Philipp von Schwaben

Between 1198 and 1208, the history of the Holy Roman Empire was marked by the controversy between the Hohenstaufen Philipp of Swabia, son of Emperor Frederick I. Barbarossa and brother of the late Emperor Henry VI., and the Guelph Otto IV., member of one of the leading dynasties of the Empire, both having been elected kings by groups of influential supporters. Due to alliances that were forged by the two kings with the kings of France and England respectively, and because of the Pope actively supporting Otto, this controversy was to gain a European dimension. The papers read at an international conference in Vienna in May 2008 marking the 800th anniversary of Philipp of Swabias assassination, are collected in this volume. Exceeding the frame of traditional historiography, they discuss the means of resolving conflicts and mediation in the High Middle Ages, analyze the description, interpretation and assessment of events in the historiographical sources of the time, aim at clarifying the motives for taking and changing sides in the conflict and scrutinize the possibilities and limitations of rulers in this period. With the investigation of the circumstances and the background of Philipps assassination serving as a starting point, the individual papers are thematically grouped around those presenting first results of the work on the edition of king Philipps charters and letters, which is currently being prepared by the working group "Wiener Diplomata- Abteilung der Monumenta Germaniae Historica" at the Institute of Medieval Reserch of the Austrian Academy of Science in Vienna.