The short but most important reign of Henry VI. brings out clearly that intimate interconnection of all Western and Eastern politics which the Crusade had already strikingly illustrated. The puny frame and delicate constitution of the young king stood in marked contrast to the physical strength and vigour of his father. But his strong features expressed sternness and determination, and his mental gifts and character were in no wise inferior to those of Barbarossa. He was as good a general, as active and strenuous a politician, as the old king. His policy shows a daring originality to which his father could make no claim. But the broader, nobler sides of Barbarossa’s character were but little represented in that of his son. He carried out ambitious schemes with cold-blooded selfishness, ruthless cruelty, and greedy treachery. Yet his general objects were far-reaching, and not wanting in nobility, and he ever showed a rare self-restraint. The inheritor of his father’s great work, the husband of the heiress of Sicily, Henry had visions of a power which was not limited to Germany and northern Italy. He dreamt of an Empire as universal as the Empire imagined by Otto III. Like Otto, he strove to make Italy rather than Germany the centre of his power. Like Otto also, he reigned too short a time to carry out his ideals. But, unlike Otto, he strove to realise his ambitions in a thoroughly practical and masterly way. In his reign of eight years he had only one failure.
[Sidenote: Return of Henry the Lion, 1190.]
From the moment that the departure of Barbarossa had left King Henry the virtual ruler of Germany, grave difficulties encompassed his administration. Henry the Lion returned, Lübeck opened its doors to its founder, and was soon in a position to dispute the supremacy of Saxony with the bishops and barons who had divided his ancient powers. In the summer of 1190, the mediation of the Archbishops of Cologne and Mainz concluded the Treaty of Fulda, by which the king allowed Henry the Lion’s restoration, and gave him half the revenues of Lübeck. It was worth while to buy off opposition when the news of the recognition of Tancred by the Pope required Henry’s immediate presence in Italy to vindicate the claims of his wife Constance to the Sicilian throne. Hardly less alarming was the news of the long sojourn of Richard of England in Messina, and of his treaty with the usurper Tancred. It seemed as if Richard, the brother-in-law of Henry the Lion, and the strenuous supporter of the Guelfs, was becoming the bond of union between the enemies of the Hohenstaufen in northern Germany and southern Italy. The news of Barbarossa’s death now further complicated the position.