FREDERIC II. FREDERIC WILLIAM. 



315 



Jerusalem, in which Frederic placed the crown upon 

 his head with his own hands, March 18th, because 

 no priest would even read mass, was put under an 

 interdict, and Frederic was betrayed to the sultan, 

 <>f which the noble Saracen himself gave him the first 

 information. The emperor now returned, without 

 delay, to Lower Italy, recovered his hereditary ter- 

 ritories by arms, after an ineffectual attempt at 

 negotiation with Gregory, and baffled all the intrigues 

 of the pope, who was finally compelled to release 

 him from the excommunication. The Lombards 

 would listen to no proposals of peace, but shut up 

 the road to the assembly of Ravenna against his son, 

 and would not allow themselves to be deceived by 

 Gregory's public exhortations to peace; nay, when 

 Frederic had reconciled the pope with his Roman 

 subjects, Gregory secretly attempted to persuade 

 king Henry to rebel against his father, and promised 

 him the support of the Lombards. The followers of 

 Henry were already numerous, even in Germany, 

 when he was surprised by his father, and the aston- 

 ished youth threw himself at his feet, imploring 

 mercy. But the deluded prince made a second 

 attempt on his father, it is said, by poison. He was 

 condemned, with his wife and child, to perpetual 

 imprisonment at St Felicia, in Apulia. There is an 

 appearance of harshness in the conduct of Frederic 

 on this occasion ; that he should celebrate his third 

 nuptials, with Isabella of England, with great cere- 

 mony, almost in the very moment in which he was 

 committing the son of his first wife to prison, and 

 causing him to be formally deposed in the general 

 diet of Mentz, 1235. At this diet, salutary measures 

 were taken for securing the public peace, providing 

 for the distribution of justice, and for encouraging 

 commerce (the importance of which few princes of his 

 time understood as well as Frederic) and agricul- 

 ture. 



Frederic now thought himself strong enough for 

 the struggle with the Lombards, and made his pre- 

 parations at Augsburg, 1236. The alliance of Ezze- 

 tino da Romano, ruler of Verona, and the Ghibeline 

 cities of Upper Italy, doubled his small army. This 

 war and the election of Conrad, his second son, as 

 king of Rome, were, however, interrupted by a short 

 contest with Frederic, duke of Austria, the last of 

 the Babenbergs (1237). Soon after the renewal of 

 the \yar against the Guelph cities of Upper Italy, a 

 victory at Corte Nuova, on the Oglio, broke the 

 power of the Lombards. Milan, Bologna, Piacenza, 

 Brescia, and all the other cities, surrendered. But 

 Gregory was still more incensed, particularly when 

 the emperor made his natural son, Enzio, king of 

 Sardinia, and prepared for the completion of the con- 

 quest of Lombardy. On Palm-Sunday, 1239, he ex- 

 communicated Frederic anew. The emperor con- 

 tinued the war, but he suffered much by the secret 

 treachery of Ezzelino. To bring the war to a com- 

 plete termination, he marched suddenly against the 

 pope himself (1240), penetrated through Spoleto 

 into the papal dominions, captured Ravenna, and 

 made the pope tremble in his capital. Rome would 

 have fallen an easy prey, had Frederic been able to 

 overcome the last remains of superstition in his own 

 breast, The emperor desired to settle his cause with- 

 out recourse to extremities, by an assembly of the 

 fathers of the church ; but he soon perceived that 

 none but his most decided enemies were summoned 

 to it, and forbade the prelates from going to Rome ; 

 but, finding his warnings of no avail, he ordered his 

 son, Enzio, to attack and to destroy the Genoese 

 fleet, and to carry more than one hundred prelates, 

 who had embarked for Rome, prisoners to Naples. 

 This blow brought the inflexible Gregory to his 

 death-bed, Aug. 21, 1241. 



Occupied by these enterprises, Frederic had been 

 unable to encounter the Mongols, who had invaded 

 Germany ; but they retired after their victory on the 

 plains of Wahlstadt in 1241. After the short reign 

 of Celestine IV., and the long interregnum which 

 succeeded, Frederic at length obtained a new elec- 

 tion ; but Sigibald Fiesco, who, while cardinal, had 

 been his friend, became the most formidable of his 

 enemies, as Innocent IV. He confirmed the excom- 

 munication pronounced by Gregory, and fled suddenly 

 from Italy, where the vicinity of the emperor appear- 

 ed to him too dangerous, to Lyons (1244). Frederic 

 had now no alternative, but to appear as a criminal 

 before the judgment seat of a priest, or to enter on 

 a dangerous contest with the superstition of the age. 

 The pope renewed the excommunication, and sum- 

 moned a general council at Lyons. Before this 

 council; Thaddeus de Suessa. chancellor of the 

 emperor, defended his cause with the power of elo- 

 quence and truth, and refuted accusations the most 

 malicious and most absurd, brought against him by 

 his enemies ; but the struggle was in vain. The 

 holy father pronounced the most dreadful curse upon 

 him ; the priests remained silent, extinguished their 

 candles, and threw them to the ground. Frederic, 

 however, justified himself before the princes of Eu- 

 rope, was victorious over the Lombards, crushed a 

 conspiracy in his own court, and retained his firmness 

 even after the defeat of his son Conrad, by his rival, 

 Henry. Conrad was soon after successful, and Henry 

 died 1247. 



The remainder of Frederic's life was passed in 

 conflict. Shortly after a victory in Lombardy, he was 

 surprised by death, and breathed his last in the arms 

 of his natural son Manfred, at Florentine, Dec. 13, 

 1250. He was not allowed by Providence to usher 

 in the bright day of intellectual light in Europe ; but 

 his efforts will always form a remarkable epoch in 

 history ; and though a century of political and men- 

 tal barbarism followed, in which the noble house of 

 Hohenstaufen perished, yet we see, in Louis the 

 Bavarian, who resembled Frederic in many points, 

 that his example was not wholly lost, and that a 

 great idea, once brought to light, cannot be easily 

 forgotten. 



FREDERIC WILLIAM, generally called the 

 great elector, was born in 1620, and, at the age of 

 twenty years, succeeded his father as elector of Bran- 

 denburg. He must be considered as the founder of 

 the Prussian greatness, and, in more than one point, 

 his reign gave to Prussia a character which it still 

 bears. From him is. in a great measure, derived that 

 military spirit, which is so striking a trait in the cha- 

 racter of the people. His reign began when the 

 unhappy thirty years' war was still raging in Ger- 

 many, and his conduct towards both parties was 

 prudent. In 1641, he concluded a treaty of neutra- 

 lity with Sweden, notwithstanding the earnest remon- 

 strances of Austria. In 1644, he concluded an 

 armistice with Hesse-Cassel, by which Cleves and 

 the county of Mark were restored to him. A ccording 

 to the terms of former treaties, Brandenburg ought 

 to have received Poroerania, on the death of the duke 

 without heirs (1637) ; but the elector was obliged, 

 by the peace of Westphalia, in 1648, to leave Ante- 

 rior Pomerania, the island of Rugen, and part of 

 Hinder-Pomerania to Sweden (which held it until 

 1814), and received, by way of indemnity, Magde- 

 burg, Halberstadt, and Cammin. He directed his 

 attention towards the army, and improved it much. 

 In the war between Poland and Sweden (in 1655), he 

 was obliged to take part, on account of the duchy of 

 Prussia. He supported both parties in turn, and ob- 

 tained an acknowledgment of the independence of 

 the duchy of Prussia from Poland, upon whom it was 



