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Ernst Wies
Friedrich II Hohenstaufen

"I", doomed to loneliness

Frederick II is branded by the pope as “a monster full of blasphemy, with bear paws and a lion’s mouth, while other limbs are like a leopard… fiercely opening his mouth to blaspheme the name of the Lord…” on the monster from head to toe, Frederick, the so-called emperor.

Frederick II sees himself completely different: “Jesi (his hometown), the noble city of the brand, the radiant beginning of Our origin, where Our divine mother brought Us into the world ... and Our Bethlehem, the land and birthplace of Caesar ... And you, Bethlehem, the city of the brand , not the smallest among the principalities of our kind: after all, from you came a duke, prince of the Roman Empire ... "

His chief panegyrist, Nikolai Bariysky, evaluates him this way: “O amazing lord, humble and majestic, always manifest and ineffable, o joy for princes, o rejoicing for peoples, no one was so humble and no one was as majestic as he. He is an outstanding nobility, a model for the entire earthly circle, the beauty and pride of the human race, the beacon of society and the beginning of all justice ... Attractive in appearance, holy in spirit, in short - anointed in everything. Who will allow me to look at his angelic appearance, who will allow me to listen to his wisdom, which surpasses any mind? .. "

What happens in the soul of a person who receives the most terrible curses from some and the highest praise from others?

What happened to the man who proclaimed himself the son of the Divine Mother, and his native city - Bethlehem?

The answer is to be found in the history of Frederick II's youth.

What is going on in the soul of a child who has barely reached conscious age, but who already hears about prophecies and sibillin sayings - supposedly he is “the last emperor, or even the Antichrist himself”, the center of the most unimaginable things for the Christian West?

Did he know about his mother's dream that she would give birth to a blazing fire, a torch for Western Europe? Surely he also knows the prediction of Abbot Joachim of Fiore that his mother, Empress Constantia, "will suffer from a demon."

What happens in the soul of a child when his own mother gives him to another woman, although he is only a few weeks old? When he, three years old, is hastily brought to distant Palermo and there, at a festive ceremony, he is crowned and proclaimed King of Sicily?

A little later, his mother, the Empress, dies, without having time to let the child feel maternal love. Father, Henry VI, whom the boy saw twice - at birth and at baptism, he never perceived as a real person, although he fully inherited his plans for world domination.

The boy was well aware that no one felt love for him. The people around him, overwhelmed by lust for power, wanted only to rule, using his name, cursing him and enriching themselves with boundless selfishness; Friedrich understood: his destiny was to be an object for the people around him.

The one to whom this falls cannot seek to develop relationships with other people. He is focused on himself, driven into his own "I". His ego becomes for him a universe that owes its existence only to his own self. Based on this egocentricity, he issues his own "sacred laws" and instructs employees to act according to his "benefit and usefulness." "Commodum et utilitas" 1
Benefit and utility (lat.).

indeed is the maxim and motto of this emperor, considered the greatest ruler of the Middle Ages.

Friedrich Nietzsche includes him among "those bewitching, incomprehensible and unimaginable, those mysterious people destined for victory and temptation", which, in his opinion, were Alcibiades, Caesar, Leonardo da Vinci, and also Frederick II.

In reality, a life lived with uncompromising selfishness is a dark, but nonetheless exciting drama, whose actions are interesting to play out again.

Ancestors

The deeds of the Normans and the dream of the Staufen

Frederick II was Italian by birth, and Norman and German by origin, as G. Wolff defines him in the introduction to the Stupor Mundi collection. 2
"Wonder of the World" is the nickname given to Friedrich. - Note. per.

However, this is true in accordance with the ideas of the formation of nation-states in the 18th or 19th century. A man of the Middle Ages did not feel like a German, Italian, Frenchman or Englishman. He lived not for his nation, but for the glory of his own name and family. The offspring of the highest aristocracy of Europe, with its too complex marriage policy, could not be brought under the mold of any nation.

The grandfather of Frederick II, the heroic and brilliant Norman king Roger II (1130-1154), was married by a third marriage to Beatrice von Rethel (1130/5-1185), a woman from the highest Lorraine aristocracy. Their daughter Constance (d. 1198) married Henry VI (1169-1197), son of the German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) by his marriage to Beatrice of Burgundy (1144-1184). When Emperor Henry VI married the Norman Constance, their only son Frederick II combined Norman, Swabian, Lorraine and Burgundian blood - a legacy of various inclinations, temperaments and vices. True, for all that, the ancestors of Frederick II had one common feature - they were exemplary representatives of the German caste of conquerors who achieved dominion over Western Europe.

All of Europe was surprised to see the power of state building, begun by the former Vikings, sea robbers, who received from the king of the Western Franks Rudolf (923-936) land for settlement on the northern outskirts of the state of the Western Franks.

These militant Nordmanners, 3
Northern people (in German).

soon called Normans, under the leadership of Duke Rollo (d. 927) and his descendants, they created a disciplined and well-organized administrative structure from the point of view of effective management: the Duchy of Normandy.

From here, Duke William the Conqueror (1066-1087) traveled to England, defeated his opponents at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and was crowned King of England on Christmas Day. He managed to rule the country, despite the numerous uprisings, brutally suppressed by him. In 1086, he conducted a complete census of his possessions. The royal commissioners determined the land holdings of the counties and their yields, counted houses, mills, forests, livestock, etc. and compiled the two-volume Domsday Book (an extensive and detailed inventory of the island kingdom) - a convincing example of the state and government art of the Normans.

In southern Italy and Sicily, as well as in the Norman duchy and in the Norman kingdom of England, the Normans showed themselves not only as unique warriors, but also as creators capable of rational state planning. And this happened in a world completely alien to them, whose culture and language they did not understand. Even more surprising seemed their ability to perceive and assimilate the alien, their naive willingness to adopt unfamiliar structures that they found suitable for themselves.

At first, the military actions of the Norman soldiers, who fought in Apulia on the side of the pope or for the Lombard princes, in a word, for all who paid them, and against everyone, did not yet have any political direction. But the situation changed with the appearance of the sons of Tancred d'Otville, William the Iron Hand (d. 1045), Drogo and Humphrey, who at first were in the service of Byzantium, but then set out to create their own state. Six years later, the Normans in Melfi elected William the Iron Hand as a commander. After his death, the title and position passed to both of his brothers - Drogo (d. 1051) and Humphreys (d. 1056)

In the mid-forties of this century, one of the d'Otvilles entered the territory of southern Italy, where historically there was a confrontation between the interests of Byzantium, the Lombards and the pope.

Robert Guiscard the Clever Head, Duke of Apulia (1059-1085), who soon also received the nickname "Terror mundi", 4
The horror of the world (lat.).

took over the leadership in the struggle of the Normans for their own statehood. Anna Comnena (1083-1148), the daughter of the Byzantine emperor, in her fifteen-volume historical work Alexias, where she glorified the deeds of her father, describes the leader of the Normans as follows: “All his aspirations were subordinated to the goal of becoming equal to the mighty (rulers) of the earth. No one and nothing could force him to abandon the most daring plans; no one better than him knew how to use everything possible to achieve the task. A head taller than the tallest warriors, with long blond hair, broad shoulders and eyes that darted lightning, he could rightfully be considered beautiful to perfection by the harmonious proportion of his body. Homer narrates: everyone believed that Achilles could hear the speech of many people at the same time, and they told about Guiscard how, from his cry alone, an army of sixty thousand people turned to flight. Naturally, he, gifted both physically and mentally, did not want to live his life in a lower position.

At the synod of Siponto in 1050, Pope Leo IX (1049-1054) had to take into account the complaints of the Apulian cities and nobility and oppose the Normans, although the curia reacted with noticeable approval to their war against Byzantium. Thus the sacred alliance between the pope and Byzantium arose again. But the Normans proved their military superiority by defeating the pope's tenfold superior army. Moreover, they captured the pope himself at the Battle of Civitata in 1053. And here the Normans - as it turned out, not only self-confident boasters and staunch warriors - showed miracles of diplomacy. They, the victors, submitted to the conquered pope, and he was forced, struck by their moral superiority, to recognize the Norman conquest.

Two years later, the new pope, Nicholas II (1058-1061), granted Robert Guiscard the title of Duke of Apulia and Calabria. But despite this recognition, Robert had to continue to fight the resistance of the Calabrian nobility.

Agreement with the Holy See also came to an end. Arbitrariness on the territory of the church state led Robert Guiscard to excommunication. In a new war with Rome, united with the barons and cities of Apulia, the tireless warrior again won.

The abbot Desiderius of Montecassino contributed to his reconciliation with the pope. After which Robert made two attempts to conquer Constantinople. Until now, he had to fight with Byzantium on the soil of southern Italy, now he hit the enemy on his own territory.

Then he freed the pope from Rome, which was occupied by the imperial troops. True, at the same time, his Normans went out of obedience, which led to the second destruction of Rome.

During all the wars, this invincible warrior did not forget to support his brother, Count Roger (1060-1090), who fought against the Arabs in Sicily. The city of Messina fell in 1061, and in 1072 Palermo was taken by storm. In 1091 the island was in full possession of the Normans.

After the death of Robert Guiscard, the d'Hautvilles took a breather. Under the rule of his weak son and heir, Roger Bors (1085-1111), Apulia experienced an era of peaceful development, which continued under Robert's grandson, William (1111-1127). The peace was brought about by the inability of both dukes to resist the developing cities and the self-confident Apulian nobles.

On the island of Sicily, events developed quite differently. Roger I, brother of the Clever Head, managed to find support in the Greek population of the island, and he adopted not only their culture, but also their forms of government. For the Greeks, this meant a long-awaited liberation from the Islamic yoke. First of all, Count Roger took under the protection of churches and monasteries. He did not interfere in the major conflicts of world politics, such as, for example, the first crusade.

After the duke's death, his widow assumed the regency over his minor son, Roger II (1100-1154). Roger II was the first count of Norman origin in Southern Italy, carefully brought up and prepared for the activities of the ruler by Greek scientists. He made Palermo his capital, which led to the integration of the Saracen way of life into the social structure of the kingdom. The creation of the fleet was preparation for future claims to power in the southern part of the Apennine Peninsula. When the Norman dukes from the mainland died without descendants capable of ruling the country, Roger II exercised his hereditary rights to Apulia against the will of the pope. In 1128 he conquered Salerno and became Duke of Apulia.

Roger II exploited the power struggle between Pope Innocent II (1130-1137), supported by the German Emperor Lothair III (1125-1137), and Antipope Anacletes II (1130-1138), and in 1130 was crowned by the latter , becoming king of Sicily, Apulia and Calabria.

In 1236 he conquered the city of Bari, founded between 1220 and 1230 as a maritime republic and with close ties to Venice.

Pope Innocent II and the emperor Lothair III, who supported him, were not at all satisfied with the power of the Normans over southern Italy. They contributed to the uprising of the Apulian cities against Roger II. They even managed to take the cities of Molfetta, Trani and Bari. But after the departure of the emperor, whose duty as ruler called him to Germany, at the battle of Mignano, Roger took Pope Innocent II prisoner.

It became clear that the blood of the great Robert the Clever Head flows in him: the winner knelt before the captive pope as before his overlord, and he recognized him as the king of Sicily, the Duke of Apulia and the Count of Capua. In addition, Pope Innocent II had to make huge concessions granted by Antipope Anacletos II to his liberator and ally nine years earlier. A wound from which the papacy could not recover for a long time. Roger II ruled the Sicilian and southern Italian state as his hereditary fief. He overcame the resistance of the Apulian cities, pursuing a policy of ever greater concessions. In practice, this meant guaranteed observance of the privileges and freedoms of cities.

The fleet of King Roger reached Africa and brought Tripoli and other coastal cities under his dependence in Tunisia. Now the Norman kings proudly called themselves Kings of Africa. In 1147, the victorious Norman fleet rushed to Greece, plundered the large trading cities of Corinth and Thebes, taking out local silk weavers and silkworm growers from there - an event of great economic importance.

After the death of the great king Roger II, an uprising flared up again throughout Apulia, caused by the desire of the cities for independence.

King Roger's son, William I the Evil (1154-1166), responded to the uprising with brutality and violence. His father's experienced chancellor, Mayon di Bari, who came from the patrician class, became his right hand.

Byzantium tried to regain lost positions in southern Italy with the help of military support for the rebellious cities. But the victory went to the emperor. For a frightening example, he ordered the massacre of the rebellious city of Bari, the symbol and instigator of the struggle for the freedom of Puglia: he ordered the entire city to be destroyed to the ground, excluding the church of St. Nicholas, and to expel all its inhabitants.

King William I the Evil died ten years after the destruction of Bari.

His widow, Margherita of Navarre, along with two advisers, Metteo d'Aiello and the Saracen Pietro, pursued a policy of appeasing the Apulian cities, giving them ever greater freedoms. The exiled citizens of Bari were allowed not only to return to the city, but also to resume trade relations with Venice.

Margaret's son, King William II the Good (1166-1189), married in 1177 John of England. The marriage remained childless, and William II's aunt, Constance, daughter of the illustrious King Roger II from his third marriage, became a pretender to the throne, and with her her husband, Emperor Henry VI. As I. Galler writes, she could receive a royal title if the reigning king Wilhelm II dies childless, which happened on November 18, 1189. The state, which seemed to be very flexibly ruled by the son and grandson of King Roger II, faced a big problem. There was no unity among the barons on the issue of succession to the throne. Resistance to the foreign German king and emperor remained too strong. A more suitable contender for the throne was considered the illegitimate son of the king, Tancred of Lechchi (1190-1194). A fight seemed inevitable.

At the turn of the millennium, the Counts of Staufen of Rhys, an area that was a round cauldron with a diameter of twenty to twenty-four kilometers, formed as a result of a meteorite fall, found themselves on a stellar path leading them to dominion over the empire. They wore on their heads the crowns of Germany, Burgundy, Italy, Sicily and Jerusalem.

The marriage of Count Rhys, Friedrich von Buren (d. 1053), to the niece of Pope Leo IX (1049-1054), a native of Alsace, Hildegard von Eguisheim (circa 1028-1094), who came from the family of the Dukes of Lorraine, shows the high position of the Staufen in the empire.

Their son, Duke Frederick I (1079-1105), was granted the Duchy of Swabia in 1079 and at the same time betrothed to Agnes von Waiblingen (1072-1106), daughter of Emperor Henry IV. Due to the young age of the bride, the wedding took place only in 1087/88. Thanks to this marriage, the Staufens entered the "stirps regia", the royal family, and from now on they were awarded the highest position in the state.

The eldest son of the Swabian duke and daughter of the emperor Agnes, who bore the family name Frederick and was nicknamed One-Eyed, became known as Frederick II, Duke of Bavaria (1110-1147). When his uncle Emperor Henry V (1106-1125) died, he became a pretender to the German crown.

But, always loyal to the Salic Franks, Hohenstaufen, Duke Frederick II, lost to the Saxon Lothar von Supplinburg (1125-1137) in elections led by Archbishop Adalbert I (1110-1137) of Mainz, who was hostile to the Staufen and the Salic House.

Duke Frederick II married in 1119/21 Judith of the Welf family. From this marriage, concluded to overcome the confrontation between the Staufen and the Welf, Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190) was born.

After the death of Emperor Lothair III in December 1137, Staufen and the future Emperor Conrad III (1138-1152) managed to defeat their son-in-law in the elections in Koblenz, scheduled for March 7, 1138 and led by the Archbishop of Trier Adalbero (1131-1152). Emperor Lothair, the Bavarian Duke of Welf Henry the Proud (1126-1139), although he already owned the signs of imperial power.

Elected at first by a minority of princes, at the cathedral in Bamberg, Conrad nevertheless received universal recognition. In Regensburg, the Bavarian Duke Henry the Proud handed over to Hohenstaufen the signs of imperial power.

Konrad III Hohenstaufen on the throne of the German kings

The reign of Konrad III, which lasted fourteen years, was marked by the confrontation between the Staufen and the Welf. Despite his renunciation of the throne, Henry the Proud did not resign himself. He was obliged but unwilling to give up one of his duchies, Saxony or Bavaria, which caused him to be outlawed. The Duchy of Saxony was given to Albrecht the Bear of Ascania (circa 1100–1170), Margrave of the Northern Mark, and Bavaria to Leopold IV Babenberg (1136–1141), Margrave of Austria. It came to an open struggle. After the death of Henry the Proud, which followed on October 20, 1139, the widow of Emperor Richenz represented the interests of the Welfs and her ten-year-old grandson, Henry the Lion (1142–1180). After Albrecht the Bear was appointed Margrave of the North March in 1142, he renounced the Duchy of Saxony, whose ruler was recognized as Henry the Lion. After the death of Margrave Leopold IV, his brother Heinrich Jazomirgott (1143-1177) received Bavaria and later Austria. The Welfs tried to get compensation, and the widow of Henry the Proud, daughter of Emperor Gertrud, married Babenberg Heinrich Jazomirgott.

The participation of King Conrad in the second crusade (1145-1149) was the reason for the emergence of his friendly relations with Byzantium and the conflict with Norman Sicily, because of which he could not go to Rome to receive the imperial title.

From his second marriage to Gertrude von Sulzbach (1113/16-1146) there were two sons: Heinrich Berengar, who predeceased his father in the spring of 1150, and his younger brother Friedrich, who at the time of his father's death, February 15, 1152, was a six-year-old boy incapable of ruling. Conrad was afraid to bring an underage heir to power. Taking care of the state, he put royal duties above paternal feelings and, knowing about his imminent death, by decision of the council of princes, he transferred the crown and empire to his nephew Frederick III, Duke of Swabia, who took his place in history as Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

The latter, in whose veins the blood of both Staufen and Welf flowed, was able to fulfill the task of their reconciliation, formulated by his uncle, Bishop Otto of Freising, in this way: “... so that he, belonging to both families, being to some extent their cornerstone, was able to overcome the hostility of both houses; he will prove extremely useful to the empire and, with God's help, will finally eliminate the hard and long struggle between the high-ranking men of the empire for personal interests.

Friedrich took this task very seriously. Despite the severity and cruelty of his policy, the conciliatory mission has always been its main element.

This was manifested not only in the fact that he always, for decades, stood up for his eager for power and often treacherous son-in-law Henry the Lion, protecting him from the wrath of the princes. The desire for reconciliation also determined his state policy, especially after the death of his demon, the Chancellor and Archbishop of Cologne, Reynald von Dassel.

Along with the observance of all imperial interests, Frederick's conciliatory position was clearly manifested at the conclusion of the Venetian peace between the pope and the emperor in 1177.

Peace in Constanta, too, was made possible only by his desire for universal peace: he gave the Lombard cities freedom and the right to choose their own consul. His grandson Frederick II would never achieve such an ability to agree.

It was Friedrich Barbarossa, who was ready for acceptable compromises, who became a great and bright guiding figure for the entire Christian West. His diplomacy managed to create such ties with hitherto hostile Normans that his son, Henry VI, was able to marry the heiress of the Sicilian throne, Constance, thanks to which he received, in addition to the German crown and the crown of the empire, also the crown of Sicily.

The Normans needed peace, or at least friendly relations with Frederick Barbarossa, to increase their pressure on Byzantium.

The marriage of the emperor's son to the Sicilian Constance showed the invariability of mutual distrust between the emperor and the pope and touched the pope's vulnerable nerve, namely, the justified fear of the church state to be squeezed into a vise by the union of the states of Northern and Southern Italy.

The same fear drove Pope Stephen III (752-757) through the winter Alps in order to call the Franks to Italy and prevent the Lombard blockade from the north and from the south. And now, three centuries later, instead of the state of the Lombards, the Staufen empire, together with Milan, with which the emperor concluded an alliance on defense and non-aggression, threatened the papal state with at least isolation from the north and south. The constant allies of the pope against the imperial power, the cities of Lombardy, led by Milan and Norman Sicily, went over to the side of the emperor thanks to the marriage alliance.

The real political legacy of Emperor Frederick I to his son Henry VI was peace with Milan and Lombardy. The freedoms granted to the cities of Lombardy were the price that made the dream of the Staufen a possible political reality. German rule in southern Italy and Sicily, German rule in Lombardy and Central Italy - such a prospect could not help but frighten even such a peace-loving pope as Lucius III.

Peace with Milan and Lombardy is the key that opened the gates to Southern Italy and Sicily. The price for it was the freedom of the cities, secured by a peace treaty concluded in 1185 in Constanta, and a pact of defense and non-aggression with Milan. In the future, non-observance of the basic principle of German policy in Italy eventually led to the defeat of the grandson of Barbarossa, Frederick II, to the decline of both the empire and the Hohenstaufen dynasty.

When studying the fundamental political and geopolitical conditions of that time, the witty reflections of the outstanding church historian I. Haller, who considered the marriage of the Staufen and the Normans as a sacrifice of Pope Lucius III, do not seem convincing. Even the poetic panegyric of Peter of Eboli, presented by him in 1196 to Emperor Henry VI, where he welcomes Henry's conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily and presents the pope as the organizer of the emperor's marriage, cannot convince anyone because of its obvious contradiction to political circumstances.

The marriage was made possible not because of the pope, but because of the peace with Milan and the cities of Lombardy. It was able to come true because Frederick I untied the hands of the Norman king William II in the implementation of his Byzantine plans. At that moment and in that political situation, the power of the pope was weaker than ever before in its history.

It was the power of imperial power and the brilliance that the death of the crusader Frederick Barbarossa gave to the Staufen family that subsequently prompted the pope to crown Henry VI and his wife Constance.

There are two factors that clearly answer these questions. The first factor is religious. What world religions do we know? Christianity and Islam. They are both derived from Judaism. We already know the origin of Judaism, it was created by the Egyptian priests of Amun. And who gave birth to them? As it turned out now, creatures that have nothing to do with people. Their figurines were found on the territory of Mesopotamia, throughout Kurdistan and in Transcaucasia. In India, lizard-heads were called nagas, in Russia and Germany - dragons. The roots of the biblical civilization sprouted from Egypt, this is known even to our stupid academics, but they feed on an alien environment. We do not argue - the statement is bold, but it has a basis. It is enough to study the Judeo-Christian-Islamic attitude to the biosphere of the planet. It is clearly not earthly. People of the biblical civilization behave on Earth as if they are not its inhabitants, but guests from another world. Streams, rivers, lakes, seas and even oceans are defiled, the lungs of the forest planet are cut down to the root, the air is poisoned, animals are destroyed. In fact, all the landscapes of the planet are slowly but surely turning into deserts. And now let's remember which class of living beings they are most suitable for. It is clear that reptiles! Here is the answer to who on Earth is its true master. To prove this, it is enough to recall the mechanism of social control. What is the driving force of such a process, its motor? As you know, secret societies. They are the main factor influencing our power structures. And who gave rise to the system of secret societies? The same forces that created the world's religions on Earth unfolded the developmental process of biblical civilization.

Which of the above is the conclusion? Our civilization can safely be called dragon, not earthly. It is aimed at the destruction of the planet's ecosystems and the destruction of man as a species. Now let's go back to the 13th century. What conclusion can be drawn from studying the conquests of the so-called Mongols? Their troops, having come to Eastern Europe, to the lands of Russia fragmented, exhausted by strife, first of all, swept away the regimes loyal to the Vatican. The conquerors reacted more calmly to Russian national Christianity. They took the treasury from the temples - this is true, but they did not touch the clergy and did not destroy the churches themselves. Why - we will explain below. Historians and writers tell stories about the Mongol-Tatars. Say, the Horde ruined Russia, stripped it to the skin. In fact, everything turned out differently - out of 200 Russian cities, the "Tatars" conquered only 14, burned even less. That's the whole nightmare, about which so much is said in the Christian chronicles. But the Christian chroniclers are silent about the fact that the Horde united all the Russian principalities into a single whole. Thanks to her efforts, strife ceased on Russian soil. In addition, her troops, having restored order in Russia, moved to Western Europe in 1241. The question is why? Was it really not enough for the Horde of Eastern Europe, plus everything in northern and central Asia? Historians try not to answer this question. They are limited to general phrases. Say, Batu was not enough, he wanted more. But here's the thing - the Siberian Scythians did not accumulate wealth. Their Power lived according to the Vedic principle of necessary and sufficient. What was given in the war went to the upkeep of the troops. Then why did the Horde attack the West with all its might, bypassing the Grand Russian-Lithuanian principality from the south, why did it need to make a detour when its lands lay in its path? Not hard to guess. The heirs of Timchak-Genghis Khan, the Horde commanders, went to destroy the Vatican, but there were no Catholics in the Russian-Lithuanian Principality, and in general they were strained with Christians. The ruling elite remained Vedic, and from the people, if anyone accepted Christianity, then according to the Greek rite. As we know, Siberian Russia did not touch its own.

The army of the Horde, bypassing co-religionists from Russians and Litvins, began the fight against Catholic Poland. Near Shidkovets, she utterly defeated the Polish knights and took Krakow, then the Horde captured Breslavl. Near Liegnitz, they met the combined army of the Polish King and the Teutonic Knights. In addition to the Poles and Germans, there were many French and Flemings in the army. On April 9, 1241, the battle took place. The Horde, as always, won. After the battle, under the feet of Bata Khan - according to the Christian chronicles, "the godless Batyga" - ten bags of noble knights' ears were thrown. Poland and the Teutonic Order were defeated. From Catholic Poland, the Siberian Scythians moved to Moravia, then to the Czech Republic. Having crossed the Carpathian passages, one of the armies of the Horde broke into Hungary. King Bela IV marched towards her with his entire army. On the Sita River, the Hungarians met with the Siberian Russians, a fierce battle took place, where the united Russian-Horde army won. Our assertion should not be surprising. Together with the Horde, several thousand Russian volunteers went to the West - this can be found in the annals. After the victory, the Horde and the Russians took Pest together. Another Horde army moved to the Balkans. She defeated the army of Serbs and Croats, but Serbia, for unknown reasons, was not defeated, but the Catholic Croats survived only in the forests and mountains. Their capital, Zagreb, was a smoking ruin. After the victory over the Bosnians and Albanians, the Horde went to connect with the main forces of Bata Khan in Austria, but the surprising thing is that the Austrians did not experience the horror of the Horde invasion. The Siberian Scythians and their Russian allies from Eastern Europe did not touch the capital of Austria. Question: why?

Finally, all three armies of the so-called Mongols reached the Adriatic. Not much left - and they would have ended up in Italy. But in the autumn of 1242, the troops of the Horde suddenly, for no apparent reason, rolled back from Europe to the Volga. What made them leave? After all, victory was achieved, and more than convincingly. There are no serious armies left in Europe that could resist them. And the European campaign of the Horde is also surprising - from flat Poland south to Hungary, then to the mountainous regions of Transylvania, Serbia, Croatia and Bulgaria. Why not go conquer the West along the German Plain? Here we are faced with one of the mysteries that various pro-Masonic historians are trying to get around. It turns out that in Europe, Bata Khan had a reliable ally - Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Frederick II Hohenstaufen! It was he who asked Baty Khan not to ruin the half-blooded Austria. In the meantime, the Horde troops crushed the Croats and Bosnians, Frederick inflicted two brutal defeats on the papal troops in Lombardy. After this, Pope Innocent IV fled with all his cardinals to Lyon. There he anathematized both the emperor and the khan. But it was clear that the Vatican was coming to an end.

An interesting fact is that Frederick II was waiting for Batu to come to Europe as his friend and was not at all afraid of him. All European monarchs were horrified by the invasion of Horde Russia, and Friedrich Hohenstaufen was waiting for Siberians as his friends and allies. To understand the emperor, one must first understand who he was. His contemporaries called him the "miracle of the world." He was a German by birth, but he treated the Slavs very well. It was under him that the latter became equal citizens of the empire. Frederick II, unlike his European counterparts, was well educated. He was fluent in six languages, among which were Russian, Greek and Arabic. In addition, he had good relations with many Muslim rulers. But the most important thing that European historians are trying to hide is that Frederick II of Hohenstaufen had six wives. In addition, Frederick II was also a writer. As you know, he wrote the book "About three swindlers." He considered the founders of world religions - Moses, Jesus Christ and Muhammad - to be fraudsters. Which of the above can be concluded? Only one - Frederick II of Hohenstaufen was not a Catholic, he was not a Christian at all. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire turned out to be an adherent of the Orian Vedic tradition. How this could have happened, we will never know, but it did. Therefore, the emperor had several wives, and his friends were not the emperor of France or the king of England, but the khan of the Golden Horde and the Russian princes who supported him. The same Alexander Nevsky and his father Yaroslav. That is why, after the battle on Lake Peipsi, Alexander Nevsky did not move the troops of the Novgorodians to the lands of Livonia and Prussia. He left them to his ally Frederick II. In turn, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire did not support either the Livonian Riga or the Teutonic Order defeated by the Horde. In that Great War with the forces of the Vatican, Russia, the Horde and the Holy Roman Empire acted as a single entity. When will historians finally understand this? After all, without understanding the causes of what is happening, the historical process remains beyond our understanding.

Now it's time for us to figure out why the troops of the Horde and Russia left Central Europe? Firstly, the campaign of the army of Siberian Russia to the West should be considered as a response to the onslaught on the Russian lands of the Western European fosterlings of the Vatican (1240-1242). It was a grandiose large-scale war of European Russia in alliance with Siberian Russia against the order military alliances created by the Vatican. In that bloody confrontation, on the side of the union, he also took part, having figured out what the Vatican is, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Together - both Russians and Germans - defeated the papacy, it remains only to finish it off. But unfortunately this did not happen. The position of the dying temple was saved by the fifth column joining the cause. The one that the priests of Amon created in the heart of Siberian Russia - just on the eve of the Allied invasion of Italy, in the distant Asian capital, the city of Khara-Khor, where the supreme ruler of Biarnia, Kagan Agey, suddenly died, according to the Turkic transcription Udegey. Together with him, the priests who were behind the project of destroying the Vatican as a world contagion also passed away. There is no doubt that this was a counter project of the West to neutralize Siberian Russia. That is why Batu urgently moved his army back to the Volga. Obviously, the king of the Siberian Scythians was afraid that the fifth column would put their people at the head of the Siberian Empire, with whom they would have to fight. If so, then a lot falls into place. First of all, the fact that Batu, or Bata, was aware of the forces at the headquarters of the kagan. Khan was in a hurry. But leaving, he left part of his troops to Frederick II, who again attacked the forces of the Pope, this time in France. The emperor brilliantly won the Battle of Lyon, and Pope Innocent IV set out to seek salvation in Paris. Then Friedrich II of Hohenstaufen wrote a letter to the King of France. We quote it verbatim:

“In the name of God Almighty, I command you, King Louis, to be obedient to me and solemnly declare what you wish - peace or war. When the will of Heaven is fulfilled, and the whole world recognizes me as its master, then blissful calm will reign on Earth, and happy peoples will see what we have done for them! But if you dare to reject the command of the Divine and say that your land is distant, your mountains are impregnable, the seas are deep, and you are not afraid of us, then the Almighty, facilitating the difficult and bringing the distant closer, will show you what we can do.

Judging by the letter, it is clear what kind of society Frederick II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, intended to build on Earth - a happy one that pleases all people without exception. Surely, the German genius dreamed of returning to the Earth of the Golden Age. Because there simply cannot be another society that is fertile for everyone. And then, how much faith in his allies in this letter! The German emperor identified himself with everyone who was with him in the fight against the Vatican. He also spoke on their behalf. Frederick II's letter to King Louis can be seen as an ultimatum from the people of the Vedic world to a ruler who supports Satanism on earth. But, unfortunately, without the troops of Batu, the affairs of Frederick II in the war with the Vatican went more slowly. The war gradually took on a positional character. Three years later, Frederick II learned that his friend and comrade-in-arms, Prince Yaroslav, had died in Russia for an unknown reason. The one who did a lot for the union of the Horde, Russia and the German Empire. And four years later, in 1250, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen himself died of poison. The figures of the fifth column gradually exterminated everyone whom the Vatican was so afraid of. Now the papal curia was engaged in the eradication of the Hohenstaufen family. Their family was exterminated without exception. They were replaced by the Habsburgs, who ruled until 1918.

FRIEDRICH II Staufen(Friedrich von Staufen), German King (1212-50), Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1220, King of Sicily (as Frederick I) from 1197. From the Staufen dynasty, son of Henry VI and Constance of Sicily, grandson of Frederick I Barbarossa and King Roger II .

Heir

Already at the age of 2 he was chosen by the German king. After the untimely death of his father, his mother took him to Sicily, where he was proclaimed king in 1197. The crown of the Holy Roman Empire was contested by Philip of Swabia (Frederick's uncle) and Otto IV of Brunswick. Constance died in 1197, she asked for the support of the young king, Pope Innocent III, who took custody of the Sicilian kingdom and the king, but in practice there was a period of anarchy and anarchy, when papal captains, local barons and Arabs fought among themselves and plundered the country.

In 1208 Frederick was proclaimed of age, and the following year he married Constance of Aragon, much older than himself. With the help of her "dowry" - a strong army - he established order in the Sicilian kingdom.

Centralized politics in the Kingdom of Sicily

In order to turn the kingdom into a strong centralized state, he carried out a number of measures that found their legislative embodiment in the Melfian constitutions of 1231. In southern Italy, he banned wars between feudal lords and the construction of castles, established a single royal court for the entire population of the country, deprived cities of self-government, created a strong fleet, replaced the feudal army with a standing army of Muslim mercenaries (Saracenes).

Fight for the crown of the Holy Roman Empire

In September 1211, the German princes proclaimed Frederick emperor. In the fight against Otto IV, he relied on the support of France. In 1214 Otto was defeated at the battle of Bouvina and actually lost power.

In April 1220, Frederick's nine-year-old son, Henry VII, was proclaimed Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, but Frederick strongly objected, and Pope Honorius III crowned Frederick with the imperial crown on November 22, 1220 in St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. However, serious disagreements began between the pope and the emperor due to the fact that the pope, who had begun preparations for the 5th Crusade, proclaimed not Frederick, but Pierre de Courtenay, as king of Constantinople.

Fight with the Roman throne

The reign of Frederick is the period of the most violent clash between the papacy and the empire. His desire to subjugate all of Italy, relying on the Sicilian kingdom, led to a long struggle with the cities of Northern and Central Italy, as well as with Popes Gregory IX and Innocent IV. Frederick was repeatedly excommunicated, cursed, Frederick's enemies called him the Antichrist. The emperor himself believed in his highest destiny, considering himself the new Constantine the Great, the successor of King David, the vicar of God and the ruler of the world.

In 1229, Frederick II took part in the VI Crusade, agreed with the Egyptian sultan on the transfer of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem under the care of the Christians. In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, he laid on his head the crown of the King of Jerusalem.

German politics

In an effort to acquire freedom of action in Italy, Frederick gave almost unlimited power to the princes in Germany. Worms-Friuli agreements 1231-32 gave them the right to almost uncontrolled disposal of all affairs within their principalities. To please the princes, Frederick forbade the cities to enter into alliances with each other. In 1235, he crushed the rebellion of his son Henry VII, who led the protest of the townspeople, royal ministerials and some bishops against the princes.

In 1245, the Ecumenical Council deposed Frederick from the imperial throne. With his death at the height of the war with the Lombard League in 1250, the Italian policy of the German emperors and the Staufen dynasty collapsed.

King's personality

Friedrich was one of the most educated people of his time, he knew Greek, Arabic and Latin. In Italy, Frederick founded many schools, in 1224 - a university in Naples, where not only Christians, but also Arabs and Jews taught, which testifies to the religious tolerance that was characteristic of the entire policy of Frederick II.

Friedrich showed a deep interest in medicine and zoology. He introduced the obligatory teaching of anatomy for physicians and encouraged its study on cadavers. At his suggestion, the works of Avicenna and Aristotle's History of Animals were translated into Latin. Friedrich is credited with an essay on falconry.

According to the legends, Frederick did not die in 1250, but disappeared in order to one day appear, reform the Church, establish the kingdom of universal peace and prosperity. In the 2nd floor. 13th c. impostors appeared in Italy and Germany, posing as Emperor Frederick II.

Friedrich II Hohenstaufen is one of the brightest figures of the European Middle Ages.

He was born at the end of the 12th century, in 1194. When Frederick was three years old, his father, Henry VI, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the German king, died, bequeathing the throne to his son. But, despite the fact that the blood of the great grandfather, Frederick I Barbarossa, the German emperor, famous for his militancy and cruelty, flowed in the veins of the child, few people saw the future head of a powerful state in the baby of the future. Friedrich was nicknamed the "Apulian boy", the benevolent mother Constance of Sicily sheltered and raised the child in southern Italy, in Puglia. According to her husband's will, Constantia was to become regent of the state and guardian of the infant king.

But, despising the will of the emperor, most of the German princes supporting the Hohenstaufen dynasty elected Frederick's uncle, Philip of Swabia, as king, and the anti-Staufen part of the princes supported the claims to the throne of Otto Welf. There are already three kings on the German throne. No one took Friedrich, who was growing up in Naples, seriously, and a fierce struggle for supremacy began between Philip and Otto.

Frederick was not yet worried about dynastic disputes. A new grief fell on the boy - the death of his mother. According to her will, Pope Innocent III became his new guardian and regent in the Kingdom of Sicily (an important part of the Holy Roman Empire, consisting of the island of Sicily and Southern Italy).

Innocent III sought to establish papal domination over the entire Christian world. He watched with satisfaction the dynastic turmoil in Germany and sought to inflame it even more. When opposing kings turned to the Pope as an arbiter in their dispute for the throne, he supported first one, then the other. The weakening of the monarchical power in the Holy Roman Empire freed the papacy from old and dangerous rivals, such as the German emperors for a long time. Young Frederick had by no means yet posed such a threat to Rome.

Innocent III carefully guarded the hereditary Sicilian possessions of Frederick from external encroachments. With the help of the Pope, the young man, who showed an early ability to learn, received an excellent education. Friedrich matured, communication with the energetic and strong-willed Innokenty helped him gain confidence in his abilities. Perhaps it was from this wise mentor that the young Hohenstaufen inherited the art of subtle diplomatic intrigue and political maneuvering, for which he later became famous.

Meanwhile, with varying success, the struggle for the throne continued between the old opponents: Philip of Swabia and Otto Welf. Carried away by this struggle, they did not even notice how, under the wing of the powerful Roman high priest, the legitimate heir to the German throne was gaining strength. After the death of Philip Otto in 1209, he even managed to be crowned in Rome, promising the Pope not to challenge his influence in Italy. Having violated these promises, the newly-minted emperor signed his own verdict. Innocent III excommunicated Otto crowned by him from the church and proclaimed his young ward, Friedrich Hohenstaufen, the German king. The Apulian Boy entered the political arena. Friedrich's triumphal movement to the heights of power began. In addition to the Pope, the young man has new assistants. Chief among them was the French King Philip II Augustus. He prompted the Genoese bankers to lend money to the future emperor. So Frederick had the means to fight Otto, who had usurped the imperial crown. The money of the French king and the influence of the powerful Roman Pope did their job. When Friedrich Hohenstaufen appeared in southern Germany with a small army, church and secular feudal lords began to cross over to his side one by one. In December 1212, an assembly of princes in Frankfurt, in the presence of representatives of the Pope and the French king, solemnly elected an 18-year-old youth as king of Rome. He was crowned in Mainz by Archbishop Siegfried.

However, in European politics, everything was interconnected. The final outcome of the struggle for the German throne and the fate of Frederick depended on who would win the long-begun war - England or France. The French king Philip II Augustus fought with the English monarch John I Landless, seeking to include English possessions on its territory into France.

The political future of Otto Welf was closely connected with the possible success of the English king. France, of course, supported the opponent of Otto (it was not by chance that Philip II helped Frederick with money). Everything was decided in 1214 at the Battle of Buvin. Otto fought on the side of the British and shared with them a complete defeat. The loser fled the battlefield, having lost the emperor's battle standard with a gilded eagle. Another loss was much more bitter: Otto's political influence in Germany faded to naught. The young Hohenstaufen in 1215 was once again solemnly crowned, now in Aachen.

When Innocent III died in 1216, Frederick did not particularly need anyone's patronage. Feeling a taste for power, full of ambitious plans, he was ready for independent action. In 1220 Innocent III's successor Pope Honorius III crowned Frederick in Rome. Frederick II of Hohenstaufen became full-fledged Holy Roman Emperor.

The history of this state began in 962, when the German king Otto I was crowned in Rome, hoping to revive the greatness of the ancient Roman state. The desire for this greatness, for domination over the whole of Europe, was also preserved by the subsequent German kings - sovereigns of the recreated empire. It forced them time after time to equip military campaigns in Italy, pushed them to fight against the papacy, against Italian cities, against independent feudal lords - against everyone who stood in their way. The empire collapsed in the middle of the 13th century, although it formally existed until the beginning of the 19th century.

By the time of the accession to the throne of Frederick II, the best times of the Holy Roman Empire were already behind. The crisis that erupted in connection with the dynastic turmoil showed the friability and artificiality of this state formation, its inability to solve pressing political problems. The situation in Germany itself was especially deplorable, where the presumptuous princes were ready to rise up against any monarch who encroached on their rights and freedoms. But in Frederick's eyes, Germany was no longer the center of the empire. As its main part, he considered Italy and the Sicilian kingdom, conquered by Frederick's father shortly before his death. It was here that the young emperor transferred the center of gravity of his policy. Even during the life of Innocent III, he promised the Pope, after strengthening on the German throne, to transfer Sicily to his son Henry (Innocent III was clearly afraid of the excessive strengthening of the Holy Roman Empire and tried to prevent it). Now Friedrich seems to have forgotten his promise. However, Innokenty himself taught his ward flexibility in politics.

Possessing from birth the title of King of Sicily and having received freedom of action, Frederick II was primarily engaged in transformations in the Sicilian state. It was here that he managed to achieve what was impossible to do within the framework of the entire Holy Empire. Frederick's court in Palermo resembled in its luxury and style of life the courts of the Eastern Arab sultans. The emperor was clearly fascinated by oriental culture. Oriental music and dance, literature and poetry, architecture - everything attracted his attention and was encouraged. Frederick II founded a university in Naples and several schools. He himself knew Arabic and Greek, wrote treatises in Latin and poems in Italian, was especially fond of the natural sciences and became famous for the treatise On the Art of Hunting with Birds. Arab, Byzantine, Jewish scholars lived in Palermo, invited by the emperor, whose religious tolerance amazed his followers and infuriated papal Rome. The talent of a statesman allowed Frederick to create an exemplary system of government in the Sicilian kingdom for those times. It seems that Frederick was haunted by the boundless power of the Eastern despots. In Sicily, Frederick formed mercenary detachments from Muslims and with their help suppressed a number of uprisings of the Sicilian feudal lords. The emperor showed considerable ability in lawmaking. In 1231 he issued the so-called "Melphian Constitutions". In accordance with them, the rights of local feudal lords and the liberties of cities were severely curtailed. It was ordered to tear down to the foundation the feudal castles built over the past 40 years. All power was concentrated in the hands of the king. The kingdom was divided into administrative districts administered by royal governors. A land tax was levied on the population; in addition, there were many indirect taxes. The justiciar became the highest official of the Sicilian kingdom, who, in his enormous powers, resembled the viziers of the Arab caliphs. A standing mercenary army and navy completed the picture of a centralized Sicilian state, essentially built by Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. Perhaps, any European sovereign could be proud of such achievements. For Frederick, the Sicilian policy was, albeit important, but still one of the many areas of his activity. The strong Sicilian kingdom served as a base for the emperor, a source of funds to strengthen his power and influence in Italy. The conquest of Northern and Central Italy, necessary, in his opinion, for the prosperity of the Holy Empire, became the goal of his life. The struggle with the Roman papacy, which itself aspired to world domination, and the northern Italian cities that tried to maintain their independence, became an integral part of this life.

At the beginning of his reign, Frederick II tried to maintain good relations with the popes. "Beloved spiritual father" - Innocent III - blessed Hohenstaufen to the German throne. For this, Frederick swore an oath to him to maintain papal suzerainty (supremacy) over the Sicilian kingdom and a number of regions in Central Italy, to expand the rights of the clergy and eradicate heresies in the subject territory. Of all these promises, perhaps only the last was fulfilled. This did not prevent Frederick from repeating all these promises in 1220 to Pope Honorius III, so that he would crown him with the imperial crown. He finally appeased the Pope, solemnly vowing not later than a year to go on a crusade. In fact, the emperor was completely indifferent to the movement of the crusaders, which did not lead to the strengthening of imperial domination. In addition, religious fanaticism was alien to Frederick (the persecution of heretics was only a tribute to Rome). Considering urgent matters in the Sicilian kingdom and Italy, Frederick tried to avoid the campaign at all costs. The Pope, on the other hand, sought to send Hohenstaufen to distant Palestine in order to weaken his influence in Italy. In 1225, after long requests, threats and exhortations from Honorius III, Frederick was forced to conclude an agreement with him, according to which, no later than August 1227, he was obliged to put up a thousandth detachment of knights and equip a flotilla to transfer the crusaders to the Holy Land. In case of violation of the promise, Frederick was expected to be excommunicated from the church.

In the same year, Hohenstaufen married the daughter of the King of Jerusalem, Isabella, providing, if the crusade was successful, the completion of his collection with another crown. Dynastic marriages were generally one of Frederick II's favorite political devices. Later, he married the sister of the English king Henry III, arranged the marriages of his sons with political calculation.

The first disagreements with the papacy coincided with the deterioration of Frederick's relations with the northern Italian cities. As in the time of Frederick I Barbarossa, the papacy and the Lombard League (a union of cities) began to draw closer in the face of a common potential enemy seeking to strengthen its position in Italy - Frederick II.

In 1226 the Lombard cities resumed their former union and their military organization. In response to this, Frederick II announced the deprivation of the cities of the privileges they received under the Treaty of Constance (1183). Things went to war, and the emperor did not have sufficient military forces. At this difficult moment for Frederick, Honorius III died, and Pope Gregory IX was chosen in his place, demanding the immediate start of a crusade and promising in return to use all his influence to calm the Lombard cities. The war with the Lombard League was postponed, and in 1227 Frederick sailed from Brindisi on a campaign against Jerusalem. But a few days later the emperor unexpectedly returned due to illness, and the campaign that had begun was upset. The pope did not listen to the explanations of Frederick's envoys and excommunicated him from the church. In response, the emperor issued a scathing pamphlet against Gregory, and his adherents forced the Pope to temporarily flee Rome.

Wanting to remove the papal curse, Frederick II in 1228 again went to the Holy Land. With relatively small forces, he managed to achieve what the huge armies of the Crusaders could not achieve since the time of the 1st Crusade. Frederick proved to be a reasonable military leader and a brilliant diplomat, capable of unconventional solutions. It seemed that no matter what Friedrich undertook, he was always successful. Jerusalem was liberated, the emperor also put on himself the crown of Jerusalem, made peace with the Egyptian sultan and left the Holy Land, leaving his governor there. However, in Europe, the winner was by no means a triumphant meeting. Irritated by his adversary's success, Gregory IX declared the crusade a pirate enterprise and the liberation of Jerusalem an unholy deal. At the same time, the perfidious Pope incited the subjects of the Sicilian kingdom to oppose Frederick and sent papal troops to southern Italy.

Having defended the Kingdom of Sicily from papal claims with arms in hand, Frederick II concluded an agreement with Gregory IX in 1230, which meant a temporary lull in their enmity.

Against the background of the active actions of the emperor in Italy, his German policy looked too pale. Since Frederick left the country in 1220, going to Rome for the imperial crown, he only twice (within 30 years!) bothered to visit Germany. In his eyes - half-German, half-Italian - Germany was only the periphery of the empire. Wanting to free his hands for the turbulent Italian politics, Frederick II sought to appease the German princes so that they and other feudal lords would not prefer any other candidate for emperor to him. If his grandfather Frederick I Barbarossa made concessions to individual German princes, pushing them against each other, then Frederick II went towards all the princes as a special estate. He endowed them with supreme state rights, took the side of the German princes in their dispute with the cities.

Probably, Frederick, who realistically assessed his strength, understood the impossibility of being an autocrat at the same time in both Italy and Germany. He deliberately sacrificed the size of his power in Germany in order to concentrate on strengthening his position in the Sicilian kingdom and fighting in Northern and Central Italy. Such an attitude towards German affairs made it possible to maintain a relatively calm situation in Germany. But it contributed to the strengthening of the territorial fragmentation of the country, destroyed the hopes for centralization. With a flexible and cautious policy in Germany, Frederick was able to prevent possible political upheavals, but the imminent collapse of the Holy Roman Empire became even more inevitable.

In 1235 Frederick experienced a personal drama. An open rebellion against the emperor was raised by his son Henry, who ruled on behalf of his father in Germany. The threads of the conspiracy stretched to Rome. The filial rebellion was easily put down. Heinrich only wanted to escape from his father's tutelage and could not seduce the German princes with anything that would make them go over to his side and turn away from Frederick.

In 1236, Frederick again decided to put an end to the liberties of the Lombard cities and, having received the military support of the German princes, went to Northern Italy. At first, the emperor was successful. In 1237, at the battle of Kortenovo, he inflicted a severe defeat on the allied forces. But the cities did not want to give up, and the league rejected the demand for unconditional submission. Military happiness changed Frederick. After an unsuccessful three-month siege of the city of Brescia, the imperial army was forced to retreat. Gregory IX openly entered the struggle on the side of the Lombard cities. After Frederick appointed his natural son Enzio, married to the heiress of Sardinia, king of Sardinia and thereby violated the suzerainty of Rome, the Pope in 1239 again excommunicated the emperor from the church and called for resistance to his power.

Frederick I turned to the secular sovereigns of the Christian world, pointing out that the Pope is their natural enemy, for he has a claim to subjugate all of them to his power. The struggle between the emperor and the Pope was in full swing in all parts of Europe, both recruited supporters and allies for themselves, both through the mouths of their adherents raised the most serious accusations against each other. The Pope called Friedrich a bear, a leopard, a blasphemer, the son of Beelzebub. The emperor did not remain in debt. In 1241, the Pope convened a council in Rome to condemn Frederick, but Enzio, the most talented and beloved son of Frederick, intercepted ships with bishops on their way to Rome at sea, and the council did not take place. The emperor's troops approached Rome, devastating its environs; Frederick's agents prepared the ground for entry into the city. But Gregory IX suddenly died. For a year and a half, the papal throne was empty, and it was impossible to remove the excommunication, which Hohenstaufen was striving for.

Despite Frederick's willingness to make serious concessions to the papacy, the new Pope Innocent IV took an even tougher stance towards the emperor than his predecessor. Convened by Innocent IV in 1245, the Ecumenical Council in Lyon almost unanimously supported the Pope and passed a resolution on the excommunication of the repeatedly excommunicated Frederick II from the church and the deprivation of him of all titles and honors. The emperor was accused not only of infringing on the rights of the papacy and the church, but also of heresy and a tendency to Mohammedanism.

But the accursed emperor did not even think of resigning himself, the usual calm disposition of the spirit did not betray him. The anti-Staufen papal agitation was bearing fruit. The Holy Roman Empire, the preservation and strengthening of which Frederick II devoted his life to, was bursting at the seams. The Hohenstaufen barely had time to patch up the holes. Worried to know in Germany. Some of the princes elected an anti-king - Heinrich Raspe. The war broke out again with the Lombard League, and again not in favor of Frederick - his army lost the battle of Parma. However, the 56-year-old emperor did not lose heart. Failures only spurred his tireless active nature. Frederick II longed for revenge, prepared a campaign against Lyon to take revenge on the Pope, gathered forces for a new big war with the Lombard League, threatened the German apostate princes.

But in 1250 the emperor suddenly died. The news of the death of Frederick led his opponents to insane delight. The ebullient activity of the emperor supported the Holy Roman Empire. With the death of Friedrich, its collapse became inevitable. The papacy triumphed. Germany entered a period of unrest.

In European history, Frederick II Hohenstaufen undoubtedly remains among those of its characters, behind the routine of state affairs of which, the lace of diplomatic moves, the tension of military campaigns and the pomposity of court life, a strong character, a clear mind and a lively soul are clearly visible.

FRIEDRICH II Staufen
(Friedrich II)
(1194-1250), German king and Holy Roman Emperor. Frederick, son of Emperor Henry VI and Constance of Sicily, grandson of Frederick I Barbarossa and King Roger II of Sicily, was born in Iesi (near Ancona) on December 26, 1194. Despite the fact that back in 1196 Frederick was elected King of Rome (i.e. imperial throne), when a year later Henry VI died, the rights of Frederick were rejected. And although the Hohenstaufen party turned out to be strong enough to elect his uncle Philip of Swabia as the German king, the Welfs nominated a rival king - Otto IV, son of Henry the Lion. The struggle that flared up in connection with this split the whole of Europe. In 1197, under the guardianship of his mother, Frederick became king of Sicily, and when his mother died the following year, she entrusted the care of her young son to Pope Innocent III, at whose court he was raised. In 1208, Philip was assassinated out of personal revenge, after which Philip's rival Otto IV was crowned emperor. Having abruptly changed his former priorities, in 1210 Otto invaded Italy and began an energetic campaign to conquer the entire Apennine Peninsula. As a result, Pope Innocent III departed from Otto and in 1211 secured the election of Frederick as the German king at the Reichstag of the rebellious German princes. By that time, Frederick was already married (the marriage was concluded in 1209) to the widow of the Hungarian king Constance, daughter of King Alfonso II of Aragon. Frederick promised to separate Sicily from the rest of the empire and give it to his young son Henry VII, with the pope as regent (the pope, who had rights to Sicily, was categorically against the unification of Sicily, Italy and Germany in the hands of one monarch), but did not keep his word. When the weak-willed Pope Honorius III ascended the throne, Frederick made it a rule to permanently delay the start of the crusade (which he had previously sworn) and ensured the election of Henry as the German king. Despite this, in 1220 in Rome, Honorius placed the crown of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire on Frederick, and by 1226 most of Italy was under the rule of Frederick, which was a direct threat to papal power. In 1227, the indulgent Honorius was replaced on the papal throne by Gregory IX, who insisted that Frederick keep his oath regarding the crusade. Finally sailing out to sea in the direction of the Holy Land, Frederick was forced to return because of the epidemic that had begun in the troops, and then the pope excommunicated him from the church. In 1228, Frederick nevertheless reached Palestine and, resorting to skillful diplomacy, acquired Jerusalem from the Muslims. He was crowned King of Jerusalem, inheriting that title through his second wife, Jolanthe (Constance died in 1222), daughter of the former King John of Brienne. But the pope continued to fight against the possessions of Frederick in Italy, which forced Frederick to return in 1230. Having taken up the state structure of Sicily, in 1231 Frederick published the so-called. Melfi constitutions (they are also called Liber augustalis, i.e. the Imperial Book), a new set of laws that were far ahead of their time, as they turned Sicily into an absolutist state with a powerful bureaucratic machine, a well-thought-out tax system and virtually abolished feudal liberties. The Italian cities re-formed the Lombard League in order to oppose Frederick's attempts on their independence, but in 1237 they were defeated at the Battle of Kortenowa. In March 1239, Gregory IX took the side of the cities in a new war with Frederick, who now went on the offensive in the Papal States. When Frederick set out on a campaign against Rome in 1241, the pope died. In June 1245, at the Council of Lyon, Pope Innocent IV declared Frederick deposed and called for a crusade against him. Frederick died in Castel Fiorentino (near San Severo, Apulia) on December 13, 1250. Although Frederick was a Hohenstaufen by birth, he should be considered a Sicilian rather than a German, since he lived mainly in Sicily. Being a patron of the sciences and arts, he himself fully deserved the title of scientist and poet: some of the works that came out from under his pen can be put on a par with the best examples of writings of that time (we have his treatise on falconry, c. 1246) . To be at the court of Frederick was considered an honor by both scientists and troubadours and minnesingers from France and Germany. Frederick's style of government can, with some modifications, be called enlightened absolutism; he was a rationalist who did not shy away from communication with astrologers; showing tolerance for other confessions and cultures, he mercilessly persecuted heretics within Catholicism. The enigmatic and richly gifted personality of Friedrich evoked feelings of admiration and fear among his contemporaries, who called him stupor mundi (Latin for "amazement of the world"). He himself was sometimes inclined to consider himself the forerunner of the Messiah (as during his entry into Jerusalem in 1228), but some called him the Antichrist.

Collier Encyclopedia. - Open society. 2000 .

See what "FRIDERICH II Staufen" is in other dictionaries:

- (Friedric II Staufen) (1194 1250) German king from 1212, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1220, king of Sicily from 1197. Turned the Sicilian kingdom into a centralized state. Fought with the papacy and northern Italian cities ...

- (Friedrich II Staufen) (1194 1250), German king from 1212, emperor of the "Holy Roman Empire" from 1220, king of Sicily from 1197. Turned the Sicilian kingdom into a centralized state. Fought with the papacy and northern Italian cities ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Friedrich II Staufen- (1194 1250) King of Sicily (from 1197), Germany (from 1212 to 1250), Emperor of Holy Rome. empires (since 1220); son of Henry VI, grandson of Frederick I Barbarossa. Born and raised in the Kingdom of Sicily (his father was married to an heiress ... ... Medieval world in terms, names and titles

- (1194-1250), German king from 1212, emperor of the "Holy Roman Empire" from 1220, king of Sicily from 1197. Turned the Sicilian kingdom into a centralized state. Fought with the papacy and northern Italian cities ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary Soviet historical encyclopedia

Coin of Frederick II (inscription: CESAR AVG IMP ROM) Frederick II Staufen (Friedrich von Staufen; December 26, 1194, Jesi, province of Ancona, Papal States, now Italy December 26, 1250, Fiorentino castle near Lucera, province of Apulia, Sicilian ... ... Wikipedia

German king and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, son of Henry VI and Constance of Sicily; genus. in 1194. In 1197 his father died, in 1198 his mother died, and the boy was brought up in Rome under the close supervision of the Roman Curia. Teaching came easily to him; he was endowed with a broad mind, remarkable diplomatic talents, and tireless energy. His opponents often complained about his deceit, treachery, treacherous antics, etc. During his childhood, his guardian was Pope Innocent III, who tried to save at least Sicilian possessions for him, because in Germany the struggle between the two contenders for the crown and the chances of F. was in full swing. were extremely insignificant. Having become, after the death of Innocent, an independent ruler of Sicily, he consolidated his dominion on this island, pacifying the Arabs, who rebelled against him several times. He founded a university in Naples and tried in every possible way to attract famous scientists to Naples, Palermo, and Salerno. At the same time, he showed complete tolerance regarding the religion of the invited scientist: along with Christians, Arabs and Jews taught at his universities. Pope Gregory IX and other clerical enemies of F. suspected him of disbelief, of heresy, even of secret belonging to Mohammedanism. In 1212, F. (still with the support and friendship of the pope) began a struggle with Otto, who had usurped the imperial crown, and in 1215 could consider his position on the German throne to be completely strengthened. The Pope helped him in Germany only because F. solemnly undertook to abandon Sicily in favor of his son Henry, as soon as he established himself on the German throne. But Innokenty died - and F. did not think to fulfill the promise. Having previously vowed to go on a crusade, F., despite all the requests, threats and exhortations of the pope (Honorius III), did not go on a campaign, but limited himself, mainly for averting eyes, to solemn preparations. In 1225, he married the daughter of the King of Jerusalem, Iolanthe, and by this clearly predetermined the fate of the kingdom of Jerusalem, if the future campaign was successful. Then F. quarreled with the Lombard cities, which, since the time of F. Barbarossa, had managed to wean themselves from subjugation to the empire. At this difficult moment for F. (in 1227), Honorius III died and Gregory IX was chosen in his place, who, under the condition of the immediate start of the crusade, used all his influence to calm the Lombard cities. F. sailed with a crusading army from Brindisi, but returned a few days later, under the pretext of illness. A week after his return, he was cursed and excommunicated by the pope. In response, F. published a sharp pamphlet against Gregory, and his followers soon forced the pope to flee Rome. In 1228, F. finally went to the Holy Land. The campaign was crowned with success: at the beginning of 1229, F. managed to put on the crown of Jerusalem, make peace with the Sultan and leave the Holy Land, leaving his governor there. As soon as he returned to Italy, he had to defend Sicily with weapons in his hands from the pope and his allies. Having successfully completed this task, F. found it convenient to make peace with the pope. F. and his chancellor Pietro a Vinea codified the so-called "Sicilian constitutions", which established the correct civil law and order and had a very definite tendency: to limit the power of the feudal lords and, by creating a complex and centralized government mechanism, to strengthen royal power, to make it not only legally, but actually autocratic. "Constitutions" appeared in 1231, and had as their immediate result some improvement in the financial means of F.; however, the financial principles of the "constitution" - their weak side, because F., mainly, had in mind the current demands and needs of the fiscal, and not the economic prosperity of the population. Despite outward reconciliation with the emperor, the pope made every effort to put forward a new enemy against F.. F.'s son, Henry, under the influence of the pope, decided to take advantage (in the middle of the 30s of the XIII century) by the fact that his father, leaving for Italy, appointed him his governor in Germany and raised an open rebellion against F. The emperor appeared (in 1235) to Germany, and the son found himself almost completely alone in the struggle he had thoughtlessly begun. He had to put up with it, F. put him in prison, then transferred him to another, then even further, to a third, and Heinrich, unable to withstand all these ordeals, died. The success of F. in the fight against his son was facilitated, in addition to significant financial resources, also by the fact that at the previous Diets he was extremely considerate about all the most important claims of spiritual and secular German feudal lords. Good relations in Germany were necessary for him in view of the enmity with the pope in Italy, and one of the strengths of F.'s mind was a clear idea of ​​the true extent of his forces: it was impossible for him to be autocratic in both Italy and Germany, and he deliberately sacrificed size of his power in Germany, to free his hands in Sicily and in relation to Rome. Expanding the scope of feudal arbitrariness to the direct detriment of the growth and freedom of German cities, F. at the same time, he strove to uproot all the beginnings of municipal independence. In Germany, this was not difficult to achieve (at least for a time), since the imperial princes and feudal lords were the executors (and, of course, very zealous) of the imperial decrees regarding cities; but in Lombardy he met with stubborn resistance. The Lombard League entered into an armed struggle with the emperor, which lasted, intermittently, until the end of his life. At first, success was on the side of the emperor, but then happiness betrayed him. The fight dragged on also because dad actively helped the league. In 1239, Gregory IΧ again excommunicated F. from the church. A month after the excommunication, F. published his answer, in the form of an invitation to the cardinals to convene an ecumenical council for a trial between him and the pope. He also addressed the secular sovereigns of the Christian world, pointing out that the pope is the natural enemy of all of them, for he has a claim to subjugate all of them to his power. The struggle between F. and the pope was in full swing in all parts of Europe; both recruited supporters and allies for themselves, both, through the mouths of their adherents, raised the most serious accusations against each other. The Pope called F. "bear", "leopard", blasphemer, son of Beelzebub, etc.; F. did not remain in debt. In 1241, the pope convened a council in Rome, but Enzio (the most talented and beloved son of F.) intercepted ships with bishops on their way to Rome at sea, and the council did not take place. This was the last triumph of F. over Gregory IX, who died 4 months later. Nevertheless, the struggle against the papacy continued. In the early 40s. 13th century F. made several attempts to make peace with Rome, but nothing came of it: relying on the support of Lombardy, the papal curia was extremely uncompromising. The troops of F., under the command of Ezzelino, devastated Lombardy; the emperor himself fought in the south, from his Sicilian kingdom. Innocent IV (chosen by the pope in 1243) convened a council in Lyon against F., but F. did not appear there, but sent his lawyer, lawyer Taddeo di Suessa. The case ended with the confirmation of the curse against F. Innokenty turned out to be an extremely active opponent; he successfully intrigued against the emperor even among the imperial confidants; Vinea cheated on F., who put him in jail. F.'s affairs worsened. The French king Saint Louis twice (in 1245-46) tried to persuade Innocent to be more accommodating, but to no avail. Even in Germany a great ferment began against the emperor, in spite of all his efforts to keep complete peace there. In Lombardy, F. suffered defeat after defeat: in 1248, the inhabitants of Parma captured Vittoria, the fortress of F., and the imperial army suffered terrible losses; the Bolognese captured F.'s son, Enzio. Despite all these difficult circumstances, F. did not resign himself. Sicily, the main source of his military resources, was worried, complaining of complete exhaustion, in view of the endless wars of the emperor. F. by gallows and confiscations managed to pacify the unrest. From time to time fortune leaned to his side in Lombardy; then the vanquished did not expect (and did not receive) any mercy; neither sex nor age were spared. In 1250, F. fell ill and took to his bed. He firmly prepared for death, gave the last business orders and died quite calmly. Crazy joy took possession of Rome when the news of F.'s death came; the impression of this event was strong throughout Europe (this is indirectly proved by the appearance of several impostors). Lively, versatile, educated F. resembles more a man of modern times than his grandfather F. Barbarossa, with whom his contemporaries compared him. Physically, he was as strong as mentally, but depravity and a hectic life brought him to the grave early.

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