Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Wonder of the World
Frederick II, king of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor, presided over one of the most glam-
orous periods of southern history. The fact that he came to wield such power and wear
Charlemagne's crown at all is one of those unexpected quirks of history.
He inadvertently inherited the crown of Sicily and the south from his mother Constance
(the posthumous daughter of Roger I) in 1208 after William II died childless; the crown to
the Holy Roman Empire came to him through his father, Henry VI, the son of Frederick
Barbarossa. The union of the two crowns in 1220 meant that Frederick II would rule over
lands covering Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,
southern France, southern Italy, the Kingdom of Sicily and the remnants of the Byzantine
world.
Kingdom in the Sun
is John Julius Norwich's wonderful romp through the Norman invasions of the south,
leading to their spectacular takeover of Sicily.
It was a union that caused the popes much discomfort. While they wanted and needed an
emperor who would play the role of temporal sword, Frederick's wide-reaching kingdom
all but encircled the Papal States, and his belief in the absolute power of monarchy gave
them grave cause for concern.
Like Charlemagne before him, Frederick controlled a kingdom so vast that he could real-
istically dream of reviving the fallen Roman Empire, and dream he did. Under his rule, Si-
cily was transformed into a centralised state playing a key commercial and cultural role in
European affairs, and Palermo gained a reputation as the continent's most important city;
most of the northern Italian city-states were brought to heel. In 1225 Frederick married
Jolanda of Brienne and gained the title of king of Jerusalem, making him the first Roman
emperor to bear that title. In 1228 the Crusade he launched was not only nearly bloodless
but it saw the return of the shrines of Jerusalem, Nazareth and Bethlehem to the Christian
fold.
As well as being a talented statesman, Frederick was also a cultured man, and many of
his biographers see him as the precursor to the Renaissance prince. Few other medieval
monarchs corresponded with the sages of Judaism and Islam; he also spoke six languages
and was fascinated by science, nature and architecture. He even wrote a scholarly treatise
