The revived German Empire annexes the kingdom of Burgundy, France’s junior partner, upon the death of Burgundy’s King Rudolph III in 1032.

Umberto, or Humbert, is the son of Amadeus (who was perhaps count of Maurienne).

His brother is Bishop Otto of Belley.

Umberto is the progenitor of the dynasty known as the House of Savoy.

The origins of this dynasty are unknown, but Humbert's ancestors are variously said to have come from Saxony, Burgundy or Provence.

Given Humbert's close connections with Rudolf III of Burgundy, it is likely that his family is Burgundian, and is descended either from the dukes of Vienne, or from or a Burgundian aristocratic family (such as the Guigonids, ancestors of the counts of Albon).

Umberto initially held lands around Belley and in the county of Sermorens, before gaining lands in Aosta and Valais.

He is also called Umberto the White-Handed, reportedly to signify his generosity.

However, this posthumously applied title may derive from a misreading of a late medieval record (in Latin) which actually refers to the walls of his castle (blancis moenibus), not his hands (blancis manibus), as white.

After Rudolf III’s death in 1032, Umberto I swears fealty to Emperor Conrad II.

He supports the emperor in his campaigns against Odo II, Count of Blois and Archbishop Aribert of Milan.

In return, Conrad appoints Umberto count of Savoy and grants him Maurienne, Chablais and perhaps Tarentaise.

Epidemic Strikes the Imperial Retinue During Conrad II’s Return from Italy (1038)

During Emperor Conrad II’s return journey from Italy to Germany in 1038, an epidemic broke out among his troops, devastating the imperial retinue. Among those who perished were his daughter-in-law and stepson, though Conrad himself survived. Despite these losses, the emperor proceeded with several key political actions, including the formal investiture of his son, Henry III, as King of Burgundy.

The Epidemic and Its Impact on the Imperial Court

• The imperial army had been in Italy as part of Conrad II’s efforts to secure his authority in Lombardy and the wider Holy Roman Empire.
• On the return march to Germany, an outbreak of disease ravaged the troops, claiming many victims among the nobility.
• Among those who perished were:
  • Conrad’s daughter-in-law, who was likely the wife of Henry III.
  • Conrad’s stepson, whose identity remains uncertain but was likely from Gisela of Swabia’s previous marriage.
• Conrad escaped infection and continued his journey, displaying remarkable resilience as he returned to imperial affairs.

Conrad’s Political Actions After His Return

Despite the devastation among his entourage, Conrad II resumed his imperial responsibilities, holding major royal courts in:

• Solothurn,
• Strasbourg,
• Goslar, where he confirmed key political decisions and ensured imperial continuity.

Investiture of Henry III as King of Burgundy

• At one of these assemblies, Conrad formally invested his son, Henry III, with the Kingdom of Burgundy.
• This move ensured that Burgundy, which had been incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire since 1033, remained firmly under Salian control.
• By securing Henry III’s authority in Burgundy, Conrad reinforced the dynastic claims of the Salian house, setting the stage for his son’s eventual imperial succession.

Legacy of the Epidemic and Political Developments

• The losses within Conrad’s retinue revealed the dangers of medieval military campaigns, where disease was often deadlier than battle.
• His quick recovery and administrative efficiency demonstrated his firm grip on imperial power, despite setbacks.
• The formal recognition of Henry III as King of Burgundy cemented the Salian dynasty’s control over a vast realm, strengthening the Holy Roman Empire’s influence in Western Europe.

Though Conrad II’s return was marred by tragedy, his ability to stabilize the empire and ensure dynastic continuity proved crucial to the long-term consolidation of the Salian dynasty’s power.

Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, driven into exile by William II, writes, during these years of church-state struggle, his greatest theological work, Cur Deus Homo (“Why God Became Man”), completed in 1098), presenting theology as "faith seeking understanding" in the form of a dialogue that all readers can easily follow.

In his highly influential Proslogion, Anselm argues that even one who denies the existence of God knows what is meant by the term—namely, "a being greater than which none can be conceived."

As such a notion cannot, according to Anselm, exist only in the mind—for to exist in the mind and in reality is greater than to exist only in the mind—there must necessarily be in reality a being greater than which none can be conceived.

This definition constitutes for Anselm the ultimate ground for all that is believed and taught about God—namely, his unity, his Trinity, his incarnation, and his redemption of humankind from sin.

(Some philosophers view Anselm’s argument as the ontological proof for the existence of God; others reject it as an illicit inference from the mental to the physical order of existence.)

West Europe (1108 – 1251 CE): Capetian Consolidation, Angevin Empire, and the Medieval Maritime Axis

Between 1108 and 1251 CE, Western Europe entered a transformative century of expansion and consolidation.
From the vineyards of Provence to the harbors of Flanders, the Capetians, Angevins, and their rivals knit together a dynamic web of kingdoms, communes, and trade corridors.
It was an age of Gothic cathedrals and fortified towns, of heresy and crusade, and of merchants whose routes stretched from Bordeaux and Marseille to Bruges and Venice.
The Capetian monarchy solidified the French heartland, the Angevin Empire linked England and Aquitaine, and the Low Countries’ cloth towns forged the commercial arteries of medieval Europe.

Geographic and Environmental Context

West Europe encompassed two great zones of medieval civilization:

• The Mediterranean south—Provence, Languedoc, and Roussillon—anchored on the Rhône Valley and the ports of Marseille, Narbonne, and Montpellier; and

• The Atlantic north—the Loire, Seine, and Gironde basins, stretching to the Low Countries’ river deltas and Flemish ports.

This landscape of rivers and coasts was threaded by trade routes: the Rhône–Saône corridor connecting Italy to the North Sea; the Loire and Seine valleys linking Paris to the ports; and the Champagne and Flanders fairs, the pulse of continental commerce.
From the Pyrenean passes to the dunes of Bruges, urbanization and royal consolidation remade Western Europe.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

The High Medieval climatic optimum fostered prosperity.
Longer growing seasons and stable weather supported vineyards, grain harvests, and demographic growth.
The Rhône and Loire valleys became agricultural heartlands, while Flanders and Champagne capitalized on river transport and grain imports.
Forests retreated before expanding farmland, and irrigation improved lowland productivity.
By the mid-13th century, subtle signs of variability—especially in southern viticulture—heralded the coming end of the climatic golden age.

Political and Dynastic Developments

Capetian France and the Angevin Challenge:
The Capetians of Paris gradually consolidated power against their Angevin and Plantagenet rivals.
Eleanor of Aquitaine, through her marriages to Louis VII (1137) and Henry II Plantagenet (1152), bound and then divided France’s destiny.
The resulting Angevin Empire, stretching from Normandy to Aquitaine and England, dominated Western Christendom.
Philip II Augustus (r. 1180–1223) decisively ended Angevin supremacy with the conquest of Normandy (1204) and victory at Bouvines (1214), establishing France’s royal hegemony.

Southern France and the Albigensian Crusade:
In the Languedoc, the Counts of Toulouse and Trencavel viscounts presided over wealthy, urbanized polities where the dualist Cathar heresy gained followers among townspeople and nobles.
The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229), sanctioned by Pope Innocent III, crushed the movement and destroyed the independence of southern France.
The Treaty of Paris (1229) brought Languedoc under Capetian control; inquisitorial institutions and Dominican preaching followed in its wake.

Provence and the Mediterranean Crown:
Provence, a thriving courtly center of troubadour culture, passed under Angevin control in the 1240s, linking it politically to Naples and Sicily.
The Kingdom of Arles faded into papal and imperial diplomacy, while Lyon rose as both mercantile hub and ecclesiastical council seat.
Corsica, long contested, fell securely under Genoese influence, and Monaco emerged within the Genoese–Provençal maritime rivalry.

The Low Countries and the Northern Trade Axis:
In Flanders, Bruges, Ghent, and Ypres became industrial centers producing cloth for English wool, exported via the Channel ports.
The Champagne fairs connected northern Europe to Italy, bringing Lombard bankers into the royal orbit.
These northern markets financed monarchies and drew Italian capital into France’s emerging commercial infrastructure.

Economy and Trade

Agrarian Prosperity:

• The Mediterranean south specialized in vineyards, olives, and pastoralism.

• The Atlantic plains cultivated grain and exported surplus through Bordeaux, La Rochelle, and Nantes.

• The Jura and Pyrenean uplands produced salt, wool, and cheese for local trade.

Urban and Maritime Commerce:

• Marseille, Montpellier, and Narbonne served as Mediterranean entrepôts for Italian silks, Levantine spices, and woolen exports from the north.

• Lyon’s fairs linked the Rhône basin to the Champagne circuits.

• Bordeaux’s claret became the staple of Anglo-Gascon commerce, exported en masse to England.

• Flanders processed English wool into high-value textiles, while Bruges evolved into Europe’s early banking and maritime hub.

Monetary Integration:
New royal mints and Italian financiers stabilized coinage; the Capetian monarchy and northern communes advanced systems of credit and toll regulation that integrated regional markets.

Religion and Intellectual Life

Heresy and Orthodoxy:
The Cathar challenge in Languedoc provoked the Inquisition (post-1229) and the rise of the Dominican Order.
In northern France, Cistercians and Franciscans expanded monastic reform.
Chartres, Paris, and Toulouse grew into centers of scholastic learning, blending faith with emerging rationalism.

Art and Architecture:

• Gothic architecture matured with Chartres Cathedral (begun 1194) and Reims, epitomizing theological harmony in stone.

• Romanesque churches persisted in southern Provence and the Pyrenees.

• Troubadour lyric poetry in Occitan expressed secular and courtly ideals.

Movement and Interaction Corridors

• Rhône–Saône valley: Lyon ⇄ Avignon ⇄ Marseille — key artery for Mediterranean–Rhine commerce.

• Loire and Seine valleys: Paris ⇄ Tours ⇄ Orléans ⇄ Rouen ⇄ Channel ports — backbone of royal administration.

• Aquitaine coast: Bordeaux ⇄ La Rochelle ⇄ Bayonne ⇄ Bristol — English–French maritime link.

• Flanders–Champagne axis: Bruges ⇄ Ghent ⇄ Reims ⇄ Troyes ⇄ Genoa — Europe’s commercial hinge.

• Pyrenean passes and Provençal ports: Perpignan ⇄ Toulouse ⇄ Arles ⇄ Genoa — cross-Mediterranean exchange.

These corridors integrated agrarian hinterlands with an increasingly international maritime economy.

Adaptation and Resilience

• Feudal pluralism in France allowed local autonomy within royal consolidation.

• Urban communes balanced royal and seigneurial power, protecting civic liberties.

• Agrarian specialization diversified production between northern grain, southern wine, and maritime salt.

• Trade redundancy—multiple ports and inland routes—ensured recovery from warfare and crusade.

• Religious orders and urban guilds provided stability amid social change.

By adapting economically and institutionally, West Europe turned diversity into strength.

Long-Term Significance

By 1251 CE, Western Europe had crystallized into the framework of later France and the Low Countries:

• Capetian monarchy secured southern expansion and royal bureaucracy.

• The Angevin realm remained powerful but fractured, defining Franco-English rivalry.

• Flanders and Champagne stood at the forefront of international finance.

• Marseille, Montpellier, and Bordeaux embodied the Mediterranean–Atlantic continuum that would later power European exploration.
  The region’s synthesis of royal centralization, mercantile networks, and cultural flowering marked the zenith of the High Middle Ages—and prepared France and its neighbors for the global age to come.

Mediterranean West Europe (1108 – 1251 CE): Albigensian Wars, Papal Provence, and Maritime Commerce

Geographic and Environmental Context

Mediterranean West Europe includes southern France (from the Rhône valley to the Pyrenees, plus Languedoc, Provence, and Roussillon), Monaco, and the island of Corsica.

• Anchors: the Rhône Valley (Avignon, Arles, Lyon, Beaucaire fairs), the southern Jura routes into Switzerland, the Provençal littoral (Marseille, Toulon, Nice, Monaco), the Languedoc plain (Carcassonne, Béziers, Toulouse’s southern hinterland, Montpellier), the Roussillon marches (Perpignan, Pyrenean passes), and Corsica under Genoese sway.

Climate and Environmental Shifts

• Still favorable overall, with first hints of variability in 13th c. viticulture.

• Rhône and Jura valleys remained fertile and well-populated.

Societies and Political Developments

• Counts of Toulouse reached their height; Trencavel viscounts held Carcassonne, Béziers, Albi.

• Cathar heresy (Albigensian movement) flourished in Languedoc towns.

• Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229): led by northern French barons and Papacy; devastated Languedoc, led to French royal absorption.

• Treaty of Paris (1229): annexed Toulouse lands to Capetian France.

• Provence: passed to Angevin dynasty in 1240s.

• Lyon grew as a mercantile–ecclesiastical city, hosting church councils.

• Corsica: Genoese dominance strengthened.

• Monaco and Nice fell increasingly into Genoese/Provençal rivalry.

Economy and Trade

• Ports (Marseille, Montpellier, Narbonne): exchanged wine, oil, wool for Italian silks, Levantine spices.

• Rhône traffic: Lyon’s fairs expanded; Jura passes carried salt, cloth, and cheese.

• Agriculture: vineyards and olives in Provence/Languedoc; sheep in Jura and Pyrenees.

Belief and Symbolism

• Cathar dualism challenged Catholic dominance.

• Inquisition launched after 1229.

• Monastic orders (Dominicans, Cistercians) expanded influence.

Long-Term Significance

By 1251, Languedoc was absorbed into Capetian France, Provence under Angevin Naples, Lyon a papal and mercantile hub, and Corsica under Genoese sway.

One year later he had acted as regent for Germany, together with his elder brother, Frederick II of Swabia.

At the death of Henry (1125), Conrad had unsuccessfully supported Frederick for the kingship of Germany.

Frederick was placed under a ban and Conrad was deprived of Franconia and the Kingdom of Burgundy, of which he was rector.

With the support of the imperial cities, Swabia, and the Duchy of Austria, Conrad is elected antiking to the Holy Roman Emperor, Lothair II, at Nuremberg in December 1127, thus establishing the Hohenstaufen dynasty.

The Baussenque Wars (from French Guerres Baussenques, meaning "wars of Baux") are a series of armed conflicts (1144–1162) between the House of Barcelona, at this time ruling in Provence, and the House of Baux.

In Provence, the conflict is viewed as an idealistic resistance of one of her native families against the Catalan "occupation."

The Catalonian perspective regards the Baussenque Wars as the first of many successful expansions of Catalan power and influence in the Mediterranean world.

Henry of Lausanne: A Charismatic Heretic and His Challenge to the Church (c. 1121–1145 CE)

Henry of Lausanne, a controversial itinerant preacher, gained widespread influence in 12th-century Francethrough his ascetic lifestyle, rejection of Church authority, and calls for radical reform. His teachings and movement were seen as dangerous heresies by the established Church, drawing opposition from major figures like Peter of Cluny and Bernard of Clairvaux.

Early Ministry and Preaching at Le Mans (1121)

• Henry’s origins are obscure, but he may have been a Benedictine monk from Cluny before turning to an itinerant life of preaching and reform.
• He arrived in Le Mans in March 1121, likely from Lausanne, and began preaching while Bishop Hildebert was absent.
• His sermons attracted huge crowds, especially among women and the lower classes, urging penitence, personal piety, and a rejection of ecclesiastical corruption.
• He denounced the invocation of saints, extravagance, and second marriages.
• Women discarded their jewelry, and young men married prostitutes in an effort to reform them, acts that scandalized the clergy.
• His charismatic presence—described as tall, barefoot, with a beard, long hair, flashing eyes, and a sonorous voice—made him a powerful religious figure.
• Clergy in Le Mans became the targets of abuse, and Church authority was rejected, prompting concern from Hildebert upon his return.

Disputation with Bishop Hildebert and Expulsion from Le Mans

• Upon his return, Bishop Hildebert confronted Henry in a public disputation.
• According to the Acta Episcoporum Cenomannensium, Henry was found less guilty of heresy than of ignorancebut was still forced to leave the city.
• He traveled to Poitiers, Bordeaux, and later Arles, continuing his preaching and gathering followers.

Arrest and Trial Before Pope Innocent II (1134)

• By 1134, Henry was arrested by the Archbishop of Arles and brought before Pope Innocent II at the Council of Pisa.
• He was forced to abjure his errors and sentenced to imprisonment.
• St. Bernard of Clairvaux reportedly offered him asylum at Clairvaux, but it is unclear if Henry ever reached the monastery.

Resurgence of His Movement and Spread of Heresy (1139–1145)

• By 1139, Henry had resumed his preaching, particularly in southern France, where he gained a large following.
• His movement merged with the teachings of Peter of Bruys, whose followers rejected Church doctrine and sacraments.
• Peter of Cluny wrote a treatise (Epistola seu tractatus adversus Petrobrusianos) attacking the teachings of Henry and Peter of Bruys, accusing them of:
  • Rejecting Church authority and discipline.
  • Accepting only the Gospel, freely interpreted.
  • Condemning infant baptism, the Eucharist, the Mass, prayers for the dead, and saintly intercession.
  • Denying liturgical worship altogether.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux described Henry’s influence as devastating, writing:

"The churches are without flocks, the flocks without priests, the priests without honor; in a word, nothing remains save Christians without Christ." (Epistola 241)

Bernard of Clairvaux’s Mission Against Henry’s Followers (1145 CE)

• In 1145, at the request of Papal Legate Alberic, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, Bernard traveled through the affected regions, including:
  • Angoulême and Limoges,
  • Bordeaux,
  • Bergerac, Périgueux, Sarlat, Cahors, and Toulouse, all centers of heretical activity.
• Bernard’s mission aimed to debate, discredit, and convert Henry’s followers, reinforcing the authority of the Church.

Final Fate of Henry of Lausanne

• After 1145, there are no clear records of Henry’s fate.
• He may have been captured and executed, imprisoned, or driven into obscurity.
• His radical ideas, however, did not die with him, influencing later heretical movements, including the Cathars and Waldensians.

Legacy and Impact

• Henry’s movement was part of a broader wave of 12th-century heretical reforms, challenging Church authority and advocating a return to a more primitive Christian life.
• His ideas anticipated elements of later reformist and heretical movements, including the Protestant rejection of Church hierarchy and sacramental theology.
• The Church’s aggressive response to Henry and his followers set a precedent for future crackdowns on heresy, ultimately leading to the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229).

Despite his condemnation and suppression, Henry of Lausanne embodied the rising challenge to Church orthodoxy in the High Middle Ages, a struggle that would continue to shape European religious history for centuries.