Early life Frederick was born to Duke
Frederick II of Swabia and
Judith of Bavaria in mid-December 1122 in
Hagenau, then part of the
Duchy of Swabia, Holy Roman Empire, and now part of France. His mother was from the
Welf family, and his father was from the
Hohenstaufen family, the two most powerful families in the
empire. The Hohenstaufens were often called
Ghibellines, which derives from the Italianized name for
Waiblingen castle, the family seat in Swabia; the Welfs, in a similar Italianization, were called
Guelfs. Frederick was also a descendant of the
Salian dynasty through his paternal grandmother
Agnes as she was the daughter of
Emperor Henry IV and
Bertha of Savoy. He also had ties to the
Ottonian dynasty through his mother
Judith as she hailed from
Emperor Otto II and his wife
Theophanu. Therefore, Frederick carried on the bloodline of Emperor
Otto the Great and his wives,
Eadgyth and
Adelaide. He learned to ride, hunt and use weapons at an early age, but could neither read nor write, and was also unable to speak the
Latin language until later in life. He took part in several
Hoftage during the reign of his uncle,
King Conrad III, which were a form of informal and irregular assembly popular among the empire's nobles. One took place in 1141 in
Strasbourg, another in 1142 in
Konstanz, 1143 in
Ulm, 1144 in
Würzburg and 1145 in
Worms.
Second Crusade In early 1147, Frederick decided to join the
Second Crusade after his uncle,
King Conrad III, had taken the
crusader vow in public on 28 December 1146. Frederick's father,
Duke Frederick II, strongly objected to this and according to
Otto of Freising, the duke berated his brother for permitting his son to go. The elder Frederick, who was dying, expected his son to look after his widow and younger half-brother once he had passed on, not risk his life by going on a crusade. Perhaps in preparation for the crusade, Frederick married
Adelaide of Vohburg sometime before March 1147. His father died on 4 or 6 April and Frederick succeeded him as the Duke of Swabia. The German crusader army departed from
Regensburg seven weeks later. In August 1147, while crossing the
Byzantine Empire, an ill crusader stopped in a monastery outside
Adrianople to recuperate. There he was robbed and killed. Conrad ordered Frederick to avenge him. The duke of
Swabia razed the monastery, captured and executed the robbers and demanded they return the stolen money. The intervention of the Byzantine general Prosuch prevented further escalation. A few weeks later, on 8 September, Frederick and
Welf VI were among the few German crusaders who survived when a flash flood destroyed the main camp. They had decided to encamp on a hill a ways away from the main army. The remains of the army reached
Constantinople the following day. Conrad III attempted to lead the army across Anatolia but finding this too difficult in the face of
constant Turkish attacks near Dorylaeum, decided to turn back. The rearguard was subsequently annihilated. Conrad sent Frederick ahead to inform King
Louis VII of France of the disaster and ask for help. The two armies, French and German, then advanced together. When
Conrad fell ill around Christmas in
Ephesus, he returned to Constantinople by ship with his personal retinue, which included Frederick. With Byzantine ships and money, the German army once again left Constantinople on 7 March 1148 and arrived in
Acre on 11 April. After Easter, Conrad and Frederick visited
Jerusalem, where Frederick was impressed by the charitable works of the
Knights Hospitaller. He took part in the
council of Acre on 24 June, where a decision was reached that the crusaders would attack
Damascus. in 1148 The
Siege of Damascus (24–28 July) lasted a mere five days and ended in failure.
Gilbert of Mons, writing fifty years later, recorded that Frederick "prevailed in arms before all others in front of Damascus". On 8 September, the German army sailed out of Acre. On the route home, Conrad III and Frederick stopped in
Thessaloniki where they swore oaths to uphold the treaty that Conrad had agreed with Emperor
Manuel I Komnenos the previous winter. This treaty obligated the Germans to attack King
Roger II of Sicily in cooperation with the Byzantines. After confirming the treaty, Frederick was sent ahead to Germany. He passed through
Bulgaria and
Hungary and arrived in Germany in April 1149.
Election 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 faculties, handed the royal insignia to Frederick and indicated that he, rather than Conrad's own six-year-old son, the future
Frederick IV, Duke of Swabia, succeed him as king. He was crowned
King of the Romans at
Aachen several days later, on 9 March 1152. The reigns of
Henry IV and
Henry V left the status of the German empire in disarray, its power waning under the weight of the
investiture controversy. For a quarter of a century following the death of Henry V in 1125, the German monarchy was largely a nominal title with no real power behind it. The king, chosen by the prince-electors, was given no resources outside those of his own duchy, and he was at the same time prevented from exercising any real authority or leadership. 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 was chosen as king in 1152, royal power had been in effective abeyance for over 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, and 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
Lothair III (1125–1137), who found himself embroiled 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 succeeded his uncle in 1152, there seemed to be excellent prospects for ending the feud, since he was a Welf on his mother's side. The Germany that Frederick tried to unite was a patchwork of more than 1,600 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. Frederick did not attempt to end medieval feudalism, but rather tried to restore it, though this was beyond his ability. The great players in the German civil war had been the Pope, Emperor, Ghibellines and the Guelfs, but none of these had emerged as the winner.
Rise to power or denier with Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, struck in
Nijmegen Eager 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 Eastern 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, making them fourth cousins, once removed). He then made a vain attempt 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 papal confirmation. In March 1153, Frederick concluded the
Treaty of Constance with the Pope, wherein he promised, in return for his coronation, 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,
First Italian Campaign: 1154–55 Frederick undertook six expeditions into Italy. In the first, beginning in October 1154, his plan was to launch a campaign against the
Normans under King
William I of Sicily. He moved on to
Pavia, where he according to some historians received the
Iron Crown and the title of
King of Italy on 24 April in the
Basilica of San Michele Maggiore. Other historians instead suggest his coronation took place in
Monza on 15 April. Moving through
Bologna and
Tuscany, he was soon approaching the city of Rome. There,
Pope Adrian IV was struggling with the forces of the republican city commune led by
Arnold of Brescia, a student of
Abelard. As a sign of good faith, Frederick dismissed the ambassadors from the revived Roman Senate, ,
Basilica of San Michele Maggiore, the five stones above which the throne was placed during coronation of Frederick I. As Frederick approached the gates of Rome, the Pope advanced to meet him. At the royal tent the king received him, and after kissing the pope's feet, Frederick expected to receive the traditional kiss of peace. Frederick had declined to hold the Pope's stirrup while leading him to the tent, however, so Adrian refused to give the kiss until this protocol had been complied with. The Romans began to riot, and Frederick spent his coronation day putting down the revolt, resulting in the deaths of over 1,000 Romans and many more thousands injured. The next day, Frederick, Adrian, and the German army travelled to
Tivoli. From there, a combination of the unhealthy Italian summer and the effects of his year-long absence from Germany meant he was forced to put off his planned campaign against the Normans of
Sicily. 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, Henry II Jasomirgott 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 unprecedented 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. Frederick could not afford to make an outright enemy of Henry. On 9 June 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. In an attempt to create comity, Emperor Frederick proclaimed the
Peace of the Land, written between 1152 and 1157, which enacted punishments for a variety of crimes, as well as systems for adjudicating many disputes. He also declared himself the sole Augustus of the Roman world, ceasing to recognise Manuel I at Constantinople.
Second, Third and Fourth Italian Campaigns: 1158–1174 The retreat of Frederick in 1155 forced Pope Adrian IV to come to terms with King William I of Sicily, granting to William I territories that Frederick viewed as his dominion. This aggrieved Frederick, and he was further displeased when
Papal legates chose to interpret a letter from Adrian to Frederick in a manner that seemed to imply that the imperial crown was a gift from the
Papacy and that in fact the Empire itself was a
fief of the Papacy. Disgusted with the pope, and still wishing to crush the Normans in the south of Italy, 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 revolt and capture of
Milan, the
Diet of Roncaglia that saw the establishment of imperial officers and ecclesiastical reforms in the cities of northern Italy, and the beginning of the long struggle with
Pope Alexander III. Milan soon rebelled again and humiliated
Empress Beatrice (see Legend below). The death of Pope Adrian IV in 1159 led to the
election of two rival popes, Alexander III and the
antipope Victor IV, and both sought Frederick's support. Frederick, busy with the
siege of Crema, appeared unsupportive of Alexander III, and after the sacking of Crema demanded that Alexander appear before the emperor at Pavia and to accept the imperial decree. Alexander refused, and Frederick recognised Victor IV as the legitimate pope in 1160. In response, Alexander III
excommunicated both Frederick I and Victor IV. Frederick attempted to convoke a joint council with King
Louis VII of France in 1162 to decide the issue of who should be pope. The political result of the struggle with Pope Alexander was an alliance formed between the Norman state of Sicily and Pope Alexander III against Frederick. In the meantime, Frederick had to deal with another rebellion at Milan, in which the city surrendered on 6 March 1162; much of it was destroyed three weeks later on the emperor's orders. The fate of Milan led to the submission of
Brescia,
Placentia, and many other northern Italian cities. In August 1162 he triumphantly entered Turin and was crowned with his consort in the cathedral on August 15. 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. In Frederick's third visit to Italy in 1163, his plans for the conquest of
Sicily were ruined by the formation of a powerful league against him, brought together mainly by opposition to imperial taxes. in
Aachen Cathedral was donated by Frederick sometime after 1165 as a tribute to Charlemagne. In the meantime Frederick was focused on restoring peace in the Rhineland, where he organized a magnificent celebration of the
canonization of
Charlemagne at Aachen, under the authority of the antipope Paschal III. Concerned over rumours that Alexander III was about to enter into an alliance with the Byzantine Emperor
Manuel I, in October 1166 Frederick embarked on his fourth Italian campaign, hoping as well to secure the claim of 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. In 1167 Frederick began besieging
Ancona, which had acknowledged the authority of Manuel I; at the same time, his forces achieved a great victory over the Romans at the
Battle of Monte Porzio. Heartened by this victory, Frederick lifted the siege of Ancona and hurried to Rome, where he had his wife crowned empress and also received a second coronation from Paschal III. 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 Manuel I, 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. Consequently, his younger son Frederick V became the new Duke of Swabia in 1167, while his second son
Henry was crowned
King of the Romans in 1169, alongside his father who also retained the title. In 1174 Frederick made his fifth expedition to Italy. (It was probably during this time that the famous
Tafelgüterverzeichnis, a record of the royal estates, was made.) He was opposed by the pro-papal
Lombard League (now joined by
Venice, Sicily and
Constantinople), which had previously formed to stand against him. The cities of northern Italy had become exceedingly wealthy through trade, representing 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 at
Alessandria in 1175, the European world was shocked. 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 29 May 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 Anagni in 1176, Frederick recognized Alexander III as pope, and in the
Peace of Venice in 1177, Frederick and Alexander III were formally reconciled. With decisions of Paschal III nullfied, Beatrice ceased to be referred as empress. 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 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. The grounds for a permanent peace were not established until 1183, however, in the
Peace of Constance, when Frederick conceded their right to freely elect town magistrates. By this move, Frederick recovered his nominal domination over Italy, which became his chief means of applying pressure on the papacy. In a move to consolidate his reign after the disastrous expedition into Italy, Frederick was formally crowned
King of Burgundy at
Arles on 30 June 1178. Although traditionally the German kings had automatically inherited the royal crown of Arles since the time of
Conrad II, Frederick felt the need to be crowned by the Archbishop of Arles, regardless of his laying claim to the title from 1152. , Erfurt, where Henry the Lion submitted to Barbarossa in 1181 Frederick did not forgive Henry the Lion for refusing to come to his aid in 1176. By 1180, Henry had successfully established a powerful 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 force his cousin to surrender. Henry's allies deserted him, and he finally had to submit to Frederick at an
Imperial Diet in
Erfurt in November 1181. Henry 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. Frederick's victory over Henry did not gain him as much in the German feudalistic system as it would have in the English feudalistic system. While in England the pledge of fealty went in a direct line from overlords to those under them, the Germans pledged oaths only to the direct overlord, so that in Henry's case, those below him in the feudal chain owed nothing to Frederick. Thus, despite the diminished stature of Henry the Lion, Frederick did not gain his allegiances. 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 greater Germany" by conquering the Slavs to the east. Although the Italian city states had achieved a measure of independence from Frederick as a result of his failed fifth expedition into Italy, the emperor had not given up on his Italian dominions. In 1184, he held a massive celebration, the
Diet of Pentecost, when his two eldest sons were knighted, and thousands of knights were invited from all over Germany. While payments upon the knighting of a son were part of the expectations 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. Later in 1184, Frederick again moved into Italy, this time joining forces with the local rural nobility to reduce the power of the Tuscan cities. In 1186, he engineered the marriage of his son Henry to
Constance of Sicily, heiress to the
Kingdom of Sicily, over the objections of
Pope Urban III. Pope Urban III died shortly after, and was succeeded by
Pope Gregory VIII, who even as
Papal Chancellor had pursued a more conciliatory line with the Emperor than previous popes and was more concerned with troubling reports from the Holy Land than with a power struggle with Barbarossa. This number is believed to be inaccurate by modern scholars using incomplete contemporary sources that place the size of his army at 12,000–15,000 men, including 3,000–4,000 knights. On 11 May 1189, after the majority of his army had already departed toward Hungary on land, Frederick sailed from Regensburg down the River Danube. When he came to the village of
Mauthausen, Frederick ordered the village to be burned for levying a toll on the crusader army. The Crusaders then passed through
Hungary,
Serbia, and
Bulgaria before entering Byzantine territory. While in Hungary, Barbarossa personally asked the Hungarian
Prince Géza, brother of King
Béla III of Hungary, to join the Crusade. The king agreed, and a Hungarian army of 2,000 men led by Géza escorted the German emperor's forces. Later on, Frederick camped in
Philippopolis, then in
Adrianople in the autumn of 1189 to avoid the winter climate in
Anatolia, in the meantime, he received imprisoned German emissaries who were held in Constantinople, and exchanged hostages with Isaac II, as a guarantee that the crusaders would not sack local settlements until they depart the Byzantine territory. In March 1190, Frederick left Adrianople for
Gallipoli at the
Dardanelles, to embark to Asia Minor. The armies coming from western Europe pushed on through Anatolia, where they were victorious at the
Battle of Philomelium and defeated the Turks in the
Battle of Iconium, eventually reaching as far as
Cilician Armenia. The approach of Barbarossa's victorious German army greatly concerned
Saladin, who was forced to weaken his force at the
Siege of Acre and send troops to the north to block the arrival of the Germans.
Death and burials , from the Gotha Manuscript of the
Saxon World Chronicle to excavate the bones from the ruins of the Cathedral of Tyre, 1879 , near
Silifke in
Mersin Province, southern Turkey. The text explains in Turkish and German how Frederick drowned nearby. Barbarossa opted on the local Armenians' advice to follow a shortcut along the
Saleph River on
Taşeli in present-day Turkey. Meanwhile, the army started to traverse the mountain path. On 10 June 1190, he drowned in the river near the
castle in
Seleucia. There are several conflicting accounts of the event: • According to "
Ansbert", against everyone's advice, the emperor chose to swim across the river and was swept away by the current. • Another account recorded that Frederick was thrown from his horse while crossing the river, weighed down by his armour, and drowned. • According to the chronicler
Ibn al-Athir, "the king went down to the river to wash himself and was drowned at a place where the water was not even up to his waist. Thus God saved us from the evil of such a man". • The writer of the
Letter on the Death of the Emperor Frederick, a churchman who accompanied the crusader forces, reported that "after the many and terrible exertions that he [Frederick I] had undergone in the previous month and more, he decided to bathe in that same river, for he wanted to cool down with a swim. But by the secret judgment of God there was an unexpected and lamentable death and he drowned." Frederick, who liked to swim, as he went to bathe with
Otto of Wittelsbach in the
Adriatic, might have been exhausted from weeks of marching, hence he was fatally affected by the very hot summer in Anatolia. If the writer was
Godfrey of Spitzenberg, Bishop of Würzburg, who was a close confidant of Frederick, the report would be the most plausible account of what happened, since he might have witnessed the emperor's death.
Jacques de Vitry, a historian of the Crusades, outlined Frederick's endeavors and Saladin's dilemma, in which he reported: Frederick's death caused several thousand German soldiers to leave the force and return home through the Cilician and Syrian ports. The German-Hungarian army was struck with an onset of disease near
Antioch, weakening it further. Only 5,000 soldiers, a third of the original force, arrived in
Acre. Barbarossa's son,
Frederick VI of Swabia, carried on with the remnants of the German army, along with the Hungarian army under the command of Prince Géza, with the aim of burying the emperor in
Jerusalem, but efforts to preserve his body in vinegar failed. Hence, his flesh was interred in the
Cathedral of Saint Peter in Antioch, his bones in the
Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Tyre, and his heart and inner organs in
Saint Paul's Church,
Tarsus. The unexpected demise of Frederick left the Crusader army under the command of
Leopold V during the siege at Acre. They then came under the command of Frederick's rivals
Philip II and
Richard, who had traveled to
Palestine separately by sea, and this ultimately led to its dissolution. Richard continued to the East where he fought Saladin, winning territories along the shores of Palestine, but ultimately failed to win the war by conquering Jerusalem itself before he was forced to return to his own territories in north-western Europe, known to modern historians as the
Angevin Empire. He returned home after he signed the
Treaty of Ramla agreeing that Jerusalem would remain under Muslim control while allowing unarmed Christian pilgrims and traders to visit the city. The treaty also reduced the
Latin Kingdom to a geopolitical coastal strip extending from Tyre to Jaffa. ==Frederick and the Justinian code==