Sunday, Nov. 07, 2010
Emperor Frederick I
It's often said that the Holy Roman Empire was not quite holy, nor Roman, nor much of an empire. The 12th century German potentate Frederick I sought to reclaim his royal line's territorial claims in Italy. The monarch's endless Italian campaigns earned him the sobriquet Barbarossa, or "Red Beard" — both a comment on his appearance as well as on the fear and respect he inspired among the denizens of north Italy's city states. It's a badge that would be applied later to two famous Ottoman Muslim corsair brothers of the 16th century, Oruc Reis and Hayreddin Barbarossa, who for decades haunted Italy's southern coasts.