No sooner was Constance dead than the Germans came back to their prey.
The fierce Markwald, driven from Romagna by the papal triumph, claimed
the regency and the custody of the King. The Saracens and Greeks of
Sicily, still numerous and active, joined the Germans. Walter, Bishop
of Troja, Chancellor of Sicily, weaved deep plots against his master
and his overlord. But the general support of the Church gave Innocent
a strong weapon. Roffrid, Abbot of Monte Casino, a tried friend of
Henry VI, declared for Innocent against Markwald, who in revenge
besieged the great monastery, until a summer storm drove him baffled
from its walls. But the purchased support of Pisa gave Markwald the
command of the sea, and Innocent had too many schemes on foot and too
little military power at his command to be able to make easy headway
against him.

At last Innocent had reluctant recourse to Count Walter of Brienne,
the French husband of Tancred's daughter Albina, and now a claimant
for the hereditary fiefs of Tancred, Lecce, and Taranto, from which,
despite Henry VI's promise, he had long been driven. For almost the
first time in Italian history, Frenchmen were thus called in to drive
out the Germans. But it was then as afterward a dangerous experiment.
Walter of Brienne and his small French following invaded Apulia, and
fought hard against Diepold of Acerra, another of King Henry's
Germans. Meanwhile Markwald, now in open alliance with the Bishop of
Troja, made himself master of Sicily and regent of the young King. His
death in 1202 removed the most dangerous enemy of both Innocent and
Frederick. But the war dragged on for years in Apulia, especially
after Diepold had slain Walter of Brienne. The turbulent feudal barons
of Apulia and Sicily profited by this long reign of anarchy to
establish themselves on a permanent basis. At last Innocent sent his
own brother, Richard, Count of Segni, to root out the last of the