The Decline Of The Saxon Dynasty
(973--1024.)
Otto II., "The Red." --Conquest of Bavaria. --Invasion of Lothar of
France. --Otto's March to Paris. --His Journey to Italy. --His
Defeat by the Saracens, and Escape. --Diet at Verona. --Otto's
Death. --Theophania as Regent. --Alienation of France. --Otto III.
--His Dealings with the Popes. --Negotiations with the Poles. --His
Fantastic Actions. --His Death in Rome. --Yout
ful Popes. --Henry
of Bavaria chosen by the Germans. --His character. --War with
Poland. --March to Italy, and Coronation. --Other Wars. --Henry
repels the Byzantines. --His Death. --The Character of his Reign.
--His Piety.
[Sidenote: 973.]
Otto II., already crowned as king and Emperor, began his reign as one
authorized "by the grace of God." Although only eighteen years old, and
both physically and intellectually immature, his succession was
immediately acknowledged by the rulers of the smaller German States. He
was short and slender, and of such a ruddy complexion that the people
gave him the name of "Otto the Red." He had been carefully educated, and
possessed excellent qualities of heart and mind, but he had not been
tried by adversity, like his father and grandfather, and failed to
inherit either the patience or the energy of either. At first his
mother, the widowed Empress Adelheid, conducted the government of the
Empire, and with such prudence that all were satisfied. Soon, however,
the Empress Theophania became jealous of her mother-in-law's influence,
and the latter was compelled to retire to her former home in Burgundy.
The first internal trouble came from Henry II., Duke of Bavaria, the son
of Otto the Great's rebellious brother, and cousin of Otto II. He was
ambitious to convert Bavaria into an independent kingdom: in fact he had
himself crowned king at Ratisbon, but in 976 he was defeated, taken
prisoner and banished to Holland by the Emperor. Bavaria was united to
Suabia, and the Eastern provinces on the Danube were erected into a
separate principality, which was the beginning of Austria as a new
German power.
[Sidenote: 978. BATTLE WITH THE SARACENS.]
At the same time Otto II. was forced to carry on new wars with Bohemia
and Denmark, in both of which he maintained the frontiers established by
his father. But Lothar, king of France, used the opportunity to get
possession of Lorraine and even to take Aix-la-Chapelle, Charlemagne's
capital, in the summer of 978. The German people were so enraged at this
treacherous invasion that Otto II. had no difficulty in raising an army
of 60,000 men, with which he marched to Paris in the autumn of the same
year. The city was so well fortified and defended that he found it
prudent to raise the siege as winter approached; but first, on the
heights of Montmartre, his army chanted a Te Deum as a warning to the
enemy within the walls. The strife was prolonged until 980, when it was
settled by a personal interview of the Emperor and the king of France,
at which Lorraine was restored to Germany.
In 981 Otto II. went to Italy. His mother, Adelheid, came to Pavia to
meet him, and a complete reconciliation took place between them. Then he
advanced to Rome, quieted the dissensions in the government of the city,
and received as his guests Konrad, king of Burgundy, and Hugh Capet,
destined to be the ancestor of a long line of French kings. At this time
both the Byzantine Greeks and the Saracens were ravaging Southern Italy,
and it was Otto II.'s duty, as Roman Emperor, to drive them from the
land. The two bitterly hostile races became allies, in order to resist
him, and the war was carried on fiercely until the summer of 982 without
any result; then, on the 13th of July, on the coast of Calabria, the
Imperial army was literally cut to pieces by the Saracens. The Emperor
escaped capture by riding into the Mediterranean and swimming to a ship
which lay near. When he was taken on board he found it to be a Greek
vessel; but whether he was recognized or not (for the accounts vary), he
prevailed upon the captain to set him ashore at Rossano, where the
Empress Theophania was awaiting his return from battle.
This was a severe blow, but it aroused the national spirit of Germany.
Otto II., having returned to Northern Italy, summoned a general Diet of
the Empire to meet at Verona in the summer of 983. All the subject Dukes
and Princes attended, even the kings of Burgundy and Bohemia. Here, for
the first time, the Lombard Italians appeared on equal footing with the
Saxons, Franks and Bavarians, acknowledged the authority of the Empire,
and elected Otto II.'s son, another Otto, only three years old, as his
successor. Preparations were made for a grand war against the Saracens
and the Eastern Empire, but before they were completed Otto II. died, at
the age of twenty-eight, in Rome. He was buried in St. Peter's.
[Sidenote: 991.]
The news of his death reached Aix-la-Chapelle at the very time when his
infant son was crowned king as Otto III., in accordance with the decree
of the Diet of Verona. A dispute now arose as to the guardianship of the
child, between the widowed Empress Theophania and Henry II. of Bavaria,
who at once returned from his exile in Holland. The latter aimed at
usurping the Imperial throne, but he was incautious enough to betray his
design too soon, and met with such opposition that he was lucky in being
allowed to retain his former place as Duke of Bavaria. The Empress
Theophania reigned in Germany in her son's name, while Adelheid, widow
of Otto the Great, reigned in Italy. The former, however, had the
assistance of Willigis, Archbishop of Mayence, a man of great wisdom and
integrity. He was the son of a poor Saxon wheelwright, and chose for his
coat-of-arms as an Archbishop, a wheel, with the words: "Willigis,
forget not thine origin." When Theophania died, in 991, her place was
taken by Otto III.'s grandmother, Adelheid, who chose the Dukes of
Saxony, Suabia, Bavaria and Tuscany as her councillors.
During this time the Wends in Prussia again arose, and after a long and
wasting war, in which the German settlements beyond the Elbe received
little help from the Imperial government, the latter were either
conquered or driven back. The relations between Germany and France were
also actually those of war, although there were no open hostilities. The
struggle for the throne of France, between Duke Charles, the last of the
Carolingian line, and Hugh Capet, which ended in the triumph of the
latter, broke the last link of blood and tradition connecting the two
countries. They had been jealous relatives hitherto; now they became
strangers, and it is not long until History records them as enemies.
[Sidenote: 996. OTTO III.'S CORONATION IN ROME.]
When Otto III. was sixteen years old, in 996, he took the Imperial
government in his own hands. His education had been more Greek than
German; he was ashamed of his Saxon blood, and named himself, in his
edicts, "a Greek by birth and a Roman by right of rule." He was a
strange, unsteady, fantastic character, whose only leading idea was to
surround himself with the absurd ceremonies of the Byzantine Court, and
to make Rome the capital of his Empire. His reign was a farce, compared
with that of his grandfather, the great Otto, and yet it was the natural
consequence of the latter's perverted ambition.
Otto III.'s first act was to march to Rome, in order to be crowned as
Emperor by the Pope, John XV., in exchange for assisting him against
Crescentius, a Roman noble who had usurped the civil government. But the
Pope died before his arrival, and Otto thereupon appointed his own
cousin, Bruno, a young man of twenty-four, who took the Papal chair as
Gregory V. The new-made Pope, of course, crowned him as Roman Emperor, a
few days afterward. The people, in those days, were accustomed to submit
to any authority, spiritual or political, which was strong enough to
support its own claims, but this bargain was a little too plain and
barefaced; and Otto had hardly returned to Germany, before the Roman,
Crescentius, drove away Gregory V. and set up a new Pope, of his own
appointment.
The Wends, in Prussia, were giving trouble, and the Scandinavians and
Danes ravaged all the northern coast of Germany; but the boy emperor,
without giving a thought to his immediate duty, hastened back to Italy
in 997, took Crescentius prisoner and beheaded him, barbarously
mutilated the rival Pope, and reinstated Gregory V. When the latter
died, in 999, Otto made his own teacher, Gerbert of Rheims, Pope, under
the name of Sylvester II. In spite of the reverence of the common people
for the Papal office, they always believed Pope Sylvester to be a
magician, and in league with the Devil. He was the most learned man of
his day, and in his knowledge of natural science was far in advance of
his time; but such accomplishments were then very rare in Italy, and
unheard of in a Pope. Otto III. remained three years longer in Italy,
dividing his time between pompous festivals and visits to religious
anchorites.
In the year 1000 he was recalled to Germany. His father's sister,
Mathilde, who had governed the country as well as she was able, during
his absence, was dead, and there were difficulties, not of a political
nature (for to such he paid no attention), but in the organization of
the Church, which he was anxious to settle. The Poles were converted to
Christianity by this time, and their spiritual head was the Archbishop
of Magdeburg; but now they demanded a separate and national diocese.
This Otto granted to their Duke, or king, Boleslaw, with such other
independent rights, that the authority of the German Empire soon ceased
to be acknowledged by the Poles. He made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St.
Adalbert of Prague, who was slain by the Prussian pagans, then visited
Aix-la-Chapelle, where, following a half-delirious fancy, he descended
into the vault where lay the body of Charlemagne, in the hope of hearing
a voice, or receiving a sign, which might direct him how to restore the
Roman Empire.
[Sidenote: 1001.]
The new Pope, Sylvester II., after Otto III.'s departure from Rome,
found himself in as difficult a position as his predecessor, Gregory V.
He was also obliged to call the Emperor to his aid, and the latter
returned to Italy in 1001. He established his Court in a palace on Mount
Aventine, in Rome, and maintained his authority for a little while, in
spite of a fierce popular revolt. Then, becoming restless, yet not
knowing what to do, he wandered up and down Italy, paid a mysterious
visit to Venice by night, and finally returned to Rome, to find the
gates barred against him. He began a siege, but before anything was
accomplished, he died in 1002, as was generally believed, of poison. The
nobles and the imperial guards who accompanied him took charge of his
body, cut their way through a population in rebellion against his rule,
and carried him over the Alps to Germany, where he was buried in
Aix-la-Chapelle.
The next year Pope Sylvester II. died, and Rome fell into the hands of
the Counts of Tusculum, who tried to make the Papacy a hereditary
dignity in their family. One of them, a boy of seventeen, became Pope as
John XVI., and during the following thirty years four other boys held
the office of Head of the Christian Church, crowned Emperors, and
blessed or excommunicated at their will. This was the end of the grand
political and spiritual Empire which Charlemagne had planned, two
centuries before--a fantastic, visionary youth as Emperor, and a weak,
ignorant boy as Pope! The effect was the rapid demoralization of princes
and people, and nothing but the genuine Christianity still existing
among the latter, from whom the ranks of the priests were recruited,
saved the greater part of Europe from a relapse into barbarism.
[Sidenote: 1002. HENRY II. ELECTED.]
At Otto III.'s death there were three claimants to the throne, belonging
to the Saxon dynasty; but his nearest relative, Henry, third Duke of
Bavaria, and great-grandson of king Henry I. the Fowler, was finally
elected. Suabia, Saxony and Lorraine did not immediately acquiesce in
the choice, but they soon found it expedient to submit. Henry's
authority was thus established within Germany, but on its frontiers and
in Italy, which was now considered a genuine part of "the Roman Empire,"
the usual troubles awaited him. He was a man of weak constitution, and
only average intellect, but well-meaning, conscientious, and probably as
just as it was possible for him to be under the circumstances. His life,
as Emperor, was "a battle and a march," but its heaviest burdens were
inherited from his predecessors. He was obliged to correct twenty years
of misrule, or rather no rule, and he courageously gave the remainder
of his life to the task.
The Polish Duke, Boleslaw, sought to unite Bohemia and all the Slavonic
territory eastward of the Elbe, under his own sway. This brought him
into direct collision with the claims of Germany, and the question was
not settled until after three long and bloody wars. Finally, in 1018, a
treaty was made between Henry II. and Boleslaw, by which Bohemia
remained tributary to the German Empire, and the province of Meissen (in
the present kingdom of Saxony) became an appanage of Poland. By this
time the Wends had secured possession of Northern Prussia, between the
Elbe and the Oder, thrown off the German rule, and returned to their
ancient pagan faith.
In Italy, Arduin of Ivrea succeeded in inciting the Lombards to revolt,
and proclaimed himself king of an independent Italian nation. Henry II.
crossed the Alps in 1006, and took Pavia, the inhabitants of which city
rose against him. In the struggle which followed, it was burned to the
ground. After his return to Germany Arduin recovered his influence and
power, became practically king, and pressed the Pope, Benedict VIII., so
hard, that the latter went personally to Henry II. (as Leo III. had gone
to Charlemagne) and implored his assistance. In the autumn of 1013,
Henry went with the Pope to Italy, entered Pavia without resistance,
restored the Papal authority in Rome, and was crowned Emperor in
February, 1014. He returned immediately afterwards to Germany; and
Italy, after Arduin's death, the following year, remained comparatively
quiet.
[Sidenote: 1018.]
Even before the wars with Poland came to an end, in 1018, other troubles
broke out in the west. There were disturbances along the frontier in
Flanders, rebellions in Luxemburg and Lorraine, and finally a quarrel
with Burgundy, the king of which, Rudolf III., was Henry II.'s uncle,
and had chosen him as his heir. This inheritance gave Germany the
eastern part of France, nearly to the Mediterranean, and the greater
portion of Switzerland. But the Burgundian nobles refused to be thus
transferred, and did not give their consent until after Henry's armies
had twice invaded their country.
Finally, in 1020, when there was temporary peace throughout the Empire,
the Cathedral at Bamberg, which the Emperor had taken great pride in
building, was consecrated with splendid ceremonies. The pope came across
the Alps to be present, and he employed the opportunity to persuade
Henry to return to Italy, and free the southern part of the peninsula
from the Byzantine Greeks, who had advanced as far as Capua and
threatened Rome. The Emperor consented: in 1021 he marched into Southern
Italy with a large army, expelled the Greeks from the greater portion of
their conquered territory, and then, having lost his best troops by
pestilence, returned home. He there continued to travel to and fro,
settling difficulties and observing the condition of the people. After
long struggles, the power of the Empire seemed to be again secured; but
when he began to strengthen it by the arts of peace, his own strength
was exhausted. He died near Goettingen, in the summer of 1024, and was
buried in the Cathedral of Bamberg. With him expired the dynasty of the
Saxon Emperors, less pitifully, however, than either the Merovingian or
Carolingian line.
When Otto the Great, towards the close of his reign, neglected Germany
and occupied himself with establishing his dominion in Italy, he
prepared the way for the rapid decline of the Imperial power at home, in
the hands of his successors. The reigning Dukes, Counts, and even the
petty feudal lords, no longer watched and held subordinate, soon became
practically independent: except in Friesland, Saxony and the Alps, the
people had no voice in political matters; and thus the growth of a
general national sentiment, such as had been fostered by Charlemagne and
Henry I., was again destroyed. In proportion as the smaller States were
governed as if they were separate lands, their populations became
separated in feeling and interest. Henry II. tried to be an Emperor of
Germany: he visited Italy rather on account of what he believed to be
the duties of his office than from natural inclination to reign there;
but he was not able to restore the same authority at home, as Otto the
Great had exercised.
[Sidenote: 1024. END OF HENRY II.'S REIGN.]
Henry II. was a pious man, and favored the Roman Church in all
practicable ways. He made numerous and rich grants of land to churches
and monasteries, but always with the reservation of his own rights, as
sovereign. After his death he was made a Saint, by order of the Pope,
but he failed to live, either as Saint or Emperor, in the traditions of
the people.