Frederick II document

FREDERICK II HOHENSTAUFEN WONDER OF THE WORLD Written by LLA Done by ~80% CHAPTER I A CONTESTED ORPHAN: THE YOUNG FREDERICK BETWEEN THE POPE AND THE SWABIANS (1194-1207) Frederick II Hohenstaufen was born on St. Stephen's Day, 1194, in Jesi, central Italy. His father was Henry VI, son of Frederick I Barbarossa and Holy Roman Emperor, and his mother was Constance of Hauteville, daughter of Roger II and Queen of Sicily. Frederick was, in short, the heir to two royal houses and two very important figures, but his childhood was marked by instability and political conflict. When he was just two years old, his father Henry died suddenly at the age of 31, a death that sparked a heated conflict in Germany between those loyal to the House of Hohenstaufen (led by Frederick's uncle, Philip Duke of Swabia), and the supporters of Otto of Brunswick (a candidate close to the papacy). Although some German princes had already elected the child Frederick as the new King of the Romans, his mother, Constance, decided to safeguard her son by keeping him away from the political conflicts in Germany. Just a year later, however, Constance also died, and shortly before doing so she named Frederick King of Sicily and entrusted him to the new Pope Innocent III, who became his guardian and regent of the Kingdom of Sicily. Innocent, engaged in an ambitious continental-scale political project, did not directly concern himself with the child's education, who indeed remained in Palermo, but entrusted …