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1142. At Christmas, 1146, Conrad was induced by St. Bernard of Clairvaux to join in
the Second Crusade (see Crusades) with Louis VII of France. He left in 1147, took
part in the unsuccessful siege of Damascus, and returned in 1149. Conrad was never
crowned by the pope, and therefore was not confirmed as Holy Roman emperor.
His ambitions for the imperial crown and against Roger II of Sicily were thwarted
by Guelph, who was subsidized by Roger, and by Henry the Lion, who claimed the
duchy of Bavaria. Conrad died 1152, on his return from the Second Crusade. The
son whom he had originally nominated to succeed him had died two years earlier,
and the other only son was still a child. Recognizing the urgent need for a strong
opposition to the Saxons under Henry the Lion, who had long attempted to lay
claim also to Bavaria, Conrad had taken the step of naming as his successor his
nephew Frederick Hohenstaufen, Duke of Swabia, a man of thirty at that
time.
FREDERICK I HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR
Frederick I Barbarossa (born c.
1122 – 10 June 1190) was a
German Holy Roman Emperor.
He was elected King of Germany
at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and
crowned in Aachen on 9 March,
crowned King of Italy in Pavia in
1155, and finally crowned Roman
Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on
18 June 1155, and two years later
in 1157 the term "sacrum" (i.e.
"holy") first appeared in a
document in connection with his Empire. He was then also formally crowned King
of Burgundy at Arles on 30 June 1178. The name Barbarossa came from the
northern Italian cities he attempted to rule, and means "red beard" in Italian – a
mark of both their fear and respect. He challenged papal authority and sought to
establish German predominance in Western Europe. He engaged in a long struggle
with the cities of northern Italy (1154–83), sending six major expeditions
southward. He died while on the Third Crusade to the Holy Land.
Before his royal election, he was by inheritance Duke of Swabia (1147–1152, as
Frederick III). He was the son of Duke Frederick II, Duke of Swabia, of the
Hohenstaufen dynasty. His mother was Judith, daughter of Henry IX, Duke of
Bavaria, from the rival House of Welf, and Frederick therefore descended from
The Hohenstaufen Dynasty - Page 33 of 200