German controversy for the throne
In the German throne dispute the noble houses of fighting Staufer and the Guelphs after the death of Emperor Henry VI. at the turn of the 12th to the 13th century for the crown of the Holy Roman Empire . At the end of the almost 20 year conflict, the Staufers prevailed with Friedrich II .
origin
On September 28, 1197, the 32-year-old Emperor Heinrich VI died unexpectedly . Uncertainties arose about future developments in the empire, which were to be sought in the circle of the princes. Opposing forces to the stable power position of the Hohenstaufen were present, as had already been shown when the inheritance plan failed . The princes were now faced with the question of whether they would recognize the now three-year-old son Friedrich as their successor. Although Friedrich had already been elected in Frankfurt at the end of 1196 with the significant participation of Archbishop Konrad von Wittelsbach and the Swabian Duke Philip , the temptation to turn away from the previous ruling house grew.
Innocent III takes office
While the situation in the empire led to the division, the 37-year-old Lothar von Segni ascended the chair of Peter on February 22, 1198 and became Pope Innocent III. who, as a ruling personality, should usher in a new position of power for the popes. His goals were the restoration of sovereign papal rule in Rome and in the papal state, the regaining of suzerainty over the kingdom of Sicily, the recuperation of the central Italian lands and the unification of the Italian powers under the leadership of the papacy.
Friedrich's mother, Constance of Sicily , initiated a political change in the south of Italy. She sought rapprochement with Rome, cut ties with the rest of the empire, expelled the Germans from their Sicilian empire, renounced the Roman-German kingship of her son Friedrich and instead had him crowned King of Sicily in 1198. Such a policy of separation was entirely in the heart of Innocent, but only after he had wrested a concordat from Constanze that limited the ecclesiastical prerogatives of the Sicilian crown beyond the concessions made by Tankred and only a small remainder of a royal right of consensus passed the bishopric. Innocent restored the old feudal relationship. Just in time, after the unexpectedly quick death of Konstanze (1198), at her disposal as overlord, to win the guardianship of the young Friedrich and thus to get control of the fate of Sicily in his hand.
The double choice
After Konstanze renounced the Roman-German kingship for her son Friedrich, the princes in the empire disagreed as to whom to make king. The Saxon Duke Bernhard III was initially considered the most promising candidate . from the Ascanian dynasty , who among other things could count on the support of the Archbishop of Cologne, Adolf . Meanwhile, the English King Richard I proposed his nephew and then Duke of Aquitaine Otto von Braunschweig , the son of the Saxon Duke Henry the Lion , as a candidate. The prospect that the Guelph Otto could become king, motivated Bernhard and the Saxon nobility to take sides with the younger brother of Heinrich VI., The Swabian Duke Philip , as it was feared that the Guelphs might lay claim to the title of Saxon duke which had been withdrawn from them in 1180 at the Gelnhausen farm conference. Under pressure from the Saxon nobles, Philipp von Schwaben, who as the uncle of young Friedrich originally only wanted to secure the Roman-German kingship for his nephew, finally agreed to his elevation to king. Thereupon he was elected king on March 8, 1198 by the Staufer-minded princes. The anti-Staufer princes did not want to accept this. Therefore, on June 9th, they raised Otto of Braunschweig to the rival king of Philip of Swabia, who was elected but not yet crowned king. Otto's coronation took place on July 12th, while Philip was not crowned until September 8th.
So there were two Roman-German kings at the same time, although the choice and coronation did not correspond to the traditional modalities in both cases : Philip was in possession of the coronation insignia ( imperial crown , imperial orb and imperial sword ), but his choice was made on non-Franconian soil, namely in Mühlhausen in Thuringia . In addition, his coronation took place neither in the 'right' place, in Mainz instead of Aachen , nor by the 'right' hand, by the Archbishop of Burgundy instead of the Archbishop of Cologne. Otto's election and coronation, however, took place in the right places, namely in Cologne and Aachen. In addition, the coronation was carried out by the Archbishop of Cologne; however, only with replicated insignia. Thus neither Philip nor Otto possessed the full legitimacy for a proper kingship.
Innocent III. was of the opinion that it was up to the Pope to make a decision on the question of the throne to which the clergy and secular officials would have to submit. But at first he was apparently waiting for the power struggle. But he was well informed about the events through his papal legate, Bishop Radulf von Sutri , who was negotiating with Philip about the removal of the ban from church . There are indications that there were differences of opinion between the Staufer and the Pope on the question of Sicily's position in relation to the Empire. Philip apparently did not share his sister-in-law's view of Sicily's feudal dependence on the Pope, so he was not ready to regard the kingdom as a papal fiefdom. Inevitably, Innocent now approached the Guelph party, which gave him the opportunity to intervene with the election announcement of April 1199. Archbishop Adolf of Cologne and Otto IV. Were all the more dependent on the support of the Pope after the death of the English king and most powerful advocate of the Guelphs, Richard I. On May 28, 1199, the Staufer Party also presented its ideas to the Pope in the Speyer Princely Declaration . It argued with the clear majority of Philip's followers and assured them that the rights of the church would be respected if, in return, the imperial rights were respected by the church. In addition, Philip's soon to travel to Rome for the imperial coronation was announced.
Innocent's decision
Now Innocent III. his reluctance and announced on May 3, 1199 that he would soon decide to whom he intended to grant papal favor. On May 20, 1199, he announced to the Archbishop of Cologne and the other signatories of the letters of recommendation for Otto that he wanted to support the Guelph if he showed himself to be surrender to the church in the future. For Otto the way to an alliance with the curia was open. The decisive factor for this decision was the political interest of the papacy, because Otto now had to record his earlier assurances in a document, and last but not least the still ongoing excommunication of Philip.
Now the Pope intervened energetically in the dispute, banned Philip and his followers or the signatories of the Speyer Declaration and proceeded with all severity against them. The Staufer party formulated its violent protest on several court days and rejected the interference of the Pope in the German election as an unheard of process. At the end of March 1202 Innocent sent back another letter in which he summarized and justified his papal legal ideas and claims. This letter has been incorporated into canon law and is therefore cited as Decretals Venerabilem . From this the Pope derives his claim to reject a king who is unsuitable for the Church. In doing so, he intervenes in German constitutional law. Ultimately, it becomes clear how difficult it was to reconcile the contradicting legal claims and political and idealistic positions.
Otto's power increased increasingly in the years 1202/03 through conquests, agreements and alliances as well as the joining of some secular princes. But it soon became apparent that these successes were only apparent and that the shock of loyalty deprived him of his foothold and created opponents. Due to disagreements and loss of power in the East, his own brother, Count Palatine Heinrich, turned away from him and even Adolf of Cologne, the creator of his kingship. When Philip now also advanced on the Lower Rhine, the Archbishop carried out his coronation on January 6, 1205 after a new election. After repeated threats, Adolf of Cologne was now by Innocent III. Removed from office and excommunicated. New bishop elections were scheduled immediately. Since Otto also lost Cologne in November 1206 and was shortly before defeat in Braunschweig, Innocent was forced to reach an agreement with Philipp. A contract was about to be concluded when Philipp was murdered on June 21, 1208 in Bamberg by Count Palatine Otto von Wittelsbach as a private vengeance.
The regicide changed the course of German history fundamentally. Pope Innocent III understood the event as a divine judgment, as a subsequent confirmation of the correctness of his decision in the controversy for the throne. Without an opposing king and with the intention of becoming engaged to the eldest daughter of the sonless Philip, Otto IV suddenly became the undisputed ruler of the united kingdom. Otto's royalty was recognized in an election on November 11, 1208 in Frankfurt am Main. The Guelph declared that he wanted to submit his cause entirely to the papal advice and will, and in the Speyer document of March 22, 1209 renewed his earlier promises in an even expanded form.
The turn
This cleared the way for Otto's coronation, which took place on October 4, 1209. But Innocent was very wrong about the new emperor. Shortly after his coronation as emperor, contrary to his promises, Otto began efforts to withdraw the papal recuperations, especially the Mathildic estates , to the empire. In the course of 1210 the conflict came to a head. When the Guelph emperor was about to attack Sicily in mid-November, already with the aim of restoring the status of 1197, Innocent imposed the ban on Otto and released the subjects from their oath of allegiance. Innocent now felt compelled, with the support of the French king and German princes, to bring a new pretender to the throne. Only Frederick of Sicily came into question for this. Now Innocent had to accept a member of a dynasty that he had previously demonized as one of the persecutors of the Church, and feared that Sicily would join the empire. But he had a certain amount of control, since he was lord over Sicily. Friedrich recognized this; even in the case of his coronation as emperor, the situation was to remain. At the papal request, Frederick's one-year-old son Heinrich was crowned King of Sicily, so Innocent received a kind of reassurance. With this policy Innocent made himself unpopular. Walther von der Vogelweide spoke in his verses of the duplicity of the curia or of the secularization of the church.
Frederick's rise to king
An initial success of the papal counteraction was that Otto left Sicily in October 1211 and returned to Germany because his position of power in the empire was becoming fragile. His troops kept Sicily occupied.
Friedrich went to Rome, personally swore the oath to his papal liege lord, was supported by him with money and, with his consent, proclaimed the future emperor by the Romans. In everything, Frederick came to meet the Pope and described himself as king and chosen emperor “by the grace of God and the Pope”, which corresponded to the actual political balance of power. In September 1212 he was able to gain a foothold in Constance and gather his followers around him. Civil war broke out again in Germany. Again, as Walther von der Vogelweide sang, the Pope had "brought two Germans under one crown that they would bring strife and devastation over the empire".
Friedrich owed his success to his Hohenstaufen name, papal command and French support. On December 5, 1212 he was formally elected king again by a large meeting of princes in Frankfurt and crowned four days later in Mainz.
The decision
The final decision in the contest for the throne fell on a foreign battlefield. Otto supported his English uncle Johann Ohneland in the disputes between the English and French kings over the English mainland property . On July 27, 1214 Philip II August, without the participation of his ally Friedrich, won a brilliant victory over Otto in the battle of Bouvines . Otto IV did not recover from this defeat, his remaining allies turned away from him and he died on May 19, 1218 on the Harzburg .
Frederick's rise to power was completed on July 25, 1215 in Aachen, when he was crowned king here again, now in the right place. He had long since paid the Pope the price for his support in the controversy for the throne. On July 12, 1213, he had given the Roman Church a great privilege: The Gold Bull of Eger , in which he re-certified the concessions that Otto had already made to the Curia. It contained, among other things, the freedom to elect bishops, the recognition of papal recuperations, the recognition of the papal suzerainty over Sicily and the assurance of help against heretics . This no longer happened as a secret agreement, but in the form of a solemn privilege signed by the princes and imperial ministers.
literature
- Egon Boshof : Innocent III. and the German controversy for the throne. In: Thomas Frenz (Ed.): Pope Innozenz III. Setting the course in the history of Europe. Steiner, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-515-07433-3 , pp. 51-67.
- Peter Csendes : Philipp von Schwaben. A Staufer in the struggle for power. Primus-Verlag, Darmstadt 2003, ISBN 3-89678-458-7 .
- Bernd Ulrich Hucker : Otto IV. The rediscovered emperor (= Insel-Taschenbuch. 2557). Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2003, ISBN 3-458-34257-5 .
- Alois Gerlich : Kings, princes, nobility and cities on the Middle Rhine and in Franconia between the controversy for the throne and the Peace of the Mainz Empire 1198–1235 (= sources and research on Hessian history. Vol. 127). Self-published by the Hessian Historical Commission et al., Darmstadt et al. 2001, ISBN 3-88443-079-3 .
- Reinhold Schneider: Innocent the Third (= dtv. 116, ZDB -ID 986583-4 ). German paperback publishing house, Munich 1963.
- Wolfgang Stürner : Thirteenth Century. 1198–1273 (= Gebhardt. Handbuch der deutschen Geschichte . Vol. 6). 10th, completely revised edition. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-608-60006-3 , p. 156 ff.