According to legend, his mother, fleeing her philandering husband in 1270, was overcome by the pain of parting and bit Frederick on the cheek: therefore he became known as the Bitten.

(While not descended from the Kings of Jerusalem, his grandfather Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, had claimed the kingdom for himself.)

Margrave Frederick proposed an invasion of Italy in 1269, and attracted some support from the Lombard Ghibellines, but his plans were never carried out, and he played no further part in Italian affairs.

However, King Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg thought that Meissen and the Eastern March should return to the crown after Tuta's death, and bought Thuringia from the debt-laden Albert.

But Erfurt was subjected by force, and he was also reconciled with Emperor Henry VII, to whom Frederick had originally refused to submit.

However, the fight with Brandenburg still continued and when Frederick was captured by Margrave Waldemar, he had to buy his freedom with 32,000 marks of silver and the cession of Lower Lusatia in the Treaty of Tangermünde of 1312.