Power and the Holy in the Age of the Investiture Conflict: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series In History And Culture) by Maureen C. Miller

Author:Maureen C. Miller [Miller, Maureen C.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: History
Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's
Published: 2005-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

Passage having been obtained with such great difficulty, immediately another difficulty followed on its heels. The winter was extremely bitter and the range of mountains they traveled through—vast in extent, with their summits pressing nearly through the clouds—were so stiffened with great snow drifts and icy cold temperatures that the steps of neither horses nor foot-travelers were without danger in the slippery and precipitous descents. But with the anniversary day of the king’s excommunication drawing near, he allowed no slackening of the journey because unless he was absolved from excommunication by that day, he knew that it would be decreed with the general consensus of the princes that his cause would have been lost forever and that he would have lost his kingdom without any hope of its restitution.6 Therefore, he hired experienced locals accustomed to scaling the steep summits of the Alps. These [men] went before through the snowpack and relieved however they could the difficulty of those following. Even with these guides, when they with great difficulty climbed to the top of Mont-Cenis, there was no way of making further progress, [so steep was the mountain side] and, as stated above, so utterly treacherous with glacial ice, that it seemed to deny any descent. There the men attempting with all their strength to avoid danger were reduced to creeping along on their hands and feet or leaning on the arms of the guides while staggering, their steps slipping on the ice and floundering at length, so that they arrived at the plain at last with their health gravely compromised. The hired guides drew down the queen, and other women who were in her entourage, lying in ox hides. They lowered some horses via certain contraptions and others they dragged with their feet tied together. Many of these horses died while being pulled and others were crippled; few were able to avoid danger, all in one piece and unhurt.

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