Frederick I Barbarossa

Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1152-1190)

• Born: c. 1123
• Birthplace: Waiblingen, Swabia (now in Germany)
• Died: June 10, 1190
• Place of death: Saleph River, near Seleucia, Kingdom of Armenia (now Göksu River, near Silifke, Turkey)

For thirty-eight years Frederick ruled over the chaotic area of the Holy Roman Empire. Although he failed to unite effectively his German territories with the city-states of northern Italy, he nevertheless imposed his personality and power on a strong German feudal state.

Early Life

Germany in the twelfth century was undergoing enormous social transformation. An increase in the population, unmatched by a corresponding economic revolution, put great pressure on a political structure based largely on personal loyalties. Simultaneously there was a growing division between the secular power of the Holy Roman Emperor and the ecclesiastical power of the Papacy. The Investiture Controversy (the quarrel over whether the pope or the emperor would invest the bishops with their symbol of authority) led Emperor Henry IV to subordinate himself to the pope and ultimately resulted in a compromise at the Concordat of Worms in 1107. Still, a bishop had a dual function as secular and spiritual prince, and his strength diminished the potential power of the emperor.

In these tumultuous times, Frederick Barbarossa (a name derived from his red beard) was chosen king of Germany in 1152; he was elected by the princes and bishops of Germany to succeed his uncle Conrad III . The unanimous election of so young a man he was not yet thirty years old reflected not only his personal strength and intellect but also, more important, the fact that he was related by blood to the two major families in Germany whose past quarrels had shaken the security of the empire. The powerful Welf and Staufen families had long dominated German politics, and Frederick’s election proved an effective solution to their power struggle. During his long reign, he endeavored to centralize government and authority in Germany but, in the end, reestablished in a new and more orderly form the feudalism that caused Germany to lag behind the monarchical development of France and England.

Contemporary busts of Frederick (there are no portraits) show a smiling face with the tight, stylized curls of hair and beard reminiscent of Roman portraiture. Frederick’s uncle, the historian Otto of Freising, described the monarch as well proportioned:

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 nose well formed, his beard reddish. . . .

In June of 1149, Frederick married Adela von Vohburg, a slightly older woman whose marriage to him reconciled old family quarrels. She was never crowned as queen, apparently because there was little closeness between them. When Frederick discovered that she had committed adultery, it gave him the excuse to dissolve a marriage that meant nothing to him personally and whose political value was of minor significance after he was elected king. Accordingly, he petitioned the pope to have the marriage annulled; the pope, eager to please the emperor, agreed.

When Frederick chose to remarry in 1156, he selected Beatrix, the daughter of Count Rainald, although she was apparently only ten years old at the time. Her appeal was enhanced by lands in Burgundy that she could claim and whose possession was important to Frederick as part of his grand design for the empire. Their alliance was both politically useful and personally fulfilling. The first of their four sons was born in 1164.

Life’s Work

After his election as king of Germany in 1152, Frederick traveled through his kingdom, showing himself to the people (an act of symbolic importance in medieval Germany). He retained the major advisers of Conrad III so that there was, both in appearance and in fact, a continuity of rule. Frederick was then crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle by the archbishop of Cologne. His next move was to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the pope. Meanwhile, Frederick traveled through his kingdom as an arbitrator of conflicting interests, fulfilling one of his expected roles: maintainer of justice. His fame grew as he was successful in settling a variety of disputes.

The pope, Eugenius III, was eager for Frederick to come to Rome, where one of the traditional functions of the emperor was to protect the pope from social upheaval in this case, a rebellious urban populace in Rome that wanted to establish a republic. Led by Arnold of Brescia, the common people protested the growing wealth of the Church. Frederick’s defense of the pope would mean, as well, open war with King Roger II of Sicily (as a result of earlier commitments made by Conrad III). In 1153, Frederick and the pope signed the Treaty of Constance, which promised mutual assistance. It was after the signing of this treaty that the pope annulled Frederick’s first marriage, leaving the way open for a more politically advantageous union.

The deaths of Pope Eugenius III in 1153 and King Roger of Sicily in 1154 did not deter Frederick from his purpose, and in 1154, he set out on his journey to Rome. He traveled through the tumultuous city-states of northern Italy and at last reached Rome, where he was met by Pope Adrian IV (the only Englishman ever to be pope), whose reputation among the citizens of Rome had worsened. In spite of the unrest, Adrian crowned Frederick Holy Roman Emperor. The new emperor planned his promised war against Sicily, only to discover that his German princes had done all they intended to in Italy and were eager to return to Germany. The following year Frederick was back in Augsburg, ready to organize new plans for his empire.

In the early years of his rule, Frederick followed closely the traditional policies laid down by Conrad III (alliance with Greece against Sicily and support and defense of the pope). By 1156, however, Frederick was prepared to change directions. He was assisted by one of the major advisers of his reign, Rainald of Dassel, who served as chancellor for eleven years. (It was Rainald who brought the bones of the Three Wise Men from a rebellious Milan and placed them in his own bishopric in Cologne.) A change of political direction was also made easier by a treaty of reconciliation between the pope and the new king of Sicily, William I, thus eliminating the need for a war against Sicily.

Frederick sought to claim for himself a more active role in Germany. Traditionally, the emperor was little more than a protector of justice, maintaining old customs but without real authority to enact new laws. Frederick hoped to strengthen and enlarge his political power from a geographical base made up of the areas of Swabia and Alsace (where his family estates were centered), Burgundy (which he could claim through Beatrix, his wife), and Lombardy (the northern Italian area traditionally part of the Holy Roman Empire).

In moving to consolidate his empire, Frederick dealt first with troubles in Bavaria between two of his relatives: Henry the Lion (a Welf) and Henry Jasomirgott (a Babenberg). His division of the duchy established a new constitutional concept of a territorial state with its own ruler, who received more real authority and rights than the traditional rulers had held. Frederick actually began to move away from Germany as a power base and centered his new realm on his family lands. He began a program of constructing new castles and improving roads to connect the cities, many of which were founded under his rule. Frederick also encouraged the rise of an administrative class (ministeriales) to act as his agents in the governing of his enlarging territories.

Frederick’s major problem in consolidating his empire was the territory of Lombardy, where economic development was different from that in his German states. He raised a large army to cross over into Lombardy, and there he came into conflict with the city of Milan. At first Milan became an imperial city, and Frederick participated in a crown-wearing festival that symbolized his embodiment of divine power as emperor. He issued a series of decrees listing the royal rights that belonged to him and declared that the judges and magistrates held their power from him. Opposition to Frederick, however, developed, eventually leading to riots and attempts on his life. In 1160, he took military action against Milan, and after two years the city succumbed to the emperor’s rule.

With the death of Pope Adrian in 1159, the empire became even more unstable. Dissensions within the Church led to the election of two popes: Alexander III and Victor IV (the latter had the support of Frederick and much of the European aristocracy). Both popes were forced to leave Rome, where the citizens were divided in their support. Meanwhile, Alexander excommunicated Victor and his electors. Both popes were consecrated, however, and both continued to claim the spiritual and temporal power of the Papacy. Frederick endeavored to call a council to resolve the dispute, but Alexander refused to participate, claiming that the pope could not be judged by an emperor.

The council was convened without Alexander III and was attended by the kings of England and France, as well as the major nobles of Europe. In Alexander’s absence, the council selected Victor as the legitimate pope, and Victor responded by legitimately excommunicating Alexander and his supporters. Alexander responded by excommunicating Frederick and, in a barrage of propaganda, claimed that Frederick wanted to establish power over the other lords in Europe. Victor, who found it very difficult to appear independent of Frederick, seemed to give credence to these claims.

The organizational problems of the Church became the governmental problems of Frederick because Milan had been supportive of Alexander. After the fall of Milan to Frederick’s forces, Alexander fled to France. Frederick then began negotiations with Louis IV of France for the return of Alexander to Frederick’s control. Frederick and Louis met at yet another council that, stacked in Victor’s favor, resulted in Victor’s being declared pope. Louis, however, changed his mind and refused to accept this settlement. The death of Victor in 1164 was followed by the election of Paschal III, but the highly political nature of his election led even Frederick to oppose him as a legitimate pope.

Frederick returned to Germany from the troubled area of Lombardy. Meanwhile, Alexander, reconciled with the citizens, planned to reenter Rome. Paschal rushed to reach Rome first but failed to beat Alexander to the Holy City. Frederick raised an army to enter Rome and capture Alexander but arrived too late to seize him. Frederick enthroned Paschal, but the triumph was short-lived. An epidemic struck the city and wiped out much of Frederick’s army. The remaining forces returned to Germany, only to find revolt in Lombardy among the hostile cities there (long supporters of Alexander). The disaster in Rome, the death of Rainald from the plague there, and the revolt in Lombardy forced Frederick to reevaluate the plan for centralized territorial control he had devised in 1156. That grand design was abandoned, and Frederick sought a new direction for his rule.

In 1168, Paschal died in Rome and was succeeded by Calixtus III. Frederick initially recognized him as pope and promised support but, by 1169, Frederick was prepared to make overtures to Alexander. His first effort broke down over the problems in Lombardy, where revolt against the emperor continued. In 1175, Frederick cut his losses in Lombardy, and, with the Treaty of Anagni the following year, Germany at last ended the war with Lombardy and also the schism in the Papacy. Frederick and Alexander met in Venice in 1177 for a great festival of reconciliation.

Politically, Frederick now embarked on another program, this one centering on Germany, where he took advantage of the rising tide of feudalism to support the monarchy. Frederick planned to become a feudal king by extending power over as wide an area as possible. With Germany falling nicely into feudal order, Frederick turned again to his Italian territory. New agreements with the cities of Lombardy left Frederick as imperial lord, but with few actual powers, and the cities were left reasonably free to pursue their own goals. Both Alexander and his successor, Lucius III (who became pope in 1181), relied on the military support of Frederick for their positions. Lucius helped to arrange a marriage between Frederick’s son Henry and Constance, aunt of the king of Sicily, which was a major diplomatic triumph and a union of once-hostile forces. Lucius died in 1185 and was succeeded by Urban III (from Milan, thus an enemy of Frederick) and later by Gregory VIII, who once again endeavored to incite the Christian kings of Europe to war against the infidel ruler Saladin, who had conquered Jerusalem in 1187.

Frederick decided that conditions at home were calm enough to enable him to join the Third Crusade as the crowning act of his long reign. Because the chief purpose of the emperor was to protect the Church, and the home of the Church was threatened, it seemed logical that he should go to its defense. At this point, also, the eschatological view of history, dominant in the twelfth century, encouraged the Crusade. Apocalyptic prophecy indicated that the last emperor would go to Jerusalem and lay down his crown and scepter at the Mount of Olives, which would signal the rule of the Antichrist and the Second Coming. Thus, at Pentecost, 1188, Frederick took the cross and departed on the Third Crusade, where he was joined by Philip II of France and Richard I the Lion-Hearted of England.

After careful preparation, Frederick and a disciplined army of knights set forth. The politics of the Byzantine land through which he passed often led to clashes, but Frederick continued. In Armenia, near the city of Seleucia, Frederick stopped to drink at the Saleph River, and there he drowned in 1190. His body was taken to Antioch and buried in the cathedral there. Bereft of its strong central ruler, Germany declined into feudal states, and Pope Innocent III emerged as the strongman within the empire.

Significance

The facts of Frederick’s tragic death were soon overshadowed by legends that had a powerful influence in Germany history, even during the Nazi era of the twentieth century. According to one legend, Frederick I Barbarossa never really died but was asleep atop the Kyffhäuser Mountain, and one day he would awaken and restore the glory of the German Empire. The legend was popular within a hundred years of Frederick’s death and, though initially attached to Frederick III, in its final form centered on Frederick I Barbarossa. The cult of Frederick was very important, as the fragmented German states sought to reestablish a German Empire in the late nineteenth century.

Frederick Barbarossa was the first emperor to have a modern vision of monarchy, and his efforts to build a strong monarchy anticipated the stirring of German nationalism in the nineteenth century. Frederick was a man whose ideas were ahead of his time, and, had he been able to unify his territorial states (Swabia, Burgundy, and Lombardy), the history of Western Europe would have taken a different path. He failed because of the divided Papacy, the economic turmoil (which made Lombardy particularly difficult to subdue), and the independence of the German nobles.

In his later years, Frederick accepted the limits of his time and, capitalizing on local conditions in Germany, built a strong feudal state. Unquestionably one of the strongest figures of the twelfth century, Frederick cannot be overlooked in either the history of the Holy Roman Empire or the history of Germany.

Hohenstaufen Kings of Germany,

Reign

• Ruler

1138-1152

• Conrad III

1152-1190

• Frederick I Barbarossa

1190-1197

• Henry VI

1198-1208

• Philip of Swabia

1208-1215

• Otto IV (married into Hohenstaufens)

1215-1250

• Frederick II

1250-1254

• Conrad IV

1254-1273

• Great Interregnum

Bibliography

Barraclough, Geoffrey. Medieval Germany, 911-1250. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1967. Useful, especially for constitutional issues raised during the reign of Frederick that had an impact on the development of modern Germany.

Barraclough, Geoffrey. The Origins of Modern Germany. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1966. One of the major scholars of the Middle Ages in general (and Germany in particular) examines the rule of Frederick. There is also an excellent discussion of Frederick’s effort to establish his government in the state of northern Italy. One of the best short summaries of the life and impact of Frederick.

Carson, Thomas, ed. and trans. Barbarossa in Italy. New York: Italica Press, 1994. An epic about the events that led to Frederick’s destruction of Milan in 1162, by a contemporary but anonymous poet known as the Bergamo Master. Bibliography.

Heer, Frederick. The Holy Roman Empire. Translated by Janet Sondheimer. New York: Praeger, 1968. One of many surveys of the Holy Roman Empire that, necessarily, focus on the rule of Frederick. This particular study emphasizes the romantic nature of Frederick’s rule, especially as viewed in hindsight by later, nationalist Germans charmed with the legends of their medieval past.

Jeep, John M., et al., eds. Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 2001. An A-Z encyclopedia that addresses all aspects of the German- and Dutch-speaking medieval world from 500 to 1500. Entries include individuals, events, and broad topics such as feudalism and pregnancy. Bibliographical references, index.

Moore, Robert Ian. The First European Revolution, c. 970-1215. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2000. According to the publisher, “a radical reassessment of Europe from the late tenth to the early thirteenth centuries [arguing that] the period witnessed the first true ’revolution’ in European society,” supported by transformation of the economy, family life, political power structures, and the rise of the non-Mediterranean cities. Bibliography, index.

Munz, Peter. Frederick Barbarossa: A Study in Medieval Politics. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1969. The definitive work on Frederick, this study covers in detail Frederick’s reign and his different plans for development of the empire. A splendid analysis of the legends surrounding Frederick and their origins and impact on German history. It includes an extensive bibliography and genealogical table and an index useful for sorting out the persons who influenced Frederick’s reign. Extensive footnotes also assist the reader in finding his way through the twelfth century.

Otto of Freising. The Deeds of Frederick Barbarossa. Translated by Charles Christopher Mierow. 1953. Reprint. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, in association with the Medieval Academy of America, 1994. The major source for information on the life of Frederick. Written during his lifetime by his uncle, it is politically slanted in favor of Frederick. It includes letters from and to the major figures of the day and provides not only useful information but also a wonderful flavor of the language and thought of the twelfth century.

Stubbs, William. Germany in the Early Middle Ages, 476-1250. New York: Howard Fertig, 1969. Includes a solid chapter on the reign of Frederick. Emphasis is on his rule, its chronology, and the other major figures who ruled contemporaneously with Frederick.