general in favor of the immediate interests of the Roman see. He
accepted Frederick as emperor, only stipulating that he should renew
his homage for the Sicilian crown, and consequently renounce an
inalienable union between Sicily and the Empire. Frederick now left
Sicily, repeated his submission to Innocent at Rome, and crossed the
Alps for Germany.

Otto had already abandoned Italy to meet the threatened danger in the
North. Misfortunes soon showered thick upon him. His Hohenstaufen
wife, Beatrice, died, and her loss lessened his hold on Southern
Germany. When Frederick appeared, Swabia and Bavaria were already
eager to welcome the heir of the mighty southern line, and aid him
against the audacious Saxon. The spiritual magnates flocked to the
side of the friend and pupil of the Pope. In December, 1212, followed
Frederick's formal election and his coronation at Mainz by the
archbishop Siegfried. Early in 1213 Henry of Kalden appeared at his
court. Henceforward the important class of the ministeriales was
divided. While some remained true to Otto, others gradually went back
to the personal representative of Hohenstaufen.

Otto was now thrown back on Saxony and the Lower Rhineland. He again
took up his quarters with the faithful citizens of Cologne, when he
appealed for help to his uncle, John of England, still under the papal
ban. With English help he united the princes of the Netherlands in a
party of opposition to the Pope and the Hohenstaufen. Frederick
answered by a closer and a more effective league with France. Even
before his coronation he had met Louis, the son of Philip Augustus, at
Vaucouleurs. All Europe seemed arming at the bidding of the Pope and
Emperor.