Henry is furious and desires to avenge the Polish intervention that had caused his Hungarian fiasco.

He is poised to invade Poland in the summer of 1109 when the Polish ruler organizes an expedition into Pomerania in order to secure his northern boundary.

According to Gallus Anonymus, the purpose of the expedition wasn't just the taking of the castle of Nakło, but to force the Pomeranians into a decisive battle.

Gallus describes the battle in the first chapter of the third book of his chronicle.

On August 10, 1109, Boleslaw's force, which is besieging Naklo, engages the Pomeranian relief forces and defeats them.

As a result, the city surrenders to him.

Later, Boleslaw will incorporate Pomerania into his realm.

In Gallus' chronicle, the defeat of the Pomeranians and their conversion to Christianity are presented as one of Boleslaw's great achievements, comparable to the victory of King Otto I of Germany over the Hungarians at the 955 Battle of Lechfeld.

Boleslaw shortly afterwards has to rush to the south to meet Henry and his Imperial army at the Battle of Glogów.

He will later send Bishop Otto of Bamberg as a missionary to christianize Pomerania.

Conrad and his eldest legitimate son, Henry Berengar, had in 1150 defeated Welf VI, Duke of Spoleto and Margrave of Tuscany, and his son Welf VII at the Battle of Flochberg.

Henry Berengar had died later that year and the succession had been thrown open.

Frederick III, Hohenstaufen Duke of Swabia, from 1147, had accompanied his uncle, the German king Conrad III, on the disastrous Second Crusade, but had distinguished himself and won the complete confidence of the king.

When Conrad died on February 15, 1152, only Frederick and the prince-bishop of Bamberg had been at his deathbed.

Both assert afterwards that Conrad had, in full possession of his mental powers, handed the royal insignia to Frederick and indicated that Frederick, rather than Conrad's own six-year-old son, the future Frederick IV, Duke of Swabia, should succeed him as king.

Frederick energetically pursues the crown and at Frankfurt on arch 4 the kingdom's princely electors designate him as the next German king.

He is crowned at Aachen five days later.

The young son of the late king is given the Duchy of Swabia.

The son of Duke Frederick II of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, his mother is Judith, daughter of Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria, from the rival House of Welf, and Frederick therefore descends from Germany's two leading families, making him an acceptable choice for the Empire's prince-electors.

He rules as king Frederick I; the Italians call him Barbarossa (“Red-Beard”).

Anxious to restore the Empire to the position it had occupied under Charlemagne and Otto I the Great, the new king sees clearly that the restoration of order in Germany is a necessary preliminary to the enforcement of the imperial rights in Italy.

Issuing a general order for peace, he makes lavish concessions to the nobles.

Abroad, Frederick intervenes in the Danish civil war between Syewn III and Valdemar I of Denmark and begins negotiations with the East Roman emperor, Manuel I Komnenos.

It is probably about this time that the king obtains papal assent for the annulment of his childless marriage with Adelheid of Vohburg, on the grounds of consanguinity (his great-great-grandfather was a brother of Adela's great-great-great-grandmother).

He now makes a vain effort to obtain a bride from the court of Constantinople.

Philip’s entry into Cologne in 1207 had practically brought the German civil war to a close.

Philip had been loosed from the papal ban a month or two later, and in March 1208 it seems probable that a treaty had been concluded by which a nephew of the pope was to marry one of Philip's daughters and to receive the disputed dukedom of Tuscany.

Philip is preparing to crush the last flicker of the rebellion in Brunswick-Lüneburg when on June 21, 1208, he is murdered at Bamberg by Otto VIII of Wittelsbach, count palatine in Bavaria.

Otto, already known for his unstable character, had fallen into a rage when he learned of the dissolution of his betrothal to Gertrude of Silesia by her father, Duke Henry I the Bearded of Lower Silesia.

Henry, apparently informed of the Wittelsbach's cruel tendencies, had in an act of concern for his young daughter decided to terminate the marriage agreement.

Otto proceeded to blame Philip, without grounds, for another spurned marriage alliance (the first being to Philip's own daughter, Beatrice) and had sworn revenge on the German King, culminating in the murder at Bamberg.

The early reign of Wenceslaus has been preoccupied by the threat to Bohemia posed by Frederick II, Duke of Austria.

The expansionism of Frederick has caused the concern and protestation of several other rulers.

In 1236, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II is involved in a war against the Lombard League.

The Emperor demands Wenceslaus and other rulers of the Holy Roman Empire lend him part of their own troops for his war effort.

Wenceslaus leads a group of princes who express their reluctance to divert any troops from the defense of their own territories, citing fear of invasion from the Duchy of Austria.

They request imperial intervention in the situation.

The Emperor imposes an imperial ban on the Duke of Austria in June 1236.

Troops dispatched against the Duke force him to flee Vienna for Wiener Neustadt.

He will continue to rule a rump state for the following year.

The Emperor declares direct imperial rule in both Austria and the Duchy of Styria, also held by the fleeing Duke.

Ekbert von Andechs-Meranien, former Bishop of Bamberg, is installed as governor in the two Duchies.

The influx of German colonists into Bohemia continues under King Wenceslas, bringing prosperity to Bohemia.

Wenceslaus manages to negotiate the expansion of Bohemia north of the Danube, annexing territories offered by Duke Frederick in order of forming and maintaining their alliance.

Bamberg Cathedral, on which reconstruction begins in about 1237, copies the French Gothic style towers of Laon Cathedral.

Ekbert governs from February to his death on June 5, 1237.

Wenceslaus is hardly pleased with this apparent expansion of direct imperial authority close to his borders, and he and Duke Frederick form an alliance against the Emperor, who chooses to lift the ban in 1237 rather than maintain another open front.

Wenceslaus and Frederick find an additional ally in the person of Otto II Wittelsbach, Duke of Bavaria.

In June 1239, Wenceslaus and Otto leave the Reichstag at Eger, abandoning the service of excommunicated Emperor Frederick II.

Despite their intent to elect an antiking, no such election will take place until 1246.

Gothic statuary, influenced by that of Reims, achieved its fullest plastic expression at Bamberg, where the anonymous sculptor of a group of the “Visitation” in the interior of the cathedral, inspired by the figures at Reims, is also responsible for the Bamberg Horseman, executed in about 1240.

The first truly monumental equestrian statue of the epoch, the regal, life-size horseman (whose identity remains unknown) impressively embodies the age’s chivalrous ideal of rulership.