Frederick, King of Jerusalem

[godfry n. glad]

I'm in the midst of Karen Armstrong's Holy War, a thought provoking book on the development of the crusading ideals of medieval Europe and how they manifest themselves, written in counterpoint to the development of the similar mindset amongst modern actors in the "Holy Land" conflict.

In the midst of this, she presents Frederick II as a very, very interesting personality amongst the stilted personalities of the Europe of his time.

[1194–1250, Holy Roman emperor (1220–50) and German king (1212–20), king of Sicily (1197–1250), and king of Jerusalem (1229–50), son of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI and of Constance, heiress of Sicily.]

She refers to him as the first Renaissance man, a shining star of reason and tolerance amidst the vast darkness of contemporary European culture. I googled him and came up with, amongst other things, the Catholic Encyclopedia reference to him, which varies considerably from Armstrong's picture. Of course, he was openly defiant of the pope (Innocent III) and was excommunicated several times.

Anybody here familiar with Freddy 2, Holy Roman Emperor and excommunicant leader of the 5th Crusade?

[Julian]

I am somewhat familiar with him. There is reason to suspect that he was an atheist. I also loved the way that he gained Jerusalem. He pissed off the pope because he simply got it through friendly diplomacy and the pope had wanted him to go there and kill people. He was quite friendly with the muslims.

Julian

[godfry n. glad]

Yeah, Armstrong states that a lot of apocryphal stories rose up around him, including that he was an atheist, but she seems quite assured that he remained a christian his entire life....just a decently tolerant one who appreciated other points of view and other cultures.

His manner of pissing off the ever-friendly and compassionate Pope Innocent III with regards the "conquest" of Jerusalem was not new to Freddy. He seems to have gloried in pissing off Innocent. And, his nominal opponent in the "battle" for Jerusalem was his friend and confidante, who'd invited him to the east with the offer to help him capture Jerusalem. Yeah.... The pope wanted more blood, guts, suffering and death. Freddy just wanted to hang with his friends and piss off Innocent.

He sounds like a interesting fellow, if a bit arrogant (but in a nice and useful way).

Oh... And Innocent III was a "Traditional Catholic" by virtue of the Lateran Council of 1215. That's those "Traditional Catholics" for you, doing their best to maximize pain and suffering.

[Gurdur]

"For too long till now I have been the anvil. Now I will be the hammer"

--- Friedrich, referring to his early childhood and early reign, dominated by the Pope, when announcing his decision to go against the Pope.

Plus he built a beautiful castle in southern Italy; its geometric form is heavily influenced by very abstract Moslem / mathematical art.