Peace of Constance – 3

When, on various occasions, conspiracies were formed against Henry by other Saxon nobles, the Emperor had boldly and successfully taken his part.

Continuing The Peace Of Constance Secures The Liberties Of The Lombard Cities,
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Previously in The Peace Of Constance Secures The Liberties Of The Lombard Cities.

Time: 1183
Place: Constance, Germany

When, on various occasions, conspiracies were formed against Henry by other Saxon nobles, the Emperor had boldly and successfully taken his part, helping in person to quell the insurgents; in 1162 he had prevented the Duke of Austria and the King of Bohemia from trying to bring about their rival’s downfall.

A marriage with Matilda, daughter of the King of England, had increased the great Saxon’s influence; and during the continued absences of the Emperor in Italy his rule was kingly in all but name. In 1171 he affianced his daughter to the son of King Waldemar of Denmark and by this alliance secured his new colonies from Danish hostility.

In actual extent and productiveness his estates fairly surpassed those of his imperial cousin and the defection of such a man signified the death knell of the latter’s cause.

The battle of Legnano, fought on May 29, 1176, ended in disaster and defeat. Frederick himself, who was wounded and thrown from his horse, finally reached Pavia after days of adventurous flight, having meanwhile been mourned as dead by the remnant of his army.

All was not yet lost, indeed, for the league, not knowing what reinforcements were on the way from Germany — the small army of Christian of Mayence, too, was still harvesting victories in the March of Ancona — did not follow up its successes. Cremona, moreover, jealous of Milan, began to waver in her allegiance to the cause of which she had so long been the leader and eventually signed a treaty with the Emperor.

But Frederick, although he at first made a pretense of continuing the war, was soon forced by the representations of his nobles to abandon the policy of twenty-four years and to make peace on the best terms obtainable with Alexander III and, through him, with the Lombard cities. The oath of Wuerzburg was broken and the two treaties of Anagni and Venice put an end to the long war.

At Anagni the articles were drawn up on which the later long and wearisome negotiations were based. The Emperor, the Empress and the young King of the Romans were to acknowledge Alexander as the Catholic and universal pope and to show him all due respect. Frederick was to give up the prefecture of Rome and the estates of Matilda and to make peace with the Lombards, with the King of Sicily, the Emperor of Constantinople and all who had aided and supported the Roman Church. Provision was to be made for a number of German archbishops and bishops who had received their authority from the antipopes.

There is no need to dwell on the endless discussions that ensued with regard to these matters; more than once it seemed as though all attempts at agreement would have to be abandoned. But both parties were sincerely anxious for peace and at last a remarkably skillful compromise was drawn up at Venice.

Frederick had objected strongly to renouncing the rights of the empire regarding the estates of Matilda; he was to be allowed to draw the revenues of those estates for fifteen years to come and the question was eventually to be settled by commissioners. The form of the peace with the Lombards was a still more difficult matter but the Pope made a wise suggestion which was adopted. A truce of six years was declared, at the end of which time it was hoped that a basis would have been found for a readjustment of the relations between the Emperor and the league. With Sicily, too, hostilities were to cease for a term of fifteen years.

It will be seen that all the great questions at issue, save the recognitions of Alexander as pope, were thus relegated to a future time; to a time when the persons concerned would no longer be swayed by passion and when the din of war would be forgotten.

During the negotiations the Pope had remained for the most part in Venice, while Frederick had not been allowed to enter the city but had remained in the neighborhood in order that the envoys might pass more quickly to and fro. The terms of the treaty were finally assented to by the Emperor at Chioggia, July 21, 1177. Alexander now prepared to carry out his cherished project of holding a mighty peace congress at Venice; and there, at the news of the approaching reconciliation, nobles and bishops and their retinues came together from all parts of Europe.

Now that the peace was to become an accomplished fact, Venice outdid herself in preparing to honor the Emperor. The latter, too, was determined to spare no expense that could add to the splendor of the occasion. He had negotiated for a loan with the rich Venetians and he now imposed a tax of one thousand marks of silver on his nobles.

Frederick’s coming was announced for Sunday, July 24th and by that time the city had donned its most festive attire. Two tall masts had been erected on the present Piazzetta and from them floated banners bearing the lion of St. Mark’s. A platform had been constructed at the door of the church and upon it was placed a raised throne for the Pope.

When the Emperor landed on the Lido he was met by cardinals whom Alexander had sent to absolve him from the ban. The Doge, the Patriarch of Grado and a crowd of lesser dignitaries then appeared and furnished a brilliant escort with their gondolas and barks. Having reached the shore Frederick, in the presence of an immense crowd, approached the papal throne and, throwing off his purple mantle, prostrated himself before the Pope and kissed the latter’s feet. Three red slabs of marble mark the spot where he knelt. It was a moment of world-wide importance; the Empire and the papacy had measured themselves in mortal combat and the Empire, in form at least, was now surrendering at discretion. No wonder that later ages have fabled much about this meeting. The Pope is said, with his foot on the neck of the prostrate King, to have exclaimed aloud, “The lion and the young dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet!”

As a matter of fact Alexander’s letters of this time express anything but insolent triumph and his relations with the Emperor after the peace had been sworn to assumed the friendliest character. On the day after his entry into Venice Frederick visited him in the palace of the Patriarch and we are told that the conversation was not only amicable but gay and that the Emperor returned to the Doge’s palace in the best of moods.

Continued.

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