20 April 2003

Frederick II, Shrine of Charlemagne, Aix-la-Chapelle

Frederick Roger Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen, was one interesting motherfucker. Statesman, legislator, scientist, writer, poet and architect, he spoke six languages and was witty in all of them. His impact on the history, culture and laws of Europe was immense.

According to Pope Gregory IX, Frederick II Hohenstaufen (F2H) was "the beast that surges up from the sea laden with blasphemous names, and raging with a bear’s paws and a lion’s maw, his other members in the likeness of a leopard, his gaping mouth offending the Holy Name, unceasingly even hurling his lance at the tabernacle of God and His Saints in heaven."

According to his minister, Pietro della Vigna, he was "the God-Sent Savior, the Prince of Peace, the Messiah-Emperor."

His contemporaries knew him simply as 'Stupor Mundi' - the Wonder of the World.

Which was he? You decide.

Frederick II, with one of his beloved hawks

Frederick was born on 26 December 1194, son of Constance of Altavilla and Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI.

Because his mother was 40 when she bore him, rumour circulated that she was faking pregnancy in order to produce an heir. To dispel the rumour, she gave birth in an open tent in a market-place. Frederick's father died when he was two; his mother died a year later, shortly after having him crowned King of Sicily and making him a ward of the ruthlessly-ambitious Pope Innocent III.

Frederick's whole life was spent trying to consolidate his hold over his Empire and remove it from Papal influence. His childhood was spent on the streets of Palermo while Sicily was exploited by a succession of German barons with the collusion of Pope Innocent. In 1209, at the age of fourteen, the Pope arranged for Frederick to marry Sancha of Aragon; instead he married her sister Constance, ten years older than him, receiving as a dowry 500 knights, with which he hoped to use to sieze control of his kingdom of Sicily.

The next year was a disaster. Many of his knights died of dysentry, the Pope was enraged, most of the Sicilian princes wanted him dead, and German Emperor Otto von Braunschweig claimed the title of Holy Roman Emperor and marched on Sicily. But from the jaws of defeat - victory: the Pope excommunicated Otto for invading Italy, the German barons decided they preferred the apparent weakling Frederick to strong-man Otto, and elected him Emperor. Otto rushed back to Germany, but was unable to turn his vassals round. Frederick, with only a light escort, marched through Italy to Germany and was crowned Emperor. Ten years later, in 1220, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Honorius III.

Frederick had a vision of a secular empire, free from the control of the church, ruled by law. His Chancery, run by Pietro della Vigna was a model of efficiency, sending hundreds of messages every day in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, French and German throughout his empire, from Northern Germany to Sicily, as well as to the other great Kingdoms of Europe and the Near East. His court was magificent, bringing together the leading scientists, mathematicians, doctors and poets of the day from the Arab and the Christian world, and he founded the first state-funded university in Naples. But Frederick's growing power brought him into conflict with a succession of Popes, who allied themselves with the free cities of Lombardy to attack him, thwarting his grand plans.

Frederick died on 13 December 1250 at Castelfiorentino from an intestinal infection. Over the next 22 years, his sons Enzio, Manfred and Conrad either died or were captured in battle by allies of the Papacy and executed. This brought the Hohenstaufen dynasty brought to its end, and with it, for many centuries, the dream of a Europe of secular Europe based on law and commerce, free from the rule of the church.