The Romans had a name for Frederick I, the man who entered their territory and was crowned emperor by Pope Adrian IV. “Barbarossa,” meaning “red beard.” But given many of the Italians’s unmitigated animosity for this German king and, beginning in 1155, Holy Roman Emperor, it’s likely they had a few other names for him as well. They had not selected him with their own voice, and felt that he had been foisted upon them — his power and authority over their own lands. In their eyes, a most unjust and unpalatable act.
This man of the red beard takes center stage in the third episode of The Germans, as does Henry III, who possesses an equally amusing moniker: Henry the Lion. The two were cousins, but their relationship progressed into something that was anything but cordial.
How fitting. For as this episode shows, the latter half of the 12th century in the realm of the Holy Roman Empire was a series of fiercely-contested struggles for recognition and the ability to assert one’s (ostensibly) rightful power.
As in the previous episodes, there’s copious, though well done, reenactments of pivotal events, along with a clear and informative narration. There’s also some particularly amazing visual treats, as we see extraordinary medieval castles and cathedrals, maps and manuscripts, and priceless reliquaries.
It’s perhaps of little surprise that some of the above were created in a show of power. In an area near Frankfurt, Barbarossa built his splendid Gelnhausen palace, which “symbolized the very idea of empire, architecturally.” Henry the Lion, in celebration of his marriage, has husband and wife pictured in a gospel manuscript receiving their crowns from none other than God.
Displays of power — artistically, militarily, verbally — exude from every major player in the dramatic period. Sometimes there are clear cut winners and losers, but more often it’s a gradually shifting balance of power, particularly between the powers of the emperor and pope.
One instance. In 1157, Barbarossa became irate when — perhaps stemming from a misunderstanding over the word beneficium — he felt the pope was grossly mistaken about the origins of the emperor’s power; for Barbarossa, it was not the pope, but God who granted him the power of the imperial crown.
This was neither the first nor last of these kinds of disputes. As it would turn out, though, Barbarossa’s vision on such matters would significantly be undermined in the Congress of Venice (1177). It was a year after his disastrous defeat in the Battle of Legnano. This Congress, in the words of one scholar in the film, “ended the emperor’s attempt to create direct rule with his own people in office in Italy.”
In some sense, he had only superficially established this kind of authority to begin with. In 1158, he had run roughshod over the people of Milan — who refused to kowtow to the German emperor — besieging the city and then ultimately burning it down. But the effects weren’t lasting. Indeed one consequence was that it fostered an even stronger anti-emperor mentality and a uniftied psyche among the northern Italians.
As for the maintenance of power much closer to home, Barbarossa also had difficulties, not least with the ambitious Henry the Lion. The documentary does well in illuminating the political dynamics within the ring of powerful German dukes. They wanted the emperor to be seen as a “first among equals” rather than hovering infinitely above them. But Frederick wasn’t their only source of envy — they often feared each other when one grew increasingly strong.
Henry the Lion, who had grown in power throughout the middle decades of Barbarossa’s reign, ultimately faced the backlash of these fears in the form of deposition. Though Barbarossa had personal reasons for kicking him out — Henry had not supported him in the lead up to Legnano — the envious dukes also played a role, and were more than happy to see him go.
A decade later, Barbarossa himself left the kingdom, off to participate in the Third Crusade. In a rather anticlimactic end to his life, he drowned making the journey.
Was his 35-year reign as emperor successful? One scholar in the film suggests that he largely failed at his major goals. But he did help keep the Hohenstaufen dynasty going — paving the way for his son to succeed him — and perhaps that’s good enough.
Spectatio 