Friedrich VI. (Swabia)

Contemporary representation of Frederick in the Welf Chronicle , around 1179–1191

Friedrich VI. (* February 1167 in Modigliana ; † January 20, 1191 in front of Akkon ), maiden name Konrad , was Duke of Swabia from 1170 . He was the third eldest son of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa and his second wife Beatrix of Burgundy .

Friedrich's original name was Konrad. His eldest brother, who had been Duke Friedrich V of Swabia since 1167, died around 1170 at the age of five. It can be assumed that Frederick V had a weak constitution from birth and promised a short life expectancy, so that in 1169 it was not he but the second-born Heinrich who was chosen as the designated successor of the emperor. After the death of Frederick V, Konrad was renamed Friedrich and in 1170 was appointed the sixth Duke of Swabia in succession with the Hohenstaufen guiding name Friedrich.

In the older literature, Konrad / Friedrich's older brother and predecessor, Duke Friedrich V of Swabia, was sometimes overlooked, sometimes mistaken for the same person as Konrad / Friedrich, and Konrad / Friedrich was therefore not referred to as Friedrich VI., But as Friedrich V. The fact that a younger brother born in 1172, who later became Duke Konrad II of Swabia , was given the name Konrad, which was freed again by Konrad / Friedrich's renaming and also traditional among the Hohenstaufen, creates additional confusion when identifying these three sons of Barbarossa.

Emperor Friedrich I. Barbarossa appointed noble Degenhard von Hellenstein as procurator for the duchy while his son was immature . In 1179 he left Friedrich VI. the Duchy of Swabia as well as areas in Upper Swabia and Bavaria acquired on the basis of inheritance contracts with Duke Welf IV. and Count Rudolf von Pfullendorf .

1181 is on a seal of Duke Friedrich VI. first proven a lion on a Staufer coat of arms. This motif was extended to a three-lion coat of arms on a seal from Duke Heinrich von Schwaben, who later became King of the Staufers, Heinrich (VII) , in 1220 , which is the template for today's coat of arms of Baden-Württemberg .

In 1181 the now fourteen-year-old Friedrich VI. betrothed to a seven-year-old daughter of King Waldemar I of Denmark, whose name is unknown. After his heir to the throne, King Canute VI. from Denmark did not keep the agreed dowry payment, Emperor Barbarossa sent his son's bride, who had been living in Germany for five years at that time, back to Denmark untouched (Latin: intacta ) in 1187 . The girl could have been Waldemar's daughter Ingeborg , whose year of birth, assumed around 1175, would have been appropriate and who was later unhappily married to King Philip II of France .

At the court festival in Mainz on May 20, 1184 ( Pentecost Sunday ) Friedrich VI. together with his brother Heinrich VI. the accolade .

On March 27, 1188, Friedrich had to undertake to accompany his father on the coming crusade . On May 11, 1189, he left Regensburg with the crusader army . In Hungary he was betrothed to Konstanze , an eight to twelve year old daughter of King Béla III, an ally of Barbarossa . of Hungary . Since Friedrich died on the crusade two years later, Konstanze became the second wife of King Ottokar I of Bohemia in 1198 .

After the death of Friedrich I Barbarossa on June 10, 1190 in the Saleph River in Lesser Armenia , Duke Friedrich VI transferred the leadership of the German crusader army. Although a large part of the crusaders left the army and sailed from Antioch towards home, Friedrich wanted to move to Jerusalem with his remaining army . In Tripoli, most of his companions fell ill with malaria , which is why Friedrich came with only a few knights at the beginning of October 1190 to the besieged city of Akkon , where he died of malaria on January 20, 1191 and was also buried. Because the city was still occupied by Saladin's troops, the remaining crusaders could not enter the city and left the Holy Land after Frederick's death.

literature

• Paul Friedrich von Stälin :  Friedrich V, Duke of Swabia . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1878, p. 35.
• Hansmartin Schwarzmaier :  Friedrich V. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 590 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Gerhard Baaken : The age sequence of the sons of Friedrich Barbarossa and the ascension of Henry VI. In: German Archives for Research into the Middle Ages / Vol. 24 (1968) pp. 46–78.
• Hansmartin Decker-Hauff : The Staufer House. In: Württembergisches Landesmuseum (Hrsg.): The time of the Staufer. History - art - culture. Stuttgart 1977, Volume III, pp. 339-374, here: p. 355.
• Helmut Maurer : The Duke of Swabia. Foundations, effects and nature of his rule in the Ottonian, Salian and Staufer times. Sigmaringen 1978, pp. 268-300.
• Hansmartin Schwarzmaier : Friedrich V. (Konrad), Duke of Swabia (1167–1191) . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 4, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-7608-8904-2 , Sp. 960 f.
• Odilo Engels : The Hohenstaufen. 7th edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 1998, pp. 110-111 and p. 127, ISBN 3-17-015157-6 .
• Tobias Weller: The marriage policy of the German nobility in the 12th century . Cologne 2004, pp. 100-102 and 130-136.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Decker-Hauff p. 355. Although he is correctly referred to as the successor to his brother Friedrich, who was born in 1164, Konrad / Friedrich is incorrectly numbered here as Duke Friedrich V of Swabia .
2. ↑ Baaken p. 65. Engels p. 110.
3. ↑ Baaken p. 75.
4. ↑ Weller p. 100.
5. ↑ Stälin p. 35 : geb. in 1168 or 69, † 1191, second son of Emperor Frederick I and Beatrix of Burgundy .
6. ↑ Schwarzmaier (1961) p. 590 : * July 16, 1164, † January 20, 1191 Akkon .
7. ↑ Maurer p. 291.
8. ↑ Maurer p. 279.
9. ↑ Maurer p. 271, illus. P. 322.
10. ↑ Weller, pp. 131-135.
11. ↑ Weller pp. 135-136.

predecessor	Office	successor
Friedrich V.	Duke of Swabia 1170–1191	Konrad II.