FEDERICO BARBARROJA

 

The sword of Barbarroja battled throughout all the Germanic Roman empire. 

 

He was Emperor of the Sacred Germanic Roman Empire (1152-1190), king of Italy (1155-1190) and named Federico III, Duke of Suabia (1147-1152, 1167-1168).

He was born in Waiblingen, son of Federico II of Hohenstaufen, Duke of Suabia and nephew of emperor Conrado III. He inherited the title of Duke from his father, and after the death of his uncle, in 1152, Federico Barbarroja was named king of Germania and chosen emperor of the Sacred Germanic Roman Empire.

Picture of Barbarroja

His main desire was to recover the glory and the prestige of the Roman Empire. In 1154 he marched to Italy, where he received the crown of the Lombard kingdom in the city of Pavia. The following year he was crowned emperor of the Sacred Empire by Pope Adrian IV. 

He was able to pacify Germany and both limit the power of the feudal lords during the first years of his reign thanks to the aid of his famous sword, later known as the sword of Barbarroja. For this purpose, he focused his politics and ambitions on the Italian Peninsula. 

In 1154 he attacked Rome, in the first of a series of six expeditions against Italian land. The rebellion ended when Adrian IV sent an interdiction against Rome, subjugating its inhabitants and expelling Arnaldo de Brescia, who was executed by Federico Barbarroja and his sword.

Sword that I use Barbarroja in its battles.

Back in Germany, he pacified the territory naming Enrique Leon Duke of Baviera and allowing Enrique Jasomirgott to change his title from Marquis to Duke of Austria. 

The advice of Reinaldo Dassel, chancellor of the Empire, made the emperor believe that the Pope considered him a vassal of the Church, based on a painting in Letran depicting the coronation of Lotario under the inscription "El emperor becomes the Pope's vassal". The painting was then destroyed and enmity with the Pope arose once more. 

A deficient translation of the letter on the part of Reinaldo Dassel made the emperor believe that the Pope still continued considering him his vassal. Immediately hostilities broke out and documents against Adriano IV began to be published. Federico I postulated that the Papacy must be subordinated to the Empire. 

Sculpture of Barbarroja.

Adrian IV intended to excommunicate Federico I, but his death in 1519 finally prevented him doing so.

The intension of limiting the power of the Papacy exclusively to the spiritual sphere also made him confront Pope Alexander III (1159-1181), successor of Adrian IV, who supported the creation of the Lombard League in 1167, which caused the imperial troops to be expelled from Italian territory. Federico acknowledged Calixto III as Pope (1168-1178). 

In 1174 he resumed his attempts of expansion for the fifth time but was defeated in Legnano (1176) and was forced to accept the Venice (1177) and Constanza (1183) treaties, by which he acknowledged Alexander III as the Pope, resigned to its intensions of dominating the Pontifical States, recognized the temporary power of the Pontiff and granted the cities under his jurisdiction autonomy. In return, he was he was absolved of excommunication. 

However, his hegemony over the extensive territories in the north of Italy remained unquestionable, having annexed Burgundy by marriage in 1156 and tied Sicily to the Empire by the wedding (1186) of his son Enrique with Constanza, the daughter of the king of that territory. Federico Barbarroja drowned in 1190 when trying to cross the Saleph river, during the Third Crusade undertaken against Saladino.

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