Frederick’s remarkable mother, Constance, Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Sicily, was the subject of a previous Law Journal essay.

Christmas was bountiful to Frederick II, born December 26, 1194. He was gifted King Genes and Emperor DNA. At age 4, he was crowned King of Sicily, the strategic crossroads of the Mediterranean and a cultural crossroads of Greek, Latin and Arab influences. At age 18 he became King of Germany; at age 26 Pope Honorius III crowned him Holy Roman Emperor, the most prestigious title among monarchs in western Europe; and, at 31 he crowned himself King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.