Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/765

 FREDERICK 729 only received its present designation in 1664. In 1657 it was taken by storm by the Swedish general Wrangel, and in 1G59, after the fortress had been dismantled, it was oc cupied by Frederick William of Brandenburg. It was not till 1709-10 that the works were again put in a state of defence, and the place even then continued to be of but little importance. In 1848 an attempt was made by the Danes to oppose the Prussians, who entered on May 3, and maintained their position against the Danish cannon- boats. During the armistice of 1848-9 the fortress was strengthened, and soon afterwards it stood a siege of two months, which was brought to a glorious close by a success ful sortie. In memory of the victory several monuments have been erected in the town and its vicinity, of which the most noticeable are the bronze statue of the Danish Land Soldier by Bissen (one of Thorwaldsen s best pupils), and the great barrow over 500 Danes in the cemetery of the Holy Trinity Church, with a bas-relief by the same sculptor. On the outbreak of the war of 18G4, the fortress was again strengthened by new works and an entrenched camp; but the Danes suddenly evacuated it on 28th April after a siege of six weeks. The Austro-Prussian army partly destroyed the fortifications, and kept possession of the town till the conclusion of peace. FREDERICK, in German FRIEDRICH, the name, signi fying Rich in Peace, borne by a considerable number of European (principally German) sovereigns. The most important of these, including the compound names Fre derick Augustus and Frederick William, are noticed here in the following order : the emperors, the electors of Brandenburg and kings of Prussia, the electors and kings of Saxony, and the electors palatine. FREDERICK I. (1123-1190), surnamed by the Italians Barbarossa, Holy Roman emperor, and one of the greatest of German sovereigns, was the son of Frederick the One-eyed of Hohenstanfen, duke of Swabia, and of Judith, daughter of Henry the Black, duke of Bavaria, and was born most probably in 1123. He succeeded his father as duke of Swabia in 1147, and in the same year accompanied his uncle Conrad III. on his disastrous crusade. As in addition to his exceptional personal qualities Frederick possessed the advantage of uniting in himself the blood of the two great rival families, the Guelphine and the Ghi- belline, Conrad III, though possessing an infant son, nom inated him as his successor. On the death of Conrad this choice was unanimously ratified by the assembly at Frank fort, March 4 or 5, 1152, and on the 9th of the same month Frederick received the crown of Germany at Aix-la-Chapelle. During the reign of Conrad, the Italian and imperial rights claimed by the German kings had been almost in abeyance, and it was to establish their reality that Frederick devoted the chief energies of his life. After settling various dis putes among the German princes, and making arrangements for an alliance with Manuel emperor of the East against King William of Sicily, he, in October 1154, descended with his army through the vale of Trent to hold the diet of his imperial feudatories on the plains of Roncaglia. Before this diet the Milanese had treated with contempt his messenger sent to warn them against continuing to oppress the citizens of Lodi ; and when he witnessed after wards, on his march to Piedmont, the desolation that had been caused by the Milanese, he began to sack and burn their dependencies, and after crossing the Po razed Tortona to the ground. Then having appeared, with the iron crown on his head, in the church of St Michael s, Pavia, he set out over the Apennines to receive the imperial crown at Rome. After apprehending Arnold of Brescia as an earnest of his intentions to support the papal cause, and adjusting certain ceremonial differences with the pope, lie was crowned emperor June 18, 1155; but immediately after quelling the insurrection in Home which followed his coronation, he was compelled, by the sudden appearance of a pestilence in his army, to march towards Lombardy, and without accom plishing more than the capture of Spoleto he disbanded his troops and returned home. For the next three years a great variety of matters de tained him in Germany. Immediately on his return from Italy he put vigorous measures into execution against the robber knights; and in September 1156 lie reconciled Henry the Lion by the restoration of the duchy of Bavaria, while at the same time he pacified Henry Jasomirgott, his rival, by raising Austria to the rank of a duchy. Adelaide, whom he married in 1147, he had divorced in 1153 on the pretext of kinship; and, having in 1156 married Beatrice, daughter of the count of Burgundy, he received at Besan^on in 1157 the homage of the Burgundian nobles. In the same year he was successful in compelling King Boleslaus of Poland to acknowledge him as his feudal lord, obtained by persuasion the same allegiance from King Geisa of Hungary, and rewarded Duke Ladislaus of Bohemia for his faithful services by giving him the rank of a king. About this time he published a manifesto against the pretensions of the Pope to confer benejida upon him; and when Frederick in the beginning of 1158 was preparing for a second campaign in Italy, the pope sent an embassy to explain that he did not use the word in its feudal sense. Frederick s chief purpose in this expedition was to quell the pride of Milan. Descending into Italy by four different roads, with an army of 100,000 foot and 15,000 horse, he in 1158 laid siege to the city, which, after defying for a month his persistent and furious attacks, was compelled from scarcity of provisions to surrender, and with humili ating forms to take the oath of allegiance. He then held another diet at Roncaglia, at which, besides settling a number of standing disputes, he recovered the right of instituting podestas to administer justice in the cities, assumed the nomination of the consuls, and deprived the cities and barons of the right of going to war. The adoption of these regulations which if within the legal prerogatives of the emperor had nevertheless fallen into abeyance, and were utterly opposed to the strong spirit of independence struggling into existence in the cities may be said to mark the first stage of his waning influence in Italy. And a second stage was reached when, on the death of Pope Adrian IV. in 1159, he determined to support the anti-pope Victor IV.; for from that time he had to contend with the ceaseless opposition and intrigues of Pope Alexander III., who fulminated against him a sentence of excommunication, March 24, 1160. It is true that Frederick in 1162 was able to spread terror throughout Lombardy by the capture and demolition of Milan; but in 1164 the cities of Verona, Vicenza, Padua, Treviso, and Venice formed a defensive league, and expelled the podestas and other foreign op pressors from their territories. In 1163 Frederick had punished the rebellion of Mainz against its archbishop by razing its walls and filling up its trenches ; but having, on the death of Victor IV., promoted the election of the new anti-pope {Pascal III., he was detained by fresh religious and political contentions in Germany till the end of 1166. Disregarding the embers of conflagration in the north of Italy, he now pushed on towards Rome, to which Alexander had returned the previous year. Doubtful as to the pro priety of at once attacking the city, he laid siege to Ancona ; but when he learned that the Roman citizens had rashly allowed themselves to be defeated at Tusculum, he raised&quot; the siege, and going to Rome took forcible possession of part of the Leonine city, and attacked and captured the Vatican. On the following Sunday (August 1, 1167) the empress received in St Peter s the imperial diadem from Pascal III., and Frederick the circlet of gold IX. 02