Editing Hohenstaufen (section)

==Ruling in Germany==

When the last male member of the Salian dynasty, Emperor [[Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor|Henry V]], died without heirs in 1125, a controversy arose about the succession. Duke [[Frederick II, Duke of Swabia|Frederick II]] and [[Conrad III of Germany|Conrad]], the two current male Staufers, by their mother Agnes, were grandsons of late Emperor Henry IV and nephews of Henry V. Frederick attempted to succeed to the throne of the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] (formally known as the [[King of the Romans]]) through a customary election, but lost to the [[Duchy of Saxony|Saxon]] duke [[Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor|Lothair of Supplinburg]]. A civil war between Frederick's dynasty and Lothair's ended with Frederick's submission in 1134. After Lothair's death in 1137, Frederick's brother Conrad was elected King as Conrad III.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hohenstaufen-dynasty|title=Hohenstaufen dynasty {{!}} German dynasty|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-02-12}}</ref>

Because the [[House of Welf|Welf duke]] [[Henry the Proud]], son-in-law and heir of Lothair and the most powerful prince in Germany, who had been passed over in the election, refused to acknowledge the new king, Conrad III deprived him of all his territories, giving the [[Duchy of Saxony]] to [[Albert the Bear]] and that of [[Duchy of Bavaria|Bavaria]] to [[Leopold&nbsp;IV, Margrave of Austria]]. In 1147, Conrad heard [[Bernard of Clairvaux]] preach the [[Second Crusade]] at [[Speyer]], and he agreed to join King [[Louis VII of France]] in a great [[Second Crusade|expedition]] to the [[Holy Land]] which failed.

Conrad's brother Duke Frederick II died in 1147, and was succeeded in Swabia by his son, Duke [[Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick III]]. When King Conrad III died without adult heir in 1152, Frederick also succeeded him, taking both German royal and Imperial titles.<ref name=myt>{{cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47760851 |title=Der Mythos der Staufer - eine schwäbische Königsdynastie wird erinnert und instrumentalisiert  |author=Klaus Graf |access-date=February 28, 2020 }}</ref>

===Frederick Barbarossa===
[[Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick I]] (Reign 2 January 1155 – 10 June 1190), known as Frederick Barbarossa because of his red beard, struggled throughout his reign to restore the power and prestige of the German monarchy against the dukes, whose power had grown both before and after the [[Investiture Controversy]] under his Salian predecessors. As royal access to the resources of the church in Germany was much reduced, Frederick was forced to go to [[Kingdom of Italy (medieval)|Italy]] to find the finances needed to restore the king's power in Germany. He was soon crowned emperor in Italy, but decades of warfare on the peninsula yielded scant results. The [[Papal States|Papacy]] and the prosperous city-states of the [[Lombard League]] in northern Italy were traditional enemies, but the fear of Imperial domination caused them to join ranks to fight Frederick. Under the skilled leadership of [[Pope Alexander III]], the alliance suffered many defeats but ultimately was able to deny the emperor a complete victory in Italy. Frederick returned to Germany. He had vanquished one notable opponent, his Welf cousin, Duke [[Henry the Lion]] of Saxony and [[Duchy of Bavaria|Bavaria]] in 1180, but his hopes of restoring the power and prestige of the monarchy seemed unlikely to be met by the end of his life.<ref name="Görich2011"/>

During Frederick's long stays in Italy, the German princes became stronger and began a successful colonization of Slavic lands. Offers of reduced taxes and manorial duties enticed many Germans to settle in the east in the course of the ''[[Ostsiedlung]]''. In 1163 Frederick waged a successful campaign against the [[Kingdom of Poland (1025–1385)|Kingdom of Poland]] in order to re-install the [[Duchy of Silesia|Silesian]] dukes of the [[Silesian Piasts|Piast]] dynasty. With the German colonization, the Empire increased in size and came to include the [[Duchy of Pomerania]]. A quickening economic life in Germany increased the number of towns and [[Free imperial city|Imperial cities]], and gave them greater importance. It was also during this period that castles and courts replaced monasteries as centers of culture. Growing out of this courtly culture, [[Middle High German]] literature reached its peak in lyrical love poetry, the [[Minnesang]], and in narrative epic poems such as ''[[Tristan]]'', ''[[Parzival]]'', and the ''[[Nibelungenlied]]''.<ref name="Barber2004">{{cite book|author=Malcolm Barber|title=The Two Cities: Medieval Europe 1050–1320 - pp 198|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lcGEAgAAQBAJ|date=2 August 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-68751-0}}</ref>

===Henry VI===
[[File:Friedrich-barbarossa-und-soehne-welfenchronik 1-1000x1540.jpg|thumb|upright|Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his sons King Henry VI and Duke [[Frederick V, Duke of Swabia|Frederick V of Swabia]], ''[[Historia Welforum]]'', 1167/79, [[Weingarten Abbey]]]]

Frederick died in 1190 while on the [[Third Crusade]] and was succeeded by his son, [[Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor|Henry VI]]. Elected king even before his father's death, Henry went to [[Rome]] to be crowned emperor. He married [[Constance I of Sicily|Princess Constance of Sicily]], and deaths in his wife's family gave him claim of succession and possession of the [[Kingdom of Sicily]] in 1189 and 1194 respectively, a source of vast wealth. Henry failed to make royal and Imperial succession hereditary, but in 1196 he succeeded in gaining a pledge that his infant son [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick]] would receive the German crown. Faced with difficulties in Italy and confident that he would realize his wishes in Germany at a later date, Henry returned to the south, where it appeared he might unify the peninsula under the Hohenstaufen name. After a series of military victories, however, he fell ill and died of natural causes in Sicily in 1197. His underage son Frederick could only succeed him in Sicily and Malta, while in the Empire the struggle between the House of Staufen and the House of Welf erupted once again.<ref name="Matthew1992">{{cite book|author=Donald Matthew|title=The Norman Kingdom of Sicily - p. 290|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CQfub3l_ejkC|date=30 July 1992|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-26911-7}}</ref>

===Philip of Swabia===
Because the election of a three-year-old boy to be German king appeared likely to make orderly rule difficult, the boy's uncle, Duke [[Philip of Swabia]], brother of late Henry VI, was designated to serve in his place. Other factions however favoured a Welf candidate. In 1198, two rival kings were chosen: the Hohenstaufen Philip of Swabia and the son of the deprived Duke [[Henry the Lion]], the Welf [[Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto IV]]. A long civil war began; Philip was about to win when he was murdered by the Bavarian [[count palatine]] Otto VIII of [[Wittelsbach]] in 1208. [[Pope Innocent III]] initially had supported the Welfs, but when Otto, now sole elected monarch, moved to appropriate Sicily, Innocent changed sides and accepted young Frederick II and his ally, King [[Philip II of France]], who defeated Otto at the 1214 [[Battle of Bouvines]]. Frederick had returned to Germany in 1212 from Sicily, where he had grown up, and was elected king in 1215. When Otto died in 1218, Frederick became the undisputed ruler, and in 1220 was crowned [[Holy Roman Emperor]].

Philip changed the coat of arms from a black lion on a gold shield to three leopards,<ref>{{cite book |last=Stälin  |first=Paul Friedrich |title=Geschichte Württembergs Erster Band Erste Hälfte (bis 1268) |year=1882 |location=Gotha |pages=389–393  }}</ref> probably derived from the arms of his Welf rival [[Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto IV]].