[Excerpted from Dana Carleton Munro, The Middle Ages, 395-1272 (New York: The Century Company, 1921), pp. 69-79]
The Hohenstaufens. The period of the investiture struggle afforded an opportunity for the rise of men of ability, especially those who were good fighters. Both the popes and the emperors had constantly to secure recruits. When a vassal of the emperor went over to the enemy, his fief was declared forfeited and given to another. Of all the new men who became prominent during the period, the most interesting was Frederic of Buren. Little is known of him until he appeared as such a successful partisan of Henry IV that he was given the dukedom of Swabia and the emperor's young daughter Agnes as his bride. He rose steadily in favor and power, and was the founder of the Hohenstaufen family, which took its name from a favorite castle. After his death his sons, Frederic and Conrad, were the nearest heirs of Henry V, who died in 1125. Frederic's election as Henry's successor seemed certain, for he was duke of Swabia, his brother Conrad was duke of Franconia, and his father-in-law was duke of Bavaria. Thus it seemed that he could count upon the votes from three of the four duchies. But the bishops and abbots who had been papal partizans were opposed to him on account of his support of his uncle, Henry V, and their fear that he would continue the policy of the latter. Also, the lesser nobles were opposed to any arrangement that would imply a right of hereditary succession. For these reasons, Lothair, duke of Saxony, might well command the support of both the papal partisans and the lesser nobles, as he had been the strongest adversary of Henry V and had stood for the greater independence of both the Church and the nobles.
Election to 1125. Ten electors were chosen from each of the four duchies. There was some clever manceuvering by the archbishop of Mainz which forced Frederic into an unpopular position. Lothair won the support of Henry, duke of Bavaria, Frederic's father-in-law, by arranging the betrothal of his only daughter and heiress to Henry's son. Consequently Frederic lost and Lothair was elected king.
Guelphs and Ghibellines. This election led to the long struggle between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines. Lothair's daughter's fiance was a Guelf. The Hohenstaufens became known as Ghibellines, from the Italian form of the name of one of their possessions, Waiblingen. Since Lothair and his party had been friendly to the Church, while the Hohenstaufens became its chief opponents, Guelf soon came to be a name used for the partizans of the papacy, and Ghibelline for its foes. These terms were destined to have a long history, especially in Italy, although the names were used later with changed meanings in the struggles in Florence and other Italian cities.
Conrad as Anti-King. Hostilities between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines began soon after the election. Frederic and Conrad were angry at the loss of the expected prize. Their anger was increased by Lothair's demand that they should surrender to him property that had escheated to the emperors Henry IV and Henry V and that he claimed as imperial property, while the brothers held that it was a part of their inheritance from Henry V. Lothair was at first unsuccessful in arms. Conrad was elected as anti-king, and won support especially in Italy. Finally the brothers were compelled to submit to Lothair, and peace was established by the mediation of Bernard of Clairvaux.
Conrad IIl, 1138-1152. After Lothair's death late in 1137, Conrad was elected king in 1138. His opponent in the election was Henry the Proud, Lothair's son-in-law, who was then the most powerful of the German nobles. For, in addition to Bavaria, he now held, as heir to Lothair, Saxony and the county of Tuscany. He could truthfully boast that his lands extended from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. He had counted upon being elected, just as Frederic had done, and lost the prize mainly because of the hostility of the lesser nobles. Henry's death in 1139 was a stroke of good fortune for the Hohenstaufens, especially because Henry's heir was a young boy, not yet able to assert his claims. Later this boy, who came to be known as Henry the Lion, was to be the great opponent of Frederic Barbarossa. It is necessary to dwell upon these personal rivalries because these were the cause of the weakness of both Lothair and Conrad and of the German kingdom. These gave both the Church and the lesser nobles an opportunity to increase their power. The resultant weakness of the kingdom may be best judged from the " Chronicle, or Book of the Two States," of Otto of Freising.
Otto of Freising. Otto was Conrad's half-brother, as he was the son of Agnes, daughter of Henry IV, by her second marriage with Leopold the Pious, margrave of Austria. He had studied at Paris under Abelard. On his way home he stopped a day at a Cistercian monastery, and was so impressed by the ideals of the order that he took the habit and remained there until summoned home to be the bishop of Freising. He proved an able zealous bishop. He went on the ill-starred crusade of Conrad, and led one of the divisions. Before going on the crusade he had completed his " Book of the Two States," in which he set forth the melancholy condition of this world and the weakness of the German kingdom, crushed by the Church. He felt that the end of the world was near at hand, in accordance with the prophecy of Daniel, and had no hope except in the heavenly state which he described in his last book.
Frederick Barbarossa 1152-1190. Otto was soon to write a second historical work in a very different mood, an optimistic one. For, at Conrad's death in I r52, his nephew Frederic " Barbarossa " was unanimously elected king. Frederic was the offspring of a Ghibelline father and a Guelf mother. He was young, magnetic, and handsome. His accession was hailed with joy, and by no one with greater pleasure than by Otto, his uncle, who began his " Deeds of Frederic" with high hopes that civil strife would end and the empire again be strong. These hopes were fulfilled in part in the first two years of the reign. Frederic was both energetic and tactful. Ever on the move, now in this city and now in that, he held repeated assemblies, trying to conciliate the lay princes and to win support from the ecclesiastical nobles while at the same time insisting upon his own rights. He settled a contest between two claimants for the Danish throne, and the new king became his vassal. In spite of the opposition of the pope, he made the bishop of Naumburg archbishop of Magdeburg, and finally secured the papal consent to this encroachment upon the powers of the pope, who alone had the right to transfer a bishop from one see to another. He favored the Guelfs, especially Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, to whom he also gave the long-coveted duchy of Bavaria. But Frederic secured peace and better order in the realm mainly by favoring the powerful bishops and ambitious Guelfs, and was frequently thwarted in his desires by lack of support from the lay nobles. This was galling to his pride, and he longed for occasion to win renown and greater powers through some successful expedition.
First Italian Expedition. His patience and tact seemed destined to have their reward when, in 1154, he was at last able to set out for Rome. He desired to make an Italian expedition, to assert his rights in Lombardy, and to secure the imperial crown. The lure of Italy led him to begin a struggle that was to last for more than twenty years. At first he was successful. He was crowned king of Italy at Pavia, and easily and cruelly crushed some cities in the north that opposed him. He then went to Rome, where he was crowned emperor by the pope in St. Peter's. He was not able to occupy the city, because of the opposition of the rebellious Roman people. But he did hang Arnold of Brescia, then had his body burnt, and the ashes cast into the Tiber, lest the people might worship his relics.
Arnold of Brescia. Arnold's career throws an interesting light upon twelfth-century conditions. He was a cleric, who had been born at Brescia about 1100. He studied at Paris under Abelard, and Bernard of Clairvaux said that the pupil in his revolutionary acts was carrying to a logical conclusion the teaching he had imbibed from his master. Arnold taught that the Church ought to give up its temporal power and return to its apostolic poverty. His career as a reformer began in Brescia, where he stirred up a revolution. He was banished from Italy by the second Lateran Council in I I39. Driven from France, where he had taken refuge, by Bernard of Clairvaux, he resided for a time at Zurich until a revolution in Rome gave him his opportunity. There the great feudal families, the Pierleoni, the Frangipani, the Colonna, and the Corsini, had long been at strife over the control of the city and the papacy. They had oppressed both the lesser nobles and the people, and this led to a revolt in 1143. Animated by the legends and traditions of the former greatness of Rome, the people assembled on the Capitol and established a commune under a patrician and fifty-six senators, mainly from the classes that had made the revolution. The pope, in attempting to capture the Capitol in 1145, was fatally wounded by a stone. Arnold went to Rome and soon became the real leader of the people. They dreamed of reestablishing the Roman Empire as they conceived of it, and sought to ally themselves with the emperor Conrad. After the election of Frederic Barbarossa, one of their leaders wrote reproaching him for following the advice of the priests and monks instead of forming common cause with the Roman people, in whose gift was the office of emperor. But Frederic had made a treaty of alliance with the pope against both the commune at Rome and the Normans of southern Italy. The pope by placing Rome under an interdict broke the power of the rebels, because the laying of the interdict caused the pilgrims to avoid Rome and consequently cut off a large part of the income of the Roman people, who drew their living largely from the offerings made by the pilgrims and the money spent by them while in Rome. As the condition of raising the interdict, early in 1155, the pope demanded that they should expel Arnold. He was captured in Tuscany, and brought back to Rome to be executed by Frederic. But the latter s departure left the pope too weak to crush the commune.
Thus far pope and emperor had worked together, but not entirely without friction. When they first met, Frederic had refused to hold the bridle of the pope's horse, and the pope had consequently not given him the kiss of peace. Negotiations lasting throughout a day were necessary to convince Frederic that it was customary for the emperor to hold the pope's horse and that it was no derogation of the imperial dignity. This inauspicious beginning of the relations between Frederic and Adrian the Fourth, the only English pope, was followed by open rupture between the two as the result of a letter that the pope sent to Frederic while he was holding a diet at Besançon in I I57. In this letter the pope referred to the beneficia that he had given to the emperor. The imperial chancellor translated beneficia as " fiefs," the usual translation. The German nobles who were present were indignant as this seemed to imply that the emperor was the pope's vassal. The cardinal who had brought the letter made the matter worse by asking, " From whom, then, did the emperor hold his power, if not from the pope ? " Frederic saved the life of the rash legate, but ordered him to leave at once. Frederic was thoroughly angry. Probably he had heard the tale, recorded in his uncle Otto of Freising's " Chronicle," of the painting that the pope was said to have had made of Lothair's coronation, with an inscription of which the last line read: " Then he became the man [vassal] of the pope, from whom he received the gift of the crown. " Frederic wrote an open letter to his subjects declaring that he held his power from God alone, by the election of the princes. The pope, after sounding the opinion of the German nobles and bishops and finding it strongly on the emperor's side, wrote a conciliatory letter explaining that the chancellor had made a bad translation that the word beneficia meant kindnesses, not fiefs. This closed the incident, but the hostility between the pope and the emperor was not ended.
Lombard Cities. The papacy was to find its most effective allies and the emperor his most dangerous foes in the cities of northern Italy. There the municipalities had developed into strong and almost independent political and military centers. They acted as the intermediaries in trade between the Mediterranean and Oriental lands and the countries of western Europe. Their merchants had become wealthy and had formed associations for mutual protection. Encircled by strong walls, filled with people accustomed to fight, these cities made redoubtable opponents. In the eleventh century Milan is said to have contained three hundred thousand inhabitants, and was an ally to be coveted by emperor or pope. During the investiture struggle emperor and pope had vied with each other in according privileges to these Lombard cities in order to secure their support, but neither one was in a position to exercise any real authority over them.
Their Government. The form of government varied from town to town, but in general followed the same outline. At the head was a larger or smaller number of consuls, who held administrative, judicial, and military powers. They were assisted by a council, or credential of leading citizens. Usually there was also a general assembly of the members of the community, which sometimes exercised considerable power over the consuls. But each city had its own laws and customs, and there were wide divergences in the actual working out of the details of the government. In some the nobles had thrown in their lot with that of the commune and shared in the administration. Usually the governing body, even the general assembly, did not include all the inhabitants, but only the privileged classes nobles, clergy, and members of guilds. The remaining inhabitants were absolutely subject to these governing classes, who determined minutely just what the lower classes should be allowed to do. The guild men were very important. Otto of Freising could not restrain his indignation in writing about these artisans of base birth, who carried on despised trades and yet were armed like knights and held high offices in the cities.
Leagues of Cities. Within each town there was frequent strife between members of the different factions. Between neighboring towns there was usually friction, if not open hostility. A discontented or oppressed faction in one might call for aid from any near-by town, and fighting was constant and ruthless. Milan was the most important city in the interior, and strove to gain an ever-widening hegemony over the other towns. In 1158 it was at the head of a league that included Brescia, Piacenza, Parma, and Modena. To protect themselves, Pavia, Cremona, Lodi, and Como had formed another league; but, as they were not strong enough to defend themselves against Milan, they sought aid from Frederic Barbarossa. He was already exasperated against Milan because of its " arrogance, " and on his first expedition he had destroyed Tortona, one of its allies; now he wished to turn " all the forces of the empire against Milan in order to crush it."
Roncaglian Diet. Milan resisted energetically at first, but had to yield and give hostages that it would be faithful and that in the future the consuls who might be elected should be subject to the emperor's confirmation. Encouraged by this success, Frederic determined to restore to their full vigor throughout Lombardy the imperial laws that had fallen into desuetude. For this purpose he held a diet on the Roncaglian Plain, at which professors of law from the famous school in Bologna assisted him in defining the imperial prerogatives or " regalia. " These included control over the appointment of the chief officials in each city, the levying of tolls and customs, the monopoly of minting money, the revenues from mines, and various other rights that had long been in abeyance. The emperor's forces were so great that the cities had to yield temporarily Frederic at once arranged to appoint a new official a podesta, in each city, who was to be the emperor's immediate representative and to come from outside the city where he held office.
Destruction of Milan. At Milan the attempt to introduce the podesta caused a popular uprising, and the emperor in anger besieged the city. Milan held out for almost three years, but was compelled by starvation to surrender. Frederic hardened his heart against the prayers of the citizens, but finally granted them their lives. He insisted upon the destruction of the city, and the people in the neighboring cities, hostile to Milan, eagerly leveled the walls, filled the moats, and destroyed the buildings. Frederic carried away the leading citizens as hostages, and forbade all others ever to return to live where Milan had been.
Harsh Rule Arouses Opposition. Frederic had obtained his immediate objective. Moreover, he had crushed out opposition in other rebellious cities by a " policy of frightfulness " But he was in a more unfavorable position for carrying out his main purpose than he had been after the Roncaglian diet. The exactions of the new imperial officials exasperated even those cities that had been on Frederic's side because of their hatred of Milan. The citizens had enjoyed virtual independence too long to submit willingly to foreign rule, and they all resented the attempt to reintroduce feudal exactions. They were much more advanced in civilization than Germany, and their commerce demanded different treatment. In their hostility to the emperor their natural ally was the pope.
Opposition of Pope. Adrian had demanded that Frederic should give up many of his claims, including the feudal overlordship of Tuscany, "the property of the countess Matilda, " and all sovereign rights over Rome. As Frederic naturally refused, the pope had allied himself with the Lombard cities and the king of Sicily and had begun negotiations to obtain support from the Greek emperor. Adrian died in I I59, and was succeeded by Alexander III, who as cardinal legate had made the rash speech at Besancon. Frederic, knowing that Alexander would be an implacable foe, had an antipope elected; but the latter was recognized only in Germany the kings of the other leading countries in Europe recognized Alexander.
First Lombard League. In 1166 Frederic made a fourth expedition to Italy. He marched on Rome and took it by assault, but was compelled to retreat in haste when an epidemic broke out in his army and threatened to destroy it. After great difficulties he regained Germany with only a small remnant of his host. Immediately on the news of his disaster the important cities in northern Italy formed the Lombard League (1167), which included not only the rebuilt Milan and its former allies, but also Venice and Bologna, and even cities that had been bitter foes to Milan, such as Lodi and Cremona. Alexander gave his blessing to the league and to the city of Alexandria, named in his honor, which the league built as its headquarters.
Peace of Constance. Frederic was so occupied in Germany that he had to wait six years before renewing the struggle. Then two years of fruitless actions and negotiations followed until in 1176 the league attacked the emperor's army at Legnano and inflicted a crushing defeat. The following year, Frederic humbled himself before the pope, as his great-grandfather had done one hundred years before at Canossa. He hoped thus to detach him from his alliance with the league, but in vain. Finally, in 1183, he had to make the peace of Constance, by which he gave up the regalia accorded to him at the Roncaglian diet and recognized the virtual independence of the cities in the league, although he retained his suzerainty over them, together with the power of imposing certain taxes. This was a complete triumph for the league and for its ally, the pope. But conditions in Italy were such that no union was possible except in the face of a common foe. Rivalry soon led to the disintegration of the league. The pope was unable to establish his authority in Tuscany. Frederic's defeat restored in Italy the former disunion and weakness; it left him free to devote all his energy to affairs in Germany.
Power of Frederic. Since the diet at Besancon, Frederic's prestige had not increased. Then, in the words of Ragewin, who continued Otto of Freising's " Deeds of Frederic, " " the whole world, recognizing that he was very strong and very merciful, moved at the same time by affection and fear, strove to render to him new marks of honor and to exalt him by new eulogies. " His recent marriage with the heiress of upper Burgundy had given him control over the kingdom of Burgundy and Aries; his influence was paramount in the east, in Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary; in the north, in Denmark. His power in Germany was so great that his excommunication by Alexander III had no effect. But, in order to maintain his power and security and to be free for his Italian expeditions, he had favored and supported his most powerful vassal, the Guelf, Henry the Lion.
Henry the Lion. While Frederic was expending his forces and money in Italy, Henry had been building up a great power in northern Germany and Bavaria. In the northeast he warred against the heathen Slavs, extending his conquests, establishing bishoprics and monasteries, and introducing colonists not only from Saxony but also from Holland, Denmark, and Flanders. He was in alliance with the king of Denmark and with Henry II of England, whose daughter he married. He was virtually monarch in northern Germany, and his prestige was great, extending even to Constantinople and the Holy Land, to which he made a pilgrimage. He felt himself so strong that, in spite of all the favors that he had received from the emperor, he refused to furnish aid for the later expeditions to Italy. His power and his character made for him many enemies, who carried their grievances to Frederic. Henry was summoned to meet his enemies before the imperial diet in 1179, Proud and confiding in his strength, he refused to obey. According to feudal usage, he was cited three times to appear, and then condemned to forfeit his fiefs and to banishment. He attempted to resist, but in less than two years Frederic had conquered Saxony and forced Henry to submission. Saxony and Bavaria were taken from him and he was sent into exile. After a few years he was allowed to return, as Frederic felt that he was no longer dangerous; but he was allowed to hold only Brunswick and Luneburg.
Last Years of Frederic. The last years of Frederic's reign were prosperous. The year after the peace of Constance he held a magnificent diet at Mainz, where seventy " powerful princes " and seventy thousand knights came to do him honor. Concord was not established, and could not be, between him and the pope; but he had weakened the latter by detaching from him the support of the Norman kingdom of Sicily, through the marriage of his son Henry to Constance, the Norman heiress. The news of the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 prevented further hostilities either in Germany or with the pope. Frederic's crusade and death will be described in the next chapter.
Norman Kingdom in Italy. The Norman adventurers in Italy had succeeded in building up a strong state. To the period of conquest, which has already been described 1 had succeeded a half-century of gradual consolidation, until in 1130 Roger II had secured the title of king from one of the popes as the price of his support during the Schism. Although the pope, Anachete II, lost the papal throne, Roger and his successors retained the title. Roger, 1130-1154, built up a powerful kingdom. He maintained a strong army composed of both Moslems and Christians; legislated wisely and established a careful system of taxation and finances; welcomed men of ability from all lands; and was tolerant of all religions. In Io98 Urban II had granted to one of his predecessors, as duke, the dignity of apostolic legate in Sicily, both for himself and for his heirs, and consequently all other legates were excluded and the ruler had a firm control over the Church. The kings who had succeeded Roger had not been so able, but it was still a goodly heritage that Constance brought as her dowry to Henry.
Conquest of Norman Kingdom. Henry had to fight to secure it. The Norman nobles were averse to his succession, and set up a rival king, Tancred. They found support in Germany from the party of Henry the Lion. The pope, although he had been compelled to crown Henry emperor, felt that the danger to the papacy would be too great if Henry should secure Sicily; consequently he supported Tancred. A series of fortunate events gave Henry the upper hand. The leader of the rebellious nobles of Germany fell in love with the emperor's cousin and submitted to him; the ransom of Richard the Lion Hearted2 furnished him funds; Tancred died. Henry soon conquered southern Italy and Sicily, pillaged the land, and punished ferociously every attempt at revolt. In addition, he established his brother as ruler over " the property of Matilda, " and in northern Italy built up a league of cities friendly to him to oppose the remnant of the Lombard League.
Power of Henry VI. Henry had great power. He was emperor, king of Sicily, overlord of the kings of Armenia and Cyprus, and of Bohemond of Antioch; in addition Richard the Lion Hearted, to secure release from captivity, had been obliged to acknowledge him as overlord. He had even greater ambitions: he wished to make the empire hereditary for his descendants, and to extend it to include the Byzantine empire and the kingdom of Jerusalem. For this purpose he began a crusade; but in the midst of his preparations he was stricken with disease, and died when he was only thirty-two.
Philip and Otto. The imperial succession was in dispute between Henry's brother Philip and Otto, the son of Henry the Lion. Philip was the stronger, but Otto was enabled to continue the struggle for ten years by the support of the pope and of his uncle, John of England. He was in a desperate position when Innocent was finally compelled to recognize Philip; but the latter's assassination, in 1208, made Otto emperor. As soon as he was firmly established, he adopted the same policy toward the Church as had his Ghibelline predecessors. His demand for " the property of Matilda " alienated the pope. The Ghibelline party in Germany elected as their king Frederic, the son of Henry VI, and Innocent abandoned Otto for Frederic.
Youth of Frederic II. The latter was not quite three years old when his father died, and a year later, when his mother also died, he was left an orphan ward of Pope Innocent III. He grew up in Sicily, surrounded by Greeks, Normans, Germans, Saracens, and Jews. He was sometimes in the hands of one official, then seized by another; each, whether German or Siciliarx, caring only to secure power by the possession of the person of the nominal ruler. " So, without a relative or friend, without ever feeling a ray of love, the child grew up in the midst of intrigues of the worst kind, among men whose empty greed he saw through only too quickly. " He learned to use craft and deceit very early in life. He was precocious, brilliant, versatile, fascinating, passionate, restless. When Frederic was nearly thirteen years old, one of his attendants described him as follows:
The king's stature is not only small, but also not large for his age Nature has, however, endowed him with strong limbs and a vigorous body, with the ability to persist in every undertaking. He is never quiet, but is in motion all day long. In order to increase his strength by exercise he trains his supple body in the use of arms; and when he is exercising he seizes his sword, to which he trusts especially, and falls into a wild rage as if he wanted to slash his antagonist's face. He is skilful in the use of the bow, and practices shooting industriously. He delights in fine, swift horses; you may well believe that no one knows better than he how to drive them or to spur them to a gallop. Thus practicing the use of arms in every fashion he spends the entire day in constant and varied activity, and even continues his practice throughout the first watch of the night. Moreover, he possesses royal dignity; he has the appearance and the commanding majesty of a ruler. His face is of gracious beauty, with a jovial forehead, and his eyes are so full of joy that it is a pleasure to look at him. He is wide awake, full of sagacity and docility. But his bearing is impertinent and unbecoming; . . . he is entirely inaccessible to advice and follows only the dictates of his own free will. As far as one can see, he considers it degrading to tie under guardianship and to be re garbed as a boy and not as a king.... His talents so far surpass his age that, now before he is a man, he is well equipped with knowledge and has the shrewdness that he would naturally have acquired only in the course of years.
He trusted no one and believed that every man or woman could be bought for a price. He was remarkably well educated and had great intellectual curiosity, studying eagerly natural history, mathematics, and other branches. He was a poet and, if we can trust Dante, of no small ability in verse. Such, in brief, was the boy of seventeen who was called to be the leader of the Hohenstaufens and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
Vow to Go on Crusade. For three years it was not certain that Frederic would triumph, although he had the pope's support. But the battle of Bouvines won by Frederic's ally, Philip Augustus, prevented John of England from aiding Otto, and the latter was gradually abandoned by most of his adherents. In 1215 Frederic received the imperial crown. The boy of twenty-one, elated by such success as a few years before seemed impossible, took a vow to go on a crusade. vole to In his enthusiasm he may have dreamed of carrying out his father's ambitious schemes. But his vow was to hamper him us o for a dozen years; it gave the pope a weapon to use against him if he did not perform it within a reasonable time. It was impossible for him to undertake a crusade until he had established his rule firmly. Moreover, in order to win the pope's support, he had sworn not to keep both Sicily and Germany. He had no intention of giving up either. Fortunately for him, Innocent died in 1216 and was succeeded by Honorius III, a mild and kindly old man who had been Frederic's tutor. He did not insist upon the immediate abandonment of either Germany or Sicily, and showed himself very willing to listen to Frederic's repeated requests for postponement of the crusade.
Frederic's Crusade. When Honorius was succeeded by Gregory IX, in 1227, Frederic had to start on the crusade. He had been making arrangements, gathering forces and supplies, and especially negotiating with the sultan of Egypt, the ruler of Jerusalem. The latter was in a difficult position, being hard pressed by a rival Moslem power, the prince of Damascus, so that he was ready to treat with Frederic. The latter was king of Jerusalem by his marriage, in 1225, with Isabelle of Brienne, the heiress. Because of Gregory's insistence, Frederic had to set sail for the Holy Land in September, 1227, but returned to shore a few days later, alleging illness. The pope did not believe him, and excommunicated him for not fulfilling his vow. Without being released from excommunication, Frederic set out for Palestine in the following June, with a small force composed partly of faithful Saracen troops. The pope excommunicated him again for going on the crusade while still excommunicate. When he landed in Palestine the conditions were not so favorable as he had hoped. The prince of Damascus had died, and the sultan was no longer in need of aid. The pope had forbidden the military orders in the Holy Land to obey Frederic, and had ordered the patriarch of Jerusalem to lay an interdict upon any place where the emperor might be. Many of the crusaders left for home. Frederic, although he had only a few troops succeeded in making a treaty with the sultan. Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and some other places were handed over to him. But the Moslems were to keep the mosque of Omar and to have the right to worship freely in Jerusalem. Moreover, there was to be a truce for ten years, during which Frederic agreed to prevent the princes of the West from attacking Egypt. After making the treaty Frederic went to Jerusalem and crowned himself. Then he hastened home, for Gregory had preached a crusade against Frederic's dominions in Italy, and the crusaders were led by two cardinals and John of Brienne, Frederic's father-in-law, who was angry because Frederic had taken from him the title of king of Jerusalem. [Jerusalem was a hereditary kingdom. John had secured his title of king by marrying the heiress. After her death her daughter, who married Frederic, was the heiress, and Frederic claimed the title as her husband.] Frederic was easily successful, and made peace with the pope in 1230. He was now free to devote himself again to the problem of administering his kingdoms.
Government in Sicily. Sicily was his home by preference, and to its administration he gave the greatest care. Much had been done in the preceding century by Roger II to lay the foundations for a strong, centralized, non-feudal state. It is impossible to say how much of Frederic's work was a logical following out of Roger's institutions, and how much was due to Frederic's initiative. In his " Constitutions for the Kingdom of Sicily, " published in 1231, Frederic took away from both nobles and clergy most of their power and privileges. The nobles were forbidden to make private war, and no one but a servant of the king was allowed to carry weapons. Criminal jurisdiction was taken from the feudal lords, and they were not allowed to give their children in marriage without the emperor's consent. The clerical courts lost all their jurisdiction over laymen, except in cases of adultery. The members of the clergy were forbidden to hold public office and were compelled to pay taxes. Frederic showed himself more favorable to the citizens, and did much to encourage commerce; but he did not permit the cities to elect their own podestas or consuls. All power was centralized in the emperor, who surrounded himself with a strong corps of administrative officials dependent wholly upon his favor. The country grew wealthy under his rule. Later even the pope contrasted the bad conditions in Sicily under his own protege, Charles of Anjou, with its prosperity under the hated Hohenstaufen.
Policy in Germany. In Germany Frederic's policy was entirely different. There he granted greater powers to the nobles, both lay and ecclesiastical, powers that made them almost independent in their own lands. At first he showed himself very hostile to the cities, whose charters he revoked; but as the carrying out of this policy was left to the former rulers of the cities, especially the bishops, few of the cities suffered; and later Frederic sought the support of the cities. The keynote to his policy in Germany seems to have been that he cared only to get from it men and supplies for the carrying out of his policy in Italy.
Lombard League. He needed this support, especially in his struggle with the Lombard League and the pope. In one of his letters Frederic described the spirit of municipal freedom as " a poisonous weed which must be rooted out. " The Lombard cities distrusted him, and only a few remained of his party. The pope feared that Frederic would be able to build up a strong centralized government in northern as well as in southern Italy, which would crush the papacy. When the Lombard League allied itself with Henry, the rebel son of Frederic, the latter declared war on the league. He won a brilliant victory at Cortenuova in 1237. The pope, who had been friendly to the league and had attempted to intervene, finally excommunicated Frederic, in 1239.
Frederic's Struggle with the Pope. Both parties appealed to the public opinion of Europe as represented by the kings and leaders, just as they had done in the time of Frederic's crusade. The pope laid stress upon the emperor's impiety and misdeeds. The emperor demanded the calling of a general council, so that he might have an opportunity to prove the pope's unworthiness for his office, and warned the other kings that if the pope crushed the emperor it would then be easy for him to humble them the emperor's cause was theirs. Gregory summoned the bishops of the Christian world to Rome to hold a council. Since Frederic knew that the decision would be adverse to him, he attacked the Genoese fleet on which bishops f rom France, England, Italy, and Spain had set sail for Rome, and captured three papal legates and many archbishops and bishops. The council could not be held. Gregory died a few months later, and no pope was consecrated for almost two years. Frederic attempted to win to his cause the new pope, Innocent IV, who was an old friend; but no accord was possible between Frederic and the pope. After negotiating for a time, Innocent withdrew to Lyons in order to be able to hold a council in safety. There Frederic was declared guilty of perjury, heresy, and sacrilege, and was solemnly excommunicated. Innocent preached a crusade against him and laid an interdict on Sicily. An anti-king was elected in Germany by the papal partizans. The war with the Lombard League was waged with the greatest barbarity on both sides, and no decisive results had been obtained by either party when Frederic died, in 1250.
Character of Frederic. It is easier to describe the tangled events of his reign than it is to form an estimate of his character. The popes' hostility to him had been mainly political, and Louis IX of France had rebuked one pope for his un-Christian conduct. Modern writers have styled Frederic "the first modern king." Misled by his great talents, they have frequently been too partial to him. In this respect they are following the German opponents of the papacy, who long believed that Frederic was not dead, but would return to free them from the papal tyranny. This legend about Frederic was transferred to his grandfather at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and made well known by the ballad of the sleeping Barbarossa. It was natural that the Germans should transfer the legend to the grandfather for whom Frederic was named; for the latter was not at all a German. He was a product of the mixture of peoples and civilizations in Sicily. This was especially noticeable in his habits and point of view. He has been aptly styled " a baptized sultan." He had his harems, guarded by eunuchs, which he took with him on his journeys. Also on his royal progresses he was usually accompanied by a menagerie, which he kept partly for show and partly for the opportunity that it gave him to study the animals. An account of one of his journeys reminds us of a circus parade. First came the four-horse wagons, "filled with gold and silver, cambric and purple, jewels and splendid furniture"; then, camels and dromedaries, lions, panthers, white bears, monkeys, and other animals, especially falcons; an enormous elephant, a present from the sultan of Egypt, which bore on its back a huge tower from which Saracen attendants looked down; Ethiopians with silver trumpets, Moorish dancers, and jongleurs; and the great closed chariots for his harem and the attendants.
Author and Patron of Learning. Frederic really studied animals, and was especially interested in falcons. He made a collection of all kinds of hawks, and wrote a book on falconry in which he compared the different species and described the methods of training them. He accepted no statement about hawks on the authority of any previous writer, and often corrected the mistakes of others. This is characteristic of his point of view; he was a skeptic. The pope of denounced him for writing a book on " The Three Impostors, Moses, Christ, and Mohammed," and Frederic may actually have written such a work. In spite of the fact that he persecuted heretics cruelly, he was not at all an orthodox Christian. Men of all religions, or of none, were welcome at his court if they had skill in any branch of knowledge. He founded the University of Naples and was a liberal patron of many kinds of learning. Dante called him "the father of Italian poetry." In his own age he was described as stupor mundi et immolator mirabilis (" the wonder of the world and a marvelous innovator ").
Sanctity. Frederic had imbibed the old Roman idea of the sanctity of the emperor. He spoke of Iesi as the " noble city where our divine mother brought us into the world," " this Bethlehem where Caesar was born." He regarded the pope as his subordinate and had no reverence for him. In one of his letters to his prime minister, Peter de Vineis, Frederic applied to him the Biblical text, " thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church." Any one who studies Frederic's relations with the popes and with the Church will understand why a pope spoke of " the viper brood of the Hohenstaufens," and why Innocent IV and his immediate successors were determined to exterminate the family of Frederic II.
Great Interregnum. They were successful. The last legitimate male Hohenstaufen perished on the scaffold at Naples in 1268. Rival candidates were elected as emperor, but had no real power. The period between 1254, the date of the death of Conrad, son of Frederic II, and 1273, the date of the election of Rudolf of Hapsburg, is generally called the Great Interregnum, or by the Germans the Age of Faustrecht (fist law "), when might made right, when there was no established central authority, and each district had to depend upon its own resources to maintain order.
Advance of Germany. This period, however, saw a wonderful development of the German people. It was especially notable for the extension of German colonizing activities in the northeast. The cities grew stronger and more independent. Freed from the incubus of Italy and from the constant drain of men and supplies to maintain the imperial pretensions in other lands, the Germans organized leagues of cities which maintained their independence.