Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

• 1. A Boy Crowned In Jesi

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  On the 26th of December 1194, a child named Frederick was born in the market square of Jesi. The location itself was unusual for a royal birth and immediately sparked rumors that his parentage was not what it seemed. Some chroniclers claimed he was not the son of Emperor Henry VI but rather the offspring of a butcher or a miller from the town. His mother Constance had to swear on the gospels before a papal legate to prove her legitimacy as his parent. This public spectacle was necessary because she was older than most women who gave birth at the time. The young boy was initially named Constantine after his mother, linking him to both Norman heritage and the first Christian emperor. He received his grandfather's name only when he was two years old during a baptism in Assisi. By the age of three, he was crowned King of Sicily while traveling with his mother toward Palermo. His early life became a series of turbulent transitions between different regents who sought to control the kingdom. After his father died in September 1197, the infant was brought back to Sicily where he remained under various guardians. Markward of Annweiler seized him in 1200 and held him until 1202. William of Capparone then kept him in the royal palace of Palermo until 1206. Walter of Palearia served as his tutor until Frederick was declared of age in 1208. During these years, the young king spoke five languages including Greek, Arabic, Latin, Provençal, and Sicilian. He wandered the streets of cosmopolitan Palermo talking with all manner of people and devouring knowledge.

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• 2. The Architecture Of A State

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  Frederick returned to southern Italy in December 1220 determined to rebuild authority that had waned over decades. The Assizes of Capua were issued soon after his arrival to restore royal lands and castles to their state at the death of William II. This legislation demanded that all privileges granted since the end of William II's reign be submitted for confirmation to the Royal Chancery before Easter 1221. Spurious legal means and forged documents used to grab land from the royal domain were comprehensively revoked pending revision. The laws promulgated at Capua also regulated the present tenure of fiefs and provided for their future control by the Emperor. Holders could neither marry nor could their children inherit directly without the sovereign's consent. Frederick launched a campaign against barons who did not submit to the decree. Those captured were either exiled or sometimes executed while their families were sold into slavery. Thomas of Celano offered serious resistance in his redoubts in the Abruzzi until his fortresses surrendered. As punishment for its resistance, the town of Celano was razed and its inhabitants deported to Sicily. Frederick began to construct fortresses across the mainland to impose order across the region. These structures were massive and utilitarian with no residential quarters and garrisoned by state troops. The loosely-knit framework of a feudal kingdom was steadily succeeded by the firm architecture of a state. In the spring of 1221, Frederick issued assizes in Messina concerned with municipal administration. He ejected Genoese traders from Syracuse and withdrew all concessions granted during the last three decades. By the end of 1221, the emperor already had two squadrons at sea.

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• 3. A Crusade Without Swords

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  Frederick set out for the Holy Land from Brindisi in August 1227 but was forced to return when struck down by an epidemic. On the 29th of September 1227, he was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for failing to honor his crusading pledge. Many contemporary chroniclers doubted the sincerity of his illness and wrote that Frederick had feigned sickness. He eventually sailed again from Brindisi in June 1228 while still under excommunication. Frederick reached Acre in September where many local nobility and military orders were reluctant to offer support. He negotiated along the lines of a previous agreement he had intended to broker with the Ayyubid sultan Al-Kamil. The treaty signed in February 1229 resulted in the restitution of Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, and a small coastal strip. The Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque remained under Muslim control and the city would remain without fortifications. Virtually all other crusaders including the Templars and Hospitallers condemned this deal as a political ploy. Frederick's coronation as King of Jerusalem took place on the 18th of March 1229 though it was technically improper since his wife Isabella had died leaving their infant son Conrad as rightful king. Gerald of Lausanne did not attend the ceremony and the next day the Bishop of Caesarea arrived to place the city under interdict. Philip of Novara later said the emperor left Acre hated, cursed, and vilified. The crusade ended in a truce and in Frederick's coronation although this was technically improper.

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• 4. The Hammer And The Anvil

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  Frederick received news of his excommunication by Pope Gregory IX in the first months of 1239 while his court was in Padua. He responded by expelling the Franciscans and Dominicans from Lombardy and taking hostages from important northern Italian families. In December of that year, he entered Tuscany and spent Christmas in Pisa. Frederick then directed his army toward Rome and burned Umbria as he advanced. Just as his forces were ready to attack Rome, Gregory died on the 22nd of August 1241. Frederick attempted to show that the war was not directed against the Church but against the Pope by withdrawing his troops. He freed two cardinals he had captured at Giglio including Otto of Tonengo whom he made into a staunch ally. A new pope Innocent IV was elected on the 25th of June 1243 and became his fiercest enemy. Innocent fled via Genoese galleys to Liguria arriving on the 7th of July before reaching Lyon where a church council had been held since the 24th of June 1245. One month later Innocent declared Frederick deposed characterizing him as a friend of Babylon's sultan and a heretic. Frederick brutally purged the clergy in Sicily and Italy of Innocent's supporters wherever he found them. Across Italy he waged a campaign of terror targeting any hint of opposition. The emperor supposedly declared I have been the anvil long enough now I shall be the hammer. In 1246 Innocent allegedly set in motion a plot to kill Frederick with support from Orlando de Rossi.

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• 5. The Mongol Shadow

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  In 1241, 1242 the forces of the Mongol Empire decisively defeated the armies of Hungary and Poland. King Béla IV appealed to Frederick for aid but the Emperor refused to commit to a major military expedition so readily. He was unwilling to cross into Hungary and specifically took his vow for the defense of the empire on this side of the Alps. Frederick expressed admiration for Mongol military prowess after hearing of their deeds. He called a levy throughout Germany while the Mongols were busy raiding Hungary. On the 20th of June in Faenza, the emperor issued the Encyclica contra Tartaros announcing the fall of Kiev and the invasion of Hungary. A chronicler reports that Frederick received a demand of submission from Batu Khan at some time which he ignored. His forces were to avoid engaging the Mongols in field battles and hoard all food stocks in every fortress. Thomas of Split comments that there was a frenzy of fortifying castles and cities throughout the Holy Roman Empire including Italy. King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia had every castle strengthened and provisioned as well as providing soldiers to monasteries. A force was repulsed in a skirmish near Kłodzko and 300, 700 Mongol troops were killed in a battle near Vienna. The Mongols spent the next year pillaging Hungary before withdrawing back to Russia.

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• 6. The Sicilian School

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  Frederick's magnificent Sicilian imperial-royal court in Palermo began around 1220 and became the cultural hub of the early 13th century. It saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language known as Sicilian. The poetry that emanated from the school had a significant influence on literature and on what was to become the modern Italian language. He was also the first monarch to formally outlaw trial by ordeal which had come to be viewed as superstitious. Frederick reportedly spoke six languages: Latin, Sicilian, Middle High German, Old French, Greek, and Arabic. As an avid patron of science and the arts he played a major role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His own contributions included natural history and law where he wrote treatises on falconry and hunting. The emperor maintained a personal library containing works in multiple languages and employed scholars from across Europe. He encouraged the translation of ancient texts into vernacular languages for wider distribution. This intellectual environment attracted poets and philosophers who would shape the future of European culture.

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• 7. The End Of A Dynasty

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  In June 1247 the important Lombard city of Parma expelled the Imperial functionaries and sided with the Guelphs. Enzo was not in the city and could do nothing more than ask for help from his father. Frederick came back to lay siege to the rebels together with his friend Ezzelino III da Romano. On the 18th of February 1248 while Frederick was hunting the camp was suddenly assaulted and taken in the Battle of Parma. Taddeo da Suessa Great Justiciar of Sicily was killed in the battle. Frederick also lost the Imperial treasure and with it his offensive momentum against the rebellious communes. In May 1249 Frederick dismissed his advisor Pier delle Vigne on charges of peculation and embezzlement. Pier blinded and in chains died in Pisa possibly by his own hand. Even more shocking for Frederick was the defeat and capture of Enzo by the Bolognese at the Battle of Fossalta in May 1249. Enzo was held in a palace in Bologna where he remained captive until his death in 1272. Richard of Chieti was also killed in 1249 likely in the same battle. The year 1249 was the nadir of the Emperor's fortunes and made clear how reliant the imperial position was on his person. Frederick left a portion of his army in central Lombardy under the command of his captains and returned to the south. He would remain there until his death on the 13th of December 1250.

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