Letters of consolation from a medieval monarch. Expressions of condolences from the Innsbruck letter collection of Emperor Frederick II (and his son Conrad IV) to the relatives of the deceased

Abstract

Fighting, war and death were part of the life of every medieval ruler and nobleman, which is why chroniclers from this period report on fighting almost every year. This is understandable, as war was used to legitimise one's rule. War is also linked to the emotional processing of death. For this reason, the focus of this article is on how a ruler in the 13th century, in this case Emperor Frederick II and his son Conrad IV, sympathised with the death of a person. With the help of the letters of consolation from Frederick II's collection of letters in the Innsbruck University Library, it was possible to show that honourable death and death in the name of Christ were repeatedly given as consoling reasons. The letters also contain social, literary and theological ideas about consolation from this period.