the German princes to give himself a free hand. In effect, he allowed the princes to
turn their territories into independent states. Until the nineteenth century, Germany
was a mosaic, not of city-states like Italy, but of principalities. Between 1254 and
1273 the princes, split into factions, kept the German throne empty by electing two
different foreigners who spent their time fighting each other. Strangely enough, it was
during this low point of the German monarchy that the term “Holy Roman Empire”
was coined. In 1273, the princes at last united and elected a German, Rudolf I
(r.1273–1291), whose family, the Habsburg, was new to imperial power. Rudolf used
the imperial title to help him gain Austria for his family. But he did not try to assert
his power in Italy. For the first time, the word “emperor” was freed from its
association with Rome.
The Kingdom of Sicily was similarly parceled out. The papacy tried to ensure
that the Staufen dynasty would never rule there again by calling upon Charles of
Anjou, brother of the king of France, to take it over in 1263. Undeterred, Frederick’s
granddaughter, Constance, married to the King of Aragon (Spain), took the proud
title “Queen of Sicily.” In 1282, the Sicilians revolted against the Angevins in the
uprising known as the “Sicilian Vespers,” begging the Aragonese for aid. Bitter war
ensued, ending only in 1302, when the Kingdom of Sicily was split: the island
became a Spanish outpost, while its mainland portion (southern Italy) remained under
Angevin control.
A Hungarian Mini-Empire
Unlike the Kingdom of Sicily, the Kingdom of Hungary reaped the fruits of a period
of expansion. In the eleventh century, having solidified their hold along the Danube
River (the center of their power), the kings of Hungary moved north and east. In an
arc ending at the Carpathian Mountains, they established control over a multi-ethnic
population of Germans and Slavs. In the course of the twelfth century, the Hungarian
kings turned southward, taking over Croatia and fighting for control over the coastline
with the powerful Republic of Venice. They might have dominated the whole eastern
Adriatic had not the Kingdom of Serbia re-established itself west of its original site,
eager for its own share of seaborne commerce.
The Triumph of the City-States