aribert created enemies among the lower nobility, against whom he perpetrated the worst violences, and with the metropolitan of ravenna, whose episcopal rights, along with those of the smaller sees, he ignored. a revolt soon engulfed northern italy and, at aribert's request, conrad's son, the emperor henry iii, travelled south of the alps in the winter of 1036/37, to quell it. the emperor, however, took the position of champion of the "valvassores" and demanded that aribert should make a defence against charges brought against him, but aribert refused, on the grounds that he was the emperor's equal.