BETWEEN 1197 and 1250, the emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen governed in name dominions scattered from Schleswig to Sicily. He has attracted more mythology than any other medieval ruler save only his imperial forerunner and remote ancestor, Charlemagne. His contemporary English chronicler, Matthew Paris, acclaimed him as stupor mundi, "the wonder of the world". Dante ensured his immortality by allotting him a place among the heretics in the "Inferno". In the nineteenth century jacob Burckhardt hailed him as the first Renaissance despot, self-conscious creator of the state as a work of art"....
