HOHENSTAUFEN, Dynasty of the. - It took its name from the Hohenstaufen, a height of the Swabian Jura, near Göppingen, on which FREDERICK, count of Büren, around 1070-80 had a castle built, first a seat and later the center of the domains. His son FREDERICK called himself count of H. and in the war between Rudolf duke of Swabia, his direct feudal lord, and the emperor Henry IV he sided with the latter against the former, and after the fall of the Swabian duke he received in compensation the investiture of the duchy of Swabia and the hand of Agnes, daughter of Henry IV. From that time (1079) the H. were the most devoted supporters of the house of Franconia. At his death, Henry V (1125) explicitly designated his nephew FREDERICK II duke of Swabia as his successor, but the fear that the Staufen would continue toward the Church the policy of the house of Franconia caused the candidacy of Lothair of Supplinburg to prevail. The latter, against the hostility of the Staufen, relied on the Guelph dukes of Bavaria, and thus the conflict between the Staufen and the Guelphs took shape (v. GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES). Against Lothair III rose in arms the younger brother of Frederick II of Swabia, CONRAD, who sought to usurp the throne, having himself recognized also in Italy, but the Staufen had to admit defeat and submit. In 1138, however, Conrad, with the support of the Church of Rome, succeeded Lothair III, and from that time the Staufen held the Empire for more than a century. In 1152 CONRAD III was succeeded by FREDERICK I BARBAROSSA (v.), who received the imperial crown, was the greatest representative of the House, and sought to implement that imperial absolutism which found in Germany vain resistance in Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony.
His son HENRY VI, after his accession to the throne (1190), persisted in the political stance made more dangerous by the conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily. The Emperor now aimed clearly at universal monarchy, reducing the papacy to a ministerial subordination. The sudden disappearance of Henry VI (1197) gave the new pope, Innocent III, the possibility of pursuing a bold policy: to restore the Kingdom of Sicily to pontifical feudal dependence, taking advantage of the minority of the representative of the Swabian dynasty, Frederick II; to impose his authority in Germany by bringing to the throne an opponent of the Swabians.
The program of overthrowing the Swabians, however, failed. Innocent III, although he opposed to PHILIP, brother of Henry VI, the Guelph Otto of Brunswick and was even able to give him the imperial crown when Philip of Swabia disappeared, assassinated (1208), did not take long, however, to realize the error he had committed when Otto IV resumed the Swabian policy against the papacy and against the Kingdom of Sicily. He then helped the young Swabian FREDERICK II, king of Sicily, to recover the Empire with the commitment of the separation between the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Germany. Frederick II, however, kept both the Empire and the Kingdom of Sicily. The clash between the Emperor and the papacy was therefore inevitable: the struggle was once again made complicated by Frederick II's resumption of the old policy of his father and grandfather of reducing to submission the Communes, which had now become organized and independent States. In Germany too the Emperor's absolutist program created discontent and agitation among cities and princes, aggravated by the rebellion of his own son HENRY, Frederick II's representative there.
The death of Frederick II in 1250 also marked the fall of the anti-ecclesiastical imperial program and the fading of that medieval universalism which had found a secular interpretation in the policy of the house of H. After Frederick II, his son CONRAD IV held the Empire and the Kingdom of Sicily, but for only a few years (1250-54) and with minimal results; then his natural son MANFRED held the Kingdom of Sicily in conflict with the popes, who were by now determined to overthrow what they called a brood of vipers. The house of H. ended with the death of Manfred at Benevento (1265) and with that of the last of the house, CONRADIN, son of Conrad IV, beheaded in Naples in the market square after the unfortunate attempt to recover the Kingdom of Sicily (1269).
Bibliography13 works
Francesco Cognasso