Misplaced Pages

#173826

76-735: The name Frederick William usually refers to several monarchs and princes of the Hohenzollern dynasty: Other nobility with the name Frederick William are: Other uses: Hohenzollern The Hohenzollern family split into two branches, the Catholic Swabian branch and the Protestant Franconian branch , which ruled the Burgraviate of Nuremberg and later became the Brandenburg-Prussian branch. The Swabian branch ruled

152-532: A bi-confessional state, with the ruling Hohenzollern house staying Calvinist . This situation persisted until Frederick William III of Prussia. Frederick William was determined to unify the Protestant churches to homogenize their liturgy, organization, and architecture. The long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches in the Prussian Union of churches . The merging of

228-753: A controversy arose about the succession. Duke Frederick II and Conrad , the two current male Staufers, by their mother Agnes, were grandsons of late Emperor Henry IV and nephews of Henry V. Frederick attempted to succeed to the throne of the Holy Roman Emperor (formally known as the King of the Romans ) through a customary election, but lost to the Saxon duke Lothair of Supplinburg . A civil war between Frederick's dynasty and Lothair's ended with Frederick's submission in 1134. After Lothair's death in 1137, Frederick's brother Conrad

304-454: A largely free class of officials previously formed, many of these assumed or acquired hereditary rights to administrative and legal offices. These trends compounded political fragmentation within Germany. The period was ended in 1273 with the election of Rudolph of Habsburg , a godson of Frederick. Conrad IV was succeeded as duke of Swabia by his only son, two-year-old Conradin . By this time,

380-851: A successful campaign against the Kingdom of Poland in order to re-install the Silesian dukes of the Piast dynasty. With the German colonization, the Empire increased in size and came to include the Duchy of Pomerania . A quickening economic life in Germany increased the number of towns and Imperial cities , and gave them greater importance. It was also during this period that castles and courts replaced monasteries as centers of culture. Growing out of this courtly culture, Middle High German literature reached its peak in lyrical love poetry,

456-425: A wholesale denuding of royal power and it did not prevent imperial officials from enforcing Frederick’s prerogatives. The Statutum affirmed a division of labor between the emperor and the princes and laid much groundwork for the development of particularism and, perhaps even federalism in Germany. Even so, from 1232 the vassals of the emperor had a veto over imperial legislative decisions and any new law established by

532-528: Is derived from the family's Hohenstaufen Castle on Hohenstaufen mountain at the northern fringes of the Swabian Jura , near the town of Göppingen . Under Hohenstaufen rule, the Holy Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent from 1155 to 1268. The name Hohenstaufen was first used in the 14th century to distinguish the 'high' ( hohen ) conical hill named Staufen in the Swabian Jura (in

608-480: Is shown clearly in the imperial Landfried issued at Mainz in 1235, which explicitly enjoined the princes as loyal vassals to exercise their own jurisdictions in their own localities. The jurisdictional autarky of the German princes was favoured by the crown itself in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the interests of order and local peace. The inevitable result was the territorial particularism of churchmen, lay princes, and interstitial cities. However, Frederick II

684-576: Is the current head of the formerly royal Prussian line, while Karl Friedrich, Prince of Hohenzollern , is the head of the formerly princely Swabian line. Zollern, from 1218 Hohenzollern, was a county of the Holy Roman Empire . Later its capital was Hechingen . The Hohenzollerns named their estates after Hohenzollern Castle in the Swabian Alps . The Hohenzollern Castle lies on an 855 meters high mountain called Hohenzollern . It still belongs to

760-403: Is unlikely that a particularly “strong ruler” such as Frederick II would have even pragmatically agreed to legislation that was concessionary rather than cooperative, neither would the princes have insisted on such. Frederick II used the political loyalty and practical jurisdictions of the German aristocracy to support his kingly duty of imposing peace, order, and justice upon the German realm. This

836-576: The Imperial City of Nuremberg . The territories of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Brandenburg-Kulmbach remained possessions of the family, once parts of the Burgraviate of Nuremberg. On 2 December 1791, Christian II Frederick sold the sovereignty of his principalities to King Frederick William II of Prussia . On 2 December 1791, Charles Alexander sold the sovereignty of his principalities to King Frederick William II of Prussia. The Duchy of Jägerndorf (Krnov)

SECTION 10

#1732848571174

912-469: The Kingdom of Sicily in 1189 and 1194 respectively, a source of vast wealth. Henry failed to make royal and Imperial succession hereditary, but in 1196 he succeeded in gaining a pledge that his infant son Frederick would receive the German crown. Faced with difficulties in Italy and confident that he would realize his wishes in Germany at a later date, Henry returned to the south, where it appeared he might unify

988-576: The Minnesang , and in narrative epic poems such as Tristan , Parzival , and the Nibelungenlied . Frederick died in 1190 while on the Third Crusade and was succeeded by his son, Henry VI . Elected king even before his father's death, Henry went to Rome to be crowned emperor. He married Princess Constance of Sicily , and deaths in his wife's family gave him claim of succession and possession of

1064-749: The Second Crusade at Speyer , and he agreed to join King Louis VII of France in a great expedition to the Holy Land which failed. Conrad's brother Duke Frederick II died in 1147, and was succeeded in Swabia by his son, Duke Frederick III . When King Conrad III died without adult heir in 1152, Frederick also succeeded him, taking both German royal and Imperial titles. Frederick I (Reign 2 January 1155 – 10 June 1190), known as Frederick Barbarossa because of his red beard, struggled throughout his reign to restore

1140-455: The Vistula River together with Malbork and Chełmno Land formed the province of West Prussia with its capital at Marienwerder (Kwidzyn) in 1773. The Polish Partition Sejm ratified the cession on 30 September 1772, whereafter Frederick officially went on to call himself King "of" Prussia . From 1772 onwards the titles of Duke of Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg were always attached to

1216-515: The suzerainty of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland . In Brandenburg and the other Hohenzollern domains within the borders of the empire, he was legally still an elector under the ultimate overlordship of the emperor. By this time, however, the emperor's authority had become purely nominal over the other German prices outside the immediate hereditary lands of the emperor. Brandenburg was still legally part of

1292-516: The toponymic surname de Stauf or variants thereof. Only in the 13th century would the name come to be applied to the family as a whole. Around 1215, a chronicler referred to the "emperors of Stauf". In 1247, the Emperor Frederick II himself referred to his family as the domus Stoffensis (Staufer house), but this was an isolated instance. Otto of Freising (d. 1158) associated the Staufer with

1368-632: The Calvinist rite. The vast majority of his subjects in Brandenburg, including his wife Anna of Prussia , remained deeply Lutheran, however. After the Elector and his Calvinist court officials drew up plans for mass conversion of the population to the new faith in February 1614, as provided for by the rule of Cuius regio, eius religio within the Holy Roman Empire , there were serious protests, with his wife backing

1444-567: The Child , grandson of the late Saxon duke Henry the Lion, was named Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg . The power struggle with the popes continued and resulted in Frederick's excommunication in 1227. In 1239, Pope Gregory IX excommunicated Frederick again, and in 1245 he was condemned as a heretic by a church council. Although Frederick II was perhaps one of the most energetic, imaginative, and capable rulers of

1520-711: The Great annexed neighboring Royal Prussia , i.e., the Polish voivodeships of Pomerania ( Gdańsk Pomerania or Pomerelia ), Malbork , Chełmno and the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia , thereby connecting his Prussian and Farther Pomeranian lands and cutting the rest of Poland from the Baltic coast. The territory of Warmia was incorporated into the lands of former Ducal Prussia, which, by administrative deed of 31 January 1772 were named East Prussia . The former Polish Pomerelian lands beyond

1596-602: The Hohenstaufen but he spent little time in Germany. His main concerns lay in Italy and the Kingdom of Sicily, where he ruled as an absolute monarch supported by a sophisticated administrative apparatus. The institutions of Sicily and Italy seemed to be better political laboratories, more conducive to Frederick’s remarkable brand of innovation and absolutist tendencies. He founded the University of Naples in 1224 to train future state officials and reigned over Germany primarily through

SECTION 20

#1732848571174

1672-659: The Holy Roman Emperor, theoretically the highest sovereign in the West. From 1701 onwards the titles of Duke of Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg were always attached to the title of King in Prussia. The Duke of Prussia adopted the title of king as Frederick I , establishing his status as a monarch whose royal territory lay outside the boundaries of the Holy Roman Empire, with the assent of Emperor Leopold I : Frederick could not be "King of Prussia" because part of Prussia's lands were under

1748-522: The House of Hohenzollern was founded by Conrad I, Burgrave of Nuremberg (1186–1261). The family supported the Hohenstaufen and Habsburg rulers of the Holy Roman Empire during the 12th to 15th centuries, being rewarded with several territorial grants. Beginning in the 16th century, this branch of the family became Protestant and decided on expansion through marriage and the purchase of surrounding lands. In

1824-794: The Kingdom of Sicily. The sophistication of the Constitutions or the Liber Augustalis set Frederick as perhaps the supreme lawgiver of the Middle Ages. The Constitutions drew upon decades of Siculo-Norman governmental tradition stretching back to his maternal grandfather, Roger II of Sicily . Almost every aspect in Frederick’s tightly-governed kingdom was regulated, from a rigorously centralized judiciary and bureaucracy, to commerce, coinage, financial policy, weights and measures, legal equality for all citizens, protections for women, and even provisions for

1900-490: The Lion of Saxony and Bavaria in 1180, but his hopes of restoring the power and prestige of the monarchy seemed unlikely to be met by the end of his life. During Frederick's long stays in Italy, the German princes became stronger and began a successful colonization of Slavic lands. Offers of reduced taxes and manorial duties enticed many Germans to settle in the east in the course of the Ostsiedlung . In 1163 Frederick waged

1976-685: The Lutheran and Calvinist (Reformed) confessions to form the United Church of Prussia was highly controversial. Angry responses included a large and well-organized opposition. The crown's aggressive efforts to restructure religion were unprecedented in Prussian history. In a series of proclamations over several years, the Church of the Prussian Union was formed, bringing together the majority group of Lutherans and

2052-505: The Lutherans. This was doubly important as Anna brought with her the duchy of Prussia into the Brandenburg line of the house and the nascent Brandenburg-Prussian state. Resistance was so strong that in 1615, John Sigismund backed down and relinquished all attempts at forcible conversion. Instead, he allowed his subjects to be either Lutheran or Calvinist according to the dictates of their own consciences. Henceforward, Brandenburg-Prussia would be

2128-455: The Margraviate of Brandenburg-Ansbach after 1398. From 1420, he became Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. From 1411 Frederick VI became governor of Brandenburg and later Elector and Margrave of Brandenburg as Frederick I. Upon his death on 21 September 1440, his territories were divided among his sons: In 1427 Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg sold Nuremberg Castle and his rights as burgrave to

2204-528: The Netherlands. The first ruling Hohenstaufen, Conrad III, like the last one, Conrad IV, was never crowned emperor. After a 20-year period (Great interregnum 1254–1273), the first Habsburg was elected king. Note: The following kings are already listed above as German Kings Note: Some of the following kings are already listed above as German Kings Note: Some of the following dukes are already listed above as German Kings The colors denotes

2280-435: The Romans in Germany. None of these claimants were able to achieve any position of authority much less the power and imperial grandeur of the Hohenstaufen. The German princes vied for individual advantage and managed to strip many powers away from the diminished monarchy. Rather than establish sovereign states however, many nobles tended to look after their families. Their many male heirs created more and smaller estates, and from

2356-551: The Staufer are known as the Svevi (Swabians). The origin remains unclear, however, Staufer counts are mentioned in a document of emperor Otto III in 987 as descendants of counts of the region of Riesgau near Nördlingen in the Duchy of Swabia , who were related to the Bavarian Sieghardinger family. A local count Frederick (d. about 1075) is mentioned as progenitor in a pedigree drawn up by Abbot Wibald of Stavelot at

Frederick William - Misplaced Pages Continue

2432-502: The Swabian Hohenstaufen dynasty, they were able to significantly enlarge their territory. Count Frederick III ( c.  1139  – c.  1200 ) accompanied Emperor Frederick Barbarossa against Henry the Lion in 1180, and through his marriage was granted the Burgraviate of Nuremberg by Emperor Henry VI in 1192. In about 1185, he married Sophia of Raabs , the daughter of Conrad II , Burgrave of Nuremberg. After

2508-460: The Welfs, but when Otto, now sole elected monarch, moved to appropriate Sicily, Innocent changed sides and accepted young Frederick II and his ally, King Philip II of France , who defeated Otto at the 1214 Battle of Bouvines . Frederick had returned to Germany in 1212 from Sicily, where he had grown up, and was elected king in 1215. When Otto died in 1218, Frederick became the undisputed ruler, and in 1220

2584-533: The allocation of royal prerogatives, leaving the sovereign authority and imperial estates to the ecclesiastical and secular princes. In 1232, Henry (VII), King of Germany and Frederick’s eldest son, was forced by the German princes to promulgate the Statutum in favorem principum ("statute in favor of princes"). Frederick II, embittered but aiming to promote cohesion in Germany in preparation for his campaigns in northern Italy, pragmatically agreed to Henry’s confirmation of

2660-458: The behest of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1153. He held the office of a Swabian count palatine ; his son Frederick of Büren ( c.  1020 –1053) married Hildegard of Egisheim - Dagsburg (d. 1094/95), a niece of Pope Leo IX . Their son Frederick I was appointed Duke of Swabia at Hohenstaufen Castle by the Salian king Henry IV of Germany in 1079. At the same time, Duke Frederick I

2736-648: The boy's uncle, Duke Philip of Swabia , brother of late Henry VI, was designated to serve in his place. Other factions however favoured a Welf candidate. In 1198, two rival kings were chosen: the Hohenstaufen Philip of Swabia and the son of the deprived Duke Henry the Lion , the Welf Otto IV . A long civil war began; Philip was about to win when he was murdered by the Bavarian count palatine Otto VIII of Wittelsbach in 1208. Pope Innocent III initially had supported

2812-460: The chain of events that led to World War I . As a result of the war, the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires ceased to exist. In 1918, the German empire was abolished and replaced by the Weimar Republic . After the outbreak of the German revolution in 1918, both Emperor William II and Crown Prince William signed the document of abdication. The official religion of the state

2888-441: The charter. It was a charter of liberties for the leading German princes at the expense of the lesser nobility and the entirety of the commoners. The princes gained whole power of jurisdiction, and the power to strike their own coins. The emperor lost his right to establish new cities, castles and mints over their territories. The Statutum was more a confirmation of political realities which had existed for generations in Germany than

2964-545: The death of Conrad II who left no male heirs, Frederick III was granted Nuremberg as Burgrave Frederick I. In 1218, the burgraviate passed to Frederick's elder son Conrad I , he thereby became the ancestor of the Franconian Hohenzollern branch, which acquired the Electorate of Brandenburg in 1415. After Frederick's death, his sons partitioned the family lands between themselves: The senior Franconian branch of

3040-552: The district of Göppingen ) from the village of the same name in the valley below. The new name was applied to the hill castle of Staufen by historians only in the 19th century to distinguish it from other castles of the same name. The name of the dynasty followed suit, but in recent decades, the trend in German historiography has been to prefer the name 'Staufer', which is closer to contemporary usage. The name 'Staufen' itself derives from Stauf ( OHG stouf , akin to Early Modern English stoup ), meaning ' chalice '. This term

3116-408: The emperor had to be approved by the princes. These provisions not withstanding, royal power in Germany remained strong under Frederick. By the 1240s the crown was almost as rich in fiscal resources, towns, castles, enfeoffed retinues, monasteries, ecclesiastical advocacies, manors, tolls, and all other rights, revenues, and jurisdictions as it had ever been at any time since the death of Henry VI. It

Frederick William - Misplaced Pages Continue

3192-449: The empire and ruled in personal union with Prussia, though the two states came to be treated as one de facto. The king was officially Margrave of Brandenburg within the Empire until the Empire's dissolution in 1806. In the age of absolutism , most monarchs were obsessed with the desire to emulate Louis XIV of France with his luxurious palace at Versailles . In 1772, the Duchy of Prussia

3268-517: The entire Middle Ages, he seemed to be less concerned with drawing the disparate forces in Germany together. Frederick was pragmatic enough to realize that for all his ability and power, his time and focus could only be fully concentrated either north or south of the Alps, where the bulk of his resources lay. Frederick II’s most profound legal legacy remains the Constitutions of Melfi promulgated in 1231 in

3344-510: The environment and public health. Per the Constitutions, Frederick II was lex animata and ruled as an absolute monarch. The Constitutions have been regarded as perhaps the “birth certificate” of the modern continental European state. From 1240, Frederick II was determined to push through far-reaching reforms to establish the Sicilian kingdom and Imperial Italy as a unified state bound by a centralized administration. The new unified administration

3420-578: The family today. The dynasty was first mentioned in 1061. According to the medieval chronicler Berthold of Reichenau , Burkhard I, Count of Zollern ( de Zolorin ) was born before 1025 and died in 1061. In 1095, Count Adalbert of Zollern founded the Benedictine monastery of Alpirsbach , situated in the Black Forest . The Zollerns received the Graf title from Emperor Henry V in 1111. As loyal vassals of

3496-505: The first Duke of Prussia. He belonged to the Ansbach branch of the dynasty. The Duchy of Prussia adopted Protestantism as the official state religion . From 1701, the title of Duke of Prussia was attached to the title of King in and of Prussia. In 1701, the title of King in Prussia was granted, without the Duchy of Prussia being elevated to a Kingdom within Poland but recognized as a kingdom by

3572-539: The first phase, the family gradually added to their lands, at first with many small acquisitions in the Franconian region of Germany : In the second phase, the family expanded their lands further with large acquisitions in the Brandenburg and Prussian regions of Germany and present-day Poland: These acquisitions eventually transformed the Franconian Hohenzollerns from a minor German princely family into one of

3648-401: The late Staufer period, the population had grown from an estimated 8 million in 1200 to about 14 million in 1300, and the number of towns increased tenfold. The most heavily urbanized areas of Germany were in the south and the west. Towns often developed a degree of independence, but many were subordinate to local rulers if not immediate to the emperor. Colonization of the east also continued in

3724-452: The minority group of Reformed Protestants. The main effect was that the government of Prussia had full control over church affairs, with the king himself recognized as the leading bishop. House of Hohenstaufen The Hohenstaufen dynasty ( / ˈ h oʊ ə n ʃ t aʊ f ən / , US also /- s t aʊ -/ , German: [ˌhoːənˈʃtaʊfn̩] ), also known as the Staufer ,

3800-565: The most important dynasties in Europe. From 8 January 1701 the title of Elector of Brandenburg was attached to the title of King in Prussia and, from 13 September 1772, to that of King of Prussia. At Frederick V's death on 21 January 1398, his lands were partitioned between his two sons: After John III/I 's death on 11 June 1420, the margraviates of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Brandenburg-Kulmbach were briefly reunited under Frederick VI/I/I . He ruled

3876-467: The office of duke of Swabia had been fully subsumed into the office of the king, and without royal authority had become meaningless. In 1261, attempts to elect young Conradin king were unsuccessful. He also had to defend Sicily against an invasion, sponsored by Pope Urban IV (Jacques Pantaléon) and Pope Clement IV (Guy Folques), by Charles of Anjou , a brother of the French king. Charles had been promised by

SECTION 50

#1732848571174

3952-485: The peninsula under the Hohenstaufen name. After a series of military victories, however, he fell ill and died of natural causes in Sicily in 1197. His underage son Frederick could only succeed him in Sicily and Malta, while in the Empire the struggle between the House of Staufen and the House of Welf erupted once again. Because the election of a three-year-old boy to be German king appeared likely to make orderly rule difficult,

4028-548: The peninsula yielded scant results. The Papacy and the prosperous city-states of the Lombard League in northern Italy were traditional enemies, but the fear of Imperial domination caused them to join ranks to fight Frederick. Under the skilled leadership of Pope Alexander III , the alliance suffered many defeats but ultimately was able to deny the emperor a complete victory in Italy. Frederick returned to Germany. He had vanquished one notable opponent, his Welf cousin, Duke Henry

4104-453: The popes the Kingdom of Sicily, where he would replace the relatives of Frederick II. Charles had defeated Conradin's uncle Manfred, King of Sicily , in the Battle of Benevento on 26 February 1266. The king himself, refusing to flee, rushed into the midst of his enemies and was killed. Conradin's campaign to retake control ended with his defeat in 1268 at the Battle of Tagliacozzo , after which he

4180-480: The power and prestige of the German monarchy against the dukes, whose power had grown both before and after the Investiture Controversy under his Salian predecessors. As royal access to the resources of the church in Germany was much reduced, Frederick was forced to go to Italy to find the finances needed to restore the king's power in Germany. He was soon crowned emperor in Italy, but decades of warfare on

4256-411: The principalities of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen until 1849, and also ruled Romania from 1866 to 1947. Members of the Franconian branch became Margrave of Brandenburg in 1415 and Duke of Prussia in 1525. The Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia were ruled in personal union after 1618 and were called Brandenburg-Prussia. From there, the Kingdom of Prussia

4332-488: The prototype for the great signori who dominated Italy in later generations, each a petty sovereign in Frederick’s image—some even continued to claim the title of imperial vicar. By the time of Frederick's death in 1250, the crown in Germany was still formidable and Conrad IV , Frederick’s eldest surviving legitimate son and heir, enjoyed a strong position. However after Conrad’s death in 1254, The Great Interregnum followed which saw several rival claimants elected as King of

4408-547: The thirteenth century, most notably through the efforts of the Teutonic Knights. German merchants also began trading extensively on the Baltic . The Kyffhäuser Monument was erected to commemorate Frederick I, and was inaugurated in 1896. On October 29, 1968, the 700th anniversary of the death of Konradin, a society known as "Society for Staufer History" ( de ) was founded in Göppingen . The Castel del Monte, Apulia which

4484-402: The title King of Prussia. In 1871, the Kingdom of Prussia became a constituent member of the German Empire , and the King of Prussia gained the additional title of German Emperor . Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt Auguste von Harrach Hermine Reuss of Greiz In 1871, the German Empire was proclaimed. With the accession of William I to the newly established imperial German throne,

4560-516: The titles of King of Prussia, Duke of Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg were always attached to the title of German Emperor . Prussia's Minister President Otto von Bismarck convinced William that German Emperor instead of Emperor of Germany would be appropriate. He became primus inter pares among other German sovereigns. William II intended to develop a German navy capable of challenging Britain's Royal Navy . The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914 set off

4636-454: The town of Waiblingen , and around 1230, Burchard of Ursberg referred to the Staufer as of the "royal lineage of the Waiblingens" ( regia stirps Waiblingensium ). The exact connection between the family and Waiblingen is not clear, but as a name for the family, it became very popular. The pro-imperial Ghibelline faction of the Italian civic rivalries of the 13th and 14th centuries derived its name from Waiblingen. In Italian historiography,

SECTION 60

#1732848571174

4712-416: Was "bi-confessional". John Sigismund's most significant action was his conversion from Lutheranism to Calvinism , after he had earlier equalized the rights of Catholics and Protestants in the Duchy of Prussia under pressure from the King of Poland. He was probably won over to Calvinism during a visit to Heidelberg in 1606, but it was not until 25 December 1613 that he publicly took communion according to

4788-409: Was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynasty's most prominent rulers – Frederick I (1155), Henry VI (1191) and Frederick II (1220) – ascended the imperial throne and also reigned over Italy and Burgundy . The non-contemporary name of 'Hohenstaufen'

4864-420: Was a ruler of vast territories and “could not be everywhere at once”. The transference of jurisdiction was a practical solution to secure the further support of the German princes. By the 1226 Golden Bull of Rimini , Frederick had assigned the military order of the Teutonic Knights to complete the conquest and conversion of the Prussian lands. A reconciliation with the Welfs took place in 1235, whereby Otto

4940-425: Was built during the 1240s by the Emperor Frederick II was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1996. The German artist, Hans Kloss , painted his Staufer-Rundbild depicting in great detail the history of the House of Hohenstaufen, in Lorch Monastery . From 2000 to 2018, the Committee of Staufer Friends ( de ) has built thirty-eight Staufer steles ( de ) in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic and

5016-423: Was commonly applied to conical hills in Swabia during the Middle Ages. It is a contemporary term for both the hill and the castle, although its spelling in the Latin documents of the time varies considerably: Sthouf, Stophe, Stophen, Stoyphe, Estufin , etc. The castle was built or at least acquired by Duke Frederick I of Swabia in the latter half of the 11th century. Members of the family occasionally used

5092-448: Was created in 1701, eventually leading to the unification of Germany and the creation of the German Empire in 1871, with the Hohenzollerns as hereditary German Emperors and Kings of Prussia. Germany's defeat in World War I in 1918 led to the German Revolution . The Hohenzollerns were overthrown and the Weimar Republic was established, thus bringing an end to the German and Prussian monarchy . Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia ,

5168-426: Was crowned Holy Roman Emperor . Philip changed the coat of arms from a black lion on a gold shield to three leopards, probably derived from the arms of his Welf rival Otto IV . The conflict between the Staufer dynasty and the Welf had irrevocably weakened the Imperial authority and the Norman kingdom of Sicily became the base for Staufer rule. Emperor Frederick II was the most brilliant and extraordinary of

5244-443: Was elected King as Conrad III. Because the Welf duke Henry the Proud , son-in-law and heir of Lothair and the most powerful prince in Germany, who had been passed over in the election, refused to acknowledge the new king, Conrad III deprived him of all his territories, giving the Duchy of Saxony to Albert the Bear and that of Bavaria to Leopold IV, Margrave of Austria . In 1147, Conrad heard Bernard of Clairvaux preach

5320-416: Was elevated to a kingdom. Sophia Charlotte of Hanover Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Frederick William 's successor, Frederick the Great gained Silesia in the Silesian Wars so that Prussia emerged as a great power . The king was strongly influenced by French culture and civilization and preferred the French language. In the 1772 First Partition of Poland , the Prussian king Frederick

5396-434: Was engaged to the king's approximately seventeen-year-old daughter, Agnes . Nothing is known about Frederick's life before this event, but he proved to be an imperial ally throughout Henry's struggles against other Swabian lords, namely Rudolf of Rheinfelden , Frederick's predecessor, and the Zähringen and Welf lords. Frederick's brother Otto was elevated to the Strasbourg bishopric in 1082. Upon Frederick's death, he

5472-466: Was handed over to Charles, who had him publicly executed at Naples . With Conradin, the direct line of the Dukes of Swabia finally ceased to exist, though most of the later emperors were descended from the Staufer dynasty indirectly. The last member of the dynasty was Manfred's son, Henry [Enrico], who died in captivity at Castel dell'Ovo on 31 October 1318. During the political decentralization of

5548-828: Was purchased in 1523. The duchy of Jägerndorf was confiscated by Emperor Ferdinand III in 1622. In 1411, Frederick VI , Burgrave of the small but wealthy Nuremberg, was appointed governor of Brandenburg in order to restore order and stability. At the Council of Constance in 1415, King Sigismund elevated Frederick to the rank of Elector and Margrave of Brandenburg as Frederick I. In 1417, Elector Frederick purchased Brandenburg from its then-sovereign, Emperor Sigismund, for 400,000 Hungarian guilders. Anna of Saxony Hedwig of Poland Sabina of Brandenburg-Ansbach Elisabeth of Anhalt-Zerbst Eleanor of Prussia personal union with Prussia after 1618 called Brandenburg-Prussia . The short-lived Margraviate of Brandenburg-Küstrin

5624-522: Was set up as a secundogeniture of the House of Hohenzollern. Although recognized as a branch of the dynasty since 1688, the Margraviate of Brandenburg-Schwedt remained subordinate to the electors, and was never an independent principality. In 1525, the Duchy of Prussia was established as a fief of the King of Poland . Albert of Prussia was the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and

5700-502: Was succeeded by his son, Duke Frederick II , in 1105. Frederick II remained a close ally of the Salians, he and his younger brother Conrad were named the king's representatives in Germany when the king was in Italy. Around 1120, Frederick II married Judith of Bavaria from the rival House of Welf . When the last male member of the Salian dynasty, Emperor Henry V , died without heirs in 1125,

5776-470: Was taken over directly by the emperor and his highly trained Sicilian officials whose jurisdiction now ranged across all of Italy. For the rest of Frederick’s reign, there was a continuous movement toward the extension and perfection of this new unified administrative system, with the emperor himself as the driving force. Despite his mighty efforts however, Frederick’s unified Italian state proved ephemeral after his death. The vicars and captains-general provided

#173826