Frederick I of Hohenstaufen (Barbarossa) (1122-1190), Duke of Swabia from 1147, King of Germany from 1152, Holy Emperor Roman Empire from 1155
A participant in the Second Crusade (1147-1149) to Palestine for the liberation of the Holy Sepulcher, Duke of Swabia Frederick 1 of Hohenstaufen proved himself to be a valiant knight and a skilled commander. After returning from the campaign in 1152, he became king of Germany, and in 1155 - emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. In his character, Frederick was reminiscent of Charlemagne - he loved battles, was generous to the fallen, was distinguished by honesty and dreamed of reviving the former greatness of the Holy Roman Empire. On this path he did not take anything into account.
Little is known about his childhood and youth. He was the son of Duke Frederick II of Swabia (1090-1147) and nephew of the Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III (1093-1152), who also took part in the Second Crusade. During this campaign, Conrad got to know his nephew better, appreciated his courage, rationality, willingness to help and toughness in managing people. The young man had all the necessary qualities to be a commander. Before his death, the sick Conrad recommended Frederick as his successor.
Frederick considered Charlemagne his idol and, once on the royal throne, the first thing he did was organize the army entrusted to him. He called to himself lonely knights, adventurers, everyone who would like to faithfully serve the sword and the cross, proving their rightness on the battlefield. Each warrior had to have his own horse, battle armor and weapons - a sword and a spear. Frederick created one of the first knightly cavalry in Europe, clad in steel armor, capable of breaking any enemy. By his decree, only a knight by birth had the right to participate in the knightly tournament. According to the ritual he introduced, a baldric, a knight's belt and golden spurs could be worn by a knight who was awarded them by the king. Later scholars called Frederick a classic of medieval military art.
In 1154, Frederick went to Italy to receive the crown from the hands of the Pope. In Italy, not everyone unconditionally accepted the news that a German duke would lead the Holy Roman Empire. They were preparing a real military reception for him. Due to the outbreak of unrest in Rome, the Pope was planning to leave the city. Frederick and his knights surrounded St. Peter's Basilica. He barely had time to accept the crown when street fighting began. They continued all night. The next day, Frederick, not wanting to worsen the situation, left Rome with the Pope with a feeling of deep dissatisfaction.
In 1158, he made a second Italian campaign, to which he attracted a significant number of knights - several thousand, an entire army. Venice, Florence, Genoa and Milan, which had become rich, did not want to obey either the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor. They wanted to trade, get rich and not pay anyone anything. Milan was the first to surrender. The city fathers promised Frederick, who was nicknamed Redbeard - Barbarossa, not to mint his own coins, not to charge a toll. In the center of the city, Frederick ordered the construction of a castle in which the German garrison was to remain. He announced to his vassals that everything public - ports, rivers, bridges, cities - came under the control of the emperor, and only he had the right to mint coins. He also acted in other Italian cities. And after that he returned to Germany.
But more than once he had to go to Italy to pacify the rebels, either the Veronese, the Romans, or the Lombardians. He restored order with sword and spear, negotiated harshly with clergy and sought compliance from them. But as soon as he returned to his patrimony, they began to rebel again in Italy, drive out the German knights and live according to their own way of life. In total, Frederick made five trips to Italy. The Emperor had to soften his demands, give up many positions, and recognize the new Pope Alexander III, who, together with the Lombardians, opposed him. He agreed to a truce with Venice and other rebel cities.
While in Germany, Frederick began organizing the German lands, created the Duchy of Westphalia, the Duchy of Styria, and gave Bavaria to Count Wittelsbach. In 1183, a peace with Lombardy was signed in Mainz, according to which the Italian cities recognized him as their overlord, and Frederick recognized their ancient liberties.
If in central and southern Europe life gradually returned to a calm course, then in Palestine bloody clashes continued between Christians and Muslims, who trampled Christian values and desecrated the Holy Sepulcher. Frederick could not help but respond to the call of the Pope to take revenge on the infidels and return the shrines to the fold of the Christian Church. In 1189, Frederick set out on the Third Crusade to the Holy Land.
We went with him french king Philip II Augustus and the English King Richard I the Lionheart. But already during the campaign, clashes arose between them for supremacy. The kings could not divide the lands that had not yet been conquered. They quarreled and parted, each going his own way to Palestine.
The crusaders did not spare anyone on their way; they took food, horses, and weapons from the peasants. After them, there was groaning and crying in the empty villages. With great difficulty and huge losses they passed Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and in January 1190 approached Constantinople. But the Byzantine emperor, frightened by the invasion of the crusaders, entered into negotiations. He supplied them with food and provided ships for crossing the strait. The crusaders did not enter the city.
Frederick and his heavy knights had a particularly difficult time in hot countries, they could hardly stand the heat, they were tormented by thirst. In such conditions, they became easy prey for Muslim detachments, who flew in on their fast horses, killed and instantly disappeared. The army was melting.
In June 1190, Frederick and his detachment approached the fast-moving Selif River, which they had to ford. But during the crossing, the emperor’s horse stumbled, the rapid current knocked him out of the saddle and carried him away. The knights' attempts to save him were unsuccessful. This is official version death of Frederick Barbarossa. Another legend says that when Frederick was riding at the head of an army, he was attacked by Muslims and killed. The bodyguards, in order to hide their shame, told everyone that Frederick had drowned while crossing the river. This is hard to believe, since the emperor was an excellent swimmer.
- one of the most prominent representatives of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. Born around 1123, he was the son of Frederick One-Eye, Duke of Swabia, and as a young man participated in the Second Crusade, where he gained respect for his valor. Frederick I inherited the German and imperial throne after his uncle, Conrad III, in 1152. The glorious, eventful reign and outstanding personal talents of Frederick Barbarossa (this nickname means “Redbeard”) made him a hero of legends and tales for a long time. German legends attributed almost all the remarkable events of the Middle Ages to the personality of Frederick I. In the internal life of Germany, the reign of Frederick Barbarossa was marked by the strengthening of royal power, achieved through fierce struggle.
Barbarossa had a lively mind, was a pleasant conversationalist, an excellent knight, an intelligent and talented sovereign. But in moments of anger, he was extremely harsh and often resorted to bloody cruelty to achieve his goal. His lust for power was immeasurable. As soon as he assumed power, Frederick I began to prepare for a campaign in Italy to be crowned with the imperial crown in Rome and strengthen the power of the German monarch over the Apennines. In his dreams, he dreamed of restoring the power of the ancient Roman Empire to all its greatness. This task was not easy. On the way to her goal, Barbarossa had to face the papacy and the Lombard cities, which by that time had strengthened, become rich and became almost independent of the imperial power. But Frederick I, already in the first period of his reign, became convinced that even European sovereigns independent of him (the kings of England and France) were inclined, if not in deed, then in word, to recognize imperial supremacy. This supported Barbarossa’s proud dreams.
Frederick Barbarossa with his sons Henry and Frederick
Pope Adrian IV was then in great need of Frederick's help, because he was fighting the Roman nobility. In 1143, she formed the Senate, seized control of the city into her own hands and forced the pope to flee Rome to Viterbo. The Senate suggested that Barbarossa receive the crown from the hands of the Roman people, but the king replied that he did not want the temporary favors of the restless crowd, and, if necessary, he would take the inheritance of his fathers by force of arms. Having crossed the Alps, Frederick I at the end of 1154 acted as the supreme arbiter in the civil strife of the Lombard communities and ruined those of them that he recognized as the culprits of the troubles. In the summer of 1155, Barbarossa's army approached Rome. Having entered the city, the Germans occupied all approaches to St. Peter's Cathedral on the night of June 17-18, and Pope Adrian solemnly crowned Frederick with the imperial crown here. But the Romans, dissatisfied with this, already in the evening of the same day moved to attack the quarters of St. Peter. There was a bloody battle all evening. Although Barbarossa's soldiers repulsed the attack of the townspeople, the next morning, June 19, the emperor and pope had to leave the Eternal City. In September, Frederick I returned to Germany.
All this, however, only encouraged the king to continue the fight for Italy, which in the era of recent German unrest had become almost independent of the emperors. In order to establish German dominance in Italy, it was necessary to conquer it again. In 1158 Frederick Barbarossa set out on his second Italian campaign. Shortly before this, he quarreled with his former ally, the papacy, which saw in the events of 1155 a sign of German weakness. Pope Adrian IV in 1157 entered into sharp disputes with Frederick I over the issue of the origin of imperial power. Like Gregory VII, Hadrian argued that emperors, the main secular rulers of Christendom, receive their crown and power from its supreme pontiffs - the popes. Adrian and his successor Alexander III claimed to be overlords of the emperors and to reduce Barbarossa to the rank of their fief.
The main goal Frederick I now had to conquer Milan, the strongest city in Lombardy, which had long maintained itself extremely independently. Barbarossa attracted all the German princes to the campaign and assembled a huge army. Powerful Milan responded by rallying around itself other strong Lombard communities - Brescia, Piacenza, Parma, Modena. In August, Frederick I besieged Milan, and on September 1 it capitulated. The Milanese had to pay a huge tribute, hand over hostages, give up the right to mint coins and collect road tolls. More importantly, they recognized Barbarossa’s right to appoint elected heads of city government. The submission of Milan to the emperor was arranged very solemnly: the entire population of the city came to Frederick’s camp and begged for forgiveness and mercy. Frederick built a castle in Milan and stationed his garrison there.
This victory of his made a great impression on the Lombards. On November 11, 1158, Frederick convened a Diet on the Roncal Field, where he announced to the Italians the principles on which he intended to govern their country. These principles, according to the old autocratic principles of Roman law, were formulated by the Bolognese jurists who served Barbarossa. Roads, navigable rivers, and ports were to come under the control of imperial officials, and the collection of taxes and coinage became the exclusive prerogative of imperial power. Frederick Barbarossa strictly demanded military service from local princes and cities and threatened to take away the fiefs from all those who disobeyed. Civil strife was strictly prohibited. Representatives of the Lombard cities inevitably had to agree at the Diet to close subordination to the emperor.
The Diet of Roncala was supposed to make Frederick Barbarossa complete master of Lombardy. However, soon after its closure, the riots resumed. The Genoese declared that they would give Frederick only what he could claim ownership of. In January 1159, the Milanese rebelled again, supported by the inhabitants of Crema and Brescia. Meanwhile, Frederick, relying on his first success, had already sent most of his troops beyond the Alps. The remaining forces were not enough for a new siege of Milan. In July 1159, Barbarossa approached Crema, stubbornly besieged it for six months and, having captured this city in January 1160, destroyed it to the ground.
Meanwhile, in Rome, after the death of Adrian IV, Frederick's opponents elected Alexander III as pope, and the emperor's supporters elected Victor IV. Barbarossa convened a council of loyal clergy in Pavia, which declared Alexander deposed. Alexander, in turn, excommunicated Barbarossa from the church, and freed his subjects from the oath. Having gathered his troops again, Frederick besieged Milan for the second time in May 1161. The siege lasted almost a year, until in March 1162 the city surrendered without any conditions. Frederick ordered all residents to leave with whatever property they could carry and settle in four unfortified cities. Milan was ruined to the ground. After this, Piacenza, Brescia and other cities surrendered to Barbarossa. Frederick I ordered the residents to dismantle the city walls, pay an indemnity and accept imperial governors - podestes - into their cities.
In 1163, Frederick Barbarossa began preparing for a campaign against Rome. However, in Lombardy, Venice, Verona, Vicenza and Padua united in an anti-German league. In April, the imperial antipope Victor IV died. Paschal III, who was elected in his place, had much fewer supporters than Alexander III. Barbarossa's forces again proved insufficient. In the fall of 1164 he went to Germany to gather a new army, but was detained there by business for a year and a half. Only in the spring of 1165 Frederick I crossed the Alps with a large army and moved towards Rome. On June 24, 1165, the Germans besieged the Castle of Sant'Angelo and occupied the entire left bank of the Tiber. Alexander III took refuge in the castle of Frangipani next to the Colosseum. Frederick suggested that both popes resign and hold new elections. Alexander refused, and the fickle Romans, suffering under the German invasion, turned against the pope. Alexander had to flee Rome. Frederick Barbarossa solemnly entered the city. On June 30, the enthronement of Paschal, who fell under the strong influence of Frederick, took place in the Church of St. Peter. The Senate and the prefect of the city began to submit personally to the emperor. Barbarossa was again close to his cherished goal, but unforeseen circumstances confused his plans. In August, a severe plague epidemic began in the German army. There were so many dead that Frederick hastily took his soldiers to northern Italy. Here he learned that the previously formed league of his enemies had been joined by Cremona, Bergamo, Brescia, Mantua and the Milanese, who began hastily rebuilding their city. Barbarossa's representatives (podestas) were expelled from everywhere. Frederick no longer had a strong army, and he could not resist the rebellion. On December 1, 1167, sixteen rebel cities united into the Lombard League, vowed not to conclude a separate peace and to wage war until they regained all their former freedoms. At the beginning of 1168 Frederick went to Germany. On the way, he was almost captured and had to escape, dressed in someone else's dress. His power over Italy almost completely collapsed.
Difficulties kept Barbarossa in Germany for seven years. In 1173 he once again marched into Italy against the Lombard League. In order not to depend on unreliable princes, Frederick recruited many Brabant mercenaries. In September 1174, Barbarossa crossed the Alps for the fifth time, and in October he besieged Alessandria, a new Lombard city that his enemies named after Pope Alexander III. The Lombards stubbornly defended themselves. In April of the following year, having failed to achieve success, Frederick Barbarossa began negotiations and dismissed the soldiers, whom he could not pay. But consultations that lasted almost a whole year led to nothing. Preparing to resume the war, Barbarossa invited the powerful Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, Henry the Lion of the Welf family, to Chiavenna and asked him for help, even going to the extent of humiliation in his pleas. But Henry the Lion refused to support the emperor in the Italian war. Frederick I, with great difficulty, recruited several thousand soldiers and marched on Milan. On May 29, 1176, he, not having sufficient forces, met with enemies at Legnano. The German knights, as usual, rushed into a powerful attack, broke through the line of Lombard cavalry, and it fled in disarray. But when the Germans attacked the infantry lined up in a square, their attack floundered. Meanwhile, the Lombard cavalry, having met an army from Brescia coming to their aid, returned to the battlefield and suddenly attacked the Germans from the flank. Frederick bravely rushed into the thick of the battle, but was knocked out of the saddle. A false rumor about his death spread throughout the troops. Throwing down their weapons, the knights fled from the battlefield to Pavia. Barbarossa suffered a terrible defeat, barely escaping capture and death.
Through the skillful diplomat Christian, Archbishop of Mainz, Frederick I began negotiations with the Lombard League and Pope Alexander. Thanks to the discord between Barbarossa's Italian enemies, the outcome of the negotiations was very favorable to him. Frederick agreed to recognize Alexander III as the only legitimate pope, returned him the prefecture in Rome and recognized Tuscany as his fief. In exchange, the pope lifted his excommunication. At the peace congress in Venice in 1177, Frederick I made peace with Alexander III, but with the Lombards - so far only a six-year truce. At a personal meeting with the pope, Barbarossa kissed his leg and showed all the outward signs of submission.
Having reconciled with the Italians, Frederick I returned to Germany, where he started intrigues against Henry the Lion. The Bishop of Halberstadt complained that Henry had taken some areas from him. In January 1179 the Duke was summoned to the royal tribunal, but refused to come. Taking advantage of this, Frederick Barbarossa accused him of rebellion. At a congress in Würzburg in January 1180, the powerful Henry the Lion was sentenced to be deprived of all his fiefs. East Saxony was given to Count Bernhard of Anhalt. From West Saxony, Frederick I formed a new Duchy of Westphalia, which he retained for himself. Bavaria was given to Count Otto von Wittelsbach, whose descendants then owned this area until the beginning of the 20th century. The Styrian Mark was taken away from Bavaria and turned into a special duchy. In 1180, the emperor led troops to Saxony, took Brunswick and besieged Lubeck. In November, Heinrich Leo came to a congress in Erfurt and threw himself at Frederick’s feet. Barbarossa forgave him, returned Brunswick, but retained all other Welf possessions and ordered Henry to go into exile for three years. So, having lost the fight with the Italians, Frederick I strengthened royal power in Germany.
In 1183, peace was finally signed in Constance between Barbarossa and the Lombard League. The cities recognized the emperor as their overlord, and Frederick confirmed their ancient liberties, including the right to build fortifications and create leagues. The emperor formally retained the right to invest city consuls. Barbarossa did not give up plans to revive imperial greatness. Having stopped the fight in Northern Italy, he began to plant his influence in the south of it and agreed on the marriage of his son and heir Henry to the heiress of the Sicilian kingdom, the aunt of his sovereign, William. Constance. In 1184, Frederick I organized a luxurious congress near Mainz in honor of his son, one of the most magnificent holidays in all medieval history. This triumph, which amazed the crowds of those gathered, was sung by chroniclers and poets. In 1186, the marriage of young Henry and Constance of Sicily took place. The Papacy was very unhappy with this increase in imperial influence in southern Italy. A new struggle was brewing between Frederick Barbarossa and Rome, but the situation was dramatically changed by the news that shocked Europe about the capture of Jerusalem by the Egyptian Sultan Saladin.
Frederick Barbarossa - Crusader
Frederick immediately announced that he would go on a campaign to recapture Jerusalem from the Muslims (Third Crusade). He gathered the flower of German chivalry under his banners. In May 1189, Barbarossa set out on a crusade to the East with an army of one hundred thousand. In the summer, the crusaders entered the Byzantine possessions, where they soon entered into quarrels with byzantine emperor Isaac Angel, who was very concerned about the entry of the Germans into the Balkans, which rebelled against the Greeks. Frederick Barbarossa entered into relations with the Serbs and Bulgarians hostile to Byzantium, occupied all of Macedonia, took Adrianople at the end of November and even thought of attacking Constantinople. However, they still managed to come to an agreement with the Greeks, and in the spring of 1190, the army of Frederick I crossed to Asia Minor on Greek ships.
The trek through Asia Minor was also very difficult. Barbarossa skillfully led his army through hostile Muslim areas. He won several skirmishes with the Seljuks and took Konya on May 18. But when on June 10 the German army approached the Selif River, when crossing it, Frederick I was unable to control his horse, which got scared and stumbled. Barbarossa fell into the water and was carried away by the current. When the emperor was pulled out of the water, he was already dead. The German campaign was subsequently frustrated, but remained, however, one of the favorite subjects of folk legends about Frederick I.
According to another German legend, Frederick Barbarossa did not die, but slept in a cave under Mount Kyffhäuser, so that one day he would return. The long beard of the sleeping emperor continues to grow.
Monument to Friedrich Barbarossa at Mount Kyffhäuser. Barbarossa's grown beard encircles the throne
Frederick I Barbarossa
FRIEDRICH I HOHENSTAUFEN (Barbarossa) (c. 1125-1190) - German king from 1152, emperor of the “Holy Roman Empire” from 1155, who considered himself the heir of the Roman Caesars and the legitimate sovereign of not only the West, but and East.
Constantly at odds with the Byzantine Empire and Pope Alexander III in the struggle for the conquest of Italy. He died during the Third Crusade, when his troops passed through the territory of Byzantium.
Orlov A.S., Georgieva N.G., Georgiev V.A. Historical Dictionary. 2nd ed. M., 2012, p. 541.
Frederick I Barbarossa (1123-1190) - German king and emperor "Holy Roman Empire" from the Hohenstaufen family, who ruled from 1152 to 1190.
Wives:
1) from 1147 Adelheide, daughter of Dupold II, Margrave von Voburg;
Frederick was the son of Frederick One-Eye, Duke of Swabia, and the nephew of Emperor Conrad III. In 1147, after the death of his father, he became Duke of Swabia. He soon took part in the Second Crusade, during which he gained universal respect thanks to his courage and valor. Returning to Germany, the sick emperor recommended that the princes elect Frederick as their successor. He died in February 1152, and already on March 4, Frederick took the empty throne. The new king was a young and physically very strong man, possessed of a lively mind, a pleasant and even charming interlocutor, an excellent knight, greedy for difficult undertakings and glory, an honest and generous sovereign, a kind and firm Christian. But these advantages did not cover the shortcomings that were common, however, in the monarchs of that time. Thus, in moments of anger, Frederick was extremely stern, did not tolerate opposition, and was sometimes ready for bloody cruelty to achieve his goal. His lust for power was immeasurable, but he never dreamed of extraordinary enterprises and stormy successes. Everything he took on was realistic and thought out. Therefore, luck often accompanied him even in the most difficult enterprises. And although the main dream of his life - to revive the former power of the empire of Charlemagne - remained unfulfilled, he did a lot along this path.
As soon as he assumed power, Frederick began to prepare for a campaign in Italy. German affairs delayed him for two years. Finally, in October 1154, the German army crossed the Alps. At this time, Pope Adrian IV waged a stubborn struggle with the Roman nobility, which in 1143 formed the Senate and seized control of the city into its own hands. Due to the outbreak of unrest, the pope had to leave his residence and moved to Viterbo. The Senate suggested that Frederick receive the crown from the hands of the Romans themselves, but the king arrogantly replied that he had arrived in Italy not to beg for the temporary favor of a restless people, but as a prince determined to obtain, if necessary, by force of arms, the inheritance of his fathers. On the night of June 17-18, the Germans occupied all approaches to St. Peter's Cathedral. Hadrian solemnly crowned Frederick with the imperial crown here. But in the evening the Romans moved from the Capitol to attack the quarters of St. Peter. There was a bloody battle all evening, and the attack of the townspeople was repulsed. The next morning, June 19, the emperor and pope left the eternal city, which they never truly entered. Convinced that nothing more could be done, Frederick returned to Germany in September. From that time on, his thoughts were constantly directed towards Italy. He knew before and during the coronation he was finally convinced that this country over the past decades had become virtually independent of the empire and in order to establish German dominance in it, it was necessary to conquer it again. This time Frederick carefully prepared for the invasion. In 1158 he set out on his second Italian campaign. His main goal was the conquest of Milan, since since the time of Conrad II this city had become accustomed to demonstrating its independence and remained the main stronghold of all opponents of the empire in Lombardy. To be sure, Frederick tried to attract all the German princes to the campaign and assembled a huge army. The large superiority in forces allowed his plans to get off to a successful start. In August, Milan was besieged and capitulated on September 1. The Milanese had to pay a huge tribute, hand over hostages, give up the right to mint coins and collect road tolls. In the center of the city, Frederick erected a castle and placed his garrison. This bloodless and easy victory made a great impression on the Lombards. Having convened a congress in Roncale, Frederick brought to the attention of the Italians the principles on the basis of which he now wanted to organize the management of his Trans-Alpine possessions. Public roads, navigable rivers and tributaries, ports and harbors were to come under the control of imperial officials, and the collection of taxes and coinage became the exclusive prerogative of the imperial power. At the same time, the emperor strictly demanded military service from his vassals and threatened to take away the fiefs from all those who disobeyed. Internecine wars were strictly prohibited.
The new edicts most of all infringed on the rights and freedoms of the Lombard cities, which by this time had become almost completely independent of their feudal lords. From their side, Frederick encountered the strongest opposition. The Genoese declared that they would give Frederick only what he could claim ownership of. In January 1159, the Milanese rebelled again, dissatisfied with the fact that the emperor tried to establish his proteges in power here. They were supported by the residents of Crem and Brescia. Meanwhile, Frederick, relying on his first success, had already sent most of the allied forces. The remaining forces for a new siege of Milan were clearly not enough. In July 1159, the emperor approached Kremy and stubbornly besieged it for six months. Having finally captured this small fortress in January 1160, Frederick ordered it to be destroyed to the ground. Added to other difficulties were feuds with the papal throne. After the death of Adrian IV, Frederick's opponents elected Alexander III as pope, and his supporters elected Victor IV. The emperor convened a church council in Pavia, which declared Alexander deposed. Alexander was not embarrassed by this and, in turn, excommunicated Barbarossa from the church, and freed his subjects from the oath. Frederick realized that he had to march on Rome. But first he wanted to establish himself in Italy. Having summoned vassals from Germany and Italy, Frederick besieged Milan for the second time in May 1161. A year later, in March 1162, the city surrendered without any conditions to the mercy of the winner. Frederick ordered all residents to leave the city with whatever property they could carry and settle in four unfortified cities. The city itself was completely destroyed. After this main enemy was crushed, Piacenza, Brescia and other cities surrendered. The emperor ordered the residents to dismantle the city walls, pay an indemnity and accept a governor - the podest.
Having traveled briefly to Germany, Frederick returned to Lombardy in the fall of 1163 and began preparing for a campaign against Rome. However, new difficulties stopped him. Venice, Verona, Vicenza and Padua united in an anti-German league. Victor IV died in April. Paschal III, who was elected in his place, had much fewer supporters than Alexander III. The emperor tried to attack Verona, but he had too few forces to wage a serious war. In the fall of 1164, he went to Germany, where he hoped to gather a new army. Business again delayed him for a year and a half. Only in the spring of 1165 did Frederick cross the Alps with a large army and march directly towards Rome. On June 24, the Germans besieged the Castle of Sant'Angelo and occupied the entire left bank of the Tiber. Alexander III took refuge in the castle of Frangipani next to the Colosseum. Frederick suggested that both popes resign from office and hold new elections to avoid bloodshed. Alexander refused, and this greatly damaged him in the eyes of the townspeople. The notoriously fickle Romans turned against the pope, and he had to flee to Beneventum. The Emperor solemnly entered the city, and on June 30, Paschal was enthroned in the Church of St. Peter. However, Frederick did not leave to his supporter even a shadow of the power that the popes had enjoyed before him. The Senate and the prefect of the city began to submit personally to the emperor, who thus took control of Rome. into your own hands. It seemed that Frederick had reached the limits of his desires. But then unforeseen circumstances confused all his plans: in August, a severe plague epidemic began in the German army. There were so many dead that Frederick hastily took his soldiers to northern Italy. Here he was alarmed to discover that the position of his enemies had strengthened; the previously formed league was joined by Cremona, Bergamo, Brescia, Mantua, as well as the inhabitants of Milan, who hastily rebuilt their city. Unfortunately, Frederick no longer had an army, and he had to watch powerlessly from Pavia as the rebellion flared up. On December 1, 1167, sixteen rebel cities united into the Lombard League. They vowed not to conclude a separate peace and to wage war until they returned all the benefits and freedoms that they had under the previous emperors. At the beginning of 1168, Frederick decided to make his way to Germany. On the way to Susa, he was almost captured and had to escape, dressed in someone else's dress.
This time the emperor spent seven years in Germany, busy solving pressing matters and strengthening his power. In 1173, he announced his decision to return to Italy and lead an army on a campaign against the Lombard League. In order not to depend on the princes, who more than once left him without warriors at the very critical moment, he recruited many Brabant mercenaries. In September 1174, Frederick crossed the Alps for the fifth time, and in October he besieged Alersandria. The Lombards stubbornly defended themselves. In April of the following year, having failed to achieve success, Frederick began negotiations and dismissed the soldiers, whom he could not pay. But consultations that lasted almost a whole year did not lead to anything, since the positions of the parties were too different. It was necessary to prepare for war again. The emperor invited his cousin, the powerful Duke of Bavaria and Saxony Heinrich Leo from the Welf family, to Chiavenna and asked him for help. Henry the Lion refused, which greatly offended Frederick. With great difficulty, he recruited several thousand soldiers in Italy and marched with them to Milan. On May 20, 1176, the opponents met near Legnano. The German knights, as was their custom, rushed into a powerful attack, broke through the line of Lombard cavalry, and it fled in disarray. But when the Germans attacked the infantry lined up in a square, their attack floundered. Meanwhile, the Lombard cavalry, having met an army from Brescia rushing to their aid, returned to the battlefield and suddenly attacked the Germans from the flank. Friedrich rushed into the very rubbish with ardor and courage, but was knocked out of the saddle. Immediately the rumor of his imaginary death spread throughout the troops. Throwing down their weapons, the knights fled from the battlefield and took refuge in Pavia.
After this defeat, Frederick had to soften his position and make big concessions: he agreed to recognize Alexander III as the only legitimate pope, returned the prefecture in Rome to him and agreed to recognize the Margraviate of Tuscany as his fief. In exchange for this, the pope lifted his excommunication. Having made peace with the pope, Frederick returned to Lombard business. But it was not possible to come to an agreement with the rebel cities. In July 1177, in Venice, Frederick signed a truce with them for six years and in the summer of 1178 he went to Burgundy, where he was crowned King of Burgundy in Arles. In Germany, he took the first opportunity to begin to oppress Henry the Lion. At the congress in Speyer, Bishop Ulrich of Halberstadt complained that the Duke had seized fiefs belonging to his diocese. In January 1179, Henry was summoned to the royal tribunal to consider this issue, but refused to come. In June he did not come to the congress in Magdeburg. This made it possible to start another process against him: Frederick accused him of rebellion. At a congress in Würzburg in January 1180, the powerful Welf was sentenced to be deprived of all his fiefs. East Saxony was given to Count Bernhard of Anhalt. From the West Saxon lands, Frederick formed a new Duchy of Westphalia, which he retained for himself. Bavaria was given to Count Otto von Wittelsbach. The Styrian mark was also taken away from her and turned into a duchy. In 1180, the emperor led troops to Saxony, took Brunswick and besieged Lubeck. In the summer of 1181, Henry the Lion realized that his cause was lost. In November he came to a congress in Erfurt and threw himself at the feet of Frederick. Barbarossa forgave him, returned Brunswick, but retained all other Welf possessions. In addition, the Duke had to go into exile for three years. The conflict with the Lombards was also gradually settled. In 1183, peace was signed in Constance with the Lombard League. The cities recognized the emperor as their overlord, and Frederick agreed to preserve their ancient liberties, including such important ones as the right to build fortifications and organize leagues. The emperor retained the right to invest city consuls; his court was recognized as the highest authority. In 1184, Frederick recognized the royal title of William of Sicily, who agreed to marry his aunt Constance to Frederick's son, Henry. (Back then, no one could have imagined that this marriage would bring Sicily to the Hohenstaufens in the future.) Having pacified Italy and established calm throughout the empire, Barbarossa began to prepare for a crusade. In March 1188, at a congress in Mainz, he solemnly accepted the cross.
Remembering the failure of the previous campaign, Frederick prepared for the new enterprise with great care and really managed to gather the flower of German chivalry under his banner. During his absence, he transferred control of the state to his son Henry and in the spring of 1189 he set out from Ratisbonne on the Danube. Having safely passed Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria, the crusaders entered Byzantium in the summer. As before, misunderstandings soon arose between the Germans and Greeks. The envoys of Emperor Isaac Angel demanded hostages from Barbarossa and an undertaking that he would cede part of future conquests. Frederick sent envoys to the emperor, whom the Angel ordered to be thrown into prison. At the news of this, Frederick broke off the negotiations and led his army to Constantinople, abandoning everything in his path to devastation. At the end of November, the crusaders took Adrianople. Only after this did Isaac enter into negotiations with him, and in January 1190 an agreement was concluded. Frederick promised not to pass through Constantinople, for which the Byzantine emperor provided the Germans with food and promised to transport them across the strait. The trek through Asia Minor was also very difficult. On May 18, the crusaders took Konya by storm.
On June 10, the army, accompanied by Armenian guides, approached the Selif River. When crossing it, the emperor was unable to control his horse; he got scared and stumbled. Friedrich fell into the water, the current caught him and carried him away. When the emperor was pulled out of the water, he was already dead.
All the monarchs of the world. Western Europe. Konstantin Ryzhov. Moscow, 1999
Image of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa
on the western portal of the cathedral in Freising. XII century. Germany.
Drowned in the Salef River
FRIEDRICH I (Friederich I Barbarossa) (c. 1122–1190), often referred to simply as Barbarossa (Italian: “Red Beard”), German king and Holy Roman Emperor, the first prominent representative of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. Frederick, the son of Duke Frederick II of Swabia and Judith (daughter of Duke Henry IX of Bavaria, a representative of the Welf family at war with the Hohenstaufen), was probably born in Waiblingen. On his father's side he was the nephew of the German king Conrad III, and on his mother's side he was the nephew of Henry X the Proud, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony. After the death of his father in 1147, Frederick became Duke of Swabia (as Frederick III), and when Conrad died in 1152, he was elected king of the Germans. The nation was then torn apart by internal contradictions, and one of the main conflicts occurred precisely between the Welf and Waiblingen (Hohenstaufen) dynasties. Being connected by family ties with both, Frederick was able to end the difficult conflict for a long time, returning the duchies of Saxony and Bavaria to his cousin Henry the Lion (son of Henry X the Proud, i.e. Welf). At the same time, Frederick was able to give some compensation to other German princes who also laid claim to these possessions, which reduced their discontent. In 1155, Frederick was crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Adrian IV, whom he helped suppress the unrest that had continued in Rome since 1143, which led to the establishment of a republic in the city. One of the leaders here was a religious ascetic, Abelard’s student Arnold of Brescia, who, under pressure from the pope and under the threat of the approaching Frederick, fled to Tuscany, but Frederick’s knights captured him and handed him over to the pope, who put Arnold to death at the stake. The main goal of Frederick's Italian campaigns (there were five in total: 1154–1155, 1158–1162, 1163–1164, 1166–1168, 1174–1178) was to restore German legal and administrative control over the cities of northern Italy. To put his power on a legal basis, in 1158 Frederick called to the Reichstag, held in Roncali (near Piacenza), Bolognese jurists who specialized in the study of the recently revived Roman law. They gave the imperial regime the name Sacrum imperium (Latin for “Holy Empire”).
The reason for protracted conflict Frederick's relationship with the papacy (1160–1177) was facilitated by the fact that the emperor continued to assert his claims to power over Italy. He refused to recognize Alexander III as pope, who had become a champion of the movement against imperial control of Italy. But Frederick's attempts to establish German control over the papacy failed both because of spiritual resistance to such control by other powers of Western Europe, and because of the armed opposition of the cities of northern Italy, united in the Lombard League. In 1177, Frederick was forced to recognize Alexander III and, through the Peace of Constance (1183), reached a compromise with the cities of Lombardy, which retained political autonomy and at the same time respected their financial interests; The emperor's political power over Tuscany was preserved.
In 1180, Frederick, together with German sovereigns hostile to Henry the Lion, tried to overthrow this powerful duke: Henry was deprived of most of his possessions and sentenced to three years of exile from Germany. But the emperor was unable to take advantage of this to strengthen his position as the sovereign ruler of northern Germany. In 1186, Frederick achieved what appears to be the greatest achievement of his diplomacy: the marriage of his son Henry VI with Constance, heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Sicily. Henry VI also became his father's heir to the imperial throne. In May 1189, Frederick led the 3rd Crusade, but on June 10, 1190, on the way to the Holy Land, he drowned while crossing the Salef River (modern Göksu) in Asia Minor.
Materials from the encyclopedia "The World Around Us" were used
Frederick I Barbarossa
The date of birth of Frederick Barbarossa is not even approximately known. He saw his life and his greatness only on the battlefield, and was a typical representative of the German crusader knighthood. Friedrich received his nickname for the color of his beard. He was distinguished by exceptional belligerence and a constant desire for territorial conquests.
Frederick Barbarossa became the German king in 1125; only after this date did historians have the opportunity to trace his life path.
Frederick Barbarossa, as well as other warlike monarchs of the European Middle Ages, demanded from German knights perfect mastery of all seven knightly arts. These included: horse riding, swimming, archery, fist fighting, falconry, playing chess and writing poetry.
Frederick Barbarossa religiously adhered to feudal law for the title of knight. According to his decree, only those who were knights by birth had the right to a knightly duel with all its attributes. Only a knight could wear a baldric, a knight's belt and golden spurs. These items were the favorite rewards of the German knights, with which the king encouraged them.
In 1152, Frederick I Barbarossa became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, which included numerous German states and modern Austria, which played a leading role in the empire.
Having become emperor, Frederick Barbarossa began to pursue an aggressive, aggressive policy that met the interests of the German feudal lords. He sought to bring the rich Lombard city-states of Northern Italy under his rule.
Frederick Barbarossa committed five conquests to Northern Italy: in 1154-1155, 1158-1162, 1163-1164, 1166-1168 and 1174-1178. All these campaigns became a unique, living history of the life of the conquering emperor, who dreamed and tried to annex a large part of neighboring Italy to his huge imperial possessions. Barbarossa saw the ultimate goal of these campaigns as crowning himself with the imperial crown in the Eternal City - Papal Rome.
In world history, the year 1189 marked the beginning of the Third Crusade to the Holy Land. It was headed by the three largest European monarchs - the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, the French king Philip II Augustus and the English king Richard the Lionheart. They all had their own troops and were constantly at odds with each other, laying claim to the main command and the glory of the winner.
Initially, the number of participants in the Third Crusade reached almost 100 thousand people. But on the way to Palestine, the army suffered heavy losses in skirmishes with the Muslim troops of the Sultan Saladin (Salah ad-Din). Frederick I Barbarossa led his army through the territory Byzantine Empire by land (French and English crusaders reached Palestine by sea) - the road was explored back in the First and Second Crusades. In Asia Minor he had to repel attacks from light Muslim cavalry every now and then.
However, the German commander did not have the chance to reach the Holy Land. While crossing the Salef River, Frederick Barbarossa drowned. After his death, the German army began to disintegrate even before arriving at its destination - it simply did not have a worthy leader.
Under Frederick I Barbarossa, the medieval Holy Roman Empire reached its greatest prosperity and military power. However, inside it remained virtually fragmented and therefore had no prospects for long-term existence.
REIGN OF FREDERICK I BARBAROSSA. He was the most outstanding ruler of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. In an intermittent war with Henry the Lion, Frederick I eventually defeated and deposed the Duke of the Welfs (1182). In between the Italian campaigns, he conducted several successful campaigns in Poland, Bohemia and Hungary (1156 -1173).
1154-1186 SIX ITALIAN CAMPAIGNS OF FRIEDRICH. Frederick I waged an ongoing struggle against the papacy with varying degrees of success. Although he captured Rome on his fourth campaign (1166-1168), he was soon forced to withdraw troops from Italy, as an epidemic began to rage in the army. The fifth campaign (1174 -1177) ended in a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Legnano (May 29, 1176), when Frederick, at the head of a purely cavalry army, recklessly took on the superior forces of the Lombard League, supported by Venice and the pope. The Italian spearmen held their position and repelled the attack of Frederick's cavalry; and the Lombard cavalry outflanked and encircled the German army. (It is sometimes erroneously claimed that at Legnano, for the first time in military history, infantry prevailed over cavalry; but the Lombards achieved success precisely because of the coordination of infantry and cavalry.)
1189-1190 THIRD CRUSADE. Frederick I Barbarossa drowned in Cilicia (1190). Important events in the history of Germany and in the destinies of the Holy Roman Empire are associated with the name of Frederick I Barbarossa. There are significant differences in the assessment of the policies of this emperor in German historiography. Some attribute to him the desire to strengthen royal power in Germany, expand and consolidate the domain, which was supposed to unite the state. They explain Barbarossa's energetic Italian policy with these internal German tasks. Italy, thus, had to cover the costs of strengthening the German state (K. Gampe, I. Haller, D. Schaeffer, etc.). Others, on the contrary, believe that Frederick I no longer thought about uniting Germany, but only sought to maintain the existing balance political forces, relying on separate groups of princes. According to these historians, Barbarossa’s Italian policy did not at all contribute to the strengthening of royal power in Germany, but only required enormous costs from the internal funds of the German state. Italian policy did not strengthen the position of the emperor, but increased the emperor’s dependence on the princes (G. Belov, F. Kern, M. Lintzel). There is, perhaps, some truth in this.
The main levers of the royal policy of Frederick Barbarossa, like other representatives of the Hohenstaufen dynasty who preceded him, were: the creation of a compact domain, political alliances with individual groups of princes, strengthening of power over the episcopate, expansion of the imperial ministeriality and strengthening of fief dependence of small vassals on royal power.
Frederick I, trying to strengthen the national military organization, demanded mandatory military service the king of all holders of military fiefs. Along with the knights of free origin, the main contingent of warriors were the royal ministerials. It was during the time of the Staufens that the imperial ministerial body took shape, which had special status and the most privileged position among the service class. The emperors also used contingents of ministerial soldiers belonging to bishops and abbots in their military campaigns in Italy. An important role was played by the economic ministry, which filled the judicial and administrative apparatus on the royal estates. The ministerials also constituted a kind of internal garrison troops of the royal fortresses, guarding the domain and suppressing protests against the king.
In the internal German policy of Frederick I and his successors, one desire has always prevailed - to maintain good relations with the princes. The time when German kings tried to subjugate all the feudal nobility in the country to their rule is irrevocably over. Now it was possible to reign only by seeking an agreement with the princes, either with all of them at once, or with individual rival factions. It was along this path that Frederick Barbarossa followed. His entire policy in Germany was based on balancing between warring factions of princes, which provided the opportunity to implement far-reaching imperial plans in Italy.
Immediately after his enthronement, Frederick I tried to normalize relations with the most influential princes with whom his predecessor was at enmity. He returned Saxony and Bavaria to his cousin Henry the Lion (son of Henry the Proud). At the same time, Barbarossa did not offend Heinrich Yazomirgot (from the Babenberg dynasty), transferring to him Austria into hereditary possession (with the right of inheritance even through the female line), which was separated from Bavaria and turned into an independent duchy (1156). This fact is of interest from different points of view. First of all, it testifies to the far-advanced process of formation of territorial princely power. The newly created duchy had the legal status of an autonomous principality - full jurisdiction and military independence. The duke was obliged to carry out only very limited military duties: to appear at the invitation of the king to the curia, if it was convened within Bavaria, and to send a contingent of soldiers for military operations in neighboring regions.
The creation of new duchies pursued well-known political goals, quite consistent with the policy of maneuvering between princely groups: the old duchies were disaggregated and lost their former power; the rulers of the new duchies, having received their powers from the hands of the king, became, at least for the first time, his allies. One way or another, this strengthened the position of royal power, although reverse side was the strengthening of territorial fragmentation in the country. Barbarossa skillfully used the contradictions between the high clergy and the secular nobility, as well as the hostility of the German prelates to the Roman Curia, in order to more closely subordinate the German episcopate to his power. Of course, there could no longer be any talk of reviving the Ottonian episcopal system. In the fight against the Welfs, Frederick I relied on German magnates who were hostile to the expansionist policy of this dynasty. All this made it possible, despite the intensive growth of princely territorial domination in the country, to strengthen the position of royal power for some time. The consistently applied principles of vassalage increased the dependence of the princes on the emperor, in particular in the military field, and strengthened the national military organization. The king's dominance over the church increased. Without formally violating the Concordat of Worms, Barbarossa interfered in church elections, appointing his proteges to the posts of bishops and abbots. He sought to weaken the dependence of the German prelates on the Roman Curia, creating all sorts of obstacles to their appeals to the pope. Of course, the emperor's attempts to consider bishops in the spirit of the Carolingian tradition as civil servants had no real basis. Bishops, like secular princes, remained only royal vassals. However, Barbarossa demanded more from them than they were accustomed to do for the benefit of the state: he considered the secular investiture of prelates not an act of mercy, but a royal authority. The legislation of Frederick I, although based on the principles of vassal-fief relations, required the feudal lords, under the threat of severe administrative penalties, to fulfill their public duty. Continuing the policy of strengthening the land peace begun by Henry IV, Frederick I achieved the introduction of general peace in the country, establishing severe punishments for violators.
However, an analysis of the peace law of 1152 shows that punitive measures were directed primarily against the masses who fought against the violence of the oppressors. Peasants were prohibited from carrying weapons. Access to the knightly army was completely denied to them. Chivalry turned into a closed class. Now, in addition to noble persons of the “knightly rank,” only ministerials who had risen in class could become knights.
The foreign policy position of the German Empire significantly strengthened. As mentioned above, in addition to the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary were involved in the orbit of German influence. The Hungarian king took part in Barbarossa's second campaign in Italy in 1158. Burgundy's dependence increased as a result of Frederick I's second marriage to Countess Beatrice of Upper Burgundy. This improved the strategic position of the empire on the Italian border.
Thus, in the second half of the 12th century, domestic and foreign policy conditions developed to strengthen German hegemony in Western, Central and Southern Europe and to increase the prestige of the “Holy Roman Empire”. It was at this time that a new title of the medieval German Empire appeared. She began to be called Sacred.
The imperial doctrine of the Holy Empire, which was theoretically substantiated by Otto of Freisingen, was directed against the pope, who considered himself to have the right to dispose of the crown of the Roman emperors and invest it as “benefits” to the German king. It was argued that the empire was sacred even without the fact that the imperial crown was formally placed on the head of the emperor by the pope. The head of the empire is absolutely sovereign in the exercise of secular power, he obeys only God, and no one on earth, and wields the “secular sword” regardless of the pope. Moreover, he is called upon to defend with this sword the Christian Church and the Pope himself. The imperial office and official historiography promoted the idea that the emperor rules the world by “divine mandate”, that he is “the viceroy and minister of God.” Imperial propaganda sought in every possible way to downplay the significance of the papal coronation in Rome and emphasized the role of princely election and anointing to the throne, which gave the monarchy a sacred and sovereign character. German kings, even before receiving the imperial crown in Rome, were officially called by the titles - “King of the Romans”, “August King of the Romans” (rex Romanorum, rex Romanorum semper augustus).
To substantiate his claims to dominance over the cities of Northern Italy and Rome, Barbarossa turns to Roman law. In legislative acts for Italy there are provisions borrowed from the Code of Justinian: “Your will is the law, for it is said: whatever pleases the sovereign has the force of law,” “it is appropriate that the imperial dignity should be protected not only by force of arms, but also by law,” “the sovereign’s law does not limit." These reminders of Roman law were reinforced by references to the right of conquest. Thus, in the response of Frederick Barbarossa to a letter from the Roman Senate, it was indicated that Italy and Rome were conquered by Charlemagne and Otto I and belonged to the emperor by right of conquest. The well-known theory of “transfer of empire” (translatio imperium), with the help of which the claims of the German emperor to world domination were justified, was interpreted in a similar spirit. In the papal interpretation, the “transfer of the empire” is carried out at the will of the papal throne, which was allegedly granted the “gift of Constantine” with supreme power over western part empires. Leo III handed over this power, along with the Roman crown, to Charlemagne. In the 10th century, the Roman throne was transferred by the pope to the German kings, but it can be returned and transferred by the curia to another sovereign, for example, the Byzantine emperor - the true successor of the ancient Roman emperors. The Staufen propaganda countered this papal version of the “transfer of the empire” with its own: imperial power in the West was restored as a result of conquest, and the German (Roman) king uses it independently of the pope.
The Roman and Carolingian tradition served as a tool for the foreign policy expansion of the German emperors. According to Otto of Freisingen, the "transfer of empire" from the Western to the Eastern Franks did not in any way change the character of that empire. The emperor retained his prerogatives within the former Frankish state, that is, in its western part. This was how the claims to supremacy over France were justified. Frederick Barbarossa's letters to the French king Louis VII emphasized that the German-Roman emperor retained the supreme rights inherited from Charlemagne throughout the Carolingian Empire.
In this regard, one should consider the canonization of Charlemagne undertaken by Barbarossa in 1166 and the declaration of Aachen as a holy city.
The aggressive aspirations of Frederick Barbarossa extended to the east. He considered it no longer enough to equal the title of the Byzantine emperor, but claimed superiority over “Eastern Rome.” In the messages to the Byzantine court, the idea was conveyed that the emperor of the “Holy Roman Empire” was the successor of the Roman emperors, who at one time owned the eastern part of the empire. It goes without saying that such statements were very far from reality. But we must take into account the fact that this expansionist ideology determined the foreign policy course of the “Holy Empire.” It is characteristic that with the weakening of the power of the emperors within Germany itself, this course became increasingly aggressive.
Quoted from: All the wars of world history according to the Harper's Encyclopedia of Military History by R.E. Dupuis and T.N. Dupuis. Book two. 1000-1500 St. Petersburg, 2004, p. 44-49.
Contemporaries describe him as a man slightly above average height, well built and in good health. He had a friendly face that endeared him to his interlocutors; it seemed that he was always ready to smile. Light slightly curly hair, a straight nose, thin lips and a row of snow-white teeth, as well as a red beard, which gave him his nickname - this is how his appearance is remembered. Frederick I Barbarossa had a sharp mind, was fair and reasonable. He could not be accused of excessive wastefulness or stinginess. He did not refuse to follow advice if he found it useful, and often showed leniency towards petitioners. At the same time, his temperament sometimes prevailed over prudence: in moments of anger, he could show extreme cruelty. However, this is not what made Barbarossa famous; the morals and traditions of that era were significantly different from those of today, and it cannot be argued that, compared to other powers that be, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire embodied a bloodthirsty monster.
The future 21st Holy Roman Emperor was born at the end of 1122 (the exact date is unknown), his father was Frederick II "One-Eyed", Duke of Swabia, from the Hohenstaufen (Staufen) family, his mother was Judith, daughter of the Duke of Bavaria Henry IX the Black of antique German family Welfov. In addition, Frederick Barbarossa had family ties with another ancient family - the Babenbergs. Here it should immediately be noted that Frederick Barbarossa, as the Duke of Swabia, who inherited the duchy after the death of his father in 1147, is referred to as “Frederick III”, and as the King of Germany, which he became in 1152 and the Roman Emperor (1155). ) he is called "Frederick I".
The father of the future emperor also laid claim to the royal throne, but contrary to expectations, his rival, Lothair, Duke of Saxony, was elected king. At first, Frederick II recognized Lothair as king, but a dispute over the possessions of the previous king Henry V, with whom the Duke of Swabia was related, soon made Frederick II and Lothair irreconcilable enemies. It was precisely in the wars with the king that the Duke of Swabia lost one eye, which, according to the laws of that time, finally put an end to the possibility of Frederick II ever placing the crown on himself. As a result, after the death of Lothair, the brother of Frederick One-Eye, Conrad III Duke of Franconia (King of Germany from 1138 to 1152), was elected king, who appointed Frederick Barbarossa as his successor, since the eldest son of Conrad III, Henry Berengar, who was preparing to become the heir to the throne, died in 1150 The youngest son of Conrad III, Duke Frederick of Rothenburg, was seven years old at that time, and it was clearly too early for him to rule the kingdom. Conrad III noted the talents of his nephew, who was constantly with him in the last years of his life. Moreover, he rightly believed that Frederick, having become king, would be able to reconcile the Staufens with the Welfs, who had long been disputing power in the kingdom.
Thirty-year-old Frederick had by that time taken part in the second crusade (1147 - 1149), where he attracted attention as a brave and valiant warrior. The campaign itself did not bring success to the crusaders: lost battles, the unsuccessful siege of Damascus, disagreements in the camp of the Christian army - all this led to the fact that the remnants of the armies of Conrad III and the French king Louis VII returned home ingloriously, but, of course, the future emperor gained invaluable experience , both military and political.
On February 4, 1152, in Frankfurt, Frederick Duke of Swabia was elected king of Germany and was crowned in Aachen on March 9. The Kingdom of Germany was then the core of the Holy Roman Empire, therefore, Frederick I was preparing to become emperor, and the German episcopate insisted on an immediate trip to Italy for the imperial coronation. Nevertheless, on the advice of secular princes, Frederick dealt primarily with German problems, and sent an embassy to Rome with a letter to Pope Eugene III. The Pope at that time was in dire need of the support and protection of the emperor, since the Sicilian Normans threatened Rome from the south, and in Rome itself it was also not calm - criticism of Arnold of Brescia set the townspeople against the order that reigned in the environment of the papal throne. But the new king of Germany, from the first days of his reign, set a course for the liberation of secular power from the hegemony of the church, so he himself was in no hurry to go to Rome, but preferred to first surround himself with devoted people capable of realizing with him his main dream - to revive the former glory of the Empire and the greatness of the emperor. Among those close to him were Count Otto Wittelsbach, appointed standard bearer of the Empire, as well as the provost of the Hildesheim Church, Rainald von Dassel, a man as smart and learned as he was ambitious.
The next step of Frederick I was to carry out personnel reform in the German Curia. The king's ambassadors managed to convince the pope that the hierarchy of the German church should be updated. Thus, it was possible to remove Archbishop Heinrich of Mainz, an ardent opponent of the king, and the bishops of Eichstedt, Minden, and Hildesheim - all of them were replaced by people loyal to the emperor. Even earlier, Frederick appointed Wichmann, who was the bishop of Naumburg and also part of the circle of those close to the king, as Archbishop of Magdeburg.
In addition to permission to renew the German clergy, in exchange for a promise to the Pope to arrive in Rome in a year for the coronation, Frederick I asked him to dissolve his marriage with the daughter of Diapold III of the Margrave of Voburg, Adelheide. This marriage brought nothing to Frederick except the increase of the king's territorial possessions by including the hereditary estates of the countess. There was no love and harmony between the spouses, and Frederick decided to separate from his unloved wife, which happened in March 1153. The reason for the dissolution of this marriage was the relationship of the spouses: Frederick’s great-grandfather was the brother of his great-grandmother Adelheide of Voburg. Such a relationship can hardly be considered too close, but Pope Eugene III considered it sufficient. Eugene III, of course, pursued his own interests and thereby wanted to oblige the king.
Before heading to Italy, Frederick managed to settle several more important matters in Germany. He established a relationship with Count William of Macon, who at that time actually assumed guardianship of the daughter of the Count Palatine of Burgundy, Renault III. Despite the fact that Burgundy was promised as a fief to Duke Berthold IV of Zähringen, Frederick recognized William as his guardian, and he, in turn, took a vassal oath to the king. The fulfillment of the promise to Zähringen was delayed indefinitely. There was also a Bavarian problem: the duchy of Bavaria was claimed by the king’s cousin Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony from the Welf family, and Heinrich Jazomirgot from the Babenberg family, who was Frederick’s uncle. The meeting with Yazomirgot did not bring the desired result; he categorically refused to transfer Bavaria to Henry the Lion. And the support of his cousin was extremely important to the king, so at the Reichstag in Goslar, where Yazomirgot did not appear, it was decided to transfer Bavaria to Henry the Lion. The Duke of Saxony demanded more - he wanted to gain the right of supreme suzerainty over the church in his duchy, and the king made concessions, realizing how dependent he was on his cousin. Only after these issues were resolved, Frederick was able to go to Rome to claim the emperor's crown.
It is necessary to say a few words about the Holy Roman Empire, since all of Barbarossa’s main activities until the end of his days were connected with strengthening the power of the emperor of this state entity, and it is believed that it was under Frederick I that the empire reached its heyday and military power.
The Holy Roman Empire was founded in 962 by King Otto I the Great and it claimed to be a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire and even more so - as a state uniting the entire Christian world, or rather the Western Christian world. Initially, the concept of the new empire was as follows: the unity of state and church, almost the embodiment of the Kingdom of God on earth, in which a wise ruler, together with the Pope, takes care of the prosperity of his subjects, maintains calm and protects the world, being the protector of Christians. However, in reality, an uncompromising struggle often took place between the highest clergy and representatives of secular power. Formally, Rome was considered the capital of the empire, but at best it can be considered as a sacred center, because the core of the empire was always Germany. In addition to Germany, the empire included Italy, Burgundy, and somewhat later, from 1135, the kingdom of the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Austria. Having existed until 1806, the empire was never able to become a unified state in in every sense this word. It always remained a decentralized entity, where the power of the emperor was not absolute, and the subjects that were nominally part of the empire had sufficient independence. In general, Friedrich had something to do, fortunately, he was energetic and power-hungry by nature.
Frederick's first Italian campaign can be conditionally called "reconnaissance in force." In fact, the king at that time assembled a small army, half of which were the knights of Henry the Lion, since most German feudal lords did not feel any desire to fight with Italian cities, not seeing any direct benefit for themselves. At the end of October 1154, Frederick crossed the Alps. The Italians greeted Frederick with caution - it seemed like the emperor had come, but it was unclear what to expect from him. They were in no hurry to greet him with bread and salt, which is why the Germans sometimes had to forcefully provide themselves with provisions and fodder.
Even before his coronation in Rome, Frederick began to restore order in the Italian lands controlled by the empire, settling with his army on the Roncal fields. There he assembled his first Reichstag in Italy, took the oath from those cities of northern Italy that were ready to recognize him as their emperor, and administered court, since there was no unity between the cities themselves. So, following a complaint from the citizens of Pavia, the newly-minted emperor called Tortona to account, and having received a refusal to obey from its inhabitants, who hoped for the help of Milan, Frederick besieged the rebellious city in mid-February. Milan indeed sent a hundred knights and two hundred archers to help the Tortonians, but already in April the city surrendered, the residents were ordered to leave it, after which Tortona was plundered and burned.
After the defeat of Tortona, Frederick visited Pavia, where he placed the Lombard crown on his head, and then visited Bologna, famous for its school of jurisprudence. The king granted the Bologna school a special privilege: he forbade the residents of Bologna to collect the debts of fugitive schoolchildren from their comrades. This put an end to the arbitrariness of the Bolognese innkeepers, who profited from the school.
By the beginning of summer, Frederick approached Rome. By that time, there had already been two popes on the throne of St. Peter - Eugene III and his successor Anastasius IV. Adrian IV, a convinced Gregorian and supporter of the dogma of the supremacy of spiritual power over secular power, was elected as the new pope. This did not bode well for Frederick's future, but the king and the pope needed each other. Even before Frederick arrived, Adrian sent legates to him with the intention of finding out whether the king confirmed the agreements concluded with Eugene III. Frederick confirmed the Treaty of Constance of 1153, and also fulfilled the request to extradite Arnold of Bershian, who was hiding in the mountains of Tuscany at that time, to the pope. The meeting of the pope with the future emperor took place on June 8 near Rome, and almost immediately escalated into a conflict. Frederick refused to perform the “master of horse” service - symbolizing the submission of a vassal to his lord, and in response Adrian refused Frederick the kiss of peace. The coronation was in jeopardy. Frederick had to humble his pride, but the pope harbored distrust of the German monarch, even despite the fact that Frederick tried to prove the opposite a few days later. When the Roman Senate proposed to accept the crown of Emperor Frederick from the Roman people, and not from the Pope, and in addition to approve some customs and new institutions, the king attacked them with an angry rebuke.
The coronation took place secretly from the Romans on June 18, 1155 in St. Peter's Basilica. It is noteworthy that already in the evening after the coronation there was a bloody battle on the streets of Rome - the Romans attacked Frederick’s troops, and although the attack was repulsed, the next day Frederick, and at the same time the Pope, left the city.
On Frederick's return to Germany, the Emperor's wrath fell on the city of Spoleto, whose residents decided to cheat and pay the "fondrum" - a tax levied on the occasion of the coronation with counterfeit money. And in September, Frederick had to fight with Verona, which refused to recognize Frederick as its emperor. But Milan remained the main center of resistance, and Frederick could not take this well-fortified city; for this it was necessary to gather enough forces and enlist the support of the allies.
The only achievement of Frederick's first Italian campaign (except for the acquired nickname - barba - beard and rossa - red) was the crown of the emperor, but the cities of northern Italy were still not completely subordinate to the Emperor. To establish his power in Italy, Frederick needed to strengthen his position in Germany, because only in this way could he rally the German princes around himself, and, therefore, gather enough forces for a new campaign against the rebellious Italians. To do this, first of all, he needed to reconcile the Duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion, who by that time had been granted Bavaria at the Reichstag in Regensburg in October 1155, with Heinrich Jazomirgot. The latter still did not renounce his rights to the Duchy of Bavaria, and this threatened a new conflict. In June 1156, an agreement was reached with Henry Yazomirgot. As compensation, Barbarossa granted Yazomirgot the Duchy of Austria, separating it from the Bavarian lands with a deed of gift on September 17, 1156. This document proclaimed the almost complete independence of Austria from Bavaria, established the right of inheritance of the Duchy of Austria by the Babenberg dynasty, as well as the possibility of appointing his successor as duke. It would seem that Frederick thereby weakened royal power by separating Austria from the empire and giving Henry the Lion two duchies at once - Saxony and Bavaria, but in fact he managed to solve a serious internal political problem peacefully. He turned potential enemies of the crown into his allies, which gave him the opportunity to re-engage with Italy.
In June 1156, the Emperor celebrated his wedding. The second wife of Frederick Barbarossa was Beatrice I, daughter of Count Palatine of Burgundy Renault III. This marriage, concluded on June 10, 1156, can be considered happy. The couple lived together for 28 years until the death of Empress Beatrice in 1184, having had eleven children - eight sons, one of whom later became emperor under the name of Henry VI, and the other, Philip, was king of Germany from 1198 to 1208. , and three daughters. Together with his bride, Frederick also received a huge dowry, consisting of Burgundian territories with Alpine passes that opened the way to Italy. In addition, Frederick consolidated his power in Burgundy, which until that time had been part of the empire only formally.
If Frederick managed to temporarily reconcile the German feudal lords, gain authority and enlist their support, then his relationship with the spiritual authorities clearly did not work out. In October 1157, the Reichstag was held in the city of Besançon, where the legates of the Pope arrived with a message to the emperor. The message was translated from Latin by Rainald von Dassel. It is possible that he deliberately translated the word “beneficium” as “flax” and not as “benefit,” and the meaning of the Pope’s message became as follows: none other than the Pope endowed Frederick with power, and that ungrateful person completely forgot about such mercy and did not provides the Pope with no support. Adrian IV had reasons for reproach; after the coronation, Frederick Barbarossa left Italy, and the pontiff himself had to resolve issues with the Roman Senate and establish relations with King William the Evil - the King of Sicily. And the reason was the emperor’s refusal to investigate the attack on the Archbishop of Lund, to whom the Pope had transferred the leadership of the Swedish Church. Frederick had a completely different opinion regarding his election to the throne. The emperor believed that he owed this to the mercy of God and the will of the German princes. The papal ambassadors were almost mutilated, and only the personal intervention of Frederick Barbarossa saved them from reprisals. However, they were removed from the Reichstag. Adrian tried to influence the obstinate monarch through the German episcopate, but he supported the emperor. The pope had to back down, send a new message with explanations, but at the same time he himself entered into an agreement with the Lombard cities and the Sicilian king. Only the sudden death of Adrian IV saved Frederick Barbarossa from anathema, but the conflict with the church did not end there.
In 1158, the emperor again crossed the Alps with the goal of subjugating Milan, which had become a kind of stronghold of all opponents of the empire in Lombardy. This time, Barbarossa managed to prepare well - he enlisted the support of many German feudal lords and assembled a large army. The result was not long in coming; in less than a month, unable to withstand the siege, Milan surrendered to the mercy of the winner. This happened significant event September 1, 1158 The Milanese were forced to pay tribute and hand over all the hostages. Milan was also denied the right to mint coins and collect tolls. A castle was built in the center of the city, and a garrison loyal to the emperor was left in it. It seemed that victory was achieved with little blood once and for all.
In November 1158, the Reichstag, a state assembly, was held in Roncale, where the principles of governing the newly annexed possessions were set out. From now on, control over public roads, navigable rivers, ports and harbors was exercised by imperial officials, and the minting of coins and collection of taxes became the exclusive imperial prerogative. Any internecine wars were prohibited, on pain of confiscation of fiefs from all those who violated this ban; in addition, the emperor demanded strict observance of military service.
Of course, these innovations could not please the Lombard cities, which were accustomed to feeling completely independent of the power of the emperor and feudal lords. Already in January 1159, Milan rebelled, supported by Crema and Brescia. Frederick found himself in a difficult position, since he sent most of the army home, and the forces remaining with him were clearly not enough for a new siege of the rebellious city. However, the emperor also did not intend to retreat, and in July of the same 1159 he besieged Crema, thus launching an offensive against the rebels. The siege lasted six months; in January 1160, Crema was destroyed to the ground by order of the emperor.
During the siege of Crema, events occurred that influenced the further course of history. On September 1, 1159, Adrian IV dies, and two candidates are nominated for the papal throne: Cardinal Ottaviano di Monticelli, a friend and relative of the emperor, and the Chancellor of the Curia, Orlando (Roland) Bandinelli, one of the closest advisers to the late Pope Adrian IV, an active champion of the Gregorian principles of freedom of the church . It was Bandinelli, as the Pope's ambassador to the Reichstag in Besançon, who read the message that marked the beginning of the enmity between the emperor and the pope. It was very beneficial for Barbarossa that Monticelli become pope, as stated by Count Palatine Otto Wittelsbach, who was loyal to the emperor, when he arrived in Rome, but Monticelli was supported by a minority of cardinals. As a result, unable to reach a single agreement at the conclave on September 7 in St. Peter's Basilica, Monticelli snatched the mantle from the hands of Orlando Bandinelli and put it on himself. A brawl followed, and Bandinelli and his comrades were forced to retreat, and Monticelli was proclaimed pope under the name of Victor IV. However, the retreating side did not surrender, and Orlando Bandinelli was also proclaimed Pope under the name of Alexander III on September 20 in Nymphaeum. Thus began a long-term church schism.
Both popes appealed to the emperor, and Frederick understood perfectly well that the current situation did not bode well for the empire, and the schism in the church must be eliminated. To resolve this sensitive issue, he ordered a council to be held in Pavia, sending invitations to kings and bishops, where it was proposed to consider all the circumstances of the election of the pope and finally decide who would take the throne of St. Peter. The council took place on February 5, 1160, but this idea completely failed. Not only did mainly bishops from Germany and Northern Italy arrive in Pavia, that is, obvious supporters of the Emperor, while the clergy of France, England and other countries practically ignored this event, but Pope Alexander III sent only his representative, but did not consider it necessary be present yourself. As a result, the present Victor IV was recognized as the real pope, which was stated in the final protocol. But not everyone agreed to sign the protocol, so its value was questionable. In response, Pope Alexander III excommunicated Frederick Barbarossa and his inner circle on February 24.
Meanwhile, apart from Barbarossa Victor IV himself, neither King Henry II of England nor King Louis VII of France were in a hurry to recognize Victor IV as pope. Just like the English and French clergy, they considered Alexander III to be the true pope. Councils were held in Toulouse, where Alexander III was recognized and Victor IV was cursed, then a council in Lodi, at which the decisions taken in Toulouse were condemned, but they were unable to put an end to this dispute. Barbarossa, meanwhile, was forced to take care of Milan, which annoyed him more and more, schism for the Emperor faded into the background.
Having again gathered troops from Germany and Italy in May 1161, Frederick besieged Milan for the second time. The siege lasted for almost a year, after which in March 1162 the city surrendered again. No longer trusting the Milanese, Frederick Barbarossa ordered all surviving residents to leave the city, taking with them only what they could carry with them, and Milan itself was destroyed, as well as Crema. After the defeat of Milan, other rebellious cities also surrendered, where, also by order of the emperor, all fortifications were dismantled, indemnities were confiscated and governors loyal to Frederick were installed.
After the defeat of Milan, another attempt was made to end the church schism, but it also ended unsuccessfully. The Council in Saint-Jean-de-Launay (Burgundy), where the presence of both popes, the Emperor and the French King Louis VII, as well as representatives of the German, Italian and French clergy was planned, failed once again. Louis VII and Pope Alexander III avoided the meeting scheduled for August 29, 1162, under false pretenses. Louis asked for a delay, and in the meantime he enlisted support English monarch Henry II. Realizing that it was unlikely that it would be possible to reach an agreement peacefully, Frederick Barbarossa held the Reichstag and the synod at the same time, where Victor IV was again confirmed as pope, but this only worsened the church schism.
Returning to Germany, Frederick had to first suppress the rebellion in Alsace, the instigator of which was Duke Berthold IV Zähringer, who never received Burgundy, and also harbored a grudge against the emperor for refusing to transfer the Archbishopric of Mainz to his brother. Having pacified Mainz and reconciled with Zähringer, Barbarossa began to settle other matters, which had accumulated quite a lot during his absence. Congresses of the nobility were held, preparations began for the third Italian campaign.
Setting out on the third Italian campaign in October 1163, Barbarossa intended to conquer the Norman state in southern Italy and Sicily. The bulk of the troops were to be assembled in northern Italy, where the faithful Archchancellor Rainald von Dassel had been sent a year ago. A Reichstag was held in Lodi, where all the nobility of imperial Italy were invited, everyone confirmed their readiness to oppose Sicily and Apulia, but, despite long preparations, the campaign never took place. In early April, the emperor himself fell ill with a fever, and a little later, on April 20, 1164, Pope Victor IV died. On the initiative of Rainald von Dassel, a new pope was immediately chosen, the nephew of the late Victor - Guido, who received the name Paschal III. Frederick this time was not delighted with the actions of the Archchancellor, since he had already repeatedly turned to the idea of reconciliation with Alexander III. Rainald managed to convince the emperor of the logic of his action, believing that the emperor benefited from a controlled pope, and not from a pontiff capable of resisting the power of Frederick. In addition, he suggested trying to persuade the King of England to recognize the new pope, which, if successful, could radically change the situation and end the schism in the church.
Meanwhile, things were not calm in northern Italy either: Bologna rebelled, where the imperial governor (podestà) was killed, and the Verona League was formed, which included, in addition to Verona itself, Vicenza and Padua. Many of the emperor's subjects were dissatisfied with the taxes and tyranny of the German governors. Frederick had to make concessions, return privileges to some cities, use force somewhere, but still retreat, since neither political nor military measures pacified the Italians. It became clear that without a strong German army It will not be possible to restore order in northern Italy again.
Returning to Germany, Barbarossa was once again forced to resolve conflicts between German feudal lords. In September 1164, Welf IV and Count Palatine Hugo of Tübingen sorted out relations between themselves. In November, at the Reichstag in Bamberg, the emperor reconciled the warring parties, and at the same time resolved the conflict between the Archbishop of Cologne and the Count Palatine of the Rhine. Dual power in the church remained an equally pressing problem, and Barbarossa spared no effort to solve it. Rainald von Dassel was sent to England to the king, who proposed dynastic marriages - to betroth the eldest daughter of the English king Matilda to Henry the Lion and to conclude a marriage between the son of Frederick Barbarossa and youngest daughter Henry II, involved the English monarch in an alliance against Pope Alexander III. There was still Louis VII, who did not recognize Pope Paschal III, but the alliance with the English king already meant a lot. In May 1165, a Reichstag was held in Würzburg, where the ambassadors of Henry II were present, and where all those present, including the emperor himself, took an oath to recognize Paschal III as the true Pope and never to recognize Alexander III as such, although some bishops and princes took an oath with reservations.
At the end of the year, on December 29, Charlemagne was canonized on the initiative of Frederick Barbarossa. Despite the fact that the canonization ceremony was carried out by Paschal III, who was still not recognized by the pope by many church ministers, even Alexander III did not dare to challenge what had happened, for the authority of Charlemagne was indisputable in Western Europe.
In the fall of 1166, Frederick Barbarossa again went to Italy, where dissatisfaction with the exactions of the imperial governors was growing. On top of everything else, Pope Alexander III returned to Rome. Actively collaborating with the Sicilian King William the Evil, and after his death in May 1166, entering into negotiations with the Byzantine basileus Manuel Komnenos, who claimed the emperor's crown in exchange for submission to the Pope of the Greek-Byzantine Church, Alexander III supported rebellious sentiments among the Lombard cities and even appointed his archbishop to the destroyed Milan. An anti-imperial conspiracy arose among the Lombard cities; they were only waiting for the right moment to start an uprising.
The English king Henry II had by that time renounced his oath under pressure from the episcopate, choosing a rather ridiculous pretext for this: they say, he was unaware at the time of the oath that Frederick I Barbarossa had been excommunicated from the church. Henry the Lion also refused to participate in the campaign, citing the need to remain in Saxony to maintain order. However, Frederick managed to diplomatically upset the alliance of Byzantium with Pope Alexander, who delayed too long in responding to Manuel Komnenos. The pope never decided to accept the proposals of the cunning Byzantine, realizing that the kings of France and England would never recognize Manuel Comnenus as Roman emperor. Moreover, Komnenos will capture all of Italy and the church state led by the Pope can be forgotten. Alexander III made a bet on the cities of Lombardy.
In January 1167, Barbarossa crossed the Po River and headed to the Bologna region. The Bolognese remained faithful to the emperor, confirming it by handing over hostages and paying taxes. In March, Frederick's army was divided into two parts: the first he led himself south along the Adriatic coast, the second, under the command of Rainald von Dassel and the Archbishop of Mainz Christian von Buch, moved through Tuscany to Rome.
As soon as the emperor's army left Lombardy, the four cities of Cremona, Bergamo, Brescia and Mantua united into a league, intending to jointly defend their rights before the emperor and the pope. In April, Milan began to be rebuilt, and the imperial governor, Count Heinrich von Dietz, could not prevent this. The city of Lodi was forced to join the league, and a little later Piacenza joined the conspirators. Barbarossa realized what a formidable force the union of the Lombard cities was becoming, but continued his campaign to the south of Italy. At the end of May, after a three-week siege, Frederick took Ancona. At the same time, near Tusculum, Rainald and Christian defeated a Roman army that was significantly superior in number. By the end of July, Frederick and his army approached Rome, and the newly united army stormed the eternal City. Alexander III fled, disguised as a simple monk, and Barbarossa carried out the enthronement of Paschal III.
Frederick intended to continue his campaign against the Kingdom of Sicily, waiting out the hottest time of the year, but these plans were interrupted by a malaria epidemic that broke out in his army. Barbarossa was forced to turn back. The disease literally mowed down the army, regardless of ranks or ranks. Both ordinary warriors and nobles died. In mid-August, on the way to northern Italy, the emperor's faithful comrade-in-arms, Rainald von Dassel, died of malaria.
With the remnants of the army, Barbarossa reached Pisa, from there he continued his journey to Lombardy and, already near Pontremoli, was attacked by the armed forces of the Lombard League. I had to turn around and leave through the regions of Tortona and Piacenza to Pavia, which remained loyal to the empire. The German principalities, meanwhile, were mired in civil strife, and some German princes were forced to leave the emperor, who did not dare detain them. Thus, it was necessary to count only on detachments of loyal cities - Pavia, Novara, Vercelli, as well as the margraves William of Montferrat and Obizzo Malaspina, Count Guido di Biandrate. With these small forces, Frederick Barbarossa continued his small war against the Lombard League, devastating the rural areas of the rebellious cities. However, these raids were clearly not enough to change the outcome of the company; it became clear that it was necessary to leave Italy. In December 1167, Novara and Vercelli broke away from Barbarossa, and Margrave Malaspina went over to the side of the rebels. The emperor's position became completely hopeless; it was necessary to urgently return to Germany.
In March 1168, Frederick, with a small detachment of knights and the empress who accompanied him on this campaign, arrived in Susa. The gates of the city opened, and Barbarossa entered through them unhindered, but leaving Susa was not so easy. Barbarossa was demanded to release all the hostages that were with him. Frederick had to flee the city, exchanging clothes with a knight similar to him - Hartmann von Siebeneich, leaving his wife in Susa. Barbarossa no longer trusted the Italians, who had repeatedly attempted on his life. True, the Susanians, when they learned that the emperor had managed to escape, released the German knights and the emperor’s retinue, freeing all the hostages.
In the spring of 1168, Frederick Barbarossa returned to Germany, having lost in Italy almost everything that had been conquered over the course of fifteen years. The Empire's dominance in Lombardy had to be re-established.
One of the main reasons for the failure of the fourth Italian campaign can be considered the unrest in Saxony. Discord between Henry the Lion and the East Saxon princes who joined the coalition did not allow timely assistance to the Emperor. In addition, Barbarossa was increasingly alarmed by the growing authority of Henry the Lion - the Duke of Saxony and Bavaria in Germany was almost more powerful than the Emperor himself. But Frederick still could not at this time refuse to support Henry the Lion, and therefore, at the Reichstag in Würzburg, held at the end of June 1168, Barbarossa laid the blame on the opponents of Henry the Lion and forced them to reconcile with their cousin.
Understanding full well that it was possible to strengthen his power in Germany only by increasing his territorial possessions, Frederick actively began to increase the property of the crown. Fortunately, circumstances contributed to this - after the epidemic, many estates near the walls of Rome remained vacant, since after the death of their owners there were no direct heirs. By granting pensions or privileges to applicants as compensation, Frederick became the owner of vast territories, thereby strengthening his political influence among the German nobility.
On September 20, 1168, Paschal III died, this event allowed Frederick to gain greater freedom of action in church matters. The confrontation between the emperor and Pope Alexander III allowed the Lombard communes to seriously strengthen their positions, and this, of course, also influenced the outcome of the last Italian campaign. And although the next antipope, Calixtus III, was immediately chosen as Paschal’s successor, his sphere of influence was quite insignificant; only in Rome and Tuscany, where they remained loyal to the crown, was he recognized as the legal owner of the throne of St. Peter. Barbarossa himself reluctantly recognized the new Pope Calixtus III; the Würzburg oath of 1165 forced him to do so. Already at the beginning of 1169, Frederick resumed contacts with the entourage of Alexander III, however, this attempt to overcome the schism was not crowned with success.
On August 15, 1169, Barbarossa crowned his second son, Henry, in Aachen Cathedral. From now on, Germany is ruled not only by the emperor, but also by King Henry IV, although the “rule” is more than conditional - the king is only four years old at this time. But Barbarossa, as a true strategist, solved two problems at once with this act. Firstly, he ensured the dynastic inheritance of the Empire for the Staufen family. Secondly, this coronation was done in circumvention of the Würzburg regulations of 1165. It was naive to demand from a four-year-old child not to recognize Alexander III as Pope. Thus, negotiations with the Pope could be conducted on behalf of the king, while the emperor did not actually violate the oath taken in Würzburg.
Over the next two years - 1170 - 1172. Frederick I tirelessly travels around the country, strengthening his political influence, settling disputes between vassals, amassing forces for a decisive attack on the Lombard League. In the fall of 1170, he visited Burgundy, where his power had by that time been shaken. In February 1171, a personal meeting between Barbarossa and the French king Louis VII took place. And although this meeting did not lead to the creation of a strong alliance between France and Germany, relations between the monarchs noticeably warmed up. Successfully for the empire, negotiations continued with Byzantium, aimed at depriving the Byzantines of Alexander III and the Lombard cities of support. In the summer of 1172, Barbarossa went on a campaign against the Polish prince Mieszko III, who had not paid the annual tribute to the treasury of the empire for a long time and did not prevent the return to his homeland of his brother Boleslav the High, Barbarossa's comrade-in-arms in the fourth Italian campaign. However, Mieszko III preferred to rush to meet the emperor and recognize his power rather than offer armed resistance.
Of course, the emperor did not forget about Italy for a minute and, strengthening his power in the German lands, was thereby preparing for another war with Lombardy. At the end of 1171, Archbishop Christian of Mainz was sent to Italy with the aim of preparing a future campaign by rallying cities loyal to Barbarossa. At the beginning of 1173, Christian managed to conquer Spoleto and Assisi; in April he began the siege of Ancona, but six months later it had to be lifted without achieving success. Despite the fact that the Archbishop of Mainz failed to achieve reconciliation between Pisa and Genoa, and Genoa a little later even entered into an agreement with the Sicilian king, in general Christian did a great job of preparing Barbarossa’s fifth Italian campaign.
In September 1174, Frederick I Barbarossa re-entered Italy. He began with Susa, which six years earlier forced the emperor to flee. Susa was burned. Although Frederick carefully prepared for the upcoming campaign, the army he brought from Germany was small. In Italy, he was joined by the Paviaans, Margrave William of Montferrat and Margrave Marvello Malaspina, the still loyal Count Guido di Biandrate, as well as the cities of Turin and Asti. In addition, the Emperor resorted to the help of Barbantian mercenaries. Still, these forces were not enough for major operations against the Lombard League and Frederick did not neglect diplomacy, concluding alliances with local forces, fortunately, there was never unity among the communes of northern Italy.
At the end of October, Barbarossa began the siege of Alessandria, a new city founded in 1168 between Tortona and Asti by the Lombards, and named after Pope Alexander. The city occupied a strategically important position, and, as it seemed at first, was relatively easy prey for the imperial troops. However, in reality, Alessandria turned out to be a tough nut to crack, and the swampy terrain and heavy rains that began made the assault on the city even more difficult. Six months later, Barbarossa was forced to retreat without taking Alessandria. Moreover, while retreating, he encountered superior forces of the Lombards and, not seeing an opportunity to give battle or bypass the enemy, was forced to enter into negotiations with him and conclude the Peace of Montebelle on April 16, 1175 - after the name of the fortress where this event took place. These agreements were of a rather general nature, contradictions quickly emerged, but Barbarossa could no longer resolve issues by force, since he had disbanded part of the army, which was already small.
The Lombards demanded the return of all regalia to them and refused to recognize the Roncal decrees; moreover, they wanted Barbarossa to recognize Pope Alexander III. By prior agreement, the consuls of Cremona were appointed as arbitrators, and they were approached for the final decision. The Cremonese made a compromise decision, which reflected the desire not to spoil relations with the emperor. The Lombards were asked to recognize only the sovereign rights of the emperor, which had existed since the time of Henry V, but at the same time retain for the emperor those “regalia” that had not been granted or sold to them since the time of the Roncal Reichstag. Alessandria was to be demolished and its inhabitants sent back to where they came from. As for the Pope, both sides were asked to act in accordance with the dictates of their conscience. The Lombards were not satisfied with this decision and in October 1175 military operations were resumed.
Frederick was acutely short of troops. The small detachments he had at his disposal were clearly not enough even to capture Alessandria, not to mention the conquest of Milan. Barbarossa turned to Henry the Lion for help. In January 1176, Frederick Barbarossa met with his cousin in Chiavenna, where Henry the Lion refused Frederick military assistance.
In May 1176, thanks to the efforts of Archbishop Philip of Cologne, it was possible to bring small reinforcements to Italy - about a thousand knights and the same number of infantry. The army was small in number, but with such forces it was still possible to carry out individual operations. Frederick met new troops near Lake Como, and led him to Pavia, which was Barbarossa's main stronghold in northern Italy. However, near the city of Legnano the emperor was met by the Milanese, and on May 29 a battle took place that ended in the complete defeat of Barbarossa. Frederick himself was knocked out of the saddle in this battle and was initially considered killed. The news of the death of the emperor completely demoralized the Germans and put the remnants of the army to flight. Barbarossa showed up a few days later in Pavia, but now he no longer hoped to solve all the problems in Italy by force.
The defeat at Legnano radically changed the policy of Frederick Barbarossa, and, as it turned out, this brought desired result. It should be noted that Frederick I had not shied away from diplomacy before, and besides, he had no shortage of talent in this area. It’s not for nothing that the chroniclers noted him as very smart person, an interesting conversationalist, a good speaker. It is possible that not all and not always they were sincere, but the fact is that Barbarossa glorified himself not only as a desperate slasher on the battlefield. Realizing that nothing could be achieved by force from the Lombard League, inspired by Pope Alexander III (and where would one get these forces?), Frederick began negotiations. Was approved new project After the peace treaty proposed by the consuls from Cremona, Barbarossa agreed to leave Alessandria and entered into dialogue with Alexander III.
Negotiations with the pope led to a split in the Lombard League and the end of the schism. On July 24, 1177, Frederick reconciled with Alexander in St. Mark's Square in Venice, recognizing him as pope, and on August 1, the negotiators were sworn in. A six-year truce was concluded with the Lombard League and a fifteen-year truce with the Kingdom of Sicily. And although new tensions soon began between papal and imperial policies, they no longer threatened a new split. The conclusion of peace in Venice opened up completely new prospects for Barbarossa, unattainable by force of arms.
In mid-July 1178, Barbarossa went to Burgundy, where on July 30, his coronation as King of Burgundy took place in Arles. In addition to this purely symbolic act, Frederick, while in Burgundy, held court hearings, hoftags, and settled disputes between the local nobility until October. In a word, he strengthened the authority of the Empire and demonstrated his power. In October, the emperor left for Germany; during his four-year absence, enough problems had accumulated there that had to be solved.
Most of the questions again concerned Saxony. Henry the Lion's clashes with princes hostile to him continued, and relations between the cousins cooled noticeably after Henry refused to help the emperor at Chiavenna. If before Barbarossa always took the side of the Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, now he decided to act differently. In mid-January 1179, the Reichstag was appointed in Worms, where both Henry the Lion and his opponents were ordered to appear, but only Archbishop Philip of Cologne came to Worms at the appointed time, as one of the main opponents; Henry the Lion ignored this event. At the end of June, Heinrich Leo also did not appear at the Hoftag in Magdeburg; disgrace was declared against him, however, it came into force in a year and one day. The Duke of Saxony requested a meeting with the Emperor, hoping to settle the matter privately. The meeting took place, but Frederick demanded payment of a large fine - 5,000 marks in silver, and this did not suit Henry the Lion.
In August, in the Saxon town of Kaina, at the next hoftag, where Henry the Lion again refused to come, the disgraced duke was given one last chance - to appear at the Reichstag in Würzburg, scheduled for January 1180. However, Henry the Lion, not hoping for a favorable outcome of the trial, began military action by attacking Halberstad. On January 30, 1180, a verdict was passed in Würzburg, according to which Henry the Lion was deprived of his ducal dignity and all fiefs, and his personal property was subject to confiscation. A little later, on April 13, at the Reichstag in Gelnhausen, old Saxony was divided into Westphalia, which went to the Archbishop of Cologne, and Engern, whose control was transferred to Count Bernhard of Anhalt. The fate of Bavaria was decided at the Reichstag in Regensburg.
Henry the Lion counted on the support of the English king, who was his father-in-law, and he agreed on the condition that this alliance would also be supported by the French king, the young Philip II Augustus, however, the French monarch chose not to interfere. An attempt to conclude an alliance with the Danish king Valdemar I was also unsuccessful. At the Reichstag in Regensburg, meanwhile, the Duchy of Bavaria was transferred to Count Palatine Otto Wittelsbach. At the end of July 1180, the Emperor's army crossed the borders of Saxony, but Frederick was in no hurry to begin the decisive battle, not having enough forces to win. Instead, he began to send messengers to the vassals of Henry the Lion demanding submission to the emperor as the supreme overlord. Gradually, all his supporters began to fall away from the disgraced Saxon duke.
Henry the Lion resisted until mid-August 1181, when his last stronghold, the city of Lübeck, fell. Realizing that there was no point in resisting further, in November at the Reichstag in Erfurt he appeared before the emperor to beg his forgiveness. Frederick returned his cousin's hereditary possessions in Luneburg and Brunswick, but still sent him into exile. A year later, Heinrich Leo and his family left Germany. Having made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, he found refuge in Normandy at the court of his English father-in-law. After the expulsion of Henry the Lion, there was no significant force remaining in the empire hostile to the emperor's power. Frederick successfully resolved one of the main problems in his empire - now no one could challenge his power.
Now Barbarossa could reconsider his policy towards the Lombard cities. Thanks to the expansion of his territorial possessions in Germany, the emperor did not need the money of the Lombard cities as urgently as before. Therefore, he reasoned quite logically that in order for the Lombards to recognize his suzerainty, he could sacrifice the regalia and privileges so desired by the cities. On June 20, 1183, in Constance, Frederick Barbarossa concluded a final peace with the cities of Lombardy.
At the beginning of 1184, Barbarossa was at the peak of his political career. The authority of the emperor at this time was unusually high, both in Germany and in Italy. Obviously, these circumstances prompted the emperor to organize a big holiday in Mainz on Trinity Sunday. Invitations were sent out in advance, and since a lot of guests were expected, a festive town was erected on the opposite bank of the Rhine. The holiday opened on May 20, and the next day the Emperor's sons, Frederick and Henry, were knighted. The Mainz holiday was remembered for a long time by contemporaries for its scope, even despite the fact that on the third day, a sudden hurricane swept away the wooden buildings of the holiday town, and there were human casualties.
On September 1, the Emperor departs for Italy again. This time he did not lead an army, since the purposes of his trip were exclusively peaceful. Barbarossa was going to negotiate, not to fight. Frederick spent a week in Milan, where he held a hoftag, and then he visited Pavia and Cremona. In mid-October, Barbarossa arrived in Verona, where Pope Lucius III, who took the throne of St. Peter after the death of Alexander III, was waiting for him. The emperor had a difficult relationship with the pontiff, controversial issues there were many - the inheritance of Countess Matilda, the coronation of Barbarossa's son Henry, the schismatic ordination of clergy, etc. The negotiations finally broke down when news arrived of the conclusion of peace on October 29 between King William II of Sicily and King Henry VI of Germany, acting on behalf of the emperor. Moreover, the agreement was sealed by an engagement between Henry VI and Constance, the aunt of the Sicilian king, who had no heirs. In other words, Sicily could eventually go to the Empire. Lucius III was especially upset that William II did not take into account the opinion of the pope, thereby not recognizing him as a worthy ally.
In addition to the failure of the negotiations, the Emperor also had to experience personal grief - on October 8, the Emperor's infant daughter Agnes died, on November 15, Empress Beatrice died in Gelnhausen, and at the end of the year another daughter, engaged to Richard the Lionheart, dies. However, Frederick delayed his return to Germany until the settlement was completed. political processes in Italy.
At the end of November 1185, Pope Lucius III dies in Verona and his place is taken by Archbishop of Milan Umberto Crivelli under the name Urban III. The emperor's relationship with the new pope did not improve at all, but Barbarossa was more confident in himself than ever. Relying on the support of the cities, he celebrates the marriage of his son Henry with the Sicilian princess Constance on January 26, 1186, not just anywhere, but in Milan, while the festivities on this occasion are not inferior in scope to the Mainz celebration. In addition to the wedding, two more acts are carried out: the coronation of Constance and the proclamation of Henry VI as Caesar. All this is happening without the consent of the Pope.
Urban III was among those invited, but did not want to come to Milan. He makes a retaliatory move - he forbids the clergy of Lombardy to obey Barbarossa. But Frederick simply blocks the Pope, blocking the passes in the Alps and the roads to Verona, where the pontiff was at that moment. Nevertheless, Urban III counted on the support of the Bavarian clergy, among his supporters was Archbishop Philip of Cologne. But this time the Pope miscalculated. In June 1186, Frederick returned to Germany, leaving Henry VI in his place in Italy, and in November, at the Reichstag in Gelnhausen, he secured the support of the majority of the German clergy. Urban was ready to stand to the end and was preparing a new excommunication of the emperor and his son Henry from the church, but these plans were not destined to come true - in October 1187 Urban III died.
Alberto Sartori di Morra, who replaced him and was elected to the papal throne under the name of Gregory VIII, managed to do very little, since he died in December of the same 1187, but having called the Christian world to the third Crusade, he found it possible to reconcile with Barbarossa and Henry VI. His successor Clement III continued preparations for the Crusade, reconciled the kings of France and England - Philip Augustus and Henry II of England and convinced them to accept the cross. The matter remained with Frederick Barbarossa, as the most experienced and authoritative and, perhaps, powerful of the monarchs of the entire Christian world, he should have led this campaign.
In March 1188, the emperor held a hoftag in Mainz, called the hoftag of Jesus Christ. The place of the chairman of the hoftag remained unoccupied, thereby emphasizing that the Son of God himself presides at this meeting. At the hoftag, Barbarossa and his eldest son Frederick of Swabia accepted the cross, the start of the campaign was scheduled for April 23, 1189, Regensburg was appointed as the gathering place, and Henry VI was appointed ruler of the empire during Barbarossa’s absence.
Frederick Barbarossa prepared quite carefully for the Crusade. The preparations also included diplomatic training. Embassies were sent to the countries through which the crusaders had to pass on their way to the Holy Land. We established contacts with the King of Hungary Bela III, the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angel, with the ruler of the Iconian Sultanate and with the Armenian Patriarch Leon II. The Great Jupan of Serbia, Stefan Nemanja, also confirmed his readiness to assist the crusaders.
Frederick decided to lead his army along the same route that he had taken forty years earlier during the Second Crusade. The French and English troops were transported to Palestine by sea. Barbarossa set out with his army on May 11, 1189. Despite preliminary agreements along the route, the Emperor repeatedly encountered problems. Having entered Byzantine territory, the crusaders became convinced that no one was going to provide them with provisions, as had been previously agreed. Isaac II Angelus did not trust Frederick Barbarossa, suspecting that he was going to conquer Constantinople. Things got to the point that the emperor's ambassadors were arrested by the Byzantines, the basileus gathered an army, preparing to enter into open confrontation with the crusaders, and entered into an alliance with Saladin. The Germans began to destroy Greek possessions in order to provide themselves with food and fodder. The delay in travel threatened to escalate into war between the two great powers. At the beginning of 1190, Isaac II Angel finally realized that the obstacles in the way of the crusaders were causing damage, first of all, to himself and agreed with Barbarossa to transport the army across the strait, in return for a promise not to lead it to Constantinople.
On March 21, the crossing of the Hellespont began and lasted a whole week. In Asia Minor, the crusaders had an even harder time. As they moved away from Constantinople, the support of the Byzantines became less and less. On the territory of the Seljuks, they constantly had to fight off Turkmen troops who were not subordinate to either Byzantium or the Iconian Sultanate. The climate, unusual for Europeans, also made itself felt; the crusaders suffered from heat and lack of drinking water. Sultan Kilych-Arslan and his son Kutbeddin were never able to ensure unhindered passage for Frederick’s army, despite their previous assurances. The result was the assault and capture of Iconium on May 18. After a week's rest, taking hostages, the army moved on.
By the end of May, the crusaders reached the borders of the Armenian kingdom. Frederick entered the territory of a Christian, friendly country and could count on the unhindered continuation of the campaign, however, difficulties arose when passing through the mountains. Overcoming the steep ascents and descents was not easy, especially under the scorching summer sun. June 10, 1190 was the last day of the life of Frederick Barbarossa. While crossing the mountain river Salef (Goksu), the Emperor drowned.
There is no reliable description of what happened. There are two versions, according to one of which, during the crossing, Barbarossa lost control of his horse, and he fell, dragging the rider with him, according to the second, Frederick himself decided to swim in the river after the crossing and lunch on the opposite bank, but his heart was no longer young the person could not withstand the sudden change in temperature. Be that as it may, the Emperor was pulled out of the water already lifeless, and this led to complete confusion of the German army.
Some of the crusaders decided to stop the campaign and return to their homeland. The majority, led by Frederick of Swabia, moved on. In Seleucia, the remains of the Emperor were embalmed and taken with them by those who continued the campaign. Three days later, Barbarossa’s entrails were buried in the cathedral of the city of Tarsus, the birthplace of the Apostle Paul. The Emperor's bones were intended to be buried in Jerusalem, but the crusaders never made it there. Less than a year later, on January 20, 1191, in the city of Acre, Barbarossa's eldest son, Frederick, Duke of Swabia, himself died of illness. No one knows the exact place where the bones of Frederick I Barbarossa are buried.
The thirty-eight-year reign of Frederick I Barbarossa is considered the heyday of the Holy Roman Empire, and apparently for good reason. Even though Barbarossa did not achieve his dream - the former power of the empire during the time of Charlemagne, he still managed to do a lot along this path. The strengthening of central power, the recognition of imperial suzerainty by the cities of Italy, the expansion of the territories of the empire, and the introduction into circulation of the expression “Holy Roman Empire” (sacrum imperium) - all this is the result of Barbarossa’s activities. It is worth noting that he achieved his greatest successes not with the sword, but with diplomatic methods. Of course, this was also facilitated by the personal qualities of the Emperor; if he were an ordinary person, his life story would have been much shorter. It is not for nothing that there is a legend according to which Barbarossa did not die, but sleeps in a cave under Mount Kyffhäuser in Thuringia, and someday must wake up to restore order and justice in the world.
Sources
- Ferdinand Opl "Friedrich Barbarossa" - Eurasia St. Petersburg 2010
- Balakin V.D. "Friedrich Barbarossa" - Moscow: Young Guard, 2001
- Wikipedia
- Maria Louise Bulst-Thiele "The Holy Roman Empire: the era of formation"
Frederick Barbarossa is known to us as one of greatest emperors Middle Ages. The reason for this is his personal qualities and a favorable combination of circumstances.
In the 12th century, the Staufen (Hohenstaufen) dynasty sat on the throne in Germany. In 1152, the not-so-lucky Conrad III died, the only German ruler who never went to Rome to claim the imperial crown. Before his death, however, he made a wise decision and recommended that the nobility elect to the throne not his young son, but his nephew, Duke Frederick of Swabia, who would later be given the nickname Barbarossa (Redbeard) by the Italians for his thick red beard.
Frederick is believed to have been born in 1122. His father, Duke of Swabia, belonged to the Staufen family, and his mother to the Welf family, Dukes of Bavaria. Thus, Conrad hoped to put an end to the irreconcilable enmity of two noble families - the Staufens and the Welfs.
Frederick was a man in the prime of his life (he had just turned 30), slenderly built and of average height, with light brown hair and a reddish beard, with a noble bearing, possessing all the knightly virtues, intelligence and decisive character.
No wonder they admired his eloquence - he fully justified these reviews. In the letter that the king sent to Pope Eugene III, announcing his election, Frederick writes that he will make every effort to “adorn the church with all its advantages and return the power of the Roman emperor to its former strength, for the whole world is ruled by two forces: the sacred power of the clergy and royal power."
After being crowned with the royal crown in Aachen, Frederick I assembled the first Reichstag in Merseburg and resolved the dispute between two Danish princes over the succession to the throne. Then the king’s immediate concern was resolving disputes that arose in Bavaria about the distribution of power between representatives of the most important clans.
Within a year and a half, Frederick I managed not only to instill confidence in everyone in his impartiality and firmness, but also to actually settle many different discords and disagreements and therefore could undertake the usual campaign to Italy for the imperial crown. The imperial title for a person like Frederick should have had a completely different meaning than for kings of the ordinary type.
Italy was going through a severe crisis at that time., which had significance not only in relation to Rome, as the papal residence, but extended far beyond the borders of Italy. Amid these unrest, Pope Eugene III died (1153)
Lombardy flourished- new connections with the East and the rapid development of Levantine trade through the Crusades - all this had a revitalizing effect on the naturally rich country, abundantly irrigated by the Po River. Here the nobility closely united with the cities and rallied to such an extent with the lower classes that they put not their own interests above all, but the interests of the city.
FIRST ITALIAN CAMPAIGN OF FREDERICK I BARBAROSSA
With a small army - 1,800 knights and retinue - Frederick I first came to Italy in the fall of 1154. On the Roncal Valley, he reviewed his army, and then listened to the complaints with which they came to him. The most serious complaints were directed against "proud Milan" - the king of the Lombard cities, who ruined the cities of Como and Lodi and turned them into simple villages.
All the excuses of the Milanese consuls were found insufficient; when the city did not want to submit to the will of the king, it was declared disgraced. The royal army devastated the entire Milanese region and destroyed several Milanese castles.
The city of Tortona, allied with Milan, relying on the Milanese, also decided to disobey the king, but after a five-week siege it was taken and destroyed. The mutual envy of the big cities helped the king in this case, and after he thus established his power in Northern Italy, Frederick moved towards Rome.
From the end of 1154, the Pope was Adrian IV, a worthy man who rose to power without any illustrious ancestors, fortune, or family ties - only thanks to his outstanding personal merits.
Adrian came out to meet the king and only a question of etiquette overshadowed their first meeting. The pope expected that the king, according to custom, would hold the stirrup for him when dismounting, but he considered this humiliating to his dignity, and therefore the pope, in turn, deprived him of the usual honor of “kissing the world.” However, the senior princes explained to Frederick that the custom, which he did not observe, had been accepted since ancient times.
The embassy, sent to the king by the Roman commune and speaking very arrogantly, was met by the king very unkindly, and he immediately ordered the city and the church of St. Peter to be occupied by troops.
And it happened in the church Frederick's coronation with the imperial crown, which the mass of the Roman population learned about only when it was completed. An uprising followed, which was suppressed only after a stubborn battle.
But Rome was not completely pacified by him, and the second service that the pope expected from the emperor - the pacification of the Normans - was also not provided. This did not happen at the will of Frederick. Powerful vassals from the squads did not want to go south in the hottest time of the year, dangerous diseases began in the army, and Frederick I set off on a return campaign.
Returning to Germany, Frederick showed imperial power in full force. He promulgated an energetic decree on the non-violation of the general peace throughout the state, and everyone was extremely amazed when he applied to some high-born violators of the general peace the ancient and very shameful penalty known as “carrying the dog.”
The next year, 1156, the Bavarian question was finally resolved, because of which two powerful families of the Welfs and the Babenbergs were at enmity.
The Duchy of Bavaria was given to the fief of Henry the Lion of the Welf family, who provided serious services to the emperor during his campaign in Italy, but the Eastern Mark was separated from Bavaria and a separate Austrian state was formed from it.
In the same year, having divorced his first wife, Frederick married Beatrice, heiress of the richest county of Upper Burgundy. It was not without reason that many suitors sought her hand - her domains were so vast and populated that she had 5 thousand knights at her disposal.
After a short struggle with Boleslaw IV of Poland, which ended successfully for Frederick, he convened the Reichstag in Burgundy (1157), and then the papal legates came to him, with whom he had to enter into not entirely pleasant explanations. The pope had every reason to be dissatisfied with the results of Frederick's Italian campaign, since they turned out to be beneficial only to the emperor, while the pope was left to the mercy of fate and was in no way protected either from the Roman party of independents or from King William.
The papal legates handed the emperor a letter from the pope, who subtly hinted that Frederick I owed everything to the Holy Roman Church and had not yet shown her gratitude. The legate Bishop of Siena asked sharply: “From whom did Frederick receive his imperial dignity, if not from the Holy Pope?” Frederick pacified his excitement, inviting the papal legates to immediately leave, and he himself published a manifesto for public information, in which, outlining the claims of the pope, he declared that he received both royal and imperial power by virtue of the election of princes “from one God.”
An important issue of state law, raised at the Reichstag in Besançon, became the subject of serious legal research, which was undertaken by lawyers from the school of the famous Bolognese scientist Irnerius. The results of their research were of great service to Frederick when he undertook his second campaign in Italy in 1158. At first, the reason for the campaign was the willfulness of Milan, which still sought hegemony over all Lombard cities.
The pope tried in vain and sent a new embassy to the emperor, in a different sense, explaining the expressions of his first message in order to ward off the storm. Frederick moved with a large army to Italy, where his envoys, taking advantage of the discord in Italian cities, recruited allies for him against Milan.
Sources:
encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus Efron
Eger O. World History. v. 2
Ilovaisky D.I. Hohenshaufen and Welf.
