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as a child ended in 1220 when he was crowned a Roman king on 23 April. At the
instance of Pope Honorius III, who feared the geopolitical consequences of this
coronation, he had to abandon his kingship of Sicily. Frederick II, crowned
Emperor at the same time succeeded him and would govern the kingdom. In fact
nothing was achieved with this construction because Frederick II did not only rule
in Sicily but in fact also in Germany, Italy and Burgundy. To make things worse the
attempt of the Holy See to get rid of Frederick II failed because he could end the
crusade he undertook at the instance of Pope Gregory IX in the years 1229-30, with
a diplomatic victory.
Henry VII was crowned when he was eleven on 18 May 1222 in Aachen. During his
minority Germany and Swabia were governed by regents until Henry took over the
government in 1228. His support of the middle classes against their bishops
irritated the princes who extorted in 1231 a large number of measures from him,
protecting them against the growing power of the cities and extending their power
over their own territories. Such a kind of privilege, be it not so forgoing, was
granted by Frederick II to the prelates at the occasion of the election of Henry in
1220. In May 1232 he confirmed the Statutem in favorem principum of Henry
which de facto legitimized the independence of the German princes. Not long after,
Henry tried to hamper imperial power and in September 1234 he rebelled against
the emperor. He was joined by the Lombard League which resisted the restoration
after 1231 of imperial power in Lombardy by Frederick II. The revolt collapsed
when Frederick II came to Germany in the spring of 1235. In July Henry was
deposed and taken prisoner by Frederick II. At the same time he decided to declare
an Imperial war against the Lombards and defeated the Lombard army on 27
November 1237 near Cortenuova.
Frederick and his son began to be somewhat strained. The emperor had favored the
Austrian marriage because Margaret's brother, Duke Frederick II., was childless;
but Henry took up a hostile attitude towards his brother-in-law and wished to put
away his wife and marry Agnes, daughter of Wenceslaus I., king of Bohemia. Other
causes of trouble probably existed, for in 1231 Henry not only refused to appear at
the diet at Ravenna, but opposed the privileges granted by Frederick to the princes
at Worms. In 1232, however, he submitted to his father, promising to adopt the
emperor's policy and to obey his commands. He did not long keep his word and
was soon engaged in thwarting Frederick's wishes in several directions, until in
1233 he took the decisive step of issuing a manifesto to the princes, and the
following year raised the standard of revolt at Boppard. He obtained very little
support in Germany, however, while the suspicion that he favored heresy deprived
him of encouragement from the pope. On the other hand, he succeeded in forming
an alliance with the Lombards in December 1234, but his few supporters fell away
when the emperor reached Germany in 1235, and, after a vain attack on Worms,
The Hohenstaufen Dynasty - Page 55 of 200