Frederick Barbarossa

Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (German: Friedrich I; Italian: Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death in 1190. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March 1152. He was crowned King of Italy on 24 April 1155 in Pavia and emperor by Pope Adrian IV on 18 June 1155 in Rome. Two years later, the term sacrum ("holy") first appeared in a document in connection with his empire. He was later formally crowned King of Burgundy, at Arles on 30 June 1178. His nickname of Barbarossa (meaning "Red Beard" in Italian) "was first used by the Florentines only in 1298 to differentiate the emperor from his grandson, Frederick II ... and was never employed in medieval Germany" (the colour red was "also associated in the Middle Ages with malice and a hot temper"; in reality, Frederick's hair was "blond", although his beard was described by a contemporary as "reddish"). In German, he was known as Kaiser Rotbart, which in English means "Emperor Redbeard". The prevalence of the Italian nickname, even in later German usage, reflects the centrality of the Italian campaigns under his reign, and "remains to this day one of the [most] powerful historical monikers."

Frederick was by inheritance Duke of Swabia (1147–1152, as Frederick III) before his imperial election in 1152. He was the son of Duke Frederick II of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and Judith, daughter of Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria, from the rival House of Welf. Frederick, therefore, descended from the two leading families in Germany, making him an acceptable choice for the Empire's prince-electors. Frederick joined the Third Crusade and opted to travel overland to the Holy Land. In 1190, Frederick drowned attempting to cross the Saleph River, leading to most of his army abandoning the Crusade before reaching Acre.

Historians consider him among the Holy Roman Empire's greatest medieval emperors. He combined qualities that made him appear almost superhuman to his contemporaries: his longevity, his ambition, his extraordinary skills at organization, his battlefield acumen, and his political perspicacity. His contributions to Central European society and culture include the re-establishment of the Corpus Juris Civilis, or the Roman rule of law, which counterbalanced the papal power that had dominated the German states since the conclusion of the Investiture controversy. Due to his popularity and notoriety, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, he was used as a political symbol by many movements and regimes: the Risorgimento, the Wilhelmine government in Germany (especially under Emperor Wilhelm I), and the Nazi movement (Operation Barbarossa, Barbarossa decree) resulting in mixed legacies. Modern researchers, while exploring the legacy of Frederick, attempt to untangle legend from historical reality—these efforts result in new perspectives on both the emperor as a person and the social developments associated with him.

Frederick was born in mid-December 1122 in Haguenau, to Duke Frederick II of Swabia and Judith of Bavaria. His father was from the Hohenstaufen family, and his mother was from the Welf family, the two most powerful families in The Holy Roman 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 nobles of the Holy Roman Empire. One took place in 1141 in Strasbourg, another in 1142 in Konstanz, 1143 in Ulm, 1144 in Würzburg and 1145 in Worms.

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.

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.