Page "Holy Roman Empire" Paragraph 24

In 1190, Frederick Barbarossa participated in the Third Crusade and died in Asia Minor.

Under his son and successor, Henry VI, the Hohenstaufen dynasty reached its apex.

Henry added the Norman kingdom of Sicily to his domains, held English king Richard the Lionheart captive and aimed to establish a hereditary monarchy, when he died in 1197.

As his son, Frederick II, though already elected king, was still a small child and living in Sicily, German princes chose to elect an adult king, which resulted in the dual election of Frederick Barbarossa's youngest son Philip of Swabia and Henry the Lion's son Otto of Brunswick, who competed for the crown.

Otto prevailed for a while after Philip was murdered in a private squabble in 1208 until he began to also claim Sicily.

Pope Innocent III, who feared the threat posed by a union of the Empire and Sicily, now supported Sicily's king Frederick II, who marched to Germany and defeated Otto.

After his victory, Frederick did not act upon his promise to keep the two realms separate-though he had made his son Henry king of Sicily before marching on Germany, he still reserved real political power for himself.

This continued after Frederick was crowned Emperor in 1220.

Fearing Frederick's concentration of power, the Pope finally excommunicated the Emperor.

Another point was the crusade, which Frederick had promised but repeatedly postponed.

Now, though excommunicated, Frederick led the crusade in 1228, which however ended in negotiations and a temporary restoration of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The conflict with the Pope endured who later supported the election of an anti-king in Germany.