HOHENSTAUFER, DYNASTY of. — It took its name from Hohenstaufen, a height in the Swabian Jura near Göppingen, on which FEDERICO, count of Büren, had a castle built around 1070–80; this was first its seat and later the center of its domains. His son FEDERICO called himself count of H., and in the war between Rodolfo, duke of Swabia, his direct feudal lord, and the emperor Enrico IV, he sided with the latter against the former; after the fall of the Swabian duke, he received as compensation the investiture of the duchy of Swabia and the hand of Agnese, daughter of Enrico IV. From that time (1079), the H. were the most devoted supporters of the Franconian house. At the death of Enrico V (1125), he explicitly designated his nephew FEDERICO II, duke of Swabia, as his successor, but fear that the Staufen would continue the policy of the Franconian house toward the Church caused the candidacy of Lotario of Suplimburg to prevail. Against the hostility of the Staufen, he relied on the Guelph dukes of Bavaria, and thus the conflict between the Staufen and the Guelphs took shape (v. GUELFI E GHIBELLINI). Against Lotario III, the younger brother of Federico II of Swabia, CORRADO, took up arms; he attempted to usurp the throne by having himself recognized in Italy as well, but the Staufen had to acknowledge defeat and submit. In 1138, however, with the support of the Church of Rome, Corrado succeeded Lotario III, and from then on the Staufen held the Empire for more than a century. In 1152, CORRADO III FEDERICO I BARBAROSSA (v.), who received the imperial crown, was the House’s foremost representative, and sought to implement that imperial absolutism which encountered futile resistance in Germany from Enrico the Lion, duke of Saxony.
His son ENRICO VI, after his accession to the throne (1190), persisted in the political attitude made more dangerous by the conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily. The Emperor now clearly aimed at universal monarchy, reducing the papacy to ministerial subordination. The sudden disappearance of Enrico VI (1197) gave the new pope, Innocenzo III, the opportunity to pursue an audacious policy: to restore the Kingdom of Sicily to pontifical feudal dependence, taking advantage of the youth of the representative of the Swabian dynasty, Federico II; and to impose his authority in Germany by bringing an adversary of the Swabians to the throne.
The program of overthrowing the Swabians nevertheless failed. Although Innocenzo III opposed the Guelph Ottone of Brunswick to FILIPPO, brother of Enrico VI, and was even able to give him the imperial crown when Filippo of Swabia disappeared, assassinated (1208), he soon realized the error he had made when Ottone IV resumed the Swabian policy against the papacy and against the Kingdom of Sicily. He then helped the young Swabian FEDERICO II, king of Sicily, to recover the Empire, on the condition that the Kingdom of Sicily and the Kingdom of Germany be separated. Federico II, however, retained both the Empire and the Kingdom of Sicily. A conflict between the Emperor and the papacy was therefore inevitable: the struggle was once again complicated by Federico II’s resumption of his father’s and grandfather’s old policy of reducing the Communes to submission; these had by then become organized and independent states. In Germany as well, the Emperor’s absolutist program produced discontent and agitation among cities and princes, aggravated by the rebellion of his own son ENRICO, Federico II’s representative there.
The death of Federico II in 1250 also marked the collapse 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 Federico II, his son CORRADO IV held both the Empire and the Kingdom of Sicily, but only for a few years (1250–54) and with minimal results; then his natural son MANFREDI held the Kingdom of Sicily in conflict with the popes, who were by then determined to overthrow what they called the race of vipers. The house of H. ended with the death of Manfredi at Benevento (1265) and that of the last member of the house, CORRADINO, son of Corrado IV, beheaded in Naples in the market square after his unsuccessful attempt to recover the Kingdom of Sicily (1269).