March 21, 1152: Annulment of the marriage of King Louis VII of the Franks and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

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Annulment, Île-de-France, Conrad III of Germany, Duke William IX of Aquitaine, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry Curtmantle, King Géza II of Hungary, King Henry II of England, King Louis VII of France, King of the Romans, King Philippe II Auguste of France, Third Crusade

Louis VII (1120 – September 18, 1180), called the Younger, or the Young was King of the Franks from 1137 to 1180. He was the son and successor of King Louis VI (hence the epithet “the Young”) and married Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe. The marriage temporarily extended the Capetian lands to the Pyrenees.

Louis was born in 1120, the second son of Louis VI of the Franks and Adelaide of Maurienne. The early education of the young Louis anticipated an ecclesiastical career. As a result, he became well learned and exceptionally devout, but his life course changed decisively after the accidental death of his older brother Philippe in 1131, when Louis unexpectedly became the heir to the throne of the Franks.

Eleanor of Aquitaine, or Aliénor, the future wife of the future King of the Franks, was the daughter of Guillaume X, Duke of Aquitaine, and Aénor de Châtellerault.

Eleanor’s year of birth is not known precisely: a late 13th-century genealogy of her family listing her as 13 years old in the spring of 1137 provides the best evidence that Eleanor was perhaps born as late as 1124. On the other hand, some chronicles mention a fidelity oath of some lords of Aquitaine on the occasion of Eleanor’s fourteenth birthday in 1136.

King Louis VII of the Franks

This, and her known age of 82 at her death make 1122 the most likely year of her birth. Her parents almost certainly married in 1121. Her birthplace may have been Poitiers, Bordeaux, or Nieul-sur-l’Autise, where her mother and brother died when Eleanor was 6 or 8.

Following the death of Duke Guillaume X of Aquitaine, Louis VI moved quickly to have his son married to Eleanor of Aquitaine (who had inherited Guillaume’s territory) on July 25, 1137. In this way, Louis VI sought to add the large, sprawling territory of the duchy of Aquitaine to his family’s holdings in France.

On August 1, 1137, shortly after the marriage, King Louis VI died, and Louis became Louis VII, King of the Franks. The pairing of the monkish Louis and the high-spirited Eleanor was doomed to failure; she reportedly once declared that she had thought to marry a king, only to find she had married a monk.

There was a marked difference between the frosty, reserved culture of the northern court in the Île-de-France, where King Louis VII had been raised, and the rich, free-wheeling court life of the Aquitaine with which Eleanor was familiar. King Louis VII and Eleanor had two daughters, Marie and Alix.

In June 1147, in fulfillment of his vow to mount the Second Crusade, Louis VII and his Queen Eleanor set out from the Basilica of Saint-Denis, first stopping in Metz on the overland route to Syria.

Soon they arrived in the Kingdom of Hungary, where they were welcomed by King Géza II of Hungary, who was already waiting with Conrad III, King of the Romans (Conrad was never crowned emperor and continued to style himself “King of the Romans” until his death).

Due to his good relationships with Louis VII, Géza II asked the French king to be his son Stephen’s baptism godfather. Relations between the kingdoms of France and Hungary remained cordial long after this time: decades later, Louis’s daughter Margaret was taken as wife by Géza’s son King Béla III of Hungary.

Eleanor, Queen of the Franks, Queen of the English, Duchess of Aquitaine

Louis VII and his army finally reached the Holy Land in 1148. His queen Eleanor supported her uncle, Raymond of Antioch, and prevailed upon Louis to help Antioch against Aleppo. But Louis VII’s interest lay in Jerusalem, and so he slipped out of Antioch in secret.

He united with Conrad III, King of the Romans and King Baldwin III of Jerusalem to lay siege to Damascus; this ended in disaster and the project was abandoned. Louis VII decided to leave the Holy Land, despite the protests of Eleanor, who still wanted to help her doomed uncle Raymond. Louis VII and the French army returned home in 1149.

The expedition to the Holy Land came at a great cost to the royal treasury and military. It also precipitated a conflict with Eleanor that led to the annulment of their marriage. Perhaps the marriage to Eleanor might have continued if the royal couple had produced a male heir, but this had not occurred.

The Council of Beaugency found an exit clause, declaring that Louis VII and Eleanor were too closely related for their marriage to be legal, thus the marriage was annulled on March 21, 1152.

The pretext of kinship was the basis for annulment, but in fact, it owed more to the state of hostility between Louis and Eleanor, with a decreasing likelihood that their marriage would produce a male heir to the throne of France. On May 18, 1152, Eleanor married the Henry Curtmantle, Count of Anjou, the future King Henry II of the English. She gave Henry the Duchy of Aquitaine and bore him three daughters and five sons.

In 1154, Louis VII married Infanta Constance of Castile, daughter of Alfonso VII of León and Castile and Berengaria of Barcelona. She also failed to supply him with a son and heir, bearing only two daughters, Margaret and Alys.

The official reason for her husband’s annulment from Eleanor of Aquitaine had been that he was too close a relative of Eleanor for the marriage to be legal by Church standards; however, he was even more closely related to Constance. Constance died giving birth to her second child.

Louis VII was devastated when Constance died in childbirth on October 4, 1160. As he was desperate for a son, he married Adela of Champagne just 5 weeks later. Adela of Champagne was the third child and first daughter of Theobald II, Count of Champagne and Matilda of Carinthia, and had nine brothers and sisters. Adela’s coronation was held the same day.

King Philippe II Augusté of France

The new Queen Adela went on to give birth to two children; Louis VII’s only male heir, Philippe and Agnes, a Byzantine Empress by marriage to Alexios II Komnenos and Andronikos I Komnenos.

Louis had his son crowned at Reims in 1179, in the Capetian tradition (Philippe would in fact be the last king so crowned). Already stricken with paralysis, Louis himself could not be present at the ceremony.

King Louis VII died on September 18, 1180 in Paris and was buried the next day at Barbeau Abbey, which he had founded. His remains were moved to the Basilica of Saint-Denis in 1817.

His son became King Philippe II of the Franks. I try to use correct titles on this blog and for his predecessors I use the title Kings of the Franks, (King of West Francia when appropriate) but from 1190 onward, Philippe II became the first French monarch to style himself “King of France” (Latin: Rex Francie).

King Philippe II was originally nicknamed Dieudonné (God-given)…the same as Louis XIV… because he was a first son and born late in his father’s life. Philippe was given the epithet “Augusté” by the chronicler Rigord for having extended the crown lands of France so remarkably.

History of the Kingdom of East Francia: Conclusion

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Bavaria, Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa, Emperor Maximilian I, Franconia, Hohenstaufen Dynasty, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, House of Hohenstaufen, House of Wittelsbach, King of the Romans, Kingdom of East Francia, Kingdom of Germany, Lotharingia (Lorraine), Saxony, Stem Duchy, Swabia (Alemannia).

I would like to briefly summarize not only the History of the Kingdom of East Francia but also it’s relevant and associated titles.

In 800 Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned “Emperor of the Romans” by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day. This Empire, which was to be a restart of the old Roman Empire, is known as the Carolingian Empire. When Emperor Charlemagne died in 814 he left this Empire fully intact to his son Louis the Pious.

However, upon Louis’s death in 840 he divided the empire amongst his three surviving sons. After a brief Civil War between the royal brothers, it lead to the signing of the Treaty of Verdun in 843 which effectively divided the Empire. The third son of Louis the Pious, known as Louis the German, inherited the eastern portion of the Empire, logically known as the Kingdom of East Francia.

After the Carolingian Dynasty died out in the Kingdom of East Francia, the elective monarchy became the possession of the Dukes of Saxony with Heinrich the Fowler as the first German elected King of East Francia.

When his son, King Otto I of East Francia, was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope John XII in 962 we see a transition from a Frankish Kingdom into a Germanic Kingdom, and from there the title of the monarch transitioned from King of East Francia to the King of Germany. Although as noted elsewhere in the series the title King of East Francia was still in usage for many many more years.

In other words, during the time of the Ottonian Dynasty there seems to be overlap with the titles “King of East Francia”, “King of Germany” and “King of the Romans” with these titles being used interchangeably, at least by modern historians.

Therefore, from the reign of King/Emperor Heinrich II the title King of the Romans was used by the German King following his election by the princes within the Empire, until he was crowned Emperor by the Pope.

In 1508, Emperor Maximilian I, adopted the title “Emperor Elect”, with papal approval, and dispensed with the Papal Coronation. Subsequent rulers adopted that title after their elections as kings. Using the title ” King of the Romans” became unnecessary due to the fact that the elected monarch did not need that title prior to a Papal Coronation that no longer existed.

Emperor Maximilian I

At the same time, the custom of having the heir-apparent elected as “King of the Romans” in the emperor’s lifetime resumed. For this reason, the title “King of the Romans” (Rex Romanorum) came to mean heir-apparent, the successor elected while the emperor was still alive.

Thus far I have been mostly talking about titles. However, the Kingdom of East Francia was not just a title. The kingdom had borders and land associated with the titles. But with the transformation from a Frankish Kingdom to a Germanic Kingdom and later the Holy Roman Empire, what became of the land known as the kingdom of East Francia?

The Kingdom of East Francia consisted of a series of tribal regions known as the Stem Duchies.

A stem duchy meaning “tribe”, in reference to the Franks, Saxons, Bavarians and Swabians was a constituent duchy of the Kingdom of East Francia at the time of the extinction of the Carolingian dynasty (death of Louis the Child in 911) and through the transitional period leading to the formation of the Ottonian Empire or, the Holy Roman Empire.

The Carolingians had dissolved the original tribal duchies of the Empire in the 8th century. As the Carolingian Empire declined, the old tribal areas assumed new identities. The five stem duchies (sometimes also called “younger stem duchies” in contrast to the pre-Carolingian tribal duchies) were: Bavaria, Franconia, Lotharingia (Lorraine), Saxony and Swabia (Alemannia).

Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa

The Salian Emperors (reigned 1027–1125) retained the stem duchies as the major regions of the lands that compromised the Kingdom Germany or corresponding to the Kingdom of East Francia. The rest of the regions of the Holy Roman Empire lay outside the German territories which mainly consisted of Italian lands such as the Kingdom of the Lombards, also known as the medieval Kingdom of Italy.

As the stem duchies became increasingly obsolete during the early high-medieval period, under the Hohenstaufen Dynasty, specifically Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa, who finally abolished the Stem Duchies in 1180 in favour of more numerous territorial duchies.

An example of the fate of one Stem Duchy, Swabia, mirrors the fate of many of the Stem Duchies. In the 13th century the Duchy of Swabia was in complete disarray, with its territories falling to the Wittelsbach, Württemberg, and Habsburg families. The main core territory of Swabia continued its existence as the County of Württemberg, which was raised to the status of a Duchy in 1495, which in turn became the Kingdom of Württemberg within 19th-century Germany.

With new territories rising from the ashes of the abolished Stem Duchies, these new territories became increasingly autonomous; and with that occurrence the Kingdom of East Francia can be considered to have drifted into the shadows of history by this time.

Nevertheless, there are relatively few references to a German kingdom distinct from the Holy Roman Empire.

History of The Kingdom of East Francia: Emperor Elect and King of the Romans

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Emperor Charles V, Emperor Friedrich III, Emperor Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of the Romans, Kingdom of East Francia, Pope Clement VII, Pope Julius II

Although this series was to track the history of the Kingdom of East Francia and we’ve been recently focusing on how the Carolingian Kingdom of East Francia transitioned into a Germanic Kingdom. With that change the title of the King, prior to being crowned Emperor once the Ottonian Dynasty were granted the imperial title, was known as King of Germany or King of the Romans.

Although it is beyond my original intent of this series to continue to discuss the later usage of the title “King of the Romans” I will mention how the usage of that title evolved.

The title Romanorum Rex King of the Romans ceased to be used for ruling kings after 1508, when the Pope Julius II permitted King Maximilian I to use the title of Electus Romanorum Imperator (“elected Emperor of the Romans”) after he failed in a good-faith attempt to journey to Rome. This ended the centuries-old custom that the Holy Roman Emperor had to be crowned by the Pope.

Emperor Maximilian I

Maximilian’s predecessor Friedrich III was the last to be crowned Emperor by the Pope in Rome.

At this time Maximilian also took the new title “King in Germania” (Germaniae rex), but the latter was never used as a primary title.

Maximilian’s titles at this time were: by God’s grace Elected Roman Emperor, always Augustus, in Germany, of Hungary, Dalamatia, Croatia etc King […]”

After the death of Maximilian I his paternal grandson, Charles of Burgundy in 1519, inherited the Habsburg monarchy. Charles also became King Carlos I of Spain in 1516. Charles was also the natural candidate of the electors to succeed his grandfather as Holy Roman Emperor.

Pope Clement VII

He defeated the candidacies of Elector Friedrich III of Saxony, King François I of France, and King Henry VIII of England. According to some, Charles became emperor due to the fact that by paying huge bribes to the electors, he was the highest bidder.

Charles won the crown on June 28, 1519. On October 23, 1520, he was crowned in Germany and some ten years later, on 24 February 24, 1530, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement VII in Bologna, the last emperor to receive a papal coronation.

Beginning with his brother and successor, Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, the rulers of the Empire no longer sought the Imperial coronation by the Pope and styled themselves “Emperors” without Papal approval, taking the title as soon as they were crowned in Germany or, if crowned in their predecessor’s lifetime, upon the death of a sitting Emperor.

Emperor Charles V

Heirs designate

As I mentioned previously the Holy Roman Empire was an elective monarchy. No person had an automatic legal right to the succession simply because he was related to the current Emperor. However, the Emperor could, and often did, have a relative (usually a son) elected to succeed him after his death.

With the Emperor no longer needing the title “King of the Romans” now that a Papal Coronation had become obsolete, the Emperor’s newly elected heir apparent henceforth bore the title “King of the Romans”.

During the Middle Ages, a junior King of the Romans was normally chosen only when the senior ruler bore the title of Emperor, so as to avoid having two, theoretically equal kings.

Only on one occasion (1147-1150) was there both a ruling King of the Romans (King Conrad III) and a King of the Romans as heir (Heinrch Berengar).

The election was in the same form as that of the senior ruler. In practice, however, the actual administration of the Empire was always managed by the Emperor (or Emperor elect), with at most certain duties delegated to the heir.

History of the Kingdom of East Francia: Emperor Heinrich IV

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Emperor Henry IV, Holy Roman Empire, King of Germany, King of the Romans, Pope Gregory VII, The Investiture Controversy

There is a point I would like to reiterate: The Kingdom of East Francia was not referred to as the Kingdom of Germany or Regnum Teutonicum by contemporary sources until the 11th century which corresponds to the reign of Emperor Heinrich II as mentioned yesterday.

I’d like to back track a bit because the sources I’ve been using seem to be contradictory and confusing. My decision to do this series was an attempt to remove the confusion between the titles King of East Francia, King of Germany and King of the Romans. The issue is many sources are using the last two titles interchangeably.

For example: One source states that Heinrich II was the first to be called “King of the Germans” (Rex Teutonicorum). Yesterday, the source I used claimed he used the title Rex Romanorum or King of the Romans for the first time.

The Holy Roman Empire

In Yesterday’s article I mentioned that with the reign of Heinrich II the tradition of calling oneself King of the Romans from the election as King until the Imperial Papal Coronation began at this time.

However, while researching today’s part of this series I found the contradictory claims that states it wasn’t until the reign of Emperor Heinrich IV that the title of King of the Romans was used from the election as King until the Imperial Papal Coronation…as we will see below.

My problem is that instead of researching the entire topic I have written each section one at a time. I wish I had written the entire series at once then divided into sections to avoid the confusion.

I may rewrite this at some future date. Oh well, I shall forage onward and try to untangle the confusion by the end of the series…..

After the reign of Heinrich II a German king’s claim to an Imperial coronation was increasingly contested by the papacy culminating in the fierce Investiture Controversy.

Briefly, The Investiture Controversy, was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture) and abbots of monasteries and the pope himself. A series of popes in the 11th and 12th centuries undercut the power of the Holy Roman Emperor and other European monarchies, and the controversy led to nearly 50 years of conflict.

Heinrich IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Emperor Heinrich III went to the northeast to deal with a Slav uprising. He fell ill on the way and took to his bed. He made Beatrice and Matilda and had those with him swear allegiance to the young Heinrich whom he commended the pope, present.

On October 5, not yet forty, Emperor Heinrich III died at Bodfeld, the imperial hunting lodge in the Harz mountains.

His son and heir, a six-year-old minor, Heinrich IV, was elected to rule the Empire in 1056 and he adopted Rex Romanorum (King of the Romans) as a title to emphasize his sacred entitlement to be crowned Emperor by the Pope.

However, as part of the Investiture Controversy Pope Gregory VII insisted on using the term Teutonicorum Rex (“King of the Germans”) for the King in order to imply that Heinrich’s authority was merely local and did not extend over the whole Empire.

Pope Gregory VII’s usage of the title Teutonicum Rex was deemed as derogatory and an insult by Heinrich when he implied that Heinrich’s rule didn’t extend the totality of the Empire.

Heinrich IV continued to regularly use the title Rex Romanorum until he was crowned Emperor by Antipope Clement III in 1084. As mentioned yesterday, successors of Emperor Heinrich II (or was it Emperor Heinrich IV?) imitated this practice, and were called Rex Romanorum after their election as King and Romanorum Imperator after their Papal coronations.

The practice had developed where the new monarch that had been elected King (King of the Romans, King of Germany) would travel to Rome and be crowned Emperor by the Pope. Because it was rarely possible for the elected King to proceed immediately to Rome for his crowning, several years might elapse between election and coronation, and some Kings never completed the journey to Rome at all.

Not all Kings of the Romans made the journey to Rome due to hostile relations with the Pope, or because either the pressure of business at home or warfare in Germany or Italy made it impossible for the King to make the journey. In such cases, the king might retain the title “King of the Romans” for his entire reign. This occurred at least four times.

As a suitable title for the King between his election and his coronation as Emperor, Rex Romanorum (King of the Romans) would stress the plenitude of his authority over the Empire and his warrant to be future Emperor (Imperator futurus) without infringing upon the Papal privilege. This seems to have resolved the Investiture Controversy.

Heinrich IV, Holy Roman Emperor

As I sort through the information to which King started to use the title King of the Romans upon their election, I believe the thing to take away at this point is that during the reign of the Ottonian Dynasty, the Ottonian Kungs seem to have adopted the use of the “Teutonic” label as it helped them to counter critics who questioned how the Ottonians, who were neither Carolingian nor Frankish, could legitimately rule.

The Ottonians, by calling themselves “German” kings, instead presented themselves as rulers of all peoples north of the Alps and east of the Rhine. This “German kingdom” was later regarded as a subdivision of the Empire alongside Italy, Burgundy and Bohemia.

And as I mentioned in a previous entry, by the late eleventh century the term “Kingdom of the Germans” (Regnum Teutonicorum) had become utilised more favourably in Germany due to a growing sense of national identity; by the twelfth century, German historian Otto of Freising had to explain that East Francia was “now called the Kingdom of the Germans”.

Also, historiography seems to use the title King of Germany and King of the Romans interchangeably.

More on this tomorrow!

History of the Kingdom of East Francia: King of the Romans

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Emperor Henry II, Emperor Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor, King of East Francia, King of Germany, King of the Romans, Pope Benedict VIII, Rex Francorum, Rex Romanorum, Rex Teutonicum, Romanorum Imperator

Before I address the title “King of the Romans”, I will do a brief and simple summary of the information thus far.

In 800CE Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned “Emperor of the Romans” by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day. This Empire, which was to be a restart of the old Roman Empire, is known as the Carolingian Empire. When Emperor Charlemagne died in 814 he left this Empire fully intact to his son Louis the Pious.

However, upon Louis’s death in 840CE he divided the empire amongst his three surviving sons. After a brief Civil War and the signing of the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the third son of Louis the Pious, known as Louis the German’ inherited the eastern portion of the Empire, logically known as the Kingdom of East Francia.

After the Carolingian Dynasty died out the Kingdom of East Francia, an elective monarchy, became the possession of the Dukes of Saxony. When King Otto I of East Francia who was also crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope John XII 962 we see a transition from a Frankish Kingdom into a Germanic Kingdom and from there the title of the Kingdom transition to King of the Germans or also called Kingdom of Germany.

Carolingian Empire (Kingdom of East Francia) on the right

The transition from a Kingdom of the Franks to a Kingdom of the Germans was not immediate and it took time. Any firm distinction between the kingdoms of Eastern Francia and the Kingdom of Germany is to some extent the product of later retrospection and historiography.

It is impossible to base this distinction on primary sources, as the name Eastern Francia for the kingdom remained in use long after the name Kingdom of Germany came into use.

The actual title of the monarch did vary over time. During the Ottonian period, it was King of the Franks (Rex Francorum), from the late Salian period it was King of the Romans (Rex Romanorum).

The last of the Ottonian Kings of East Francia to use a different title began with the reign of Emperor Heinrich II (1002–1024) onward. Before assuming the throne Heinrich II was known as Heinrich III, Duke of Bavaria.

In 1001, Emperor Otto III experienced a revolt against his reign in Italy. The Emperor sent word for Heinrich III, Duke of Bavaria to join him with reinforcements from Germany, but then died unexpectedly in January 1002. Otto was only 21 at the time of his death and had left no children and no instructions for the Imperial succession. In the Ottonian dynasty, succession to the throne had belonged to the Saxon branch, not the Bavarian line of which Heinrch III was a member.

As the funeral procession of Emperor Otto III moved through the Duchy of Bavaria in February 1002, Heinrich met the procession to legitimize his claims, and Heinrich demanded Archbishop Heribert of Cologne give him the Imperial Regalia. The Archbishop refused. Heinrich imprisoned the Archbishop and his brother the Bishop of Würzburg.

With neither the symbols of imperial authority, the crown jewels, nor the cooperation of Heribert, Heinrich was unable to convince the nobles attending Otto III’s funeral procession to elect him as king. A few weeks later, at Otto III’s funeral in Aachen Cathedral, Henry again attempted to gain the support of the kingdom’s nobles and was again rejected.

Heinrich II, Holy Roman Emperor

So it was without the support of the kingdom’s nobility that Heinrich took the radical action of having himself anointed and crowned “King of Germany” or to be more accurate “Rex Romanorum” (King of the Romans) by Willigis, Archbishop of Mainz on July 9, 1002 at Mainz.

Heinrich’s action marked the first time a German king was not crowned in Aachen Cathedral since Emperor Otto I began the tradition in 936 and the first time a German king assumed the throne without election by the German nobility. Under the regal name of “King Heinrich II”, he appeared before the Saxons in mid-July in full regal apparel. There, Henry convinced Bernard I, Duke of Saxony, to support his claims to the throne.

Notice Heinrich II, as King, took the title “Rex Romanorum” (King of the Romans) rather than “Rex Teutonicum” (King of Germany). This begins the tradition of taking the title King of the Romans until he could secure his Papal coronation as Emperor.

Kingdom of Germany

Therefore, the title King of the Romans was from that point forward used by the King of Germany following his election by the princes from within the Empire, until he was crowned Emperor by the Pope.

King Heinrich II would have to wait 12 years for that to occur.

There was a great upheaval within the Roman Catholic Church as rival Popes fought for supremacy. I will not go into detail about this at this point.

Fleeing across the Alps to Germany, Pope Benedict VIII appealed to King Heinrich II for protection. Heinrich II agreed to restore Benedict VIII to his papal throne in return for his coronation as Emperor.

Heinrich II arrived in Rome in early 1014, restoring Benedict VIII as pope. On February 14, 1014, Pope Benedict VIII crowned King Heinrich II as Holy Roman Emperor (“Romanorum Imperator”) in St. Peter’s Basilica.

More on the title King of the Romans in my next entry.

History of the Kingdom of East Francia: King of Germany

Tags

Conrad of Franconia, Emperor of the Romans, Henry the Fowler, Holy Roman Emperor, King of the Romans, Kingdom of East Francia, Kingdom of Germany, Otto the Great

With Otto I, King of East Francia crowned as Emperor of the Romans by Pope John XII on February 2, 962 thus begins what many historians (such as myself) site as the actual start of the Holy Roman Empire.

Also, many historians also count Otto I the Great as the last King of East Francia. Since Conrad of Franconia took the throne of East Francia and with his successors Heinrich I the Fowler and Otto the Great the Kingdom of East Francia transformed from a Frankish Kingdom to that of a Germanic Kingdom.

Any firm distinction between the kingdoms of Eastern Francia and the Kingdom of Germany is to some extent the product of later retrospection. It is impossible to base this distinction on primary sources, as the name Eastern Francia for the kingdom remains in use long after the name Kingdom of Germany comes into use.

Under Arnulf of Carinthia the terminology Rex Francorum Orientalium was largely dropped and the kingdom, when it was referred to by name, was simply Francia. When it was necessary, as in the Treaty of Bonn (921) with the West Franks, the “eastern” qualifier appeared once more. Heinrich I refers to himself as rex Francorum orientalium, “King of the East Franks”, in the treaty.

With Otto the Great marking the end of the Kingdom of East Francia, his son and successor Otto II as Emperor and King is often cited by historians as the start of the Kingdom of Germany or German Kingdom. In Latin: Regnum Teutonicorum “kingdom of the Germans”, Regnum Teutonicum “German kingdom”, regnum Alamanie “kingdom of Germany”.

By the 12th century, the historian Otto of Freising, in using the Carolingian terminology, had to explain that the “eastern kingdom of the Franks” (orientale Francorum regnum) was “now called the kingdom of the Germans” (regnum Teutonicorum).

Therefore, the Kingdom of East Francia didn’t cease to exist the way the Kingdom was described had changed.

Like medieval England and medieval France, (Western Francia which evolved into the Kingdom of France) medieval Germany consolidated from a conglomerate of smaller tribes, nations or polities by the High Middle Ages.

The term rex teutonicorum (“king of the Germans”) first came into use in Italy around the year 1000. It was popularized by the chancery of Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy (late 11th century), perhaps as a polemical tool against Emperor Heinrich IV.

In the twelfth century, in order to stress the imperial and transnational character of their office, the Emperors began to employ the title rex Romanorum (king of the Romans) on their election.

In the next section I will discuss in more detail the transformation of the usage of the title King of Germany to that of King of the Romans.

October 11, 1347: Death of Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Emperor. Part I

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Duke of Bavaria, Frederick the Fair, Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich VII, Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Empire, House of Wittelsbach, King of the Germans, King of the Romans, Pope John XXII

Ludwig IV (April 1,1282 – October 11, 1347), called the Bavarian, of the house of Wittelsbach, was King of the Romans from 1314, King of Italy from 1327, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1328.

Ludwig was born in Munich, the son of Ludwig II, Duke of Upper Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine, and Matilda Matilda was the eldest daughter of King Rudolph I of Germany and Gertrude of Hohenberg.

Though Ludwig was partly educated in Vienna and became co-regent of his brother Rudolph I in Upper Bavaria in 1301 with the support of his Habsburg mother and her brother, King Albrecht I, he quarreled with the Habsburgs from 1307 over possessions in Lower Bavaria.

A civil war against his brother Rudolph due to new disputes on the partition of their lands was ended in 1313, when peace was made at Munich.

Tomb effigy at Munich Frauenkirche

In the same year, on November 9, Ludwig defeated his Habsburg cousin Friedrich the Fair who was further aided by duke Leopold I. Originally, he was a friend of Friedrich, with whom he had been raised. However, armed conflict arose when the guardianship over the young Dukes of Lower Bavaria (Heinrich XIV, Otto IV, and Heinrich XV) was entrusted to Friedrich, even though the late Duke Otto III, the former King of Hungary, had chosen Ludwig.

On November 9, 1313, Friedrich was defeated by Ludwig in the Battle of Gammelsdorf and had to renounce the tutelage. This victory caused a stir within the Holy Roman Empire and increased the reputation of the Bavarian Duke.

The death of Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich VII in August 1313 necessitated the election of a successor. Heinrich’s son Johann, King of Bohemia since 1310, was considered by many prince-electors to be too young, and by others to be already too powerful. One alternative was Friedrich the Fair, the son of Heinrich VII’s predecessor, Albrecht I, of the House of Habsburg.

In reaction, the pro-Luxembourg party among the prince electors settled on Ludwig of Bavaria as its candidate to prevent Friedrich’s election.

On October 19, 1314, Archbishop Heinrich II of Cologne chaired an assembly of four electors at Sachsenhausen, south of Frankfurt. Participants were Ludwig’s brother, Count Rudolph I of the Palatinate, who objected to the election of his younger brother, Duke Rudolph I of Saxe-Wittenberg, and Heinrich of Carinthia, whom the Luxembourgs had deposed as King of Bohemia. These four electors chose Friedrich as King.

The Luxembourg party did not accept this election and the next day a second election was held. Upon the instigation of Peter of Aspelt, Archbishop of Mainz, five different electors convened at Frankfurt and elected Ludwig as King. These electors were Archbishop Peter himself, Archbishop Baldwin of Trier and King Johann of Bohemia – both of the House of Luxembourg – Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg and Duke Johann II of Saxe-Lauenburg, who contested Rudolph of Wittenberg’s claim to the electoral vote.

This double election was quickly followed by two coronations: Ludwig IV was crowned at Aachen – the customary site of coronations – by Archbishop Peter of Mainz, while the Archbishop of Cologne, who by custom had the right to crown the new king, crowned Friedrich at Bonn. In the following conflict between the kings, Ludwig IV recognized in 1316 the independence of Switzerland from the Habsburg dynasty.

After several years of bloody war, victory finally seemed within the grasp of Friedrich, who was strongly supported by his brother Leopold. However, Friedrich’s army was decisively defeated in the Battle of Mühldorf on September 28, 1322 on the Ampfing Heath, where Friedrich and 1300 nobles from Austria and Salzburg were captured.

Ludwig IV held Friedrich captive in Trausnitz Castle (Schwandorf) for three years, but the determined resistance by Friedrich’s brother Leopold, the retreat of Johann of Bohemia from his alliance, and a ban by Pope John XXII, who excommunicated Ludwig IV in 1324, induced Louis to release Friedrich in the Treaty of Trausnitz of 13 March 1325.

In this agreement, Friedrich recognized Ludwig IV as the legitimate Emperor and undertook to return to captivity should he not succeed in convincing his brothers to submit to Ludwig.

Golden Bull of Ludwig IV 1328

As he did not manage to overcome Leopold’s obstinacy, Friedrich returned to Munich as a prisoner, even though the Pope had released him from his oath. Ludwig IV, who was impressed by such nobility, renewed the old friendship with Friedrich, and they agreed to rule the Empire jointly.

Since the Pope and the electors strongly objected to this agreement, another treaty was signed at Ulm on January 7, 1326, according to which Friedrich would administer German lands as King of the Romans, while Ludwig would be crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in Italy. However, after Leopold’s death in 1326, Friedrich withdrew from the regency of the Empire and returned to rule only Austria. Friedrich died on January 13, 1330.

The Two Heinrich VII’s of The Holy Roman Empire.

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Conrad IV of Germany, Emperor Friedrich II, Heinrich VII, Holy Roman Empire, House of Hohenstaufen, House of Luxembourg, King of the Romans, Pope Hon, Pope Honorius III, Pope Innocent III.

There are actually two rulers of the Holy Roman Empire named Heinrich VII. One was actually Emperor while the other was King of the Romans the title generally held by the heir to the throne of the Empire.

The Heinrich VII that was the actual Emperor, for only one year (1312 — 1313), and lived from the late 13th century until the early 14th century, while the other Heinrich VII lived earlier in the 13th century (1211 – 1242).

Heinrich VII, Holy Roman Emperor

The Heinrich VII who held the imperial title (c. 1273–August 24, 1313), was also known as Heinrich of Luxembourg, who was Count of Luxembourg, King of the Romans (or Rex Romanorum) from 1308 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1312. He was the first Emperor of the House of Luxembourg.

He was the first emperor since the death of Friedrich II in 1250, ending the Great Interregnum of the Holy Roman Empire; however, his premature death and brief reign threatened to undo his life’s work.

His son, Johann of Bohemia, failed to be elected as his successor, and there was briefly another anti-king, Friedrich the Fair, contesting the rule of Emperor Ludwig IV.

The other Heinrich (VII) (1211 – February 12?, 1242), was a member of the long ruling Hohenstaufen dynasty and was the son of Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich II and his first wife Infanta Constance of Aragon the second child and eldest daughter of the nine children of Alfonso II of Aragon and Infanta Sancha of Castile.

While Friedrich sought to be elected King of the Romans against his Welf rival Otto IV, he had his new-born son Heinrich crowned King of Sicily (as Heinrich II) by Pope Innocent III in March 1212, since an agreement between Friedrich and the Pope stated that the kingdoms of Germany and Sicily should not be united under one ruler. For this, the regency of the Sicilian kingdom went to his mother Constance and not to his father.

Heinrich (VII)’s father, Friedrich II, was eventually elected King of the Romans in 1215, by the German princes, and supported by Pope Innocent III. Friedrich II was crowned King of the Romans in Aachen on July 23, 1215 by one of the three German archbishops.

It wasn’t until another five years had passed, and only after further negotiations between Friedrich II and Pope Innocent III, and Pope Honorius III – who succeeded to the papacy after Innocent’s death in 1216 – that Friedrich was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome by Honorius III, on November 22, 1220.

At the same time, Friedrich’s oldest son Heinrich (VII) took the title of King of the Romans.

In 1228, Heinrich (VII) took over the rule in the German kingdom and tried to limit the powers of the princes, thereby disturbing the Imperial policies of his father who made him pay homage under the threat of excommunication.

Heinrich (VII), King of the Romans

In 1235, Heinrich (VII) allied with the princely opposition and openly rebelled against his father the emperor, however, was defeated by his father’s forces and dethroned. Friedrich II had him confined in several castles in Apulia, where he died on February 12, 1242 (according to other sources February 10) after a fall from his horse.

Some chroniclers report that his fall from his horse had been an attempted suicide. His father had him buried with royal honours in the cathedral of Cosenza, in an antique Roman sarcophagus.

Although he had been the seventh Heinrich to rule over German lands, technically the Holy Roman Empire, he is usually numbered with his ordinal number in parentheses (VII) in order to avoid confusion with the Luxembourg emperor Heinrich VII who, as previously mentioned, actually held the imperial title.

However, among the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, Heinrich is numbered only in parentheses, because he did not exercise the sole kingship.

His ordinal number in parentheses was not contemporary with Heinrich’s reign as King of the Romans it was a later invention by historians in order not to confuse him with the later Emperor Heinrich VII who actually ruled the Empire from 1308 onwards (first as King of the Romans then as Holy Roman Emperor in 1312).

Heinrich (VII) was for a long time in his father’s shadow and disparaged as “Parentheses Henry”, several historians in recent years have adopted a more positive view of his Hohenstaufen policies.

After the death of Heinrich (VII) his half-brother Conrad IV was elected King of the Romans.

Conrad IV (April 25, 1228 – May 21, 1254) was the only son of Emperor Friedrich II from his second marriage with Queen Isabella II of Jerusalem. He inherited the title of King of Jerusalem (as Conrad II) upon the death of his mother in childbirth.

Appointed Duke of Swabia in 1235, his father had him elected King of the Romans and crowned King of Italy (as Conrad IV) in 1237. After the emperor was deposed and died in 1250, he ruled as King of Sicily (Conrad I) until his death.

With the death of Friedrich II in 1250 the Holy Roman Empire entered the period known as the Great Interregnum which is a whole other topic I will cover tomorrow in this blog.

July 15, 1291: Death of Rudolph I, Count of Habsburg, King of the Romans

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Austria, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, King of Germany, King of the Romans, Ottokar II of Bohemia, Pope Gregory X, Pope Innocent IV, Rudolph I, Styria, The Great Interregnum

Rudolph I (1 May 1218 – 15 July 1291) was the first King of the Romans (King of the Germans) from the House of Habsburg. The first of the Count-Kings of the Germans, he reigned from 1273 until his death.

Rudolph was born on May 1, 1218 at Limburgh Castle near Sasbach am Kaiserstuhl in the Breisgau region of present-day southwestern Germany. He was the son of Count Albrecht IV of Habsburg and of Hedwig, daughter of Count Ulrich of Kyburg. Around 1232, he was given as a squire to his uncle, Rudolph I, Count of Laufenburg, to train in knightly pursuits.

Count of Habsburg

At his father’s death in 1239, Rudolph inherited from him large estates around the ancestral seat of Habsburg Castle in the Aargau region of present-day Switzerland as well as in Alsace.

In 1245 Rudolph married Gertrude, daughter of Count Burkhard III of Hohenberg. He received as her dowry the castles of Oettingen, the valley of Weile, and other places in Alsace, and he became an important vassal in Swabia, the former Alemannic German stem duchy.

That same year, Emperor Friedrich II was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV at the Council of Lyon. Rudolph sided against the Emperor, while the forest communities sided with Friedrich II. This gave them a pretext to attack and damage Neuhabsburg. Rudolph successfully defended it and drove them off. As a result, Rudolph, by siding with the Pope Innocent IV, gained more power and influence.

Rudolph paid frequent visits to the court of his godfather, the Hohenstaufen Emperor Friedrich II, and his loyalty to Friedrich and his son, King Conrad IV of the Germans, was richly rewarded by grants of land. In 1254, he engaged with other nobles of the Staufen party against Bertold II, Bishop of Basle.

When night fell, he penetrated the suburbs of Basle and burnt down the local nunnery, an act for which Pope Innocent IV excommunicated him and all parties involved. As a penance, he took up the cross and joined Ottokar II, King of Bohemia in the Prussian Crusade of 1254. Whilst there, he oversaw the founding of the city of Königsberg, which was named in memory of King Ottokar II.

Rise to Power

The disorder in Germany during the interregnum after the fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty afforded an opportunity for Count Rudolph to increase his possessions.

His wife was a Hohenberg heiress; and on the death of his childless maternal uncle Count Hartmann IV of Kyburg in 1264, Rudolph seized Hartmann’s valuable estates. Successful feuds with the Bishops of Strasbourg and Basel further augmented his wealth and reputation, including rights over various tracts of land that he purchased from abbots and others.

These various sources of wealth and influence rendered Rudolph the most powerful prince and noble in southwestern Germany (where the tribal Duchy of Swabia had disintegrated, enabling its vassals to become completely independent).

In the autumn of 1273, the prince-electors met to choose a king after Richard of Cornwall had died in England in April 1272. Rudolph’s election in Frankfurt on October 1, 1273, when he was 55 years old, was largely due to the efforts of his brother-in-law, the Hohenzollern burgrave Frederick III of Nuremberg. The support of Duke Albrecht II of Saxony and Elector Palatine Ludwig II had been purchased by betrothing them to two of Rudolph’s daughters.

As a result, within the electoral college, King Ottokar II of Bohemia (1230–1278), himself a candidate for the throne and related to the late Hohenstaufen king Philipp of Swabia (being the son of the eldest surviving daughter), was almost alone in opposing Rudolph

Other candidates were Prince Siegfried I of Anhalt and Margrave Friedrich I of Meissen (1257–1323), a young grandson of the excommunicated Emperor Friedrich II, who did not yet even have a principality of his own as his father was still alive. By the admission of Duke Heinrich XIII of Lower Bavaria instead of the King of Bohemia as the seventh Elector, Rudolph gained all seven votes.

King of the Germans

Rudolph was crowned King of the Germans in Aachen Cathedral on October 24, 1273. To win the approbation of the Pope, Rudolf renounced all imperial rights in Rome, the papal territory, and Sicily, and promised to lead a new crusade.

Great Seal of Rudolph I, King of the Romans, Count of Habsburg

Pope Gregory X, despite the protests of Ottokar II of Bohemia, not only recognised Rudolph himself, but persuaded King Alfonso X of Castile (another grandson of Philipp of Swabia), who had been chosen German (anti-King) in 1257 as the successor to Count Willem II of Holland, to do the same. Thus, Rudolph surpassed the two heirs of the Hohenstaufen dynasty whom he had earlier served so loyally.

Rudolph I, was among several rulers were crowned King of the Romans (King of Germans) but not emperor, although they styled themselves thus, among whom were: Conrad I and Heinrich I the Fowler in the 10th century, and Conrad IV, Adolph and Albrecht I during the interregnum of the late 13th century.

Rudolph’s election marked the end of the Great Interregnum which had begun after the death of the Hohenstaufen Emperor Friedrich II in 1250. Originally a Swabian count, he was the first Habsburg to acquire the duchies of Austria and Styria in opposition to his mighty rival, the Přemyslid king Ottokar II of Bohemia, whom he defeated in the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld.

In 1281, Rudolph’s first wife died. On February 5, 1284, he married Isabella of Burgundy, daughter of Duke Hugh IV of Burgundy, the Empire’s western neighbor in the Kingdom of France.

In 1291, he attempted to secure the election of his son Albrecht as German king. The electors refused, however, claiming inability to support two kings, but in reality, perhaps, wary of the increasing power of the House of Habsburg. Upon Rudolph death they elected Count Adolf of Nassau.

Rudolph died in Speyer on July 15, 1291 and was buried in Speyer Cathedral. Only one of his sons survived him: Albrecht I. Most of his daughters outlived him, apart from Catherine who had died in 1282 during childbirth and Hedwig who had died in 1285/6.

Rudolph’s reign is most memorable for his establishment of the House of Habsburg as a powerful dynasty in the southeastern part of the realm. In the other territories, the centuries-long decline of Imperial authority since the days of the Investiture Controversy continued, and the princes were largely left to their own devices.

The Austrian territories remained under Habsburg rule for more than 600 years, forming the core of the Habsburg monarchy and the present-day country of Austria. Rudolph played a vital role in raising the comital House of Habsburg to the rank of Imperial princes.

Death of Henry III, King of England, Lord of Ireland and Duke of Aquitaine

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Edward longshanks, Eleanor of Provence, Gascony, Henry III of England, Holy Roman Empire, King of the Romans, Louis IX of France, Richard of Cornwall, Simon de Montfort

Henry III promised to abide by the Great Charter of 1225, a later version of the 1215 Magna Carta, which limited royal power and protected the rights of the major barons. His early rule was dominated first by Hubert de Burgh and then Peter des Roches, who re-established royal authority after the war. In 1230, the King attempted to reconquer the provinces of France that had once belonged to his father, but the invasion was a debacle. A revolt led by William Marshal’s son, Richard Marshal, broke out in 1232, ending in a peace settlement negotiated by the Church.

Following the revolt, Henry ruled England personally, rather than governing through senior ministers. He travelled less than previous monarchs, investing heavily in a handful of his favourite palaces and castles.

Henry also negotiated the marriage of her sister Isabella. In November, 1234 the twice-widowed Friedrich II, Holy Roman Emperor at a friendly meeting at Rieti, received the advice of Pope Gregory IX to ask Isabella’s hand, and in February 1235 he sent an embassy to King Henry III headed by his chancellor Pietro della Vigna.

The marriage of Isabella and Emperor Friedrich II was designed to strengthen the political alliance of England and the Holy Roman Empire against France. After three days of discussion, King Henry III agreed to the marriage; Isabella was brought from her quarters in the Tower of London to the Palace of Westminster, where she met with the ambassadors, who “declared her the most worthy of the imperial brides”, put a wedding ring on her finger and greeted her as their Empress.

On February 22, 1235, an agreement was signed, according to which King Henry III provided his sister with a dowry of 30,000 marks (an amount sought by the Emperor in order to fund his wars in northern Italy), which was to be paid within two years, and as a wedding gift he gave her all the necessary utensils, jewelry, horses and rich clothes, all made according to the latest German fashion; also, the princess received patent letters from the Emperor, giving Isabella, as Queen of Sicily and Holy Roman Empress the possession of the lands due to her.

King Henry III married Eleanor of Provence, the second daughter of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence (1198–1245) and Beatrice of Savoy (1198–1267), the daughter of Thomas I of Savoy and his wife Margaret of Geneva.

Eleanor was well educated as a child, and developed a strong love of reading. Her three sisters also married kings. After her elder sister Margaret married Louis IX of France, their uncle William corresponded with Henry III of England to persuade him to marry Eleanor.

Henry sought a dowry of up to twenty thousand silver marks to help offset the dowry he had just paid for his sister Isabella, but Eleanor’s father was able to negotiate this down to no dowry, just a promise to leave her ten thousand marks when he died.

Like her mother, grandmother, and sisters, Eleanor was renowned for her beauty. She was a dark-haired brunette with fine eyes. Piers Langtoft speaks of her as “The erle’s daughter, the fairest may of life”. On June 22, 1235, Eleanor was betrothed to King Henry III (1207–1272). Eleanor was probably born latest in 1223; Matthew Paris describes her as being “jamque duodennem” (already twelve) when she arrived in the Kingdom of England for her marriage.

Eleanor was married to King Henry III of England on January 14, 1236. At the time of her marriage Eleanor was 12/13 years of age and the King was 29. She had never seen him prior to the wedding at Canterbury Cathedral and had never set foot in his kingdom. Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated. She was dressed in a shimmering golden dress that fitted tightly at the waist and flared out to wide pleats at her feet.

The sleeves were long and lined with ermine. After riding to London the same day where a procession of citizens greeted the bridal pair, Eleanor was crowned queen consort of England in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey which was followed by a magnificent banquet with the entire nobility in full attendance. Her love for her husband grew significantly from 1236 onward. Henry and Eleanor had five children. Thier eldest child, the future King Edward I was born in 1239 when Eleanor was 15/16 years old.

Unpopularity

Eleanor was a loyal and faithful consort to Henry, but she brought in her retinue a large number of uncles and cousins, “the Savoyards”, and her influence with the King and her unpopularity with the English barons created friction during Henry’s reign. Her uncle William of Savoy became a close advisor of her husband, displacing and displeasing English barons

Henry III was known for his piety, holding lavish religious ceremonies and giving generously to charities; the King was particularly devoted to the figure of Edward the Confessor, whom he adopted as his patron saint. He extracted huge sums of money from the Jews in England, ultimately crippling their ability to do business, and as attitudes towards the Jews hardened, he introduced the Statute of Jewry, attempting to segregate the community.

In a fresh attempt to reclaim his family’s lands in France, he invaded Poitou in 1242, leading to the disastrous Battle of Taillebourg. After this, Henry relied on diplomacy, cultivating an alliance with Friedrich II, Holy Roman Emperor. Henry supported his brother Richard of Cornwall in his bid to become King of the Romans in 1256, but was unable to place his own son Edmund Crouchback on the throne of Sicily, despite investing large amounts of money. He planned to go on crusade to the Levant, but was prevented from doing so by rebellions in Gascony.

By 1258, Henry’s rule was increasingly unpopular, the result of the failure of his expensive foreign policies and the notoriety of his Poitevin half-brothers, the Lusignans, as well as the role of his local officials in collecting taxes and debts. A coalition of his barons, initially probably backed by Eleanor, seized power in a coup d’état and expelled the Poitevins from England, reforming the royal government through a process called the Provisions of Oxford.

Henry and the baronial government enacted a peace with France in 1259, under which Henry gave up his rights to his other lands in France in return for King Louis IX recognising him as the rightful ruler of Gascony. The baronial regime collapsed but Henry was unable to reform a stable government and instability across England continued.

In 1263, one of the more radical barons, Simon de Montfort, seized power, resulting in the Second Barons’ War. Henry persuaded Louis to support his cause and mobilised an army. The Battle of Lewes occurred in 1264, where Henry was defeated and taken prisoner. Henry’s eldest son, Edward, escaped from captivity to defeat de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham the following year and freed his father.

Henry initially enacted a harsh revenge on the remaining rebels, but was persuaded by the Church to mollify his policies through the Dictum of Kenilworth. Reconstruction was slow and Henry had to acquiesce to various measures, including further suppression of the Jews, to maintain baronial and popular support. Henry died in 1272, leaving Edward as his successor.

Edward Longshanks, as he was known, was travelling during the Ninth Crusade, when he became King of England upon Henry III’s death, but he will not return to England for nearly two years to assume the throne.

Henry III was buried in Westminster Abbey, which he had rebuilt in the second half of his reign, and was moved to his current tomb in 1290. Some miracles were declared after his death; however, he was not canonised.