Everything about Frederick I Holy Roman Emperor totally explained
Frederick I Barbarossa (
1122 –
10 June 1190) was elected
King of Germany at
Frankfurt on
4 March 1152 and crowned in
Aachen on
9 March, crowned
King of Italy at
Pavia in 1154, and finally crowned
Holy Roman Emperor by
Pope Adrian IV on
18 June 1155. He was crowned
King of Burgundy at
Arles on
30 June 1178.
Before his royal election, he was by inheritance
Duke of Swabia (1147–1152, as Frederick III). He was the son of
Duke Frederick II of the
Hohenstaufen dynasty. His mother was Judith, daughter of
Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria, from the rival
House of Welf, and Frederick therefore descended from Germany's two leading families, making him an acceptable choice for the Empire's
prince-electors.
Life and reign
Early years
Frederick was born in 1122. In 1147, he became duke of Swabia and shortly afterwards made his first trip to the East, accompanying his uncle, the German king
Conrad III, on the
Second Crusade. The expedition proved to be a disaster, but Frederick distinguished himself and won the complete confidence of the king. When Conrad died in February 1152, only Frederick and the
prince-bishop of Bamberg were at his deathbed. Both asserted afterwards that Conrad had, in full possession of his mental powers, handed the royal insignia to Frederick and indicated that Frederick, rather than Conrad's own six-year-old son, the future
Frederick IV, Duke of Swabia, should succeed him as king. Frederick energetically pursued the crown and at
Frankfurt on
4 March the kingdom's
princely electors designated him as the next German king. He was crowned at
Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) several days later.
Rise to power
Anxious to restore the Empire to the position it had occupied under
Charlemagne and
Otto I the Great, the new king saw clearly that the restoration of order in Germany was a necessary preliminary to the enforcement of the imperial rights in Italy. Issuing a general order for peace, he made lavish concessions to the nobles. Abroad, Frederick intervened in the Danish civil war between
Svend III and
Valdemar I of Denmark and began negotiations with the East Roman emperor,
Manuel I Comnenus. It was probably about this time that the king obtained papal assent for the annulment of his childless marriage with
Adelheid of Vohburg, on the grounds of
consanguinity (his great-great-grandfather was a brother of Adela's great-great-great-grandmother). He then made a vain effort to obtain a bride from the court of Constantinople. On his accession Frederick had communicated the news of his election to
Pope Eugene III, but had neglected to ask for the papal confirmation. In March 1153, Frederick concluded the treaty of Constance with the Pope whereby, in return for his coronation, he promised to defend the papacy, to make no peace with king
Roger II of Sicily or other enemies of the Church without the consent of Eugene and to help Eugene regain control of the city of Rome.
Reign and wars in Italy
He undertook six expeditions into Italy. In the first he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome by
Pope Adrian IV, following the suppression by Imperial forces of the republican city commune led by
Arnold of Brescia. He left Italy in the autumn of 1155 to prepare for a new and more formidable campaign.
Disorder was again rampant in Germany, especially in Bavaria, but general peace was restored by Frederick's vigorous, but conciliatory, measures. The duchy of Bavaria was transferred from
Henry II Jasomirgott, margrave of Austria, to Frederick's formidable younger cousin
Henry the Lion,
Duke of Saxony, of the
House of Guelph, whose father had previously held both duchies. Henry was named
duke of Austria in compensation for his loss of Bavaria. As part of his general policy of concessions of formal power to the German princes and ending the civil wars within the kingdom, Frederick further appeased Henry by issueing him with the
Privilegium Minus, granting him unprecented entitlements as
Duke of Austria, in the hopes [On
June 9 1156 at
Würzburg, Frederick married
Beatrice of Burgundy, daughter and heiress of
Renaud III, thus adding to his possessions the sizeable realm of the
County of Burgundy.
His uncle,
Otto of Freising, wrote an account of Frederick's reign entitled
Gesta Friderici I imperatoris (Deeds of the Emperor Frederick). Otto died after finishing the first two books, leaving the last two to Rahewin, his provost. The text is in places heavily dependent on classical precedent. For example, Rahewin's physical description of Frederick:
» His character is such that not even those envious of his power can belittle its praise. His person is well-proportioned. He is shorter than very tall men, but taller and more noble than men of medium height. His hair is golden, curling a little above his forehead... His eyes are sharp and piercing, his beard reddish, his lips delicate... His whole face is bright and cheerful. His teeth are even and snow-white in color... Modesty rather than anger causes him to blush frequently. His shoulders are rather broad, and he's strongly built
reproduces word for word (except for details of hair and beard) a description of another monarch written nearly eight hundred years earlier by Sidonius Apollinaris.
In June 1158, Frederick set out upon his second Italian expedition, accompanied by Henry the Lion and his fearsome Saxons. This expedition resulted in the establishment of imperial officers in the cities of northern Italy, the revolt and capture of
Milan, and the beginning of the long struggle with
Pope Alexander III. In response to his
excommunication by the pope in 1160, Frederick declared his support for
Antipope Victor IV. Returning to Germany towards the close of 1162, Frederick prevented the escalation of conflicts between Henry the Lion of Saxony and a number of neighbouring princes who were growing weary of Henry's power, influence and territorial gains. He also severely punished the citizens of
Mainz for their rebellion against Archbishop
Arnold. The next visit to Italy in 1163 saw his plans for the conquest of
Sicily ruined by the formation of a powerful league against him, brought together mainly by opposition to imperial taxes.
In
1164 Frederick took what are believed to be the
relics of the "Biblical Magi" (the Wise Men or
Three Kings) from
Milan and gave them as a gift (or as loot) to the
Archbishop of Cologne,
Rainald of Dassel. The relics had great religious significance and could be counted upon to draw pilgrims from all over
Christendom. Today they're kept in the
Shrine of the Three Kings in the
Cologne cathedral.
Frederick then focused on restoring peace in the Rhineland, where he organized a magnificent celebration of the
canonization of Charlemagne at Aachen. In October 1166, he went once more on journey to Italy to secure the claim of his
Antipope Paschal III, and the coronation of his wife Beatrice as Holy Roman Empress. This time, Henry the Lion refused to join Frederick on his Italian trip, tending instead to his own disputes with neighbors and his continuing expansion into Slavic territories in northeastern Germany. Frederick's forces achieved a great victory over the Romans at the
Battle of Monte Porzio, but his campaign was stopped by the sudden outbreak of an epidemic (
malaria or the
plague), which threatened to destroy the Imperial army and drove the emperor as a fugitive to Germany, where he remained for the ensuing six years. During this period, Frederick decided conflicting claims to various bishoprics, asserted imperial authority over Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary, initiated friendly relations with the
Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus, and tried to come to a better understanding with
Henry II of England and
Louis VII of France. Many Swabian counts, including his cousin the young Duke of Swabia, Frederick IV, died in 1167, so he was able to organize a new mighty territory in the Duchy of Swabia under his reign in this time. His little son Frederick V became the new Duke of Swabia.
Later years
In 1174, Frederick made his fifth expedition to Italy but was opposed by the pro-papal
Lombard League, which had previously formed to stand against him. With the refusal of Henry the Lion to bring help to Italy, the campaign was a complete failure. Frederick suffered a heavy defeat at the
Battle of Legnano near Milan, on
May 29 1176, where he was wounded and for some time was believed to be dead. He had no choice other than to begin negotiations for peace with Alexander III and the Lombard League. In the
Peace of Venice, 1177, Frederick and Alexander III reconciled. The Emperor acknowledged the Pope's sovereignty over the Papal States, and in return Alexander acknowledged the Emperor's overlordship of the Imperial Church. The Lombard cities, however, continued to fight until 1183, when, in the
Peace of Constance, Frederick conceded their right to freely elect town magistrates.
Frederick didn't forgive Henry the Lion for refusing to come to his aid in 1174. By 1180, Henry had successfully established a powerful and contiguous state comprising Saxony, Bavaria and substantial territories in the north and east of Germany. Taking advantage of the hostility of other German princes to Henry, Frederick had Henry tried in absentia by a court of bishops and princes in 1180, declared that Imperial law overruled traditional German law, and had Henry stripped of his lands and declared an outlaw. He then invaded Saxony with an Imperial army to bring his cousin to his knees. Henry's allies deserted him, and he finally had to submit in November 1181. He spent three years in exile at the court of his father-in-law
Henry II of England in Normandy, before being allowed back into Germany. He finished his days in Germany, as much-diminished Duke of Brunswick. He lived a relatively quiet life, sponsoring arts and architecture.
Third Crusade and Death
After making his peace with the Pope, Frederick embarked on the
Third Crusade (1189), a massive expedition in conjunction with the French, led by king
Philip Augustus, and the English, under
Richard Lionheart. He organized a grand army of 15,000 men including 3,000 knights (with a total army of about 100,000 men) and set out on the overland route to the Holy Land.
The Crusaders passed through
Hungary and
Serbia and then entered Byzantine territory, arriving at Constantinople in the autumn of 1189. From there they pushed on through Anatolia (where they were victorious in taking
Aksehir and
Konya ) and Cilician Armenia. The approach of the immense German army greatly concerned
Saladin and the other Muslim leaders, who began to rally troops of their own and prepare to confront Barbarossa's forces.
However, on
10 June 1190, Frederick died while crossing the Saleph River (now known as
Göksu) in
Cilicia, south-eastern
Anatolia. The exact circumstances are unknown to Western scholars (Islamic scholars of the time related his death to the will of God). Western scholars suggest that he was jumping in when the shock of the cold water caused him to have a
heart attack at the age of 64. Weighed down by his mail armour, he drowned in water that was barely hip-deep, according to the chronicler
Ali ibn al-Athir. The armour of the day, designed to be as light as possible, was probably not heavy enough to cause a healthy man to drown in hip-deep waters; however, some reenactors and living historians argue that, in light of Frederick's advanced age, the weight of the armour plus the difficulty of struggling through water (not something many armoured men would be accustomed to), could have forced him under before reaching shore.
Frederick's death plunged his army into chaos. Leaderless, panicked, and attacked on all sides by Turks, many Germans deserted, were killed, or even committed suicide. Only 5,000 soldiers, a small fraction of the original forces, arrived in
Acre. Barbarossa's son,
Frederick VI of Swabia carried on with the remnants of the army, with the aim of burying the Emperor in
Jerusalem, but efforts to conserve his body in vinegar failed. Hence, his flesh was interred in the Church of St. Peter in
Antiochia, his bones in the cathedral of
Tyre, and his heart and inner organs in
Tarsus.
Frederick's early death left the Crusader army under the command of the rivals
Philip II of France and
Richard I of England ("Lionheart"), who had traveled to
Palestine separately by sea, and ultimately led to its dissolution. Richard Lionheart continued to the East where he fought
Saladin, but ended without accomplishing the Crusaders' main goal, the capture of Jerusalem and the
Holy Land.
Legend
Frederick is the subject of many legends, including that of a
sleeping hero, like the much older British Celtic legends of
Arthur or
Bran the Blessed. Legend says he isn't dead, but asleep with his knights in a cave in the
Kyffhäuser mountain in
Thuringia or Mount
Untersberg in Bavaria, Germany, and that when the ravens cease to fly around the mountain he'll awake and restore Germany to its ancient greatness. According to the story, his red beard has grown through the table at which he sits. His eyes are half closed in sleep, but now and then he raises his hand and sends a boy out to see if the ravens have stopped flying. A similar story, set in Sicily, was earlier attested about his grandson,
Frederick II. The
Kyffhäuser Monument atop the Kyffhäuser commemorates Frederick.
The German invasion of the
Soviet Union in 1941 was codenamed
Operation Barbarossa.
Frederick's descendants by his wife Beatrix
- Frederick V, Duke of Swabia (1164-1170)
- Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor (November 1165-1197)
- Frederick VI, Duke of Swabia (1167-1191)
- Otto I, Count of Burgundy (1170-killed 1200)
- Conrad II, Duke of Swabia and Rothenburg (1173-killed 1196)
- Philip of Swabia (1177-killed, 1208) King of Germany in 1198
- Sophie (1161-1187), married to Margrave William VI of Montferrat.
- Beatrice (1162-1174). She was betrothed to William II of Sicily but died before they could be married.
- Agnes (died October 1184). She was betrothed to Emeric of Hungary but died before they could be married.
Frederick Barbarossa in fiction
Umberto Eco's novel Baudolino (2000) is set partly at Frederick's court, and also deals with the mystery of Frederick's death. The imaginary hero, Baudolino, is the Emperor's adopted son and confidant.
The computer game has a campaign which follows Fredrick Barbarossa from the period of his struggles in Germany to his death on the Third Crusade. It is of note that Barbarossa never appears as an actual soldier in the game, though the objective of the final level (after his death) is to take a unit named "Emperor in a Barrel" to the Dome of The Rock in Jerusalem. Henry the Lion narrates each level's introduction and epilogue.
The 1981 novel Little, Big by John Crowley has Frederick Barbarossa as a character in modern times, awoken from his centuries of sleep.
The Land of Unreason, by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, mentions the castle of the Kyffhäuser.
Frederick is a character in the PC game Stronghold: Crusader.
In The Thomas Crown Affair (1999 film), the title character is said to be in possession of "an ornament worn by Frederick Barbarossa at his coronation in 1152."
In the computer game Stronghold Warchest, Emperor Frederick is an AI player that you can challenge in skirmish play.Further Information
Get more info on 'Frederick I Holy Roman Emperor'.
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