Exhausted by the Italian wars, Germany had fallen into a state of internal disruption and weakness, from which the ancient empire was never to recover. After the fall of William of Holland in the war against Friesland (on January 28, 1256), the German crown, scorned by the disunited princes, was sold to the highest bidder. The enfeebled sense of nationality tolerated the elevation of two foreign princes, Richard of Cornwall and Alfonso of Castile, to the throne of mighty emperors. So general was the exhaustion, that the two-fold election, which once more made the popes arbitrators in Germany, did not entail any strife. These foreign kings unhesitatingly recognised the Pope's authority as judge over the empire; the depth of whose decay they themselves, seated like phantoms upon its ruins, merely served to depict.

Manfred crowned King, Aug. 10, 1258

More fortunate was Manfred in Sicily, upon whose soil no papal mercenary now remained. He strove to attain the crown, and succeeded in his object. On the report—apparently purposely spread and adroitly utilised—of the death of Conradin, he had himself crowned king in Palermo, on August 10, 1258. If this step was a manifest usurpation of the rights of the heir, it was nevertheless demanded by the voice of the country and was required and justified by circumstances. It found a precedent in the case of Philip of Swabia, who, likewise the guardian of his nephew, had become the usurper of his crown.