Frederick Barbarossa

The story

An emperor with a red beard

Frederick I of Hohenstaufen, called Barbarossa (“Red Beard”) by the Italians because of the colour of his beard, was born around 1122 into one of the most powerful German families. In 1152 he was elected King of Germany by the great princes of the kingdom. He was tall, determined and educated, and he thought his task was to restore the greatness of the empire, that is, the Holy Roman Empire, which included Germany and, at least on paper, northern and central Italy, and which saw itself as heir to that of ancient Rome.

In Italy, however, things were not going as he wanted: the towns of the north, rich and proud, had organised themselves into communes, collected taxes on their own account and did not obey the imperial officials. And in Rome the pope had a power of his own, which often clashed with that of the emperor.

The coronation in Rome

Barbarossa came down into Italy for the first time in 1154, with an army, to be crowned emperor by the pope. During the journey he demanded the submission of some northern towns and, when he did not get it, punished some of them. In Rome he made an agreement with Pope Adrian IV, the only English pope in history, and had Arnold of Brescia handed over to him, a preacher who asked the Church to live in poverty and had led a revolt against the pope. Arnold was hanged.

On 18 June 1155 Barbarossa was crowned emperor in St Peter's. The Romans, who had not liked it, rebelled, and there were clashes with many dead. Straight afterwards the emperor went back to Germany, because the heat and disease had weakened his army. It was the beginning of a long struggle with the towns and with the pope, which would take up almost all his reign.

Six descents into Italy

In thirty-five years of reign Barbarossa came down into Italy six times (by the traditional count). In 1158 he called at Roncaglia, near Piacenza, a great diet, that is, an assembly, where the jurists of the University of Bologna declared that the most important rights, such as minting coins, collecting taxes and appointing judges, belonged to the emperor. The communes protested. Milan, the strongest, rebelled and was besieged: in 1162 it surrendered, and Barbarossa had it destroyed, with its walls and many houses.

The emperor's harshness pushed the towns to ally: in 1167 the Lombard League was born, which rebuilt Milan and even founded a new town, called Alessandria, in honour of Pope Alexander III, who was in conflict with the emperor. On 29 May 1176, at Legnano, the League's army defeated Barbarossa's. It was a heavy defeat: the emperor was missing for a while, and was believed dead.

In 1177, at Venice, Barbarossa was reconciled with Pope Alexander III. With the Peace of Constance of 1183 he recognised the communes' right to govern themselves, in exchange for an oath of loyalty. It was a kind of compromise: the emperor did not lose all his prestige, but had to accept that he could not govern Italy as he wished.

The end in the East

In 1189, by then old, Barbarossa decided to take part in the Third Crusade, after the Sultan Saladin had retaken Jerusalem. He led a great army across the Balkans and Anatolia. On 10 June 1190, while crossing the river Saleph, in present-day Turkey, he drowned: it is not clear whether from a sudden illness or from a fall from his horse. Many crusaders turned back.

A legend spread in Germany: Barbarossa had not died, but sleeps under a mountain, the Kyffhäuser, with his beard growing around a stone table, and one day he will wake to save his people.