CHAP. A few weeks afterwards he died, and his vast domains, scattered over the tract between the Adri1245-1250. atic and the Jura, were divided among his five sisters. He left Franche Comté to Alice, because she was the only one of them who could speak French. Frederick did not interfere in the disputes as to the succession, except that he bestowed a part of the Meran heritage upon the Duke of Bavaria and protected the city of Besançon against all claims that might be put forward by the heirs of the late Duke, 'traitor to the Empire.' The five sisters, one of whom was married to the Burgrave of Nuremberg, shared as much of the inheritance as they could get into their hands; parts of it were seized upon by various German Bishops and by the Venetians.* Throughout all these changes, the Pope held unflinchingly to his cherished plan. A successor to Philip of Ferrara was instantly appointed in the person of Cardinal Peter Capoccio, an Angel of peace,' whose commission bears date the 15th of March, 1247. The purpose of the Church stood fast as ever, though her lay champion might be cut off'; Frederick, the son, yea the father of wickedness, would find his snake-like craft of no avail. One of the first duties of the new Legate was to interfere in the proposed marriage of Margaret, the daughter borne to the Kaiser by the English Empress. The child had first been betrothed to the nephew of the deceased Thuringian King; after the death of her intended bridegroom, she had been sent to the Margrave of Meissen, one of the richest Princes in Germany owing to his silver mines, to be married * Von Raumer. to his son Albert, who was then but four years old. The Bishop of Ferrara had forbidden the marriage and had ordered the Princess to be sent back to her father within a certain time; but the Margrave, strong in the interposition of the King of Bohemia, made a successful appeal to Lyons. Still Innocent was not altogether pleased. How can you,' he wrote to the Lord of Meissen, as a wise man and a Catholic Prince, defile your house and offspring with the wicked blood of Frederick? You cannot keep the girl without danger to your soul. The proposed marriage goes against our conscience; if you consent to obey us, we absolve you from all your contracts with the said Frederick.' The match, however, was carried out, and proved most unhappy.* Innocent at the same time rebuked the Archbishop of Magdeburg for having planned another marriage between the deposed Emperor and the daughter of the Duke of Saxony. King Henry being dead, it was no light task to set up a rival to Frederick and Conrad in Germany. The Count of Gueldres, the Earl of Cornwall, the King of Norway, the Duke of Brabant had all refused the Crown offered to each in turn by the Pope; the fate of Henry was most disheartening.† Being at a loss for a candidate, the Papal party at last fixed upon William Count of Holland, a * From this match have sprung in direct male descent the Kings of Saxony, Portugal, and Belgium. Through it the future Kings of England will be able to trace their lineage up to Frederick the Second. †M. Paris. King Haco told our monk that he had refused the Imperial Crown, declaring himself willing to fight against the foes of the Church, but not against those of the Pope. CHAP. XVII. 1245-1250. CHAP. XVII. 1245-1250. beardless youth of twenty, tall and well made, with a sleek skin and very dark hair. From his earliest years, so it was said, he had loved the hardness of iron more than the glitter of gold. At the instance of Cardinal Capoccio, the three Rhenane Archbishops, some other Prelates, and a few lay Princes elected William King of the Romans at Michaelmas. Besides being cousin to the Bishop of Liege, he was nephew to the Duke of Brabant and the Bishop of Utrecht, and the close ally of the Archbishop of Cologne. But Aix-la-Chapelle, the city of Charlemagne, was loyal to the Hohenstaufens and would not allow the Count of Holland to be crowned. Early in 1248, it was blockaded by the Papal party, which had lately been inspirited by a great victory won in Italy. Conrad could make but little resistance, though he rejected with scorn the advice tendered him to forsake the tottering cause of his father. A quantity of money was sent into Germany by the Pope; those who had taken the Cross against the Moslem were despatched against the beleaguered city, which was laid under an interdict by the Cardinal Legate. The Preachers and Minorites assembled a mighty army from all parts; the Frieslanders displayed their wonted prowess in the siege. This lasted six months; the burghers would not break their oath to the Kaiser, until their provisions had failed and their weapons had become worn-out. Their streets were flooded with water and the walls were battered into ruins. At length, a rumour of Frederick's death was spread, when the city yielded upon fair terms. Early in November, William was crowned King of Germany in Charlemagne's Church by the Archbishop of Cologne. But the ceremony was thought by many to be invalid, since some of the Electors had opposed it. The Duke of Saxony was the chief of the malcontents, being now bent upon uniting his daughter to the Emperor himself.* William took the oath which Rome had exacted from his rival in 1213; the old times seemed to have returned; we find an Anselm von Justingen and a Werner von Bollanden holding high offices in the Court of the Pope's new nominee.† But few of the German towns followed the example of Aix-la-Chapelle. Innocent was constrained to threaten Ratisbon with extraordinary penalties; the burghers had driven away their old Bishop, the traitor Siffrid, and would not allow his corpse to be buried; they were equally rancorous against their new Bishop, whose revenues they handed over to Conrad. They recked little of the ban of the Church or the suspension of divine service in their city; on the contrary, they buried the bodies of excommunicated men in the cemetery, while they dragged through their streets the corpse of a Countess devoted to Rome, throwing it to the dogs and birds. They seized an orthodox priest, spat on him, flogged him till he bled, stretched out his arms in mockery of the Redeemer, and kept their victim in a dungeon until he ransomed himself. They enacted a law which punished with death any Crusader who should appear in their city with the Cross on his garments. Conrad thanked the clergy for celebrating mass as usual, and promised to include them in any future treaty with the Pope. The Church * M. Paris. Wikes. Beka. Melis Stoke. † Pertz, Leges. CHAP. XVII. 1245-1250. CHAP. In seemed to be losing her hold upon the masses. XVII. 1248, the sectaries in Southern Germany grew so 1245-1250. bold that they assembled the lay barons by the sound of bells, and broached the most daring opi- *Alb. Stadensis. |