The licentious young ruler found his career of open vice brought to a
sudden end. The stern Hanno was again in power. Under his orders the
dissolute courtiers were dispersed, and Henry was compelled to lead a
more decorous life, a bride being found for him in the person of Bertha,
daughter of the Italian Margrave of Susa, to whom he had at an earlier
date been affianced. She was a woman of noble spirit, but,
unfortunately, was wanting in personal beauty, in consequence of which
she soon became an object of extreme dislike to her husband, a dislike
which her patience and fidelity seemed rather to increase than to
diminish.
The feeling of the young monarch towards his dutiful wife was overcome
in a singular manner, which is well worth describing. Henry at first was
eager to free himself from the tie that bound him to the unloved Bertha,
a resolution in which he was supported by Siegfried, Archbishop of
Mayence, who offered to assist him in getting a divorce. At a diet held
at Worms, Henry demanded a separation from his wife, to whom he
professed an unconquerable aversion.
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