W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

422 The Coins of Europe
The Franks themselves were, of course, strictly speaking,
of Teutonic origin and blood, and the term German is
employed in
a generic sense to express
the houses
^
G rman< Saxony, Franconia, Hohenstaufen, Hapsburg,
etc., which by turn and to a fluctuating extent
exercised a supreme control over Italy in the Middle Ages
and down to the abdication of Charles V., when the balance
of power underwent a fundamental change, and schemes of
universal empire were for the time impracticable.
So long as the German supremacy in Italy lasted, it
made its
impress on the coinage of that country, as the
Carlovingian one had done, and in a larger measure, because
the municipal and republican systems had now developed ;
Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Florence, and several other cities had
constituted themselves into independent states and the
;
'
agency which at last contributed to overthrow the imperial
government in the Peninsula, during a lengthened space of
time seemed to strengthen it, owing to the hesitation of
newly formed Powers to repudiate a title which was little
more than nominal. So we see that even the Venetians,
within half a century of the date when they took Constantinople
and founded the Latin Empire, preserved on
their currency the titles of Henry IV. and V. side by side
with the autonomous legend S. Marcus Venecia. The
gradual withdrawal of the symbol of dependence, which
always partook more of the nature of a mutual compact
than of vassalage, imported the contraction of the imperial
authority and the absolute self-government of the republics
and towns.
The more or less transitory and evanescent complexion
of the successive dynasties or races, which overran and
occupied the Peninsula, is
readily explainable when we
reflect that none of them had the means or opportunity to
consolidate their empire, and that neither the Ostrogoths
nor their successors acquired over the conquered region
mo're than a military control, which the next comer overthrew
or superseded. The governments which sought to establish
themselves on Italian soil neglected down to the last the