The Drowning Of A Great Emperor
How a man who was crowned the king of three kingdoms ingloriously died in a river
In the course of human events, it sometimes becomes apparent that the greatest of men, at the end of the day, are just men. Despite living larger than life lives, leading nations to great moments in history and carving out a spot in the sun with their bare hands, some of these towering historical figures perish in ways that are the antithesis to everything they worked for leading up to their deaths.
That is the kind of end Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, met in 1190CE on the banks of a little known river on the southern shores of Anatolia, far from home. He had arrived there on the advice of local Armenians who suggested the great emperor and his army take a shortcut on their way to the Holy Land.
Thus after a great life, a few events would culminate in the death of an emperor, conflicting tales of his demise and the crumbling of a crusade.
Frederick Barbarossa’s Resume
Many words can be written, and have been written, about the life and works of Frederick…
