THE SCENE: Loyalty was a difficult business in the middle ages, and a man could easily get caught between obligations to different lords. Behold the example below, where an otherwise cunning bishop is brought to ruin when he gets stuck in a conflict between a King and a Duke.
THE TEXT: The king, seeing that the attitude of the Saxons was more unfriendly to him than usual, and realizing that he could not destroy the duke openly, since the latter had a well-armed bodyguard of brave soldiers, as well as an innumerable multitude of loyal soldiers in the army, tried to find a way to have him slain by treachery.
There was at that time at Mainz a certain bishop named Hatto, wise in counsel, keen of mind, who excelled many men in variety of his accomplishments. This man, wishing to please King Conrad and the Frankish people as well, with his usual skill began to attack this man who had been granted to us directly but the supreme clemency, and ordered that a golden collar be made for him, and invited him to a banquet where he would be honored with munificent gifts. Meanwhile the bishop went along to the goldsmith’s to see how the work was progressing, and upon seeing the collar is said to have sighed. The goldsmith inquired the cause of his sighing. He replied that this collar was to be stained with the blood of a very great man, one most dear to him, namely Henry.
The goldsmith on hearing this remained silent as if it were no great moment. But when the job was finished and delivered, he asked for and obtained a few days off. He met the duke, and standing in his path as he was going to the affair, he related to him what he had heard. But the duke, greatly aroused, called to the messenger of the bishop, who was just then approach to greet him and said to him: “Go and tell Hatto that Henry does not have a tougher neck than Adalbert, and that we have thought it better to stay at home and to remain always his servant than to burden him with the great multitude of our retinue at the present time. (This Adalbert, as men say, had once been taken into confidence by the bishop, but had been deceived by him). Then turning towards the east with his companions, he collected a band of soldiers and occupied all the holdings in Saxony and in the land of the Thuringians of the Bishop Hatto. Hatto, seeing that an end had come to his scheming, worn out by disappointment and disease alike, after a sickness of but a few days breathed his last.
– The Deeds of the Saxons, Widukind of Corvey, 10th Century AD
