The Book of Emperors: A Translation of the Middle High German Kaiserchronik

LII. Henry III, “the Black, ”also “the Good”

364 worthiest among them to take back home with them as hostages. Then they set fire to the castle. King Conrad exacted vengeance for this. Our Lord gave him the power to do so. He rode to the Liutzen, where he wrought great destruction on those heathens. Most of them were killed. He released the Christians captured by the heathens and took them back with him. The remaining heathens agreed to pay a tax to the king as long as he lived. The war the heathens waged was over. King Stephen sent some of his men to King Conrad, asking for peace, which King Conrad granted, and the peace treaty was sealed with oaths. Conrad had the Empire exactly fifteen years. He is buried at Speyer. LII Henry III, “the Black,” also “the Good” Henry III (r. as German king 1028–1056 and as Roman emperor 1046–1056) was the only son of Conrad II. As German king, he took part in a successful expedition to Burgundy. Not long before he died, Conrad gave his son the additional title of King of Burgundy . He married Princess Kunigunde, daughter of Canute, king of both Denmark and England. Kunigunde died in 1038, and Henry married Agnes of Poitou, daughter of Duke William V of Guienne. As the mother of young Henry IV, Agnes was later to play an advisory role in imperial affairs. Henry’s military talents were substantial, and he succeeded in bringing both Bohemia and Hungary under German control. He promoted the building of several cathedrals and generally was generous towards the church; however, he saw nothing wrong with intervening in church affairs as secular ruler, setting an Henry III 365 example for Henry IV that would lead to massive church-state conflict. In 1046, he marched into Italy to settle a conflict between two claimants to the papacy at the Council of Sutri, where both contestants were deposed, and Henry named Suidger, Bishop of Babenberg, as Clement II, who crowned Henry Roman emperor. When Clement died at the end of 1047, Henry named Damasus II, who lived only a few months as pope, after which Henry appointed Leo IX. Henry’s deposition of two claimants to the papacy and his appointment of three popes in two years had considerable influence on the creation of the College of Cardinals, which aimed at making the church, not the German emperor, responsible for selecting new pontiffs. when he departed this life, King Conrad left a son, good Henry. The princes soon decided to take that lord to be their judge. To their great misfortune, the evil Bohemians, with the help of the Hungarians , rose in opposition to the king. King Stephen [of Hungary] was buried at Weissenburg and Peter held his Empire after him. That angered the princes there, who would not rest until they had driven Peter into exile. With the help of the Bohemians, they then put another man in his place, called Otto the Cross-Eyed. This turned out badly for all of them. Peter fled to Margrave Adalbert of Austria, but the Hungarians came after him with their army. They came through the borderlands and killed his people. Peter and Adalbert were unable to defend themselves, and so they fled to Henry the Good, who received them graciously, as was befitting for such a lord. He helped them regain their honor. The king complained to the princes of the Empire and all spoke with one voice. First of all, they would see to it that the Bohemians were punished, and afterwards, they would deal with the Hungarians. And, yes, they advised the king to have the people in the countryside root up the forest there. This was done very quickly. All those who were with the lord landgraves hewed a wide stretch through the woods, making it unsafe for the Bohemians to stay in their country. The king’s forces invaded 366 Chapter Fifty-two and burned Wiscerat and Prague. They also beheaded the supp ne.1 The duke [Otto the Cross-Eyed] just barely got away. Later, in Regensburg, he was to gain the king’s good graces for a while through distributing great treasure among the princes. Every day, Peter would complain to King Henry about his enormous suffering. The king held a council in Vienna, where those loyal to him swore to support him on an expedition, and they rode off to Hungary...