adopted by Henry in Lotharingia, was to intervene in the succession to the duchy and insist upon its division. Each of these measures had something to be said for it, the first through its success in quelling a dangerous revolt, the second from the danger which an undivided Lotharingia might represent if its duke made common cause with the French king or other magnates who were now in a stronger position than before to interest themselves in the region. Against these short-term gains there were longer-term losses. Manipulation of their vassals' inheritances was one of the essential means by which lords maintained their hold over those whom they had enfeoffed, so too was the right to confiscate the lands of those who had defaulted from their service; when these powers were restricted great lords came to find difficulty in holding their vassals to their obligations without making further concessions to them, and by extension could come to question and resent the demands for service which the crown continued to impose on them. At the same time the king's own tendency to intervene in questions of inheritance infringed precisely those rights of the magnates in which they were now barred from intervening where their own men were concerned. The result was a heady sense of grievance which brought Germany close to major revolt. When Henry III died in 1056 leaving the infant Henry IV as heir, there were those who wished to deny him his throne 'lest he turn out like his father'. As so often, the strongest kings left the most difficult legacies.
Henry IV's minority gave the opportunity for the discontent to emerge and allowed others to develop. His predecessors had built up a carefully structured polarization of influence, lands, and wealth but in doing so they had infringed rights which their victims regarded as inalienable. A succession of regents, archbishops Anno of Cologne and Adalbert of Bremen in particular, took the chance to reinforce their own position, and at the same time provided the means by which others could regain or acquire their due. Duchies held directly by the crown were granted to great nobles, Swabia to Rudolf of Rheinfelden, Bavaria to the Saxon Otto of Nordheim, Saxony to Ordulf Billung, who proceeded to take over many of the
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