WI Frederick Barbarrosa hadnt drowned.

[Riain]

I call him Barby, not as cool of Johnny K or his his dad Big Al, but an Aussie enough nickname.

 

[JacktheCat]

Enrico Dandolo!

That's the name that has been bugging me all afternoon.

The 95 year old, blind Doge who lead the Venetians into battle during the Fourth Cursade, and tricked the Crusaders into sacking Constantinople.

Compared to Dandolo, Barbarrosa was a spring chicken.

 

[Riain]

True, but Dandolo wasn't on a horse at the head of an army crossing Anatolia in the face of Turk attacks in the hope of beating Saladin and capturing Jerusalem at the end, he was tucked up in bed every night.

 

[el t]

Frederick Barbarrosa

I wonder if he would have supported the royal claims of either Guy of Lusignan or Isabella of Jerusalem..

 

[Remicas]

In any case, being an Emperor he would outrank both the Kings and having arrived first would have been the logical leader of the crusade both by rank and by this.

The issue would probably be more along the lines of if he can persuade Richard and Phillip to work under him than the OTL diffiulties between them.

I don't think his title would really matter, at least for Phillip. The french legists passed their time to prove that a king isn't inferior to an emperor ("A king is emperor in his kindgom"), and even if the king of France is weak then, I don't believe he would care about Barbarossa. From what I understand he went on the crusade because he was forced to and take the first reason advailable to came back in France.