Abstract
Henry (VII)’s reasons for rebellion survive in their most detailed form in a letter he sent, probably in the autumn of 1234, to the bishop of Hildesheim.1 The king used three overlapping lines of argument: he had been appointed as king, and should thus have the power of one; he had acted solely with the interests of the empire at heart; and his father had not only been unjust towards him, but had also frequently spurned his advice, and sought to undermine his authority as consecrated ruler of Germany. There seems to have been an awareness that Henry’s past activities might be held against him. In fact, the specific actions he referred to — his wars against the dukes of Bavaria, the destruction of noble castles and the hostages he had demanded of the margrave of Baden — were the ones his father was to cite as evidence for the young king’s tyranny.
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Notes
S. Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe 900–1300 (Oxford, 1984), 262–302.
W. Sturner, ‘Konig Heinrich (VII.). Rebeli oder Sachwalter staufischer Interessen?’, Der Staufer Heinrich (VII.). Ein Konig im Schatten seines kaiserlichen Vaters (Goppingen, 2001), 12–41. See also the relevant clause in the Sachsenspiegel: Landrecht, ed. K.A. Eckhardt (Gottingen, 1955), iii. 52 §2, p. 237.
K. GOrich, Die Ehre, 12–57. The reading here is, however, more closely related to that proposed by Timothy Reuter, ‘Assembly politics in the West from the eight century to the twelfth’, The Medieval World, ed. Peter Linehan and Janet Nelson (London, 2001), 432–50 [repr. in his Medieval Polities at 436–60].
Ryccardi de Sancto Germano Notarii C’hronica, ed. C.A. Caruti, KlS NS (Bologna, 1936–8), p. 190; Annales Erphordenses fratrum praedicatorum, p. 89.
H. Beumann, ‘Friedrich II. und die heilige Elisabeth. Zum Besuch des Kaisers in Marburg am 1. Mai 1236’, Sankt Elisabeth. Fiirstin, Dienerin, Heilige (Sigmaringen, 1981), pp. 151–66.
D. Henniges, ‘Vita Sanctae Elisabeth, Landgraviae Thuringiae auctore anonymo nunc primum in lucem edita’, Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 2 (1909), 240–68 at 267–8.
See also, for a broader European perspective, A.J. Kosto, ‘Hostages and the habit of representation in thirteenth-century Occitania’, The Experience of Power in medieval Europe, 950–1150, ed. R.F. Berkhofer III, A. Cooper and A.J. Kosto (Aldershot, 2005), 183–93.
Constitutiones 1198–1272, no. 171; T. Struve, Die Entwicklung der organologischen Staatsauffassung im Mittelalter (Stuttgart, 1978).
Constiutiones 1198–1272, no. 197; E. Boshof, ‘Die Entstehung des Herzogtums Braunschweig-Luneburg’, Heinrich der Lowe, ed. W. Mohrmann (Gottingen, 1980), 249–74.
The duke’s treatment of widows may, however, not be entirely fictional. In 1255, for instance, Ottokar of Bohemia restored a property which Duke Frederick (+1246) had seized from a widow. Whether the dispossession had taken place pre-1236 is, of course, a different matter. Quellen zur Geschichte der Stadt Wien. Erste Abtheilung: Regesten aus in-und ausländischen Archive mit Ausnahme des Archivs der Stadt Wien. Erster Band, ed. A. Mayer (Vienna, 1895), no. 722.
Urkundenbuch der Stadt Erfurt, ed. C. Beyer, Geschichtsquellen der Provinz Sachsen und angrenzender Gebiete 23, 2 vols (Halle, 1889–97), i, no. 112.
Constitutiones 1198–1272, no. 154; see also, for a more extensive critical apparatus, Codex Diplomaticus et Epistolaris Regni Bohemiae, ed. G. Friedrich et al., 9 vols (Prague, 1904–93), iii, no. 11.
In fact, Henry (VII), similarly confirmed the citizens of Frankfurt half the income of the royal mint at Frankfurt because of their loyalty, which it was his duty to reward. Codex Moenofrancofurtanus. Urkundenbuch der Reichsstadt Frankfurt, ed. J.F. Bohmer, 2 vols (Frankfurt/Main, 1901–5), i, no. 107. This formula was, however, noticeably absent from a privilege given to the citizens of Oppenheim in September 1234: ibid., no. 104.
Urkundenbuch der Stadt Worms, ed. H. Boos, 2 vols (Berlin, 1886–8), i, no. 193; this included the very privileges granted by Frederick in 1236: ibid., no. 182.
F. Hausmann, ‘Kaiser Friedrich II. und Osterreich’, J. Fleckenstein (ed.), Probleme um Friedrich II (Sigmaringen, 1974), 225–308, at 268–74.
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© 2007 Björn Weiler
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Weiler, B. (2007). Loyalty, Justice and Honour: Henry (VII) and Frederick II. In: Kingship, Rebellion and Political Culture. Medieval Culture and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230593589_4
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