FREDERICK II. (1194-1250), Holy Roman emperor, king of Sicily and Jerusalem, was son of the emperor Henry VI. and Constance of Naples, daughter of Roger I., king of Sicily, and therefore grandson of the emperor Frederick I. Born at Jesi near Ancona on Dec. 26, 1194, and chosen German king at Frankfort in 1196, he was baptized Frederick Roger, and after his father's death crowned king of Sicily at Palermo on May 17, 1198. His mother, who assumed the government, died in November 1198, leaving Pope Innocent III. as regent of Sicily and guardian of her son. In 1208 he was declared of age, and in 1209 he married Con stance, daughter of Alphonso II. king of Aragon, and widow of Emerich or Imre, king of Hungary. In September 1211, a number of influential German princes met at Nuremberg, declared Otto IV. deposed, and invited Frederick to come and occupy the vacant throne. He accepted the invitation ; and having recognized the papal supremacy over Sicily, and procured the coronation of his son Henry as its king, he reached Germany in the autumn of 2. Frederick was welcomed in Swabia, and the renown of the Hohen staufen name and a liberal distribution of promises made his progress easy. He was chosen German king a second time at Frankfort on Dec. 5, I212, and crowned Dec. 9, at Mainz. Anxious to retain the pope's support, Frederick promulgated a bull at Eger on July 12, 1213, by which he renounced all lands claimed by the pope since the death of the emperor Henry VI. in I197, gave up the right of spoils and all interference in episcopal elec tions, and acknowledged the right of appeal to Rome. He again affirmed the papal supremacy over Sicily, and promised to root out heresy in Germany. He had allied himself with Philip Augus tus of France against Otto, and the victory of his French allies at Bouvines on July 27, 1214 greatly strengthened his position. He was crowned the German king at Aix-la-Chapelle on July 25, 1215. In May 1218 the death of Otto left him undisputed ruler of Ger many. His son Henry was brought to Germany and chosen by the princes German king at Frankfort in April 1220, though Frederick assured the new pope, Honorius III., that this step, which would involve the future union of Sicily with Germany, had been taken without his consent. In August 1220 Frederick set out for Italy, and was crowned emperor at Rome on Nov. 22, I 220 ; a f ter which he repeated the undertaking he had entered into at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1215 to go on crusade, and made lavish promises to the Church. The clergy were freed from taxation and from lay jurisdiction, the ban of the Empire was to follow the ban of the Church, and heretics were to be severely punished.
But Frederick was occupied until 1225 in restoring order in Sicily. The island was seething with disorder, but by stern and sometimes cruel measures the emperor suppressed anarchy. Mean while the crusade was postponed again and again; until under a threat of excommunication, after the fall of Damietta in 1221, Frederick definitely undertook to set out in August 1227. On Nov. 9, 1225, he married his second wife Iolande (Yolande or Isa bella), daughter of John, count of Brienne, titular king of Jeru salem. She died in 1227. Frederick then himself assumed the title of king of Jerusalem. He then summoned a diet at Cremona, but the cities, watchful and suspicious, renewed the Lombard league and took up a hostile attitude. Frederick's reply was to annul the treaty of Constance and place the cities under the imperial ban; but he was forced by lack of military strength to accept the media tion of Pope Honorius and the maintenance of the status quo.
After these events, which occurred early in 1227, preparations for the crusade were pressed on, and the emperor sailed from Brindisi on Sept. 8. A pestilence, however, which attacked his forces compelled him to land in Italy three days later, and on the 29th of the same month he was excommunicated by the new pope, Gregory IX. The greater part of the succeeding year was spent by pope and emperor in a violent quarrel. Alarmed at the increase in his opponent's power, Gregory denounced him in a public letter, to which Frederick replied in a clever document addressed to the princes of Europe. The reading of this manifesto, drawing atten tion to the absolute power claimed by the popes, was received in Rome with such evidences of approval that Gregory was com pelled to fly to Viterbo. Frederick again set sail for Palestine, where he met with considerable success, the result of diplomatic rather than of military skill. By a treaty made in February 1229 he secured possession of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and the surrounding neighbourhood. Entering Jerusalem, he crowned him self king of that city on March 18, 1229. These successes had been won in spite of the hostility of Gregory, which deprived Frederick of the assistance of many members of the military orders and of the clergy of Palestine. But although the emperor's possessions on the Italian mainland had been attacked in his ab sence by the papal troops and their allies, Gregory's efforts had failed to arouse serious opposition in Germany and Sicily; so that when Frederick returned unexpectedly to Italy in June 1229 he had no difficulty in driving back his enemies, and compelling the pope to sue for peace. By the treaty of San Germano (July 123o), the emperor, loosed from the ban, promised to respect the papal territory, and to allow freedom of election and other privileges to the Sicilian clergy. Frederick then pacified Sicily. In 1231 a series of laws were published at Melfi which destroyed the ascendancy of the feudal nobles. Royal officials were appointed for adminis trative purposes, large estates were recovered for the crown, and fortresses were destroyed, while the church was placed under the royal jurisdiction and all gifts to it were prohibited. At the same time certain privileges of self-government were granted to the towns, representatives from which were summoned to sit in the diet. In short, by means of a centralized system of government, the king established an almost absolute monarchical power.
In Germany, an entirely different policy was pursued. The con cessions granted by Frederick in 1220, together with the Privilege of Worms, dated May 1, 1231, made the German princes virtually independent. All jurisdiction over their lands was vested in them, no new mints or toll-centres were to be erected on their domains. and the imperial authority was restricted to a small and dwindling area. A fierce attack was made on the rights of the cities. Com pelled to restore all their lands, their jurisdiction was bounded by their city-walls; they were forbidden to receive the dependents of the princes; all trade gilds were declared abolished; and all official appointments made without the consent of the archbishop or bishop were annulled. A further attack on the Lombard cities at the diet of Ravenna in 1231 was answered by a renewal of their league, and was soon connected with unrest in Germany. About 1231 a breach took place between Frederick and his elder son Henry, who appears to have opposed the Privilege of Worms and to have favoured the towns against the princes. After refusing to travel to Italy, Henry changed his mind and submitted to his father at Aquileia in 1232 ; and a temporary peace was made with the Lombard cities in June 1233. But on his return to Germany Henry again raised the standard of revolt, and made a league with the Lombards in December 1234. Frederick, meanwhile, having helped Pope Gregory against the rebellious Romans and having secured the friendship of France and England, appeared in Ger many early in 1235 and put down this rising without difficulty. Henry was imprisoned, but his associates were treated leniently. In August 1235 a splendid diet was held at Mainz, during which the marriage of the emperor with Isabella (1214-1241), daughter of John, king of England, was celebrated. A general peace (Land frieden), which became the basis of all such peaces in the future, was sworn to ; a new office, that of imperial justiciar, was created, and a permanent judicial record was first instituted. Otto of Brunswick, grandson of Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, was made duke of Brunswick-Luneburg; and war was declared against the Lombards.
Frederick was now at the height of his power. His second son, Conrad, was invested with the duchy of Swabia, and the claim of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, to some lands which had belonged to the German king Philip was bought off. The attitude of Fred erick II. (the Quarrelsome), duke of Austria, had been considered by the emperor so suspicious that during a visit paid by Frederick to Italy a war against him was begun. Compelled to return by the ill-fortune which attended this campaign, the emperor took com mand of his troops, seized Austria, Styria and Carinthia, and de clared these territories to be immediately dependent on the Em pire. In January 1237 he secured the election of his son Conrad as German king at Vienna ; and in September went to Italy to prosecute the war which had broken out with the Lombards in the preceding year. Pope Gregory attempted to mediate, but the cities refused to accept the insulting terms offered by Frederick. The emperor gained a great victory over their forces at Cortenuova (Nov. 27, 1237); but his failure to take Brescia in October 1238, together with the changed attitude of Gregory, turned the fortune of war. The pope had become alarmed by the project of marriage between the heiress of Sardinia, Adelasia, and Frederick's natural son Enzio, who afterwards assumed the title of king of Sardinia. But as his warnings had been disregarded, he made an alliance with the Lombards, and excommunicated (Mar. 20, 1239), the emperor. A violent war of words ensued. Frederick, accused of heresy, blasphemy and other crimes, called upon all kings and princes to unite against the pope, who on his side used his emissaries, a crowd of wandering friars, to preach rebellion in Germany. It was, however, impossible to find an anti-king. In Italy, Spoleto and Ancona were declared part of the imperial dominions, and Rome itself was threatened. A number of ecclesiastics proceeding to a council called by Gregory were captured by Enzio at the sea fight of Meloria, and the emperor was about to undertake the siege of Rome when the pope died (August 1241) . Germany was at this time menaced by the Mongols; but Frederick contented himself with issuing directions for a campaign against them, until in 1242 he was able to pay a short visit to Germany, where he gained some support from the towns by grants of extensive privileges.
Gregory's immediate successor, Pope Celestine IX., died soon after his election; and after a delay of eighteen months, during which Frederick marched against Rome on two occasions and devastated the lands of his opponents, one of his partisans, Sini baldo Fiesco, was chosen pope, and took the name of Innocent IV. Negotiations for peace were begun, but the relations of the Lom bard cities to the Empire could not be adjusted, and when the em peror began again to ravage the papal territories Innocent fled to Lyons. Hither he summoned a general council, which met in June 1245; but although Frederick sent his justiciar, Thaddeus of Suessa, to represent him, and expressed his willingness to treat, sentence of excommunication and deposition was pronounced against him. Accused by Innocent of violating treaties, breaking oaths, persecuting the church and abetting heresy, Frederick re plied by an open letter rebutting these charges, and denouncing the clergy and threatening the confiscation of their wealth. In vain the mediation of the saintly king of France, Louis IX., was invoked. Innocent declared Frederick deposed, and ordered the Germans to elect a new king. War soon became general in Ger many and Italy. Henry Raspe, landgrave of Thuringia, was chosen German king in opposition to Frederick in May 1246, but neither he nor his successor, William II., count of Holland, could drive the Hohenstaufen from Germany. In Italy, during the emperor's absence, his cause had been upheld by Enzio and by the ferocious Eccelino da Romano. In 1246 a formidable conspiracy of the dis contented Apulian barons against the emperor was crushed with ruthless cruelty. Suddenly news reached Frederick that Parma, a stronghold of the imperial authority in the north, had been sur prised, while the garrison was off its guard, by the Guelphs. He therefore concentrated his forces on the city, building over against it a wooden town which, in anticipation of the success that astrol ogers had predicted, he named Vittoria. The siege was protracted, and finally, in February 1248, during the absence of the emperor on a hunting expedition, was brought to an end by a sudden sortie of the men of Parma, who stormed the imperial camp. The em peror's forces were destroyed or scattered ; the treasury, with the imperial insignia, together with Frederick's harem and some of the most trusted of his ministers, fell into the hands of the victors. Thaddeus of Suessa was hacked to pieces by the mob; the im perial crown was placed in mockery on the head of a hunch-backed beggar, who was carried back in triumph into the city.
Frederick's old confidence had left him ; he had grown moody and suspicious, and his temper gave a ready handle to his enemies. Pier della Vigna, accused of treasonable designs, was disgraced; and the once all-powerful favourite and minister, blinded now and in rags, was dragged in the emperor's train, as a warning to trai tors, till in despair he dashed out his brains. Then, in May 1248, the tidings of Enzio's capture by the Bolognese broke the emperor's spirit. He retired to southern Italy, and after a short illness died at Fiorentino on Dec. 13, 1250, after having been loosed from the ban by the archbishop of Palermo. He was buried in the cathedral of that city, where his splendid tomb may still be seen. By his will he appointed his son Conrad to succeed him in Germany and Sicily, and Henry, his son by Isabella of England, to be king of Jerusalem or Arles, neither of which kingdoms, however, he ob tained. Frederick left several illegitimate children : Enzio has al ready been referred to ; Frederick, who was made the imperial vicar in Tuscany ; and Manfred, his son by the beloved Bianca Lancia or Lanzia, who was legitimatized just before his father's death, and was appointed by his will prince of Tarento and regent of Sicily.
The character of Frederick is one of extraordinary interest and versatility, and contemporary opinion is expressed in the words stupor inundi et immutator mirabilis. Licentious and luxurious in his manners, cultured and catholic in his tastes, he united in his person the most diverse qualities. His Sicilian court was a centre of intellectual activity. Michael Scot, the translator of some treatises of Aristotle and of the commentaries of Averroes, Leonard of Pisa, who introduced Arabic numerals and algebra to the West, and other scholars, Jewish and Mohammedan as well as Christian, were welcome at his court. Frederick himself had a knowledge of six languages, was acquainted with mathematics, philosophy and natural history, and took an interest in medicine and architecture. In 1224 he founded the university of Naples, and he was a liberal patron of the medical school at Salerno. He formed a menagerie of strange animals, and wrote a treatise on falconry (De ante venandi cum avibus) which is remarkable for its accurate observation of the habits of birds.' It was at his court, too, that—as Dante points out—Italian poetry had its birth. Pier della Vigna there wrote the first sonnet, and Italian lyrics by Frederick himself are preserved to us. His wives were kept secluded in oriental fashion ; a harem was maintained at Lucera, and eunuchs were a prominent feature of his household. His religious ideas have been the subject of much controversy. Frederick's rule in Germany and Italy was a failure, but this fact may be accounted for by the conditions of the time and the in evitable conflict with the papacy. In Germany the enactments of 1220 and 1231 contributed to the disintegration of the Empire and the fall of the Hohenstaufen, while conflicting interests made the government of Italy a problem of exceptional difficulty. In Sicily Frederick was more successful. He quelled disorder, and under his rule the island was prosperous and contented. His ideas of government were those of an absolute monarch, and he prob ably wished to surround himself with some of the pomp which had encircled the older emperors of Rome. His chief claim to fame, perhaps, is as a lawgiver. The code of laws which he gave to Sicily in 1231 bears the impress of his personality, and has been described as "the fullest and most adequate body of legisla tion promulgated by any western ruler since Charlemagne." With out being a great soldier, Frederick was not unskilful in war fare, but was better acquainted with the arts of diplomacy. In person he is said to have been "red, bald and short-sighted," but with good features and a pleasing countenance. It was believed in Germany for about a century after his death that Frederick was still alive, and many impostors attempted to personate him. A legend, afterwards transferred to Frederick Barbarossa, told how he sat in a cavern in the Kyffhausser before a stone table through which his beard had grown, waiting for the time for him to awake and restore to the Empire the golden age of peace. The contemporary documents relating to the reign of Frederick II. are very numerous. Many of the more important ones are given in the Historic diplomatica Friderici II., edited by M. Huillard-Breholles (Paris, 1852-61) ; Acta imperii selecta. Urkunden deutscher Konige and Kaiser, edited by J. F. Bohmer and J. Ficker (Innsbruck, 187o) ; Acta imperii inedita seculi X111. Urkunden and Briefe zur Geschichte des Kaiserreichs and des Konigreichs Sicilien, edited by E. Winkelmann (Innsbruck, 188o) ; Epistolae saeculi XIII. selecta e regestis pontificum Romanorum, edited by C. Rodenberg, tome i. (Berlin, 1883) ; P. Pressutti, Regesta Honorii papae 111. (Rome, 1888) ; L. Auvray, Les Registres de Gregoire IX. (Paris, 189o) .
The best modern authorities are M. Huillard-Breholles, Vie et corr, de Pierre de la Vigne (1865) ; F. von Raumer, Geschichte der Hohen staufen (vols. iii. & iv., 5th ed., 1878) ; C. Kohler, Das Verhdltnis Kaiser Friedrichs II. zu den Papsten seiner Zeit (Breslau, 1888) ; W. von Giesebrecht, Gesch. der dent. Kaiserzeit, vol. v. (Leipzig, 1888) ; G. Blondel, Etude sur la politique de l'empereur Frederic II. en Allemagne (1892) ; K. Hampe, Kaiser Friedrich 11. (Munich, ; A. Folz, Kaiser Friedrich H. and Papst Innocenz IV. ihr Kamp f (1905) ; W. Cohn, Das Zeitalter der Hohenstaufen in Sizilien