Popes and emperors
After Otto III's death 1002 r. Italy was again left without a universally recognized ruler. In the north, magnates clashed for power. and the papacy was manipulated by rival Roman families. The most important events took place in the south, where is Sicily, Calabria and Apulia were conquered by the Normans, who turned out to be efficient stewards. They fused their own culture with the existing mores of semi-Arab, in the middle of the Italian south. In xl-century Palermo, they created the most dynamic culture of the Mediterranean world.
Meanwhile, in Rome, a number of reformer popes initiated the process of strengthening the church.. The most radical of these was Gregory VII.. elected pope in 1073, who demanded the right to det-ronize emperors.
Emperor Henry IV, on the other hand, was strongly determined.. to prevent this from happening. There was an inevitable feud, to which the pretext was the casting of an important Archbishopric of Milan. Henry accused Gregory, that "he is no longer Pope, but a lying monk”. The answer was excommunication and release of the emperor's subjects from the obligation of obedience to authority.. W 1077 r. Henry realized, that he made a tactical mistake and tried to alleviate the conflict by arriving in Canossa. where the barefoot and humble emperor was kept at the gates for three days. The official settlement of the dispute did not alleviate the conflict, and son of Henry. Henry V. continued the feud. ended with a compromise, by virtue of which the emperor retained control over the acquisition of land by bishops, however, he lost the right to their investiture.
After this symbolic victory, the papacy established the broadest and most developed administrative system in the field of law and finance, but his unity was soon put to another test. This time the threat came from Emperor Frederick I. (Barbarossy). which in 1154 r. besieged many cities of northern Italy. Pope Alexander III reacted with vague enunciations, according to which the imperial crown was a "benefice” bestowed by the pope, which meant, that the emperor is his vassal. The question of supremacy was to divide the country over the next two hundred years, and almost every region of Italy was either on the side of the Guelphs (supporting the Pope) or ghibellines (who are on the side of the empire).
Henry's son, Frederick II. he ascended the imperial throne at the age of three and a half and inherited the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. Having joined by marriage with the great Hohenstaufen dynasty in Germany, in the end he turned his gaze to northern Italy. However, his power was based on fragile foundations and resistance from Italian cities and the papacy turned into a civil war.. The sudden death of Frederick II in 1250 r. was a serious blow to the empire.