Pope Gregory IX

Cardinal D’Segni, the nephew of Pope Celestine, is elected pope on the day of his uncle's death in 1198, and takes the name Innocent III.

Involved in imperial affairs from the outset of his pontificate, the new pope recognizes as king of Sicily the son of the late Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, following the widowed Constance of Sicily’s acceptance of papal sovereignty over Sicily.

At Constance’s death later in 1198, Innocent becomes regent for the infant Frederick.

The same year, Innocent makes his cousin, Ugolino dei conti di Segni, a native of Anagni, Italy, a cardinal deacon.

Innocent attempts to reorganize the Crusading efforts under papal auspices.

Despite manifold problems in the West, he is the first pope since Urban II to be both anxious and able to consider the Crusade a major papal concern.

In 1198, he broaches the subject of a new expedition through legates and encyclical letters.

He immediately lays an interdict on Laon in an attempt to stamp out independent beliefs there.

This will be followed by interdicts against France in 1199 and Normandy in 1203.

Frederick, the infant son of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI and Constance, Queen of Sicily, had been elected King of the Germans in 1196, at Frankfurt am Main.

His rights in Germany had been disputed by Henry's brother Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick.

At the death of his father in 1197, the two-year-old Frederick had been in Italy traveling towards Germany when the bad news reached his guardian, Conrad of Spoleto.

Frederick had been hastily brought back to his mother Constance in Palermo, Sicily, where he was crowned as King on May 17, 1198, now Frederick I of Sicily.

Constance of Sicily is in her own right queen of Sicily and she establishes herself as regent.

In Frederick's name, she dissolves Sicily's ties to Germany and the Empire that had been created by her marriage, sending home his German counselors and renouncing his claims to the German throne and empire.

Upon Constance's death in 1198, Pope Innocent III succeeds as Frederick's guardian.

The circumstances surrounding the failed negotiations to wed Robert, a weak and incapable ruler, to Eudocia are unclear, but George Akropolites states that the arrangement was blocked on religious grounds by the Orthodox Patriarch Manuel Sarentos: Robert's sister Marie de Courtenay was married to Emperor Theodore I Laskaris.

Accordingly, Robert, already Theodore's brother-in-law, could not also be his son-in-law.

Regardless, Robert had promised again to marry Eudocia but soon repudiated this engagement, and in 1227 (according to William of Tyre Continuator) secretly marries the Lady of Neuville, already the fiancée of a Burgundian gentleman.

Both the new wife of the Emperor and her mother are placed in a manor house owned by Robert.

The unnamed Burgundian gentleman somehow finds out and reportedly organizes a conspiracy against Robert and his new wife.

The knights of Constantinople partaking in the conspiracy proceed to capture the Empress and her mother.

The lips and nostrils of both women are cut off and then thrown to sea.

Robert flees Constantinople following the attack, seeking the assistance of Pope Gregory IX in reestablishing his authority.

Honorius dies on March 18, 1227, and Cardinal Ugolino succeeds him as Pope Gregory IX, a passionate man who belongs to the intellectual world of Francis of Assisi.

Frederick, responding to pressure by the new pope, organizes the Sixth Crusade.

In September 1227, when Frederick is at last ready to embark from Brindisi for the Holy Land, an epidemic breaks out among the crusaders, delaying the emperor's departure.

Even the master of the Teutonic Knights, Hermann of Salza, recommends that he return to the mainland to recuperate.

Frederick is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX on September 29 for failing to honor his crusading pledge.

During the delay, he receives envoys from the late Saladin's nephew Sultan al-Kamil of Egypt, who, threatened by the ambitious designs of his Ayyubid brothers, is disposed to negotiate.

The Bulgar State centered in lower Volga and Kama is the center of the fur trade in Eurasia throughout most of its history.

Before the Mongol conquest, Russians of Novgorod and Vladimir repeatedly loot and attack the area, thereby weakening the Bulgar state's economy and military power.

The latter had ambushed the Mongols in late 1223 or in 1224.

Several subsequent clashes occur between 1229–1234, and the Mongol Empire conquers the Bulgars in 1236.

The Mongol invasion of Rus' had been heralded by the Battle of the Kalka River in 1223 between Subutai's reconnaissance unit and the combined force of several Rus' princes.

After fifteen years of peace, it is followed by Batu Khan's full-scale invasion during 1237 to 1240.

The invasion, facilitated by the breakup of Kievan Rus' in the twelfth century, has incalculable ramifications for the history of Eastern Europe, including the division of the East Slavic people into three separate nations and the rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

The War of the Lombards is a civil war in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Cyprus between the "Lombards" (also called the imperialists), the representatives of the Emperor Frederick II, largely from Lombardy, and the native aristocracy, led first by the Ibelins and then by the Montforts.

The war is provoked by Frederick's attempt in 1228 to control the regency for his young son, Conrad II of Jerusalem.

Frederick and Conrad represent the Hohenstaufen dynasty.

The war will last fifteen years.

The Sixth Crusade, beginning only seven years after the failure of the Fifth Crusade, starts in 1228 as an attempt to reconquer Jerusalem by the Holy Roman Empire and the Crusader States.

The Muslims relinquish Jerusalem, Nazareth, Sidon, Jaffa, and Bethlehem to the Crusaders but continue to retain the Temple Mount.

Jerusalem will in 1244 be captured by the displaced Khwarezmians, sparking the Seventh Crusade.

The Stedinger Crusade (1232–1234): A Rare Crusade Against Christian Farmers

The Stedinger Crusade (1232–1234) was one of the few instances in medieval history where a crusade was declared against a Christian population, rather than heathens or heretics. The conflict arose between the independent Frisian settlers of Stedingen and the Archbishop of Bremen, who sought to curtail their freedoms. After excommunicating the Stedingers in 1228, Archbishop Gerhard II of Bremen successfully persuaded Pope Gregory IX to declare a crusade against them in 1232.

Background: The Stedingers and Their Conflict with the Archbishop of Bremen

• The Stedingers were Frisian settlers who had reclaimed swamplands in Stedingen, north of Bremen, in the 12th century.
• They created a thriving farming republic, using advanced polder techniques to convert marshlands into fertile agricultural land.
• They had originally been granted privileges and low taxes to encourage settlement, but by the early 13th century, the Archbishop of Bremen and the Count of Oldenburg sought to increase their control and taxation.
• The Stedingers revolted in 1204, rejecting the archbishop’s claims and governing themselves autonomously.

The Crusade Against the Stedingers (1232–1234)

1. Excommunication and Crusade Declaration (1228–1232)

   • In 1228, Archbishop Gerhard II excommunicated the Stedingers, branding them as rebels against the Church.
   • In 1232, he convinced Pope Gregory IX to issue a crusading bull against them, painting them as hereticsdespite their Christian faith.
   • This manipulation of crusading ideology served purely political and territorial interests.

2. First Crusader Attack (1233) – Repelled by the Stedingers

   • In 1233, an army of crusaders, consisting of local noble forces and knights from the Rhineland, invaded Stedingen.
   • The Stedingers successfully repelled the attack, despite being mostly farmer-militiamen.

3. Battle of Altenesch (May 27, 1234) – The Final Defeat of the Stedingers

   • In 1234, Archbishop Gerhard II assembled a much larger army, reinforced by crusaders from Westphalia and the Lower Rhine.
   • The Battle of Altenesch on May 27, 1234, saw the Stedingers overwhelmed and defeated.
   • Thousands of Stedinger farmers were slaughtered, effectively ending their autonomous republic.

Significance of the Stedinger Crusade

• A Rare Crusade Against Christians

  • Unlike most medieval crusades, which targeted Muslims, pagans, or heretics, this was a political war disguised as a religious crusade.
  • The Stedingers were neither heathens nor doctrinally heretical, but their resistance to feudal authority led to their demonization.

• A Warning to Other Rebel Peasants

  • The brutal suppression of the Stedingers served as a warning to other autonomous farming communities in medieval Germany and the Low Countries.

• Strengthening of Ecclesiastical and Feudal Power

  • The victory reinforced the power of the Archbishop of Bremen and other feudal lords, securing greater control over peasant populations.

The Stedinger Crusade (1232–1234) was a tragic episode in medieval history, demonstrating how religious authority could be weaponized for political and economic gain, even against fellow Christians.

Pope Gregory IX, a personal friend of Saint Francis of Assisi, has protected the Franciscans while cardinal and while pope.

Francis is canonized in 1228, only a year after his death.

William of Auvergne: The Scholastic Theologian and Bishop of Paris (c. 1180–1228 CE)

William of Auvergne, a Scholastic philosopher and theologian, was born in Aurillac, with scholars estimating his birthdate between 1180 and 1190. He studied at the University of Paris, where he earned his Master’s degree in Theology and became a professor first in the faculty of arts and then in theology in 1220.

As a theologian, William played a pivotal role in introducing and reconciling Aristotelian philosophy with Christian doctrine, attempting to bridge the gap between Aristotle and the teachings of Augustine of Hippo.

William’s Aristotelian Synthesis and Theological Contributions

• At this time, Aristotle’s writings were newly circulating in Western Europe, primarily through Arabic translations and commentaries by Islamic philosophers such as Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Averroes (Ibn Rushd).

• William sought to "rescue Aristotle from the Arabians," rejecting interpretations he deemed incompatible with Christianity, including:

  • The eternality of the world, which contradicted the Christian belief in creation ex nihilo (creation from nothing).
  • The doctrines of the Cathars, a heretical dualist movement that rejected material creation.

• His major work, Magisterium Divinale (translated as Teaching on God in the Mode of Wisdom), systematically explored divine wisdom, theology, and virtue.

• He is one of the earliest theologians to attempt a synthesis of Augustine’s theology with Aristotelian philosophy, a precursor to later Scholastic thinkers like Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas.

William’s Ecclesiastical Career and Election as Bishop of Paris (1228)

• Since 1223, William had served as a canon at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
• Upon the death of Bishop Bartholomaeus on October 20, 1227, the canons elected a cleric named Nicolas as his successor.
• Dissatisfied with this choice, William traveled to Rome to seek papal intervention.
• Pope Gregory IX was so impressed with William that he personally appointed him Bishop of Paris in 1228.

Significance of William of Auvergne

• As Bishop of Paris, he had a profound influence on the development of Scholastic theology, preparing the groundwork for later figures like Thomas Aquinas.
• His intellectual synthesis of Aristotle and Augustine contributed to the increasing incorporation of Greek philosophy into Christian theology.
• His role in refuting Catharism and challenging Arabic Aristotelianism demonstrated his commitment to defending orthodox doctrine.

William of Auvergne’s appointment as Bishop of Paris in 1228 marked the culmination of his influence in both theology and the Church, securing his legacy as a bridge between Aristotelian philosophy and Christian Scholasticism.