Download or read book Frederick II written by David Abulafia and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1992 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Sicily, King of Jerusalem, has, since his death in 1250, enjoyed a reputation as one of the most remarkable monarchs in the history of Europe. His wide cultural tastes, his apparent tolerance of Jews and Muslims, his defiance of the papacy, and his supposed aim of creating a new, secular world order make him a figure especially attractive to contemporary historians. But as David Abulafia shows in this powerfully written biography, Frederick was much less tolerant and far-sighted in his cultural, religious, and political ambitions than is generally thought. Here, Frederick is revealed as the thorough traditionalist he really was: a man who espoused the same principles of government as his twelfth-century predecessors, an ardent leader of the Crusades, and a king as willing to make a deal with Rome as any other ruler in medieval Europe. Frederick's realm was vast. Besides ruling the region of Europe that encompasses modern Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, eastern France, and northern Italy, he also inherited the Kingdom of Sicily and parts of the Mediterranean that include what are now Israel, Lebanon, Malta, and Cyprus. In addition, his Teutonic knights conquered the present-day Baltic States, and he even won influence along the coasts of Tunisia. Abulafia is the first to place Frederick in the wider historical context his enormous empire demands. Frederick's reign, Abulafia clearly shows, marked the climax of the power struggle between the medieval popes and the Holy Roman Emperors, and the book stresses Frederick's steadfast dedication to the task of preserving both dynasty and empire. Through the course of this rich, groundbreaking narrative, Frederick emerges as less of the innovator than he is usually portrayed. Rather than instituting a centralized autocracy, he was content to guarantee the continued existence of the customary style of government in each area he ruled: in Sicily he appeared a mighty despot, but in Germany he placed his trust in regional princes, and never dreamed of usurping their power. Abulafia shows that this pragmatism helped bring about the eventual transformation of medieval Europe into modern nation-states. The book also sheds new light on the aims of Frederick in Italy and the Near East, and concentrates as well on the last fifteen years of the Emperor's life, a period until now little understood. In addition, Abulfia has mined the papal registers in the Secret Archive of the Vatican to provide a new interpretation of Frederick's relations with the papacy. And his attention to Frederick's register of documents from 1239-40--a collection hitherto neglected--has yielded new insights into the cultural life of the German court. In the end, a fresh and fascinating picture develops of the most enigmatic of German rulers, a man whose accomplishments have been grossly distorted over the centuries.

Download or read book History of Frederick the Second emperor of the Romans written by Thomas L. Kington Oliphant and published by . This book was released on 1862 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book History of Frederick the Second Emperor of the Romans written by T.L. Kington, M.A. and published by . This book was released on 1862 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen Immutator Mundi written by Thomas Curtis Van Cleve and published by Oxford : Clarendon Press. This book was released on 1972 with total page 652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was designed to explore as fully as possible the appropriateness of the phrase immutator mundi or transformer of the world, as applied by contemporaries to Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, to establish the relationship of his many-sided achievements to those of his Norman and Hohenstaufen antecedents; to describe the circle of associates who participated in his manifold activities; and, finally, to seek the origin and to trace the course of the unremitting hostility of contemporary popes to him and to his concept of empire. The author has critically examined and judiciously employed all available contemporary chronicles, letters, official documents, polemical writings, and all other pertinent materials that either directly or indirectly bear upon the subject. In addition, the book is in no wise concerned with the spiritual motivation of the priesthood.

Download or read book Frederick II written by Richard Bressler and published by Westholme Publishing. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frederick II was unusually modern in his sensibilities. Sicily was a cultural melting pot in the thirteenth century and Frederick ended up speaking several languages. He protected Jews and Muslims in his realms and prosecuted Christian heretics throughout his thirty-year reign. He was a polymath with interests ranging from sculpture, architecture, and poetry to mathematics and science in many forms, earning him admiration from his contemporaries who called him Stupor mundi, "Wonder of the World." His lifelong interest in hunting with birds of prey led to the writing of the classic work De Arte Venandi cum Avibus (The Art of Falconry), which is still in print. Based on the latest scholarship and written for the general reader, Frederick II: The Wonder of the World by Richard Bressler provides the complete story of this complex and fascinating man.

Download or read book The Italian Renaissance in the German Historical Imagination 1860 1930 written by Martin A. Ruehl and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-15 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Germany's bourgeois elites became enthralled by the civilization of Renaissance Italy. As their own country entered a phase of critical socioeconomic changes, German historians and writers reinvented the Italian Renaissance as the onset of a heroic modernity: a glorious dawn that ushered in an age of secular individualism, imbued with ruthless vitality and a neo-pagan zest for beauty. The Italian Renaissance in the German Historical Imagination is the first comprehensive account of the debates that shaped the German idea of the Renaissance in the seven decades following Jacob Burckhardt's seminal study of 1860. Based on a wealth of archival material and enhanced by more than one hundred illustrations, it provides a new perspective on the historical thought of Imperial and Weimar Germany, and the formation of a concept that is still with us today.

Download or read book Frederick the Second written by Ernst Kantorowicz and published by . This book was released on 2017-06-20 with total page 740 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FREDERICK THE SECOND is the story of the remarkable man whose power and sphere of influence straddled the worlds of Christendom and of Islam. The last of the Hohenstaufens, HolyRoman Emperor and King of Sicily and Jerusalem, Frederick II was an energetic and versatile ruler, a man of great ambition in whose lifetime the conflict between Emperor and Pope reached a newintensity. Excommunicated three times by the Church, he was an absolute monarch whose power, defended in almost continuous struggle, extended over much of Germany and Italy as well as the Holy Land. Frederick was a complex man of cultured tastes and licentious manners who had unusually wide intellectual interests. At his Sicilian court scholars of all religions were welcomed--Christian, Jewish, Mohammedan. He founded the University of Naples in 1224 and was a patron of the arts and sciences. The life of this dynamic man is fully explored in Ernst Kantorowicz's notable biography, filled with dramatic incident and absorbing detail, and written with style and scholarship.

Download or read book Life of Charlemagne written by Einhard and published by . This book was released on 1880 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Fairytale Keeper written by Andrea Cefalo and published by Andrea Cefalo. This book was released on 2012-06 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many called her Snow White, but few knew her as the Fairytale Keeper. Snow White was a pet name her mother had given her, but her mother's dead now. Adelaide hates that name anyway. A rampant fever claimed Adelaide's mother just like a thousand others in Cologne where the people die without Last Rites and the dead are dumped in a large pit outside of the city walls. Adelaide's father is determined to obtain a funeral for his wife, but that requires bribing the parish priest, Father Soren. When Soren commits an unforgivable atrocity, he pushes Adelaide to her breaking point, but if she seeks justice against the cruel priest, she risks sacrificing everything: her father, her friends, her first love, and maybe even her life.

Download or read book The Deeds of Frederick Barbarossa written by Otto I (Bishop of Freising) and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Deeds of Frederick Barbarossa" is the "official biography" of German king and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I. This historical firsthand account was begun by his maternal uncle, Bishop Otto of Freising, the leading medieval church figure and notable historian, and continued by a less well known cleric, Rahewin. This chronicle is the single most important source for the early reign of Frederick Barbarossa and the most valuable biographical study to come out of the twelfth century. In a letter written to his uncle, Frederick recounted his life and the principal events of his reign. The first of the four books that constitute this account were written by Otto and cover events from 1075 to 1152, from the reign of Henry IV through that of Conrad III. The second book draws heavily on the letter, providing invaluable insight into Frederick's attempts to establish and consolidate the Hohenstaufen empire. The final two books, written by Rahewin, follow the emperor's reign through 1160, during which time Frederick restored order at home, recovered imperial control of Burgundy, and re-created an imperial party in Italy

Download or read book The Emperor and the Saint written by Richard F. Cassady and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating look at an emperor, a saint, and the world they both inhabited

Download or read book Famous Men of Modern Times written by John Haaren and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-03-07 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This easy to read text will be not only be a delight for your child to read, but will also provide a great insight to the foundations of the modern world. You can experience the adventurous times of the birth of the modern era through the eyes of such men as Lorenzo de Medici, Christopher Columbus, Galileo, Newton, Napoleon, Gladstone, and George Washington.

Download or read book Frederick Barbarossa written by John B. Freed and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 727 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fourth Italian Campaign

Download or read book The Liber Augustalis Or Constitutions of Melfi Promulgated by the Emperor Frederick II for the Kingdom of Sicily in 1231 written by Sicily (Italy) and published by Syracuse, N.Y.] : Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 1971-07 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Liber Augustalis was born of no grand design but of the demands of government. This body of law marked a moment of triumph in the long and frustrating struggle by which Frederick attempted to establish his royal authority in the Kingdom of Sicily. Frederick had smashed rebellions by the Muslim population and by the nobility, while he systematically negotiated with the clergy over disputed domains. It was as a victorious king and emperor that he ordered the compilation of the Liber Augustalis—a cornerstone of royal authority—in part a summing up of the previous legal efforts of the monarchy, in part a significant move beyond the limitations of previous legislation. The Liber Augusta is blended many disparate influences into a common body of law. The existing legal traditions—Lombard, Byzantine, and Norman—the Canon law of the Church, and the learning of the Bolognese scholars, especially Master Petrus Della Vigna, provided sources on which Frederick could draw, but the laws represent the viewpoint of the monarchy rather than those of the powerful groups within the kingdom—Church, nobility, and towns whose interests were often counter to those of the king. Ultimately events proved that the greatest danger to Frederick's rule lay not in the kingdom itself but in the determination of the papacy and the Roman curia to prevent Sicily from becoming the seat of empire in Italy. In 1231, however, when Frederick was formulating his imperial policy, the first priority lay in establishing the strongest posture for monarchy.

Download or read book Frederick the Great written by Tim Blanning and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-03-29 with total page 705 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive biography of the legendary autocrat whose enlightened rule transformed the map of Europe and changed the course of history Few figures loom as large in European history as Frederick the Great. When he inherited the Prussian crown in 1740, he ruled over a kingdom of scattered territories, a minor Germanic backwater. By the end of his reign, the much larger and consolidated Prussia ranked among the continent’s great powers. In this magisterial biography, award-winning historian Tim Blanning gives us an intimate, in-depth portrait of a king who dominated the political, military, and cultural life of Europe half a century before Napoleon. A brilliant, ambitious, sometimes ruthless monarch, Frederick was a man of immense contradictions. This consummate conqueror was also an ardent patron of the arts who attracted painters, architects, musicians, playwrights, and intellectuals to his court. Like his fellow autocrat Catherine the Great of Russia, Frederick was captivated by the ideals of the Enlightenment—for many years he kept up lively correspondence with Voltaire and other leading thinkers of the age. Yet, like Catherine, Frederick drew the line when it came to implementing Enlightenment principles that might curtail his royal authority. Frederick’s terrifying father instilled in him a stern military discipline that would make the future king one of the most fearsome battlefield commanders of his day, while deriding as effeminate his son’s passion for modern ideas and fine art. Frederick, driven to surpass his father’s legacy, challenged the dominant German-speaking powers, including Saxony, Bavaria, and the Habsburg Monarchy. It was an audacious foreign policy gambit, one at which Frederick, against the expectations of his rivals, succeeded. In examining Frederick’s private life, Blanning also carefully considers the long-debated question of Frederick’s sexuality, finding evidence that Frederick lavished gifts on his male friends and maintained homosexual relationships throughout his life, while limiting contact with his estranged, unloved queen to visits that were few and far between. The story of one man’s life and the complete political and cultural transformation of a nation, Tim Blanning’s sweeping biography takes readers inside the mind of the monarch, giving us a fresh understanding of Frederick the Great’s remarkable reign. Praise for Frederick the Great “Writing Frederick’s biography . . . requires a diverse set of skills: expertise in eighteenth-century diplomatic and military history, including the intricacies of the Holy Roman Empire; a familiarity with the music, architecture and intellectual traditions of Northern Europe; and, not least, a profound sense of human psychology, the better to grasp the makeup of this complex and tormented man. Fortunately, Tim Blanning . . . has all of these skills in abundance.”—The Wall Street Journal “At once scholarly and highly readable . . . [Blanning] has given us a superb portrait of an enlightened despot, equally at home on the battlefield and in the opera house, both utterly ruthless and culturally refined.”—Commentary “Blanning, in clear thinking and prose, investigates all aspects of Frederick’s personality and reign. . . . The last word on this significant king, for years to come.”—Booklist (starred review) “Masterly . . . Blanning brilliantly brings to life one of the most complex characters of modern European history.”—The Telegraph (five stars) “A supremely nuanced account . . . This biography finds [Blanning] at the height of his powers.”—Literary Review

Download or read book Famous Men of the Middle Ages written by John Henry Haaren and published by . This book was released on 1904 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Peoples of Sicily written by Louis Mendola and published by Trinacria Editions Llc. This book was released on 2014-11-10 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can the eclectic medieval history of the world's most conquered island be a lesson for our times? Home to Normans, Byzantines, Arabs, Germans and Jews, 12th-century Sicily was a crossroads of cultures and faiths, the epitome of diversity. Here Europe, Asia and Africa met, with magical results. Bilingualism was the norm, women's rights were defended, and the environment was protected. Literacy among Sicilians soared; it was higher during this ephemeral golden age than it was seven centuries later. But this book is about more than Sicily. It is a singular, enduring lesson in the way multicultural diversity can be encouraged, with the result being a prosperous society. While its focus is the civilizations that flourished during the island's multicultural medieval period from 1060 to 1260, most of Sicily's complex history to the end of the Middle Ages is outlined. Idrisi is mentioned, but so is Archimedes. Introductory background chapters begin in the Neolithic, continuing to the history of the contested island under Punics and Greeks. Every civilization that populated the island is covered, including Romans, Goths, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Germans, Angevins, Aragonese and Jews, with profiles of important historical figures and sites. Religion, law, geography and cuisine are also considered. The authors' narrative is interesting but never pedantic, intended for the general reader rather than the expert in anthropology, theology, art or architecture. They are not obsessed with arcane terminology, and they don't advocate a specific agenda or world view. Here two erudite scholars take their case to the people. Yes, this book actually sets forth the entirety of ancient and medieval Sicilian history from the earliest times until around 1500, and it presents a few nuggets of the authors' groundbreaking research in medieval manuscripts. Unlike most authors who write in English about Sicily, perhaps visiting the island for brief research trips, these two are actually based in Sicily, where their work appears on a popular website. Sicily aficionados will be familiar with their writings, which have been read by some ten million during the last five years, far eclipsing the readership of any other historians who write about Sicily. Alio and Mendola are the undisputed, international "rock stars" of Sicilian historical writing, with their own devoted fan base. Every minute of the day somebody is reading their online articles. This is a great book for anybody who is meeting Sicily for the first time, the most significant 'general' history of the island published in fifty years and certainly one of the most eloquent. It has a detailed chronology, a useful reading list, and a brief guide suggesting places to visit. The book's structure facilitates its use as a ready reference. It would have run to around 600 pages, instead of 368 (on archival-quality, acid-free paper), were it not for the slightly smaller print of the appendices, where the chronology, the longest Sicilian timeline ever published, is 20 pages long. Unlike most histories of Sicily, the approach to this one is multifaceted and multidisciplinary. In what may be a milestone in Sicilian historiography, a section dedicated to population genetics explains how Sicily's historic diversity is reflected in its plethora of haplogroups. Here medieval Sicily is viewed as an example of a tolerant, multicultural society and perhaps even a model. It is an unusually inspiring message. One reader was moved to tears as she read the preface. Can a book change our view of cultures and perhaps even the way we look at history? This one just might. Meet the peoples!