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When Emperor Heinrich IV returned from Italy to Germany in 1097 he allowed Jews, who had been forcibly converted by misguided crusaders, to re-affirm their Judaic religion though Pope Urban condemned him for doing so. Heinrich initiated an inquiry into these murders and robberies of Jewish property. Archbishop Ruthard of Mainz had allowed more than six hundred Jews to be massacred, and his relatives had confiscated their property; so he fled and joined the Emperor's enemies in Saxony and Thuringia. Heinrich's reconciliation with Welf IV was confirmed by a diet at Worms the next year. Friedrich was confirmed as duke of Swabia, and Berthold was made duke of Zahringen. At Mainz the Emperor's son Heinrich was elected king and successor by the princes, and his father had him anointed king at Aachen in 1099. The imperial conflict with the church continued as Pope Paschal II (1099-1118) repeated Heinrich's excommunication and deposition in 1102. At Mainz the next year Heinrich IV proclaimed amnesty and peace in the empire for four years but with harsh punishments of mutilation and death for both free and unfree violators.
Remembering the revolt of his son Conrad, Heinrich IV made his son Heinrich take an oath of loyalty that the young king took as a humiliation. When Bavarian count Sighard was murdered by vassals for infringing their rights in 1104, the Emperor did not punish the crime, causing such discontent that he left Bavaria and went to Lorraine. His son Heinrich took the side of the nobles and raised a revolt. He was absolved from his oath to his excommunicated father by the Pope and gained the church party on his side. After the Emperor's friend Duke Friedrich died, young Heinrich was able to restore Archbishop Ruthard at Mainz. The Emperor was supported by Margrave Leopold of Austria and Duke Borivoi of Bohemia; but his son Heinrich won them over by marrying his sister Agnes, Friedrich's widow, to Leopold. Without these allies the Emperor retreated to Mainz and then Cologne. His son promised him safe conduct but then imprisoned him, taking him to the royal palace at Ingelheim. Heinrich IV begged for mercy but was forced to hand over the crown jewels and sign an abdication. Later he escaped and tried to organize a revolt in Lower Lorraine against the enthroned Heinrich V but failed in a siege of Cologne. Heinrich IV died of illness in 1106. His favorite proverb was, "Men have much and various knowledge, but no one is thoroughly acquainted with himself."1
When Heinrich V refused to discontinue his prerogative of controlling the election of bishops and abbots, investing them as vassals, the imperial conflict with the papacy raged again. In 1110 Heinrich V secured an important political alliance by being betrothed to eight-year-old Matilda, daughter of England's king Henry I. The German king received the enormous dowry of 10,000 silver marks, which enabled him to march his German army to Italy and establish his imperial power there. Although the Emperor technically renounced his right of investiture, a papal bull surrendered to him the regalia of the church which meant all its temporal possessions. Romans reacted by storming St. Peter's, and so Heinrich V seized Pope Paschal and demanded he restore investiture and crown him Emperor also. The religious people of this era could forgive Heinrich V for disloyalty to his own father because of the excommunication; but this abuse of the Pope offended many. Those in Burgundy and France were most upset, and in 1112 Heinrich V was denounced by synods at the Lateran and Vienne, where its archbishop Guy anathematized the Emperor while Heinrich was trying to arouse the nobles and bishops of Burgundy against him. Nonetheless Heinrich V had consolidated his power in Italy and Germany.
Heinrich V also alienated many by revoking previous grants, appropriating questionable inheritances, imposing taxes, threatening punishments, and depriving nobles of their dignities. His military campaigns against Poland and Hungary failed, though he gained some control over Bohemia. He had made Adalbert chancellor in 1106 and nominated him to succeed the late Archbishop Ruthard of Mainz in 1109, investing him after the trip to Italy in 1111. Adalbert now took the papal side and was made a cardinal and head of the German clergy; but Heinrich had Adalbert imprisoned the next year. The first revolt against Heinrich V was suppressed in 1113, and the Emperor celebrated his victory by marrying young Matilda. Duke Lothar submitted, but Adalbert refused and remained in prison. While campaigning against the Frisians, Cologne led by Archbishop Friedrich and the nobles of Lorraine revolted; they defeated Heinrich in Westphalia. This stimulated Duke Lothar to lead a more organized rebellion in East Saxony and Thuringia, which defeated Heinrich's imperial army in 1115. An uprising at Mainz freed Adalbert, and Cardinal bishop Cuno excommunicated Heinrich at Cologne.
When Tuscany countess Matilda died, Heinrich V went to Italy to claim her fiefs even though she had willed her land to the church; he left the government of Germany to young Duke Friedrich of Swabia and Count-Palatine Godfrey. Pope Paschal canceled his grant of lay investiture at the Easter synod of 1116; but he had to flee to the Normans as Heinrich and young Matilda were crowned in Rome by exiled Portuguese archbishop Maurice who was made (anti-) Pope Gregory VIII. Paschal died in 1118, and his moderate successor Gelasius II excommunicated Heinrich before dying the next year. Archbishop Guido of Vienne strongly opposed the Emperor, and he became Pope Calixtus II (1119-1124). When Heinrich returned to Germany, he found half the people aroused against him by Archbishop Adalbert, who won over Mainz by granting them privileges though he executed some who revolted. However, Lower Lorraine sided with Heinrich as Cologne expelled its archbishop. When the Emperor entered Saxony, the princes wanting peace summoned a meeting at Wurzburg, and an armistice was arranged.
A year later in 1122 a diet at Worms made the famous concordat that settled the papal-imperial investiture controversy, and it was ratified the next year by the Pope's Lateran Council. Heinrich's excommunication was lifted, and he gave up investiture by ring and staff but retained bestowal of regalia and receiving homage from bishops. In Germany these ceremonies preceded consecration; but in Italy and Burgundy investiture with regalia took place six months later. The Emperor was allowed to attend elections and could decide disputed ones. The German nobles were increasing their property and their rights. The papacy had become independent of the German empire, and most towns in Italy soon secured possession of the regalia. Lothar remained the leader in Saxony and was able to defy an imperial summons in 1124, the year Heinrich tried to invade France in alliance with England but was stopped by a large French army. Heinrich V died of cancer at the age of 44 in 1125.
Heinrich V had no son and named his nephew, Hohenstaufen duke Friedrich of Swabia, as his heir. When Archbishop Adalbert asked the candidates if they would accept the results of the election, Friedrich hesitated; so the princes representing the tribes of the Saxons, Franks, Bavarians, and Swabians asserted their growing power by electing Lothar king. The Hohenstaufen party remained in control of Swabia and Franconia; but the dispute over the lands Friedrich thought he inherited was settled by a diet at Ratisbon in favor of King Lothar II. Friedrich refused to hand over the fiefs and was banned for treason the next year. Lothar with his army tried to help Otto of Olmutz become king of Bohemia but was defeated by the popular Sobeslav, who nonetheless became his ally and vassal. Lothar was also supported by Bavarian duke Heinrich the Black, but they were unable to take Friedrich's Nuremberg. The Bohemian allies ravaged the country so badly that they were dismissed and went home. Friedrich's brother Conrad returned from his crusade, relieved Nuremberg, and was elected king by the Hohenstaufen party in December 1127.
With the German church against him Conrad III soon took his forces into Italy. He was excommunicated by Pope Honorius II (1124-1130) but was welcomed in Milan and crowned by its archbishop. Heinrich of Bavaria attacked Friedrich in a monastery during Lent, but the Swabian duke held out in its tower. Lothar captured Spires in 1130 after Friedrich's wife Agnes held out for several months. Resistance in the upper Rhineland dwindled, and Nuremberg was also taken. In Italy the Lombard towns turned against Conrad, and he failed to acquire the territories of the late Countess Matilda. Two Popes were elected in 1130, and Lothar supported Innocent II. Lothar wanted to regain his right of investiture but had to accept the consecration of bishops of Trier and Regensburg before investing them. Lothar invaded Denmark in 1131 after his vassal Knud was assassinated; but faced with a large Danish army he accepted 4,000 marks and homage from Knud's cousin Magnus. Two Wendish princes received some of Knud's territory; but when German missionary Vicelin complained of ill treatment, Lothar built a fortification garrisoned with Saxons to protect him. Lothar went to Rome and was crowned Emperor by Innocent II in 1133 at the Lateran while the other Pope Anacletus held St. Peter's.
The civil war in Germany dragged on as struggles continued in Saxony; Swabia, Franconia, and Alsace were devastated. When the town of Halle rebelled, Lothar had its inhabitants fined, mutilated, or put to death. In 1132 after a dispute in the market-place Lothar had the people of Augsburg massacred. Fighting and plundering even went on around his capital of Ratisbon. By 1134 Lothar's army had conquered Swabia; Friedrich submitted and was allowed to keep his dukedom. The next year Conrad did homage to Emperor Lothar, and a land peace was declared. Lothar used diplomacy at his Magdeburg court in 1135 to settle disputes over the crowns of Denmark and Hungary. Duke Boleslav of Poland was summoned to a diet at Merseburg; he paid twelve years of back tribute, and an armistice was arranged between Poland and Bohemia. Pope Innocent II persuaded Lothar to take a united German army into Italy to attack the growing Norman power of Sicily's Roger II. The Germans captured Bari and won several battles in southern Italy in 1137, but the soldiers soon insisted on returning home. Lothar died on the way in the Alps on December 4, 1137.
Lothar II had granted his son-in-law Heinrich the Proud the duchy of Saxony and designated him his successor; but Archbishop Adalbero of Treves summoned a meeting at Coblenz and nominated the Hohenstaufen Conrad, who was crowned in March 1138. Since Heinrich the Proud also was duke of Bavaria, Conrad III gave Saxony to Albert the Bear; the unreconciled Heinrich was banned, and civil war broke out in Saxony and Bavaria between the Welfs and the Hohenstaufens. In 1140 Heinrich the Proud died, and Conrad and his brother Friedrich attacked and defeated Heinrich's uncle Welf VI at Weinsberg in Swabia. Conrad allowed the women to leave with what they could carry, and they came out bearing a husband, son, or father on their backs. Thus Welf escaped and continued to receive financial support from Norman king Roger II and Hungarian king Geza II (1141-1162), but the rebellion in the south was crushed.
In a civil war for the succession in Lower Lorraine Godfrey defeated Heinrich of Limburg; yet when Godfrey died in 1142, he was succeeded by his one-year-old son. Civil war raged in the region around the Moselle for seven years until the second crusade was proclaimed in 1146. Conrad's army intervened in a succession dispute between two Vladislavs in Bohemia. Hungarian king Geza invaded Bavaria with a large army and forced young Duke Heinrich the Lion to flee to Vienna in 1146. A feud against the Bishop of Ratisbon caused Duke Heinrich to besiege that city. To add to the miseries of these wars a major famine spread throughout Germany that year.
In the 1140s famines, epidemics, and civil wars, such as in the Moselle between Archbishop Adalbero of Trier and Count Heinrich of Namur-Luxemburg, were factors in the anti-Jewish pogroms that broke out with the onslaught of the second crusade in 1146. The Cistercian monk Rudolf had used crusading enthusiasm to exploit and attack Jews until Bernard of Clairvaux came to Germany to restrain such madness. However, Bernard was able to persuade King Conrad III to lead a German crusade to the holy land, and Conrad had his ten-year-old son Heinrich crowned king. In March 1147 at the Reichstag in Frankfurt Saxon nobles persuaded Bernard to recommend a crusade against the pagan Slavs on their eastern frontier, and a month later Pope Eugenius issued a bull authorizing it. Bernard urged the crusaders to fight the pagans until they were either converted or eliminated; but the Pomeranian bishop who saw the crusaders off at Stettin said that they could strengthen Christian faith better by preaching than by arms. That summer two Danish fleets converged with two Saxon armies led by Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen and Duke Heinrich the Lion of Saxony in an attack on Prince Nyklot's Abotrites at Dobin; but Saxon knights objected to destroying the countryside, and Nyklot maintained pagan control east of Lübeck though he agreed to pay tribute.
Albert the Bear and several German bishops along with contingents from Poland and Bohemia crossed the Elbe; but these violent efforts were also motivated by personal profit, and they proved counter-productive to the efforts of the Christian missionaries, as the German colonists suffered a severe famine also. The missionary Vicelin finally accepted investiture from Heinrich at Luneburg in 1151. Trading of captives from the wars between Christians and pagan Slavs by Jews to the Mediterranean slave markets diminished by the middle of the 12th century.
King Conrad survived the disastrous crusade that left so many dead in Asia Minor and returned to Germany in 1149, having formed an alliance with Byzantine emperor Manuel against the Norman Roger of Sicily. Welf VI returned from the crusade by way of a visit to Roger in Italy; but the civil war was now confined to Swabia as Conrad no longer fought against Heinrich's claim to Bavaria and Saxony. In 1151 Conrad made a treaty with Welf VI, but a new civil war between Heinrich the Lion and Albert the Bear began in Saxony. Conrad planned to go to Rome to be crowned by Pope Eugenius (1145-1153) and fight the Normans; but he never made it to Italy and died at Bamberg in February 1152.
Anselm was born on the frontier of Lombardy and Burgundy in 1033. After his father died and left him his property, Anselm nonetheless became a Benedictine monk at Bec in 1060, attracted by the brilliant Lanfranc, whom he replaced as prior three years later. His teaching method must have been humane as he objected to the assumption that frequent beatings helped individuals learn. Eadmer in his biography of Anselm described an abbot who said they had to beat boys constantly because they were perverse. Anselm explained this is like preventing a tree from growing naturally.
And so, because they are repressed without discrimination,
they fill their minds with thoughts
that are crooked and twisted like thorns.
Then they harbor those thoughts,
they foster them, by fostering them they strengthen them,
until finally their minds are so obstinate that
they evade everything that could contribute to their correction.
And so it happens, because they sense no kindness in you at all,
no good will or gentleness toward them,
that they come to lose all confidence in your goodness,
and believe that all you do is the expression
of hatred and ill-will toward them.
The wretched result is this.
As they keep on growing in body,
hatred and suspicion and all kinds of evil grow in them,
so that they are always inclined and bent toward vice.2
Anselm reminded the abbot that they are human like himself and asked if he wanted to be treated like that. He suggested giving them support with the help of fatherly kindness and gentleness. The soul that is weak and tender in God's service needs the gentle milk of kindness.
In 1078 Anselm became the abbot of the Bec monastery, shortly after writing his Monologion and Proslogion, which present philosophical arguments for the existence of God. Anselm believed that faith helped one to understand more than understanding helped one to have faith. Yet his writings were designed both to give faith to doubters and to deepen the understanding of believers. In the Monologion he began with the idea that there is a being which is best, greatest, and highest of all existing beings. He believed that this divine Nature exists through itself, and all other beings exist through It. Anselm believed that rational beings exist in order to love this absolute being. Discernment loves according to whether something is more or less good so that it may love what is better and reject what is worse. It follows logically then that the rational creature must love the supreme being most of all as the supreme good; for that being is the source of all good, and nothing else is good except through it.
Anselm's Monologion was a meditation on faith inside himself. His Proslogion is a dialog and was originally entitled "Faith In Search of Understanding." In the first chapter Anselm prayed to God and explained to the reader, "I do not seek to understand so that I may believe; but I believe so that I may understand."3 In the second chapter he stated his basic proposition that God is something than which nothing greater can be thought. If this only existed as a concept in the mind, it would not be the greatest, since to exist in reality is greater than that. After a delay of about a century this theological idea influenced many philosophers and was termed the ontological proof by Kant. As the supreme being God then is the supreme good, justice, truth, and happiness. Even though God is omnipotent He cannot be corrupted and do wrong. So Anselm argued that these evils are done not by power but from impotence of real good. Evil is impotent because it has no power over God. God is beneficent even to the wicked, because he would be less good if He were not, which is impossible by his definition of God as best. Anselm believed that God is good to the wicked both in punishing and in sparing them. If God did not punish the wicked at all, He would be treating the virtuous and vicious equally, which would be unjust. Anselm exhorted people to love the one good that is in all things and suggested that that is enough. In the perfect and pure love of the angels and saints no one loves another less than oneself, and each rejoices for others as for oneself.
King William Rufus delayed replacing Canterbury archbishop Lanfranc four years after his death so that he could appropriate the see's revenues; but in 1093 William II became ill, and English bishops insisted that Anselm succeed his former teacher. Anselm accepted under three conditions: first, that lands of the see held by Lanfranc be fully restored; second, that he could counsel with the King in all spiritual things; and third, that the King recognize Urban II as the rightful Pope. Anselm rejected the King's feudal right to invest bishops in order to make the English church independent of the secular power, because he believed the Church belongs to God, not to the King. Anselm asked to go to Rome for the pallium, but William II refused permission. After negotiation William proclaimed Urban canonical; but Anselm declined to accept the papal pallium from William's hands, and in 1097 he went to Rome without the King's permission. There the next year Anselm completed his Why God Became Man (Cur Deus Homo). Anselm believed that original sin was not exactly concupiscence as Augustine held but rather injustice or rebellion of the rational will against God. Anselm began by asking why God became a man. He concluded that the redemption of humanity could only be accomplished by God; but sin could only be paid for by a human. He believed that mankind would have been lost if it were not redeemed by its Creator.
In 1095 Northumberland earl Robert de Mowbray refused to appear at court for having robbed Norwegian cargoes and organized a rebellion of leading Norman families. William II promptly called out a national army and forced the earl's castles at Tynemouth and Bamborough to surrender to sieges. Robert de Mowbray was imprisoned, and others lost their lands or were fined. After a judicial combat William Eu was blinded and castrated, and William de Alderi was hanged. Duke Robert Curthose mortgaged his duchy of Normandy to his brother William for 10,000 marks of silver so that he could go on the crusade. King William sent Edgar Atheling to invade Scotland; Donald Bane was captured and blinded, and Edgar (r. 1097-1107), son of Malcolm III, was put on the Scottish throne. William Rufus governed both England and Normandy with efficiency but oppressively. Robert had lost Maine to Hélie; but in 1098 William captured Hélie and took Le Mans. On August 2, 1100 William was killed by an arrow, probably shot by Walter Tirel of Poix. His brother Henry was present and rode to claim the treasury at Winchester; he was crowned king at Westminster on August 5.
Henry I promised to replace his brother's unjust practices in regard to reliefs paid by vassals to the king, wardships, marriages, and murder fines with smooth and orderly justice, and he invited Anselm to return from exile. Pope Urban II had refused to take any action against William II. When Anselm returned to England, he once again refused to show homage to the new king for the restored powers of the see. Trafficking in slaves was reduced when Anselm at the London Council in 1102 issued a canon prohibiting the selling of Englishmen like brute beasts. Anselm got more support from Pope Paschal II, but he still went into exile in 1103. Two years later Paschal excommunicated Henry's chief advisor, the Count of Meulan, and the bishops William had invested. Anselm threatened to do the same to Henry; but a compromise suggested by Ivo of Chartres was worked out by 1107. Henry agreed that no one should be invested as a bishop or abbot in England by the king or any lay authority, and Anselm conceded that no one should be deprived of consecration because of having done homage to the king. Anselm died two years later; yet Henry collected revenues of the see for five years before appointing a successor. In 1102 the London Council had enacted heavy penalties for clergy who married; but the practice went on as the influential Roger of Salisbury lived with his mistress, and his nephew, Bishop Nigel of Ely, was married.
Henry I married Edith, sister of Scot king Edgar, and she changed her name to Matilda to please the Normans. A rebellion favoring Duke Robert's claim was led by Normans after Rannulf Flambard escaped from the Tower to Normandy in 1101. King Henry was supported by the church and the English, and a treaty was accepted that promised Robert 3,000 marks a year and his claim to Normandy except the Domfront fortress. Rannulf was allowed to keep his lands, but other Normans were soon deprived of their English lands. Robert of Belleme was indicted on 45 charges in 1102 and resisted; but Henry took his castles at Arundel, Tickhill, Bridgnorth, and Shrewsbury. Robert Belleme was captured and banished but then terrorized Normandy. Duke Robert could not control him, and in 1104 Henry forced his brother to hand over the county of Evreux. In a decisive battle on September 28, 1106 exactly forty years after their famous father William invaded England, Robert Curthose was defeated and imprisoned until he died 28 years later. Henry established his father's form of government. Violent actions were punished, and the unauthorized castles of lawless barons were destroyed. Having restored order in Normandy, Henry returned to England in 1107.
For the remainder of his reign to 1135 England was fairly peaceful, but Henry I spent most of his time in Normandy fighting occasional civil wars. During his absences England was governed by his regent Roger, who in 1102 was made bishop of Salisbury and became treasurer. Roger founded the board of Exchequer to audit the accounts of sheriffs and supervise the royal revenues. Roger also disseminated a common standard of law based on the royal court through his assistant justiciars. Churches were allowed to give money as scutage rather than provide military service. Lords could extort tallage from their villeins and make them pay for the use of their mills and ovens; but a fine paid by an Essex lord for thrashing a villein indicates that the serfs were protected by law from violence. Villeins usually had to work for two, three, or four days a week for the lord, and they were required to render hens and eggs.
Alexander I (r. 1107-1124) succeeded his brother Edgar as king of Scotland. In a Normandy war Count Robert of Flanders was killed in 1112, and the next year Robert of Belleme was imprisoned for life. In 1114 Scot king Alexander joined Henry in an invasion of Wales. In 1116 the claim of Duke Robert's son William Clito was supported by Norman barons allied to France, Flanders, and Anjou. Flanders withdrew after Count Baldwin VII died of wounds in 1118, and the next year Henry gained a truce with Anjou by marrying Matilda of Lisieux. Pope Calixtus II arranged a peace between Henry and France's Louis VI. A third brother David (r. 1124-1153) began his reign of Scotland by granting Annandale to the Norman knight Robert of Brus that established the Bruce family in Scotland. By allocating land to tenants providing military service David brought the feudal system to Scotland. When the rebellion of Earl Angus of Moray was defeated in 1130, David annexed the region. David also founded trading communities. Henry I had given David estates in Huntingdon, Bedford, and Northampton in 1113 when David married Waltheof's daughter Matilda.
In 1120 Henry's two sons died in the White Ship disaster. The King's only surviving child was Matilda, who as wife of Germany's Heinrich V was called Empress. After her husband died in 1125, she returned to England. Two years later Henry I required the reluctant prelates and barons to swear they would accept her as the next sovereign. The following year Matilda married Geoffrey, the son of Count Fulk of Anjou, and her son Henry was born in 1133. King Henry would not grant Geoffrey castles in Normandy and besieged the Alencon castle of William Talvas in 1135, but Henry died later that year.
Henry I had two nephews named Theobald and Stephen of Blois. While Norman barons were electing the elder Theobald as their duke, the younger Stephen went to England and was welcomed at London, where he was crowned by Archbishop William and supported by the powerful justiciar Roger of Salisbury. Confirmation by Pope Innocent II helped to assuage the oaths barons had taken to support Matilda. When King David of Scotland invaded Cumberland and Northumberland in 1136, Stephen marched his Flemish mercenaries north and forced David to give up the castles of Doncaster and Carlisle provided his son could have Huntingdon for doing homage to Henry. This agreement offended the powerful Earl of Chester, who lost land in Cumberland. Rebellions in Norfolk and Devon were promptly suppressed, and in 1137 King Stephen crossed over to Normandy to meet the challenge of Empress Matilda. Stephen's Flemish mercenaries were led by William of Ypres; but some Norman barons resented this and deserted his cause. Stephen made a truce with Geoffrey and left Normandy never to return. Stephen's brother Henry, Bishop of Winchester, was alienated when he was not appointed to fill the vacancy at Canterbury. Many atrocities occurred in the war between England and Scotland in 1138, and York archbishop Thurston tried to improve the conduct by preceding his campaign with praying and fasting.
Earl Robert of Gloucester, an illegitimate son of Henry I, broke into rebellion. In 1139 after a street brawl in Oxford, King Stephen committed the blunder of imprisoning Roger of Salisbury and his son. Stephen got Roger's nephew, Bishop Nigel of Ely, and Roger's mistress to surrender castles by threatening to torture or hang the chancellor. A month later Matilda and her brother Robert of Gloucester landed in England. Civil war raged for nine years as many used the war for profit by selling their services to one side or the other. In 1140 Earl Rannulf of Chester seized the castle of Lincoln. The following year Stephen chivalrously gave up high ground to fight on the level, but the six earls on his side fled. Stephen was captured, and Matilda was elected and crowned. However, Londoners resisted her taxes, swore to defend their liberties, and expelled her from the city. Stephen's queen Matilda in Kent organized barons and the Londoners into a force that captured the Earl of Gloucester. Robert was exchanged for Stephen, who was re-crowned king.
Stephen rewarded Geoffrey de Mandeville by making him earl of Essex; but after Stephen had been defeated at Lincoln, Geoffrey went over to the other side. As constable he controlled the Tower of London. After Stephen took Oxford in 1142, Geoffrey came back to the King; but he was charged with treason and had to surrender the Tower or face hanging. He then fortified Ely and drove monks from the abbey of Ramsey. He used torture to extort ransoms from his prisoners. Meanwhile crops were abandoned or destroyed, and famine spread. Geoffrey de Mandeville was killed by an arrow in 1144. The Earl of Gloucester had returned from Normandy with 360 knights and held Dorset and Wiltshire. He drew mercenaries from Wales and controlled the southwest; but Stephen was supported by the prosperous east, where trade continued. Earl Rannulf of Chester was compelled to surrender his castles in 1146, and so he too broke into revolt, attacking Coventry and plundering the region. The second crusade drew many knights from England, and in 1147 a fleet of 164 ships carrying crusaders from Germany, Flanders, and England helped Afonso, the first king of Portugal, to drive the Moors from his new kingdom. Robert of Gloucester died in 1147, and Empress Matilda left England for Normandy the next year and never returned.
Geoffrey of Anjou began conquering Normandy in 1141, and three years later he was recognized as duke by Louis VII of France. His son Henry was knighted by King David of Scotland in 1149 at Carlisle. When Henry reached the age of 17 in 1150, the duchy was transferred to him. Henry went to war with Louis and gained Gisors and Norman Vexin by doing homage to the French king in 1151, the year Geoffrey died. Henry of Anjou the next year gained nearly half of France as a dowry when he married Eleanor of Aquitane, who, after failing to bear a son to Louis, had been released from her unhappy marriage. In 1153 Henry crossed over to England with 140 knights and 3,000 infantry in 36 ships. Supported by the Earl of Chester, he captured Malmesbury and relieved Wallingford. Earl Robert of Leicester came over to Henry's side, bringing thirty castles to control the midlands. Stephen's heir Eustace died while plundering lands of the St. Edmunds abbey in East Anglia. The barons persuaded Stephen to make peace, and he recognized Henry as his heir and justiciar. Henry went back to Normandy for Easter in 1154 until King Stephen died six months later. People had suffered much from the exactions of the warring lords; but the number of religious houses had increased by fifty, and much building had still occurred.
The church in Ireland was reformed for a half century, and at the synod of Kells in 1152 archbishops were consecrated for Armagh, Cashel, Dublin, and Tuam. Cistercians from Clairvaux had established a monastic community at Mellifont in 1142.
After preaching the crusade in France, Pope Urban II resided at Rome for three years before he died in 1099. Exiled Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury was there also, and in 1198 he defended Western orthodoxy against the Greek theologians at the Council of Bari. Rainer was unanimously elected as Pope Paschal II (1099-1118), and the rival Pope Guibert died in 1100; but Roman partisans immediately elected two more rival popes, and even a third "anti-pope" was set up by the German Marquess Werner of Ancona in 1105. Germany's Henry V invaded Italy in 1110 and made an agreement with Paschal the next year. When Pope Paschal announced his renunciation over the power of regalia, suggesting that the church renounce all endowed lands to the empire and bishops give up their temporal authority, ecclesiastical lords were furious. Yet the Germans imprisoned Paschal and the cardinals for two months until the Pope yielded on investiture too, and Henry was crowned Emperor. The next year Paschal retracted his concession on investiture; but riots often occurred in Rome.
The earliest commune in Italy had formed in Pisa by 1085, and consulates are mentioned in Milan by 1097 and in Genoa by 1099. Pisa ended six years of war against Lucca in 1110. Three years later Archbishop Peter of Pisa incited a crusade to liberate Christians from the Moors in the Balearic islands, but in error they devastated the Christian lands of Catalonia in eastern Spain. After three years of campaigning the Pisans and volunteers captured the main Muslim fortress at Majorca. To guard their commerce Florentines destroyed the castle at Monte Gualandi and the town of Prato in 1107 and Monte Cascioli castle in 1114. When the German margrave Rabodo took over Cascioli for the empire, the Florentines recaptured it in 1119 and buried Rabodo in the ruins. The Alberti family had controlled these castles, but they were opposed by the Guidi, who held even more castles. Both these families supported imperial authority, but this was usually only effective when the German emperor was invading. Without the military strength to hold them, the bishop had to divest civil jurisdiction over his lands in the region of Florence.
After Tuscany countess Matilda died in 1115, the Emperor returned to Italy to claim the lands she had previously donated to the Papacy. In 1116 Pope Paschal was forced to leave Rome after he attempted to install a Pierleone as prefect. In 1118 Pope Gelasius II excommunicated Henry and his pope, but Gelasius died in the monastery at Cluny after serving as pontiff for only one year. Pope Calixtus II promoted peace, and in the Concordat of Worms in 1122 Henry V guaranteed the security of Church property, freedom of elections, and renounced investiture with ring and staff. The Pope conceded the king's role in German ecclesiastical elections; but in Italy and Burgundy the king could not grant regalia and receive homage until after consecration. In 1123 Pope Calixtus II held the First Lateran Council, and it condemned simony and the marriage of priests.
Fiesole was attacked by Florence in 1123 but was not captured until 1125 when the Fiesolians were massacred as the town was destroyed. Siena had consuls in 1125, Florence probably well before 1138, Pavia in 1145, and Milan about 1153. Pisa's consuls got their authority from the assembly in 1162. The many battles of Florence against Siena began in 1129. Siena turned to the Alberti and Guidi as allies, and the Florentines allied with the Sienese feudal clans of the Cacciaconti and the Aldobrandeschi.
The Norman Roger II became Count of Sicily in 1103. Beginning in 1118 he spent a decade trying to establish the Normans in North Africa. During the reign (1111-1127) of Duke William I of Apulia the towns in southern Italy had gained much independence; but in 1128 Pope Honorius II invested Count Roger with the duchies of Apulia and Calabria, and the next year Roger crushed the rebels and was recognized by the Prince of Capua. When his vassals did homage, Roger insisted on the rules of government, forbade private feuds, required the nobles to hand over criminals to ducal courts, and ordered that all persons and property be respected.
The Hohenstaufen Conrad in fighting for the German throne invaded northern Italy to claim the disputed territories of the late Matilda, and he was excommunicated by Honorius, who died in 1130. On the same day the Papareschi Innocent II and the Pierleoni Anacletus II were elected popes. Since the Pierleoni had more power in Rome, Innocent had to flee. All the Norman principalities in southern Italy were united as Roger was crowned king by Anacletus II. However, the next year Innocent crowned the German king Lothar at Liege and anathematized Anacletus, Conrad and his brother Friedrich. Tancred of Conversano, Grimoald of Bari, and Innocent II persuaded Count Rainulf of Alife and Prince Robert of Capua to join them, and they defeated Roger at Sabbato in 1132; but the next year when Lothar was crowned Emperor at the Lateran palace because Anacletus held St. Peter's, Lothar did not invade southern Italy, enabling Roger to restore his rule in Apulia.
A war between Genoa and Pisa lasted from 1120 until 1132 when Pope Innocent II made peace with ecclesiastical concessions. In return the Pisans helped the Pope against the Normans and pillaged Amalfi in 1135 and 1137. Innocent II had taken refuge in Pisa; but in 1136 he urged Lothar to invade. While Bavarian duke Henry imposed imperial power on Tuscany with 3,000 armed men, the German Emperor Lothar passed through the Papal states. They joined forces to take Bari, and Pisan ships aided the capture of Salerno as Roger retreated to Sicily. The Frangipani helped install Innocent back at Rome. Lothar invested Count Rainulf in the duchy of Apulia and established imperial administration; but after his army departed, Roger returned to fight a devastating war against Rainulf in 1138 and managed to get Gregory elected as Victor IV to succeed Anacletus. After Rainulf died the next year, Roger regained control of Apulia. Innocent II excommunicated Roger and led forces himself; but the Pope was defeated and captured, and he had to recognize the kneeling Roger to gain release. The rebellion collapsed, and many nobles fled to the German or Byzantine empires to escape Roger's repression as rebel cities lost their privileges.
Arnold of Brescia was a student of Abelard. He lived simply begging his daily bread from house to house while protesting the secularization of the church and aiming to restore apostolic purity and simplicity. Arnold criticized clergy for their worldly possessions so vehemently that the Brescians expelled their bishop Manfred in 1137. While attempting to give earthly power back to the laity, he alienated the clergy; for he preached that neither clerics owning property nor bishops with regalia nor monks with possessions could be saved; he also questioned the sacraments and infant baptism. Arnold was charged for inciting the laity against the clergy at the second Lateran Council in 1139 and was banished from Italy as a schismatic. He went back to France, and Pope Innocent silenced him with Abelard in a convent. Abelard retired and died two years later, but Arnold gave public lectures in Paris criticizing the avarice of bishops and accusing Bernard of Clairvaux for being ambitious and envying scholars. Bernard got King Louis VII to expel Arnold from France. Arnold went to Zurich, and Bernard denounced him to the bishop of Constance. Arnold went to Passau in Germany, where he was protected by Cardinal Guido and reconciled with Pope Eugenius in 1145.
In Bologna the monk and law teacher Gratian incorporated the results of the second Lateran Council in his influential compilation of canon law entitled A Concordance of Differing Canons or simply Decretum, which was published about 1140. In this scholastic work Gratian attempted to remove contradictions between the two principles of natural law and customs for all church practices.
In 1141 Pope Innocent II sent Romans to besiege their enemies at Tivoli. However, the peace the Pope made with Tivoli was so unpopular that in 1143 insurgents declared Rome a republic and tried to revive the Senate. Next Innocent and Roger quarreled over the King's interference in episcopal elections though Pope Lucius II made a seven-year truce with Roger in 1144. Lucius tried to overturn the Senate but failed and was killed in a street fight in 1145. A disciple of Bernard of Clairvaux was elected as Pope Eugenius III. He gained support from Rome's surrounding cities that felt threatened and was able to restore the authority of the prefect and the sovereignty of the Church. Yet unrest soon caused Eugenius to flee to Pisa also. Eugenius sent the radical Arnold to Rome on pilgrimage. After the Pope fled to France, Arnold strengthened republican sentiments and was protected by the Senate. Arnold argued that the pontiff should preside only over ecclesiastical courts and that the administration of Rome should be under the Senate and a revived equestrian order. The Romans renounced papal authority, and the city soon had a militia like the Lombard republics.
The fall of Edessa stimulated Pope Eugenius to sponsor another crusade, and he appointed Bernard to preach it in France. While crusaders occupied Constantinople in 1147, the Normans took the opportunity to capture Corfu and Neapolis and to plunder Euboea, Corinth, and Thebes. Eugenius also renewed the treaty with Roger, who helped him return to Rome in 1148 when he excommunicated Arnold. However, as German king Conrad III approached Italy, Eugenius refused to renew Roger's rights of investiture. Roger countered by sending subsidies to Henry the Proud's brother Welf to support German revolts, and he tried to head off a war with the German and Byzantine empires by making an alliance with France. Roger continued to sponsor attacks on Africa, and in 1146 the Normans captured Tripoli. Other African cities were taken until Roger II died at Palermo in 1154 with his Sicilian kingdom at its largest extent.
Adrian IV, the only English Pope, was elected in 1154. When a cardinal was attacked and wounded by Arnold's followers, Adrian put Rome under an interdict, banishing Arnold and his party. Arnold himself was captured but was given refuge by sympathetic barons. Germany's new king Friedrich Barbarossa invaded Italy in 1155 and destroyed Milan's ally town of Tortona. Pope Adrian sent a request that Arnold of Brescia should be handed over and executed by Friedrich, who had him hanged and his body burned, scattering his ashes in the Tiber to prevent the people from venerating his body. Arnold's doctrines were eventually declared heretical by a council at Verona in 1184. Friedrich and Adrian met and quarreled over protocol, but the Pope crowned Friedrich emperor. Some angry Romans attacked the German soldiers, who worsted the Romans in the battle that followed. When the Pope met the Emperor again, he absolved the German soldiers for the violence in Rome, rationalizing that it was not murder to kill while defending one's sovereign. An outbreak of fever persuaded Friedrich to return to Germany. This allowed Milan and its allied communes to rebuild Tortona and re-establish their regional hegemony. Unable to enter Rome, Pope Adrian went to Benevento and organized opposition to William of Sicily.
Sicily's King William I (r. 1154-1166) tried to make peace with Byzantine emperor Manuel, who declined; but William did gain an alliance with Venice. Manuel sent Michael Paleologus and John Ducas to occupy cities in southern Italy, and Paleologus formed an alliance with Pope Adrian IV. After an illness William attacked Italy in 1156 and defeated the Byzantine forces, ruthlessly hanging and blinding many rebels. Most cities stopped resisting, but recalcitrant Bari was destroyed. In the Treaty of Benevento Adrian had to recognize all the Norman conquests in Italy. The next year after neutralizing the Genoese navy, the Normans plundered the coasts of the Greek empire and threatened Constantinople; but in 1158 Pope Adrian mediated a peace treaty between William and Manuel. Meanwhile insurrections against the Normans were occurring in North Africa, and their rule there ended when they lost Mahdiyah in 1160. That year William's powerful Grand Emir, Maio of Bari, was assassinated by Matthew Bonnel. Conspirators even seized King William; but soon he gained enough power to arrest Matthew Bonnel and have him blinded. Rebels in Sicily were subdued, and William crossed over to Italy to face the revolt led by Robert of Loritello. The king ordered an additional tax and while repressing rebels ordered Salerno demolished, though this was prevented by his officer Matthew of Ajello.
Emperor Friedrich besieged Milan in 1158, and after a month hunger forced them to surrender. At Roncaglia Friedrich proclaimed his imperial and feudal rights over regalia, mints, customs, mills, and even appointments of consuls and civic magistrates. Genoa was the first to resist, followed by little Crema and powerful Milan, which tried to destroy the new imperial city of Lodi. Friedrich reacted in 1159 by blockading Milan and besieging Crema, which held out for six months. Friedrich proposed an arbitration of the schism, but Pope Adrian would not agree. He threatened Friedrich with excommunication but died of a heart attack before it could go into effect. Once again two popes were elected. Octavian became another Victor IV, and Roland took the name Alexander III. Neither was able to remain in Rome. Alexander refused arbitration, and at a Pavia synod Friedrich recognized Victor. Alexander excommunicated Victor and banned his party, and he was able to gain support in France and England. More Germans and Hungarians reinforced the imperial siege of Milan, and in March 1162 the city capitulated, making them join with Pisa as allies of the empire. A Sicilian ship helped Alexander flee to France. When Friedrich returned to Lombardy with a small army in 1163, he founded a strong coalition. After Victor died the next year at Lucca after trying to survive by brigandage, Cologne archbishop Rainald of Dassel got Paschal III elected as a pope.
Norman forces enabled Pope Alexander III to return to Rome in 1165. When Sicily's king William died the next year, his wife Margaret governed as regent. She made Stephen of Perche from France chancellor and archbishop of Palermo; but rebels captured him and made him leave the kingdom, establishing a ruling Council of Ten. The young king's tutor Walter Ophamil was made archbishop of Palermo; with the help of Matthew of Ajello he was able to promote the rule of King William II when he came of age. The coalition of Byzantines, Venetians, and Sicilians was able to control the Adriatic, because Pisa and Genoa were neutralized by mutual quarrels. Friedrich invaded Italy again and marched on Rome in 1167, defeating their militia. Friedrich believed he had conquered Rome until a deadly epidemic seemed to punish his pride. After more than 2,000 of his men died, including Archbishop Rainald, Friedrich of Swabia, Duke Welf VII, and the bishops of Liege, Spires, Ratisbon, and Verden, the Germans withdrew. The Lombards constructed a new city and named it Alessandria after the Pope. In December 1167 fifteen cities, including Venice, formed the Greater Lombard League. Alexander was recognized as far away as Denmark; but Friedrich nonetheless had Calixtus III elected after Paschal died in 1168. Even Pavia succumbed to the Lombard League.
Friedrich invaded Italy yet again in 1174, destroying Susa; but his siege of Alessandria the next year failed. On May 29, 1176 at Legnano the Germans' imperial army was defeated by the Lombards. In a treaty at Anagni later that year Friedrich's envoys met Alexander and agreed to recognize him as Pope and to restore Church property or pay restitution while recognizing its right to appoint the prefect of Rome. Friedrich and his son King Henry promised Sicily peace for fifteen years and the Lombards a truce for six years. The next year at Venice Friedrich and Alexander met in person and with the Lombards and Normans agreed on a formal peace treaty. After some more resistance in Rome the last "anti-Pope" was sequestered in the abbey of Cava.
In 1179 Alexander presided over the Third Lateran Council that proclaimed the rights and privileges of the Church, prohibited abuses, annulled the ordinances of the anti-popes, and declared that papal elections should require a two-thirds vote in order to reduce the chance of a schism. The Council also authorized a crusade against the Albigensian heretics of Toulouse and prohibited Christian burial to men killed in tournaments. Alexander died in 1181 and was succeeded by Pope Lucius III, who mediated another peace agreement in 1183 at Constance that recognized sovereign rights of the empire as long as they did not interfere with the freedom of the republics. Cities were allowed to elect their own officials and administer their own laws. All offenses were forgiven; all penalties were annulled; and prisoners were exchanged.
William II of Sicily had furthered diplomatic relations in 1177 by marrying Joan, daughter of England's king Henry II, and in 1184 he betrothed Roger's daughter Constance to Friedrich's son Henry. Florentines spent four years completing a new wall to enclose the exposed suburbs and completed it in 1176. After the Uberti revolted in 1177, Florence suffered a civil war for three years. In 1180 Count Guido Guerra of the Guidi clan tried to calm the violence by marrying Guadrada, and while living he had good relations with the commune; but Alberti hostility caused a citizen army to storm the castle of Mangona in 1184, capturing the Count and forcing him to recognize the jurisdiction of the republic. During his fairly peaceful visit to Tuscany in 1185 Friedrich I imposed imperial potestates, but Pope Lucius would not crown his son Henry emperor. Lucius was succeeded by Pope Urban III (1185-1187), who revived the papal-imperial conflict. In 1184 Sicily had declared war on the Byzantine empire, but the next year they were defeated marching on Constantinople. In the next few years the urgency of the third crusade distracted knights from local affairs. William II volunteered for the third crusade, but he died in 1189.
Palermo archbishop Walter wanted Constance to rule; but Matthew of Ajello managed to get Tancred elected and became his chancellor. Crusading Richard from England complained that Joan was being deprived of her inheritance and forced Tancred to give her 20,000 ounces of gold and himself the same amount in exchange for upholding Tancred's rule. However, Heinrich VI aimed to claim Constance's rights by force. In 1191 Henry renewed a treaty with Pisa, and Germans invaded southern Italy. While Naples was under siege, Salerno submitted, enabling Empress Constance to occupy its royal palace. When the Germans withdrew after an epidemic, the people of Salerno repented and handed Constance over to Tancred. Pope Celestine III (1191-1198) persuaded Tancred to free Constance. In 1194 Heinrich VI made a treaty with the Lombard towns and gained the support of the Pisan and Genoese fleets. After Tancred died, Henry's forces were able to storm Salerno and conquer the Sicilian kingdom; Henry was crowned king of Sicily on Christmas Day 1194. The eclectic Sicilian society of Italians, Greeks, Saracens, and Normans was now ruled by a German.
Economic development and increased urbanization along with attempts to balance the power of feudal aristocrats and church authorities were some of the factors that led to communes in western Europe. Communes were organized as private associations for the common advantage of those swearing to them and to maintain peace. Sometimes they were helped by royal charters or ecclesiastical support; other times these authorities prevented or limited communes. Saint-Quentin gained an early charter in 1102 and extended its privileges with a democratic constitution and much independence under a mayor. Bishop Baudry proclaimed a commune in Noyons about 1108.
Abbot Guibert of Nogent described in his Memoirs turbulent events in Laon. In 1110 a conspiracy organized by Bishop Gaudry murdered crusader and convent-protector Gérard of Quierzy while he was praying in church. Believing Gaudry was guilty, King Louis VI ordered the bishop's palace despoiled. Despite Guibert's advice Bishop Gaudry excommunicated those who had taken goods from the fled murderers; but public pressure compelled the bishop eventually to excommunicate the murderers themselves. Guibert wrote that the word "commune" was "a new and evil name," but people organized it as a way to replace all servile taxes with one lump sum paid annually. The bishop agreed to respect the rights of the commune according to the charters of Noyon and Saint-Quentin, and the people bribed the king to swear to it. Bishop Gaudry next had a bailiff of the peasants, also named Gérard, blinded. On Maundy Thursday in 1112 Bishop Gaudry persuaded some burghers to bribe King Louis to dissolve the commune. An angry mob protested and shouted "Commune." Thiégaud dragged the bishop from his palace and killed him. In the chaos that followed other nobles were killed, and many were tortured to death. Thomas of Marle defended the commune of Laon, but the next year they were suppressed by the forces of King Louis. Thiégaud was captured and hanged by Enguerrand's knights two years after the bishop's murder.
After the destruction at Laon the people, burghers, and bishop of Amiens formed a commune by "bribing" (Guibert's term) King Louis. In southern France the government was often consular. Marseilles was a republic with consuls for a while in the early 12th century, and consular government was recognized at Arles in 1131. The inhabitants of Vézelay gained a more equitable taxation system in 1137. Rouen acquired a charter from Geoffrey Plantagenet in 1145. Rheims archbishop Samson (1140-1161) favored a commune to gain the support of the people; but his successor attacked the judicial rights of the burgesses and was driven out in 1167. Often the commune took its place as a powerful agent in the feudal hierarchy and was able to control local administration and finances. People were drawn to assemblies by the belfry, and the common seal stamped all public documents.
Flanders count Robert II (r. 1093-1111) gained a fief of 500 pounds annually from England's King Henry I in 1103 and agreed to support Henry while still giving fealty to King Philip I of France. Robert helped Henry conquer Normandy from his older brother Robert Curthose, and the alliance was renewed in 1110. Robert prohibited the building of fortifications without his permission and proclaimed the peace of God, protecting markets. Flanders count Baldwin VII (r. 1111-1119) with the support of the towns was able to defeat his rebelling mother Clementia and the count of Hainault, who were supported by William of Ypres. Baldwin abolished judicial duels in 1116. As Charles, the son of Knud of Denmark and Robert the Frisian's daughter, gained prominence at court, Baldwin turned to William Clito, son of Robert Curthose. When Henry I refused to recognize William as duke of Normandy, Baldwin invaded and died of an infected wound. Before he died, he selected the Danish Charles as his successor.
In France King Philip I was succeeded by Louis VI (r. 1108-1137), who began his reign by using force to subdue the crimes of Hugh of Crecy. War between France and England that would last two decades began in 1109 when Louis challenged Henry I to single combat over disputed territory. In 1110 Louis made Aymon Vaire-Vache restore Bourbon after he had refused to appear at court. Louis was urged by both Bishop Ivo of Chartres and his friend Suger, Abbot at St. Denis, to prevent such violations of the peace. In 1111 Theobald of Blois went over to England's side with a strong coalition of barons, and Louis had to yield Maine and Brittany in a treaty two years later. By 1114 international fairs were being held in Champagne at Bar-sur-Aube and Troyes. Weekly markets and annual fairs were great boons to commerce in the 12th century.
Starting in 1116 frequent battles occurred in the Vexin, and at Rheims in 1119 Pope Calixtus II condemned England's Henry for imprisoning Robert Curthose and arresting Robert of Belleme. In the peace agreement the next year Henry's son William Atheling gave Louis homage for the duchy of Normandy. After William died in the White Ship disaster of 1120, Louis led forces to expel Henry from Normandy in order to replace him with William Clito. Henry turned to Germany; but in 1124 both were discouraged by the massive French army Louis raised. When Count William VI of Auvergne drove out the Bishop of Clermont in 1122, Louis used an army to bring the bishop back. Bernard of Clairvaux criticized Suger for turning the abbey of St. Denis into a worldly palace for knights and even women; but in 1127 Suger instituted drastic reforms in the monastery. Suger completed a Romanesque church at St. Denis in 1136 that was one of the first to use the Gothic pointed arches and rose windows. He argued that most people need to see material beauty in order to understand the beauty of God. The 12th century was the beginning of the great cathedrals that reflected the importance of the established religion.
Flanders count Charles (r. 1119-1127) extended protection to the weak and tillers of the soil, outlawing the bearing arms in markets or towns. During two years of famine starting in 1124 Charles fed a hundred paupers a day in Bruges and made provisions for other towns. The Count ordered that anyone sowing two measures of grain should also sow a measure of peas and beans for a quick yield and to nourish the soil. He criticized the men of Ghent who let the poor die on their doorsteps, and he prohibited the brewing of beer so that there would be more bread. According to the monk Galbert of Bruges, who wrote a detailed account in The Murder of Charles the Good, Charles declined the crown of Jerusalem in 1123 and the imperial crown of Germany two years later. In 1127 he allowed knights to pay scutage in lieu of military service. In at least 34 charters Charles supported the liberties of the church. Provost Bertulf began to resent the Danish count Charles, and in 1127 a feud broke out between his nephews and those of Thancmar. Count Charles punished the fighting and pillaging of Bertulf's nephew Borsiard by burning his house and promised him a better house if he would stop fighting.
Borsiard and others plotted with the Erembald clan and murdered Charles on March 2, 1127 along with his counselor Walter of Loker and the castellan of Bourbourg. A week later citizens of Bruges led by Gervaise besieged the castle, and barons swore to support them in a league. The castle was stormed, but the citizens looted and turned against Thancmar as Bertulf fled. King Louis VI of France summoned the barons to Arras, and they elected William Clito as count. Count William granted charters to towns and had Bertulf put to death. A siege of Ypres captured William of Ypres, and Borsiard was left to die fixed to a tree. Count William ordered an inquiry into the murder of Charles but alienated the burghers of Bruges by demanding a toll. England's king Henry I opposed William and sent money for bribes to Ghent. Thierry of Alsace gained the support of people at Ghent by promising to support the privileges William had promised but not fulfilled. Then in March 1128 Thierry was elected count by the barons and burghers at Bruges. France's Louis still supported William Clito, and a partisan struggle raged in Flanders until William was killed in the siege of Aalst in June 1128. Count Thierry visited the towns and was invested by the kings of France and England with the fiefs and benefices that Charles had held.
Louis VI arranged for his son Louis to marry Eleanor of Aquitane in 1137 and died later that year while Louis VII (r. 1137-1180) was taking possession of Aquitane. In 1141 Louis lost a struggle over who should be the next archbishop of Bourges when Pope Innocent II consecrated Peter in Rome and put an interdict on towns sheltering the king. Count Theobald had opposed Louis, and they quarreled again when the Seneschal of France, Count Ralph of Vermandois, repudiated his wife, Theobald's niece, in order to marry Eleanor's sister Alice. In anger Louis captured and burned Vitry-sur-Marne, and 1300 people perished in a church. Louis was so horrified by this that penitence led him to take up the cross on the second crusade. In 1143 Bernard of Clairvaux had mediated a settlement whereby Louis withdrew from Champagne. When Louis took control of part of it, Theobald formed a league with the counts of Flanders and Soissons; but again Bernard and Suger persuaded the king to depart, abandon Ralph, and accept Peter as archbishop of Bourges. While his wife Matilda was fighting King Stephen in England, Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou gradually started conquering Normandy in 1136, finally taking Rouen in 1144.
The pious Louis VII was persuaded by Bernard of Clairvaux to go on the second crusade and left in June 1147 with a large army. Suger ruled as regent in his absence in a time of peace. When Robert de Dreux and other nobles came back from the crusade before Louis, Suger wrote to his king to come home and restrain these disturbers of the peace. Returning Louis complained when Geoffrey besieged his Poitou seneschal Gerald. After Suger died in 1151, Louis proposed Stephen's son Eustace of Boulogne as a rival to Count Geoffrey of Anjou and his son Henry. They attacked successfully; but after suffering an illness, Louis agreed to accept the return of Gisors and the Vexin. Louis and his wife Eleanor had become alienated after her affair at Antioch with Raymond, and their marriage was annulled legally for consanguinity in 1152; but the main reason may have been that she had borne only two daughters, and Louis wanted to marry again to have a son. When she married Henry of Anjou two months later, the large province of Aquitane went with her. Louis took up arms but soon agreed to a truce. Louis let Henry take Brittany by appointing him Seneschal of France. Henry also betrothed his three-year-old son Henry to Louis' infant daughter Margaret, and the wedding was even celebrated two years later so that Henry could claim the Vexin.
King Louis granted a charter of privileges to the town of Lorris in 1155 that limited their taxes and protected them from tolls. Those going to markets and fairs could not be arrested unless it was for something done that day. Corvée labor was limited to twice a year when wine needed to be carried to Orleans. Prisoners were allowed bail, and burghers could sell their own property. In 1162 Count Henry of Champagne tried to get Louis VII to support Pope Victor IV by threatening to go over to the German empire; but England's Henry II feared a German-French alliance and appeared with his forces to rescue Louis from this dilemma, enabling him to continue his support of Pope Alexander III. King Louis gave refuge to Thomas Becket when he fled England. War between England and France broke out again in 1167, but two years later Louis and Henry met and made peace. When Eleanor roused her sons to challenge their father Henry II in 1173, Louis joined the coalition; but he asked pardon of England's king after retreating from Rouen the next year.
Like his father, Louis VII tried to suppress violence within his realm. In 1163 and 1169 he defended the canons of Clermont and Brioude from the depredations of the counts of Auvergne. When the Count of Chalon refused to appear after taking property from the monastery at Cluny in 1166, Louis confiscated his territory. In 1173 the Viscount of Polignac was imprisoned for crimes against the canons of Le Puy. Both Louis VI and Louis VII fought to control the barons and often left offices vacant for many years. For example, Louis VII had no chancellor from 1172 to 1179. Instead of depending on powerful barons, they hired less aristocratic administrators and often relied on well educated clerics such as Abbot Suger, who had been able to replace the influence of Stephen of Garlande. Suger had advised that it was dangerous to change personnel too often, because those replaced carried off as much as they could, and the new ones figured they had better steal their fortune quickly.
Serfs in Flanders had some economic allowances but were not free legally to request trial by combat. The Erembalds as former serfs were in the class of knights called ministeriales; but after the events of 1127 the ministeriales were no longer accepted as nobles in Flemish society. Thierry of Alsace decreed an amnesty and married the daughter of a Flemish noble. Count Thierry governed a peaceful and prosperous Flanders except when Baldwin IV of Hainault invaded in 1148. Thierry went on crusade four times, and in 1157 he left his son Philip in charge. Young Philip was assisted by Chancellor Robert of Aire. In his charter for Nieuwpoort in 1163 Philip of Alsace declared that all those in towns are free, and this principle became a part of later urban constitutions. Philip gained Vermandois from his wife Elizabeth when she was punished for adultery in 1164. Relations with Hainault improved when in 1169 Philip's sister Margaret married Baldwin V of Hainault (r. 1171-1195). In 1173 Philip of Alsace helped young Henry attacked his father Henry II in Normandy. When Henry II won the war the next year, the Flemish were expelled from England.
Champagne was controlled by Count Henri of Troyes, who in 1172 had about 1900 knights in 26 castellanies. Philip II, later called Augustus by the contemporary chronicler Rigord, was anointed king by the Archbishop of Rheims in November 1179 at the age of 14. His father Louis VII died the following September. In April 1180 Flanders count Philip of Alsace strengthened his alliance with France by arranging for King Philip II to marry Isabella, daughter of his sister Margaret and Baldwin V; but the large dowry of Artois would come back to France after Count Philip's death. At Gisors in June 1180 King Philip renewed his father's treaty with Henry II, agreeing to submit Berry to arbitration. Although his father Louis VII had protected them, Philip II captured the Jews in their synagogues, seized their gold, silver, and vestments, and then canceled all Christians' debts to them, retaining a fifth for himself. Philip thus gained operating revenue, but later he could not exploit the Jews exiled.
Flanders count Philip of Alsace helped prosecute heretics in an 1182 trial at Arras, and English chronicler Coggeshall wrote that he persecuted Cathars more than anyone else of that era. When Count Philip married the daughter of King Alfonso I of Portugal in 1183, he tried to give her some of Isabella's dowry; Flanders lost a short war with France when Baldwin V of Hainault supported Isabella. In 1183 a brotherhood of white-caped friends of peace called capuciati or pacifici sprung up in Puy-en-Velay led by the carpenter Durand Dujardin. The growing movement soon turned to suppressing and massacring mercenaries. As it became a revolution demanding equality, it was opposed by clergy and nobles, who within three years used mercenaries to destroy it.
After invading Flanders in 1184, the next year King Philip doubled the royal domain of France when the treaty of Boves gave him Amiens and other northeastern territory. He suppressed the office of chancellor to prevent the magnates from controlling him. Philip II's campaign against the Angevin territory of Henry II in 1186 ended in a truce the following year. Philip claimed Geoffrey's son Arthur as his ward, and he demanded back the Vexin and his still unmarried sister Alice, who had been promised to Richard. Hostilities continued, and in 1188 Richard Coeur de Lion did homage to Philip for Normandy and Aquitane, breaking the spirit of Richard's father Henry II, who retreated, submitted, and died the next year. In 1190 after the family of a murdered a Jew got the countess of Champagne to approve the hanging of the murderer during the Purim festival, King Philip was aroused and with a force of men surrounded the houses of the Jews. Nearly a hundred Jews were burned to death, and only children were spared. A few days later Philip was consecrated for the holy crusade to Palestine.
The kings Philip and Richard became close friends and went on crusade together in 1190. Philip had raised considerable revenues in France from the Saladin tax of one-tenth of moveables and income until the church persuaded him to repeal it in 1189. During his absence Philip appointed the queen mother Adele of Champagne and her brother Guillaume, Archbishop of Rheims, as regents. Hundreds of French knights were killed on the third crusade, including important vassals of King Philip such as Flanders count Philip and his own brothers Count Thibaut of Blois and Count Etienne of Sancerre. Their nephew, Count Henri of Troyes, remained in Palestine and died there in 1198. Thus the returning Philip was able to take possession of Artois and part of Vermandois. Queen Isabella gave birth to Louis in 1187 but died in child-birth three years later. Philip Augustus married Ingeborg, sister of King Knud VI of Denmark, in 1193; but within two months he got a council in Compiegne to annul it. Queen Ingeborg appealed to Pope Celestine III, who canceled the council's decision in 1195. Nonetheless the next year Philip married Agnes of Meran, daughter of a Bavarian duke. For this reason Pope Innocent III would put France under interdict in January 1200.
Although England's John did homage to Philip at Paris in 1193 for Normandy and other Angevin land, Philip invaded Normandy the same year, taking Gisors. After her long engagement to Richard, in 1195 Philip married his half-sister Alice to Count Guillaume of Ponthieu in order to secure more Flemish land. After Richard's release from captivity, his campaigns forced Philip to sign the peace of Gaillon in 1196. Incursions continued, and Philip was nearly drowned with other retreating French knights when a bridge collapsed at Gisors in 1198. Flanders and Hainault had been united under Baldwin IX (r. 1194-1206), who sided with England's Richard in a war with France in 1197. When his brother was captured, Baldwin had to renounce the alliance with England, but after advances he was able to regain most of Artois in the treaty of Péronne in 1200. King Philip was negotiating a treaty when Richard died in 1199, and his French court recognized the rights of the succeeding John.
Offering more justice and an abolition of unlawful taxes, the Almoravids had crossed over from North Africa to the Iberian peninsula with a reported 12,000 men in 1086 and defeated the army of Alfonso VI. Five years later these Muslims took Cordoba, the Guadalquivir valley, and Seville; but they were defeated by El Cid in 1094 and 1097. The Taifa kings had depended on mercenary soldiers, but the religious zeal of the Almoravids won over the Muslim judges (qadis) of Andalusia. The governors' viziers were expected to visit the qadis twice a day for advice. The status of Jews declined under Almoravid rule, and many of the Mozarebs (Christian Arabs) were suspected and deported to Morocco.
Alfonso VI (r. 1065-1109) had reunited Leon with Castile, and in 1095 he assigned Portugal to be governed by his daughter Teresa and her husband Henriques, brother of Duke Eudes (Odo) of Burgundy. Aragon's Pedro I (r. 1094-1104) besieged Huesca and defeated al-Mustain of Zaragoza in 1096, making the latter his capital until the Murabits regained it. After besieging Barbastro for more than a year, the fortress surrendered to Pedro in 1100. Pedro was succeeded in Aragon by his brother Alfonso I (r. 1104-1134), who was known as the Warrior for his many conquests. Alfonso VI made his administrator Diego Gelmirez bishop of Santiago in 1101. El Cid had died in 1099; but his widow Jimena held onto Valencia until 1102 when it was surrendered to the Murabits. When Count Raymond of Galicia died in 1107, he was succeeded by his widow Urraca, daughter of Alfonso VI. Leon was defeated by the Murabit army in a bloody battle at Uclés in 1108, and Alfonso VI's only son Sancho was killed. Before he died in 1109 Alfonso VI married his daughter Urraca (r. 1109-1126) to Alfonso I (1104-1134) of Aragon.
The Castilian nobility refused to accept an Aragonese sovereign, and Urraca quarreled with Alfonso I, causing their kingdoms to separate. Within six months of the break Queen Urraca ruled Castile, Leon, Rioja, and part of Galicia. Galician nobility led by Santiago bishop Diego Gelmirez tried to crown Urraca's son Alfonso Raimundez king of Galicia in 1110, resulting in a civil war, complicated by Henriques's fighting to maintain his rule in Portugal. Count Henriques of Portugal lost Santarem to the Murabits in 1111; but the same year near Sepulveda he defeated Castile's army and personally killed Count Gomez Gonzalez as Count Pedro Gonzalez of Lara fled back to the queen at Burgos. However, Count Henriques died the next year and was succeeded by his widow Teresa, who retained control of Portugal, Zamora, and Extremadura. Aragon's Alfonso I had taken over much of Castile, Leon, and the region beyond the Duero; Toledo even recognized him. Castile regained Burgos from Aragon in 1113, and Pope Paschal II helped Urraca quell a revolt at Sahagun in 1116. The war between Castile and Aragon concluded in 1117 with a truce made at the Council of Burgos. Urraca formally associated her son Alfonso Raimundez in her government now that he was 12, granting him Toledo and the trans-Duero.
Count Ramon Berenguer III (r. 1097-1131) of Barcelona was married to a daughter of the Cid, and he took Balaguer from the Muslims in 1106 and annexed Provence in 1112. The Almoravid empire was ruled by Yusuf ibn Tashfin until he died and was succeeded by his son 'Ali ibn Yusuf (r. 1106-1143). His army attacked Uclés in 1108 and Zaragoza the next year; this last Taifa state was conquered by the Almoravids in 1110. Lisbon and Santarem were occupied two years later, and the Almoravid navy took over the Balearic Islands in 1114. Aided by the navy of Pisa, Berenguer invaded the Balearic Islands the next year, and Alfonso I of Aragon reconquered Zaragoza in 1118.
Queen Urraca had to face a revolt at home and was besieged at Leon in 1119, but she survived. The next year she tried to terminate the honor of Santiago and reclaim its castles; she even had Archbishop Gelmirez arrested but released him after eight days when riots forced her to take refuge in the cathedral. In 1121 after negotiations broke down, Urraca raised an army to invade Galicia; but facing excommunication and an interdict from Pope Calixtus II and an army raised by Gelmirez and by her young son Alfonso Raimundez, the Queen and the Archbishop made peace to prevent bloodshed. Gelmirez maintained control over west central Galicia and retained most of his castles. That year Pope Calixtus confirmed the authority of the see at Braga over Galicia and Portugal, and he recognized Toledo archbishop Bernard (1085-1125) as primate over all Spain except for Braga and Compostela. In 1123 Queen Urraca exerted her personal control by imprisoning the powerful Count Pedro Froilaz and isolating Gelmirez. The next year Castile reconquered Siguenza, Atienza, and Medinaceli. In 1125 Gelmirez excommunicated a burgher of Compostela and fought a brief war against Fernando Juanes, a partisan of Teresa. Urraca died in 1126 and was succeeded as sovereign of Castile and Leon by her son Alfonso VII.
The Warrior Alfonso I of Aragon invaded eastern Andalusia and in 1126 brought back 14,000 Mozarabs to settle conquered territory south of the Ebro. Castile's Alfonso VII (r. 1126-1157) began his reign by gaining an alliance with Barcelona by marrying Berengaria, daughter of Count Ramon Berenguer III in 1127 and by making peace with Teresa of Portugal so that he could try to recover eastern Castile from Alfonso I of Aragon. When Teresa conspired with Fernando Peres of Trava, Portuguese nobles supporting her son Afonso Henriques banished her in 1128. Alfonso VII regained most of the territories lost to Aragon by 1131; but Rioja was not conquered until after Alfonso I died without an heir while trying to take a castle in Lérida in 1134. A period of turmoil in Aragon also enabled Navarre under King Garcia IV (r. 1134-1150) to become independent before doing homage to Alfonso VII after he invaded Navarre and the Basque provinces. Alfonso VII was crowned emperor in 1135 and seized Aragon's capital at Zaragoza the next year. Aragon was ruled by Alfonso I's brother, the monk Ramiro II (r. 1134-1137), until Ramiro's daughter Petronila married Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona, who got Zaragoza back in 1140 and ruled Aragon as regent until 1162.
In Morocco a new movement was led by ibn Tumart, who was born there about 1080 but was educated in Andalusia and by the famous al-Ghazzali in Baghdad. When they heard that al-Ghazzali's great book, The Revival of the Religious Sciences, had been publicly burned by the Almoravids, the philosopher prophesied that ibn Tumart would end their dynasty. Ibn Tumart returned to Marrakesh in 1120 and founded a sect based on the strict unity of God known as Muwahhidun, which the Spanish called Almohade, and the next year ibn Tumart was proclaimed the promised Mahdi. He criticized the moral laxity of the Almoravids and ridiculed the men for wearing veils though the women did not. He was supported by 'Umar Inti, leader of the important tribe of Hintata. Civil war raged for several years, and in 1130 al-Bashir carried out mass executions. That year an attack on Marrakesh failed, and ibn Tumart died. He left behind an inner Council of Ten, and a Council of Fifty made up of tribal leaders was added. These men became the basis of a new hereditary aristocracy as Almohad doctrines spread. The Caliph (successor) after ibn Tumart was 'Abd al-Mu'min (r. 1130-1163).
The Almoravid ruler Yusuf made his son Tashfin governor of Granada and Ameria in 1129. Tashfin gained Cordoba in 1131 and ruled Andalusia until 1138, when he was recalled to lead the fight against the Almohads in Morocco. Andalusians suffered under increased taxation. From 1137 to 1157 Alfonso VII spent much time and energy in the reconquista effort with military campaigns against the Muslims in fourteen of those years. Castile took advantage of Muslim conflicts by capturing Cordoba temporarily in 1144. Almohads from North Africa invaded Spain to support a local chief's independence in 1146 and took power from the Almoravids in western Andalusia. 'Abd al-Mu'min ordered administrative reforms, and a reported 30,000 people of less favored Berber tribes were executed. Cordoba submitted to the Caliph in 1149. Castile's army failed in sieges of Cordoba in 1150, Jaen in 1151, Guadix in 1152, and lost Almeria in 1157. Alfonso VII married his son Sancho in 1151 to Blanca, daughter of Sancho VI (r. 1150-1194), who by doing homage to Alfonso was recognized as king of Navarre, preventing the dismemberment of his kingdom by Castile and Aragon. Alfonso VII married the Polish princess Rica in 1152, and his daughter Constanza married Louis VII of France in 1154. 'Abd al-Mu'min appointed his fourteen sons to govern provinces, establishing his dynasty. The Almohads reconquered Almeria and defeated the army of Murcia's ibn Mardanish in 1157.
When Alfonso VII died in 1157, his kingdom was divided between his two sons; Sancho III ruled Castile for only a year while Fernando II (r. 1157-1188) began his reign over Leon. Civil war raged in Castile between the Castro and Lara families, and Muslims seized the opportunity to advance. Alcantara was saved by the heroic Abbot of Fitero, and the monk Fray Diego Velazquez preached a Castilian crusade. The Knights of Calatrava had been founded in 1147, and this Military Order was confirmed by Pope Alexander III in 1164. Alfonso VIII was proclaimed king of Castile in 1166 at age eleven in Toledo. He came of age in 1170 when he married Eleanor, daughter of England's Henry II and gained Gascony as dowry. The Knights of Santiago de Compostela were founded the next year to protect that famous shrine in Galicia.
Ibn Mardanish of Murcia still challenged Almohad rule in several battles. The next Almohad caliph was Abu Ya'qub Yusuf (r. 1163-1184). He valued books and patronized the philosophers ibn Tufayl and Averroes. The Caliph visited Seville in 1171, and the next year ibn Mardanish died, deserted by his followers. Caliph Yusuf did not return to Morocco until 1176, but his departure with many Almohad aristocrats weakened their power in Andalusia. He appointed his sons to govern the major cities of Seville, Cordoba, Granada, and Murcia. Yusuf was mortally wounded fighting the Portuguese at Santarem and died at Seville in 1184. The next caliph, like his father, was also called Ya'qub (r. 1184-1199), but he became known as al-Mansur after his tremendous victory over the Christians at Alarcos in 1196.
After defeating the Muslims at Ourique (a battle some historians consider legendary) in 1139, Afonso Henriques (r. 1128-1185) proclaimed himself king of Portugal; he was recognized as the vassal of Castile's Alfonso VII in 1143. Afonso removed the Portuguese church from being under Toledo when he got Pope Alexander III to declare the Archbishop of Braga the primate of Portugal. English, French, German, and Flemish crusaders helped Afonso take Santarém and Lisbon from the Muslims in 1147. Portugal's King Afonso Henriques invaded Muslim territories in Estremadura and Alentejo, taking Alcacer-do-Sal in 1158 and Cezimbra and Palmella in 1165. Afonso promised Pope Alexander III tribute for protection in 1179. Templars of Calatrava and Santiago governed from castles on the frontier in struggles with the Almohads, and Cistercian monks improved agriculture. Afonso was succeeded by his son Sancho I (r. 1185-1211), who granted charters to towns and enfranchised Muslims that were not enslaved. Sancho's army with help from crusaders captured Silves in Algarve in 1189, but two years later the Muwahhidun army from Africa regained it. Both Afonso and Sancho I must have taxed Portugal heavily, because they left an enormous treasury of gold.
King Alfonso II (r. 1162-1196) united Catalonia with his kingdom of Aragon, and he settled disputes with Alfonso VIII (r. 1158-1214) of Castile and helped him recover territory he had lost to Navarre in Rioja. These two Alfonsos also attacked the Muslims and founded the city of Teruel in 1171. Two years later Fernando of Leon defeated the Almohads at Ciudad Roderigo, and in 1177 his forces attacked the gates of Seville. That year Alfonso VIII captured Cuenca after a long siege while the Leonese king invaded Estremadura. Also in 1177 England's king Henry II of Anjou arbitrated a dispute between Castile and Navarre's King Sancho VI. Aragon's Alfonso II had helped at Cuenca, and in 1179 the two Alfonsos signed a treaty dividing future conquests of Muslim territory. Alfonso VIII also made a treaty with Leon's Fernando the next year. Meanwhile the Archbishop of Toledo led the new Order of Knights on raids against Muslims in the region of Cordoba and Jaen. To pay for his wars Alfonso II levied a new property tax on the nobles of Aragon, but their united effort got the tax reduced.
Leonese king Alfonso IX (r. 1188-1230) convened the first royal council (Cortes) of nobles and prelates at Leon in 1188. Castile and Aragon invaded Algeciras in 1194; but from fear of his ambition, Alfonso VIII was abandoned by allies, and at Alarcos near Toledo in 1196 he was defeated by a large Muslim army, killing many Castilian knights. The conflict between Castile and Leon was reconciled in 1198 when Alfonso IX of Leon married Berenguela, the daughter of his cousin Alfonso VIII, who attacked Sancho VII (r. 1194-1234) of Navarre and annexed three Basque provinces into his Castile in 1200.
Denmark's King Erik Ejegod (r. 1095-1103) enforced the law and destroyed the stronghold of pirates at Jomsburg. Erik left on a pilgrimage to the holy land in 1103 and never returned, and an archbishopric for Scandinavia was established at Lund the next year. Erik had left his son Harold to govern; but he was so unpopular that the nobles elected his uncle Niels as king. Niels (r. 1104-1134) appointed Erik's son Knud Lavard duke of Jutland. Knud's war against the powerful Wend, King Henry of the Abodrites, was popular because it defended Denmark; but Knud alienated Niels' son Magnus, who assassinated him in 1131. In the ensuing civil war Magnus was defeated and killed in 1134 by the army led by Knud's brother Erik Emune; five bishops and sixty priests were also killed. King Niels fled to Slesvig, where he was murdered by members of the late Knud's brotherhood. Erik Emune was king for three years. He put to death his brother Harold and eleven of Harold's sons; but the twelfth, Olaf, escaped to Sweden. Erik attacked the pirate stronghold of Arkona; but while presiding over an assembly he was assassinated by a Jutland chief, who was avenging an executed relative.
Denmark's assembly chose the grandson of Erik Ejegod, who was called Erik the Lamb; but he had to fight Olaf, who was defeated and killed in 1143. However, attacks by Wend pirates so outraged public opinion that Erik was persuaded to retire to a monastery in 1147. That summer the two contenders for the throne of Denmark, Knud V and Sweyn III, put aside their quarrel to join the Saxons in a crusade against the Wends. Their younger brother Valdemar helped Sweyn drive out Knud, who took refuge with Emperor Conrad III. Knud returned as a vassal of the empire, causing more civil war. Friedrich Barbarossa tried to settle the dispute by recognizing Sweyn as king of Denmark but giving Knud Zealand as a fief. Sweyn refused, but Valdemar got them to agree to let Knud have domains in Jutland and Skane instead. Sweyn became unpopular when he adopted German customs and led a disastrous invasion of Sweden. Valdemar turned to Knud and forced Sweyn to accept the division of Denmark into three parts with Knud ruling the islands, Sweyn over Skane, and Valdemar governing Jutland and Slesvig. When Sweyn had Knud assassinated, Valdemar escaped a similar attempt. The people supported Valdemar, and the defeated Sweyn was decapitated as Valdemar was recognized as sole king in 1157.
Denmark's king Valdemar (r. 1157-1182) allied with Heinrich the Lion of Saxony against the Wends and did fealty to Emperor Friedrich. Lund archbishop Eskil persuaded Valdemar to attack the Rugians in 1159. Valdemar published the Skanian ecclesiastical laws in 1162 and the civil code the next year. After Nyklot's son Pribislav regained his father's lands in 1164 with an Abotrite revolt that destroyed a Saxon army, crusades in 1168 against the Wends enabled the Danes to conquer pagan Rügen and demolish its main temple at Arkona though Eskil got Valdemar to stop the plundering after the Wends had agreed to be baptized and pay tribute. Danish slaves were emancipated, and everyone was expected to accept Christianity as the land of the pagan priests was given to the Church. Henry of Saxony expected half and even encouraged the Wagrians, Abotrites, and Liutizians to fight the Danes, but Valdemar paid him off in 1171.
The king's friend Bishop Absalon of Roskilde, who welcomed Cistercians, crowned Valdemar's son Knud. New laws for Zealand were promulgated in 1171. Absalon became archbishop of Lund in 1178 but remained prime minister. When Valdemar died in 1182, Absalon acted as regent for Knud and threw off subservience to Germany by invading the Slavs in Pomerania and Mecklenberg, destroying the Liutizian-Pomeranian fleet in 1184. Knud's brother, Count Valdemar of Jutland, defeated the Count of Holstein and annexed his land. The Danes invaded Finland in 1191, Estonia in 1194 and 1197, and the Finns again in 1202.
Norway's king Magnus III (r. 1093-1103) was called Bareleg
for dressing like a Scot. He was warlike and would not let his
cousin Haakon rule the north as his father Magnus the Good had
let Harald the Hardruler. Magnus III resented Haakon's suspension
of taxes that shrunk his royal income but had to retreat when
the region raised armed forces. Haakon then dismissed his army
but died of illness. The civil war was continued by Tore and Egil
until they were defeated and hanged by Magnus, who killed many
and burned houses for what he considered treason. He conquered
the Orkney islands in 1098, capturing and sending its two earls
to Norway and putting his eight-year-old son Sigurd in charge
of the islands. Next the forces of Magnus plundered the Hebrides
and attacked Wales. He made a treaty with Malcolm of Scotland,
gaining the western islands. In 1100 Magnus went to war in the
east with Swedish king Ingi, but the next year he married Ingi's
daughter Margaret. Magnus was disliked for the heavy taxes used
to pay for his wars. He invaded Ireland, capturing Dublin and
most of Ulster; he demand cattle from King Moriartak but was killed
trying to collect them.
The three sons of Magnus were proclaimed kings. Olaf IV died before
he was old enough to rule, and Norway was divided between Eystein
I (r. 1103-1122), and Sigurd I (r. 1103-1130). They developed
the church by imposing tithes, founding the first Norwegian monastery
and building cathedrals. In 1107 Sigurd went on an illustrious
crusade to Palestine for four years while Eystein governed and
continued the building program. After Eystein died, Sigurd planned
to invade Sweden with his Danish allies under King Niels; but
when the Danes did not come, the Norwegians plundered Tumartorp
and Kalmar before raiding Smaaland for cattle and to force pagans
to convert. After 1130 Norway suffered frequent civil wars for
more than a century over who should be king.
Harald Gille came from Ireland claiming that he was a son of Magnus
Bareleg and convinced King Sigurd by walking over hot plowshares.
In 1130 Sigurd's son Magnus was proclaimed king by the Thing
at Oslo; but Harald Gille broke his oath when he claimed to be
king over half of Norway at Tunsberg. After three years of co-existence
they fought at Fyrileif, and Harald's army fled. Harald went to
King Erik Emune in Denmark and was given Halland as a fief. Magnus
forgave the rebels and disbanded his army; but Harald invaded
Bergen and captured King Magnus, blinding and castrating him and
cutting off one foot; the mutilated Magnus went into a monastery
near Nidaros. Harald Gille then ruled all Norway for a year until
Sigurd Slembe also claimed that he was a son of Magnus Bareleg,
and his conspiracy murdered Harald in his bed in 1136. When Sigurd
admitted that he murdered Harald, the nobles refused to make him
king but outlawed him and his men. Regents governed for the three
young sons of Harald Gille, and they defeated an alliance of Sigurd
Slembe and the blind Magnus with the Danes in 1139, killing both
leaders. Harald's sons Sigurd and Inge ruled Norway in peace.
When another son, Eystein, arrived from Scotland, he was given
a third of the Norwegian kingdom.
The English cardinal Nicholas Breakspear (who became Pope Adrian
IV) visited Norway as papal legate in 1152, establishing an archbishopric
at Nidaros (Trondheim) and instituting reforms. Bishops were now
elected by canonical communities instead of being appointed by
the king. The peace mediated by Nicholas gradually broke down
as a quarrel between King Eystein and King Sigurd resulted in
Sigurd being killed by Inge's men led by Gregorius Dagson in 1155.
After more conflict Eystein's men abandoned him, and he was murdered
by his brother-in-law in 1157. Rebels proclaiming Sigurd's son
Haakon were defeated by Inge's army led by Gregorius Dagson two
years later; but in 1161 Inge's forces were betrayed at Oslo,
and he was defeated and killed by the army of broad-shouldered
Haakon. Nobles in Bergen led by Earl Erling Skakke elected Erling's
young son Magnus, but he and Erling took refuge with King Valdemar
in Denmark. In a naval battle Haakon was defeated and killed at
Sekken in 1162. Archbishop Eystein crowned eight-year-old Magnus
V in 1164 when he promised to enforce the reforms, obey the Pope,
and grant privileges to the church. Erling administered the government
for his young son but reneged on his promise to cede Viken to
Denmark, causing sporadic conflict. Eystein II's grandson Olaf
was proclaimed king by Uplanders and defeated Erling once; but
Olaf had to flee to Denmark, where he died in 1169.
Erling then made peace with Denmark and was allowed to keep Viken
as King Valdemar's vassal. Another Eystein claimed to be the son
of a king and led a group called Birchlegs, but they were defeated
in 1177. Sverrir, who claimed to be an illegitimate son of Sigurd
Mund, the son of Harald Gille, was proclaimed king the same year
by nobles, and he was joined by bandits and Birchlegs. Two years
later his forces met and defeated the army of Erling and Magnus;
Erling and many court nobles were killed. King Magnus fled to
King Valdemar in Denmark while Archbishop Eystein went to England.
Occasional battles were fought in this civil war until Magnus
was defeated and killed at Fimreite in 1184 when 2,000 of his
men fell. King Sverrir (r. 1184-1202) had to quell several rebellions.
He repudiated the religious reforms and privileges. Most of the
bishops went into exile, and Sverrir was excommunicated. Sverrir's
brother Erik gained funds by a Viking-like raid on Rotala at the
mouth of the Dvina in 1186, capturing two Saxon cogs on the way
back. Archbishop Eystein returned in 1187; but his successor refused
to crown Sverrir and fled to Denmark in 1190. The last six years
of Sverrir's life were spent fighting rebels called Baglers, who
took control of the Oslo area. Sverrir wrote a history to justify
his policies.
Sweden was ruled by Stenkil's sons Ingi and Halsten from about 1080 though Ingi was overthrown for three years by his pagan brother-in-law Blotsven before regaining power. In 1101 King Magnus of Norway was betrothed to Ingi's daughter Margaret, who was named the peace maid for the agreement between them and Denmark's King Erik for peace and friendly cooperation. After Magnus fell from power two years later, she married the Dane king Niels. Sweden also established tithing and by 1120 had five bishops. Sverker became king about 1130 and ruled for about a quarter of a century until he was murdered, as Sweden also suffered civil war in this period. Sverker promoted the church and welcomed French monks. During the latter part of his reign Erik Jedvardsson was proclaimed king in Svealand and was believed to have crusaded in Finland before he was killed about 1160. Erik promulgated laws with strict punishment for offenses against the Christian religion. Sweden's first archbishop was established at Uppsala in 1164. Erik's son Knud came out of exile and became king of Sweden in 1167. He organized the church and fortified Stockholm before he died in 1196.
Iceland was the first Scandinavian country to introduce tithing in 1097. The althing of Iceland appointed a commission to revise its laws in 1117, and they were approved by a majority the following year. In Scandinavia laws gradually replaced the importance of kin as closer family relations replaced more distant ones. Guilds developed into an important institution in the 11th century. The early guilds were brotherhoods that tried to limit their members to those of good character and expelled those committing dishonorable actions. A member causing the death of another member must pay forty marks or be expelled as a felon. Members were expected to defend each other, and anyone witnessing the death of a member without doing so was expelled. If a member lost his money, his brothers contributed to him, and two at a time were expected to attend the sick. The guilds thus provided laws as well as important social and economic institutions until gradually royal and national laws took precedence. Towns often grew up around religious institutions as building projects attracted masons, carpenters, and smiths. The first Lateran council of 1123 ordered priests to repudiate their wives, but clerical celibacy was resisted in Scandinavia for another century.
In Hungary King Coloman (r. 1095-1116) provided passage to crusaders and promoted commerce. Coloman annexed Croatia and was crowned king there too; but in 1108 he granted Croatia constitutional independence and swore that he would allow no Magyars to go there without the Croatians' permission. Coloman had his brother and nephew blinded so that his son Stephen II (r. 1116-1131) could succeed him. In 1127 Stephen invaded Greek territory, taking Belgrade and Sofia; but his miserable reign was followed by the blinded nephew Bela II (r. 1131-1141). His son Geza II (r. 1141-1161) allowed the Saxons immigrating into Hungary and Transylvania to govern themselves with their own national assembly. Geza's son Stephen III (r. 1161-1173) had to struggle with his uncles Ladislas II and Stephen IV for the throne; but his brother Bela III (r. 1173-1196) was unchallenged. He moved closer to western culture by marrying Margaret of France, sister of Philip Augustus and widow of England's prince Henry, and Magyar students attended the university in Paris. Bela III pushed his frontiers north of the Carpathian mountains by fighting the Russians in Galicia (Halich), and his son Emeric (r. 1196-1204) struggled with his younger brother Andrew, who deposed Bela's son Ladislas III in 1205.
Bohemia was ruled by the Premyslid dynasty from the ninth century until 1306. Duke Bratislav was murdered in 1100 and was succeeded by his brother Borivoj until 1107, when civil war broke out. Poland's Boleslav invaded in support of Vladislav's brother Sobeslav; but in the settlement Vladislav was recognized as duke and became cup-bearer to German Emperor Heinrich V in 1114, thus an imperial elector. Bohemia adopted Latin, and chronicler Cosmas wrote the history of Bohemia to 1125. An attempt in 1143 to make the clergy celibate was resisted in Bohemia and did not become effective for another century. Duke Vladislav II (r. 1140-1173) supported Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa in his campaign to capture Milan in 1158 and was crowned king that year at Ratisbon.
In 1173 Vladislav II abdicated so that his son Friedrich could rule; but during civil wars in the next 24 years feudal magnates and the German emperor chose ten different rulers. In 1182 Emperor Friedrich settled a dispute over the throne by summoning both claimants to Ratisbon and declaring his namesake Friedrich duke of Bohemia and Conrad Otto duke of Moravia. Five years later the Emperor made the Prague bishop, who was of the Premyslid family, independent of the local prince as an imperial fief. The dukes still had great power and wealth as they exploited many slaves until the 13th century. Bishop Henry Bretislav of Prague became Duke of Bohemia in 1193 and conquered Moravia; but when he died in 1197, the sons of King Vladislav cooperated as Premysl Ottokar became king of Bohemia and Vladislav Henry was made Margrave of Moravia.
In Poland Wladyslaw I Herman (r. 1079-1102) was dominated by the German empire and lost recent conquests to Russia during civil wars. His son Boleslav III (r. 1102-1138) became king by defeating his older brothers in battle, and he expelled his half-brother Zbigniew in 1107. Zbigniew gained Czechs and pagans as allies; but in 1109 he was defeated by King Boleslav and Emperor Henry V. Zbigniew was blinded, exiled, and later killed. The king tried to absolve himself of this treatment of his brother with severe penance and long pilgrimages. In addition to fighting wars with Bohemia, Boleslav spent a decade conquering Pomerania from Germany and achieved it by 1122; but it took six more years to convert them to Christianity. In 1123 a papal legate organized the Polish Church and founded three bishoprics, including Pomerania. Germany pushed the borders back to the Oder and Nysa rivers, and in 1135 Boleslav did homage to Emperor Lothar II for Pomerania and Rügen. King Wladyslaw's chaplain Martin Gallus wrote the first chronicle of Poland, and Cistercian monks were given a charter in 1140.
In his will Boleslav divided Poland among his sons. The oldest son Wladislaw was already prince of Silesia and was given Pomerania also; Mieszko got Greater Poland; Boleslav received Mazovia and eastern Kujavia; and Henry was given Sandomierz. After eight years Wladislaw II tried to use Russian allies to reunite Poland; but he was forced to flee to Germany by Boleslav IV (r. 1146-1173). Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa intervened in 1163 and 1172 to restore Silesia to the sons of Wladislaw II. Mieszko III became senior in 1173, but four years later he was banished from Cracow by a rebellion. The youngest brother Casimir II (r. 1177-1194) was the next senior. He conciliated the magnates and granted the clergy privileges in 1180, acquiring Mazovia in 1186. Casimir's peaceful rule was followed by a civil war between Mieszko and Casimir's son, who became Leszek I when Mieszko died in 1202.
The meeting of Russian princes at Liubech in 1097 divided Kievan territory but established that sons should inherit instead of brothers. Resenting Vasilko, Prince David invited him to the house of Svyatopolk (r. 1093-1113) and had him blinded. To settle the dispute Vladimir Monomakh called another conference at Vitichev in 1100; Svyatopolk had to side with his kin, and David lost Volhynia, keeping only four small towns. Monomakh led the military campaigns into the Polovtsy country, because they raided Russian territory almost every year. He founded Vladimir in the northeast in 1108 and was chosen prince of Kiev in 1113, declining at first, because legally it should have gone to Svyatopolk's son Oleg. Turmoil erupted during that selection process, and the Jews, who had been exploited by Svyatopolk, were plundered. Monomakh reduced the interest rate allowed from 120 to 20 percent and expelled the Jews. He also fixed payment for the services of the half-free and prohibited making them slaves unless they attempted to escape.
Vladimir Monomakh made war against Livonia, Finland, Bulgaria, Poland, and Hungary. In his Testament he claimed he participated in 83 campaigns, concluded 19 treaties, released 100 Polovestian princes, and drowned 200 in rivers. Monomakh left the following advice to his sons: fasting, solitude nor the monastic life will procure you eternal life, but good deeds will; nourish the poor; be a father to orphans; settle the cases of widows yourself; do not let the strong destroy the weak; execute no one, whether innocent or guilty; love your wives but do not give them power over you; watch out for lying, drinking, and fornication that corrupt body and soul; honor the old as fathers and love the young as brothers; strive to learn, and remember what is useful.
Monomakh was succeeded in Vladimir by his son Yury Dolgorubky (r. 1125-1157) and in Kiev by his sons Mstislav (r. 1125-1132) and Yaropolk (r. 1132-1139). Mstislav sent the prince of Polotsk as a prisoner to Constantinople for refusing to join the campaign against the Polovtsy. During the reign of Yaropolk the sons of Mstislav fought their uncles. An Olgovich (supporting the line of Oleg) from Chernigov named Vsévolod II (r. 1139-1146) was accepted as prince of Kiev, but his son Igor was soon deposed by the warrior Izyaslav Mstislavich (r. 1146-1154), who spent his reign fighting his uncles and the Olgovichi. After five years of struggles under Izyaslav's uncle and brother, Kievans summoned his brother Rostislav (r. 1159-1168), who was also prince of Smolensk and Novgorod; he thus united a large area in peace. After Rostislav died, Andrew Bogulyubsky (r. 1157-1174) from the northeast principalities of Rostov and Suzdal formed a coalition of eleven princes against Kiev prince Mstislav, sacking the city in 1169. Bogulyubsky kept his capital in Vladimir but was killed by a conspiracy, and two years later his brother Vsévolod III (r. 1176-1212) began his reign as Russia's Grand Prince. Many were made slaves by bankruptcy, by not keeping a service agreement, or by marrying a slave. As agriculture developed in the Kiev region, thousands of slaves were put to work by the princes.
Novgorod was usually ruled by a younger relative of the Kievan prince; but in 1126 the civilian administrator of the city called the Posadnik was elected by their public assembly (veche), and the Posadnik became the main authority after they expelled their prince ten years later. Novgorod gained further independence in 1156 as their bishop was also nominated by the veche. The veche met in the marketplace but was increasingly controlled by the wealthy in the Council of Notables. Their princes had to swear to uphold the laws and privileges of Yaroslav, and they could be dismissed by the veche.
The anonymous Lay of Igor's Campaign, considered the first great work of Russian literature, describes how Prince Igor (1151-1202) was defeated by the Kumans in 1185. In the poem Igor urges his warriors to fight to the death rather than be captured, and on the first day of battle he and his brother Vsevolod defeat the infidel Kumans and capture their maidens. Despite their Frankish weapons, the Russians are defeated on the next two days. Igor is captured, but he later escapes. The poet blamed the Russian princes for sowing the land with arrows by their quarrels, and he particularly mentioned Svyatopolk's son Oleg, Igor's grandfather. Igor and his brother Vsevolod had revived the strife. The victorious Kumans levied tribute on the Russian households; but they were defeated in turn by the grand prince of Kiev.
Conrad's son Henry had died in 1150, and so his nephew Friedrich was elected and crowned king in March 1152. As a nephew of Henry the Proud also, Friedrich, though a Hohenstaufen, was thus half Welf and half Weibling (origin of the Italian term Ghibelline). Called Barbarossa by the Italians for his red beard, Friedrich I was born about 1125 and represented the knightly ideal of maze or self-control. He made justice under law his guiding principle rather than favoring persons. He immediately worked to restore order and stability by proclaiming a land-peace (Landfriede) that prohibited all private wars and feuds, promising stricter enforcement with universal and permanent application. Murder and major robbery were punished with death, and lesser offenses by fines, flogging, or mutilation. Grain prices were controlled annually by local committees to prevent holding back supplies.
Friedrich settled several disputes by granting titles to territories in Germany, and Duke Welf VI was won over with imperial fiefs in Italy. At Constance in 1153 Friedrich made an alliance with Pope Eugenius III by promising to protect the church while securing his imperial rights. When bishops Hartwig of Bremen and Ulrich of Halberstadt refused to participate in this Italian military campaign in 1154, Friedrich deprived them of their regalia. However, Henry the Proud's son Heinrich the Lion accompanied Friedrich to Italy and was rewarded for his bravery by being recognized as duke of Bavaria and Saxony, though in 1156 Henry Jasomirgott was placated with part of Bavaria that became the duchy of Austria.
In his 1157 letter to the historian, his uncle Otto of Freising, Emperor Friedrich described how after Milan refused to provide the market he demanded, they destroyed the fortress of Rosate and then besieged and conquered Tortona. In 1155 Friedrich was crowned by Pope Adrian IV (1154-1159); when the Romans revolted, his imperial soldiers killed nearly a thousand of them. The Greek Paleologus promised him an enormous amount of money to join their attack on Apulia; but Friedrich declined because his army had been weakened by hardship and campaigns. Friedrich also wrote how Paleologus died after destroying Bari; then William of Sicily defeated the Greeks and carried off all their money.
Otto of Freising was the son of Leopold III of Austria and Agnes, daughter of Emperor Heinrich IV, and he was born about 1113. He studied at Paris and seems to have been influenced by Abelard, Gilbert de la Porrée, and Hugh of St. Victor. Otto joined a Cistercian monastery in 1133; but soon after being appointed abbot in 1137, he was elected bishop of Freising in Bavaria. Otto went on the second crusade in 1147, accompanying his half brother, Emperor Conrad III. In Asia Minor Otto separated from Conrad with 14,000 men; both groups suffered disastrous attacks, but Bishop Otto escaped by ship to Syria. When his nephew Friedrich became Emperor in 1152, Otto was given an influential position at court; his Deeds of Friedrich Barbarossa describes the recent history and the first five years of this reign before Otto died in 1158. Before he went on the crusade, Otto wrote The Two Cities: A Chronicle of Universal History to the Year 1146 A.D. In 1157 Otto wrote a letter of dedication to Friedrich I warning him that kings can sin with greater freedom than others.
Otto began his Two Cities with the premise of Augustine's City of God that the heavenly city of eternity which is guided by Christ can be distinguished from the earthly city in time that is under the devil. Like Orosius, Otto combined Biblical stories of Israel's ancient history with the classical history of Greece and Rome. He noted that learning was transferred from the ancient Egyptians to the Greeks, then to the Romans and finally to the Gauls and Spaniards as human power moved from the east to the west. In the age of iron the Romans created an empire, subduing the world by war. In the Christian era Otto believed that the two cities since the time of Theodosius became mixed in the Church. He wondered whether the exaltation of the Church in his time pleased God or not and concluded that the early Church was better though the later Church is more fortunate. Until he got to his own era Otto tried to sort out the truth from the chroniclers.
In the 8th and last book of Two Cities Otto moved from history to theology and prophesied the rise of the tyrannical anti-Christ with violent persecution, treachery, and hypocrisy. After destruction by fire the Lord will come before the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, and the ultimate separation of the two cities as heaven and hell. On the day of judgment he argued that "it shall be measured with what measure you measured" will not be temporal but eternal punishment according to Catholic doctrine. Thus Otto presented the ideology of the medieval Church that considered alternate views heretical. Yet his universal history and especially the accounts of his own time provided this era with some historical understanding.
When Poland's Boleslav IV refused to pay homage or tribute, Friedrich I crossed the Elbe in 1157 and forced him to pay him 2000 marks of gold and 1000 to the princes. Boleslav and Hungary's Geza II promised to send forces with the Emperor to Italy; but only Bohemia's Vladislav II actually did. To stop him feuding with the archbishop of Mainz Friedrich humiliated count palatine Hermann by making him carry a dog for a mile. To diminish the practice of knights robbing travelers from their castles, the Emperor had many of these strongholds dismantled. Pope Adrian IV wrote to a diet that year at Besancon, attended by envoys from Italy, France, England, and Spain, that he would confer the imperial crown and greater beneficia on Friedrich. When the new imperial chancellor Rainald translated this word as fiefs instead of benefits or favors, the Germans became indignant. Friedrich sent a letter that his imperial power came from God alone by election of the princes, causing the Pope to write that he meant good deeds. Friedrich continued to intervene in the elections of bishops by appointing men capable of administering the empire. He even removed Henry of Minden, Burchard of Eichstatt, and Bernard of Hildesheim for political reasons.
In 1158 Emperor Friedrich I captured Milan and promulgated his imperial rights at the diet of Roncaglia that included appointing officials to administer taxes, markets, mints, and law courts. In Italy as well as Germany the Emperor proclaimed the enforcement of strict feudal law. Every vassal must serve his lord in war, pay half a year's income or lose his fief. Every oath of fealty must include ultimate obedience to the Emperor, and anyone breaking the peace shall be punished by law. Associations and sworn brotherhoods were prohibited as were unlawful exactions by cities, fortified towns, and especially by the Church. Influenced by law studies of Bologna, Friedrich also endowed universities with privileges. When Pope Adrian died in 1159, Friedrich's envoy Otto of Wittelsbach got a minority to elect Victor IV, while a majority of bishops elected the anti-imperialist Roland, who became Alexander III (1159-1181). The Emperor summoned a general council to Pavia in 1160; but Pope Alexander refused to attend and excommunicated Victor, Friedrich, and his advisors. Many Lombard cities resisted imperial rule. When Otto of Wittelsbach tried to tax the Milanese, they revolted and drove him from the city. Friedrich had Milan destroyed in 1162 after they were starved into surrendering. Friedrich tried to get French king Louis VII to support Victor but failed.
When Victor died in 1164, Rainald got imperialist cardinals to elect Paschal III and managed with marriages to get England's Henry II to recognize him as Pope. The next year Friedrich made the German bishops swear an oath at Wurzburg never to recognize Alexander or one of his party as Pope by threatening them with punishments. Only resistance in Salzburg had to be suppressed; Archbishop Conrad fled, and church fiefs were given to laymen. In 1166 a charter from Friedrich granted legal protection and exemption from tolls to annual fairs held at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle). That year Emperor Friedrich took a large army on his fourth visit to Italy in order to quell the rebellious Lombard towns and occupy Rome, where he was crowned Emperor again with his Burgundian queen Beatrice while Alexander fled to Sicily. A heavy summer rain led to a malaria epidemic that killed 2,000 German knights, Rainald, Welf VII, and other prominent princes and bishops, causing Friedrich to withdraw to Germany. Friedrich tried to negotiate with Pope Alexander, but negotiations broke down in 1169 over the validity of schismatic ordinations.
While Friedrich was occupied with imperial control of Italy, Heinrich the Lion was ruling northeast Germany and conquering the Wends beyond the Elbe. In 1160 Henry was supported with a northern attack from the coast by Valdemar's Danish army. The Slavs retreated, and the Obodrites were defeated. The next year Henry's forces captured Vratislav, whose brother Pribislav in 1162 led a massacre of the garrison at Mecklenburg that enslaved the women and children and burned down the town. Vratislav was hanged for complicity in his brother's crimes; but the Cistercian monk Bern persuaded Pribislav to support the Church in its war to convert the pagans, and another combined campaign by the Germans and Danes completed the conquest. Heinrich the Lion promoted Christianity and commercial development, making much profit and sponsoring trade in Bavaria. Henry's heavy hand, however, met with resistance from the nobility in 1166 led by his East Saxon rival Albert the Bear, whose death in 1170 allowed Henry to leave his English wife Matilda in charge while he went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1172.
Emperor Friedrich acquired the Italian territories of Duke Welf VI for a cash payment and set out on his fifth campaign to Italy in 1174. The next year he made a treaty with the Lombards in which both sides agreed to binding judicial arbitration; this allowed Friedrich to dismiss the expensive mercenaries from his army, and the cities could disband their forces. The Emperor no longer insisted on imposing imperial officials as he had decreed at Roncaglia, and he recognized the Lombard League. However, the treaty soon broke down over Pope Alexander's protection of Alessandria. After severe losses trying to take this Lombard town, the Emperor went to Heinrich the Lion for help in 1176. Henry had given Friedrich the silver mines of Goslar in 1168 and wanted them back; but they could not agree. Friedrich's outnumbered German knights were defeated by the Milanese at Legnano, and the Emperor made more concessions and a treaty with Alexander. The Pope lifted Friedrich's excommunication though they still could not agree on the validity of schismatic ordinations. Finally at Venice in 1177 a treaty was concluded as Emperor Friedrich kissed the feet of Pope Alexander while imperial authority over central Italy was established. A truce was agreed with the Lombard League for six years and with the Norman king for fifteen years.
A quarrel over the bishopric of Halberstadt came to a head in 1179 when Heinrich the Lion refused to answer an imperial summons. Friedrich and the German princes banned Henry, and his duchies of Saxony and then Bavaria were divided up and given to five dukes. Heinrich the Lion won a few battles, but then his supporters began surrendering their castles to the Emperor. Dane king Valdemar I (r. 1157-1182) took Friedrich's side, and Lübeck fell. Henry submitted and was banished for three years, staying with his royal father-in-law in Normandy and England. Friedrich met Pope Lucius III (1181-1185) at Verona and agreed to prosecute heresy as a secular crime while being persuaded to let Heinrich the Lion return to Germany.
Friedrich's son Henry was born in 1165 and was crowned king at the age of four. In 1184 the Emperor made him regent during his absence. Young Henry fined Archbishop Philip of Cologne for a feud with the burghers of Duisburg, and in a struggle over the archbishopric of Treves Henry invested Rudolph and attacked the supporters of Folmar as traitors. Milan was won over to the imperial cause with a comprehensive charter of privileges in 1185. Neither Pope Lucius III nor Urban III would crown Henry a second emperor; so at Henry's wedding to Constance of Sicily at Milan in 1186 he was proclaimed king of Italy while Constance became queen of Germany, and Friedrich received the crown of Burgundy. Pope Urban wanted the occupied territories back and consecrated Folmar as archbishop of Treves. A revolt in Sienna was put down by Henry while his father Friedrich besieged Cremona into submission and had to deal with the growing rebellion led by Cologne archbishop Philip in Germany. By the close of 1186 Henry had most of northern and central Italy under his imperial control. After Urban III died in 1187, the Popes accepted the imperial rights. Clement III agreed to replace Folmar, and Henry promised to withdraw from the Papal States in a treaty made at Strasbourg in 1189.
Friedrich, who had gone on the second crusade as a young man, pledged himself to the third crusade in 1188 and required each soldier to have two years' expenses in order to join. He left Ratisbon with about 20,000 knights in 1189; Heinrich the Lion soon broke his oath and returned to Germany from his second exile, and his revolt regained all of Holstein except Segeberg, where his siege met with resistance and turned the tide to his defeat the next year. Since Heinrich VI was eager to claim his wife's lands in Sicily after the death of William II, he allowed Heinrich the Lion to retain half of Lübeck though his two sons were retained as hostages.
Heinrich VI was already ruling in Germany when his father Friedrich drowned or died of heart failure in a Cilician river in June 1190 on the crusade. The Roman Senate made sure that imperial forces left Tusculum before Pope Celestine III crowned Henry Emperor. William II's illegitimate grandson Tancred had claimed the crown of Sicily, and Henry's imperial forces attacked Naples for his wife Constance's inheritance. Many died of disease, and Heinrich the Lion's hostage son Henry escaped and spread rumors in Saxony that Heinrich VI was dead in order to arouse revolt. So the Emperor raised the siege and returned to Germany. Heinrich VI tried to settle a dispute over the bishopric of Liege between two Alberts by appointing Lothar of Hochstadt; but Albert of Brabant got the Pope to favor him, and he was consecrated at Rheims in 1192. The Emperor accused Albert of treason and confiscated property from his Liege supporters. When Albert was murdered at Rheims by German knights, people believed the Emperor was implicated as the perpetrators received only mild punishments.
When Duke Leopold of Austria turned over crusading King Richard of England as a prisoner to Heinrich VI, resentment against the Emperor increased. However, the calculating Henry turned this to his advantage by ransoming the famous Richard Coeur de Lion for 150,000 silver marks to finance another campaign for Sicily in 1194 after Tancred died. Since he was assisted by the navies of Genoa and Pisa, Naples now surrendered right away, and Salerno was stormed by imperial forces. Henry was crowned king of Sicily on Christmas Day in the Palermo cathedral. Heinrich VI ordered 1500 knights recruited for the fourth crusade. At a Wurzburg diet in 1196 Henry tried to gain acceptance for a decree establishing a hereditary monarchy. When the German princes insisted on their right of election, he went to Rome to get Pope Celestine's approval. This too failed, and his son Friedrich was unanimously elected king at Frankfurt. Resentment against Henry's harsh rule broke out in rebellion not only in Sicily and southern Italy but in Rome and Lombardy as well. Henry fled to Messina and cruelly suppressed the uprising with torture and executions; he was only 32 when he died there of dysentery in 1197.
When Henry II became king of England in 1154, he already had inherited Normandy from his mother Matilda and Anjou, Maine, and Tourraine from his father Geoffrey; he had gained Aquitane, Poitou, and Auvergne from his wife Eleanor. In England he began ruling by expelling the mercenary Flemings and completing the task of destroying unlicensed castles begun after the treaty with Stephen. Canterbury archbishop Theobald recommended his clerk Thomas Becket, and Henry made him chancellor of England. Henry's two justiciars Earl Robert of Leicester and Richard de Lucy had served Stephen. A few nobles still resisted. Count William of Aumale had been made Earl of York by Stephen in 1138, but he submitted when faced with Henry's army. William Peverel fled Nottingham to live in a monastery, and Roger of Hereford was persuaded by Bishop Gilbert Foliot to surrender his castles. Hugh Mortimer tried to fortify his three castles at Bridgnorth, Wigmore, and Cleobury, but by July 1155 they had surrendered to Henry's forces. For the next eighteen years England was free of wars except in 1157 and 1165 that affected only Wales, which maintained some independence. In 1156 Henry crossed over the channel for the first of thirteen sojourns on the continent during his 35-year reign.
Henry II gained the Vexin first by defeating his brother Geoffrey in 1156 and then by betrothing his son Henry to the infant French princess Margaret in 1158. Meanwhile in 1157 Henry had persuaded Scotland's King Malcolm IV (r. 1153-1165) to give back Cumberland, Westmorland, and Northumberland and do homage for the earldom of Huntingdon. That year barons at Northampton approved Henry's campaign against the Welsh prince Owain of Grynedd. Owain was thus forced to do homage, give hostages, and restore his brother's inheritance. The next year King Louis helped Henry control Brittany by appointing him Seneschal of France to pacify rebelling Bretons. Conan then ceded Nantes to Henry and was recognized as duke. In 1159 Malcolm accompanied Henry in his war to conquer Toulouse, which Henry claimed as his wife's property. However, when French king Louis VII intervened to defend his sister Constance, wife of Toulouse Count Raymond V, Henry obeyed feudal law and did not challenge his overlord. Becket, who had raised his own force of 700 knights, disagreed. Henry had to settle for recovering the county of Quercy for Aquitane. Becket was put in charge of the Quercy castles, and according to Robert de Torigny he used brutal means to gain the submission of the county.
Thomas Becket was born into a merchant Norman family of London in 1118. He was educated in London and Paris. Becket worked as an accountant for sheriffs and served in the house of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury, who sent him to study law at Bologna and Auxerre. Three months after being appointed archdeacon of Canterbury, a position he retained, in 1154 Becket became chancellor of England. He administered the government, razing castles, repairing the tower of London, coordinating embassies, recruiting troops for the army, and leading them in war. He collected much money in scutage from ecclesiastical fiefs not wanting to perform military service. As best friend of King Henry, he gained great wealth and became a leader of fashion while remaining celibate. When Theobald was dying, Becket refused to visit him; but a year later in 1162 Henry appointed Becket to replace him as Archbishop of Canterbury despite his warnings.
Becket resigned as chancellor and quickly devoted his energy to winning back lands and rights the Church had lost. According to William of Newburgh more than a hundred murders had been committed by clerics since Henry became king, but the only punishment was usually degradation. Recently the canon Philip of Brois had murdered a knight at Dunstable but had been acquitted by the bishop in Lincoln's court; when called into lay court, Philip had refused to plead and even insulted the royal judge. Henry demanded he be tried again for murder and for contempt of court; but Becket dismissed the former charge as already tried and imposed flogging and suspension for the latter offense. In 1163 Henry demanded that clerics convicted of crimes in ecclesiastical courts should be sentenced by secular authorities, but Archbishop Becket complained that God does not judge a man twice for the same offense. Becket opposed any proposal to diminish the clergy's immunity from secular prosecution.
King Henry removed his heir from Becket's charge and worked to organize a party against him, winning over the Archbishop of York and several prominent bishops, who gained the acquiescence of Pope Alexander III. Henry gave way on the criminal clerics and on appeals to the Pope, and in 1164 Becket promised he would consent to the ancient custom; but then he refused to sign the Constitutions at Clarendon. The quarrel escalated as Henry made demands, and Becket excommunicated bishops who implemented royal judgments. Becket in a disguise fled to France in November 1164, and Henry banished all his many relatives. Henry charged Becket at Northampton with contempt of court and malfeasance, not as Archbishop but as a baron; but the bishops persuaded the King to ask the Pope to depose Becket instead. Becket went to Pope Alexander and remained in exile for six years. Becket excommunicated bishops for communicating with supporters of the imperial Pope Paschal III, because they had been Henry's ambassadors to the Emperor. Becket even demanded the Canterbury revenues since his exile.
Henry II marched his forces into south Wales in 1163 to capture Prince Rhys of Deheubarth because he had seized the royal castle at Llandovery. Henry exerted his authority by summoning his vassals from Wales and Scotland to do homage, but the result was worse relations in both regions. Malcolm could have been charged with treason for plotting with Louis VII of France, and his successor William the Lion (r. 1165-1214) was even more hostile. Henry invaded Wales with a large army in 1165, but floods and hunger compelled them to withdraw. Henry II ordered the male hostages taken from Wales blinded and castrated, and the women's noses and ears were mutilated. In 1165 thirty German Cathars came to England, and the next year they were condemned by a council at Oxford for converting one woman who later recanted. They were whipped, branded, and banished; but because of the king's order to shun them, they apparently died in the wintry weather. The Assize of Clarendon in 1166 authorized sheriffs to pursue felons on baronial lands and threatened lords with loss of profits if they did not allow criminals to be brought to justice.
When Henry invaded Auvergne to punish a usurper in 1167, Louis reacted by raiding the Vexin. Henry then burned the French arsenal at Chaumont-sur-Epte, and Louis sacked Andely. In August a truce was declared to last until the following Easter when Henry marched against the Bretons again. Henry had deposed Duke Conan for failing to keep order and gained Brittany for his son Geoffrey by 1169 after three years of campaigns crushed Breton resistance. Revolts occurred concurrently in Aquitane and Auvergne until Henry and his sons Henry and Richard renewed their homage to King Louis in 1169 as Richard was betrothed to Alice, daughter of Louis. Henry married his eldest daughter Matilda to the powerful Duke Heinrich the Lion of Saxony in 1168, and two years later his daughter Eleanor married Alfonso VIII of Castile. Henry's daughter Joan was betrothed to King William II of Sicily, but the wedding did not take place until 1177. King Henry ordered in 1170 an inquiry into the abuses of sheriffs and the bailiffs of private landlords.
In 1170 the King had his son Henry crowned by York archbishop Roger, a flagrant breach of Canterbury's prerogative. Pope Alexander, not wanting to drive Henry to the imperial Pope, urged peace by putting contentious issues aside so that Henry's European lands would not be put under interdict, and Becket returned to England. On Christmas Day 1170 in Canterbury cathedral Becket denounced his enemies. Hearing Henry's angry words, four knights of his household set out and murdered Becket four days later in the cathedral before Henry's messenger could stop them. Henry was at Argentan and spent the next three days in solitude. Pope Alexander prohibited Henry from entering a church until his guilt was absolved.
Ireland was being ruled by local kings, who often battled each other. In 1166 MacLochlainn revolted against Dermot MacMurrough; that resulted in Turloch O'Connor's son Rory seizing the high kingship because he was supported by Dublin Danes and the Irish princes of north Leinster. When O'Connor's ally O'Rourke attacked Ui Cennselaigh, Dermot fled to England. Henry II received his homage and promised help. Dermot then appealed to Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare, the Earl of Pembroke, who became known as Strongbow. He promised to marry Dermot's daughter when it was agreed he would succeed Dermot in Leinster. Dermot returned to Ui Cennselaigh but was soon defeated by O'Connor and O'Rourke, and he was forced to give hostages. Dermot sent messengers to Wales, and in 1169 Robert fitz Stephen arrived with thirty knights and 300 archers. They restored the rule of Dermot and raided Ossory. When O'Connor appeared with a force, they agreed on a treaty with Dermot giving his son as a hostage. In August 1170 Strongbow invaded Ireland with 200 knights and a thousand troops. Dublin was taken as their Danish king Asgall fled to islands. Dermot broke the treaty by reducing Offelan and Ossory, invading Meath, and claiming the high kingship; but Dermot died in May 1171, leaving Strongbow as his heir.
Meanwhile Henry II had sent messengers too late to recall Strongbow's invasion. So the English king ordered all his subjects to return from Ireland or face forfeiture and banishment, and he prohibited exports to Ireland. King Asgall attacked Dublin but was defeated, captured, and executed. O'Connor's large army from the north surrounded Strongbow in Dublin; but while some left to raid Leinster and destroy local crops, a Norman sortie defeated the remaining army. According to John of Salisbury writing in 1159, the English Pope Adrian had granted Henry II possession of Ireland. King Henry prepared a large army of 500 knights and granted Strongbow Leinster except for Dublin and received his fealty. Henry landed at Waterford in October 1171. Cork king Dermot MacCarthy of Desmond and O'Brien of Thomond did homage and gave hostages. At a church council held at Cashel bishops swore fealty to Henry and agreed to conform usage to the English church. After establishing order and building a royal palace in Dublin, Henry had to leave to make reparation for Becket's murder. Henry granted Hugh de Lacey the kingdom of Meath and left him as justiciar of Ireland and constable in Dublin. Even though the Anglo-Norman barons married Irish women, the English domination of Ireland had begun.
Henry gained absolution from papal legates at Avranches by promising to go on a crusade for three years, supporting 200 knights; but instead the Pope let him build three monasteries. Becket was immediately acclaimed as a martyr, and stories of miracles circulated; he was canonized as a saint by Pope Alexander in 1173. Henry arranged for his son John to marry the daughter of Count Humbert of Maurienne in Provence in 1173; but when he said that John would have Chinon, Loudun, and Mirebeau as a cadet of Anjou, young Henry objected because he still had no proper estate even though he had been crowned king of England, Normandy, and Anjou. Henry, now 18, demanded at least one of the three. From Chinon young Henry and his brothers Richard and Geoffrey fled to Paris, where King Louis supported their cause; but Queen Eleanor, disguised in a man's clothes, was captured and held under arrest. Young Henry promised lands in England and Normandy to gain allies and received the support of Count Philip of Flanders, his brother Count Matthew of Boulogne, Count Thibaut of Blois, and King William of Scotland. Four English earls also declared for the sons - Hugh Bigod of Norfolk, Robert Blanchemains of Leicester, Hugh of Chester, and William de Ferrers of Derby.
Count Philip of Flanders advised as the way to begin war destroying their enemies by devastating their lands so that they would have nothing to eat. Young Henry and the Flanders count attacked Normandy while Louis marched through the Vexin. The Earl of Chester fought with Breton rebels, but Brittany was soon defeated as the Earl of Chester and many nobles were imprisoned. Henry II's army was also victorious in Anjou and Poitou. The Scottish army of King William and his brother David invaded to claim the promised Northumberland and Huntingdon. After his brother Matthew of Boulogne died from a wound by a cross-bow, the Count of Flanders withdrew. In July 1174 Henry II fasted and was publicly scourged at Canterbury for his rash words that led to Becket's murder. Soon after that, King William of Scotland was defeated, captured, and became Henry's vassal. The surrender of besieged Northampton to Henry brought about the end of resistance in England. The siege of Rouen by the French army of Louis was not succeeding. Henry II crossed the channel again, and in September 1174 Louis fled and sued for peace.
Henry forgave his rebellious sons and made sure that all had money and lands. Queen Eleanor would remain under house arrest for the rest of her husband's life. William of Scotland had to surrender five castles and publicly submit at York but remained fairly independent. The earls of Chester and Leicester were imprisoned until 1177. Henry II disliked the violence of war, and he ordered no executions or forfeitures nor did he demand ransoms for captives as his son had. Rebels were not held to account for carrying away chattels, and crimes were only prosecuted according to normal law. Henry did make sure that unlicensed castles were completely demolished while his royal castles were repaired and strengthened. Once again the royal forest laws were enforced, and over the objection of Richard de Lucy heavy fines were levied retroactively to replenish the treasury. Henry's son Richard was put in charge of destroying the castles, and he had to force the city of Angouleme to surrender in 1176, making the leaders prisoners.
Strongbow and de Lacy had returned from Ireland to help Henry defeat his son. Strongbow was sent back to govern there, but he found most of the Irish revolting against the English. In the treaty of 1175 Henry accepted O'Connor as his liege king of Connacht, and the next year he sent Raymond le Gros to make an agreement with O'Connor and O'Brien, who both gave hostages. After Strongbow died, Henry appointed William fitz Audelm and sent John de Courcy to rule Ulster if he could conquer it. In 1177 de Courcy drove King Rory MacDonlevy out of Down. That year Henry recalled fitz Audelm for a council at Oxford that decided Ireland would be divided between Norman and Irish lordship with O'Connor as the chief Irish ruler. With papal approval Henry made his ten-year-old son John lord of Ireland, and feudalization began there as kingdoms were granted to various barons. The Irish complained of unjust treatment by de Lacy, fitz Audelm and others.
King Henry let many churches remain vacant so that he could collect their revenues. Bishops were increasingly secularized by being occupied as state administrators, such as chancellor, treasurer or even sheriff, which was a violation of canon law and was prohibited by a London council in 1175. When bishops did visit their dioceses, their extravagant entourage could impoverish parishes and monasteries that had to provide for them. The clergy at this time was satirized by Giraldus Cambrensis in his Gemma Ecclesiastica. So many priests were married or kept a "hearth-girl" to help them keep warm that the house was often cluttered with infants and nurses, and some church benefices became hereditary. In 1177 a papal legate mediated a peace between Henry and Louis in which both agreed to defend each other's rights and to prepare a combined crusade. Now probably the most powerful monarch in Europe, Henry II was called upon to arbitrate a border dispute between the kings of Castile and Navarre in 1177. Between 1180 and 1185 Henry mediated several truces between Count Philip of Flanders and the young King Philip II of France.
Henry II appointed the unscrupulous Ranulf de Glanville as justiciar in 1180. According to Ranulf's treatise the king's judges were active in the shires, and any free man unjustly deprived of his land could appeal to the royal court. Henry is renowned for his contribution to improving English law. Richard had been betrothed to the French princess Alice since 1169, but rumor was that she had become his father's mistress. Richard was busy suppressing violence in Aquitane. Young Henry and Geoffrey conspired with rebellious barons against their brother Richard; but the coalition soon dissolved after Henry died of dysentery in June 1183. Richard became heir to England, Normandy and Anjou, and Henry ordered him to give Aquitane to John in exchange for homage as the next king; but Richard refused. Henry angrily told John to fight for it even though he had no army. Nonetheless John joined with his brother Geoffrey and invaded Poitou with forces from Brittany. When Richard reacted by raiding Brittany, Henry summoned his sons and made peace. In 1185 Henry knighted John and sent him off to govern Ireland; but John mismanaged the campaign and did little more than antagonize both the Irish and the Anglo-Norman settlers. Henry's son Geoffrey was killed during a tournament in 1186.
Since Richard still had not married Alice, France's young King Philip II insisted her dowry of Vexin be returned. Philip marched into Berri but was forced to make a truce with Henry and Richard. When Richard pledged to go on crusade, he wanted his rights protected; but Henry favored John and would not agree. Once again Richard had to put down revolts in Aquitane, and then he invaded Count Raymond's Toulouse until Philip's renewed attack in Berri captured Chateauroux. Henry brought English and Welsh troops; but Richard did homage to the French king for all his continental possessions so that together they could defeat the aging Henry. The dying king finally resigned himself to obey Philip and agreed that Richard would marry Alice and have fealty as well. Henry II was forced to pay Philip 20,000 marks and died two days later on July 6, 1189.
Henry II's son Richard first sent word to release his mother Eleanor and was installed as Duke of Normandy at Rouen in the same month. Richard made peace with France's Philip Augustus by conceding him Auvergne and part of Berri and paying him 4,000 marks along with the 20,000 his father promised. Richard pardoned William the Marshal, who had nearly killed him in the revolt, and he permitted the Marshal to marry Isabel, daughter of the powerful Strongbow Richard of Clare. Queen Eleanor and the Marshall proclaimed an amnesty for those arbitrarily imprisoned and ordered all free men to swear allegiance to Richard I (r. 1189-1199), who was crowned at Westminster. King Richard generously gave his brother John the income from Lancaster, Nottingham, Derby, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. Their half-brother Geoffrey was appointed archbishop of York. Richard was eager to go on the crusade with Philip, and he spent only two months in England raising money for that endeavor. According to the Gesta Ricardi he sold everything he could, including powers, lordships, earldoms, shrievalties, castles, towns, and manors. Durham bishop Hugh de Puiset paid 3,000 marks to become sheriff of Northumberland and justiciar and to get released from the crusade. Ely bishop William Longchamp paid the same to become chancellor and justiciar south of the Humber.
A rare critic of the crusades was the theologian and chronicler Ralph Niger, who elucidated the arguments against the supposed religious adventure. He believed that true piety should be expressed in a journey to the spiritual Jerusalem, not the one on earth, and there are more appropriate ways of wiping out one's sins that the Pope promised the crusaders than by killing foreigners. He questioned whether it would be effective without making restitution, and he declared it is wrong to kill human beings even if they are infidels.
At Richard's coronation festival a quarrel with Jews led to widespread persecution of the hated money-lenders, who had come to England with the Normans and were usually protected by them. In 1190 Jews in the port town of Lynn were massacred, and their houses were looted and burned by sailors and merchants, who escaped by sea. The violence spread to Norwich and Stamford; at York Jews were besieged, and 150 or more were killed. Even more were murdered by crusaders in Bury St. Edmunds. Richard ordered an investigation; but crusaders departed, and others fled to Scotland. Only the governor of York was removed from office; Longchamp punished his rival Hugh de Puiset by having him arrested and imprisoned for his role. Longchamp expropriated money for his extravagant expenses and to pay for mercenary soldiers and Richard's crusade. When Lincoln sheriff Gerard de Camville and Roger Mortimer of Wigmore favored John and flouted the authority of the chancellor, Longchamp reduced the Wigmore castle and besieged Lincoln in 1191.
With the Archbishop of Canterbury gone on crusade, Richard also had Longchamp made the papal legate by Clement III. Richard sent Rouen archbishop Walter of Coutances to assist Longchamp and, if warranted, to supersede him. After Geoffrey was confirmed by the Pope, Longchamp tried to keep him from taking up his position as Archbishop of York; Geoffrey was even imprisoned by Longchamp's sister Richenda. This and other misconduct, such as appointing his relatives to lucrative offices, caused Walter and a council of barons, bishops, and citizens at London, also attended by John, to depose Longchamp, who after surrendering his castles was allowed to leave the country. Walter of Coutances became chief justiciar as the barons swore to uphold John's right to succeed Richard; London gained recognition of their self-governing commune.
While returning from the crusade in 1192, Richard was imprisoned at Vienna by Duke Leopold of Austria, who demanded the enormous ransom of 150,000 silver marks. Most of the money was raised, and Richard had to do homage to Emperor Henry V for his kingdom. On his journey Richard gained alliances with the archbishops of Mainz and Cologne, and the dukes of Austria, Swabia, Brabant, and others. Meanwhile his brother John negotiated with King Philip II of France, occupied Windsor and Wallingford, and claimed to be king of England, announcing Richard was dead. By the time Richard arrived in March 1294, Canterbury archbishop Hubert Walter had nearly subdued John's rebellion; Richard himself joined the final siege of Nottingham. Most rebels were pardoned after they contributed to Richard's remaining ransom, and in 1195 John was restored to Mortain, Gloucester, and Eye though he lost his former income shires and all his castles. William Longchamp had helped Richard on the continent during his captivity, and he was reinstated as chancellor. In the next two years Hubert Walter raised more than a million marks for King Richard.
Chronicler Roger of Wendover recorded a disturbance in London during 1194. When the king's agents exacted tallage for the Exchequer, the mayors and aldermen decided to put the burden on the poor rather than on themselves. William Fitz-Robert disliked the Normans and led the opposition that turned violent. After the lower and middle classes were put down by force, William was blamed and took refuge in a church. The archbishop ordered William dragged away; while he was in a tower, part of the church was burned. Forced out by the smoke, William was seized and hung on the gallows in chains. Nine of his family or neighbors were also put to death for supporting his cause. Roger considered him a martyr, because he had been executed shamefully for asserting the truth and defending the cause of the poor.
In May 1194 Richard crossed the channel with a hundred ships
to fight France's Philip for Normandy and Aquitane, where Richard
claimed (probably with great exaggeration) that he captured 300
knights and 40,000 soldiers. In the 1195 Treaty of Louviers Richard
gave up the Norman Vexin but regained other contested territories
in Berri. Richard had a powerful castle built on the rock of Andeli
as a headquarters for conquering the Vexin. In the south Richard
was allied with his brother-in-law, King Sancho of Navarre, and
in 1196 his sister Joan married Raymond VI of Toulouse. After
the Count of Ponthieu married Philip's sister Alice, Richard raided
and devastated this region at the mouth of the Somme in 1197.
A five-year truce between Philip and Richard was negotiated by
cardinal legate Peter of Capua in January 1199; but Richard was
killed by an arrow three months later while punishing a baron
of the Limousin over a treasure dispute. England and Normandy
accepted John as Richard's heir; but Aquitane barons swore homage
to queen-mother Eleanor, and those in Anjou, Maine, and Touraine
gave allegiance to Richard's nephew Arthur of Brittany. John quickly
secured the treasure at Chinon, was invested with the duchy of
Normandy at Rouen, and a month later was crowned King of England
at Westminster.
Gerald, the Archdeacon of Brecon, traveled through Wales as translator
for Canterbury Archbishop Baldwin to promote the crusade in 1188.
From this experience Gerald wrote The Journey Through Wales
and The Description of Wales. In the latter Gerald
described the Welsh as frugal and caring mostly about their horses
and weapons so that they can seize booty. He wrote that no one
begs in Wales because of the hospitality. Though Welsh himself,
he criticized them severely, observing that Welsh people rarely
keep their promises and that they steal not only from foreigners
and enemies but from each other as well. He believed that quarrels
occurred more often in Wales because of their ancient custom of
dividing property between brothers and because Welsh princes entrust
the education of their sons to different nobleman. Also he found
their government less orderly because they could not accept a
single king. Gerald wrote that most of the Welsh only marry after
living with a woman for some time to be sure she will be a good
wife. He noted that the English strive for power, the Welsh for
freedom; the English fight for material gain and hire mercenaries,
while the Welsh defend their homeland to avert disaster. Yet the
following statement surely has universal implications:
Nothing rejoices the hearts of men so much,
nothing inspires them and encourages them to behave so nobly
as the sheer joy of being free.
On the other hand nothing dejects and dispirits them
as much as oppression and slavery.4
When the bishopric of St. David's became vacant in 1198, Gerald wanted the Welsh church to become independent of Canterbury, but his long effort failed when he was not chosen as bishop in 1103.
1. Menzel, Wolfgang, Germany from the Earliest Period,
p. 480.
2. Eadmer, The Life and Conversation of Saint Anselm in
A Scholastic Miscellany tr. Eugene R. Fairweather, p. 214.
3. Anselm, Proslogion 1 tr. M. J. Charlesworth, p. 115.
4. Gerald of Wales, The Description of Wales 2:8 tr. Lewis
Thorpe, p. 270.
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