{"id":"henry-vi-holy-roman-emperor","type":"person","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/henry-vi-holy-roman-emperor","language":"en","name":"Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor","name_en":"Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor","name_ne":null,"description":"Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 to 1197","headline":"Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 to 1197","also_known_as":[],"summary":"Henry VI (German: Heinrich VI.; November 1165 – 28 September 1197), a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany (King of the Romans) from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194, he was also King of Sicily as the husband and co-ruler of Queen Constance I.","summary_more":["Henry was the second son of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy. Well educated in the Latin language, as well as Roman and canon law, he was also a patron of poets and a skilled poet himself. In 1186, he married Constance of Sicily. Henry, stuck in the Hohenstaufen conflict with the House of Welf until 1194, had to enforce the inheritance claims by his wife against her nephew Count Tancred of Lecce. His attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Sicily failed at the siege of Naples in 1191 due to an epidemic, with Empress Constance captured. Based on an enormous ransom for the release and submission of King Richard I of England, he conquered Sicily in 1194; however, the intended unification with the Holy Roman Empire ultimately failed due to the opposition of the Papacy. In Sicily, Henry had a reputation for ruthless suppression of political opponents. To this day, he is sometimes given the epithet \"the Cruel\" (il crudele) by Italian historiographers.","Henry threatened to invade the Byzantine Empire after 1194 and succeeded in extracting a ransom, the Alamanikon, from Emperor Alexios III Angelos in return for cancelling the invasion. He made the Kingdom of Cyprus and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia formal subjects of the empire and compelled Tunis and Tripolitania to pay tribute to him. Between 1195 and 1196, he attempted to turn the Holy Roman Empire from an elective to a hereditary monarchy, the so-called Erbreichsplan, but met strong resistance from the prince-electors. Henry pledged to go on crusade in 1195 and began preparations. A revolt in Sicily…"],"facts":[{"key":"born","label":"Born","values":[{"text":"1 November 1165","date":"1165-11-01"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q150953#P569"}},{"key":"birthplace","label":"Place of birth","values":[{"text":"Nijmegen","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q47887"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q150953#P19"}},{"key":"died","label":"Died","values":[{"text":"28 September 1197","date":"1197-09-28"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q150953#P570"}},{"key":"deathplace","label":"Place of death","values":[{"text":"Messina","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q13666"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q150953#P20"}},{"key":"citizenship","label":"Citizenship","values":[{"text":"Germany","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q183"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q150953#P27"}},{"key":"occupation","label":"Occupation","values":[{"text":"monarch","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q116"},{"text":"writer","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q36180"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q150953#P106"}},{"key":"spouse","label":"Spouse","values":[{"text":"Costanza I of Sicily","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q170335","start":"1186-01-27"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q150953#P26"}},{"key":"positions","label":"Positions held","values":[{"text":"Monarch of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (25 December 1194 – 28 September 1197)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q58006517","start":"1194-12-25","end":"1197-09-28"},{"text":"Holy Roman Emperor (1191–1197)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q181765","start":"1191","end":"1197-09-28"},{"text":"Monarch of Italy (21 January 1186 – 28 September 1197)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q271148","start":"1186-01-21","end":"1197-09-28"},{"text":"King of the Romans (15 August 1169 – 28 September 1197)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q782985","start":"1169-08-15","end":"1197-09-28"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q150953#P39"}}],"office":null,"sections":[],"cited":[],"cited_from":null,"videos":[],"last_reviewed":null,"organizations":[],"same_as":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VI%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q150953"],"faq":[{"q":"When was Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor born?","a":"Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor was born on 1 November 1165 in Nijmegen."},{"q":"What positions has Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor held?","a":"Positions held by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor include: Monarch of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1194–1197); Holy Roman Emperor (1191–1197); Monarch of Italy (1186–1197); King of the Romans (1169–1197)."}],"related":[{"name":"Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/ferdinand-ii-of-the-two-sicilies"},{"name":"Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/charles-v-holy-roman-emperor"},{"name":"Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/charles-vi-holy-roman-emperor"},{"name":"Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/henry-vii-holy-roman-emperor"},{"name":"Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/charles-iv-holy-roman-emperor"},{"name":"Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/leopold-ii-holy-roman-emperor"},{"name":"Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/francis-ii-holy-roman-emperor"},{"name":"Napoleon","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/napoleon"},{"name":"Victor Emmanuel II","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/victor-emmanuel-ii"},{"name":"Amalasuintha","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/amalasuintha"},{"name":"Theodoric the Great","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/theodoric-the-great"},{"name":"Adelaide of Italy","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/adelaide-of-italy"}],"places_in":[],"nearby":[],"image":{"url":"https://diginpl.com/kb-img/henry-vi-holy-roman-emperor-2453bf7043.jpg","width":500,"height":710,"license":"Public domain","credit":"Meister des Codex Manesse","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Codex_Manesse_Heinrich_VI._(HRR).jpg"},"sources":[{"label":"Wikipedia (English): Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VI%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"},{"label":"Wikidata item Q150953","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q150953","license":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},{"label":"Image: Codex Manesse Heinrich VI. (HRR).jpg by Meister des Codex Manesse (Public domain)","url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Codex_Manesse_Heinrich_VI._(HRR).jpg","license":null}],"license":{"text":"CC BY-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/","facts":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},"attribution":"Text from the Wikipedia article Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Codex Manesse Heinrich VI. (HRR).jpg — Meister des Codex Manesse, Public domain.","cite":"\"Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor\". DigiNepal. Last updated 31 October 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/henry-vi-holy-roman-emperor. Retrieved 9 November 2026.","date_modified":"2026-10-31T12:00:53Z","facts_checked":"2026-11-09","alternates":{"html":"https://diginpl.com/people/henry-vi-holy-roman-emperor","en":"https://diginpl.com/people/henry-vi-holy-roman-emperor","ne":"https://diginpl.com/people/henry-vi-holy-roman-emperor?lang=ne"}}