No doubt but that the enforced rest was of benefit to Germany; there at least the Emperor’s power was undiminished.  Indeed, the lands of many of those who had been carried away by the pestilence had fallen to him by inheritance, or lapsed as fiefs of the crown.  Frederick is the first of the emperors who really acquired great family possessions.  These helped him to maintain his imperial power without having to rely too much on the often untrustworthy princes of the realm.  The Salian estates, to which his father had fallen heir on the death of Henry V, formed a nucleus, while, by purchase and otherwise, he acquired castle after castle, and one stretch of territory after another, especially in Suabia and the Rhine Palatinate.

By the Emperor’s influence feud after feud was settled, and the princes were induced to acknowledge his second son—­why not his eldest has never been explained—­as successor to the throne.  The internal prosperity and concord were not without their influence on the neighboring powers, and Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland were forced to acknowledge and fulfil their feudal duties.

Meanwhile Tuscany and a part of the Romagna had remained true to the empire.  Frederick’s emissary, Christian of Mayence, who was sent to Italy in 1171, was able to play a leading role in the hostilities between Pisa and Genoa, and, in 1173, to again besiege Ancona, which was still a centre for Greek intrigues.  Christian was able to assure the Emperor that some allies at least were left in Italy.

In one way time had worked a favorable change.  So long as an immediate attack was to be feared the Lombard cities—­between thirty and forty of which, including such towns as Venice, Bologna, and Pavia, had finally joined the League—­were firmly united and ready to make any effort.  But as the years went on and the danger became less pressing, internal discord crept in among them.  Venice, for instance, helped Christian of Mayence in besieging Ancona; and Pavia, true to its old imperial policy, was only waiting for an opportunity for deserting its latest allies.  The league feared, too, that Alexander might leave it to its fate and make an independent peace with the Emperor.

As a matter of fact, in 1170, strong efforts had been made to bring about such a consummation.  But Frederick was bound by the Wuerzburg decrees, and his envoy could not offer the submission that Alexander required.

John of Salisbury tells us that the Emperor made a proposition to the effect that he himself, for his own person, should not be compelled to recognize any pope “save Peter and the others who are in heaven,” but that his son Henry, the young King of the Romans, should recognize Alexander, and, in return, receive from him the imperial coronation.  The bishops ordained by Frederick’s popes were to remain in office.  Alexander answered these proposals with a certain scorn, and the imperial ambassador, Eberhard of Bamberg, returned from Veroli, where the conference had taken place, with nothing to show for his pains.