June 10 1190 –
While en route to the Holy Land for a jolly vacation of pillaging and sodomy (The Third Crusade) with his fellow sovereigns, Richard (of the Lionheart fame) and Phillip II of France, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa drowned near Silifke Castle in the Saleph river, on this date. Accounts of the event are conflicting. He either:
a.) Drowned while crossing the river via swimming
b.) Thrown from his horse and the weight of his armor dragged him down
c.) Drowned from exhaustion (that’s what comes from a day of jolly pillaging and sodomy.)
Some historians believe he may have had a heart attack which complicated matters. Some of Frederick’s men put him in a barrel of vinegar to preserve his body (which apparently did not work at all.)
On of many legends that have sprung up around the king is the famous Italian Gesture. When Barbarossa was in the process of seizing Milan in 1158, his wife, the Empress Beatrice, was taken captive by the enraged Milanese and forced to ride through the city on a donkey in a humiliating manner.
Some sources of this legend indicate that Barbarossa implemented his revenge for this insult by forcing the magistrates of the city to remove a fig from the anus of a donkey using only their teeth. Another source states that Barbarossa took his wrath upon every able-bodied man in the city, and that it was not a fig they were forced to hold in their mouth, but excrement from the donkey. To add to this debasement, they were made to announce, “Ecco la fica“, (meaning behold the fig), with the feces still in their mouths. It used to be said that the insulting gesture, (called fico), of holding one’s fist with the thumb in between the middle and forefinger came by its origin from this event.
And so it goes
The Haus of Dcaligari 