her forlorn condition. The Pope was now forced to content himself with
remonstrances. Philip declared that a baleful charm separated him from
Ingeborg, and again begged the Pope to divorce him from a union based
on sorcery and witchcraft.

The growing need of the French alliance now somewhat slackened the
early zeal of Innocent for the cause of the Queen. But no real
cordiality was possible as long as the strained relations of Ingeborg
and Philip continued. At last, in 1213, in the very crisis of his
fortunes, Philip completed his tardy reconciliation with his wife,
after they had been separated for twenty years. Henceforth Philip was
the most active ally of the papacy.

While thus dealing with Philip of France, Innocent enjoyed easier
triumphs over the lesser kings of Europe. It was his ambition to break
through the traditional limits that separated the church from the
state, and to bind as many as he could of the kings of Europe to the
papacy by ties of political vassalage. The time-honored feudal
superiority of the popes over the Norman kingdom of Sicily had been
the first precedent for this most unecclesiastical of all papal
aggressions. Already others of the smaller kingdoms of Europe,
conspicuous among which was Portugal, had followed the example of the
Normans in becoming vassals of the holy see. Under Innocent at least
three states supplemented ecclesiastical by political dependence on
the papacy. Sancho, King of Portugal, who had striven to repudiate the
former submission of Alfonso I, was in the end forced to accept the
papal suzerainty. Peter, King of Aragon, went in 1204 to Rome and was
solemnly crowned king by Innocent. Afterward Peter deposited his crown
on the high altar of St. Peter's and condescended to receive the
investiture of his kingdom from the Pope, holding it as a perpetual