Kaiser Friedrich I

Friedrich I, Kaiser, nicknamed Rotbart or Barbarossa (c.1122-90, in the River Calycadnus/modern Geuksu, Cilicia), was the son of the Duke of Swabia of the powerful Hohenstaufen family (see Staufen). He was elected Deutscher König in 1152 on the death of his uncle, Konrad III. Friedrich's policy had two principal aims: opposition to extension of the papal power in Germany, and the re-establishment of dominion in Italy. In 1155 he was crowned emperor at Rome, and, immediately returning to Germany, quickly established order, settling a quarrel over the Bavarian dukedom by confirming the claim of the Guelph Duke Heinrich (see Heinrich der Löwe) but separating the eastern division of Bavaria (Ostmark) and establishing it as a separate dukedom (Österreich) for the Babenberg claimant. He later quarrelled with Heinrich, totally destroying his power in 1180.

His endeavours to assure imperial appointment of bishops in Germany were successful, but four campaigns in Italy between 1158 and 1176 achieved only partial success and ended in a catastrophic defeat at Legnano (1176). From 1159 to 1177 Friedrich was involved in a feud with Pope Alexander III. He secured, by negotiation with the Lombard League (1183) and by the marriage of his son to Princess Constance, heiress of Sicily, power which he had failed to achieve by force of arms. In 1189 he set out on a crusade, and was drowned either while crossing or while bathing in the River Calycadnus.

Though Friedrich's efforts in Italy were thwarted, he initiated a period of prosperity and good government in Germany. His personal popularity became legendary, and later resulted in the transference to him of the myth of the sovereign sitting inside the Kyffhäuser mountain in Thuringia ready to come to his country's aid in time of need. This legend was originally attached to the Emperor Friedrich II. Friedrich Barbarossa appears as the sleeping emperor in a Volksbuch published in 1519 and in the ballad ‘Barbarossa’ by F. Rückert (1813), which gives the legend its classical form. Barbarossa also figures in the ballad ‘Schwäbische Kunde’ by Uhland (1814) and is the subject of a tragedy by Grabbe, Kaiser Friedrich Barbarossa (1829).