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Submission of Bohemia

a few years later, as Clement II, the first of the reforming German popes. Going north, he held an open court, dealing justice, at Aldstedt; and received there envoys from Yarosláv, Prince of Kiev. Then at Münster he met the princes, laid before them the Bohemian situation, and dismissed the Bohemian hostage-prince to his own country. This year nature conspired with fortune against Germany The rain fell, the rivers rose, destructive floods swept the country-side, many lost their lives. To crown all, "grapes were scarce and the wine sour."

But Henry's calm attention to other matters by no means meant submission to defeat. At Seligenstadt, in the April of 1041, the princes again met to discuss active measures, and overtures from Bohemia were rejected. Fortune was veering, for Břatislav was now deprived of his Hungarian ally Peter, who lost his throne by a sudden insurrection and only saved his liberty by flight to Germany, where Henry received him kindly, "forgetting for the sake of God the wrong towards himself." Bohemia, however, he did not forget, but pressed forward his preparations. At Aix, in June 1041, he met the princes and bishops of the West, Gozelo and Godfrey of Lorraine, Herman of Cologne, Poppo of Trèves, Nithard of Liège. At Goslar and at Tilleda, the royal seat in Thuringia, he concerted final measures with Eckhard of Meissen; and on 15 August, the anniversary of his previous expedition, he crossed the Bohemian frontier.

By Michaelmas he was back in Germany a victor. A fortnight later Břatislay followed him to Ratisbon, and there did public homage and underwent public humiliation. Probably Peter also appeared there as a suppliant before Henry. Henceforth Peter was Henry's client and Břatislav Henry's friend. Great was the joy in Germany at this Bohemian victory. With it we can undoubtedly connect the "Tetralogus" of Henry's tutor Wipo, a chant of praise and exhortation to the "fame-crowned King," who "after Christ rules the world," the lover of justice, the giver of peace. It is in the midst of the turmoils and rejoicings of 1041 that the Augsburg Annals record "by his (Henry's) aid and diligence very many excelled in the arts, in building, in all manner of learning."

But in this same year misfortune after misfortune fell upon the land. There were storms and floods. Everywhere the harvest failed and famine reigned. Nor could Henry rest on his oars. The fall and flight of Peter of Hungary had increased, rather than removed, the Hungarian menace, even if it opened new vistas of extended power; while Burgundy, newly in peace, clamoured for attention lest this young peace should die. And although to the great Christmas gathering of princes round Henry at Strasbourg (1041) there came envoys from Obo of Hungary to know "whether might he expect certain enmity or stable peace," it was to Burgundy that Henry first gave his attention. Since his appearance as Burgundian king in 1031 he had not again visited the country.