Even before Innocent had attained the chair of Peter, the worst
dangers that had so long beset the successors of Alexander III were
over. After the death of Henry VI, the Sicilian and the German crowns
were separated, and the strong anti-imperial reaction that burst out
all over Italy against the oppressive ministers of Henry VI was
allowed to run its full course. The danger was not so much of
despotism as of anarchy, and Innocent, like Hildebrand, knew how to
turn confusion to the advantage of hierarchy.

No real effort was made to obtain for the little Frederick the crowns
of both Germany and Sicily, While Philip of Swabia, her
brother-in-law, hurried to Germany to maintain, if he could, the unity
of the Hohenstaufen empire, Constance was quite content to secure her
son's succession in Naples and Sicily by renewing the homage due to
the Pope.

Having thus obtained the indispensable papal confirmation, Constance
ruled in Naples as a national queen in the name of the little
Frederick. She drove away the German bandits, who had made the name of
her husband a terror to her subjects. Markwald of Anweiler left his
Apulian fiefs[54] for Romagna. But the Pope joined with Constance in
hostility to the Germans. Without Innocent's strong and constant
support she could hardly have carried out her policy. Recognizing in
the renewal of the old papal protection the best hopes for the
independence of Sicily, Constance, on her death in 1198, called on
Innocent III to act as the guardian of her son. Innocent loyally took
up her work, and struggled with all his might to preserve the kingdom
of Frederick against his many enemies. But the contest was a long and
a fierce one.