Frederick, the infant son of Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI and Constance, Queen of Sicily, had been elected King of the Germans in 1196, at Frankfurt am Main.

His rights in Germany had been disputed by Henry's brother Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick.

At the death of his father in 1197, the two-year-old Frederick had been in Italy traveling towards Germany when the bad news reached his guardian, Conrad of Spoleto.

Frederick had been hastily brought back to his mother Constance in Palermo, Sicily, where he was crowned as King on May 17, 1198, now Frederick I of Sicily.

Constance of Sicily is in her own right queen of Sicily and she establishes herself as regent.

In Frederick's name, she dissolves Sicily's ties to Germany and the Empire that had been created by her marriage, sending home his German counselors and renouncing his claims to the German throne and empire.

Upon Constance's death in 1198, Pope Innocent III succeeds as Frederick's guardian.