The "Age of the Staufens", from 1152 to 1250, marked by the reign of these three emperors, became the epitome of the late German Middle Ages. For almost 100 years (from 1152 to 1190 and from 1212 to 1250) “Emperor Frederick” was in power. Subsequent eras did not bring Germany a ruler who could live up to the ideal of a legitimate emperor, an ideal that arose from the imagination of the common people and was based on the glorious memories of both Staufens and on the belief in better times. This image was fixed in folk tales, and later in the works of the romantics.