Editing Hohenstaufen (section)

==Ruling in Italy==
The conflict between the Staufer dynasty and the [[House of Welf|Welf]] had irrevocably weakened the Imperial authority and the [[Norman conquest of southern Italy#Conquest of Sicily, 1061–1091|Norman kingdom of Sicily]] became the base for Staufer rule.

===Frederick II===
[[Emperor Frederick II]] was the most brilliant and extraordinary of the Hohenstaufen<ref>{{cite journal|last=Köhler|first=Walther|author-link=:de:Walther Köhler|year=1903|title=Emperor Frederick II., The Hohenstaufe|journal=[[The American Journal of Theology]]|volume=7|issue=2|pages=225–248|doi=10.1086/478355 |jstor=3153729|doi-access=free}}</ref> but he spent little time in Germany. His main concerns lay in Italy and the Kingdom of Sicily, where he ruled as an absolute monarch supported by a sophisticated administrative apparatus. The institutions of Sicily and Italy seemed to be better political laboratories, more conducive to Frederick’s remarkable brand of innovation and absolutist tendencies. He founded the [[University of Naples]] in 1224 to train future state officials and reigned over Germany primarily through the allocation of royal prerogatives, leaving the sovereign authority and imperial estates to the ecclesiastical and secular princes. In 1232, Henry (VII), King of Germany and Frederick’s eldest son, was forced by the German princes to promulgate the ''[[Statutum in favorem principum]]'' ("statute in favor of princes"). Frederick II, embittered but aiming to promote cohesion in Germany in preparation for his campaigns in northern Italy, pragmatically agreed to Henry’s confirmation of the charter. It was a charter of liberties for the leading German princes at the expense of the lesser nobility and the entirety of the commoners. The princes gained whole power of jurisdiction, and the power to strike their own coins. The emperor lost his right to establish new cities, castles and mints over their territories. The ''Statutum'' was more a confirmation of political realities which had existed for generations in Germany than a wholesale denuding of royal power and it did not prevent imperial officials from enforcing Frederick’s prerogatives. The ''Statutum'' affirmed a division of labor between the emperor and the princes and laid much groundwork for the development of particularism and, perhaps even federalism in Germany. Even so, from 1232 the vassals of the emperor had a veto over imperial legislative decisions and any new law established by the emperor had to be approved by the princes. These provisions not withstanding, royal power in Germany remained strong under Frederick. 

By the 1240s the crown was almost as rich in fiscal resources, towns, castles, enfeoffed retinues, monasteries, ecclesiastical advocacies, manors, tolls, and all other rights, revenues, and jurisdictions as it had ever been at any time since the death of Henry VI. It is unlikely that a particularly "strong ruler" such as Frederick II would have even pragmatically agreed to legislation that was concessionary rather than cooperative, neither would the princes have insisted on such. Frederick II used the political loyalty and practical jurisdictions of the German aristocracy to support his kingly duty of imposing peace, order, and justice upon the German realm. This is shown clearly in the imperial [[Landfrieden|Landfried]] issued at Mainz in 1235, which explicitly enjoined the princes as loyal vassals to exercise their own jurisdictions in their own localities. The jurisdictional autarky of the German princes was favoured by the crown itself in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the interests of order and local peace. The inevitable result was the territorial particularism of churchmen, lay princes, and interstitial cities. However, Frederick II was a ruler of vast territories and "could not be everywhere at once". The transference of jurisdiction was a practical solution to secure the further support of the German princes.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Arnold|first1=Benjamin| title=Emperor Frederick II (1194–1250) and the political particularism of the German princes|date=2000|journal=Journal of Medieval History|volume=26|issue=3|pages=239–252|doi=10.1016/S0304-4181(00)00005-1 }}</ref>

[[File:Castel del Monte - Andria.jpg|thumb|left|Frederick's [[Castel del Monte (Apulia)|Castel del Monte]], in [[Andria, Italy|Andria]], Apulia, Italy.]]

By the 1226 [[Golden Bull of Rimini]], Frederick had assigned the military order of the [[Teutonic Knights]] to complete the conquest and conversion of the [[Prussia (region)|Prussian]] lands. A reconciliation with the Welfs took place in 1235, whereby [[Otto I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg|Otto the Child]], grandson of the late Saxon duke Henry the Lion, was named [[Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg|Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg]]. The power struggle with the popes continued and resulted in Frederick's [[excommunication]] in 1227. In 1239, [[Pope Gregory IX]] excommunicated Frederick again, and in 1245 he was condemned as a heretic by a church council. Although Frederick II was perhaps one of the most energetic, imaginative, and capable rulers of the entire Middle Ages, he seemed to be less concerned with drawing the disparate forces in Germany together. Frederick was pragmatic enough to realize that for all his ability and power, his time and focus could only be fully concentrated either north or south of the Alps, where the bulk of his resources lay.

[[File:Frederick II and eagle.jpg|thumb|upright|Frederick II with his falcon, from ''[[De arte venandi cum avibus]]'', c. 1240, [[Vatican Library]]]]

Frederick II’s most profound legal legacy remains the [[Constitutions of Melfi]] promulgated in 1231 in the Kingdom of Sicily. The sophistication of the Constitutions or the ''Liber Augustalis'' set Frederick as perhaps the supreme lawgiver of the Middle Ages.<ref>{{cite book|last= Van Cleve|first= T. C.|title=The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen: Immuntator Mundi|publisher=Oxford|year=1972|isbn=0-198-22513-X |page=143}}</ref> The Constitutions drew upon decades of Siculo-Norman governmental tradition stretching back to his maternal grandfather, [[Roger II of Sicily]]. Almost every aspect in Frederick’s tightly-governed kingdom was regulated, from a rigorously centralized judiciary and bureaucracy, to commerce, coinage, financial policy, weights and measures, legal equality for all citizens, protections for women, and even provisions for the environment and public health. Per the Constitutions, Frederick II was ''[[lex animata]]'' and ruled as an absolute monarch. The Constitutions have been regarded as perhaps the "birth certificate" of the modern continental European state.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kantorowicz|author-link=Ernst Kantorowicz|first=Ernst|title=Frederick the Second, 1194–1250|year=1937|publisher=Frederick Ungar|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/fredericktheseco000027mbp/ |page=228}}</ref>

From 1240, Frederick II was determined to push through far-reaching reforms to establish the Sicilian kingdom and Imperial Italy as a unified state bound by a centralized administration. The new unified administration was taken over directly by the emperor and his highly trained Sicilian officials whose jurisdiction now ranged across all of Italy. For the rest of Frederick’s reign, there was a continuous movement toward the extension and perfection of this new unified administrative system, with the emperor himself as the driving force.{{sfn|Van Cleve|1972|p=446}} Despite his mighty efforts however, Frederick’s unified Italian state proved ephemeral after his death. The vicars and captains-general provided the prototype for the great signori who dominated Italy in later generations, each a petty sovereign in Frederick’s image—some even continued to claim the title of imperial vicar.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Masson |first=Georgina |title= Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, A Life |publisher=Octagon Books |year=1973 |page=302}}</ref>

[[File:Mitteleuropa zur Zeit der Staufer.svg|thumb|left|The [[Holy Roman Empire]] at its greatest extent under Emperor Frederick II.]]

By the time of Frederick's death in 1250, the crown in Germany was still formidable and [[Conrad IV, King of Germany|Conrad IV]], Frederick’s eldest surviving legitimate son and heir, enjoyed a strong position. However after Conrad’s death in 1254, The [[Great Interregnum]] followed which saw several rival claimants elected as King of the Romans in Germany. None of these claimants were able to achieve any position of authority much less the power and imperial grandeur of the Hohenstaufen. The German princes vied for individual advantage and managed to strip many powers away from the diminished monarchy. Rather than establish sovereign states however, many nobles tended to look after their families. Their many male heirs created more and smaller estates, and from a largely free class of officials previously formed, many of these assumed or acquired hereditary rights to administrative and legal offices. These trends compounded political fragmentation within Germany. The period was ended in 1273 with the election of [[Rudolph I of Germany|Rudolph of Habsburg]], a [[Godparent|godson]] of Frederick.<ref name="Abulafia1992">{{cite book|author=David Abulafia|title=Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sgufggLomo8C|year=1992|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-508040-7}}</ref>

===End of the Staufer dynasty ===
Conrad IV was succeeded as duke of Swabia by his only son, two-year-old [[Conradin]]. By this time, the office of duke of Swabia had been fully subsumed into the office of the king, and without royal authority had become meaningless. In 1261, attempts to elect young Conradin king were unsuccessful. He also had to defend Sicily against an invasion, sponsored by [[Pope Urban IV]] (Jacques Pantaléon) and [[Pope Clement IV]] (Guy Folques), by [[Charles of Anjou]], a brother of the [[Kingdom of France|French]] king. Charles had been promised by the popes the Kingdom of Sicily, where he would replace the relatives of Frederick II. Charles had defeated Conradin's uncle [[Manfred, King of Sicily]], in the [[Battle of Benevento]] on 26 February 1266. The king himself, refusing to flee, rushed into the midst of his enemies and was killed. Conradin's campaign to retake control ended with his defeat in 1268 at the [[Battle of Tagliacozzo]], after which he was handed over to Charles, who had him publicly [[executed]] at [[Naples]]. With Conradin, the direct line of the Dukes of Swabia finally ceased to exist, though most of the later emperors were descended from the Staufer dynasty indirectly.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.grin.com/document/180488 |title=SDie Hinrichtung Konradins von Hohenstaufen – Reaktionen der Zeitgenossen und Rezeption der Nachwelt  |publisher=   Grin  |author=Lukas Strehle |date=19 October 2011 |access-date=February 28, 2020 }}</ref><ref name="Benjamin2010">{{cite book|author=Sandra Benjamin|title=Sicily: Three Thousand Years of Human History - 7 - Hohenstaufens |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dOpFBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT292|date=20 April 2010|publisher=Steerforth Press|isbn=978-1-58642-181-6|pages=292–}}</ref>

The last member of the dynasty was Manfred's son, Henry [Enrico], who died in captivity at [[Castel dell'Ovo]] on 31 October 1318.{{efn|[[Manfred, King of Sicily|Manfred of Sicily]] was himself a son of [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]] born out of wedlock, who had been legitimised by the posterior marriage of his parents on his mother's deathbed. Therefore, his son, Henry [Enrico] (May 1262 – 31 October 1318), was the last Hohenstaufen who could have claimed full dynastic rights, albeit not being the last [[Patrilineality|agnatic]] descendant of the family. In fact, the last patrilineal descendant was Henry's first cousin once removed, Giovanna di Stevia (1280 – 1352), a daughter of [[Conrad of Antioch|Conrad]], and grand-daughter of [[Frederick of Antioch]], also an illegitimate son of Frederick II.}}<ref>Carrara, Mario. ''Gli Scaligeri'', Varese, Dell'Oglio, 1966.</ref><ref name="Gregorovius 2010">[[Ferdinand Gregorovius|Gregorovius, Ferdinand]] (2010) [1897]. ''History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages''. Vol. 5, Part 2, Cambridge University Press.</ref><ref>Matthew of Paris, Mon. Germ. Hist. Scriptores XXVIII pp. 360-361</ref><ref>Cronica Fratris Salimbene di Adam, Ordinis Minorem, MGH SS XXXII p. 349</ref>

During the political decentralization of the late Staufer period, the population had grown from an estimated 8 million in 1200 to about 14 million in 1300, and the number of towns increased tenfold. The most heavily urbanized areas of Germany were in the south and the west. Towns often developed a degree of independence, but many were subordinate to local rulers if not [[Imperial immediacy|immediate]] to the emperor. Colonization of the east also continued in the thirteenth century, most notably through the efforts of the Teutonic Knights. German merchants also began trading extensively on the [[Baltic region|Baltic]].