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Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick II
Frederick II and eagle.jpg
Holy Roman Emperor; King of Italy
Reign 22 November 1220 – 13 December 1250
Coronation 22 November 1220 (Rome)
Predecessor Otto IV
Successor Conrad IV
King of Germany
formally King of the Romans
Reign 1212–1220
Coronation 9 December 1212 (Mainz)
25 July 1215 (Aachen)
Predecessor Otto IV
Successor Henry (VII)
King of Sicily
Reign 1198–1250
Coronation 3 September 1198 (Palermo)
Predecessor Henry VI
Successor Conrad I
King of Jerusalem
Reign 1225–1228
Coronation 18 March 1229, Jerusalem
Predecessor Yolande
Successor Conrad II
Born (1194-12-26)26 December 1194
Iesi, Marche, Italy
Died 13 December 1250(1250-12-13) (aged 55)
Castel Fiorentino, Apulia, Italy
Burial Cathedral of Palermo
Spouse Constance of Aragon
Yolande of Jerusalem
Isabella of England
Bianca Lancia (?)
Issue Henry VII of Germany
Conrad IV of Germany
Henry Otto, Governor of Sicily
Margaret, Margravine of Meissen
Anna, Empress of Nicaea
Manfred, King of Sicily
Violante, Countess of Caserta
Enzo of Sardinia
House House of Hohenstaufen
Father Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother Constance, Queen of Sicily
Religion Roman Catholicism

Frederick II (26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was a Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily in the Middle Ages, a member of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous. However, his enemies, especially the popes, prevailed, and his dynasty collapsed soon after his death.

Viewing himself as a direct successor to the Roman emperors of antiquity, he was Emperor of the Romans from his papal coronation in 1220 until his death; he was also a claimant to the title of King of the Romans from 1212 and unopposed holder of that monarchy from 1215. As such, he was King of Germany, of Italy, and of Burgundy. At the age of three, he was crowned King of Sicily as a co-ruler with his mother, Constance of Hauteville, the daughter of Roger II of Sicily. His other royal title was King of Jerusalem by virtue of marriage and his connection with the Sixth Crusade.

He was frequently at war with the papacy, hemmed in between Frederick's lands in northern Italy and his Kingdom of Sicily (the Regno) to the south, and thus he was excommunicated four times and often vilified in pro-papal chronicles of the time and since. Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him an Antichrist.

Speaking six languages (Latin, Sicilian, German, French, Greek and Arabic), Frederick was an avid patron of science and the arts. He played a major role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His Sicilian royal court in Palermo, from around 1220 to his death, saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The poetry that emanated from the school had a significant influence on literature and on what was to become the modern Italian language.


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