Misplaced Pages

Diet of Roncaglia

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

The Diet of Roncaglia , held near Piacenza , was an Imperial Diet , a general assembly of the nobles and ecclesiasts of the Holy Roman Empire and representatives of Northern Italian cities held in 1154 and in 1158 by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to deliberate on the matter of sovereignty of his subjects, which was being challenged by the economical and political flourishing of the northern Italian cities and free comunes , including the cities of Chieri, Asti, Tortona, but most importantly Milan.

#694305

129-455: It followed a series of raids carried out by the forces of Frederick Barbarossa in Italy , which forced the submission of the leading city of Milan . The Emperor wished to establish his rights as feudal sovereign in the face of the growing independence of trading cities, which had won charters of municipal privilege during the earlier periods of strife between Papacy and Empire. The determination of

258-626: A Byzantine legal tradition, but there the Corpus was superseded by the Ecloga and Basilika . Only the Corpus' s provisions regulating the church still had any effect, but the Catholic church's de facto autonomy and the Great Schism made even that irrelevant. In Western Europe, the Corpus may have spurred a slew of Romano-Germanic law codes in the successor Germanic kingdoms, but these were heavily based on

387-797: A Jew. On 29 March, Frederick and the rabbi rode through the streets together. Frederick successfully prevented a repeat of the massacres that had accompanied the First Crusade and Second Crusade in Germany. Because Frederick had signed a treaty of friendship with Saladin in 1175, he felt it necessary to give Saladin notice of the termination of their alliance. On 26 May 1188, he sent Count Henry II of Dietz to present an ultimatum to Saladin. A few days after Christmas 1188, Frederick received Hungarian, Byzantine, Serbian and Seljuk envoys in Nuremberg . The Hungarians and Seljuks promised provisions and safe-conduct to

516-709: A boy out to see if the ravens have stopped flying. A similar story, set in Sicily, was earlier attested about his grandson, Frederick II . To garner political support the German Empire built atop the Kyffhäuser the Kyffhäuser Monument , which declared Kaiser Wilhelm I the reincarnation of Frederick; the 1896 dedication occurred on 18 June, the day of Frederick's coronation. Corpus Juris Civilis The Corpus Juris (or Iuris ) Civilis ("Body of Civil Law")

645-520: A crusade. Perhaps in preparation for the crusade, Frederick married Adelaide of Vohburg sometime before March 1147. His father died on 4 or 6 April and Frederick succeeded him as the Duke of Swabia. The German crusader army departed from Regensburg seven weeks later. In August 1147, while crossing the Byzantine Empire , an ill crusader stopped in a monastery outside Adrianople to recuperate. There he

774-480: A day's negotiation, Frederick agreed to perform the required ritual, reportedly muttering, " Pro Petro, non Adriano – For Peter, not for Adrian." Rome was still in an uproar over the fate of Arnold of Brescia, so rather than marching through the streets of Rome, Frederick and Adrian retired to the Vatican . The next day, 18 June 1155, Adrian IV crowned Frederick I Holy Roman Emperor at St Peter's Basilica , amidst

903-517: A framework to legitimize his claim to the right to rule both Germany and northern Italy. In the old days of Henry IV and Henry V, the claim of divine right of kings had been severely undermined by the Investiture controversy . The Church had won that argument in the common man's mind. There was no divine right for the German king to also control the church by naming both bishops and popes. The institution of

1032-623: A generalized social desire to "create greater Germany" by conquering the Slavs to the east. Although the Italian city states had achieved a measure of independence from Frederick as a result of his failed fifth expedition into Italy, the emperor had not given up on his Italian dominions. In 1184, he held a massive celebration, the Diet of Pentecost , when his two eldest sons were knighted, and thousands of knights were invited from all over Germany. While payments upon

1161-726: A guarantee that the crusaders would not sack local settlements until they depart the Byzantine territory. In March 1190, Frederick left Adrianople for Gallipoli at the Dardanelles , to embark to Asia Minor. The armies coming from western Europe pushed on through Anatolia, where they were victorious at the Battle of Philomelium and defeated the Turks in the Battle of Iconium , eventually reaching as far as Cilician Armenia . The approach of Barbarossa's victorious German army greatly concerned Saladin , who

1290-701: A hill a ways away from the main army. The remains of the army reached Constantinople the following day. Conrad III attempted to lead the army across Anatolia but finding this too difficult in the face of constant Turkish attacks near Dorylaeum, decided to turn back. The rearguard was subsequently annihilated. Conrad sent Frederick ahead to inform King Louis VII of France of the disaster and ask for help. The two armies, French and German, then advanced together. When Conrad fell ill around Christmas in Ephesus , he returned to Constantinople by ship with his personal retinue, which included Frederick. With Byzantine ships and money,

1419-561: A historian of the Crusades, outlined Frederick's endeavors and Saladin's dilemma, in which he reported: While these were the varied fortunes of the first in the field, Frederick, the Roman emperor, set out on his journey by land with great power and a countless host of warriors. Passing over the borders of Germany, he crossed Hungary, Macedonia, and Greece and marched through the land of the Saracens with

SECTION 10

#1732870109695

1548-522: A joint council with King Louis VII of France in 1162 to decide the issue of who should be pope. Louis neared the meeting site, but when he became aware that Frederick had stacked the votes for Victor, Louis decided not to attend the council. As a result, the issue was not resolved at that time. The political result of the struggle with Pope Alexander was an alliance formed between the Norman state of Sicily and Pope Alexander III against Frederick. In

1677-602: A manual for jurists in training from 21 November 533 and were given the authority of law on 30 December 533 along with the Digest . The Novellae consisted of new laws that were passed after 534. They were later re-worked into the Syntagma , a practical lawyer's edition, by Athanasios of Emesa during the years 572–577. As the administrative language of the Eastern Roman Empire shifted away from Latin, legal codes based on

1806-505: A marked turning point in the transition from medieval feudalism. While continental feudalism had remained strong socially and economically, it was in deep political decline by the time of Frederick Barbarossa. When the northern Italian cities inflicted a defeat on Frederick at Alessandria in 1175, the European world was shocked. With the refusal of Henry the Lion to bring help to Italy, the campaign

1935-488: A mere five days and ended in failure. Gilbert of Mons , writing fifty years later, recorded that Frederick "prevailed in arms before all others in front of Damascus". On 8 September, the German army sailed out of Acre. On the route home, Conrad III and Frederick stopped in Thessaloniki where they swore oaths to uphold the treaty that Conrad had agreed with Emperor Manuel I Komnenos the previous winter. This treaty obligated

2064-513: A mighty hand and a stretched-out arm. He took Iconium, Philomena, and many other cities, and reached Armenia, where, during great heat, he went into the river, which the natives call the Iron River, to bathe, and therein for our sins was miserably drowned, and so died to the loss of all Christendom. Saladin so greatly feared his approach that he ordered the walls of Laodicia , Gibelet , Tortosa , Biblium and Beyrout , to be pulled down, sparing only

2193-519: A new Roman emperor. Roman law gave a rational purpose for the existence of Frederick and his imperial ambitions. It was a counterweight to the claims of the Church to have authority because of divine revelation. The Church was opposed to Frederick for ideological reasons, not the least of which was the humanist nature found in the revival of the old Roman legal system. When Pepin the Short sought to become king of

2322-545: A new compilation. The commission completed its work within three years, in 533. Tribonian's commission surveyed the works of classical jurists who were assumed in Justinian's time to have the authority to clarify law ( ius respondendi ) and whose works were still available. In total, there are excerpts from 38 jurists in the Digest. The "Codex Justinianus", "Codex Justinianeus" or "Codex Justiniani" (Latin for "Justinian's Code")

2451-558: A vigorous propaganda campaign designed to diminish Frederick and his ambition. To a large extent, this was successful. Frederick did little to encourage economic development in Germany prior to the autumn of 1165. In that year he visited the lower Rhineland, the most economically advanced region in Germany. He had already travelled to northern Italy, the most economically advanced region in the Empire, three times. From 1165 on, Frederick pursued economic policies to encourage growth and trade. There

2580-543: Is an encyclopedia composed of mostly brief extracts from the writings of Roman jurists; and the Institutes ( Institutiones ) is a student textbook, mainly introducing the Code , although it has important conceptual elements that are less developed in the Code or the Digest . All three parts, even the textbook, were given force of law. They were intended to be, together, the sole source of law; reference to any other source, including

2709-420: Is in places heavily dependent on classical precedent. For example, Rahewin's physical description of Frederick reproduces word-for-word (except for details of hair and beard) a description of another monarch, Theodoric II written nearly eight hundred years earlier by Sidonius Apollinaris: His character is such that not even those envious of his power can belittle its praise. His person is well-proportioned. He

SECTION 20

#1732870109695

2838-598: Is no question that his reign was a period of major economic growth in Germany, but it is impossible now to determine how much of that growth was owed to Frederick's policies. The number of mints in Germany increased ninefold in the reign of Frederick and his son Henry, from about two dozen mints at the start of his reign to 215 mints in 1197 and from a mere two royal mints to 28. Frederick himself established at least twelve royal mints, including those of Aachen, Donauwörth, Ulm, Haguenau, Duisburg, Kaiserswerth, Frankfurt, Gelnhausen and Dortmund. He also granted privileges exempting

2967-570: Is not dead, but asleep with his knights in a cave in the Kyffhäuser mountains in Thuringia or Mount Untersberg at the border between Bavaria, Germany, and Salzburg , Austria , and that when the ravens cease to fly around the mountain he will awake and restore Germany to its ancient greatness. According to the story, his red beard has grown through the table at which he sits. His eyes are half closed in sleep, but now and then he raises his hand and sends

3096-527: Is not recorded and, in the main, cannot be known because most of the originals have not survived. The text was composed and distributed almost entirely in Latin , which was still the official language of the government of the Eastern Roman Empire in 529–534, whereas the prevalent language of merchants, farmers, seamen, and other citizens was Greek . By the early 7th century, Greek had largely replaced Latin as

3225-470: Is now lost; a second edition was issued in 534 and is the text that has survived. At least the second edition contained some of Justinian's own legislation, including some legislation in Greek. It is not known whether he intended there to be further editions, although he did envisage translation of Latin enactments into Greek. Numerous provisions served to secure the status of Christianity as the state religion of

3354-574: Is provided that all persons present at a pagan sacrifice may be indicted as if for murder. The Digesta or Pandectae , completed in 533, is a collection of juristic writings, mostly dating back to the second and third centuries. Fragments were taken out of various legal treatises and opinions and inserted in the Digest. In their original context, the statements of the law contained in these fragments were just private opinions of legal scholars – although some juristic writings had been privileged by Theodosius II's Law of Citations in 426. The Digest, however,

3483-433: Is shorter than very tall men, but taller and more noble than men of medium height. His hair is golden, curling a little above his forehead ... His eyes are sharp and piercing, his beard reddish [ barba subrufa ], his lips delicate ... His whole face is bright and cheerful. His teeth are even and snow-white in color ... Modesty rather than anger causes him to blush frequently. His shoulders are rather broad, and he

3612-512: Is strongly built ... In the opinion of Norman Cantor, Frederick's charisma led to a fantastic juggling act that, over a quarter of a century, restored the imperial authority in the German states. His formidable enemies defeated him on almost every side, yet in the end he emerged triumphant. When Frederick came to the throne, the prospects for the revival of German imperial power were extremely thin. The great German princes had increased their power and land holdings. The king had been left with only

3741-567: Is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence , enacted from 529 to 534 by order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I . It is also sometimes referred to metonymically after one of its parts, the Code of Justinian . The work as planned had three parts: the Code ( Codex ) is a compilation, by selection and extraction, of imperial enactments to date; the Digest or Pandects (the Latin title contains both Digesta and Pandectae )

3870-517: The Codex Theodosianus . A little more than a year after the enactment of the first edition of the Code, Justinian appointed a commission headed by Tribonian to compile the traditional jurists' law in a new, shortened and contemporary codification: the 'Digest or Pandects'. The traditional collection of jurists' law, Justinian believed, was so extensive that it had become unmanageable, necessitating

3999-558: The Angevin Empire . He returned home after he signed the Treaty of Ramla agreeing that Jerusalem would remain under Muslim control while allowing unarmed Christian pilgrims and traders to visit the city. The treaty also reduced the Latin Kingdom to a geopolitical coastal strip extending from Tyre to Jaffa. The increase in wealth of the trading cities of northern Italy led to a revival in

Diet of Roncaglia - Misplaced Pages Continue

4128-506: The Corpus Juris Civilis were enacted in Greek. The most well known are: The Basilika was a complete adaptation of Justinian's codification. At 60 volumes it proved to be difficult for judges and lawyers to use. There was need for a short and handy version. This was finally made by Constantine Harmenopoulos , a Byzantine judge from Thessaloniki , in 1345. He made a short version of Basilika in six books, called Hexabiblos . This

4257-528: The Epitome Codicis (c. 1050; incomplete manuscript preserving most of the Codex ), there may have been other manuscript sources for the text that began to be taught at Bologna, by Pepo and then by Irnerius . Irnerius' technique was to read a passage aloud, which permitted his students to copy it, then to deliver an excursus explaining and illuminating Justinian's text, in the form of glosses . Irnerius' pupils,

4386-506: The Institutes , between "law" (statute) and custom. The Corpus continues to have a major influence on public international law . Its four parts thus constitute the foundation documents of the Western legal tradition . Justinian acceded to the imperial throne in Constantinople in 527. Six months after his accession, in order to reduce the great number of imperial constitutions and thus also

4515-557: The Jews of Germany to fund the crusade. He also put the Jews under his protection and forbade anyone to preach against the Jews. When mobs threatened the Jews of Mainz on the eve of the assembly in March, Frederick sent the imperial marshal Henry of Kalden to disperse them. Rabbi Moses then met with the emperor, which resulted in an imperial edict threatening maiming or death for anyone who maimed or killed

4644-596: The Kingdom of Sicily , over the objections of Pope Urban III . Pope Urban III died shortly after, and was succeeded by Pope Gregory VIII , who even as Papal Chancellor had pursued a more conciliatory line with the Emperor than previous popes and was more concerned with troubling reports from the Holy Land than with a power struggle with Barbarossa. Around 23 November 1187, Frederick received letters that had been sent to him from

4773-705: The Latin language until later in life. He took part in several Hoftage during the reign of his uncle, King Conrad III , which were a form of informal and irregular assembly popular among the nobles of the Holy Roman Empire. One took place in 1141 in Strasbourg , another in 1142 in Konstanz , 1143 in Ulm , 1144 in Würzburg and 1145 in Worms . In early 1147, Frederick decided to join

4902-557: The Nazi movement ( Operation Barbarossa , Barbarossa decree ) resulting in mixed legacies. Modern researchers, while exploring the legacy of Frederick , attempt to untangle legend from historical reality—these efforts result in new perspectives on both the emperor as a person and the social developments associated with him. Frederick was born in mid-December 1122 in Haguenau , to Frederick II, Duke of Swabia and Judith of Bavaria . His father

5031-576: The Peace of Venice in 1177, Frederick and Alexander III were formally reconciled. With decisions of Paschal III nullfied, Beatrice ceased to be referred as empress. The scene was similar to that which had occurred between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor at Canossa a century earlier. The conflict was the same as that resolved in the Concordat of Worms : Did the Holy Roman Emperor have

5160-486: The Second Crusade after his uncle, King Conrad III, had taken the crusader vow in public on 28 December 1146. Frederick's father, Duke Frederick II , strongly objected to this and according to Otto of Freising , the duke berated his brother for permitting his son to go. The elder Frederick, who was dying, expected his son to look after his widow and younger half-brother once he had passed on, not risk his life by going on

5289-585: The Serbian Despotate fell to the Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1459. After the liberation from the Turks in the Serbian Revolution , Serbs continued to practise Roman Law by enacting Serbian civil code in 1844. It was a short version of Austrian civil code (called Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch ), which was made on the basis of Corpus Juris Civilis . Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis

Diet of Roncaglia - Misplaced Pages Continue

5418-625: The Shrine of the Three Kings in the Cologne cathedral . After the death of the antipope Victor IV, Frederick supported antipope Paschal III , but he was soon driven from Rome, leading to the return of Pope Alexander III in 1165. In the meantime Frederick was focused on restoring peace in the Rhineland, where he organized a magnificent celebration of the canonization of Charlemagne at Aachen, under

5547-781: The Third Crusade and opted to travel overland to the Holy Land . In 1190, Frederick drowned attempting to cross the Saleph River, leading to most of his army abandoning the Crusade before reaching Acre. Historians consider him among the Holy Roman Empire's greatest medieval emperors. He combined qualities that made him appear almost superhuman to his contemporaries: his longevity, his ambition, his extraordinary skills at organization, his battlefield acumen, and his political perspicacity. His contributions to Central European society and culture include

5676-540: The 16th century, when it was printed in 1583 by Dionysius Gothofredus under this title. The legal thinking behind the Corpus Juris Civilis served as the backbone of the single largest legal reform of the modern age, the Napoleonic Code , which marked the abolition of feudalism , but reinstated slavery in the French Caribbean. Napoleon, as he waged total war on Europe, wanted to see these principles introduced to

5805-535: The Code appealed to scholars who saw in the Holy Roman Empire a revival of venerable precedents from the classical heritage. The new class of lawyers staffed the bureaucracies that were beginning to be required by the princes of Europe. The University of Bologna , where Justinian's Code was first taught, remained the dominant centre for the study of law through the High Middle Ages . A two-volume edition of

5934-545: The Crusader army under the command of the rivals Philip II and Richard , who had traveled to Palestine separately by sea, and ultimately led to its dissolution. Richard continued to the East where he fought Saladin, winning territories along the shores of Palestine, but ultimately failed to win the war by conquering Jerusalem itself before he was forced to return to his own territories in north-western Europe, known to modern historians as

6063-454: The Digest was published in Paris in 1549 and 1550, translated by Antonio Agustín, Bishop of Tarragona, who was well known for other legal works. The full title of the Digest was Digestorum seu Pandectarum tomus alter , and it was published by Carolus Guillardus. Vol. 1 of the Digest has 2934 pages, while vol. 2 has 2754 pages. Referring to Justinian's Code as Corpus Juris Civilis was only adopted in

6192-465: The Eastern Roman Emperor, Manuel I Comnenus . It was probably about this time that the king obtained papal assent for the annulment of his childless marriage with Adelheid of Vohburg , on the grounds of consanguinity (his great-great-grandfather was a brother of Adela's great-great-great-grandmother, making them fourth cousins, once removed). He then made a vain attempt to obtain a bride from

6321-622: The English feudalistic system. While in England the pledge of fealty went in a direct line from overlords to those under them, the Germans pledged oaths only to the direct overlord, so that in Henry's case, those below him in the feudal chain owed nothing to Frederick. Thus, despite the diminished stature of Henry the Lion, Frederick did not gain his allegiances. Frederick was faced with the reality of disorder among

6450-415: The Franks in the 8th century, the church needed military protection, so Pepin found it convenient to make an ally of the pope. Frederick, however, desired to put the pope aside and claim the crown of old Rome simply because he was in the likeness of the great emperors of old, who tended to have a domineering role over the church, Caesaropapism . Pope Adrian IV was naturally opposed to this view and undertook

6579-407: The German army once again left Constantinople on 7 March 1148 and arrived in Acre on 11 April. After Easter, Conrad and Frederick visited Jerusalem , where Frederick was impressed by the charitable works of the Knights Hospitaller . He took part in the council of Acre on 24 June, where a decision was reached that the crusaders would attack Damascus . The Siege of Damascus (24–28 July) lasted

SECTION 50

#1732870109695

6708-421: The German king. The Salian line had died out with the death of Henry V in 1125 and the German princes refused to give the crown to his nephew, the duke of Swabia, for fear he would try to regain the imperial power held by Henry V. Instead, they chose Lothair III (1125–1137), who found himself embroiled in a long-running dispute with the Hohenstaufens, and who married into the Welfs. One of the Hohenstaufens gained

6837-575: The German princes and ending the civil wars within the kingdom, Frederick further appeased Henry by issuing him with the Privilegium Minus , granting him unprecedented entitlements as Duke of Austria. This was a large concession on the part of Frederick, who realized that Henry the Lion had to be accommodated, even to the point of sharing some power with him. Frederick could not afford to make an outright enemy of Henry. On 9 June 1156 at Würzburg , Frederick married Beatrice of Burgundy , daughter and heiress of Renaud III , thus adding to his possessions

6966-562: The German states, where continuous civil wars were waged between pretenders and the ambitious who wanted the crown for themselves. Italian unity under German rule was more myth than truth. Despite proclamations of German hegemony, the pope was the most powerful force in Italy. When Frederick returned to Germany after his defeat in northern Italy, he was a bitter and exhausted man. The German princes, far from being subordinated to royal control, were intensifying their hold on wealth and power in Germany and entrenching their positions. There began to be

7095-433: The Germans to attack King Roger II of Sicily in cooperation with the Byzantines. After confirming the treaty, Frederick was sent ahead to Germany. He passed through Bulgaria and Hungary and arrived in Germany in April 1149. When Conrad died in February 1152, only Frederick and the prince-bishop of Bamberg were at his deathbed. Both asserted afterwards that Conrad had, in full possession of his mental faculties, handed

7224-454: The Hungarian Prince Géza , brother of King Béla III of Hungary , to join the Crusade. The king agreed, and a Hungarian army of 2,000 men led by Géza escorted the German emperor's forces. Later on, Frederick camped in Philippopolis , then in Adrianople in the autumn of 1189 to avoid the winter climate in Anatolia , in the meantime, he received imprisoned German emissaries who were held in Constantinople, and exchanged hostages with Isaac II, as

7353-454: The Imperial army and drove the emperor as a fugitive to Germany, where he remained for the ensuing six years. During this period, Frederick decided conflicting claims to various bishoprics, asserted imperial authority over Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary, initiated friendly relations with Manuel I, and tried to come to a better understanding with Henry II of England and Louis VII of France . Many Swabian counts, including his cousin

7482-440: The Justinian code was used, perhaps unscrupulously, by Frederick to lay claim to divine powers. In Germany, Frederick was a political realist, taking what he could and leaving the rest. In Italy, he tended to be a romantic reactionary, reveling in the antiquarian spirit of the age, exemplified by a revival of classical studies and Roman law. It was through the use of the restored Justinian code that Frederick came to view himself as

7611-422: The Lion and his Saxon troops. This expedition resulted in the revolt and capture of Milan , the Diet of Roncaglia that saw the establishment of imperial officers and ecclesiastical reforms in the cities of northern Italy, and the beginning of the long struggle with Pope Alexander III . Milan soon rebelled again and humiliated Empress Beatrice (see Legend below). The death of Pope Adrian IV in 1159 led to

7740-711: The Lion for refusing to come to his aid in 1176. By 1180, Henry had successfully established a powerful state comprising Saxony, Bavaria, and substantial territories in the north and east of Germany. Taking advantage of the hostility of other German princes to Henry, Frederick had Henry tried in absentia by a court of bishops and princes in 1180, declared that imperial law overruled traditional German law, and had Henry stripped of his lands and declared an outlaw. He then invaded Saxony with an imperial army to force his cousin to surrender. Henry's allies deserted him, and he finally had to submit to Frederick at an Imperial Diet in Erfurt in November 1181. Henry spent three years in exile at

7869-420: The Two Cities ) had been an exposition of the Civitas Dei ( The City of God ) of Augustine of Hippo , full of Augustinian negativity concerning the nature of the world and history. His work on Frederick is of opposite tone, being an optimistic portrayal of the glorious potentials of imperial authority. Otto died after finishing the first two books, leaving the last two to Rahewin , his provost. Rahewin's text

SECTION 60

#1732870109695

7998-402: The acclamations of the German army. The Romans began to riot, and Frederick spent his coronation day putting down the revolt, resulting in the deaths of over 1,000 Romans and many more thousands injured. The next day, Frederick, Adrian, and the German army travelled to Tivoli . From there, a combination of the unhealthy Italian summer and the effects of his year-long absence from Germany meant he

8127-440: The authority of Manuel I; at the same time, his forces achieved a great victory over the Romans at the Battle of Monte Porzio . Heartened by this victory, Frederick lifted the siege of Ancona and hurried to Rome, where he had his wife crowned empress and also received a second coronation from Paschal III. His campaign was halted by the sudden outbreak of an epidemic ( malaria or the plague ), which threatened to destroy

8256-626: The authority of the antipope Paschal III. Concerned over rumours that Alexander III was about to enter into an alliance with the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I , in October 1166 Frederick embarked on his fourth Italian campaign, hoping as well to secure the claim of Paschal III and the coronation of his wife Beatrice as Holy Roman Empress. This time, Henry the Lion refused to join Frederick on his Italian trip, tending instead to his own disputes with neighbors and his continuing expansion into Slavic territories in northeastern Germany. In 1167 Frederick began besieging Ancona , which had acknowledged

8385-408: The basis of the legal code of Modern Greece. In Western Europe, the Corpus Juris Civilis , or its successor texts like the Basilika , did not get well established originally and was only recovered in the Middle Ages, being "received" or imitated as private law . Its public law content was quarried for arguments by both secular and ecclesiastical authorities. This recovered Roman law, in turn, became

8514-409: The close of 1162, Frederick prevented the escalation of conflicts between Henry the Lion from Saxony and a number of neighbouring princes who were growing weary of Henry's power, influence, and territorial gains. He also severely punished the citizens of Mainz for their rebellion against Archbishop Arnold. In Frederick's third visit to Italy in 1163, his plans for the conquest of Sicily were ruined by

8643-455: The consent of Eugene, and to help Eugene regain control of the city of Rome. Frederick undertook six expeditions into Italy. In the first, beginning in October 1154, his plan was to launch a campaign against the Normans under King William I of Sicily . He marched down and almost immediately encountered resistance to his authority. Obtaining the submission of Milan , he successfully besieged Tortona on 13 February 1155, razing it to

8772-407: The court of Constantinople . On his accession, Frederick had communicated the news of his election to Pope Eugene III , but had neglected to ask for papal confirmation. In March 1153, Frederick concluded the Treaty of Constance with the Pope, wherein he promised, in return for his coronation, to defend the papacy, to make no peace with king Roger II of Sicily or other enemies of the Church without

8901-411: The court of his father-in-law Henry II of England in Normandy before being allowed back into Germany. He finished his days in Germany, as the much-diminished Duke of Brunswick. Frederick's desire for revenge was sated. Henry the Lion lived a relatively quiet life, sponsoring arts and architecture. Frederick's victory over Henry did not gain him as much in the German feudalistic system as it would have in

9030-402: The cross through messengers and then in a personal meeting on 25 December on the border between Ivois and Mouzon . On 27 March 1188, at the Diet of Mainz , the archbishop of Cologne submitted to Frederick. Bishop of Würzburg, Godfrey of Spitzenberg , preached a crusade sermon and Frederick asked the assembly whether he should take the cross. At the universal acclaim of the assembly, he took

9159-400: The crusader's vow. His second son, the duke of Swabia, followed suit. The eldest, Henry VI, was to remain behind in Germany as regent. At Mainz Frederick proclaimed a "general expedition against the pagans". He set the period of preparation as 17 April 1188 to 8 April 1189 and scheduled the army to assemble at Regensburg on 23 April 1189. At Strasbourg, Frederick had imposed a small tax on

9288-529: The crusaders. The envoys of Stefan Nemanja , grand prince of Serbia, announced that their prince would receive Frederick in Niš . Only with difficulty was an agreement reached with the Byzantine envoy, John Kamateros . Frederick sent a large embassy ahead to make preparations in Byzantium. On 15 April 1189 in Haguenau , Frederick formally and symbolically accepted the staff and scrip of a pilgrim and set out. His crusade

9417-532: The dominant language of the empire. The Corpus Juris Civilis was revised into Greek, when that became the predominant language of the Eastern Roman Empire, and continued to form the basis of the empire's laws, the Basilika ( Greek : τὰ βασιλικά, 'imperial laws'), through the 15th century. The Basilika in turn served as the basis for local legal codes in the Balkans during the following Ottoman period and later formed

9546-545: The election of two rival popes, Alexander III and the antipope Victor IV , and both sought Frederick's support. Frederick, busy with the siege of Crema , appeared unsupportive of Alexander III, and after the sacking of Crema demanded that Alexander appear before the emperor at Pavia and to accept the imperial decree. Alexander refused, and Frederick recognised Victor IV as the legitimate pope in 1160. In response, Alexander III excommunicated both Frederick I and Victor IV. Frederick attempted to convoke

9675-658: The emperor's overlordship of the Imperial Church. Also in the Peace of Venice, a truce was made with the Lombard cities, which took effect in August 1178. The grounds for a permanent peace were not established until 1183, however, in the Peace of Constance , when Frederick conceded their right to freely elect town magistrates. By this move, Frederick recovered his nominal domination over Italy, which became his chief means of applying pressure on

9804-557: The empire, uniting Church and state, and making anyone who was not connected to the Christian church a non-citizen. The Christianity referred to is Chalcedonian Christianity as defined by the state church, which excluded a variety of other major Christian sects in existence at the time such as the Church of the East and Oriental Orthodoxy . The very first law in the Codex requires all persons under

9933-409: The forces of the republican city commune led by Arnold of Brescia , a student of Abelard . As a sign of good faith, Frederick dismissed the ambassadors from the revived Roman Senate, and Imperial forces suppressed the republicans. Arnold was captured and hanged for treason and rebellion. Despite his unorthodox teaching concerning theology, Arnold was not charged with heresy. As Frederick approached

10062-700: The formation of a powerful league against him, brought together mainly by opposition to imperial taxes. In 1164, Frederick took what are believed to be the relics of the "Biblical Magi" (the Wise Men or Three Kings ) from the Basilica di Sant'Eustorgio in Milan and gave them as a gift (or as loot) to the Archbishop of Cologne , Rainald of Dassel . The relics had great religious significance and could be counted upon to draw pilgrims from all over Christendom . Today they are kept in

10191-511: The fortresses, that is the citadels and towers. Frederick's death caused several thousand German soldiers to leave the force and return home through the Cilician and Syrian ports. The German-Hungarian army was struck with an onset of disease near Antioch , weakening it further. Only 5,000 soldiers, a third of the original force, arrived in Acre . Barbarossa's son, Frederick VI of Swabia, carried on with

10320-529: The foundation of law in all civil law jurisdictions. The provisions of the Corpus Juris Civilis also influenced the canon law of the Catholic Church : it was said that ecclesia vivit lege romana – the church lives by Roman law. Its influence on common law legal systems has been much smaller, although some basic concepts from the Corpus have survived through Norman law – such as the contrast, especially in

10449-460: The gates of Rome, the Pope advanced to meet him. At the royal tent the king received him, and after kissing the pope's feet, Frederick expected to receive the traditional kiss of peace. Frederick had declined to hold the Pope's stirrup while leading him to the tent, however, so Adrian refused to give the kiss until this protocol had been complied with. Frederick hesitated, and Adrian IV withdrew; after

10578-516: The ground on 18 April. He moved on to Pavia , where he according to some historians received the Iron Crown and the title of King of Italy on 24 April in the Basilica of San Michele Maggiore . Other historians instead suggest his coronation took place in Monza on 15 April. Moving through Bologna and Tuscany , he was soon approaching the city of Rome. There, Pope Adrian IV was struggling with

10707-409: The jurisdiction of the Empire to hold the Christian faith. This was primarily aimed at heresies such as Nestorianism . This text later became the springboard for discussions of international law, especially the question of just what persons are under the jurisdiction of a given state or legal system. Other laws, while not aimed at pagan belief as such, forbid particular pagan practices. For example, it

10836-511: The knighting of a son were part of the expectations of an overlord in England and France, only a "gift" was given in Germany for such an occasion. Frederick's monetary gain from this celebration is said to have been modest. Later in 1184, Frederick again moved into Italy, this time joining forces with the local rural nobility to reduce the power of the Tuscan cities. In 1186, he engineered the marriage of his son Henry to Constance of Sicily , heiress to

10965-474: The law of the state as a reflection of natural moral law, the principle of rationality in the universe. By the time Frederick assumed the throne, this legal system was well established on both sides of the Alps. He was the first to use the availability of the new professional class of lawyers. The Civil Law allowed Frederick to use these lawyers to administer his kingdom in a logical and consistent manner. It also provided

11094-511: The majority of his army had already departed toward Hungary on land, Frederick sailed from Regensburg down the River Danube. When he came to the village of Mauthausen, Frederick ordered the village to be burned for levying a toll on the crusader army. The Crusaders then passed through Hungary , Serbia , and Bulgaria before entering Byzantine territory. While in Hungary, Barbarossa personally asked

11223-431: The meantime, Frederick had to deal with another rebellion at Milan, in which the city surrendered on 6 March 1162; much of it was destroyed three weeks later on the emperor's orders. The fate of Milan led to the submission of Brescia , Placentia , and many other northern Italian cities. In August 1162 he triumphantly entered Turin and was crowned with his consort in the cathedral on August 15. Returning to Germany towards

11352-528: The merchants of Aachen, Gelnhausen, Haguenau, Monza, Rome, Pisa and Venice from all tolls within the Empire. Otto of Freising , Frederick's uncle, wrote an account of his reign entitled Gesta Friderici I imperatoris (Deeds of the Emperor Frederick), which is considered to be an accurate history of the king. Otto's other major work, the Chronica sive Historia de duabus civitatibus ( Chronicle or History of

11481-429: The number of court proceedings, Justinian arranged for the creation of a new collection of imperial constitutions ( Codex Iustinianus ). The commission in charge of the compilation process was explicitly authorized to leave out or change text and to delete what was obsolete or contradictory. Soon, in 529, the Codex was completed and was conferred the force of law in the whole empire, replacing all earlier constitutions and

11610-671: The older Theodosian Code , not the Corpus . Historians disagree on the precise way the Corpus was recovered in Northern Italy about 1070: legal studies were undertaken on behalf of papal authority central to the Gregorian Reform of Pope Gregory VII , which may have led to its accidental rediscovery. Aside from the Littera Florentina (a complete 6th-century copy of the Digest preserved in Amalfi and later moved to Pisa ) and

11739-516: The original texts from which the Code and the Digest had been taken, was forbidden. Nonetheless, Justinian found himself having to enact further laws; today these are counted as a fourth part of the Corpus, the Novellae Constitutiones ( Novels , literally New Laws ). The work was directed by Tribonian , an official in Justinian's court in Constantinople . His team was authorized to edit what they included. How far they made amendments

11868-503: The papacy. In a move to consolidate his reign after the disastrous expedition into Italy, Frederick was formally crowned King of Burgundy at Arles on 30 June 1178. Although traditionally the German kings had automatically inherited the royal crown of Arles since the time of Conrad II , Frederick felt the need to be crowned by the Archbishop of Arles, regardless of his laying claim to the title from 1152. Frederick did not forgive Henry

11997-572: The position it had occupied under Charlemagne and Otto I the Great , the new king saw clearly that the restoration of order in Germany was a necessary preliminary to the enforcement of the imperial rights in Italy. Issuing a general order for peace, he made lavish concessions to the nobles. Abroad, Frederick intervened in the Danish civil war between Svend III and Valdemar I of Denmark and began negotiations with

12126-649: The power to name the pope and bishops? The Investiture controversy from previous centuries had been brought to a tendentious peace with the Concordat of Worms and affirmed in the First Council of the Lateran . Now it had recurred, in a slightly different form. Frederick had to humble himself before Alexander III at Venice. The emperor acknowledged the pope's sovereignty over the Papal States, and in return Alexander acknowledged

12255-618: The re-establishment of the Corpus Juris Civilis , or the Roman rule of law, which counterbalanced the papal power that dominated the German states since the conclusion of the Investiture controversy . Due to his popularity and notoriety, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, he was used as a political symbol by many movements and regimes: the Risorgimento , the Wilhelmine government in Germany (especially under Emperor Wilhelm I ), and

12384-732: The remnants of the German army, along with the Hungarian army under the command of Prince Géza, with the aim of burying the emperor in Jerusalem , but efforts to preserve his body in vinegar failed. Hence, his flesh was interred in the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Antioch, his bones in the Cathedral of Tyre, and his heart and inner organs in Saint Paul's Church , Tarsus . The unexpected demise of Frederick left

12513-516: The respective rights of the parties was left to four jurists from Bologna , the home of the great law school founded in 1088. The lawyers' decision favored the emperor, judging that his rule was by divine right , thus restoring the Imperial rights established since the period of nascent trade under rule of Emperor Otto . The lawyers proceed to define taxes, tolls, and exactions of various kinds to be imposed on trade. The Lombard cities would not accept

12642-451: The restoration of Milan in 1169. In 1174 Frederick made his fifth expedition to Italy. (It was probably during this time that the famous Tafelgüterverzeichnis , a record of the royal estates, was made. ) He was opposed by the pro-papal Lombard League (now joined by Venice , Sicily and Constantinople ), which had previously formed to stand against him. The cities of northern Italy had become exceedingly wealthy through trade, representing

12771-495: The royal insignia to Frederick and indicated that he, rather than Conrad's own six-year-old son, the future Frederick IV, Duke of Swabia , succeed him as king. Frederick energetically pursued the crown and at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 the kingdom's princely electors designated him as the next German king. He was crowned King of the Romans at Aachen several days later, on 9 March 1152. The reigns of Henry IV and Henry V left

12900-522: The rulers of the Crusader states in the Near East urging him to come to their aid. Around 1 December, Cardinal Henry of Marcy preached a crusade sermon before Frederick and a public assembly in Strasbourg . Frederick expressed support for the crusade but declined to take the cross on the grounds of his ongoing conflict with Archbishop Philip of Cologne . He did, however, urge King Philip II of France to take

13029-707: The sizeable realm of the County of Burgundy . In an attempt to create comity, Emperor Frederick proclaimed the Peace of the Land , written between 1152 and 1157, which enacted punishments for a variety of crimes, as well as systems for adjudicating many disputes. He also declared himself the sole Augustus of the Roman world, ceasing to recognise Manuel I at Constantinople. The retreat of Frederick in 1155 forced Pope Adrian IV to come to terms with King William I of Sicily, granting to William I territories that Frederick viewed as his dominion. This aggrieved Frederick, and he

13158-503: The so-called Four Doctors of Bologna , were among the first of the " glossators " who established the curriculum of medieval Roman law . The tradition was carried on by French lawyers, known as the Ultramontani , in the 13th century. The merchant classes of Italian communes required law with a concept of equity , and law that covered situations inherent in urban life better than the primitive Germanic oral traditions. The provenance of

13287-457: The status of the German empire in disarray, its power waning under the weight of the investiture controversy . For a quarter of a century following the death of Henry V in 1125, the German monarchy was largely a nominal title with no real power behind it. The king, chosen by the prince-electors, was given no resources outside those of his own duchy and he was at the same time prevented from exercising any real authority or leadership. The royal title

13416-455: The study of the Justinian Code , a Latin legal system that had become extinct centuries earlier. Legal scholars renewed its application. It is speculated that Pope Gregory VII personally encouraged the Justinian rule of law and had a copy of it. The historian Norman Cantor described Corpus Juris Civilis (Justinian Body of Civil Law) as "the greatest legal code ever devised". It envisaged

13545-574: The throne as Conrad III of Germany (1137–1152). When Frederick Barbarossa succeeded his uncle in 1152, there seemed to be excellent prospects for ending the feud, since he was a Welf on his mother's side. The Welf duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion , would not be appeased, however, remaining an implacable enemy of the Hohenstaufen monarchy. Barbarossa had the duchies of Swabia and Franconia, the force of his own personality, and very little else to construct an empire. The Germany that Frederick tried to unite

13674-472: The traditional family domains and a vestige of power over the bishops and abbeys. The backwash of the Investiture controversy had left the German states in continuous turmoil. Rival states were in perpetual war. These conditions allowed Frederick to be both warrior and occasional peace-maker, both to his advantage. Frederick is the subject of many legends, including that of a Kyffhäuser legend . Legend says he

13803-473: The verdict, and it had to be enforced by war. Imperial forces dominated prior to the true unification of the Lombard League, and the city of Milan was razed to the ground in 1162. But the cities came to understand the value of a proper alliance post Destructionem Mediolani ("after the destruction of Milan"). The decisive battle in the continuing struggle was the Battle of Legnano in 1176, where Frederick

13932-515: The whole of Europe because he saw them as an effective form of rule that created a more equal society and thus creating a more friendly relationship between the ruling class and the rest of the peoples of Europe. The Corpus Juris Civilis was translated into French, German, Italian, and Spanish in the 19th century. However, no English translation of the entire Corpus Juris Civilis existed until 1932 when Samuel Parsons Scott published his version The Civil Law . Scott did not base his translation on

14061-492: The young Duke of Swabia, Frederick IV, died in 1167, so he was able to organize a new mighty territory in the Duchy of Swabia under his reign in this time. Consequently, his younger son Frederick V became the new Duke of Swabia in 1167, while his eldest son Henry was crowned King of the Romans in 1169, alongside his father who also retained the title. Increasing anti-German sentiment swept through Lombardy, culminating in

14190-451: Was "the most meticulously planned and organized" up to that time. According to one source written in the 1220s, Frederick organized a grand army of 100,000 men (including 20,000 knights) and set out on the overland route to the Holy Land; This number is believed to be inaccurate by modern scholars using incomplete contemporary sources that place the size of his army at 12,000–15,000 men, including 3,000–4,000 knights. On 11 May 1189, after

14319-485: Was a complete failure. Frederick suffered a heavy defeat at the Battle of Legnano near Milan, on 29 May 1176, where he was wounded and for some time was believed to be dead. This battle marked the turning point in Frederick's claim to empire. He had no choice other than to begin negotiations for peace with Alexander III and the Lombard League. In the Peace of Anagni in 1176, Frederick recognized Alexander III as pope, and in

14448-399: Was a patchwork of more than 1,600 individual states, each with its own prince. A few of these, such as Bavaria and Saxony, were large. Many were too small to pinpoint on a map. The titles afforded to the German king were "Caesar", "Augustus", and "Emperor of the Romans". By the time Frederick would assume these, they were little more than propaganda slogans with little other meaning. Frederick

14577-455: Was a pragmatist who dealt with the princes by finding a mutual self-interest. Unlike Henry II of England , Frederick did not attempt to end medieval feudalism, but rather tried to restore it, though this was beyond his ability. The great players in the German civil war had been the Pope, Emperor, Ghibellines and the Guelfs, but none of these had emerged as the winner. Eager to restore the Empire to

14706-478: Was by inheritance Duke of Swabia (1147–1152, as Frederick III) before his imperial election in 1152 . He was the son of Duke Frederick II of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and Judith , daughter of Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria , from the rival House of Welf . Frederick, therefore, descended from the two leading families in Germany, making him an acceptable choice for the Empire's prince-electors . Frederick joined

14835-466: Was defeated by the Lombard League , and later forced to renege his rights of sovereignty south of the Alps, in the Kingdom of Italy . This European history –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (German: Friedrich I ; Italian: Federico I ),

14964-658: Was distributed in the West and went into effect in those areas regained under Justinian's wars of reconquest ( Pragmatic Sanction of 554 ), including the Exarchate of Ravenna . Accordingly, the Institutes were made the textbook at the law school in Rome, and later in Ravenna when the school relocated there. However, after the loss of most of these areas, only the Catepanate (southern Italy) maintained

15093-516: Was forced to put off his planned campaign against the Normans of Sicily . On their way northwards, they attacked Spoleto and encountered the ambassadors of Manuel I Comnenus, who showered Frederick with costly gifts. At Verona , Frederick declared his fury with the rebellious Milanese before finally returning to Germany. Disorder was again rampant in Germany, especially in Bavaria, but general peace

15222-526: Was forced to weaken his force at the Siege of Acre and send troops to the north to block the arrival of the Germans. Barbarossa opted on the local Armenians' advice to follow a shortcut along the Saleph River. Meanwhile, the army started to traverse the mountain path. On 10 June 1190, he drowned near Silifke Castle in the Saleph River. There are several conflicting accounts of the event: Jacques de Vitry ,

15351-676: Was from the Hohenstaufen family, and his mother was from the Welf family, the two most powerful families in Germany. The Hohenstaufens were often called Ghibellines , which derives from the Italianized name for Waiblingen castle, the family seat in Swabia; the Welfs, in a similar Italianization, were called Guelfs . Frederick was also a descendant of the Salian dynasty through his paternal grandmother Agnes as she

15480-567: Was further displeased when Papal legates chose to interpret a letter from Adrian to Frederick in a manner that seemed to imply that the imperial crown was a gift from the Papacy and that in fact the Empire itself was a fief of the Papacy. Disgusted with the pope, and still wishing to crush the Normans in the south of Italy, in June 1158, Frederick set out upon his second Italian expedition, accompanied by Henry

15609-413: Was furthermore passed from one family to another to preclude the development of any dynastic interest in the German crown. When Frederick was chosen as king in 1152, royal power had been in effective abeyance for over twenty-five years, and to a considerable degree for more than eighty years. The only real claim to wealth lay in the rich cities of northern Italy, which were still within the nominal control of

15738-616: Was given full force of law. As the Digest neared completion, Tribonian and two professors, Theophilus and Dorotheus , made a student textbook, called the Institutions or Elements . As there were four elements, the manual consists of four books. The Institutiones are largely based on the Institutiones of Gaius . Two-thirds of the Institutiones of Justinian consists of literal quotes from Gaius. The new Institutiones were used as

15867-443: Was later formally crowned King of Burgundy , at Arles on 30 June 1178. He was named Barbarossa by the northern Italian cities which he attempted to rule: Barbarossa means "red beard" in Italian; in German, he was known as Kaiser Rotbart , which in English means "Emperor Redbeard." The prevalence of the Italian nickname, even in later German usage, reflects the centrality of the Italian campaigns under his reign. Frederick

15996-562: Was restored by Frederick's vigorous, but conciliatory, measures. The duchy of Bavaria was transferred from Henry II Jasomirgott , margrave of Austria, to Frederick's formidable younger cousin Henry the Lion , Duke of Saxony , of the House of Guelph , whose father had previously held both duchies. Henry II Jasomirgott was named Duke of Austria in compensation for his loss of Bavaria. As part of his general policy of concessions of formal power to

16125-442: Was robbed and killed. Conrad ordered Frederick to avenge him. The duke of Swabia razed the monastery, captured and executed the robbers and demanded they return the stolen money. The intervention of the Byzantine general Prosuch prevented further escalation. A few weeks later, on 8 September, Frederick and Welf VI were among the few German crusaders who survived when a flash flood destroyed the main camp. They had decided to encamp on

16254-656: Was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death in 1190. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March 1152. He was crowned King of Italy on 24 April 1155 in Pavia and emperor by Pope Adrian IV on 18 June 1155 in Rome . Two years later, the term sacrum ("holy") first appeared in a document in connection with his empire. He

16383-470: Was the daughter of Emperor Henry IV and Bertha of Savoy . He also had ties to the Salians through his mother Judith as she hailed from Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu . Therefore, Frederick carried on the bloodline of Emperor Otto the Great and his wives, Eadgyth and Adelaide . He learned to ride, hunt and use weapons at an early age, but could neither read nor write, and was also unable to speak

16512-560: Was the first part to be finished, on 7 April 529. It contained in Latin most of the existing imperial constitutiones (imperial pronouncements having force of law), back to the time of Hadrian . It used both the Codex Theodosianus and the fourth-century collections embodied in the Codex Gregorianus and Codex Hermogenianus , which provided the model for division into books that were themselves divided into titles. These works had developed authoritative standing. This first edition

16641-577: Was widely used throughout the Balkans during the following Ottoman period, and along with the Basilika was used as the first legal code for the newly independent Greek state in the 1820s. Serbian state, law and culture was built on the foundations of Rome and Byzantium. Therefore, the most important Serbian legal codes: Zakonopravilo (1219) and Dušan's Code (1349 and 1354), transplanted Romano-Byzantine Law included in Corpus Juris Civilis , Prohiron and Basilika . These Serbian codes were practised until

#694305