During the disturbed fifty years of Henry IV.'s reign, Burgundy and Italy had become practically independent of Germany; Hungary and Poland had thrown off their dependent condition, and even the Wends beyond the Elbe were no longer loyal to the Empire. Within the German States, the Imperial power was already so much weakened by the establishment of hereditary Dukes and Counts, not related to the ruling family, that the king (or Emperor) exercised very little direct authority over the people. The crown-lands had been mostly either given away in exchange for assistance, or lost during the civil wars; the feudal system was firmly fastened upon the country, and only a few free cities--like those in Italy--kept alive the ancient spirit of liberty and political equality. Under such a system a monarch could accomplish little, unless he was both wiser and stronger than the reigning princes under him: there was no general national sentiment to which he could appeal. Henry V. was cold, stern, heartless and unprincipled; but he inspired a wholesome fear among his princely "vassals," and kept them in better order than his father had done. [Sidenote: 1110.] After giving the first years of his reign to the settlement of troubles on the frontiers of the Empire, Henry V. prepared, in 1110, for a journey to Italy. So many followers came to him that when he had crossed the Alps and mustered them on the plains of Piacenza, there were 30,000 knights present. With such a force, no resistance was possible: the Lombard cities acknowledged him, Countess Matilda of Tuscany followed their example, and the Pope found it expedient to meet him in a friendly spirit. The latter was willing to crown Henry as Emperor, but still claimed the right of investing the Bishops. This Henry positively refused to grant, and, after much deliberation, the Pope finally proposed a complete separation of Church and State,--that is, that the lands belonging to the Bishops and abbots, or under their government, should revert to the crown, and the priests themselves become merely officials of the Church, without any secular power. Although the change would have been attended with some difficulty in Germany, Henry consented, and the long quarrel between Pope and Emperor was apparently settled.