The New International Encyclopædia/Hohenstaufen

​HOHENSTAUFEN, hō′𝑒n - stou′f𝑒n. A princely house of Swabia, in Germany, which held possession of the German Imperial throne from 1138 to 1254. The family traced its descent from Frederick of Büren, who lived about the middle of the eleventh century, and whose son, Frederick of Staufen, built the castle from which the family derived its name, some vestiges of which are still to be seen on the summit of the Hohenstaufen, one of the peaks of the Rauhe Alb, close to the town of Göppingen, Württemberg. The son, Frederick of Staufen, was a faithful partisan of the Emperor Henry IV., and in return received Henry’s daughter and the Duchy of Swabia in 1079. Duke Frederick, at his death in 1105, left two sons—Frederick II., the One-Eyed, and Conrad; the former was immediately confirmed in the possession of Swabia by Henry V., and in 1112 the latter received the Duchy of Franconia. Upon the death of Henry V. in 1125 his family estates fell to the House of Hohenstaufen. It seemed, too, as if the Imperial dignity would be conferred upon Frederick on account of his talents and popularity; but Lothair of Saxony, his rival and enemy, was elected as Henry V.’s successor. On Lothair’s accession, he demanded the Imperial possessions held by the House of Hohenstaufen, and a war ensued between him and the Hohenstaufen princes, in which Lothair was supported by the House of Welf (Guelph). In the course of this struggle Conrad was crowned King of Italy in 1128; but the two brothers were forced to make peace with Lothair in 1135, and afterwards lent him their support. After Lothair’s death, Conrad was elected King of Germany, in 1138, as Conrad III. (q.v.). Under Conrad III. the House of Hohenstaufen waged war against the House of Guelph, which for a brief time was weakened by the loss of Bavaria.

On Conrad’s death, in 1152, his nephew, Frederick I. Barbarossa, became Emperor. As he was the offspring of a Hohenstaufen father and a Guelph mother, it was hoped that the struggle between the two houses might be ended by his accession. But the defiant attitude of Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, the powerful representative of the Guelph family, caused the conflict to break out afresh in 1180. Henry the Lion was conquered and deprived of most of his possessions. Frederick went on the Third Crusade, but died in 1190, before reaching Jerusalem. His son, Henry VI., succeeded to the throne without opposition. By a marriage with the heiress of Sicily and by conquest he added Southern Italy and Sicily to the Empire. He exercised the most far-reaching power of any of the Hohenstaufen, and dreamed of a world-wide empire. Richard the Lion-Hearted of England was obliged to become his vassal in order to be freed from captivity. Some of the Christian rulers in the East had sought protection from Henry, and he sent an army to the Holy Land, ‘the German Crusade’ (see Crusades) to establish his own supremacy. His plans were frustrated by his early death, in 1197. His son Frederick II. had already been crowned King of Germany, but as he was only a child of three, his rights were passed over. The Guelphs chose Otho of Brunswick, son of Henry the Lion, and the choice of the partisans of the Hohenstaufen fell upon Philip of Swabia, uncle of Frederick II. Civil war followed, the contest terminating with the assassination of Philip in 1208 by Otho of Wittelsbach. For a time Otho of Brunswick (Otho IV.) was recognized as ruler; then his opponents rallied about Frederick II., who in the meanwhile had been ruling his Kingdom of Sicily, which he had inherited from his mother. Frederick was crowned, and by 1215 was recognized by all except a few obstinate partisans of Otho IV. He ruled over Germany, Italy, and Sicily, and also became King of Jerusalem. His reign was spent to a great extent in a struggle with the Papacy. The partisans of the Hohenstaufen in Italy and the opponents of the Imperial power, in general the supporters of the Papacy, were known respectively as Ghibellines and Guelphs. (See Guelphs and Ghibellines.) After Frederick’s death, in 1250, the inveterate animosity of the Guelphs followed his son, Conrad IV., who abandoned Germany for his hereditary Italian possessions, and died in 1254. After Conrad’s death his half-brother Manfred fought for the Hohenstaufen interests until he was defeated and killed at the battle of Benevento, in 1266, against Charles of Anjou, who at the invitation of the Pope, had undertaken the conquest of the Two Sicilies. Manfred’s sons were kept in prison until his death. His daughter married Peter III. of Aragon, who later avenged the destruction of the Hohenstaufen by expelling their foes from the Kingdom of Sicily. Conrad’s young son, Conradin, in an attempt to reconquer the Two Sicilies, was taken captive by Charles of Anjou at the battle of Tagliacozzo, and executed at Naples on October 29, 1268. Enzio, an illegitimate son of Frederick II., who had been made King of Sardinia, died in prison four years later. Thus all of the male descendants of Frederick II. perished. The emperors of this family rank among the ablest rulers of Germany, and hold the first place in popular German tradition today, just as they held the first place in the affections of the people during their lifetime. They appear in general as men possessed of great virtues and of great faults, and impressive by reason of both. Frederick Barbarossa, according to the legend, is not dead, but asleep, and will wake to help his people in time of need. Frederick II. is one of the most remarkable figures of the Middle Ages in his character as ruler, knight, scholar, and free-thinker. Consult Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstaufen (5th ed., Leipzig, 1878). See, also, articles on the individual emperors.