FREDERICK (Ger. Fr IEDRICH) I., OF GERMANY. —Frederick I.,`emperor of Ger many, surnamed BARBAROSSA. (Redbeard), was b. in 1121, succeeded his father, Frederick Hohenstaufen, as duke of Swabia in 1147, and his uncle, Conrad III., as emperor in 1152. He wis one of the most enlightened and powerful rulers who ever swayed the imperial scepter. In his desire to emulate Charlemagne, and to raise the secular power of the empire in opposition to the arrogated supremacy of the papal chair, he was brought into constant collision with his Italian subjects. Six times he was compelled to cross the Alps at the head of great armies, in order to chastise the refractory cities of Lombardy, which were ever ready, on the slightest provocation, to throw off their allegiance. In the early periods of his reign, he visited their defection with undue severity; but in his latter days his conduct towards them was characterized by a generous leniency and a politic liberality in advance of his age; and in 1183, he convoked a council at Constance, in which be finally agreed to leave the Lombard cities the right to choose their own municipal rulers, and to -conclude treaties and leagues among themselves, although lie retained his supremacy over them, together with the power of imposing certain fixed taxes. The settling the Italian differences was as usual aggravated in F.'s time by the attitude assumed by the occu pants of the papal chair, and at one time Italy was distracted by the pretensions of two• rival popes, Alexander III. and Victor IV., who each excommunicated the other, and hurled the anathemas of the church against their several opponents; and it was not till 1170 that F., after his defeat at Lignano, by consenting to acknowledge Urban II.,
the Successor of Alexander IIE, as the rightful pope, was enabled to turn his attention to Germany. By his energetic measures, he succeeded in thoroughly humbling his troublesome vassal, Henry the Lion, duke of Brunswick, and thus crushing the Guelfic power in Germany. F. Made Poland tributary to the empire, raised Bohemia to the rank of a kingdom, and the markgrafdom of Austria into an independent hereditary duchy. In 1189, F., having settled the affairs of the empire, and proclaimed universal peace in his dominions, resigned the government to his eldest son, Henry, and, at the head of 100,000 men, set forth for the Holy Land, accompanied by his second son, Frederick of Swabia, the founder of the order of Teutonic knights. After gaining two great victories over the Saracens at Philomelium and Iconium, he was drowned (1190) in a river of Syria, while trying to urge his horse across the stream. His remains were rescued by his son, and buried at Tyre. The death of F., which led to the dis persion of the crusaders before any material advantage had been obtained over \the infidels, excited the deepest grief in Germany, where his memory has always been cherished as that of the best and wisest of his race. F. was a patron of learning, and enacted many admirable laws, some of which are still in force.