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Frederick I Barbarossa

Type Figure Region Holy Roman Empire Time 1122–1190 Also known as Frederick Barbarossa、Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I

Hohenstaufen German king and Holy Roman Emperor, known as 'Barbarossa,' who fought the papacy and Lombard League before reconciling at Venice in 1177.

Timeline

  1. 1174Lombardy · LombardyIn September 1174 Frederick led his army into northern Italy, attempting to suppress the Lombard League cities' resistance to imperial sovereignty and taxation rights.
  2. 1174–1177Alessandria · PiedmontThe imperial army's prolonged siege of Alessandria (1174–1175) failed, and on May 29, 1176 it was defeated by the Lombard League's allied forces at the Battle of Legnano. Frederick himself fell from his horse and narrowly escaped capture, and imperial military superiority in Italy was entirely lost.
  3. 1177Venice · VenetoHe publicly reconciled with Pope Alexander III in St. Mark's Square in Venice, ending the long confrontation with the papacy. Frederick performed the kiss of the foot as a sign of deference, in exchange for the papacy's limited recognition of his imperial authority and northern Italian policy.
  4. 1178–1180Speyer · Rhineland-PalatinateFrederick returned north from Italy, holding imperial diets at Speyer and elsewhere, and in 1180, seizing the opportunity of Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony's fall from power, further partitioned princely territories and strengthened the emperor's control over the German lands.

Sources