Western Civilization

The Lands of the Holy Roman Empire:

Germany and Italy

In the tenth century, the powerful dukes of Saxony

became kings of the lands of the eastern Frankish king-

dom (or Germany, as it came to be known). The best

known of the Saxon kings of Germany was Otto I

(936–973), who intervened in Italian politics and for

his efforts was crowned emperor of the Romans by the

pope in 962, reviving a title that had not been used

since the time of Charlemagne. Otto’s creation of a

new “Roman Empire” in the hands of the eastern

Franks (or Germans, as they came to be called) added a

tremendous burden to the kings of Germany, who now

took on the onerous task of ruling Italy as well.

In the eleventh century, German kings created a

strong monarchy and a powerful empire by leading

armies into Italy. To strengthen their power, they had

come to rely on their ability to control the church and

select bishops and abbots, whom they could then use

as royal administrators. But the struggle between

church and state during the reign of Henry IV

(1056–1106) weakened the king’s ability to use church

officials in this way. The German kings also tried to

bolster their power by using their position as emperors

to exploit the resources of Italy. But this tended to

backfire; many a German king lost armies in Italy in

pursuit of a dream of empire, and no German dynasty

demonstrates this better than the Hohenstaufens

(hoh-en-SHTOW-fenz).

FREDERICK I Both Frederick I (1152–1190) and Freder-

ick II (1212–1250), the two most famous members of

the Hohenstaufen dynasty, tried to create a new kind

of empire. Previous German kings had focused on

building a strong German kingdom, to which Italy

might be added as an appendage (see Map 10.3). Fred-

erick I, known as Barbarossa (bar-buh-ROH-suh) (Red-

beard) to the Italians, however, planned to get his chief

revenues from Italy as the center of a “holy empire,” as

he called it (hence the name Holy Roman Empire). But

his attempt to conquer northern Italy ran into severe

difficulties. The pope opposed him, fearful that the em-

peror wanted to incorporate Rome and the Papal States

Mediterranea

n

Sea

North

Sea

Atlantic

Ocean

Baltic

Sea

Venice

Rome

Naples

Corsica

Sardinia

Sicily

FRANCE

POLAND

DENMARK

ENGLAND

APULIA

Ad

ria

tic

Sea

Pyr

enee

s

POMERANIA

LUSATIA

SILESIA

MORAVIA

AUSTRIA

BAVARIA

TUSCANY

LOMBARDY

PROVENCE

BURGUNDY

ARLES

SWABIA

UPPER

LORRAINE

LOWER

LORRAINE

FRISIA

SAXONY

THURINGIA

FRANCONIA BOHEMIA

KINGDOM

OF

SICILY

EEEEbbbb

rrrroooo

RR. R.

Dannuu

bbee

Carpathian^ Mts

.

HUNGARY

REPUBLIC

OF

VENICE

Alp

s

0 200 400 Miles

0 200 400 600 Kilometers

Holy Roman Empire

Papal States

Kingdom of Sicily

Republic of Venice

MAP 10.3The Lands of the Holy

Roman Empire in the Twelfth

Century.The Hohenstaufen rulers

Frederick I and Frederick II sought

to expand the Holy Roman Empire

to include all of Italy. Frederick II had

only fleeting success: after his death,

several independent city-states arose

in northern Italy, while in Germany,

the nobles had virtually free rein

within their domains.

Q Why did the territorial

conquests of the Holy Roman

emperors cause alarm in the

papacy?

228 Chapter 10 The Rise of Kingdoms and the Growth of Church Power

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

`ˆÌi`Ê܈̅Ê̅iÊ`i“œÊÛiÀȜ˜ÊœvÊ

˜vˆÝÊ*ÀœÊ*Ê

`ˆÌœÀÊ

/œÊÀi“œÛiÊ̅ˆÃʘœÌˆVi]ÊۈÈÌ\Ê