heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

372 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
of the Romans. Not that the Emperor had any direct authority over
Rome, which was exercised by the Bishop of Rome from the days when
on the fall of the western empire he had been elected a Proesule by the
joint votes of the clergy, senate, and people, which governed Rome as
an independent commonwealth, having its senate, consuls, tribunes, and
forming its own alliances. Even when, in 541, Longinus, having abolished
the Exarchs of Ravenna, sent an officer called
" Dux," or Duke, who was
changed every year, to each town or district, Rome retained its internal
municipal administration and laws.
Pepin, 752-768, not only respected this, but having conquered
Astolphus King of the Longobards, obliged him to give up the Exarchate
of Ravenna and the Pentapolis, not to the eastern Emperor, but to the
" holy church of God and the Roman republic ;
" and Charlemagne, though
he assumed the title of " Patrician " of the Romans, confirmed and increased
his father's donation.
Otho, when crowned as first Emperor of Rome by John XII., 962,
swore to respect the authority of the Roman see, and not to encroach
upon its temporal rights and possessions. He was acknowledged Emperor,
and his son as King of the Romans but
;
the Pope remained lord of the
Roman duchy as of a great Imperial feudatory, as in the time of the
Carlowingians.
These facts throw light upon the origin and significance of the single
and double-headed eagle. The former is
evidently the continuance of
that which was originally the insignia of the Roman people. The latter
symbolical
of the eastern and
western Roman empires.
old on the death of his
Frederick II., who was only four years father Henry, had been created King of the Romans in his cradle, but
was not formally elected Emperor of Germany and crowned at Aix la
Chapelle, until 1215. By his first wife he had a son, Henry, for whose
marriage with Isabella of England negotiations had, in 1225, taken place,
two years before her marriage with his father. His second wife was
lolante, daughter of John of Brienne, King of Jerusalem, who had gone
to France for aid against the Mussulmans, in 1223, and whose title
Frederick assumed, and at once prepared for a crusade. But it was not
until 1227 that the Emperor actually started, when he only proceeded to
the Morea, and abandoned the crusade ;
Pope Gregory excommunicating
him in consequence, and laying his dominions under an interdict. The
following year lolante died, and Frederick determined to repeat his attempt
in defiance of the Pope, who commanded the Patriarch of Jerusalem and
the three orders of knights to oppose him ;
but Frederick persevered, and
having made a treaty with Meledin, Sultan of Egypt, made his entry into
Jerusalem, March i7th, 1229, and on the i8th of May placed the crown