Frederick Barbarossa

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Frederick in a 13th century Chronicle

Frederick I (German: Friedrich I. von Hohenstaufen)(1122 – June 10 1190), also known as Friedrich Barbarossa ("Frederick Redbeard") 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). As son of Duke Frederick II of Swabia (German Schwaben) and Judith of Bavaria, from the rival House of Guelph (or Welf), Frederick descended from Germany's two leading principal families, making him an acceptable choice for the Empire's princely electors as heir to royal crown.

Life and reign

In 1147 Frederick 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. The kingdom's princely electors were persuaded by this account and by Barbarossa's energetic pursuit of the crown and he was chosen as the next German king at Frankfurt on the 4th of March and 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 was prodigal in his 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 Adela (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 Eugenius III, but had neglected to ask for the papal confirmation. Eager to make amends with the Papacy, Frederick concluded a treaty with Rome in March 1153, by 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 Eugenius.

He undertook six expeditions into Italy, 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). In it he gives a physical description of Frederick circa 1156: "[Frederick's] 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."

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. Frederick's campaign was stopped by the sudden outbreak of 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 East Roman emperor Manuel, 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 and set out on the overland route to the Holy Land, through Hungary and Romania, and arrived at Constantinople in the autumn of 1189. From there they pushed on through Anatolia (where they were victorious in two battles) into Armenia, and approached Syria. 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 June 10, 1190, while crossing the Saleph River in Cilicia, south-eastern Anatolia, Frederick was thrown from his horse and the shock of the cold water caused him to have a heart attack. Weighed down by his armour, he drowned in water that was barely hip-deep, according to the chronicler Ibn al-Athir.

Frederick's death plunged his army into chaos. Leaderless, panicked, and attacked on all sides by Turks, many Germans were killed or deserted. Only 5,000 soldiers, a tiny fraction of the original forces, actually 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 of France and Richard of England, 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.

Frederick sends out the boy to see whether the ravens still fly.

Frederick is the subject of many legends, including that of a sleeping hero, derived from the much older British Celtic legend of Bran the Blessed. He is said not to be dead, but asleep with his knights in a cave in 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.

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

Frederick's descendents 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 II, 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. Beatrice of Hohenstaufen (1162-1174). She was betrothed to William II of Sicily but died before they could be married.
8. Agnes of Hohenstaufen (died October 1184). She was betrothed to Emeric of Hungary but died before they could be married.

Sources

• Otto of Freising. The Deeds of Frederick Barbarossa, English translation pub. 2004
• 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

Fiction about Frederick I

• Umberto Eco (trans William Weaver), "Baudolino", Harcourt 2002, ISBN 0151006903 (hardcover) - a novel set in the time and partly at the court of Frederick I.
• The computer game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings has a campaign where you play as Fredrick Barbarossa from the time period of his struggles in Germany till his death on the way to the Third Crusade.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

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

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[1] Imperial College of Princes and Counts