The great epic about Frederick Barbarossa by bestselling author Sabine Ebert continues! Volume 2 of the great medieval saga. At the beginning of 1147, famine and prophets of doom cause despair in German lands. Almost all the great noble houses prepare for two crusades. Under King Konrad, tens of thousands want to go to the Holy Land, while the eastern princes plan to conquer Slavic territories on the Elbe, Havel and coast with their "Wenden Crusade". Before they set out, strategic marriages are made. Friedrich von Staufen, the king's nephew and future Barbarossa, marries Adela von Vohburg, whom he dislikes, and Dietrich, the margrave's son from Meissen, marries an emotionally cold Polish duke's daughter. Almost all the men go to war - and the women have to cope alone with famine, failed harvests and attacks.
On the way to the Holy Land, young Frederick makes a name for himself as a military leader. But the crusade fails catastrophically. Only a few return home. Among those returning home is the seriously ill King Konrad von Staufen. The power struggles, which had never been extinguished, flared up anew. Konrad dies a few days before the election and coronation of his only eight-year-old son as co-regent. This is the moment when Frederick of Staufen resolutely reaches for the crown. He wants to reshape the empire - and a new wife, a better match than Adela.
