ity, though he did not always pursue policies in harmony
with the emperor’s intentions. He tried to create some
stability in the political situation by instituting regional
public peace agreements. But in his attempts to bring
about closer relations with the English royal court, in
line with Cologne tradition, and to bolster them by mar-
riage projects between the Staufen king and the English
royal family, he seems to have been more infl uenced by
what was good for Cologne than by what was pleasing
to Frederick II. Once war broke out anew between the
English and French kings in 1224, Frederick sought to
conclude a peace agreement with the Capetians. And
instead of being wedded to one of the daughters of
the English king, as urged by the archbishop, young
Henry (VII), who was still a minor, was married to the
daughter of the Babenberg Duke Leopold of Austria in
November 1225.
There were also differences between the emperor
in Sicily and the archiepiscopal regent concerning the
treatment of King Valdemar of Denmark, who had been
taken prisoner. Frederick endeavored to force Valdemar
to give back former imperial areas between the Elbe and
the Baltic that Otto IV and also he himself (in 1214) had
granted to the Danish king.
Ultimately, Archbishop Engelbert fell victim to
his own extensive family and territorial politics. He
was ambushed and fatally wounded on the evening
of November 7, 1225, while en route from Soest to
Schwelm in Westfalia. The leader of the assailants was
his cousin’s son, Frederick of Isenberg, who himself had
infl uential comrades-in-arms in his brothers, the bishops
of Osnabrück and Münster. The immediate cause of the
attack was the archbishop’s efforts to remove a canoness
foundation at Essen from the repressive actions of its
lay advocates, the counts of Isenberg, but it was part of
a larger policy aimed at placing as many ecclesiastical
establishments as possible under the direct protection
of Cologne’s archbishop himself.
Engelbert’s remains were buried in Cologne Cathe-
dral on December 27, 1225, but they were ceremoni-
ously transferred to a new grave in the cathedral during
Lent 1226 in a ceremony presided over by Cardinal-
bishop Conrad of Urach, then active in Germany as a
papal legate. The legate also presided over a diet, during
which a full investigation of the assassination was car-
ried out. Both Walter von der Vogelweide and Caesarius
of Heisterbach wrote pieces in honor of the slain prelate;
the latter in fact began to collect anecdotal information
that he eventually turned into a panegyric aimed at se-
curing Engelbert’s canonization as a martyr. Efforts to
secure for Engelbert the martyr’s crown similar to that
of Thomas of Canterbury ultimately failed, however.
It is noteworthy that Frederick II did not appoint
another prelate to the position of regent and guardian
for his son; in place of the murdered archbishop he
nominated Duke Ludwig of Bavaria. The move can be
seen as an effort on Frederick’s part to keep the Ger-
man nobility from becoming totally alienated following
Engelbert’s ecclesiastical regime.
See also Caesarius of Heisterbach; Frederick II;
Otto IVFurther Reading
Ficker, Julius. Engelbert der Heilige, Erzbischof von Köln und
Reichsverweser. Cologne: Heberle, 1853.
Foerster, Hans. “Engelbert von Berg der Heilige.” Bergische
Forschungen 1 (1925): 108–123.
Greven, Joseph. “Die Entstehung der Vita Engelberti des Cae-
sarius von Heisterbach.” Annalen des historischen Vereins für
den Niederrbein 102 (1918): 2ff.
Kleist, Wolfgang. “Der Tod des Erzbischofs Engelbert von Köln:
eine kritische Studie.” Zeitschrift für vaterländische Geschich-
te und Altertumskunde Westfalens 75 (1917): 182–249.
Lothmann, Josef. Erzbischof Engelbert I. von Köln (1216–1225):
Graf von Berg, Erzbischof und Herzog, Reichsverweser.
Cologne: Kölnischer Geschichtsverein, 1993.
Ribbeck, Walter. “Die Kölner Erzbischöfe und die Vogtei des
Suites Essen 1221–1228.” Korrespondenzblatt des Gesam-
tvereins der deutschen Geschichte und Altertumsvereine. 2
(1903): 35ff.
Paul B. PixtonENRIQUE II, KING OF CASTILE
(1333–1379)
Son of Alfonso XI, king of Castile, and his mistress,
Leónor de Guzmán, Enrique II was born in Seville in- He was adopted by the magnate Rodrigo Alvarez
de las Asturias, from whom he received the condado of
Trastámara, which provided the name of the dynasty
initiated by Enrique. In 1350, he married Juana Manuel,
daughter of the author and aristocrat, Juan Manuel. He
died in Santo Domingo de la Calzada in May 1379 and
was buried in the cathedral of Toledo.
From a very young age, Enrique opposed the king-
ship of his stepbrother, Pedro I of Castile, who had
been accused of cruelty and of favoring the Jews. After
the failure of the fi rst uprisings against Pedro I in 1356
and 1360, Enrique, aspiring to crown himself king of
Castile, sought strong military and diplomatic support
before renewing the attacks. He found this support in
two places: in the Compañías Blancas led by Beltrán Du
Guesclin of Brittany in Aragón, who signed the Treaty
of Monzón with Enrique in 1363, and in the pope, who
consecrated the projected campaign as a crusade. In
March 1366, Enrique invaded Castile, crowning him-
self king in Burgos the next month. As the illegitimate
prince was waging his offensive, which reached as far as
Seville, his stepbrother Pedro fl ed, seeking help from the
English. But the defeat that Enrique suffered in Nájera
(April 1367) at the hands of Pedro I and the English
ENRIQUE II, KING OF CASTILE