rederick I (1123-90), Holy Roman emperor, the first of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, known as "Barbarossa," succeeded Conrad III as emperor in 1152. His reign was one continuous struggle against refractory and powerful vassals at home, and against the turbulent civic republics of Lombardy and the pope in Italy. Frederick was at length reconciled with the papacy, and in 1183 the peace of Constance closed the struggle with the Lombard League. Frederick broke the power of Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, and divided the duchy; and in 1183, by the treaty of Augsberg, he arranged a marriage between his son Henry and Constamce, a daughter of Robert, king of Sicily. From this marriage sprang the union of Sicily with the empire. At the same time, owing to internal divisions, the Lombard League weakened, and Frederick’s power in Italy revived. Being practically master of Germany and Italy, Frederick put himself at the head of the third crusade, but was drowned in a small stream in Cilicia. See Testa’s History of the War of Frederick I, against the Communes of Lombardy (1877); and Tout’s The Empire and the Papacy (1903). [World Wide Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1935]

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