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FREDERICK I, DUKE OF SWABIA
(Hohenstaufen castle in ruin)
The duchy of Swabia was nearly coextensive with modern Baden-Wrttemberg,
Hesse, and western Bavaria states, as well as parts of eastern Switzerland and
Alsace. The Suevi and Alemanni tribes occupied the area from the 3rd century, and
the region was known as Alemannia until the 11th century. In the 7th century Irish
missionaries began to introduce Christianity. From 10th century it became one of
the five great tribal duchies of early medieval Germany. It was ruled by
the Hohenstaufen dynasty, after which the duchy was divided. Several alliances of
cities, known as the Swabian Leagues, were formed in the 14th16th centuries. The
region was a territorial division of the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th19th
centuries.
Frederick I von Staufen (1050 – July 21, 1105) was Duke of Swabia from 1079 to his
death. He was the first ruler of Swabia from the House of Hohenstaufen,
and was the builder of the dynasty's ancestral Hohenstaufen Castle near
Göppingen.
He was the son of Frederick von Büren, Count in the Riesgau and Swabian Count
Palatine, with Hildegard of Egisheim-Dagsburg, a niece of Pope Leo IX, or a
daughter of the Ezzonid Duke Otto II of Swabia.
He was installed as FRIEDRICH I Duke of Swabia at Easter 1079 by Heinrich IV
King of Germany. He built the castle of Staufen, near Göppingen, which itself
derived its name from Old German stouf (cup) from its appearance as an upturned
cup. A settlement Staufen arose below the castle, which thus later added Hohen
The Hohenstaufen Dynasty - Page 29 of 200