Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/464

 4:52 FREDERICK (GEKMANY) schemes were checked by the independent spirit of the Lombard cities, and by the opposition of the popes Honorius III. and Gregory IX., who finally compelled the emperor, by threats of excommunication, to start upon his long de- layed crusade (1227). But a pestilential dis- ease which broke out on board the fleet obliged him to land at Otranto, where the greater part of the pilgrims dispersed. The expedition only reached the Morea, and Gregory punished the emperor with excommunication and interdict. It was in vain that Frederick started again the next year, reached the Holy Land, and fought successfully against the Mussulmans ; the poli- cy of the pope, who declared him unworthy before absolution to battle for the cross, roused against him the patriarch of Jerusalem and the three orders of knights in the East, and also induced his father-in-law, John of Brienne, titular king of Jerusalem and emperor of Con- stantinople, to invade the Italian kingdom. Having concluded a truce of ten years with the sultan of Egypt, which brought into his possession the holy cities and the whole coast of Judea, he returned as crowned king of Je- rusalem, reconquered his kingdom, defeated the intrigues of his enemies, and finally gained his absolution (1230). The Lombard cities still maintained their league, being now sup- ported by the rebellion of Henry, the son of the emperor. Frederick returned to Germany after an absence of 15 years, restored his im- perial dignity, and pardoned his son. But a new rebellion drew upon the prince the pun- ishment of imprisonment for life, in the seventh year of which he died. His younger brother Conrad was made king of the Romans in his stead, and Frederick marched against the Lom- bards, and defeated them at Cortenuova (Nov. 26-27, 1237) ; all the cities surrendered except Milan, Brescia, Piacenza, and Bologna, whose resistance was again encouraged by Gregory IX. Irritated by Frederick's having made his natural son Enzio king of Sardinia, the pope again excommunicated the emperor on Palm Sunday, 1239. Frederick marched against Rome, took Ravenna, and had the Genoese fleet, which was conveying 100 prelates to Rome, intercepted by Enzio (1241). Gregory IX. did not long survive these reverses. The. short papacy of Celestine IV. and a long in- terregnum followed, which was terminated by the election of Innocent IV. The new pope, once the friend of the emperor, became his bitterest enemy, confirmed his excommunica- tion, fled to Lyons in France, where he con- voked a council, cited Frederick before this tribunal, rejected his defender Thaddeus of Su- essa, declared the throne of Germany vacant, and subsequently recognized two new empe- rors, Henry Raspe of Thuringia, who was de- feated by Conrad, and William of Holland. The emperor, deserted by many of his allies, lost a battle before Parma, and another near Bologna, in which Enzio was made prisoner. But he continued the struggle until he died. FREDERICK III., king of Germany. See Louis IV., THE BAVABIAN. FREDERICK III., surnamed the Pacific, fourth emperor of Germany of the house of Hapsburg (Frederick IV. as king of Germany, and V. as archduke of Austria), son of Duke Ernest of Styria and a Polish princess, born in Innspruck, Sept. 21, 1415, died in Linz, Aug. 19, 1493. He began his reign over Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, together with his brother Albert the Prodigal, in 1435, became after the death of the emperor Albert II. (1439) guardian of his son Ladislas the Posthumous, and ; was unan- imously elected to the throne of Germany in 1440, and crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1442. Possessed of many private virtues, he was nevertheless inadequate to the task of ruling the German empire in that period of anarchical turbulence, or even of defending the interests of his house against the attacks of the war- like and ambitious Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, George Podiebrad of Bohemia, and Charles the Bold of Burgundy. The only weapon he seems to have wielded with dex- terity was diplomacy, but this, too, served only the private purposes of the house of Austria, of which he may be regarded as the second founder. "Wars, however, in which his part was generally passive, filled nearly the whole reign of this peace-loving monarch, which was the longest of any German emperor's, lasting for 53 years. His brother Albert, duke of Upper Austria, repeatedly attacked him ; the Hungarians under John Hunyady invaded Aus- tria (1445-'52); the Armagnacs, whom the emperor had called to aid him against the Swiss, committed depredations (.1445); Mat- thias Corvinus and George Podiebrad defeated the imperial forces ; the Turks ravaged Carniola (1469) ; hostilities broke out with Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and a war was carried on in the Netherlands, which Maximilian, the son of Frederick, had received after the death of Charles the Bold (1477) with the hand of his daughter Mary, and where he was made cap- tive in 1488. Frederick was also humiliated by the usurpation of Sforza at Milan (1447), after the death of the last Visconti ; by the Swiss, who routed the Armagnacs, and com- pelled him to an unfavorable treaty (1449) ; in the quarrel of the succession of the Palatinate (1449), which threatened to cost him his throne ; by continual lawlessness in Germany, where he was once cited before the secret tribunal of the Vehme; and by the successive encroach- ments of the popes, particularly of Pius II. (once his secretary as ^Eneas Sylvius). His chief efforts to avert the invasion of the Turks were a journey to Rome for a conference with the pope (1468), and the convening of a diet at Ratisbon (1471), both without result. In 1485 Frederick had a new quarrel with Matthias, who wrested from him Vienna and all Lower Austria. On the death of Matthias (1490), Fred- erick regained these possessions, and his last years were cheered by the successes of his son