Philip of Swabia
Philip of Swabia was elected German king in 1198 and murdered ten years later in a private quarrel, having spent almost the whole reign in civil war. Born around 1177, the youngest son of Frederick Barbarossa, he was educated for the church and made provost of Aachen before his brother Emperor Henry VI pulled him back into secular life and made him Duke of Swabia. Henry died suddenly in 1197 at thirty-two, leaving a three-year-old son, the future Frederick II, who had been elected king but was in Sicily with his mother. Philip was intended as regent. The Hohenstaufen party, unwilling to face a long minority, elected him king instead in March 1198; the Welf party elected Otto of Brunswick, son of Henry the Lion, three months later. Germany had two kings and fought over it for a decade. Innocent III intervened decisively, on the doctrine that the papacy had the right to examine the suitability of a candidate for the imperial crown, and declared for Otto in 1201 — partly because a Hohenstaufen holding both Germany and Sicily would encircle the Papal States. Philip nevertheless won the war on the ground, and by 1207 Innocent had come round and lifted his excommunication. He was stabbed in the throat at Bamberg in June 1208 by Otto of Wittelsbach, a count palatine whose betrothal to Philip's daughter had been broken off. The killing had nothing to do with the succession. Otto IV then took the throne uncontested, quarrelled with the pope within two years, and was replaced by Frederick II.
- Lived: 1177 CE – 1208 CE
- Nationality: German
- Roles: head_of_state, military_leader
