Emperor Henry VI takes over
When Barbarossa drowns in the river Saleph in 1190 the crown transfers to his eldest surviving son, Henry, known to History as Henry VI.
This is the first time since the accession to personal rule of Emperor Henry III in 1039 that the imperial crown moves from father to grown up son without a glitch. In the previous 150 years, the passing of an emperor had been a dramatic event where all the cards were dealt anew. Just remember, Henry IV came to the throne as a child, Henry V by rebellion against his father, Lother III wasn’t in any meaningful way related to the imperial family, Konrad III came in by a coup against the named heir, as did Barbarossa. The French meanwhile had five transitions from father to son, with only one 6-year regency. This consistency in reproduction is one of the key reasons the Capetion dynasty was so much more successful than their German counterparts, though the greatest of the Capetions has only just appeared, Phillipp II Augustus (1180 to 1223). More, and a lot more about him later.
Talking about famous protagonists, the other contemporary of Henry VI is of course Richard the Lionheart (1189 to 1199). Of him we will hear even more.
But today’s episode is mainly about the lay of the land and the first attempt to achieve the main aim of his reign, control of the kingdom of Sicily.
Transcript
Hello and Welcome to the History of the Germans: Episode 70 – From Father to Son
I know, I know, you were expecting another Germany in 1200 episode, talking about feudalism and chivalric culture. And that was really the episode I wanted to produce. But as it happened, Clio, the muse of history refused to kiss me, an event much reminiscent of my teenage years.
I probably read too many books and articles on feudalism which left me utterly confused with nothing interesting to say. I would never dare to say that this debate, on which so many eminent historians have voiced an opinion is nothing but a wild goose chase. I have someone to do that for me. If you want to hear a straightforward perspective on what feudalism was, check out lecture 5 of the High Middle Ages course on the Great Courses Plus. Philip Daileader does a much better job of it than I could do.
Which means we can resume our narrative again! Hurrah!
When Barbarossa drowns in the river Saleph in 1190 the crown transfers to his eldest surviving son, Henry, known to History as Henry VI.
This is the first time since the accession to personal rule of Emperor Henry III in 1039 that the imperial crown moves from father to grown up son without a glitch. In the previous 150 years, the passing of an emperor had been a dramatic event where all the cards were dealt anew. Just remember, Henry IV came to the throne as a child, Henry V by rebellion against his father, Lother III wasn’t in any meaningful way related to the imperial family, Konrad III came in by a coup against the named heir, as did Barbarossa. The French meanwhile had five transitions from father to son, with only one 6-year regency. This consistency in reproduction is one of the key reasons the Capetion dynasty was so much more successful than their German counterparts, though the greatest of the Capetions has only just appeared, Phillipp II Augustus (1180 to 1223). More, and a lot more about him later.
Talking about famous protagonists, the other contemporary of Henry VI is of course Richard the Lionheart (1189 to 1199). Of him we will hear even more.
But today’s episode is mainly about the lay of the land and the first attempt to achieve the main aim of his reign, control of the kingdom of Sicily.
Before we start just a reminder. The History of the Germans Podcast is advertising free thanks to the generous support from patrons. And you can become a patron too and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes and other privileges from the price of a latte per month. All you have to do is sign up at patreon.com/historyofthegermans or on my website historyofthegermans.com. You find all the links in the show notes. And thanks a lot to Tomas, Dennis and Christoph who have already signed up.
Henry VI was born probably in November 1165 as the second son of Frederick Barbarossa and his wife Beatrice of Burgundy. His elder brother died very young and may have had some disability that rendered him unsuited to kingship in the customs of the time. Henry hence grew up as the heir to the throne.
As so often with medieval figures we have little concrete information about his life before he had turned 18. It is likely he received an education to prepare him for the imperial role. That meant he would not just learn how to fight, hunt and drink as his father had, but also in Latin, maybe a smattering of theology and mathematics and obviously reading and writing.
Henry VI did have a passion for the Minnesang, the art of the troubadours who sang about courtly love. The famous Manesse Liederhandschrift, a compilation of medieval love poetry from the late 13th century contains a poem by Henry VI. The poem is a bit so, so and some argue it wasn’t even by him, but it does a reasonable job of conveying the longing for the beloved who he would gladly sacrifice all his crowns and castles for. As we will see, he was not serious about that one.
We hear that his court was a bit jollier than his predecessors’ with travelling Minnesingers, troubadours, musicians and even a fool. He was very sociable, generous to his friends and enjoyed intelligent conversation. Physically he was less impressive than Barbarossa, skinny and not very tall.
And what was crucial, he had been nurtured for his future role by his father. Since he was 9 years old he followed his father on his journeys to Italy and from place to place in Germany. In 1083, barely 19, he takes part in the complex negotiations that leads to the settlement between Barbarossa and the Lombard Leage.
In 1184 he makes his first appearance in the history books. The Diet of Pentecost in Mainz was the great event where Barbarossa and the Hohenstaufen clan celebrated its recovery from the setbacks and humiliation of the 1170s. Officially it was the to celebrate the knighting of Henry and his younger brother Frederick, Duke of Swabia.
Once Henry had become a knight and was thereby now a full member of the social elite, he took on major responsibilities. He headed a campaign against duke Casimir of Poland in Summer 1184 that concluded with Casimir giving homage to Henry and his father.
It is also in 1184 that an agreement was concluded the results of which will dominate the reign of Henry VI. Barbarossa had agreed with King William II of Sicily, nicknamed “the Good” that Henry would marry his aunt, Constance. Constance was at that point already 30 years old whilst the intended bridegroom was just 19.
Constance was the youngest daughter of King Roger II of Sicily and at that point the only legitimate member of the once so fecund Hauteville family. Her nephew, the current king of Sicily was 32 at the time and by all accounts should still be in with a chance of producing an heir.
But as long as William remained childless, she was the last remaining Hauteville.
We have come across the Kingdom of Sicily quite a few times now, so we do not have to go over the full backstory again. Basically, the Hautevilles had shown up in Southern Italy as mercenaries from the 1030s onwards and had rolled up the Lombard princes, the Byzantines and ultimately the Muslim Emirs of Sicily. In 1130 Roger II had consolidated all of Southern Italy and Sicily in his hand and acquired a royal title from the pope.
The kingdom of Sicily was, at least in the eyes of the Norans and the Popes a fief of the papacy. But as far as fiefs go, the Normans enjoyed a large amount of freedom. They controlled the church in their territory, including the right to select and invest bishops. Their fief could be inherited not just by the sons, but also by daughters and cadet branches. All that had been laid down in a Concordat the papacy had concluded with King Wilhelm I in 1156.
Hence Constance was the true and sole heir of the KIngdom of Sicily.
Which gets you to the point that is really hard to get your head around. A marriage between the heir of the imperial crown and the heir to the crown of Sicily is the very, very last thing the papacy could tolerate, let alone sponsor.
Now that the empire had found a way to collaborate with the Northern Italian cities that gave it a modicum of executive power, acquiring Sicily would put the pope into the chokehold of the emperor. If the empire and Sicily were one political block, the emperor could come down and besiege Italy at will. He could even do that without having to rely in his German knights. Sicily and its wealth was more than enough to muster an army that could march on Rome.
Ever since the Normans appeared they had been a key element of Papal political strategy. One of the reasons Pope Gregory VII could stand up to Emperor Henry IV was down to his alliance with Robert Guiscard. In Rome, the Sicilians and the Empire were roughly equally strong. The Empire may have the ability to muster larger armies, but these could not be kept in Italy for very long, whilst the Sicilians may have less manpower but were closer.
The popes who did not want to swap imperial overlordship with Norman control, played both sides against each other, sometimes involving peripheral powers like the emperor Manuel in Constantinople or the great maritime republic of Venice, Pisa and Genua.
A long as the popes were able to keep the empire and the Normans apart, they were free to pursue their policy of making the seat of Saint Peter the most powerful throne in Europe. And that meant in reverse, if the Normans and the Empire come together, the popes will be demoted to nothing but bishops of Rome.
So how could this engagement and then marriage come about? The pope in 1184 was Lucius III. He was much less of a man than his predecessor Alexander III. He could not reside in Rome where the senate still ruled. And he could not even take over one to the smaller cities in the Papal states, like Terracina or Agnani as some of his predecessors had. Being essentially expelled from his property he lived of the courtesy of the citizens of Verona. Not only his temporal situation was stretched, he also struggled to maintain control of the spiritual framework. As we saw last episode, heretic, anticlerical ideas spread around the growing cities, posing a direct challenge to the authority of the church. Lucius III needed help from secular rulers to confront this fundamental threat. Concerns about the deterioration of the situation in the crusader states may have also played a role.
But all that still cannot explain why the pope did not intervene to stop the engagement. It seems that Alexander III had even proactively supported a rapprochement between Sicily and the empire.
That leaves only one last reason. The great force of history known as cockup. WHatever Lucius III thought about this marriage, it wasn’t the correct assesment.
The actual marriage took place in 1186 in Milan. By now the new pope, Urban III could only look on and grind his teeth. But he could no longer stop the proceeding, setting a train of events in motion that will dominate the history of the empire for more than 50 years.
But let’s go back to Henry’s carreer.in the last years of Barbarossa, Henry became his right hand man. He was involved in the excalating conflict with pope Urban III. In 1186 and 1187 he took charge of Italian affairs including a campaign against the papal lands.
The conflict with the papacy ended when news arrived of the fall of Jerusalem and the popes now needed support from all temporal lords, including the Hohenstaufen. In preparation of the crusade the Reich needed to be secured. And that meant ending the ongoing feud between archbishop Phillip of Cologne and the emperor and to neutralise Henry the Lion.
Henry VI was involved in both efforts, in particular his diplomatic skill helped finding an arrangement with the former imperial chancellor.
As for Henry the Lion, you may remeber that he volunteered to go into exile with his father in Law, Henry II, king of England.
When Barbarossa set out from Regensburg in Mai 1189 to go to his watery grave in the middle of Anatolia, Henry VI took over the affairs of the empire. As I said before, such a smooth transition to a tried and tested new monarch is exceedingly rare in German history.
His father had barely made it to the Hungarian border before events in London and Palermo put events in motion that will lead, amongst other things, to King Richard the Lionheart being imprisoned on the castle of Trifels.
To understand these events, we need to take a quick look at the main riders and runners in Western Europe in 1190.
Up until now our history was fairly linear. As far as the empire was concerned, the significant players were the papacy, the princes and the powers on the Italian peninsula, i.e., the cities and the Normans. By 1190 the two new powers, France and England can no longer be ignored.
The King of France, Phillippe Auguste was an incredibly tenacious, ruthless and competent ruler who tripled, if not quadrupled the lands directly under royal control during his 43 year reign. We are still at the start of this process and he has not yet acquired Normandy or the County of Toulouse, but he is already shaping up to be the dominant figure in European History of the time.
The king of France’s main interest was dynastic. His objective was to wrestle as many counties and duchies from his great magnates as possible. And the greatest of his magnates was Henry II, King of England. Henry II controlled all of France west of Paris. And that was a lot more than half the Kingdom of France in 1190 given large parts of East and Southeast France were part of the Empire. For Phillippe Auguste this means he has to use absolutely every trick in the book to get ahead. Religious fanaticism, emerging nationalist feeling, bribery, kidnapping, anything goes. And if anything goes, involving the empire in the grand schemes becomes part of the plan, as we will see.
His opponents, Henry II and his brood are no sissies either. they fight back along the same lines. They too will now involve the empire in their schemes which means taking an increasingly active role in German politics.
Barbarossa could still largely ignore the Kings of France and England. All he tried to get from them was recognition of his antipopes, but not a lot more. But for his son, that is no longer the case. The conflict between France and England will last effectively 200 plus years and becomes the vortex into which a bg chunk of European history gets sucked in.
Henry VI’s chessboard has a lot more pieces than his dad, and three of them now fall over in quick successin.
In June 1189 the wife of Henry the Lion, Matilda dies and a week later her father, KIng Henry II of England. For Henry the Lion, exiled former duke of Saxony and Bavaria, this is a problem. Though his family is well regarded at court in England and his sons are close to the new King, Richard the Lionheart, hehimself does not have a role.
Richard is also now preparing for the Third Crusade which Henry the Lion cannot join, since he had just refused Barbarossa’s offer to come along instead of exile. Going to the Holy Land with the King of England would be a unforgiveable insult to his liege lord. He could not go and he could not stay, so he went for the third option, he returned back home to Brunswick.
That was a explicit breach of the oath he had given Barbarossa not to return for three years, i.e., not before 1192. His return created a major domestic crisis for the young emperor Hnery VI, which got worse as Henry the Lion returned to his favourit passtime, capturing his neighbours lands and castles. within a short period of time he had not just regained his old possessions but expanded them significantly.
In October 1189, mere weeks after the Lion’s return Henry VI convened an assembly, condemned Henry the Lion as an enemy of the Empire, banned him and rised an imperial army to subdue him. This army marched into Welf territory but did not get very far as winter fell.
In these December days, the next piece of news arrived that would dominate the young emperor’s life. King William II of Sicily had died unexpectedly at the age of 32.
Constance was the heir to the Norman kingdom!
Well, yes, on paper she was. All the barons of Sicily had sworn an oath to recognise her asqueen should WIlliam II die without offspring. The concordat of 1156 clearly states that the kingdom would be inherited by whoever is the closest legitimate offspring, male of female.
But politically, this was an impossiblity. The new Pope, Clement III, could not tolerate that. Clement III, despite his ill health was a more proactive pope. He managed to return the papacy to the Holy City by settling the constant conflict with the senate of the city. He was also the main organiser of the third crusade where he achieved the near impossible, a truce between Richard the Lionheart and Phillippe Auguste, so both could leave to recapture Jerusalem.
Given the legal situation, pope Clement III had only one option, do something illegal. There was still a branch of the Hauteville family left. Tancred, Count of Lecce was the illegitimate son of Roger of Apulia, a son of King Roger II. As an illegitimate son, he was excluded from the succession, but that did not stop Pope Clement III. Nor did it stop the Sicilian nobles who had sworn allegiance to Constance just 5 years earlier. So they eleveated Tancred to be King of Sicily and he was crowned early in 1190, even before the news had reached Henry VI that his father-in-law had died.
I do not believe in a model of history where there are forks in the road that set the train of history invariably down a particular path. But there are moments that put a spotlight on some of the fundamental choices that gradually shift events in a particular direction.
This is one of them. Henry VI has two options in early 1190. He could pursue imperial justice against Henry the Lion who had broken his oath and the crusader peace. Alternatively he could agree a hasty truce with the Welf and mount a military campaign to gain his wife’s inheritance. It is a choice between the interests of the empire and the dynastic interests of the House of Hohenstaufen.
Barbarossa had made his big u-turn in 1167 when he replaced imperial ambition with dynastic ambition. It is a sign of how embedded this political shift had already become that Hnery VI did not hesitate even for a second. Siciliy was what he wanted and let the Saxons sort out their ssues as they want it.
Henry VI signs an agreement with Henry the Lion that is extremely favourable to the Welf. The only commitment was that the two oldest sons of the Lion, Lothar and another Henry were to join the campaign against SIcily. Lothar dies soon afterwards so that only Henry the Welf joins the campaign.
And it is a great campaign. As Barbrossa had now died, Henry had formally become king, making this his first Italian campaign. As a first campaign almost all vassals of the empire were obliged to provide military suppot to the new king’s journey.
The army started to go down to Northern Italy in summer and autumn of 1190. Henry VI followed in the winter. In spring the great host starts moving towards Sicily.
Between Northern Italy and Sicily lies – the Holy City. And it is in Rome where the Pope now resides again and Henry is still only King of the Romans. We are still missing the imperial coronation. And that takes place on April 15th, 1191.
Hang on, what do you say? The pope who was proactively thwarting Henry’s claim on the Sicilian crown was offering an imperial coronation? How does this work.
Good question. I too am confused.
There are a number of things that happened around the same time that could explain it. First up, PopeClement III, the one who had engineered Tancred’s accession had died literally weeks before Hnery VI arrived in Rome. A new pope, Colestin III was duly elected, but as so often with these elections, he needed a moment to bed things down.
Secondly, the popes were in Rome only by the consent of the Senate of Rome. If the pope refused an imperial coronation he would have had to withstand an imperial siege. AN dthat would only work if teh Senate was prepared to go along.
Now the Senate made his own deal with the aspiring Caesar. They were keen on the destruction of the ancient city of Tusculum. Tusculum had been occupied by Imperial troops since 1187 and was a loyal city of the empire. But the Senate wanted it in exchange for a smooth coroantion.
There was nothing to it. Henry VI offered the Senate of Rome the city of Tuscuum on a silver platter. Tusculum fell, its citizens blinded, killed or exiled and its defences razed to the ground. Tusculum founded by Telegonos, the son of Odysseus and Circe, Tusculum that predates the city of Rome itslef and had been its rival since the time of the kings, was no longer. For 900 years it was grazed by goats and today is an archaeological park. Tusculum was the price Henry VI was prepared to pay for an imperial crown.
And so Pope Colestin III crowned Henry and Constance emperor and empress on April 15th, 1191, a day after his own consecration and ordination as a priest.
Immediately after the coronation the army left for the kingdom of Sicily. Pope Coelestin, his hand still wet from anointing the new emperor, protested. He warned that god, or more precisely the interests of the Roman Curia were opposed to the Norman kingdom falling into the hands of the emperor.
Henry and Constance shrugged off these papal objections and simply pointed to their undeniable right as heir of William II.
The army moved towards the border with Apulia. Citoes quickly fell to henry and Constance. Rocc D’arca, Capua, Salerno. Only when they arrived before Naples did they encounter resistance.
Richard of Acerra, the brother in law of Tancred commanded the city’s defences. Naples history goes back ll the way to the 2nd century BC as an early Greek colony. In the 9th century it had become a largely independent duchy that lasted until 1139 when King Roger II incorporated it into his new Sicilian Kingdom. WIth a population of 30,000 it was the second city of the kingdom surpassed only by Palermo.
Its position at the centre of the bay of Naples and its densive walls made a siege entirely depenent upon being able to prevent any resupply by sea. For that purpose Emperor Henry VI had engaged the ever loyal Pisans and Genoese. The Pisan fleet had arrived in May with the land troops and soldiers began running up against the walls, miners were digging tunnels to bring about the collapse of the walls and siege engineers put together terrifying siege engines.
All looks good, though time is of the essence as always in Italy. But it wasn’t time that ran out, but searoom.
One day the fleet of Tancred’s admiral, Margarito shows up in the bay. Margarito, like Tancred himself was a soldier and sailor forged in incessant campaigns against Byzantium, North African emirs, Venice and pretty much anyone else in the Mediterranean. We know little about how the actual seabattle evolved, but in the end the Pisan ships are on the bottom of the sea, the Pisan sailors loccked up in Castelloamare, the castle in the sea before Naples and supply routes into the city are open again.
Henry did not give up though. There was still a Genoese fleet on its way. The Genoese had been delayed for whatever reason, which may have included unwillingness to fight side by side with the Pisans. Both Pisa and Genua had been offered generous trade privileges in Sicily for their support, not an ideal system to ensure cooperation between the two maritime powers.
Whilst Henry is counting down the days until the Genoese arrive, Italy’s greatest and almost undefeated weapon arrives, the summer. and with summer comes disease and death for the Germans. Will they ever learn? Sell in may, go away as we bankers used to say.
It is a rerun on 1167, with a doube twist though. Like in 1167, soldiers and magnates die in droves. It is again the archbishop of Cologne who bites the dust, that is the same archbishop Philipp who so hugely benefitted from the fall of Henry the Lion. The obligatory duke of Bohemia is also on the list and so are many more.
But what we did not see in 1167 were defections. But that is exactly what happened. The younger Henry, son and heir of Henry the Lion went across the ine and joined the defenders of Naples. Such a blatent change of sides, in particular in a foreign war was pretty much unprecedented and further alienated the Welf and Hohenstaufen clans, undoing all the reconciliation work Barbarossa had done in the years post 1152.
But the final blow came from Salerno. As the siege had bedded down, Constance had moved to the nearby city of Salerno to await the outcome. As disiease took hold of the camp outside Naples and the siege was liften, the citizens of Salerno and their archbishop panicked. They had opened the gates to Henry and Constance without the slightest bit of resistance. They had welcome the empress in an effort to ingratiate themselves with the new rulers and maybe get some priveleges or even royal protection.
Now that Henry’s army was defeated Tancred would be back and he will take revenge on the treasonous citizens of Salerno. It did not matter that other cities had opened their gates as well. Salerno had stuck its neck out further than the rest and that means it would be cut off.
In their distress they did the only thing that would rescue them from certain destruction. They arrested the empress Constance and delivered her as a prisoner to King Tancred in Palermo.
Henry, who had picked up the disease himself was lying on his sickbed at the monastery of Montecassino when he heard about his wife’s arrest. All seems lost. But it was not.
Henry VI recovered and returned to Germany. En route he meets King Philippe Auguste of France. As the two men swapped stories, talk began about a short stop Phillippe Auguste and Richard the Lionheart had made in Messina.
There the two kings had met the usurper King Tancred. Whilt Phillippe Auguste kept his distance, Richard the Lionheart pushed the “hey we are both Normans” card. Tancred was not quite as excited about his long lost cousin, but after the Lionheart’s soldiers had sacked messina he started seeing the family resemblance. Tancred and Richard made a deal whereby Richard recognised Tancred as legitimate king of Sicily and promised him support in case of an attack. In return, Tancred gave him a busload of cash, officially a refund of the dowry of Richard’s sister who had married William II and a contribution to the crusdae, but in reality, just money into Richard’s pocket. And Tancred promise dto make Rihard’s younger brother Arthur of Brittany the heir to the kingdom.
How much this alliance was worth to Tancred is surely in doubt, but from Henry’s perspective this English king seems to be behind all the things that had gone wrong so far. He had supported Henry the Lion’s return to Brunswick, he supported Tancred of Hauteville and he may have indirectly encouraged the unimaginable defection of an imperial prince. All of that was not only politically irritating, but also a breach of imperial law. Henry VI hence declared Richard the Lionheart an enemy of the empire. And Richard will soon appear inside the empire, more specifically in the lands of Leopold of Austria, a man Richard had insulted during his stint in the Holy Land. Leopold was not the only one he insulted, but the only one whose lands he decided to cross on his way home.
How this will pan out you may know already, but what Henry VI does with the money, you may not. We will see about that next time. As I am still on holiday, I know, its rude, timing for the next episode may again be a bit later than usual. Apologies for that.
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