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Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
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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 in 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. The name Barbarossa came from the northern Italian cities he attempted to rule, and means "red beard".
Before his royal election, he was by inheritance Duke of Swabia (1147–1152, as Frederick III).
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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 in 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. The name Barbarossa came from the northern Italian cities he attempted to rule, and means "red beard".
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 several days later. At that time, there was a distinction between the election of a candidate who was "king of the Romans", but installed in Germany, and the coronation in Rome which consummated the position as emperor. Frederick was made king of the Romans at Aachen in March 9 1152. He was crowned Holy Roman Emperor, by the Pope, at Rome on June 18, 1155. Frederick I was of the Hohenstaufen family on his father's side and of the Welf family on his mother's side. These were the two most powerful families in Germany. The Hohenstaufens were often called Ghibellines because of a castle they owned in Italy. The Welfs were called Guelfs.
The reigns of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor and Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor left the status of the German empire in disarray. Power had waned under the weight of the Investiture controversy. For a quarter of a century following Henry V's death in 1125 the German monarchy was largely a nominal title with no real power. The king was chosen by the princes, given no resources outside those of his own duchy, and prevented from exercising any real authority or leadership in the realm. The royal title was furthermore passed from one family to another to preclude the development of any dynastic interest in the German crown. When Frederick I of Hohenstaufen was chosen as king in 1152, the royal power had been in effective abeyance for twenty five years, and to a considerable degree, for more than eighty years. The only real claim to wealth lay in the rich cities of northern Italy, which were still within the nominal control of the German king. The Salian line had died out with the death of Henry V in 1125. The German princes refused to give the crown to his nephew, the duke of Swabia for fear he would try to regain the imperial power held by Henry V. Instead, they chose Lothiar (1125-1137), who found himself emroied in a long running dispute with the Hohenstaufens, and who married into the Welfs. One of the Hohenstaufens gained the throne as Conrad III of Germany (1137-1152). When Frederick Barbarossa succeed his uncle in 1152, there seemed to be excellent prospects for ending the feud, since he was a Welf on his mother's side. But the Welf duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion would not be appeased. He remained an implacable enemy of the Hohenstaufen monarchy. Barbarossa had the duchies of Swabia and Franconia, the force of his own personality and very little else to construct an empire.
The Germany that Frederick tried to unite was a patchwork of more than 1600 individual states, each with its own prince. A few of these such as Bavaria and Saxony were large. Many were too small to pinpoint on a map. The titles afforded to the German king were "Caesar", "Augustus" and "Emperor of the Romans". By the time Frederick would assume these, they were little more than propaganda slogans with little other meaning. Frederick was a pragmatist who dealt with the princes by finding a mutual self-interest. Unlike Henry II of England, Frederick did not attempt to end medieval feudalism, but rather tried to restore it. But this was beyond his ability. The great players in the German civil war had been the Pope, Emperor, Ghibillines and the Guelfs. None of these had emerged the winner.
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
Frederick 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. During the 1155 campaign in Rome, Frederick quickly allied forces with Pope Adrian IV to regain the city. The major opposition was led by Arnold of Brescia, a student of Abelard. Arnold was captured and hanged for treason and rebellion. Despite his unorthodox teaching concerning theology, Arnold was not charged with heresy.
Frederick 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 issuing him with the Privilegium Minus, granting him unprecented entitlements as Duke of Austria. This was a large concession on the part of Frederick, who realized that Henry the Lion had to be accommodated, even to the point of sharing some power with him. He could not afford to make an outright enemy of Henry. 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:
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 Saxon troops. 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. The political result was that the Norman state of Sicily and Pope Alexander III formed an alliance against Frederick. Returning to Germany towards the close of 1162, Frederick prevented the escalation of conflicts between Henry the Lion from 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 are 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 Charles the Great (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. The cities of northern Italy had become exceedingly wealthy. They represented a marked turning point in the transition from medieval feudalism. While continental feudalism had remained strong socially and economically, it was in deep political decline by the time of Frederick Barbarossa. When the northern Italian cities inflicted a defeat on Frederick, the European world was shocked that such a thing could happen. 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. This battle marked the turning point in Frederick's claim to empire. 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 scene was similar to that which had occurred between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor at Canossa a century earlier. The conflict was the same as that resolved in the Concordat of Worms. Did the Holy Roman Emperor have the power to name the pope and bishops? The Investiture controversy from previous centuries had been brought to a tendentious peace with the Concordat of Worms and affirmed in the First Council of the Lateran. Now it had recurred, in a slightly different form. Frederick had to humble himself before Pope Alexander III at Venice. The Emperor acknowledged the Pope's sovereignty over the Papal States, and in return Alexander acknowledged the Emperor's overlordship of the Imperial Church. Also in the Peace of Venice, a truce was made with the Lombard cities,which took effect in August, 1178. But the grounds for a permanent peace were established only in 1183, when, in the Peace of Constance, Frederick conceded their right to freely elect town magistrates. By this move, Frederick recovered his nominal domination over Italy. This became his chief means of applying pressure on the papacy.
Frederick did not 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 the much-diminished Duke of Brunswick. Frederick's desire for revenge was sated. Henry the Lion lived a relatively quiet life, sponsoring arts and architecture. German feudalism was different from English feudalism. While the pledge of fealty went in a direct line from overlords to those under them, the Germans pledged oaths only to the direct over lord. Those lower in the feudal chain owed nothing to Frederick. Despite the diminished stature of Henry the Lion, Frederick was unable to establish English feudalism into Germany. Frederick was faced with the reality of disorder among the German states where continuous civil wars were waged between pretenders and the ambitious who wanted the crown for themselves. Italian unity under German rule was more myth than truth. Despite proclamations of German hegemony, the pope was the most powerful force in Italy. When Frederick returned to Germany after his defeat in northern Italy, he was a bitter and exhausted man. The German princes, far from being subordinated to royal control, were intensifying their hold on wealth and power in Germany and entrenching their positions. There began to be a generalized social desire to "create of greater Germany" by conqueing the Slavs to the east.
Frederick held a massive celebration when his two eldest sons were knighted in 1184. Thousands of knights were invited from all over Europe. While payments upon the knighting of a son were part of the expectations in of an overlord in England and France, only a "gift" was given in Germany for such an occasion. Frederick's monetary gain from this celebration is said to have been modest.
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 the Lionheart. He organized a grand army of 100,000 men (including 20,000 knights) and set out on the overland route to the Holy Land. However, some historians believe that this is an exaggeration and that the true figure might be closer to 15,000 men, including 3,000 knights.
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 entered 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 drowned in a river as his army was approaching Antioch from Armenia; Arab historians report that his army had encamped before the river, and Frederick had gone to the river to bathe when he drowned in it.
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. In the end, the actions of both Frederick Barbarossa and his son, Frederick II (Frederick VI, Duke of Swabia) have been judged anachronistic, blind and an example of ill-fated heroism.
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. Philip Augustus intended to only go through the motions of fighting the Moslems. He was eager to get back to France and plot against the English king. Richard Coeur de Lion (Richard the Lionheart) took the expedition and himself with great seriousness. He was of gigantic stature, being six feet tall. He was eager to demonstrate his personal valor which was great and his prowess as a great general, which was seriously lacking. An overgrown and spoiled child, Richard had alienated both the French and the Germans. The expedition to the Holy Land was doomed.
Frederick and the Justinian code
The increase in wealth of the trading cities of northern Italy led to a revival in the study of the Justinian Code. This was a Latin legal system which had gone extinct in earlier centuries. Legal scholars renewed its application. It is speculated that Pope Gregory VII personally encouraged the Justinian rule of law, and possessed a copy of it in his possession. Corpus Juris Civilis (Justinian Body of Civil Law) has been described as the greatest code of law ever devised. It envisaged the law of the state as a reflection of natural moral law, the principle of rationality in the universe. By the time Frederick assumed the throne, this legal system was well established on both sides of the Alps. He was the first to utilize the availability of the new professional class of lawyers. The Civil Law allowed Frederick to use these lawyers to administer his kingdom in a logical and consistent manner. It also provided a framework to legitimize his claim to the right to rule both Germany and northern Italy. In the old days of Henry VI and Henry V, the claim of divine right of kings had been severely undermined by the Investiture controversy. The Church had won that argument in the common man's mind. There was no divine right for the German king to also control the church by naming both bishops and popes. The institution of the Justinian code was used, perhaps unscrupulously, by Frederick to lay claim to divine powers.
In Germany, Frederick was a political realist, taking what he could and leaving the rest. In Italy, he tended to be a romantic reactionary, reveling in the antiquarian spirit of the age, exemplified by a revival of classical studies and Roman law. It was through the use of the restored Justinian code that Frederick came to view himself a the new Roman emperor. Roman law gave a rational purpose, for the existence of Frederick and his imperial ambitions. It was a counterweight to the claims of the Church to have authority because of divine revelation. The Church was opposed to Frederick for ideological reasons, not the least of which was the humanist nature found in the revival of the old Roman legal system. When Pepin the Short sought to become king of the Franks, he found it necessary to make an ally of the pope. Frederick desired to put the pope aside and claim the crown of old Rome simply because he was in the likeness of the greatest emperors of the pre-Christian era. Pope Adrian IV was naturally opposed to this view and undertook a vigorous propaganda campaign which was designed to diminish Frederick and his ambition. To a large extent, this was successful.
Charismatic leader
Comparison has been made between Henry II of England and Frederick Barbarossa. Both were considered to be the greatest and charismatic leaders of the age. Each had a rare combination of qualities which made them appear to be superhuman to their contemporaries. They possessed longevity, boundless ambition, extraordinary organizing skill, and greatness on the battlefield. They were handsome and proficient in courtly skills, without appearing effeminate or affected. Both came to the throne in the prime of manhood. Each had an element of learning, without being considered impractical intellectuals, but rather more inclined to practicality. Each found himself in the possession of new legal institutions which were put to creative use in governing. Both Henry and Frederick were viewed to be sufficiently and formally devout to the teachings of the Church, without being moved to the extremes of spirituality seen in the great saints of the twelfth century. In making final decisions, each relied solely upon their own judgment. Both were interested in gathering as much power as they could.
Frederick's charisma led to a fantastic juggling act which over a quarter of a century, restored the imperial authority in the German states. His formidable enemies defeated him on almost every side, yet, in the end, he emerged triumphant. When Frederick came to the throne, the prospects for the rival of German imperial power were extremely thin. The great German princes had increased their power and land holdings. The king had been left with only the traditional family domains and a vestige of power over the bishops and abbeys. The backwash of the Investiture controversy had left the German states in continuous turmoil. Rival states were in perpetual war. These conditions allowed Frederick to be both warrior and occasional peace-maker, both to his advantage.
German culture
Prior to the Investiture controversy a century before Frederick I, Germany had been a leader in both theology and other studies. The various civil wars and struggles had left Germany far behind the newer learning centers in France and England. The disastrous reigns of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor had left Germany in turmoil. For fifty years, the trend had been toward dissolution of power into the small German states. German learning continued to suffer.
Frederick had a keen interest in mathematics, astronomy, metaphysics and literature. He kept a circle of scholars and literary people about him, and carried out a lively correspondence with the sultan of Egypt about religious topics and metaphysics. The most scholarly book ever written on falconry was Frederick's Art of Hunting with Birds. He experimented with incubators in Sicily, introduced sugar cane, cotton and indigo, and even attempted to locally culture the date palm. When he traveled he took with him the most interesting zoo medieval Europe had ever seen. He learned six languages and a number of dialects and helped his circle of poets compose the first poetry in the Italian language. He was tolerant of all views and religions - except heresies.
Frederick's enemies accused him of being an agnostic. He often uttered irreligious and blasphemous statements. His enemies charged him with keeping a harem. He married three wives, all in proper succession. His only interest in them was the children they might bear. He kept them in isolation in southern Italy, guarded by eunuchs. He was described as being cruel and vindictive, with eyes that sent chills up men's spines. Enemies were sewn into sacks with poisonous snakes and thrown into the sea.
The English Church had been left in the hands of the English monarchy, mainly because of the Charter of Liberties 1100, and the agreement at Bec in 1107. The effect of the Concordat of Worms was different. It ended a civil war that had been going on for more than fifty years. There was no going back to the situation that had preceded it. The political and social structure of Germany had been forever altered. The new generation of cardinals regarded German investiture with contempt and as an embarrassing vestige of the past. They were willing to make concessions with Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor and his successors in order to get along. The belief after the Concordat was that investiture and the era of theocratic kingship was a discredited doctrine. The German kings had a different view of the matter. Henry V and his successors still believed they had the right and ability to name bishops. In practice, this was true, but only in the territories held by their families. Their domain in the religious sphere had been greatly diminished.
There exists a misconception concerning the power of the pope in the Middle Ages. Tradition affords him more power and authority than he actually possessed. It is likely the Pope in modern ages is much more powerful than those in medieval times. The most powerful of all medieval popes was Innocent III. His pronouncements on doctrinal matters and the judgments of his court were considered definitive and final. Opposing the medieval pope was the primary and unyielding authority of the state. The struggle over investiture between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor had dramatized the clash between church and state. The Concordat of Worms had eased the situation for a generation. But in the end, it solved nothing. Practically speaking, the king retained a decisive voice in the selection of the hierarchy. All kings supported King John of England’s defiance of Pope Innocent III ninety years after the Concordat of Worms in the matter concerning Stephen Langton. In theory, the pope named his bishops and cardinals. In reality, more often than not, Rome consecrated the clergy once it was notified by the kings who the incumbent would be. Recalcitrance by Rome would lead to problems in the kingdom. For the most part it was a no-win situation for Rome. In this, the Concordat of Worms changed little. The growth of canon law in the Ecclesiastical Courts was based on the underlying Roman law and increased the strength of the Roman Pontiff. This was the chaotic situation in which Frederick I stepped.
The catastrophic political consequences of the struggle between pope and emperor also led to a cultural disaster. Germany lost intellectual leadership in western Europe. In 1050, German monasteries were great centers of learning and art and German schools of theology and canon law were unsurpassed and probably unmatched anywhere in Europe. The long civil war over investiture sapped the energy of both German churchmen and intellectuals. They fell behind advances in philosophy, law, literature and art taking place in France and Italy. In many ways, Germany never caught up during the rest of the Middle Ages.
Universities were established in France, Italy and England by the early 1200s. Notable are University of Bologna, 1088, University of Paris, 1150, Oxford University, 1167 and Cambridge University, 1207. The first German university, the Charles University in Prague was not established until 1347. This was followed by Heidelberg University in 1386. It was immediately steeped in medieval nominalism and early Protestantism. The University of Bologna was granted a formal charter by Frederick in 1158. That insitution had a venerable reputation, especially as a center for legal studies, having graduated the distinguished jurists Irnerius and Gratian (jurist).
The historical question is often studied: Did the close relation between Germany and the Italian Imperial State retard the development of the German nation-state? Most historians concur that the proximity of the Papacy and the German monarchy harmed Germany for several centuries. It was first seen in the Investiture controversy, and continued through the time of Frederick Barbarossa. Too much effort was diverted from legitimate German concerns to the northern Italian states. By the time of Frederick Barbarossa, who emerged in the political chaos of the German states, prefiguring Henry Tudor, the power of the monarchy had waned significantly. More than a century of civil wars had permanently damaged the idea of a German king. In this way, Frederick Barbarossa was backward looking, harking back to a time which had long passed Germany by. In fact, the old German imperialism which had dissipated under Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, was reestablished for a time with Frederick I, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor. After these, it slumped back into a minimalist existence, more the stuff of legend than fact. It would not be restored until the late nineteenth century. During the restoration of power under Otto von Bismark and the kaisers, Frederick Barbarossa was depicted in both art and literature with high romanticism. This was repeated under Hitler, who referred to his rule as the Third Reich, the other two being the Ottonian dynasty which included Frederick, and the nineteenth century rule of the kaisers.
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 is not 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 will 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. According to Le Goff, the legends of the "sleeping monk/hero" originated in the East and are of Persian or Arab origin.
In medieval Europe, the Golden Legend became refined by Jacopo da Voragine. This was a popularized interpretation of the Biblical end of the world. It consisted of three things: (1) Terrible natural disasters; (2) the arrival of the Antichrist; (3) the establishment of a good king to combat the anti-Christ. These millenial fables were common and freely traded by the populations on Continental Europe. End-time tales and myths had been around since at least the time of a hermit monk named Peter who wrote them down in the 8th century. German propanda played into this belief by characterizing Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick II as personification of the "good king."
Frederick's uncle, Otto, bishop of Freising wrote a biography entitled The Deeds of Frederick Barbarosa, which is considered to be an accurate history of the king. Otto's other major work, The Two Cities was an exposition of the work of St. Augustine of Hippo of a similar title. The latter work was full of Augustinian negatvity concerning the nature of the world and history. His work on Frederick is of opposite tone, being an optomistic portrayal of the glorious potentials of imperial authority. (See description supra.)
Another legend states that when Barbarossa was in the process of seizing Milan in 1158, his wife, the Empress Beatrice, was taken captive by the enraged Milanese and forced to ride through the city on a donkey in a humiliating manner. Some sources of this legend indicate that Barbarossa implemented his revenge for this insult against Milan, he forced the magistrates of the city to remove a fig from the anus of a donkey using only their teeth. Another source states that Barbarossa took his wrath upon every able-bodied man in the city, and that it was not a fig they were forced to hold in their mouth, but excrement from the donkey. To add to this debasement, they were made to announce, "Ecco la fica", (meaning "behold the fig"), with the feces still in their mouths. It is said that the insulting gesture, (called fico), of holding one's fist with the thumb in between the middle and forefinger came by its origin from this event.
The German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was codenamed Operation Barbarossa.
Frederick's descendants by his wife Beatrix
- Sophie (b. 1161 - d. 1187), married to Margrave William VI of Montferrat.
- Beatrice (b. 1162 - d. 1174). She was betrothed to King William II of Sicily but died before they could be married.
- Frederick V, Duke of Swabia (b. Pavia, 16 July 1164 - d. 28 November 1170).
- Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor (b. Nijmegen, November 1165 - d. Messina, 28 September 1197).
- Conrad (b. Modigliana, February 1167 - d. Acre, 20 January 1191), later renamed Frederick VI, Duke of Swabia after the death of his older brother.
- Daughter (Gisela?) (b. October/November 1168 - d. 1184).
- Otto I, Count of Burgundy (b. June/July 1170 - killed, Besançon, 13 January 1200).
- Conrad II, Duke of Swabia and Rothenburg (b. February/Marc 1172 - killed, Durlach, 15 August 1196).
- Renaud (b. October/November 1173 - d. in infancy).
- William (b. June/July 1176 - d. in infancy).
- Philip of Swabia (b. August 1177- killed, Bamberg, 21 June 1208) King of Germany in 1198.
- Agnes (b. 1181 - d. 8 October 1184). She was betrothed to King Emeric of Hungary but died before they could be married.
Ancestry
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.
- John Crowley's novel Little, Big (1981) features 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.
- 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."
- The computer game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings 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.
- In the computer game Stronghold Warchest, Emperor Frederick is an AI opponent that players can challenge in skirmish play.
- Frederick is a character in the PC game Stronghold: Crusader.
- The computer game Medieval II Total War: Kingdoms features Frederik Barbarossa in the crusade campaign. Barbarossa launches a crusade to the Holy land with 100,000 strong men. During the next 'turn,' he drowns in the sea and because of his death the crusade is canceled.
Sources
Primary
- Otto of Freising and his continuator Rahewin, The deeds of Frederick Barbarossa tr. Charles Christopher Mierow with Richard Emery. New York: Columbia University Press, 1953. Reprinted: Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994.
- Ibn al-Athir
- Romuald of Salerno. Chronicon in Rerum Italicarum scriptores.
- Otto of Sankt Blasien
- The "Bergamo Master". Carmen de gestis Frederici I imperatoris in Lombardia.
Secondary
- Haverkamp, Alfred. Friedrich Barbarossa, 1992
- Novobatzky, Peter and Ammon Shea. Depraved and Insulting English. Orlando: Harcourt, 2001
- Opll, Ferdinand. Friedrich Barbarossa, 1998
- Reston, James. Warriors of God, 2001
- Walford, Edward, John Charles Cox, and George Latimer Apperson. "Digit Folklore part II". The Antiquary: A Magazine Devoted to the Study of the Past 1885 Volume XI: January-June.
See also
External links
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- for the bishopric of Bamberg showing the Emperor's seal, 6.4.1157 . Taken from the collections of the at Marburg University
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