Following nearly a year of negotiations and  wrangling, Henry II finally secured his position as King of Germany in the autumn of 1002. The following text is believed to have been personally dictatated by the King in January 1003 arguing his case.

When Otto III died without heirs in Italy in January 1002, the election of a new king was not a foregone conclusion. Although Duke Henry of Bavaria belonged to the ruling dynasty, large factions were not in favour. Thus, the Archbishop of Cologne actively sought to promote Duke Herman II of Swabia, who first tried to hinder Henry from reaching Mainz to be anointed and later caused violent havoc after the new King had invaded his homeland to bring him to submission.

One of the more spectacular events was the attack on Strasbourg, the main city of Herman’s dukedom. The reason was the opposition mounted by the presiding bishop, Werner. During the attack, they climbed the city’s walls and entered the Cathedral of the Holy Mother “for a bit of easy pillaging”. According to Thietmar (Book 5:12), they seized all the treasure and burned down the Cathedral.

After Herman gave in and hostilities ended in October, the matter of the pillage of Strasbourg and the outstanding recompense was still unsolved. As part of the negotiated deal, Henry promised to help the devasted bishopric onto a better footing. In connection with this, the King resolved to donate a royal nunnery of St. Stephen in the city to the diocese, thus restoring it economically.

It is believed that the long and somewhat peculiar arenga and introduction to the diploma was dictated personally by the King:

TRANSLATION

From: Henry donates the Convent of St. Stephen to the diocese in Strasbourg as recompense for the pillage of Herman II of Swabia.. Diedenhofen January 15th, 1003

In the name of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity.
Henry, by divine favour, king.

In considering the compensation for struggles, justice demands that such an outstanding debt be discharged according to its great worth. However, justice is not diminished if something is added to it liberally.

Therefore, it is fitting that those who, in quiet and peaceful leisure, are concerned only with the affairs of the state should not be defrauded of royal favour or munificence. Not least as the highest reverence of honour and glory is owed – as circumstances and place allow and both from the king’s private and public resources – to those who have most tenaciously, honestly and with entire purpose anchored their loyalty to the common good and benefit, and could neither be torn away nor enticed to withhold their stamina by any threats or flatteries, so that they did not endeavour to strive to lose their just faithfulness beneath the very jaws of perfidy, having utterly despised the loss of possessions, even though they were surrounded on all sides by popular seditions and dissensions of princes

Therefore, let the entire Holy Church of God and our loyal people, both present and future, know how our predecessor of divine memory, namely Otto III, the august emperor, attentive to the constant service and good faith of the venerable man Werner, ordained and appointed him bishop of the holy church of Strasbourg by divine grace.

After the departure from this life of such a great emperor, the old familiarity propagated between us from childhood, as well as the kinship and affinity of consanguinity which we had with such a Caesar, persuaded the aforementioned bishop, along with others whose numbers are infinite, to loyally give their hands to us, so that, with God presiding, a harmonious election of the people and princes might be granted to us that a hereditary succession to the kingdom could take place without any division.

Therefore, the Merciful God did what was His for our wish. Still, the devil, thirsting to disturb our joy, found a certain seed of error. Still, thanks be to God, he was prostrated in his very attempt and, as always, ended up blushing in an ineffective and confused manner.

For at that time, a group dissenting from our rule hostilely attacked the aforementioned seat of the venerable bishop and, to the injury of our name, carried off the spoils that were in the whole city and in the churches within and seemed to destroy the first fruits of our advancement.

But the pious hand of God, which never deserts those trusting in Him, quickly and with good peace calmed the rebellion of such people and faithfully subjugated them to our dominion. Lest, therefore, so great a city, and indeed the church of the holy mother of God, because it could not recover its possessions entirely, should not be relieved by our aid, by the common counsel of both our bishops and our princes, and especially with the assent of Duke Hermann, we have handed over to the aforementioned bishop Werner and his successors in perpetuity, in memory of us and our predecessors or successors, and have confirmed by this royal precept, a certain abbey of handmaidens of God within the city of Strasbourg, instituted in honour of Saint Stephen, the first martyr of Christ, with all things justly and legally pertaining to the same abbey…

Translated from: Die Urkunden der Deutschen Könige und Kaiser. Dritter Band: Die Urkunden Heinrichs II. Und Arduins.
Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Hannover 1900-1903, p. 37

Unfortunately, the text is not preserved in the original. Hence, we don’t know whether the diploma was sealed with the leaden seal, which he adopted for a short while in January and February 1003 after having outmanoeuvred Herman of Swabia. Likely, though, it might have been in use.

This seal is remarkable in so far as Henry here adopted a motto first taken up by Charles the Bald. Henry II’s adoption of this motto has traditionally been seen as a conscious break with his predecessor, Otto III, who favoured Charlemagne’s motto renovatio Romanorum imperii. However, this has been challenged by later historians who now see the text as a jubilant confirmation of suppressing the inner strife in the realm.

The text presents the main arguments bolstering the claim of Henry II to be Otto’s heir: their personal affinity, the dynastic kinship, and guided by the hand of God, the election of Henry by the magnates.