DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0277
THE PEACE OF CONSTANCE.
261
during which he agreed with the Doge on a treaty of
commerce in every way lucrative and advantageous to
Venice.
From thence date those immense mercantile bodies
of travellers and merchandise, which moved through
the Pass of Galliano, up through the Tyrol, and which
were accompanied by bands of minstrels, conjurers, and
similar entertainers of the populace. These caravans
were exempted from all arbitrary exactions on their route,
and carried the drugs and luxuries of the East into the
very heart of Germany. All the former concessions of
Otho and his successors to Venice were ratified anew.
These chiefly related to the monopoly of salt, of fisheries,
and of the right to purchase timber and furs from the
Imperial forests, and for the regulation of the eternal
disputes about “ tolls on rivers, bridges and fords, and
rights-of-way.”
On his part, as recognition of favours received, the
Doge engaged to pay annually fifty lire in money, and the
same value in pepper, together with the complimentary
offering of a standard.1
Before the Emperor left Venice for Burgundy, 17th
September, 1177, he swore to maintain to the letter the
treaty of peace, and he kept his word.
The Pope, after a month’s stay at Venice, returned to
Anagni, from whence he was finally persuaded to return
to Borne, where he was enthusiastically received. Oaths
of allegiance were voluntarily tendered to him, and the
restitution of the rights of Begalia was promised.
The truce of six years which had been covenanted gave
the Italian cities time to heal their internal wounds, and
to consolidate their strength. Henceforth the prestige of
the “ Holy Boman Empire ” was broken for ever.
Frederick was now upwards of sixty-two years of age,
and in his chequered career had learnt the vanity, of his
1 Promisit dux Venet. nobis et successoribus nostris pro hujus
pactionis fcedere annualiter omne mense Martio per solvere libras
suorum denariorum L et totidem libraspiperis et unum pallium. (12 Kai.
Septembris, series privileg. et pactorum Pontificum et Imperatorum :
San Marco MSS.)
261
during which he agreed with the Doge on a treaty of
commerce in every way lucrative and advantageous to
Venice.
From thence date those immense mercantile bodies
of travellers and merchandise, which moved through
the Pass of Galliano, up through the Tyrol, and which
were accompanied by bands of minstrels, conjurers, and
similar entertainers of the populace. These caravans
were exempted from all arbitrary exactions on their route,
and carried the drugs and luxuries of the East into the
very heart of Germany. All the former concessions of
Otho and his successors to Venice were ratified anew.
These chiefly related to the monopoly of salt, of fisheries,
and of the right to purchase timber and furs from the
Imperial forests, and for the regulation of the eternal
disputes about “ tolls on rivers, bridges and fords, and
rights-of-way.”
On his part, as recognition of favours received, the
Doge engaged to pay annually fifty lire in money, and the
same value in pepper, together with the complimentary
offering of a standard.1
Before the Emperor left Venice for Burgundy, 17th
September, 1177, he swore to maintain to the letter the
treaty of peace, and he kept his word.
The Pope, after a month’s stay at Venice, returned to
Anagni, from whence he was finally persuaded to return
to Borne, where he was enthusiastically received. Oaths
of allegiance were voluntarily tendered to him, and the
restitution of the rights of Begalia was promised.
The truce of six years which had been covenanted gave
the Italian cities time to heal their internal wounds, and
to consolidate their strength. Henceforth the prestige of
the “ Holy Boman Empire ” was broken for ever.
Frederick was now upwards of sixty-two years of age,
and in his chequered career had learnt the vanity, of his
1 Promisit dux Venet. nobis et successoribus nostris pro hujus
pactionis fcedere annualiter omne mense Martio per solvere libras
suorum denariorum L et totidem libraspiperis et unum pallium. (12 Kai.
Septembris, series privileg. et pactorum Pontificum et Imperatorum :
San Marco MSS.)