The eastern group of nations is widely different in character. It
includes a greater number of states, even if we omit from the reckoning
the great German principalities which were, by the end of the Middle
Ages, all but sovereign powers; and it is less homogeneous in culture.
The Empire forms the centre of the group, and round the Empire the minor
states are grouped like satellites: on the west, Savoy and Provence;
south of the Alps, Venice, the Papal States, and the Kingdom of Sicily--
the last-named independent until 1194, and the private property of the
Hohenstauffen from that date till 1268; on the east the kingdoms of
Hungary and Bohemia and Poland, and the Russian principalities; on the
north the three Scandinavian powers. Large as it is, this group only
includes one state of the first rank; for the Norman kingdom, though a
masterpiece of constructive statesmanship, was important in European
politics rather as a second and a makeweight than as a principal, and
would have been more admired than feared but for the accidents which
made the Norman alliance so valuable to the Holy See. When Naples and
Sicily were held by German Emperors, the Empire towered like a colossus
above the states of Scandinavia, the Slav and the Magyar. But even
without this support, the Empire might have continued to dominate two-
thirds of Europe, if the imperial resources had not been swallowed up by
the wars of Italy, and if the Emperors who came after the interregnum
had given the national interest priority over those of their own
families. In fact, however, the mischief of the Mezentian union between
Italy and Germany survived their separation; as in western so in central
Europe, the course of political development was largely determined by
the persistent and disastrous efforts of a Teutonic to absorb a Latin
nationality. But whereas the English attacks on France were directly
responsible for the growth of a French national state, the failure of
Germany left Italy but half emancipated from the foreigner, and more
disintegrated than she had been at any period in the past. And whereas