Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry VI, a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sicily.
Contemporary portrait from the Liber ad honorem Augusti, 1196
Frederick Barbarossa with his sons Henry and Frederick, Historia Welforum, Weingarten Abbey, c. 1180
Facsimile of the Imperial seal (1192)
Richard the Lionheart submits himself to Emperor Henry, Liber ad honorem Augusti, fol. 129R
The Hohenstaufen dynasty, also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynasty's most prominent rulers – Frederick I (1155), Henry VI (1191) and Frederick II (1220) – ascended the imperial throne and also reigned over Italy and Burgundy. The non-contemporary name of 'Hohenstaufen' is derived from the family's Hohenstaufen Castle on Hohenstaufen mountain at the northern fringes of the Swabian Jura, near the town of Göppingen. Under Hohenstaufen rule, the Holy Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent from 1155 to 1268.
The Hohenstaufen Castle ruin
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his sons King Henry VI and Duke Frederick V of Swabia, Historia Welforum, 1167/79, Weingarten Abbey
Frederick's Castel del Monte, in Andria, Apulia, Italy.
Frederick II with his falcon, from De arte venandi cum avibus, c. 1240, Vatican Library
