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Frederick II (German: Friedrich; Italian: Federico; Latin: Federicus; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 and King of Jerusalem from 1225. He was the son of emperor Henry VI of the Hohenstaufen dynasty and Queen Constance of Sicily of the Hauteville dynasty.
Speaking six languages (Latin, Sicilian, Middle High German, French, Greek and Arabic), Frederick has a reputation as a Renaissance man avant la lettre, as scientist, scholar, architect, poet and composer. As an avid patron of science and the arts, he played a major role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His Sicilian royal court in Palermo, beginning around 1220, saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The poetry that emanated from the school had a significant influence on literature and on what was to become the modern Italian language. He was also the first king to formally outlaw trial by ordeal, which had come to be viewed as superstitious. After his death his line did not survive, and the House of Hohenstaufen came to an end. Furthermore, the Holy Roman Empire entered a long period of decline during the Great Interregnum. Historian Donald Detwiler wrote: His complex political and cultural legacy has attracted fierce debates until this day. |