Frederick I Barbarossa (1122-10 June 1190) was Holy Roman Emperor from 2 January 1155 to 10 June 1190, succeeding Lothair III of Germany and preceding Henry VI of Germany. Barbarossa was renowned for his wars against the Pope and his allies in Italy, as well as for his participation in two crusades. In 1190, he drowned while crossing the Saleph River in Turkey during the Third Crusade.
Biography[]
A drawing of Barbarossa
Frederick I Hohenstaufen, known as Barbarossa, was the dominant European military and political figure of his time. He ruled as emperor for 35 years, stamping his authority on Germany and campaigning tirelessly to assert imperial power over Italy in the face of resistance from the papacy and Italian city-states.
Frederick’s military career began, as it would end, with a crusade. In 1147, as the Duke of Swabia, he left for the Holy Land with his uncle, King Conrad III. Young Frederick was a far more dynamic, charismatic figure than Conrad and, although lacking experience, soon attained a prominent position among the German crusaders. When a flash flood inflicted heavy losses on the encamped army in Thrace, only Frederick’s men were able to avoid damage, having set up their camp on high ground. However, Frederick participated fully in the subsequent disasters of the campaign. When most of the German knights were massacred, ambushed by Seljuk Turks as they tried to march across central Anatolia, he was one of the survivors. Then in Palestine he was party to the ill-fated decision to lay siege of Damascus, which ended in ignominious retreat.
In 1152, Frederick succeeded Conrad to the German throne, not by hereditary right but as the approved choice of powerful German nobles. Unlike his predecessor, he also succeeded in having himself crowned emperor by the pope. This was in return for suppressing a rebellion against papal authority in Rome. For the next 20 years, however, the papacy and the empire were in conflict, and the politics of the Italian city-states were polarized between Guelph supporters of the pope and the pro-imperial Ghibellines. From 1158 to 1162, Frederick campaigned in northern Italy with the aim of reducing hostile cities to subjugation, chief among them Milan. The style of warfare consisted almost exclusively of laying waste to the countryside and conducting long sieges. It so happened that Frederick had the patience and ruthlessness, as well as the heavy equipment that successful siege warfare required.
Frederick’s conquest of both Milan and its ally, Crema, were notable for ingenious siege techniques, making use of wheeled towers, battering rams, tunnels, and catapults. But they were also occasions of unspeakable cruelty, Frederick in his frustration having prisoners hacked to pieces or strung up in front of his siege engines and used as human shields. Starvation was the most effective weapon – and one that eventually brought both cities to surrender. Frederick razed Milan in 1162, yet he lacked the resources to impose his will permanently on Italy. His power base in Germany was too insecure, his presence constantly required to keep powerful nobles – particularly Henry the Lion of Saxony – under control. And cities such as Milan had the wealth to rebuild themselves and their citizen armies once Frederick had left.
Frederick had been at odds with Pope Alexander III since a disputed papal election in 1159, in which he had intervened. He grew increasingly desperate to oust Alexander, but when he occupied Rome in the summer of 1167, the result was a catastrophe. The pope escaped and an epidemic killed most of Frederick’s army. Boosted by this, Milan and other Italian cities formed an alliance against him: the Lombard League. The emperor had to slip back to Germany in disguise to evade his enemies. A proud man, Frederick was bound to seek revenge for this humiliation. In 1174, Frederick returned to Italy in order to crush the Lombard League. But disagreements meant that Henry the Lion refused to come to his aid and Frederick’s forces were too small for the task on their own. The imperial invasion stalled in a failed siege of Alessandria, and the Lombard League grew in confidence. In May 1176, its militia foot soldiers crushed and almost killed Frederick at Legnano. Although he narrowly survived the battle, turning up in Pavia three days later to general astonishment, the disaster at Legnano effectively ended his ambitions to dominate Italy.
The Holy Roman Empire's great crusade has failed. Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa drowned while crossing the Kalycadnus River. His mighty army, overcome with grief, have turned aside from the Crusade and returned home.
Frederick made his peace with the papacy, and later with Milan and the other city-states. Afterward, Henry the Lion felt the full weight of Frederick’s fury for failing to aid him. The emperor invaded Saxony, exiled Henry, and stripped him of his lands.
Barbarossa's death, depicted in the Gotha Manuscript of the Saxon Chronicle.
Frederick still had an overriding ambition: to lead a crusade. In 1189, he set out once more for the Holy Land. Like his uncle 40 years earlier, Frederick chose the overland route through the Byzantine Empire and Anatolia. After serious clashes with Byzantine forces, his crusaders entered the Anatolian territory of the Seljuk Turks in spring 1190. His men were in poor condition, exhausted by heat and thirst. Yet Frederick sustained morale and even succeeded in taking the Seljuk city of Konya. The hardest traveling appeared to be over when he was drowned while crossing the Kalycadnus River. Exactly how this happened will never be known. Frederick's body was rescued and inadequately preserved in vinegar, and on their arrival at Antioch, the crusaders hurriedly buried his rotting remains.