Henry VII., however, in possession of the crown, rose to a full consciousness of the imperial majesty, which after a long interval he was the first to restore. His theory concerning the divine origin of imperial authority showed the Guelfs that the restoration of the imperium would entail a renewal of the struggle that it was hoped had ended with the fall of the Hohenstaufens. There is no doubt that, with stronger allies, Henry VII. would have revived a bygone condition of things. This was involved in the principle of the empire which he represented.

The resistance of the Guelfs in Rome, in Tuscany, in the Romagna, and in apostate Lombardy, the true explanation of Robert's intentions, in short, the force of events, had transformed this well-meaning Emperor into the avowed head of the Ghibellines. Like his great predecessors, he also found himself obliged to fight his adversaries with the arms of faction, and like them, far from Germany and unsupported, he was forced at length to yield in the struggle with the Italian factions. Fate repeated itself with the regularity of a law of history.

Henry's alliance with Frederick of Sicily, July 6, 1312.

As early as July 6 Henry formed an alliance with the King of Sicily, that Frederick of the house of Manfred who had so successfully defended his crown against the Pope and the Kings of Naples and France.