Sicily was claimed by Tancred's aunt Constance and her husband, Emperor Henry VI.
Rivaled by the Welf scion Otto IV,[citation needed] Philip was able to consolidate his rule over the German kingdom.
On 21 June 1208, he was killed by the Bavarian Count Palatine Otto VIII of Wittelsbach, leaving Irene widowed a second time.
[citation needed] After the murder of her husband, Irene, who was pregnant at the time, retired to Hohenstaufen Castle (modern-day Germany).
[8] In his poem on King Philip's Magdeburg Christmas celebrations, the minnesinger Walther von der Vogelweide described Irene as rose ane dorn, ein tube sunder gallen (Middle High German for "rose without a thorn, a dove without gall").