their submission to Henry, who a few days later, at Pontelungo near Pavia, held a general diet for the settlement of the kingdom. But the king's mind was already made up to leave Italy; and he started at the beginning of June on his way to Germany. After receiving, as his last act on Italian soil, the proffer of their fealty from certain Tuscan delegates, he reached Swabia by the middle of the month.
The expedition had in fact failed. For in spite of his coronation, of the homage of the magnates, and of the forced submission of most of the Lombards, Henry had not ventured beyond Lombardy; and even there he left behind him an unsubdued rival and a disaffected people. The horror of the burning of Pavia sank deep into the hearts of the Lombards, for whom he had destroyed the hope of settled order under their native king without giving them stable government of his own. And for himself the sole advantage he had secured was the renewed assertion of the German claim to the crown of Lombardy.
Want of time was the cause of this meagre result; for Henry could not remain long enough in Italy to effect its settlement without neglecting the peril which menaced Germany from the East. It was necessary before everything to oust Boleslav from Bohemia. Henry gathered an army at Merseburg in the middle of August. The men of Saxony, East Franconia, and Bavaria, who had been exempted from the Italian expedition, were now called upon to serve against their nearest enemy. By gathering boats on the middle Elbe, as though for a direct invasion of Poland, the king hoped to mask his real intention of entering Bohemia from the North. But the flooding of the rivers hindered his movements and gave Boleslav time to prepare his defence. In spite, however, of resistance by the Polish archers, Henry forced his way over the Erzgebirge (Miriquidui), where he was joined by Jaromir, the exiled duke. On the arrival of the Bavarian contingent, which had been delayed, Henry sent forward Jaromir and his Bohemians, with some picked German troops, in order to surprise Boleslav in Prague. Boleslav, however, received timely warning to make his escape. He attempted no further defence, and Jaromir forthwith occupied Prague, where, amid general rejoicing, he was once more enthroned as duke. Henry soon after reached Prague, and solemnly invested Jaromir. In less than a month from the time he set out Henry had made so sure of Bohemia that not only could he send the Bavarians home, but could claim the help of Jaromir for the recovery from Boleslav of the Upper Lausitz. The task proved difficult through the stubborn defence of Bautzen by its Polish garrison; but the surrender of the town at length released the king and his wearied troops from the toils of war.
The recovery of Bohemia closed the earliest stage of Henry's career, a space of nearly three years, during which he had made good his claim to the German throne, and had first tried his strength upon the tasks that lay before him. No striking events, indeed, mark off the reign into definite periods, its course being one of slow and often interrupted accom-
