enjoyed an authority superior to that of any other lay subject of the Italian crown, the union in a single hand of these two provinces, which had not been held together since the time of the Duke-marquess Hugh "the Great," gave special significance to the choice of Rainier. In the new marquess Henry must have expected to find a stout upholder of the imperial cause. The fact that like Henry he was a generous and enlightened patron of monasticism, probably recommended him to the Emperor. The monastic question was acute in Tuscany as elsewhere and families like the Otbertines, who there held wide territories, had incessant quarrels over property with the ecclesiastical foundations. At Easter 1014 Henry was again in Pavia. In Lombardy, although his authority was not openly disputed, and most of the prelates were on his side, and the secular lords paid outward obedience, disaffection permeated all classes. The Archbishop of Milan held aloof, some of the great families still refused submission, and the hatred of the common people was shown by their reluctance to furnish supplies. Renouncing therefore any attempt to crush Ardoin by force, Henry sought to strengthen himself by administrative measures. He renewed an institution of Otto the Great by appointing two permanent missi for the counties of Pavia, Milan, and Seprio. He thus secured for royal officials the exercise of supreme judicial authority where disaffection was rife, and, significantly enough, Henry now gave an Italian city its first measure of municipal freedom. The Aleramids, who were lords of Savona, had not shewn themselves especially hostile to Henry, and were even now taking some share in the public administration. Yet just at this time the men of Savona obtained through their bishop a royal charter which curtailed the feudal rights of the marquesses over their city, and relieved its inhabitants of many burdensome imposts. But Henry could not stay in Italy to secure the success of his administrative acts; after a month's stay in Pavia he passed on to Verona, and thence to Germany.
Henry's second expedition to Italy, though it fell far short of complete success, ensured the continuance of the Western Empire. It renewed the alliance between the Empire and the Papacy, and it vindicated afresh the pre-eminence of the German monarchy in Western Europe.
But in Lombardy Henry had left his work half done. A hostile population, an alienated nobility, and an uncrushed rival remained as proofs of his failure. And hardly had he recrossed the Alps in June 1014 when a fresh outburst of nationalist fury threatened to overwhelm his adherents. Ardoin at once issued from Ivrea, and attacked Vercelli with such suddenness that the Bishop Leo scarcely avoided capture. The whole of that diocese fell into Ardoin's hands. Thence he went on to besiege Novara, to overrun the diocese of Como, and to bring ruin upon many other hostile places. Though more of a punitive foray than regular warfare, this campaign against the imperialists had yet some of the dignity of a national uprising. For besides the vavassors and small
