Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry VI | |
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King of Sicily (jure uxoris) | |
Reign | 25 December 1194 – 28 September 1197 |
Coronation | 25 December 1194, Palermo |
Predecessor | William III |
Successor | Constance |
Co-ruler | Constance |
Born | November 1165 Nimwegen, Holy Roman Empire |
Died | Messina, Kingdom of Sicily | 28 September 1197 (aged 31)
Burial | |
Spouse | |
Issue | Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor |
House | Hohenstaufen |
Father | Frederick Barbarossa |
Mother | Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy |
Henry VI (
Henry was the second son of Emperor
Henry threatened to invade the
Biography
Early life
Henry was born in autumn 1165 at the Valkhof pfalz of Nijmegen to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy. At the age of four his father had him elected King of the Romans during a Hoftag in Bamberg at Pentecost 1169. Henry was crowned on 15 August at Aachen Cathedral.[4][5]
Henry accompanied his father on his
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Arms of the House of Hohenstaufen
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Arms of the House of Hohenstaufen as Holy Roman Emperor
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Attributed coat of arms of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor (Codex Manesse)
Emperor's son
Having returned to
In the Hohenstaufen conflict with Pope Urban III, Henry moved to the March of Tuscany, and with the aid of his deputy Markward von Annweiler devastated the adjacent territory of the Papal States. Back in Germany, he became sovereign ruler of the Empire, as his father had died while on the Third Crusade in 1190. Henry tried to secure his rule in the Low Countries by elevating Count Baldwin V of Hainaut to a margrave of Namur, and at the same time he tried to reach a settlement with rivalling Duke Henry of Brabant. Further difficulties arose when the exiled Welf duke Henry the Lion returned from England and began to subdue large estates in his former Duchy of Saxony. A Hohenstaufen campaign to Saxony had to be abandoned when King Henry received the message of the death of King William II of Sicily on 18 November 1189. The Sicilian vice-chancellor Matthew of Ajello pursued the succession of Count Tancred of Lecce and gained the support of the Roman Curia.
To assert his own rights in the inheritance dispute, Henry initially supported Tancred's rival Count Roger of Andria and made arrangements for a campaign to Italy. The next year he concluded a peace agreement with Henry the Lion at Fulda and moved farther southwards to Augsburg, where he learned that his father had died on crusade attempting to cross the Saleph River near Seleucia in the Kingdom of Cilicia (now part of Turkey) on 10 June 1190.[8]
Imperial coronation
While he sent an Imperial army to Italy, Henry initially stayed in Germany to settle the succession of Louis III, Landgrave of Thuringia, who had also died on the Third Crusade. He had planned to seize the Thuringian landgraviate as a reverted fief, but Louis' brother Hermann was able to reach his enfeoffment. The next year, the king followed his army across the Alps. In Lodi he negotiated with Eleanor of Aquitaine, widow of King Henry II of England, to break the engagement of her son King Richard with Alys, a daughter of late King Louis VII of France. He hoped to deteriorate English-French relations and to isolate Richard, who had offended him by backing Count Tancred in Sicily. Eleanor acted cleverly; she reached Henry's assurance that he would not interfere in her son's conflict with King Philip II of France, and she would also prevent the marriage of Henry's younger brother Conrad with Berengaria of Castile to confine the Hohenstaufen claims to power.
Henry entered into further negotiations with the Lombard League cities and with Pope Celestine III on his Imperial coronation, and ceded Tusculum to the Pope. At Easter Monday on 15 April 1191, in Rome, Henry and his consort Constance were crowned Emperor and Empress by Celestine. The crown of Sicily, however, was harder to gain, as the Sicilian nobility had chosen Count Tancred of Lecce as their king. Henry began his work campaigning in Apulia and besieging Naples, but he encountered resistance when Tancred's vassal Margaritus of Brindisi came to the city's defence, harassed Henry's Pisan navy, and nearly destroyed the later arriving Genoese contingent. Moreover, the Imperial army had been heavily hit by an epidemic, and Henry ultimately had to abandon the siege. Upon his retreat, those cities that had surrendered to Henry resubmitted to Tancred. As a result, Constance, who was left in the palace of Salerno as a sign that Henry would soon return, was betrayed and handed over to Tancred.[8]
Henry had to return to Germany when he learned that Henry the Lion had again incited a conflict with the Saxon
Meanwhile, despite the fact that his wife had been captured by Sicilians, Henry refused Celestine III's offers to make peace with Tancred. While Tancred would not permit Constance to be ransomed unless Henry recognized him, Henry complained of her capture to Celestine. In June 1192 Constance was released on the intervention of Pope Celestine III, who in return recognized Tancred as King of Sicily. Constance was to be sent to Rome for Celestine III to put pressure on Henry, but German soldiers managed to set up an ambush on the border of Papal States and freed Constance.
On the other hand, the emperor was able to strengthen his power base in the
Emperor Henry already was concerned with the deposition of the Welf supporter Archbishop
Capture of Richard the Lionheart
At this stage, Henry had a stroke of good fortune when the
Backed by his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, who successfully defended his interests against his rival brother John, Count of Mortain and his ally King Philip of France, King Richard procured his release in exchange for the huge ransom, a further interest payment, and his oath of allegiance to Henry. In turn the emperor under threat of military violence demanded the restitution of the French lands, which John had seized upon approval by Philip during Richard's absence. Henry not only gained another vassal and ally, he could also assume the role of a mediator between England and France. He and Richard ceremoniously reconciled at the Hoftag in Speyer during Holy Week 1194: the English king publicly regretted any hostilities, genuflected, and cast himself on the emperor's mercy. He was released and returned to England.[12]
At the same time, Henry settled the longstanding conflict with the Welf dynasty when he secured the marriage of Agnes of Hohenstaufen, daughter of his half-uncle Count Palatine Conrad, to Henry the Lion's son Henry of Brunswick, followed by a peace agreement in March 1194.
Henry VI's conquest of Sicily
Meanwhile, the situation in Southern Italy had grown worse: After Henry's defeat at Naples, Tancred's brother-in-law Count
The young William and his mother Sibylla had fled to
In March 1195 Henry held a Hoftag in Bari and appointed his wife Constance Sicilian queen regnant, though with Henry's loyal vassal Conrad of Urslingen, elevated to a hereditary duke of Spoleto, as Imperial vicar to secure the emperor's position in Southern Italy. He placed further ministeriales in the Sicilian administration, like the Troia bishop Walter of Palearia who became chancellor. His loyal henchman Markward von Annweiler was appointed a duke of Ravenna, placing him in a highly strategic position to control the route to Sicily via the Italian Romagna region and the Apennines. Henry's younger brother Philip of Swabia was vested with the large estates of late margravine Matilda in Tuscany. The emperor also felt strong enough to send home the Pisan and Genoese ships without giving their governments the promised concessions.[13]
Universal ruler
The Sicilian kingdom added to Henry's personal and Imperial revenues an income without parallel in Europe. However, his aims to integrate Sicily into the Empire as a second power base of the Hohenstaufen dynasty were not realised during his lifetime. The negotiations with Pope Celestine III to approve the unification (unio regni ad imperium) in return of another crusade reached a deadlock. On the other hand, his beliefs of a universal rule according to the translatio imperii concept collided with the existence of the Byzantine Empire, reflected in Henry's expansionist policies by the imposition of suzerainty over King Leo I of Armenia and King Aimery of Cyprus.
In 1195 Henry's envoys in
When an armistice between Pisa and the Republic of Venice ended, the Pisans attacked Venetian ships in Marmora and carried out raids against theỉr premises in Constantinople. The matters escalated and the two sides went to war. The Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos was thought to be behind Pisan attacks. In 1197, Henry imposed a truce on them.[15][16] Previously, Pisa and Genoa had supported Henry's invasion of Italy while Venice chose to be neutral. But Henry granted Venice various rights in 1195 and 1197 while prevaricating over the more extensive privileges Pisa and Genoa claimed.[17][18][19] Henry's planned expansion against Thessaloniki and Constantinople, if it had happened, would have isolated Venice in its own gulf, and Venice was worrying that Alexios would rather submit to Henry than settle disgreements with Venice. Henry's death relieved both Venice and Constantinople of their worries. On the news of Henry's death, the Byzantine "German tax" was abolished.[20][21]
When Henry died, he was the most powerful monarch in Christendom, being Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany, Burgundy, Italy, Sicily, feudal overlord of the Kings of England, Lesser Armenia and Cyprus, and tributary lord of Northern African princes.[22]
Hereditary monarchy
In summer 1195 Henry returned to Germany, in order to call for support to launch his crusade and to arrange his succession in the case of his death. However, he first again had to deal with the quarrels in the Wettin Margraviate of Meissen upon the death of Margrave Albert I. As Albert had tried to gain control over the adjacent Pleissnerland, an Imperial Hohenstaufen territory, Henry took the occasion to deny the inheritance claims of the margrave's younger brother Theodoric and seized the Meissen territory for himself. In October he reconciled with Archbishop Hartwig of Bremen at Gelnhausen and was able to obtain the support of numerous Saxon and Thuringian nobles for his crusade which was scheduled to begin on Christmas 1196.
His next aim was to make the imperial crown
While in July 1196 Henry proceeded to Burgundy and Italy in order to negotiate with Pope Celestine III, the resistance in Germany grew. At the following diet at Erfurt in October, a majority of the princes rejected the emperor's plans. Furthermore, the Pope, still concerned in view of the Hohenstaufen rule over Sicily, broke off the talks. Nevertheless, on Christmas Henry's son Frederick II was elected King of the Romans in Frankfurt.
Death
At the same time, the emperor stayed in Capua, where he had Count Richard of Acerra, held in custody by his ministerialis Dipold von Schweinspeunt, cruelly executed. He entered Sicily in March 1197 and applied himself to prepare his crusade in Messina.
Soon after, the transition to Hohenstaufen's rule in Italy spurred revolts, especially around
Henry's minor son Frederick II was to inherit both the Kingdom of Sicily and the Imperial crown. However, a number of princes around Archbishop Adolf of Cologne elected the Welf Otto of Brunswick, son of Henry the Lion, anti-king. To defend the claims of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, Frederick's uncle Philip of Swabia had himself elected King of the Romans in March 1198. The German throne quarrel lasted nearly twenty years, until Frederick was again elected king in 1212 and Otto, defeated by the French in the 1214 Battle of Bouvines and abandoned by his former allies, finally died in 1218.[8]
Reception
During his rule in Germany, Henry moved from one Kaiserpfalz residence to another or—to a lesser extent—stayed at Prince-bishop's sees in the tradition of the medieval itinerant kingship. He concentrated on the Franconian core locations of his kingdom, while the Bavarian and Saxon lands were less subject to the central authority. His travel routes through Germany as well as his campaigns in Italy are documented by numerous deeds he issued year by year.
The emperor strongly relied on high-ranking clergy like the archbishops
While being overshadowed by the legendary figures of his father and son, the two Fredericks, Henry is generally considered to be a talented leader and his reign is also considered to be remarkable. Koenigsberger calls him an "immensely able politician", who was able to break the alliance of Western kings, who combined their forces against his great power. But the empire, depending much on the person of the ruler, like other medieaval empires, collapsed when he died.[28][29]
Later historians stressed the fact of Henry's early death and the succeeding throne quarrel as a stroke of fate and a major setback for the development of a German nation state begun under his father Frederick Barbarossa. On the other hand, the emperor's stern measures in Sicily earned him the reputation of a cruel and merciless ruler. Present-day historical research classifies Henry as a man of his time; though a capable ruler he had to cope with the centrifugal forces while at the same time he overstretched the Hohenstaufen realm to an extent that finally could not be kept together.
See also
References
- ISBN 978-1-136-77519-2.
- ISBN 978-88-6959-944-6. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
- ISBN 978-88-227-7091-2. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
- ^ Peter H. Wilson, Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire, (Harvard University Press, 2016), p. 307.
- ^ John B. Freed, Frederick Barbarossa: The Prince and the Myth, (Yale University Press, 2016), p. 351.
- ^ Godfrey of Viterbo: Historical Writing and Imperial Legitimacy at the Early Hohenstaufen Court, Kai Hering, Godfrey of Viterbo and His Readers: Imperial Tradition and Universal History in Late Medieval Europe, ed. Thomas Foerster, (Ashgate Publishing, 2015), p. 59.
- ^ The Marriage of Henry VI and Constance of Sicily: Prelude and Consequences, Walter Frohlich, Anglo~Norman Studies: XV. Proceedings of the Battle Conference, ed. Marjorie Chibnall, (The Boydell Press, 1993), p. 109.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-521-31980-5.
- JSTOR 43553967. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
- ISBN 978-2-7535-9414-2. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
- ^ "On this day in history – Richard the Lionheart was captured by Leopold V of Austria". History Scotland. 20 December 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-435-32760-6.
- ISBN 978-0-521-26911-7.
- ^ Charles M. Brand (1968). Byzantium confronts the West, 1180–1204. History Scotland. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-521-42894-1. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-8018-9184-7. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-8018-9184-7. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
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- ISBN 978-1-5095-5253-5. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
- ^ Nicol 1992, p. 118.
- ISBN 978-3-486-70255-2. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
- ^ Alfred Haverkamp. "Hochmittelalter" (PDF). UPI. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
- ISBN 978-3-929776-16-4. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
- ^ In 1197, although "the well-prepared crusade of Emperor Henry VI aimed at winning the Holy Land, it also aimed at attaining the ancient goal of Norm[an] policy in the E[ast]: the conquest of the Byz[antine] Empire." See Werner Hilgemann and Hermann Kinder, The Anchor Atlas of World History, Volume I: From the Stone Age to the Eve of the French Revolution, trans. Ernest A. Menze (New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1974), 153; "Henry pressed territorial and political claims against Constantinople, demanding territories the Normans had held in 1185 and using a remote family connection to pose as the avenger of the deposed emperor Isaac II. … even Pope Innocent III was frightened by the German emperor's claims of world domination. As events turned out, however, Henry died suddenly in 1197 before he could carry out his plans for eastward expansion." See Timothy E. Gregory, A History of Byzantium (Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 273.
- ISBN 978-3-406-50958-2. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
- ^ British Museum Collection
- ^ Pavlac 2013, p. 323.
- ISBN 978-1-317-87089-0. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
Sources
- Alberic of Troisfontaines, Chronicon
- David Abulafia, Frederick II