FREDERICK I1 O investigations of the homosexual aspects , as well as grandson of the Emperor of France's own past showed that the Gallic Frederick Barbarossa, he was born in the spirit had its own inimitable contribution square in a small town in SouthernItaly, in to the homoerotic culture of the late twen- full public view so that no one could doubt tieth century. Even the provincial cities that his mother, old in the estimation of began to boast their own organizations, contemporaries for a first conception, periodicals, and rendezvous for the gay produced him. Orphaned at the age of one public. All are recorded in the Gai Pied and entrusted to the guardianship of Inno- Hebdo Guide, published annually since cent 111 (1198-1216], the most powerful of 1983. medieval popes, heactually grew up on the The political battles that had to streets of in Sicily, where he re- be waged before courts and legislatures in ceived a most unorthodox education, learn- other countries to gain the minimum of ing Arabic and Greek as well as German, legal toleration were spared the French French, and in that melting pot of movement; its principal foe was the unen- cultures. lightened public opinion surviving from When Frederick attained his the recent past, but recedingas the subject majority he broke his promises to his now of homosexuality became an everyday dead guardian by failing to surrender the matter in themass media. So France joined Sicilian crown, which included all of the ranks of those nations with a politi- Southern up to the border of the Papal cally conscious and culturally enterpris- States, when he received the crowns of ing gay community. Germany (1215) and of the (12201,which includedallof North- BIBLIOGRAPHY. Gilles Barbedette and ern Italy down to the Papal States. Michel Carassou, Paris Gay 1925, Paris: Presses de la Renaissance, 1961; Jean Innocent's successors excommunicated Cavailhes, et al., Rapport gai: enquzte him when he also delayed his promised sur les modes de vie homosexuelles en crusade. Frederick was the only leader to France, Paris: Persona, 1984; Claude crusade while excommunicated, but he Courouve, Voca bulaire de recovered Jerusalem, which Saladin had l'homosexualitd masculine, Paris: Payot, 1985; D. A. Coward, "Attitudes toward recaptured from the Christians, by negoti- Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century ating with Saladin's sophisticated nephew France," Iournal of European Studies, 10 al-Kamil. When he returned he completed (1980),231-55; Maurice Lever, Les the reorganization of Sicily, making it the bllchers de Sodome, Paris: Fayard, 1985. first autocratic European monarchy, bas- Warren Iohansson and ing it on Arab, Byzantine, and Norman William A. Percy models and Roman law precedents. He issued at Melfi in 1231 the constitution known as the Liber AugustaLis, which FREDERICKI1 remained in effect until 1860. He was then (1197-1250) drawn into the disastrous second Lombard king of Sicily and war by the papacy that feared renewed Holy Roman emperor (1212-1250). Called imperial domination more than before, Stupor mundi (Wonder of the World) by now that Frederick's lands surrounded the contemporaries, he was designated the papal states. The struggle renewed the War "first modem man" by the Swiss historian of the First Lombard League (1162-1 183) Jakob Burckhardt in his Civilization of the that the popes had waged against his grand- Renaissance in Italy (1860). Son of the father Barbarossa and the earlier war of the German Emperor Henry IV and Constance, Investiture Controversy (1076-1 122) that the Norman heiress of the Kingdom of Pope Gregory W had launched against another of Frederick's relatives, Emperor and fanatical Friedrich Wilhelm of Prus- Henry N (1050-1 106))who has frequently sia, Frederick was in his adolescence small been considered bisexual. and pretty, loved French literature and art, The Guelph allies of the Papacy wore French clothes and curled his hair. captured one of Frederick's sons, Enzio, His relationship with his father was hide- and held him captive in a cage in ous; almost every day of his life until he for years, breaking the emperor's heart. was eighteen Frederick was beaten and Later popes ordered the extermination of verbally abused. At that time he decided to "that breed of vipers." Charles of , run away from home with his dearest brother of St. Louis of France, dutifully friend, Lieutenant Hans Hermann von beheaded the last of the line, Frederick's Katte, who was eight years older than grandson Conradin and his noble Austrian Frederick, well-educated, a lover of the companion in the marketplace of arts, and a freethinker. Just what their in 1268. Here to this date German tourists sexualrelationshipwasremainsunknown, weep for the fate of these royal youths, as Frederick took care to destroy the evi- who were still adolescents and probably dence. The father discovered their plot and lovers. had them both arrested; then, overruling Propagandists accused Frederick the decision of the court-martial that had of keepinga harem and also of homosexual sentenced Katte to life imprisonment, he sodomy-both Moslem practices. He sup- ordered him beheaded and forced Freder- posedly blasphemed "Mankind has had ick to watch the execution. At the mo- three great deceivers: Moses, Jesus, and ment thesword fell onKattels neckFreder- Mohammed," a legend that underlay the ick fainted, and after regaining conscious- belief in the apocryphal Liber de tribus ness he hallucinated for a day and a half. impostoribus. At his court in Sicily Freder- Upon ascending to the throne of ick encouraged the beginning of Italian Prussia in 1740, he immediately displayed literature in the form of troubadours, poets the qualities of leadership and military who copied the Proven~allyrics and in- skill that characterized his reign, during spired the Tuscans and Dante. He himself which Prussia expanded territorially and composed outstanding love poems as well gained the basis for its later role as corner- as what became the standard text on stone of the German empire. Frederick's falconry. Many medieval poets were officials, confidants and friends never homoerotic and some modem scholars doubted that he was homosexually ori- believe that courtly love with its unattain- ented. Ecclesiastical Councilor Busching able ladies spurred homosexual instincts declared that "Frederick forewent a good and even acts among knights and squires. deal of 'sensual pleasure' because of his aversion to women, but he made amends BIBLIOGRAPHY.David Abulafia, for it by his intercourse with men, recall- Prederick 11, a Medieval Emperor, London: Allen Lane, 1988; Emst ing from the history of philosophy that Kantorowicz, Frederick the Second, Socrates had a great fondness for Alcibia- 1 194-1 250, London: Constable, 1931. des." Hard put to account for Frederick's Wilfiam A. Percy unorthodox social life, historians ascribed it to misogyny, but this assumption has no other ground than his separation from his (THE FREDERICKI1 wife and the general absence of women GREAT)OF PRUSSIA from his court. He did have female friends (1712-1786) and correspondents with whom he had an Prussian and intellectual affinity, but his courtiers in ruler of the eighteenth century. The son of residence were all male, and Prussian the brutal, anti-intellectual, homophobic,