Emperor Henry VI deposed William III of Sicily, his wife's great nephew and the last of Sicily's Norman kings, and was crowned king of Sicily in Palermo in 1194. He then entered Rome in 1196, and was crowned by Pope Celestine III. His accession to the throne of Sicily united the northern and southern lands of the empire and deeply alarmed other Mediterranean powers.
HenryVI (November 1165, Nijmegen – 28 September 1197, Messina), sometimes called the Cruel, was King of Germany 1190-1197, Holy Roman Emperor 1191-1197, and King of Sicily 1194-1197.
Henry was the son of the emperorFrederick Barbarossa and Beatrix of Burgundy, and was crowned King of the Romans at Bamberg in June 1169, at the age of four.
Henry met little resistance and entered Palermo, capital city of the Kingdom of Sicily, on November 20, and was crowned on December 25.
In 1190 Louis died and Hermann by his energetic measures frustrated the attempt of the emperorHenryVI to seize Thuringia as a vacant fief of the Empire, and established himself as landgrave.
Henry was not only successful in detaching Hermann from the hostile combination, but gained his support for the scheme to unite Sicily with the Empire.
When HenryVI died in 1198 Hermann's support was purchased by the late emperor's brother Philip, Duke of Swabia, but as soon as Philip's cause appeared to be weakening he transferred his allegiance to Otto of Brunswick, afterwards the emperor Otto IV.
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