But the final result of the change was that the boy's
character became thoroughly corrupted. Adalbert surrounded his youthful
charge with constant alluring amusements, using the influence thus
gained to obtain new power in the state for himself, and places of honor
and profit for his partisans. He inspired him also with a contempt for
the rude-mannered dukes of the empire, and for what he called the stupid
German people, while he particularly filled the boy's mind with a
dislike for the Saxons, with whom the archbishop was at feud. All this
was to have an important influence on the future life of the growing
monarch.
It was more Henry's misfortune than his fault that he grew up to manhood
as a compound of sensuality, levity, malice, treachery, and other mean
qualities, for his nature had in it much that was good, and in his
after-life he displayed noble qualities which had been long hidden under
the corrupting faults of his education. The crime of the ambitious
nobles who stole him from his pious and gentle mother went far to ruin
his character, and was the leading cause of the misfortunes of his life.
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