This would effectively have combined the Empire and its three kingdoms—Germany, Italy and Burgundy—with the hereditary kingdom of Sicily, which belonged to Henry and his heirs in right of his wife, the heiress Constance.
Henry was aware of developments in other European countries such as France, where the principle of hereditary monarchy was firmly established and the strength of the crown was increasing.
Although hereditary succession for princes (Leihezwang) had become customary within the Empire, it was still not a formal right and on multiple occasions Henry refused to enfeoff the direct heir of a deceased prince with the latter's territory (the most notable example of this being Henry's seizure of the Margraviate of Meissen in 1195 as a vacant fief after the death of Albrecht the Proud, rather than enfeoffing Albrecht's brother Dietrich I with the margraviate).
[3] Besides being opposed towards Henry's rule in general, Adolf was unwilling to give up the significant level of influence that his position traditionally held over the imperial election.
Pope Celestine III, however, had many reasons to oppose such a plan, including the longstanding papal opposition to the expansion of Imperial power in Italy.
Henry's attempts to turn the Imperial title into a hereditary one were ultimately futile, and the Holy Roman Empire remained an elective monarchy (albeit de facto under the Habsburgs for the last four centuries, with a brief interruption) all the way up until its dissolution in 1806.