Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine was born in 1122 to William X, duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitou, and Aenor, daughter of the viscountess of Châtellerault. At the death of her younger brother, Eleanor became the wealthy heiress of Aquitaine. Groomed by her father, she frequently accompanied him on trips throughout his lands as he administered justice and faced down rebellious vassals.

On his deathbed in April 1137, William entrusted her to his feudal lord, the Capetian monarch Louis VI, to arrange her marriage, which he did to his 17-year-old son and heir Prince Louis. When Louis VI died in August 1137 the young prince became King Louis VII of France and Eleanor his queen.

The two were ill-matched. Louis, as the second son, had originally been groomed for a career in the church. Eleanor had been raised in one of the most sophisticated households in all of Europe. Her grandfather William IX is credited with creating the literary genre of courtly love and had welcomed minstrels, poets, and troubadours to his court.


Eleanor was frequently able to convince Louis to intervene in affairs that concerned her own interests, to the detriment of the crown. All of this might not have mattered had Eleanor been able to provide Louis with a male heir who would have inherited the lands of both his parents. Unfortunately Eleanor bore Louis only two daughters, Marie and Alix.

The breaking point in their marriage occurred during the Second Crusade, which both Eleanor and Louis agreed to undertake in 1146 in response to the preaching of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Their goal was to rescue the crusader-state of Edessa that had fallen to the Muslims.

Presumably Eleanor’s offer of a thousand knights from Aquitaine and Poitou had helped to assuage misgivings about allowing her and numerous other noblewomen to accompany Louis and his warriors on their journey. In March 1148 the French army arrived at Antioch, just to the southwest of the kingdom of Edessa.

Here Louis and Eleanor were greeted by the queen’s uncle, Raymond of Poitiers, ruler of the principality. Rumors began to circulate about an affair between Eleanor and her uncle. When Louis rejected Raymond’s strategically sound plan of taking back Edessa in favor of marching on Jerusalem, Eleanor exploded against the king, and demanded that their marriage be annulled.

Although Louis wrenched her away from Antioch and forced her to march southward on Jerusalem, their marriage was over. The two boarded separate ships and sailed for home in 1149–50. In 1152 their marriage was annulled on grounds of consanguinity, and Eleanor regained control of her lands.

Later in 1152 she married the 18-year-old count of Anjou, Henry Plantagenet, whose extensive land holdings in France also included the duchy of Normandy and the counties of Maine and Touraine. Their marriage created a formidable counterweight to the authority and power of Louis VII of France. Moreover, in 1154 Henry made good his claim to the English throne through his mother Matilda.

In December 1154 Eleanor was crowned queen of England, consort to Henry II (1154–89) of the house of Plantagenet. Over the next 13 years Eleanor bore Henry five sons and three daughters, two of whom, Richard (1189–99) and John, (1199–1216) would rule England.

Initially Eleanor played a substantial role in administering their combined lands in France while Henry secured England, but as his power and authority grew, he had less use for his independent-minded queen. Disenchanted with Henry and perturbed by his numerous affairs, Eleanor left England with her two sons Richard and Geoffrey for Poitiers in 1168.

Here over the next several years she established a flourishing court that became a cultural center for troubadours and poets singing of courtly love. Meanwhile Richard and Geoffrey increasingly chaffed at their father’s unwillingness to give them real authority in ruling lands that they nominally held.

They joined their older brother Henry in revolting against Henry II in 1173, with Eleanor’s backing. Henry crushed this revolt, and for her part in it, he placed Eleanor under close house arrest in England for the next 16 years.

When Henry died in 1189 Eleanor resumed her active role in political and familial affairs. In 1189 her favorite son, Richard, became king of England, and when he departed on the Third Crusade in December of that year, he left Eleanor as regent in England. On his return from the crusade in 1192 Richard fell into the hands of his enemy the German emperor Henry VI (1190–97), and Eleanor took charge of raising his ransom and negotiating his release.

When Richard died in 1199 she supported her youngest son, John, as his successor, undertaking a diplomatic mission to the court of Castile, and coming to his aid when war broke out between him and Philip II Augustus, king of France, in 1201. She died in March 1204 at the age of 83 and is buried alongside Richard and Henry in the nunnery at Fontevrault in Anjou.

Henry II - King of England

Henry II - King of England

Henry II was the first of the Plantagenet kings of England, reigning from 1154 to 1189. He was born in 1133 in LeMans, France. From his mother, Matilda, he inherited a claim to the English throne, as she was the daughter of Henry I of England (r. 1100–35). From his father, Geoffrey, he gained the titles of count of Anjou and duke of Normandy, in France.

His power and influence in France were considerably enhanced in May 1152 when he married Eleanor, duchess of Aquitaine, who two months earlier had divorced King Louis VII of France. Eleanor’s lands included Aquitaine, Tourraine, and Gascony. Together, Henry and Eleanor controlled more land in France than did the French king, from whom Henry nominally held the duchy of Normandy as his vassal.

Henry’s ascension to the English throne was not easy because the Crown had been usurped by Stephen of Blois (1135–54) upon the death of Henry I. King Stephen I fought Matilda and Henry vigorously, but when his son and heir died, Stephen agreed to terms that allowed Henry to ascend to the throne after his reign ended.


Henry did so in October 1154 at age 21, and then quickly moved to establish his authority over the feudal lords of the realm, demanding that they tear down their illicit castles and fortification built under Stephen.

Henry’s goal was to restore royal power and prerogatives to what they had been under his grandfather, Henry I. He succeeded in reviving several royal institutions that Henry I had established, most notably the system of royal justice and the exchequer.

In the case of the former, he pushed the system of royal justices riding circuit throughout England into a powerful tool through which he earned the loyalty of the freemen and burghers of the realm. His courts used a standardized or “common” law throughout the realm, providing a welcomed alternative to the courts presided over by the local feudal lords, who were notorious for protecting their own interests.

Henry’s judicial system utilized a jury of 12 sworn men who testified concerning criminal activity or contentious issues in their locale. These elements of royal justice were codified by the Assize of Clarendon in 1166. Another major innovation under Henry was the paying of “scutage” or a monetary fee in lieu of military service by a vassal of the king.

Not only did this system enhance royal revenues, it made the king less reliant upon the feudal levy when going to war. While Henry was still very much a feudal king and the government dependent upon his forceful and energetic personality, his reforms put into place a solid royal bureaucracy, which, under his Plantagenet successors, would give a tremendous degree of stability to the English monarchy.

Henry’s efforts to extend royal justice to include the English clergy met with considerable resistance by Thomas Becket, his onetime friend and chancellor. Appointed archbishop of Canterbury in 1162 by Henry, Becket surprised the king by defending the independence of ecclesiastical courts and the immunity of the clergy from royal justice. Henry issued the Constitutions of Clarendon in 1164, which reaffirmed the right of the king to punish “criminous clerks,” and forced Becket to sign the document.

Shortly thereafter, Becket fled the realm (1164) only to return in 1170. When he again began to oppose the king over the issue of royal versus ecclesiastical authority, he was murdered by four of Henry’s vassals. Public sentiment swung against Henry at this point, and he was forced to back down, agreeing to allow clergy to be both tried and sentenced in ecclesiastical courts.

In his later life Henry faced numerous rebellions by Eleanor and his sons, mostly of his own making. His long-running extramarital affairs enraged Eleanor, and his attempts to strip Eleanor and his son Richard of Aquitaine led to open conflict in 1173–74. War again broke out between the king and his sons Richard and John in 1189, which concluded with the defeat of the king. He died shortly thereafter on July 4, 1189.

Philip II Augustus

Philip II Augustus, king of France (r. 1180–1223), was, born in 1165, to Louis VII (1137–80) and his third wife, Adèle of Champagne, near Paris. Following the custom of the Capetian dynasty, Louis had young Philip crowned at Reims cathedral as his successor while he was still alive on November 1, 1179.

With the old king’s health quickly declining, the young crowned prince assumed much of the responsibility of running the royal government. In September of the following year when Louis died, Philip became king in his own right.

Philip faced formidable obstacles to his authority in France. His father had been dominated at court by his wife, Adèle, and her three powerful brothers, the counts of Blois and Champagne, and the archbishop of Reims.

Moreover the basis for power in 12th century feudal France was land, and the territory of the Capetian monarchy was limited to a number of modest holdings around the region of the Île-de-France, which centered on Paris.


But those of Philip’s most powerful vassal, Henry Plantagenet, included the duchies of Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and Brittany. Through his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry also held the duchy of Aquitaine as well as Tourraine and Gascony.

Together, they made up more than half of the territory of medieval France and far outstripped the holdings of the French king. The fact that Henry was also king of England (1154–89) further diminished the ability of either Louis or Philip to exercise meaningful control over Henry as lord of his French holdings.

Philip began to lay the groundwork for the resurgence of royal power in France through his marriage to Isabelle d’Hainault in April 1180, through which he acquired the wealthy county of Artois, near Flanders.

Through Isabelle he was able to lay further claims to lands and towns in northeastern France. By 1186 Philip had rid himself of his troublesome uncles and secured control over a widening area of royal lands.

However his most obstreperous vassal remained Henry II of England with his vast territorial holdings in western France. From 1186 to 1188 Philip achieved little success on the battlefi eld against Henry but was more successful when allied with Henry’s two sons, Richard and John, in their revolt against the king in 1189.

Defeated shortly before his death in July 1189, Henry made several minor territorial concessions to Philip. Inheriting his father’s lands in France upon becoming king of England Richard I (r. 1189–99) proved as intractable a foe as had Henry II.

The lengths to which Philip would go to defeat his antagonist are revealed by his behavior during and after the Third Crusade, in which both he and Richard participated.

Leaving France together in 1190, the two quarreled along the way and proved uneasy allies during the siege of Acre. After the city fell in July 1191, Philip quickly abandoned Richard and headed home.

Returning to France, he intrigued against the English king and was instrumental in having Richard held captive by the German Emperor Henry IV when he fell into the emperor’s hands while returning from the crusade. Outright hostilities between the two recommenced upon Richard’s release in 1194.

With the ascension of John I to the English throne (1189–1216) Philip’s fortune improved dramatically. By 1206 he had succeeded in wrestling control of Normandy, Maine, Tourraine, Anjou, Poitou, and Brittany from John, leaving him only in possession of Aquitaine.

Acre fell to Philip II and Richard I

A major attempt by John to recapture his lost territories with the German Emperor Otto IV as ally was repulsed in 1214, ensuring Philip’s position as the dominant feudal lord and most powerful landholder in France.

Philip showed a keen disposition for administrative affairs. He created a new class of royal officials, the baillis, who collected taxes and administered royal justice in his newly acquired lands.

To ensure loyalty these officials were recruited from the townsmen and lower nobles of the realm and were paid a salary. In the south these officials were called seneschals, and because they wielded military powers, they came from the nobility.

Philip further developed the royal administration by giving it a permanent home in Paris and having his treasury perform an annual audit on the baillis. Crucial in Philip’s ability to control his vassals was his growing alliance with the burghers, whose talent and taxes he exploited.

The growth in royal revenues enabled the king to employ mercenaries in place of the feudal levy, further diminishing his reliance upon the nobles. Taken together Philip’s actions turned the Capetian ruler into the most powerful feudal monarch of his day and laid the framework for the future growth of royal power.

Blanche of Castile

Blanche of Castile

Blanche was born in Palencia, present-day Spain, the third daughter of Alfonso VIII, the king of Castile, and Eleanor, daughter of English king Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. She married Louis VIII (1187–1226) of France, the son of Philip II (1165–1223) of France, on May 23, 1200 at Portmouth, in English territory, as part of a treaty between Philip and King John of England (1167–1216).

The aging Queen Eleanor (1122–1204), her maternal grandmother, personally escorted the vivacious Blanche to France. John granted to Blanche as fiefs Gracay and Issoudun, as well as some English Crown lands. Blanche and Louis had 12 children over an 18-year period, but six children died. Their son Louis IX (1214–70) was the heir to the French throne and was later canonized as Saint Louis because of his pious and kind-hearted nature.

While waiting for the French crown, Louis claimed the English crown in Blanche’s name and she offered him her avid support, although Philip dissented. Blanche worked tirelessly and organized the invasion from Calais. Louis’s invasion of England was initially well received by the barons, but he later received only scant support from the other inhabitants.

It was also unsuccessful because King John died, and after 18 months the novelty wore off and most people offered allegiance to young King Henry III (1206–72). The Treaty of Lambeth ended Louis’s English adventure. Louis was crowned on July 14, 1223.


He became ill with dysentery upon his return to Paris from the Albigensian Crusade that he had quelled and died at Montpensier on November 8, 1226. Blanche was left to act as regent for 12-year-old Louis, and she served as legal guardian of the other children.

Seeing an opportunity, the barons and the counts of Champagne, Brittany, and LaMarche (to name a few) revolted against Blanche’s somewhat suppressive hand, secretly aided by Henry. With astounding capability Blanche broke up the league of barons.

She also repeatedly repelled assaults by Henry III, who fought to have lands obtained by Philip returned to England. Blanche forced Robert de Sorbon (1201–74), founder of the University of Paris, to accept her authority. Blanche also extended French territory by adding the area of the Midi to the Crown lands, and made beneficial alliances.

Coronation of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castille

Upon Louis’s service on the Seventh Crusade, Blanche served as regent from 1248 until 1250, when she served as co-regent with her son Alphonse until 1252. Blanche helped raise the exorbitant ransom for Louis’s release from prison in the Holy Land. Her influence on Louis remained strong until her death.

Blanche’s health failed on November 1252 at Melun. She was moved to Paris but died soon thereafter and was buried at Maubuisson. Blanche is remembered as one of the most capable rulers of the Middle Ages. Saint Louis, known in history as the best of France’s medieval monarchs, was aided during his reign by Blanche’s advice and determination.

Stephen I - English King

Stephen I - English King

Stephen I of England was born to Stephen, count of Blois and Chartres, and Adela, daughter of William the Conqueror, in 1096. The exact date of Stephen’s birth is not known; he had four brothers and three sisters. Stephen’s father died while taking part in the First Crusade.

In 1113 while he was still quite young, Stephen’s mother, Adela, sent him to make his fortunes at the court of her brother, Henry I, king of England and duke of Normandy. Stephen’s uncle warmly received his nephew.

Henry quickly bestowed upon Stephen many honors including lands in England and Normandy, as well as the title of count of Mortain. In 1125 Henry orchestrated Stephen’s marriage to a wealthy heiress, Matilda of Boulogne.

In December 1120 Henry I’s only surviving legitimate son, William the Aethling, drowned when the White Ship capsized in the English Channel. After his son’s death, Henry I became very concerned about the succession. As his first wife had died in 1118, Henry quickly remarried with the hopes of fathering a new male heir.


Despite the fact that Henry was the father of several bastard sons by various mistresses, when it became clear that his second marriage would not produce any issue, Henry was faced with a difficult decision in regard to whom he should name as his heir.

The most prominent contenders for the honor included Henry’s only surviving, legitimate child, Maude (also known by the Latinized version of her name, Matilda); his bastard son, Robert of Gloucester; and Stephen, his nephew.

Among Henry’s magnates, Stephen was the most popular choice given his gender and his legitimacy. Stephen was well liked for his bravery and skill in battle, his easygoing disposition, and his kind nature.

However instead of Stephen, Henry named his daughter Maude as his heir. Henry argued that, despite her gender, Maude held the best hereditary claim to the throne of England. In December 1126 Henry insisted that all of his magnates, including Stephen, swear an oath of loyalty to Maude as his heir.

In 1128 Henry negotiated the widely unpopular marriage of Maude to Geoffrey la Belle, count of Anjou and Maine. However Henry was quite pleased with the marriage, and Maude further secured her father’s favor when she produced a son in 1133. The baby was named Henry in the king’s honor.

Henry I died on December 1, 1135, while in Normandy. As soon as word reached Stephen of his uncle’s death, he set sail from Boulogne for England. Securing the royal treasury at Winchester, Stephen immediately proclaimed himself king.

Stephen claimed that upon his deathbed, Henry I had renounced his support of Maude as his heir in favor of Stephen. He also asserted that the oaths of loyalty he had pledged to Maude were null and void, as his uncle had forced him to swear fealty under duress.

On December 26, 1135, Stephen was crowned and anointed by William de Corbeil, archbishop of Canterbury. As soon as word reached Maude that Stephen had usurped the English throne, she immediately made plans to fight her cousin for the succession.

She first appealed to Pope Innocent II for support despite the fact that Innocent had already declared Stephen as the rightful heir to Henry’s throne. When the pope failed to grant Maude any political support, she chose to undertake a military solution.

Between 1139 and 1153 civil war raged in England. One monk noted in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that the anarchy of Stephen’s reign was a time when “men said openly that Christ and His angels slept.” Maude initially waged a successful war against Stephen. She captured Stephen on February 2, 1141, at the Battle of Lincoln.

Proclaiming herself Anglorum Domina or “Lady of the English,” Maude made ready to be crowned queen in London. However several unpopular political decisions resulted in rebellion against Maude. Fighting soon resumed under the command of Stephen’s wife, Matilda of Boulogne.

In September 1141, Matilda’s forces captured Robert of Gloucester. Maude was forced to agree to a prisoner exchange—Stephen for Robert. Stephen’s restoration and Maude’s retreat to Robert’s stronghold at Bristol marked the end of the first phase of the civil war.

The second phase of the civil war began in 1148. Maude left the fighting in England to her eldest son, Henry. Known as Henry Fitzempress, Henry had a rise to power that was amazingly swift.

He acceded to the dukedom of Normandy in 1151, became count of Anjou and Maine upon his father’s unexpected death later that year, and consolidated his power base by marrying Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152.

Eleanor’s wealth provided the money and soldiers that Henry needed if he were going to successfully take up his mother’s claims to the En glish Crown. Fearful of Henry’s growing power, Stephen wished to ensure that his eldest surviving son, Eustace, would succeed him as king of England.

In 1150 Stephen took steps to solidify Eustace’s position as his heir by having him crowned and consecrated as king during Stephen’s own lifetime. Pope Celestine II refused to comply with Stephen’s request.

On August 17, 1153, Stephen’s main impediment to peace with Duke Henry was removed when Eustace suddenly died. Shortly thereafter, Stephen’s leading magnates, tired of the fighting, forced a peace settlement upon Stephen and Duke Henry.

In the Treaty of Westminster, Henry agreed to allow Stephen to rule as king for the remainder of his lifetime. In return, Stephen adopted Henry as his son and named him as heir to the throne of England.

Sick and worn out from years of fighting, Stephen died on October 25, 1154. He was buried next to his wife, Matilda, at Faversham Abbey in Kent, having ruled as the last of the Norman monarchs in England.

Chivalry

During the Middle Ages chivalry (derived from Latin caballus, “nag,” and closely related to French chevalier, Spanish caballero, and English cavalier) denoted the class of knighthood and the ideals associated with it. The noble knight was distinguished from the peasant infantryman by several attributes: his horse, weapons (sword and lance), banner, and attendants.

Medieval chivalry became closely associated with the church and the Crusades. Whereas the early church believed Christianity and the profession of arms to be incompatible, medieval church leaders encouraged the development of a new, Christian order of knighthood. Bernard of Clairvaux’s treatise In Praise of the New Knighthood (c. 1128–31) commends the Knights Templar, a crusading order of soldiers who drew their strength in battle from their fervent faith.

Christian knights continued to swear allegiance to a liege-lord but also received a blessing from the church. This was known as the Benedictio novi militis (benediction for new soldiers). Before participating in the ritual a candidate typically confessed his sins, fasted, and prayed during a night-long vigil.

His sword was placed on the altar and blessed. Kneeling and dressed in white, he swore the oath of chivalry and at the same time renewed his baptismal vow. Echoes of St. Bernard’s exhortation to fight and live for Christ made their way into 12th century literature, as evidenced by Chrétien de Troyes’s last Arthurian romance, The Quest for the Grail (Perceval) (c. 1190).

Chivalry was not only associated, however, with religion and the crusades. Certain 12th century vernacular poets—like Chrétien de Troyes and Marie de France— praised the virtues and courtesy of knightly society, thereby contributing to the rise of courtly romance, a genre that exalts the refined or pure love (fin’ amors) between a knight and his lady.


The audiences of these early vernacular works were largely feminine, and throughout the stories, women play an important role. This contrasts sharply with the relative absence of female characters from the French chansons de geste (such as the Song of Roland) and Germanic epics (such as Beowulf).

The cult of fin’ amors (or courtly love, as the 19th-century philologist Gaston Paris named it) originated in the 11th century with the lyric poetry of the troubadours and trouvères. (Troubadours wrote in the Provençal langue d’oc of southern France; trouvères composed their works in the langue d’oil of the north.) These poets were typically noblemen, like William IX of Aquitaine, who is often described as the first troubadour. The works of several female troubadours—or trobairitz—have also survived (such as the countess of Dia).

Under the influence of powerful patrons of the arts—such as Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine (granddaughter of William IX) and her daughter, Marie, countess of Champagne—the cult of courtly love spread throughout medieval Europe. At the end of the 12th century Andreas Capellanus, writing for the countess Marie, composed a Latin treatise commonly referred to as the Art of Courtly Love (c. 1184–86).

Courtly love

Andreas draws upon the writings of Ovid and the conventions of Provencal poetry in order to outline the proper behavior and attitudes of courtly lovers. According to Andreas, love is an “inborn suffering derived from the sight of and excessive meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex,” which ennobles the lover’s character and drives him to great accomplishments.

Chrétien de Troyes’s Knight of the Cart (c. 1180)—also dedicated to Marie of Champagne—provides a good case in point: Lancelot accomplishes great feats because his faithful (yet adulterous) love for Guinevere pushes him to surpass all other knights at King Arthur’s court.

Courtly love relationships existed mainly outside marriage. Andreas insists that the man must initiate the love affair by declaring his devotion. He fully submits to the will of the lady, who has the power to accept or to deny her suitor. In either case, the knight will continue to serve her. The courtly love relationship thus mirrors the feudal bond between the knight and his liege-lord.

At the end of his book, Andreas rejects love. For this reason, some scholars believe that his whole work constitutes a parody of courtly love and must not be taken seriously. Indeed later authors, like Alain Chartier in the Belle dame sans merci, do not hesitate to expose the excesses associated with courtly love, such as the unfair treatment of men by merciless and fickle women.

Much vernacular literature of the 13th and 14th centuries also celebrates the paradigms of courtly love. The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun describes the efforts of the narrator to attain the love of “she who is worthy to be called Rose.” Geoffrey Chaucer (who translated the Romance of the Rose) makes the courtly love tradition the central theme of his Troilus and Criseyde. “The Knight’s Tale” (from the Canterbury Tales) warns of the dangers of falling prey to the “amor de lonh.” Two male cousins, Arcite and Palamon, fall in love with a beautiful young woman they have spied from afar.

Knights

This infatuation for the fair Emelye ultimately leads to the death of Arcite. Through the “Knight’s Tale,” Chaucer mocks the place of the lady within the courtly relationship: Emelye is reduced to a passive bystander, forced to marry against her will. Although she is idealized and even worshipped by Arcite and Palamon, she has no control over her own destiny.

Chaucer’s false idolatry provides a sharp contrast to Dante Alighieri’s love for Beatrice, whom he woos in La Vita Nuova, and whose grace and beauty eventually lead him to the contemplation of God in the third book of the Divine Comedy.

For Dante, who draws on St. Bernard’s treatise On Loving God, the courtly relationship guides the lover not only to accomplish great feats but also to grow close to God through his chaste and pure love for a lady. (Meanwhile lustful lovers who do not repent of their sins—like Paolo and Francesca—are condemned to eternal suffering in the Inferno.)

The influence of medieval chivalry and courtly love on western Europe was lasting and profound. In the 16th-century Book of the Courtier, Baldassare Castiglione models his advice for male and female courtiers in Renaissance Italy on knightly etiquette. Famous poets like Petrarch, Ronsard, Donne, and Shakespeare continued to woo ladies in the fashion of the troubadours for centuries.

In the 19th century Walter Scott and Tennyson contributed to a veritable rebirth of chivalric—and highly romanticized—literature; throughout the 20th century, stories of medieval knights fighting for the love of their ladies (such as White’s Once and Future King) flourished.

Early Holy Roman Empire

Ottonian Dynasty

Following the death of Emperor Louis the Pious (814– 840) and the Frankish civil war (840–843), the Carolingian Empire was divided among three sons of Louis. On the eastern ruins of the empire a new kingdom, that of Germany, had emerged, stretching from Holstein in the north down to the Alps in the south, from Lorraine in the west up to the Elbe in the east.

The first Carolingian kings of Germany struggled for the survival of their fragile kingdom. Their power was challenged not only by foreign invaders, the Slavs, Magyars, and Vikings, but also by rival rulers of France, as well as by some domestic opponents.

In 911 the last Carolingian offspring, Louis the Child (900–911), died and the German nobility elected Conrad, duke of Franconia, as their new king (911–918). Conrad’s son, Henry I (918–936), and later his grandson, Otto I the Great (936–973), succeeded to restore law and order in their kingdom, by bringing different tribes under their control and beating off the invasions.


Ottonian Dynasty

After the victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld (955) and successful intervention in Italy (951–961), Otto had established himself as undisputed ruler over vast territories in western and central Europe. On February 2, 962, Pope John XII crowned him emperor in Rome. The new Roman Empire, ruled by the German emperor, had been founded.

Its very title Holy Roman Empire derives from the fact that the act of the imperial coronation, performed by the supreme head of the Christian believers, the pope, was sacral in its character and hence also a sacral character of the imperial dignity and power. The coronation of Otto was by no means an outstanding achievement: The papacy lacked both infl uence and power in those days and was largely subjugated to the goodwill of the German rulers.

Otto II (973–983) succeeded Otto and was married to the Byzantine princess Theophano. The latter introduced a series of Byzantine imperial ceremonies, which were adopted in the Ottonian court. Just as his father before him, Otto II attempted to increase the imperial control over Italy. His invasion of Calabria ended with the defeat of his army by the Arabs in 982. Otto III (983–1002) spent much energy on consolidating the imperial influence in the east.

He created the archbishopric of Gniezno and made Boleslas the Brave, duke of Poland, patrician. During Henry II’s reign (1002–24) , he had undertaken three military campaigns into Italy, the fi rst of which (1004) intended to punish his unfaithful subject Arduin of Ivrea, who proclaimed himself king of Italy. The second campaign (1013–14) resulted in his imperial coronation by the pope.

Following the third invasion (1020), the imperial power over Italy was firmly established and new German officials were installed for ensuring the imperial control in the region. The warfare with Boleslas I, in which Henry was allied with the pagan Ljutizi, ended in the peace of 1018, by which Henry gave up Bohemia.

Salian Dynasty

Salian Dynasty

The death of Henry II marked the end of the Ottonian dynasty, which gave way to a new dynasty, the Salians. Its first ruler was Conrad II (1024–39), elected by the German magnates after the death of Henry, despite some opposition that wished to have William III, duke of Aquitaine, crowned as a new king. After his imperial coronation on Easter 1027 his power was reasserted.

He now turned his attention to legal matters, codifying ancient Saxon customs. In 1028 he was victorious in his war against the rebellious Mieszko II, duke of Poland. With peace achieved, Mieszko surrendered all territories conquered by him and his predecessor from the empire. In 1032 Rudolf III, the last king of Burgundy, died, commanding his kingdom to Conrad. Burgundy was annexed to the empire, assuming the name kingdom of Arles.

Conrad and his heirs, Henry III (r. 1039–56) and Henry IV (r. 1056–1106), attempted to centralize the imperial power, as well as to diminish the influence of regional nobility, lay and religious alike. This led to frequent conflicts and an occasional revolt. The imperial interference with spiritual matters was clearly demonstrated in Henry III’s attempt to reform the papacy.

Between 1046 and 1049 he appointed, one after another, four German bishops as popes, to make German control ubiquitous and to have the emperor as a dominant figure in church matters. Although praised by some churchmen for his efforts to reform the papacy, Henry attracted fierce criticism from among more radical circles in Rome.

During the minority of Henry IV, the Roman movement was led by an energetic cardinal, Hildebrand, the future Pope Gregory VII (1073–85). In 1059 Hildebrand had decreed that no temporal ruler is authorized to install or depose the pope, who is to be chosen by a college of cardinals.

This may have marked the beginning of the Gregorian Reform, which indulged in a bitter struggle with the Crown known as the Investiture Controversy. The first blow delivered upon the emperor was his humiliation at Canossa (January 1077), with him excommunicated and his empire placed under the interdict.

The first stage of the controversy ended with the Concordat of Worms (1122) between Henry’s son Henry V (1106–25) and Pope Calixtus II. By the concordat, Henry gave up his authority to invest bishops but kept his right to oversee and take part in the Episcopal elections.

The weakness of the emperor was utilized by the German nobility, which elected Lothar of Supplinburg as their new king Lothar II (1125–37), putting an end to the Salian dynasty. Lothar’s and subsequently Conrad III’s reign (1138–52) is marked by social and dynastic struggle.

Frederick I Barbarossa and Frederick II

Frederick I Barbarossa

With the election of Frederick I Barbarossa (1152–90), a new chapter in the history of the German Empire began. Frederick’s primary objective was to restore the imperial control in Italy, over both the rebellious Italian communes and the pope, who had allied himself with King William I of Sicily. The first Italian expedition of 1155 did not produce any significant fruits, while the second campaign (1158) resulted in the reduction of Lombardy into a royal province and rebellion of the Milanese commune.

The fervent Pope Alexander III (1159–81) and the king of Sicily backed the Italian city-states, while Frederick was supported by most of the German magnates and the antipopes. During his fourth Italian march (1166–67) he seized Rome and only an outbreak of malaria, perceived as a divine punishment, forced him to retreat.

In 1174 Frederick led his fifth expedition and despite some agreement reached with the Lombard League, the war resumed, resulting in the imperial defeat in the Battle of Legnano (May 29, 1176). After this, Frederick turned to diplomacy and the confl ict ended with the Peace of Constance (1183). Along with Italian policy, Frederick paid attention to domestic matters.

He expanded the imperial domains by annexing lands of extinct German dynasties and seizing the properties of Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria, in 1180. It was during his reign that the imperial chancery started using the adjective holy to denote the Roman Empire.

Frederick died on his way to the Holy Land leading the Third Crusade. His son Henry VI (1190–97) was married to Constance, the aunt of childless William II, king of Sicily, and upon his ascension he invaded Italy to be crowned in Rome and to claim his Sicilian kingdom. The Sicilian campaign ended in a failure because of the high summer heat and Henry retreated, leaving Sicily ruled by antiking Tancred, William II’s cousin.

After Tancred’s death in 1194 Henry launched another campaign into Sicily, which resulted in the conquest of the Norman kingdom and Henry’s coronation as king of Sicily on Christmas 1194. Once home, Henry attempted to transform the empire into a hereditary monarchy ruled by the House of the Hohenstaufen.

Upon his death (September 28, 1197), Henry VI left a two-year-old son, the future Frederick II (1212–50). He was raised in Sicily with Pope Innocent III (1198–1216) serving as his guardian. The latter brilliantly exploited the social and political chaos following Henry VI’s death and annexed vast territories in Italy to the papal demesnes.

Philip of Swabia, Henry VI’s brother, was elected as a new king (1198–1208) and his reign is characterized by a continual struggle with his archenemy, Otto of Brunswick. The German and Sicilian nobility, as well as the church with its leader Innocent III, changed sides frequently during the war between the two rivals.

After Philip’s murder, Otto was styled as Otto IV (1208–18). He won Innocent’s support, thanks to his promise to recognize the papal territories in Italy and to allow free episcopal elections, but his failure to carry out these promises led to his excommunication by the pope (November 18, 1210), which ironically coincided with the excommunication of King John of England in 1209.

In the meantime, Frederick II was elected as a new king (September 1211). Frederick had easily won Innocent’s support by confirming Otto’s concessions of 1209. Otto’s declining power was finally crushed after the Battle of Bouvines (July 27, 1214), where the armies of two excommunicated rulers, John of England and Otto of Brunswick, were defeated. Otto died excommunicated in 1218.

The good relationships between pope and emperor were doomed after Innocent’s III death. Frederick failed to keep his promise regarding the separation of Sicily from the German Empire. He instead had his young son Henry crowned King Henry VII of Germany in 1220 and retreated to his native Sicily. In 1227 Gregory IX excommunicated Frederick for his failure to take the cross.

This resulted in the expedition to the Holy Land known as the Sixth Crusade, where Frederick brilliantly restored Jerusalem to Christian control through his masterful diplomacy. Frederick’s success and the support of many German princes contributed to the Peace of San Germano, achieved between pope and emperor in 1230.

By this peace Frederick recognized papal territories in Italy and Sicily; however the peace did not last long. In 1237 Frederick renewed imperial hostilities toward the Lombard League, crushing the communal armies in November that year. Gregory excommunicated Frederick in 1239 and called for a church council to depose the emperor, who was seen as the Antichrist.

Frederick invaded Rome in 1241 only to find Gregory dead. Gregory’s successor Innocent IV followed the policy of his predecessor and in 1245 the First Council of Lyon, deposed the emperor. However Frederick’s rule was strong enough to survive this symbolic deposition.

While Frederick was perceived as the Antichrist by the papal circles, his Sicilian companions saw him as a keen promoter of arts and sciences, the founder of the University of Naples (1224); as an open-minded personality, who was equally tolerant to Christians, Jews, and Muslims, Germans, Normans, and Greeks; and as a man of an extraordinary learning, speaking as many as seven languages and possessing progressive views on economics and government. His extraordinary personality earned him the nickname Stupor Mundi, the Wonder of the World.

Frederick died on December 13, 1250, and his mighty empire collapsed. After the brief reign of his son Conrad IV (1250–54), the German Empire submerged into two decades of political and social chaos, with no recognized king or emperor. During the interregnum period of 1254–73, the Swiss cantons attempted to break free from the imperial control, Charles of Anjou conquered the imperial possessions in Sicily and southern Italy, while France threatened the German territories.

Habsburg Dynasty

In autumn of 1273, an assembly of German princes, the Kurfürsten, elected a new king, Rudolf of Habsburg, son of Albrecht IV, count of Habsburg, and Hedwig, daughter of Ulrich of Kyburg. Rudolf is thought to have been a prominent figure well before his crowning, possessing lands and estates in Switzerland and Alsace. Pope Gregory X recognized his election, provided that Rudolf renounce his claims to the imperial title and rule in Rome, Sicily, and the papal lands. Alfonso X of Castile also acknowledged Rudolf’s election.

Challenge to his authority came from within, in the face of Otokar II, king of Bohemia, who refused to surrender his territories in Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola to Rudolf. After a war that lasted five months, Rudolf seized the aforementioned provinces in November 1276. Otokar retained Bohemia and the peace was consolidated by the betrothal of Otokar’s son Wenceslaus to Rudolf’s daughter. The peace, however, did not remain long, with Otokar allying himself with some German and Polish princes against Rudolf.

The latter, having made an alliance with Ladislas IV of Hungary, met his enemy on the river March on August 26, 1278. The outcome of the battle was the defeat and death of Otokar and subjugation of Moravia. Having overcome the Bohemian challenge, Rudolf turned his attention to consolidating his authority in the Austrian provinces, where he invested his two sons, Albrecht and Rudolf, as dukes of Austria and Styria.

In doing so, Rudolf expected to establish dynastic rule in his kingdom. At the same time, he attempted to restore peace and order in Germany and Switzerland. In 1289 he marched into Thuringia, where he subdued some rebels. His wish of having his son Albert crowned as German king did not come true, with the electing princes refusing to do so. Rudolf died on July 15, 1291.

The assembly elected Adolf, count of Nassau, as the new king. Unlike his predecessor, Adolf lacked power and influence, being from minor nobility. This choice may have been made because the princes, having tasted power in the House of Habsburg, preferred to install a weak ruler.

Crowned as king of the Romans in Aachen on June 2, 1292, and never anointed Holy Roman Emperor by the pope, Adolf did not achieve any significant accomplishment throughout his brief reign (1292–98). His attempts to subdue Thuringia to his rule failed, and his former supporters deposed him, electing Albrecht of Habsburg, Rudolf I’s son, as their king. Adolf refused to recognize Albert’s election and led his army against him, only to be defeated and killed in the Battle of Göllnheim (July 2, 1298).

Albert I’s reign (1298–1308) is characterized by the growing international importance of the House of Habsburg. His attempt to annex territories over the Burgundian frontier led to a conflict with Philip IV the Fair of France (1285–1314).

However, a lack of papal support urged him to abandon his claims in this region. A treaty between the two kings was signed in 1299, by which Albrecht’s son Rudolf was to marry Philip’s daughter Blanche. In 1303, Pope Boniface VIII had finally acknowledged Albert as the German king and Holy Roman Emperor, regarding him as his ally in the conflict with the French Crown.

In 1306 he made his son Rudolf king of Bohemia. He failed to subdue Thuringia, and his army suffered a heavy loss in 1307. Albert was killed on May 1, 1308, on his way to Swabia, where a revolt had broken out. Most contemporary sources depict Albert as a harsh though just ruler as well as a protector of Jewish communities, persecuted in those days.

Luxembourg Dynasty

Henry VII of Luxembourg succeeded Albert, was acknowledged by the pope, and was crowned by him as emperor on June 29, 1312. At this time the princes’ assembly was torn between the Habsburg and Luxembourg parties. While in Italy, Henry imposed imperial power on rebellious Florence and interfered in the ongoing war of the Guelphs and Ghebellines, supporters of the pope and emperor, respectively, in Tuscany. He also attempted to subdue his vassal Robert, king of Naples, only to die on August 24, 1313, near Siena.

Upon his death, the Luxembourg party of electors’ assembly elected Louis, or Ludwig, IV Wittelsbach of Bavaria, against the wishes of the Habsburg party, which attempted to install Frederick the Fair Habsburg. Louis’s coronation in 1314 led to a violent confl ict between the latter and the Habsburg heir. Frederick’s army was defeated in 1322 in the Battle of Mühldorf. Having eliminated his rival, Louis set out to consolidate his authority.

He went to Rome in January 1328, and was crowned by an old senator, because of the absence of the pope in the Eternal City. While there he deposed Pope John XXII on the grounds of heresy and appointed a Spiritual Franciscan as antipope Nicholas V, who was deposed as soon as the emperor left Rome in early 1329.

While at home Louis acted as the patron of antipapal intellectuals, such as Marsilius of Padua and William Ockham. In 1338 the princes’ assembly had decreed that the king, chosen by the assembly, did not need papal authorization or coronation. This antipapal policy provoked a harsh reaction of the pope, who was then allied with the French king. In order to withstand the papal-French coalition, Louis made an alliance with Edward III of England. In his domestic policies, he relied much on his power and lands in Bavaria.

In 1340 he united Lower and Upper Bavaria, while two years later he annexed neighboring Tyrol. His increasing authority over smaller territorial rulers led to an inevitable conflict with the latter. In 1346, a year before his death, the electors’ assembly, with the support of Pope Clement VI, chose Charles IV of Luxembourg and Bohemia as an antiking.

Louis IV died on October 11, 1346, and the Crown passed to Charles IV. Although crowned emperor in 1355, Charles, unlike his predecessors, did not strive to revive the idea of the universal Christian Roman Empire, ruled by the German emperor. Instead, he invested his powers and resources in the cultural development of Bohemia, his native land, and Prague, where he resided, in particular.

In 1348 he founded and patronized the Charles University of Prague, which attracted scholars and students with its humanist studies. The emperor corresponded with Petrarch and even invited him to settle in Prague, while the Italian humanist called on Charles to return the imperial throne to Rome. Under Charles’s patronage, some of the finest monuments of Old Prague were built.

While most of the emperor’s attention was concentrated on Bohemia, other parts of the empire, especially Germany, suffered from a social crisis following the epidemics of the Black Death (1348–51). Charles issued his famous Golden Bull of 1356, which attempted to define the procedure of imperial election and the annual diet held by the electoral princes. Raised and educated at the French royal court, Charles was related to John II (1350–64) and Charles V (1364–80) of France and supported them in the French struggle against England.

Charles IV died on November 29, 1378, and the titles of the king of Bohemia and king of the Romans passed to his son, Wenceslaus (known as Wenceslaus, or Vaclav IV the Drunkard). Just as his father, Wenceslaus devoted much of his attention to his native Bohemia. His Bohemo-central policy provoked a rebellion of the German princes, who deposed him as king in August 1400, electing the German Rupert, count of Palatine.

Wenceslaus did not give up the title of the king of the Germans and continued reigning in Bohemia until his death in 1419, without acknowledging his deposition and the crowning of Rupert. This also marks the beginning of animosity between Bohemia and Germany, on political, national, and cultural levels. It was under Wenceslaus that the Hussite movement started by John Huss started gaining ground in Bohemia.

After Rupert’s death in 1410 the princes’ assembly elected Sigismund of Luxembourg, margrave of Brandenburg and king of Hungary. Soon after his election, Wenceslaus of Bohemia, his half brother, renounced his claim to the title of king of the Romans and Sigismund was universally recognized as such. During his reign, the history of Hungary became interwoven with that of the Holy Roman Empire.

The two main objectives of his early reign were to put an end to the Papal Schism (1378–1417) and to crush the Hussite movement in Bohemia. Both problems were solved at the Council of Constance (1414–17), where Sigismund was a key figure. The two leaders of the Hussite movement, John Huss and Jerome of Prague, were burned at the stake on July 6, 1415, and May 30, 1416, respectively.

The Papal Schism was ended by the deposition of three rival popes and election of a new one, Martin V. The martyrdom of Huss and Jerome resulted in street riots in Prague, which swiftly transformed into a civil war. In the meantime Wenceslaus died and Sigismund inherited the title of king of Bohemia.

In 1420 he attempted to restore peace and order, only to be rejected by the Bohemian nobility and repulsed by the Hussite army, led by some remaning commanders. The Hussite wars continued until 1436, devastating various eastern regions of the empire. Only a later schism within the movement itself allowed Sigismund to take over. In 1437 a short time before his death, the local nobility accepted him as the king of Bohemia.

Albrecht II Habsburg of Austria succeeded Sigismund, ruling briefly for two years (1437–1439). He also inherited the reigns of Hungary and Bohemia. The Bohemian nobility rejected Albrecht as their king, allied itself with the Poles, and rebelled against him. As king of Hungary, he spent his energy defending the realm against the Ottoman Empire.

Frederick III and Maximilian

After Albert’s death, Frederick III was elected as king of the Germans in 1440. To consolidate his power, he signed the Vienna Concordat with the papacy in 1446, which codified the relationships between the emperor and the pope. Frederick was crowned emperor in 1452, the last imperial crowning in Rome. While unsuccessful in battle, Frederick achieved brilliant results through diplomacy.

In 1452 Frederick married Eleanor of Portugal, receiving a considerable dowry. In 1475 he forced Charles the Bald, duke of Burgundy, to marry his daughter to Frederick’s son, Maximilian. Despite this, his rivals frequently challenged Frederick’s power.

The first challenge came from Albrecht VI, his brother. Between 1458 and 1463 the two fought each other over the control of Austria. The struggle with his nephew, Ladislaus Posthumus, over Hungary and Bohemia, resulted in the capture and imprisonment of the latter. His main rival, however, was a powerful Hungarian king, Matthias Corvinus (1458–90), who seized some of Frederick’s possessions in Austria, Moravia, and Silesia and then took Vienna in 1485.

The collapse of Frederick’s power was prevented only by Corvinus’s death in 1490. The last 10 years of his life, Frederick ruled jointly with his son, Maximilian, who had been crowned the king of the Romans in 1486 and inherited his father’s imperial title after the latter’s death in 1493.

Maximilian held vast territorial possessions well before his ascension to the throne. In 1477 after the death of Charles the Bald of Burgundy, he had inherited the Free County of Burgundy, along with the Netherlands. In 1490 he acquired Tyrol and some parts of Austria from his half-uncle Sigismund.

In 1494 the emperor entered into a conflict with France over the intervention in Italy, which led to the Italian Wars of 1494–1559. He did not live to see his armies beat the French enemy. In 1499 the empire suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Dornach at the hands of the Swiss Confederation, which forced the emperor to acknowledge the independence of the Swiss cantons.

While at home Maximilian tried to reform the imperial constitution. In 1495 the Reichstag of Worms had issued four documents, known as the Reichsreform, which created and legalized two legal establishments: the Reichskreise (Imperial Circle), whose main function was to collect taxes and organize a common defense, and the Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber Court), the highest judicial institution of the empire.

Under Maximilian, and perhaps even under his father, Frederick III, the Holy Roman Empire began to rise to be the premier power in Europe. With the election of Maximilian’s grandson, Charles V of Spain, the empire became the largest territorial unit in Europe, encompassing central Europe, Germany, the Low Countries, parts of Burgundy, and Spain with its vast American colonies.