Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick II (December 26, 1194–December 13, 1250), Holy Roman Emperor of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was pretender to the title of King of the Romans from 1212, unopposed holder of that monarchy from 1215, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 until his death in 1250. He was also King of Sicily, from 1198 to 1250, where he was raised and lived most of his life (his mother, Constance of Sicily, was the daughter of Roger II of Sicily). He is also referred to as Frederick I of Sicily. His empire was frequently at war with the Papal States, so it is not surprising that he was excommunicated twice. Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him the anti-Christ. After his death the idea of his second coming where he would rule a 1000-year reich took hold, possibly in part because of this.

Related Topics:
December 26 - 1194 - December 13 - 1250 - Holy Roman Emperor - Hohenstaufen - Pretender - King of the Romans - 1212 - 1215 - 1220 - Sicily - 1198 - Constance of Sicily - Roger II of Sicily - Papal States - Excommunicated - Pope Gregory IX - Anti-Christ - Reich

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Said to speak nine languages and be literate in seven (at a time when many monarchs and nobles were not literate at all), Frederick was a very modern ruler for his times, being a patron of science and learning, and having fairly advanced views on economics. He abolished state monopolies, internal tolls, and import regulations within his empire.

Related Topics:
Language - Science - Economics - Monopolies - Tolls

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He was patron of the Sicilian School of poetry, where in his royal court in Palermo, from around 1220 to his death, we witness the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The poetry that emanated from the school predates the use of the Tuscan idiom as the preferred lingua franca of the Italian peninsula by at least a century. The school and its poetry was well known to Dante and his peers and had a significant influence on the literary form of what was eventually to become the modern Italian.

Related Topics:
Sicilian School - Poetry - Palermo - 1220 - Italo-Romance - Sicilian - Tuscan - Italian peninsula - Dante - Italian

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He was known in his own time as the Stupor mundi ("wonder of the world"). Frederick wrote a manual on the art of falconry, ' ("On the art of hunting with birds"), of which many illustrated copies survive from the 13th and 14th centuries.

Related Topics:
Falconry - 13th - 14th centuries

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