Henry. But on his way to Duisburg, where Herman then was, he received an intimation that he would not be admitted to the counsels of the Swabian party. Returning homewards after this second rebuff, he was waylaid at Pöhlde on the night of 30 April by four brothers who cherished a private grudge against him, and was slain.
This tragic event removed a dangerous enemy from Henry's path, but the contention with Duke Herman proved long and bitter. Henry could count upon the magnates of Bavaria, of East Franconia, and of Saxony, while Herman had the support only of those of Swabia and of West Franconia. The Swabian faction, however, was resolute, and the Lorrainers were still doubtful. Archbishop Willigis of Mayence, the mainstay of the last two Emperors, now stood for the principle of legitimate succession. At the beginning of June, Henry, with his Bavarian and Franconian adherents, approached the Rhine at Worms, evaded Herman, and entered Mayence. There his election followed; and on 7 June that act was ratified by his solemn unction and coronation.
This success decided the wavering Dietrich, Duke of Upper Lorraine. But the election had been carried through in haste by a few partisans of the new king; and not only did the Duke of Swabia and his friends remain defiant, but the nobles of Lower Lorraine still held aloof, while those of Saxony took umbrage at their total exclusion from the proceedings at Mayence. To force Herman to submission Henry turned southwards and began to ravage Swabia. But the duke retaliated by assaulting and sacking his own city of Strasbourg, whose bishop had declared for his rival, and refused to be drawn into a decision by battle. Baffled in the South, Henry proceeded to make sure of the rest of the kingdom. In Thuringia, in July, he received full acknowledgment from Count William of Weimar and the other chief men, and gratefully abolished the ancient tribute of swine, due from the Thuringians to the crown. But from the Saxon magnates Henry obtained a less easy recognition. There had assembled to meet him at Merseburg on 23 July a great company of the bishops and counts of Saxony, at whose head stood the Archbishops of Bremen and Magdeburg with their Duke Bernard and the Margraves Liuthar and Gero. Duke Boleslav of Poland also, fresh from an attack on the mark of Meissen made after the death of Eckhard, presumed to appear among them. These men, though they received the new king with deference, were not prepared to offer him an unconditional allegiance. They stood upon their separate rights, and the next day, before any homage was paid, Bernard came forward in their name and in that of the Saxon people to assert their peculiar claims, and to demand of Henry how far he would pledge himself to respect them. Henry replied by extolling the steadfast loyalty of the Saxons to their kings; it was only with their approval that he now came among them as king; and so far from infringing their law he would be careful to observe it at all points, and would do his utmost to fulfil their reasonable wishes. The speech satisfied the magnates; and
