Daily Medieval

After Simon de Montfort failed to gain the hand of the Countess of Flanders, he was offered a different marriage partner: the sister of Kin...

We have to distinguish Simon's title, because there was more than one prominent Englishman with that name. Simon the 6th Earl of Leicest...

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

Richard of Cornwall was only two years younger than his brother Henry, who became King of England. He rebelled against Henry a few times, u...

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 ot...

Pope Urban IV's first move to try to curtail Manfred of Sicily's imperial ambitions was to excommunicate him. This was Manfred...

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 a...

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 ...

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

We left off with Manfred of Sicily killed during battle  (illustration) with the forces of Charles of Anjou  in 1265. Charles had been named...

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 co...

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, a...

While Charles of Anjou was consolidating his rule over the counties of Provence and Forcalquier between 1250 and 1252, events elsewhere wer...

The French word gabelle  derives from the Italian g abella, which means "duty." It was a tax applied to agricultural and industria...

Some months after Charles of Anjou married Beatrice of Provence  in 1246, therefore becoming Count of Provence and Forcalquier, he was knig...

The agreement was made in 1245 between several powerful individuals that Beatrice of Provence (heir to the counties of Provence and Forcalqu...

Charles of Anjou became Count of Provence and Forcalquier by his marriage in 1246 to Beatrice of Provence. His attempt to rule them was cha...

King Louis VIII of France (1187 - 1226) and Blanch of Castile (1188 - 1252) had several children, one of whom became the next king of Franc...

After Maria of Antioch " sold " her claim to the title of Queen of Jerusalem to Charles of Anjou—however illegal it was to the Hig...

Maria of Antioch had a stronger claim to the throne of Jerusalem in 1268 than the man who was crowned. Born c.1220, she was a granddaughter ...

When the title King of Jerusalem was up for grabs in 1268, there was more than one claimant. There had not been a king in situ  for years be...

Frederick II (1194 - 1250) was King of Germany, King of Italy, King of Sicily, and Holy Roman Emperor. He agreed to go on Crusade, but wante...

We think of the Magna Carta as an important moment in legislative history, when laws forced a king to relinquish some power to others of le...

The King of Jerusalem, Aimery of Lusignan , had a problem with his seneschal, Ralph of Saint-Omer: he accused the seneschal (who had hopes o...

With the unexpected death of Henry II of Champagne by falling out a window, Jerusalem's Queen Isabella  (the real ruler) needed a new h...

So we have Henry II of Champagne , elevated to the position of King of Jerusalem even if he doesn't use the title, and Aimery of Lusign...

Aimery (born c.1153) was one of the sons of the Lord of Poitou, Hugh VIII of Lusignan, and Burgundia of Rancon. His brother Guy has figured...

While Henry II of Champagne was functioning as King of Jerusalem (even if he did not use the title itself, preferring to manage things clea...