nominal Zähringen rectorate, but Frederick bought off Duke Berthold by lands and privileges beyond the Jura. It was only by freely sacrificing his sovereign rights that Frederick was able to persuade the magnates of Germany to promise him such adequate support in his projected expedition into Italy as would enable him to cross the Alps as a conqueror and not as a suppliant. For the moment his policy seemed extremely successful. Besides conciliating Germany, he had won back Burgundy. He had conciliated Duke Vratislav of Bohemia, who had refused him homage, by allowing him to crown himself king. He had forced King Boleslav IV. of Poland to recognise his overlordship by a brilliant invasion that got as far into Poland as Gnesen. Svend of Denmark was still his obedient vassal. Henry II. of England wrote acknowledging in general terms the supremacy of the Emperor over all his dominions. In his chancellor Rainald of Dassel, he found a zealous and able chief minister. ‘In Germany,’ wrote Ragewin, the continuator of Otto of Freising, ‘there was now such an unwonted peace that men seemed changed, the land a different one, the very heaven had become milder and softer.’ [Sidenote: Diet of Besançon, 1157.] Frederick’s early glory culminated in the brilliant Diet at Besançon, the chief town of his wife’s inheritance, in October 1157, where ‘all the earth,’ exclaimed Ragewin, ‘filled with admiration for the clemency and justice of the Emperor, and moved both by love and fear, strove to overwhelm him with novel praises and new honours.’ This Diet witnessed a hot dispute between Frederick and the Papacy. [Sidenote: Alliance of Adrian IV. and the Normans.]