Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor

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Frederick I (German: Friedrich) (1122 – June 10, 1190), called Barbarossa (meaning Redbeard in latin), was elected king of Germany on March 4, 1152 and crowned Holy Roman Emperor on June 18, 1155.

He was also Duke of Swabia (1147–1152, as Frederick III) and King of Italy (1154–1186). He was the son of Duke Frederick II of Swabia of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. His mother was Judith, daughter of Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria, from the rival House of Guelph (or Welf), and Frederick therefore descended from Germany's two leading principal families, making him an acceptable choice for the Empire's Prince-electors to receive the royal crown.

Contents 1 Life and reign 2 Death in the Saleph 3 Legend and modern references 4 Frederick's descendants by his wife Beatrice 5 Frederick Barbarossa in fiction 6 Notes 7 Sources 8 External links

[edit] Life and reign

Frederick was born in 1122 or 1124, the date is uncertain and the precise location is unknown. Waiblingen has been proposed, although not generally accepted.

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 he, rather than his own six-year-old son, the future Frederick IV, Duke of Swabia, should succeed him as king. Barbarossa energetically pursued the crown and at Frankfurt on 4 March the kingdom's princely electors declared him as the next German king and he was crowned at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) several days later.

The new king was anxious to restore the Empire to the position it had occupied under Charlemagne and Otto I the Great, and 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 negotiations were begun with the East Roman emperor, Manuel I Comnenus. It was probably about this time that the king obtained a papal assent for the annulment of his childless marriage with Adelheid of Vohburg (through whom he had gained ownership of much of Alsace), on the somewhat far-fetched grounds of consanguinity (his great-great-grandfather was a brother of Adela's great-great-great-grandmother), and 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 a treaty with Rome in which he promised in return for his coronation to defend the papacy and make no peace with king Roger II of Sicily, or other enemies of the Church, without the consent of Eugene.

He undertook six expeditions into Italy, (where he changed his name Frederick I to Frederik Lombard) in the first of which 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 measures. The duchy of Bavaria was transferred from Henry II Jasomirgott, margrave of Austria, who became duke of Austria in compensation, to Frederick's formidable younger cousin Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, of the House of Guelph, whose father had already held both duchies. On June 9, 1156 at Würzburg, Frederick married Beatrice of Burgundy, daughter and heiress of Renaud III, becoming King of Burgundy and adding the sizeable realm of the County of Burgundy, then stretching from Besançon (Bisanz) to the Mediterranean, to his possessions.

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-porportioned. 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 is 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^[1].

In June 1158, Frederick set out upon his second Italian expedition, accompanied by Henry the Lion and his fearsome Saxons, which 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, which resulted in the excommunication of the emperor in 1160. In response, 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 his 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 the taxes collected by the imperial officers.

Frederick then organized the magnificent celebration of the canonization of Charlemagne at Aachen, while restoring the peace in the Rhineland. In October 1166, he went once more on journey to Italy to secure the claim of his Antipope Pascal, 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. His forces secured 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. Conflicting claims to various bishoprics were decided and imperial authority was asserted over Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary. Friendly relations were entered into with the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus, and attempts were made to come to a better understanding with Henry II of England and Louis VII of France.

In 1174, Frederick made his fifth expedition to Italy and, in response, the pro-papal Lombard League was 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 believed to be dead. He had no choice other than 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 did not forgive Henry the Lion for his refusal to come to his aid in 1174. Taking advantage of the hostility of other German princes to Henry, who had successfully established a powerful and contiguous state comprising Saxony, Bavaria and substantial territories in the north and east of Germany, 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, where he finished his days as much-diminished Duke of Brunswick, peacefully sponsoring arts and architecture, and died on 6 August 1195.

After making his peace with the Pope, Frederick embarked on the Third Crusade (1189), a grand expedition in conjunction with the French army, led by king Philip Augustus together with the English, under Richard Lionheart. He organized a grand army of 100,000 men and set out on the overland route to the Holy Land through Hungary and Serbia.

The Crusaders' route then passed through Byzantine territory. They arrived at Constantinople in the autumn of 1189 and pushed on through Anatolia (where they were victorious in two battles) 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.

[edit] Death in the Saleph

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. It is likely that he was thrown from his horse and the shock of the cold water caused him to have a heart attack at the age of 67. Weighed down by his armour, he drowned in water that was barely hip-deep, according to the chronicler Ali ibn al-Athir. The weight of the armour of the day, designed to be as light as possible, was probably not enough to weigh down a healthy man in hip-deep waters. However, some reenactors and living historians argue that whilst maille and padding are indeed quite light, relatively speaking, the strain on a man already elderly by the standards of the time, plus the difficulty in moving in water (not something many armoured men would be accustomed to) could lead to a more infirm warrior drowning before he could struggle to the shore.

A more mythological view of Frederick's death is based on the claim that he was an owner of the legendary Spear of Destiny. According to myth, whoever possesses the spear is unstoppable, but if the owner loses the spear, he will soon lose his life also. Frederick died while crossing a stream, and at that moment, some accounts say the spear fell from his hands.

Frederick's death plunged his army into chaos. Leaderless, panicked, and attacked on all sides by Turks, many Germans were killed, deserted or even committed suicide. Only 5,000 soldiers, a tiny 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 untimely 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 with mixed results, but ended without accomplishing his main goal, the capture of Jerusalem.

[edit] Legend and modern references

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. He is said not to be dead, but asleep with his knights in a cave in the Kyffhäuser mountain in Thuringia, Germany, and that when ravens should cease to fly around the mountain he would 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.^[2] The Kyffhäuser Monument atop the Kyffhäuser commemorates Frederick.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was codenamed Operation Barbarossa.

The Darwin Awards pays tribute to the idea that Frederick met his end swimming in armor.

[edit] Frederick's descendants by his wife Beatrice

1. Frederick V, Duke of Swabia (1164-1170)
2. Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor (November 1165-1197)
3. Frederick VI, Duke of Swabia (1167-1191)
4. Otto I, Count of Burgundy (1170-killed 1200)
5. Conrad II, Duke of Swabia and Rothenburg (1173-killed 1196)
6. Philip of Swabia (1177-killed, 1208) King of Germany in 1198
7. Sophie of Hohenstaufen (1161-1187), married to Margrave William VI of Montferrat.
8. Beatrice of Hohenstauften (1162-1174). She was betrothed to William II of Sicily but died before they could be married.
9. Agnes of Hohenstauften (died October 1184). She was betrothed to Emeric of Hungary but died before they could be married.

[edit] 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 confidant.
• The computer game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings has a campaign in which you play 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.
• 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.
• The DVD of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl reveals that Captain Barbossa's name was derived from Frederick Barbarossa, as was his beard.

[edit] Notes

[edit] Sources

• 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. Rerum Italicarum scriptores.
• Otto of St Blasien.
• Haverkamp, Alfred. Friedrich Barbarossa, 1992
• Opll, Ferdinand. Friedrich Barbarossa, 1998
• Reston, James. Warriors of God, 2001

See also: Dukes of Swabia family tree

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

[edit] External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Frederick I
• MSN Encarta - Frederick I (Holy Roman Empire)
• Famous Men of the Middle Ages - Frederick Barbarossa
• The Death of Frederick Barbarossa 1190
• The Deeds of Frederick Barbarossa - Otto of Freising
• Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa
• Huge page of Barbarossa facts

Preceded by Conrad III	King of Germany 1152–1190	Succeeded by Henry VI
Preceded by Lothair II	Holy Roman Emperor 1155–1190
Preceded by Frederick II	Duke of Swabia 1147–1152	Succeeded by Frederick IV