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.

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.

Conrad, King of Jerusalem?

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 wanted to be King Jerusalem when he got to the Holy Land. It was arranged for him to marry Queen Isabella II, the most recent in line of succession. Isabella died after giving birth to a son, Conrad (1228 - 1254).

Upon his mother's death, Conrad became Conrad II, King of Jerusalem, and Frederick took on the regency for his son. Frederick made him Duke of Swabia when Conrad was seven years old (because Frederick's eldest son from a previous marriage, Henry VII, had rebelled against Frederick). At nine years old Conrad was made King of Germany, and at 11 he was King Conrad IV of Italy. In 1250 on Frederick's death the young man also became King Conrad I of Sicily.

With so many other lands to rule, Conrad neglected Jerusalem. He grew up in Southern Italy until he became Duke of Swabia, when he traveled to Germany. In the year he was also betrothed to a daughter of the Duke of Bavaria who died young, but a second betrothal to another daughter, Elizabeth of Bavaria, would lead to marriage.

He became involved in German politics, and was part of the attempt to repel the Mongol invasions of 1241.

Problems with Frederick led to Pope Innocent IV excommunicating Frederick and declaring Conrad deposed. Conrad fought against the newly elected king of Germany, Henry Raspe (whom Frederick had once selected as regent for Conrad in Germany), and lost in 1246. When Raspe died months later he was succeeded by William of Holland.

Conrad married Elizabeth in 1246. They had a son, called Conradin, who would succeed to several of his father's titles.

Not only did the neglect of Jerusalem lead to civil unrest there, rebellions in Germany and Sicily continued throughout Conrad's life. When Conrad died in 1254 an Interregnum took place in Germany when no one managed to take complete control of the country of several years.

Jerusalem passed to Conradin, who died at 16, never having visited the Holy Land. The succession passed back into the Lusignan dynasty through a cousin named Hugh. There were challenges, however, from other family members, including some with whom he was close. Even once he was established, however, there were issues caused by the years that no king was present, when barons managed things on their own. No one really wanted a king to come back and expect to be obeyed or even consulted. We'll see what Hugh was dealing with tomorrow.

The Romance of the Rose, Part 2

The title of this blog post is almost "literal" in the sense that the Roman de la Rose was written in two parts: one by Guillaume de Loris in the first half of the 13th century and the second by the poet Jean de Meun in the second half. Jean saw nothing wrong with taking what Guillaume had written and adding to it—in fact, adding four times the number of lines as the original—but also changing its themes to those of personal interest to him.

Jean added new allegorical figures such as Nature and Genius, and continued the conversation about the nature of Love and its affect on the narrator. More than that, however, was a cynical approach to other topics, mocking many of the people and conventions of his society.

He attacks the priesthood, monastic orders, and the papacy, considering the Church's fairly recently push to outlaw clerical marriage. He attacked the mendicant orders: they had begun to push into the universities, becoming teachers and threatening the seniority of the secular clergy. He also mocks the nobility and the pretensions of royalty in a pre-echo of the 14th century's peasant's cry of "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?"

He also took the opportunity to express cynical views on women and marriage. He offered his list of women's vices and how men could avoid their traps. Although this may have been entertaining to some readers, as the work became popular it was attacked by many writers of the 14th century, such as by Jean Gerson, Christine de Pizan, and Pierre d'Ailly.

One of its aspects that may have helped its duplication and distribution is that the (second) author had a broad knowledge of current scientific and literary knowledge. He packs into the total work a lot of references to classical authors and historical events. In fact, it is a reference to a specific event that helps place the composition: the execution of Conradin by Charles of Anjou in 1268, so the poem was completed after that date and before Jean's death in 1305.

Despite the hostility it received from some quarters, it was enormously popular. Chaucer made a translation called The Romaunt of the Rose, which he mentions in his poem The Legend of Good Women, but the extant version of The Romaunt of the Rose that we have may not have been produced by Chaucer, since parts of it differ stylistically from Chaucer's other works.

Back to the hostility, however, and a contemporary of Chaucer: Christine de Pizan is considered one of the earliest feminist writers, and we should talk about her more. We'll start that conversation next time.

The People on the High Hill

The Hohenstaufens were a dynasty of German kings, many of whom also held the titles Holy Roman Emperor, Duke of Swabia, and (briefly) King of Sicily. From 1138 until 1254, their political power helped maintain stability in a large part of Europe.

The name by which they are usually known—the dynasty is also called Staufen or Staufer or the Swabian dynasty, due to their beginnings in the Duchy of Swabia—comes from German hohen "high"and Staufen, the name of the conical hill in Swabia on which their home castle was built in the 11th century (now in ruins that you can visit; there is a coffee shop near the peak). The family motto was the Latin "Sanguis, Pluma, Saxum"; Sanguis, "blood," referred to family/heritage; Pluma, "quill," meant learning; Saxum invoked the castle and signified strength and protection.

The first person we can ascribe to this family was Frederick, who was made Duke of Swabia in 1079 by Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV. Frederick built the castle on Staufen. The family tree of the Hohenstaufens is complex, with the male members holding one or more titles. You can find a thorough listing and family tree here. Frederick II was one member mentioned in this blog, as were Conradin and Henry VI.

One of the "recurring themes" of the Hohenstaufen dynasty was The Investiture Controversy, the question of who had ultimate authority, pope or emperor? Holy Roman Emperors were crowned by the pope, but did that mean the pope had authority over the emperor? It would be easy to say that the pope had authority over spiritual matters and the emperor over worldly ones, but when the pope is a landowner and the Holy Roman Emperor rules over the country in which the pope resides, does that mean the emperor (or other local secular lord) can make bold decisions that affect the pope?

The end of the dynasty was relatively swift and brutal. Conradin, mentioned above, was only two years old. His regency had to defend Sicily against an invasion by Charles of Anjou, brother of King Louis IX of France, who had been promised the title King of Sicily by the popes who wanted to diminish the Hohenstaufens' influence. (The papacy had promised it to King Henry III of England, but he gave it up.) King of Sicily at the time was Conradin's uncle Manfred, who was killed in battle. Conradin himself was executed by Charles after a later attempt to retake Sicily, and the last of the direct Hohenstaufen dynasty was ended. (Manfred had a son, Henry, who died in captivity.) Charles of Anjou became Charles I of Sicily, and the papacy got what they wanted...they thought.

Of all the rulers that came from the Hohenstaufen dynasty, there is a queen who not only had a place in history, but was immortalized in literature. I'll tell you about her next time.

The Kingdom of Jerusalem

The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (sometimes called the Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem) was a Western European creation established after the First Crusade (1099 CE) and lasting for about two centuries.

Its first king was Godfrey of Bouillon, and the title passed through different European dynasties, including that of the Hohenstaufens from 1228 until 1268 and the death of young Conradin, the Duke of Swabia.

Conradin inherited the title when he was two years old, though Pope Alexander IV felt he was too young to assume the role. At his death, he had no heirs, having spent his "productive" years in war and getting beheaded at the age of 16.

Conradin's death raised the question of legitimate inheritance of the title. The most appropriate link went back to the descendants of his great-great-grandmother, Isabella I of Jerusalem (1172 - 1205). There were enough descendants that disagreements arose, however. Hugh of Brienne was the technical heir due to the laws of primogeniture. Hugh III of Cyprus, however, had actually been managing the kingdom as regent for Conradin and made a sensible claim that he was the appropriate next King of Jerusalem. A third candidate, Maria of Antioch, said that she was the closest blood relation to Conradin (as his grandmother's first cousin) and had the right to the title. She received nominal support from the Knights Templar (unusual choice, but there is speculation that the Knights wanted her to be a weak ruler so they could manage more of the territory), but everyone else rejected her claim; she moved to Europe and "sold" her claim to none other than Charles of Anjou, the man who beheaded Conradin!

Hugh of Brienne and Hugh of Cyprus were cousins, and had been raised together, but their competing goals to be named King of Jerusalem damaged their relationship. The High Court of Jerusalem noted that their relationship to Conradin had been genealogically identical; the decision was to choose the elder of the two, and that was Hugh of Cyprus, who was about five years older (born about 1235). The Kingdom of Jerusalem was now in the hands of the Lusignan dynasty, who managed it until its final dissolution in 1291 with the fall of its capital, Acre, to the Mamluks.

While writing this post, I have discovered that in 1,111 posts since May of 2012, I have never mentioned "primogeniture" before or explained it. I will correct that omission on the morrow.

Conradin

The Hohenstaufen family came from unknown origins to be Holy Roman Emperors from 1138 to 1254 (with a break of four years between 1208 and 1212). Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV made Frederick of Hohenstaufen a Duke of Swabia from 1079 until his death in 1105. Duke Frederick married Henry's daughter Agnes; their sons were heirs to the Empire when Henry's son Henry V died childless in 1125.

On 25 March 1252, Conrad IV of Germany and Elizabeth of Bavaria had a son, Conrad. When his father died two years later, the child became Duke of Swabia, King of Sicily, and King of Jerusalem.

Regents held Swabia for him. Jerusalem was managed by a relative in Cyprus. Sicily was handled by his father's half-brother Manfred, who usurped the throne for himself in 1258. The child, being raised by his uncle the Duke of Bavaria and called by the diminutive Conradin, didn't have the resources to hang onto Sicily.

Because of his tender age, Pope Alexander IV forbade him becoming Holy Roman Emperor—even though Hohenstaufens were Guelphs, supporting the authority of the pope over that of the Holy Roman Emperors—giving it instead to Alfonso X of Castile. His other royal titles were respected, however. The Guelphs of Florence invited him to come and re-take Sicily from Manfred, but his uncle refused the invitation since his ward was still a child. Manfred was killed by Charles I of Anjou, who then tried inserting himself further into Italian politics. Envoys from Italy were sent to Conradin, asking for his help against the Angevin incursion. Having just become a teenager, Conradin accepted the offer, crossed the Alps, and declared his intention to reclaim Sicily.

He received moral and military support from many quarters, and in July 1268 his fleet defeated that of Charles. In August, however, at the Battle of Tagliacozzo in central Italy, Charles proved a more clever commander and defeated Conradin's army of Italian, Spanish, Roman, Arab, and German troops. Conradin escaped capture, fleeing first to Rome and then to Astura, where the lord of Astura, Giovanni Frangipani, offered him refuge. Giovanni was not his friend, however; he turned Conradin over to Charles, who had him beheaded on 29 October 1268. He was the last Hohenstaufen, so with his death the dynasty ended.

What happened to his titles, since he left no heirs? Sicily was gone. Swabia was claimed by Frederick, the son of Conradin's Aunt Margaret on his father's side. (Frederick also "claimed" Sicily, but that was not going to achieve anything.)

The "Kingdom of Jerusalem" was a more complicated situation—as it always had been. Let's go there next time.