HENRY VI, EMPEROR — Son of Frederick Barbarossa and Beatrice of Burgundy, born in 1165, died at the age of 3, was associated with the Empire with the title of Caesar in 1184. On 27 January 1185, for political reasons, he married at Milan Constance of Hauteville, heiress to the Kingdom of Sicily. Pope Urban III, who saw in that marriage a danger to the Church, refused to crown him, and so Henry, by order of his father, invaded the papal territory, sacking it; only when his successor, Gregory VIII, promised not to obstruct his claims to Sicily did he suspend hostilities. Upon the death of his father, which occurred on 10 June 1190 in Syria during the Crusade, Henry was proclaimed emperor.
Ambitious and obstinate, greedy for power and grandeur, after settling affairs in Germany where disturbances fomented by Henry the Lion had broken out, in the spring of 1191 he descended into Italy. To secure the imperial claim he did not hesitate to betray the Ghibelline Tusculum, which was delivered to the Romans and then destroyed by them. Immediately after his coronation, despite the Pope’s warnings, Henry went to southern Italy to subjugate his wife’s kingdom, but found strong resistance in Tancred of Hauteville and was later forced to abandon the enterprise because of an epidemic that broke out in the army. He therefore returned to Germany in September and, in violation of the agreements made at Worms in 1122, appointed and invested bishops. After Tancred’s death (1194), Henry returned to Italy to conquer the Sicilian kingdom; many cities surrendered to him, others were taken by force. Once secure in power (1196), he committed the most atrocious cruelties against ecclesiastics and laymen, accusing them of conspiracy and putting them to death amid horrific tortures, while his soldiers indulged in the most unbridled violence. He had the young son of Tancred seized and took his wife and daughter prisoner to Alsace. When the Sicilians rebelled, Henry crushed the uprising savagely. Meanwhile, with hollow promises he flattered the Pope in order to prepare a Crusade. The death of Saladin (1193) and the consequent division of his realm among his sons offered a timely opportunity for such an enterprise. Urged also by the Eastern princes, Henry decided on the expedition, but with the aim of extending his dominions. In 1196 and 1197, while at a diet in Bari he received the Cross from the bishop of Trani, in Germany he promoted assemblies to enlist soldiers. The expedition began in September 1197, but Henry remained in Italy, and his sudden death shortly afterward brought everything to naught.