradin’.s advance by the same pass though which he himself had
invaded Apulia, and therefore, relying upon the time required to break through
the defences there accumulated, had remained before Luceria, devoting his
attention to the siege. And justly did he esteem crushing the Saraccn
insurrection, ere headed by the Prince it proclaimed, a main object. But,
having too long delayed his attack, Don Ilenrique’s strategy baffled him. The
intelligence, that his adversary had chosen a road guarded only by natural
difficulties, surprised, but did not perplex him. The measures to be thereon
taken were self- evident; and instantly raising the siege, he hastened northward
by forced marches, to encounter the invaders, ere they could join the
Capitanata insurgents.
Upon the 22d
of August, he reached the mountains, girdling the plain on which Conradin was
encamped; and pitched his tents in a strong position, upon a height commanding
the road to Sulmone, and within a mile of Alba, a town seated upon an insulated
rock, that protected, or threatened, his right flank. From Conradin’s camp he
was here nearly three miles distant.
Conradin,
immediately arraying his little army, offered battle, which, under any
circumstances, was not likely, at the close of a series of forced marches, to
bo immediately
accepted. But
Charles was numerically too weak to encounter his enemy upon even ground ;
whilst his position ■was too strong to bo assaulted, even with a greater
superiority of numbers than Conradin possessed. Ths rival hosts, that decided
the fate 01 a kingdom, have been variously estimated, Charles’s at 3000 or
fiOOO men, Conradin’s at 5000, 9000, 10 000, and even 16,000,^ the probability
being that 5000 aud 10,000, respectively, come nearest the truth. The rivals
gazed idly at each other, till darkness induced the invader to retire into his
camp. In the night, Charles learned, that a deputation from Arjuila was
carrying presents and the keys of the city to Conradin’s camp. To avert the
desertion of a town locally important, he instantly mounted, and almost
unattended, galloped thither; by flatteries, promises, and threats, he secured
the fidelity of Aquila, and the stores in its warehouses for his use, and was
in his tent again before dawn.
In the
morning Conradin again offered battle, dividing his army into two bodies; the
one composed of Don Henriqce’s band, of the Lombards under Galvano Lancia, and
of the Tuscans, under Conte Dcnoralico, the Pisan, the whole seemingly
commanded by the Infante; the second, of his Germans under himself and
Frederic. Still Charles remained immoveable. To him, alarmed at the evident
disparity betwixt his forccs and Conradin’s, to accept or decline an
engagement, appeared equally fraught with ruin ; since, in the first case,
defeat seemed inevitable, in the second, he laid the heart of the kingdom,
where the Saracens were in arms, open to the claimant of his crown.
Unfortunately
for the last heir of the Norman Kings, as of the Swabian and Franconian
Emperors, and for those whose hopes rested upon him, the Sieur Alard de St.
Valery, a veteran Crusader, having landed in Italy, on his return from the Holy
Laud, had deemed paying his respects to the brother of his King, au
indispensable piece of courtesy ia a French knight, and was then in the camj
for this purpose. To him, as to an experienced compatriot, the French prince
applied for counsel in his perplexity; and St. Valery pronounced that, unless a
battle were there fought and won, the kingdom was lost; that victory by open
force was impossible; and, that the only stratagem
which he
thought offered a chance of success, besides being most hazardous, could offer
that chance only through secrecy so impenetrable, that not even to the King
himself might it be disclosed. The command of the army must be transferred,
wholly and unrestrictedly to him who devised it. Charles, in his despair,
caught at any chance of relief; and trusting to the veteran’s skill, he
surrendered the command cf the army, thus unrestrictedly, to him, pledging
himself the first to implicit obedience.
St. Yalery
then selected 800 of the best knights, with the King and Earl Robert at their
head, whom he reserved for future secret disposal. The rest of the army he
divided into two bodies; the one, consisting of ProvcmjaJs, Lombards, and a
few Romans, under Gauce'me and i’Etendart, he ordered to descend into the
plain, and by attemping to possess themselves of the bridge over the Salto,
invite an attack; the other, of Frenchmen, under Marechal Cousauce, to occupy
the slope of the hill, and not; succour their comrades until they saw them
reduced to the last extremity, lie further ordered both Leaders not to resist
too obstinately, but to tly, keeping their people together as well as they
could, and returning to the field, with all the men the)’ coulu rally, the
moment the slackening of the pursuit should give them an opportunity of so
doing. To conceal from both friend and foe the King’s absence from the field,
Cousance, who nearly resembled hirn in figure, was directed to wear the ensigns
of royalty. These corps despatched to their posts, St. Valery ensconced
himself, with Charles and his 800 knights, in a mountain gorge, where, from the
formation of the ground and the position of the wood upon the heights above
them, they were completely hidden, both from their adversaries, and from the
inhabitants of Alba and Scarcola, who were known warmly to favour their
hereditary prince.
The first
division had hurried down to the plain and attempted to obtain possession of
the bridge, which, from the stream’s running between them and the hostile
troops, seemed to be no unreasonable military object. Of course the attempt,
from the inadequate force of the assailants, failed; when Don lienrique
crossing the little river by several fords, fell upon these disordered troops,
overpowered
them by his
numbers, routed, and pursued them, as St. Valery had concluded that be would,
with a wild impetuosity, that altogether lost sight of the yet unbroken
hostile array. Cousance was, nevertheless, in full view; having advanced,
according to his orders, at tbe last moment, to support his defeated friends.
Him the Germans encountered, and in a short, but sharp conflict, he was slain;
when his French troops, who, deceived as was intended, by his accoutrements,
mistook him for Charles, deeming all lost, fled in their turn. The Germans did
not, like their more impetuous southern allies, pursue; but, after remaining
awhile in order of battle upon the ground, believing the victory theirs, the
usurper slain, and the kingdom won, withdrew, hot and Weary but exulting, to
their tents.
When
the first division was put to f):ght, Charles had been impatient to
break out of his ambush and support them; but St. Valery reminded him of his
vowed obedience, and he submitted. When the like fate befel ihe second, he
could hardly be restrained. Even this iron- hearted man wept hot tears of rage
and shame, wildly exclaiming, that tamely to see bis whole army annihilated was
as absurd as infamous. But St. Valery forcibly withheld him, asking: “ And
what could 800 men do against thousands, upon their guard, and fired with
success ? Wait till the southern blood of the Italians and Spaniards shall, in
the frantic ardour of pursuit, have hurried them beyond reach of the sound of
battle; till northern phlegm and inability to endure the burning rays of an
August sun in Apulia, shall have driven these Germans, after plundering the
dead, to seek relief from a temperature, so uncongenial to their frames, in
disencumbering themselves of their burthensome armour, in the bath and the
banquet, or in sleep. Then will our little band be more than a match for their
numbers; then w'ill your r;val be slain, or a captive in your hands.” .
Charles
yielded to the argument; and, as St. Valery had but too wisely foreseen,
Conradin, satisfied that not only was the victory bis, but his enemy
annihilated, and his task accomplished, permitted his Germans to collect the
booty and seek rest and refreshment, after the heat and
toil of the
day. “Now is the time!” cried St. Valery; and bursting with his little troop
from their concealment, he galloped upon the hostile camp. Even this sight did
not warn the recent victors to prepare for new strife, as, unobservant from a
sense of security, they imagined the approaching squadron to be part of Don
Ilenrique’s men, returning from the pursuit. It was not till the troop of
French knights fell upon them like a thunderbolt, dealing death and dcstruciion
around, that a possibility of danger was suspected. Vainly then did Conradin,
Frederic, and the other chiefs, endeavour to reunite and array the scattered
victors, urging them to snatch up whatever weapon came to hand, and defend
their lives. What could unarmed, disordered, and bewildered men effect ? All
fled, hurrying their leaders, who were absorbed in their fruitless efforts to
rally the fugitives, along with them in their flight.
Now would the
French Knights fain have either pursued the flying Germans, or plundered the
camp ; Charles himself being very reluctant, to see the competitor for his
crown escape his grasp. Eut the veteran Crusader was not to be caught in the
snare he himself had successfully set for another. He knew that the Spanish
prince must ere long return, with numbers far superior to his troop, though he
hoped in a good deal of careless disorder: to balance which superiority, to
profit by which disorder, the troop must remain in battle array, upon the
ground previously occupied by the Germans. lie trusted thus for the second
time within a few hours, to dupe his antagonists with the semblance of friends.
As St. Valery
expected, Don Henrique, after having so unfortunately, if scarce imprudently,
pursued the flying foe to a considerable distance, halted to return; and took a
somewhat divergent line, for the purpose of seizing, perhaps of appropriating
the plunder of Charles’s camp. As he and his men looked down from the tented
eminence, they saw a troop in order of battle on the plain, but mistook them,
as St. Valery intended they should, for the equally victorious German division,
and descended the hih in heedless confusion, to rejoice with their comrades in
the common triumph. Again not till their weapons gave
incontrovertible
proof of enmity was the identity of the band mistrusted.
Hut Don
Henrique's corps, if surprised and in some confusion, was not unarmed, and the
princely Condottiere was too experienced a soldier to be easily thrown off his
bias A glance showed him the disastrous fact, and with the exclamation : “ If
fortune have cruelly turned against us, our swords must force her to turn again!”
he arrayed his men for a second engagement. His ranks were soor ordered, and
his numbers still so superior to those of the French victors, that St. Valery,
for the third time this day. had recourse to stratagem. He now told Charles
that he would himself fly, with a portion of their troop, taking the direction
in which their two divisions had fled before, until the Italians and Spaniards,
again falling into the previous snare, should, by their heedless pursuit, again
so break their ranks and scatter themselves, as to enable the pursuing King to
attack them at disadvantage; when he, on his part, would turn upon them,
reinforccd, he trusted, by the;r own fugitives; who, f returning, as
ordered, might now be momentarily expected. The scheme was executed as devised,
and again successfully. The imaginary victors, who aga.n dreamt only of
pursuing routed fugitives, %\ere confounded at finding themselves between two
onslaughts. War had, however, as before said, too long been the trade of Don
Henrlque and his band for a surprise to rob them of self-possession; they
fought resolutely till the gradual rallying of all Charles’s fugitives round
his standard, swelled in- ranks to a degree nearly as disproportionate as
before, though in the opposite direction. Half of Conradin’s army, depressed by
the consciousness that the other half must have been vanquished. now had to
contend against the whole of Charles’s. Don Henrique was overpowered, defeated,
and, in his turn, put to flight.
That very
evening the victorious King despatched the news of his victory to the Pope. In
his letter he says: “ The battle was harder fought and more sanguinary than
that of Benevento. Whither Conraain, Frederic of Austria, and the Infante of
Castile have fled, no one knows: but
VOL.
iv. 17
the charger
of the latter haj been recognised amongst the horses we have taken.”
If this last
part of the account were not a misrepresentation, generated by the hope of a
reward for good tidings, the prince must have changed his horse, in the idea
that being supposed slain would facilitate his escape. For Don Henrique, when
he abandoned the struggle as hopeless, rode off. well mounted and accompanied,
altogether in such good plight, that, upon reaching the Abbey of Montecassino,
he ventured to announce a complete victory gained by the young King and
himself, over the usurper. But the shrewd Abbot at otico perceived
improbability, in the leader, next in command, as in rank, to Conradin himself,
appearing as the herald of such a victory; and that at the head of so small a
party. For so small was it, that, when suspicion was thus excited, the monks
were able forcibly to detain the Infante and his company, until the truth
should be ascertained. Having learned the real posture of affairs, the Abbot,
by liis proceedings, marked his opinion of his French Sovereign. He began by
demanding and obtaining from the victorious King a solemn promise not to shed
blood, so near akin to his own, as the Castilian Infante’s, and then delivered
up his prisoners to him. The promise was kept; the King resisted the temptation
to put his creditor cousin to deat’.j; but he shut him up in a prison, and in
that prison the luckless Prince, Condottiere, and Unman Senator, was still
pining, two and twenty years after the battle of Tagliacozzo.{**'.)
Conradm and
Frederic, when irresistibly borne away from the fatal field, made straight for
Rome, where, as well from the zeal so lately displayed in favour of the heir of
the Sicilies and of the Empire, as from the Senator’s influence, they trusted
to find friendship and assistance. Upon their waj thither, they were joined by
Galvano Lancia and his son, by Doronatico, and other noble Ghibplines of Don
Ilenrique’s division. The Senator’s deputy, Guido di Montefeltro, received
‘them as they expected, ard a few Roman barons and principal citizens, whose
interests were identified with theirs, expressed cordial sympathy and readiness
to assist in remedying the lato reverse. But the
iickie
multitude had shouted for Conradin triumphant, for Conradin at the head of an
arsnv that, defeating the usurper, was, by a single victory, to seat him upon
his hereditary throne. Conradin, a fugitive, from a lost battle and a scattered
army, was a different person; as different was the influence of the deputy,
from that of the present Senator. Coldness and hesitation became apparent; the
return of the Orsini and other expelled Guelphs was talked of; rumours of the
approach of King Charles at the head of his victorious troops were circulated.
Safety and support must, Conradin and his friends saw, be sought elsewhere.
Iu Sicily,
they could defend themselves, and renew the war; the little party, therefore,
directed their steps to the sea coast, which they reached at Astura. They there
found a vessel ready to sail either for Sicily or for Pisa: which cf them
mattered little, since at Pisa they could easily obtain conveyance to their
goal. They embarked, put to sea, and congratulated each other upon th-jir
escape—upou the certainty of accomplishing their immediate object. But
something about them, whether their number, their dress, their hurry, or their
demeanour, had attracted notice in the small town, and their passage was
reported to the Lord of Astura, who, conjecturing that the persons described must
be fugitives from a lost battle,—whether the catastrophe of Tagliacozzo were
yet known to nim or not,—and fugitives, moreover, of high condition, instantly
ordered a well-manned and well-armed galley to pursue and bring them back.
Their very inferior trading craft was speedily overtaken, and ordered to put
about. The crew was prompt to obey, and resistance, on the part of Conradin and
his friends, impossible. The deepest despondency overwhelmed them at this
check, iust as they deemed all danger past. But when to the inquiry,
“ Who is the Lord of Astura ? ” the answer received was, “ Giovanni
Frangipani,” that despondency vanished.
No Italian
family lay under greater obligations to Con- ladin’s ancestors, than the
Frangipani. Ilis great-grandmother, Constance, and his grandfather, Frederic
II, had bestowed large domains upon the grandfather and grand- uncle of this
Giovanni; Frederic l ! had further, as before mentioned, purchased allodial
estates of the Lord of Astura's
father and
uncle, when pressed for money, immediately and gratuitously granting them those
estates in fief, and, besides rebuilding their houses and towers, destroyed in
Roman troubles, had made the whole family ample compensation for all damage
therein suffered. In addition to all these substantial favours, Giovanni
himself had received knighthood from the Emperor’s own hand; a sacredly binding
tie, 5ti the code of chivalry. Neither had the Frangipani failed to profess the
most devoted attachment to Frederic II. That, since the death of their imperial
benefactor, they had done homage to Innocent IV, for the fiefs received from
Frederic and his mother, weighed, in Conradin’s estimation, as a feather in the
scale: so did the report that his cousin, Frederic’s uncle, Frederic the
Combative, had been killed, perhaps unfairly, by a revengeful Frangipani, whom
he had wronged. Without an apprehension, therefore, of any evil, beyond a
slightly prolonged detention from the scene of action, Sicily, the party
submitted to what they could not avoid.
When brought
before Giovanni Frangipani, Conradin announced himself, and called upon h's
captor to testify his gratitude for the favours which Suevo-Norman sovereigns
had conferred upon his family, by protecting Frederic II’s grandson, the
rightful heir of the Sicilies, and helping him to join the friends upholding
his causa in the island. He promised abundantly to guerdon whatever assistance
he might obtain from him, and, according to some accounts, offered to marry his
daughter. (2I°) But the Lord of Astura was inaccessiblc to generous
motives or a sense of duty: and in matters of interest, either held a
daughter’s very subordinate to Iiis own; or was simply governed by the old saw,
touching the relative value of birds in the hand and In the bush. A party of
Charles’s troops had tracked the fugitives to Astura, pud to their leader,
Frangipani sold his prisoners; the price he bargained for being four considerable
tiefs, which the leader in question undertook that Charles should bestow upon
the traitor. Frangipani delivered up Conradin and his companions, and obtained
in remuneration, not the promised fouv, but o.ie fief, near Benevento. The
reader must not, on acccount of the date of the subsequent traniaction, lose
the small satisfaction
of knowing
that in Charles’s war with thp Aragonese, some years later, the latter
conjointly with the Sicilians, destroyed Astura and killed Giovanni
Frangipan:.(211)
The prisoners
were immediately carried to Naples, and the indignities to which they were
subjected upon their road thither, were calculated to forewarn them of the fate
there awaiting them. In the first, instance, however, their arrival was felt by
them as a relief, for, though shut up i prison, they do not appear to have been
ill used, or denied each other’s society. Conradin and Frederic were certainly
confined together.
Tho whole of
the continental portion of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with the single
exception of Lueeria— which held out till the next year—now submitted in gloomy
despondency to the conqueror. Those who had favoured the vanquished heir,
studied to dissemble, or, where that was hopeless, to expiate the oftence. But
hardly could hypoci'Sy conciliate the ruthless as rapacious Charles, who, even
if lie had not a morbid pleasure in bloodshed, looked to confiscation as a
source of profit. Ilis treatment of prisoners of war, when from his rapid and
easy success he could not. be peculiarly irritated, has been seen; those now
taken he considered as rebels not entitled to the character of prisoners of wTar;
and a few specimens of Lis mode of dealing with them will suffice to shew Iiis
disposition.
Alba had
rashly avowed her joy, when, upon the fatal day of Tagliacozzo, the victory had
appeared to be Con- rad...’s, When all was lost, she attempted no defence; but
the prompt throwing open of her gates could not avert punishment, amounting to
destruction, so complete, that down to the present day, only a mass of ruins
marks the site of a once thriving, now obliterated town. The citizens of
Potenza, guilty o*’ a similar crime, thought to evade a similar lot by
murdering all theii nobles, as though they alone had been guilty of loyalty to
the hereditary monarch, actually constraining the Guelph population to disguise
their sentiments, ‘-'alschood, backed by massacre, availed but in part; the
town, if not. demolished, "was sacked; numbers of the citizens were
executed, and their houses demolished. The baseness of Corneto was more
successful, Digitized by Microsoft ®
Her crime
was, having given up French horses to the partisans of Conradin. Tho
magistrates now invited the best citizens to the castle, to consult upon the
line of conduct to be adopted; mads them prisoners as they sat at supper, and
sent them, 106 in number, to the King, as the sole authors of the iniquitous
act. Charles immediately ordered the execution of 103, and the. remaining three
to be carried to Melfi. What be proposed there doing with them, is uncertain;
inasmuch as they, apprehending that death was to be preceded by torture, or
merely wishing to disappoint the murderer of their friends, whatever his
purpose, flung themselves down a precipice on the way thither. Charles’s thirst
of blood was now so far assuaged, that Corncto was spared; but this was the
limit of his mercy. Throughout the continental provinces all who had, in any
way, betrayed good will towards Conradin, the lowest as well as the highest,
were diligently sought out, and either mutilated, or put to death, or reduced
to beggary by the confiscation of all they possessed. Such of the Roman
citizens as, having dutifully followed their Senator to the field, had been
made prisoners, he for the further indulgence of his sanguinary nature, called
rebels; and as such, first ordered their feet to be cut off, then, shutting
them all up together in one building, set it on fire, reducing it and them to
ashes. (212)
Could
Conradin have reached Sicily with his friends, t.he war might have ended
differently; he might at least have kept possession of the island, as once more
a separate kingdom. But the tidings of defeat, followed by those, yet more
disheartening, of the capture of him for whom the struggle was making, crushed
the spirit of all. Hence, upon l’fiten- dart’s landing with a large body cf
French troops, the contest was abandoned ; not discreetly, by treaty, providing
for the safety of all, but individually, as cowardice and treachery prompted.
The example of both was set at Augusta, which, whilst bravely defending itself,
was, b\ some traitors amongst the citizens, surreptitiously delivered up to
l’Etendart. They had their well merited reward. Neither rank, age, nor sex
escaped; he cut betrayed and betrayers alike, to pieces. And, when the brutal
appetite of the soldiery for blood, was sated, when their arnii actualiy ached
with slaughter, I’fctendarr sent for stout executioners.
whom he
commanded, as though death were too mild a punishment for resistance to .an
usurper, to enhance its pangs by prev'ous or concomitant torture; and he stimulated
their ferocity with wine, whenever they seemed weary, or sickened at the task
assigned them. Not a soul was left alive in Augusta.
The leaders
themselves now despaired. Don Fadrique got on board a Pisan ship, and thus,
with Federico Lancia, effected his escape. Conrad, Conte d’Alba, was taken prisoner:
but, fortunately for him, his wife, Beatrice Lancia, held some captured
relations of a Cardinal, securely guarded in a castle that still owned her as
its mistress. She announced her immovable determination to treat them as her
husband should be treated; and by the Pope’s earnest ■ntervention in
theii behalf, Conrad was exchanged for them: retiring into private life, upon
the ruin of his kindred, he is heard of no more. Capece alone, with his
Germans and Tuscans, remained unsubdued, or, more correctly, still free at
Contorbe; for subdued the spirit of his troops was, and they bargained with
l’Etendart for their own safety, as the price of delivering their genera! into
his hands. When the traitors prepared to execute their part of the nefarious
bargain, they found Capece standing in the porch of a church. Instead of
seeking the protection of sanctuary within the sacred edifice, he thus calmiy
addressed them: “ I am aware of your intentions, and am wil'ing to sacrifice
myself for you; but take you care that your own safety be thereby really
insured. Crime grows bolder with success, and, after my death, French perfidy
is as likely, as not, to destroy every one of you.” The emotion, which the
heroic generosity of these words1 could not but excite, was
insufficient to revive the courage 01 change the purpose of the spiritless
Judas-soldiers. One of the ri ngleaders answered : “ Lord General, we ear.not
all b? saved; and delivering you up purchases the liberty of all the rest; so do
not strive against us. Besides, we fully hope you wiil be pardoned, as
l'Etendart has promised us, that i: he gets Contorbe without losing a man, he
will do his utmost for you.” Capece made 110 reply, but mounting his horse,
rode with them into the enemy’s camp.
And bow did
l’Etendart keep h's promise to the mu- Digitized by Microsoft ®
tineers ? A
worthy officer of Charles of Anjou, he instantly put out Capece’s eyes, and
then sent him, blinded and betrayed, to Catanea, to be there handed upon the
sea-shore.(213) Two more of the Capcce brothers, were, after the
same fashion, executed at Naples, by the King’s own command, but it is some
little solace, amidst such horrors, to learn., that tyranny did not extirpate
this noble race. Not only is the name found in subsequent history; the family
exists at the present day, still bearing upon their coat of arms, or as the
motto to their crest, the Swabian name,(!“) in witness of ancestral,
indomitable loyalty, through a period of perfidy and treason. The let of the
troops who sold their Commander is not known; they would, probably, be
enlisted or massacred by Charles, accordingly as he did, or did not, want
soldiers.
Clement, who
in the first instance had rejciced, like, not the self-entitled Father of
Christendom, but, a partisan, at Conradia’s defeat ar.;l capture, was, by these
executions, recalled to sentiments rnora consonant with the character he
cleimed. Again he remonstrated with his chosen royal vassal, earnestly
imploring him to be merciful towards his surviving captives. But mercy was
alien to Charles; and the only effect cf the Pope’s rebukes and admonitions,
was to superinduce hypocrisy upon his original cruelty. He endeavoured to
transfer the responsibility from his own to other shoulders, assuring his Holiness,
that the fate of the pretender to his crown should be judicially determined, by
an unimpassioned, impartial tribunal.^15)
Professedly
for this purpose, the King summoned an assembly of Apulian Barons, of Sindichi
(Magistrates), or Deputies of Apulian towns,—selecting them from the provinces
generally known as most Guelph in disposition—and of J udges and Doctors
learned in the law, from all parts of the kingdom, to Naples, there
constituting them a High Court of Justice. Before this tribunal he did not
produce his prisoners; but in their absence, in the absence of any vicarious
protector of their 'nterests, he laid a sort of indictment against Conradin,
accusing him of sins against the Church, of rebellion and high treason against
iiis lawful King: whereby he and all his acccmplices, i.e., his i’nends and
fellow captives, had incurred the penaitv of death. r
The whole
Court was horror-stricken at bearing the accusations, upon which judgment was
to be pronounced; but, mindful of the King’s savage cruelty, the member* looked
at each other in mute dismay, shriijking alike from what they saw was expected
of then:, and .'roni giving utterance to their real sentiments. At length, a
Doctor of Laws, Guido da Suzara, so called from his b:rtli-place,
Suzara, in the present duchy of Modena, arose. He had been Professor of Law at
Modena, Bologna, at almost every Italian University ; and in his lectures had,
with bold severity, reprobated the arbitrary use of torture, then habitual. He
now, with a firmness befitting the high office of an expounder and teacher of
law and justice, thus spoke. V Conradin came hither not as a rebel or robber,
but fully convinced 01 his right to the crown. He has committed no crime,
having only endeavoured, by open war, to recover the hereditary kingdom of his
ancestors. He is a prisoner of war—taken, moreover, not as an assailant, but
as a fugitive—and to treat prisoners of wax mercifully, is enjoined by all
laws, human and divine.”
This valiant
assertion of truth, law, and justice, appears to have so astonished Charles, as
to throw him quite off his guard. Forgetting his hypocritical professions of
noninterference, he impatiently exclaimed, that Conradin was guilty of
sacrilege, his troops having burnt convents— equally forgetting, it should
seem, the similar far worse deeds of his own anr.y at Benevento. Again Guido
fearlessly spoke, asking: “ What proof is there that Conradin or his friends
sanctioned the crime? Have not other armies done the same ? And are not
offences against the Church to be judged exclusively by the Church ?”
Courage is
almost as infectious as cowardice, and stimulated bj Guido’s generous daring,
the whole tribunal,(m) with a single exception, solemnly acquitted
Conradin and his friends. Respecting the identity of this one, resolutely
time-serving, judge, some little uncertainty prevails. By most historians he is
stated to have been Roberto di Bari, the Gran-Protonotario ; a man represented
as having been deficient alike in learning and in honesty; whilst more recent
authors assert this single exception to have bean a
Provencal,
whose name anrl condition are unknown, the Gran-Protonotario having merely, in
his official capacity, pronounced the sentence which he had no share in determining.
(2n) The older version, as will presently be seen, is most,
consonant with the subsequent circumstances of this iniquitous transaction. But
whether an unknown Provencal, or the Gran-Protonotario, in slavish adulation
of a dreaded tyrant, affirmed the guilt of the unfortunate prisoners of war,
the tyrant) incensed at losing, through the virtue of his tribunal, the thick
shroud he had hoped to oast over his sanguinary vengeance, eagerly caught at
this transparent veil. lie accepted the single servile voice, that had breathed
the word Gui.ty, as delivering the unanimous verdict of the High Court of
Justice, and at once, either in person, or through the official organ of
Roberto di Bari, pronounced sentence of death upon the convicted rebels,
Conradin and his accomplices. (21")
Conradin and
Frederic, unapprehensive of any worse fate than prolonged imprisonment, to
young spirits bad enough, were playing at chess when their strange trial, and
yet stranger doom, were announced to them. They received the unexpected
intelligence with calm fortitude, and employed the brief span of life
remaining to them, as did their fellow prisoners, in the duties of religion and
the airangeinent of their temporal affairs. Conradin confirmed his previous
testamentary dispositions, bequeathing his German possessions to his maternal
uncles; and in his wills, as before intimated, there is no allusion to any
matrimonial engagement, complete or contemplated.
The scaffold
for this unprecedented execution was erected upon the sea shore, ;n
a spot which now bears the name of 11 Mercato--as though the sole Neapolitan
market —and, according to some authorities, in front of a church, dedicated to
Our Lady of Mount Cannel; according to others, upon the site where a
coffee-house now stands. The whole district was then without the city walls,
and either locality commanded a view of all the far-famed beauties of the Bay
of Naples. Charles afterwards there built the castle named Del Carmine, because
adjoining the Carmelite church and monastery, (21S) making the castle
itself a
piece of the wall, which he was then greatly extending, and which, by
inclosing, made the whole theatre of the tragedy part of the town.
Upon
the’“29th of October, 1268, the day appointed for the performance of the last
act, the open space in question was thronged with Neapolitans, eager, whether
in sympathy with the victims or the executioner, to ga?e upon an exciting
spectacle. Conradin and his companions in in:s- fortune, were now, little more
than two months after the downfall of their proud hopes on th3 plain of
Taglrncozzo, brought thither. The executioner, ready prepared for the discharge
of his dreadful functions, awaited them upon the scaffold; the King, thirsting
for the blood of a rival in his clutches, took his seat at the open window, or
in the balcony, of a neighbouring fort; by his command, the Gran- Protonotario
thus addressed the assembled multitude: “ Men of Naples ! this Conradin, the
son of Conrr.d, came from Germany to seduce the Apulian and Sicilian nations:
to reap a harvest not his own, lawlessly attacking our lawful sovereign.
Favoured by accident, ho was at first successful; but soon, by the energy of
King Charles, was the victor vanquished: and he who held himself bound by no
laws, has been brought bound before the tribunal of the monarch he strove to
overthrow. Therefore, with the permission of the Clergy, and by the advice of
Judges, and of Doctors learned in the Law, has sentence of death been passed
upon him and his accomplices, as robbers, rebels, traitors, and seducers of the
people to rebellion; and to prevent all possibility of further danger, they
will immediately be executed in your presence.”
Although the
multitude must surely have supposed the scaffold to be erected for an
execution, the general murmur that arose seemed to indicate surprise, as well
as horror, at a doom, contrary alike to law and to justice. But fear of Chailes
predominated over indignation, and only a single voice dared to express the
general feeling; but, at the impulse of regard for a wife’s father, strangely
directed the storm of that indignation solely against the tool, sparing the
tool’s employer. The misdirection is, however, some proof that the Protonotario
was not a mere officer, discharging his official duty, but an active agent. The
voice was
that ot the
King’s son-in-law, Earl llobert de Bethune, heir of Flanders. He sprang
forward, shouting • “Impudent, law-perverting scoundrel! How presumest thou to
doom so noble, so princely a cavalierJ” and drawing his sword as he spoke, ran the
Protonocario through the body. The unrighteous Judge was carried away a seeming
corse, though whether he were actually killed is another of the points upon
which authorities differ.(iJ0) The French knights applauded the
deed, and Charles was fain to smother his wrath; but he was not frightened into
justice. The doom remained unaltered.
Conradin now
asked permission to say a few words; and obtaining it, with great
self-possession spoke as follows: “ As a sinner against God, I deserve death;
but here I a;ri unjustly condemned. I ask all those loyal vassals, over whose
welfare my ancestors so paternally watched,—I ask all the princes of the earth,
whether he who asserts his own and his people’s rights, be a criminal ? And
even were i one, upon what plea can the innocent men, who, unpledged to any
other king, have faithfully adhered to me, be thus savagely punished?”
Murmurs and
tears of sympathy responded to this appeal, but still fear of Charles was the
predominant sentiment. Robert de Bethune had apparently expended his indignation,
and no one stirred. Conradin then flung his glove amidst the crowd, requesting
that it might be conveyed to his kinswoman. Constance, Crown-Princess of
Aragon, and her husband Don Pedro, in token of his bequeathing his rights to
her. It was picked up by Heinrich, Truchsess von Waldburg, brother or nephe»v
of Conradin’s active as zealous episcopal guardian in Swabia, who, like a good
knight and true, punctually fulfilled the Prince’s last wishes.(®‘) Conradin
seems to have thus far cherished a hope of exciting the people to rise in
rescue of himself and his friends; but if he had, he now saw that their very
souls were too thoroughly enslaved. He abandoned the struggle, and prepared for
death. He embraced all his fellow-suf- ferers, Frederic repeatedly; divested
himself of his upper garment, and, raising his hands and eyes towards Heaven,
cried ■ “Jesus Christ, Lord of all creatures, King of honour ! if this
cip may not pass iron, me, into thv hands I commit
my spirit.”
Then he knelt, down, but immediately started up, with the exclamation: “ Oh,
mother mine! What grief must I cause thee!” This explosion of filial tenderness,
for the only parent he had ever known, over, C011- radin again knelt down, and
calmly received the death- stroke.
When Frederic
bebeld the beloved head fall, he uttered a shriek so piteous, revealing anguish
bo intense, that the whole mass of spectators burst into tears. His cwn head
was the next struck off, followed by Conte Donoratico’s; and here it must be
observed, that, if any shadow of a plea could be alleged for sentencing
Conradin, as a claimant of the crown, none could possibly apply to Frederic and
Donoratico, both foreigners in the Sicilies, the one a German prince, the
other a nobleman, the citizen of a free state, which, if not, absolutely
independent, owed homage solely to the Empire. The Lancias, whose Apulian and
Sicilian estates might give them, though Lombards, the character of rebels
against the de facto king, were the next executed. Galvauo had proffered
100,000 ounces of gold as ransom for his son and himself; but Charles,
preferring the confiscation of his Apulian and Sicilian property, rejected the
money ; and, apparently through a mere desire to gloat, on human suffering,
ordered the son to be first slain. The fatal stroke is said to have been dealt
the youth whilst actually clasped i'l his father’s arms. After tha Lancias, one
Swabian (again a foreigner,) and several Calabrian noblemen and knights were
beheaded. (222)
It is said
that when this wholesale execution was over, the executioner’s own head was
suddenly struck off, by a colleague provided for the express purpose; thus
escaping the .ndecoi’um of a low-born man’s being enabled to boast of having
shed such princely blood. The number of victims sacrificed upon this day is not
accurately known; neither is that of the persons who suffered upon the several
subsequent days of execution, nor yet, the precise date of those subsequent
sanguinary days. liut, first and last, 1000 human lives are computed to have
been left, upon the scaffold. None, because excommunicated, being allowed to
repose in consecrated ground, the sea shore was their common grave.
With regard
to Conradin at least,, and those of his friends laid nearest him, this indignity
was not permanent. According to the most general opinion, his mother
Elizabeth, who had been gathering together a large sum of monev, with which, as
she trusted, to ransom him, arriving too late to make the hopeless attempt,
purchased with the gold, now otherwise valueless, permission to brild a church
or chapel, and in it a tomb, over his remains.(m) The church was
afterwards burnt down and rebuilt, the second church or chape] was in existence
at the opening of the current century; in the early part of which, all respect
for religion, as for the past, being extirct, it was destroyed to make room for
the before-mentioned coffee house. But the monks of the Ccrmelite ironasterv
show, behind the high altar of their own church, a tablet, attesting that Conradm
and Frederic are there interred; though whether their un- distinguishable
remains were removed thither from the demolished church, or only the tomb with
the medallion effigy of Conradin, may be doubted.
This mockery
of law and justice—as, however repugnant to each other the ideas of mockery and
murder, this atrocious butchery under colour of a legal execution must be
termed—with all its attendant circumstances, including the extinction, in the
direct male line, of a dynasty as exalted in natural gifts as in station, (5al)
commoting the Neapolitan heart and imagination, tradition has deepened and
adorned the catastrophe by a touch of the marvellous. An eagle is reported to
have shot down from the clouds at the very moment when Conradin’s head was
severed from his body, dipped a wing in the gushing blood, and soared again
skyward, out cf human sight, i he spor where the execution took place was
averred to remain thenceforward wet, as a perpetual mourning over the
flagitious deed.
These are
mere legendary traditions; but one superstitious observance traditionally
connected with Conradin's fate :s sanctioned by the authority of
Dante, and also of Boccaccio, a courtier of the royal executioner’s grandson,
and more than a courtier of his great-grand-daughter. The Sicilies cherished a
popular belief, supposed to have been imported into Magna Grecia from the
mother country, but said by these mighty Florentines to have equally reigned in
Tuscany,(m) that, by eating a soup, concocted for the nonce of certain specified
ingredients, over or upon the body of a murdered person, the murderer, if not
quite cleansed of guilt, was, as by a charm, protected from the vengeance of
the slain man’s friends and kindred. A rumour makes Charles eat such a soup,
over the mangled bodies of Conradin and his fellow sufferers. That Charles
should be superstitious is not strange ; but much so, that lie should thus
betray his own consciousness that his pretended judicial proceedings were a
sanguinary farce. Conscious guilt must have stimulated the fear of vcngeance,
compelling this tacit confession.
Charles
having by these executions nearly satisfied his appetite for blood, and, by the
accompanying confiscations, temporarily at least, his rapacity, deemed it meet
next to evince his gratitude where due. To Heaven, he offered the foundation
and endowment of an abbey, which he erected upun the field of battle near
Scurcola, dedicated to Our Lady of Victory, for the occupation of French monks.
This abbey he appears to have likewise intended for a monument of his emulous
patronage of the Arts, having employed Frederic II’s architect, Nicolo
Pisano,—more likely Nicolo’s son, Giovanni, or one of his scholars,—to design
and build it. The attempt to commemorate either his artistic taste or his
devout thankfulness, was unsuccessful; and to the excited imaginations of hi!
subjects and contemporaries, the earthquake, which ere long overthrew the
Abbey, leaving scarcely a fragment of the wall standing, appeared a special
nterposition of Providence, in rejection o ' a blood-stained offering.
Man
certai.ily rejected his endeavours to repay the obligations he owned. He.
offered St. Valery a grant of two cities, Amalfi and Sorrento, in fief; when
the Crusader coldly replied: “ I want none of your fiefs. What. I did was done
for love of way own King, the pious Lewis IX, and for the honour of Franceand,
quitting Naples, he went home. Charles next proposed to conciliate both
Sicilies by au amnesty; but a real amnesty was alien to his nature, and this
might better bo denominated a Proscription. The victorious monarch, in
professed clemency, promised future safety to the renentant partisans of Con- Digitized
by Microsoft ®
raain: but
excepting all Germans, Spaniards, and Pisans that is to say, persons over whom
he had no right of jurisdiction whatever, and whom he leniently contented
himself with banishing from his dominions for ever; whilst assuring Sicilians,
who, though not active rebels, had absented themselves through fear, that,
unless they returned by a certain day, they likewise would be excepted from the
amnesty. Within the week this amnesty was followed bv another Rubric, as they
are termed, which said: “ Those who have borns arms against the King, or fled,
or been already sentenced, or lived in rebellious towns, or concealed themselves,
shall forthwith be seized by the officers of justice, their property
confiscated, and themselves hanged. Whoever shall have harboured, concealed,
conveyed away, or counselled any such person, is subjected to the same punishment.”
But not even so was Charles’s thirst for vengeance satiated. Three years later,
another Rubric declared, that, “The sons and daughters of outlawed persons
shall not marry without the Kii.g’s permission, which will be granted only if
the parents present themselves before the tri- bunals.”(fflt>)
And this condition, non-compliance with which was to doom the race to
extinction, is unaccompanied by any intimation of mercy to such persons as
should so present themselves !
A proof,
stronger even than his massacres, of the utter heartlessness of Charles, is,
perhaps, the deliberate publication of this sanguinary amnesty as an 'act of
grace and cletnencv, id honour of his second nuptials. Fcr not long had the
v?in, rather than ambitious, Beatrice, rejoiced in her title and dignity of
Queen. She died in July of the preceding year, 1‘2G7; and her widower had lost
no time, beyond what the barest decency required, in negotiating another
marriage. Cne, if not two, matrimonial overtures had, after much consultation
with the Pope, been made and failed, before he selected and obtained the hand
of Marguerite, daughter of Eudes, Comte de Nevers.
Thl= treaty
was concluded, and the lady on her way to join him, during the process of
extermination just related; and, i:i this sanguinary month of October, she was
entertained at Milan with the honours due to the Sovereign’s consort. Milan
was all anxiety to atons for not having stopped
Conradin on
his passage through Lombardy; being now as meanly subservient to the usurping
King of the Sicilies, to whose crown she owed no allegiance, as she had been
refractory, first to the rigorous, and latterly to the very moderate, demands
of Emperors whom she acknowledged her Sovereigns. Milan, as if renouncing her
republican aspiration, proclaimed Charles, Lord of Lombardy; and Clement,
forgetting alike his disapprobation cf savage cruelty, and all apprehension of
a Sicilian monarch’s power, extended his Imperial Vicariate over the whole of
Italy.
Frederic II’s
only surviving legitimate child was a daughter of his third marriage, Margaret,
Margravine of Misnia, whose lot was, after a different fashion, as sad as that
of any of her race. The reader might expect to see her husband, Margrave
Albert, upon the death of Conradin, assert her right, viz., his own, in default
of male heirs, to inherit all her father’s dominions,- or at least appeal to
King Richard, against her murdered nephew’s bequest, alienating the German
patrimony of the House of Hohen• staufen from the Ilohenstaufen blood. But
either the Margrave was brutalized by sensual indulgence into indifference to
his own aggrandizement, and his children’s birthright; or he hated his
ill-used, as well as neglected, imperial consort, and—because her’s—their sons,
with an Inveteracy, that rendered acquisitions valueless if due to her, and to
be enjoyed by her offspring. When Margaret’s last hope of powerful protection
expired upon a Neapolitan scaffold, her husband, instead of claiming her
heritage, bribed a menial (“’) to steal at night, disguised as a demon, into
her chamber and there strangle her. The man accepted, arid promised to earn,
the bribe; but, his heart failing Lm, he procrastinated. When at length,
vehemently urged, and threatened by the impatient. Margrave, he made his way to
the couch where, calmly sleeping, lay the daughter of emperors and kings, the
consort of his actual, and mother of his f Hure, Sovereign, he was overwhelmed
with hoiror at the crime he had engaged to commit, and, falling upon his knees,
revealed to the death-doomed wife, the commands of her husband. This frightful
discovery overpowering even her reluctance to forsake her children, Margaret
resolved to fly
She easily
persuaded her appointed murderer to facilitate and share her escape; and
whilst, with Rudolph von Varila(228) —a son, probably of St.
Elizabeth’s champion—he arranged arid prepared it, sought the beds of her Lttle
sons, to bless, and, for the last time, kiss th^m. In her convulsive agony, she
so marked the cheek of the eldest with her teeth,‘that he is known in history
as Frederic of the bitten cheek. Margaret was lowered by ropes from the castle
wall, with her converted assassin and two female attendants. But no longer had
she mighty kinsmen at hand to receive “ one so great and so forlorn;” and she
wandered in helpless destitution, until the Abbot of Fulda offered her a
conveyance to Frankfort on-the-Maine. There, the citizens, in loyal affection
to her father’s memory, (•'*’) received and entertained her honourably. The
wronged wife and broken-hearted mother did not long enjoy the fdial solace of
this tribute to the merits of her excommunicated father; the month of August,
1270, laying her in her grave. Her worthless widower immediately married his
mistress, and spent the remainder of his life in striving to disinherit his
legitimate, :n favour of an illegitimate son. In this he failed; but the
constant civil wars produced by his endeavours, superseded in the minds of
Margaret’s children all idea of laying claim to the heritage of her family, cr
accepting imitations from Italian Ghibelines.
Of the other
female descendants of Frederic Barbarossa, Beatrice, Duchess of Meran, left an
only son, the last dnke of that name. The extinction of the race of Andcchs by
his dying childless—as did, seemingly, the Margrave, of Istria—appeared to
their contemporaries the natural consequence of the blood-stained nuptials of
Beatrice of Hohenstaufen with the Duke, his father, and strong proof of the
complicity in guilt of her brother-in-law. A sister of the childless Duke,
marrying a Comte de Chalons, carried some Meran and some Burgundian domains, to
the French peer. The posterity of Philip’s eldest daughter, Cunegunda, Queen of
Bohemia, vanished in the next century: that of her sisters, the Queen of Castile
and the Duchess of Brabant, through females, still exist.
Manfred’s
sons languished out their whole existence in prison; during most of the time,
in irons, denied the aid of
r o -
medicine, the
consolations of religion, aw], according to some accounts, deprived of sight.
This last calamity is, however, uncertain, except in regard to one of the
brothers: as is the cause of that prince’s blindness, whether disease or crime;
as, indeed, must be all details relative to persons whose intercourse was
solely with their jailors. Even the dates, at which death set two of these
luckless princes free, are so. But, in 1294, Charles of Anjou’s son, Charles
II, being King, ordered their chains to be taken off, and a priest and a
phvsician admitted to visit them. Nay, they appear, under him, to have once had
a. chance of liberty; Amari having discovered amongst old documents, an order,
dated 1299, for their liberation, equipment, and despatch to Sicily, where
Charles II must have thought of opposing them as rivals to their sistei
Constance, Queen of Aragon. In prison, nevertheless, they remained; and in
prison the following year, thirty-four years after the fatal battle of
Benevento, the blind prince died; probably the first of the three, as the
eldest could not, in 1300, be more than forty years old.
Ten years
prior to the family’s relief from its supererogatory evils, in 1284, Manfred’s
youngest daughter, Beatrice, through her more fortunate sister, Constance,
recovered her liberty. Charles II, during his father’s life, being taken
prisoner in a sea fight, by the Messinese, they were about to execute him in
retaliation for Conradin, when Constance prevailed upon them to place him in
her hands, and obtained the release of her sister in return for saving his
life. Beatrice soon afterwards married the Marquess of Saluzzo.(2J0)
Manfred’s sister, the widowed Empress of Nieaca, was released with her niece,
perhaps as not worth detaining.
A few words
touching the conduct of the new King of the Sicilies towards his allies—that by
which he taught hip new subjects to regret their desertion of Manfred—has been
shown, and the very imperfect retributive justice, with which Charles’s conduct
was visited, w ill suitably close this history.
Charles, now
uncontested King of the Sicilies, virtually sovereign of Tuscany and Lombardy,
and having secured the fidelity of the House of Este by the grant of Ferrara
and Ileggio, showed himself indifferent to the general reprobation he had
incurred. To papal censure be was then Digitized by Microsoft®.
especially
so, because, in addition to his confident trust that no Pope would destroy a
former Pope’s work, Clement IV had, in one little month, followed Conradin to
the tomb, and the Roman See was kept vacant three years, v.hilst the Cardinals
were contending for it. Charles, therefore, fearlessly imitating the conduct
for which Frederic II and Manfred had beon so inexorably excommunicated ?nd persecuted,
sought commercial advantages in the friendship of Moslem states, and entered
into alliance even with the Mameluke Sultan, Bibars Bondocdar. He had early
called upon the King of Tunis to pay him the same tribute he hart paid Manfred:
but the African monarch, declaring himself tributary only to the heirs of K'ng
Roger, who had vanquished his ancestor, had both refused to pay the money, and
permitted Don Fadrique to quit his service for Conradin’s. When, in 1269,
Lewis IX applied to Charles for assistance in the new Crusade he was then
projecting, the crafty politician saw, in his brother’s unsuspicious piety, the
means of wringing the withheld tribute from the refractory Mohammedan. By
representing the King of Tunis, as at heart a Christian, prevented by fear of
hi* subjects from owning his conversion, who, could he, by the support of
Crusaders, be induced to avow his faith, would be an invaluable ally against
Egypt, Charles actually prevailed upon his brother to begin the recovery of
Jerusalem by besieging Tutus.
The King of
France accordingly sailed for Tunis, and, upon the l8thof July, 1270, effected
a landing. But, whilst awaiting the King of Sicily, with his quota of
warrior-pil- grims, and before any real advantage had been gained, the
reiterated fate of mediceval northern hosts in southern climates, befel the
Crusaders. The King and his army, sickening, became incapable of exertion ;
numbers died, and, upon the 24th of August, in his camp before Tunis, the
sainted King himself expired. That very day, Charles landed with
reinforcements, and assumed the command. He gave battle, won the victory, and
opened a negotiation with his perverse tributary. He extorted from him, as the
price of evacuating the Tunisian territory, large sums of money, under the name
of arrears of tribute, together with a promise of future punctual payment.
This treaty
was signed upon the 30th of October, and no sooner known* than the Crusaders,
including the English Prince Edward, who had arrived pending the negotiation,
quitting a spot to them so fatal, sailed for Sicily, there to discuss their
next move. Upon the passage, the fleet suffered from a storm, in which the
King of the Si -ilios lost the vessel freighted with his booty. He sought
compensation in reviving the odious feudal right of plundering wrecks, which
hs moreover put in force against the Genoese, whom he himself had, by a special
compact, exempted from the brutal custom, against his own subjects, and even
against Crusaders, whose ships and property had always, even when wrecking was
most prevalent, been respected and spared. Such conduct was not likely to foster
the brotherly harmony, the pleasure lit anticipated mutual cooperation in the
field, that might have counterbalanced the gloomy disposition, which, arising
upon the loss of an honoured leader, inclined all to break up the expedition
he had organized, and disperse each to his own business. The Crusade was
postponed for thre^ years, and the Crusaders disbanded; Lewis IX’s son, Philip
III, hurrying home to take possession of his kingdom. Only Prince Edward,
adhering, with his English company, to his original design, made straight for
Palestine.
When, after
three years’ vacancy, Gregory X was, a.d.
1271, seated in St. Peter’s chair, he sternly admonished his royal
vassal to bridle both his savage cruelty and his rapacity, bidding him not
degrade the kingly dignity by unkingly acts. Put the only symptom of
sensibility to papal rebuke dircovera'nle in Charles, was a renewed endeavour
to conceal the conduct; thus censured, from his censor. With this object ho is
said to have had poison administered
lo the most celebrated of scholastic
philosophers, the Angelic Doctor,Thomas Aquinas,(“) when journeying to the
general Council held by Gregory X at Lyons, a.d.
1274, where, he feared, the Dominican would expose his tyranny. The
murder, if really perpetrated, was unavailing; for Gregory learn 3d enough to
send his royal vassal a solemn warning, that the day would come when such
tyranny would be visited by the judgment of God; to which Charles is reported
to have answered: “ What tyranny is, I know not; Digitized by Microsoft ®
but this I
know, that God, who has hitherto guided my steps, will still protect me.”
For eight
year.' more, notwithstanding the rebukes and admonitions of Gregory and his
successors, Adrian V and Nicholas III, Charles cherished this confidence; but the
Easter of 1‘282, forcibly taught him a different lesson. A tyranny thart was
hardly endurable under the monarch’s own eye, in Apulia, when exercised by
deputy, as in Sicily, became actually intolerable ; and individual resentment
prepared, with deliberate policy, to turn the accumulated and accumulating
wrath to account. Giovanni di Procida was a nobleman of highly cultivated mind,
who, having enjoyed the especial favour of Frederic II End Manfred, had supported
Conradin. He had since seen his property therefore confiscated, whilst wife and
daughter, either by violence or seduction, became the prey of French
licentiousness. He thereupon quitted his native land, betaking himself to
Aragon, where he soon gained the full confidence of his lamented liege Lord’s
daughter Constance, and her husband. When Don Pedro, in 1278, succeeded to the
crown, Procida easily persuaded him to prepare for claiming his Queen’s
heritage, whenever opportunity should favour,—when, in Napoleon’s phrase, the
pear should be ripe; and the ripening process the King committed wholly to the
zealous exile. Procida, thus authorized, set actively to work. Visiting Sicily
in disguise, he conspired with Sicilian Barons against the tyrant they all
abhorred. Visiting Constantinople, lie obtained pecuniary assistance from the
Greek Emperor, who was glad so to occupy Charles at home, as to obstruct his
supporting the pretensions of his son-in-law—Philip, Baldwin’s heir.—to the
Eastern Empire. Visiting Rome, he obtained the full sanction of the Pope,
Nicholas III, indignant at a vassal of the Roman See, who presumed to neglect
the remonstrances of his suzerain, the Pope. Thus successful, Procida returned
to Aragon. With the Greek subsidy Pedro equipped an armament, and, as a cover
to his ulterior design, sailing for Africa, threatened a Mohammedan state of
the Barbary coast, whence he could at any instant repair tp Sicily, when
summoned by Procida.
But French
outrage outran the conspirator’s cautious movements, exhausting the patience of
the Sicilians before
the final
arrangements were completed. A gross public insult, offered by a French officer
to a Palermitan bride, amidst the festivities of Easter Monday, provoked not
alone her family and friends, but every Sicilian present, beyond all prudential
considerations. The offender was cut down ; the cry of “ Death to the Frereh !”
resounded on all sides, and the massacre, known as the Sicilian Vespers,
ensued.(2M) Every French man, woman, and child, even to the unborn
mongrel offspring of French fathers were put to death, not sparing the Sicilian
mothers. The numbers thus sacrificed to Sicilian vengeance are estimated at
8000 ;(*“) the fate of unknown individuals being decided by their pronunciation
of the word ciceri, a feat which Gallic organs were deemed incapable of
correctly achieving.
But those who
had, by this terrific massacre, avenged the wrongs of many years, thought not
of calling their lost King’s daughter to the throne. In fact, having risen
without plan or premeditation, upon sudden provocation, they knew not well what
use to make of tfipeir liberty. They first thought of a federal republic, under
the suzerainty of the Roman See. But Nicholas was dead, and Martin IV, a
Frenchman, raised by Charles’s intrigues to the papacy, refused thus to
sanction rebellion against his vassal. All was disorder, till Prccida;
who, upon the first news of the explosion, bad hastened to his intended scene
of action, concerting his measures with his friends, gradually obtained the
guidance of the prevalent anarchy. Don Pedro was then invited to take
possession of his Queen’s patrimony, and secure it to her children; an
invitation which he hastened to accept. Charles’s passionate efforts to
recover the island were fruitless. Sicily remained to Constance and her
posterity. Even the hereditary claim of the Bourbons, now upon the Sicilian
throne, rests upon their descent from her, through Lewis XIV’s Queen, Maria
Theresa of Spain.
Political,
Intellectual, and Social Condition of Europe in the second half of the
Thirteenth Century.
With the splendid Swabian dynasty, that irradiated
this century and a half, or rather, perhaps, with its greatest man, Frederic
II, expired, in fact, if not in name, the Holy Roman Empire. The struggles of
the Popes for supremacy, of the great vassals, Italian and German, for actual
sovereignty, and of the thriving Italian cities, for republican independence,
all co-operating, had been successful; breaking the one Empire, in Germany,
into an agglomeration of states, professing allegiance to an impotent Head; in
Italy, into a mats of livalry and contention, without even that slight bond of
union. The Emperors, indeed, still claimed the rights and prerogatives of their
great predecessors ; but seldom as they could even dream of attempting to
inforce the claim, yet seldomer had the attempt anv success ; whilst Dante
censures their neglect of the imperial duty. (04) And in this
debilitated condition, with occasional fits of power and energy, the Holy Roman
Empire lingered till Napoleon I tore it piecemeal, extinguishing the old,
respected title, transferring nominal empire, without its rigftts—appropriate
solely to the Holy Roman Empire—to Austria.
The power of
the greatest among the all but independent German princes, was variously kept
in check. The practice, becoming more and more prevalent, of dividing a principality
amongst all the deceased prince’s sons, generally prevented the growth of
states to formidable dimensions. Moreover, the great vassals of the Princes
were not more disposed to submit to their authority, than they to acknowledge
the Emperor’s, whilst the lesser princes and nobles
usually
supported the Emperor, as a protector against mesne lords, and mighty
neighbours; and the robber- knights, multiplying in the absence of controlling
authority, harassed and plundered all who had not strength to master them.
The cities
alone, whether Free Imperial or subject to mesne lords, throve amidst the
anarchy, which failed to stop, however it might retard, the progress of trade
and manufacture. But of the rights and privileges, subsequently the pride of
the Free Imperial cities, they as yet possessed few; and most of these recently
acquired.(23;) When acquired, they were enjoyed by the city
patricians, upon whose monopoly of municipal authority few encroachments were
as yet attempted. In some towns, indeed, chiefly in Lower Lorrain, the heads of
the Ziinfte (Guilds) had extorted a share; and iri some others were
endeavouring to do so. They were respectable antagonists; each Head (AHermeister
or Alderman), as the impersonation of the strength and ambition of his Guild,
being supported hj its Masters; who again were an intelligent, energetic body,
no journeyman being admitted into it until he had produced an allowed
masterpiece in his own craft, be it the blacksmith’s or the jeweller’s. Yet so
different was the Teutonic from the Italian temper, that Bruges, about the year
1240, excluded, by a law from the Great Council, whoever had not abstained for
a year from manual labour. The feudal lords of towns were commonly disposed to
assist the lower orders against the city patricians, whom they regarded as
rebellious vassals. But the prince-bishops, residing in their urban, episcopal
palaces, and frequently embroiled with all classes of their townsmen, were more
obstinately opposed to all city emancipation, than lay superiors, in their
country castles, exercising their authority by deputy, over rarely seen city
vassals.(236) One instance will sufficiently show the relative
position of prelates and their city flock.
Cologne
appears to have, in all ways, taken the lead amongst German cities, and was
esteemed, although the Emperor had a Burgrave there, and the Archbishop
appointed the Schoff'en, a pattern of self-government. Other towns copied her
envied institutions; which the Archbishops considered as so decidedly
over-liberal, that they had almost
vol. tv. ’ 18
uninterruptedly
endeavoured, by overthrowing the city’s chartered rights, to monopolize the
authority; and in the second half of the thirteenth century, the broils between
the patrician and plebeian cit'zens, appeared to offer an especial opportunity.
Archbishop Conrad von Hochstaden, founder of the Cologne Cathedral, and seller
of the German Crown, by supporting either patricians or citizens, as seemed
best for keeping the quarrel alive, possessed himself of despotic, power. His
nephew, Engelbert von Fal- kenstein, who, in 1261, succeeded to the see, used
this despotic power so tyrannically, that the city, revolting in his absence,
expelled his officers. He negotiated with the rebels, coneVded a reasonably
fair treaty with them, solemnly swore to observe it faithfully, and, in return,
was paid the contribution due for the expenses of his pall. For investiture
therewith, he went to Rome, where he solicited and received a dispensation from
his oath. Again he tyrannized, and again Cologne revolted. In concert with the
most potent of his neighbours, the Archbishop of Mai iz and the Earls of Berg,
Cleves, and Guelders, Engelbert now besieged his rebellious capital. But his
lay allies beheld, in a vision, (237) the I1,0C0 Virgin Martyrs
personally blessing Cologne, and they at once withdrew from the siege of a town
so favoured. Meanwhile, the citizens also had sought efficient allies; and the
Earl of Juliers, being satisfied with their proposals, appeared at the head of
his forces, at the very moment when the two Prelates were weakened by the
desertion of the three Earls; he defeated them, taking Engelbert prisoner. The
ransom demanded by the Earl, and the concessions required by Cologne, the
captive rejected, as exorbitant. And in this rejection he persevered, although
his captor, angry at being disappointed of the large sum he had expected,
strove to make his situation unendurable. He confined and exhibited him in an
iron cage, and persisted in this coercive system, in defiance of the Pope’s
admonitions, followed by a sentence of excommunication. Neither party gave
way, until, in 1270, the celebrated Albertus Magnus, otherwise Graf von
Bollstadt, Provincial of the Dominicans and Bishop of Ratisbon, visiting the
captive prelate, convinced him, by his eloquently Christian remonstrances, of
the duty of pur-
chasing, at
any price, the power of discharging the important sacred functions to which he
had been consecrated, and of resting content, when free, -with the measure of
authority lawfully his. The obstinacy of the l’rince-Archbishop was
overpowered; he paid his ransom, assented to the concessions demanded, and
swore to respect the rights and liberties of Cologne. Thenceforward keeping his
word, he proved an excellent prelate and ruler.(*“) His successor renewed the
struggle, and, being completely beaten, quitted the mutinous city to tix his
residence at lionn.
The number of
Free Imperial cities (the municipality of each of which was held a concrete
corporate person, the immediate vassal)(219) had greatly increased,
ai. i they were now reckoned amongst the estates of the Empire, their deputies
forming part of the Diet, though whether already having votes—like the
Reichsgrafen (immediate Earls) not individually, but collectively—or only
obtained this privilege conjo’ntly with the JUiehsritterschaft (immediate chivalry),
in the fifteenth century, is another moot point. The towns subject to princes in
like manner sent deputies to the provincial Diet. The rapid increase of the
Town Leagues, guarding town prosperity, has been seen ; but by this time, all
others sink :nto insignificance In presencs of the Hansa or Ilanse.
Of this extraordinary I ,eague, twenty- three tides were members before the end
of the century, whilst princes, even bishops, joined it, for protection. Lubcck
was ibe Hanse metropolis, although the factory at Novogorod was so
considerable, as to be called the Mother Factory.C210) The Hanse wbs a regularly organized association,
with republican forms ; and so completely an impcrium in imperio, that, upon
Brunswick’s resisting an order of the Hanse Council, all members of the League
were forbidden to trade with Bfunswickers in Brabant, Handers, or I lob land.(241)
Those, with
whom the Hanse" might have come into collision in the north-east, the
Marian Knights, heeded not the commercial association. They were extending the
Empire, through their own domination, along the shores of the Baltic ; where,
before the end of the ccntury, they had converted and subjected most of the
Slavonian tribes; Lithuania, alone, remaining an independent Heathen prin- Digit‘
'ed By Microsoft ®
cipality. The
dominions of the Order at one time comprised Pomerelia, Prussia, Lbonia,
Esthonia, Courland, Samogitia. Semigallia, and some islands of the Baltic.
Of non-noble
freemen, or more properly freeholders, few now remained; the higher clast,
being absorbed into the chivalry and baronage of the Empire, the lower pressed
down into the upper class of the unfree, i. e., the rent-paying peasantry.
Townsmen were rather free citizens than freemen, according to the original
definition of the title. Only in some districts of Saxony and Westphalia,
extending into Lower Lorrain, as Friezeland, and Ditmarsen, amidst lowlands,
protected by human labour from the sea, or amidst the Alps in Switzerland and
the Tyrol, were still to be found peasant landholders, entitled to bear arms,
and owing the Einperor military service. So sadly had the relative proportions
changed, if rather in name than reality, that the unfree—including in this
class the rent-paying peasantry, who were really 'ree though without freemen’s
privileges—now constituted the bulk of the nation. But the emancipation of
villeins, either out of indi vidual kindness, or as a work of mercy and piety,
was gaining ground. Countess Margaret emancipated her villeins, merely subjecting
them to a small annual poll-tax, anil some nobles of the Liege bishopric made
theirs rent-paying peasants.
This had for
years been the state o the country, save as the want of a powerful controlling
head left every freeman’s conduct to his own discretion—rarely an efficient
curb. Accordingly, when the death of Richard, a.d.
1271, removed the small restraint that his talents and resolution, unsupported
by territorial sovereignty, could place upon his vassals, the anarchy became
such, that, the princes themselves growing weary of it, an Electoral Diet was
convened in 1273. The cities had long been urging the election of an Emperor,
fitted by energy, intellect, integrity, and power, for bridling the wild
passions distracting Germany. The princes so far complied with the prayer, that
they subtracted only one of the qualifications, required by the cities, in
their Einperor—to wit, power. Their choice fell upon the nobleman then most
distinguished fo. high character, piety, talents, and prowess, Rudolph von
Habsburg. But, if not one of the greatest princes, Rudolph was yet further
from being
the nearly landless knight, that some modern historians depict him. The head of
one of the first families in Switzerland, and connected with the most exalted
in Germany, he enjoyed a fair patrimony, besides inheriting largely, through
his mother, of the Kyburg and Zaringer: property, and had married a great Swiss
heiress. The three cantons, Schwitz, Uri, and Unterwalclen, Lad chosen him
their Warden, he was Landgrave of Upper Alsace and Iiurgrave of Ilheinfelde:
altogether in a position to wage war upon the 1’rince-bishop of Basle and the
Prince- abbot of St. Gall. Rudolph accomplished most of what the cities
desired, and more than the princes had 'ntended Amongst these he married a
large family of daughters, thus conciliating, as well as controlling, even the
greatest; he nearly put down the robber-knights- -destroying most of their
eastles—and re-established the authority of the law. Moreover, he compelled the
Comte ae Chalons to do homage for the county of Burgundy, which lie had seized
in right of his Andechs wife. But he achieved all this only by devoting his
energies exclusively to Germany, suffering the Imperial rights over Italy to
sleep—greatly, as before said, to Dante’s indignation—and suffering the Arelat
to transfer its allegiance from the Empire to the French crown. In Germany,
indeed; the Imperial authority was generally acknowledged, and, under
Iludolph, tolerably well obeyed :—amongst other wrongs redressed, he obliged
Ottocar of Bohemia to resign Austria; which, as a lapsed fief, bestowed upon Rudolph’s
eldest sou, Albert, became the patrimony of the House of Habsburg.
The contest
between the Papacy and the Empire had ended in favour of the former; the
Emperors appeared to be finally driven beyond the Alps, the Pope’s supremacy
was universally acknowledged, and he was established as an Italian temporal
prince. Yet was the triumph less satisfactory than it seemed. By expelling the
Emperors from Italy, the Popes lost their hold both upon them and upon the
Italian Guelphs, who, no longer dreading Imperial sovereignty, were no longer
subservient to pontifical ambition. And the very king, placed bv two Popes upon
the throne of the Sicilies, when he ceased to need support, proved quite as
refractory a vassal as any of his predeDigitized by Microsoft ®
eessors; only
less to be feared, when his tyranny lost him half the kingdom they had given
him. Before the end of the century, St. Lewis’s grandson, Philip the Fair, by
the insults with which he loaded Boniface VIII, avenged the Swab;an Emperors at
least upon the papacy.
Over
the Church, the Popes had, in the course of the century, assumed absolute
despotism, monopolizing, in addition to their own pristine rights and
prerogatives, not only the rights and prerogatives, but el«o the abuses, of
which they had despoiled tcirpora* sovereigns, to render them far more
annoying. Their heavy pecuniary demands—for personal interests—upon the
pockets of the clergy, and the offence of all kinds, habitually given by the
legates—their usual conduct, even earlier, may be judged, by the amazement
which Innocent Ill’s offer tc discharge any debts that a legate a latere of his
might have incurred, excited io Germany—were alienating men’s minds, and paving
the way for the Reformation. Church discipline seemed annihilated. The clerical
celibacy, that, Gregory VIIhad, two centuries before, so laboured to inforce,
still very imperfectly observed even in England, France,; and Germany, seems,
in the Scandinavian and Slavonian states, scarcely thought of til1
towards the end of the century. The sale of indulgences, forbidden by Innocent
Ill’s Lateral Council, became more and more common. The frequency of appeals to
Rome had now virtually destroyed episcopal jurisdiction, since a sentence,
followed by such an appeal, involved the judge in a tedious and expensive lawsuit,
not to be willingly incurred. The efforts of the Popes for the education of the
clergy at large, had, judging from circumstances incidentally mentioned, been
yet less successful, than those relative to their celibacy. St. Gall, centuries
back the Alma Mater of extraordinary scholars, as witness Ilermannus
Contractus, had so strangely degenerated, that, in 121)1, neither the Abbot nor
any one of the monks, we are told, corld read. Gregory IX rejected a newly-
appointed Bishop of Sta. Agatha, for ignorance beyond a child’s,(24i)
suspending the Archbishop of Benevento for having sanctioned the election. In
1240, an English Synod decided that a priest ought to know the ten Commandments,
the seven Sacraments, \vith their simple meaning, and uigiiize oy 4
the seven
deadly sins; to which requisites, Nicholas III, in 1280, added Latin enough to
read mass, understanding what he read. And this ignorance is found in the
clergy, whilst so many Popes were distinguished for extensive learning, and sll
anxiously infcrcea the maintenance of Cathedral schools, regulating the
discipline of all schools with minute care, ordering, e.g., that a boy
dismissed from one. school for a fault, should not be received into any other;
but, that if a schoolmaster broke a hoy’s arm in flogging him, the injured boy
should be allowed to change hid school.
These, and
other similar causes, had, even whilst Popes were triumphing over Emperors and
Kings, produced a re-action throughout the century, in the \arious forms of
heresy, and of resistance to Church authority and discipline. As early as under
the pontificate of Honorius III, the Podesta of Milan took upon himself to
dissolve that Roman Catholic sacrament, marriage; and, at Parma, the Council of
Three Hundred, with analogous presumption, gave their Podesta a dispensation
from the oath he had taken to protect churches, the bishop, and the clergy:
that they simultaneously forbade all shopkeepers to sell to the bishop, was
simply a piece of democratic tyranny; as was the murder cf the Bishop of
Mantua, with twenty distinct wcunds, of democratic violence. Venice forbade
appeals to Rome, whiist the Doge conferred ecclesiastical dignities, (of the
right to do which the Emperors were despoiled,-) and, in 12-13, the
Podesta of Piacenza hanged a papal messenger, who brought him disagreeable commands.
Heresy, it has been seen, first, in this century, assumed an aspect threatening
to the Established Church , and, despite crusades ?.nd persecutions, was never
effectively crushed.
In this
earliest serious alarm of heresy appears to have originated the withholding of
the Bible from the laity by the Roman Catholic Church; the prohibition to read
the Holy Scriptures, issued by the Synod or Council of Toulouse, a.d. 1229,
being evidently a novelty, far from generally hiforced. Innocent Ill's View of
the subject was seen, relatively to the Scripture readers at Metz; later in the
century, monks are found translating the sacred volume, thus to assist the
diffusion of Christianity amongst Digitized by Microsoft ®
the Heathen;
and Conrad IV’s having, during his government of Germany, ordered new German
versions of some parts to be made, is not named amongst the crimes by which he
had incurred excommunication. Nay, a century later, at the close of the
fourteenth, Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his funeral sermon
upon Richard H's Good Queen Ann, praised her for her assiduous study of the
Gospel in the vulgar tongue. (2I3)
With respect
to the Sicilies, there is little to add to what has been said. The island,
after the Sicilian Vespers, became the separate kingdom of a younger son of Constance,
and Don Pedro of Aragon; and remained in her posterity. The House of Anjou
retained the continental portion, as the kingdom of Naples. But the species of
imperial authority that Charles had attempted to exercise over Italy, was
irrecoverably lost with Sicily, and the illusion as to ths absolute
invincibility of the French chivalry.
Northern and
central Italy were at this time divided into about forty independent states, of
various kinds and sizes. Of the former princely nobles, only the Earl of Savoy,
and Marquesses of Mont.ferrat, Malaspina—erelong to be absorbed by Savoy—and
of Este, remained: the others had become citizens of the towns. Of the towns,
whose struggles for republican liberty have occupied so many of theae pages,
few indeed enjoyed the liberty for which they had striven; the immense majority
having fallen under the yoke, either of a stronger town, or of one of their own
urban nobles, bearing the modest title of Signore, or Signore Perpetuo. This
species of subjection usually began by the election of a native noble to the
office of Podesta for ten years; a period long enough to enable him to securc
its further continuance. And one advantage the tities appear to have enjoyed
under these small despots; namely, internal tranquillity. The city fortresses,
from which the city nobles had threatened the people and warred on each other,
had almost ceased to exist; being either demolished—Brancaleone destroyed 140
within the walls of Rome,—or so lowered as to be :nnoxious. At
Lucca, almost alone, a few survived the century. Of the Signori, the first
formidably great were
the Scaligeri
at Verona, who had succeeded to much of the dominions and power of the Romano
brothers; whilst at Milan, the delle Torri and tho Visconti were tearing the
perpetual lordship from each other, till the violent and rapacious tyranny of
Napoleone della Torre finally transferred the authority to the Visconti.
The
republicanism of Bologna ended more romantically. The city was distracted by
the broils, not of factions, bu.t, as at Florence, of families. The (Jeremei
and Lamber- tazzi were the Montagues and Capulets of Bologna, and could have supplied
Shakespeare with another Romeo and Juliet ; for a Gereineo loved a Lambertazza, and, his passion
bi-ing returned, was surprised by the lady’s brothers in her room. They there
stabbed him with poisoned daggers; and she, sucking the poison from his wounds,
died clasping the corse to her heart. This catastrophe so embittered tne enmity
of the two families, that republican Bologna, unable to endure their incessant
fighting in the streets, in 127(J, voluntarily bowed her stiff neck to the yoke
of King Charles.
Pisa, 110
longer supported by Imperial favour, and a prey to a succession of Signori;—ot
whom Dante’s Conte Ugolino was one—her fleet defeated by the Genoese, in 1284,
ofl Meloria, where, forty-two years before, she had triumphed ; her port
obstructed at.d destroyed by the victors, and her commerce stolen by Florence,
was, ere long, enthralled by her former rival.
Wherever
republicanism was preserved, there, with one exception, democracy prevailed,
This has been seen at Florence, where almost every grown man had his turn as a
member of government; and where, before long, the ncbles were by name excluded
from getting their turn : to ennoble a man was a punishment, a sort of
ostracism. Florence was mistress of great part of Tuscany, and, with Bclogna, was
distinguished for a humanity and liberality towards the very lowest classes,
combined with a respect fur private property unusual in democracies. In the
second half of the century, they emancipated all villeins belonging to the two
corporations, not interfering w ith those of individuals. In Genoa, a less
extreme democracy prevailed; but Genoa, mistress of most of the Riviera,
engrossed with her Digitized by Microsoft ® §18
commerce, her
rivalry with Venice, and her immense advantages upon the Euxine, cared little
for Italian politics.
The
republican exception from increasing democracy was Venice: and her
extraordinary constitution, securing despotic authority over Doge, nobility,
and people, to an oligarchy, having now acquired the completeness, that remained
nearly unaltered, until Venice fell before the French Revolution, a few words
concerning some of the peculiarities of that constitution, especially the
favourite complicated fcrm of election, .n its fulness of involution, will here
find their proper place. The Grand Council of 480 members, which had long
superseded all popular assemblies, was now self-elected, naming both the Councillors
who, in a sort of rotation, were to go out, and their successors. None were
eligible, whose ancestors had not been Grand-Councillors, (an exclusion of new
families, called the closing of the Libro d’Oro,) the especial request of the
Doge, alone rendering the election of such a member possible. The right, to
make this effective request, apneai-s to have beer, the sole power
left to the once absolute Doge; all those originally exercised by him, having
been transfer/ed to the different Councils—as the Council of the Ten, of the
Inquisition, See., See.,—that really conducted the administration; whilst
spies watched every movement of this phantom of sovereignty, as also those of
every individual, in or out of the Councils, worth watching. Yet was the
election of a Doge as carefully guarded against cabal or corruption, as if the
office could still be an object of ambition; this election being the very ideal
of the complication, at which Italian republics aimed. In the first place,
thirty members of the great Council, each thirty fears old at least, were
chosen by lot, and by lot reduced to nine, who elected forty, each man naming a
fixed proportion of the number—five, four each, and four, five— who were to be
of forty different families. These forty reducod themselves by lot t.o twelve,
who selected twenty- five, as before, and so every time; tha twenty-five,
reduced by lot to nine, elected forty-five, to be again reduced by lot to
eleven, who elected the ultimate forty- one electors. These ibrty-cno men threw
each a name
into a box,
from which the names were promiscuously drawn, and the votes taken ; when the
bearer of the first obtaining twenty-five affirmative votes, was proclaimed
Doge. The only subsequent change in this whimsical blending of chance and
choice, was taking the final votes by ballot. In 12K8, the people attempted to
regain some degree of power, and make their champion, a Tiepolo, Doge. But the
nobles, instantly electing the most energetic man of their order, Petro
Gradenigo, Doge, permanently established the supremacy of the aristocratic
oligarchy,(2:4) the strength of which, as a government, was
demonstrated by the extensive dominions, of which, abroad and at home, Venice
gradually possessed herself.
For the rest
of Europe and the adjacent countries, a few words will suffice. In the Western
Peninsula the kingdom of Granada alone remained to the Moors, but, within its
narrow limits, displayed the science, literature, prosperity, and refinement of
the Caliphate of Cordova. The other provinces had all been recovered by, and
were divided between, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal. England wanted
only a better monarch than Her.ry III, to be a free, powerful, and formidable
insular kingdom, although john had suffered her to be robbed of full two thirds
of her French provinces by Philip Augustus. By this robbery, the skilfully
negotiated marriage of two of Lewis IX’s brothers with the heiresses of
Toulouse and Provence, and then taking advantage of, first, the virtual, and
then the real, interregnum in the Empire, to steal the allegiance of these
principalities, France had acquired dimensions that quite altered her position
in Europe. Denmark was tom, as usual, with civil war, growing out of contests
for the crown, but had shaken oiF all vassalage to the Empire; whilst
Scandinavia was slowly advancing, amidst internal broils, towards civilization.
Russia, under pressure of the Mongols, was amalgamating into one large and
united empire. Poland, freed like Denmark, from any claim of vassalage, was,
before the end of the century, re-united into a kingdom; Hungary was slowly
recovering from devastation ; and the Slavonian States south of the Danube
were securing theirindependence, very much through the excessive weakness, to
which conauest by the Crusaders and its Digitized by Microsoft ®
consequences
had reduced the Eastern Empire, now again Greek.
The
Syro-Frank states, reduced to the mere sea shore, were, as usual, internally
distracted. The death of Con- radiu left the right of the Queen of Cyprus to
the throne unquestionable; nevertheless, Maria of Antioch, (S4'’) a
grandchild of Isabel’s by a daughter of her fourth marriage, Meliseuda, married
to the Prince of Antioch, laid claim to it; Charles of Anjou, whose grasping
ambition seemed insatiable, purchased her pretensions of her; and Gregory X,
who saw a more usefully efficient King of Jerusalem in the King of the
Sicilies, than in his nival of Cyprus, sanctioned the shadowy title. I)ut
Charles, though he assumed, and transmitted to his heirs, the title of King of
Jerusalem, was as inefficient as Alicia, or her son Hugh. Palestine w'as
deserted by Europe, whence no Crusade set forth after St. Lewis’s, though
crusading bands occasionally prolonged the struggle. Prince Edward’s, designed
only as part of a general Crusade, was one of the most considerable—but
useless—save to its own and its leader’s reputation. Meanwhile, Bibars
Bondocdar, with his Mamelukes, pressed steadily forward. He first overthrew and
enthralled the Sheik of the Assassins; In 1‘267, he took Antioch, and in
P2D1—nineteen years after Prince Edward’s return to England—Acre submitted to
him; when, or, if Tyre remained Christian a few years longer, which seems very
doubtful, (*“) certainly before the close of the century, every vestige of the
Latin kingdom of Jerusalem vanished. The Templars removed to Cyprus, as their
head quarters, and to their estates in Europe; where, in their Preceptories,
they haughtily enjoyed the wealth, with which piety had endowed the Order, when
useful; until, early in the next century, this wealth provoking cupidity, Order
and Knights were, together, destroyed. The Knights Hospitalers established
themselves in the island of Rhodes; where, their offer to hold it in vassalage
of Constantinople being rejected by the arrogance of Greek bigotry, they dwelt
self-dependent; thence waging incessant war against Moslem states. The Marians
were one and all, concentrated in Germany, andonthe Baltic. The Mamelukes
remained masters of Egypt and Syria, whilst the Ottoman Turks loomed in the
Eastern horizon.
In regard to
the business of government, a considerable advance towards the modern science
of statesmanship has been shewn in the legislation and administration of
Frederif II, in the Sicilies. Elsewhere, the chief progress appears in the
financial department. From the before-mentioned indifference of old chroniclers
to such matters, a distinct history of this progress can hardly be given, even
by those who devote their researches exclusively to the subject, though
something may be gathered from facts relative thereto, casually noticed. To
mention a few of these : the first steps in this direction evidently were the
commutation ot military service for a money payment, and the purchase, by the
republican cities, of the royalties and feudal privileges that galled their
pride, for similar annual money payments. Then, these same cities, when no
longer dependent upon a feudal superior, had to contrive means of raising
funds for their stipulated payments and other public purposes. Venice, long
virtually independent, appears to have had a regular income tax. At Milan, a
proposal was made, a.d. 1248, to value and register all property, that it might
be equitably assessed to the requisite taxation,—probably for League expenses.
But the Milanese chose to have their iiberty cheaper, and rejected all idea of
such a regulation, although seemingly not uncommon in Italian cities. Certainly
at Sienna, some twelve years later, all property was thus valued, and assessed
accordingly ; and that such was the practice at Ferrara, seems indicated by the
complaint, of the citizens under Salinguerra’s administration, that the
lightness of their taxation lowered the dignity of the city. About the middle
of the century, Cologne established an excise upon beer, meat, and meal, to
raise money with which to discharge a debt. Kings and princes followed the
example of the towns; the reduction of the small pubJte revenue, consequent
upon the frequent sale and gift of lands, royalties, and feudal services,
having rendered money indispensable to government. Taxes, when imposed, appear
to have been often farmed by Jews, whence, in Germany, their title of
Kammerknechte (Exchequer servants), in Austria of Kammcrgraftn (Exchequer
earls). Frederic Il’s systematic financial arrangement in the Sicilies was
completed, when the wars to which he was* Qigltizea by M rt s fi
driven by the
persecution of Gregory IX and Innocent IV, rendered his ordinary revenue
insufficient, by another modern resource, a loan; not, indeed, a loan upon the
principle of a funded debt, hut simply a loan for which he was to pay interest,
till he could return the sum borrowed. And the rate of interest, which the
absolute prohibition to take any remuneration for the use of money, branding
the smallest as usury, compelled him and other borrowers to pay, is startling.
The regular rate appears to have been 20 per cent, per annum, and much more was
frequently demanded. To some Homan merchants Frederic paid 36 per cent., which,
in case of unpunctualitv, was to become 48, and this enormous interest he paid,
whilst his credit sufficed to pass stamped leather for gold coin ! It has been
inferred that he had some political object in submitting to such extortion,—if
extortion it be, seeing that Philip Augustus fixed upon 48 per cent, per annum
as the rate to which, as reasonable, be limited the rate of interest, (247)
and that Matthew Paris speaks of 60, as having been paid in England, though
not the regular rate. This large profit, gained without the fatigues and perils
then attending the career of a merchant— ..igh as the rate of mercantile profit
must then have been, being computed at Venice two centuries later, at 40 per
cent.(a,s)—tempted Christians to risk excommunication by rivalling
the Jews. Jf the Lombards addicted themselves so largely to this business, as
to make their name—like that of Jew—synonymous with money lender, they did not
monopolize it. The town of Cahors, in France, is called a nest of usurers: and
Frederic II, who has been seen borrowing from usurious Roman citizens, got
fiefs from the Bishop of I’assau in return for assistance to pay ruinously
usurious debts to Siennese as well as to Roman money leaders. The Church spared
not her thunders against these Christian usurers: and her spiritual
chastisements were occasionally inforced by worldly measures. Lewis IX of
France, and James of Aragon, banished all Lombard and Italian usurers from
their dominions, whilst Innocent IV imprisoned them at Lyons.
In connexion
with finance, the condition of the Jews—the chief mediaeval financiers—in the
last half of the century,
may here be
disposed of. In Germany, tha Emperor might be expected to protect the servants
of his Exchequer; yet Conrad IV imprisoned rich Jews, to extort lines, as
ransom, from them; and many of the princes followed his example. On the other
hand, the ecclesiastical princes, following the example of the Popes, dealt
more fairly, tolerating th.'m. but repressing their extortion; whilst the towns
favoured them. At Cologne they had judges of their own, and at Augsburg the
full rights of citizenship. The complete toleration they long enjoyed, in the
south of France, appears from their holding office under the Earls of
Toulouse,(M) one condition of the first reconciliation of Raymond VI
with the Church, being, that he should never more employ a Jew in his
administration. In northern France, Philip Augustus released all debts due by
his subjects to Jews, upon paying a fifth of the amount, into h;s own
exchequer, banished the defrauded creditors, and then .sold them permission to
return. Yet, habitually plundered as they were in the whole kingdom, St. Lewis
is said to have been reproached by his Monammc-dan captors, with tolerating the
murderers of the great Prophet, in whom he pvofessed to believe. Touched w
ith this reproach, upon returning from his Crusade, he banished all of the race
who were not mechanics—meaning, apparently, the usurers. yet is he, like his
predecessors and successors, charged with using these same Jews as a sponge;
squeezing them, when they had absorbed the wealth of the country. In England,
their treatment varied with the temper of the monarch. Richard I, like the?
ecclesiastical princes, protected them from ill- usage, and alsc his subjects
from their extortion, declaring no unwritten contract with them binding. But
they suffered much ftom the rapacity of John, as also from the hatred of the
nation. In London, a.d. 1*256, an accusation of crucifying a child, was
brought by twenty-five Knights against seventy-two Jews, who were imprisoned,
sentenced to death, and saved by the intervention of the Franciscans; whereupon
the Londoners pronounced the Friars bribed, and refused them their usual alms.
In 1279, the Jews were charged with a more probable crime, viz., clipping the
coin, for which some were executed: and before the end of the centurv they were
banished. Fewr Digitized by ii/licrosoft ®
thought of
acting upon the precept of the Dominican, Thomas Aquinas, who thus, in the very
spirit of St. Bernard, describes the iaw that should regulate Christian
treatment of Jews : “ Jews are to be taxed, not stripped of the necessaries of
life ; their usurious gains are to be restored to those whom they have
plundered, not taken as a tax.”
Respecting
the military department there is little to say, although the progress towards
the national standing ar.ny is very observable. The feudal an-av was beginning
to be, if not superseded, yet prodigiously supported and reinforced by hired
troops. In Germany—where Schmidt says they were much employed--they usually
consisted of the chivalry of the Km pi re, the landless or nearly landless
knights, with such followers as they couM collect—all who preferred fighting to
work—for privates: and in France, of a similar class, with the addition of
foreign mercenaries. In Italy, princely nobles have been seen, already beginning
to engage, with their own vassals, or with hireling vagabonds, in the service
of greater princes or of cities, as Condottieri, though not yet bearing the
name ; and foreigners began to compete with them. The highest of the class, Don
Henrique of Castile, with his band of adventurers, almost assumes the character
of an ally. Lesser nobles, upon a humbler scale, followed these examples. If
Frederic II raised troops amongst his own subjects, he likewise hired foreign
mercenaries,—rather individuals, as they offered, seemingly, than such bands;
Conrad and Manfred followed his example.(2S0) Charles of Anjou’s
army appears to have been gathered more after the manner of William the
Conqueror’s^251) Florence, where, early in the century, a lighted
candle was regularly placed over the gate through which a military expedition
was to issue, the organized Arti, under their Gonfalonieri, being hound to have
passed forth ere it burnt out,—that same Florence, in 1‘28‘2, hired a French
company of 500 lances ; and, in 12H9, the last Italian battle in which the
burgher militia bore any proportion to the mercenaries, was fought by Florence
against Arezzo.
In the mode
of waging war, and n its implements, some improvement is perceptible. More
arrangement :.n the plan and conduct of an enterprise,—something,
almost like strategy, appears in the wars of Frederic II, Manfred, and
Ezzelino, and
especially at. Tagliacozzo. Contemporary chroniclers speak of improvement in
the regular battering engines and the operations of a siege, but no actually
novel invention is mentioned, with the exception of what seems to have been a
sort of portable ehevaux-de-frize, or cats, devised by Mai grave Berthold,^2)
to protect the camp occupied by the Pope’s arm\ from assault; and, perhaps, of
the defensive barbican without, and the portcullis in the gateway, both said to
be borrowed from the Saracens. The Greek fire, mentioned i’l the twelfth
century as used in the defence of Acre, appears more formidable in tho
thirteenth; but, at this distance of time, it were hard to say whether because
likewise improved, or only more accurately and more graphically descrioed in
aspect anil in action, as employed by the Egyptians at Damietta, and the
Mongols in Silesia. Joinville says, that the lire, when throw n, flew through
the air like a dragon of fire, in form resembling a large tun, with a tail the
length of a spear, in sound like thunder, and emitting so much li^ht, that :n
the French camp they saw at midnight as at noon. Though called Greek fire,
Greek writers speak of it as a weapon of Oriental enemies.(2'3)
But, if little progress appears, a recent traveller in China and Tartary, the
Missionary IIuc, conceives that, in this century, the Tartars had learned from
the Chinese the use of Vbombardes et pierriers; whence, perhaps, the great
change in European warfare, even then imminent. The use of gunpowder and
artillery by the Spanish Arabs, is named very eariy in the following century^254)
Similar
remarks apply to ships and navigation; both were evidently improving, but too
gradually to afford much noticeable matter. It may, however, be observed that
the vessels seem larger than, from the numbers compiled in fleets, would be
inferred. For conveying the warriors of the Fourth Crusade to their
destination, or rather, to that substituted by Dandolo, Venice equipped 480
ships, of which 240, allotted to the Crusaders themselves, are described as
impelled solely by sails, without oars.(255) Later in the century,
the wars between Venice and Genoa bring forth fleets of 155 galleys, manned
with crews of from 200 to 300 men. The ship of Frederick II’s Sicilian Grand - ,: tizec by Microsoft
Admiral
carried 1000 men; his ordinary vessels, destined to transport soldiers, had
crews of 150 or 200 men. Norway is spoken of as possessing 2!)2, and even 410,
ships of war, rowed or manned by 12,700 sailors.('2") Frederick
II b alt lighthouses for the guidance of mariners.
In civil
engineering little progress is apparent. Bridges, canals, and mills continued
to be constructed as before, and that the (Japuan bridge was designed by
Frederic II has been said. Either Bena de’ Gozzadini, as Podesta of Milan, or
Napoleone della Torre, as Signor Perpetuo,(a7) began the Navit/lio,
or navigable canal, which, besides irrigating the southern plain of the
Milanese, connects the Lombard capital with the Po, the obstacle from
difference of levels being mastered by locks,(2J8) seemingly a new
invention, if great, the only one in this department. The canal that brings the
water of the Ticino to Milan, and irrigates the north-western Milanese
territory, had been completed in the twelfth century. (“9) The
windmill is believed to have been introduced into Italy from the East, in the
first years of this century.
The impulse
given to the study of jurisprudence, by the first Frederic’s gratification, at
finding his notions of Imperial rights authorized by Justinian, was even
quickened by the not more disinterested zeal of the cities, for that science.
They were confident, that the laws of republican Rome must prove their
municipal privileges lo include independent self-government. Honours,
exemption from burthens, amongst others, from military service, were showered
upon celebrated Doctors of Law and their descendants; Reggio in 1270 conferred
the full rights of citizenship upon the bold opposer of Charles of Anjou’s
injustice, Guido da Su- zara; and men of noble birth gradually addicted themselves
to a study, the importance of which began to be universally appreciated.
Simultaneously
with, if not growing out of, this profound respect for legal science, arose the
idea, that the laws to be obeyed should be as generally known as might be. Earl
Baldwin’s Collection of laws in the last century has been named.f^j0)
And early in this century, perhaps before 1215, Eike von Repgow, a noble Saxon
Knight, by command of his Lord, Hover von Falkenstein, as announced
by a
prefatory couplet in the oldest copy extant, collected the laws of Saxony, and
published his compilation under the title of Sachsen-Spiegel, or Mirror of Saxony.^1)
Whether this Mirror first appeared in Latin or :i German is another
of the many unsettled questions: but, f in the former, a German version by the
collector speedily afforded more general information. Both original MSS., Latin
and German, are lost, the oldest copy extant being a Latin translation from the
German. : iiis legal work was followed, hi a few years, by a Schwaben-Spie«el, or
Mirror of Swabia. Both collections, appearing to have bean made without even
the knowledge of the ruling powers, evidently originated in the spirit of the
age. A tew years later appeared a similar compilation of Austrian laws; the
three constituting what might be termed a code of the common law of Germany, in
opposition to the civil and the canon law. To the same spirit of the age may,
in part at least, be ascribed the production, in the last quarter of the
century, of a book upon English law by Bracton, esteemed the best until
Blackstone’s Commentaries
ap- peared.(2(U)
But the study
of jurisprudence had given birth to the spirit of legislation. Frederic II’s
systematic code for the Sicilies, and his less complete, but still very
considerable, legislative labours in Germany, have been described. So has the
systematic code of canon law—formed by modelling Penaforte’s new methodized
compilation of Decretals somewhat upon Justinian’s plan—with which Gregory IX
opposed, what appeared to him, an attempt at escape from the universal
sovereignty of the Church. Copies of the improved Decretals were sent to all
universities and schools of law to be there taught. Contemporary princes were
either stimulated by these examples or sympathetically actuated. In France,
Lewis IX made various laws regularizing and purifying the administration of
justice, which, collected after his death, were dedicated to his son, Philip
III, as Lesj Coutusn’es he Beauvoisis ; and afterwards, methodized and improved
into a regular code, apparently by order of Philip IV, were published under the
title of Etablissements de St. Louis. Alfonso X, of Leon and Castile, the
rival of Richard of Cornwa1! for the Empire, Digitized by
Microsoft ®
did the same
in Spain, giving his code, written in Spanish, the title of Las Siete Parti das. In
Denmark, Waldemar
II completed the laws published by Waldemar I
and Archbishop Absalom, which are still in force. In Norway, King Magnus
Lagabater, who in 1266 sold the Isle of Man and the Hebrides to Alexander, King
of Scotland, diligently reformed the legislation of his kingdom ; and what
English reader need be reminded that this century saw the cornerstone of the
English constitution laid in Magna Charta, and entitled Edward I, for his legal reforms, the
English Justinian ?
That, the
laws of all these codes were still sanguinary, hardly need be added; even those
of the philosopher Frederic being so. The mediaeval Draconian period was not
yet passed. Vgainst this severity may be placed in the balance that, by the end
of the century, so thoroughly odious had the right of wrecking become, that
states, in their treaties, stipulated reciprocal aid to their shipwrecked
vessels and sailors.(2M) It may be further worth observing, that
large states were now generally provided with executioners, although in the
smaller, such functionaries were clearly not yet deemed necessary appendages of
Courts of Criminal Law; since, a century later, Florence, by an especial edict,
exempted casually passing pilgrims from compulsorily discharging the fearful
duty of such officials, thenceforward assigned to criminals under sentence of
perpetual or very long imprisonment, or of confiscation. (“*) A step may be
said to have been previously taken towards international law, by Richard
Cceur-de-Lion’s sea-laws of Oleron,—if his they were, and do not, as some
inquirers have thought, rather belong to this thirteenth century ; towards the
middle of which this maritime code was followed by the Coxso- lato del Mare, whether
put forth by Barcelona, Venice, or Pisa. The two codes were speedily
acknowledged as conjointly supreme in all maritime affairs.(2“)
Commerce, as
has been seen, was increasing, and, where cultivated, flourished; bat with
little change in its nature or mode of transaction. Great fairs were still its
chief scenes; prohibition, privilege, and coercion, still its soul, m all eyes
save those of Frederic II. Thus Barcelona, in the genuine monopolizing spirit,
obtained from James,
King of
Aragon, the restriction of all Aragonese and Catalan exports, to her own port
and shipping, with an exclusive right of warehousing foreign goods; and
Cremona, from the Emperors, a right to compel all merchants crossing the
Tyrolese Alps to house their goods for one tiighf in her warehouses, pay toll
upon them, and employ her means of transport for the prosecution of their
journey. The commercial treaty betwixt Venice and S'^ily, lin.iting the trade
of Sicilian vessels, has been mentioned. An earlier, analogous treaty, betwixt
Pisa and Arles, daied P221, prohibits to Arles ships, the selling of goods upon
the coast betwixt Pisa and Genoa, and purchasing, except for home consumption.
or sale at Pisa, betwixt this city and Civita Vecchia; further, so far settling
the law as to neutrals, that Arles admits her men and goods, when found in
Genoese ships, to be lawful prize for Pisans. Lewis IX’s course can hardly be
esteemed an exception to this ultra-protective system, of fostering by
monopoly, since, if he forbade the imposing of new prohibitions without just
cause and due deliberation, he likewise forbade the revocation of any already
existing.
The Popes
would fain have prevented all commercial intercourse with Mohammedan states;
but Venice, it may be remembered, upon the plea of depending for her daily
bread upon imported corn, obtained the Pope's permission to traffic with the
Saracens, carrying them every thing except contraband of war and Christian
slaves; -dealing in slaves, not Christian, was still a favourite branch of
traffic, deemed perfectly unobjectionable. But, despite papal prohibitions and
denunciations, Venice still kidnapped Christians, chiefly Greeks, Walachians,
Bulgarians, and Russians, to supply the Moslem markets. The Jews were their
rivals in this detestable trade. The commerce of Flanders, always prosperous to
a degree surpassed only in the chief Italian mercantile cities, is averred to
have received a powerful impetus from the intercourse with Constantinople,
consequent upon the Crusaders’ conquest of that city, and Earl Baldwin’s
election as Emperor; although his hereditary counties do not appear to have
interfered with the strife of Venice and Genoa for the command of the Euxine,
then the regular channel, by which the costly
wares of the
far Eust reached Europe, and whence each of those cities sought to monopolize
their conveyance for distribution; building, the former Azof, the latter
(Jaffa, as storehouses rather than marts. The Mongols appear to have favoured
the transit of Oriental merchandise; and consequent upon even this degree of
connexion with trade, by the end of the century, such was the magnificence of
the courts of this, recently savage, wandering Horde, that they attracted
Italian merchants, giving rise to some of those journeys, consuming years upon
years, described by early Italian novelists. Thus, the father and uncle of
Marco Polo, setting out upon their trading expedition prior to his birth, saw
him not, till lie was almost a man. Marco Polo himself spent twenty-six years,
journeying in Asia, and, after r's return, being made a prisoner by the
Genoese, in a great naval action, in which hs commanded a galley, solaced the
weary hours of captivity, by writing his travels. Bills of exchange are thought
to be an invention of this century.
Manufactures
appear to have been steadily progressive, alike in importance and in
excellence. The woollen manufacture, the staple of Flanders, was only
introduced into Florence, A.n. 15239, and as has been seen, had already become
one of the Arti Mafjgiori. Before the close of the century, silk-weaving was,
throughout Italy, if not the staple national manufacture, yet one of the chiefest;
as yet the insect that produces the raw material was reared only further South.
The excellence of the Sicilian manufacture is apparent, even at the present
day, in the fragments occasionally found iii tombs. In Germany, manufacturing
wa» encouraged by the growth of the towns, and wool-weaving flourished upon the
banks of the Rhine, although this is the century in which Matthew of Westminster
boasted that the whole world was clad in English wool, manufactured in
Fianders.(256) In answer, perhaps, to this boast, the Parliament
held at Oxford, a.d. 1261, prohibited the exportation of wool, and the
importation of woollen cloth. The Cistertians, whom their rule bound to occupy
themselves w'ith agriculture, or the raising of produce, began to aim at increasing
the value of the produce when raised,by a second application of manual labour:
inaPrussian
Monastery,
they wove cloth from the wool of their sheep, and in another, at Eberbach, they
bailt ships of their own timber, in which the lay brothers navigated the Rhine.
In Poland, a convent of nuns taught the art of weaving linen to tiie Slavonian
princesses and noble ladies.
Of
agriculture :tle mention occurs. The interest, taken by Frederic II therein,
has been described ;(s“7) and the irrigation, above mentioned,
must have greatly increased the boasted fertility of Lombardy, Nevertheless, no
other improvement appears in the most useful of arts; and, probably, none was
conceived possible. Horticulture must, however, be allowed to have made a
considerable stride forward, if we may trust the accounts of the hothouse, or
conservatory, constructed by Albertus Magnus, in the garden of his Dominican
Friery. In this winter garden he entertained the Anti-King William; and to the
shrubs and flowers, there green and blossoming, amidst winter’s frost and snow,
much of the inventor’s fame, as a magician controlling the seasons, may be due
That, in
which great progress was really making, was literature and the arts. V, -th
respect to the first, the favour, with which learning was regarded, appeared in
the great increase of universities. The E raperor Frederic II’s foundation of
such a school of science at Naples, with the means he took to insure its
prosperity, has already been recorded. Two of his most confidential ministers,
Taddeo da Suessa and Iloffredo da Benevento, he first drew from the schools at
which they taught, to his own, then raised them from Professor’s Chairs to
high place in his councils. The ephe- merous duration of prosperity to tthis
Institution, which seemed permanently established, may be ascribed to the
overthrow of his race, and the usurper’s anxiety to obliterate the merits, even
the memory, of those he had superseded Frederic’s foundation had been preceded,
in 1222, by a grand migration of Professors and Students from Bologna,
consequent upon dissensions; the seceders founding the University of Padua; a
tr.ove favoured at the tune by the Emperor-King, to whom the University of
Bologna shewed habitual hostility. In many Italian towns, Universities of more
or less reputation now arose—Frederic IPs letter on sending a Law Professor to
the Vercelli University(Sb8) will
«
not have been
forgotten,—all immeasurably inferior in character to the Bolognese, with
which, in civil law, none presumed to compete. In Germany, nothing of the kind
was introduced before the next century, and the high schools seem to have lost
much of their early faiue.(2W) In France, between the years 1228 and
1233, Ray mond VII of Toulouse founded an \ niversity in that city, whi^h, it
was hoped, might prove a potent auxiliary in converting heretics; and, in 1229,
some supposed encroachment by the government or the civic authorities upon the
privileges of the University of Paris, produced a migration similar to that
from Bologna; but, upon this occasion the separatists, instead of founding a
new, joined an existing rival, that of Oxford, which thenceforward racked
second only to Paris in scholasticism, remaining first in canon law. In 1234,
another broil with, or in, the Parisian University, gave birth to a new seat of
learning at Orleans, which, in deference to its parent, avoided every
appearance of rivalry, by forbearing to teach scholastic theology. In 1250, the
Sorbonne was .’nunded, for poor students of theology, such as the Church often
recommended to the charity of the faithful, for support during their course of
study. In England, the University of Cambridge was incorporated in 1231, but
hardly seems as yet to iave rivalled Oxford, which was daily increasing in
prosperity. In Spain, the Universities of Valencia and Salamanca were founded
in this century; in Portugal, that of Coimbra; and in Hungary, one at Westprim.
Of the regular number of students little seems to be known ; but, ‘neidentally,
10,000 are named as at one time, studying at Bologna; upon another occasion,
the same number is mentioned as matriculated at Paris; and, in the following
century, 30,000 are spoken of at Oxford.
Most of these
universities appear at the course of the century, to have beco.ne chartered
corporations; those originating in the migration of Professors and Students,
somewhat strangely, the migratory body being supposed to carry with them their
share of the corporate character. But the charters were far from identical. In
the University of Paris, copied by the English and Hungarian, the Professors
formed the Corporation, to which the Students were subject, even to the degree
of school-bov subjection,
the rod
having been, we are told, an ordinary implement for the chastisement of youths,
preliminarily and judiciously, forbidden to wear arrns. At Bologna, on the
other hand, and the various Italian, Spanish, and even French universities,
modelled upon this first real university, more whimsically, the Students were
the Corporate Body, and elected a Head, to whom the Professors, notwithstanding
their jurisdiction over the students, seem to have been in some measure
subjected. It is to be hoped that, in these last-mentioned universities, the
law, which expressly denied to robbers, murderers, and all who did not attend,
at least, two lectures every week, the privilege of students, would be strictly
inforced.
Almost every
where, universities appear to have been exempt from the jurisdiction of the
municipal or other tribunals of the towns in which they were established. At
Bologna, it may lie recollected that, before the close of the preceding
century, the Professors, for their own relief, resigned the judicial authority
given them, to the Bolognese Magistracy; but, by the middle of the thirteenth,
their successors, taking a different view of the matter, saw the advantage of a
position so commanding as that of the Students’ Judges, and resumed their
privileges,—the exact extent of their jurisdiction is uncertain.(m)
The Neapolitan University stands neaily alone, as somewhat less privileged.
Frederic II did not make it a self-governing corporation; but, exempting the
students from the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals, he
named an especial justiciary to judge m criminal cases, implicating any of them;
and he allowed them to submit civil disputes, at their choice, to that
Magistrate, to the Archbishop, or to the body of Professors.
Different
universities have been seen exceiling, in different studies, although, with
the exception of the Salernitan, and, perhaps, the Montpelier, which seem to
have been solely medical, they did not confine themselves to those several
especial departments: at the Neapolitan, all known sciences appear to have been
simultaneously taught. But, whatever the sjstem of tuition, the Popes, against
whom mighty sovereigns strove i: vain, found themselves powerless to change
it. The beginning of the century saw the vol. iv. 19
struggle for
and against Aristotle in progress. A Parisian Synod, A d. 1‘209, ordered all his works to be burnt, thus to prevent
their being studied at the Parisian University. Innocent III limited the
prohibition of their use, to his writings upon Physics and Metaphysics. Gregory
IX,—■ Frederic fl’s patronage rendering the Stagyrite, in his eyes, j et
more objectionable,—again included the whole. As the century advanced, the
Popes, alarmed by the increase of heresy, repeated more imperatively, and
endeavoured to inforce, the interdiction of all Aristotle’s works; regarding
the prevalence of scholastic subtlety, and a consequent disposition to reason,
upon dogmas implicitly received and taught by the Church, as the fruit of their
tendency to cultivate over-astuteness of intellect:—the very fruit that St.
Bernard had dreaded. Yet, despite papal injunctions and denunciations, so
decidedly did Aristotle remain the favourite philosopher, that Urban IV, in
actual despair of excluding li'tn from any university, commissioned Thomas
Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, by commentaries and explanations, to render this
classical Arch-Heresiarch as innocuous as r_.ight be, to orthodoxy. Upon
another point had papa! authority similarly fa'led. Innocent IV, in the height
of his quarrel with Frederic II, forbade all universities to teach the Civil
Law, which he held unduly favourable to Imperial authority; and every
university disregarded the prohibition. (a;i)
The
Universities appear to have given the degree of Doctor, in law, medicine,
grammar, and philosophy; but the jurists, jealous of the title, suffered none
but themselves to bear it; confining the others to that of Magister; and so
high did these legal doctors rank, that the opinion of one of them was held
equivalent to a judge’s verdict.(2T!’) Regular salaries to
Professors do not appear to have become general till very late in the century,
and even then were insufficient to avert dependence upon private agreements
with the students for remuneration. At the close of the century, the maximum
salary, in Italy, was 200 lire, which, according to Savigny’s calculation,
would be about 43 pounds steuing; whilst, ii P279, a party of students subscribed,
to pay Guido da Suzara 300 lire, or, at the same rate, 641. 10s., for a course
of lectures upon the Dicestum
Novum. Modena,
appointing him to the Chair of Civil Law, gave him, once for all, 2250 Modenese
lire, or about 180Z. With such remuneration, it cannot be matter of surprise to
find the best professors itinerants, wandering from university to university.
Even the Angelic Doctor taught alterrately at the Un iversities of Paris and of
Naples.
Few of the
then celebrated Doctors of Law have come down to modern times with fame
adequate to awakening interest in the nineteenth century. Even the Tuscan
Glossarist, Accorso, (Latine, Accursius,) whom Tirabosch', writing in the
eighteenth, calls il grande Accorso, if, perhaps, to the general reader, more
interesting as the father of his feminine coadjutor, Accorsa, who is
represented as supplying hi place in the lecture-room when he was indisposed :
so, it is said, did Elisabetta d’Andrea, daughter and wife of the respective
Professors Giovanni d’Andrea and Giovar.ui di Sail Giorgio, her father’s or her
husband’s, when necessary; whilst llettiska Gnzzadini, more boldly, and
assuming, for the nonce, male attire, gave, we are told, a regular course of
lecturcs upon tlie Institutiones, and took a Doctor’s degree^2-'3)
If
jurisprudence were peculiarly the scientific glory of the age, it was not, as
has been seen, to the exclusion of Scholasticism, which, in thi* century,
produced some of the children in whom she most glories. At their head stands
the Apulian, Thomas Aquinas, who conceived the beautiful idea that the felicity
of Heaven consists in fulness of knowledge ajid of love. Then follow, Albertus
Magnus, who, in pure love of science, resigned the bishopric of Ratisbon to
devote himself more uninterruptedly to study; Raymond Lulli, another miracle of
learning, and the inventGr of an arguing machine; the less known Vincent de
Beauvais, who, about the iridulc of the century, wrote eighty-two books,
divided into 9905 chapters, upon ail extant learning, the matter for which ho
collected ar.d translated from Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew writings;—all trained
in scholastic philosophy; to say nothing of Friar Bacon, the first calendar
reformer, who, however depreciated of late, as credulous and fanciful, has by
competent judges been held the meet precursor of Lord Bacon, (i7‘)
botli in natural phi
losophy and
in the spirit of philosophizing; he is said to have first started the idea of
relation and reciprocal influence betwixt the language and the character of a
nation, Another, of less extensive fame, and who lived earlier in the century,
Guillaume d’Auvergne, Bishop of Paris from 1228 to 1249, rivalled the Lombard
Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselmo, in furnishing Descartes with arguments, to
wlueb he is not a little indebted for his philosophic preeminence. In one of
this prelate’s many metaphysical disquisitions, is found tbs developed process
of reasoning, condensed by Descartes into his celebrated “ Cogito, ergo sum.”(2?i)
These men, besides being original thinkers, had mastered a mass of knowledge, a
variety of sciences, such as has since, only by Pico di Mirandola and the
Admirable Crichton, been emulated. To these names it might scarcely seem worth
adding that of Robert Grossette, Grouthoved, or Copley, Bishop of Lincoln, a
low-born Englishman, as not only the first Greek scholar of the age, but also a
distinguished poet (his poems are allegorical), historian (he wrote a history
from the Creation, in French), mathematician, naturalist, canonist, and
theologian, were it not likewise to add, that he was one of the sturdiest
opponents of Papal encroachment.
The Spanish
Moors, in their now single kingdom of Granada, cultivated literature, science,
and the useful arts, as diligently, and, perhaps, as successfully, as ever ;
although the more general dissemination of knowledge rendered Arab eminence,
whether in Spain or the Levant, less strikingly brilliant than of yore. But, in
the second half of the century, the Asiatic Mohammedans no longer aspired to
the fa-ne of their forefathers, and of their western brethren. Earlier, a
Bagdad library, founded iu connexion with a Medrisi, or College, by a Vizier of
Saladin’s, was dispersed by the easy charity of the Caliph, who, upon occasion
of a dearth, permitted the students to sell the books lent them, in order to
buy bread with their prioe.(*‘*j Afterwards, the devastating dominion of
Mameluke, Mongol, and Turcoman, rapidly extinguished civilization and ’ntellectual
culture in the Levant. Frederic II, indeed, found learned Mohammedans, whom he
drew to his Court, amongst others, the sens df'-the famous Averrhoes: and
Abulfeda, the
Eyubite Prince of Hamah, at once an historian, botanist, physician, lawyer,
and astronomer, belongs to the latter end of this century.
Latin was
still the established language of philosophy, history, and even of poetry, at
least of the more ambitious kinds. To enumerate the now forgotten, would-be
Classical writers of the thirteenth century were tedious; but a few of the
more distinguished may be named. Amongst these, rank Gulielmus Brito, or
Armoricus, who wrote both a history of Philip II, De Rebus Gestis Philippi
Augusti, and an epopsea upon the same subject, entitled Fiiilippeis, in twelve
books; Rigordus, another chronicler of this King’s deeds; Jacques de \ itry,
Bishop of Acre, one of the historians of the kingdom of Jerusalem and of the
Crusades; the English historians, Matthew Paris, the monk of St. Albans, who,
freelj admitted to the tabie of Henry IIJ, and, apparently, of Lewis IX, often
derived the matter of his narrative from the lips of royalty ; Matthew of
Westminster, with others, some of whom, Henry of Huntingdon being one, like
Brito and Rigordus, belong; to both twelfth and thirteenth centuries. German
historians still, invariably wrote in Latin,—not just now in their happiest
vein,—so did the few Poles, whose chronicles serve as authority for the early
history of that unhappy country. And, that, in Italy, Latin was still esteemed
the proper language of history, Muratori’s Scriptores Rerum Italicarum bear
vatness. Of these, JamsiDa, who writes with the animation of a man telling what
has interested him; Gerardo Maurisio, esteemed the best Latin historian of his
day, Ugo Falcando, likewise belonging to both centuries, and a very few more,
are, with the French and English named, allowed still to display tolerable
Latinity; whilst in others, as, e.y., in Saba Maiaspina, the tongue, no longer
classic, was growing ruder and ruder. Its utter corruption is, however, imputed
to Albertus Magnus, who, engrossed by h:s matter, held aiming at classicism in
contempt. The Trojan War of Dares Phrygius is, by some critics, assigned to
this century; in winch case, Benoit’s poem, written in the twelfth, cannot, as
has also beep, supposed, have been taken from his. The Latin writers of
France and
Italy belong chiefly to the earlier half and middle of the century.
But the most
truly important part of literary progress in the age lay in the cultivation of
modern languages. The commencement of this great movement was seen in the
preceding century; earliest, perhaps, in the Langue d’oc and the Langue d’cil,
though with little difference of time in the Spanish and the German, and not
much later in the English tongues. In the thirteenth, the change becomes
everywhere prominent. Tha Troubadours of this century are estimated at two
hundred, of whom six were enthroned votaries of the Muse: Elinor, Duchess cf
Aquitaine and Queen of England, already named as a dabbler in the Gai Saber,(*77)
was still alive. and Elinor of Provence is said to have been indebted for her
share of Henry Ill’s throne, solely to her poetic fame. Richard, Earl of
Cornwall and King of the Romans, "s the third royal Troubadour; Pedro II
of Aragon, the victor of Navas de Tolosa, and victim at Muret, the fourth; and
his grandson, 1'edro III, the fifth.(2‘8) The sixth, and
most celebrated, is King Thi- balt of Navarre, who sighed in verse for Queen
Blanche, the widow of Lewis VIII, and mother of Lewis IX, cf France. Tha
remaining 194 were of all ranks, and of these. Elias Cairol may be worth nami
ig, as an artist in gold and silver, jongleur, and troubadour; whose vituperation
of Frederic II (27S) may indicate, that the Imperial and poetic
Maecenas had not duly appreciated his genius. The metrical history of the
Crusade against the Albigenses, already quoted, is evidently the work of a
contemporary troubadour,—another of the non-lyric class. The author begins as a
zealous Crusader, changing sides as he proceeds ; perhaps as he saw fanatic
persecution unfold itself into a pretext for robbery and usurpation. But the
really distinguished troubadour cf this cei.tury, called the last of
Troubadours, and aimost so literally, was Sordello. He wrote in Italian as well
as in Provencal, and which was his mother tongue is uncertain, as is much of
his history Dante, in his Volgare F.loquio,(-80) praises him for improving the
Mantuan dialect; and no reader of the Divina Cojuiedia need be told how highly the
mighty Florentine
esteemed his
poetic powers. Sordetto was much favoured and trusted by Ezzelino di Romano,
who made him Governor of Mantua. He died a.d.
1*280.
But numerous
and distinguished as were the troubadours of this century, the best antiquarian
critics hold their strains very inferior to those of their predecessors in the
twelfth; as less natural in sentiment—the “ high-fantastical passion ” becoming
even more fantastical and unreal—and less poetic in expression; quaint conceits
being substituted for flights of fancjj and artificial difficulties for
mellifluous versification. Whether this gradual deterioration would have
proved fata! to the Joyous Science, may be questionable; but two mortal wounds
precipitated the slow decline. The first was dealt by the Crusade against the
Albigenses, which seems to have changed the temper of southern France. The
second was the annihilation of the brilliant, luxurious, and literary courts of
the Earl:? of Toulouse and Provence, jointly its Parnassus, by the absorption
of the first county into the French monarchy, and the annexation of the other
to the Neapolitan; thus degrading the Langue d’oc, from a courtly language to a
provincial dialect. So rapidly sank, in public estimation, the art, erst cultivated
and half worshipped as well as patronized by the highest, that Giorgi, a
troubadour, in a Sirvente published about 1270, execrates him from whom he
learnt to vhyme.(2sl) But, how generally soever favoured was the Gai
Saber in northern Italy, its death might be accelerated by the extinction of
the House of Uomano, the most constant, as the most splendid, of its Italian
patrons.
If the
I.angue d’oc were decaying, the Langue d’oll, the language of the Courts of
France and England, was more, than propoi tio,lately flourishing. It was
assuming the fixity and dignity of one of the chief European languages, as it
grew into French, and was producing works “in prose and rhyme,” which still
survive, and—if, from obsolete words and antiquated forms, no longer adapted
to the general reader—still delight the student. The Trouveurs continued to
pour forth romances in verse; one of the most popular of which entitled itself
an epic poem upon the Life of Alexander the Great. In this Alexandreide —if Li
Roumans d’Alf.xanpre ba not the original title Digitized by Microsoft ©
--the classic
conqueror is, even more completely than in its Latin predecessor, the
Alexandfeis of the lust century, transformed into a knight-errant, upon whose
head all the marvellous adventures ever achieved by an Amadis or a Palmerin,
are accumulated. The most admired trouv?urs of the day,—the now forgotten
Lambert le Cors, (the short.) Alexandre de Bernay, Thomas de Kent, Sic.,—nine
:n number, combined to produce the poem, which is written in lines of twelve
syllables, thence still named Alexandrines Doubts are, however, entertained,
whether the Alesan- dreide be an original work, or a translation, with improvements,
of the earlier Latin poem.('-®) The romances relative to Arthur, and “his
table round, Begirt with many a knight,’’ arose in this century; which also
gave birth to t.he first attempt at prolonged and sustained allegory, (the
Thier-Epos, simply bestowing hr man articulation upon animals, acting according
to their respective natures, car* hardlj be so called.) in the Roman de la Rose
of Guillaume de Lorris. The end of this same century beheld a versified French
History of France, extending from the abduction of Helen down to the moment at
which the author, a Fleming, Philippes de Mouskes, Bishop of Tour- nay. lived
and rhymed; and, naturalb. including the Flemish Emperors of Constantinople.
The long romances were rivalled by shorter tales; the most pleasing of which
are, perhaps, the Lais of Marie de France, written for tho amusement of the
English Court: but, whether she borrowed her stories from Wales or from
Britany, whether she found them as ballads, or as traditions which she
versified and wrought into form, are questions that divide antiquaries. Her
Lais, as might be augured from her sex, are almost free from the licentiousness
in tone, incident, and language, of her male rivals; though, at times, even she
scmewhat plainly tells, what at the present day could be but delicately
insinuated.
The powers of
the rhymsters were inadequate to satisfying the thirst for fiction: and prose
romances, taking their heroes from both cycles, viz., those of Charlemagne and
his Paladins, and of Arthur and his Round Table, vied with the metrical. But
the writers of short prose Fabliaux and Nouveflettes, the very storehouses of
immoral, and anti-
monacal,
rather than anti-religious, anecdotes; whence Boccaccio and Co. drew the more
objectionable portion of their tales, were'more numerous, and, painful it is to
add, the most popular.(2S-‘) In France and England the number of
Langue d’oil poets—whether including prose novelists seems uncertain—in the
thirteenth century, is again estimated at two hundred.
The idea of
extending the knowledge of history, by writing it in the mother-tongue, had. as
has been seen, before the close of the preceding century, been conceived by
Baldwin, Earl of Flanders and Walloon-speaking Hainault. (231) He
did not live to see the Crusade, that gave him a crown, produce the full
embodying of his idea, in the first regular history in a modern living
language. This was the work of his gallant comrade, Geoffroi de Ville-hardouin,
Marechal de Champagne, who, as the narrator of Teats in which he bore part,
claims the title of the earliest modern vernacular historian. In the second half
of the century, his example was followed by another Marshal of Champagne, Jean
de Joinville, who wrote in French the history of the Crusade to which he
belonged, having accompanied Lewis IX. Between the two noble Marshals may be
placed a continuator of the Archbishop of Tyre’s history, Bernardus
Thesaurarius. Whoever or whatever he may have been, Syro-Frank or Frenchman—
uncertain points—his work, though extant only in Latin, is believed to have
bean written in French—partly because Jomvllle makes extracts from it as en
langue vuljaire, and Dacange quotes it as such—and translated into Latin by an
Italian.(•“) Whether the Histoirf.s de Baudouin preceded, or closely followed,
the prose fiction, is still a question ; but one remarkable circumstance
connected with this subject is, that the European prevalence of the French
language had already begun. The Florentine, Brunetto Latini, best known as
Dante’s instructor, wrote his philosophic Tesoro in French that it might be
more extensively read—the first exaltation of a vulgar totigue to the service
of philosophy, if not preceded in the Spanish. Yet, like the Treasurer’s
History, the oldest copy known is a translation into its author's native
language.
In England,
if French were still the poetic, as well as Digitized by Microso ft © ^
] 9
the social
language of the higher classes, Anglo-Saxon was in course of rapid
transformation into English. The difference between the language into which :
ayamon translated Wace’s Brut at the close of the twelfth, or the very opening of the
thirteenth century, and that of the latter half of this same thirteenth, is
striking. The middle of this century i« the epoch fixed upon by some cr'tics as
that of English undefiled ;(2M) and a song of triumph upon the
Barons’ victory over Henry III, a.d. 1264, evidently written in the very
flush of present exultation, clearly before Prince Edward’s counter victory at
Evesham in 1265, is really old English. Sf ill more may this be asserted of
other writers of this period, first among whom stands Robert of Gloucester,
with his rhymed translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ro- mance-history. In
this century Scotland boasted of Thomas the Rhymer, who died towards its close.
Italian, if
the youngest child of the Latin, was "born, Minerva-like, full grown;
being little different in the thirteenth and the nineteenth centuries. The
existence of Italian, or rather Sicilian, verse, before the death of Saladii:
in 1193, has been seen ;(ss:) but those rude lines of Ciullo
d’Alcamo are all that can be quoted prior to the thirteenth century • which
teems with his successors. That Frederic II, his sons, and his ministers, were
all more or less poets, hardly need be repeated; or that his Court, which, at
Palermo and Naples set the fashion of vernacular, in preference to Provencal,
poetry—whence Italian poetry was long called Sicilian(288)—became a
centre of attraction to all votaries of the Muse, throughout Italy. Pietro
delle Yigne enjoys the fame of having invented the sonnet; but, ere he had left
his father’s cottagc, to study, as a pauper, at Bologna, his future master was
writing Sicilian verses. Some ot the earliest of these have been preserved; to
which Bettinelli vaguely assigns the date of 1200, when this lisper in numbers
had scarcely completed his fifth year, but clearly written prior to the
adventurous expedition, in which he recovered his patrimonial crovrn.(‘M)
Sicilian poetry was amatory; and a poetess of the island is reported to have
become so spiritually enamoured of a Florentine poet,—a predecessor and
namesake of Dante’s,—that she addressed lave lays to him, designating herself,
Nina di Dante. These
intellectual
lovers are believed never to have met. Up to the middle of the century, the
character of all Italian poetry wad of this character, with the exception of
Hymns, —first written in Italian by St. Francis—if they, equally speaking the
language of passion, although addressed to Divinity, can rightly be termed an
exception. But, about the time mentioned, Satire began to vary the sameness of
amorous ditties; and Guido Guinoceili, a Bolognese, Producing aphoristic, or
didactic poetry, versified ethics rose into public favour. In the Sicilies,
the spirit of poesy seems to have expired with the posterity of Frederic,
whilst reigning supreme beyond the Neapolitan frontiers. Whether the Divina CoMMEniA had begun to exist in the mind that
brought it forth, may bo doubted; not so that Dante ranks amongst the glories
of this century, which ripened him to the age required for participation in
government; which saw him officiate, as not only one of the Priors of the
Republic, but as embassador at Naples, where he formed with Charles Martel,
Charles of Anjou’s grandson, a friendship, explanatory of his poetical
forbearance towards the usurping grandfather.
The fiction
of the peninsula was, during this century, limited to short prose tabs, too
similar, in the worst feature, to the French. Of these, the Cento Novelle
antiche, in which Frederic II’s Court is depicted as the resort of Artists of
all descriptions, are perhaps, the oldest.
But, in the
second half of the century, Italian prose was more worthily employed by the
Florentines, Ricordaio Malespini, and Giovanni Yillani, the first writers of
history in Lingua Toscana; Matteo Spinelli, who preceded them, having recorded
the events, in which, from 1247 to 1 ’268, he appears to have been an actor, in
the Neapolitan dialect. \ illani’s style is easy, flowing, and much admired by
compatriot critics. He carried on the narrative nearly to his own death, but is
really authority only for what occurred within his personal knowledge,
strangely blundering as to facts, either geographically, or chronologically,
distant, even within the peuinsula.^2*) His history was continued by
members of his family.
In Germany,
the literary use of the living language, although introduced by Frederic II
into legislation, appears Digitized by Microsoft ”
long confined
to poetry, iri all branches of which the thirteenth century was ich. The
highest place is of course taken by the cultivators of the before-mentioned
Kunsf- Poesie (Artistic poetry); who, after a long interval of contemptuous
neglect, appear, at the present day, again to command nearly as much admiration
amongst their erudite compatriot posterity, as they could amongst their contemporaries.
The narrative, in artistic poetry, was distinguished by the chivalrous
character of the story, its skilful construction and conduct, a carefully
polished style and epic dimensions, from the ruder ballads, belonging to the
humbler Volkx-Poesie or popular poetry. All the romances were long supposed to
be translations from those of the trouveurs; though generally so Germanized,
with so much chastening of t.he immorality, as to give them an air of Teutonic
originality. Modern German critics think some of them original, and others
taken, like the Lais of Marie de France, directly from Welsh and Breton tales.
As to the comparative merit of the Artistic poets, these critics agree only as
to two persons of the triad, that they place at the head of the class,—Wolfram
von Eschenbach and Gottfried von Strasburg. As the third, some name Heinrich
von Veldeke, (m) others, Hartmann von der Aue. (2W)
The undisputed two are esteemed masters of tlieir art as romance writers, of
which Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival is held a first- rate specimen. This
poem is the development and Ger- manization cf a French “ Rouman,” written at
the close of the preceding century, and is peculiar enough to deserve a few
words:—Parzival, the sou of a slain warrior, reared by his mother in strict
seclusion to guard him from his father’s fate, casually meeting with some
knights, is awakened to chivalrous yearnings, goes forth in blundering
ignorance, fights knight-like, commas serious offences against morality as well
as good manners, misses offered glory and happiness, is converted by a hermit,
and, passing through numerous trials, proves the only one of Arthur’s knights,
whose purity and valiancy are equal to achieving the high and holy adventure of
the San Graal.
In contrast
to such chivalry, Hartmann von der Aue produced a romance, Dfr Arm is Heinrich
(Poor Henry), of which the vital spirit is that enthusiastic piety, to which
this world is
nothing, save as the road ;o heaven. Poor Henry is a great noble, but a leper,
curable only by virgin blood; and the daughter of one of his vassals gives
hers, out of neither woman’s love nor vassal’s loyalty, but simply as a means
of getting speedily to heaven. The pecu iar tenderness and delicacy of the poet
strikingly distinguish Poor Henry from the numberless legends of warlike
saints, whose horrific martyrdoms are relieved by the wildest marvels of
Arabian fiction.
But the
grand, the sterling production of the mediaeval German Muse—an earlier birth,
almost opening the century—was the Nieeelungen Lied, (Lay of the Niebelungs,)
epic in tone and spirit. The most esteemed German critics, as Goethe, the
Gri.nms, and Gervinus, consider this poem as the Christianized, and, according
to the ideas of the day, modernized, contexture of old Heathen lays resembling,
though differing in tone of feeling, as in important incidents, those of the
Eoda. They conceive that each successive generation of ballad singers or
reciters, either unconsciously or purposely, adapted the strain to the feelings
and habit of their audience; whose sympathy they sought to quicken by
interweav’.ng portions of recent history. Thus the introduction of Attila and
the Huus is ascribed to the ravages of the Magyars in the n'nth and tenth
centuries. Three questions relative to the Niebelungen Lied are still undecided. One,
its nationality, whether Scandinavian or Low German: Gervinus infers, from so
much of the scene lying upon the lower Rhine, that the story originated in the
Netherlands; but that, the uncongenial commercial spirit smothering the poetic,
it was there forgotten, and appropriated by Southern Germany. Another, whether
the poem be allegorical or historical; and, if the latter, whether the
idealized history be that of the Burgundian settlement upon the Rhine. of the
Franks establishing themselves in Gaul; or of the Barbarian Emperors of the
West-Roman Empire. (m) The third is, whether the author of the
poem, in its present form, were Heinrich von Ofterdingen, the imaginative son
of a sober citizen of Erfurth, cr Klingsohr, otherwise Klinsor, a physician,
geometrician, astrologer, privy councillor, and reputed wizard, as well as a
poet. The Hel- denbuch (Hook of Heroes), which ranks next in estimation, Oigii
'ey i iicrosoft
Gudrun, and
the Rosen-Garten, in a manner belong to— might be said to form a sort of cycle
with—the Niebe-
lungen Lied. Late in the century a Brabanter, Jan van Heeln, strove to
redeem the poetic reputation of Lower Lorrain, by celebrating, in a Low German
epic, the warlike feats of a Duke of Brabant.
The Lyrics of
Artistic poetry, were—need it be repeated ?—those of the Minnesingers, amongst
whom, as amongst the troubadours, were still to be found princes; as Otho IV,
Margrave of Brandenburg, Henry the Magnificent, the tournament-giving Margrave
of Misnia, and a Henry, Duke of Lower Silesia. That Princes of the Empire
should likewise prove Princes of Parnassus, was hardly to be expected; and, in
fact, the latter title can be claimed by only one amongst the Minnesingers
swarming throughout the century. This one is Walter von der Vogeiweide, in
whose case Minnesinger might seem a misnomer, so few of his lays are devoted to
love. He sang every species of sentiment, every occurrence, natural, social, or
political; and his strains exhibit the fancy of the troubadour ('■“)
blended with German feeling. Whereupon it must be observed, that Alexander
Humboldt holds love of nature to be a characteristic cf all the Kunst-poesie of
this century. It is mortifying to add, that many of these admired compositions,
many even of Walter von der Vogelweiae’s, are dedicated to the panegyric or
satire of prince or noble, according as their gratuities had satisfied or
disappointed the author’s expectations. It must not be omitted, that these
German Lyrists, mindful that “ Love framed with Mirth a gay fantastic round,”
composed dancing songs, or songs that ruled the dance, in lieu, it is supposed,
of instrumental music.
In the first
quarter of this century, the Thuringian Court of Landgrave Hermann (St. Elizabeth’s
father-in- law) was the haunt of German poets, who found in him an efficient
patron. His assistance enabled Heinrich vofi Veldeke to complete his
long-interrupted version of the Eneid; he persuaded Albert von Halberstadt to
translate Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Wolfram von Eschenbach to remodel one of his
less important romances, Wilhelm von Orense. His Court was the scene of the extraordinary
poetic tournament,
known as the
Wartbvrg-Krieg ; Anglice, the Wartburg War, in which, we are assured, that the
beaten candidate was to lose his head,—a condition of such a contest, the
harder to believe, because, the combatants being six, it would seem as though
there could be but one victor, over five vanquished, and, therefore,
death-doomed rivals: happily, though puzzlingty, rio such execution took place.
But this improbability must not place the story amongst mediaaval fictions: for
that this war of song was fought upon the Wart burg, a.d. 1‘207, under the patronage of
Landgrave Hermann and Landgravine Sophia, is unquestionable; though the
accuracy of its poetic- history, attributed to either Ofterdingen or
Eschenbach, or to both conjointly, may be mistrusted. The six champions were, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Heinrich von IUapaeh,
Walter von der Vogelweide, and Reiner von Zweter or Zwetzen, nobles, Heinrich
von Ofterdingen and Bieterolf aus Eisenach, plebeians. The poets
were divided into two parties, bv Eschenbacn’s declared preference of Brecon
and French subjects, for his lays, and his admiration of Philip Augustus as the
modern Maecenas, in opposition to Ofterdingen, the partisan, as might be
expected, of national subjects anti patrons; amongst whom he extolled, not, as
might also be expected, his princely host the Landgrave, but Leopold the
Glorious, of Austria. Ofterdingen’s head,— whether, as is asserted, he was
struck dumb at the point of triumph by the sudden appearance of the
Landgravine,C™) or was overpowered by a sense of his own audacity ir. thus
standing single against five,(a6) the other four having joined
Eschenbach—was, we are told, forfeited; when, as the only chance of saving it,
he, or the merciful Sophia, proposed summoning the wizard Klingsohr from
Hungary, to decide who was the victor in this intellectual melee. He
came, seemingly, in the double capacity of Ttiter and Judge of the lists; for
he first broke a theological lance with Eschenbach, and then pronounced
Ofterdingen the victor, who thereupon received the prize from the hand of the
Landgravine. Of decapitating the vanquished, nothing more is heard.
Later in the
century, Italy robbing Germany of the habitual presence of *ne Imperial Court,
the patronage of
literature
devolved upon the successors of Leopold the Glorious. This was a heavy blow to
the spirit of German poetry; the good-natured sensuality of the Austrians, combining
with the licentiousness cf Frederic the Combative, to degrade its tone to that
of mere social amusement. In strains adapted solely to such a purpose, neither
depth of passion, nor wild flights of vigorous imagination, could counteract
the growing influence of cities; which, after the extinction of the Babenbergs
and the Ilohenstaufen, appears, for a while at least, to have dethroned Apollo
for Mumus, or rather for “ Gentle Dulness ” and the jokes she loves. At burgher
festivals, the myths of heathen Frank or Burgun dian forefathers awoke as
little interest as the adventures of an errant knight, deemed the prototype of
the dreaded and abhorred marauding noble. Jocularity or utility was now
required of the Muse; and didactic poetry, il the name may be given to mere
versified rules of commonplace morality, or proverbs, arose, in somewhat
incongruous companionship with Bacchanalian songs, and the coarsest, grossest
buffoonery. Of the earlier strain nothing remained but the mystical religious
effusions, in which pious minds sought re’.'ef. Singing schools were now
established, which may be presumed to have led the way to the complete triumph,
exhibited a century later, of the municipal over the poetic temperament, in a
Guild of Poets, admittance into which was earned, not by flowers of fancy, but
by strict observance of certain capricious rules ! Under the Swabian dynasty,
Germany is said to have produced two hundred poets; a favourite figure,
seemingly, in the statistics of Parnassus.
The Drama did
not in this century fulfil the promise of the last. Works of this description
are scarcely mentioned, save a Commedia Spirite ale. said to have been performed at Padua, in
1*243, and a piece ascribed to Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, in which the
Mystery and the Morality are blended, his allegorical personages discussing
the lot of Adam after his fall, and appealing to the Redeemer in person to
judge between them.^2”) The representation of Mystertes go generally
appears in the light, almost, of an act of devotion, that it is matter of some
surprise to find Innocent III treat them as desecrating the churches in
which they
took placc;—desecrating churches iii which the Fete de 1’ Ane was allowed to be
celebrated; in which at festivals the people danced ; not to speak of their
frequent use as town halls, or of the regular Pprisian Easter custom of
blessing hams at Notre Dame, anil selling them almost in the portico of the
Cathedral! Kings and great princes appear now to have entertained companies o'
actors- the Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Brabant, when sent to England to
escort the future Empress to Germany, are said to have been accompanied by
theirs, upon whom Ilenry III lavished gifts. If these were of the Jonqleui
class, as is likely, that may explain the degradation of the histrionic art.
With respect
to the rest of Europe, in Spain, James I, of Aragon, who has recorded his own
feats i.. Spanish prose, claims rank, chronologically, as tho third historian
in a modern language, Bernardus Thesaurarius—either a Frenchman or a
Syro-Frank—being the second, and the Neapolitan Spinelli the fourth ; whilst,
as the century rolled on, the next royal Spanish historian and poet, as also a
legislator, geometrician, astronomer, and astrologer, Alfonso X of Castile,
the two Florentines and Joinville, shew the increasing general taste for
information intelligibly imparted. James likewise wrote also a philosophical
treatise, entitled Libro de la Sabif.za. Some religious Spanish poetry i mentioned,
as is a poem upon Alexander the Great, of the same character as the older Latin
and the contemporary French rivals. (**) In Denmark 1.0 notice of new authors
occurs in this century; during which Snorre Sturleson, Governor of Iceland for
Hako, King of Norway, was still busj with the compilation of the Youngeh Edda and
his History, the only monuments of Scandinavian literature bearing this date.
The Slavonian countries were a little less sterile. In Russia a sort of
vernacular epopsea, upon a warlike expedition of the Russian Prince Ivor, was
produced, evidently in the very beginning of the century, inasmuch as the bard
personally addresses the Grand Duke Wsewo'od III, who died in P213; and
somewhat later a Chronicle of Volhynia appeared.^9®) Poland's Latin
chroniclers have already been named, and other Slavonian poetry must, in this
century, bo sought where, perhaps, few would look for it, viz., in Bohe- Digitized
by Microsoft ®
vnia and
Servia. In the former kingdom, Ilanka found in an old church tower, a.d. IS 17, some very antiquated poetry
in the Czech form of Slavonian. One of the pieces, celebrating the successful
resistance opposed by the Heathen Czechs to their Christian invaders, critics
conversant with the language have pronounced to be spiritedly dramatic,
rivalling if not surpassing all mediaeval poetry^300) The supposed
date of this poem is 12S0. Servian chronicles and poetry of this century are
reported to have been yet more recently discovered. In the East-Roman empire,
Greek literature never recovered frcm the wound inflicted by Latin conquest;
and a proof of its imminent if not actual extinction is said to exist in the
Bibliotheque du Roi at Paris, in the shape of a Romaic MS. of this century.^"1)
Geography,
including Ethnology, made some progress through the natural means of acquiring
information upon such subjects, viz., travelling. Towards the middle of this
century, the Pope sent forth missionaries, mcstly Franciscans, to convert the
Heathen, especially the Mongols; and the Friars, if failing in the object of
their journey, brought back considerable knowledge 01 the countr.as they had
visited; and these were several. Whilst some went among the idolaters of
Africa, others set forth eastward frcm Palestine; and the party, commissioned
by Innocent IV to convert 'Manga Khan, left a detachment in Russia, then nearly
terra incognita to the rest of Europe. About the same time, Lewis IX sent
Rubruquis, alias ltuischbrock, upon a political errand to the same Mangu Khan;
and the diplomatist addressed a written report of his expedition to the King.
The prolonged mercantile journeys, above mentioned, yieided similar harvests.
The father and uncle of Marco Polo would not have returned., even when they
did, from their commercial expedition, but for the compulsory honour of
accompanying an envoy from the Mongol, Kublai Khan. His own yet more prolonged
travel and its record have been named and arc known. These were all iand
;ourneys, maritime discovery not having yet begun, at least successfully ; for
the Genoese are said to have attempted forestalling thci’ yet unborn,
illustrious compatriot, Columbus, in the search for a western route to India.
An exploring squadron
passed the
Straits of Gibraltar, into the broad Atlantic, but was never heard of more; a
damper, probably to the spirit of naval enterprise.
Nevertheless,
the guide and facilitator of such expeditions^ the Mariner’s Compass, was now
evidently too well known not to have been in general use. Brunetto Lat 10, in
his Tesoro, accurately
describes it and its uses; of which, earlier in the century, Guiot de Provins
and Jacqucs de Vitrj speak familiarly; and the lately named Alfunso X, el
Sabio, in his Siete
Partidas, distinctly calls the needle, the sailor’s guide in dark nights.
In the very first quarter of the century, Leonardo Fibonacci!) introduced
Arabic numerals into Italy, if they were not earlier known there,("*)
another open question. Astronomy was so far advanced, that two eclipses,
occurring, the one in 1267, the other in 1270, were accurately calculated and
foretold by a monk; although the description given of a comet, ■which,
visiting this solar system in the year 12(54, is said to have covered from a
third to one-half of the visible sky with its enormous, bifurcated tail, mav
not awaken much respect for the accuracy of mediaeval observation. If Friar
Bacon really did present to his protector, Clement IV, a scheme of Calendar
reform—of which the Bodleian library possesses a copy—similar to that which;
after an interval of centuries, was introduced by Gregory XIII, (*”) the Friar,
like Frederic II, was too much in advance of his age for appreciation ; the
I’ope rejected a scheme that would disturb the settled times of Church
festivals. Astronomy had, in fact, scarcely yet begun to supersede or to rival
astrology ; even, the philosophic Frederic II seeming to have prized the
wondrous Michael Scott, quite as much in hi? proper capacity of Imperial
Astrologer, as in that of translator of Aristotle, and brother-inquirer into
Natural History. Frederic, however, tested astrology ere believing in it. The
story goes that, A.v. 1236, he bade his Astrologer learn from the stars by what
gate he would leave the city in which he was then sojourning, write down the
name, and give it to him in a sealed note. When the sealed note was in his own
hand, he ordered a piece of the town wall to be broken down, rode out. through
the gap, tninking thus to baffle the prediction, and opening the note, read. “
Through the
newest gate.”
lie was convinced. But to return to more real science. Early in the thirteenth
century a Pole, named Vitellio Ciolak wrote upon Opt’cs, his system being
borrowed, it is conceived, from the Arab A1 Ilasen, who lived in the twelfth. (3M)
Spectacles are said to have been the invention of this century. Of the state of
medicine there is little to be known beyond the course of professional study
prescribed by Frederic II,' which includes botany, chemistry, anatomy, logic,
and astrology. With respect to the fees demanded by physicians and paid by
patients, some little information has been preserved.
Laddeo, a
Florentine leech ol this century, said to be the first Christian who rivalled
his Hebrew and Arab brethren, when summoned to a distance bargained fcr 50 gold
scudi per day as his regular fee, with a safe escort out and home again; from
ths Pope, Honorius III, demanding double that sum. In ordinary cases a load of
hay—a physician being bound to keep a horse—was no unusual fee.
So great an
honour c’id. Bologna esteem Taddeo to her University, where lie had studied,
that she placed his family upon a footing with the families of Jurists, and
granted the privileges of law students to his scholars.
Books were
still costly, beyond what any but the really affluent could afford, and the
price was greatly enhanced by the practice of illuminating them. A portion of
the Pandects, the
Digestum Vetus,
and the Digestum
Novum, sold at Pisa, at the opening of this century, for sixteen
Bolognese lire, equal to about four guineas; and a Bible, at Bologna, a.d. 1279, for
eighty Modenese lire, or about seventeen pounds sterling, the Bolognese lire
being worth more than the Modenese. Cheaper copies were indeed made for
students; but st'U so dear, that lending books, ar.d that in portions, became a
regular business, by which the lenders, called staticnaru, acquired fortunes.
(“)
Architecture
made great progress in this century; whilst the Byzantine style degenerated,
the Gothic order of church architecture is generally allowed to have attained
to its perfection, all subsequent additions being merely decorative. The proof
is found in the names of churches, begun, carried forward, or completed in the
thirteenth century; as, in Italy, the already-mentioned beaut’ful church of St.
Francis
at Assisi,
which introduced the pointed arch to Italy; the cathedrals of Orvieto and
Florence, planned and begun; those of Sienna and Arezzo, in progress.
But Italy was
not the native land of Gothic architecture. Transplanted thither from Germany,
and called Tedesco (German) Rome needed it not, having her magnificent temples
and basilicas to convert into Christian churches, as had other Italian cities.
Hence Italy has least to shuw in this line. In Germany, the cathedrals of
Cologne, Stras- burg, Ratisbon, Lausanne, the church of St. Elizabeth at
Marburg, St. Gudule’s at Brussels, and others, were, at this epoch, some begun,
some finished. So were most of the fine old French churches,^"6)
especially those of Rheims, Amiens, Beauvais, Notre Dame, and St. Denis, the
last two completed in this century. So likewise, were, in England, amongst
others, Westminster Abbey, York Minster, and Salisbury Cathedral, and in Spain,
the Cathedral of Toledo. If Frederic II hpxl uo equally splendid church to show,
he may, probably, cla'm the Campanile at Gaeta, capriciously ascribed to his
grandfather, Frederic I, who never even visited Apulia, with which, till his
son’s marriage, he was really unconnected. But the grandson, in whatever he
built, preferred imitating classic models, the beauty of which he and Nicolo
Pisano inly felt; and he appears to have given more attention to civil than
ecclesiastical architecture. He built the Neapolitan Castel Nuovo, and has
left some other monuments of his taste in this art. Charles of Anjou, as
mentioned in the history, employed Nicolo P'sano, or his son Giovanni, and the:i
scholars, in building at least one church or abbey. These artists completed the
Campo Santo of P>sa, which, though no church, as a place of burial belongs
to church architecture. The cities, also, however emulous of each other’s
splendour in churches, might at this epoch be yet more intent upon honouring
their mun cipal magistracies, i. e., themselves, with buildings for purposes of
government, than upon ecclesiastical decoration. About this time arose the
Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, in which resided, as well as sat, Priors, Anziani,
&c.; the Palazzo del Cornune at Piacenza, the Palazzo della Hagione at
Padua, &c.; whilst bridges, arsenals, and other works of public utility,
were
everywhere
built, as in some places were eastle-palaces. At Rome, Innocent III—who
avowedly patronized the arts, and, as Pope, embellished as well as repaired the
church, to which, as l.
cardinal, he had been attached—rebuilt the Vatican, employing one Marchionne,
an architect who may think himself fortunate in being thus renowned; for—-freemasonry,
perhaps, absorbing the fame of the individual into the body—few numes of early
architects have been recorded. Amongst the few are, the Florentine, Arnolfo di
Lapo, William of Innsbruck, Bononi, who built the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the
German Jacob, and Erwin von Stein- bach, who planned and began the Strasburg
Minster.
Sculpture is
more indebted than architecture to Frederic II, who is said to have been the
iirst person sensible to the beauty of the antique, after the barbarian
torrent had swept away classic art, together with taste and civilization.
Appreciating the works of the Hellenic chisel, he sought and collected the
remains, of what the early Christians, seeing in a statue an infraction of the
second commandment, had zealously destroyed. And, to the study of the treasures
of art, thus presented to the artist’s eye,, has the sudden and prodigious
advance apparent in the works of Kicolo Pisano^ his son Giovanni, aud their
scholars, been attributed; an advance, by artistic judges pronounced
incomprehensible^307) But, if Lanzi’s account, that Nicolo had
endeavoured to form himself upon an antique sarcophagus, carved in basso
relievo, with Hippo- lytus hunting, be correct, as the sarcophagus, in which
were deposited the ashes of Marchioness Beatrice, mother of the great Countess,
would be in Tuscany—where, in the Pisan Ducmo, it still remains—the Emperor
would seem to have owed his classic taste to the artist, rather than the artist
to him. The pulpit of the Sienna cathedral is esteemed Nicolo’s masterpiece;
but Pisa, Lucca, Bologua, and Arezzo, still glory in rilievos, of father and
son; which, if falling short of ideal perfection, are works of genius, displaying
spirit aud expression, congenial with the architecture they adorn, and truly
inconceivable when compared to the state of the sister art, painting. In
Germany likewise, sculpture, if in its higher department, statuary, uo
progress is perceptible—as, taking the effigies of Philip and
Irene upon
their tomb at Vv’alzheim as specimens of the art of the day, must be
admitted—carving in stone, wood, and ivory, was rapidly advancing towards the
beauty and delicacy to which it presently attained.
Painting
received, in the beginning of the century, what may be thought either an
impulse or a check, when the Crusaders’ conquest of Constantinople dispersed
Greek artists—still, however degenerate, very superior in the mechanical part
of their art—over Europe, especiallj over Italy and Germany, where they
established—if the word may be used for what in Italy proved so
transitory—their school^*8} The earliest Italian school named, is
that of Sienna, however jejune, more susceptible cf improvement than the
Byzantine; and a picture painted by Guido da Sienna, in 1221, is praised by
judges. But not till later in the century did the progress really begin,
stimulated possibly by that of sculpture. lu 12:35, the first portrait from the
life was painted, that of Fra Elia, tho deposed Minorite, Father Guardian, by
Giunta Pisano. In the second half Cimabuo flourished, decorating, with his
pencil, amongst other sacred edifices, the church at Assisi, and was latterly assisted
by his lowly born pupil Giotto., who is held to have given, by variety of
posture, more life, and something of a dramatic nature to the art.^3)
But, in truth, the thought of what their successors were to become is required,
to make the productions of these first discoverers that the graphic art needed
improvement, interesting to any but scientific artists and antiquaries; so
deficient are they, though not without expression and a certain vitality, in
all that captivates the eye of tho mere connoisseur. Painting was, however, as
much prized then as now: arguing from tho many extant orders for adorning the
apartments of Henry III and his Queen, in divers royal castles, with pictures
presenting historical and sacred subjects; and with the last class, many
church windows were “ storied.”
Tho Italian
school oi Mosaicists now fully rivalled the Byzantine, judging from a
comparison of the Mosaics executed by Jacopo or Giacomo Turila, a Siennese
Franciscan, in Santa Maria Maggiore, at Ilome, to those which Byzantine
artists were simultaneously adding to the abundant orna- bigitized by
Microsoft ®
merits of St.
Mark’s at Venice,("") long after this church had been considered as
finished. Gold and silver images with jewelled eyes—goldsmith’s work, and even
embroidery, it. will be remembered, then ranked amongst the fine arts—richly
embossed gold work set with jewellery, engraved precious stones, silks with
figures inwoven, in gold thread, or subsequently, embroidered, chiefly destined
for the embellishment of altars and shrines, abounded. Lewis IX, upon his
return from his first Crusade, in gratitude for his escape from a storm during
the homeward vojage, ordered a silver ship, completely rigged, and containing
silver images of himself, his family, and the crew, to be made, and sent to the
shrine of St. Nicholas: to whom, indeed, the Queen, in the extremity of the
danger, had vowed such an offering. The first letters patent of nobility heard
of in France were granted, a.d. 1271,
by Philip III to Tlaoul, a goldsmith, who had skilfully and splendidly wrought
a sarcophagus, or a shrine, for St. Genevieve.
Of progress
in Music no especial notice appears. Most churches seem to have had organs; but
so had strolling musicians, whence the style of instrument may be conjectured.
Such as the art was, however, both Frederic and Manfred encouraged it, their
artists being, apparently, for the most part Saracens.
With respect
to the soc'al condition of Europe, there seems not much to add to the last
chapter of this kind. The progress towards modern civilization and refinement
was necessarily slow, and longer periods than three quarters of a century are
required, to produce striking change. Chivalry, Troubadours, and the
Minnesingers, had brought woman more prominently forward; but there was no
habitual society in which she could hold her place, and only so can her general
influence be felt. At tournaments everywhere, and, in the south of France, at
Cours d!Amour, she reigned supreme; and, to the causes producing this species of
occasional female sovereignty, has the worship of the Virgin—first known m this
century—been ascribed. But tournaments, if frequent, were not of daily
occurrence ; and when there were none, woman remained secluded, the uoble dame
in her castle, where she passed her time—as of yore—in superintending the
spinning, weaving, and
other
domestic: manufactures, carried on in all families, until the manufacturer,
extending his business as he improved in skill, supplanted home produce; when
this occupation must have died away. Such being the life of noble 'adies,
citizen’s wives and daughters were then, probably, everywhere, as now in
Germany, the mere npper-servants of their husbands and fathers. W hat has been
said of the character of poetry under burgher patronage might alone mark the
position of city dames.
Tournaments
indeed abounded, becoming more numerous and more extravagantly magnificent, as
if in defiance of papal prohibition ; save in Italy, where, the democratic temper
of the towns, and the utter absorbing of the few independent nobles 111
political faction,being unfavourableto such pleasures, they were long almost
unknown, and first introduced—at least into the southern portion of the
peninsula, for something of the kind, in honour of Frederic II, was seen at
Padua—strange to say, by the Popes’ protege, the drsdarner of all pleasures and
pastimes, Charles of Anjou. The prohibitions became more and more positive and
vehement, as successive Popes saw mote of the lives, which they would fain have
dedicated to again wresting the cradle of Christianity from misbelievers,
sacrificed to mere amusement; anil lives were so sacrificed, purposely as well
as casually. As, e.g., at a tournament in the year 1234, the Countess of
Clerir.ont betrayed so deep an interest in the feats and perils of Florence,
Earl of Holland, that her husband rushed upon his presumed rival; a fierce
combat ensued; both fell, mortally wounded, and the fair cause of the disaster
died broken-hearted. A tournament held near Cologne, in 1241, if barren of
such romance, cost, unintentionally, the lives of 00 knights. In 1*268, a
Margrave of Brandenburg was slain in this chivalrous sport; as was, in 1290,
another Prince of the Empire, a Duke of Bavaria; and four years later, in 1294,
at a tournament; given by the Duke of Bar, in honour of his marriage with an
English Princess, Edward I’s daughter, the Duke of Brabant, in his youth a
renowned tilter, but now somewhat advanced in years, being wounded and
unhorsed, presently died, forgiving his inconsolable antagonist. Yet so
unsuccessful, when opposed to the taste and temper of the age, did vol. iv. -20
Church
weapons prove, though supported b\ such fatal evidence of their being
rightfully employed, that, whilst the Fourth Crusade owed its existence to one
tournament, at the very opening of the century, towards its close, permission
to hold another for practice in chivalrous feats, was made the condition of
receiving the Cross; and in this tournament for practice, a second Conte de
Clermont was, if rot killed, rendered a maniac for life, by a blow or the head
(3U) That ladies were eager spectatresses of these death-dealing
sports might, at this time of day. seeir: incredible, but for the known fact
that Spanish ladies gaze upon the disgustingly bloody incidents of a
bull-fight, even as French and Englishwomen do upon a tragedy. That, so
attending tournaments, they would watch everj movement of the tilters w'th
intense interest, might half disrobe themselves in zeal to shower favours, each
upon her own especial knight amongst the combatants, as told of them, is
perfectly conceivable; scarcely so, that from such tremendous excitement they
repaired to the ball, which terminated the day’s pleasures, and danced as
light heartedly as though the sanguinary scene had been a dramatic
representation, leaving the dead men alive. Whilst speaking of the pleasures of
the age, the Fite des Fous, mentioned for the first time as celebrated at
Ratisbon in 1246, must not be overlooked, more especially as, however inconceivable
the idea in more refined times, the festival in question was really deemed a
religious observance, even as the revolting festival of the Ass was a
commemoration of the flight to Egypt.
Perhaps to
the universal delight in a sanguinary pastime may partly be imputed the
continuing cruelty that disfigures the age. The frequent massacre of prisoners
of war, the atrocities perpetrated on both sides during the. crusade against
the Albigenses, have been seen; so have the burning of fugitives in buildings
which they thought sheltered them, the dashing out the brains of infants
against the pillars of a church, the executions and mutilations ordered by
Charles of Auiou, and their fearful retaliation i'i the Sicilian Vespers. Nor
does any moderating of legally inflicted punishment appear, even subsequent to
this period, i.‘ the legal doom of traitors at Florence, in the next centurv,
was, to be planted m the earth with the head downward. Digitized by
Microsoft®
Happily this
torture could not last iang.(“s) Do the coldblooded vagaries of
individuals more characterize an age than such wholesale, authorized atrocities
? Here is one specimen amongst many. A knight of the Archbishopric of Treves is
reported to have plundered his own peasants, burnt their cottages, forcibly
deflowered their daughters, and laughed at the agonies of women in child-birth,
whom he suffered to die in his castle for want of help. Yet amidst the
perpetration of such deeds, a contemporary writer, Rolandmus, chiv alrously
exclaims against the soldier who wounded the captured Ezzelino, saying, f* To
wound a prisoner, r.oble or ignoble, is base.”
The
extravagant magnificence displayed upon festive occasions, undiminished since
the preceding century, still bewilders the imagination, whilst everyday comfort
improved but slowly. Mirrors indeed had been introduced, whether of glass or
metal; St.. Elizabeth had one, set in ivory; and mirrors set in lead do not
seem uncommon. Glass lamps likewise are mentioned; but such costly rarities
were glass windows, that an Earl of Northumberland, having indulged in such
splendid luxury, the windows were carefully taken out and stowed away, when he
and his Countess left home. If the apartments of Henry Ill s Queen were
ornamented with historical pictures, and hung with tapestry, and her table was
actually furnished with forks,(313) her floors, like those of her
royal predecessors, were carpeted only with rushes, fresh ones being strewed
over the decayed, and her w hole stock of household furniture, even to her bed
curtains, travelled with her from palace to palace. If such were the accustomed
discomfort of the highest classes, those of the inferior may be surmised; yet
was the luxury of the middle classes, especially in Italy, thought to require
sumptuary laws for its restraint, and provoked the indignation of reformers,
whose irate regrets afford some knowledge of the conditions of life in the
thirteenth century. Ricobaldus Ferrariensis, who wrote towards its close, thus
mourns over the change in the manners of citizens in the less than half century
that had elapsed since the days of Frederic II : “Then a man and his wife eat
off the same plate; there were 110 wood-handled knives, and not more than two
drinking cups in a house. Candles of wax or tallow were
unknown; a
servant held a torch (probably a piece of pine wood) during supper. Men’s
clothes were of leather, unlined, scarcely any gold or silver was seen in
their dress. The common people eat flesh only three times in the week, and kept
their cold meat for supper. Few drank wine in summer. A small stock of corn was
esteemed riches. The portions of women were inconsiderable, and their dress
plain, even after marriage. The pride of men turned upon being well provided
with arms and horses; of the nobles upon the height of their towers, with which
all Italian cities are filled.” The reformer imputes the change from these
homely ways to Charles of Anjou’s Provencal followers. Ricobaldus speaks only
of the citizens. The species of luxury which, amongst the higher classes of
Italy, was even earlier superseding the homeliness of every day life, may be
gathered from the satiric sonnets, addressed, a.d.
1260, by Folgore di San Gemii iano to some gentlemen of Sienna,
professing to teach them how to amuse themselves. He speaks of bedrooms well
warmed and lighted, with silken sheets upon the beds; for pastimes, of hunting,
hawk'ug, fishing, pelting fair maidens with snowballs, aud love- making in
beautiful gardens; of banquets with iced wines, oranges, andotherfruits.(31E)
Now this being prinrto Charles’s invasion, the luxury of Provence must be
supposed still greater; whence it may be suspected, that the daughter of the
Earl of Provence did not increase her personal indulgences, as much as she
raised her dignity, by marrying the King of England. But it is known from other
sources that the commercial cities of Italy were distinguished by a frugality
which helped to accumulate the iarge mercantile fortunes, whence the owners
gained the designation of merchant-princes. T he traders of Lower Lorrain, on
the contrary, are always described as self indulgent; luxurious at table,
magnificent, without extravagance, in mansion and apparel. Before the end of
the century, the splendid attire, in which the city dames of Bruges met the
Queen of France, provoked a jealous anger in her Majesty, from which Flanders
suffered severely.
The Church
still thundered in vain against the capricious absurdities of fashion, whilst
sumptuary laws, or police regulations, forbade the middle classes to ape the
prodigality
of their
superiors in these respects. This species of minor legislation was more
usefully occupied in guarding against widely destructive tires, by ordering
town houses to be tiled instead of thatched. Coats of arms were beginning to
supersede effigies upon seals; but their use was still confined to the nigher
ranks; even knights were obliged to authenticate their legal documents by the
seal of their feudal superior.
Superstition,
as well as bigotry, still deformed the sincere devotion of the age, and
priest-craft was still on the alert to coin weakness. Of this a single instance
may suffice to complete, in some measure, the portraiture of the thirteenth
century. In the year 1288, Rudolph, Archbishop of Salzburg, being at feud with
the Duke of Austria and short of money to pay troops, announced a vision, in
which St. Virgil, the eighth occupant of his see, had appeared to him, pointing
out the precise spot in the cathedral in which his ashes lay. The prelate next obtained
the Pope’s permission to exhume the sacred relics; then convoked a Synod of
the clergy of the province to assist at the solemn ceremony, and promised
indulgences to all the laity who should attend. Amidst masses, psalms, and
litanies, the excavation, in the designated spot, began. When it had proceeded
a certain length, the Archbishop and four of his suffragai- bishops, took the
spades into their own hallowed hands. But they toiled in vain; no symptoms of a
dead saint appeared. Then they’left the opened trench, performed divers sacred
rites, took off their shoes—how useful soever ir. digging—and barefoot resumed
their unwonted labours, when the body was instantly found. So prodigious was
the concourse of spectators, that their oilerings sufficed amply to equip the
archiepiscopal army.(’14)
THE END.
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(1) p. 4. Giannone. The only reason for
rejecting this story is, its inconsistency with the supposed constant favour
of the Popes to the Lombards. But this favour was merely a form, or expression,
of community of interests; the republican notions of the Lombards could not but
offend the despotic old pontiff; whilst subjecting them to the sea*severed King
of Aragon would have answered all Gregory’s purposes. But true or false,
neither offer nor acceptance had any result.
(2) p. 7. Jamsilla says that Galvano Lancia had
been Imperial Vicar in Tuscany as well as in Lombardy. The number of
Lieutenants named, if coofficiating, and not over separate districts, might
rather impede than assist each other.
(3) p. 10. Giannone.
(4) p. 14. This detestable equivocation does not
stand a solitary instance of treachery, conceivable only by Gregory IX, his
Legate, Cardinal Montelonga, and Doge Tiepolo. The times must share the
responsibility. An ancestor of the Dukes of Austria, a Babenberg, in rebellion
against the last Carlovingian German Emperor, Lewis the Child, was, in like
manner, lured from his impregnable castle, the Altenberg at Bamberg, by an
oath to bring him back in safety. Archbishop Hatto of Mainz—known in “
legendary lore ” as food for the mice—having thus sworn, when scarcely a tenth
of the way to their destination, exclaiming that he was faint from inanition,
prevailed upon the incautious rebel to return, and breakfast at the castle, ere
proceeding. Then, when they afterwards reached the imperial camp, alleging that
his promise had been redeemed, he led him to the scaffold. To think that the
mice really “ picked the Bishop's bones’' is some comfort.
(5) p. 17. Raumer, Petr. Vin. in Bibl.
Barberina.
(6) p. 18. Denina.
(7) p. 18. Pfister,
(8) p. 19. Whether the Doge were the prisoner’s
father or brother seems
doubtful,
although a modern writer, Daru, makes him so certainly the father, as to
abdicate, and die of grief; giving no authority.
(9) p. 21. One of these letters is in Martene’s
Collection of historical documents (ii, 1165), and, the spirit of the
correspondence having been sufficiently characterized, may be simply
transcribed in the original, as a specimen of Frederic IPs Latin style, for,
notwithstanding his cultivation of living tongues, he wrote to the schoolboy
King in the language of science. “ Primatibus orbis et regibus clara progenies
sola non sufficit, nisi genus egregium generositas adjuvet, et illustris
industria clarificet principatum j nec ab hoc solum quod altius sedeant reges
et caesares ab aliis disjunguntur; sed quod profundius videant et virtuosius
operentur. Prseterquam quod enim hominibus humanitate
participant, vitae communicant, nec sibi prgecipuum vindicant, si singuli
virtute prudential ceteros non prascellant. Sic enim nascuntur ut homines, et
ut homines moriuntur. Nullus autem ex regibus juxta sententiam Salotnonis ad
vitam aliud habet nativitatis initium, alio potitus est exitu. Propter quod
oportuit et voluit habere sapientiara spiritus, quam prasposuit regibus cunctis
et sedibus, in comparatione illius nihil esse divitias reputavit. Igitur, fili
mi, attende sapientiam, et prudentiae inclina aurem, ut regiis insigniis
decoratus, effectum regii nominis assequaris. Noraen enim regium inde certo,
quod subditos regamus, accepimus. Reges enim protinus esse desinemus si regali
prudentia destituti, privatorum regimine potius regimur quam regamus. Immo,
tanto se majori nota notabiles faciunt principes inscii, quam privati, quanto
nobilitas sanguinis per infusionem subtilis et nobilis animaa facit ipsos esse
pra ceteris susceptibiles discipline. Cumque sublimium dispendiosa
siraplicitas, nec ipsos solum dispendiis afficit, sed subjectos, dum
prajcipitium principis post se trahit populos ad ruinam. Propter quod merito dicitur:
Vse terras cui rex puer est, quia domini pueritia terra plectitur, et regis
stultitiam populus saspe deplorat. Et cum inter ceteros principes
a te velut in Romanorum regem electo, vere dependeat plurium populorum .....
[sic, a word being, apparently, illegibly written, or accidently omitted, by
either the Emperor or some transcriber] propter quod de imprudentia tua possent
periculosiora dispendia formidare; de necessitate prudentiam amare te convenit,
ad quam per studii scalam et discipline gradus celeriter pervenitur. Et quia
Caesarea dignitate deposita, in humiliato fastigio regiaa majestatis, sub
magistri ferula, sub regula praeceptoris, non Regem aut Cassarem esse convenit,
sed scholarem; doctoris igitur increpationibus pareas, doctrinam libenter
accipias, et si scire desideras, desideres edoceri. Etenim juxta sapientiae verbum, qui corripientem dura cervice contemnit,
repentinus superveniet iuteritus, et eum sanitas non sequetur. Ut igitur velut
sapiens filius patrem lsetifices, scientiam diligas, nec abhorreas disciplinam,
nec regem ex nominis dignitate solummodo tibi fore sufficiat, sed ex regimiuis
virtute rectorem.”
(10) p. 28. Hammer-Purgstall. It was suggested, in
a former volume (vol. ii, p. 509, note 127), that the name of Kumans might be
used as a generic designation, but Hammer-Purgstall describes the Kumans as
inhabiting Crira- Tartary prior to its conquest by the Mongols; whence they
were the Tartar tribe best known to Hungary and the Eastern Empire, whether as
enemies, as allies, or as supplying mercenary troops.
(11) p. 29. Karamsin. 'i i •:
(12) p. 31. Voigt asserts, that the Teutonic Order
was too fully occupied in conquering Prussia and preserving Livonia, to spare
aid against the Mongols. But the general opinion, adopted by Hammer-Purgstall,
sends a detachment of Marian Knights to Liegnitz,—the Thermopylae of Western
Europe,
(13) p. 31. Bronikowski avers, that the Mongols did
lay siege to the castle, but, frightened by an Aurora Borealis, raised it, and
went in search of the enemy. An effect of fright as little to be expected, as
that an army, coming from Russia, should first see the Northern Lights in
Silesia. A very slightly esteemed Italian writer of compendiums, Compagnosi,
places the Aurora Borealis somewhat later, as the cause of the Mongols turning
southward, from Germany to Hungary.
(14) p. 33. This is the usual account;
Hammer-Purgstall, in his History of the Golden Horde, says that the cry of “
Come on!v was mistaken for “ Fly! Fly!w But he
does not give the words causing a mistake so incredible.
(15) p. 33. Bronikowski. Joinville’s description of
the appearance of the Greek fire, which will be cited in its proper place,
sufficiently resembles this statement to justify the idea, that the Mongols had
captured and enslaved some pyrotechnic artist, either Chinese or Arab.
(16) p. 35. Matt. Par.
(17) p. 38. Paton.
(18) p. 38. Raumer, Cardella,
Ericus, Cecconi. Matthew Paris clearly states some English
prelates to have prepared “ viriliter, licet cum magno peri- culo ad Transalpinandura.”
(19) p. 41. Denina adopts it in both senses,
literally and figuratively; saying it was: “ per la bestialita dell' Ammiraglio
ubriaco/’ that the battle was fought.
(20) p. 41. Matt. Paris.
(21) p. 41. It may be noticed, as relative to the taste
of the age, that in Frederic's letter to Enzio, apparently directing the
disposal of the captives, occurs a pun or play upon words, “ Tres Legati
veniant hue usque ligati (Martene Coll.) subsequently repeated and improved in
an epistle to Henry III, explaining his motives for capturing the prelates. He
there says, that Cardinal Gregorio went to Genoa: “ Legatus legatis ut in simul
ligarenturand that when taken, they were secured, “ Legatos ligatos.”
(22) p. 42. Giannone, whose anti-papalism makes his
History of Naples a
prohibited
book at Rome, being unfavourably disposed to the Swabian descendants of the
Norman kings, seems, upon the present occasion, willing to credit all the
accusations of both parties. Muratori, no Ghibeline,
fairly observes: “ Convien dire che la storia di questi tempi 6 alterata di
troppo dalle passioni, dalle calunnie, dalle dicerie, che non ci lascian
discernere la erita di tutte le magagne d’allora, ne di chi fosse il torto in
varie casi di quelle maledette discordie.”
(23) p. 44. Id. Historians differ as to whether
only Otho of Montferrat, or all the captive Cardinals were thus released; but
surely a compliance so imperfect, and, relatively to its object, so
unsatisfactory—ten is the number given of the Cardinals voting,—must have
called forth complaints and remonstrances ; and none appear. The example of
Pfister, who adopts Giannone’s statement, as most probable, has therefore been
followed. That the Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina is afterwards found in
Frederic’s custody, can only prove that, being out on parole, he honestly
returned to captivity.
(24) p. 50. Zschokke speaks of incipient alienation
in Duke Otho, prior to the personal offence upon which it rests in the usual
account. But it must be stated that Wolff asserts a single letter of
remonstrance from the Emperor to have sufficed for the recall of Duke Otho to
Ghibelinism—an assertion needing proof.
(25) p. 51. Matt. Paris.
(26) p. 56. Vol. it, p. 237; vol. iii, p. 50.
(26*) p. 59.
Raumer.
(27) p, 62. The anti-imperialist, even more than
anti-Papist Sismondi, says that every point in dispute was actually settled
when Innocent fled: but most historians represent him as studiously protracting
the negotiation, to give the ships he had asked for time to arrive.
(28) p. 63. Guelph writers represent Innocent’s
professed fears as well founded, asserting, that he never dreamt of flight till
alarmed by the attempt upon his liberty at Sutri; whilst Ghibelines justly
observe, that the assertion is refuted by the Pope’s secret request for the
Genoese fleet, which, denied by some, Muratori admits. The result of Henry V’s
capture of Pascal II would hardly tempt a sagacious successor to renew the
experiment.
(29) p. 68. Vol. i, p. 374.
(30) p. 68. Hormayr,
(31) p. 69. Mailath.
(32) p. 70. Guichenon. Matthew Paris makes Conte
Tommaso, the Emperor’s son-in-law. But Tommaso had within the year married the
Pope’s niece; and, intriguing courtiers of Henry III, as his Queen's uncles,
the princes of Savoy, were, the professed Historian of their House seems the
preferable authority. The ducal title of Aosta and Chablais scarcely appears
in history; and Guichenon, in his enumeration of the titles of each successive
earl,
somewhat puzzlingly now inserts, and now omits, Prince of Piedmont, and Duke,
whether of Turin, of Aosta, or of Chablais.
(33) p. 70. Michelet places the marriage of Charles
of Anjou in this year, 1245. When Beatrice, probably a mere baby, was affianced
to Charles, a.d. 1229, Earl
Raymond’s elder daughters were already the wives of the Kings of France and
England; but why she, the fourth, was preferred to the third, Sancha, then also
a child, and single, as heiress of Provence, is not explained.
(34) p. 72. Wilken.
(35) p. 72. The words of Albericus, as quoted by
Wilken, are: “ Maximum holocaustum et Deo placabile.”
(36) p. 73. That the fortifications were still
unrepaired, has been adduced in proof that Frederic, to obtain the restoration
of the Holy City, pledged himself to keep it dismantled. But, precipitately as
the Pope's invasion of Apulia recalled the Emperor-King to defend his heritage,
he could not inforce the execution of the orders he issued upon the subject;
and probably the Syro-Franks grudged the expense, whilst a truce suspended the
necessity.
(37) p. 73. Raumer,
Fundgmben, Iperius, Salisb. chr.
(38) p. 76. Wilken. The presence of Egyptian troops
as auxiliaries, may explain the barbarians’ knowledge of their captive’s
quality.
(39) p. 80. Matt. Paris.
(40) p. 82. Id.
(41) p. 88. Id. A little before he had stated that all
were released in 1243. Mediaeval writers did not seemingly hold the sifting
statements or the reconciling of discrepancies to be the historian’s duty.
(42) p. 89. Giannone says, that the Pope could not
comply with the request; a fortnight being the utmost time, that a Council
could lawfully grant. Strange; being equivalent to a denial of justice to an
accused person if residing at a distance. But even so be might have conceded
two days, or, taking the French word, la quinzaine, all three.
(43) p. 90. Matt. Paris. Foreign historians make
this odd name more odd.
(44) p. 91. Raumer, upon the authority of Monachus
Patavinus, makes the Pope yet more positively impute his own violence to the
Almighty, denouncing the Emperor as excommunicated and deposed by God himself,
which “ divinam sententiam ” he presumes to confirm or ratify.
(45) p. 93- Mills, in his History of Chivalry,
supposes this to be the first Council that interfered with Tournaments. The
reader of these pages hardly need be reminded that they had been long since
prohibited by those Assemblies of the Church, both in fear of their keeping
back warriors from Crusades, and as an idle risking of human life. See vol. i,
p. 152, and vol. ii, p. 436.
(46) p. 95. Vol. i, p. 210.
(47) p. 95. De consideratione ad Eugen. III.
(48) p. 96. See vol. i, p. 125.
(49) p. 98. Joinyille, Wilken, Guil. de Nang.,
Guiart, Hugo Plagon, Marini Sanut.
(50) p. 98. Michelet.
(51) p. 100. Matt. Paris; Raumer.
(52) p. 100. It seems strange that, amidst so many
groundless accusations, Innocent IV did not seize upon this offer, as a proof
of Frederic’s breach of the promise, given, under duresse from stem necessity,
to Innocent III, to sever his southern from his northern dominions. The
explanation that offers of the omission of this charge, is, that both Gregory
IX and Innocent IV considered the pledged word as redeemed by the Emperor’s
committing the government of Germany first to Henry, then to Conrad; holding
the authority he still exercised there to be merely the supreme imperial
sovereignty. Yet to make the present offer consonant with this idea, it should
have been to resign the Sicilies to the younger Henry, his son by Isabella, or
to his grandson by the elder, criminal Henry; leaving Conrad, at most, the
regency during the minority of the brother or nephew preferred.
(53) p. 100. It must always be recollected that the
French duchy of Burgundy was distinct from the Arelat or Kingdom of Lower
Burgundy and remained, until long afterwards, equally so from the German
Freigrafschaft of Burgundy, afterwards Franche Comte.
(54) p. 101. Wilken says, that he now offered to
lead a crusade against Frederic, thus cooling the imperial zeal in regard to
his real Crusade. But this is not the prevalent opinion; and that Wilken's
authority is less supreme upon the European, than the Asiatic and African
portions of Crusades, has been said. Lewis led no such crusade,—surely Innocent
would have pinned him to his offer—and the idea is inconsistent alike with the
royal Saint’s previous conduct, and with the letters, subsequently addressed to
the Emperor by himself and his mother.
(55) p. 101. Conatitutiones Friderici.
(56) p. 102. Munch, Sigonius.
(57) p. 112. Raumer, Codex Vindob.
philol.
(58) p. 112. Sismondi.
(59) p. 113. Si de jure et sicut
de jure.
(60) p. 114. This comparatively small number, the
Guelphs being the most numerous party, is one argument against the 10,000
fortress-castles in Pisa.
(61) p. 115. Raumer, Aventin., ann. viii.
(62) p. 116. Of these seven electors, four had
seldom, if ever, pretended to vote in an Electoral Diet. Whether no more
prelate-princes were willing thus to commit themselves, or some vague idea of
this being the proper number, though as yet not so fixed by law, existed, is
uncertain.
(63) p. 117. Some writers say that Conrad had been
upon the point of marriage with a French princess; and only when she, in a
paroxysm of devotion, took the veil, fulfilled his engagement with Elizabeth of
Bavaria. That upon Otho’s desertion Frederic would seek another wife for his son,
is very likely; so is it that a sister of the sainted King should prefer a
nunnery to marriage with an excommunicated and deposed prince; on no side is
there anything objectionable except on Duke Otho’s.
(64) p. 118. Dr. C. W. Bottiger, whose Guelph propensities
led him to select Henry the Lion as a protagonista, in his other work, the
History of the Saxon States, says; “ The cities favoured their protectors and
fosterers/’
(65) p. 120. Guichenon.
(66) p. 120. Some writers make Manfred’s mother
daughter to a Signor d’Anglone and widow of a Conte Lancia; Arrivabene calls
her the daughter of a Conte Minio; Giannone of a Conte Miniato, explicitly
stating that Bianca di Lancia was the mother of two daughters, Selvaggia and
Violetta, only : yet all regularly call the Lancias Manfred’s uncles. Again, as
to the nature of her connexion with Frederic; a prevalent opinion is that,
touched by her coming to nurse him in his last illness, and the widow-life she
had led since their separation upon his third marriage, he married her; or, according
to some writers, made her his Empress. That title, however, she never bore;
though Jamsilla ranks her with the empresses, saying Frederic left three sons
by his Jerusalemite, Italian, and English consorts; and the Sicilian magnates
will be seen to speak of Manfred, as born in lawful, though unequal wedlock.
(66*) p. 121.
Jamsilla's commentary upon the name is larger, and, as characteristic, may be
transcribed—the constant play upon the syllables being un translate able. “Non
sine causa Manfredus vocatus fuerit, quasi manens Frederico, in quo quidem
vivit pater jam mortuus, dum paterna virtus in ipso manere conspicitur. Vel
Manfredus, id est man us Frederici, ut pote sceptrum tenere dignus est, quod
manus paterna tenuerat. Vel Menfredus, id est mens Frederici, sive memoria
Frederici, quasi in eo mens, vel per eum memoria Frederici perduret. Vel
Minfredus, id est minor Frederico, majori oblato subcrescens. Vel Monfredus, id
est mons Frederici, sive munitio Frederici, in quo videlicet Frederici nomen et
gloria ultro usque in monte sive munitione excelsa quasi ad sepulcbrum
posterorum servata con- sistunt, ut per quascumque vocales etymologias ipsius
nominis varietur, paterna ibi res et nomen inveniatur.”
(67) p. 124. Raumer, Salimbeni.
(68) p. 125. Muratori.
(69) p. 127. Matt. Paris says, his “mellitos et
super oleum mollitos sermones.”
(70) p. 129. Matt. Paris.
(71) p. 131. Fessler; Mailath.
(72) p. 133. The home of the elder Henry's sons,
after their release, is involved in obscurity. This application represents them
as at their grandfather’s court, their most probable abode; yet some
chroniclers speak of them as accompanying their mother to Treves, and even as
sent by her to Conrad, after Frederic II’s death. She could hardly so send them
after the negotiation for her claim to the duchy and her second marriage was
afoot.
(73) p. 141. Matt. Paris.
(74) p. 141. Wilken, who upon the authority of Vita
Innoc. IV, Nicolai de Curbio, accuses Frederic of seeking in divers ways to
thwart the Crusade; for instance, refusing Lewis permission to embark in any of
his ports—he does not say in what Italian port Alphonse and his division
embarked—rejects this account of his supplying the Crusaders’ wants upon two
grounds: one that it rests solely upon the authority of Matthew Paris; the
other, that Lewis had sent ample supplies to Cyprus. But an unexpected
prolongation of sojourn may exhaust the stores provided for a shorter stay; and
Matthew Paris was in such high favour at the English Court, that he was as
likely to have good information, as was Innocent’s biographer to adopt his
hero’s opinions and calumnies. Wilken’s crusading zeal biasses him against the
philosophic, imperial statesman, and the letters of the royal Crusader and his
mother corroborate the English chronicler’s statement.
(75) p. 142. Sismondi.
(76) p. 144. Inferno,
Canto 22.
(77) p. 144. Manno.
(79) p. 145. Salimbeni, Malespini, and Villani,
adopt this idea.
(80) p. 146. There is indeed in Martene’s Collectio
a letter from Pietro delle Vigne to some unnamed friend, whom he implores to
obtain for him from the Emperor, wherewith to free himself from the persecution
of creditors. But this letter, being undated, is proof positive only of his
having once been poor.
(81) p. 146. Amongst the letters bearing his name,
Petrus de Vineis, Epistolarum libri
VI, is one addressed to the Emperor, repudiating some unexplained accusation
brought against him.
(82) p. 147. Giannone; Raumer; Pfister.
(83) p. 148. Inferno, Canto 13.
(85) p. 151. Spinelli says, that Manfred’s letters,
announcing his father’s death, reached Naples upon the 16th.
(86) p. 151. The epitaph engraved upon the tomb of
Frederic II, by the Sicilian nobles, is this t
“ Si probitas, sensus, virtutum gratia, census,
Nobilitas orti, possent resistere morti,
Non foret extinctus Federieus, qui jacet intus.”
(87) p- 151. The wav in which, without inquiry or
reflection, such accusations are adopted or repeated, is well exemplified in
Denina’s treatment of this charge. Without hinting a doubt, he says: “ It was
generally believed (fu creduto generalmente) that Manfred smothered his
father,” Yet when he afterwards has to speak of the supposed parricide’s
character, he even more positively says: “ Manfredi era di naturale umano,
dolce e benefico, accresciuto dagli studii della filosofia, e delle lettere.”
And yet, without motive or object, a parricide! Muratori more rationally doubts
the crime, because Manfred could get nothing by it.
(88) p. 152. Pfister.
(89) p. 152. In the western peninsula, which
remained a sort of fossil mediaeval specimen long after the rest of Europe was
modernized, this idea of property in a kingdom is, or very lately was,
incorporated in the language; a Queen regnant being distinguished from a Queen
consort by the style and title of Reyna propriedaria. If Isabel II and Maria II
were born too late to enjoy this descriptive epithet, Isabel I, her daughter
Juana, and the late Queen of Portugal's great-grandmother, the insane Maria I,
were all so designated.
(90) p. 153. It maybe worth observing, relatively
to the charge of positive infidelity, that Hurter, an honestly diligent
historian, ascribes Frederic IPs church-building to his desire of earning the
favour of God.
(91) p. 155. Frederic probably knew the similar
experiment recorded by Herodotus, in which the children, being committed to the
nursing of a goat, naturally spoke her language; and substituted mutes, to
guard against a similar disappointment. The Franciscan Salimheni, whose Order
had been twice banished by Frederic for treasonable obedience to Gregory IX and
Innocent IV, calls these experiments “ curiositates, superstitiones,
perversitates, abu- siones, credulitates.” One of the fanciful experiments,
recorded as actually atrocious, has been omitted in the text, because the
indignant relator—no contemporary—doubts whether his tyrant Frederic II, were
our Emperor or his great-grandson, Frederic, King of Sicily. The story is, that
a Frederic II, being curious respecting submarine phenomena, as he one day sat
upon a rock overhanging the sea, tempted a professional diver, with extravagant
rewards, to venture too far, when he was lost. The inquisitive tyrant is not
taxed with employing any means beyond bribes. Schiller’s beautiful ballad,
founded, with fair poetic license, upon this anecdote, is generally known.
(92) p. 160.
Funcke.
(93) p. 162.
Wilken.
(94) p. 163. Raumer.
Wilken implies, without explicitly saying, that Lewis, when relieved by the
Patriarch from responsibility, took the oath he thought blasphemous, Joinville
being his authority. But Jomville says, in so many words, that he knows not how
it was settled: “ Je ne sai pas com-
raent le
serement fu atir£;” and Boniface VIII, in the Bull of Canonization, asserts that
Lewis persevered in his refusal.
(95) p. 164. Wilken.
(96) p. 169. Sismondi.
(97) p. 169. Arnari, Inn,. IV Epist.
(98) p. 174. Sismondi.
(99) p. 176. Jamsilla says of Manfred, “ a pueritia
paternae philosophise inhasrens.”
(100) p. 181. Jamsilla.
(101) p. 185. Denina.
(102) p. 185. Some old MSS. state that Conrad
placed Manfred by his side under the state campy. If so, what becomes of the
recent invention of the Baldacchino to honour Innocent IV? Was the invention
then only a new fashion of an old canopy ? or had it instantly spread through
Italy ?
(103) p. 189. Raumer. Villani charges Conrad
with violating the capitulation upon which Naples surrendered; but the simple
statement that, according to Villani, Conrad conquered the Sicilies from the
Pope and Manfred, and died, poisoned by Manfred, in 1252,—a year before the
submission of Naples gave him an opportunity of violating her capitulation, may
suffice to dispose of his authority for what did not come under his personal
knowledge. Spinelli says Naples capitulated, and, without alluding to any
breach of terms, adds that Conrad made great justice and great slaughter fjustitia
e uccisione). Giannone says the town was sacked without mention of capitulation
; and Muratori, no Ghibeline, says that some Guelph writers accuse Conrad of
massacring the Neapolitans, and others of banishing immense numbers, whilst
others notice no extraordinary severity. Surely, had there been any breach of
sworn terms, none of these waters would have omitted it; nor would Innocent IV,
in his Catalogue of Conrad’s crimes, which will presently be seen.
(104) p. 189. Capecelatro.
(105) p. 189. Pfister.
(106) p. 190. Jamsilla imputes Conrad’s
distrust of Manfred, not to hostile insinuations, but to his own sense of
Manfred’s superiority.
(107) p. 194. Giannone.
(108) p. 195. Pfister says, that both
brothers, Frederic and Henry, died a year before their young uncle, Henry,
whilst others speak of Frederic’s grandson, Henry, as alive at a later epoch.
(109) p. 195. Matt. Par.; Raumer,
Salimbeni, B. de Neocastro, Chrou. Imper. and Pontif. Laurentium MSS.
(110) p. 198. Jamsilla.
(111) p. 198. Matt. Par.;
Raumer.
(112) p. 198. Pfister.
(113) p. 198. Raumer, Chron.
Imper. and Pontif. Lauren. Muratori quietly says, “Dio sa,”
whether Conrad poisoned Henry; and much questions Manfred's having poisoned
Conrad. Denina, as usual, gives the reports without remark.
(114) p. 200. Raumer, Salimbeni.
(115) p. 200. Giannone.
(116) p. 204. Matt. Par.; Leo ; ‘Wamkoenig;
Raumer, Salisb. Chron.
(117) p. 206. Raumer.
(118) p. 207. Veri Dei in his terris vicem
gerens et universali reipublicse Presidens. Lang. Jahrbuch zu 1253.
(119) p. 214. Wolff.
(120) p. 217. Denina, who asserts that Manfred
signed this treaty solely to get rid of Conrad's Germans, should have said,
whether, as hostile to his regency, through attachment to the Margrave, or
because, already contemplating the usurpation of his nephew’s Italian
birthright, he dreaded their loyalty to a compatriot king. Except upon one of
these grounds, he could not wish to be rid of troops whom he knew, when
regularly paid, to be excellent, and upon whom, next to the Saracens, he will
presently be seen to rely. Spinellisays, that Manfred promised Innocent to
dismiss them, which is more likely. Dismissed, however, they were not. If
Denina meant to insinuate that Manfred did not consider his submission as
final, or intend to sacrifice his nephew's right to the throne, or his own in
default of his nephew's, that is unquestionable.
(121) p. 222. Muratori avers, that Berthold
both pleaded in Manfred's behalf and warned Lancia of the Prince's danger; and,
although the Margrave’s subsequent conduct discovers no friendliness towards
Manfred, it is very possible, that he no more wished to see the Pope undisputed
master by Manfred’s imprisonment, than Manfred, by the Pope's expulsion; his
object being the regency. Jamsilla says, Lancia and Filangieri found the
Margrave elate with the Pope's favour, and very different from what they
expected; but that he joined in their consultations as to Manfred’s best
course.
(122) p. 223. Jamsilla says, that they
repeatedly sent one of the mission, u ex ipsis,” Goffridus de
Cusentia; of course, prior to Filangieri's visit.
(123) p. 230. Jamsilla, who is supposed to
have been one of Manfred's party, for the whole account of the flight.
(124) p. 234. Vol. i, p. 85.
(125) p. 234. Raumer.
(126) p. 235. Amari describes Alexander IV as
“ rubicondo e corpulento;" a portrait agreeing well with part of the
character ascribed to him.
(127) p. 235. Muratori.
(128) p. 237. Some writers say the one, some
the other, upon this immaterial question.
(129) p. 237. Araari, Jarasilla.
(130) p. 239. This document, Raumer, in bis
Italien, speaks of having seen—where it would hardly be sought—in the Archives-of
Venice.
(131) p. 239.
Dahlmann.
(132) p. 244.
Jamsilla.
(133) p. 244.
The
narrative has already been perhaps too much encumbered with investigations of
factious and improbable accusations. Yet altogether to omit the crimes laid at
Manfred’s door by highly esteemed Italian historians, would seem partisanship ;
they may, therefore, be here stated side by side. Giannone, writing centuries
later, but upon the authority, not only of old chronicles, but also of State
Papers—and any such incriminating the supplanted royal race would be carefully
preserved—merely taxes Manfred with employing messengers to bring a report of
Conradin’s death from Germany. But the nearly contemporary Ricordano Malespini
and Villani give a detailed account of Manfred's sending embassadors to
Bavaria, to acknowledge Conradin in his name; of the cautious mother showing
those embassadors another boy instead of her son} of their giving the supposed
little King sweatmeats, which he ate, and died; and of their hastening home to
report the death, their work. That neither writer adduces a tittle of proof of
these charges, scarcely need be added. Jamsilla merely says a report came; and
Muratori, no special favourer, as has been seen, of the Norman conqueror’s
German descendants, remarks, that we have only Guelph historians of Manfred,
who inherited the great qualities of his ancestors, without their cruelty
acquitting him of the attempt to poison his nephew, whilst he accuses him of
intentional usurpation, and therefore of accrediting the rumour of his death.
(134) p. 247. According to Politz, the
Imperial crown was now again offered to, and refused by, Margrave Otho of
Brandenburg. But this is not the general opinion, and the princes showed little
inclination for so powerful a German potentate as this Margrave.
(135) p. 248. Raushnik expressly says that
Richard desired to do good,
(136) p. 249. Schmidt, through Gebauer’s Leben
Richards I, quoting Thos. Wikes, says that the Dukes of Bavaria got £18,000
sterling; a sum too extraordinary, as well in designation as in comparative
amount, to be received, even upon his authority. Admitting that, as
representing two duchies—Franconia, in the Rhine palatinate, and Bavaria,—they
claimed payment for two votes, it is still out of proportion to the 8000 marks
of the other electors.
(137) p. 250. In such circumstances, an
interval of more than three months, betwixt the two elections, seems so
impossible, that the startling dates of January, 1256, and April, 1257, can
only indicate the year’s then ending in March.
<139) p.
252. Different writers give this unlucky chess-player different names, of which
Graf von Kirchberg seems the best authenticated.
(140) p. 255. Sartorius.
(141) p. 257. Raumer, Marco Polo ;
Hammer-Purgstall; Wilken, Abul- faradj, lures out only the chief men.
(142) p. 258. Muratori; who speaks of a small
fine as the regular penalty of such murders;—as if not uncommon.
(143) p. 259. Hallam.
(144) p. 261. Sismondi.
(145) p. 262. Id.
(146) p. 275. Dante, Inferno, Canto 10.
(147) p. 277. Arrivabene and Foscolo. By
others named Aldobrando and Aldimari.
(148) p. 282. Villani;
Raumer, Malespini.
(149) p. 286. Sismondi.
(150) p. 289. Amari; his words are, “ potenza
e virtu.”
(151) p. 291. Spinelli.
(152) p. 293. Giannone imputes the attempt at
preventing the marriage to Alexander IV; reckoning its failure amongst the
disappointments that killed him. The treaty may have been a year in hand—but
Alexander died in 1261, and Urban opposed the marriage in 1262 ; when it took
place.
(153) p. 294. Villani;
Raumer, Saba Malaspina, Malespini.
(154) p. 294. Spinelli.
(155) p. 295. Napier has an odd story of about
this date, unauthenticated by him, and otherwise unknown to the present writer,
and little consonant with the general conduct of Elizabeth of Bavaria, but not
to be wholly unnoticed. It is, that the Guelphs at Lucca invited Conradin, the
infant, hereditary head of the Ghibelines, to join and lead them against
Manfred and the Ghibelines ; and that the widowed Queen, in answer, sent the
child's furred mantle, as a pledge that, when old enough, he would accept the
invitation. Probably a different version of a later proposal from the
Fuorusciti at Lucca, that seems to have been unanswered.
(156) p. 296. Giannone; Sismondi, apud
Raynald.
(157) p. 298. This settlement of a patrimonial
principality—though akin to what had been proposed for Philip’s third
daughter—perplexes continental authors; even Augustin Thierry, in his history
of the Norman conquest of England, calls Beatrice an only child, given, as an
orphan, by her guardians to Charles of Anjou. For the arrangement, see vol.
iii, p. 398.
(158) p. 299. Giannone.
(159) p. 300. Raumer, giving no specific
authority for this engagement, distinct from the treaty, which is in Martene’s
Thesaurus.
(160) p, 304. See vol. iii, p. 326, where
Gregory IX’s key-bearers appear
as mongrels
between Crusaders and mercenaries. Sismondi doubts the Crusade’s being
commanded by Robert de Bethune, Countess Margaret’s grandson, and Charles’s
son-in-law, because three years later, at the head of Charles’s own army, he
was placed, on account of his youth, under the guidance of the Constable of
France. So might he now have a military tutor, though unnamed. Spinelli is the
contemporary authority for the invasion, upon whom Giannone and other later
writers chiefly rely.
(161) p. 305. Tiraboschi.
(162) p. 307. Raumer, Martene Thes.
(163) p. 308. Amari.
(164) p. 309. Sismondi. M. Lerminier, in the
Revue des deux Mondes, asserts that Lewis was ultimately convinced of the
Pope’s right to give and take away kingdoms, which, if he did lend Charles
money, it is to be hoped he was; or the canonized King was content wrongfully
to rid himself of a dangerous brother. But the French reviewer is prejudiced in
favour of the French usurper, whom he depicts as a pattern of virtue and piety;
confident in the justice of his cause, and in his own rectitude, even when he
executed Conradin.
(165) p. 309. Denina.
(166) p. 312. Daru, Histoire
de Venise.
(167) p. 314. Sismondi.
(168) p. 317. Amari, “ un a
masnada di ladroni”.
(169) p. 319. Buoso da Doara, Doaria, Dueria,
or Dovara, is placed by Dante amongst the traitors, as bribed by Charles of
Anjou (Inferno, Canto 32) : he has, however, found apologists and champions. Fra
Francesco Pipino, as quoted by Arrivabene and Foscolo, merely changes the
offence from accepting a bribe, to pocketing the money sent by Manfred, for the
purpose of raising a Ghibeline army: but Muratori, followed by Sismondi,
asserts that the fall of the Signori di Romano had so debilitated the Ghibeline
party in Lombardy, that Buoso could not get force sufficient to guard the
passage of the Oglio. Denina, writing after Muratori, still says: u
Tradi il partito suo.”
(170) p. 322. Muratori.
(171) p. 324. Guelph writers adopt this
accusation, which Malespini enhances by saying that Manfred had triumphed over
his sister’s virtue by sheer violence, but no one adduces any evidence beyond
the husband’s treason and alleged jealousy. Negative proof in such cases is
impossible, and Manfred in the few days he survived, probably never heard of
the accusation; all that can be added in refutation to the remarks in the text,
is that Manfred’s conjugal union with Helena, and his strict protection of
female chastity, seem inconsistent with such gross depravity.
(172) p. 327. Jamsilla ascribes the rash
approach to the walls, to Petrus Romanus, Proconsul Romanorum.
(173.) p.
328. Raumcr, Descript, vict. Car,, Trutta, Martene Thes., Cesare.
(174) p. 329. Id. Saba Malaspina.
(175) p. 330. Saba Malaspina is the authority
both for this taunt— hardly credible in an age more likely to reprobate
disbelief in astrology—and for Manfred’s extraordinary faith in the stars,
whose advice he is said to have asked touching the day of battle.
(176) p. 330. Saba Malaspina.
(177) p. 331. Whether Manfred meant German,
Norman, or old Italian ancestors, is questioned.
(178) p. 331. Raumer, Savioli.
(179) p. 332. Villani’s estimate is 3000
lances, making 12,000, 18,000, or 21,000, according as the lance is computed at
four or six horsemen including or excluding the knight. Sismondi gives Charles
double the number; Guiart, as quoted by Raumer, makes his first battle alone
10,000 strong; and the Annales Mdtinenses assign him 5000 horse, 15,000 foot,
and 10,000 balistarii or crossbowmen.
(180) p. 332. Foscolo and Arrivabene.
(181) p. 332. The main authorities for the
battle are Saba Malaspina, Malespini, Vie de St. Louis, and Descriptio victoria
Caroli.
(182) p. 333. Villani acquits Charles of giving
the order, calling it a cry, that arose, no one knew how, amongst the French
and Proven^aux. But Sismondi, much as he seems to rely upon Villani, eludes
this statement, merely saying, u the order was given,” not by
whom. Ricobaldus remarks upon the advantage which the piercing swords of the
French gave them over the Italian cutting swords; inasmuch as they could stab
under the arm raised to deal a cut; these swords would likewise tell in
wounding the horses.
(183) p. 333. Raumer, Sozom., Manei. This
anecdote is too generally accredited to be rejected, but bears Guelph flattery
of triumphant Guelphs, and calumny of crushed Ghibelines, upon its face. The
question is in direct contradiction to the description of the appearance of
Charles’s army after its recent sufferings; and one of Manfred’s three battles
consisted of Lombard and Tuscan Ghibelines: Manfred must have known that the
impoverished Guelph Fuorusciti, if well equipped, could not be serving
gratuitously.
(184) p. 334. Sismondi makes the eagle fall
from the helmet, without giving his authority. Malespini says the helmet itself
fell; and few others mention the accident. The eagle seems more likely to fall
than the helmet. Sismondi gives Manfred’s words in Latin, Hoc est signum Dei,
probably copying the passage in old Chronicles.
(185) p. 335. Raumer, Vit. Pontif. Sismondi
speaks of great loss on both sides in the battle, and immense on the Sicilian
in the flight. He quotes no authority, but the statement authenticates itself,
agreeing with the account of the battle.
(186) p. 336. Giannone puts a far longer
speech, bearing the stamp of
authorship,
not sorrow, into Lancia's mouth. It is: “ Oime Signor mio, ch'e quel ch’io
veggiol Signor buono! Signor savio! Chi t’ha cosi crudel- mente tolto di vita!
Vaso di filosofia, ornamento della milizia, gloria dei regi! Perche m’e negato
un coltello, ch’io mi potessi necidere, per accom- pagnarti nella morte, come
ti sono nelle miserie I” Muratori imputes the parading of Manfred’s body upon
an ass to Charles, saying it was for recognition. But still the insult was
superfluous; and hatefully unfeeling as Charles was, he must not be loaded with
unproved brutality.
(187) p. 336. Petra roseti, and campus
rosarum. Bartolom. de Neocastro.
(188) p. 339. Giannone says Helena had only
two children, a son and a daughter; in which number Muratori, who, followed by
Sismondi, calls her Sibylla, agrees; whilst Bartolomeus de Neocastro gives
Manfred only a daughter of his second marriage; and documents relative to sons
of Manfred's exist. Amari names three sons and a daughter as the issue of the
second marriage; and upon later occasions mention of sons in the plural occurs.
(189) p. 340. Raumer, who remarks upon the
fact, but gives no authority.
(190) p. 341. Raumer, Livre
deu Conquest.
(191) p. 341. The Guelph, Saba Malaspina, says
the Sicilians ere long exclaimed: “Oh, King Manfred, when alive we knew thee
not, thee,whom dead we now bewail. We thought thee a ravenous wolf amongst the
pasturing sheep of this kingdom; but in comparison with the present dominion,
from which we, in our mutability, expected such happiness, we know that thou
wast a gentle lamb. We feel how sweet was thy rule, now, whilst tasting the
bitterness of this. We often complained that part of our substance was taken
for the government of thy Majesty; but now we see all our property, and what is
worse our persons, the prey of foreigners.’' Of modern liberals it may be
observed, that the republican Arrivabene, says Manfred had all the virtues,
“che pur sempre dir si vorrebbono regie,” of course acquitting him of parricide
and fratricide.
(192) p. 344. Welf.
(193) p. 346. Mailath.
(194) p. 348. Doubts have been started,
especially by Weber, whether the confederation of knights for plunder did not
precede those of towns for defence. Weber is a writer of no great authority,
and the idea seems absurd. There was ample cause for a defensive confederation
amongst the robbed; none why he who successfully robbed singly, should seek
confederates to share his booty, until the strength of the defensive league
became an overmatch for the single noble plunderer.
(195) p. 350. Muratori.
(196) p. 353. Balbo.
(197) p. 353. Munch.
(198) p. 353. Arrivabene and Foscolo.
(199) p. 354. Gregorio, as quoted by Coletta,
il divino Codice Suevo.
(200) p. 359. Muratori.
(201) p. 359. Raumer quotes Ravnald, and Cod.
Vindob. philol., Cod. Mscr. Vatic., fora letter from Clement to Richard, in
which he apologetically says that he had appointed Charles, who was already
very powerful in Tuscany, not Imperial Vicar, but Conservator of the Peace,
upon the conditions named in the text. But Martene’s Thesaurus contains
another letter from Clement to Charles (ii, 1268), which clearly shows that he
gave him both offices ; first that which he calls Paciarium, and then, because
his Paciarius found in Tuscany turbatores instead of sons of peace, “ te
vicarium ipsius imperii in dictis partibus constituimus generalem XV calendas
Martii, anno IV” Probably the letter to Richard was written prior to this date,
or could Clement use the new title to mark the way in which he had limited the
power of the absolute Imperial Vicar?
(202) p. 360. Raumer, Chron.
Imper. Laurent., u Pietate deposita”
(203) p. 361. Mariana, Historia de las
Espanas.
(204) p. 361. Whether Don Henrique joined
Charles before or after the battle of Benevento, is disputed, but the latter
seems the more probable. He and his band are not named in contemporary
descriptions of the battle, and the conqueror, when master of the kingdom,
still wanted troops and money for further schemes.
(205) p. 363. Muratori calls the Lancias and
Capeces ingrates, owing their lives and property to the lenity of the
conqueror, whom they strove to overthrow. The Capeces might, possibly, be so
indebted, but not the Lancias, of whom one, if not two, had been driven by
atrocious inhumanity to suicide, and the two survivors had, whilst not in his
power, bargained for their lives and properties. But does the reverend Annalist
hold personal vengeance a more lawful motive to insurrection than the general
interest of the nation, and justice to a despoiled heir?
(206) p. 367. Hormayr.
(207) p. 373. Raumer, Pignolus, Guercio,
Mediol. annales. Sismondi, quoting Villani, Caffari, and Michael de Vico, says
that Conradin divided his army, taking the infantry with him; a course that
really would seem devoid of common sense. The writers here named, with Saba
Malaspina, Malespini, and Monachus Patavinus, are the chief authorities for
Conradin’s expedition.
(208) p. 381. Malespini;
Raumer, Mutin. annal., Annal. Mediol. Abbas. Burg. Sismondi adopts
the lowest figure for both armies, without quoting any authority.
(209) p. 386. Raumer, Sismondi, Villani,
Cesare, Saba and Ricordano Malespina, Charles’s Letters, &c.
(210) p. 388. Bartol. de Neocastro. This offer
of Conradin’s to marry a Frangipani, has been denied, upon the ground that he
already had a wife in
Germany,
namely Bridget, daughter of Theodore Margrave of Misnia, by Helena, daughter of
John I, Margrave of Brandenburg. That a document exists (Raumer, Aettenkhover
Urk,), dated a.d. 1266, by which
Conradin pledges an estate to Lewis Duke of Bavaria, expressly in payment of
expenses incurred—“ pro consummatione matrimonii nostri apud Babenberg”—there
seems no doubt. But if these words be taken in their literal sense, they prove
the historians who rely upon them mistaken, at least in the person of the wife
they give Conradin; since the marriage of Bridget’s parents was not celebrated
till two years after the date of this document, when the young bridegroom was
already in Italy. If the words mean only a betrothal, though this seems much,
to the expected daughter of a contemplated marriage, such a contract may be
possible. No father-in-law appears either in the expedition or the previous
family Council; and upon the scatfold Conradin named neither wife nor bride.
Two German poems of his speak of a love of his youth, but without reference to
matrimony.
(211) p. 389. Villani represents Frangipani as
giving Conradin and his companions up gratuitously, solely because
excommunicated. But the present writer cannot feel much reliance upon Villani
for anything out of Tuscany.
(212) p. 390. Raumer, Saba
Malaspina.
(213) p. 392. Malespini
and Villani represent Conrad, Conte d’Alba, as the victim of his dastardly
troops and of the savage l’Etendart’s perfidy, whilst Giannone lets Capece
escape with the Infante. But the majority of historians give the fate of the
two Conrads as here related; and the preservation of d’Alba is too
circumstantially detailed to be without foundation.
(214) p. 392. Raumer,
Torelli, Reccho. Usano ancora nel cimiero cifrato il nome Suevo.
(215) p. 392. Giannone, following some Guelph
chroniclers, imputes the death of Conradin to the advice of Clement. To
Charles’s question through an envoy, of What should he do with his prisoners ?
some of these writers assert that the Pope pithily replied: “Vita Conradini
mors Caroli, mors Conradini vita Caroliand others, that he expressed surprise
at a wise man’s consulting a priest relative to necessary homicide; and others
that, closely following the old Etruscan example, he led the envoy into his
garden, struck off the heads of the tallest flowers, and bade him report what he
had seen. If it appear strange to tax Guelphs with calumniating a Pope, were it
not stranger, if an upright though prejudiced pontiff gave secret advice
diametrically opposite to the tenor of the letters he was even then addressing
to his royal vassal. But as there was no unity of spirit or feeling between the
Popes and the Guelphs, who only acted together when community of interests
urged them, why should not Guelphs sacrifice a Pope’s reputation to that of
their especial Head, Charles ? Not only do German inquirers reject the story
after due investigation, Muratori adds to the rejection a statement that
Clement wrote
to Lewis IX, calling upon him to prevent his brother from putting Conradin and
his other prisoners to death.
(216) p. 393. Muratori, Ricobaldus, who says
that the French Barona and Judges supported Guido da Suzara; and Ricordano
Malespini adds that Earl Robert struck the one Judge who pronounced Conradin
guilty.
(217) p. 394. Schmidt, Sismondi, Foscolo and
Arrivabene.
(218) p. 394. Pfister says, that Ottocar of
Bohemia advised including Frederic of Austria in Conradin’s sentence. Ottocar
was quite equal to thus seeking to free himself from a rival, and though not in
Italy might send such advice; but it wTas involving himself in
needless complicity.
(219) p. 394. The Carmelites, originally an
aggregation of hermits, upon Mount Carmel, governed by the Patriarch of
Jerusalem, having fled to Europe in dread of Mohammedans, Mongols, and
Mamelukes, notwithstanding the decree of Innocent Ill’s (Ecumenic Council
against new Orders, were admitted as the Order of Carmelites, upon the plea,
that, having existed an hundred years, the recognising them as European monks
was not sanctioning a new Order.
(220) p. 396. The vindicators of Roberto di
Bari (Sismondi one) assert that the orator, slain by Earl Robert’s indignation,
was the same nameless Provencal who returned the verdict of guilty. It is
difficult to suppose a foreigner selected to harangue the people at a critical
moment.
(221) p. 396. The story of the glove is
questioned by sceptical historians, and its truth or falsehood is immaterial to
the Aragonese claim, Manfred’s children being, in virtue of Frederic IPs
testamentary dispositions, Conrad^i’s next heirs ; and Constance, the only one
of them in a position to inforce the right: the glove, as a symbolical bequest,
belongs to the age.
(222) p. 397. The discrepancies in
contemporary accounts, that perplex the historical student, occur relative,
even, to this public, pseudo-judicial, execution. Giannone and Amari make
Frederic’s decapitation precede Conradin’s. Sismondi and others differ as to
the number of Lancias and Donaraticos who perished, all, like those who have
been followed in the text, appealing to contemporaneous authorities.
(223) p. 398. The tomb, church, and a pillar
commemorating Conradin’s fate, are, by Italian writers, variously ascribed to
Elizabeth of Bavaria, whom they call Margaret, (a strange blunder, but hardly
invalidating their evidence,) to citizens of Naples, (who durst not thus brave
the tyrant,) and to Charles’s son and heir, Charles II, as an act of expiation.
(224) p. 398. Upon this catastrophe Wolfgang
Menzel exclaims: “ So perished the Hohenstaufen, that mighty race of heroic
monarchs, who, to sovereign power united the highest dignity, the glory of
great actions, the wondrous charm of transcendent personal beauty, and a rich
poetic vein; who irradiated the Middle Ages, as the sun pours forth his
vivifying effulgence in
VOL.
IV, 21
the genial
fulness of spring; upon whose vanishing, the rare as lovely flowers he has
called into existence, close their blossoms. So the Middle Ages, in all their
phenomena, Church, Empire, Estates, Religion, and Arts, reached under them the
culminating point, from which the decline was general and ■uninterrupted.
(225) p. 399. Dante, Purg.,
Canto 33.
(226) p. 400. Raumer,
Constit. Regni Siciliani.
(227) p. 401. Raumer,
Sifridi epit., Eccard. gen. princi. Some writers substitute a wood-cutter or an
ass-driver to the menial: but it seems difficult for such persons to introduce
themselves into a princess’s bedroom.
(228) p. 402. Politz.
(229) p. 402. To this practical refutation, if
it may be so termed, by Frankfort, of old Guelph and modern liberalist—the
slang term has before been apologized for—attacks upon the Swabian Emperors, as
ultra-feudal despisers of cities and oppressors of citizens, may be added a
sentence from the modern Guelph, Bottiger. He says of a Margrave of Misnia,
whose death, a.d. 1288, he records, that he had lived to see “ Die hohe Kraft
eines, von den Hohen- staufen so schon als king gepflegten Biirger$$andes,schon
in einzelnen Stadten reich und machtig.”
(230) p. 403. Arrivabene says that Dante
marries Manfred’s daughter, Beatrice, to the Marquess of Montferrat, quoting
the end of Canto 7 of the Purgatorio; where a Beatrice and Margaret are named,
much as if they were sisters, and a Marquess of Montferrat also, but not as
connected with them. This Beatrice is, moreover, supposed to be Charles of Anjou's
Provencal wife.
(231) p. 405. Arrivabene and Foscolo.
(232) p. 407. Amari.
(233) p. 407. Giannone.
(234) p. 408. Purgat., canto 6. •
(235) p. 409.
Wachsmuth.
(236) p. 409.
Rauschnik.
(237) p. 410.
Vogt.
(238) p. 411.
Rauschnik.
(239) p. 411.
Wolfgang Menzel.
(240) p. 411. Sartorius. The meaning of the
word Hanse, or Ilansa, has been matter of discussion. It is said to be found in
documents of the twelfth century—before any league of German towns
existed—signifying a Guild; together with Ilansegrafen, as judges appointed to
decide mercantile disputes; whilst a charter of King Philip’s speaks of a
Hansegraf, as a sort of burgomaster; and Luden asserts that Ulfilas uses Hanse
for a handful of warriors. The factories of the Hansa were, beyond even those of
the Venetians, Pisans, and Genoese in the East, so unlike the idea now
suggested
by the name,
that a few details concerning one, which, before the close of the century,
having been expelled from Norway, defeated the Norwegian monarch, and
re-establishing itself at Bergen, there flourished, may not be unseasonable.
This factory, according to Rauschnik, consisted of 3000 individuals from the
several Hanse towns, divided into four classes—of House-fathers, Merchants,
Companions, and Apprentices. They were formed into households, each under a
house-father, and led a sort of monastic life, strictly regulated as to hours,
&c. These households were all gathered together, in one quarter of the
town. Disputes amongst themselves, if trifling, were settled by two house-fathers;
if more considerable, were referred to and decided by a board of merchants.
Merchants, after ten years' residence as such, were permitted to return home,
when Companions succeeded to their station. Apprentices were initiated with
queer ceremonies, designed to test their courage; such as would now be called a
mystification, but then, being adapted to the temper of the age, were treated
very seriously.
(241) p. 411. Why the prohibition was limited
to those principalities does not appear,
(242) p. 414. Ilis words are; “ Etiam circa
puerilia rudimenta quasi expers scientiae literalis.”
(243) p. 416. Miss Strickland, Fox.
(244) p. 419. Raumer ;Daru; Sismondi.
(245) p, 420. Some writers call this
Maria—misled, probably, by the designation “ of Antioch,” which she bore as
daughter of a Prince of Antioch —the widow of Frederic of Antioch: whilst a
letter of Gregory X, relative to the purchase of her claim by King Charles,
speaks of her as unmarried. Raumer’s genealogical table gives Frederic (of
Antioch because born there) Margarita Cajetana as his wife; whom Barto. de
Neocastro describes as Margharitam, filiam N. de Romanis cunabulis editam.
(246) p. 420.
Hammer-Purgstall.
(247) p. 422.
Hume.
(248) p. 422.
Hallam.
(249) p. 423.
Vol« iii, p. 432.
(250) p. 424. Ricotta.
(251) p. 424. Vol. i, pp. 126-7.
(252) p. 425. Jamsilla, who says: Facta sunt
de ingenio Marchionis Bertholdi qusedam lignea instrumenta triangulata, sic
artificiose composita, quod de loco ad locum leviter ducebantur, et quocumque
modo revolverentur semper ex uno capite erecta constabant.
(253) p. 425. The name, Greek fire, was
intended to refer the composition to classic times, when, the story ran,
Aristotle invented this formidable weapon for the use of Alexander the Great;
though a less overwhelming myth relates that, in the seventh century a Greek,
named Callimachus, dis-
covered and
brought the composition to Constantinople, during the siege of that city by the
Arabs. (Reinaud and Fave.) But then, whence Greek ignorance of the ingredients
?
(254) p. 425. Reinaud and Fave. Casiri,
translating an Arab MS. in the Escurial, speaks of artillery with gunpowder,
used by the King of Granada, at the siege of Baza, a.d. 1312.
(255) p. 425.
Wilken.
(256) p. 426.
Dahlmann.
(257) p. 426.
Hasse,
Murray's Handbook for Northern Italy.
(253) p. 426. Mrs. Somerville.
(259) p. 426. Hallara,
(260) p. 426. Vol. ii, p. 408.
(261) p. 427. Luden argues against this
generally received date, that such a compilation would not be made until the
want of it was felt; (which may be admitted,) and that the want would not he
felt, until the creation of the duchy of Brunswick completed the dissolution of
the original duchy of Saxony (which does not seem equally certain). Earl
Baldwin had led the way, and the spirit was abroad. However if the
Sachsen-Spiegel could be proved to have been first published in German, that
would be presumptive evidence of its being posterior to Frederic IPs German
legislation; a Latin original would merely tend to show it anterior to that
Mainz Diet.
(262) p. 427. Campbell, Lives of the
Chancellors.
(263) p. 428.
Hammer-Purgstall.
(264) p. 428.
Napier.
(265) p. 428. The precise date of the
Consolato del Mare is not known; but the claim of Pisa to its promulgation,
would make this century the latest possible. The laws of Oleron, if not
Richard's, who died a.d. 1199, probably belong to this century.
(266) p. 430.
Hall am.
(267) p. 431.
Vol. iii, p. 344.
(268) p. 431. Vol. iii, p. 274.
(269) p. 432. Savigny.
(270) p. 433. Id. f (271) p. 434.
Id.
(272) p. 434. Even as Shakespeare, following,
of course, the Italian story, represents it in the Merchant of Venice.
(273) p. 435. Tiraboschi doubts the fact of
any of these ladies ever having actually lectured to the law students, because
first mentioned by writers of the following century. But these doubts refer
merely to dates and individuals, not to the phenomenon; for that, at a later
epoch, wives and daughters of Italian professors did, what has been ascribed to
these ladies, he fully admits.
(274) p. 435. HaUam.
(275) p. 436. From the Bishop's treatise, De
Anima, Raumer extracts the following: “ Non est possibile homini intelligere
animam suam non esse. Patefactum est nullam animam rationabilem, vel aliam
substantiam intelli- gentem, intelligere posse, vel credere, vel etiam
dubitare, se non esse. Unicuique animali rational!, notum est suum esse, et
notum ipsi sibi notitia certissima, qud certitudine nulla major.”
(276) p. 436. Hammer-Purgstall.
(277) p. 438. Vol. ii, p. 410.
(278) p. 438. Ticknor.
(279) p. 438. Millot.
(280) p. 438. Arrivabene and Foscolo.
(281) p. 439. Sharon Turner.
(282) p. 440. Sismondi.
(283) p. 441. Id.
(284) p. 441. Vol. ii, p. 415, note 255.
(285) p. 441. Sharon Turner.
(286) p. 442. Id., Hippesley.
(287) p. 442. Vol.ii, p. 421.
(288) p. 442. It is in explaining the reason
of a part thus taking place of the whole, that Dante eulogizes Frederic and
Manfred as quoted in the final note of vol. iii; and the whole passage is well
worth transcribing. The oldest copyis in Latin, though Italian critics incline
to rank it with his Italian writings, therefore preferring the Italian to the
Latin title, DeVulgari Eloquio, lib. i, cap. xii. “ Siquidem illustres Heroes
Federicus Csesar, et bene genitus ejus Manfredus, nobilitatem, ac rectitudinem su®
formas pandentes, donee fortuna permansit, humana secuti sunt, brutalia
dedignantes, propter quod corde nobiles, atque gratiarum dotati inhserere
tantorum Principura majestati conati sunt: ita quod eorum tempore quicquid
excellentes Latinoram nite- bantur, primitus in tantorum Coronatorum aula
prodibat, et quia regale solium erat Sicilia, factum est, quicquid nostri
prasdecessores vulgariter pro- tulerunt, Sicilianum vocatur: quod quidem
retinemus et nos, nec posteri nostri permutare valebunt.”
(289) p. 442. Bettinelli gives the following
fragment, as a specimen of Frederic II's juvenile amatory vein:
Valor sor l'altre avete, Altra
di bella pare
E cannos cenza, Ne c’ haggia
insegnamento.
Null' homo non porria Da voi
donna sovrana
Vostro presio cantare La vostra
cera humana
Di tanto bella siete. Mi
da conforto, e facemi allegrare:
Secondo
mia credenza Allegrare mi posso donna
mia
Non e donna che sia Piu
conto mi ne tegno tuttavia, &c.
(290) p, 443. The bold opinion given upon the
value of Villani as authority must be supported by an instance or two of bis
blunders, taken not from remote countries and ages, where mistakes, however
ludicrous, might, in early times, be expected, but from his native country, and
times not distant from his own. He makes Robert Guiscard (the greatest of the
Hauteville brothers who conquered southern Italy) the second son of Robert Duke
of Normandy— whether meaning Robert le Diable or William the Conqueror's son
Robert, is not clear,—reckons but one William of Sicily, to whom succeeded
Robert Guiscard’s nephew, Tancred; but Tancred’s son offending Celestin III,
that Pope forced a dispensation from her nun’s vows upon Constance, and married
her to Henry VI; when she died, a mother, within the year. Some, yet later,
have been noticed as the misrepresentations occurred.
(291) p. 444. Vol. ii, p. 418.
(292) p. 444. Gervinus, Grimm, A. Humboldt.
(293) p. 445. The Niebelungen Lied is so
highly esteemed in Germany, and, independently of its poetic merit, is so
interesting a monument of the thirteenth century, that such an outline of the
fable as will elucidate the different views mentioned, may not be unacceptable.
Siegfrid, the hero, is, for the sake of a treasure, won from dragon or dwarf,
treacherously murdered by his wife’s brothers and kinsman. His widow,
Chriemhild, marries Attila as the means of revenging her slain husband upon her
brothers and kinsman; and lures them to the Hun court, where she achieves their
death, at the cost of the lives of Attila and the child she had borne him. In
the Scandinavian fragments, the widow, Gudrun, after nearly dying of the death
of Sigurd (their Scandinavian names) is with great difficulty reconciled to her
brothers, who marry her to Attila. It is Attila, who, tempted by the treasure
that had tempted them, lures the brothers to his court; and she, who vainly
endeavours to warn them of their danger, murders Attila and her child by him,
to avenge them. Surely the elder version. Those who conceive the story to be
connected with theBurgundian migration to the banks of theRhine, rest much upon
Worms being Chriemhild’s native place, and the scene of the first murder.
Gervinus holds the enmity of the sisters-in-law, Brunehault and Fredegonde, and
the murder of Brunehault’s husband by Fredegonde’s emissaries, to be the events
thus idealized. A. Triiger finds them in the history of Victorinus, one of the
thirty tyrants, alias, nineteen rival emperors, who contended for the empire in
the third century; and Muller, a Dane, asserts that the whole poem is allegorical.
A Norwegian bishop is said to have taken a copy to Scandinavia in the first
half of this century. .
(294) p. 446. Gervinus.
(295) p. 447. Politz.
(296) p. 447. Conversazions
Lexicon.
(297) p. 448. Montalembert.
(298) p. 449. Ticknor.
(299) p. 449. Sir J. G. Wilkinson’s Dalmatia
and Montenegro.
(300) p. 450. Eichhoff,
Histoire de la Langue et de la Literature des Slaves.
(301) p. 450. Hallam, Ducange.
(302) p. 451. Humboldt, in his Kosmos,
asserts, quoting the Aper?u histori&ue des M£thodes en G6om£trie, of
Chasles, that the modern system of numeration, invented by the Indians, was
known in Europe, earlier than to the Arabs; which is possible certainly, though
scarce likely,
(303) p. 451. Berington.
(304) p. 452, Lach Szyrina, for Polish science
and literature.
(305) p. 452.
Berington.
(306) p. 453.
Michelet.
(307) p. 454.
Handbook
of painting, from Kugler.
(308) p. 455. Mrs. Jameson.
(309) p. 455. Lectures of George Scharfe,
Esq., at the Royal Institution, whence much of this artistic information is
derived. Need the reader be reminded, that it was Giotto, who is reported to
have crucified a model, that his picture of the crucifixion might be true to
nature.
(310) p, 456. Lanzi, Mrs. Jameson names,
amongst the Mosaicists at St. Mark's, an Italian, Andrea Tafi, but a pupil of
the Byzantine school.
(311) p. 458. The deaths in a tournament, held
long after the period of time with which these pages are concerned, a.d. 1408,
so illustrate the manner in which these pastimes were, doubtless, often made
subservient to individual passion, as to claim notice. To this tournament, by
which a Graf von Katzenellenbogen celebrated his completion of a new church and
a new palace at Darmstadt, 140 Hessian and 120 Franconian knights were
hastening, when, meeting on the road, they drank together, quarrelled over
their cups, and, by agreement, turned the sportive melee into a real battle, in
which 9 Hessians and 17 Franconians were slain, and numbers of both parties
seriously wounded.
(312) p. 459. Napier. Slowly, indeed, has
progressive civilization softened the human heart towards enemies, or even
towards strangers. During the wars of our chivalrous Edward III, the French
governor of a town or province burnt 900 men, women, and children, in a church,
to prevent their surrendering to the English. Nay, we are told that, late in
the seventeenth century, William III, when obliged to raise the siege of
Waterford, being asked: “ What was to be done with the prisoners ?” answered,
one would fain hope in unmeaning ill-humour—“ Burn them !” Whereupon, whether
meant or not, 1000 prisoners were burnt! (Miss Strickland’s Queens of England,
and Porter’s History of Ireland). But, did not the cold-blooded, able
Dutchman,
deliberately order the massacre of Glencoe; as the Russians now fire upon
aflagoftruce bringing home their released countrymen; but Russians have, as
yet, hardly attained to mediaeval civilization, under their French varnish.
(313) p. 459.
Miss Strickland.
(314) p. 460.
Napier.
(315) p. 461.
Rauschnik.