About this time Frederick returned to Italy, and while he was preparing
to carry on new wars against the pope, his prelates and barons declared
that they would abandon him unless he reconciled himself with the
church; so that he was obliged to go and submit to the pope at Venus,
where a pacification was effected, but in which the pope deprived the
emperor of all authority over Rome, and named William, king of Sicily
and Puglia, a coadjutor with him. Frederick, unable to exist without
war, joined the crusaders in Asia, that he might exercise that ambition
against Mohammed, which he could not gratify against the vicars of
Christ. And being near the river Cydnus, tempted by the clearness of
its waters, bathed therein, took cold, and died. Thus the river did a
greater favor to the Mohammedans than the pope's excommunications had
done to the Christians; for the latter only checked his pride, while the
former finished his career. Frederick being dead, the pope had now
only to suppress the contumacy of the Romans; and, after many disputes
concerning the creation of consuls, it was agreed that they should
elect them as they had been accustomed to do, but that these should not
undertake the office, till they had first sworn to be faithful to the
church. This agreement being made, Giovanni the anti-pope took refuge in
Mount Albano, where he shortly afterward died. William, king of Naples,
died about the same time, and the pope intended to occupy that kingdom
on the ground that the king had left only a natural son named Tancred.
But the barons would not consent, and wished that Tancred should be
king. Celestine III., the then pope, anxious to snatch the kingdom from
the hands of Tancred, contrived that Henry, son of Frederick should be
elected emperor, and promised him the kingdom on the condition that he
should restore to the church all the places that had belonged to her. To
facilitate this affair, he caused Gostanza, a daughter of William, who
had been placed in a monastery and was now old, to be brought from
her seclusion and become the wife of Henry. Thus the kingdom of Naples