Page 267 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

into his empire. The cities of northern Italy, which had become used to their freedom, were also not willing to be Frederick’s subjects. An alliance of these northern Italian cities called the Lombard League, with the sup- port of the papacy, defeated the forces of Emperor Frederick at Legnano in 1176.
FREDERICK II Frederick II was the most brilliant of the Hohenstaufen rulers. King of Sicily in 1198, king of Germany in 1212, and crowned emperor in 1220, Fred- erick II was a truly remarkable man who awed his con- temporaries. He had been raised in Sicily, with its diverse peoples, languages, and religions, and his court brought together a brilliant array of lawyers, poets, artists, and scientists. His main goal was to establish a strong centralized state in Italy dominated by his king- dom in Sicily, and his major task was to gain control of northern Italy. In reaching to thus extend his power, he became involved in a deadly struggle with the popes, who realized that a single ruler of northern and
The Coronation of Frederick II. Shown here is the coronation of Frederick II of Germany as Holy Roman emperor by Pope Honorius II in Rome on November 22, 1220. The pope agreed to the coronation after Frederick promised to lead a Crusade to the Holy Land, a promise that he took years to fulfill. This scene is taken from a fifteenth-century French manuscript on the monarchs of Europe.
southern Italy meant the end of papal secular power in central Italy. The northern Italian cities were also unwilling to give up their freedom. Frederick waged a bitter struggle in northern Italy, winning many battles but ultimately losing the war.
Frederick’s preoccupation with the creation of an empire in Italy left Germany in confusion and chaos until 1273, when the major German princes, serving as electors, chose an insignificant German noble, Rudolf of Habsburg (HAPS-burg), as the new German king. In choosing a weak king, the princes were ensuring that the German monarchy would remain impotent and incapable of reestablishing a centralized monarchical state. The failure of the Hohenstaufens had led to a sit- uation in which his exalted majesty, the German king and Holy Roman emperor, had no real power over ei- ther Germany or Italy. Unlike France, England, and even Spain, neither Germany nor Italy created a unified national monarchy in the Middle Ages. Both became geographic designations for loose confederations of hundreds of petty states under the vague direction of king or emperor. In fact, neither Germany nor Italy would become united until the nineteenth century.
Following the death of Frederick II, Italy fell into po- litical confusion. While the papacy remained in control of much of central Italy, the defeat of imperial power left the cities and towns of northern Italy independent of any other authority. Gradually, the larger ones began to emerge as strong city-states. Florence assumed the leadership of Tuscany, and Milan, under the guidance of the Visconti family, took control of the Lombard region. With its great commercial wealth, the republic of Venice dominated the northeastern part of the peninsula.
New Kingdoms in Northern and
Eastern Europe
The Scandinavian countries of northern Europe had little political organization before 1000, and it was not until around that time that the three Scandina- vian kingdoms—Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (see Map 10.4)—emerged with a noticeable political struc- ture. The three kingdoms were converted to Christian- ity by kings who believed that an organized church was a necessary accompaniment to an organized state. The adoption of Christianity, however, did not elimi- nate the warlike tendencies of the Scandinavians. Not only did the three kingdoms fight each other in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, but rival families were in regular conflict over the throne in each state. This period also witnessed the growth of a powerful noble
The Emergence and Growth of European Kingdoms, 1000–1300 229
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