, and Taranto, from which,
despite Henry VI's promise, he had long been driven. For almost the
first time in Italian history, Frenchmen were thus called in to drive
out the Germans. But it was then as afterward a dangerous experiment.
Walter of Brienne and his small French following invaded Apulia, and
fought hard against Diepold of Acerra, another of King Henry's
Germans. Meanwhile Markwald, now in open alliance with the Bishop of
Troja, made himself master of Sicily and regent of the young King. His
death in 1202 removed the most dangerous enemy of both Innocent and
Frederick. But the war dragged on for years in Apulia, especially
after Diepold had slain Walter of Brienne. The turbulent feudal barons
of Apulia and Sicily profited by this long reign of anarchy to
establish themselves on a permanent basis. At last Innocent sent his
own brother, Richard, Count of Segni, to root out the last of the
Germans. So successful was he that, in 1208, the Pope himself visited
the kingdom of his ward, and arranged for its future government by
native lords, helped by his brother, who now received a rich Apulian
fief. It was Innocent's glory that he had secured for Frederick the
whole Norman inheritance. It was amid such storms and troubles that
the young Frederick grew up to manhood.

In Central and Northern Italy, Innocent III was more speedily
successful than in the South. On Philip of Swabia's return to Germany,
Tuscany and the domains of the Countess Matilda fell away from their
foreign lord, and invoked the protection of the Church. The Tuscan
cities formed themselves into a new league under papal protection.
Only Pisa, proud of her sea power, wealth, and trade, held aloof from
the combination. It seemed as if, after a century of delays, the
papacy was going to enjoy the inheritance of Matilda,[55] and Innocent
eagerly set himself to work to provide for its administration. In the
north the Pope maintained friendly relations with the rival
communities of the Lombard plain. But his most immediate and brilliant
triumph was in establishing his authority over Rome and the Patrimony
of St. Peter. On his accession he found his lands just throwing off
the yoke of the German garrisons that had kept them in subjection
during Henry VI's lifetime. He saw within the city power divided
between the _praefectus urbis_, the delegate of the Emperor, and the
_summus senator,_ the mouthpiece of the Roman commune.

Within a month the prefect ceas