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German throne dispute

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The German throne dispute or German throne controversy (German: Deutscher Thronstreit) was a political conflict in the Holy Roman Empire from 1198 to 1215. This dispute, between the House of Hohenstaufen and House of Welf, was over the successor to Emperor Henry VI, who had just died. After a conflict lasting 17 years, the Hohenstaufen Frederick II prevailed.

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Transcription

I'm Christopher Clark, Australian, Professor of History. The Germans and their country I want to explore. Your great saga tell through the millennia. First of all I want to know how it all started. How is this beautiful country come about? And where do you find the origins the Germans? Welcome to my trip by your country and its history. The land of the Germans. As for me, especially in Germany amazed, is the diversity of this country. It has indeed a checkered past. And that began in Antarctica. The piece of the earth's crust, Germany is on, went on tour. And trained hundreds of millions Years with other land masses ever new forms. And when so the tectonic plates formed, it has puffed pretty here and nuts. Volcanoes exploded, Mountains were formed. Huge masses of water came. And in this peaceful valley on the Swabian Alb, far below sea level lay, said to themselves shark and rays: Good night. Yes, Germany has just as small as we all started. But Germany under water already has a special feature. This is the same hot as in the Pacific region. Then pile up the first mountain on. Germany is to Jurassic Park with flying reptiles and dinosaurs. You will feel at home here. Until a meteorite impact extinguish it. The ice age is coming, and Germany now looks like Siberia. Really colonized the country will 35,000 years before the birth of Christ. During this time comes Homo sapiens probably from South Africa. About the Levant and the Balkans he follows the large herds of animals. And then colonized Europe. These first quintessentially German, we call times as they are exhausted. Because they have a long journey. And long the journey lasted. Germany is in the speed of 5 miles per generation colonized. come first the Homo sapiens Walker in a southern Germany. Yes, the ancient German were Swabia. "Create, manage, homeowners build" was then called, in the Ice Age, looking for a cave. In icy times did the Homo sapiens a roof over their head. His name translates, knowing monk means he made all the glory. The oldest traces of lighting fires in Europe were in the cave world the Swabian Alb found. Even the first German loved it warm and cozy. But simply was not this life. They must have been ambitious, if they wanted to survive out there. And with such instruments they went to work. A hand ax. An early knives of stone, very sharp. Here's an awl, an early Needle made of bone or horn. Whether they had traits how to the Germans nachsagt today? Orderliness, discipline, Punctuality? Who knows? But these ancestors had been good to do so, to organize their lives. Necessity is the mother of invention, it is called in a German proverb. This applies to Homo sapiens the ice age in any case. For those times his instruments are ultra-modern. And he even drives already Barter with them. Such tools from the home have also been found in France. Also culinary are gay sapiens people already on the height. You will find out that fish or a mammoth steak in a mantle of wet leaves can be cooked to perfection. Perhaps a precursor of delicious, German cabbage rolls. Tinkerers and inventors were here already 35,000 years ago in the Swabian Alb in southern Germany. Where even today the Cleverles are at home. Anything that the life, or better survival made easier, people have invented the Cro-Magnon period. Useful things like glue from birch bark. Right think tanks there was in this area. With the Stone Age-hard Permanent adhesive, they produce under heat, repair the early Cleverles their spears. They need daily for hunting. Your imagination is directed well still full of practical things. Or is it? Was there among the people here lived as ancestors of the Germans, even poets and thinkers? Did the rigors of survival because at all time and leisure for something like art and philosophy? In such caves it all started. The first inhabitants of this country lived here. But here was her painting studio and her music room. Bit creepy here so all alone. In fact, now starting the spiritual world the early Germans to form. The depths of the caves are special places for them. Cathedrals of old, in which one the empires the supernatural suspected. They seem to suspect that there is something higher. Worship nature and feel perhaps a unit with her. The first could be signs of a kind Have been religion. From a mammoth tooth carved the Caveman a being between humans and animals. The lion people. His head comes from the animal kingdom. Yet the body has human characteristics. This artfully from mammoth ivory carved miniatures one of the oldest art works the world. How old may very well be? 2000 years or 4000 or even 10,000? All wrong. At a whopping at least 35,000 years is estimated her age. Of the Cro-Magnon people who are the Swabian Alb lived, are the oldest, previously known Sculptures survived. for example Venus of Hohle Fels. What a wonderfully graceful, but also mysterious female figure. And here its counterpart. A prehistoric phallus. Was it here to Sex or reproduction? Or to the survival of all? Who in UK today survives, the Neanderthals. Which was discovered in 1856. Its original skeleton is today To see the Landesmuseum Bonn. A strange skeleton. Robust bone, low body height, powerful bulging eyes. No direct precursor of modern man, but another Stammbaumast. But a piece of genetic material Neanderthal carry the Germans still in itself. Even before the Homo sapiens for he was traveling there, where now Germany is. Yes, and then it came first contacts between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Perhaps the Neanderthal Men have a certain attraction the Homo sapiens Women exercised. Difficult to understand when Neanderthal man sees so. But Goethe has sealed: Sun can not without pretense, Man shall not be without love. This was precisely for this love between species. The limits were, so to speak romantic exceeded. And so the Neanderthals has immortalized in the genome of the Germans. The Neanderthals died out then. We still do not know why. But the first child, consisting of Love between a man and Neanderthal a Homo sapiens woman arose, is a kind of high Ahn all Europeans. And thus the Germans. The Germans of the time are not yet settled, but nomads. And I'm moving on. I want to know where and when People in this country for the first time found something which one could call home. In the Neolithic period, there are already Settlements like this Unteruhldingen on Lake Constance. Why is this first right Settlement in Germany been built on the lake? At that time they had there better protected from predators. And was able to trade in goods control, the over the water of Lake Constance were transported. Now arable farming and it is forged. There are tools and weapons of copper. All progress, the people here Immigrants from Southeastern Europe owe to. With which they mix and whose ideas they receive. 2,000 years later, Christ's birth around, attract families, the north of the Alps and east of the Rhine are at home, more and more influence. Was that perhaps those which can later be grouped under Teutons summarized? This is supposed to the exact center Be in Germany. Whether the Germans have somehow guessed? Over there who have settled. Who were the Germans? Here in the English-speaking World is your name, So the Germans, always "the germans". But who gave you given this name? A Roman of course. In a world famous description the tribes of northern Europe coined by the Roman Senator and historian Tacitus the image of the population Germanias for all time. All the various strains north of the Alps were on the road, He summarized below Germans. To the Romans their own decadence be available that he created an idealized image of the Germans. As a freedom-loving, combative close to nature and mankind. But they were also aggressive and brutal. They were rude and uneducated in Custom and religion. So barbarians. And the literati from the cosmopolitan city of Rome like the Germans rather unwashed and hairy have occurred. The Roman Empire at that time the ancient superpower. And in the capital, Rome governs the luxury. Most citizens of the Eternal City need of nothing. About the barbarian Germania make it more than jokes. Most people there lead a frugal life. Worse, as the Roman Tacitus want to admit that. It's cold in Germania, and the bottom is not much to look at. Many are malnourished, have joint disease, Dental and spinal disc damage. Being close to animals leads to infections. Births are often fatal. By the way: Tacitus was probably never been in Germania. Through articles for and soldiers he wore all the facts together. And from Caesar's writings on the Gallic War. Germania, which were for the Romans especially dense, dark forests. Something they did not know. The Roman travelers and Military envoy, in this eerie country penetrated, afraid. And counted on their expeditions the worst. Tacitus writes: "On the whole, makes this country with its forests dismal, with its marshes a repulsive impression. " What we do understand are the complaints Roman travelers about using the Weather in the land beyond the rainbow. music Tacitus admired, how tough the Germans were. And someone needs him of the strange, but reasonable garment called "pants" have been reported. That did not exist in Rome. The travelers were amazed, as the Germans in their villages got along without luxury. They were also impressed the hospitality and austerity this alleged barbarians. And Tacitus describes the Germanic women, which hold everything here. They create the ideal conditions for brave and warlike men. Who practice it faithfully. Sound familiar? All terms later in Germany were also list abused. the food are simple, according to Tacitus. Wild tree fruit, fresh game or simple cheese. Without special preparation. so writes the Roman gourmets. "Without Gaumenkitzel drive them their hunger. " "The thirst against There is not the same moderation. " Tacitus describes the Germanic Men quite drunkards, the after work like drunk on beer. After all, we know through him and his "Germania" quite a lot about how the Ancestors of the Germans lived. But who describe Tacitus and his informants really? And what do they want it? the Roman bunga bunga-Society somewhat oppose as a model? The false impression which was created according to Tacitus, is the idea that the inhabitants of Germania all were one people. So wrong this message the purity was. They became independent from the early modern period a myth from a purely held blood the Germans. In the racial doctrine the 19th century. Century the theory of pure blood and the pure breed a dangerous ideology. The Third Reich transferred this Thought in political practice. With terrible consequences. By the Germans and also their ancestors about the blond, blue-eyed comb cared, lost to the incredible diversity out of sight. The time has in Germany prevailed. The whole pagan Religious beliefs of the Germans fascinated by the Nazis. At the Extern Stones, a rock formation the Teutoburg Forest they built a place of worship for Memory of the alleged ancestors. That really here a Germanic sanctuary was could never be proved. Incidentally amazed Tacitus not bad about the religiosity the Germanic tribes. And what he says, sounds, when he was writing an ice-cold shower ran down his spine. Just like me when I quote him: "At a set time come in a sacred forest all nations the same blood together. " "Then they sacrifice on behalf of the Whole people. " "And commit the shower full ceremony a barbarous worship. " "The priest invokes old Germanic the god Wotan. " So this has probably sounded. prayer Often, in honor of the gods Sacrificed princesses of a tribe. In a long solemn procession bringing in the dawn the body of the bog. He pierces the veil so that, of the real world separated from the other world. And responds to the realm of the gods, in order to appease. A Opfermoor. Here are bog bodies been found certainly stuck also that in there. They were sacrificed this goddess. It is in fact a goddess. music Not only those who sacrificed to the gods was able to land on the moor. Many a dead man was simply buried in the swamp. How this boy, who at one bad tooth infection died. At that time not a rare cause of death. The chic hairstyle this decapitated Germans from the tribe of Swabia has received almost 2,000 years in the bog. The bog bodies, Borders between the human and the divine world. The acidic bacteria enemy Moore have the bodies get a fascinating way. The religious rites were in almost all Germanic tribes the same. but otherwise they were quite different. And came up constantly in the hair. These are the Lombards, the long beards, who lived on the lower Elbe and were particularly belligerent. Originally they were the great tribe of the Suebi, the proud men Suebian knot in the hair wore. Perhaps to save the hairdresser. After all, the the later Swabia. The Ubii, who settled on the banks of the Rhine, behaved almost like the Romans, with whom she made a pact. This gave them the hatred the other strains. For example, the proud and earthy chat, as the founding fathers Hesse apply today. Sometimes Confederated Tribes, into the fight to go against the Romans. This was then applied to a Thing discussed, a general assembly of these strains. Since you can so by the fragmentary beginnings a fundamental democracy speak. Tacitus describes in his "Germania" the sequence of a Things. What are the first day in heavy alcohol consumption political and military issues were discussed together. The next day, when all were sober, decisions have been taken. So first was frankly spoken, then decided to cool. Everything revolved to fight and Kriegertum. With an oath be tied fortified Men as allegiance to a leader. But that had to be chosen first. Hear this! Hear all about! I, only I'm going to prosperity, Glory and bring peace. Silence! My Family is considered as well! Look at you: Your betray the old ways! Serfs of the Romans! In Wotan's name: Ended the dispute. No, we choose the leader! So it wants the custom! Well in! I will crush this worm! Never! Jeah! All cheer In their thinking, the Germans were in some respects modern man surprisingly close. They felt no means the gods delivered. Each individual has something do for his fate. The word "salvation" was the core of this thinking. They knew that the skills among men were not equally distributed. One of them had more weapons healing, the other more money salvation. With honorable and wise behavior you could control it. Is not that what we now would call happiness? Not quite. The remedy was to certain objects bound. Siegfried was the only reason victorious, because he had his sword. The thus obtained Sieg Heil! a guide also spread the same on his army. The "Heil Hitler" and the Sieg Heil! the masses of the Nazi period was a perversion of the original concept. And brought nothing but disaster. But first, in year 9. Chr. comes the disaster for the Romans. The general Varus moves his army in the muddy jungle German. And there is by an angry bunch rebellious Germans invaded. Which are still under the command of generals, the once Roman legions in the has fulfilled his ministry: Arminius. The Romans are the dark German Forest times not up again. Especially not the rains, the rain down on them. To the 15,000 Roman legionaries be of Arminius and his Germans destroyed. And the world power of Rome is this disgrace never get over. Is not until the 19th century from Arminius Arminius the Cherusker. Martin Luther had called him that and saw him as a brother early in the fight against the hated Rome. This is the beginning an equally cheesy how dangerous Germanic Transfiguration. The Romans built, still under the trauma of their defeat, the Limes. The stretches across the Danube Region and along the Rhine across Germany. Make sure you get the West and the south and let the deeper part Germania henceforth in peace. The Germania Magna. Links of Limes arise Culture and flourishing cities such as Cologne, Trier and Mainz. Right forests, moors and countless Germanic tribes. Name as the Narister or Angriwarier today knows no more. I always feel that the human once on the other side of the Limes The Romans are grateful today. That they them their culture brought there, where still blooming cities and very special way of life prevails. In the 2nd century, is also the Roman calendar with its seven-day week in Germania by. This Solis. The Latin this Solis, Day of the Sun, is Sunday. Thursday is named after thunder, Jupiter in Roman The Germanic goddess Freya, identical to the Roman Venus, Friday was his name. This Iovis. This Veneris Yes, they were able to learn, these alleged barbarians. The weekdays are a part the Roman-Germanic heritage, the Germans accompanied today. This ... Solis. Romans and Germans were not located only as enemies against. Especially the border Germans had no reservations, but were the progress against susceptible. Many of them admired, which came from Rome. The modern weapons, Send the helmets. But there was also a Germanization the Romans? Well, that's not so simple. The Germans brought the Romans with their beer in touch. The drinking at every opportunity. The Romans tasted the Germanic But not brew. Their wine was dear to them. But the feeling was mutual. The Germans were with grape juice little start. So Roman Greek as this museum on the River Spree, which in the 19th century arose, as you here from a Prussian Arcadia dreamed. So Roman would probably all of Berlin looked when the Romans far had come. In general, it would be become another Germania. With a Roman infrastructure, with bridges, roads, towns and aqueducts. Another kitchen and other drinking habits would people differently shaped. Instead knuckle would perhaps Flamingo tongues the highest of the feelings become. Probably would have the late Roman decadence spread in Germania. Effeminate city dwellers instead of hard-core fighters. And today would any Roman emperor in Berlin Germanic governor Visit Angela Merkel. But it did not come up. And both seem so hostile worlds there were quite a long time next to each other. And on both sides knew it, to benefit from it. When it comes to business, the Limes suddenly very permeable. Since neither know nor Germanic Roman Inhibitions. On the border markets hawked everything, what you can imagine. The Germans sell the Romans Wood, fresh fish, furs, Animal skins and honey. In exchange for cattle on the Roman side is grown. Roman weapons against Germanic Jewelry and wooden combs. This went on back then. And understand the Bread Baking the descendants of the Germans still more than the Italians. The Romans like to put forth their hand for products made from Germania. Even with wine from the Moselle traded schwunghaft. This is a copy of the tomb a Roman wine merchant, the good wine with such Ships until the Rhine, and then over the Alps to Rome transported. And thus probably was very rich. And this is a famous Roman Market Gate, today in the Pergamon Museum stands in Berlin. The Romans celebrated trade like. This is nothing else as an early shopping mall. And markets just gave it too along the Limes in Germania. If they could do business, The Romans were always quick. The Roman Empire acted as a ausgefuchstes Business enterprises. The pumped his surplus of goods in its provinces. And sucked all goods and resources markets, after which it is longed in the Eternal City. And this involved people. Namely Germanic slaves. And the beautiful blond hairs Women behind the limes. Real, strong, German blond hair is a bestseller. The coolest gift for your sweetheart, when Roman soldiers Home leave to go back in the Eternal City. And who can afford to buy is a Germanic slaves or a slave. Which are particularly popular because they are considered to be industrious and frugal. And in the best case a never-ending source for the status symbol of blond hair. So far enough from the more or less idyllic coexistence between Romans and Germanic. Times are changing. Over 200 years later be the Huns, a mishmash of Central Asian Horse people, Germanic tribes such as the Goths redistribute to the west. The Great Migration begins. Do you remember? In school we had many Cards with many arrows burned the most. But finally was almost all Europe in motion. A chain reaction began. The Goths migrated to Italy and Spain. The Vandals even to Africa. And the Germanic and Fishing Axes are to blame that today in Anglo-Saxon England is spoken. music If you are honest, you know still not exactly what this mass migration has tripped. What made so many Germans from their traditional territories go to the south and west? Well, lured the distance with other options. A different climate, more peace, better harvests. quite simply with a better life. And so the Germans in Europe were to the main conquerors. And sparked so to speak, from the Romans. More and more German tribes invaded the Roman Empire in. And conquered all the provinces. And that was also quite fast. Is not it incredible that during the lifetime of a single generation the entire western part of the Roman Empire went down? Of an empire the more than half a millennium almost all of the time known world had dominated. The Romans had of Use just not done, the Germanic tribes to integrate into their empire. And defenders to make the Roman world. They were the destroyers World and its achievements. 410 plundered the tribe of the Visigoths even the Eternal City. What a disgrace for the Romans. Their empire was setting now. And the Germans were to blame. music Since the 1st century had the Romans their rule established in Britain. Then, in the 5th century, sailed the Angles and Saxons conditions England. And thought is: So 'ne nice private island is not the worst. And because they also hardened fighters, had the ancestral population no chance. So Germans also influenced the Anglo-Saxon world, to the day after all North America also belongs. Iron Masks place today witness of the Germanic conquerors in the British Isles. But that's not all. The tribe of the Vandals moved after Spain. And then even to Africa. Not always so peaceful, what it looks like here. The image of the Vandals one knows. They made their name certainly honor when they finally even devastated Rome. But from Africa could also so wonderful Italy bully. music But there were also correct Couch Potatoes among the German tribes. Can not be bothered to walk! There are all these tribes today. The Bavaria, Swabia, Thuringia, Hesse and friezes. And for the rest of axes that are not had moved to Britain, were now Lower Saxony. These running rotten trunks were the ones who the German History and Culture have most influenced. If you like driving through Germany, then it actually starts this country to the diversity to envy, here in the course of the millennia was created. The Bavarians, today's Bavaria, established in their beautiful country a thriving little kingdom. So they were happy. From other tribes did not know much it. This has not changed to this day not changed much. And celebrating they have also not forgotten. The Oktoberfest is the biggest and most famous of the world party. In the Frisians flourished thanks their coastal location of the trade. They were the forerunners the later Hanseatic League. Among the Germans they were highly respected. And no one would have dared to make bad jokes about them. In Thuringia story came all together what the Germans accounts. Only agricultural land, then in the Empire Center of the industrial revolution. And Luther, Goethe and Schiller Here lived, loved and sealed. The chat, today's Hesse, compared Tacitus like with the Romans. Like today's bankers in Frankfurt am Main they would have a calculating mind. Knew to organize themselves perfectly and to entrench. Oh, and the Franks. Their empire grew and grew. A success story, also because, even though they were conquerors, the assumptions, what they found. They were very willing to learn. And with the Frankish Empire grew and Christianity. When the Frankish King Clovis be baptized in Reims, He thus creates the basis for a Christian kingdom. The further expand and also the center of Europe will shape. Clovis was a good example. But 250 years later there was many nations, for the Germans. The thought did not mind, to be baptized. "Burn what you have worshiped." For the Germans trees were as symbols about as important and as holy as for Christians the cross. But not any trees they worshiped them. Oaks it had to be. Mighty oaks like this one. Perhaps that is because they are so tight and were steadfast, how the Germans saw themselves themselves. The most significant oak tree in a forest near Geismar in Hesse. And was the god of thunder thunder consecrated, who was also called Thor. On an altar to this god were Brought animal sacrifices. It was particularly important, predict the future. And the will of the gods to fathom. This was zugfällige sign important. As the location and nature of the heart in an animal sacrifice. This magical thinking was deeply rooted in the Germanic tribes. But then came one that would later Apostle of the Germans called it. And was canonized. The missionary Boniface, of the then most pagan Germanic to the Christian faith wanted to convert. No more shenanigans, he said. When I put this oak hand falls, is your god of thunder protect his tree. And thunder and lightning send. If he does not, he is either a powerless beings, or it does not exist. Then you can safely Christians are. Boniface calls the thunder oak, it under the escort Frankish soldiers hand wants to make a graven image. And who worshiped the contrary according to Christian doctrine against the Ten Commandments. Boniface is a kind of Chief missionary. The last pagan activities the barbaric Germanic should end. No thunder god answers, is as the oak to the ground. Boniface was not the only one. 50 years on was King of the Franks Karl tear down the Irminsul, a sacred tree. The franc ruler himself wants the superiority of prove the Christian God. Again, no signal from the Heath sky over Germania. I make my way to Karl, was from the soon Charlemagne. He was constantly on tour through his vast empire. But in Aachen, he was particularly fond of, because there were hot springs, the rheumatism his good deeds. On the ruins of Roman baths He also had an impressive Palatinate build it and a chapel. Which belongs to me the most impressive, what in Germany indicates sites of memory. The Palatine Chapel Charles was the first Domed building north of the Alps according to the ancient world. Of course, he was also, and primarily a center of power. Only this Frankish gentleman here brought the power of the Franks at its peak. And rang for the Germans a new era. For Charlemagne decided To become emperor. And that was literally the coronation an incredible career as ruler. Charles aim was from the beginning, all To bring Germans in his kingdom. He has all the peoples already subject made. There were only the rebellious Saxons, tried to defend by all means. Finally Karl reached but his goal. The Saxons were in a decades of guerrilla war defeated and had to accept the Christian faith. For the first time in history were all Germanic tribes, which the German people grew together, united in one kingdom. But part of a great ruler more than just about winning wars. And other rulers to subdue. Charles found himself not only as a father the people in the Frankish Empire, but also as a patron all Christians. And in Aachen Palatine Chapel is still the throne, on the Charlemagne and after him many emperors took place. Basically he copied and all later German Emperor the Roman Empire. However, with a decisive Difference. They wanted ruler be the grace of God. And therefore could be the Pope himself crowned. At Christmas, in the year 800, Charlemagne was crowned emperor by the pope. May Almighty God be with you, Karl. Karl has the Great the Father of Europe called. After all, was created under his rule for the first time in this part of Europe a real state structures. A multi-ethnic empire with many languages. United by legislation and Christian religion. The Frankish Empire was the beginning a new era in the history of the Germans. And as the travel Emperor I also prefer continue through history a fascinating country. And its inhabitants.

Origin

On 28 September 1197, Emperor Henry VI, who was just 32 years old, died unexpectedly creating unrest in the circles of the princes about the future direction of the Holy Roman Empire. There were now opposing forces to the hitherto stable position of the Hohenstaufens, as had already been demonstrated by the failure of the Henry VI's Erbreichsplan or "plan for hereditary succession". The princes were now faced with the question as to whether they would recognize Henry's son, Frederick II, now only three years old, as successor. Although Frederick had already been elected at the end of 1196 in Frankfurt under the heavy influence of the Archbishop of Mainz, Konrad von Wittelsbach, and Duke of Swabia, Philip, the temptation to switch support away from the former ruling house grew.

Assumption of office of Pope Innocent III

Innocent III.
Fresco in Sacro Speco Abbey, c. 1219

While the situation in the empire led to division, 37-year-old Lothar of Segni ascended the throne of St. Peter on 22 February 1198 and became Pope Innocent III, whose powerful personality gave the papal office the power to rule at a whole new level. Its aims were the restoration of sovereign papal rule in Rome and the church state, the recovery of feudal sovereignty over the Kingdom of Sicily, the recovery of the Central Italian lands and the consolidation of the Italian states under the leadership of the Papacy.

Frederick's mother, Queen Constance of Sicily, instigated a political change in southern Italy. She sought closer relations with Rome, dissolved any connection with the rest of the empire, expelled the Germans from her Sicilian empire, renounced the Roman-German kingship of her son, Frederick, and had him crowned King of Sicily in 1198 instead, although keeping her title as empress dowager. Such a policy of separation was entirely after Innocent's heart, but only after he had extracted a concordat from Constance which continued to place the ecclesiastical rights over the Sicilian crown above those of King Tancred's concessions, leaving the king with only the smallest vestige of royal consensus when it came to the election of bishops. Innocent restored the old feudal relationship just in time, after the unexpectedly early death of Constance in 1198, in order now to gain control over the young Frederick as his feudal lord and thus to determine the future of Sicily.

The double election

Portrait of Philip of Swabia from a manuscript, c. 1200

After Constance had withdrawn her son Frederick from running for the Roman-German kingship, the princes could not agree whom they should elect as king. The most promising candidate at first was the Duke of Saxony, Bernard III from the House of Ascania, who was able to secure support inter alia from the Archbishop of Cologne, Adolf of Altena. However, the English king, Richard I proposed his nephew, the then Count of Poitou, Otto of Brunswick, who was the son of the Saxon duke, Henry the Lion. The prospect that the Welf Otto could become king induced Bernard and the Saxon princes to side with the younger brother of Henry VI, the Swabian duke, Philip, since it was feared that the Welfs would make claims on the Duchy of Saxony, which they had lost in 1180 at the Hoftag of Gelnhausen. The same was feared by Louis I, Duke of Bavaria from the Wittelsbach lineage. Under pressure from the Saxon princes, Philip of Swabia who, as the uncle of the young Frederick, had only intended to secure the kingdom for his nephew, finally agreed to his own election as king.

Philip of Alamannia was elected king at Mühlhausen in Thuringia on 8 March 1198 (Laetare Sunday), by princes sympathetic to the Hohenstaufens. His backing came from Duke Leopold the Glorious Duke of Styria and heir of Austria (the then-present leader of Carantanian-Bavarian Nation), Ottokar I of Bohemia the then Duke of Czechia, the Wittelsbach, Philip's own Alamannian lords as well as from Duke Berthold V of Zähringen, and Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia, as well as representatives of Saxon princes, and Archbishop Ludolf of Magdeburg and Archbishop Adalbert of Salzburg; however, in the absence of the Archbishops of Cologne, Mainz and Trier, some of which were customary participants. There were yet no established procedure and authorities for the election, but the 'consuetudines' mattered.

But the anti-Hohenstaufen princes were not prepared to accept this. So on 9 June, they elected Otto of Brunswick as counter-king to Philip of Swabia, who had been elected but not yet crowned. Otto's coronation took place on 12 July, while Philip was crowned on 8 September.

Thus there were simultaneously two kings, but in both cases neither the election nor the coronation followed the ancient, traditional process. Philip had received the coronation regalia - the Imperial Crown, the Imperial Orb and Imperial Sword - but his election took place on non-customary place and soil, in Thuringian Mühlhausen (although it can be said that there was a precedent from 1135 when Philip's great-uncle Conrad was proclaimed King at the place). Moreover, his coronation took place neither at the 'right place', that is, in Mainz or Aachen, nor under the 'right authority' because he was crowned by the Burgundian Archbishop Aymon II of Tarentaise and not the archbishop of Cologne. Otto's election and coronation took place in the right places, Cologne and Aachen, and his coronation was carried out by the Archbishop of Cologne, but only with a substituted set of regalia. Thus neither Philip nor Otto had full legitimacy to rule the monarchy.

Pope Innocent III was of the opinion that the pope should decide the question of who sat on the throne, to whom spiritual and temporal princes would have to submit. But he was clearly waiting for the outcome of the power struggle. He was, however, well informed of events by his papal legate-bishop, Radulf of Sutri, who was in the throes of negotiating with Philip a solution to his excommunication. There are indications that there were differences of opinion between the Hohenstaufens and the Pope over the question of the position of Sicily in the empire. Philip obviously did not share the view of his sister-in-law about the feudal dependence of Sicily on the Pope, and was therefore unwilling to regard the kingdom as a papal fief. Innocent inevitably now sided with the Welfs, which gave him the opportunity to intervene with the election announcement of April 1199. After the death of the English king and most powerful advocate of the Welfs, Richard I, Otto was all the more dependent on the support of the Pope. On 28 May 1199, the Hohenstaufen party also presented their petition to the Pope at the Princes' Declaration of Speyer. This was supported by a clear majority of the supporters of Philip and assured that the rights of the Church were to be respected if, in return, the rights of the emperor were respected by the Church. In addition, Philip's forthcoming visit to Rome for his imperial coronation was announced.

Innocent's decision

Innocent III now abandoned his restraint and, on 3 May 1199, announced that he would soon decide to whom he would grant papal favour. On 20 May 1199, he declared to the Archbishop of Cologne and the other signatories of Otto's letter of recommendation that he would support the Welf king, if the latter showed himself to be loyal to the church. For Otto, the road to an alliance with the Roman Curia was now open. The political interests of the papacy were crucial to this decision, for Otto had now to back his earlier assurances with documentary evidence, not least the continuing excommunication of Philip.

The pope now intervened energetically in the dispute, banned Philip and his followers including the signatories of the Speyer Declaration, and proceeded with all severity against them. The Hohenstaufen party reacted with a violent protest at several Hoftage and rejected the interference of the pope in the German election as an unheard-of process. At the end of March 1202, Innocent sent another letter in which he summarized and justified his papal rights and claims. This letter had been incorporated into Church law and was therefore called the Decretale Venerabilem. This justified the right of the Pope to reject a king who was inappropriate from a spiritual perspective. He thereby intervened in German constitutional law. In the end it became apparent how difficult it was to reconcile contradictory claims and political and ideological positions.

In 1202/03. Otto's power increased through conquests, agreements and alliances as well as the support of a number of secular princes. But it soon became apparent that these successes were just illusory, and a lack of loyalty deprived him of support and created adversaries. Through disagreements and losses of power in the east, his own brother, Count Palatine Henry, deserted him, as did even Adolf of Cologne, the creator of his kingdom. When Philip advanced on the Lower Rhine, the Archbishop crowned him on 6 January 1205, after another election. After several threats, Adolf of Cologne was removed from office by Innocent III and excommunicated. New archepiscopal elections were immediately launched. Since Otto had lost Cologne in November 1206, and had been in Brunswick shortly before the defeat, Innocent found himself forced to make a compromise with Philip. However, just before the conclusion of a treaty, Philip was murdered 21 June 1208 in Bamberg by the Count Palatine Otto of Wittelsbach as the result of a private feud.

The murder of the king fundamentally changed the course of German history. Pope Innocent III viewed the event as God's judgment and confirmation of the validity of his decision in the throne controversy. Without a counter-king and intent on marrying the Philip's eldest daughter (Philip had no male heirs), Otto IV suddenly became the undisputed ruler of the united kingdom. Otto's kingship was recognized in an election on 11 November 1208 in Frankfurt am Main. The Welf king declared that he wished to subject his claim to the throne entirely to the advice and will of the Pope, and renewed and even extended his earlier vows from the Speyer Declaration of 22 March 1209.

Otto's betrayal

Thus the way was clear for Otto's imperial coronation, which took place on 4 October. But Innocent had been greatly deceived by the new emperor. Otto began, shortly after his coronation, attempting to recover the estates transferred to the Papacy, especially those of Matilda of Tuscany, going against his pledges. During the course of 1210, the conflict deepened. When the Welf emperor was about to attack Sicily in the middle of November, with the aim of restoring the situation to that of 1197, Pope Innocent imposed the imperial ban on Otto and released his subjects from their oaths of loyalty. The Pope was now compelled, with the support of the King of France and the German princes, to find a new heir to the throne. Only Frederick of Sicily was in the running. This meant Pope Innocent now had to accept another member of a dynasty which he had hitherto demonized as a family of persecutors of the Church, and feared Sicily joining the Empire. But he had some control, since he was the overlord of Sicily. This Frederick acknowledged; even if he were crowned emperor, he acquiesced that this overlord-vassal relationship should remain the same. Frederick's one-year-old son, Henry, was crowned King of Sicily at the request of the Pope, and Innocent thus received a kind of insurance. But this policy made Innocent unpopular. Walther von der Vogelweide speaks in his poetry about the duplicity of the Curia and the secularisation of the Church.

Frederick's ascent to the throne

The first successful outcome of the papal counteraction was that Otto left Sicily in October 1211 and returned to Germany, because his position in the Empire had become fragile. But his troops continued to occupy Sicily.

Frederick went to Rome to swear his oath of loyalty to his overlord, the Pope, in person, was supported financially by the Pope with money, and with his consent proclaimed King of the Romans and the future Emperor. Frederick complied in every way with the wishes of the Pope and was declared a king and a chosen emperor "of God and of the Pope," which also reflected the actual political balance of power. In September 1212 he was able to set foot in Constance and gather his followers around him. Once again, civil war broke out in Germany. Once more, as Walther von der Vogelweide sang "the Pope had placed two Germans under one crown, bringing disunity and devastation across the Empire."

Frederick owed his success to his membership of the House of Hohenstaufen, to Papal command and French support. On 5 December 1212, he was formally re-elected as king in Frankfurt by a great assembly of princes and crowned four days later in Mainz.

The outcome

The outcome of the throne contest was decided on a foreign battlefield. Otto supported his English uncle, King John, in the conflict between England and France over English lands on mainland Europe. On 27 July 1214, Philip II August, without the participation of his ally, Frederick, gained a brilliant victory over Otto at the Battle of Bouvines. Otto IV never recovered from this defeat, his remaining allies deserted him, and he died on the Harzburg on 19 May 1218.

Frederick's rise to power was completed on 25 July 1215, in Aachen, when he once again crowned himself king; this time at the right place. He had long before paid the price for the Pope's support of his bid for the throne. On 12 July 1213, he had granted a great privilege to the Church: the Golden Bull of Eger, in which he once again recorded in writing the concessions he had already made to the Curia. It included recognition of the freedom of episcopal elections, the lands recovered by the Papacy, the Pope's sovereignty over Sicily, and the assurance of aid against heretics. This was now no longer a secret agreement, but was reiterated in the form of a solemn privilege signed by princes and imperial ministeriales.

Literature

  • Egon Boshof: Innozenz III. und der deutsche Thronstreit. In: Thomas Frenz (ed.): Papst Innozenz III. Weichensteller der Geschichte Europas. Steiner, Stuttgart, 2000, ISBN 3-515-07433-3, pp. 51–67.
  • Peter Csendes: Philipp von Schwaben. Ein Staufer im Kampf um die Macht. Primus-Verlag, Darmstadt, 2003, ISBN 3-89678-458-7.
  • Bernd Ulrich Hucker: Otto IV. Der wiederentdeckte Kaiser (= Insel-Taschenbuch. 2557). Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt etc., 2003, ISBN 3-458-34257-5.
  • Alois Gerlich: Könige, Fürsten, Adel und Städte am Mittelrhein und in Franken zwischen Thronstreit und Mainzer Reichslandfrieden 1198–1235 (= Quellen und Forschungen zur hessischen Geschichte. Vol. 127). Self publication by the Hessian Historical Commission et al., Darmstadt etc., 2001, ISBN 3-88443-079-3.
  • Reinhold Schneider: Innozenz der Dritte (= dtv. 116, ZDB-ID 986583-4). Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich, 1963.
  • Wolfgang Stürner: Dreizehntes Jahrhundert. 1198–1273 (= Gebhardt. Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte. Vol. 6). 10th fully revised edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart, 2007, ISBN 978-3-608-60006-3, pp. 156 ff.
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