The eastern group of nations is widely different in
character. It includes a greater number of states, even if we omit from the reckoning
the great German principalities which were, by the end of the Middle Ages, all
but sovereign powers; and it is less homogeneous in culture. The Empire forms
the centre of the group, and round the Empire the minor states are grouped like
satellites: on the west, Savoy and Provence; south of the Alps, Venice, the
Papal States, and the Kingdom of Sicily - the last-named independent until 1194,
and the private property of the Hohenstauffen from that date till 1268; on the
east the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia and Poland, and the Russian
principalities; on the north the three Scandinavian powers.
Large as it is,
this group only includes one state of the first rank; for the Norman kingdom,
though a masterpiece of constructive statesmanship, was important in European politics
rather as a second and a makeweight than as a principal, and would have been
more admired than feared but for the accidents which made the Norman alliance
so valuable to the Holy See. When Naples and Sicily were held by German
Emperors, the Empire towered like a colossus above the states of Scandinavia,
the Slav and the Magyar. But even without this support, the Empire might have
continued to dominate two-thirds of Europe, if the imperial resources had not
been swallowed up by the wars of Italy, and if the Emperors who came after the
interregnum had given the national interest priority over those of their own families.
In fact, however, the mischief of the Mezentian union between Italy and Germany
survived their separation; as in western so in central Europe, the course of
political development was largely determined by the persistent and disastrous
efforts of a Teutonic to absorb a Latin nationality.
