FEUDAL STATES OF EUROPE 265 is to who should sit at the emperor's left, and the emperor isked the archbishop to yield the point. Thereupon the jingry archbishop started to withdraw to his lodgings. The Count Palatine of the Rhine, although as his title indicates iie was supposed to be closely connected with the palace and phe emperor, promptly arose to follow the archbishop, ex- cusing himself to the emperor by saying that he was the vassal of the archbishop. Other dukes and counts also arose
- o leave, and from remarks which passed between them and
- he abbot's adherents it was plain that there was going to
oe a fight, especially as the archbishop had come to Mainz ittended by some four thousand armed men. The emperor iccordingly apologized to the huffy prelate, and the abbot lad to surrender the coveted precedence. About 900 the north of Italy was divided into a num- ber of duchies and counties, from the Duke of Friuli in the east to the Marquis of Montferrat in the west. ^ , , T , L 1 • t 1 c o> 11 Feudal Italy p other marquis was lord of Tuscany, and the estates claimed by the Papacy were really in the hands of petty nobles. In the south, what with fragments of Lom- bard duchies and the conflicting claims of the Byzantines and Saracens, the subdivision was worst of all. The revival 3f the imperial idea by Otto the Great did not alter con- ditions much. The emperor made occasional trips to Italy, Received homage from various lords, appointed various officials to look after his interests, and then went back to Germany again. After some years he would return to find ill once more in confusion. Otto II (973-983) and Otto III (983-1002), it is true, devoted their reigns chiefly to Italian affairs, but without achieving important permanent results. Their successor, Henry II (1 002-1 024), came thrice to Italy
- in over twenty years and each time to fight. In 1004 he got
as far as Pavia where he received the Lombard crown. In 1014 ne reached Rome and obtained the imperial crown. |In 1022 he fought against the Byzantines in southern Italy. Even the city of Rome showed little loyalty to the emperor. Seldom was a coronation held without the Roman populace trying to drive the German troops from the city.
