Denaro - Godfrey of Hohenstaufen

Godfrey of Hohenstaufen served as Patriarch of Aquileia from 1182 to 1194, appointed directly by his cousin Frederick Barbarossa — a naked exercise of imperial influence over one of northern Italy's most strategically positioned ecclesiastical territories. Aquileia sat at the crossroads of trans-Alpine trade routes, and control of its mint was as much a political instrument as a fiscal one. The Hohenstaufen connection gave Godfrey unusual latitude to consolidate coinage rights that earlier patriarchs had contested with local secular lords for decades.