The Dictum of Kenilworth, Part 1

The end of the Second Barons' War required closure and reconciliation, and it came in the Dictum of Kenilworth, need for the castle in which the last rebels held out against royalist assault, until Henry took a more diplomatic approach to ending the hostility.

The Dictum was put together by a commission, created by Parliament, to contain three bishops and three barons. Those six selected an additional bishop, two earls, and three additional barons. Participants included a few names we've run into before: Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester, and John Balliol. They were told to come up with a plan by All Saints' Day (1 November). They announced their solution on 31 October 1266.

The chief aim of the Dictum was for Henry to regain his authority in defiance of the Provisions of Oxford that had been forced on him in exchange for raising the funds he wanted. It asserted his right to appoint his own ministers. He did re-affirm Magna Carta.

The rebels were all land-owning men, and their lands had been confiscated by the Crown. The Dictum offered a pardon for their rebellion and offered to restore their properties to them, but they had to buy them back. The price of purchase would depend on how deeply they were involved in the rebellion.

Was there a fair way to decide what a property was worth? The traditional method was to value it at ten times the value of its annual yield. The king offered them their lands back at only five times the annual yield. Not for everyone, though.

Robert Ferrers, Earl of Derby, who had been vicious in his murder of Jews (considered by the king in England to all be under Crown protection), was charged seven times the value of his lands' annual yields. The commander of Kenilworth Castle, Henry de Hastings, was also charged seven times.

If you had not taken up arms against the king but had been outspoken on the side of the rebels, you were fined at two times the value of the land. If you had been forced to fight by your liege lord you were fined just one year's worth.

This did not go smoothly, however. One of there king's supporters even tried to change his allegiance not long after. I'll explain tomorrow.

Second Baron's War Ends

Simon de Montfort was in control of London in April 1264. Northampton was under siege by supporters of King Henry, and Simon assembled his army to go stop the royalists, but he was too late. Simon then went to Kent to besiege Rochester Castle, held in support of Henry by constable Sir Roger de Leybourne (1215–1271), whose father, also called Roger, was on the side of rebels in the First Barons' War.

Roger was originally on the side of Simon, but changed his mind when he heard of an alliance Simon had made.

Simon decided to make an ally of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the Prince of Gwynedd. Wales was England's enemy, and the followers of Simon started to turn on him when he and Llywelyn made peace. The Welsh Marcher Lords, English nobles guarding castles along the Welsh border, were friendly with Henry's eldest son Edward, and rallied around Edward and the royalist cause.

Prince Edward's forces defeated several of Montfort's allies at the Warwickshire market town of Kenilworth, even though the rebels had been bolstered by Welsh forces. Simon was moving across the Severn to join his son's army, and saw an army approaching flying his son's banners. Edward had seized the banners at Kenilworth and was using them to fool the rebels.

They encountered each other at the Battle of Evesham when Simon—who was hemmed on three sides by the River Avon—realized too late that he had been fooled and attempted a foolish uphill charge against a superior force. Edward had appointed a dozen men to avoid direct fighting in the encounter and search specifically for Simon. Having been located, Simon was stabbed in the neck by Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer. The royalists attacked the corpse, cutting off his head, ripping out his intestines, cutting off his testicles and hanging them on his nose, etc. His hands and feet were cut off and sent to various parts of England as a sign of the consequences of treason. (The illustration is of Simon's body being mutilated on the battlefield.)

Fighting continued, but eventually the royalists won. There are two follow-ups to offer: the Dictum of Kenilworth between Henry and the rebels, and the story of Simon's niece by marriage who was Henry's daughter, Margaret of England. We'll cover Kenilworth tom arrow and Margaret the next day.

Second Barons' War Against the Jews

In February 1264, after the Mise of Amiens, the fighting between the forces of Simon de Montfort and King Henry III began in earnest. One of the biggest moves made by the rebels was the attacks on the Jews.

Part of the Provisions of Oxford created by the barons was demanding the cancellation of Jewish debts. Attacks on Jewish communities were devastating. Henry de Montfort and Robert Earl Ferrers led an attack that killed most of the Jews in Worcester. Robert had borrowed heavily from the Jews of Worcester. He plundered homes and religious houses and stole the records of loans.

Another of the rebels, John fitz John, was part of the attack on Jews in London where 500 were killed.  John fitz John was said to have killed two of the leading Jewish figures, Isaac son of Aaron and Cok son of Abraham, with his bare hands. There was no offering to the Jews the choice of converting to Christianity as was sometimes offered in the past (such as the story of Clifford's Tower, although that was a cruel lie). The records of the Domus Conversorum ("House of Converts") established by Henry for converted Jews show no Jews were admitted in that year. A few were sent to the Tower of London for incarceration.

Simon the Younger extended his anti-Jewish pogroms to Winchester, Lincoln, and Cambridge. Gilbert de Clare, the 7th Earl of Gloucester whose father had been a royalist but who decided to join the rebels once he gained the title, led the attacks on Jews in Canterbury (where a few Jewish women were forced to convert) and Northampton.

The chief goal was less religious than financial. Since the incident at Clifford's Tower, the Crown had established a method for keeping track of Jewish debt. It was easier for the king to tax the Jews whenever he needed money than to get it from the barons. The Crown therefore desired to have accurate records of who owed what to whom. Cities and towns with large Jewish populations maintained archa, chests in which records were kept that the king could check on any time. The attacks not only killed Jews, they destroyed the archa to erase any records of debt.

The tide for the Barons was starting to turn, however. See you tomorrow.

The Second Barons' War Begins

So the first phase of the Second Barons' War happened very quickly. The rebellious barons invaded London and captured King Henry III and Queen Eleanor of Provence. Simon de Montfort, who was married to Henry's sister, assumed control of the government, making rulings in Henry's name.

Much of the country was still loyal to the king, however, and there were nobles with soldiers who opposed Simon. Henry's son Edward (later King Edward I) had originally dabbled with rebelling against his father (a common occurrence in English politics), but now decided to become leader of the royalist party. He brought his own forces to seize Windsor from the rebels.

Widespread fighting was inevitable, and so they turned to King Louis IX of France. Why? One of the provisions of Magna Carta was that France's king would be brought in to mediate between England's king and his barons.

Henry was allowed to go to France in December 1263 to present his side to Louis. Simon, having sustained a broken leg during fighting, did not make the trip. He was represented by Peter de Montfort and others. (The illustration shows the letter, dated October 1263, explaining Henry's case, with the seals of the nobles who supported him attached.)

Henry complained that he had the right to appoint his own ministers, that his castles had been ruined or destroyed by the rebels, and demanded restitution of £300,000 and 200,000 marks. The barons' statement points out that Henry had accepted the Provisions of Oxford and then violated them. There were other accusations.

On 23 January 1264, Louis made his decision, called the Mise [settlement] of Amiens. Since the pope had already declared that Henry's oath (made on the Gospels) was forgiven and that he did not have to follow the Provisions, Louis ruled completely in Henry's favor. Louis, also a king himself, was not very likely to make a decision that diminished a king's authority. (Also, Eleanor of Provence was Louis' sister-in-law, so Louis may have seen this as a family matter.)

Rather than a solution, this put the conflict between the barons and royal authority right back to square one. Nothing could stop the war that was about to erupt. See you next time.

The Provisions Overturned

The Provisions of Oxford, a result of the barons demanding reforms from King Henry III during the Mad Parliament in exchange for raising money for him, were overturned a few years later.

Henry's need for money came from trying to finance a war against the Hohenstaufens for the Kingdom of Sicily. Henry wanted it for his younger son Edmund. Pope Innocent IV wanted Henry to "buy" it to avoid giving the Hohenstaufens a foothold in Italy (the Kingdom of Sicily included the Regno, that held much of southern Italy, right on the papacy's threshold).

Although Henry had sworn on the Gospel to accept the Provisions, a papal bull in 1261 absolved Henry of the need to follow them. The barons called their own parliament to re-assert control over government, but Henry was not about to back down, and he still had several powerful earls and barons on his side. Simon de Montfort, one of the chief instigators of rebellion (even though he was married to Henry's sister), saw they were outmatched and fled to France.

The First Barons' War that ended with Magna Carta also set up a method by which the King of France would mediate disputes between King John and the barons (illustration). This was tried with King Louis and Henry versus the barons, but there was little agreement on each side.

Henry's need for financial support disappeared when he gave up trying to gain Sicily for Edmund, and therefore his reason for agreeing to the barons' demands disappeared. Then, in 1262, one of his strongest supporters, Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester, died. Richard's son and successor, Gilbert de Clare, brought the resources of Gloucester to the side of the rebels.

Henry's re-assertion of his ultimate authority continued to anger the barons and earls, and in April 1263 several of them invited Simon de M Montfort back to England to join them in opposition. Simon gathered all the barons opposed to the king at Oxford. Before the end of 1263 both sides had raised large armies. Simon de Montfort's army marched on London where they found local support. Henry and his queen were trapped in the Tower of London, but before long were taken prisoner and de Montfort took control of England.

Not everyone approved of this usurpation, or of de Montfort himself. We'll look at what happened next tomorrow.

The Provisions of Westminster

The Provisions of Oxford, reorganizing the government of England with a series of checks and balances that removed power from King Henry III and distributed it among a large council of barons and others, were replaced a year later by the Provisions of Westminster of 1259.

This document restated the Provisions of Oxford, but added additional changes to taxation and inheritance policies, and included a section on mortmain.

The term "mortmain" comes from Latin mortua manus ("dead hand"), and refers to the permanent ownership of property by a legal entity, such as a church owning property from which it gains revenue through rent. Because the church entity was not a living person, the land could be said to be held not by a living person but in a "dead hand." (We think that is the explanation of the term, but no one knows for certain.)

Land held by an individual could be passed on to another when the individual died. If the individual had no heirs, the Crown took possession and chose to whom it should go. Mortmain meant that a legal entity could posses land eternally. Since a diocese or parish did not die, land possessed by such an entity stayed in Church hands in perpetuity.

The Provisions of Westminster put limits on mortmain, requiring approval from secular authorities (king and council) for the Church to hold land in perpetuity. (More limits were created in later administrations, such as by Henry's son Edward I).

There was more to the Provisions than mortmain, of course. Some additional parts claim that an accusation of murder could not be brought when a death was caused by accident. Also, a person could not be fined for making an honest mistake ("I didn't know I was trespassing" for instance).

A few years after this, however, the Provisions of Oxford and their successor, the Provisions of Westminster, were overturned completely. This would set up the Second Barons' War. I'll tell you how they were overturned next time.

(By the way, you can read Modern English translations of the Provisions of Oxford and Westminster here.)

The Mad Parliament

King Henry III had spent lavishly on many things, including trying to fund a war to gain the Kingdom of Sicily for his younger son Edmund. He was confronted by a number of barons who would only agree to raise money for him if he would commit to some reforms.

He called Parliament to gather at Westminster Hall (the illustration shows the room wherein they would have gathered) on 9 April 1258 to raise money. Three days later, Simon de Montfort and others refused the king's request to provide funds. They were given three days to reconsider, and so three days later several earls and barons and knights returned to Westminster, fully armed, to repeat their refusal and told the king he would get his money if he would submit to their policy demands.

Henry had little choice but to agree, and so he swore on the Gospel that he would go along with their demands and a commission was formed, 12 chosen by Henry and 12 chosen by the opposition, to meet at Oxford in June and discuss future policy. The result was the Provisions of Oxford.

The provisions re-organized government and could be called the first constitution. (The Magna Carta was not a reorganization of how government worked; it was a list of policies.) Under the Provisions, Parliament met regularly thrice each year, not just when the king wanted it. A council of 15 was created to manage appointments of ministers instead of having the king pick all his people. Parliament would oversee the council's actions.

Besides 15 members, the council would also include the justiciar, the chancellor, and the treasurer, and others. It was unlikely that the 15 would all be able to hang about the king all the time, so usually a few were around and would decide if any matter was important enough to summon the others. The chancellor, keeper of the king's seal, was forced to agree that he would not use the seal to approve an important grant unless a majority of the 15 greed. These checks and balances were unusual in a monarchy.

In an unusual move, the provisions were copied and sent to all the sheriffs of all the counties in three languages: Latin, French, and (Middle) English. The use of English was a signal of the barons' objection to all the French influences and advisors of the king.

The Provisons of Oxford were only supposed to be in effect for 12 years until a more permanent and more wide-spread set of changes could be devised. They lasted for one year. I'll explain tomorrow.

The Second Barons' War—Causes

The Second Barons' War started in 1264 by Simon de Montfort, the 6th Earl of Leicester, against King Henry III of England. Henry was relying to much on favorites for advice—many of them from France, which annoyed the English lords—and the barons of the land wanted to have more authority in guiding king and country.

Ironically, de Montfort was one of those French foreigners whom Henry favored with not only his title (originally withheld, though his by right through his English mother), but also by marriage to Henry's sister. Such a royal marriage was a political matter, and traditionally the barons would be consulted. So de Montfort himself was one of the reasons the barons were not pleased with their king.

de Montfort started to turn against Henry when de Montfort was put on trial for actions in Gascony. He had been named governor of Gascony in 1248, whereupon he exercised his authority by suppressing the local lords' excessive behavior. Although ultimately acquitted of improper behavior, de Montfort was relieved of the title in 1252, and Henry himself went to Gascony to reconcile with the locals.

The insult to de Montfort caused a falling out between him and Henry.

Another point of contention was the control the king had over the Jewish population. (See the Statute of Jewry post.) Often, when the king wanted an influx of money, he would tax the Jewish population exorbitantly. The Jewish moneylenders would sometimes raise cash quickly by selling the debt contracts to someone with money to buy them. A wealthy lord would buy the contracts at a cheaper price, then start to collect (rather than use the long-term method of allowing interest to grow, since Christians were forbidden to charge interest). This impoverished many.

The death of Hugh of Lincoln in 1255, blamed on the Jews, also inflamed anti-semitism. That, debts barons owed to Jews, and anti-Jewish policies promoted by the Church helped give de Montfort an enemy and motivation to create widespread change to the political system. He called for the cancellation of all Jewish debt. (Note that France was more anti-Jew than England, having expelled all Jews in 1182 by order of King Philip II shortly after his coronation.) de Montfort himself expelled all Jews from Leicester back in 1231.

Another point of contention between the barons and the king was Henry's attempt to gain the throne of Sicily for his son Edmund, which he attempted to buy from Pope Innocent IV. The barons objected to Henry's attempt to raise money and start a war against the Hohenstaufens for Sicily.

This gave the barons an opening to curb the king's power, however. They would agree to make up the financial losses of his war for Sicily, if he would agree to some demands of theirs. I'll explain the deal they made next time.

Simon and Eleanor

After Simon de Montfort failed to gain the hand of the Countess of Flanders, he was offered a different marriage partner: the sister of King Henry III of England, Eleanor of England. Henry may have thought it would be good to use his sister to forge strong bonds between Simon and the royal family.

Also called Eleanor Plantagenet (1215 – 13 April 1275), she was the youngest child of King John. She never knew her father, who died when she was only a year old. When she was nine she had been married to the 34-year-old William Marshal, whose father (also William Marshal) had organized the northern barons to support Young Henry when the French were invading England. Marshal senior died in 1219, and young William had succeeded him as 2nd Earl of Pembroke.

They were married in 1224, but William died in 1231 after producing no children. The now-16 Eleanor swore an oath of chastity to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

She met Simon seven years later when she was 23. Simon wanted to marry her (Matthew Paris said he was attracted to her beauty as well as her wealth), Eleanor was willing to marry him, her brother Henry approved, and the two were married quietly on 7 January 1238 in Westminster Palace at the King's own chapel.

The English nobles objected to the king's sister marrying a foreigner. The king's brother, Richard of Cornwall, started to revolt as well, but Henry gave him 6000 marks to sit down and shut up.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund of Abingdon (c.1174 – 1240), objected because Eleanor had made that vow of chastity in front of him. He declared the marriage invalid. Simon chose to make a pilgrimage to Rome to ask for papal approval, which Gregory IX gave.

The couple had seven children, most of whom grew up and did well. Their union, however, did not mean that Simon was loyal to his brother-in-law. Simon was a principal of the Second Barons' War, which we should look at next.

Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl

We have to distinguish Simon's title, because there was more than one prominent Englishman with that name. Simon the 6th Earl of Leicester (also 1st Earl of Chester), was born c.1208. His father was the 5th Earl, and also called Simon de Montfort. Another way to distinguish them is that the father was Simon IV, and the one we're talking about today is Simon V. His mother was Alix de Montmorency, a French noblewoman, who died when Simon was a teenager.

Simon IV accompanied his father on campaigns against the Cathars and was present at the Siege of Toulouse. He took part in the Barons Crusade to the Holy Land. His brother, Amaury, also participated in these endeavors.

Although Simon's father was the 5th Earl of Leicester, that man had claimed a lot of territory on the continent during the Albigensian Crusade and was becoming more powerful than King John of England liked.

Simon IV was killed in 1218 by a stone from a mangonel during the Siege of Toulouse, but King John did not allow Simon V to succeed to the Earldom of Leicester after Simon IV's death, giving it instead to Simon IV's cousin, Ranulf de Blondeville.

Simon V came to England in 1229 to meet with the current king, Henry III. Simon spoke French, which was also at that time the language of the Court, and Henry seemed to trend toward having advisors who were from France.

Because of territory claimed by Simon V in France, Simon IV and Amaury owed allegiance to the French king. The two brothers came to an agreement: Simon would give up any rights to the French lands, and Amaury would give up his rights to the English lands.

Henry then allowed Simon IV to approach Ranulph (who was childless) and ask to be his heir for the earldom. Ranulph assented, but Simon did not gain the title until 1239.

In 1236, Simon IV wanted to marry Joan, Countess of Flanders, which would have given the next Earl of Leicester a prominent foothold next to France. The French king did not approve, and Joan married someone else.

Simon was about to make an even better marriage from a political standpoint, which we will start with tomorrow.

The End of Richard

Richard of Cornwall, who occasionally rebelled against his brother, King Henry III of England, aided him against a rebellion not long after Richard became King of the Romans.

Simon de Montfort, the 6th Earl of Leicester, in April 1263 called his fellow barons to Oxford where they discussed rebellion against Henry's policies. This resulted in the Second Barons War (referenced here).

Richard stayed with his brother in opposing the barons; possibly he thought he could someday still be King of England and didn't want the barons to have more power. Richard was captured (after running away and hiding in a windmill) along with Henry at the Battle of Lewes.

Believe it or not, in Germany they felt that Richard could not fulfill his duties as King of the Romans and tried to slip Conradin onto the throne. Pope Clement IV and Ottokar II of Bohemia (who had voted for Richard in the first place) blocked the usurpation. Once Richard got out of captivity he made Ottokar his administrator for everything on the right bank of the Rhine.

Richard had a son by his first wife, Isabel Marshal, called Henry of Almain, the only child of theirs that lived to adulthood. At the Battle of Evesham, Henry de Montfort was killed by the royalist forces. Henry's sons, Simon the younger and Guy de Montfort, killed Henry of Almain while Henry was attending services at the church of San Silvestro in Viterbo (Italy) on 13 March 1271, as revenge for the death of their father.

This was sadder (in a sense), because the men involved were cousins. Richard and King Henry's sister, Eleanor Plantagenet, married Simon de Montfort (although against the wishes of Richard) in 1224.

By the time of Richard's captivity by Simon, his wife Sanchia had died. During a time in Germany while he helped to liberate Dietrich I, Count of Falkenburg, he fell in love with Dietrich's 15-year-old daughter Beatrice (Richard was 61). They married on 16 June 1269 and he brought her back to England, never again returning to Germany.

Richard died 2 April 1272 after only two years of marriage. He was buried next to Sanchia and Henry of Almain at Hailes Abbey, which Richard founded.

It's time, however, actually to look into the man that started so much trouble in England, Simon de Montfort.

King of the Romans

Richard of Cornwall was only two years younger than his brother Henry, who became King of England. He rebelled against Henry a few times, using his wealth from Cornwall and Poitou to try to become king. When he was married to Isabel Marshal, a wealthy widow, he had even more money and power.

After Isabel's death, Richard married Sanchia of Provence, sister of Henry's wife, Eleanor. Eleanor was married to a king. Her sister Margaret was married to a king, Louis IX of race. Their sister Beatrice was married to a king, Charles of Sicily.

The Kingdom of Sicily had been offered to Richard by Pope Innocent IV, but Richard knew that taking it from Manfred would be difficult and too expensive, so he declined. Then, in 1257, Richard's golden opportunity to become king came along, and it was thanks to his new wife, Sanchia.

Germany was lacking a king. William of Holland (whose election was contested, prompting him to be called an "anti-king") died after a battle when he got stuck in the ice trying to cross a frozen river. That was in 1247.

Technically, the position that was open was "King of the Romans." That title was used by the King of East Francia from the time of Holy Roman Emperor Henry II (reigned 1002 - 1024). In the 11th century, East Francia started being called the Kingdom of Germany (Regnum Teutonicum). The title Romanorum Rex, "King of the Romans," was used to indicate the entitlement given by being named Holy Roman Emperor by a pope.

There were seven German electoral princes in the time we're discussing, and they got to choose their next king. Pope Alexander IV and Louis IX of France supported Alfonso X of Castile (his mother was descended from the Hohenstaufens, giving him a German claim). The family of Richard's wife Sanchia and Henry's wife Eleanor pushed for Richard. Since Louis' wife was also a family member, this could have made family gatherings awkward, but perhaps the family just wanted Sanchia to have a chance to be a queen, like all her sisters.

Richard gave gifts of money to the electors to win them over. One of the electors, King Ottokar II of Bohemia, was also a candidate, but as a strong ruler already, the other electors were not interested in giving him power in Germany. The ideal situation was to have a king who would not interfere with whatever the nobles wanted to do in their jurisdictions.

Four of the seven electors (including Ottokar, although he had not been offered a bribe) voted for Richard, and on 13 January 1257 Richard was crowned King of the Romans. Several weeks later, on 1 April, Alfonso X was declared King of the Romans by four electors when Ottokar changed his vote. Alfonso never went to Germany. Then Ottokar chose to support Richard, after all. (Alfonso in 1275 officially renounced any claim to the title.)

Richard visited Aachen to be crowned, but afterward made only three additional short visits to Germany. The important thing was that he could call himself king, and Sanchia was now a queen like her sisters.

It appeared that Richard was content now to be supportive of Henry and not usurp his title of king. Let's see what happened next for the two brothers.

Richard of Cornwall

When King John of England died in 1216, his eldest child, Henry, was barely nine years old. He would become Henry III. There were several other children, even younger, one of whom was Richard of Cornwall.

Richard was born on 5 January, 1209, at Winchester. Royal children are often named for their place of birth, but Richard was given Cornwall as a 16th birthday present by his brother Henry in 1225, making him High Sheriff. (The illustration shows his seal.) Cornwall rents and taxes were significant, and Richard became extremely wealthy. In 1225 he was also named Count of Poitou, giving him an important property in France.

Sibling rivalry exists, and when the siblings are wealthy and royal, their rivalries can be more drastic. Richard upon occasion rebelled against Henry, perhaps feeling that Richard should have his chance at the throne. Henry always suppressed the rebellions, however, and paid Richard large sums to satisfy him.

One of Richard's actions in Cornwall was to acquire Tintagel. Richard possessed Merthen Manor, and offered it to Gervase of Tintagel for Tintagel. Richard built a castle on the site in 1233. It is thought that he did so to ingratiate himself to the Cornish by honoring the site linked to Cornwall's Arthurian legends.

When Richard was 22 he married Isabel Marshal, widow of the wealthy 5th Earl of Gloucester. This bothered Henry, because it made Richard potentially more powerful and might lead to another attempt at rebellion. Richard and Isabel had four children, of whom only one survived to adulthood. Isabel died in 1240.

In 1240 Richard went on Crusade where he did not see battle but was involved in negotiations of release of prisoners and the refortification of Ascalon after its destruction by Saladin. On his return trip, he visited the court of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who was married to Richard's sister, Isabella of England.

Richard was, of course, the heir apparent if anything happened to Henry, but in 1239 Edward and his queen, Eleanor of Provence, had a son, Edward. Edward was established as Henry's heir, cutting Richard out of there line of succession. When Richard returned from his rails, the king and queen offered him Eleanor's sister, Sanchia of Provence.

Sanchia was born about 1225, and so was in her late teens when they married in 1243. Sanchia and Eleanor's sister Margaret was the wife of Louis IX of France; their sister Beatrice was married to Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily. This marriage put Richard into very good company, related to kings through his brother and his wife. How sad for Sanchia that her sisters married kings and she did not have a crown.

Or did she? Was there a chance that Richard could become king, if not of England, then maybe somewhere else? We'll take a look at his chances tomorrow.

Selling Sicily

Pope Urban IV's first move to try to curtail Manfred of Sicily's imperial ambitions was to excommunicate him. This was Manfred's third excommunication, and clearly he was not bothered by them.

Manfred had made himself King of Sicily after the rumored death of his nephew, Conradin, and refused to relinquish the claim when it turned out Conradin was alive (and demanding the title back). Urban tried to "sell" the title King of Sicily to someone he could trust. He offered it to Richard of Cornwall first.

Richard of Cornwall was the second son of King John of England. Matthew Paris writes that Richard refused the title, since Sicily would have to be taken by force. According to Paris, Richard expressed this unlikelihood to the pope by saying "You might as well say, 'I will sell or give you the moon, rise up and take it'."

Richard's brother, King Henry III of England, tried to get Sicily for his son Edmund Crouchback. Pope Innocent IV had already offered it for Edmund in 1254, but England was not keen on paying taxes for a battle to conquer and hold Sicily for a ten-year-old. There were many twists and turns in what historians call the "Sicilian Business," and ultimately no one from England took over Sicily, despite papal attempts and royal wishes.

The title was offered to Charles of Anjou, brother of King Louis IX of France, who (like Manfred) was interested in expanding his properties anywhere he could in the known world. Charles took up the challenge willingly, and the result has been told in the last several posts on this blog. Manfred was killed in the Battle of Benevento, then Conradin was captured and beheaded, and Sicily went into the hands of Charles.

I mentioned a few posts back, however, how driving out the last Hohenstaufen did not mean that no Hohenstaufen would become Sicilian royalty.

Manfred's only daughter, Constance, had been married to the man who became King Peter III of Aragon. Upon her father's death, Constance (in some minds) inherited the title Queen of Sicily, and that is attached to her name by history. By marriage to her, Peter claimed the throne of Sicily and fought over it. (The illustration shows Peter and Constance arriving in Sicily.) The result was the division of Sicily into the Kingdom of Trinacria, ruled by Peter and Constance and their heirs, and the kingdom of Naples, ruled by the heirs of Charles of Anjou.

So Manfred's daughter became Queen of Sicily, and even lived and ruled on the island until her death in 1302. After that, however, there were no heirs of Manfred or Conradin involved in Sicily.

I want to talk about Richard of Cornwall, the man who was offered papal support to take over Sicily but wisely stayed out of that messy conflict. Turns out he had his own prospects, and we'll see what he was up to next time.

Manfred's Imperial Ambition

After Manfred of Sicily (née Lancia) was excommunicated by the pope in 1254, he handled it in two ways. The first was to talk to the pope and resolve whatever issue the pope had. This led to Manfred accepting the title of Papal vicar for southern Italy, acknowledging that the papacy had authority over the territory. Pope Innocent IV lifted the excommunication.

The second way was to reject the idea that he was "under" the pope. He went to the Muslims of Lucera for support, and with them he defeated a papal army on 2 December 1254 in Foggia, essentially declaring publicly that he intended to rule the Regno (southern Italy and Sicily).

He also gave German troops to aid the Ghibellines, the group that supported imperial power over papal power. This helped the Ghibellines take over Tuscany and Siena. They went on to defeat Florence.

Pope Innocent IV died, succeeded by Pope Alexander IV, who immediately excommunicated Manfred. Manfred, however, continued in his successful quest to put down any rebellions against his authority and firmly establish himself as the ruler of the Regno. He was still at this point considered the regent of young Conradin, the rightful King of Sicily.

In August 1258, a rumor that Conradin was dead led Manfred to have himself crowned King of Sicily (illustration). It turned out the rumor was false, but everyone was content to have an adult with clear military might be their king.

Pope Alexander declared the coronation invalid, but Manfred carried on anyway, ignoring the demands of Conradin's envoys to abdicate. He decided to gain more power. One step was to find political alliances through the marriages of his children. His daughter Constance of Sicily (named for Frederick II's mother) married the son of King James I of Aragon, Peter, who became King Peter III of Aragon in 1276, making her queen consort of Aragon.

Manfred also used his Ghibelline connections to gain more power in the north of Italy. This would mean the Papal States were surrounded on all sides by the power-hungry man who ignored excommunications and seemed to be trying to create for himself the power of his father, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. A Mediterranean empire was possible under Manfred. Something had to be done, and along came Pope Urban IV to try to stop Manfred.

We will see how that worked tomorrow.

Manfred Lancia

We're going to look at the life of Manfred (1232 - 1266), who became King of Sicily. He was originally called Manfred Lancia, after his mother, Bianca Lancia. Bianca was an Italian noblewoman who was certainly the mistress of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and possibly became his last wife.

Matthew Paris and an Italian Franciscan named Salimbene di Adam both wrote in their histories that there was a last-minute marriage between Frederick and Bianca when Frederick was on his deathbed. When Manfred was born, however, Bianca was not married to Frederick, and so Manfred is considered an illegitimate, or "natural" son of the emperor.

Frederick certainly considered Manfred his son, with all the privileges a son of the emperor should have. Frederick's will named Manfred as Prince of Taranto, the "heel" of the Italian peninsula (dark green in the illustration) which was part of the area known as the Regno (the island of Sicily and the southern part of Italy). Frederick's son Conrad IV  by Isabella II of Jerusalem was named king of Germany and Italy and Sicily. Manfred was a vassal of Conrad and would act as regent in Sicily when Conrad was away.

When Frederick died in 1250, Manfred worked to quell any unrest, and tried to repair the relationship with Pope Innocent IV, who had clashed with Frederick over many issues and felt that the Regno was a danger to the Papal States and should revert to papal control. Innocent was not inclined to be nice to that dynasty, however.

Conrad arrived in the Regno in 1252 and quickly asserted his authority, taking fiefs away from Manfred and reminding him that he only had authority in Taranto.

Conrad had a young son born in 1252, also named Conrad but referred to as "Conradin" or "Conrad the Younger" to distinguish him from his father. Conrad the father asked the pope to be Conradin's guardian, along with a German baron, Berthold of Hohenberg.

Conrad died from malaria in 1254 and Manfred declared himself in control of Sicily, clashing with Innocent. Innocent agreed to recognize Conradin as the legitimate heir to Sicily and have Manfred be Conradin's regent, but Innocent was still Conradin's guardian. Once this was settled, Innocent made clear what he thought of Manfred by excommunicating him.

This would not be the only excommunication Manfred would suffer, but he wasn't going to accept his fate with humility. He decided the best course of action was to strike back at the pope. We'll see how that worked out for him tomorrow.

Charles and Sicily, Part 4

Events were in place for a final showdown between Charles of Anjou, declared King of Sicily by Rome, and Conradin, teenage son of the last "official" King of Sicily, Conrad IV.

Conradin, convinced by supporters of his uncle, Manfred of Sicily (who had just been killed in battle against Charles) to assert a right to the throne and fight, had left Bavaria and come to Italy, where he invaded Abruzzo (in the middle of the peninsula).

Charles' Guelph forces met Conradin's Ghibelline forces on 23 August 1268 on the plains outside the town of Tagliacozzo. Conradin had greater numbers, but Charles had been advised to keep a French division hidden over a hill to provide a surprise with fresh forces, if necessary.

The tactic proved valuable. It looked like Conradin's forces were winning. The killing of a man in armor that they thought was Charles heartened Conradin's people, and they pursued the retreating soldiers of Charles, thinking that they were now just easily going to round up the leaderless enemy. Then Charles released his French soldiers from hiding.

This fresh force ran through the unsuspecting and already worn troops of Conradin, who fled to Rome with many of his men. He decided to get to Sicily, so left Rome for the coast. He was captured before he could embark for the island, imprisoned in Naples, and then put on trial for treason.

Conradin was pronounced guilty and he, along with his close friend Frederick I, Margrave of Baden, was beheaded on 29 October (see illustration). Their remains were buried quickly. Conradin's mother, Elizabeth of Bavaria, pleaded successfully for a proper burial, and the remains were moved to the church of the monastery of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel at Naples, founded by Elizabeth.

With Conradin's death, the direct male line of the Hohenstaufens, the "People on the High Hill," came to an end. Also, since Conradin had been the heir to the title King of Jerusalem, that title was up for grabs, which has been discussed at length recently. It ultimately went to no other than Conradin's executioner, Charles of Anjou!

Leaving Charles for now...does all this mean that the Hohenstaufens were no longer associated with Sicily? Actually, believe it or not, there was Sicilian royalty not long after from the Hohenstaufen line. To understand this turn of fate, we have to take another look at the man who was named as Conradin's regent by Elizabeth of Bavaria but who usurped the title for himself, Conradin's uncle Manfred.

Tomorrow we'll examine his choices and the consequences that led to his death but led to a throne for his offspring.

Charles and Sicily, Part 3

We left off with Manfred of Sicily killed during battle (illustration) with the forces of Charles of Anjou in 1265. Charles had been named king of Sicily in Rome, but he had to conquer the Regno in southern Italy and then get to the island itself. Manfred had been regent for Conradin, the son of the last king, before deciding to declare himself king. Conradin was now only 13 years old.

Charles had conquered the part of southern Italy linked to the Kingdom of Sicily, but was not well-liked. He enforced a tax on his subjects that popes had declared illegal, and had promised his Guelph supporters that lands taken from them by Manfred's regime would be returned, which bothered those to whom Manfred had granted lands.

Pope Clement IV criticized Charles for these actions. The pope was also concerned about how much power Charles had in northern Italy, which made him a threat to the Papal States if he chose to become tyrannical. Charles resigned his senatorship in 1267, which would have made the pope happy, but then the pope needed him again.

The Guelphs were supporters of the popes. Their rivals, the Ghibellines, supported the imperial authority more than the papacy. Ghibellines had taken over Tuscany, and Clement asked Charles for military help. Charles drove the Ghibellines from Florence, whereupon Charles was named the ruler of Florence and Lucca for a period of seven years. Clement was getting very nervous about all this power in Charles' hands. He summoned Charles and asked him to promise to give up control of Tuscany in three years.

Clement also persuaded Charles to make agreements with the Latin Emperor Baldwin of Courtenay. Charles would help Baldwin re-take Constantinople from Emperor Michael VIII Paleologos, who had recently taken back the city from Venetian control. With these negotiations complete, Charles went to Tuscany, but it took several months to complete the pope's request.

Meanwhile, men loyal to Manfred had gone to Bavaria to persuade the now-15-year-old Conradin to assert his right to the kingdom of Sicily. Showing more ambition than sense, the teenager agreed. Manfred's former aide went to Sicily to stir up a revolt against Charles.

Henry of Castile had been Charles' friend, but had loaned Charles money that was not repaid. He joined Conradin's cause. Frederick of Castile, a Manfred ally, invaded Sicily from the north. Charles was busy in Tuscany while this was going on. In April 1268 he was able to march to Lucera and deal with the Muslim uprising there. News of Conradin's revolt was spreading, and many looked for a return to the old regime.

Conradin was now out of Bavaria and in Italy, invading Abruzzo. Charles hurried north to meet him. Events were leading to a final conflict.

See you tomorrow.

The Muslims of Lucera

When Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II was King of Sicily, he also ruled over a large area that included most of Italy south of Rome. This combined territory was called the Regno. Besides Italians, the population included Greeks, Jews, and Muslims. The Muslims were a diverse mix of Arabs, Berbers, Persians in Palermo, and several converted Muslims in Sicily.

Sicily had once been under Muslim rule, and pockets of resistance wanted to restore it to Muslims. Frederick, of course, wanted to change this. The ultimate solution was to get as many Muslims as possible together and put them in one out-of-the-way place. In 1220 Frederick began the process of getting all Muslims out of Sicily.

He relocated some 20,000 Muslims to Lucera in 1224. (The illustration is Fredrick's castle in Lucera.) There were also settlements in Girifalco and Acerenza all in southern Italy. These settlements also contained Jews, but had few to no Christians. They created Muslim schools, a mosque, and even had their qadi, a Shari'a court for judging disputes. Attempts to convert Lucera to Christianity by Dominicans failed.

They were treated as regular towns, and so paid their taxes and supplied men for the army when called to do so. Judging from the percentage of men they were able to supply for Frederick's military, the Muslim settlements probably numbered 60,000 all together.

By 1234, Lucera was one of the chief trade fairs authorized by Sicily. There were seven trade fairs in the Regno under Frederick, running from 24 June to 1 July each year. Muslims were skilled farmers and bee-keepers who produced honey, and they were allowed to participate in any of the trade fairs in the Regno except in Sicily.

In 1239, some Muslims from Lucera tried to return to their native home of Sicily, but every one who arrived in Sicily was re-exiled.

Manfred of Sicily used Luceran Muslim archers when he was being attacked by Charles of Anjou. When Charles conquered Sicily, Lucera resisted the change of regime, but after a siege and capitulation, Chrles confirmed Lucera in all its original privileges in exchange for a substantial levy.

And now let us return to the matter of Charles and Sicily and see how he became its king.

Charles and Sicily, Part 2

Events were in place for Charles of Anjou, Count of Provence, to take over Sicily. His brother, King Louis IX of France, was behind him, as was Pope Urban IV. Charles' promise to Urban was that he would take over Sicily, but not the rest of the Regno (the combination of Sicily and southern Italy that Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II had ruled).

An illegitimate son of Frederick, Manfred, was acting as regent for Conradin in Sicily (son of Manfred's legitimate brother Conrad IV). Manfred had designs on enlarging his rule. He planned a coup in Rome to deal with papal power, but the Guelphs made Charles a senator to gain his support. This seemed to go against Charles' promise to Urban not to accept any power in Italy itself, and Roman cardinals complained about him to Urban. Urban wouldn't go back on his support of Charles, however, because he needed to rely on Charles' military might.

Urban declared a Crusade against Manfred, and two cardinals went to France to gain support for it. One of the cardinals, Guy Foulquois, became Pope Clement IV in February 1265 after the death of Urban. He convinced Charles to hold Sicily (if he could take it) as a vassal of the pope in exchange for 8,000 ounces of gold annually. Charles agreed to the money, since he'd rule Sicily as he saw fit anyway.

They even promised him the whole of the Regno as the pope's vassal, and on 21 June 1265 Charles was installed as a senator. Clement helped him to borrow more from Italian bankers to finance the conquest of Sicily. To make everything formal, on 5 January 1266 he was crowned by five cardinals as King of Sicily (see illustration). Now all he had to do was take control of the island itself.

Several days later, many thousands of soldiers and cavalry arrived in Rome from France and Provence. By the end of January, he was marching south from Rome with the army to start the conquest of the southern Italy part of the Regno. After crossing the Apennines to get to the town of Benevento, they were attacked by Manfred's army on 26 February. Charles defeated Manfred's army, and Manfred himself was killed.

The rest of the Regno quickly capitulated, including a Muslim colony in Lucera.

Charles sent Philip of Montfort to Sicily, where Manfred's widow and family were captured. The widow, Helena of Epirus, had come with a dowry of the island of Corfu. Charles had his troops seize Corfu within the year.

Conradin was still alive, though, and with a claim to Sicily from his father. He would have to be dealt with.

Let's have a short intermission, however, and talk about the sixth paragraph above: the Muslim community of Lucera.