[Sidenote: Last failures and death of Henry V., 1125.]
Henry V.’s end was less happy. The war had taught him that the real ruler of Germany was not himself but the feudal aristocracy. He planned, in conjunction with his English father-in-law, an aggressive attack on Louis VI. of France, but he utterly failed to persuade his barons to abandon their domestic feuds for foreign warfare. He fought one purposeless campaign as the ally of England. In May 1125 he died on his way back, at Utrecht, saddened, disappointed, and worn out before his time. He is one of the most unattractive of mediæval Emperors. Cold-blooded, greedy, treacherous, violent, ambitious, and despotic, he reaped no reward from his treasons, and failed in every great enterprise he undertook. Yet despite his constant misfortunes, the strong, hard character of the last Salian Emperor did something to keep up the waning fortunes of the Empire, and the unity of the German kingdom.
CHAPTER VII THE EASTERN EMPIRE AND THE SELJUKIAN TURKS (912–1095)[9]
The Macedonian Dynasty—Constantine VII. and his Co-regents—Condition of the Eastern Empire in the Tenth Century—The Conversion of the Slavs—Break-up of the Mohammedan East—Period of Conquest and Glory—Nicephorus Phocas and John Zimisces—The Russian War—Basil II. and the Bulgarian War—Decline of the Macedonian House—Zoe and Theodora—Cærularius and the Schism of East and West—Rise of the Seljukians—Contrast of Turks and Arabs—Decline of the Eastern Empire—Manzikert—Alexius Comnenus and his House—The last phase of the Eastern Empire.
Situated on the borderland that divided two civilisations, the unchanging Eastern Empire represented the East to the Latins and the West to the Arabs and Turks. During the first half of the tenth century there was a strange contrast between the East Roman state and the rest of the world. [Sidenote: Contrast between the Eastern Empire and the rest of the world.] In the West the Empire of Charles the Great had fallen, and few could yet see that a new order was gradually evolving out of the chaos into which the world seemed plunged. In the East the Caliphate had ceased to represent the political unity of Islam. A process of strife and disintegration had broken up the Mohammedan no less than the Latin world. Between these two seething and troubled regions, the Empire of Constantinople lived on its quiet, self-contained, stationary, orderly life. No vital dangers from without threatened its existence. Catholics and Mohammedans were alike too busy with their own affairs to make serious attacks upon its boundaries. The long-lived dynasty of the Macedonians continued to rule over a state that had little history. The inglorious calm bore witness to a standard of civilisation, order, and prosperity that, with all its faults, could be found nowhere else in the world.