Germans never called Frederick Barbarossa that during the Middle Ages
The nickname Barbarossa, Italian for Red Beard, was coined by Florentines in 1298, more than a century after his death, to tell him apart from his grandson. Medieval Germans never used it. His hair was actually blond, with a beard one contemporary called reddish. Yet the Italian label stuck.
Frederick was born in mid-December 1122, probably at Hagenau, now in France. His father belonged to the Hohenstaufen family, known in Italy as Ghibellines after their castle at Waiblingen; his mother, Judith of Bavaria, came from their great rivals, the Welfs, or Guelfs. Descended from both, he was an acceptable compromise for the prince-electors. He learned to ride, hunt and fight young, but could not read or write and only picked up Latin later.
Adventure came early. In 1147 he joined the Second Crusade against the wishes of his dying father, who wanted him home caring for family. When a sick crusader was robbed and murdered at a monastery near Adrianople, his uncle King Conrad III ordered revenge, and Frederick burned the monastery and executed the robbers. Weeks later, he and Welf VI survived a flash flood that wrecked the main German camp, having pitched their tents on higher ground.
Elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152, he was crowned King of Italy at Pavia and emperor by Pope Adrian IV in Rome in 1155. Two years later the word holy first appeared in a document describing his empire. The centrality of his Italian campaigns explains why the Italian nickname endured. Historians rank him among the greatest medieval emperors, admired for longevity, organisation, military skill and political judgment. He revived Roman civil law, which offset the papal power that had dominated the German lands.
He died on 10 June 1190 while on the Third Crusade, drowning as he tried to cross the Saleph River; most of his army then abandoned the expedition before reaching Acre. Later movements borrowed his fame, from Italy's Risorgimento and Wilhelmine Germany to the Nazis, who attached his name to Operation Barbarossa, leaving his legacy tangled.
Source: Frederick Barbarossa
