A Short History of the Middle Ages Fourth Edition

OF EMPIRES AND CITY-STATES

Smaller states were the norm. In that sense the empire ruled by the German king—

spanning both Germany and Italy—was an oddity. In its embrace of peoples of

contrasting traditions, it was more like Byzantium than like England. The location of

the papacy made the empire different as well. Every other state was a safe distance

away from the pope; but the empire had the pope in its throat. Tradition, prestige,

and political self-respect demanded that the German king also be the emperor:

Conrad III (r.1138–1152), though never actually crowned at Rome, nevertheless

delighted in calling himself “August Emperor of the Romans” (while demeaning the

Byzantine emperor as “King of the Greeks”). But being emperor meant controlling

Italy and Rome. The difficulty was not only the papacy, defiantly opposed to another

major power in Italy, but also the northern Italian communes, independent city-states

in their own right.

The Revival and Deterioration of the Empire

Like the Angevin Henry II of England, Frederick I Barbarossa (r.1152–1190) came to

the throne after a long period of bitter civil war between families. In Frederick’s case,

the feud, spawned in the wake of the Investiture Conflict, was between the Staufen

and the Welfs. Contemporaries hailed Frederick as a reconciler of enemies: he was

Staufen on his father’s side and Welf on his mother’s. (See Genealogy 6.2: Rulers of

Germany and Sicily.) Again like the English king, Frederick held a kingdom and

more. But he lacked Henry’s wealth. As a result he was forced to rely on personal

loyalties, not salaried civil servants. He could not tear down princely castles as Henry

had done. Instead, he conceded the German princes their powers, requiring them in

turn to recognize him as the source of those powers, and committing them to certain

obligations, such as attending him at court and providing him with troops.