ENRICO VI, EMPEROR. — Son of Federico Barbarossa and Beatrice of Burgundy, born in 1165, died at Messina on 28 September 1197. Nominated king by the Romans at the age of three, he was associated with the Empire with the title of Caesar in 1184. On 27 January 1186, for political motives, he married at Milan Costanza d’Altavilla, heir to the Kingdom of Sicily. Pope Urbano III, who saw in that marriage a danger to the Church, refused to crown him; E. then, on his father’s orders, invaded the papal territory and sacked II. Only when Urbano’s successor, Gregorio VIII, promised him that he would not obstruct his claims to Sicily did he suspend hostilities. At his father’s death, which occurred on 10 June 1190 in Syria during the Crusade, E. was proclaimed emperor.
Ambitious and obstinate, avid for dominion and greatness, after settling affairs in Germany, where disturbances fomented by Enrico di Baviera had broken out, he descended into Italy in the spring of 1191. To obtain the imperial crown, he did not hesitate to betray the Ghibelline Tusculum, which was handed over to the Romans and then destroyed by them. Immediately after his coronation, despite the Pontiff’s warnings, E. went to southern Italy to subjugate his wife’s kingdom, but encountered strong opposition from Tancredi d’Altavilla and was subsequently forced to abandon the undertaking because of an epidemic that broke out in the army. He therefore returned to Germany in September and, contrary to the agreements sanctioned at Worms in 1122, appointed and invested bishops.
After Tancredi’s death (1194), he returned to Italy to conquer the Sicilian Kingdom; many cities surrendered to him, while others were taken by force. Having secured power (1196), he committed the most atrocious cruelties against ecclesiastics and laymen, accusing them of conspiracy and having them put to death amid frightful tortures, while his soldiers indulged in the most unheard-of violence. He had Tancredi’s young son blinded and led his wife and daughter away as prisoners to Alsace. When the Sicilians rose up, E. ferociously suppressed the rebellion. Meanwhile, with mild promises, he encouraged the Pope to prepare a Crusade. The death of Saladin (1193) and the consequent division of his kingdom among his sons genuinely offered a favorable opportunity for such an undertaking. Also urged on by the eastern princes, E. decided to undertake the expedition, but with the aim of extending his dominions. In May 1195 he held a diet at Bari and received the Cross from the bishop of Trani, while in Germany he promoted assemblies for the purpose of recruiting soldiers. The expedition began in September 1197, but E. remained in Italy, and his death shortly afterward caused the whole undertaking to fail.
BIBLI: T. Toesch, Jahrbücher der deutschen Geschichte unter Heinrich VI, Leipzig 1867; F. Chalandon, Histoire de la domination normande en Italie et en Stille, 2 vols., Paris 1907; A. Cartellieri, Heinrich VI und der Höhepunkt der stantischen Kaiser Politik, Leipzig 1914; J. Halley, Kaiser Heinrich VI, Berlin 1915; V. Pfaff, Kaiser Heinrich VI höchster Angebot an die römische Kurie, Heidelberg 1923; W. Cohn, Das Zeitalter der Hohenstaufen in Stillein, Breslau 1925; V. Pfaff, Kaiser Heinrich höchster Angebot an die römische Kurie, Heidelberg 1927; E. Pervis, Der Erbrechtsplan Heinrich VI, Berlin 1927; G. Falco, La S. Romana Repubblica, Naples 1942, p. 241 ff.