Frederick the Second

by Ernst Kantorowicz

  Joachim of Flora: Three Ages of the world

  John of Vicenza

  Conrad of Marburg

  King Henry’s rebellion and treason

  Fate of Henry

  Frederick marries Isabella of England

  Diet and Landpeace of Mainz

  Use of German for imperial proclamation

  End of Welf-Waibling feud

  Jew ritual murder case

  War with Lombardy

  Pope’s manoeuvres

  Re-burial of St. Elizabeth. 1236, at Marburg

  “Execution of Justice” against Lombardy

  Appeal to all Christian monarchs

  Appeal to Romans

  Art of war in Middle Ages

  Frederick of Babenberg “the Quarrelsome”

  Arrogance of Gregory IX

  “Donation of Constantine”

  Capture of Vicenza

  Diet of Vicenza

  Conrad, King of the Romans

  Cortenuova, 1237

  The “Triumph” in Cremona

  VII. Caesar and Rome

  The magic of Rome

  Renovatio imperii

  Identification with Caesar

  Spolia opima from Cortenuova

  Lust for personal glorification

  Frederick’s wooing of the Romans

  Cardinals and Pope

  Progress in Lombardy

  Diets of Pavia and Turin, 1238

  Siege of Brescia; Calamandrinus

  Coalition against Frederick

  Enzio

  Imperial Court at Padua

  Frederick’s appeal to the Cardinals

  Frederick excommunicated

  Death of Hermann of Salza

  Reorganisation and defence of Sicily

  Destruction of Benevento, 1241

  Reorganisation of Italy

  War of manifestos and propaganda

  Brother Elias

  Brother Jordan and the Pope

  Christmas in Pisa

  Frederick invades the Papal States

  Letter to Jesi

  At the gates of Rome

  Gregory turns the multitude

  VIII. Dominus Mundi

  Cult of the Emperor

  The sacratissimum ministerium

  Outburst of Sicilian art

  Capuan Gate

  Nicholas of Pisa

  St. Francis and “Gothic” painting

  Diet in Foggia, 1240

  Inefficacy of papal ban

  Princes’ effort to mediate

  Surrender of Ravenna

  Resistance of Faënza

  Cost of prolonged operations

  Issue of leather coins

  Hostilities against Venice

  Gregory’s General Council

  Frederick’s counter-measures

  Gregory’s pact with Genoa

  Fall of Faënza, April 14, 1241

  Destruction of Benevento

  Victory at sea, 1241; capture of 100 prelates

  Mongol threat

  Battle of Liegnitz, 1241

  Pope hinders Crusade

  Muslims retake Jerusalem, Nov. 1240

  Frederick negotiates recovery of Jerusalem

  Advance on Rome; death of Pope Gregory

  Status of Empire in Europe

  Relations between Frederick and brother kings

  Saint Louis

  Stirps caesarea; deification of the Hohenstaufens

  Conclave of Terror, 1241

  Innocent IV elected Pope

  Defection of Viterbo

  Treachery of Cardinal Rainer

  Provisional peace, 1244; breaks down

  Flight of Innocent IV

  Lyons

  Diet of Verona

  Rainer’s hostile propaganda

  Council of Lyons

  Thaddeus of Suessa

  Deposition of Frederick II

  IX. Antichrist

  Dual interpretation of Frederick’s life

  Frederick’s posterity

  Satellite giants : Eccelino, Guido of Sessa, Hubert Pallavicini

  “Labour of Love”: to purge the Church

  Reform manifestos

  Pope’s counter-activities

  Increasing savagery of Frederick

  Lure of the East

  Conspiracy of intimates, 1246

  Distrust of subordinates

  Punishment of conspirators

  Complicity of Pope

  Henry Raspe

  Italy partitioned amongst the Hohenstaufen

  March on Germany; threat to Lyons

  Defection of Parma

  “The Cardinal”

  Siege of Parma

  Saracens as executioners

  Victoria

  Defeat before Parma

  Money shortage

  German knights in Italy

  German influence on Renaissance art

  Renewed threat to Lyons

  Fall of Piero della Vigna

  Attempt to poison Frederick

  Piero della Vigna’s suicide

  Enzio taken prisoner

  Fate of King Conrad

  Manfred’s rise and fall

  Conradin’s coronation

  Tagliacozzo; Conradin’s execution

  Death of Enzio

  Curse on the Hohenstaufen

  Parma avenged

  Death of Frederick, December 13, 1250

  Burial at Palermo

  The Frederick myth

  An Invitation from the Publisher

  Prefatory Note

  When the Kingdom of Italy, in May 1924, celebrated the seven-hundredth anniversary of the University of Naples, a foundation of the Hohenstaufen Frederick II, a wreath might have been seen on the Emperor’s sarcophagus in the Cathedral of Palermo with this inscription:

  SEINEN KAISERN UND HELDEN

  DAS GEHEIME DEUTSCHLAND

  This is not to imply that the present Life of Frederick II was begotten of that episode… but that wreath may fairly be taken as a symbol that—not alone in learned circles—enthusiasm is astir for the great German Rulers of the past: in a day when Kaisers are no more.

  Translator’s Note

  The English edition of Frederick II differs from the German in the following points: it has been provided with maps, with a table of contents, and with page headlines which are not in the original; also with a few unobtrusive footnotes [signed Tr.].

  A brief Summary of Sources has been appended, kindly supplied by the author himself.

  Occasionally an allusive passage has been made clearer to an English reader by the insertion of an author’s name or the quotation of an exact phrase. In a few passages a paragraph has been compressed or a recondite allusion omitted.

  The translator is deeply indebted to F. J. E. Raby, who generously placed at the disposal of an amateur a scholar’s expert knowledge of medieval literature and religion, and to D. L. R. Lorimer for a similar service in oriental lore; to both for constructive criticism and suggestion. The translator’s responsibility for any errors or mistranslations remains undivided.

  E. O. L.

  List of Maps

  The Battle of Bouvines, 1214

  The Birth of Prussia, 1226

  The Fifth Crusade

  The Battle of Cortenuova

  The Mongol Peril

  Chronological Table

  1190 Death of Barbarossa

  Emperor Henry VI

  1194 December 26th. Frederick II born in Jesi

  1197 September 28th. Death of Henry VI

  1198 Innocent III becomes Pope

  Welf-Hohenstaufen rivalries

  1198 May. Frederick II crowned in Palermo as King of Sicily

  1198 November 28th. Death of the Empress Constance

  Innocent III Regent of Sicily and Guardian of Frederick II

  1201 Markward of Anweiler ruling in Palermo

  1204 Conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders

  1208 June 21st. Murder of King Philip of Swabia


  December 26th. Frederick II comes of age

  1209 Marriage with Constance of Aragon

  Otto IV crowned Emperor in Rome

  1210–11 Otto IV in the Kingdom of Sicily

  1211 Frederick II elected German Emperor

  1212 Arrival in Constance of the Puer Apuliae

  1215 Coronation in Aix

  Takes the Cross Fourth

  Lateran Council

  1216 July 16th. Pope Innocent III dies at Perugia

  Honorius III as Pope

  1218 Death of Otto IV

  1220 Diet at Frankfurt

  Henry (VII) elected King of the Romans

  Frederick crowned Emperor in Rome

  Diet of Capua

  1221–23 Subjugation of Sicily

  1224 Foundation of the University of Naples

  1225 Crusade Negotiations with the Curia

  Treaty of San Germano

  Marriage with Isabella of Jerusalem

  1226 Diet of Cremona

  Renewal of the League of Lombardy

  Order of Teutonic Knights

  Death of Francis of Assisi

  1227 Death of Honorius

  Pope Gregory IX

  Preparations for Crusade

  Plague in Brindisi

  First Excommunication of Frederick II

  1229 March. Coronation in Jerusalem

  Return to Sicily

  Rout of Papal Troops

  1230 Peace with the Curia

  1231 Constitutions of Melfi

  Augustales

  Development of the Sicilian Monarchy

  1232 Visit to Venice Diet of Friuli King Henry VII

  1233 Penance Movement in Italy

  1235 King Henry’s Rebellion

  Frederick’s March to Germany

  Court of Justice at Worms

  Marriage with Isabella of England

  Diet of Mainz

  1236 Obsequies of St. Elizabeth

  First Lombard Campaign

  Conquest of Vicenza

  Campaign against Austria

  Winter Camp at Vienna

  Conrad IV elected King of the Romans

  1237 Second Lombard Campaign

  Cortenuova

  Triumph in Cremona and Rome

  1238 Third Lombard Campaign

  Siege of Brescia

  Marriage of Enzio

  1239 Camp at Padua

  Excommunication

  Fourth Lombard Campaign

  Reorganisation of Sicily

  Foundation of the Italian State

  Invasion of the Patrimonium

  1240 March on Rome

  Return to Sicily

  Campaign in the Romagna

  Capture of Ravenna

  Siege of Faënza

  1241 Capture of Faënza

  Victory at Sea

  Capture of the Prelates

  Tartar Invasion of Silesia

  New Campaign against Rome

  Death of Gregory IX

  1241–43 Papal Chair vacant

  1243 Innocent IV as Pope

  Negotiations for Peace

  Defection of Viterbo

  1244 Peace with the Curia

  Flight of Pope to Lyons

  1245 Council of Lyons

  Deposition of Frederick II

  1246 Camp at Grosseto

  Conspiracy

  Campaign in the Kingdom of Sicily

  Henry Raspe Anti-King in Germany

  1247 Re-organisation of Italian State

  March on Lyons

  Defection of Parma

  Rise of Guelf Party in Italy

  Parma besieged

  Building of Victoria

  1248 Defeat of Parma

  1249 Arrest of Piero della Vigna

  Doctor’s attempt to poison Frederick

  King Enzio taken Prisoner

  1249–50 Crusade of Saint Louis

  1250 December 13th. Death of Frederick II at Florentino

  1265 May 8th. Birth of Dante

  1266 King Manfred killed at Benevento

  1268 Execution of Conradin

  1272 Death of King Enzio

  Summary of Sources

  (The actual documents and references to the sources on which this book is based form a second volume of the German edition, which has just been published by Georg Bondi, Berlin. These pièces justificatives will no doubt be consulted in the original tongues by serious students of the subject.

  In the meantime Professor Kantorowicz has kindly written for the English edition the following note as a guide to the general reader.)

  The most important sources for the history of Frederick II are the Regesta imperii, vol. v: Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Philipp, Otto IV, Friedrich II, Heinrich (VII), Conrad IV, Heinrich Raspe, Wilhelm und Richard, 1198–1272, edited by Boehmer, Ficker and Winkelmann (Innsbruck, 1881–1901). Letters and documents have been collected by Huillard-Bréholles in Historia diplomatica Friderici secundi (Paris, 1852–61). Constitutional documents, edicts, etc., relating to the Empire are to be found in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Constitutiones et acta publica imperatorum et regum, Tom. II (1198–1272), ed. L. Weiland (Hanover, 1896). The Letters of Petrus de Vinea were last edited by Iselin (Basle, 1740); there is no more modern edition. Further documents and letters will be found in J. F. Boehmer’s Acta imperii selecta (Innsbruck, 1870); Julius Ficker’s Forschungen zur Reichs- und Rechtsgeschichte Italiens (Innsbruck, 1874); E. Winkelmann’s Acta imperii inedita saeculi XIII (Innsbruck, 1880–85); and also in Italian and German periodicals, especially in Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, published by the Preussische Historische Institut in Rome (Rome, 1898 ff.). Karl Hampe has printed a large number of important letters; the publications in which these have appeared are enumerated in Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven, etc., vol. xx, p. 40.

  The authoritative edition of the Emperor’s Sicilian laws is that of C. Carcani: Constitutiones regum regni utriusque Siciliae, mandante Friderico II imperatore (Naples, 1786); the Greek translation and the fragment of the Register of 1239–40 will be found in the same place. The edition by Antonius Cervonius: Constitutionum regni Siciliarum libri III (Naples, 1773) is also useful on account of containing the Glosses. The Laws in chronological order will be found in Huillard-Breholles, op. cit., vol. iv, pp. 1 ff. The courtiers’ letters are in an appendix to Huillard-Breholles: Vie et correspondence de Pierre de la Vigne (Paris, 1865).

  The number of chronicles and annals relating to the period of Frederick II is extraordinarily large; an excellent summary of them will be found in the Regesta imperii, vol. v, 9, pp. lxxxvii ff. The important biography of Frederick II by Bishop Mainardinus of Imola has unfortunately perished; it has been as far as possible reconstructed from surviving fragments by F. Gueterbock in Neues Archiv, vol. xxx (1905), pp. 35–83. The most outstanding Italian chroniclers are: Richard of San Germano, edited by A. Gaudenzi in Monumenti storici, serie prima: Cronache (Naples, 1888); the Guelf and Ghibelline Annals of Piacenza in the Monum. Germ. Histor.: Scriptores, vol. xviii, a volume which also contains the important Annales Januenses; the Chronicle of Rolandin of Padua, ibid., vol. xix, and the Chronicle of Fra Salimbene of Parma, ibid., vol. xxxii. The most important German chroniclers are: Burchardi Praepositi Urspergensis Chronicon, ed. Holder Egger and B. v. Simson in Scriptores rerum Germanicarum (Hanover, 1916), and the Chronica regia Coloniensis, ed. G. Waitz, in Scriptores rerum Germanicarum (Hanover, 1880). A further main source is Roger of Wendover, Flores historiarum, ed. Coxe (London, 1841), and Matthew Paris, Historia maior, ed. Luard (London, 1872 ff.). Both of these are Englishmen. The Arabic sources have been edited and translated into Italian by Michele Amari, Bibliotheca arabo-sicula (Turin–Rome, 1880 ff.). The most important of the papal letters have been printed in Monum. Germ. Histor.: Epistolae saeculi XIII e regestis pontificum Romanorum selectae, ed. C. Rodenberg (Berlin, 1883 ff.).

  Among secondary authorities Schirrmacher’s Kaiser Friedrich
der Zweite (Gottingen, 1859–65) is superseded by E. Winkelmann: Jahrbücher der deutschen Geschichte, Philipp von Schwaben und Otto von Braunschweig, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1873–78), and Kaiser Friedrich II, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1889–97), which, however, only extends to the year 1233. A concise and more recent account is given by Karl Hampe’s Deutsche Kaisergeschichte in der Zeit der Salier und Staufer. Other attempts to give a complete portrait are: Wolfram von den Steinen’s Das Kaisertum Friedrichs II nach den Anschauungen seiner Staatsbriefe (Berlin-Leipzig, 1922); Antonio de Stefano: L’idea imperiale di Federico II (Florence, 1927); further, Otto Yehse: Die amtliche Propaganda in der Staatskunst Kaiser Friedrichs II (Munich, 1929). A number of single questions relating to the history of the Emperor have been handled in smaller monographs in the Heidelberger Abhandlungen zur mittleren und neueren Geschichte (Heidelberg) for the medieval section of which Karl Hampe is the editor. The two following books are indispensable for a study of the culture and intellectual life at the court of Frederick II: Hans Niese’s Zur Geschichte des geistigen Lebens am Hofe Kaiser Friedrichs II, Historische Zeitschrift, vol. 108 (1912), pp. 437 ff., and the supremely excellent researches of Charles Homer Haskins, the bulk of which are collected in his Studies in the History of Medieval Science (Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.), 1924.

  E. K.

  I. Frederick’s Childhood

  Prophecies—Birth in Jesi, Dec. 26, 1194—Character

  of Henry VI—Hohenstaufen conception of Empire—

  Baptism—Death of Henry VI—Philip of Swabia;

  Otto of Brunswick—Sicilian hatred of Germans—

  Papal policy towards Sicily—Constance’s Concordat

  with Rome; death, 1198—Innocent: Deliberatio super

  facto imperii—The Sicilian myth—Markward of

  Anweiler; Walter of Palear; Walter of Brienne—The

  Saracens of Sicily—Pisa and Genoa—San Germano

  —Frederick of age, 1208—Episcopal elections—

  Wedding with Constance of Aragon, 1209—Death of

  Aragon knights—Revolt of island barons

  I. Frederick’s Childhood

  Of all the prophecies in verse foretelling a future Saviour to which the West has given birth, Vergil’s Fourth Eclogue is the most famous. Before celebrating in his mighty epic the future of Imperial Rome, the poet painted in this relatively short poem his picture of the future ruler of the world. He lent him all the attributes of the Messiah: as befits a son of the Gods he shall greet Life with a smile, he shall bring peace on earth and the Age of Gold, and shall evoke once more the kingdom of Apollo. The Middle Ages never paused to reflect that Vergil’s promises might seem to be fulfilled in Augustus, Emperor of Peace, the poet’s patron. To that Christian age such prophetic verses could bear one interpretation only—a miraculous foretelling of Christ’s advent. That they foretold a “Ruler” was no deterrent, for men were wont to praise Christ as “King of the World” and “Emperor of All,” and to represent him graphically, in a mandorla, throned on clouds, bearing the globe and law book in his hand and on his head the diadem: the stern Ruler of the Cosmos. To the pious mind it was but one miracle the more, that the heathen Vergil, like the prophets of the Ancient Covenant, had known and told the coming of the Redeemer. Thus this short poem, with its miraculous foreknowledge, earned for Vergil the admiration and reverence of the medieval world. This Vergilian prophecy provided the inspiration both in manner and matter for the song in which the Campanian poet, Peter of Eboli, extravagantly hailed the birth of Henry VI’s only son. It is by no means without significance that Vergil thus stands by the cradle of the last and greatest Christian Emperor of the German Roman Imperium.