Frederick II crowned Holy Roman Emperor

1220

Honorius III placed the imperial crown on the polyglot Sicilian king who kept a court of Arab astronomers and Lombard falconers. Contemporaries called him stupor mundi, wonder of the world. His quarrels with the papacy would define the next three decades. Frederick spoke six languages and wrote a treatise on falconry so precise that modern ornithologists still consult it for its observations.