Frederick II 1194-1250
Holy Roman Emperor and King of Germany

The last great ruler of the Hohenstaufens, he was born in Jesi, near Ancona, the grandson of Frederick I, Barbarossa and son of Emperor Henry VI. He inherited Sicily from his mother (1198). In 1212 he took the imperial crown from Otto IV, gaining Pope Innocent III's sanction (1215) for his coronation in 1220. Frederick consolidated his power in Italy by reducing the pope's, organizing his Italian territories, supporting the arts and education, and creating a legal code for Germany and Italy. During his crusade (1228-29) he captured Bethlehem and Nazareth, and crowned himself King of Jerusalem, but when he returned to Italy he experienced difficulties with the papacy, and was temporarily deposed. In 1235 he married the daughter of King John of England and sister of Henry III. Frederick tolerated Jews and Muslims, encouraged free trade, recognized popular representation by parliaments, and anticipated the humanistic movement, but persecuted heretics, and upheld absolute sovereignty. He wrote poetry and a book on falconry. A complex figure of sharp contradictions, he was named stupor mundi ('the amazement of the world'). However his claim of imperial pre-eminence coincided with the development of separate nation states.

Bibliography: Thomas Curtis Van Cleve, The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, immutator mundi (1972)