I came to Italy not to destroy but to restore the rights of the empire.
Veni in Italiam non ut destruerem, sed ut iura imperii repararem.
Politicians
Frederick Barbarossa
Holy Roman emperor (1122-1190), the first Hohenstaufen to wear the imperial crown. After his election in 1152 he made the restoration of imperial prestige his life's project, launching six Italian campaigns to subdue the Lombard cities, reviving Roman law at Roncaglia in 1158, and waging an 18-year struggle against three popes. The catastrophic sack of Milan in 1162 and his defeat at Legnano in 1176 forced him toward a pragmatic settlement at Constance in 1183. He drowned in the Saleph River in 1190 while leading the Third Crusade, an end that birthed the Kyffhäuser legend later weaponised by 19th and 20th-century German politics.
View this figure's profile
Frederick Barbarossa's Other Quotes
Related Quotes
An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
-- Mahatma Gandhi
It is impossible to govern the universe without God and the Bible.
-- George Washington
What do I care about my chatter from yesterday?
-- Konrad Adenauer
We are all in the same boat.
-- Konrad Adenauer
The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.
-- Theodore Roosevelt
Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.
-- Margaret Thatcher