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THE HOHENSTAUFEN DYNASTY 

SALVATORE FERDINANDO ANTONIO CAPUTO 

Front page: Giorgio Vasari Clemente IV hands his insignia to the captains of the Guelph 

Copyright © Salvatore Ferdinando Antonio Caputo 2013. All rights reserved. No part of this book 

shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means – electronic, 

mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise– without written permission from the publisher. 

No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although 

every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume 

no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting 

from the use of the information contained herein. 


FOR THE DEFENSE OF TRADITION, FAMILY HISTORY AND 

LINEAGES 

Celebrating our heritage comes through in so many ways--we are who we are 

somewhat because of where we come from. Although our past doesn't define us, 

our perspective of the world can largely be shaped by the faith, heritage and 

traditions we choose to hold on to. 

Other publications of Dr. Salvatore Ferdinando Antonio Caputo: 

The Hohenstaufen Dynasty (2013) 

Who is noble included in the Almanach de Gotha - Goliardica Editrice s.r.l, 

Trieste (2013) 

Corrado I principe dÁntiocia Della Casa di Sveva (Ramo Caputo) - Edizioni 

Italo Svevo, Trieste (2012 

The Legitimacy of Non Reigning Royal Families - Edizioni Italo Svevo, 

Trieste (2012) 

Creation of Order of Chivalry (2012) 

The Royal House of Georgia - H.R.H. Crown Prince Nuzgar Bagration- 

Gruzisky Dynasty (2012) 

Mantra & Candle Magic (2003) 

The Magic of Metaphysics effects (2003) 

Reiki Fundamental (2003) 

Science & Christianity (2003) 

TOTAL CONSCIOUS SELF - Meditation and Visualization (2003) 


NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR 

The study of history, like the study of all disciplines in the humanities, enhances 

your knowledge, your ability to think well, and your ability to communicate. But 

history is also unique amongst humanities disciplines because it offers a particular 

kind of knowledge and a particular kind of critical thinking. History provides an 

understanding of the broad forces that have shaped the world in which we live. It 

allows us to perceive patterns of political, social and cultural life established over 

time—and it allows us to question such patterns. But history also invites us to 

descend below theory, to enter into time, and to understand the ways in which lived 

experience has both influenced and been shaped by the larger currents of politics, 

culture and society. 

The increasing interest in family history is one of the most significant aspects of 

contemporary cultural movement, and in this sense, the role of family history 

cannot be considered exhausted. Knowing our own history, or the history of our 

culture, is important because it helps us to know who we are while molding the 

future. Knowing history also provides a sense of empowerment to the learner. If a 

person studies his ancestry or personal history, this will provide them with a great 

deal of helpful information and may assist them in forming an identity of their 

own. Knowing who or what we have descended from or evolved from tells us where 

we come from and what the secrets of our past. Our family is the root of our being 

and the source of our creation. 

Going back in time is like going in search of ourselves and when something is found 

is like to find or discover something that we though we lost. It’s still fascinating to 

find our even simple things of ancient history, certainly even if not characterized by 

exceptional events, but not for this is less important and significant. 

Celebrating our heritage comes through in so many ways--we are who we are 

somewhat because of where we come from. Although our past doesn't define us, 

our perspective of the world can largely be shaped by the faith, heritage and 

traditions we choose to hold on to. 

Our heritage was the greatest achievement of our ancestors, and our fathers kept it 

for us, we implant this heritage in the minds of our children, our heritage is a river 

full of light which we take continuously to guide us to the good, to the prosperity in 

the future. Our past is behind us but if we choose to forget it, we then choose to 

lessen the many sacrifices made by our ancestors. 

We live in an era determined by momentum and convenience. In such a time, it is 

easy to forget the personalities, lifestyles, events and epoch deeds which forged not 


only America, but modern civilization as we know it. The study of history and 

genealogy provides a mode of reflection and acknowledgement of the people, places 

and processes responsible for the lives we enjoy today. 

The descendants of Corrado Caputo of Antioch in particular and the Holy Roman 

Empire are notable for the diversity of its people and for its ability to absorb their 

differences without denying their origins. It encourages respect for heritage and 

values the cultural attributes with which immigrants have and continue to enrich 

the American continent experience. Descendants of Corrado Caputo in particular 

and the Holy Roman Empire must recognize the opportunity and the obligation to 

offer and honor the best of their culture and heritage. 

I am not an Historian in the academic sense, I am sure I am not unique in saying I 

hated history at school. All those dates and wars and politics left me cold. I have 

consulted very few "original sources". Some of the things written are facts and 

events as reported by historians and by the most authoritative modern biographers 

of Frederick II Hohenstaufen, which I am deeply indebted and by their sources 

mainly Ernst Kantorowicz, Georgia Masson, Eberhard Horst, David Abulafia, 

Alberto Meriggi, Steves Runciman and Franco Cardini. 

By the years I then discovered my prime interest in history, and especially medieval 

history, though not exclusively so. In terms of weaning me towards later medieval 

history, I suppose firstly it was my family heritage, and the grandeur of its family. 

The writing of this work was also motivated by my obsession to know the origins of 

my family that urged me, for more than twenty five years, to search of this noble 

original family of Corrado Caputo Prince of Antioch of the House of Hohenstaufen, 

General Vicar of the island of Sicily, and grandson of the Emperor Frederick II. The 

Hohenstaufen House was a great German dynastic family of the Württemberg, in 

the Jurisdiction of Swabia, called also, particularly in Italy, “House of Swabia” and, 

in Germany “House of Staufen”. 

Therefore Corrado was of German origin and has far for his last name, before been 

Caputo, it was Hohenstaufen, and he was prince of Antioch. From the same 

Corrado the family took also origin of the family “Antiochia” (Antioch). One, 

therefore, called himself from the coat of arms, other from the nobiliary title. Many 

are the branches of families derived from the sons of Corrado Caputo of Antioch 

and many are the branches derived by Corrado´s brothers whose father was 

Federico prince of Antioch and son to Frederick II. 

The fall of Corradino (Conradin of Swabia, grandson of Frederick II and cousins of 

Corrado of Antioch), in the battle of Tagliacozzo the 23 of August of 1268, marked 

the end of male legitimate succession: but it does not mean that all the offspring 


had been exterminated. From the sons of Fredrick of Antioch the offspring’ 

branches have arrived until our days. Corrado Caputo of Antioch escaped from the 

massacres ordered by Charles of Anjou because his mother, Margarita Poli and his 

wife Beatrice Lancia, had in their castle of Saracinesco, in hostage since 1267, some 

Nobles of Guelph part, the Lords Napoleone and Matteo Orsini, and had saved the 

life for interchanging with the powerful Cardinal Giovanni Gaetano Orsini (brother 

of the prisoners), future Pope Nicoló III 26 December 1277), then made them to 

swear fidelity to the Church. Conradin of Swabia was host in the Corrado Caputo’s 

Castle of Saracinesco (near Rome) the eve of the battle of Tagliacozzo. 

For many years I believed that the Castle of Saracinesco was not a place, a country 

or a city, town. Just in the February of 1995, while I was to Rome for business, the 

last day in the city ready to leave Italy, I learned that the Castle of Saracinesco was 

in a town just 55 kilometers from Rome. Naturally I rushed to the place and it was a 

great emotion for me to be able to walk in the center of the Castle streets. The 

characteristic of the Castle with narrow lanes don’t allow the access to vehicles, I 

had to park my car outside the boundaries. 

Once inside the Castle there was a tourist office, without thinking twice, I entered 

to ask for information of the Castle and its history. Surprise after surprise, the 

employees informed me that a book about Corrado of Antioch was written by the 

Prof. Mark Orsola, President of the Association for Native place of Saracinesco, but 

unfortunately he was in that moment in Rome. 

Re-entered to Rome I put myself in telephone communication with the Prof. Orsola 

who explained to me that Saracinesco was founded by the Saracens that escaped 

from Pope Giovanni X in year 916. The Ghibelline Corrado of Antioch was the Lord 

of Saracinesco of which from XVII century most of the Castle was destroyed. 

Thanks to Prof. Orsola who, through my brother Gino who at that time was living 

in Rome, forwarded me a copy of his book, I have learned a lot more about our 

family heritage. 

The analysis of the situation of the origin of our descendant is the object of this 

research that, starting from a series of data and sources of various kinds, stops to 

describe the criteria for evaluating the quality of our House. Forming a table of 

parameters between the Caputo from middle class to those descended from 

Corrado of Antioch highlighting the figure of our direct ancestors, thus to discover 

whether or not we are worthy to use both coat of arms as well title of nobility from 

Caputo Princes of Antioch of the House of Hohenstaufen. I do not wish to take 

advantage of the use of the emblem and title of nobility with no false claims. Many 

people often wish to know the origins of his family, perhaps with the hidden 

personal desire to discover royal blood or the coat of arms of his family. 


To us about the origin of forefather Caputo, that of Corrado of Antioch, grandson of 

Frederick II, reported by many Institutes of Heraldry, History of Naples and Sicily, 

we always had our doubts. We did not want to believe with certainly the proper 

elements of science of heraldry and genealogy, since our primary goal was to detect 

with proofs of the origin of this noble family. Counting of scientific texts, several 

sources of History and had access to certain definitive information, we 

extrapolated, strengthened and integrated into the origins of some other families 

who belonged to Caputo families to meet the founder of our House. Please note 

that our investigations were complete and productive. The surveys were not limited 

to the Ecclesiastical Archives and the Historical Archives, but obtained clues, 

traces, confirmations, surprises and curiosity, the names of our fathers and our 

mothers in the meticulous recording of the Vatican Library and the one from the 

Royal Library of Turin, which is a department, not open to the public, but only to 

scholars. We were able to photocopy material of Antioch from the original 

documents. 

In order to be able to trace the directed descendant, I had to ask the aid of the 

Heraldic Institute “Heraldic Coccia” in Florence and “Ancestor Ltd.” of England, 

the Heraldic Institute of Milan and finally the Center Heraldic Studies of Varese. 

Although a writer may work in private, a writer is never alone. To write is to 

communicate with other people: we write letters to share our lives with friends. We 

write business reports to influence managers' decisions. We write essays to convert 

readers to our vision of the truth. Without other people, we would have little reason 

to write. Just as we wish to touch people through our writing, we have been 

influenced by the writing of others. 

Will Rogers's famous quip, “All I know is just what I read in the papers,” has truth. 

We learn many things indirectly through the written word, from current and 

historical events to the collisions of subatomic particles and of multinational 

corporations. Even when we learn from direct experience, our perceptions and 

interpretations are influenced by the words of others. And though we may write 

private notes and diary entries to ourselves to sort out plans, thoughts, or feelings, 

we are nevertheless reacting to experiences and concepts and situations that come 

from our relationships with others. 

Our publishing may be subject to critics or applause it depends on whichever side 

the commentators are on. For all criticism is based on that equation: knowledge + 

taste ‗ meaningful judgment. The key word here is meaningful. People, who have 

strong reactions to a work, and most of us do, but don’t possess the wider erudition 

that can give an opinion heft, are not critics. Nor are those who have tremendous 

erudition but lack the taste or temperament that could give their judgment 

authority in the eyes of other people, people who are not experts. 


Even among expert, personal opinions are numerals. 

I have myself attempted to visit personally the sites where the more important 

episodes in the story of my ancestors took place; and I should like to thank all 

people in Italy who have facilitated my mission. I should also like to thank the staff 

of the village of Saracinesco for their courtesy and kindness. 

I have done my best to review all material posted on this book and believe correct 

at the time of publication; consequently, I consider the content in this volume to be 

useful and reliable sources of information. 


PREFACE 

The House of Hohenstaufen, also known as the Swabian dynasty or 

the Staufen, was a dynasty of German monarchs in the High Middle Ages, 

reigning from 1138 to 1254. Three members of the dynasty were crowned Holy 

Roman Emperors. In 1194, the Hohenstaufens were granted the Kingdom of Sicily. 

The terms Hohenstaufen and Staufen also identified the family's Hohenstaufen 

Castle in Swabia, located on an eponymous mountain near Göppingen. This second 

castle was built by the first known member of the dynasty, Duke Frederick I. 

The founder of the line was the count Frederick (died 1105), who built Staufen 

Castle in the Swabian Jura Mountains and was rewarded for his fidelity to Emperor 

Henry IV by being appointed duke of Swabia as Frederick I in 1079. He later 

married Henry’s daughter Agnes. His two sons, Frederick II, duke of Swabia, and 

Conrad, were the heirs of their uncle, Emperor Henry V, who died childless in 1125. 

After the interim reign of the Saxon Lothar III, Conrad became German king and 

Holy Roman emperor as Conrad III in 1138. Subsequent Hohenstaufen rulers were 

Frederick I Barbarossa (Holy Roman emperor 1155–90), Henry VI (Holy Roman 

emperor 1191–97), Philip of Swabia (king 1198– 1208), Frederick II (king, 1212–50, 

emperor 1220–50), and Conrad IV (king 1237–54). The Hohenstaufen, especially 

Frederick I and Frederick II, continued the struggle with the papacy that began 

under their Salian predecessors, and were active in Italian affairs. 

Following the death of Henry V (r. 1106-25), the last of the Salian kings, the dukes 

refused to elect his nephew because they feared that he might restore royal power. 

Instead, they elected a noble connected to the Saxon noble family Welf (often 

written as Guelf). This choice inflamed the Hohenstaufen family of Swabia, which 

also had a claim to the throne. Although a Hohenstaufen became king in 1138, the 

dynastic feud with the Welfs continued. The feud became international in nature 

when the Welfs sided with the papacy and its allies, most notably the cities of 

northern Italy, against the imperial ambitions of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty. Their 

rule in south Italy was to be brief, lasting from 1194 to 1266. In many ways it was a 

continuous of the Norman period, but with the Greek and Arabic elements 

progressively displaced by Western ones, as the political and economic links of the 

Regno shifted northwards. 

Frederick II (26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250), was one of the most 

powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of 

Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching 

through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous; however, his 

enemies, especially the popes, prevailed, and his dynasty collapsed soon after his 


death. Historians have searched for superlatives to describe him, as in the case of 

Professor Donald Detwiler, who wrote: 

A man of extraordinary culture, energy, and ability – called by a contemporary 

chronicler stupor mundi (the wonder of the world), by Nietzsche the first 

European, and by many historians the first modern ruler – Frederick established in 

Sicily and southern Italy something very much like a modern, centrally governed 

kingdom with an efficient bureaucracy. 

Viewing himself as a direct successor to the Roman Emperors of Antiquity, he 

was Emperor of the Romans from his papal coronation in 1220 until his death; he 

was also a claimant to the title of King of the Romans from 1212 and unopposed 

holder of that monarchy from 1215. As such, he was King of Germany, of Italy, 

and of Burgundy. At the age of three, he was crowned King of Sicily as a co-ruler 

with his mother, Constance of Hauteville, the daughter of Roger II of Sicily. His 

other royal title was King of Jerusalem by virtue of marriage and his connection 

with the Sixth Crusade. 

He was frequently at war with the Papacy, hemmed in between Frederick's lands in 

northern Italy and his Kingdom of Sicily (the Regno) to the south, and thus he 

was excommunicated four times and often vilified in pro-papal chronicles of the 

time and since. Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him the Antichrist. 

Frederick II inherited German, Norman, and Sicilian blood, but by training, 

lifestyle, and temperament he was "most of all Sicilian."Maehl concludes that, "To 

the end of his life he remained above all a Sicilian grand signore, and his whole 

imperial policy aimed at expanding the Sicilian kingdom into Italy rather than the 

German kingdom southward. "Cantor concludes, "Frederick had no intention of 

giving up Naples and Sicily, which were the real strongholds of its power. He was, 

in fact, uninterested in Germany. 

As a result, the WeIf-Hohenstaufen controversy took on a particular hue in Italy. It 

became a division between those who supported the pope and those who supported 

the emperor. It also gained a slightly different set of labels. When placed in Italian 

mouths, "WeIf" became "Guelf." It may seem a little harder to imagine how 

"Hohenstaufen" turned into "Ghibelline," but there really is an explanation. 

Supporters of the Hohenstaufen used the battle- cry "Waiblingen," the name of a 

Hohenstaufen castle. It was that battle cry that came to be Italianized into 

"Ghibelline." As the thirteenth century progressed, the papal-imperial rivalry 

escalated sharply. The last great Hohenstaufen emperor was Frederick II, the 

wiliest, cruelest, most intelligent and least Christian of the lot. By the time he died 

in 1250, the popes were determined to obliterate Hohenstaufen influence in Italy. 

Shortly after, they did. Thus the Guelf-Ghibelline battle had an international 


dimension; yet it also had a more regional one. The alignment of cities on one side 

or the other reflected their rivalry with one another for power within their own 

area. Thus predominantly Guelf Florence opposed Ghibelline Siena, its major rival 

for influence in Tuscany .Below the regional level, the controversy had a local level 

which reflected the rivalry of powerful families. Thus within Florence Guelf- 

Ghibelline alignments were often based on considerations more familial than 

ideological. 

Five members of the Hohenstaufen family were kings of Sicily; Henry VI (1104- 

1197), Frederick II (1197-1250), Conrad II/V or Conradin (1254-1258) and Manfred 

(1259-1260). Manfred´s rule was limited to the Sicilian kingdom; the others were 

also kings of Germany and of the regnum Italicum, effectively north and central 

Italy. Only Frederick II was fully king of both countries; most of the lives of Henry 

VI, Conrad IV and Conradin were passed in Germany. Henry VI was in Italy only 

for the last three years of his life, Conrad IV in 1252-1254 and Conradin for less 

than a year in 1267-1268. Manfred was technically a usurper, becoming king only 

on receipt of the false news of Conradin´s death and refusing to relinquish the post 

when it was learnt the young king was still alive. Hohenstaufen rule over the 

southern mainland and Sicily effectively ended in 1255, when Charles of Anjou, 

brother of the French king Louis IX and summoned by Pope Innocent IV to assume 

the Sicilian crown, defeated and killed Manfred at the battle of Benevento. The 

brief and tragic reign of Conradin was only an epilogue. Summoned from Germany 

by the Italian Ghibellines, the seventeen year old boy was defeated by Charles at the 

battle of Tagliacozzo in Abruzzo, just inside the frontier of the Regno, and after a 

mock trial was beheaded at Naples by the victor on 29 October 1268. 

After the dead of the Emperor Frederick II, Pope Innocence IV left marks to 

destroy the “Svevi” (Swabian): “Never leave this man and his poisonous family the 

scepter with which dominated the people of Christ!” and, other terrible sentence: 

“Extirpate name, body, and seed of the heirs of the Babylonian”. Innocence died in 

1254. Under his successor Urban IV and Clemente IV, more rigid and obstinate, 

brought the destruction to them. 

Most of the Hohenstaufen sovereigns were thus primary kings of Germany and 

concerned with the maintenance of royal authority in that much divided land, but 

since the regnum Italicum formed part of the empire they had also to cope with the 

papacy and the communal movement in the north. The literature on these aspects 

of their history is huge and we will only describe those perspectives interested in 

the presentation of our family memoir. 

While the Swabian dynasty in the legitimate line became extinct with the death of 

Corradin (Corradino) in 1268, the illegitimate offspring which Federico Prince of 

Antioch, continued for many generations. There are many descendants of Frederick 


II. In this volume we will be interested in the continuation of Federico of Antioch, 

son of Frederick II, who was made king of Antioch by his father in 1247. 

Federico of Antioch took the surname by the investiture of the father of the 

principality of Antioch (“Summonte” in the History of Naples, p. 2 F. 237). He 

married Margarita Poli, nephew of Pope Innocent III, and from them was born a 

primogenitor Corrado of Antioch (called Caputo), count of Alba, Celano, Loreto and 

Abruzzo. Filadelfo Mugnos 1 writes that this dynastic line is agreed by all historians. 

What has most stimulated some historians to deepen the study of Corrado of 

Antioch was the adventurous character of his whole human story: the feudal lord 

and knight, pirate and a Gentleman "was one of those men whose fate seems to be 

the Land Toys" (Ivi, page 190; cfr. N. Cilento, La cultura di Manfredi nel ricordo di 

Dante e la cultura sveva, Florence 1970, page 7-11). 

Undoubtedly, all this is not without charm, at least for a certain type of nineteenthcentury 

historiography. In reality, the documentation on him (even though he was 

on the political and military scene of the second half of the thirteenth century) 

provides almost exclusively indirect data: those exclusively from the narrative of 

events that saw as other major protagonists such as Corradino (Conradin) and the 

same Manfredi. It does not appear, however, safe to assume, that while apparently 

acting in their shadow, his role was never secondary. 

The lack of documents does not allow, however, resolving some of the nodes: first 

of all for the name of the family that echoes Eastern origins. This does not mean 

that the attempt to give an answer to this, albeit in the form of hypotheses, also 

appears useful to try to learn about the history of his family. 

We know that his father was Frederick of Antioch, but also his birth little is known, 

excepting for the fact that he was the son of Frederick II of the Swabia. It is not 

known with certainty where and when Frederick of Antioch was born and who with 

certain was his mother. Loophole really serious for many historians who have 

excluded, for the name de Antiochia, with implications for the paternal lineage, 

stating that it could be linked precisely to the mother. This hypothesis, moreover, 

1 Filadelfo Mugnos (1607 – May 28, 1675) was an Italian historian, genealogist, poet and man of 

letters. He was born in Sicily at Lentini in 1607, but moved while young to Palermo. He obtained a 

doctorate in Law at the University of Catania. He was made a member of the Portuguese chivalric 

Order of Christ and of various learned academies of the day. Of his numerous historical works, the 

best known is the Teatro genealogico delle famiglie nobili, titolate, feudatarie ed antiche del 

fedelissimo regno di Sicilia viventi ed estinte, published in three volumes between 1647 and 

1670, which for many centuries has been the mainstay for knowledge about of Sicilian nobility. 

Filadelfo Mugnos died in Palermo on 28 May 1675 


would seem to be supported by historians and chroniclers of the time, but with 

contradictions and uncertainties. 

Bartolomeo da Neocastro presents the mother of Frederick of Antioch as the fourth 

legitimate wife of Frederick II Hohenstaufen. Even The Pirro says that the mother 

of Frederick of Antioch is legitimate wife of the Emperor. According to these 

testimonies, therefore, Frederick of Antioch should be considered the legitimate 

son of the Emperor and his fourth wife. 

We cannot fail to prefer other hypotheses such as that of Carosi, who, in reference 

to the mother of Frederick of Antioch, says that "we cannot say anything for sure." 

Of course the easiest explanation of the name "dÁntiochia" would be that the 

mother was descended from the Norman Bohemond dÁltavilla, son of Roberto 

Guiscard, as is well known, in the first crusades June 3 1098 conquered Antioch, 

where he was named prince. Bohemond IV of Antioch married three times. From 

his first wife were born two daughters who died at an early age. From the second 

the other two, of which one died as a child and the other named Maria (Mary or 

Mathilde), was to be the legitimate wife of the emperor when he went to the 

Crusade because in 1294 she was still alive. From third wife of Bohemond were not 

females born. 

After Corrado of Antioch’s death, which occurred shortly after 1320, the 

descendants of Federico of Antioch divided into different branches, one remaining 

in the region of Lazio (Anticoli, Piglio), the other moved to Sicily, where he 

obtained the County of Capizzi from King Peter of Aragon (his family member). 


Contents 

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR ......................................................................................................... 4 

PREFACE ........................................................................................................................................... 9 

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE OF THE GERMAN NATION ............. 19 

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES ................................................... 23 

FREDERICK I, DUKE OF SWABIA ............................................................................................. 29 

Origins as dukes of Swabia ........................................................................................................ 30 

Coat of arms ................................................................................................................................ 30 

Ruling in Germany ..................................................................................................................... 30 

FREDRICK II, DUKE OF SWABIA .............................................................................................. 31 

CONRAD III .................................................................................................................................... 32 

FREDERICK I HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR ................................................................................ 33 

Third Crusade and death ....................................................................................................... 35 

The Saleph River, now known as the Göksu. ...................................................................... 36 

Legend ...................................................................................................................................... 37 

Children ................................................................................................................................... 38 

HENRY VI HOHENSTAUFEN, HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE ....................................................... 39 

Coronation as Emperor ......................................................................................................... 40 

Crusade of 1197 ....................................................................................................................... 41 

German Crusade ..................................................................................................................... 42 

Death ........................................................................................................................................ 42 

Wife Constance ....................................................................................................................... 43 

FREDERICK II HOHENSTAUFEN, HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE ............................................... 43 

Marriage of father Henry VI ..................................................................................................... 45 

Birth .............................................................................................................................................. 46 

The Crusade of Frederick II, 1228-29 ...................................................................................... 47 

Frederick II in the Holy Land ................................................................................................... 48 

Thus the Emperor left Acre ....................................................................................................... 49 

Death of the Emperor ................................................................................................................ 50 

Henry VII Hohenstaufen *1211 - †1242 ................................................................................... 54 


The Antichrist ............................................................................................................................. 56 

The wives and legitimate children of Frederick II ................................................................. 57 

Constance of Aragon .............................................................................................................. 57 

Jolanda of Brienne. ................................................................................................................ 58 

Isabella of England ................................................................................................................. 59 

Matilde Maria .......................................................................................................................... 59 

Bianca Lancia .......................................................................................................................... 60 

Frederick II illegitimate children ............................................................................................. 60 

Unknown name, Sicilian Countess. ............................................................................. 61 

Frederick of Pettorana ................................................................................................... 61 

Adelheid (Adelaide) of Urslingen ...................................................................................... 61 

Manna .............................................................................................................................. 62 

Richina ............................................................................................................................. 63 

Margaret (Margherita) of Swabia ................................................................................. 64 

Selvaggia .......................................................................................................................... 64 

Blanchefleur .................................................................................................................... 65 

Gerhard ............................................................................................................................ 65 

CATHEDRAL OF PALERMO, SICILY – ITALY ..................................................................... 66 

....................................................................................................................................................... 66 

The portrait of Frederick II ....................................................................................................... 67 

The Popes and Fredrick II ......................................................................................................... 68 

Universal power .......................................................................................................................... 71 

The Weakening of the Empire .................................................................................................. 71 

Innocent III ............................................................................................................................. 72 

Onorio III ................................................................................................................................. 73 

Gregory IX ............................................................................................................................... 73 

Innocent IV .............................................................................................................................. 74 

Background ............................................................................................................................. 75 

CONRAD IV .................................................................................................................................... 77 

MANFRED HOHENSTAUFEN, KING OF SICILY .................................................................... 78 

Kingship ....................................................................................................................................... 79 

CONRADIN OF SWABIA – SON OF CONRAD IV .................................................................... 81 


Political and military career .................................................................................................. 82 

Saved the life of Corrado Caputo of Antioch ........................................................................... 84 

Legacy ....................................................................................................................................... 85 

Memorial by Thorvaldsen ..................................................................................................... 85 

Duke of Swabia Family Tree ................................................................................................. 87 

The last Swabians ....................................................................................................................... 88 

Enzo .......................................................................................................................................... 88 

Manfredi .................................................................................................................................. 88 

Frederick of Antioch ............................................................................................................... 88 

Corrado Caputo of Antioch ................................................................................................... 89 

All Hohenstaufen claims........................................................................................................ 90 

Hohenstaufen Family Tree .................................................................................................... 92 

HOHENSTAUFEN MILITARY ORDER – “DOMUS SANCTAE MARIAE 

THEUTONICORUM” ..................................................................................................................... 94 

The Teutonic Order .................................................................................................................... 95 

Yearly years of the Teutonic Order .......................................................................................... 97 

The Foundation Era 1190-1198 ................................................................................................. 98 

Hermann von Salza .................................................................................................................. 101 

The Holy Land........................................................................................................................... 103 

Decline and fall of the knights. ............................................................................................... 105 

The Austrian revival ................................................................................................................. 106 

THE ANTIOCH HISTORY .......................................................................................................... 109 

History of the Crusades a Holy War ...................................................................................... 110 

Prince and titular Princes of Antioch ..................................................................................... 111 

First Crusade ............................................................................................................................. 111 

Roger I – Count of Sicily (1031-1101) .................................................................................... 114 

Norman Kings of Sicily ........................................................................................................... 115 

Hohenstaufen Kingdom .......................................................................................................... 115 

PRINCIPALITY OF ANTIOCH ................................................................................................... 117 

Prince of Antioch ...................................................................................................................... 118 

The Dynasty of Frederick of Antioch ..................................................................................... 119 

Principality of Antioch enters on Frederick II Emblem ...................................................... 120 


FREDERICK OF ANTIOCH ........................................................................................................ 124 

Maria of Antioch ....................................................................................................................... 125 

Prince of Antioch in the Coat of Arms ................................................................................... 129 

Count in the kingdom of Sicily ............................................................................................... 131 

Origins of the claims of Kingdom of Jerusalem ................................................................... 132 

Maria Matilde of Antioch genealogy tree: ............................................................................. 134 

..................................................................................................................................................... 134 

..................................................................................................................................................... 135 

The descendants of Frederick of Antioch .............................................................................. 136 

Corrado Caputo prince of Antioch ..................................................................................... 136 

Filippa (Philippa) .................................................................................................................. 136 

Margherita ............................................................................................................................. 136 

Federico prince of Antioch .................................................................................................. 136 

Maria ...................................................................................................................................... 136 

Kinder ..................................................................................................................................... 136 

THE KINGDOM OF SICILY ....................................................................................................... 138 

The conquest ............................................................................................................................. 140 

Norman Kingdom ..................................................................................................................... 141 

Hohenstaufen Kingdom .......................................................................................................... 143 

Angevin and Aragonese Kingdom .......................................................................................... 145 

The kingdom of Sicily under Aragon and Spain ................................................................... 145 

The War of the Spanish Succession ....................................................................................... 146 

The two kingdoms under the house of Bourbon .................................................................. 147 

Malta under the Knights .......................................................................................................... 147 

KINGDOM OF NAPLES .............................................................................................................. 148 

Overview ................................................................................................................................ 149 

Palazzo Reale di Napoli (Royal Palace of Naples) .................................................................... 151 

THE SICILIAN VESPERS ........................................................................................................... 151 

The Papacy versus the House of Hohenstaufen ................................................................... 152 

Charles of Anjou and Sicilian unrest ..................................................................................... 152 

Giovanni da Procida ................................................................................................................. 154 

Easter Monday 1292 ................................................................................................................. 154 


The church of the Holy Spirit in Palermo. ............................................................................ 155 

The Aragonese invasion ........................................................................................................... 156 

Peter of Sicily ............................................................................................................................. 157 

Peter (Pedro) III of Aragon ..................................................................................................... 158 

Corrado Caputo prince of Antioch at the Sicilian Vesper ................................................... 160 

Death of King of Aragon and Charles of Anjou .................................................................... 162 

The Vespers and Europe .......................................................................................................... 163 

Charles of Anjou and Sicilian unrest.................................................................................. 165 

Saint Luis Day in Sicily ............................................................................................................ 167 

Kingdom of Sicily under the Crown of Aragon and Spain .................................. 168 

The War of the Spanish Succession ............................................................................. 169 

CORRADO CAPUTO PRINCE OF ANTIOCH .......................................................................... 170 

Caputo Coat of Arms of Gualtieri and Lorenzo .................................................................... 174 

Proof of Corrado of Antioch legitimate descendant of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty 

and first bearer of the family name Caputo .......................................................................... 174 

Corrado difficult life ................................................................................................................. 175 

The Battle of Benevento ........................................................................................................... 176 

Corrado of Antioch and Conradin of Swabia and his expedition to Italy ......................... 179 

The Battle of Tagliacozzo ......................................................................................................... 182 

The End of Corradino Hohenstaufen..................................................................................... 184 

Saved the life of Corrado (Caputo) of Antioch ...................................................................... 187 

The last days of Corrado of Antioch ....................................................................................... 190 

Author personal Coat of Arms ................................................................................................ 192 

Authors that wrote about the Caputo Family ....................................................................... 192 

Books that refer to Corrado Caputo of Antioch .................................................................... 192 

Parentage with Caputo family (until 1665) ................................................................................. 193 

Corrado Caputo Genealogy Tree ............................................................................................ 194 

......................................................................................................................................................... 195 

......................................................................................................................................................... 196 

Bibliography .................................................................................................................................... 197 


BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE OF THE 

GERMAN NATION 

The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation 

(Latin: Imperium Romanum Sacrum Nationis 

Germanicæ; German: Heiliges Römisches Reich 

Deutscher Nation) was traditionally founded on 

Christmas Day of the year 800 A.D., when Pope Leo 

III placed the crown on the head of Charlemagne in 

St. Peter's, and the assembled multitudes shouted 

"Carolo Augusto, a Deo coronato magno et pacifico 

imperatori, vita et victoria!" — "To Charles the 

Magnificent, crowned the great and peace-giving 

emperor by God, life and victory!" Strictly speaking, 

however, Charles's empire was neither Roman nor 

German, but Frankish — or as we might say, a sort of French-German mix (for that 

matter, there was a perfectly valid Roman Emperor at the time in any case*). The 

Empire was not officially described as "Holy" until the twelfth century, nor 

officially "German" before the sixteenth. Charlemagne's empire quickly fell to 

pieces among his squabbling successors, and the Holy Roman Emperors 

themselves tended to ignore any discontinuity between pagan and Christian Rome 

— Frederick I Barbarossa (1123-1190) going so far as to assert that one of his 

reasons for going on Crusade was to avenge the defeat of Crassus by the Parthians 

(53 B.C.). 

Germany as a realm separate from the Frankish empire 

emerged with the Treaties of Verdun (843) and Mersen 

(870). After the last of Charlemagne's line died in 911, the 

German nobles elected Henry the Fowler, Duke of 

Saxony, as King of the Germans. The coronation of his 

son Otto in 962 may be taken as the actual foundation of 

the Holy Roman Empire. The actual term "Holy Roman 

Empire" began to be used only during the reign of 

Friedrich Barbarossa two centuries and two dynasties 

later. 

When Conrad III died in 1152, after taking part in the Second Crusade, and was 

succeeded, on his own recommendation, by his nephew Frederick, Duke of Swabia, 

who reigned as Frederick I, or Frederick Barbarossa /Red Beard). When Pope 

Eugene III crowned him in 1155 he added the word "holy" to the name 


of the empire, making it the Holy Roman Empire, the name by which it was 

thereafter known. 

The medieval period of the Empire was dominated by a series of internal struggles 

with the powerful German nobility, by struggles with the Italian communes, and 

above all, by the great struggle with the Papacy. Notable figures in that contest 

include Henry IV, whose famous submission to Pope Gregory VII (Hildebrand) at 

Canossa was subsequently reversed by Gregory's exile, and the aforementioned 

Frederick I, whose defeat at Legnano led to his submission to Alexander III. The 

important point here is that the Empire and the Papacy, both competing for secular 

and religious power over all Christendom without the means to enforce it, 

essentially destroyed each other’s credibility. This was not helped by a fairly 

consistent policy of Emperors to neglect the basis of their power in Germany to 

grasp at its shadow in Italy - because in order for a German king to become an 

Emperor, he had to go to Italy and be crowned by the pope. This worked much to 

the advantage of the nationalistic monarchies of France, England and Spain. 

The climax was reached with the reign of Friedrich II (1215- 

1250), Barbarossa's grandson, who while being an 

individual of singular gifts nonetheless attempted to run an 

Italian-German Empire from Sicily, but had come to the 

throne against his rival Otto IV largely as a consequence of 

the victory of King Philip II of France against the armies of 

King John of England and Otto at Bouvines. His reign had 

some impressive successes (he managed to get 

excommunicated for leading a crusade which restored the 

"holy places" to Christian pilgrims without anyone getting 

killed), but failed to establish a secure power base and got his line targeted by both 

the French and the Papacy, insofar as the difference mattered at that point. After 

his death and those of his sons, the name of Holy Roman Emperor was an empty 

title sought and won by adventurers. After this period, the Interregnum, or in the 

words of a German poet, "die kaiserlose, die schreckliche Zeit" (the emperor-less, 

terrible time"), the Empire recovered somewhat and for a time its great’s allotted 

the crown to the houses of Habsburg, Luxemburg and Wittelsbach by Rota. 

Despite its name, the empire had many traits of a confederation, with the German 

King (Emperor-elect) being elected by the most powerful regional lords, although it 

was only through the Golden Bull of 1356 that it was settled in a legally binding way 

who had the right to elect a king. From 1356 there were seven prince electors: the 

archbishops of Mainz, Cologne and Trier, the king of Bohemia, the margraves of 

Brandenburg and Meissen (Saxony), and the Count Palatine on the Rhine 

(Pfalzgraf bei Rhein). This more or less set the tone, but there were several changes 


over the centuries. For one, the duke of Bavaria would sometimes conspire with the 

Count Palatine to exclude Bohemia on the grounds that he wasn't German—but 

only when the duke and the Count Palatine weren't squabbling about some family 

issue (both were Wittelsbachs). During the Thirty Years' War, the Bavarian 

Wittelsbachs got ahold of the Palatinate vote because the Bavarian line were 

Catholics and their Palatinate cousins were not; the Palatinate branch got a shiny 

new Electorate when the war concluded to maintain balance between Protestants 

and Catholics among the electors. However, this new electorate passed to a third, 

Catholic branch of the Wittelsbachs, leading to the appointment of a new 

Protestant elector, in Brunswick-Lüneburg (known as the Electorate of Hannover 

from its capital city; members of this line would find greater success elsewhere), 

although as the Catholic Palatinate Wittelsbachs inherited Bavaria, as well, it 

turned out to be a moot point. Finally, Regensburg, Salzburg, Würzburg, 

Württemberg, Baden, and Hesse-Kassel were all given electorates in the final years 

of the Holy Roman Empire to add to their stature (and in part to replace the four 

electorates that had been conquered by the French - Mainz, Trier, Cologne, and the 

Palatinate) however, this proved to be a moot point, as the Empire was dissolved a 

few years later. 

At times, the empire consisted of over 300 sovereign kingdoms, duchies, free cities, 

and other entities. In the late 18th century, there were nearly 1800, ranging from 

the kingdom of Bohemia to the nominally autonomous territories of Reichsritter 

(Imperial knights, i. e. knights subject only to the emperor) and even a handful of 

Reichsdörfer (Imperial villages). Unsurprisingly, it often was a total chaos. 

Thus throughout most of its history it is rather difficult to define the very borders of 

the Holy Roman Empire. Many of the princes owned large territories outside the 

Empire or would successfully bid for foreign crowns, such as the rulers of Austria 

(also kings of Hungary), Hanover (who became kings of the United Kingdom), 

Saxony (two of whom became kings of Poland), and Brandenburg (kings in or of 

Prussia since 1701). On the other hand foreign sovereigns came to inherit 

territories belonging to the Holy Roman Empire, such as the king of Denmark in 

the duchy of Holstein, or conquered them (the kings of Sweden in the Thirty Years 

War). Territories that had become de facto independent powers would still 

technically considered part of the Empire (as e. g. the Swiss 

Confederation and the Republic of the United Netherlands 

were until the end of the Thirty Years War). 

(Picture: "To God I speak Spanish, to women Italian, to men French, and to 

my horse - German." 

- Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) Charles was King of Spain from 1516- 

1556 and became Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 to 1558). 


In The Renaissance, despite a brief flourishing under Charles V, the last ruler 

actually crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope, the Reformation and the 

subsequent Wars of Religion and Thirty Years' War effectively broke the Empire as 

a single political unit. Thereafter, the German states ruled themselves and were 

able to conclude international treaties as sovereign principalities, and the 

Habsburg emperors, though retaining the Imperial title, concentrated more and 

more to their Austrian dominions (which included Hungary, parts of Northern Italy 

and Southwest Germany, and, since the War of Spanish Succession, the Austrian 

Netherlands (most of what is now Belgium plus Luxembourg)). After the War of 

Austrian Succession, despite the flourishing of culture under 

rulers such as Maria Theresa of Austria, Frederick The Great 

of Prussia, and Augustus the Strong of Saxony, the empire 

was finished. When Emperor Francis II assumed the title 

of Emperor Francis I of Austria in 1804 and was forced by 

Napoleon to abdicate as Holy Roman Emperor in 1806, the 

changed reality was recognized and the Empire came to an 

end. Although some German nationalists dreamed of 

recreating it following Napoleon's defeat, all they got was the 

loose German Federation (Deutscher Bund, 1815-1866). 

Though the actual Holy Roman Empire lasted about a thousand years, its depiction 

in popular culture is largely a matter of three periods: the time of the Minnesingers, 

the time of Albrecht Dürer; and the petty German princedoms of the late 

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 


BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GUELPHS AND GHIBELLINES 

The doctrine of two powers to govern the world, one spiritual and the other 

temporal, each independent within its own limits, is as old as Christianity itself, 

and based upon the Divine command to "render unto Caesar the things that are 

Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's". The earlier popes, such as 

Gelasius I (494) and Symmachus (506), wrote emphatically on this theme, which 

received illustration in the Christian art of the eighth century in a mosaic of the 

Lateran palace that represented Christ delivering the keys to St. Sylvester and the 

banner to the Emperor Constantine, and St. Peter giving the papal stole to Leo III 

and the banner to Charlemagne. The latter scene insists on the papal action in the 

restoration of the Western Empire, which Dante regarded as an act of usurpation 

on the part of Leo. For Dante, pope and emperor are as two suns to shed light upon 

man's spiritual and temporal paths respectively, divinely ordained by the infinite 

goodness of Him from whom the power of Peter and of Caesar bifurcates as from a 

point. Thus, throughout the troubled period of the Middle Ages, men inevitably 

looked to the harmonious alliance of these two powers to renovate the face of the 

earth, or, when it seemed no longer possible for the two to work in unison, they 

appealed to one or the other to come forward as the savior of society. We get the 

noblest form of these aspirations in the ideal imperialism of Dante's "De 

Monarchia", on the one hand; and, on the other, in the conception of the ideal 


pope, the papa angelico of St. Bernard's "De Consideratione" and the "Letters" of 

St. Catherine of Siena. 

This great conception can vaguely be discerned at the back of the nobler phases of 

the Guelph and Ghibelline contests, but it was soon obscured by considerations and 

conditions absolutely non-idealistic and material. Two main factors may be said to 

have produced and kept alive these struggles: the antagonism between the papacy 

and the empire, each endeavoring to extend its authority into the field of the other; 

the mutual hostility between a territorial feudal nobility, of military instincts, and 

of foreign descent, and a commercial and municipal democracy, clinging to the 

traditions of Roman law, and ever increasing in wealth and power. Since the 

coronation of Charlemagne (800), the relations of Church and State had been illdefined, 

full of the seeds of future contentions, which afterwards bore fruit in the 

prolonged "War of Investitures", begun by Pope Gregory VII and the Emperor 

Henry IV (1075), and brought to a close by Callistus II and Henry V (1122). Neither 

the Church nor the Empire was able to make itself politically supreme in Italy. 

Throughout the eleventh century, the free Italian communes had arisen, owing a 

nominal allegiance to the Empire as having succeeded to the power of ancient 

Rome and as being the sole source of law and right, but looking for support, 

politically as well as spiritually, to the papacy. 

The names "Guelph" and "Ghibelline" appear to have originated in Germany, in the 

rivalry between the house of Welf (Dukes of Bavaria) and the house of 

Hohenstaufen (Dukes of Swabia), whose ancestral castle was Waiblingen in 

Franconia. Agnes, daughter of Henry IV and sister of Henry V, married Duke 

Frederick of Swabia. "Welf" and "Waiblingen" were first used as rallying cries at the 

battle of Weinsberg (1140), where Frederick's son, Emperor Conrad III (1138-1152), 

defeated Welf, the brother of the rebellious Duke of Bavaria, Henry the Proud. 

Conrad's nephew and successor, Frederick I "Barbarossa" (1152-1190), attempted 

to reassert the imperial authority over the Italian cities, and to exercise supremacy 

over the papacy itself. He recognized an antipope, Victor, in opposition to the 

legitimate sovereign pontiff, Alexander III (1159), and destroyed Milan (1162), but 

was thoroughly defeated by the forces of the Lombard League at the battle of 

Legnano (1176) and compelled to agree to the peace of Constance (1183), by which 

the liberties of the Italian communes were secured. The mutual jealousies of the 

Italian cities themselves, however, prevented the treaty from having permanent 

results for the independence and unity of the nation. After the death of Frederick's 

son and successor, Henry VI (1197), a struggle ensued in Germany and in Italy 

between the rival claimants for the Empire, Henry's brother, Philip of Swabia (d. 

1208), and Otto of Bavaria. According to the more probable theory, it was then that 

the names of the factions were introduced into Italy. "Guelfo" and "Ghibellino" 


eing the Italian forms of "Welf" and "Waiblingen". The princes of the house of 

Hohenstaufen being the constant opponents of the papacy, "Guelph" and 

"Ghibelline" were taken to denote adherents of Church and Empire, respectively. 

The popes having favored and fostered the growth of the communes, the Guelphs 

were in the main the republican, commercial, burgher party; the Ghibellines 

represented the old feudal aristocracy of Italy. For the most part the latter were 

descended from Teutonic families planted in the peninsula by the Germanic 

invasions of the past, and they naturally looked to the emperors as their protectors 

against the growing power and pretensions of the cities. It is, however, clear that 

these names were merely adopted to designate parties that, in one form or another, 

had existed from the end of the 11 C. 

In the endeavor to realize the precise significance of these terms, one must consider 

the local politics and the special conditions of each individual state and town. Thus, 

in Florence, a family quarrel between the Buondelmonti and the Amidei, in 1215, 

led traditionally to the introduction of "Guelph" and "Ghibelline" to mark off the 

two parties that henceforth kept the city divided, but the factions themselves had 

existed virtually since the death of the great Countess Mathilda of Tuscany (1115), a 

hundred years before, had left the republic at liberty to work out its own destinies. 

The rivalry of city against city was also, in many cases, a more potent inducement 

for one to declare itself Guelph and another Ghibelline, than any specially papal or 

imperial proclivities on the part of its citizens. Pavia was Ghibelline, because Milan 

was Guelph. Florence being the head of the Guelph league in Tuscany, Lucca was 

Guelph because it needed Florentine protection; Siena was Ghibelline, because it 

sought the support of the emperor against the Florentines and against the 

rebellious nobles of its own territory; Pisa was Ghibelline, partly from hostility to 

Florence, partly from the hope of rivaling with imperial aid the maritime glories of 

Genoa. In many cities a Guelph faction and a Ghibelline faction alternately got the 

upper hand, drove out its adversaries, destroyed their houses and confiscated their 

possessions. Venice, which had aided Alexander III against Frederick I, owed no 

allegiance to the Western empire, and naturally stood apart. 

One of the last acts of Frederick I had been to secure the marriage of his son Henry 

with Constance, aunt and heiress of William the Good, the last of the Norman kings 

of Naples and Sicily. The son of this marriage, Frederick II (b. 1194), thus inherited 

this South Italian kingdom, hitherto a bulwark against the imperial Germanic 

power in Italy, and was defended in his possession of it against the Emperor Otto 

by Pope Innocent III, to whose charge he had been left as a ward by his mother. On 

the death of Otto (1218), Frederick became emperor, and was crowned in Rome by 

Honorius III (1220). The danger, to the papacy and to Italy alike, of the union of 

Naples and Sicily (a vassal kingdom of the Holy See) with the empire, was obvious; 


and Frederick, when elected King of the Romans, had sworn not to unite the 

southern kingdom with the German crown. His neglect of this pledge, together with 

the misunderstandings concerning his crusade, speedily brought about a fresh 

conflict between the Empire and the Church. The prolonged struggle carried on by 

the successors of Honorius, from Gregory IX to Clement IV, against the last 

Swabian princes, mingled with the worst excesses of the Italian factions on either 

side, is the central and most typical phase of the Guelph and Ghibelline story. 

From 1227, when first excommunicated by Gregory IX, to the end of his life, 

Frederick had to battle incessantly with the popes, the second Lombard League, 

and the Guelph party in general throughout Italy. The Genoese fleet, conveying the 

French cardinals and prelates to a council summoned at Rome, was destroyed by 

the Pisans at the battle of Meloria (1241); and Gregory's successor, Innocent IV, 

was compelled to take refuge in France (1245). The atrocious tyrant, Ezzelino da 

Romano, rose up a bloody despotism in Verona and Padua; the Guelph nobles were 

temporarily expelled from Florence; but Frederick's favorite son, King Enzo of 

Sardinia, was defeated and captured by the Bolognese (1249), and the strenuous 

opposition of the Italians proved too much for the imperial power. After the death 

of Frederick (1250), it seemed as if his illegitimate son, Manfred, King of Naples 

and Sicily (1254-1266), himself practically an Italian, was about to unite all Italy 

into a Ghibelline, anti-papal monarchy. 

Although in the north the Ghibelline supremacy was checked by the victory of the 

Marquis Azzo d'Este over Ezzelino at Cassano on the Adda (1259), in Tuscany even 

Florence was lost to the Guelph cause by the sanguinary battle of Montaperti (4 

Sept., 1260), celebrated in Dante's poem. Urban IV then offered Manfred's crown 

to Charles of Anjou, the brother of St. Louis of France. Charles came to Italy, and 

by the great victory of Benevento (26 Feb., 1266), at which Manfred was killed, 

established a French dynasty on the throne of Naples and Sicily. The defeat of 

Frederick's grandson, Conradin, at the battle of Tagliacozzo (1268) followed by his 

judicial murder at Naples by the command of Charles, marks the end of the 

struggle and the overthrow of the German imperial power in Italy for two and a half 

centuries. 

Thus the struggle ended in the complete triumph of the Guelphs. Florence, once 

more free and democratic, had established a special Organisation within the 

republic, known as the Parte Guelfa, to maintain Guelph principles and chastise 

supposed Ghibellines. Sienna, hitherto the stronghold of Ghibellinism in Tuscany, 

became Guelph after the battle of Colle di Valdelsa (1269). The pontificate of the 

saintly and pacific Gregory X (1271-1276) tended to dissociate the Church from the 

Guelph party, which now began to look more to the royal house of France. 

Although they lost Sicily by the "Vespers of Palermo" (1282), the Angevin kings of 


Naples remained the chief power in Italy, and the natural leaders of the Guelphs, 

with whose aid they had won their crown. 

Adherence to Ghibelline principles was still maintained by the republics of Pisa and 

Arezzo, the Della Scala family at Verona, and a few petty despots here and there in 

Romagna and elsewhere. No great ideals of any kind were by this time at stake. As 

Dante declares in the "Paradiso" (canto VI), one party opposed to the imperial 

eagle the golden lilies, and the other appropriated the eagle to a faction, "so that it 

is hard to see which sinned most". The intervention of Boniface VIII in the politics 

of Tuscany, when the predominant Guelphs of Florence split into two new factions, 

was the cause of Dante's exile (1301), and drove him for a while into the ranks of 

the Ghibellines. The next pope, Benedict XI (1303-1304), made earnest attempts to 

reconcile all parties; but the "Babylonian Captivity" of his successors at Avignon 

augmented the divisions of Italy. 

From the death of Frederick II (1250) to the election of Henry VII (1308), the 

imperial throne was regarded by the Italians as vacant. Henry himself was a 

chivalrous and high minded idealist, who hated the very names of Guelph and 

Ghibelline; his expedition to Italy (1310-1313) roused much temporary enthusiasm 

(reflected in the poetry of Dante and Cino da Pistoia), but he was successfully 

resisted by King Robert of Naples and the Florentines. After his death, imperial 

vicars made themselves masters of various cities. Uguccione della Faggiuola (d. 

1320), for a brief while lord of Pisa "in marvelous glory", defeated the allied forces 

of Naples and Florence at the battle of Montecatini (29 Aug., 1315), a famous 

Guelph overthrow that has left its traces in the popular poetry of the fourteenth 

century. Can Grande della Scala (d. 1339), Dante's friend and patron, upheld the 

Ghibelline cause with magnanimity in eastern Lombardy, while Matteo Visconti (d. 

1322) established a permanent dynasty in Milan, which became a sort of Ghibelline 

counterbalance to the power of the Angevin Neapolitans in the south. Castruccio 

Interminelli (d. 1328), a soldier of fortune who became Duke of Lucca, attempted 

the like in central Italy; but his signori perished with him. 

Something of the old Guelph and Ghibelline spirit revived during the struggle 

between Ludwig of Bavaria and Pope John XXII. Ludwig set up an antipope, and 

was crowned in Rome by a representative of the Roman people, but his conduct 

disgusted his own partisans. In the poetry of Fazio degli Uberti (d. after 1368), a 

new Ghibellinism makes itself heard: Rome declares that Italy can only enjoy peace 

when united beneath the scepter of one Italian king. 

Before the return of the popes from Avignon, "Guelph" and "Ghibelline" had lost all 

real significance. Men called themselves Guelph or Ghibelline, and even fought 

furiously under those names, simply because their forbears had adhered to one or 

other of the factions. In a city which had been officially Guelph in the past, any 


minority opposed to the government of the day, or obnoxious to the party in power, 

would be branded as "Ghibelline". Thus, in 1364, we find it enacted by the Republic 

of Florence that anyone who appeals to the pope or his legate or the cardinals shall 

be declared a Ghibelline. "There are no wicked nor more mad folk under the vault 

of heaven than the Guelphs and Ghibellines", says St. Bernardino of Siena in 1427. 

He gives an appalling picture of the atrocities still perpetuated, even by women, 

under these names, albeit by that time the primitive significance of the terms had 

been lost, and declares that the mere professing to belong to either party is in itself 

a mortal sin. As party catch-words they survived, still attended with bloody 

consequences, until the coming to Italy of Charles V (1529) finally re-established 

the imperial power, and opened a new epoch in the relations of pope and emperor. 


FREDERICK I, DUKE OF SWABIA 

(Hohenstaufen castle in ruin) 

The duchy of Swabia was nearly coextensive with modern Baden-Wrttemberg, 

Hesse, and western Bavaria states, as well as parts of eastern Switzerland and 

Alsace. The Suevi and Alemanni tribes occupied the area from the 3rd century, and 

the region was known as Alemannia until the 11th century. In the 7th century Irish 

missionaries began to introduce Christianity. From 10th century it became one of 

the five great tribal duchies of early medieval Germany. It was ruled by 

the Hohenstaufen dynasty, after which the duchy was divided. Several alliances of 

cities, known as the Swabian Leagues, were formed in the 14th16th centuries. The 

region was a territorial division of the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th19th 

centuries. 

Frederick I von Staufen (1050 – July 21, 1105) was Duke of Swabia from 1079 to his 

death. He was the first ruler of Swabia from the House of Hohenstaufen, 

and was the builder of the dynasty's ancestral Hohenstaufen Castle near 

Göppingen. 

He was the son of Frederick von Büren, Count in the Riesgau and Swabian Count 

Palatine, with Hildegard of Egisheim-Dagsburg, a niece of Pope Leo IX, or a 

daughter of the Ezzonid Duke Otto II of Swabia. 

He was installed as FRIEDRICH I Duke of Swabia at Easter 1079 by Heinrich IV 

King of Germany. He built the castle of Staufen, near Göppingen, which itself 

derived its name from Old German stouf (cup) from its appearance as an upturned 

cup. A settlement Staufen arose below the castle, which thus later added Hohen 


(high), turning the name of the castle Hohenstaufen from which the family 

eventually took its name. 

Origins as dukes of Swabia 

In 1079, the Salian king Henry IV of Germany appointed Count Frederick I at 

Hohenstaufen Castle as Duke of Swabia. At the same time, Frederick was engaged 

to the king's approximately seven-year old daughter, Agnes. Nothing is known 

about Frederick's life before this event, but he proved to be Imperial ally 

throughout Henry's struggles against other Swabian lords, namely Rudolf of 

Rheinfelden, Frederick's predecessor, and the Zähringen and Welf lords. 

Frederick's brother Otto was elevated to the Strasbourg bishopric in 1082. 

Upon Frederick's death, he was succeeded by his son, Duke Frederick II, in 1105. 

Frederick II remained a close ally of the Salians, he and his younger brother 

Conrad were named the king's representatives in Germany when the king was in 

Italy. Around 1120, Frederick II married Judith of Bavaria from the rival House of 

Welf. 

Coat of arms 

When Frederick I became Duke of Swabia in 1079, his coat of 

arms depicted a black lion on a gold shield. Whilst members of 

the dynasty reigned over monarchies, and, eventually, the whole 

of the Holy Roman Empire, the Hohenstaufen coat of arms was 

used as a breast shield on the empire’s coat of arms. Philip of 

Swabia, elected German king in 1198, changed the coat of arms, 

and the lion was replaced by three leopards, probably derived 

from the arms of his Welf rival Otto IV. 

Ruling in Germany 

When the last male member of the Salian dynasty, Emperor Henry V, died without 

heirs in 1125, a controversy arose about the succession. Duke Frederick II and 

Conrad, the two current male Stauffer, by their mother Agnes were grandsons of 

late Emperor Henry IV and nephews of Henry V. Frederick attempted to succeed to 

the throne of the Holy Roman Emperor (formally known as the King of the 

Romans) through a customary election, but lost to the Saxon duke Lothair of 

Supplinburg. A civil war between Frederick's dynasty and Lothair's ended with 

Frederick's submission in 1134. After Lothair's death in 1137, Frederick's brother 

Conrad was elected King as Conrad III. 

Because the Welf duke Henry the Proud, son-in-law and heir of Lothair and the 

most powerful prince in Germany, who had been passed over in the election, 


efused to acknowledge the new king, Conrad III deprived him of all his territories, 

giving the Duchy of Saxony to Albert the Bear and that of Bavaria to Leopold IV, 

Margrave of Austria. In 1147, Conrad heard Bernard of Clairvaux preach the Second 

Crusade at Speyer, and he agreed to join King Louis VII of France in a great 

expedition to the Holy Land which failed. 

Conrad's brother Duke Frederick II died in 1147, and was succeeded in Swabia by 

his son, Duke Frederick III (known as Frederick Barbarossa). When King Conrad 

III died without adult heir in 1152, Frederick also succeeded him, taking both 

German royal and imperial titles. 

In 1089, Frederick married Agnes of Germany, daughter of Henry IV, Holy Roman 

Emperor. They had several sons and daughters, amongst whom were: 

Frederick II of Swabia (1090–1147), the father of Frederick Barbarossa 

Conrad III, King of Germany (1093–1152) 

FREDRICK II, DUKE OF SWABIA 

Frederick II (1090 – 6 April 1147), called the One- 

Eyed, was the second Hohenstaufen duke of Swabia 

from 1105. He was the eldest son of Frederick I and 

Agnes. 

He succeeded his father in 1105. In 1121 he married 

Judith of Bavaria, a member of the powerful House of 

Guelph. On the death of Emperor Henry V, his uncle, 

Frederick stood for election as King of the Romans 

with the support of his younger brother Conrad, duke 

of Franconia and several houses. However, he lost this 

election of 1125 to Lothar III, crowned Emperor later in 1133. 

A conflict erupted between Frederick and his supporters, and Lothar. Encouraged 

by Adalbert of Mainz, who loathed the supporters of the late Emperor Henry V, 

Lothar besieged Nuremberg in 1127. Frederick relieved the siege of Nuremberg in 

1127 and occupied Speyer in 1128. The attempt of Henry the Proud, duke of 

Bavaria, to capture Frederick during negotiations failed (1129). However, 

afterwards supporters of Lothar won a number of victories both in Germany and in 

Italy. Speyer (1129), Nuremberg (1130) and Ulm (1134) were captured and in 

October 1134 Frederick submitted to the emperor. In 1135 both Frederick and 

Conrad were finally reconciled with Lothar. After Lothar's death (1137) and election 


of Conrad as King of the Romans (1138) Frederick supported his brother in the 

struggle with Guelphs. According to Otto of Freising, Frederick was "so faithful a 

knight to his sovereign and so helpful a friend to his uncle that by valor he 

supported the tottering honor of the realm, fighting manfully against its foes..." 

Frederick's second wife, Agnes, was the niece of his old enemy Albert of Mainz. 

With Judith of Bavaria (1103- 22 February 1131), daughter of Henry IX, Duke of 

Bavaria: 

Frederick III Barbarossa (1122–1190), duke of Swabia and Holy Roman 

Emperor as Frederick I 

Bertha (Judith)[1] (1123–1195), married Matthias I, Duke of Lorraine 

With Agnes of Saarbrücken (d. c. 1147), daughter of Frederick, Count of 

Saarbrücken: 

Conrad of Hohenstaufen (also spelled Konrad) (1134/1136-1195), Count 

Palatine of the Rhine 

Jutta (1135–1191), married Louis II, Landgrave of Thuringia 

CONRAD III 

Conrad III, c.1093-1152, German king (1138-52), son of 

Frederick, duke of Swabia, and Agnes, daughter of Holy 

Roman Emperor Henry IV; first of the Hohenstaufen 

dynasty. He joined his brother Frederick, who had been 

defeated in the imperial election of 1125 by Lothair of 

Saxony (Holy Roman Emperor Lothair II), in rebelling 

against Lothair. Set up as anti-king to Lothair in 1127, he 

went to Italy (1128) and, despite excommunication by 

Pope Honorius II, was crowned king at Milan. He 

subsequently failed to make any progress as king and 

submitted to Lothair in 1135. After Lothair's death he was 

elected king by the nobles and ecclesiastics who were 

afraid to increase the power of Lothair's son-in-law, 

Henry the Proud of Bavaria. Conrad deprived Henry of 

his duchies, giving Saxony to Albert the Bear and Bavaria 

to Leopold of Austria. A civil war broke out and was 

continued after Henry's death by his brother Guelph (or 

Welf) and the Saxons, who supported Henry's young son 

Henry the Lion. From this strife emerged the opposing parties of the Guelphs and 

the Ghibellines, representing the Hohenstaufen. A short-lived truce was made in 


1142. At Christmas, 1146, Conrad was induced by St. Bernard of Clairvaux to join in 

the Second Crusade (see Crusades) with Louis VII of France. He left in 1147, took 

part in the unsuccessful siege of Damascus, and returned in 1149. Conrad was never 

crowned by the pope, and therefore was not confirmed as Holy Roman emperor. 

His ambitions for the imperial crown and against Roger II of Sicily were thwarted 

by Guelph, who was subsidized by Roger, and by Henry the Lion, who claimed the 

duchy of Bavaria. Conrad died 1152, on his return from the Second Crusade. The 

son whom he had originally nominated to succeed him had died two years earlier, 

and the other only son was still a child. Recognizing the urgent need for a strong 

opposition to the Saxons under Henry the Lion, who had long attempted to lay 

claim also to Bavaria, Conrad had taken the step of naming as his successor his 

nephew Frederick Hohenstaufen, Duke of Swabia, a man of thirty at that 

time. 

FREDERICK I HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR 

Frederick I Barbarossa (born c. 

1122 – 10 June 1190) was a 

German Holy Roman Emperor. 

He was elected King of Germany 

at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and 

crowned in Aachen on 9 March, 

crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 

1155, and finally crowned Roman 

Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on 

18 June 1155, and two years later 

in 1157 the term "sacrum" (i.e. 

"holy") first appeared in a 

document in connection with his Empire. He was then also formally crowned King 

of Burgundy at Arles on 30 June 1178. The name Barbarossa came from the 

northern Italian cities he attempted to rule, and means "red beard" in Italian – a 

mark of both their fear and respect. He challenged papal authority and sought to 

establish German predominance in Western Europe. He engaged in a long struggle 

with the cities of northern Italy (1154–83), sending six major expeditions 

southward. He died while on the Third Crusade to the Holy Land. 

Before his royal election, he was by inheritance Duke of Swabia (1147–1152, as 

Frederick III). He was the son of Duke Frederick II, Duke of Swabia, of the 

Hohenstaufen dynasty. His mother was Judith, daughter of Henry IX, Duke of 

Bavaria, from the rival House of Welf, and Frederick therefore descended from 


Germany's two leading families, making him an acceptable choice for the Empire's 

prince-electors. 

After succeeding his father as duke of Swabia, Frederick was elected German king 

on March 4, 1152, in Frankfurt, succeeding his uncle, Emperor Conrad III. 

Frederick’s contemporaries believed that, because he united in himself the blood of 

the Welfs and the Hohenstaufen, he would solve the internal problems of the 

kingdom. The announcement of his election, which he sent to Pope Eugenius III, 

made it plain that Frederick I was not ready to recognize the preeminence over the 

emperors that the popes had won during the quarrel over the right of investiture of 

bishops and abbots. Frederick, moreover, filled several vacant episcopal sees, 

thereby violating the Concordat of Worms of 1122. Nevertheless, he was to learn 

that he could not prevail against the papacy as easily as the earlier emperors, Otto I 

and Henry III, had done because the political balance of the West had changed. 

Under the powerful emperor Manuel I Comnenus, the Byzantine Empire had 

grown to be a political factor in the Mediterranean and in Italy. Southern Italy and 

Sicily were united in the Norman kingdom of Roger II. The cities of the Lombards, 

which had been little more than a nuisance to the earlier emperors, had now 

become more powerful. 

Frederick started his struggle for the old goal of the 

predominance of the Empire over the European 

monarchies with great political skill. By not 

recognizing the treaty of alliance between his 

predecessor, Conrad III, and Manuel I Comnenus of 

Byzantium against Roger II of Sicily, Frederick forced 

Pope Eugenius III to sign the Treaty of Constance 

(1153) with him because the Pope was more exposed 

to pressure from the Norman kingdom to the south as 

well as from Arnold of Brescia in Rome. Frederick 

promised not to make peace with the Roman 

commune, headed by Arnold (whom he hanged) or 

with the Normans without the agreement of the Pope. He also promised not to 

concede any Italian land to the Byzantine Emperor and, finally, to maintain the 

position of the papacy (honor papatus). Eugenius III, on his part, promised that 

Frederick would receive the imperial crown and that the rights of the empire would 

be maintained. When Manuel of Byzantium offered Frederick a Byzantine princess 

as wife and attempted to induce him to fight against the Norman kingdom, 

Frederick refused. The successor of Eugenius III, Pope Adrian IV (above 

picture), honored the Treaty of Constance and crowned Frederick emperor on June 

18, 1155, in Rome. 


The German princes refused to give Frederick the support necessary to attack the 

Sicilian kingdom, which, under Roger’s son William I (reigned 1154–66), was 

passing through a crisis. Although Manuel now formed an allegiance with the 

rebellious Norman barons, the city of Genoa, and the Pope, Adrian still would not 

accept the Byzantine offer of help against William I of Sicily. After William had 

brought his crisis to an end, he was able to force the Pope to sign the Concordat of 

Benevento in 1156 by which Adrian gave William Sicily and the Norman 

principalities on the mainland as far north as Naples and Capua and granted him 

special rights for the Sicilian church. This new treaty was in violation of the Treaty 

of Constance. Cardinal Roland (later Pope Alexander III) was supposed to explain 

the Pope’s new policy to the princes and to the Emperor at the imperial Diet of 

Besançon 1157. A letter from the Pope, which was translated in an inflammatory 

manner by the imperial chancellor Rainald of Dassel, caused a critical argument 

between the papal delegation and the German princes over whether or not the 

empire was dependent upon the papacy. Adrian explained later that he meant the 

word beneficium, which had caused all the trouble, to mean benefit and not fief. 

Third Crusade and death 

Chivalry gave Barbarossa’s time a special stamp. He expressed his enthusiasm for 

knighthood as the ideal way of life at the festival of Pentecost at Mainz in 1184, 

where he dubbed his sons knights. This festival was surpassed by the “Diet of 

Jesus Christ” in 1188, when the margravate of Namur was transformed into an 

imperial principality. More important was Barbarossa’s call to the Third Crusade in 

the spring of 1189 to free Jerusalem from Saladin’s army, which had captured it in 


1187. Before his departure he returned the former possessions of the Countess 

Mathilde of Tuscany, a part of the papal state, to the Pope. 

His sons founded the Teutonic Knights in 1190 by Duke Friedrich of Swabia and 

King Heinrich (Henry), Frederick's brother. Duke Leopold of Austria, Duke Conrad 

of Mazovia, and Duke Sambor of Pomerellia were also involved. A Teutonic 

hospital was established in Jerusalem in the early 12th century, under the 

jurisdiction of the Grand Master of the Order of St. John (the "Hospitallers"), but it 

was expelled with other crusaders when Saladin took the city in 1187. The Teutonic 

Order was officially called "The German Order of the Hospital of the Virgin Mary in 

Jerusalem" or "The Knights of the Cross" in Poland. They arrived in Pomerania in 

1230. The Teutonic Knights were founded in 1190, in Acre, during the Third 

Crusade. The knights of this order were known as Krzyzacy from Krzyz meaning 

cross. They wore white garments with black crosses as illustrated in An Illustrated 

History of Poland edited by Anna Sojka (Podsiedlik-Raniowski & Co. Ltd, Poznan, 

Poland; 1998.) They were recognized in 1196 by Pope Celestine III. It was decided 

that they should follow the rules of the Knights Templars at a meeting in 1197. 

While caring for the poor and sick they would follow the rules of St John's Hospital 

in Jerusalem. The Pope Innocent II gave them formal recognition in 1199. By 1205, 

he (Pope Innocent II) gave them the right to wear a white habit with a black cross. 

The Saleph River, now known as the Göksu. 

Pope Urban III died shortly after, and was succeeded by Gregory VIII, who was 

more concerned with troubling reports from the Holy Land than with a power 

struggle with Barbarossa. After making his peace with the new pope, Frederick 

vowed to take up the cross at the Diet of Mainz in 1188. Frederick embarked on the 

Third Crusade (1189), a massive expedition in conjunction with the French, led by 

King Philip Augustus, and the English, under Richard the Lion heart. He organized 

a grand army of 100,000 men (including 20,000 knights) and set out on the 

overland route to the Holy Land. However, some historians believe that this is an 

exaggeration and that the true figure might be closer to 15,000 men, including 

3,000 knights.[68] 

The Crusaders passed through Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria and then entered 

Byzantine territory, arriving at Constantinople in the autumn of 1189. Matters were 

complicated by a secret alliance between the Emperor of Constantinople and 

Saladin, warning of which was supplied by a note from Sibylla, ex-Queen of 

Jerusalem. When they were in Hungary, Barbarossa personally asked the 

Hungarian Prince Géza, brother of the king, Béla III of Hungary, to join the 

Crusade. The king agreed, and a Hungarian army of 2,000 men led by Géza 

escorted the German emperor's forces. The armies coming from western Europe 

pushed on through Anatolia (where they were victorious in taking Aksehir and 


defeating the Turks in the Battle of Iconium), and entered Cilician Armenia. The 

approach of the immense German army greatly concerned Saladin and the other 

Muslim leaders, who began to rally troops of their own to confront Barbarossa's 

forces. 

However, on 10 June 1190, Emperor Frederick drowned in the Saleph River. Being 

impatient, he had decided to walk his horse through the river instead of crossing 

the bridge that had been too crowded with troops. The current was too strong for 

the horse to handle, and his suit armor was too heavy for him to swim in: both were 

swept away and drowned. However, some historians believe he may have had a 

heart attack. Some of Frederick's men put him in a barrel of vinegar to preserve his 

body. 

Frederick's death plunged his army into chaos. Leaderless, panicking, and attacked 

on all sides by Turks, many Germans deserted, were killed, or even committed 

suicide. Only 5,000 soldiers, a small fraction of the original force, arrived in Acre. 

Barbarossa's son, Frederick VI of Swabia, carried on with the remnants of the 

German army, along with the Hungarian army under the command of Prince Géza, 

with the aim of burying the emperor in Jerusalem, but efforts to conserve his body 

in vinegar failed. Hence, his flesh was interred in the Church of St Peter in Antioch, 

his bones in the cathedral of Tyre, and his heart and inner organs in Tarsus. 

The unexpected demise of Frederick left the Crusader army under the command of 

the rivals Philip II of France and Richard I of England, who had traveled to 

Palestine separately by sea, and ultimately led to its dissolution. Richard continued 

to the East where he defeated Saladin in many battles, winning significant 

territories along the shores of Palestine, but ultimately lost the war (see Treaty of 

Ramla). He returned home after he signed the treaty under the terms of the 

agreement that Jerusalem would remain under Muslim control. However, the city 

would be open to Christian pilgrimages. Also, the treaty reduced the Latin Kingdom 

to a geopolitical coastal strip that extended from Tyre to Jaffa. 

Legend 

Frederick is the subject of many legends, including 

that of a sleeping hero, like the much older British 

Celtic legends of Arthur or Bran the Blessed. Legend 

says he is not dead, but asleep with his knights in a 

cave in the Kyffhäuser Mountain in Thuringia or 

Mount Untersberg in Bavaria, Germany, and that 

when the ravens cease to fly around the mountain 

he will awake and restore Germany to its ancient 

greatness. According to the story, his red beard has 


grown through the table at which he sits. His eyes are half closed in sleep, but now 

and then he raises his hand and sends a boy out to see if the ravens have stopped 

flying. A similar story, set in Sicily, was earlier attested about his grandson, 

Frederick II. To garner political support the German Empire built atop the 

Kyffhäuser the Kyffhäuser Monument, which declared Kaiser Wilhelm I the 

reincarnation of Frederick; the 1896 dedication occurred on 18 June, the day of 

Frederick’s coronation. 

In medieval Europe, the Golden Legend became refined by Jacopo da Voragine. 

This was a popularized interpretation of the Biblical end of the world. It consisted 

of three things: (1) terrible natural disasters; (2) the arrival of the Antichrist; (3) 

the establishment of a good king to combat the anti-Christ. These millennial fables 

were common and freely traded by the populations on Continental Europe. Endtime 

accounts had been around for thousands of years, but entered the Christian 

tradition with the writings of the Apostle Peter. German propaganda played into 

the exaggerated fables believed by the common people by characterizing Frederick 

Barbarossa and Frederick II as personification of the "good king". 

Frederick's uncle, Otto, bishop of Freising wrote a biography entitled The Deeds of 

Frederick Barbarossa, which is considered to be an accurate history of the king. 

Otto's other major work; The Two Cities was an exposition of the work of St. 

Augustine of Hippo of a similar title. The latter work was full of Augustinian 

negativity concerning the nature of the world and history. His work on Frederick is 

of opposite tone, being an optimistic portrayal of the glorious potentials of imperial 

authority. 

Children: 

1 Frederick IV, King of Burgundy, Duke of Swabia (1191) 

(b. July 16, 1164 - d. Jan 20, 1191) 

2. Henry VI, Holy Roman emperor 1191 - 1197, King of Germany 1169 - 1191, King 

of Sicily 1194 - 1197. 

(b. Nov, 1165 - d. Sept 28, 1197, Messina, Sicily) 

Buried Palermo Cathedral, Palermo, Sicily 

married Jan 27, 1186, Milan, Lombardy, Italy 

Constance of Hauteville, daughter of Roger II, King of Sicily, and his third wife 

Beatrice, daughter of Witier IV, Count of Rethel. 

(b. Nov 2, 1154, Palermo, Sicily - d. Nov 27, 1198, Palermo) 

Buried Palermo Cathedral, Palermo, Sicily 


HENRY VI HOHENSTAUFEN, HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 

Henry VI, "le Sévère", "le Cruel" “the Severe or the 

Cruel” 

Endowed with the qualities of a statesman; 

temperament cold and calculating, greedy for power 

and glory, the heir to the imperial throne, the son of 

legendary Barbarossa, the husband of the rich and 

powerful Constance of Hauteville (Altavila in Italy) 

the man that no one ever saw smile, albeit for a very 

short time was the most powerful ruler of Western 

Europe after Charlemagne. 

Beginning in the twelfth century, Western Europe 

became the battleground for a series of particularly 

vociferous legalistic struggles between powerful 

monarchs and the Church of Rome, the temporal authority of the latter greatly 

strengthened following the Great Schism of 1054. 

The conflicts took slightly different forms in different kingdoms, whether in 

England, Sicily or the various realms forming the Holy Roman Empire, but in every 

instance it was a question of a king refusing to bow to Papal authority in domestic 

matters having little if anything to do with religion. In England the greatest 

conflicts began with Henry II and Thomas Becket, culminating (in a sense) with 

Henry VIII centuries later, while in Sicily every monarch from Roger I to Frederick 

II (who was actually excommunicated) had to deal with meddlesome Pontiffs. In 

the Holy Roman Empire the dynasty facing Papal wrath was the Hohenstaufen 

family of Swabia, who eventually claimed the Throne of Sicily, and the man to do 

that was Henry VI. 

Born in 1165, Henry, son of the imposing Frederick Barbarossa and Beatrice of 

Burgundy, was King of the Germans (from 1169) and Holy Roman Emperor (from 

1191). Historians believe that the key to his expansionist ambitions was the 

Kingdom of Sicily, which then encompassed all of Italy south of Rome and a few 

Mediterranean coastal areas in the Balkans and northern Africa; Italy's northern 

city-states were already a nominal part of his Empire. 

Having wed Constance of Hauteville, subsequent daughter of Roger II of Sicily, 

Henry claimed by marital right to be the heir of William II of Sicily, who died 

without issue in 1189, though Constance's nephew Tancred also claimed the 

Sicilian Throne. (Tancred was the illegitimate son of Roger II's eldest son, Roger of 


Apulia.) Two years later, following Henry's coronation as Emperor in Rome, his 

armies were marching through Italy toward Sicily to oust Tancred, but this 

expedition was doomed to failure as the result of machinations back in Germany by 

princes aided by Richard Lionheart, necessitating Henry's return to rein in some 

rebellious nobles. Conspiracies aside, Henry didn't like the fact that Richard had 

recognized Tancred as King of Sicily. 

By the time Henry arrived in Palermo, his wife had given birth en route to an heir, 

christened Frederick Roger, known to us as Frederick II. 

Coronation as Emperor 

In April 1191, in Rome, Henry and Constance were crowned Emperor and Empress 

by Pope Celestine III. The crown of Sicily, however, was harder to gain, as the 

barons of southern Italy had chosen a grandson of Roger II, Tancred, count of 

Lecce, as their king. Henry began his work besieging Naples, but he had to return 

to Germany (where Henry the Lion had revolted again) after his army had been 

heavily hit by an epidemic. 

Constance, who stayed behind in the palace at Salerno, was betrayed by the 

Salernitans, handed over to Tancred, and only released on the intervention of 

Celestine III, who in return recognized Tancred as King of Sicily. 

By early 1194, with the death of Tancred, the last (adult) male Hauteville claimant, 

the way was clear for a second invasion by Henry and Constance. In the meantime, 

since March 1193, the annoying Lionheart had become Henry's prisoner, thus 

removing one more thorn from his side. Pope Celestine III excommunicated Henry 

for imprisoning a fellow Crusader, but following payment of a hefty ransom 

Richard was released in February 1194. 

From 1196 into the following year, the Hohenstaufen dynasty reached the greatest 

geographic and economic extent of its power. On paper, England and half of France 

were - however briefly - vassal states, while Denmark and Hungary more practically 

recognized Staufen authority over the long term. Moreover, two-thirds of Italy, in 

effect everything but the Papal State, was now under Henry's direct rule. Further 

afield, the kings of Armenia. 

The Emperor introduced numerous officials and vassals in Sicily. He brought the 

Teutonic Knights (we will discuss about this in this volume), establishing them 

at Messina and Palermo, where they would prove far more loyal than either the 

Hospitallers or Templars. None of this endeared him to the Norman and Lombard 

barons. This led, in 1197, to a ruthless suppression of armed revolts in Italy. 

"In the winter of 1195-96, Henry induced about 50 princes to agree to make the 

succession to the crown of the Holy Roman Empire hereditary, and at the Diet of 


Würzburg (April 1196) a majority voted for it. A minority, however, continued to 

oppose it, and at the Diet of Erfurt (October 1196) this opposition was increased. 

Finally, Henry had to be content with the election of his son Frederick as German 

king in the customary way in December. In 1197, when Henry was in southern Italy 

preparing a crusade, a rebellion against his rule broke out in the Sicilian kingdom, 

which was put down with savage cruelty. 

Crusade of 1197 

The Crusade of 1197 (also known as the Crusade of Henry VI or the German 

Crusade of 1197 German: Deutscher Kreuzzug) was a crusade launched by the Holy 

Roman Emperor Henry VI in response to the partway victory of Frederick I 

Barbarossa's crusade in 1190, and thus is also known as the "Emperor's Crusade." 

The Crusade ended abruptly, after the fall of Sidon and Beirut. 

Background 

In 1187 Saladin captured Jerusalem from the Crusader states. In an effort to 

reclaim it, the Third Crusade was launched by King Philip Augustus of France, King 

Richard Coeur de Lion of England and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I 

Barbarossa. Frederick Barbarossa, although taking Iconium, died after drowning in 

Anatolia and the German Crusade, which may have included between 100,000 and 

150,000 men, disbanded. Only a few Germans continued to the Holy Land. A 

compromise was reached between the crusaders and the Muslims. The Muslims 

retained Jerusalem, but the Crusaders maintained Acre, Jaffa, and other key 

coastal cities. 

Frederick's older son Henry VI declared a new Crusade hoping that the massive 

momentum of the Third could still be utilized. Despite the stalemate of the Third 

Crusade, a large number responded: 

Two Archbishops 

Nine Bishops 

Five dukes 

A large number of minor nobles also joined the Crusade and before long, according 

to Arnold von Lübeck in his Arnoldi Chronica Slavorum, a powerful military host of 

60,000 including 7,000 German knights was on its way. 


German Crusade 

Henry VI decided to take advantage of his 

Father's threat of force against Byzantium to 

exact tribute and had a threatening letter sent 

to the Byzantine Emperor, Isaac Angelus. 

Isaac had been overthrown in April 1195 by his 

brother Alexius III Angelus. Alexius 

immediately submitted to the tributary 

demands of Henry VI and then exacted high 

taxes from his subjects to pay the Crusaders 

5,000 pounds of gold. Before he could set sail, 

Henry died. When this occurred, a substantial 

German army was already on their way to 

Palestine. The crusaders landed at Acre in 

September 1197 and captured the wealthy and 

important cities Sidon and Beirut. With the 

support of the German crusaders, Amalric II 

of Jerusalem (a vassal of Roman-German 

Emperor Henry VI.), was crowned King of Jerusalem in 1198. When news of the 

emperor's death reached them the Crusaders returned home without any further 

victories or ambitions. 

Death 

Henry contemplated a conquest of Constantinople to take place in that same year. 

Led by Conrad, his faithful chancellor, the first contingent of this expedition had 

already departed when in the same year Henry died of malaria at Messina on 28 of 

September 1197 (he was 32 years old) with many higher-ranking nobles returning 

to Germany to protect their interests in the next imperial election. The remaining 

nobles in the Crusade captured Sidon and Beirut before returning to Germany." 

Sicily's first German king is entombed in Palermo Cathedral where he was 

crowned. Next to his tomb are those of his wife and son. 

Henry was fluent in Latin and, according to Alberic of Troisfontaines, was 

"distinguished by gifts of knowledge, wreathed in flowers of eloquence, and learned 

in canon and Roman law". He was a patron of poets and poetry, and he almost 

certainly composed the song "Kaiser Heinrich", now among the Weingarten Song 

Manuscripts. 

According to his rank and with Imperial Eagle, regalia, and a scroll, he is the first 

and foremost to be portrayed in the famous Codex Manesse, a fourteenth century 

manuscript showing 140 reputed poets , and at least three poems are attributed to a 

young and romantically minded Henry VI. In one of those he describes a romance 


which makes him forget all his earthly power, and neither riches nor royal dignity 

can outweigh his yearning for that lady (ê ich mich ir verzige, ich verzige mich ê der 

krône – before I give her up, I’d rather give up the crown). 

Henry tried unsuccessfully in 1196 to make the imperial crown hereditary in the 

Hohenstaufen family. He did, however, succeed in securing the eventual succession 

of his son Frederick as Emperor Frederick II. Henry was succeeded by Otto 

IV (of Brunswick). 

Wife Constance 

Constance had one goal: to rebuild Sicily as a Norman kingdom, to ensure their 

independence while maintaining the legacy to his son. Constance in Palermo led 

his son Frederick of three years and on Pentecost Sunday in 1198 it was crowned 

King of Sicily in the cathedral. Palermo was a day of great hope, a day of pumps 

byzantine, recalling the memories of the great weather Norman kings. In the same 

year, fourteen months after the death of her husband, Constance also died. In his 

will, it appointed Pope Innocent III regent of Sicily and guardian of the child, 

something for which the Pope would get annually in compensation, a sum of thirty 

talents. 

But already the opponents were plotting in the shadows. Marcovaldo of Anweiler 

and other German leaders had not resigned; much less have left the kingdom. 

Marcovaldo declared that the Emperor had sent him the regency of Sicily, and 

occupied the island with his mercenaries. In subsequent years, this regime of terror 

pushed Sicily toward anarchy, while Frederick was growing in an adverse 

environment, "subject to protection servile sheep among wolves", as stated in a 

letter addressed to the principles of the Earth in June 1201. 

FREDERICK II HOHENSTAUFEN, HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 

(December 26, 1194 - December 13, 1250) 

King of Sicily (Frederick I), 1198 - King of the Romans 1196 - 

King of Germany 1215 - King of Jerusalem 1229 - Emperor of 

Italy 1220 -1250 

His coat of arms in Sicily has a silver field with a black eagle 

crowned: Royal Crown 

The story of the life and death of the Emperor Frederick II has all the dramatic 

interest of a great tragedy. The "child of Apulia," the son of a Sicilian-Norman 


mother and of a German father, educated in the half-oriental atmosphere of 

southern Italy, transplanted while still a youth to the ruder harsher north, a genius 

checked and thwarted by untoward circumstances, he embodied in his restless 

versatile complex nature the very spirit of the thirteenth century, keen, passionate, 

eager, subtle, and skeptical. 

Frederick was a most interesting person and ruler. His life started with a very 

public birth - his mother was 40 and hadn't had any children so when her time 

came she set up a tent and invited people to witness the birth, so there was no 

question she was actually the mother and Frederick her son. He was named 

Frederic Roger, reflecting both his German and Norman ancestry. He was only 

three when his parents died. His mother Constance paid the pope to act as his 

protector but the pope joined the German nobles introduced by Henry VI in trying 

to turn Sicily into a private fief. Frederick had several wives, serially, and a harem, 

coincidentally. He apparently lived a sensuous and sexually focused life, leaving 

behind a string of illegitimate offspring by several women. His first marriage was 

arranged by the pope (Innocent III) to Constance of Aragon. Her primary 

attraction to the pope was that she wasn't German. Popes feared having their 

territorial interests pressed from both north and south by Germanic controlled 

lands. 

When he came of age he asserted his control over Sicily and put down repeated 

rebellions against his authority. Several writers speak of his cruelty in dealing with 

organized dissent. Italy was his primary interest and even though he was crowned 

HRE and ruler of substantial German territory, he farmed out the ruling of those 

lands to his son and other German nobles. He spends most of his time in Italy, 

where he introduced governmental reforms that actually did not long survive his 

death in 1250. He was the founder of a university in Naples that functioned as a 

secular, in contrast to religious, university. It was the first secular university in 

Europe, earlier ones having been founded on strong religious grounds. His goal was 

to produce an educated cadre of people with law and administrative backgrounds 

who could help run his lands. He provided financial incentives for teachers and 

students to come to Naples, as well as closing competing schools in his territory. 

His focus in Naples contributed to its rise as a major city in successive centuries. 

As Holy Roman Emperors, the Church and secular leaders looked to Frederick for 

leadership in asserting Christian goals in the Middle East. Jerusalem, which was 

captured by the First Crusade, fell to Saladin in 1187. The Church was keen to 

recapture it and Frederick was under constant pressure to go crusading. He 

resisted so long and often he was excommunicated, one of several times this 

happened over his life. He finally went the Middle East in 1228, as much to protect 

the interests of a son born to a subsequent wife which allowed that child to claim 

the crown of Jerusalem. The legend 'king of Jerusalem' enters his coinage. His 

crusade was unusual in that he accomplished the goal of bringing Jerusalem back 

into Christian control but he did it by negotiation with the caliph of Cairo rather 

than by force of arms. He also did this while excommunicated, so couldn't get a 

celebratory mass said for him on entering Jerusalem so he ended up crowning 


himself. This reacquisition of Jerusalem was a temporary phenomenon and it fell 

again about a dozen years later. The lines of communication were too long for 

European interests to hold in the 13th century. 

Frederick was intellectually curious and had scholars in his court. Among his 

interests, he was a coin collector. He was culturally interested in Islamic thought 

but was forceful in dealing with any kind of resistance from Islamic (or other) 

subjects. At one point he forcibly relocated 15,000 rebellious Muslims to the 

mainland as a way of asserting control in Sicily. He required Muslims and Jews and 

prostitutes to wear distinctive clothing as a way of setting them apart in Sicily. This 

was all happening as Europe was becoming even less tolerant of non-orthodox non- 

Christian thinking. He directed this hostility towards his subjects, and was himself 

the target of a 'crusade' for his unorthodox ideas and anti-papal actions. It was not 

successful. This was just after the time the Church supported another intra- 

European crusade, against the Albigensian heresy in southern France. 

He was frequently at war with the Papacy, hemmed in between Frederick's lands in 

northern Italy and his Kingdom of Sicily (the Regno) to the south, and thus he was 

excommunicated four times and often vilified in pro-papal chronicles of the time 

and since. Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him the Antichrist. 

Speaking six languages (Latin, Sicilian, German, French, Greek 

and Arabic, Frederick was an avid patron of science and the 

arts. He played a major role in promoting literature through 

the Sicilian School of poetry. His Sicilian royal court in 

Palermo, from around 1220 to his death, saw the first use of a 

literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The 

poetry that emanated from the school had a significant 

influence on literature and on what was to become the modern 

Italian language. The school and its poetry were saluted by 

Dante and his peers and predate by at least a century the use of 

the Tuscan idiom as the elite literary language of Italy. 

Marriage of father Henry VI 

In 1186 is celebrated in Milan (Altar of St. Ambrose) the marriage of Henry VI, who 

was born in the 1165 to Nimwegen: cruel man more feared than loved, ruthless and 

vindictive, called "Nordic storm of terror" by Pope Innocent III, the second 

Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, with Constance, born in the year 1154, daughter of 

Roger II of Sicily and the fifth wife Beatrice, and aunt of William II the Good, who 

had married Joan of England, sister of Ricardo Lionheart, was the heir of the 

Norman Kingdom of Sicily. This marriage would in fact have meant, in near future, 

the union of Kingdom of Sicily with the Empire, which should have ended 

completely the Papal States to the work of one great universal power, to reduce The 

Holy See to a role of absolute nothingness. 

Constance, wife of Conrad VI, had been forced to renounce her vows for the 

marriage to the son of the Emperor. Reign on the throne of Sicily was Constance’s 


nephew, William II, who, though he was still young, had no children in eight years 

of marriage, so that Constance was the only legitimate heir who could succeed him 

at his death. Constance had in fact lived for years with the Sisters of St. Basil, in the 

convent of the Holy Saviour near the royal palace in Palermo. Constance had more 

than thirty years at the time of marriage. 

Birth 

In December 26, 1194, in Jesi, Ancona, on the day of Saint 

Stefano was born Frederick II. Frederick had initially 

received the name of Constantine, which is well on the side 

of his mother, Constance, which she saw in him only the 

very own heir, and with such a foreign name, the German 

princes had elected him king in Frankfurt. The day of the 

baptism the name was changed to that of the two 

grandparents, who then had to resemble that of his parents, 

he was called Frederick Roger. Federico with favors of fate 

she would become Emperor of Germany, lord of Lombardy, 

Sovereign of the Kingdom of Sicily. Between his empire in 

the north and its kingdom in the South lies the barrier of 

the Papal States. Is this in fact the key to all viscidities 

policies of Frederick II. The popes had never faced a serious 

threat to their temporal power as that embodied by the 

young king, and, therefore, they do not cease to haunt him 

with hostility sometimes veiled, often blatant, always 

relentless, opposing every initiative, from the Imperial conquest to the 

reorganization of the Kingdom of Sicily, to the crusade led by him excommunicated 

and led to the end triumphantly. 

The great Frederick II, was considered the most brilliant and powerful among the 

sovereigns of his century, and attend to life so picturesque that will take place in 

advance of a hundred years on the era, Frederick II worked in a passionate tangle 

of elements of Western culture and in East Asia: protect in equal way catholic 

students, Muslim, Jewish scholars and poets of Provence, raised powerful stone 

fortresses and devoted himself with patient care as a scholar in the art of falconry. 

In him good and evil, passion and cold calculation coalesced into a personality that 

domained his contemporaries, and that still fascinates those who are interested in 

her life. Frederick II, known by his contemporaries with the title of "stupor mundi" 

for the splendor of his court in which they are cultivated the sciences, law, poetry, 

art. 

Pope Gregory IX had understood that Frederick II embodied, in 

a way far more dangerous than that of the seven heretics, the 

force that was flowing throughout Europe in the thirteenth 

century and who challenged the powers of the Roman Church, 

with making possible the creation of Laity were together with 

their religious Reformation. Federico II felt depositary of the 


duty to return the original and legitimate pre-eminence to the imperial power. 

Moved by an almost mystical conception of a world entirely renovated and based 

on the culture from classical times, it was proposed to "humanistic", not in the 

sense intended by the Church, but in what would have been typical of Florence in 

the fifteenth century, Frederick felt that only an empire of which Rome was the 

center could reacquire a universal value thanks to the light radiated from the city of 

the Caesars. 

From the point of territorial view, the unit would have been reassembled with the 

creation of an Italian State at the expense of the Papacy, which should limit them to 

the spiritual sphere under the protection of Imperial Sword Emperor. 

The Crusade of Frederick II, 1228-29 

(See source below) 

(Picture: Frederick II –left, meets al-Kamil -right). After the failure of 

the Fifth crusade in 1221, hope for Christian success in the East 

was centered upon Frederick II, the new Holy Roman Emperor. 

This was ironic since Frederick was, in religious terms, closer to 

his Muslim enemies than to orthodox Christianity. He was far 

from pious and seemed to have an odd understanding of the 

crusade. He had vowed to go Crusade as early as 1215, but the 

Crusader's vow for him seems to have been principally a 

method his precarious hold upon Germany and Sicily papal 

protection which was extended to Crusaders. 

Frederick's concern was primarily to consolidate his own 

position as Emperor. To this end, he postponed the fulfillment 

of his Crusading vow time and time again. When finally pressed 

Pope Honorius III in 1225, Frederick solemnly promised to depart for the East 

within two years. Meanwhile, he prepared to use his Crusade to extend his Empire 

into the East. In 1225 he married Yolanda, the young heiress of the Latin Kingdom. 

Shortly thereafter, Frederick claimed the title of the Latin King for himself. After 

seducing one of Yolanda's cousins, Frederick banished his fourteen year old bride 

to the harem which he kept at Palermo, where she bore the Emperor a son, Conrad, 

in 1228. Yolanda died less than week later, but formally the title to the Latin 

Kingdom had already passed to her infant son, and Frederick was forced to be 

content with the position of regent for his son if, according to the customs of the 

Kingdom, the Latin barons could be persuaded to accept his regency. 

A Crusading army, meanwhile, was raised and on September 8, 1227 the Emperor 

and his army embarked for East, just before the expiration of the time limit set by 

the Pope. Almost immediately after the fleet set sail, Frederick fell ill. His physician 

advised him in strong terms that he must return to Sicily to recover before 

attempting to make the arduous voyage to Palestine. Frederick forthwith landed to 

recuperate. 


In view of Frederick's repeated postponements of the Crusade during the past 

twelve years, it is not surprising that Pope Gregory IX took this situation to be 

another attempt to delay the Crusade. In anger, the Pontiff solemnly 

excommunicated Frederick. The Emperor replied with a manifesto in which be 

attacked the pretensions of the Papacy and then proceeded, once he had recovered 

his health, with his preparations for the expedition. On June 28, 1228 Frederick 

sailed once again for the East. 

The Emperor was now determined to gain such power and prestige as he could in 

the East, to add the remnants of the Crusaders' states to his Empire." He stopped 

first at Cyprus, whose infant king, Henry, was nominally Frederick's vassal. 

Frederick II in the Holy Land 

From Cyprus Frederick sailed quickly to Acre to begin his Crusade. The Crusade in 

Frederick's hands, however, was to be a far different kind of affair from his 

predecessors. Instead of using his army against the Moslems, it was Frederick's 

intention to negotiate with the Egyptian Sultan for a peaceful territorial settlement 

in the Holy Land. Frederick proposed to use his army principally against the Latins 

in the East, to try to force them to acknowledge his position as regent and de facto 

ruler of the Latin states in the East. In short, Frederick's objective was the 

conquest, not of the Moslembeld territories of Palestine, but rather of the 

Crusading states. 

In the year 1229 [actually 1228] the Emperor came to Syria with his whole navy. 

The King [the infant Conrad IV, titular King of Jerusalem] and all the Cypriots, 

together with the Lord of Beirut, [John D'Ibelin] accompanied him. The Lord of 

Beirut went to Beirut, Where he was joyfully received, for never was a lord more 

warmly loved by his men. He remained there but one day and then followed the 

Emperor to Tyre. The Emperor was very well received in Syria where all did 

homage to him as regent, because he bad a little son called King Conrad, who was 

the rightful heir of the Kingdom of Jerusalem through his mother who was dead. 

The Emperor and his men and all the Syrians left Acre to go to Jaffa. There they 

held truce conferences with alKamil, who was then Sultan of Babylon and 

Damascus, [Al-Kamal was, in fact, Sultan of Egypt, and not at this time ruling in 

Damascus, which was under his nephew, an-Nasir Dawud] and who held 

Jerusalem and the whole country. As a result of their agreement Jerusalem, 

Nazareth, and Lydda were thereby turned over to the Emperor. 

In this same year, [Really the following year, 1229] amidst these events, the 

Emperor ordered Count Stephen of Gotron and other Longboards [i.e. his troops 

from Southern Italy] as well, to come to Cyprus. He had all the fortresses and the 

royal revenues seized for his use. He claimed that he was regent and that this was 

his right. The Cypriots were much perplexed and bad their wives and children 

placed in religious houses wherever they could. Some of them namely Sir John 

d'Ibelin, later Count of Jaffa, who was then a child, his sister, and other gentle-folk 


fled in the midst of the winter. It was a bad season and they barely escaped 

drowning, but, as it so pleased God, they finally arrived at Tortosa. The Emperor 

held Cyprus. The Cypriots who were in his army were very uncomfortable and, had 

the Lord of Beirut sanctioned it, they would have carried off and kidnapped the 

young King Henry and would have fled from the Emperor's camp. 

The Emperor was now disliked by all the people of Acre. He was the object of the 

Templars' special disfavor. There was at that time a very brave Templar, Brother 

Peter de Montagu, a most valiant and noble man, as was also the master of the 

Teutonic Knights. The people of the lowlands also had little use for the Emperor. 

The Emperor seemed to be delaying. [Conjectural reading of "de lais"] Every day, 

even in winter, he kept his galleys armed, with the oars in the locks. Many people 

said that he wished to seize the Lord of Beirut and his children, Sir Anceau de Bries 

and his other friends, the Master of the Temple and other persons and have them 

shipped to Apulia. Another said that he wished to have them killed at a council to 

which he had called and summoned them but that they had been aware of this and 

went to the council with such forces that he dared not do it. 

He made his truce with the Saracens in all particulars as they wished it. He went to 

Jerusalem and then to Acre. The Lord of Beirut never left him and, though he was 

often advised to leave, he did not wish to do so. The Emperor assembled his people 

at Acre and had all the people of the city come and there were many who thought 

well of him. 

The Emperor secretly prepared to depart. At daybreak on the first of May, he 

boarded a galley before the Butchers' Street, without notifying anyone. Thus it 

happened that the butchers and the old people who lived on the street and who 

were very unfriendly saw his party and pelted him most abusively with tripe and 

scraps of meat.... 

Thus the Emperor left Acre 

[Adapted from Brundage] By diplomacy and without spilling a drop of blood, 

Frederick won the goals for which the Crusade had been launched. Jerusalem and 

Bethlehem were restored to Christian hands and a corridor linking the cities with 

the sea was also ceded to the Latins. Moreover, a ten-year truce was arranged and 

trading rights were guaranteed to Christians and Moslems alike. But the Emperor, 

who had won so much, lost what he had come to gain. The Latin Kingdom was not 

to be a part of Frederick's Empire. The barons and clergy unanimously rejected him 

as regent and Frederick was forced to return to the West almost immediately to 

meet an attack which had been launched against his Sicilian Kingdom during his 

absence by his father-in-law and the Pope. 

While the Emperor was in the Holy Land the Pope was preaching a crusade against 

him at home. The papal troops, with the keys of St Peter on their banner, led by 

John de Brienne, the ex-king of Jerusalem, and by two cardinals, invaded Southern 

Italy, and the Mendicant Peace of Friars exhorted the people to maintain the cause 


of the Germano Church. But when Frederick returned he quickly recovered all that 

he had lost, and in 1230 the Pope accepted the peace of San Germano, and released 

the Emperor from excommunication. 

Frederick's departure left the Latin states reconstituted but devoid of strong 

leadership. The barons of the Latin Kingdom cherished dearly their feudal 

independence, even though, in the final analysis, it might cost them the possession 

of the Kingdom itself. The decade of comparative peace which followed Frederick's 

departure saw nothing done to assure the permanence of the Latin states. At the 

expiration of the treaty period, small Crusading armies journeyed to the East, one 

in 1239, led by King Thibaud of Navarre, and another one in 1240, led by Richard 

of Cornwall. Neither of these expeditions accomplished anything important, and 

meanwhile the feudal families of the Latin Kingdom fought among themselves and 

with various Moslem foes. 

In July 1244 Jerusalem was again attacked, this time by wild Khwarismian Turks 

in the employ of the Egyptians. The Khwarismian attack came as a surprise to the 

garrison of the city and, after a short defense, the Turks broke into the town. The 

garrison fled to the Tower of David and held out there for nearly six weeks. Then, 

on August 23, they surrendered. Thus began six hundred and fifty years of 

uninterrupted Moslem control of the Holy City. The fall of Jerusalem presaged 

further disasters for the Latins in the Levant. In October 1244, a major Latin army 

was destroyed by the Egyptians and their allies at La Forbie, near Gaza. Egyptian 

attacks continued during the next three years and in 1247 the major city of Ascalon 

was also lost by the Latins. The need for renewed assistance from the West was 

obvious. The attention turned to Louis IX, King of France. 

Source: Philip de Novare: Les Gestes des Ciprois, No. 135-37, ed. Gaston Reynaud, (Geneva: Jules- 

Guillaumefick, 1887), 48-50, translated by James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, 

(Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962), 231-32 

Copyright note: Professor Brundage informed the Medieval Sourcebook that copyright was not 

renewed on this work. Moreover he gave permission for use of his translations. This text is part of 

the Internet Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copypermitted 

texts related to medieval and Byzantine history. 

Death of the Emperor 

Frederick II died of fever, December 13, 1250 in Castel Fiorentino, not far from 

Lucera. His bodyguard Saracen carried him through the hills of Puglia up to the 

castle of Gioia del Colle and then to Taranto. A ferry vessel in the body Messina and 

from there by land, the funeral procession went onwards to Palermo. Frederick 

wanted to be buried in the Cathedral, in a sarcophagus next to the Norman- 

German parents and his first wife Constance. 


He loved Sicily and its capital Palermo. The most 

gifted, vivid and extraordinary of the medieval Holy 

Roman Emperors was ill for some months before his 

death. Early in December 1250 a fierce attack of 

dysentery confined him to his hunting lodge of Castel 

Fiorentino in the south of Italy, which was part of his 

kingdom of Sicily. He made his will on December 7th, 

specifying that if he did not recover, he should be 

buried in the cathedral at Palermo, and sinking fast, 

died on the 13th, a few days short of his fifty-sixth 

birthday. He was escorted to Sicily by his Saracen 

bodyguard and buried in a sarcophagus of red 

porphyry mounted on four carved lions. The body was 

wrapped in cloth of red silk covered with inscrutable 

arabesque designs and with a crusader’s cross on the 

left shoulder. The tomb can still be seen in Palermo Cathedral today. 

When the news reached Rome, Pope Innocent IV was delighted. ‘Let heaven exult 

and the earth rejoice,’ he proclaimed in a message to the Sicilian bishops and 

people. One of his chaplains, Nicholas of Carbio, went further. God, he wrote, 

seeing the desperate danger in which the storm-tossed ‘bark of Peter’ stood, 

snatched away ‘the tyrant and son of Satan,’ who ‘died horribly, deposed and 

excommunicated, suffering excruciatingly from dysentery, gnashing his teeth, 

frothing at the mouth and screaming…’. 

However vilely expressed, the relief of the pope and his party at Frederick’s death 

was understandable, for the emperor had seemed to be on the verge of triumph at 

last in his long struggle with the papacy. Born in Italy in 1194, heir to the 

Hohenstaufen territories in Germany and grandson of the Emperor Frederick 

Barbarossa, he was also the heir to the Norman kingdom of Sicily. His father died 

young when Frederick was two, he was crowned King of Sicily at the age of three 

and his mother died before he was four. At fourteen he came of age and took 

control of Sicily. He went on to defeat his rival for the German kingship and in 

1220, aged twenty-five; he was crowned emperor in St Peter’s, Rome, by Pope 

Honorius III. This made him, in theory at least, the temporal head of Christ’s 

people on earth and the overlord of northern Italy. The fact that he was also the 

ruler of southern Italy and Sicily, on Rome’s doorstep, put him on collision course 

with the popes. 

Frederick astonished his contemporaries because he was more like an oriental 

despot than a European king. His brilliant court at Palermo blended Norman, 

Arabic and Jewish elements in a culture full of the warm south. He was witty, 

entertaining and cruel in several different languages. He kept a harem, guarded by 

black eunuchs. He had dancing girls, an Arab chef and a menagerie of elephants, 

lions and camels. He founded towns and industries and he efficiently codified laws. 

A man of serious intellectual distinction, he hobnobbed amicably with Jewish and 

Muslim sages. He encouraged scholarship, poetry and mathematics, and original 


thinking in all areas. He was a fine horseman and swordsman, went coursing with 

leopards and panthers, and wrote the first classic medieval textbook on falconry. 

Frederick’s openness to ideas made him profoundly suspect. He was supposed to 

have described Moses, Christ and Muhammad as a trio of deluded charlatans. His 

demands that the Church renounce its wealth and return to apostolic poverty and 

simplicity did not sit well with the papacy and its supporters, who branded him as 

Antichrist. Through his second wife, Yolanda of Brienne, he claimed the kingdom 

of Jerusalem and in 1228 he led the sixth crusade to the Holy Land. Preferring 

diplomacy and the force of his personality to the warlike methods of earlier 

crusaders, he successfully negotiated with the Sultan of Egypt the hand-over of 

Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth. In 1229 he crowned himself King of 

Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The pope, who had 

excommunicated him the year before, was not pleased. 

Historians used to see Frederick as a Renaissance prince born before his time, or 

even as the first truly modern man. Writers more recently have preferred to view 

him in the context of his own day. There is no doubt, however, that he astounded 

his contemporaries, who called him stupor mundi, ‘wonder of the world’. Such was 

the impact he made that many people could not believe he had really died. Stories 

sprang up that he had gone to the depths of Etna or a mountain in Germany where 

he was biding his time to return, reform the Church and re-establish the good order 

of the pax Romana of old. In reality his policy virtually died with him. His claim as 

Caesar Augustus, Imperator Romanorum, to pre-eminence over all the princes of 

Europe was fatally out of date. 

Frederick II reached the climax of his power in 1235, when, after his marriage with 

his third wife, Isabella, sister of Henry III of England, he held a great assembly at 

Mainz, where "peace was sworn, ancient laws were established, and new laws were 

decreed." An attempt was made to give Germany a centralized judicial organization 

on the Sicilian model, but the confirmation of the sovereign rights and privileges of 

the princes prevented any effectual administrative consolidation. 

The real development of Germany in the thirteenth century was social and 

economic rather than political, provincial rather than imperial. The quarrel with 

the Welfs was healed, and the heir of Henry the Lion was established in the new 

duchy of Brunswick. The King of Denmark was forced to cede the lands he had 

conquered in the north, and a way was opened for further expansion towards the 

east. The marquises of Brandenburg won and colonized Pomerania. The military 

Order of the “Knights of the Sword " conquered Livonia and Curland. The great 

Teutonic Order, with which the Knights of the Sword were subsequently united, 

abandoned the defense of the Holy Land, the work for which it had been founded in 

the twelfth century, to support the Poles in the subjugation of heathen Prussia, and 

Hermann of Salza, the Grand Master of the Order, the loyal friend of Frederick II., 


eceived from the Emperor a confirmation and extension of the grants of Prussian 

territory already made by the Polish duke to the Teutonic Knights. 

If in Sicily Frederick II. ruled as an absolute monarch and in Germany as the feudal 

chief of a federation of princes, in both kingdoms, by coercion or conciliation, he 

had made himself master. 

Frederick was red-haired, like his grandfather, and was near-sighted. He was a 

Norman and he loved to hunt birds. He learned falconry from Konrad von 

Lützelhard, a Teutonic Knight. Frederick had a long association with the 

Teutonic Knights. Hermann von Salza, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, 

stood with Frederick and was handsomely rewarded as he had built Frederick's 

trust. Hermann was particularly interested in the Baltic Sea for the future domain 

of the Teutonic Order. Frederick was more like a Renaissance ruler, than a 

Medieval one. He was a patron of the arts and sciences, a man of culture and 

learning, and even wrote a book on the hunting of birds. Hunting birds was one of 

his passions. 

With the death of Frederick, ended the Empire in its classical meaning and 

medieval. The title of Emperor survived until the nineteenth century, but not one of 

his successors could be considered divine or universal. 

At this time," wrote the English chronicler Matthew Paris, "died the greatest of the 

princes of the world, Frederick, the Wonder of the World {stupor mundi), the 

marvelous revolutionist (immutator), absolved from the sentence which bound 

him, in the habit, it is said, of the Cistercians, and full of contrition and 

humiliation." The papal historian, on the contrary, describes him as dying 

excommunicated and deposed, gnashing his teeth and foaming at the mouth, with 

loud crying and groaning. He was buried in a splendid tomb by the side of his 

parents, in the cathedral of Palermo, the capital of his beloved Sicily. 

The phrase Stupor Mundi, the “Wonder of the World," well expresses the feeling 

of the contemporaries of Frederick II. towards the great Emperor. Otto III had 

been a world-wonder, too (mirabilia mundi, see p. 19), a marvel of precocious 

talent, but the genius of Frederick II. inspired terror and awe. Men stood amazed 

and stupefied before him, and regarded him as something portentous and almost 

superhuman. To the papalists he was an atheist, a monster of iniquity, Antichrist 

himself. He was accused of denying the immortality of the soul and the 

resurrection of the body, of rejecting the mystery of the Incarnation, and of 

believing only what could be proved by physical science and natural reason. He was 

said to have declared that the world had been deceived by three impostors — 

Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. In later days Dante, in the Divinia Commedia, 

placed him in hell among the misbelievers. 


Yet even his enemies admitted his extraordinary ability. The Franciscan, Fra 

Salimbene, wrote that if he had been a true Catholic, and had loved God and the 

Church, few Emperors would have been his equals. His followers seem to have 

looked on him as a kind of Messiah, a mystic incarnation of divine power. They 

compared him to Christ, and punned on the name of his minister, Peter de la 

Vigne, the "corner-stone," the "fruitful vine," the Peter who would not betray his 

Master. He himself spoke of his mother as “holy," and called his birth-place 

“Bethlehem," and he was hailed as “Sanctus Fridericus." How far these claims were 

serious, how far they represent mere extravagant adulation is doubtful. Frederick 

posed deliberately as the successor of the ancient Eoman Emperors, the heir of all 

their rights and dignities, but he always professed his loyalty to the Church which 

had excommunicated him, though he advocated ecclesiastical reforms, and, in 

particular, a return to apostolic poverty. 

“The primitive Church," he said,” was based on poverty and simplicity." If his 

tolerance of Jews and Mohammedans, his rationalism and love of scientific study 

were enough to condemn him in the eyes of the orthodox, the visionary poetic 

strain in his character, and his daring intellectual originality fascinated the 

imagination of the dreamer and the fanatic. Men were loath to believe that he was 

really dead. The prophecies of the Abbot The Joachim were applied to him, and it 

was Frederick believed that he would come again, whether for evil or for good, as 

Antichrist, or as the defender of the Church and the savior of Germany. He was 

more than once personated by impostors, and, in the fifteenth century, legend told 

how he waited, hidden in a Thuringian mountain, for the day of the deliverance of 

Germany. 

Henry VII Hohenstaufen *1211 - †1242 

The Rebellious King 

1211- †12.II.1242 

King of Sicily II.1212 

Duke of Swabia 1216/'17 

Rector of Burgundy 4.I.1220 

King of Rome 1220 - 1235 

Elected Frankfurt 23.IV.1220 

Crowned Aachen 8.V.1222 

Deposed 2/4.VII.1235 

Henry VII (*1211- †12.II.1242) was the first son of 

Frederick II of Hohenstaufen and Constance of 

Aragon. He was crowned a king of Sicily when he 

was still a baby and became a duke of Swabia when he was five. His dazzling career 


as a child ended in 1220 when he was crowned a Roman king on 23 April. At the 

instance of Pope Honorius III, who feared the geopolitical consequences of this 

coronation, he had to abandon his kingship of Sicily. Frederick II, crowned 

Emperor at the same time succeeded him and would govern the kingdom. In fact 

nothing was achieved with this construction because Frederick II did not only rule 

in Sicily but in fact also in Germany, Italy and Burgundy. To make things worse the 

attempt of the Holy See to get rid of Frederick II failed because he could end the 

crusade he undertook at the instance of Pope Gregory IX in the years 1229-30, with 

a diplomatic victory. 

Henry VII was crowned when he was eleven on 18 May 1222 in Aachen. During his 

minority Germany and Swabia were governed by regents until Henry took over the 

government in 1228. His support of the middle classes against their bishops 

irritated the princes who extorted in 1231 a large number of measures from him, 

protecting them against the growing power of the cities and extending their power 

over their own territories. Such a kind of privilege, be it not so forgoing, was 

granted by Frederick II to the prelates at the occasion of the election of Henry in 

1220. In May 1232 he confirmed the Statutem in favorem principum of Henry 

which de facto legitimized the independence of the German princes. Not long after, 

Henry tried to hamper imperial power and in September 1234 he rebelled against 

the emperor. He was joined by the Lombard League which resisted the restoration 

after 1231 of imperial power in Lombardy by Frederick II. The revolt collapsed 

when Frederick II came to Germany in the spring of 1235. In July Henry was 

deposed and taken prisoner by Frederick II. At the same time he decided to declare 

an Imperial war against the Lombards and defeated the Lombard army on 27 

November 1237 near Cortenuova. 

Frederick and his son began to be somewhat strained. The emperor had favored the 

Austrian marriage because Margaret's brother, Duke Frederick II., was childless; 

but Henry took up a hostile attitude towards his brother-in-law and wished to put 

away his wife and marry Agnes, daughter of Wenceslaus I., king of Bohemia. Other 

causes of trouble probably existed, for in 1231 Henry not only refused to appear at 

the diet at Ravenna, but opposed the privileges granted by Frederick to the princes 

at Worms. In 1232, however, he submitted to his father, promising to adopt the 

emperor's policy and to obey his commands. He did not long keep his word and 

was soon engaged in thwarting Frederick's wishes in several directions, until in 

1233 he took the decisive step of issuing a manifesto to the princes, and the 

following year raised the standard of revolt at Boppard. He obtained very little 

support in Germany, however, while the suspicion that he favored heresy deprived 

him of encouragement from the pope. On the other hand, he succeeded in forming 

an alliance with the Lombards in December 1234, but his few supporters fell away 

when the emperor reached Germany in 1235, and, after a vain attack on Worms, 


Henry submitted and was kept for some time as a prisoner in Germany, though his 

formal deposition as German king was not considered necessary, as he had broken 

the oath taken in 1232. 

Possibly on 12 February 1242, Henry died near to Martirano after a fall from his 

horse when he was moved there from Nicastro. Some chroniclers report that it had 

been an attempted suicide. His father had him buried with royal honors in the 

cathedral of Cosenza, in an antique Roman sarcophagus. 

Frederick, Henry's second and only surviving son, was deprived of the succession 

jointly with his father after his rebellion in 1235. However, his grandfather 

Frederick II, in his testament, entrusted him with the Duchy of Austria and the 

Marquisate of Styria, but he could never take over the government of these lands 

and died few years later (ca. 1251/1252) unmarried and childless. 

Among the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, Henry is numbered only in 

parentheses, as he did not exercise the sole kingship. He is not to be confused with 

the later Emperor Henry VII of the House of Luxembourg. 

The Antichrist 

On December 13, 1250, the Emperor Frederick II had 

died of a sudden fever at Castel Fiorentino, in South 

Italy. To Pope Innocent IV in his excitement it seemed 

that all the troubles of the Church were now ended. The 

Antichrist had passed away; the race of vipers had lost 

its leader. “Let the heavens rejoice”, he wrote at once to 

the faithful in Sicily. “Let the earth be filled with 

gladness. For the fall of the tyrant has changed the 

thunderbolts and tempests that God Almighty held over 

your heads into gentle zephyrs and fecund dews”. 

Innocent IV was elected on 25 June 1243. He was a member of a noble Imperial 

family and had some relatives in Frederick's camp, so the Emperor was initially 

happy with his election. Innocent, however, was to become his fiercest enemy. 

When in 1243 Innocent IV was elected, Frederick, at the urging of the German 

princes and of King Louis IX of France, opened negotiations with the new pope. 

Agreement between the Pope and the Emperor seemed close on the evacuation of 

the Papal States, when in June 1244 Innocent fled the city. In Lyon he convened a 

council for 1245 and in July of that year deposed the Emperor, the obstacle to 

reconciliation apparently being the status of the Lombard communes. Innocent 

characterizing him as a "friend of Babylon's sultan", "of Saracen customs", 


"provided with a harem guarded by eunuchs" like the schismatic emperor of 

Byzantium and, in sum, a "heretic". 

At the time of his death in 1250 Frederick was still in a strong position, but within 

25 years, his heirs had fallen victim to the same struggle with the Papacy that had 

taken up his own life. The last Hohenstaufen pretender, Conradin, was executed in 

Naples by the Angevin rulers who had replaced Frederick. 

For the Papacy in all its long history had never met an adversary as formidable as 

Frederick Hohenstaufen. The Papacy had fought against this family; its conception 

of Imperial power could never be reconciled with the Papal conception of a world 

theocracy dominated by the heir of Saint Peter. With Barbarossa a truce had been 

reached. Henry VI, with his wife´s kingdom of Sicily to add to his strength, seemed 

near to victory when death prematurely removed him. His son Frederick II was a 

little child, fat too young to sit on the Imperial throne, over which rival claimants 

fought, reducing the Empire to chaos. Henry´s widow, Constance of Sicily, died 

soon after her husband; and when to ensure her son´s safety, she left him under 

the guardianship of the Pope, Innocent III made a grave mistake. Trusting on the 

boy´s gratitude, he put forward his claims to the Imperial inheritance. Frederick II 

was crowned King of Germany in 1215, when he was twenty one, and Emperor 

three years later. 

Pope Innocent died in 1216. He never knew of the trouble that his ward was to 

cause to the Church. 

The wives and legitimate children of Frederick II 

Many significant events have their origin in everyday life that the texts have not 

used in the private affairs where the personalities of the characters express 

themselves better and more freely than during acts of war, or the buildings where 

power is exercised. 

Frederick II had four wives: the first three were imposed by reasons of state well 

represented by the popes, while sincerely loved the last with whom he lived a 

relationship shrouded in mystery, subtended between history and legend. In fact, 

the wives of Frederick were useful only to provide some legitimate heir to the 

House of Swabia, in addition to the more numerous illegitimate, but none of them 

were able to play a political role appreciable, crushed by her husband's personality 

always closed in the golden palace of the Court. 

Constance of Aragon. 

Frederick married Constance of Aragon widow of IMRE King of 

Hungary, daughter of don ALFONSO II “el Casto” King of Aragon & 

his wife Infanta doña Sancha de Castilla (1179-Catania 23 Jun 1222, 

bur Palermo Cathedral). 


Frederick married when he was 15, in 1209. At the wedding was almost forced by 

Pope Innocent III, who had exercised over him the protection required by his 

mother, Constance of Hauteville, at the point of death. With this initiative, the pope 

intended to assist the young dolphin and recalcitrant of the House of Swabia a very 

religious woman, reliable, much older than him, able to direct it in the way of 

obedience to the Roman authorities: How wrong he was. Frederick reluctantly 

accepted the imposition and did not change his life. Constance died in 1222. 

Children: 

Henry VII (1211 – 12 February 1242).was born from the union, a man who took 

his father's attitudes towards competitiveness lively then open defiance; possibly 

suicidal died while he was a prisoner in the imperial prisons. 

Jolanda of Brienne. 

(212 – 25 April 1228). Marriage: 9 November 1225, at Brindisi, 

Apulia. 

After the death of Constance (1222) Frederick, on the advice of 

Herman Von Stalza in 1225, in the Cathedral of Brindisi, just 

thirteen years old he married the Jolanda of Brienne, 

daughter of Giovanni, and titular of the crown of Jerusalem, in which Frederick 

aspired. The young, in fact, was the daughter of the catholic Giovanni, a brave 

crusader who would have inherited the crown of Jerusalem, a title of little value but 

useful asset for the success of the new expedition. Frederick also aspired to claim 

the title again, but for reasons somewhat 'different: he considered the crown crucial 

to conclude the enterprise with a diplomatic agreement, demonstrating that it was 

possible to affirm their faith peacefully, without bloodshed. Jolanda was then 13 

years, was immature, ugly, little height to appear next to a thirty age educated 

emperor. On the first night of marriage, Frederick found a 

way to console himself: and he did it with her cousin's 

wife, Anais, a lady in about twenty years old, busty, 

uninhibited. Became aware of the regrettable fact, 

Giovanni di Brienne (1155-27 March 1237, was a 

French nobleman who became King of Jerusalem by 

marriage, and ruled the Latin Empire of Constantinople 

as regent) turned to the pope who was careful not to 

disturb Federico and avoided the scandal merely by 

compensate the disappointed father with a lucrative 

position at the Roman Court. Jolanda gave her husband 

two children, Conrad IV and Margaret, and died in 1227, 

aged only 16, for problem of childbirth. 

Children: 

Margareta (November 1226 – August 1227). 


Conrad IV (25 April 1228 – 21 May 1254). 

Isabella of England. (1214 – 1 December 1241). Marriage: 

15 July 1235, at Worms, Germany. 

Isabella was the sister of Henry III of England. It was 

Gregory IX in 1235 to advocate the wedding to allow the 

emperor to get close to the rich Germanic Guelph that even 

he could not control and the potentates across the Channel. 

In fact, the goal was achieved only in part, and before that 

Frederick could complicate his part family relationships with 

the English crown, the framework of diplomatic and military 

operations moved to Italy, nor reduced the claims of German nobles. Isabella was 

the mother of Henry said “Carlotto”, she died at a very young age in 1241, in the 

middle of the conflict of her husband with Gregory IX. 

Children: 

Jordan (born during the Spring of 1236, failed to survive the year).; this 

child was given the baptismal name Jordanus as he was baptized with water 

brought for that purpose from the Jordan river; 

Agnes (b and d. 1237). 

Henry Otto (18 February 1238 – May 1253), named after Henry III of 

England, his uncle; appointed Governor of Sicily and promised to 

become King of Jerusalem after his father died, but he, too, died within 

three years and was never crowned. Betrothed to many of Pope Innocent 

IV's nieces, but never married to any. 

Frederick (1239/1240 – died young) 

Margaret (1 December 1241 – 8 August 1270), married Albert, Landgrave of 

Thuringia, later Margrave of Meissen. 

Matilde Maria (Beatrice) of Antioch of the Hautville. 

Princess Mathilde or Maria of Antiochia daughter of 

Bohemund III "the Stammered" Prince of Antioch, 1144 - 1201 

and Costanza, daughter of Philip I King of France. 

Marriage of Mathilde with the Emperor Fredrick II, 

Bartolomeo da Neocastro (History, cit., P. 21) and Pirro (See A. Pirro, Sicilia, cit., 

Pp. 25-35) says that the mother of Frederick is legitimate wife of the Emperor. 

The Thomas Tusci Gesta Imperatorum et Pontificum refers to the mother of 

"Fredericus qui de Antiochia" as "Antiocha dicta". The primary source which 

specifies her name has not yet been identified. The Historia Sicula of Bartolomeo 


di Neocastro 2 names "Beatrix filia principis Antiochie" as the fourth wife of 

"dominus Fridericus secundus…Romanorum…imperator". Zurita, presumably 

basing himself on the same source, also names “Beatriz...hija del Principe de 

Antioch” as the mother of “Federico de Antiochia”. 

Children: 

Frederick of Antioch (1221–1256) 

Bianca Lancia d'Agliano (also called Beatrice and 

Blanche) , an Italian noblewoman. Born ca. 1200/1210 in 

Agliano Terme, 

Bianca Lancia, the family of the Counts of Loreto, was the 

only woman who truly conquered the difficult heart of 

Frederick. The two met in 1225, a few months after the illfated 

marriage with Jolanda of Brienne was a mutual love at 

first sight. Not being able to tie the lawful marriage, the two maintained a 

clandestine affair but far from secret, so that it had three children: 

Constance 

Manfredi (King of Sicily) 

Violante. 

According to a legend that has been handed down from father Bonaventure Lama 

and recovery from the historic Pantaleo, during the pregnancy of Manfred, 

Frederick's mistress kept locked in a tower of the castle of Gioia del Colle. 

Matthew of Paris relates the story of a marriage in articulo mortis (on her 

deathbed) between them when Bianca was dying, but this marriage was never 

recognized by the Church. Nevertheless, Bianca's children were apparently 

regarded by Frederick as legitimate, evidenced by his daughter Constance's 

marriage to the Nicaen Emperor, and his own will, in which he appointed Manfred 

as Prince of Taranto and Regent of Sicily 

According to the Chronicle of Fra 'Salimbene of Parma, the wedding took place at 

her deathbed 1233/1234). Therefore it was considered non-canonical. 

Frederick II illegitimate children 

Frederick II had several relationships outside of marriage, from which sprang his 

many illegitimate children. He knew them all, making them breed at court and 

giving them tasks and titles of nobility, but the identity of the mothers do not 

always known. 

2 Bartholomaeus of Neocastro (ca 1240 - post-1293) was a Sicilian jurist, and author of a 

chronicle called the Historia Sicula, which covers the years from 1250 to 1293 


Mistresses and illegitimate issue 

Unknown name, Sicilian Countess. According to Medlands, she was 

the first known mistress of Frederick II, by this time King of Sicily. Her exact 

parentage is unknown, but the Thomas Tusci Gesta Imperatorum et 

Pontificum stated she was a nobili comitissa quo in regno Sicilie erat heres. 

Frederick of Pettorana born in Sicily between 1212 and 1213, who fled to 

Spain with his wife and children in 1240, but both his children died there at 

the age of two and one. 

Adelheid (Adelaide) of Urslingen (c. 1184 – c. 1222). Her relationship with 

Frederick II took place during the time he stayed in Germany (between 1215 

and 1220). According to some sources, she was related to the Hohenburg 

family under the name Alayta of Vohburg (it: Alayta di Marano); but the 

most accepted theory stated she was the daughter of Conrad of Urslingen, 

Count of Assisi and Duke of Spoleto. 

Son: Enzio (Heinz) Von Hohenstaufen King Of Sardinia (1215–1272) 

Enzo (or Enzio) was an illegitimate son of Emperor 

Frederick II, who appointed him King of Sardinia in 

1238. He played a major role in the wars between 

Guelphs and Ghibellines in northern Italy, and was 

captured by his enemies in 1249. He remained 

imprisoned in Bologna until his death. 

(Picture: King Enzo imprisoned in Bologna, from a medieval 

manuscript) 

He had a pleasant personality and a strong physical 

resemblance to his father. He fought in the wars 

between his father, the pope, and the Northern 

Italian communes. 

When Ubaldo of Gallura died in 1238, the Doria family of Genoa, in order to secure 

the Giudicato of Logudoro from Pisan domination, convinced the emperor to marry 

Enzo to Ubaldo's widow, Adelasia of Torres. By marrying her, Enzo would accede to 

half of the island of Sardinia jure uxoris. He was created a knight in Cremona and 

granted the title "King of Sardinia". He travelled to the island to marry Adelasia in 

October that year. 


In July 1239, he was assigned as imperial vicar general in Lombardy, as well as 

General-Legate in Romagna, and left Sardinia never to return. In 1241, he took part 

in the capture of a papal fleet at Giglio Island in the Tyrrhenian Sea. His first 

successful move as military leader was the reconquest of Jesi, in the Marche, which 

was Frederick's birthplace. Later he was captured in a skirmish against the 

Milanese at Gorgonzola, but soon released. In 1245 or 1246 his marriage was 

annulled. In 1247, he took part in the unsuccessful siege of Parma. 

He continued to fight the Guelph Lombards, assaulting the Guelphs of Reggio and 

conducting an assault in the surroundings of Parma. 

During a campaign to support the Ghibelline cities of Modena and Cremona 

against Guelph Bologna, he was defeated and captured on 26 May 1249 at the 

Battle of Fossalta. Enzo was thenceforth kept prisoner in Bologna, in the palace 

that came to bear his name. Every attempt to escape or to rescue him failed, and he 

died in prison in 1272: after the murder of Conradin in 1268 who was the last of the 

Hohenstaufen. 

Enzo shared the father's passion for falconry, and was thus nicknamed Falconello 

("little falcon"). He was the dedicatee of a French translation of a hunting treatise 

by Yatrib. Like his brother Manfred, he presumably grew fond of poetry at 

Frederick's court: during his long imprisonment Enzo wrote several poems, and his 

pitiful fate was itself a source of inspiration for several poets. 

The powerful Bentivoglio family of Bologna and Ferrara claimed descent from him. 

Unknown name, from the family of the Dukes of Spoleto. This relationship is 

only exposed in Medlands . Other sources (included Medlands) also stated 

Catarina was a full sister of Enzio and, in consequence, also daughter of 

Adelaide of Urslingen. 

Daughter: 

Caterina da Marano (1216/18 – 1272), who married firstly with NN and 

secondly with Giacomo del Carretto, marquis of Noli and Finale. 

Manna, sister of the Archbishop of Messina. 

Son: Richard of Chieti (or Riccardo di Teate) 1225 – 26 May 1249. Conte di 

Chieti. Captain General of Tuscany, podestà of Florence. Vicar General of the 

March of Ancona, the Duchy of Spoleto, and the Romagna. Matthew Paris records 

the death in 1249 of "alius Fretherici filius naturalis in Apulia" directly after his 

report of the capture of Enzio King of Sardinia, specifying that he died "eodemque 

tempore", i.e. when Enzio was captured 


Berardo Castagna, or Castacca (XII century - Palermo, September 8, 1252) was an 

Italian Catholic archbishop and political, of the Norman-Swabian, a close friend 

and faithful of Frederick II of Swabia. At the Swabian king remained faithful all his 

life, until the point of death, when, according to the Chronicle of Matthew Paris, 

offer spiritual consolation to the dying emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. 

Berardo, along with Hermann of Salza, was the closest and trusted adviser of the 

sovereign: the two, both close to the Catholic Church, played an important and 

uninterrupted diplomatic work to facilitate the relaxation of strained relations 

between Frederick II and the Apostolic See. 

There are various traditions and archival chronicle in which it is handed down his 

name, welcomed by scholars in different forms: de Costaca (Ferdinando Ughelli), 

de Castaca (according to Rocco Pirri), de Costa (Francesco Lombardi and Konrad 

Eubel) and de Castanea, according to the exegesis of certain documents 

investigated by Norbert Kamp in 1975 

Of noble family origins, Abruzzo and pro-empire, Berardo came into contact with 

the milieu of the court of the Kingdom of Sicily as an exponent in the wake of 

Walter of Pagliara, which at the Swabian court of Henry VI of Hohenstaufen was 

Chief Registrar at least since March 1195 and a member and, since October of that 

same year, a member of the board of familiares regis. 

His granddaughter Manna entertained a relationship with Frederick II, from 

which, in 1224-1225, was born a son of the sovereign: Richard of Chieti (or 

Riccardo di Teate) who was vicar general of the Marche and Spolet0. 

The town of Chieti, previously known as Teate, is located in Abruzzo south of 

Pescara and lay within the Lombard duchy of Spoleto. Amatus records that the 

Norman Robert Conte di Loritello attacked "the March of Chieti", dated to the 

1080s, and gave part to "his brother Tasso". The Norman conquest of the area was 

completed in spring 1140 when Roger of Sicily Duke of Apulia (son of Roger I King 

of Sicily), together with his brother Alphonse, captured Abruzzo. No record has yet 

been found of a Norman count of Chieti having been appointed at that time. 

Records have been found of a succession of conti (counts) di Chieti, appointed by 

Emperor Friedrich II and his successors. Charles I King of Sicily [Anjou-Capet] 

appointed one of his supporters Renaud de Courtenay as conte (count) di Chieti in 

1369 as a reward for his part in the conquest of the kingdom. 

Richina (Ruthina) of Beilstein-Wolfsöden (c. 1205–1236). According to 

Medlands (who take the information from Europäische Stammtafeln), she 

was the wife of Count Gottfried of Löwenstein and daughter of some Count 

Berthold of Beilstein by his wife Adelaide of Bonfeld. 


Margaret (Margherita) of Swabia (1230–1298), was the daughter of 

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and his mistress Richina (Ruthina) of 

Beilstein-Wolfsöden. Married Thomas of Aquino, count of Acerra. 

Thomas of Aquino. Originally from Lombardy, the family made its first historical 

appearance in 887. Since the end of the tenth century they had owned the castle of 

Roccasecca. An earlier branch of the family held the county of Aquino until 1137; it 

was that branch of that Thomas got his surname, not from the town of Aquino, 

which was not his birthplace. Another branch later inherited the county of Acerra, 

whose titleholder in 1221 was the first Thomas Aquinas; he possessed a viceroy´s 

power over the southern part of the Italian peninsula. A follower of Emperor 

Frederick II since 1210, he was named by the latter “judge” of the “Tillage Land” 

(Terra di Lavoro) , his region in 1220, and that role he was under the jurisdiction 

of the count of Acerra. 

Selvaggia (1223–1244), married Ezzelino III da Romano 

It believes that Selvaggia was born in 1221/1223 and died in 1244 in 

Verona, where in 1238 he married Ezzelino III da Romano, was the 

daughter of a woman belonging supposedly to the family Lancia. 

Ezzelino III da Romano (April 25, 1194 – October 7, 1259) 

was an Italian feudal lord in the March of Treviso (the 

modern Veneto) who was a close ally of the emperor 

Frederick II and ruled Verona, Vicenza and Padua for almost 

two decades. He became infamous as a cruel tyrant though 

much of his sinister reputation may be due to the propaganda 

of his many enemies. 

Ezzelino was son of Ezzelino II da Romano, ruler of Bassano, 

and Adelaide degli Alberti di Mangona, who came from a 

family of counts in Tuscany. At the age of four years he was sent as a hostage to 

Verona. Nothing else is known about his childhood or education. In 1213 he took 

part in the siege of the castle of Este, which belonged to his father's archenemy, 

marquis Azzo VI of Este, who died in 1212, and later to his son Aldobrandino. 

According to the chronicler Rolandino of Padua, the young Ezzelino already 

showed a keen interest in siegecraft and acquired a hatred of the Este which would 

last his entire life. 

In 1249, after Selvaggia's death, he married Beatrice di Buontraverso. 

In 1254, four years after Frederick II's death, he was excommunicated by Pope 

Innocent IV, who also launched a crusade against him. He reconciled with his 

brother and allied with other seignors of the Veneto and Lombardy, attacking 


Padua, which resisted, and Brescia, which was instead sacked after an easy victory 

of his German knights over the crusade army. 

In 1258 he launched a broad Ghibelline offensive in Lombardy and Veneto along 

with Oberto Pallavicino of Cremona. In 1259 he assaulted the castle of Priola, near 

Vicenza, and had all the defenders mutilated. After a failed attempt to assault Milan 

itself, he was wounded by an arrow in the course of the Battle of Cassano d'Adda. 

He had to retreat but was captured near Bergamo. 

Children of Selvaggia and Ezzelino III da Romano: 

Blanchefleur (1226–1279), Dominican nun in Montargis, France. 

Gerhard (died after 1255). 


Tomb of Emperor Erick VI, 

father of Frederick II 

CATHEDRAL OF PALERMO, SICILY – ITALY 

Tomb of Empress 

Constance of Hauteville, 

mother of Frederick II 

The Hohenstaufen Dynasty - Page 66 of 200 

Tomb of Emperor 

Frederick II 

Mortal remains of Frederick II in his tomb in the cathedral of 

Palermo Copperplate in I regali sepolchri del Duomo de 

Palermo of F. Daniele (Naples, 1784, Tav. Q). 

The emperor was dressed in an alba, a dalmatic, a mantle, 

stockings and shoes and was wearing a crown, a sword and a 

ring. All these items are lost.

The portrait of Frederick II 

(Picture: Federico II di Svevia – Comunal Library in Palermo, Italy) 

A Damascene chronicler, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi, left a physical 

description of Frederick based on the testimony of those 

who had seen the emperor in person in Jerusalem: "The 

Emperor was covered with red hair, was bald and myopic. 

Had he been a slave, he would not have fetched 200 dirhams 

at market." Frederick's eyes were described variously as 

blue, or "green like those of a serpent 

Frederick did not look impressive, of medium height, and 

twenty years had red hair and was short-sighted, at thirty he 

was already bald, but, in spite of the lackluster appearance, 

had a great esteem, he was satisfied that he was born Dec. 26, almost like Jesus 

Christ but, above all, to be born in Jesi (the city name sounds like Jesus), of which 

he wrote: 

"You, new Bethlehem of the Marche, you're not the smallest among those 

belonging to the Lords of our race, because you have given birth to the prince of 

the Roman Empire." 

Speaking and writing of his life, everywhere you can see the shadow of his genius, 

certainly not that of modesty. If he only then knew he would have become the 

"stupor mundi". 


The Popes and Fredrick II 

Emperor Frederick II in Palermo - Arthur Georg von Ramberg (1819 - 1875) 

The career of Frederick II cannot be considered separately by the Popes with whom 

entertained a long litigation, often dramatically. 

In this period the Church and the papacy ascend from the lowest state of weakness 

and corruption to the highest power and influence over the nations of Europe. It is 

the classical age of Latin Christianity: the age of the papal theocracy, aiming to 

control the German Empire and the kingdoms of France, Spain, and England. It 

witnessed the rise of the great Mendicant orders and the religious revival which 

followed. It beheld the full flower of chivalry and the progress of the crusades, with 

the heroic conquest and loss of the Holy Land. It saw the foundations laid of the 

great universities of Bologna, Paris, Oxford. It was the age of scholastic philosophy 

and theology, and their gigantic efforts to solve all conceivable problems and by 

dialectical skill to prove every article of faith. 

During its progress Norman and Gothic architecture began to rear the cathedrals. 

All the arts were made the handmaids of religion; and legendary poetry and 


omance flourished. Then the Inquisition was established, involving the theory of 

the persecution of Jews and heretics as a divine right, and carrying it into execution 

in awful scenes of torture and blood. It was an age of bright light and deep 

shadows, of strong faith and stronger superstition, of sublime heroism and wild 

passions, of ascetic self-denial and sensual indulgence, of Christian devotion and 

barbarous cruelty.1 Dante, in his Divina Commedia , which "heaven and earth" 

combined to produce, gives a poetic mirror of Christianity and civilization in the 

thirteenth and the opening years of the fourteenth century, when the Roman 

Church was at the summit of its power, and yet, by the abuse—of that power and its 

worldliness, was calling forth loud protests, and demands for a thorough 

reformation from all parts of Western Christendom. 

A striking feature of the Middle Ages is the contrast and co-operation of the forces 

of extreme self-abnegation as represented in monasticism and extreme ambition 

for worldly dominion as represented in the papacy. The former gave moral support 

to the latter, and the latter utilized the former. The monks were the standing army 

of the pope, and fought his battles against the secular rulers of Western Europe. 

The papal theocracy in conflict with the secular powers and at the height of its 

power is the leading topic. The weak and degenerate popes who ruled from 900— 

1046 are now succeeded by a line of vigorous minds, men of moral as well as 

intellectual strength. The world has had few rulers equal to Gregory VII. 1073- 

1085, Alexander III. 1159—1181, and Innocent III. 1198—1216, not to speak of other 

pontiffs scarcely second to these masters in the art of government and aspiring 

aims. The papacy was a necessity and a blessing in a barbarous age, as a check 


upon brute force, and as a school of moral discipline. The popes stood on a much 

higher plane than the princes of their time. The spirit has a right to rule over the 

body; the intellectual and moral interests are superior to the material and political. 

But the papal theocracy carried in it the temptation to secularization. By the abuse 

of opportunity it became a hindrance to pure religion and morals. Christ gave to 

Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, but he also said, "My kingdom is not of 

this world." The pope coveted both kingdoms, and he got what he coveted. But he 

was not able to hold the power he claimed over the State, and aspiring after 

temporal authority lost spiritual power. Boniface VIII marks the beginning of the 

decline and fall of the papal rule; and the seeds of this decline and fall were sown in 

the period when the hierarchy was in the pride of its worldly might and glory. 

In this period also, and chiefly as the result of the crusades, the schism between the 

churches of the East and the West was completed. All attempts made at 

reconciliation by pope and council only ended in wider alienation. The ruling 

nations during the Middle Ages were the Latin, who descended from the old 

Roman stock, but showed the mixture of barbaric blood and vigor, and the 

Teutonic. The Italians and French had the most learning and culture. Politically, 

the German nation, owing to its possession of the imperial crown and its 

connection with the papacy, was the most powerful, especially under the 

Hohenstaufen dynasty. England, favored by her insular isolation, developed the 

power of self-government and independent nationality, and begins to come into 

prominence in the papal administration. Western Europe is the scene of 

intellectual, ecclesiastical, and political activities of vast import, but its arms and 

devotion find their most conspicuous arena in Palestine and the East. 

Finally this period of two centuries and a half is a period of imposing personalities. 

The names of the greatest of the popes have been mentioned, Gregory VII., 

Alexander III., and Innocent III. Its more notable sovereigns were William the 

Conqueror, Frederick Barbarossa, Frederick II., and St. Louis of France. Dante the 

poet illumines its last years. St. Bernard, Francis d’Assisi, and Dominic, the 

Spaniard, rise above a long array of famous monks. In the front rank of its 

Schoolmen were Anselm, Abelard, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, 

Bonaventura, and Duns Scotus. Thomas à Becket and Grosseteste are prominent 

representatives of the body of episcopal statesmen. This combination of great 

figures and of great movements gives to this period a variety of interest such as 

belongs to few periods of Church history or the history of mankind. 


Universal power 

In the Middle Ages, the term 

universal powers referred to the Holy 

Roman Emperor and the Pope. Both 

were struggling for the so-called 

Dominium mundi, or world 

dominium, in terms of political and 

spiritual supremacy. The emperor 

and the pope maintained their 

respective authorities through diverse 

factors such as territorial dispersion, 

low level of technic and productive 

development in feudal mode of 

production, and social and political 

tendency of feudalism to 

decentralization of power. The 

universal powers continued into the 

early 19th century until the Napoleonic Wars. The reshaping of Europe meant the 

effective end of the Empire. Although the Papacy had its territorial limits confined 

to the Vatican and lost influence in international relations, it retained its spiritual 

influence in the contemporary world. (Picture: The pope Pius II and the emperor Frederick 

III). 

The Weakening of the Empire 

1. The Papacy and the German Emperors — The Papacy and the German emperors 

continued to struggle for control of Italy, which was symbolically significant and 

offered a rich source of income. Barbarossa’s son married Constance, an heiress of 

Sicily, but died before he could use his position in southern Italy to expand his 

power. During his son Frederick II’s childhood, the German princes and the papacy 

attempted to control the imperial office. Pope Innocent III crowned Otto of 

Brunswick emperor in exchange for his promise not to invade Italy, a promise that 

was soon broken. When Otto invaded Sicily in 1211, the pope excommunicated him. 

In 1212, Innocent gave the crown to Frederick II (r. 1212–1250). Frederick was heir 

to Sicilian and German culture. Innocent’s papacy was expansionistic and 

determined to strengthen its claim to the Italian papal states and resist any 

German expansion into Italy. 

2. The Rule of Frederick II — Frederick sought to control Italy with a three-pronged 

approach that involved strengthening his hold over Sicily, making concessions to 

the German princes, and expanding his control of Italy by entering through 


Lombardy. Four popes after Innocent resisted Frederick’s efforts and 

excommunicated him on several occasions, including most seriously at the Council 

of Lyon in 1245. They also preached a crusade against him, which lasted until his 

death in 1250. 

3. The Consequences of Frederick’s Failure — the concessions Frederick made to 

the German princes allowed them to turn their regions into virtually independent 

states and left German regions divided until the nineteenth century. Frederick’s 

failure strengthened the position of the German princes and in 1273 brought the 

Swabian Hapsburg family to imperial power as the “Holy Roman Emperors,” a 

prestigious but meaningless honorific. Frederick’s failure in Italy meant that the 

Italian cities would continue to be divided. Sicily was ruled by a succession of other 

families; it was eventually claimed by both the kings of Aragon and the house of 

Anjou. While the popes resisted losing control of Italy, they came under attack for 

using religion as a political tool. 

Innocent III 

Innocent III (Latin: Innocentius PP. III, Italian: 

Innocenzo III, 1160 or 1161 – 16 July 1216) was Pope 

from 8 January 1198 until his death. His birth name 

was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes Anglicized 

to Lothar of Segni. 

Innocent III (1198-1216) was one of the greatest popes 

of Christianity, the man who brought the Church at 

the height of medieval power. Costanza d'Altavilla 

(Constance of Hauteville), mother of Fredrick II, before dying, gave him the 

protection of the little son which he accepted in order to make the future emperor 

an instrument of ecclesiastical power. 

But the events prevented him from Sicilian impart education aimed. Frederick had 

a difficult adolescence in a Palermo, poor, oppressed by baronies, in the middle of 

the humble people, a situation which, however, allowed him to know and 

understand a truly multi-ethnic and multi-racial society, learning to be tolerant, 

understanding, integrator of cultures and of religions. 

In 1212 funded the first trip of Frederick in Germany, but did not see him again on 

his return. 


Onorio III 

Honorius III (Latin: Honorius PP. III, Italian: Onorio III; 1148 

– 18 March 1227), previously known as Cencio Savelli, was 

Pope from 1216 to 1227. 

Frederick II now made serious preparations for the crusade. In 

the midst of it, however, Pope Honorius III died in Rome on 18 

March 1227 without seeing the achievement of his hopes. It was 

left to his successor, Pope Gregory IX, to insist upon their 

accomplishment. 

Gregory IX 

Gregory IX (Latin: Gregorius PP. IX, Italian: Gregorio IX; c. 

1145/70 – 22 August 1241), born Ugolino di Conti, was Pope 

of the Roman Catholic Church from 19 March 1227 until his 

death. He is known for instituting the Papal Inquisition, a 

mechanism that severely punished people accused of heresy, 

in response to the failures of the episcopal inquisitions 

established during the time of Pope Lucius III through his 

papal bull Ad abolendam issued in 1184. 

The successor of Pope Honorius III, he fully inherited the traditions of Pope 

Gregory VII and of his cousin Pope Innocent III, and zealously continued their 

policy of Papal supremacy 

After his elevation to the papal chair at the conclusion of the papal election of 1227, 

Gregory IX commissioned Konrad von Marburg to eliminate heresy throughout the 

whole of Germany. Gregory IX began his pontificate by suspending the Holy 

Roman Emperor Frederick II, then lying sick at Otranto, for dilatoriness in 

carrying out the promised Sixth Crusade. The suspension was followed by 

excommunication and threats of deposition, as deeper rifts appeared – Frederick 

II's control of the Sicilian Church, his feudal obligations to the Pope, even his 

continued presence in Sicily. Frederick II publicly appealed to the sovereigns of 

Europe complaining of his treatment. Frederick II went to the Holy Land and 

skirmished with the Saracens to fulfill his vow, but was soon back in Italy, where 

Gregory IX had taken advantage of his absence by invading his territories. A 

consequent invasion of the Papal States in 1228 having proved unsuccessful, the 

Emperor was constrained to give in his submission and beg for absolution. 

Although peace was thus secured in August 1230 for a season, the Roman people 

were far from satisfied; driven by a revolt from his own capital in June 1232, the 

Pope was compelled to take refuge at Anagni and invoke the aid of Frederick II. 

Gregory IX and Frederick came to a truce, but when Frederick defeated the 


Lombard League in 1239, the possibility that he might dominate all of Italy, 

surrounding the Papal States, became a very real threat. A new outbreak of 

hostilities led to a fresh excommunication of the emperor in 1239 and to a 

prolonged war. 

Gregory IX denounced Frederick II as a heretic and summoned a council at Rome 

to give point to his anathema. Frederick responded by trying to capture or sink as 

many ships carrying prelates to the synod as he could. Eberhard II von Truchsees, 

Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, in 1241 at the Council of Regensburg declared that 

Gregory IX was "that man of perdition, whom they call Antichrist, who in his 

extravagant boasting says, 'I am God, I cannot err'." He argued that the Pope was 

the "little horn" of Daniel 7:8” 

Frederick II was "... the beast that rises from the sea full of blasphemous names, 

and raging with the paw of the bear and the lion's mouth, informed in the 

remaining limbs like a leopard opens his mouth to insult the Holy Name without 

ceasing to hurl the same spear upon the tabernacle of God and Saints who dwell 

in Heaven on ... "as he wanted to Pope Gregory IX or" the savior sent by God, the 

Prince of Peace, the Messiah-emperor "as he wanted to Pier delle Vigne his great 

avenger, initiated into the mysteries of the East? 

The struggle was only terminated by the death of Gregory IX on 22 August 1241. He 

died before events could reach their climax; it was his successor Pope Innocent IV 

who declared a crusade in 1245 that would finish the Hohenstaufen threat. 

Innocent IV 

Innocent IV (Latin: Innocentius PP. IV, Italian: Innocenzo IV; 

c. 1195 – 7 December 1254), born Sinibaldo Fieschi of Genoa, 

was Pope from 25 June 1243 until his death in 1254 whose 

clash with Holy Roman emperor Frederick II formed an 

important chapter in the conflict between papacy and empire. 

His belief in universal responsibility of the papacy led him to 

attempt the evangelization of the East and the unification of the 

Christian churches. 

Frederick II was encouraged by the election of Cardinal Fieschi on June 25, 1243, 

after the see of Rome had been vacant for 18 months following the brief reign of 

Celestine IV. He immediately entered into negotiations with the new pope, who 

took the name Innocent IV, to have the excommunication imposed on him by 

Gregory IX lifted. The Pope, however, did not trust Frederick, despite an agreement 

reached on March 31, 1244. He felt unsafe in Rome and secretly fled the city, 

interrupting the negotiations with the Emperor. Genoese galleys prepared by his 


elatives were waiting for him at the port of Civitavecchia to take him to Genoa and 

then to Lyon. Although Lyon was nominally subject to the empire, Innocent IV was 

under the protection of Louis IX of France. 

Late in 1244 the Pope called a general council to meet in Lyon the following 

summer. Gregory IX had earlier announced such a council, but Frederick II had 

impeded it by holding as prisoners more than 100 bishops who had fallen into the 

hands of the Pisans in the naval battle of Meloria. Three themes were to be treated 

in the council: the question of the Emperor, the liberation of the Holy Sepulchre, 

and the defense of Christianity against the advance of the Mongols. Thaddeus of 

Suessa tried in vain to defend the Emperor before the council. Frederick II was 

solemnly condemned, his subjects were freed from their bond of loyalty to him, and 

he was deposed on the basis of the triple charge of perjury, sacrilege, and suspicion 

of heresy. The Pope himself admonished the German princes to elect a new 

emperor. They named Henry Raspe, landgrave of Thuringia, and, at his death in 

1247, William of Holland. The condemnation of Frederick II did not obtain the 

desired political effects in Germany, but it did show the effectiveness of the 

network of ties that the papal family had succeeded in tightening in northern Italy, 

which contributed to the Emperor’s defeat at Parma (1247). 

Frederick II died on Dec. 13, 1250. The Pope left Lyon and triumphantly returned 

to Rome in 1253. Meanwhile, he had to continue the struggle against Frederick II’s 

son Conrad IV and also to find a king to whom he could entrust the Kingdom of 

Sicily as a fief. The Pope offered Sicily first to Richard of Cornwall, then to Charles 

of Anjou, both of whom refused, and later to Henry III of England, who accepted 

for his son Edmund. After the death of Conrad IV in May 1254, the papal army was 

defeated by Manfred, Frederick II’s illegitimate son, who had become regent for 

Conradin, the infant son of Conrad IV. The Pope died soon after at Naples in 

December 1254. 

Background 

Sinisbaldo Fieschi was born in Manarola, Liguria (North 

coastal Italy) into the ancient and powerful Fieschi 

bloodline. The Fieschi had held power over a large part of 

Tuscany and the coast of Genoa and the north from the 

beginning of the 11th Century until the 16th Century. 

In 1010, Holy Roman Emperor Henry (also King of Italy) 

granted the family the fief Counts of Lavagna and 

Imperial Vicars General (ie Viceroys) of the whole of 

Tuscany and of the coast of Genoa. 

By the time Sinisbaldo Fieschi was born, the Fieschi was 


one of the wealthiest families in Italy and Europe, heavily involved in the Guelphs - 

- the political faction of noble and Papal families supporting hereditary Papal 

selection versus ongoing intervention from the Holy Roman Emperors 

(Ghibellines). 

Until Sinisbaldo Fieschi, the Counts of Lavagna had traditionally not involved 

themselves in the business of purchasing Cardinals hats and the Papacy, nor the 

continuing feud between the powerful Papal bloodline families of the Colonna and 

the Orsini (and allies). 

However, on September 18, 1227 under Ugolino di Conti (Pope Gregory IX 1227- 

1241) Sinisbaldo Fieschi was made Cardinal Priest of S. Lorenzo in Lucina at aged 

32. The next year, Cardinal Fieschi was elevated to the position of Vice-Chancellor 

of the Holy Roman Church (July 28, 1228) and governor of the March of Ancona 

(December 1234 until 1240). 

When Pope Gregory IX died on August 22, 1241, the war between Cardinals allied 

to the Hohenstaufen Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and the Orsini reached a 

new high point. Cardinal Giovanni Colonna had aligned himself with the Emperor, 

presumably in the hope of the Papacy, while the all-powerful Matteo Rosso Orsini 

(1178–1246) as senator of Rome held control of the remaining curia. 

To force the hand of the cardinals that made it to Rome, Matteo Rosso Orsini 

(father of future Pope Nicholas III (1277-1280) forced them to be locked away in 

one of the last remaining public buildings still standing from ancient pagan Rome- 

the Septizodium. In spite of the horrendous conditions, the Cardinals held out for 

two months before finally electing Holy Roman Emperor supporter Godfrey 

Crivelli- Castiglione, the son of Uberto Crivelli (Pope Urban III) as Pope Celestine 

IV. 

The first (and last) official act of this Pope was to excommunicate Matteo Rosso 

Orsini and strip him of his powers, only to be murdered on November 10, 1241 - 18 

days after his election, a new election for a new Pope was called. 

Cardinal Sinisbaldo Fieschi, Count of Lavagna was elected Pope Innocent IV on 

June 28, 1243 almost eight months after the murder of Pope Celestine IV. 

As part of a range of peace offerings in negotiation with the Cardinals allied with 

the Emperor, Pope Innocent made Goffredo Castiglioni, the son of the slain Pope 

Clement IV a Cardinal on May 28, 1244 --presumably at a very young age. 

Then in 1245, Pope Innocent IV issued his Papal bull stating claim to legal control 

of the whole world and all peoples. Not content with the Donation of Constantine, 

Innocent IV asserted that when Constantine gave to the Church had not belonged 


to him at all, for Europe has always belonged to the Church. In an encyclical 

published shortly after the close of the Council of Lyons in 1245, Innocent expressly 

stated: "It is wrong to show ignorance of the origin of things and to imagine that 

the Apostolic See's rule over secular matters dates only from Constantine. Before 

him this power was already in the Holy See. Constantine merely resigned into the 

hands of the Church a power which he used without right when he was outside 

her pale. Once admitted into the Church, he obtained, by the concession of the 

Vicar of Christ, authority which only then became legitimate. " 

Furthermore, Pope Innocent stated that the pope's acceptance of the Constantine 

Donation was but a visible sign of his sovereign dominion over the whole word, and 

hence of all the wealth to be found on earth. 

However, Pope Innocent IV is probably best known for his diplomatic and military 

battles against Frederick II which ultimately led to the demise of the Holy Roman 

Emperor. 

CONRAD IV 

The son of Emperor Frederick II and his second wife, 

Isabella (Yolande) de Brienne, Conrad was heir to the 

Kingdom of Jerusalem through his mother; he was also 

invested by his father as duke of Swabia in 1235. At 

Vienna in February 1237 he was elected king of the 

Romans in place of his half-brother, Henry VII, who 

had rebelled against the Emperor in 1235. After Pope 

Gregory IX excommunicated Frederick II in 1239, 

Conrad was opposed by a growing papal party in 

Germany, led by the Archbishops Siegfried of Mainz 

and Conrad of Cologne. In 1245 Pope Innocent IV 

declared both Conrad and his father deposed and 

proclaimed a crusade against them. On Aug. 5, 1246, 

Conrad was defeated near Frankfurt by the antiking Henry Raspe. He continued to 

be supported, however, by the towns and by Otto II of Bavaria, whose daughter 

Isabella he married on Sept. 1, 1246. On Dec. 13, 1250, Frederick II died. Troubles 

in Sicily and the rising strength of the papal party in Germany under Henry Raspe’s 

successor, William of Holland, forced Conrad to abandon Germany for Sicily late in 

1251, when he took the title of king of Sicily. Conrad’s position in Sicily was secured 

by his capture of Naples in October 1253, but his efforts to reach an understanding 

with the papacy failed 

After the death of his father Frederick II, Conrad IV (born April 25, 1228, Andria, 

Italy—died May 21, 1254, Lavelle, German king from 1237 and king of Sicily from 

1251) for some time (uncle to Corrado Caputo of Antioch), continued to fight 


desperately in Germany, then went down to the south, leaving the field to William 

of Holland. In Italy he obtained some military successes, but died in 1255 at 

twenty-six. Henry (his brother), the son of Isabella, had died the previous year at 

the age of fifteen years. Manfredi, who later became the King of Sicily, was killed in 

1266 in the battle of Benevento; he was replaced by Charles of Anjou. Charles was 

the youngest son of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile, and hence younger 

brother of Louis IX of France and Alfonso II of Toulouse. He conquered the 

Kingdom of Sicily from the Hohenstaufen and acquired lands in the eastern 

Mediterranean. However, the War of the Sicilian Vespers forced him to abandon 

his plans to reassemble the Latin Empire. 

MANFRED HOHENSTAUFEN, KING OF SICILY 

Manfredi (Manfred 1232 – 26 February 1266) was the King 

of Sicily from 1258 to 1266. He was a natural son of the 

emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen but his mother, 

Bianca Lancia (or Lanza), is reported by Matthew of Paris 

to have been married to the emperor while on her 

deathbed. 

(Coat of arms of Manfred of Hohenstaufen) 

Manfred was born in Venosa. Frederick II appears to have 

regarded him as legitimate, and by his will named him as 

Prince of Taranto and appointed him as the representative in Italy of his halfbrother, 

the German king, Conrad IV. Manfred, who initially bore his mother's 

surname, studied in Paris and Bologna and shared with his father a love of poetry 

and science. 

At Frederick's death, Manfred, although only about 18 years old, acted loyally and 

with vigor in the execution of his trust. The reign was in turmoil, mainly due to 

riots spurred by Pope Innocent IV. Manfred was able to subdue numerous rebel 

cities, with the exception of Naples. When his legitimate brother Conrad IV 

appeared in southern Italy in 1252, disembarking at Siponto, his authority was 

quickly and generally acknowledged. Naples fell in October 1253 into the hands of 

Conrad. The latter, in the meantime, had grown distrustful of Manfred, stripping 

him of all his fiefs and reducing his authority to the principality of Taranto. 

In May 1254 Conrad died of malaria. Manfred, after refusing to surrender Sicily to 

Innocent IV, accepted the regency on behalf of Conradin, the infant son of Conrad. 

The pope however, having been named tutor of Conradin, excommunicated 

Manfred in July 1254. The regent decided to open negotiations with Innocent. By a 

treaty made in September 1254, Apulia passed under the authority of the pope, who 

was personally conducted by Manfred into his new possession. But Manfred’s 


suspicions being aroused by the demeanor of the papal retinue, and also annoyed 

by the occupation of Campania by papal troops, he fled to the Saracens at Lucera. 

Aided by Saracen allies, he defeated the papal army at Foggia on 2 December 1254, 

and soon established his authority over Sicily and the Sicilian possessions on the 

mainland. In that year Manfred supported the Ghibelline communes in Tuscany, in 

particular Siena, to which he provided a corps of German knights that was later 

instrumental in the defeat of Florence at the Battle of Montaperti. He thus reached 

the status of patron of the Ghibelline League. Also in that year Innocent died, 

succeeded by Alexander IV, who immediately excommunicated Manfred. In 1257, 

however, Manfred crushed the papal army and settled all the rebellions, imposing 

his firm rule of southern Italy and receiving the title of vicar from Conradin. 

Kingship 

The following year, taking advantage of a rumor that Conradin was dead, he was 

crowned King of Sicily at Palermo on August 10. The falsehood of this report was 

soon manifesting; but the new king, supported by the popular voice, declined to 

abdicate and pointed out to Conradin’s envoys the necessity for a strong native 

ruler. The pope, to whom the Saracen alliance was a serious offence, declared 

Manfred’s coronation void. Undeterred by the excommunication Manfred sought to 

obtain power in central and northern Italy, where the Ghibelline leader Ezzelino III 

da Romano had disappeared. He named vicars in Tuscany, Spoleto, Marche, 

Romagna and Lombardy. After Montaperti he was recognized as protector of 

Tuscany by the citizens of Florence, who did homage to his representative, and he 

was chosen "Senator of the Romans" by a faction in the city. His power was also 


augmented by the marriage of his daughter Constance in 1262 to Peter III of 

Aragon. 

Terrified by these proceedings, the new Pope Urban IV excommunicated him. The 

pope first tried to sell the Kingdom of Sicily to Richard of Cornwall and his son, but 

in vain. In 1263 he was most successful with Charles, the Count of Anjou, a brother 

of the French King Louis IX, who accepted the investiture of the kingdom of Sicily 

at his hands. Hearing of the approach of Charles, Manfred issued a manifesto to the 

Romans, in which he not only defended his rule over Italy but even claimed the 

imperial crown. 

Charles' army, some 30,000 strong, entered Italy from the Col de Tende in late 

1265. He soon reduced numerous Ghibelline strongholds in northern Italy and was 

crowned in Rome in January 1266, the pope being absent. On 20 January he set 

southwards and waded the Liri River, invading the Kingdom of Sicily. After some 

minor clashes, the rival armies met at the Battle of Benevento on 26 February 1266, 

and Manfred's army was defeated. The king himself, refusing to flee, rushed into 

the midst of his enemies and was killed. Over his body, which was buried on the 

battlefield, a huge heap of stones was placed, but afterwards with the consent of the 

pope the remains were unearthed, cast out of the papal territory, and interred on 

the bank of the Garigliano River, outside of the boundaries of Naples and the Papal 

States. 

Contemporaries praise the noble and magnanimous 

character of Manfred, who was renowned for his physical 

beauty and intellectual attainments, a handsome, warriorlike 

nobleman. Manfred knew several languages (including 

Hebrew and Arabic) and was a poet and musician as well as 

a patron of arts and letters (e.g., the “Sicilian School” of 

poetry). Dante praises both him and Frederick as 

exemplary rulers for their noble, refined character (De 

vulgari eloquentia 1.12.4). In the Divine Comedy, Dante 

meets Manfred outside the gates of Purgatory, where the 

spirit explains that, although he repented of his sins in 

articulo mortis, he must atone for his contumacy by waiting 30 years for each year 

he lived as an excommunicate, before being admitted to Purgatory proper. 

Manfred was married twice. His first wife was Beatrice, daughter of Amadeus IV, 

count of Savoy, by whom he had a daughter, Constance, who became the wife of 

King Peter III of Aragon. Beatrice, after eighteen years in prison in Castel dell 'Ovo 

in Naples, was liberated from the Vespers. 


His second wife, Helena, lived five years later in captivity into the castle of Nocera 

Inferiore where she died in 1271. Helena Angelina Doukaina, daughter of Michael II 

Komnenos Doukas, ruler of the deposed of Epirus, who made this marriage to ally 

with Manfred after being attacked by him at Thessalonica. Helena and Manfred 

had five children: Beatrice, Frederick, Henry, Enzio and Flordelis of Sicily. Her 

children instead grew in chains, and remained there for thirteen years without 

regaining freedom. It was said that one of the males had managed to escape, but, as 

far as we know, the only one that really escaped and went to Spain to reach his halfsister 

is Constance who married Peter of Aragon. It was thanks to this alliance with 

the eldest daughter of Manfred that the Aragon kings were welcomed as liberators 

in Sicily after the Sicilian Vespers. 

The modern city of Manfredonia was built by King Manfred between 1256–1263, 

some kilometers north of the ruins of the ancient Sipontum. The Angevines, who 

had defeated Manfred and stripped him of the Kingdom of Sicily, christened it 

Sypontum Novellum ("New Sypontum"), but that name never imposed. 

CONRADIN OF SWABIA – SON OF CONRAD IV 

Picture in Naples: Conrad (25 March 1252 – 29 October 1268), 

called the Younger or the Boy, but usually known by the 

diminutive Conradin (German: Konradin, Italian: Corradino), 

was the Duke of Swabia (1254–1268, as Conrad IV), King of 

Jerusalem (1254–1268, as Conrad III), and King of Sicily 

(1254–1258, de jure until 1268, as Conrad II). 

Conradin (or Corradino, cousin of Corrado Caputo 

of Antioch), son of Conrad IV in 1268 came to Italy 

claiming the legacy of his family, he was accepted as 

a legitimate heir 

Little is known of his appearance and character 

except that he was "beautiful as Absalom, and spoke 

good Latin". Although his father had entrusted him 

to the guardianship of the church, Pope Innocent IV 

pursued Conradin with the same relentless hatred he had against his grandfather 

Frederick II, and attempted to bestow the kingdom of Sicily on a foreign prince. 

Innocent's successor, Pope Alexander IV, continuing this policy, offered the 

Hohenstaufen lands in Germany to Alfonso X, king of Castile, and forbade 

Conradin's election as king of the Romans. 


Political and military career 

Having assumed the title of King of Jerusalem and Sicily, Conradin took possession 

of the Duchy of Swabia in 1262, and remained for some time in his dukedom. 

Conradin's first invitation to Italy came from the Guelphs of Florence: they asked 

him to take arms against Manfred, who had been crowned king of Sicily in 1258 on 

a false rumor of Conradin's death. Louis refused this invitation on his nephew's 

behalf. In 1266 the count Charles I of Anjou, called by the new pope Clement IV, 

defeated and killed Manfred at Benevento, taking possession of southern Italy: 

envoys from the Ghibelline cities came then to Bavaria and urged Conradin to come 

and free Italy. Count Guido de Montefeltro representing Prince Henry of Castile, 

Senator of Rome, offered him the support of the eternal city. Pledging his lands, 

Conradin crossed the Alps and issued a manifesto at Verona setting forth his claim 

on Sicily. 

Notwithstanding the defection of his uncle Louis and of other companions who 

returned to Germany, the threats of Clement IV, and a lack of funds, his cause 

seemed to prosper. Proclaiming him King of Sicily, his partisans, among them 

Prince Henry of Castile, both in the north and south of Italy took up arms; Rome 

received his envoy with enthusiasm; and the young king himself received welcomes 

at Pavia, Pisa and Siena. In September 1267 a Spanish fleet under Prince Frederick 

of Castile, and a number of knights from Pisa, and Spanish knights soldiering from 

Tunis, disembarked in the Sicilian city of Sciacca, and most of the island rebelled 

against the Angevin rule. Only Palermo and Messina remained loyal to Charles. The 

revolt spread to Calabria and Apulia. In November of the same year the Church 

excommunicated him; but his fleet won a victory over that of Charles; and in July 

1268, Conradin himself entered with immense enthusiasm in Rome. 

Having strengthened his forces, he marched towards Lucera to join the Saracen 

troops settled there since the time of his grandfather. On 23 August 1268 his multinational 

army of Italian, Spanish, Roman, Arab and German troops encountered 

that of Charles at Tagliacozzo, in a hilly area of central Italy. The eagerness of 

Conradin's Spanish knights under Infante Henry of Castile in the most successful 

first charge, and the error to obtaining plunder in the enemy's camp after that 

momentary victorious assault gave the final victory to the reinforced French. 

Escaping from the field of battle at Tagliacozzo, Conradin reached Rome, but acting 

on advice to leave the city he proceeded to Astura in an attempt to sail for Sicily. He 

was crossing the sea to Pisa, when he was taken captive with his friends and 

companion Frederick of Austria, by Giovanni Frangipani: who delivered him up to 

Charles for a large sum of money who imprisoned him in the Castel dell'Ovo in 

Naples, together with the inseparable Frederick of Baden. He was tried as a traitor, 


speedily executed with his friends in the market place (Piazza Mercato) on 29 

October 1268 he and Frederick were beheaded. 


(In 1268 upon the order of Charles of Anjou, 

Robert of Bari reads the death verdict to 

Corradino of Swabia and Frederick of Baden, 

imprisoned at Naples – Anton von Wemer) 

The French were rose to indignation at the 

injustice of the sentence; Charles, son-law 

to Robert Earl of Flanders, cut down the 

officer appointed to read the sentence of 

death, exclaiming “How darest thou 

condemn such a great and excellent 

knight?” 

Before he placed his head on the block the boy king 

threw his glove into the crowd in a last defiant 

gesture….he brought home to his people that it was 

directly up to them to cast off the hateful yoke of the 

French. In his last moments, he named the 

Aragonese as his heirs. He fearlessly trod the steps, 

knelt on the block; and soon the head of the last of 

the Hohenstaufen rolled on the scaffold. 

His mother, who had offered a large ransom for his 

life, devoted the money to the erection of the 

monastery of Del Carmine in the Tyrol; and a chapel 

was afterwards raised on the spot where he was 

executed. Charles put nearly every Ghibelline to 

death; one by one the last scions of the great Frederick perished; and glory of the 

race of Hohenstaufen faded like summer flowers before the bleak wind which the 

ambitious pontiffs had raised. 

Charles of Anjou, his executioner, was widely condemned throughout Europe for 

the execution of a royal prince captured in battle

His performance at the age of seventeen, unheard of for a king prisoner fate of war, 

ended the legitimate offspring of the Hohenstaufen in the male line. There 

remained only Enzo, who languished in prison in Bologna: he was more than fifty 

years old, but also endeavored to escape to fight for the cause of his family after the 

death of his nephew Conrad. He should have escape hidden in an empty wine, but 

was discovered by a lock of his hair coming out of one of the holes in the slats, so 

that was returned to prison where he died two years later (1272). The obsequies 

were decreed a worthy ruler and the "people of Bologna, during the ceremony, 

honored his grave," says Fra Salimbene (Salimbene di Adam, O.F.M., or Salimbene 

of Parma, 9 October 1221 – c. 1290, was an Italian Franciscan friar and chronicler 

who is a source for Italian history of the 13th century). 

In the catastrophe of Tagliacozzo where Corradino fell into the hands of Anjou, fell 

with him the last members of his house: Conrad of Caserta, Thomas Aquinas, 

Henry of Castile (whose brother Frederick was brought up in the court of the 

Emperor, and various Lancia). The Aquino was sentenced to death, Corradino di 

Caserta was imprisoned for twenty-three years in Castel del Monte, Henry of 

Castile was a prisoner for twenty years, Federico Lancia (brother in law of Corrado 

Caputo of Antioch), were executed before the eyes of his father Galvano Lancia 

(father in law of Corrado of Antioch). The sister of Corrado of Antioch, Philippa 

(1242-1273) that in 1258 he married the Margrave of Maleta Manfredi, a great 

friend of the Swabian ended his life at 30 years a prisoner of Charles of Anjou in a 

castle on the Gargano, Castle Monte Sant'Angelo. 

Saved the life of Corrado Caputo of Antioch 

In the Holocaust of the partisans of the Hohenstaufen unique among the Ghibelline 

leaders to save his life was Corrado of Antioch, the only surviving male of the 

House Hohenstaufen, the survival of which a decisive contribution was given by 

two important hostages remained in the hands of his family. In the castle of 

Saracinesco fact, Corrado Caputo of Antioch´s wife and mother-in-law , even when 

the desperate of events, they were able to hold the two Guelph in their prisons 

Matthew and Napoleone Orsini, brothers of the powerful and influential Cardinal 

Giangaetano Orsini, prey to Corrado to obtain the release of the brothers and, 

therefore, put pressure on Pope Clement IV to intervene with Charles of Anjou to 

utilize Corrado of Antioch for a hostage exchange. 

Frederick of Antioch (uncle to Corradin) who had been unable to resist more in 

Tuscany, before the defeat of Tagliacozzo, fell in battle near Foggia in 1258 

occupied by Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldi. 

The Papacy has won its victory over the Hohenstaufens. The dynasty is extinct. But 

the Papal victory has brought political instability to Germany. Germany becomes 

more a geographical term than a nation. It is a loose confederation of separate 


princes. The German king has become one of the weakest rulers on the Continent. 

The Great Interregnum (1254-1273), as this period will be known to history, is a 

stormy and confused period. It is the kaiserlose, schreckliche Zeit "the terrible time 

without an emperor." Western Europe is now about to enter a new phase. The 

Great Interregnum comes to an end in 1273. In that year, the imperial crown is 

revived and given to the Austrian Count Rudolf of Habsburg. The Empire now has 

an Austrian head. 

Rudolf's ancestors — of Trojan and Merovingian descent — had built a family castle 

in Switzerland in the 11th century. They had called it Habichtsburg — Castle of the 

Hawk. Hence, the word Habsburg. Rudolf is the first Habsburg to ascend the 

imperial throne. He will succeed in establishing some degree of order within the 

Empire. The House of Habsburg will play a leading role in European affairs for 

centuries to come. The ideal of universal rule — unity under a single authority — is 

by no means dead. 

Legacy 

With Conradin's death at 16, the legitimate Hohenstaufen line became extinct. His 

remains, with those of Frederick of Baden, lie in the church of the monastery of 

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel at Naples, founded by his mother for the good of his soul; 

and here in 1847 Maximilian, crown prince of Bavaria, erected a marble statue by 

Bertel Thorvaldsen to his memory. In the 14th century Codex Manesse, a collection 

of medieval German lyrics, preserved at Heidelberg, there appear two songs written 

by Conradin, and his fate has formed the subject of several dramas. 

His hereditary Kingdom of Jerusalem passed to the heirs of his great-greatgrandmother 

Isabella I of Jerusalem, among whom a succession dispute arose. The 

senior heir in primogeniture was Hugh of Brienne, a second cousin of Conradin's 

father, but another second cousin Hugh III of Cyprus already held the office of 

regent and managed to keep the kingdom as Hugh I of Jerusalem. Conradin's 

grandmother's first cousin Mary of Antioch also staked her claim on basis of 

proximity of blood, which she later sold to Conradin's executioner Charles of 

Anjou. 

Memorial by Thorvaldsen 

The general heiress of his Kingdom of Sicily and the Duchy of Swabia was his aunt 

Margaret, half-sister of his father Conrad IV (the youngest but only surviving child 

of Frederick II and his third wife, Isabella of England) and married with Albert, 

Landgrave of Thuringia since 1255. Their son Frederick claimed Sicily and Swabia 

on her right. 


However, these claims met with little favor. Swabia, pawned by Conradin before his 

last expedition, was disintegrating as a territorial unit. He went unrecognized in 

Outremer, and Charles of Anjou was deeply entrenched in power in Southern Italy. 

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. 

Finally, Sicily passed to Charles of Anjou, but the Sicilian Vespers in 1282 resulted 

in dual claims on the Kingdom; the Aragonese heirs of Manfred retaining the island 

of Sicily and the Angevin party retaining the southern part of Italy, popularly called 

the Kingdom of Naples . 


Duke of Swabia Family Tree 


The last Swabians 

Enzo (1224-1272). Natural son of Frederick II (Heinz is the 

diminutive of Heinrich), fought in Italy with his father. Returns the 

victory of Meloria (1241), gets the Gallura for marriage (1242) and 

his father created for him the kingdom of Sardinia. It occupies 

most of Lombardy, participates in the siege of Parma, and is finally 

defeated and captured by the Bolognese in Fossalta (26 V 1249) 

that keep him prisoner until his death (14 III 1272). 

Manfredi. Natural son of Frederick II in Italy fights alongside his 

father. 

Rules the kingdom of Sicily and successfully defends papal armies in 

the name of his uncle Corrado IV, then to the latter's son Conrad, but 

the voice of his death takes the crown of the kingdom in Palermo. 

Skilled politician in Italy supports the Cremona league, which 

reduces Ezzelino III da Romano (1259), and the Florentine and Ghibellines, who 

defeated the Florentine Guelphs at Montaperti (1260). Gives his daughter in 

marriage to Constance King Peter III of Aragon and sends a contingent to help the 

Latin principalities in Greece, which are also defeated by the Byzantines in Nicaea 

in Pelagonia (1260). The pope index a crusade against him and Charles of Anjou 

(brother of Louis IX, King of France) defeats him in Benevento (1266), where 

Manfredi dies. First covered by a pile of stones, and then buried outside the 

borders of the kingdom, because excommunicated, no trace remains of his tomb. 

Frederick of Antioch, c. 1223 – 1256 (Father of Corrado Caputo 

of Antioch), son of the Emperor Frederick II and a certain Matilde 

(Maria or Beatrice) of Antioch, daughter of in the House of 

Antioch of Hautville. He was a south Italian noblewoman, ruled as 

King of Tuscany from 1246 to 1250, and King of Antioch (1247). 

He took part in the wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines in 

northern Italy, and in the war over the Kingdom of Sicily following 

his father's death (1250) then with Manfred. 

Although he was never formally installed as King of Tuscany, several documents 

pertaining to the Tuscan communes refer to him as "lord king" (dominus rex), 

"Lord Frederick, son of the emperor, and King" (dominus Federighus filius domini 

imperatoris et rex) or "King Frederick" (re Federigo). 

Though Frederick has been ascribed up to eight children, only two, perhaps three, 

can be identified from primary documents. His son, Corrado (Conrad), Frederick 


and daughter Philippa, born around 1242, married Manfredi Maletta (1232 – 

Napoli, 17 July 1310), the grand chamberlain of Manfredi Lancia, in 1258. Philippa 

was imprisoned by Charles of Anjou and died in prison in 1273. Children: Federico, 

Giovanni, Isabella, Ilaria e Francesca. 

He died in the battle near Foggia against the soldiers of the Pope, el 26 February 

1256 and is now buried beside his father in the Cathedral of Palermo. 

Corrado Caputo of Antioch. Son of Frederick of Antioch, 

the only survivor of the Hohenstaufen family in the battle of 

Tagliacozzo. 

Corrado Caputo of Antioch managed to escape the holocaust of 

the partisans of the Hohenstaufen because his mother, 

Margaret Pole, who held two of the Orsini prisoners in his 

castle of Saracinesco near Tivoli, she managed in swapping in 

exchange for her child Corrado. Corrado of Antioch henceforth led, as corsair, an 

incessant and annoying guerrilla war against the Anjou. Conrad of Antioch entered 

the service of King Peter of Aragon, his family, and died after 1315. 

The descendants of the House of Antioch were a rich lineage, both in Rome and in 

the area of Tivoli, yet at the end of the fifteenth century. The heirs occupied high 

positions and were awarded the highest honors in the Aragonese Sicily. Two of his 

sons succeeded in the episcopal see of Palermo, and various documents show that, 

even in the late fifteenth century, other members of the House of Antioch lived in 

Rome and central Italy and that a family tradition now gentrified came to the 

threshold the modern age. 

In the castle Theodoli, in the 

village of Sambuci near Tivoli, the 

left wall in front of the chapel, 

there is a plaque with the 

inscription: “D.O.M. FAMILIA EX 

STIRPE REGIA – DE 

ANTIOCHIA” (Family of the 

royal lineage of Antioch). In 

the Church of S. Michael the 

Archangel are preserved various 

tombs of the noble house. With 

the D'Antiochia, descendants of 

Barbarossa, along with Sambuci 

Anticoli Saracinesco and enters in the events that accompanied the invasion of 

Conradin of Swabia Hohenstaufenin Italy (1267-1268). 


In the church of Sambucci there is still a tombstone with the inscription: “ Casa 

Reale della famiglia Antiochia" (Royal House of Antioch). 


In the nearby village of Anticoli 

Corrado, many families flourished the 

surname Corrado as a sign of their 

descent from Corrado of Antioch. Local 

women are famous for their beauty, 

but this is the only legacy that now 

possesses the legendary house of 

Hohenstaufen. 

All Hohenstaufen claims 

All Hohenstaufen claims, with the tragic death of Conrad IV's sixteen year old son 

(direct cousin to Corrado Caputo of Antioch) , both the House of Hohenstaufen and 

the Duchy of Swabia ceased forever to exist" But it must understood that there are 

many descendants of this family, real and genuine ones, legitimate and natural 

children....but they are all descendants. 

About Fredrick of Antioch (son to the Emperor and father to the first Caputo, 

Prince of Antioch of the House of Hohenstaufen. Vicar General for the island of 

Sicily, nephew of Frederick II.), his mother Matilde was lawfully married to 

Fredrick Hohenstaufen. Federico of Antioch d' Hauteville von Shwaben 

Hohenstaufen, the PRINCIPALITY OF ANTIOCH. Federico was King of Antioch, 

King of Tuscany, given to him by his father Frederick II Hohenstaufen, Emperor of 

the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Jerusalem received with the marriage 

to Isabella di Brienne. (A History of the Italian Republic). 

Marriage of Maria Matilde with the Emperor Fredrick II, Bartolomeo da Neocastro 

(History, cit., P. 21) and Pirro (See A. Pirro, Sicilia, cit., Pp. 25-35) says that the 

mother of Frederick is legitimate wife of the Emperor. According to these 

testimonies Frederick of Antioch should be considered legitimate child of the 

Emperor and fourth wife. In the testament of Frederick II, Frederick of Antioch, 

vicar general of Tuscany. It is listed as "Count of Alba" (BF, 3635, BFW, 13624b, 

Ernst Kantorowicz, Frederick II emperor p. 746). 

Frederick of Antioch is not named as a bastard. The princess of Antioch 

would have lived in Italy with the Emperor, in the years 1222-1225, together with a 

public and stable enough to be called "uxor" by some sources. Bartolomeo da 

Neocastro lists five "uxores" (a wife, spouse, consort) Frederick II. Among the first 

wife Constance of Aragon (1209-1222) and the second or Jolanda Isabella of 

Jerusalem (1225-1228) there is a gap (1222-1225): in this period was born 

Frederick of Antioch, at the same so there is a gap between the second and third

wife Isabella of England (1235-1241): born in that emptiness Manfredi (1232), King 

of Italy and step brother to Frederick of Antioch, whose mother Bianca Lancia is 

called "fifth uxor." The hypothesis is: the first three wives "regular", then married 

women "in extremis", when were about to die (GP Carosi, op. Cit., Pp. 24-25). 

Federico of Antioch took the surname by the investiture of the father of the 

principality of Antioch (“Summonte” in the History of Naples, p. 2 F. 237). He 

married Margarita Poli, nephew of Pope Innocent III, and from them was born a 

primogenitor Corrado, called Caputo, count of Alba, Celano, Loreto and Abruzzo. 

Filadelfo Mugnos writes that this dynastic line is agreed by all historians. The Pope 

fearing that Corrado would embrace a policy against the Church as his father did 

not invested him in the land of Sicily, preferring Charles I of Anjou. 

While the Swabian dynasty in the legitimate line became extinct with the death of 

Corradin in 1268, the offspring of which Federico Prince of Antioch who was the 

Head of the House, continued for many generations 


Hohenstaufen Family Tree 

Full Hohenstaufen Dynasty genealogy chart at: 

http://www.maltagenealogy.com/libro%20d%27oro/hohenstaufen.html 

Casa di Hohenstaufen 

Federico II di Hoenstaufen detto il 

Guercio (1090+1147), duca di 

Svevia (1105) sposó: 

1. Giuditta (+1126), 

figlia di Enrico IX il Nero 

2. Agnese di Sarbricken 

Federico di Büren (Beuro) +1094, sposó Lidegarda, figlia del duca Ottone 

II di Svevia 

Federico I di Staufen (+1105), duca di Svevia (1079-1105), sposó Agnese, 

figlia dell’imperatore Enrico IV. Eresse sul Rahue Alp un castello da cui la 

famiglia prese il nome di Hohenstaufen ( Alti Staufen ). 

V. FRANCONIA 

Federico Barbarossa (III) I (1122-1190), duca 

di Svevia (1147), re di Germania (1152-1190), 

Imperatore (1152-1190), re d’Italia (1155-1190), 

sposó: 

1. Nel 1147 Adelaide di Vohburg, 

divorziato nel 1153. 

2. Nel 1156 Beatrice di Borgogna 

Federico V(1164-1191), 

duca di Svevia 

Federico II (1194-1250), re di Sicilia 

(Federico I, 1198), re dei Romani 

(1196), Imperatore (1220-1250), re di 

Gesuralemme (1229), sposó: 

1. Nel 1210 Costanza 

d’Aragona (+1220) 

2. Nel 1225 Iolanda o Isa 

bella di Brienne (+1228) 

3. Nel 1235 Isabella o 

Elisabetta d’Inghilterra 

(+1241), numerosi figli. 

Federico IX il 

Nero, duca di 

Baviera (+1126) 

V. GUELFI 

Enrico VI il Severo 

(1165-1197), re dei Romani 

(1169), re d’Italia (1186), re di 

Gerusalemme (1190-1197), 

Imperatore (1190-1197), re di 

Sicilia (Enrico I, 1194-197), 

sposó, nel 1180, Costanza 

d’Altavilla (+1198). 

Berta 

(1123-1195), 

sposó Matteo I, 

duca di Lorena. 

Beatrice (1198-1212), 

sposó, nel 1212, Ottone 

IV, duca di Brunswick, re 

di Germania e Imperatore 

(+1218) 

Corrado II (1093+1152), duca 

di Franconia (1115-1152), re 

d’Italia (1128-1152), re di 

Germania (1138-1152), Imperatore 

(1134-1152), sposó nel 

1134 Gertrude di Sulzbach 

(+1146) 

Enrico (1137-1150), re (asociato ) 

dei Romani 

Ottone (1167-1200), 

conte palatino di Borgogna, 

sposó, nel 

1192,Margarita (+1231), 

figlia del conte Tibaldo 

V di Blois. 

Beatrice (1198-1212), 

sposó, nel 1208, Ottone 

I, duca di Merano 

(+1231) 

Figli di Federico II 

Corrado (1135-1195), conte palatino 

del Regno (1156), sposó nel 

1159, Irmgarda (+1197), figlia del 

conte Bertolo I di Henneberg 

discedenza estinta alla prima generazione. 

Cunegonda 

(1200-1228), sposó, 

nel 1221, Venceslao 

I, re di Boemia 

(+1253). 


Corrado 

(1172-1196), duca 

di Rotherburg 

(1188), duca di 

Svevia (1191-1196) 

Beatrice 

(1174-1181) 

Maria 

(1201-1235), 

sposó nel 1215, 

Enrico II, duca di 

Bramante (+1248) 

Gertrude (1101+1191), sposó nel 

1125 a 1130, Ermanno di Staheek 

conte palatino di Lorena. 

Federico IV (1145-1167), duca di 

Rothenburg, duca di Svevia (1152), 

sposó Gertrude (+1196), figlia del 

duca Enrico di Brunswick, senza 

discendanza. 

Julta (1135-1191), sposó, 

nel 1150 Luigi II Langravio 

di Turingla (+1172) 

Filippo (1178-1208), vescovo 

di Wurzburg (1190), 

marchese di Toscana (1194), 

duca di Svevia (1196-1208), 

re di Germania (1198-1208), 

sposó, nel 1197, Irene Angelio 

(+120*) 

Elisabetta (1201-1235), 

sposó nel 1219, Ferdinando 

III, re di Castilla e 

di León (+1252)


HOHENSTAUFEN MILITARY ORDER – “DOMUS SANCTAE 

MARIAE THEUTONICORUM” 

Barbarossa, Heinrich VI and Friedrich II., the last of the Hohenstaufens 

Catholic military orders appeared following the First Crusade in response to the 

Islamic conquest of the former Byzantine Christian Holy Land. The foundation of 

the Templars in 1118 provided the first in a series of tightly organized military 

forces which protected the Christian lands in Outremer, as well as fighting invading 

Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula as well as Muslim invaders and pagan tribes in 

Eastern Europe. 

During the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries military orders, which were 

based on the monastic orders, were formed. Composed mainly of lay brothers, 

these Orders combined fighting with religious life. The Orders were led by Knights 

and Sergeants. 

According to Feudal Monarchy in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem during the 

Crusader era, "three great religion-military Orders, the Templars, Hospitallers, and 

Teutonic Knights were the military mainstay of the kingdom; they supplied 

knights, sergeants, and in some instances ships." The Orders were the greatest 

landholders, with the exception of the churches and monasteries. They acquired 

lands in a variety of ways, via gifts, conquest and purchase. 


Both The Hospitallers and the Templars were military orders charged with the 

military defense of the Holy Land. However, despite the fact that they had much in 

common, they were in fact rivals. They were acknowledged as regular orders, held 

the same rank in Church and State, and were granted extensive privileges by 

the Vatican. They were exempt from tithes, had their own clergy, chapels and 

cemeteries. The Teutonic Knights were relative latecomers to the Holy Land and as 

such – trouble carving an out a niche for themselves and gaining lands. 

After the Order of the Temple and the Order of St. John (Hospitallers), the 

Teutonic Order became the third large order of Christian chivalry. During the 

third crusade, burghers from the Northern German cities of Lübeck and 

Bremen reached the holy land. Upon their arrival, they were overwhelmed by 

the need for medical care among their fellow Germans. 

The Teutonic Order 


Also called Teutonic Knights, formally House 

of the Hospitalers of Saint Mary of the 

Teutons in Jerusalem, German Deutscher 

Orden, or Deutscher Ritter-Orden or Haus 

der Ritter des Hospitals Sankt Marien der 

Deutschen zu Jerusalem, Latin Domus 

Sanctae Mariae Theutonicorum in 

Jerusalem, religious order that played a major 

role in eastern Europe in the late Middle Ages 

and that underwent various changes in 

organization and residence from its founding 

in 1189/90 to the present. Its major 

residences, marking its major states of 

development, were: (1) Acre, Palestine 

(modern 'Akko, Israel), its original home beginning with the Third Crusade 

(1189/90-c. 1291); (2) Marienburg, Prussia (modern Malbork, Pol.), the centre of 

its role as a military principality (1309-1525); (3) Mergentheim, Württemberg, 

Ger., to which it moved after its loss of Prussia (1525-1809); and (4) Vienna, where 

the order gathered the remains of its revenues and survives as a purely hospital 

order (from 1834). 

The feeling for spiritual knighthood was almost extinct in the East, when at the 

turn of the twelfth-thirteenth century in Acre the nursing community of the 

German Knights of St. Mary bound themselves into a third spiritual Order beside 

the Templars. The Templars were mainly French, and the Knights of St. John were 

largely English and Italian. Pope Innocent III gave to the Teutonic Knights the Rule 

of the Templars, whom they were to emulate in everything spiritual and knightly as 

they were to emulate the Knights of St. John in care for the poor and the sick. The 

Order was to be strictly national; only knights of German birth were to enter it. 

The story of the new Order is much tamer than that of the Templars. Its origin, 

lacking the blessing of St. Bernard, lacks fire and inevitability ; its battles lack the 

glamour of the distant East ; its end the mystery of early death which always over 

takes the heroes of myth. The German Knights never enjoyed such lavish wealth, 

their temptations were not so great, they never sank into the same corruption, but 

never did they inspire tale or legend with the glory and mystery that surround the 

heroes of the Temple, the secret guardians of the Grail. The history of the Teutonic 

Order, however, is all the more real because it was neither born in myth nor buried 

in mystery, and because its battles were fought on familiar fields near home. When 

Frederick II came to Germany the Teutonic Order was still an insignificant body. 


Henry VI had turned his attention to them while he was planning the Crusade, but, 

in spite of many benefactions, the confusion that followed his death hampered this 

purely German movement in its development. 

The Church and older rivals looked at it with no friendly eye, and its real prosperity 

began with Frederick II. After he had taken his crusading vow a definite 

opportunity presented itself for the employment of the Teutonic Knights, and 

Frederick at once got into touch with them. Numerous gifts in this and the ensuing 

years bear witness to Frederick s determination to strengthen the Order by every 

means in his power. He even granted its members privileges which encroached on 

his own imperial rights, or which robbed him of considerable royal revenues. He 

was here even more open-handed than towards the princes. He had at first 

primarily the Crusade in view, but beyond the needs of the moment Frederick 

sought to enlist their enthusiasm and their strength for other tasks. He created out 

of them little corps elite, free from feudal fetters and extraneous influences whether 

of temporal or spiritual lords, independent, reliable, unconditionally loyal to 

himself a small body, but one immediately at the service of the Empire as sword 

and weapon, and in spiritual matters subject to the Pope alone. To increase the 

authority of the Order in Church affairs Frederick applied personally to the Pope, 

with the result that the notaries in the papal Chancery were busy night and day pre 

paring nothing but charters for the hitherto sorely neglected Order of Teutonic 

Knights. 

Yearly years of the Teutonic Order 

The Third Crusade (1189-1191) had been expected to be 

the most glorious triumph that German arms had ever 

achieved. The indomitable red bearded Hohenstaufen, 

Friedrich Barbarossa, had brought his imperial army 

intact across the Balkans and Asia Minor--where the 

Second Crusade had come to grief, had smashed the 

Turkish forces that blocked the land route east from 

Constantinople for a century, and had crossed the 

difficult Cilician mountain passes leading into the Syria, 

whence his army could pass easily into the Holy Land. 

There he was expected to lead the combined armies of 

the Holy Roman Empire, France, and England to recover 

the lost ports, thereby opening the way for trade and reinforcements, after which he 

would lead the Christian forces on to the liberation of Jerusalem. Instead, he 

drowned in a small mountain stream. His vassals dispersed, some hurrying back to 

Germany because their presence was required at the election of the German king 

(Friedrich's son Heinrich VI), others because they anticipated a civil war in 


which they might lose their lands to the Welfs or win their lands. Only a few great 

nobles and prelates honored their vows by continuing their journey on to Acre, 

then besieged by crusader armies from France and England which were suffering 

terrible agonies from heat and disease. 

For the newly arrived Germans the psychological torment may have been worse 

than the physical. Richard the Lionheart, the English king who was winning 

immortal fame at Acre, hated those Hohenstaufen vassals who had driven his Welf 

brother-in-law, Heinrich the Lion, into exile a few years before, and he missed few 

opportunities to insult or humiliate them. Richard recovered Acre but little more. 

The French king, Phillip Augustus, went home, angry at his repeated insults, and 

most Germans left, too, determined to get revenge on him at the first opportunity. 

The German nobles and prelates, both those who had served at Acre and those who 

had run home, were bitterly disappointed with the outcome of their great 

expedition. Reflecting back on the high hopes with which they had set out, they felt 

they had been betrayed by everyone--by the English, by the Byzantines, by the 

Welfs, and by one another. They had but one worthwhile accomplishment to show 

for all their suffering, so they thought later: the foundation of the Teutonic Order 

The Foundation Era 1190-1198 

The establishment of the Teutonic Order was an act of desperation, desperation 

based not on a lack of knights, but on a lack of medical care. The crusading army 

besieging Acre in 1190 had been more than decimated by illness. The soldiers from 

northern Europe were not accustomed to the heat, the water, or the food and their 

sanitary conditions were completely unsatisfactory. Unable to bury the dead 

properly, they threw the bodies into the moat opposite the Accursed Tower with the 

rubble they were using to fill it, and the stink hung over the camp like a fog. Once 


taken by fever, the soldiers died like flies, their agony made worse by the 

innumerable insects that buzzed around them or swarmed over their bodies. The 

regular hospital units, particularly the Knights of Saint John (better known as the 

Hospitallers), were overburdened and, moreover, favored their own nationals, the 

French and English. The Germans were left to their own devices. 

Seeing that the situation was intolerable and would last indefinitely--the siege 

showed no sign of ending soon, and no monarch was coming east to demand that 

his subjects be better cared for by the established hospitals--a number of middle 

class crusaders from Bremen and Lübeck decided to found a hospital order that 

would care for the German sick. This initiative was warmly seconded by the most 

prominent of the German nobles, Duke Friedrich of Hohenstaufen. He wrote 

to his brother, the Emperor Heinrich VI, and also won the Patriarch of Jerusalem, 

the Hospitallers, and the Templars over to the idea. They recommended to Pope 

Celestine that he approve the new monastic order, and he did so. The brothers were 

to do hospital work like the Hospitallers and to live under the Templar rule. The 

new foundation was to be named the Order of the Hospital of St. Mary of the 

Germans in Jerusalem. The name given the new Order implied a connection with 

an older establishment, one now practically defunct, but in fact there seems to have 

been no direct relationship. The members of the new Order avoided this tie, lest 

they fall under the control of the Hospitallers, who held supervisory rights over the 

older German hospital. Nevertheless, they do not seem to have discouraged visitors 

and crusaders from believing that their Order had a more ancient lineage. Everyone 

valued tradition and antiquity. Since many religious houses indulged in pious 

frauds to assert a claim to a more illustrious foundation, it is easy to understand 

that this new hospital Order would be tempted to do the same. 

Pope Clement III (1187- -1191) apparently approved the Order 

by the BullQuotiens postulatur of February 6, 1191 and, within a 

few years, the Order had developed as a Religious Military 

institution. 

The Order was taken under Pope Celestine III's (1191--1198) 

protection on December 21, 1196, with the name of the 

"Hospital of St. Mary of the Germans in Jerusalem." The name 

is possibly the only connection with the earlier German hospital 

that was founded on the first twelfth century XII in Jerusalem, 

to give assistance to German-speaking pilgrims, but ceased to 

exist after the famous Saladin had conquered Jerusalem in 1188, putting an end to 

Christian domain to the city also considered Holy by the Muslims. 

In 1197, when the next German crusading army came to the Holy Land, it found the 

hospital flourishing and rendering invaluable service to its fellow-countrymen. Not 


only did the brothers care for the ill, but they provided hostels for the new arrivals, 

and money and food for those whose resources had become exhausted, or who had 

been robbed, or who had lost everything in battle. A significant contingent of the 

new army came from Bremen. Those crusaders lavished gifts upon the hospital 

they had helped to establish. As the visitors observed the relatively large number of 

brothers who had been trained as knights but who had been converted to a 

religious life while on crusade, they concluded that the Order could take on military 

duties similar to those of the Templars and Hospitallers. 

The narrow strip of land that formed the crusader kingdom in the Holy Land was 

protected by a string of castles, but those castles were only weakly garrisoned. 

Many crusaders feared that a sudden Turkish onslaught might overrun them before 

relief could be brought from Europe. The knights who could support themselves on 

fiefs were far too few for effective defense, and the Italian merchants (the only 

significant middle-class residents committed to the western Church) were fully 

occupied by the need to patrol the sea lanes against Moslem piracy or blockade and 

the responsibility of garrisoning the seaports. Consequently, the defense of the 

country had come to be the duty of the crusading orders, the Templars and the 

Hospitallers, who had a formidable reputation as cruel and relentless warriors but 

whose numbers were insufficient to the task. Moreover, the two orders quarreled 

with one another to the detriment of the crusade. 


Hermann von Salza 

Hermann von Salza (or Hermann of Salza) (c. 1165 – March 20, 1239) was the 

fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1210 to 1239. A 

skilled diplomat with ties to the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope, Hermann 

oversaw the expansion of the military order into Prussia. 

Hermann von Salza was born to a dynasty of ministerial of the Thuringia 

landgraves, probably at Dryburg Castle in Langensalza. With Landgrave Louis III 

of Thuringia he may have already taken part in the 1189/91 Siege of Acre, where the 

Teutonic Order was founded. He possibly also joined Landgrave Hermann I and 

the Henneberg count Otto von Botenlauben on the Crusade of 1197 and witnessed 

the coronation of King Amalric II of Jerusalem. The crusade was aborted upon the 

death of Emperor Henry VI, where after the Teutonic Knights were- re-established 

as a military order under Grand Master Heinrich Walpot von Bassenheim to secure 

the conquered estates of the Holy Land. The precise time of Hermann's entry into 

the Order is unknown, but he first appears as Grand Master at the coronation of 

Count John of Brienne as King of Jerusalem in 1210. As such he may have spent 

some time in the Mediterranean Sea region during the first year of his rule. During 

this period the activities of the Knights were extended from Spain to Livonia. 


Hermann was a friend and councilor of the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II, for 

whom he represented as a mediator in the Papal curia from 1222 onwards. Pope 

Honorius III also recognized Hermann's capabilities, and granted the Teutonic 

Knights an equal status with the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar, 

after it had gone into decline under previous Grand Masters. 

Under the leadership of the grand master Hermann von Salza the Teutonic knights 

had already begun transferring their main center of activity from the Middle East 

to Eastern Europe. The order's first European enterprise started in Hungary in 

1211, when King Andrew II invited a group of the Teutonic Knights to protect his 

Transylvanian borderland against the Cumans by colonizing it and by converting 

its people to Christianity. The order was then granted extensive rights of autonomy; 

but the knights' demands became so excessive that they were expelled from 

Hungary in 1225. By that time, however, a new opportunity was opening: a Polish 

duke, Conrad of Mazovia, with lands on the lower reaches of the Vistula River, 

needed help against the pagan Prussians. 

Hermann von Salza proceeded carefully, in order to avoid a repetition of what the 

order had experienced in Transylvania. He already enjoyed the confidence of the 

Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II, whom he had served as a diplomat. So, when 

Conrad made his offer, Hermann in 1226 obtained from Frederick the so-called 

Golden Bull of Rimini as a legal basis for the settlement. By this charter, Frederick 

confirmed to Hermann and to the order not only the lands to be granted by Conrad 

but also those that the knights were to conquer from the Prussians. Later (1234), 

Hermann also secured privileges from Pope Gregory IX, which can be regarded as 

the second foundation charter of the order's Prussian state: the papacy was ready to 

accept the order's current and future conquests as the property of the Holy See and 

to grant them back to the order in perpetual tenure. 

In 1233, led by the Landmeister (provincial leader) Hermann Balk and using an 

army of volunteer laymen recruited mainly from central Germany, the Teutonic 

Knights began the conquest of Prussia. During the next 50 years, having advanced 

from the lower Vistula River to the lower Neman (Niemen, Nemunas) River and 

having exterminated most of the native Prussian population (especially during the 

major rebellion of 1261-83), the order firmly established its control over Prussia. 

Although the order gave one-third of the conquered territory to the church and 

granted a large degree of autonomy to the newly developing towns in the area, it 

easily became the dominant power in Prussia. It worked to develop the region by 

building castles, by importing German peasants to settle in depopulated areas, by 

bestowing substantial estates on German and Polish nobles who became vassals of 

the order, and by monopolizing the lucrative Prussian grain trade, particularly after 


1263, when the pope allowed the knights, who had previously been bound by a vow 

of poverty, to engage directly in trading activities. 

In 1237, less than two years before Hermann von Salza's death, the Order of the 

Brothers of the Sword (Schwertbrüderorden), also known as the Knights of the 

Sword, or the Livonian Order (founded 1202), was made a branch of the Teutonic 

Order, its head becoming Landmeister of Livonia. The Teutonic Order, however, 

never established such effective control over these Northern provinces as it did 

over Prussia. 

By 1309, when the order's grand master established his residence at Marienburg, 

the order had created a strong feudal state that governed not only Prussia but also 

the eastern Baltic lands of the Livonian Knights (i.e., Courland, Livonia, and, after 

1346, Estonia); Pomerelia, or Eastern Pomerania, including the city of Danzig 

(Gdansk); and lands in central and southern Germany. During the following 

century the order demonstrated its power by continually, although unsuccessfully, 

trying to conquer and convert Lithuania; by actively protecting the merchant cities 

of the Hanseatic League; and by expanding its territories through purchase and 

conquest. 

The order's expansion and increasing power, however, aroused the hostility of both 

Poland, whose access to the Baltic Sea had been cut off, and Lithuania, whose 

territory the knights continued to menace despite Lithuania's conversion to 

Christianity in 1387. Consequently, when a rebellion broke out against the order in 

Samogitia (1408), Poland and Lithuania joined forces and decisively defeated the 

knights at Grunwald (1410). Although the order was compelled to give up only 

Samogitia and the Dobrzyn land (Treaty of Torun, 1411), its military might was 

broken. Subsequently, its authority and financial position also rapidly declined; it 

was unable to withstand the wars that Poland continued to wage, and when its own 

vassals joined the Poles in the Thirteen Years' War (1454-66), the order was finally 

defeated. In 1466 it ceded Pomerelia, both banks of the Vistula, and the bishopric 

of Warmia (Ermland) to Poland (Treaty of Torún, 1466). The order retained the 

rest of Prussia, but its grand master became a vassal of the Polish king for that 

territory. Furthermore, the formerly exclusively German order was obliged to 

accept Polish members. 

The Holy Land 

The imperial fleet sailed from Brindisi in l227 and returned to port immediately 

because an epidemic had claimed the life of Count Louis of Thuringia and stricken 

many other crusaders. Although excommunicated by Pope Gregory for failing to 

press on to the Holy Land, as soon as his troops were healthy, Friedrich II re 

embarked without bothering to resolve the dispute with the Pope, apparently not 

caring that this would give his enemies in the Holy Land the excuse they needed to 


efuse him aid--a circumstance that condemned the crusade to eventual failure as a 

military expedition. Everywhere he met a sullen reception, and practically every 

noble declined to participate in any campaign led by an excommunicate. Under 

those circumstances Friedrich was drawn even closer to the Teutonic Order than 

would have been the case. Because that Order remained loyal and assisted him in 

every way, he gave the members special consideration in Jerusalem after that city 

was recovered in the peace treaty, and he gave them the toll receipts from Acre. As 

long as he remained in the Holy Land with his army, he could do much as he 

pleased, but he could not remain there long. Grandmaster Hermann, realizing this, 

avoided antagonizing the local nobles or the other crusading orders. In that way he 

saved his Order from the reprisals that followed when Friedrich II left Acre in l229 

under a shower of rotten fruit and vegetables; and he arranged for a speedy 

removal of the excommunication which had been placed on the Order for its 

support of Friedrich's crusade. Still, all was not well in the Holy Land: wherever the 

imperial garrisons were small or isolated, they were attacked by the Christian 

nobles and prelates who were angry about Friedrich’s failure to help them in the 

past, about his policies in Sicily, about his quarrel with the Pope, and who 

considered him nothing more than an atheistic fortune-hunter. 

Hermann von Salza accompanied the unfortunate Emperor back to Italy and 

helped to reconcile him with Pope Gregory. He had given up all hope of 

establishing his Order permanently and solely in the Holy Land. Quickly he sent off 

the first contingent of knights to Prussia. His estimate of the situation in the Holy 

Land was correct. By l23l most of the imperial garrisons were expelled, and it was 

only a matter of time until Jerusalem was recaptured by the Moslems. The city fell 

in l244, and the Holy Land stood on the defensive, awaiting the inevitable attack 

that would deprive the Christians of their last footholds there. 

The Teutonic Knights did not give up their interest in the Mediterranean--far from 

it. Their knights were more necessary for providing a garrison for Acre than ever 

before. But Acre was a port city, hot, humid and crowded, not a suitable place to 

live year in and year out. Knights flourished in the countryside, where the climate 

was healthier and there were opportunities to ride and to hunt, and fields and 

fodder for the horses; but also, they needed a dependable supply of locally-grown 

food and wine. In l220 they had purchased a run-down castle from the Hindenburg 

family, and now they began to repair it, using the tolls from Acre to finance the 

work. They named the huge fortress Montfort, probably deriving both the name 

and the architecture from a castle in Transylvania. In German it was called 

Starkenberg (Strong Mountain), and, indeed, it was sited on a most difficult 

location to assault. However, it was not a formidable defensive post, and was 

probably more noted for its handsome guest house and remarkable view over the 

wooded hills on one side and the Acre plain on the other than for its contributions 


to the defense of Acre. The surrounding lands were the richest in northern Galilee, 

and the Order added to them in l234 and 1249, but the castle was too far away for 

the garrison to assist significantly in protecting the farmers from raiders. Crusaders 

assisted in enlarging the fortifications in 1227, and Friedrich II contributed money 

in 1228. A second castle was built three miles to the south, again perched on a 

rocky ridge. The architecture of both structures was thoroughly German, with little 

influence from the neighboring castles: a massive keep dominated, with towers 

connected by a strong curtain wall. 

Although Montfort was lost in 1271, the Teutonic Knights kept a considerable force 

in Acre until 1291, when that place was lost, too. The Grandmaster withdrew to 

Venice, where he could continue to direct the crusade against the Moslems. Only in 

l309 did he move to Prussia and abandon the war in the East. 

One of the enduring controversies inside the Teutonic Order was whether resources 

should be concentrated on defending the Holy Land or used in the Baltic or 

nourished to provide services in the Holy Roman Empire. The knights in the Holy 

Land jealously guarded their preeminence, denouncing Grandmasters who spent 

too much time "abroad" (outside the Holy Land) or who wavered from loyalty to 

the Hohenstaufen cause; soon enough the German Master, Prussian Master, and 

Livonian Master were eloquently championing the interests of their knights, too. 

One Grandmaster after the other endured criticism and frustration in attempting to 

reconcile the demands of regional power blocks and avoid the scandal of schism. 

This office was not one to be held by the thin-skinned or impatient. 

Only slowly, therefore, did the Teutonic Knights shift their attention and resources 

away from the Holy Land to the new crusades in the Baltic. Jerusalem long 

remained their primary commitment, both in interest and in money, and only the 

loss of Acre caused them to reluctantly give up hope of regaining the holy city. The 

religious order had goals that were more important than either lands or power, but 

one cannot separate motives easily or neatly. Religious idealism, superstition, 

ambition, and duties combined in a complex way so that only little did the knights 

see that their religious duties were best performed against the pagans of 

northeastern Europe 

Decline and fall of the knights. 

The Teutonic Order's rule in Prussia came to an end in 1525, when the grand 

master Albert, under Protestant influence, dissolved the order there and accepted 

its territory as a secular duchy for himself under Polish suzerainty. In 1526 a new 

grand master, Walter of Cronenberg (Kronenberg), fixed his residence at 

Mergentheim in Franconia (Württemberg). After the loss of Prussia the order still 

retained in Europe several territories. But in 1558 the Livonian territory was lost, 

partitioned between Russia, Sweden, and Poland-Lithuania. In 1580 the secession 


of Utrecht meant the loss of territory in the Low Countries. In the late 17th century 

Louis XIV secularized its possessions in France. In 1801 the Treaty of Luneville 

stripped the order of its German possession on the left bank of the Rhine. In 1809 

the emperor Napoleon, at war with Austria, declared the order to be dissolved and 

distributed most of its remaining lands among other principalities. 

The Austrian revival. 

The Catholic Teutonic Order was formally abolished by Napoleon Bonaparte in 

1809, but later restored in 1834 by the Hapsburg who wanted to regain the original 

Chivalric Order adopting the rule of the 1606. 

In February 17, 1806, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Francis II and 

Emperor of Austria (with the name of Francis I), recognized his brother Anton 

Viktor von Österreich Habsburgo as Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, 

confirming the provisions of the Treaty of Pressburg. 

The Sovereign status recognized in the Treaty of Pressburg provided that the title of 

Grand Master was to be attributed to a prince of the House of Austria, but this 

would be a limited sovereignty, as subject to "Head of the Imperial House of 

Austria." 

December 12, 1810. The rights, pensions and dignity of the Hochmeister were 

attributed to the Emperor of Austria, who made it to the Teutonic Order solemn 

head. The headquarters of the Order was transferred to Vienna. 

On March 8, 1834, Prince Grand Master Anton Viktor von Österreich Habsburgo 

convinced his brother, Emperor Francis II, to invalidate the capitolar of Pressburg 

and reinstate the Teutonic Order as an autonomous institute religious-military and 

direct feudal to the Empire, confirming so, the nature of sovereign 

untidy according the laws of the medieval Holy Roman Empire. 

The existing Knights were confirmed in their location, those already accepted as 

novices were allowed to continue his novitiate, but it significantly changed the law 

of the Grand Master, prospective candidates for the novitiate could not succeed 

without the Imperial consent. No attempt to consult the Holy See was done even if 

this act was a violation of canon law. 


In 1835 elected to the Order Grand Master Archduke 

Maximilian of Austria-Este (1782-1863). The role of the 

Grand Master for nearly half a century had become the 

preserve of the Austrian Imperial Family. 

The Grand Master allowed the Archduke Maximilian of 

the Hapsburgs to exert considerable influence over the 

decisions of the Order of Germany, who also had 

detached from Austria with the dissolution of the Holy 

Roman Empire occurred in 1806. 

The new Emperor Ferdinand I issued a new decree on 

July 16, 1839, by which it confirmed the privileges granted by his father and the 

rules and statutes of the Teutonic Order in 1606 that were not in conflict with the 

status of Austrian fief. 

Maximilian strongly supported the work of the Jesuits, Redemptorists and the 

Sisters of St. Francis. He also founded schools and hospitals and to give assistance 

to the needy. 

In 1894 it was named to Grand Master of the Teutonic 

Order, Eugenio Ferdinando Pio of Habsburg-Teschen, 

Archduke of Austria and Prince of Hungary and Bohemia. 

He was the last Hereditary Grand Master of the Teutonic 

Order. 

In 1918, with the collapse of the Austrian Empire, the last 

Habsburg Grand Master, Archduke Eugene, forced into 

exile along with all the members of his dynasty, retired in 

Lucerne and then in Basel where he lived from 1918 to 

1934 . The continuation of the Order, in his old 

organization, was no longer possible and the properties of 

the Order were seen as houses of the Imperial House were threatened with 

confiscation by the Republicans, eager to strike any institution associated with the 

Habsburg Dynasty, but fortunately the Teutonic Order was independent within the 

meaning of canon law: it was a religious institution as well and its properties could 

be considered not as part of the heritage of the Habsburgs. In order to safeguard 

the existence of the Teutonic Order and its possessions, Archduke Eugene 

voluntarily resigned in 1923 to Pope Pius XI in his resignation from the position of 

Hoch-und Deutschmeister. 


Before the resignation become final, convened in Vienna 

the Chapter General of the Teutonic Order to chose a new 

Grand Master, the suggestion fell on Monsignor Norbert 

Jan Nepomucký Klein, a priest of the Order and already 

Bishop of Brünn in Moravia, who was elected as coadjutor. 

(Left, Nepomucký Klein, first Grand Master of the new 

Clerical Order). 

The representatives of the Austrian Government entered 

into negotiations with the Teutonic Order, and since the 

candidate was a cleric, accepted the appointment, even if 

some clergymen of the Order of Malta opposed to the nomination. The Holy See 

appointed Father Hilarion Felder to examine the complaints of the clergy of the 

Order of Malta. 

It was proposed that, since the Teutonic Order at the 

moment of its foundation had been subject to the 

Hospitallers, their properties were to be delivered to the 

Order of Malta. The complaints were dismissed and the 

investigation ended in favor of the Teutonic Order, which 

required a new rule. It was Constituted as “Fratres Domus 

Hospitalis Sanctae Mariae Teutonicorum in Jerusalem” - 

"German Brothers of the Order of St. Mary of Jerusalem" 

and received the Papal sanction on the new rule, purely 

religious, withdrawing the military tradition on 

November 27, 1929. With this the Teutonic Order ceased to be a Chivalric Order of 

Knighthood as His Holiness Pope Pius XI, formally ratified the Order's new 

constitution making the Teutonic Order a Clerical Order. 

No more knights were created and the last one (Friedrich Graf Belrupt-Tissac) died 

in 1970. The order suffered during World War II when it was abolished by the 

Nazis in Austria and Czechoslovakia, but as Clerical Order it survived in Italyand 

started again after 1945 in Austria and Germany. 

From that moment the Order made every effort to maintain its activities consistent 

with the slogan “Heal and Assist”. 


THE ANTIOCH HISTORY 

Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient 

city on the eastern side of the Orontes 

River. Its ruins lie near the modern city of 

Antakya, Turkey. 

Founded near the end of the 4th century 

BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of 

Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch's 

geographic, military and economic 

location, particularly the spice trade, the 

Silk Road, the Persian Royal Road, 

benefited its occupants, and eventually it 

rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the 

Near East and as the main center of 

Hellenistic Judaism at the end of the 

Second Temple period. 

As a result of its longevity and the pivotal 

role it played in the emergence of both 

Hellenistic Judaism and Early 

Christianity, Antioch was called "the cradle of Christianity." It was one of the four 

cities of the Syrian tetrapolis. Its residents are known as Antiochenes. Once a great 

metropolis of half a million people, it declined to insignificance during the Middle 

Ages because of repeated earthquakes, the Crusaders' invasions, and a change in 

trade routes following the Mongol conquests, which then no longer passed through 

Antioch from the far east. 

Antioch was a chief center of early Christianity. The city had a large population of 

Jewish origin in a quarter called the Kerateion, and so attracted the earliest 

missionaries. Evangelized, among others, by Peter himself, according to the 

tradition upon which the Antiochene patriarchate still rests its claim for primacy 

and certainly later by Barnabas and Paul during Paul's first missionary journey. Its 

converts were the first to be called Christians. This is not to be confused with 

Antioch in Pisidia, to which the early missionaries later travelled. 

The Christian population was estimated by Chrysostom at about 100,000 people at 

the time of Theodosius I. Between 252 and 300, ten assemblies of the church were 

held at Antioch and it became the seat of one of the five original patriarchates, 

along with Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Rome. Today Antioch 

remains the seat of a patriarchate of the Oriental Orthodox churches. 


One of the canonical Eastern Orthodox churches is still called the Antiochian 

Orthodox Church, although it moved its headquarters from Antioch to Damascus, 

Syria, several centuries ago (see list of Patriarchs of Antioch), and its prime bishop 

retains the title "Patriarch of Antioch," somewhat analogous to the manner in 

which several Popes, heads of the Roman Catholic Church remained "Bishop of 

Rome" even while residing in Avignon, France in the 14th century. 

History of the Crusades a Holy War 

From the eleventh through the fifteenth 

centuries, Christians from Western Europe were 

pitted in a series of Holy Wars against their 

Islamic, Pagan, and even other Christian 

neighbors. This course offers a multi-faceted 

overview of military, political, religious and 

cultural aspects of the Crusades, useful in several 

contexts. 

The story of the Crusades actually begins 

centuries before the First Crusade was launched 

in AD 1096. When the center of the Roman 

Empire shifted East, to Constantinople, it began 

to grow a new culture which would become 

known as Byzantium. However, the Church had 

begun to develop with Rome as its center, and the churches of the East turned to 

Constantinople rather than the developing Papacy in Rome. The first Popes were 

warlike and power-hungry, however, and they wanted the entire Christian world 

under their control. Then, during the latter half of the first millennium AD, the 

teachings of Islam began to spread throughout North Africa and Asia Minor at an 

alarming pace. The Popes of Rome, fearful that this new religion would displace 

them from their still-tenuous position, needed a way to suppress this new, peaceful 

religion coming out of the East. 

Antioch was captured by the crusaders, led by Godfrey de Bouillon, Bohemond de 

Hauteville and Raymond "de Saint-Gilles" Comte de Toulouse, in June 1098 after 

an eight month siege. The Turks in the city, including the Governor, were 

massacred. Abul-Feda records that "les Francs" invaded Syria in A. H. 491 

(1097/98) and captured Antioch from "Yaghi-Sian…Turcoman d'origine et fils de 

Mohammed ibn Alb-Arslan" in "le mois de djomada premier" (Apr/May 1098) after 

a nine month siege, adding that he was beheaded by an Armenian. After their 

successful conquest, the crusader leaders disagreed about who should take charge 


of Antioch, but eventually Bohemond of Apulia, son of Robert "Guiscard" Duke of 

Apulia, remained in possession and declared himself prince. 

Prince Bohemond enlarged the territory of his principality by acquiring Edessa and 

cities in the emirate of Aleppo. However, his son died without male heirs, leaving 

the principality of Antioch to his infant daughter. Her descendants by her first 

marriage to Raymond de Poitiers continued to rule as princes of Antioch. However, 

when Prince Bohemond III was held captive by the Armenian ruler Lewon II in the 

late 1190s, rule over the city was assumed by a citizens' commune. The Armenians 

captured Antioch again in 1216, but Prince Bohemond IV regained control three 

years later. His successor Prince Bohémond V was obliged to reside at Tripoli from 

his accession in 1233, as the commune reasserted control over Antioch. The city 

was captured by the Mameluks in 1268, although the princes of Antioch continued 

to rule in Tripoli until 1288. 

Prince and titular Princes of Antioch 

The "Prince of Antioch" was the title given to Norman rulers of the region around 

Antioch, now known as Antakya in Turkey. While the Princes originally came from 

the County of Sicily, subsequently known as the Kingdom of Sicily in Southern 

Italy, Bohemond IV of Antioch also came into possession of the County of Tripoli, 

combining the two Crusader states for the rest of their histories. Antioch had been 

the chief city of the region since the time of the Roman Empire. When the Mamluk 

Sultanate of Egypt drove out the Knights in 1268, they largely destroyed the city to 

deny access in the event the crusaders returned. 

First Crusade 

Pope Urban II (1088-1099) was responsible for assisting 

Emperor Alexus I (1081-1118) of Constantinople in 

launching the first crusade. He made one of the most 

influential speeches in the Middle Ages, calling on 

Christian princes in Europe to go on a crusade to rescue 

the Holy Land from the Turks. In the speech given at the 

Council of Clermont in France, on November 27, 1095, he 

combined the ideas of making a pilgrimage to the Holy 

Land with that of waging a holy war against infidels. 

"Deus vult! (God wills it) became the battle cry of the Crusader. 

"The day after Urban's speech, the Council formally granted all the privileges and 

protections Urban had promised. The red cross was taken as the official sign of the 

pilgrims, and Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy was chosen as papal legate and the 

spiritual leader of the expedition." 


The First Crusade was the most successful from a military point of view. Accounts 

of this action are shocking. For example, historian Raymond of Agiles described the 

capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in 1099: 

Some of our men cut off the heads of their enemies; others shot them with arrows, 

so that they fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into 

the flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. 

It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. But these 

were small matters compared to what happened at the temple of Solomon, a place 

where religious services ware ordinarily chanted. What happened there? If I tell 

the truth, it will exceed your powers of belief. So let it suffice to say this much at 

least, that in the temple and portico of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their 

knees and bridle reins. 

Some of the results of the first crusade were not expected. Alexus I thought that the 

Byzantine territories would be returned to him and the Eastern Empire, but instead 

the European conquerors established four independent Latin kingdoms. In 

addition, three military orders Hospitallers, Templars, and Teutonic Knights came 

into power. The stated purpose of these orders was to protect pilgrims and holy 

sites. 

Early in their occupation of Mideastern 

lands, crusaders founded military orders 

of knighthood. First, the Templars wearing 

red crosses on white, founded in 1191 to 

protect pilgrims. Soon after, The 

Hospitallers wearing white crosses on 

black, attached to the ancient Hospital of 

St. John of Jerusalem. Later, as a "breakaway 

group" from The Hospittalers, was 

formed the Teutonic Knights wearing black 

crosses on white, with headquarters in 

Acre, port city of Haifa, now the Israeli Northern Capitol. 

The Teutonic Order was founded in 1190 during the siege of Acre, when a hospital 

brotherhood was established to care for the many sick German crusaders. It was 

given a building after the conquest of the city, and in 1198 was turned into a 

military-monastic order on the model of the Hospitallers of Saint John and the 

Templars. This creation reflected the growing involvement of 

the Hohenstaufen dynasty in the Holy Land. 

Teutonic Knights side with Hospitallers and barons in Acre against the Templars in 

1209 which becomes the origin of long-standing opposition between the Templars 


and Teutonic Knights. In 1217 Frederick II Hohenstaufen granted the Teutonic 

Knights the same status as the Templars and Hospitallers in the Kingdom of Sicily. 

In 1220 Pope Honorius III gave privileges to the Teutonic Knights; as an order, 

they now were on the same level as the Templars and the Hospitallers. In 1226 the 

"Golden Bull of Rimini" from Frederick II for the Teutonic Knights giving them 

wide-ranging authority in the name of the empire in Prussia. In 1319 the Teutonic 

Knights' headquarters moved from Venice to Prussia. In 1410 Lithuanian-Polish 

forces defeated the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Tannenberg, Prussia, halting 

the Teutonic Knights’ eastward expansion along the Baltic and hastening their 

decline. 

The Hospitallers later retreated from Islamic forces to Cyprus, Rhodes, various 

Italian towns, In 1530 Pope Clement VII (1478-1534) granted them perpetual fief of 

the Island of Malta for annual rent of a falcon. The Knights of Malta eventually 

surrendered to Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) in 1798 and disbanded. 

The Hautville (Altavilla) Dynasty – Founder of Antioch 

Bohemond I of Antioch was one of the most fascinating 

and controversial figures of the First Crusade. He was 

originally the prince of Otranto, but in the wake of the 

conquest of Antioch during the First Crusade he took 

control of the city and became known as Bohemond of 

Antioch. 

Bohemond I, also spelled Bohemund or Boamund, 

(c. 1058 – 3 March 1111), Prince of Taranto Prince of 

Antioch, was one of the leaders of the First Crusade as he 

led the whole Crusader army until the conquest 

of Antioch. 

Bohemond was born in San Marco Argentano, Calabria, 

as the eldest son of the Norman Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, and 

his first wife Alberada of Buonalbergo. He was christened "Mark" at his baptism, 

but was nicknamed Bohemond (after the legendary giant Buamundus gigas), by 

his father due to his size as an infant. 

The Norman monarchy he found in Antioch survived those in both England and 

Sicily. 

Son of Robert who, encouraged by his dad, developed seriously wider geographic 

ambitions than Puglia, and had a go early on at subduing Greece on his way to 

doing the same to Constantinople. However this failed and it was to be the 90s 


efore the big fell Bohemond, at that stage attacking Amalfi with Uncle Roger met 

up with groups heading out for the First Crusade. 

Realizing the opportunities for personal power that the crusades presented, 

Bohemond raised his own army of South Italian Normans and joined in, ending up 

as Prince of Antioch in the late 1090s. Antioch though was very much a B team 

place, and he never cracked the mainstream crusader power base centered on 

Jerusalem. 

In 1096 Bohemond joined the French forces headed to the Holy Land in what 

would later become known as the First Crusade. In spite of his previous hostilities 

with Alexius I, Bohemond ultimately swore an oath to the Emperor while passing 

through Constantinople on his way to the Holy Land. In 1098 following the capture 

of Antioch, Bohemond made himself prince of the city. In doing so, he broke his 

oath to Alexius I to return such re-conquered lands, but he cited the lack of 

promised assistance from the emperor to argue that the oath was not valid in this 

case. 

Bohemond ascension to ruler of the city of Antioch became a source of controversy 

during and after the crusade and became the basis for some claims that the 

crusades were about the conquest and colonization of the Holy Land. Yet this 

perspective does not take into consideration the numerous cites and areas that 

were returned to the Byzantine Empire in the wake of military victory by the 

crusaders. 

In the year 1100, Bohemond was captured by Muslims and not released until 1103. 

Returning to Europe, he married the Constance, daughter of Philip I of France and 

secured support for a crusade against Alexius, by whom he was defeated (1108) and 

as a result was forced to reaffirm his vassalage to Alexius and consented to receive 

his pay, with the title of Sebastos, and promised to cede disputed territories and to 

admit a Greek patriarch into Antioch. In 1109 he was defeated by the Muslims at 

Harran. He did not return to Antioch, and his relative Tancred was regent for him. 

He died without returning to the East, and was buried at Canosa in Apulia, in 1111. 

Roger I – Count of Sicily (1031-1101) 

Youngest son of Tancred, brother of Robert - Invested by 

brother Robert as Count of Sicily in 1072 though it took 

several more years for him to establish control of the whole 

island. But by the time he did, Roger had a much tighter 

control over Sicily than his brother did over the stroppy 

Norman warlords in Southern Italy. Roger had three wives 


and 16 legitimate children (mostly daughters), of whom his successor Roger II, 

born when his dad was 62, was number 15. 

Norman Kings of Sicily 

The Kingdom of Sicily (Italian: Regno di Sicilia, 

commonly abbreviated Regno, Latin: Regnum 

Siciliae or Sicilie, Aragonese: Reino de Sezilia) 

was a state that existed in the south of Italy from its 

founding by Roger II in 1130 until 1861. It was a 

successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been 

founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of 

southern Italy. The Kingdom covered not only the 

island of Sicily itself, but also the 

whole Mezzogiorno region of southern Italy. The 

island was divided into three regions; Val di Mazara, 

Val Demone and Val di Noto. It was sometimes called the regnum Apuliae et 

Siciliae until 1282. 

Hohenstaufen Kingdom 

Frederick II, Hohenstaufen 

King of Sicily, King of Cyprus and Jerusalem, King of the 

Romans, King of Germany and Emperor of the Romans 

The accession of Frederick, a child who would then become 

also the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in 1197, greatly 

affected the immediate future of Sicily. For a land so used to 

centralized royal authority, the king's young age caused a 

serious power vacuum. His uncle Philip of Swabia, 

margrave of Ancona, regent in 1198. 

Meanwhile, Pope Innocent III had reasserted papal 

authority in Sicily, but recognized Frederick's rights. The 

pope was to see papal power decrease steadily over the next 

decade and was unsure about which side to back at many junctures moved to 

secure Frederick's inheritance by appointing. 



PRINCIPALITY OF ANTIOCH 

The Principality of Antioch was one of the crusader states created during the First 

Crusade which included parts of modern-day Turkey and Syria. 

The Principality of Antioch was much smaller than the County of Edessa or the 

Kingdom of Jerusalem. It extended around the northeastern edge of the 

Mediterranean, bordering the County of Tripoli to the south, Edessa to the east, 

and the Byzantine Empire or the Kingdom of Armenia to the northwest, depending 

on the date. It had roughly 20,000 inhabitants in the 12th century, most of whom 

were Armenians and Greek Orthodox Christians, with a few Muslims outside the 

city itself. Most of the crusaders who settled there were of Norman origin or from 

southern Italy, as were the first rulers of the principality, who surrounded 

themselves with their own loyal subjects. Few of the inhabitants apart from the 

Crusaders were Roman Catholic even though the city was turned into a Latin 

Patriarchate in 1100. 

While Baldwin of Boulogne and Tancred headed east from Asia Minor to set up the 

County of Edessa, the main army of the First Crusade continued south to besiege 

Antioch. Bohemond of Taranto commanded the siege which commenced in 

October 1097. With over four hundred towers, the city's defenses were formidable. 

The siege lasted throughout the winter causing much attrition among the Crusader 


force, who were often forced to eat their own horses, or, as legend has it, the bodies 

of their fellow Christians who had not survived. 

Bohemond convinced a guard in one of the towers, an Armenian and former 

Christian named Firouz, to let the Crusaders enter the city. He did so on June 3, 

1098, and a massacre of the Muslim inhabitants ensued.[citation needed] Only four 

days later, a Muslim army from Mosul, led by Kerbogha, arrived to besiege the 

Crusaders themselves. Alexius I Comnenus, the Byzantine emperor, was on his way 

to assist the Crusaders; but upon hearing rumors that the city had fallen to the 

Muslims, Alexius turned back. 

The Crusaders withstood the siege, with help from a mystic named Peter 

Bartholomew. Peter claimed he had been visited by St. Andrew, who told him that 

the Holy Lance, which pierced Christ's side as he was on the cross, was located in 

Antioch. The cathedral of St. Peter was excavated, and the Lance was discovered by 

Peter himself. Although Peter most likely planted it there himself (even the papal 

legate Adhemar of Le Puy believed this to be the case), it helped raise the spirits of 

the Crusaders.[citation needed] With the newly discovered relic at the head of the 

army, Bohemond marched out to meet the besieging Muslim force, which was 

miraculously defeated — as according to the Crusaders, an army of saints had 

appeared to help them on the battlefield. 

There was a lengthy dispute over who should control the city. Bohemond and the 

Italian Normans eventually won, and Bohemond named himself prince. Bohemond 

was already Prince of Taranto in Italy, and he desired to continue such 

independence in his new lordship; thus he did not attempt to receive the title of 

Duke from the Byzantine Emperor (in whose name he had taken an oath to fight), 

nor any other title with deep feudal obligations. 

Prince of Antioch 

Our history of Antioch of our family begins with Federico (Frederick) of Antioch d' 

Hauteville von Shwaben Hohenstaufen son of the Emperor Frederick II of Swabia 

and therefore a descendant of Frederick I Barbarossa. Born in Palestine in 1228, to 

Maria Matilde (or Beatrice) of the House of the princes Bohemond of Antioch of 

Altavilla (Hautville) and Constance, daughter of Philip I, King of France. The 

House of Antioch has origin Italo-German-French. Bohemond of Altavilla, son of 

Robert Guisgardo (Guiscard). Bohemond conquered Antioch in the first crusade on 

June 3, 1098, of which he was appointed prince. Federico of Antioch married the 

noble roman Margherita Poli, daughter of Giovanni of Poly Romano; therefore 

Margherita was nephew of Pope Innocent III. 


The Dynasty of Frederick of Antioch 

The family comes from two Dynasties; one from the Norman Sicily of Altavilla 

(Hautville and the other from the House of Hohenstaufen. Holy Roman Emperor 

was an elective office, however, dynastic politics made it effectively hereditary, first 

with the Hohenstaufen. 

The family of the Hauteville (French: Maison de Hauteville, 

Italia: Casa d'Altavilla, Sicilian: Casa d'Autavilla) was a petty 

baronial Norman family from the Cotentin which rose to 

prominence in Europe, Asia, and Africa through its conquests 

in the Mediterranean, especially Southern Italy and 

Sicily. They also participate in the Norman Conquest of 

England. 

The familial origins had roots from the Norwegian Vikings (Norsemen) who had 

settled in Normandy in the 10th century. From just which village of Hauteville, 

which may simply mean "high town", the family drew its name is hard to identify 

with certainty, though modern scholarship favors Hauteville-la-Guichard. 


The Norman conquest of southern Italy spanned the late 

eleventh and much of the twelfth centuries, involving many 

battles and many independent players conquering territories 

of their own. Only later were these united as the Kingdom of 

Sicily, which included not only the island of Sicily, but also 

the entire southern third of the Italian peninsula as well as 

the archipelago of Malta and parts of North Africa. 

The family of Hohenstaufen - German princely family, 

whose name is derived from the castle of Staufen, built in 

1077 by a Swabian count, Frederick. In 1079, Frederick 

married Agnes, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, 

and was created duke of Swabia. The line of German kings 

and Holy Roman emperors began in 1138 with Frederick's son 

Conrad III, who was succeeded by Frederick I, Henry VI, and 

Philip of Swabia. Their chief rivals were the Guelphs, whose 

scion, Otto IV, was Holy Roman emperor from 1209 to 1215; 

but the Hohenstaufen heir, Frederick II, was elected king by a rival party in 1212. 

The most spectacular representative of the house, Frederick, shifted the center of 

the family interests to Sicily and Southern Italy. 

Principality of Antioch enters on Frederick II Emblem 

The Principality of Antioch enters on the emblem of the 

Emperor Frederick II as coat of arms at the time of his 

marriage to Isabella of Jerusalem (1225-1228). Frederick 

was crowned King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy 

Sepulchre as the only Holy Roman Emperor to be so 

honored. At that time; Frederick of Antioch (father of 

Corrado Caputo) was already born. 

The arms of Antioch remains the emblem of Frederick II 

and, as the title of succession can be passed to his 

legitimate and natural sons. Subsequently, the title de 

Antioch has been granted by his father to son. Particularly in July 1245, Frederick 

of Antioch had from his father received investiture of a knight, at the age of 16 

years, becoming his official representative in the difficult context Tuscany and he 

was called to defend the interests of his family against the irreconcilable enemies to 

the Swabians. 


In the city of Cremona in 1245, Emperor Frederick II created his son Frederick 

Prince of Antioch and with his own hand invested him with his sword (Origin and 

foundation of the Seat of Naples, p. 153, Camillo Tutini, Publicized in 1754 from R . 

Gessari). On the 16th of June, 1247, gave his son Frederick of Antioch the title 

of King of Antioch (A History of the Italian Republics: Being a View of the Rise, 

Progress, Jean-Charles-Léonard Simonde Sismondi, page 77) 

In that year 1245, the Emperor Frederick II, in the Council of Lyons, on July 17 in 

the third excommunication of Frederick, was deposed and excommunicated by 

Pope Innocence IV. At that moment so critical to the Ghibelline party, the Emperor 

had entrusted to his illegitimate children the most important roles. In the North of 

Italy sent as vicar Enzo King of Sardinia and fought as an imperial leader in 

Lombardy. Richard of Teato (Chieti) took the appointment as vicar general of the 

Marca and Spoleto. 

Frederick of Antioch was awarded with the Captaincy General of Tuscany, also 

appointed Podestà of Florence, position that he maintained for five years, until the 

death of his father. It was revealed some irregularities with the administrative and 

corruption of various officials, so that Frederick II was forced to lay off the Apulia, 

Pandolfo Fasanelle for years captain general of Tuscany, and replaced by his son 

Frederick of Antioch, who soon took the title of King of Tuscany. 

Manfred, his brother, was elected Duke of Taranto, according to the will of 

testamentary of Frederick II, regent, at eighteen, the Kingdom of Sicily, whose 

crown passed to him after death of the legitimate heir Conrad IV. The dead 

Emperor Frederick II (1250) and its successor Conrad IV (1254), who left his son 


Corradino (Conradin) that was just two years old, Manfred took power of the Reign 

assuming the protection of the legitimate heir to the throne Conradin. 

Frederick of Antioch (father of Corrado Caputo of Antioch) King of Tuscany and 

Antioch supported the brother King Manfred and his nephew Corrado (Conrad IV) 

Puglia in the defense of the Reign. 


“La genealogia delle case piu 

illustri di tutto il mondo” 

(Genealogy of the most illustrious 

houses in the world) By Antonio 

Chiusole Noble of the Holy Roman 

Empire. Written in 1843. 

Note the genealogy of the Emperors 

of Swabia, Corrado Caputo son 

of Prince Frederick (Federico) 

of Antioch below last on right side.


FREDERICK OF ANTIOCH 

The House of Hohenstaufen (1128 –1256), son of Frederick II Holy Roman 

Emperor 

Prince of Antioch, King of Tuscany (1245-1256) Count of: Alba, Maremma, Marca, 

Romagna and Celano. King of Antioch (1247). 

Frederick of Antioch was the first "Swabian" in 

possession of the castle of Saracinesco as a result 

of his marriage to the noble Roman Margherita 

Poli, daughter of Giovanni di Poly Romano, niece 

of Pope Innocent III, who brought a dowry to her 

husband Frederick, with the wedding of 10 

February 1240. 

The possessions of Frederick of Antioch, which 

seems that the Emperor, his father, had already assigned him the castle of 

Pettorano in Abruzzo Aquilano, and were enlarged in 1241 with the fief of Anticoli, 

granted to Frederick always by his father Frederick II, as a strategy the Tivoli base 

of operations as disorder against Rome, he meant so make sure the safety of the 

Valley of Aniene necessary for his movements. 

The family history begins with Frederick of Antioch son of the Emperor Frederick 

II of Swabia and, therefore, a descendant of Frederick I Barbarossa. Born in 

Palestine in 1228, Maria Matilda (or Beatrice) of the princes of the House of 

Antioch Bohemond IV of Hautville. After the death of his first wife, Bohemond IV 

married again at Tripoli in January 1218 Melisende de Lusignan (c. 1200 – after 

1249), Princess of Cyprus, daughter of Amalric II of Jerusalem and his second wife 

Isabella of Jerusalem. 

Bohemond IV or de Poitiers, also known as the One-Eyed, 

c. 1172 – March 1233, is a direct descendant of Bohemond I 

DE HAUTEVILLE and Constance of France (1078- January 

1124/1126) was the daughter of King Philip I of France and 

Bertha of Holland. She was a member of the House of Capet 

and was princess of Antioch from her second marriage in 

1106 in Chartres, Centre, France. The marriage was 

celebrated in the cathedral of Chartres, and the festivities 

were held at the court of Adela, who also took part in 

negotiations. The groom took the opportunity to encourage 

the nobility to fight in the Holy Land, and also negotiated 

for a marriage between Bohemond's nephew Tancred, Prince of Galilee and 

Constance's half-sister Cecile of France. 


MARIA of Antioch (-after 10 Dec 1307). The Lignages d'Outremer name "Ysabiau 

et Marie et Helvys" as the three daughters of "le prince Borgne" and his wife 

"Melicent la princesse", specifying that Marie is "ceste qui est en Acre"(Lignages 

d'Outremer, Marciana Ms Francese 20, CC.XCII, p. 68). 

On the death of Conradin von Hohenstaufen, King of Jerusalem, 29 Oct 1268, 

Maria claimed to succeed to the throne of Jerusalem on the grounds that she 

belonged to an earlier generation of the family than her nephew Hugues III King of 

Cyprus, but the High Court of Jerusalem rejected her claim. She refused to accept 

the verdict, issued a formal protest on the day of the coronation of King Hugues 

and left for Rome to appeal to the Papal Curia which allowed her to raise the issue 

at the Council of Lyon in 1274. The outcome was unchanged, but Pope Gregory X 

arranged for her to sell her titular rights to the kingdom of Jerusalem to Charles I 

King of Sicily [Anjou-Capet] in Mar 1277 for 1000 gold pounds and an annuity of 

4000 pounds tournois (Runciman (1978), Vol. 3, pp. 328-9). The agreement 

between King Charles and "domicella Maria" is dated 20 Jun 1289 (Mas de Latrie, 

M. L. (1855) Histoire de lÍle de Chypre (Paris) Vol. 2, p. 85). 

Maria of Antioch (died after 10 December 1307), daughter of Prince Bohemond 

IV of Antioch and his second wife Melisende de Lusignan, was the pretender to the 

throne of Jerusalem from 1269 to 1277. By her mother, she was the granddaughter 

of Queen Isabella I of Jerusalem, and her fourth husband, King Amalric II of 

Jerusalem. 


Prior to 1268, the principal Pretender to the throne of Jerusalem was Conradin, a 

great-grandson of Isabella I of Jerusalem. He was executed in 1268 by Charles of 

Anjou, who had by papal authority seized Conradin's rightful Kingdom of Sicily. At 

the time of his death, Mary was the only living grandchild of Queen Isabella; this 

allowed her to claim the throne of Jerusalem on the basis of proximity in blood to 

the Kings of Jerusalem [ (in feudal successions, proximity - a form of seniority - was 

a strong claim). The Haute Cour of Jerusalem passed over her claim, however, and 

instead chose Hugh III of Cyprus - a great grandson of Queen Isabella - as the next 

ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. 

Maria then went to Rome and proposed the sale of her rights to Charles of Anjou; 

with papal blessing and confirmation, these were sold to Charles in 1277. Charles 

then took the title King of Jerusalem, and conquered Acre, holding it until 1285. 

Thereafter, the claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem frequently changed hands, 

being passed down by testament or conquest rather than by direct inheritance. 

Maria died in Castello de Canosa, Apulia, after 10 December 1307. 

The title of King of Jerusalem continued to be borne in a spirit of rivalry: by 

the Kings of Cyprus belonging to the House of Lusignan; and by the two Houses 

of Anjou which claimed to hold their rights from Mary of Antioch. In 1459 

Charlotte, daughter of John III, King of Cyprus, married Louis of Savoy, Count 

of Geneva, and in 1485 ceded her rights to Jerusalem to her nephew 

Charles of Savoy; hence, from that time up to 1870, the title of King 

of Jerusalem was borne by the princes of the House of Savoy. 

The House of Antioch has origins German-Italian-French. But on the birth of 

Frederick little is known, thinking that he was the illegitimate son of Frederick II. 

The names of Antioch, for many historians, exclude the line paternal genealogical 

stating that it could be tied to the maternal legate. The simplest explanation of the 

name "Antioch" would be that the mother was descended from the Norman 

Bohemond of Hauteville, son of Robert Guisgardo. As we know, Bohemond 

conquered Antioch in the First Crusade on 3 June 1098, of which he was named 

prince. 

Bartolomeo da Neocastro (Historia Sicula, cit., P. 21) and also Pirro (See R. Pirro, 

Sicily, op. Cit. 25-35) states that the mother of Frederick is legitimate wife of 

the Emperor. According to these testimonies Frederick of Antioch should be 

considered legitimate son of the Emperor and the fourth wife: “Quarta vero uxor 

fuit inclyta Beatrix filia principis Antiochiae, ex quibus susceptus fuit Fridericus 

de Antiochia tantum, quem peter Caesar in regem Tusciae constituit, et 

Principatum Antiochiae non negavit, sed, proper mortem patris supervenientem, 

in regem non potuit filius publicari”. 


The Thomas Tusci Gesta Imperatorum et Pontificum refers to the mother of 

"Fredericus qui de Antiochia" as "Antiocha dicta". Zurita, presumably basing 

himself on the same source, also names “Beatriz...hija del Principe de Antioch” as 

the mother of “Federico de Antiochia”. 

Francesco Maria Emanuele e Gaetani 3 (Marquis di Villa Bianca) in 

“Della sicilia Nobile” page 25 and 26 refers to Matilde or Beatrice as 

wife of Frederick II. 

3 Francesco Maria Emanuele and Gaetani, Marquis of Villabianca, was born in Palermo, March 12, 

1720 by noble family from Spain that moved in Sicily in 1282 under King Peter of Aragon. From an 

early age became interested in historical studies and in particular the history of Palermo and Sicily. 

This passion led him throughout his life. He gathered all the information possible poking around in 

public and private archives, creating a huge library staff who at his death bequeathed to the city of 

Palermo and writing works that partly published and partly remained in manuscript. Francesco In 

1779 he was invested by Ferdinand III of Bourbon the title of Count of Belforte and awarded eulogy 

of "Benefactor of the homeland." 

In the years 1754-59 he published his major work, "La Sicilia Nobile," five books of the result of 

rigorous and relevant research efforts around the city and the state-owned land barons, the 

magistrates of the island, the noble families, feuds and investitures. 

In this work, which ensured European reputation, followed in 1776 the "Historical around the old 

offices: the kingdom of Sicily," in which he focused on the establishment and evolution of the main 

public magistracies introduced by the Normans. 


Rosario Gregorio in “Discorsi intorno alla Sicilia” volume 1 page 130 refers Matilde 

aka Beatrice as one of the wife of Frederick II. 

In the will of Frederick II, Frederick of Antioch, Vicar general of Tuscany. It is 

referred to as "Conte d'Alba" (BF, 3635, BFW, 13624b, Ernst Kantorowicz, 

Emperor Frederick II p. 746). Frederick of Antioch is not named as a 

bastard. The Antioch´s princess would live in Italy with the Emperor, in the years 

1222-1225, with a public cohabitation and stable enough to be called "uxor" by 

some sources. Bartolomeo da Neocastro lists five "uxores" Federico II. Among his 

first wife Constance of Aragon (1209-1222) and the second Jolanda or Isabella of 


Jerusalem (1225-1228) there is a gap (1222-1225): in this period was born 

Frederick of Antioch, at the same so there is a gap between the second and third 

wife Isabella of England (1235-1241): born in was born Manfredi (1232), whose 

mother Bianca Lancia is called a "fifth uxor." The hypothesis is: the first three wives 

"regular", then married women "in extremis", when they were about to die (GP 

Carosi, op. Cit., P. 24-25). 

Prince of Antioch in the Coat of Arms 

In addition, the Principality of Antioch enters in the coat of arms of the Emperor 

Frederick II (Alberto Meriggi, Corrado I of Antioch, primogeniture of Frederick, a 

"Prince" Ghibelline in the events of the second half of the thirteenth century, p. 34) 

as coat of arms at the time of his marriage to Isabella of Jerusalem (1225-1228) 

when according to all the testimony, Frederick of Antioch was already born. The 

coat of arms of Antioch remains the emblem of Frederick II and, as the title of 

succession can be passed to the illegitimate sons also. Therefore, we believe that 

the title of Antioch has been granted from father to son. It was in July of 1245, 

when Frederick of Antioch at the age of sixteen was invested as a knight by his 

father, becoming the official representative in the difficult part of Tuscany and was 

called to defend the interests of his family against the enemies of the Swabians (P. 

Ridola, op. Cit., p. 206; E. Kantorowicz, op. Cit., p. 731: GP Carosi, op. Cit., p. 26). 

Frederick II in the city of Cremona in 1245 created his son Frederick Prince of 

Antioch and girded him with his own hand the sword. 

In that same month, the Emperor Frederick II at the Council of Lyon, in July 17 the 

third excommunication of Frederick, he was excommunicated and deposed by Pope 

Innocent IV in these words: 

"We, Innocent IV, the servant of God, responsible to keep the faith and the unity of 

the Christian people, the protection of the good, the punishment of the wicked, 

declare that Federigo (Frederick) excommunicated as guilty of repeated perjury, 

sacrilege of heresy and has done nothing to exculpate himself, by virtue of our 

powers, we free his subjects from the oaths of loyalty rendered, and forbid anyone 

to recognize him as Emperor and King under pain of excommunication ....... it 

necessary to destroy until the last descendants of this brood of vipers so that they 

will never wear the imperial and royal crowns. " 

At that moment so critical for the Ghibellines party, the Emperor had entrusted to 

his illegitimate children the most important roles. In Northern Italy had sent as 

Vicar King Enzo of Sardinia, and fought as Imperial commander in Lombardy. 

Richard of Teato (Chieti), he was appointed vicar general of the Marca and Spoleto. 

Frederick of Antioch was awarded the captaincy general of Tuscany, also appointed 

podestà of Florence, a position he held five years until his father's death. They had 

revealed some administrative irregularities and corruption of various officials, so 


that Frederick II was forced to depose the Apulian Pandolfo of Fasanelle for years 

captain general of Tuscany, and replace him with his son Frederick of Antioch, who 

soon took the title of King of Tuscany. 

Frederick of Antioch was known by everyone as the kings not 

only because the Emperor’s son, but also for the extraordinary 

powers that were conferred to him (GP Carosi, op. Cit., P 28- 

29). Malispini recall (recall Malaspini, op. Cit., P. 995) says: 

"Frederick of Antioch, his son, was king." Furthermore the title 

of king is given to Frederick in the notarial acts of the time, and 

in those of many municipalities. In the Protocols of the city 

council of San Gimignano, King Frederick of Antioch is 

indicated at least fifty times (P. Ridola, op. Cit., P. 210). His 

son, Corrado Caputo of Antioch is still remembered as king in Treja, the ancient 

Montecchio and Anticoli. The popular tradition which attributed titles, not always 

legally justifiable, extolling the personal value of the individual characters (Alberto 

Meriggi p. 36). 

(Portrait of Frederick of Antioch, King of Tuscany, rebuilt for the first time from the tomb sculpture 

- the work of the journalist-Georgian painter Nato Sichinava. The picture was kindly forwarded to 

us by Paolo Francesco Barbaccia Viscardi a pretender descendant of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty. 

The young man was clever, energetic, prudent, and able to cope with the difficult 

situation of Tuscany, brave warrior and poet, kind gentle songs, was so lovable 

person and vague, that you'll hardly even saw him limping. 

Manfredi, his brother, was elected Duke of Taranto, according to the will and 

testament of Frederick II, regent, at eighteen, the Kingdom of Sicily, whose crown 

passed to him after the death of the legitimized brother Corrado IV. 

Frederick of Antioch had in Florence the center of his jurisdiction and in the course 

of his vicar took two notable successes: in 1247 he managed to conquer the city of 

Viterbo, and in February 1248 reoccupied Florence, as a result of a rebellion 

against the Ghibellines broke out in Parma and resulting implications for many 

destinations in Italy, had returned in the power of the Guelphs. These were the last 

of the great successes of the Ghibellines, These were the last of the great successes 

of the Ghibellines, the death of the Emperor and the succession of adverse events to 

the Swabians marked the beginning of an irreversible decline. It is well to mention 

that with the siege of Parma (1247), Emperor Frederick II made his son Frederick 

King of Antioch, so now his children become princes for legitimate descendent. 

In March 1247 Frederick met his father in Siena while the latter was on his way to 

Lyon to meet Pope Innocent IV. A general uprising diverted the emperor, and 

Frederick went north in August to join the siege of Parma. This was the only time 


during his vicariate that he ventured north of the Apennines. At Parma he met his 

half-brother Enzo and his father's other loyal supporters—Manfredi Lancia, Oberto 

Pelavicino, Ezzelino da Romano, Pietro Ruffo and Taddeo da Sessa. At Parma he 

was also formally enfeoffed as count of Albe, his father-in-law's old benefice. He 

had to return swiftly to Florence, however, to prevent it from falling under the 

control of the Papal legate Ottaviano degli Ubaldini. 

After defeated the Florentine uprising in the summer of 1247, the loyalty of even 

the Ghibelline centers was pragmatic rather than ideological. A second Florentine 

rebellion in the summer of 1250 defeated his troops near the loyal town of Figline. 

Frederick's representatives were chased from the city and a new government, called 

the Primo Popolo (People First), was instituted in Florence. When Emperor 

Frederick II died on 13 December 1250, although Frederick and Galvano Lancia 

learned of his death within a week (between 18 and 20 December), most of the 

imperial officials in Tuscany abandoned their posts. His administration having 

collapsed, Frederick nonetheless remained in Tuscany until the autumn (1251). 

Count in the kingdom of Sicily 

By February 1252, Frederick had joined his half-brother and father's heir, Conrad 

IV, in southern Italy. At a meet of the court in Foggia, Conrad confirmed 

Frederick's possession of the county of Alba and conferred on him those of Celano 

and Loreto Aprutino. Together Alba and Celano had once formed the county of the 

Marsi. Neither of these new acquisitions, however, were in Conrad's hands at the 

time. In 1247, Pope Innocent had restored Count Thomas of Celano and his son 

Roger to the lands the emperor had confiscated from them, and after the latter's 

death in 1250 they re-occupied them. Loreto Aprutino had been bestowed by the 

emperor on Count Thomas II of Aquino, but the latter went over to the Guelf side 

after Pope Innocent confirmed his possessions in June 1251. At Foggia, Conrad 

declared Loreto forfeit and transferred it to Frederick. Beginning in the summer of 

1252, Frederick, with the help of Gualtiero di Manoppello, re-conquered the 

counties of Loreto and Celano. The castle of Loreto was the last fortress to fall 

(1253). 

Conrad increasingly distrusted Frederick because of the latter's strong connections 

to the Lancia family: his son Corrado Caputo was married to Beatrice, whose father 

Galvano was long associated with Frederick in Tuscany. In 1253, perhaps fearing a 

Lancia coup to seize the Kingdom of Sicily, Conrad stripped his illegitimate halfbrother 

Manfredi Lancia of all his fiefs save the Principality of Taranto. Frederick 

and Galvano hired two Genoese ships at Tropea and embarked with their retinues 

to leave the kingdom. 

In July 1254, Pope Innocent summoned Manfredi, Frederick and the Count of 

Hohenberg to a council at Anagni. On 8 September the pope excommunicated 


them for not handing over Sicily to papal officers and confiscated their fiefs. In 

September a treaty was signed giving the Pope authority in Apulia, but in October, 

while accompanying Innocent into his new domains, Manfredi and Frederick 

escaped. With the aid of the local Saracen settlers they took control of Lucera on 2 

November. On 12 November, Innocent, referring to Frederick as "our faithful man" 

(fidelis noster), restored to him the counties of Alba, Celano and Loreto. It is 

possible that Frederick had entered into negotiations with the pope on his own 

initiative, but it is more likely that Innocent intended to coax him away from 

Manfredi, as he had already successfully done with Galvano. 

After the death of Innocent and the election of Alexander IV in 1255, Frederick rejoined 

Manfredi in the south. The following year, in 1256 and always in Foggia, 

occupied by Ottaviano Ubaldini, the Cardinal, Frederick of Antioch, who had been 

unable to resist more in Tuscany, died by falling into an ambush. While Frederick 

of Antioch was going to meet with Manfredi, which together had to assert the rights 

of their kingdom, instead of Manfredi he found the soldiers of the Pope so 

disappeared from history, "one of the most attractive figures of the time Swabian” 

(R. Davidsohn). Fredrick before was buried in the Cathedral of Santa Lucia di 

Mola, here Peter III of Aragon, Sicily, after the solemn funeral in the cathedral, 

temporarily laid the body of Frederick waiting to be then transported in the 

cathedral of Palermo. Fredrick of Antioch the only son of Emperor Frederick of 

Antioch who rest beside his father in the Cathedral of Palermo. By the will of 

Conrad IV the regents of the Kingdom of Sicily were already princes of Antioch. 

Dead Emperor Frederick II (1250) and his successor Conrad IV (1254) that left his 

son Conradin of just two years old, Manfred (Manfredi), another natural son of 

Frederick II and, therefore half-brother of Frederick of Antioch, took power in the 

Reign taking, protection of the legitimate heir to the throne. 

Origins of the claims of Kingdom of Jerusalem 

Over the years, many European rulers claimed to be the rightful heirs to one of 

these claims. None of these claimants, however, has actually ruled over any part of 

the Kingdom: 

Count Hugh of Brienne claimed the regency of the kingdom of Jerusalem, and 

indirectly, his place in the succession in 1264 as senior heir of Alice of Jerusalem, 

second daughter of Queen Isabella I, and Hugh I of Cyprus. Hugh, being the son of 

their eldest daughter, was passed over by the Haute Cour in favour of his cousin 

Hugh of Antioch, the future Hugh III of Cyprus and Hugh I of Jerusalem. The 

Brienne claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem continued, but the family had 

afterwards next to no part in affairs in Outremer. 


After the end of the kingdom, Henry II of Cyprus continued to use the title of king 

of Jerusalem. After his death the title was claimed by his direct heirs, the kings of 

Cyprus. 

The title was also continuously used by the Angevin kings of Naples, whose 

founder, Charles of Anjou, had bought a claim to the throne from Mary of Antioch. 

Thereafter, this claim to the kingdom of Jerusalem was treated as a tributary of the 

crown of Naples, which often changed hands by testament or conquest rather than 

direct inheritance. As Naples was a papal fief, the Popes often endorsed the title of 

King of Jerusalem as well as of Naples, and the history of these claims is that of the 

Neapolitan Kingdom. 


Maria Matilde of Antioch genealogy tree: 



The descendants of Frederick of Antioch 

Corrado Caputo prince of Antioch 

Corrado of Antioch (1240/41 – 1315?) married to Beatrice Lancia, daughter of 

Galvano, the Grand Marshal of the Kingdom. By her he had eight children, five 

boys and three girls. Two of the males, Francesco and Bartolomeo, became 

archbishop of Palermo. Two daughters, Giovanna and Constance, respectively 

brides to the brothers Cangrande and Bartholomew della Scala. 

Frederick of Antioch died leaving as heir his eldest son Corrado Caputo of Antioch, 

who was born between 1240 and 1241, he could have then been fifteen or sixteen 

years, the remarkable feudal heritage, including the domains of Abruzzo Alba, 

Celano and Loreto Aprutino those located on the north side of the Mountains Ruffi, 

on the Aniente´s Valley and the Via Valeria. In fact fell within its broad 

commutable domain, Anticoli, Saracinesco, the "Rocca di Surici", the "Rocca of 

Muzzi" and Sambuci. 

Filippa (Philippa) 

Filippa (1242-1273), born around 1242, married Manfredi Maletta, the grand 

chamberlain of Manfredi Lancia, in 1258. She was imprisoned by Charles of Anjou 

and died in prison in 1273. Maria, wife of Barnabò Malaspina, may also have been 

her daughter. 

Margherita 

Margherita 

Federico prince of Antioch 

Federico of Antioch (1245-?) Married the Countess Margaret of Escolo and it had 

five children, the eldest of which, Bartholomew of Antioch (born in 1270) was the 

founder of the noble family Bartholomew. Royal Soldier and Chancellor of King 

Frederick of Aragon. 

Maria 

Maria (+1275) 

Kinder (?) 


Frederick's sarcophagus in the Cathedral of Palermo (above) and a frontal 

reproduction of the same (right). 

Tomb of Federico King of Antioch. Federico is the 

only Emperor Frederick II´s son to be buried in 

the Palermo´s Cathedral. Two Corrado Caputo´s 

sons, both Archbishops, Bartolomeo and 

Francesco, are also buried the Cathedral. 


THE KINGDOM OF SICILY 

The Palazzo dei Normanni (in English, Palace of the Normans) or Royal Palace of Palermo is a 

palace in Palermo, Italy. It was the seat of the Kings of Sicily during the Norman domination and 

served afterwards as the main seat of power for the subsequent rulers of Sicily. Today it is the seat of 

the regional parliament of Sicily. 

The 12th century was one of Sicily’s richest periods. Palermo was the undisputed 

marketplace of the west Mediterranean, and Norman lords introduced still more 

new crops. Most Sicilian sugar was cultivated by imported chattels from Slavic 

lands (from whom our words “slaves” comes), but slavery was in fact growing 

increasingly rare in the Middle Ages. 

In its place, the feudal system had been evolving since the 10th century. Feudalism 

worked on the principle of superior lords delegating control over resources to 

inferior lords, in return for various obligations (particularly military). A minor lord 

would serve as a knight and provide foot soldiers for the king in return for lands 

and control over serfs. He might then grant some of these lands and serfs on to 

other lesser knights, or hold 

them directly himself. Feudalism produced a complex world, with overlapping 

chains of authority and loyalty. Often Church and personal ties so fragmented 

authority that it was hard to speak of a “state” at all. Sicily had an unusual version 


of feudalism, though. The Normans had conquered southern Italy by putting 

together alliances of dozens of ambitious lords, each of whom gave his allegiance 

only in return for a fief of lands and peasants. But when Robert Guiscard overran 

Sicily, he brought very few lords with him. This made his job harder, but once he 

got control, he kept more power in royal hands than was possible on the mainland. 

Sicily was probably the most centralized kingdom in Catholic Europe. An unusual 

number of Sicilian villages were autonomous, paying taxes to the king, but not 

belonging directly to a local lord. We don’t know Monte Polizzo’s status, but Salemi 

was part of the king’s demesne, or personal holding. 

The Normans built spectacular churches 

and palaces especially the cathedrals at 

Monreale and Cefalù. Erice preserves a lot 

of its medieval character, and the Cappella 

Palatina and Palazzo dei Normanni in 

Palermo are the masterpieces of Arab- 

Norman architecture. The church of San 

Giovanni degli Eremiti in Palermo is a 

Norman-period building but looks much 

more Arabic with its red domes. The Castle 

in Salemi dates back to Islamic times, but the version we see now was built in 1210 

(the chains and planks were added after the 1968 earthquake). The castle was 

officially reopened with a grand ceremony in summer 2002, and in 2003 was open 

reasonably often. German (Swabian) kings replaced the Norman dynasty in 1194, 

but the dynastic change was less important than the social, economic, and cultural 

changes that were under way in the 12th and 13th century. Kings all over Europe 

were getting more control over their unruly barons and the Church, strengthening 

the institutions of the central state and capturing a larger share of the revenue 

flows within their territories. One way to do this was by demonstrating the 

superiority of state institutions over other kinds of institutions, by doing things that 

only the state was in a position to do. In 1224 Frederick II founded Europe’s first 

state university, on the mainland at Naples; and in 1230 he drew up a new 

constitution, including Europe’s first codification of civil law since Justinian, 700 

years earlier. Naples and Palermo had wealthy, cosmopolitan, and educated elites, 

moving back and forth between French, German, Greek, Italian, Arabic, and Jewish 

culture. 

One result of the Vespers uprising was that a Spanish dynasty from Aragon 

replaced the French dynasty from Anjou. But there were more important results. 

The various Popes’ disgraceful double-dealings were exposed, and the resulting 

decline in the papacy’s already low moral authority seriously weakened the 


institution. Through much of the 14th century there were two Popes, one in Rome 

and one in exile at Avignon. By 1418 there were no fewer than three competing 

Popes; and a century later, Martin Luther began the Reformation. 

The Sicilian Vespers also provides much of the background to Dante’s Inferno. 

The economic disasters of 14th-century Europe, culminating in the Black Death of 

1347-50, hit Sicily particularly hard. In 1377 all authority collapsed, and after a 

quarter-century of more bitter wars, the island’s independent status ended. In 1412 

it was incorporated as a province of the kingdom of Aragon, under a viceroy. 

The conquest 

In 1035, William "the Iron-Arm" and Drogo, sons of Tancred of Hauteville, a petty 

noble in Normandy, arrived in South Italy. The two joined in the organized attempt 

to wrest Apulia from the Greeks, who by 1040 had lost most of that province. In 

1042 Melfi was chosen as the Norman capital, and in September of that year the 

Normans elected William as their count, who was succeeded in turn by his brothers 

Drogo, and Humphrey, who arrived about 1044. In 1047 Robert "the Guiscard" 

(+1085), the sixth son of Tancred of Hauteville, arrived in Italy. In 1057, Robert, 

succeeded Humphrey as Count of Apulia and, in company with Roger (+1101), his 

youngest brother, carried on the conquest of Apulia and Calabria. 

In 1061, Robert and Roger invaded Sicily and captured Messina. In January 1072, 

Robert "the Guiscard", as suzerain, invested his brother Roger I as Count of Sicily. 

Roger II (+1154), a son of Roger, who became Count 

of Sicily in 1105, and Duke of Apulia in 1127, united all 

the Norman conquests, and, in 1130, was declared the 

first King of Sicily. The new Kingdom included the 

Island of Sicily and the Southern Italy. 

In 1266, Charles, Count of Anjou, brother of King 

Louis IX of France, defeated Manfred, King of Sicily, 

and took his Kingdom 

In 1282, the Sicilians revolted against the 

administration of King Charles I ("the Sicilian 

Vespers revolt"). Soon after the revolt, the Sicilians 

turned to Peter III, King of Aragon, and the husband 

of Manfred’s daughter, who became King of Sicily. 

The Kingdom of Sicily became divided, the mainland portion remained in the 

hands of Charles I, and Peter III's domain extended only to the Island of Sicily 

itself. Charles I and his successors continued to use the title of "King of Sicily", 

although their Kingdom became known as the Kingdom of Naples after its capital. 


The Kingdom of Sicily (Italian: Regno di Sicilia, commonly abbreviated Regno) 

was a state that existed in the south of Italy from its founding by Roger II in 1130 

until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded 

in 1071 during the Norman conquest of southern Italy. The Kingdom covered not 

only the island of Sicily itself, but also the whole Mezzogiorno region of 

southern Italy and the Maltese archipelago. The island was divided into three 

regions; Val di Mazara, Val Demone and Val di Noto. 

It was sometimes called the regnum Apuliae et Siciliae until 1282. In 1282 a revolt 

against the Angevin rule, known as the Sicilian Vespers threw off Charles of Anjou's 

rule of the island of Sicily. The Angevins managed to maintain control in the 

mainland areas of the kingdom, which eventually became known as the Kingdom of 

Naples, after its capital. The island became a separate kingdom, under the rule of a 

Catalan dynasty that ruled over the kingdom of Aragon. After 1302 the island 

kingdom was sometimes called the Kingdom of Trinacria (the English 

equivalent word of Trinacria is the Triangle). Often the kingship was vested in 

another monarch such as the King of Aragon, the King of Spain or the Holy Roman 

Emperor. In 1816 the Kingdom of Sicily merged with Kingdom of Naples into the 

newly created Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In 1861 its areas were united with 

the Kingdom of Italy. 

Norman Kingdom 

The Norman Kingdom was created in 1130 

by Roger II of Sicily. Roger united the lands he 

inherited from his father Roger I of Sicily. These areas 

included the Duchy of Apulia and the County of Sicily, 

which belonged to his cousin William II, Duke of 

Apulia, until his death in 1127, and the other Norman 

vassals. Roger threw his support behind the Antipope 

Anacletus II, who enthroned him King of Sicily on 

Christmas Day 1130. 

(Left: Roger I 1071–1101. Birth 1031son of Tancred of 

Hauteville and Fredisenda) 

In 1136, the rival of Anacletus, Pope Innocent II, 

convinced Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor to attack the Kingdom of Sicily with 

help from the Byzantine Emperor John II Comnenus. Two main armies, one led by 

Lothair, the other by Duke of Bavaria Henry the Proud, invaded Sicily. On the 

river Tronto, William of Loritello surrendered to Lothair and opened the gates of 

Termoli to him. This was followed by Count Hugh II of Molise. The two armies 

were united at Bari, from where in 1137 they continued their campaign. Roger 


offered to give Apulia as a fief to the Empire, which Lothair refused after being 

pressured by Innocent. At the same period the army of Lothair revolted. 

Then Lothair, who had hoped for the complete conquest of Sicily, gave Capua and 

Apulia from the Kingdom of Sicily to Roger's enemies. Innocent protested, claiming 

that Apulia fell under papal claims. Lothair turned north, but died while crossing 

the Alps on December 4, 1137. At the Second Council of the Lateran in April 1139, 

Innocent excommunicated Roger for maintaining a schismatic attitude. On March 

22, 1139, at Galluccio, Roger's son Roger III, Duke of Apulia ambushed the papal 

troops with a thousand knights and captured the pope. On March 25, 1139, 

Innocent was forced to acknowledge the kingship and possessions of Roger with 

the Treaty of Mignano. 

Roger spent most of the decade, beginning with his coronation and ending with 

the Assizes of Ariano, enacting a series of laws with which Roger intended to 

centralise the government, fending off multiple invasions and quelling rebellions by 

his premier vassals: Grimoald of Bari, Robert II of Capua, Ranulf of 

Alife, Sergius VII of Naples and others. It was through his admiral George of 

Antioch that Roger then proceeded to conquer the Mahdia in Africa (Ifriqiya), 

taking the unofficial title "King of Africa". At the same time Roger's fleet attacked 

the Byzantine Empire, making Sicily the leading maritime power in 

the Mediterranean Sea for almost a century. 

decline. 

Roger's son and successor was William I of Sicily, known as 

"William the Bad", though his nickname derived primarily 

from his lack of popularity with the chroniclers, who 

supported the baronial revolts which William suppressed. 

His reign ended in peace (1166), but his son, William, was a 

minor. Until the end of the boy's regency in 1172, the 

kingdom saw turmoil which almost brought the ruling 

family down. The reign of William II is remembered as two 

decades of almost continual peace and prosperity. For this 

more than anything, he is nicknamed "the Good". He died 

in 1189 without having heirs, which led the kingdom to 

(Above: William I the Bad 1154–1166 Birth 1131 son of Roger II and Elvira of Castile) 

Tancred of Lecce seized the throne but had to contend with the revolt of his distant 

cousin Roger of Andria and the invasion of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor on 

behalf of his wife, Constance, the daughter of Roger II. Constance and Henry 

eventually prevailed and the kingdom fell in 1194 to the House of Hohenstaufen. 


Through Constance, the Hauteville blood was passed to Frederick II, Holy Roman 

Emperor. 

During the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, the local communities maintained their 

privileges. The rulers of the Hohenstaufen Kingdom replaced the local nobility with 

lords from northern Italy, leading to clashes and rebellions against the new nobility 

in many cities and rural communities. These revolts resulted in the destruction of 

many agrarian areas and the rise of middle class nationalism, which eventually led 

to urban dwellers becoming allies of the Aragonese. This situation was continued 

during the short rule of the Angevin until their overthrowing during the Sicilian 

Vespers. The Angevin began feudalizing the country, increasing the power of the 

nobility by granting them jurisdiction over high justice. During the 15th century 

due to the isolation of the Kingdom, the Renaissance had no impact on it. 

At the same period the feudalization of the Kingdom of Sicily was intensified, 

through the enforcement of feudal bonds and relations among its subjects. In 1669 

the eruption of Mount Etna destroyed Catania. In 1693, 5% of the Kingdom's 

population was killed because of earthquakes. In that period there were also plague 

outbreaks. The 17th and 18th century was an era of decline of the Kingdom. 

Corruption was prevalent among the upper and middle classes of the society. 

Widespread corruption and maltreatment of the lower classes by the feudal lords 

led to the creation of groups of brigands, attacking the nobility and destroying 

their fiefs. These groups which were self-named "Mafia", were the foundation of the 

modern Mafia. The escalation of revolts against the monarchy eventually led to the 

unification with Italy. 

Hohenstaufen Kingdom 

The accession of Frederick, a child who would then become also the Holy Roman 

Emperor Frederick II in 1197, greatly affected the immediate future of Sicily. For a 

land so used to centralized royal authority, the king's young age caused a serious 

power vacuum. His uncle Philip of Swabia moved to secure Frederick's inheritance 

by appointing Markward von Anweiler, margrave of Ancona, regent in 1198. 

Meanwhile, Pope Innocent III had reasserted papal authority in Sicily, but 

recognized Frederick's rights. The pope was to see papal power decrease steadily 

over the next decade and was unsure about which side to back at many junctures. 

The Hohenstaufen's grip on power, however, was not secure. Walter III of 

Brienne had married the daughter of Tancred of Sicily. She was sister and heiress 

of the deposed King William III of Sicily. In 1201 William decided to claim the 

kingdom. In 1202, an army led by the chancellor Walter of Palearia and Dipold of 

Vohburg was defeated by Walter III of Brienne. Markward was killed, and 

Frederick fell under the control of William of Capparone, an ally of the Pisans. 

Dipold continued the war against Walter on the mainland until the claimant's 


death in 1205. Dipold finally wrested Frederick from Capparone in 1206 and gave 

him over to the guardianship of the chancellor, Walter of Palearia. Walter and 

Dipold then had a falling out, and the latter captured the royal palace, where he 

was besieged and captured by Walter in 1207. After a decade, the wars over the 

regency and the throne itself had ceased. 

The reform of the laws began with the Assizes of Ariano in 1140 by Roger II. 

Frederick continued the reformation with the Assizes of Capua (1220) and the 

promulgation of the Constitutions of Melfi (1231, also known as Liber Augustalis), 

a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time. The 

Constitutions of Melfi were created in order to establish a centralized state. For 

example, citizens were not allowed to carry weapons or wear armour in public 

unless they were under royal command. As a result, rebellions were reduced. The 

Constitutions made the Kingdom of Sicily an absolute monarchy, the first 

centralized state in Europe to emerge from feudalism; it also set a precedent for the 

primacy of written law. With relatively small modifications, the Liber 

Augustalis remained the basis of Sicilian law until 1819. During this period, he also 

built the Castel del Monte, and in 1224, he founded the University of Naples, now 

called Università Federico II. It remained the sole athenaeum of Southern Italy for 

centuries. 

After the death of Frederick, the Kingdom was 

ruled by Henry VII of Germany and Conrad IV of 

Germany. The next legitimate heir was 

Conrad II, who was too young at the period to 

rule. Manfred of Sicily, the illegitimate son of 

Frederick, took the power and ruled the kingdom 

for fifteen years while other Hohenstaufen heirs 

were ruling various areas in Germany. After long 

wars against the Papal States, the Kingdom 

managed to defend its possessions, but 

the Papacy declared the Kingdom escheated 

because of disloyalty of the Hohenstaufen. Under 

this pretext he came to an agreement 

with Louis IX, King of France. Louis's 

brother, Charles of Anjou, would become king of 

Sicily. In exchange, Charles recognized the 

overlordship of the Pope in the Kingdom, paid a 

portion of the papal debt, and agreed to pay 

annual tribute to the Papal States. The Hohenstaufen rule in Sicily ended after the 

1266 Angevin invasion and the death of Conradin, the last male heir of 

Hohenstaufen, in 1268. 


(Above: Manfred 1258–1266 Birth 1232, son of Frederick II) 

Angevin and Aragonese Kingdom 

In 1266, conflict between the Hohenstaufen house and 

the Papacy led to Sicily's conquest by Charles I, Duke 

of Anjou. Opposition to French officialdom and 

taxation combined with incident of rebellion by 

Aragonese and Byzantine agents led to the Sicilian 

Vespers insurrection and successful invasion by 

king Peter III of Aragon in 1282. The resulting War of 

the Sicilian Vespers lasted until the Peace of 

Caltabellotta in 1302, dividing the old Kingdom of 

Sicily in two. The island of Sicily, called the "Kingdom 

of Sicily beyond the Lighthouse" or the Kingdom of 

Trinacria, went to Frederick III of the house of Aragon, 

who had been ruling it. The peninsular territories 

(the Mezzogiorno), contemporaneously called 

Kingdom of Sicily but called Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went 

to Charles II of the house of Anjou, who had likewise been ruling it. Thus, the peace 

was formal recognition of an uneasy status quo. Despite the king of Spain were able 

to seize both the two crowns starting from the XVI century, the administrations of 

the two halves of the Kingdom of Sicily remained separated until 1816, when they 

were reunited in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. 

The kingdom of Sicily under Aragon and Spain 

Sicily was ruled as an independent kingdom by 

relatives or cadet branch of the house of Aragon until 

1409 and thence as part of the Crown of Aragon. The 

Kingdom of Naples was ruled by the Angevin 

ruler René of Anjou until the two thrones were reunited 

by Alfonso V of Aragon, after the successful siege of 

Naples and the defeat of René on June 6, 1443. 

Eventually, Alfonso of Aragon divided the two 

kingdoms during his rule. He gave the rule of Naples to 

his son Ferdinand I of Naples, who ruled from 1458 to 

1494, and Aragon and Sicily to Alfonso's 

brother John II of Aragon. From 1494 to 1503 

successive kings of France Charles VIII and Louis XII, who were heirs of 

Angevines, tried to conquer Naples but failed. Eventually the Kingdom of Naples 

was reunited with the Aragonese Kingdom. The titles were held by the Aragonese 

kings of the Catalan-Aragonese Crown until 1516, followed by the Kings of 

Spain until the expiration of the Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg in 1700. 


(Above: Alfonso the Magnanimous (also Alphonso; Catalan: Alfons; 1396 – 27 June 1458) 

was the King of Aragon (as Alfonso V), Valencia (as Alfonso III), Majorca, Sardinia and 

Corsica (as Alfonso II), and Sicily and Count of Barcelona (as Alfonso IV) from 1416 and King of 

Naples (as Alfonso I) from 1442 until his death. He was one of the most prominent figures of the 

early Renaissance and a knight of the Order of the Dragon) 

The War of the Spanish Succession 

From 1713 until 1720 the 

Kingdom of Sicily was 

ruled briefly by the House 

of Savoy, which had 

received it by the terms of 

the Treaty of Utrecht, 

which brought an end to 

the War of the Spanish 

Succession. The kingdom 

was a reward to the 

Savoyards, who were thus 

elevated to royal rank. The 

new king, Victor Amadeus 

II, travelled to Sicily in 

1713 and remained a year before returning to his mainland capital, Turin, where his 

son the Prince of Piedmont had been acting as regent. In Spain the results of the 

war had not been truly accepted, and the War of the Quadruple Alliance was the 

result. Sicily was occupied by Spain in 1718. When it became evident that Savoy had 

not the strength to defend as remote a country as Sicily, Austria stepped in and 

exchanged its Kingdom of Sardinia for Sicily. 

Victor Amadeus protested this exchange, Sicily being a rich country of over one 

million inhabitants and Sardinia a poor country of a few hundred thousand, but he 

was unable to resist his "allies". Spain was finally defeated in 1720, and the Treaty 

of the Hague ratified the changeover. Sicily belonged to the Austrian Habsburgs, 

who already ruled Naples. Victor Amadeus, for his part, continued to protest for 

three years, and only in 1723 decided to recognize the exchange and desist from 

using the Sicilian royal title and its subsidiary titles (such as King of Cyprus and 

Jerusalem). 


The two kingdoms under the house of Bourbon 

In 1735, Naples and Sicily were attacked by King Philip 

V of Spain, Bourbon, who installed his younger son, 

Duke Charles of Parma, as King Charles VII of Naples 

and Sicily, starting a cadet branch of the house of 

Bourbon. In 1799 Napoleon conquered Naples, 

governed by Ferdinand IV of Naples (later Ferdinand I 

of the Two Sicilies) at the time. It was formed into 

the Parthenopaean Republic with French support. 

Under British pressure, especially from Lord William 

Bentinck, who was commander of British troops in 

Sicily, Naples was then handed back to Ferdinand, 

being forced to create a constitution for the Kingdom of 

Sicily. (Picture: Ferdinand I, Portrait by Angelica Kauffmann). 

A two-chamber parliament in Palermo and in Naples was formed. The formation of 

the parliament brought the end of feudalism in the Kingdom. After the defeat 

of Napoleon in 1815 Ferdinand repealed all reforms. The people of Sicily rebelled 

but were defeated by Spanish and Austrian forces. In 1848 another Sicilian 

revolution of independence occurred, which was put down by Ferdinand II of the 

Two Sicilies, who was surnamed R Bomba after his 5-day bombardment of 

Messina. From 1816 to 1861 the kingdoms were united under the name Kingdom of 

the Two Sicilies. 

Malta under the Knights 

In 1530, in an effort to protect Rome from Ottoman invasion from the 

south, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, as Charles I of Spain, gave the Islands 

of Malta and Gozo to the Knights Hospitaller in perpetual fiefdom, in exchange for 

an annual fee of two (one for the emperor and one for the viceroy of Sicily) Maltese 

falcons, which they were to send on All Souls' Day to the Viceroy of Sicily. The 

Maltese Islands had formed part of the Duchy, and later the Kingdom of Sicily, 

since 1127. The feudal relationship between Malta and the Kingdom of Sicily was 

continued throughout the rule of the Knights, until Malta was seized by Napoleon, 

in 1798. 


KINGDOM OF NAPLES 

Castle of Monte SantÁngelo 

The castle of Monte Sant'Angelo stands with its gigantic and powerful structures of 

different ages in a dominant position following the irregularities of the rocky ridge 

northward to a peak overlooking the valley of Carbonara di Bari. The castle was 

built in a strategic position and is mentioned in a certificate of Louis II with a date 

of 875. Subject to additions and changes over time, the Normans used it not only 

for defense, but also for administrative and legal purposes. It became the seat of 

the lordship dell'Honor Montis Sancti Angeli. Robert Guiscard built the tower of 

the Normans and the throne room. Under Frederick II in 1239 the structure 

became the privileged castle and home of Bianca Lancia. The Angevines 

imprisoned there Swabian Princess Philippa of Antioch (sister of 

Corrado Caputo of Antioch) and Queen Joanna, who was murdered in 

1382. Charles III of Naples was born here to the prince of Durazzo. The Aragonese 

Ferdinand reinforced the castle between 1491 and 1493 by building towers and 

restoring the circular hull-shaped tower. The castle was then transferred to 

Skanderbeg who kept it for twenty years. In 1497 the castle went to Gonsalvo of 

Cordova, and subsequently to the Grimaldi princes. Toward the end of the 1700s 

Ferdinand of Bourbon gave it to Cardinal Ruffo. Abandoned and dilapidated, the 

castle became a refuge for flocks and shepherds. It is currently owned by the 

municipality. 


Overview 

Kingdom of Naples, former state, occupying the Italian peninsula south of the 

former Papal States. It comprised roughly the present regions 

of Campania, Abruzzi, Molise, Basilicata, Apulia, and Calabria. Naples was the 

capital. 

(Above: Robert Guiscard - Musée de Hauteville-la-Guichard) 

In the 11th and 12th cent, the Normans under Robert 

Guiscard and his successors seized S Italy from the 

Byzantines. The popes, however, claimed suzerainty over 

S Italy and were to play an important part in the history 

of Naples. In 1139 Roger II, Guiscard's nephew, was 

invested by Innocent II with the kingdom of Sicily, 

including the Norman lands in S Italy. The last Norman 

king designated Constance, wife of Holy Roman Emperor 

Henry VI, as his heir and the kingdom passed 

successively to Frederick II, Conrad IV, Manfred, 

and Conradin of Hohenstaufen. 

Under them S Italy flowered, but in 1266 Charles I (Charles of Anjou), founder of 

the Angevin dynasty, was invested with the crown by Pope Clement IV, who wished 

to drive the Hohenstaufen family from Italy. Charles lost Sicily in 1282 but retained 

his territories on the mainland, which came to be known as the kingdom of Naples. 

Refusing to give up their claim to Sicily, Charles and his successors warred with the 

house of Aragón, which held the island, until in 1373 Queen Joanna I of Naples 

formally renounced her claim. 

During her reign began the struggle for succession between Charles of Durazzo 

(later Charles III of Naples) and Louis of Anjou (Louis I of Naples). The struggle 

was continued by their heirs. Charles's descendants, Lancelot and Joanna II, 

successfully defended their thrones despite papal support of their French rivals, but 

Joanna successively adopted as her heir Alfonso V of Aragón and Louis III 

and René of Anjou, and the dynastic struggle was prolonged. Alfonso defeated René 

and in 1442 was invested with Naples by the pope. His successor in 

Naples, Ferdinand I (Ferrante), suppressed (1485) a conspiracy of the powerful 

feudal lords. Meanwhile the Angevin claim to Naples had passed to the French 

crown with the death (1486) of René's nephew, Charles of Maine. 

Charles VIII of France pressed the claim and in 1495 briefly seized Naples, thus 

starting the Italian Wars between France and Spain. Louis XII, Charles's successor, 

temporarily joined forces with Spain and dethroned Frederick (1501), the last 

Aragonese king of Naples, but fell out with his allies, who defeated him. 


The Treaties of Blois (1504–5) gave Naples and Sicily 

to Spain, which for two centuries ruled the two 

kingdoms through viceroys—one at Palermo, one at 

Naples. Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba was the first 

viceroy of Naples. Under Spain, S Italy became one of 

the most backward and exploited areas in Europe. 

Heavy taxation (from which the nobility and clergy 

were exempt) filled the Spanish treasury; agriculture 

suffered from the accumulation of huge estates by 

quarreling Italian and Spanish nobles and the church; 

famines were almost chronic; disease, superstition, and 

ignorance flourished. A popular revolt against these 

conditions, led by Masaniello, was crushed in 1648. In the War of the Spanish 

Succession the kingdom was occupied (1707) by Austria, which kept it by the terms 

of the Peace of Utrecht (1713; see Utrecht, Peace of). During the War of the Polish 

Succession, however, Don Carlos of Bourbon (later Charles III of Spain) re 

conquered Naples and Sicily. The Treaty of Vienna (1738) confirmed the conquest, 

and the two kingdoms became subsidiary to the Spanish crown, ruled in personal 

union by a cadet branch of the Spanish line of Bourbon. Naples then had its own 

dynasty, but conditions improved little. 

(Above: GONZALO FERNANDEZ DE CORDOBA,''THE GREAT CAPTAIN” Córdoba, 1453 - 

Granada, 1515) was the first viceroy of Naples). 

In 1798 Ferdinand IV and his queen, Marie Caroline, fled from the French 

Revolutionary army. The Parthenopean Republic was set up (1799), but the 

Bourbons returned the same year with the help of the English under Lord Nelson. 

Reprisals were severe; Sir John Acton, the queen's favorite, once more was 

supreme. In 1806 the French again drove out the royal couple, who fled to Sicily. 

Joseph Bonaparte (see under Bonaparte, made king of Naples by Napoleon I, was 

replaced in 1808 by Joachim Murat. Murat's beneficent reforms were revoked after 

his fall and execution (1815) by Ferdinand, who was restored to the throne (Marie 

Caroline had died in 1814). In 1816 Ferdinand merged Sicily and Naples and styled 

himself Ferdinand I, king of the Two Sicilies. 

Ferdinand I (Ferdinando Antonio Pasquale Giovanni Nepomuceno 

Serafino Gennaro Benedetto, January 12, 1751 – January 4, 1825) was King 

variously of Naples, Sicily, and the Two Sicilies from 1759 until his death. He 

was the third son of King Charles VII of Naples and Sicily by his wife Maria 

Amalia of Saxony. On August 10, 1759, Charles succeeded his brother as 

King Charles III of Spain. Treaty provisions made Charles unable to hold the 

titles of all three Kingdoms. On October 6, 1759 he therefore abdicated in 


favor of Ferdinand (Charles's eldest son, Philip, was mentally retarded and the second 

son, Charles, was destined to inherit the Spanish throne. 

For the remaining history of Naples, annexed to Sardinia in 1860 

Palazzo Reale di Napoli (Royal Palace of Naples) 

In the Library of the Royal Palace of Naples is where we have found several old books regarding our 

ancestor Corrado Caputo of Antioch in the Reign of Sicily and Naples. 

THE SICILIAN VESPERS 

The Sicilian Vespers is the name given to a 

rebellion in Sicily in 1282 against the rule of the 

Angevin king Charles I of Naples, who had taken 

control of the island with Papal support in 1266. It 

was the beginning of the eponymous War of the 

Sicilian Vespers. 

The rising had its origin in the struggle between 

the Hohenstaufen-ruled Holy Roman Empire and 

the Papacy for control over Italy. When 

Hohenstaufen Manfred of Sicily was defeated in 

1266, the Kingdom of Sicily was entrusted to his 

rival, Charles of Anjou, by Pope Urban IV. 

Charles regarded his Sicilian territories as a 


springboard for his Mediterranean ambitions, which included the overthrow of the 

Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus. His French officials, who governed 

Sicily badly, mistreated native Sicilians with rape, theft and murder. 

The Papacy versus the House of Hohenstaufen 

The rising had its origin in the struggle between the House of Hohenstaufen, which 

in the 13th century ruled Germany and most of northern Italy, and the papacy for 

control over Italy, especially the Church's private demesne known as the Papal 

States. The Papal States were considered a part of the Holy Roman Empire, and lay 

between Hohenstaufen lands in northern Italy and the Hohenstaufen Kingdom of 

Sicily in the south. In 1245 Pope Innocent IV even declared the emperor Frederick 

II to be deposed and proceeded to rouse opposition to him in Germany and Italy. 

When Frederick died in 1250, his dominion was inherited by his son, Conrad. Upon 

Conrad's death in 1254, followed a period of turmoil; eventually control of the 

Kingdom of Sicily was seized by Manfred, Frederick's natural son, whose reign 

lasted from 1258 to 1266. 

Manfred had no involvement in German politics, where the interregnum lasted 

longer and there was no emperor until 1274. He first styled himself as vicar of his 

nephew Conradin, Conrad's son. However, later Manfred had himself crowned as 

king, following a false rumor that Conradin was dead. Manfred wished for 

reconciliation with the papacy. However, Pope Urban IV and later Pope Clement IV 

were not prepared to recognize Manfred as lawful ruler of Sicily and sought to 

depose him by force of arms, since excommunication proved to be insufficient. 

After abortive attempts to enlist England as the champion of the Papacy against 

Manfred, Urban IV settled on Charles of Anjou, as his candidate for the Sicilian 

throne. Charles invaded Italy and defeated and killed Manfred in 1266 at the Battle 

of Benevento, becoming King of Sicily. In 1268 Conradin, who had meanwhile 

come of age, invaded Italy to press his claim to the throne, but he was defeated at 

the Battle of Tagliacozzo and executed afterwards. Charles was now undisputed 

master of most of Italy. 

Charles of Anjou and Sicilian unrest 

At the year 1282 Charles was without doubt the greatest 

potentate in Europe but his arrogance blinded his vision. 

Confident of his power and the support of the Papacy, he forgot 

that he still had enemies whose strength he had not tested. He 

forgot the exiles from the Sicilian kingdom who vowed to his 

destruction. 

These Ghibellines in exile refuged across the sea at Barcelona, 

capital of the kingdom of Aragon. Twenty years before. In 1262, 


King Manfred had married his daughter Constance to the Infant Peter, elder son of 

the Aragonese king, James I 4 (Giacomo I). As though foreseeing the future, Pope 

Urban and King Louis IX of France had opposed the marriage, but Manfred was 

still on his throne; his friendship was significance to Aragon. 

With Manfred killed and Corradino beheaded and Manfred´s 

sons languishing in prison, Constance (cousin to Corrado of 

Antioch) became the heiress of the Hohenstaufen cause in 

Italy. Her husband Peter was devoted to her and proud of her 

descent. Constance as the sole and legitimate descendant of 

the house Swabian, tried to take possession of the Kingdom of 

Sicily urging her husband Peter to intervene in the affairs of 

the kingdom of Sicily. 

In 1276, Constance, with her husband, was crowned queen of Aragon. (Above 

Constance Coat of Arms; Hohenstaufen Eagle and Aragon coat of arms). 

Charles regarded his Sicilian territories as a springboard for his Mediterranean 

ambitions, which included the overthrow of the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII 

Palaeologus, and the capture of Constantinople, then the richest city in the western 

world. Although his rule was quite just, unrest was simmering in Sicily because the 

island played a very subordinate role in Charles's empire — its nobles had no share 

in the government of their own island and were not compensated by lucrative posts 

abroad, as were Charles's French, Provençal and Neapolitan subjects; also the taxes 

were heavy but they were spent on Charles's wars outside Sicily, making Sicily 

somewhat of a donor economy to Charles' nascent empire. As Runciman put it, 

"(The Sicilians) saw themselves now being ruled to enable an alien tyrant make 

conquests from which they would have no benefit" 

The unrest was also being fomented by agents of the Byzantine Emperor Michael 

Palaeologus who was desperate to thwart Charles's projected invasion of his 

empire, and of the Aragonese king Peter III, Manfred's son-in-law, who saw his 

wife Constance as rightful heir to the Sicilian throne. 

4 James I the Conqueror (Catalan: Jaume el Conqueridor, Aragonese: Chaime lo 

Conqueridor, Spanish: Jaime el Conquistador, Occitan: Jacme lo Conquistaire; 2 February 1208 – 

27 July 1276) was the King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellierfrom 1213 to 

1276. His long reign saw the expansion of the Crown of Aragon on all sides: into Valencia to the 

south, Languedoc to the north, and the Balearic Islands to the east. By a treaty with Louis IX of 

France, he wrested the county of Barcelona from nominal French suzerainty and integrated it into 

his crown. His part in the Reconquista was similar in Mediterranean Spain to that of his 

contemporary Ferdinand III of Castile in Andalusia. 


Giovanni da Procida 

It was after Corradino of Swabia´s downfall a Tagliacozzo that first Ghibellines 

refugees arrive at the Infanta´s court at Barcelona. They were led by Roger of 

Lauria, who has shared her foster mother with her. With them came officials who 

had served her grandfather, Frederick II, such as Riccardo (Richard) Filangieri and 

lawyer Henry of Isernia and Doctor Giovanni da Procida (John of Procida 1210– 

1298) who was Emperor Frederick II personal physician. 

Giovanni da Procida for his work with Frederick II, was 

rewarded various lands near Naples, including the island 

of Procida. He was entrusted with the education of 

Frederick's son Manfred. He was at Manfred's side as the 

Chancellor of the realm until his defeat at the Battle of 

Benevento in 1266. In that year he went to Viterbo, Italy 

and arranged the marriage of his daughter to the 

Neapolitan Guelph, Bartholomew Caracciolo, and then 

served with the Hohenstaufen army. After the defeat of 

the Hohenstaufens at Tagliacozzo he escaped to Venice 

with Manfred Maletta (Corrado´s brother in law). His 

estates were confiscated by Charles; and his wife and 

daughter were mistreated or raped by the French knight sent to evict them and one 

of his son murdered (Runciman 5 , p. 224). In 1269 or 1270 he was in Germany 

trying to drum up support for the return of the Hohenstaufen to the throne of 

Sicily. While existing Sicilian legends overplay John of Procida's role in the 

dramatic politics of this time, Runciman concurs that he was at the center of a "vast 

political conspiracy" in support of the House of Hohenstaufen (backed by the 

Byzantines and their Genoese allies) and against Charles of Anjou and his ally the 

Pope. Soon after his accession King Peter nominated John of Procida as chancellor 

of Aragon, commending him in the deed of appointment for his learning and his 

known fidelity to the House of Hohenstaufen. 

(Picture above: Reproduction of the profile present in the Duomo of 

Salerno (Michele Parascandolo.Storia di Procida, Benevento, 1893). 

Easter Monday 1292 

On Easter Monday (30 March), 1282 at the Church of the Holy Spirit just outside 

Palermo, at evening prayer (vespers), a Frenchman harassed a Sicilian woman. 

Accounts differ as to what the harassment entailed, who the woman was, and who 

the Frenchman was. 

5 Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman CH (7 July 1903 – 1 November 2000) — known 

as Steven Runciman — was a British historian known for his work on the Middle Ages. His best 

known work is his three volume A History of the Crusades (1951-54). 


This single event led to the massacre of four thousand Frenchmen over the course 

of the next six weeks. The king of Sicily at the time, Charles I, was an Angevin, and 

his French followers had a legacy of mistreating the native people of Sicily, 

especially while Charles was away on one of his many absences. Only a few officials 

notable for their good conduct were spared; and the city of Messina held out for 

Charles. But through the diplomatic errors of the vicar, Herbert of Orléans, 

Messina revolted on April 28. Herbert retreated to the castle of Mategriffon and the 

Crusader fleet stationed in the harbor was burned. 

The church of the Holy Spirit in Palermo. 

The event takes its name from an insurrection which began at the start of Vespers, 

the sunset prayer marking the beginning of the night vigil on Easter Monday, 

March 30, 1282, at the Church of the Holy Spirit just outside Palermo. Because the 

city's borders have expanded over the centuries, the church is now within the city 

limits. Beginning on the night of the Vespers, thousands of Sicily's French 

inhabitants were massacred within six weeks. The events that started the uprising 

are not known for certain, but the various retellings have common elements. Only a 

small village called Sperlinga protected French soldiers in a castle excavated in 

sandstone. 

According to Steven Runciman, in Sicily was (and still is) a custom to celebrate 

with a picnic the day after Easter. That day is called Pasquetta (Little Easter). In 

that day people swarm to the countryside with baskets full of food and drinks to 

have a good time, the Sicilians at the church were engaged in holiday festivities and 

a group of French officials came by to join in and began to drink. To the Sicilians 

was forbidden to bear arms, while the French went always armed. A sergeant 

named Drouet dragged a young married woman from the crowd, pestering her with 

his advances. Her husband then attacked Drouet with a knife, killing him. When 

the other Frenchmen tried to avenge their comrade the Sicilian crowd fell upon 

them, killing them all. At that moment all the church bells in Palermo began to ring 

for Vespers. Runciman best describes the mood of the night: 

“To the sound of the bells messengers ran through the city calling on the men of 

Palermo to rise against the oppressor. At once the streets were filled with angry 

armed men, crying "Death to the French" ('Moranu li Francisi' in the Sicilian 

language). Every Frenchman they met was struck down. They poured into the 

inns frequented by the French and the houses where they dwelt, sparing neither 

man, woman nor child. Sicilian girls who had married Frenchmen perished with 

their husbands. The rioters broke into the Dominican and Franciscan convents; 

and all the foreign friars were dragged out and told to pronounce the word 

'ciciri', whose sound the French tongue could never accurately reproduce. Anyone 


who failed the test was slain… By the next morning some two thousand French 

men and women lay dead; and the rebels were in complete control of the city” 

After leaders were elected in Palermo, messengers were sent to spread word across 

the island for the rebels to strike now before the oppressor had time to organize 

resistance. It took a fortnight for the rebels to gain control over most of the island, 

and within six weeks it was all under rebel control, with the notable exception of 

Messina as it was well fortified, and its leading family, the Riso, remained faithful 

to Charles. But on 28 April it too had broken into open revolt and, most 

significantly, the islanders' first act was to set fire to Charles' fleet lying in the 

harbor. It is reported that upon hearing of the fleet's destruction, King Charles 

realized how serious was his plight and exclaimed "Lord God, since it has pleased 

You to ruin my fortune, let me only go down in small steps." 

Charles' Vicar Herbert and his family were safely within the castle Mategriffon, but 

after some time for negotiations the rebels granted Herbert and his family safe 

conduct to leave the island upon a promise that they never return. After the 

restoration of order in the city, the townsmen announced themselves a free 

commune answerable only to the pope. They elected leaders, one of whom was 

Bartholomeo of Neocastro who was prominent in the unfolding events and would 

later chronicle much of the revolt in Historia Sicula, an important if sometimes 

contradictory source of information to historians. Again significantly, the leaders' 

next act was to send word, via a Genoese merchant named Alafranco Cassano, to 

the Emperor Michael advising him that his nemesis Charles had been crippled. 

Only thereafter were ambassadors sent to Pope Martin IV pleading for each city on 

the island to be recognized as a free commune under the sole suzerainty of the Holy 

Church. The islanders were hoping for status such as enjoyed by Venice, Genoa, 

Pisa and other cities, free to form their own government, but morally answerable 

only to the pope who would hold a vague and unstable suzerainty. However the 

French pope was firmly in Charles' camp and he directed the Sicilians to recognize 

Charles as their rightful king. However Martin underestimated the Sicilians' hatred 

of the French, especially Charles because he ruled their kingdom from Naples 

rather than the traditional Palermo where he could have seen the suffering caused 

by his officials. Charles' island officials were far removed from his oversight; he did 

not see the avarice, the abusive behavior manifesting itself as rape, theft and 

murder, nor did he see the high taxes levied against the meager possessions of the 

peasants, which kept them impoverished, but made no improvement in their lives. 

The Aragonese invasion 

After the pope refused the rebels' pleas for the status of free communes, the 

islanders sent for Pedro III of Aragon whose wife Constance was Manfred's 

daughter, Henry VI's great-granddaughter; and the sole surviving heir of Frederick 


II who was not in captivity and was in a position to assert her rights. Pedro III 

championed his wife's claim to the entirety of the Kingdom of Sicily. 

Prior to the Vespers, Pedro (Peter) III had constructed and outfitted a fleet for war 

and upon the pope's inquiry of the need for such a great war fleet, Pedro stated that 

it was to be used against the followers of Islam along the northern coast of Africa as 

he had legitimate interests in trade there and he needed to protect them. So when 

Pedro received a request for help from the Sicilians he was conveniently on the 

north coast of Africa in Tunis just 200 miles across the sea from the island. At first 

Pedro feigned to be indifferent to the request of the Sicilians and to the plight of the 

islanders, but after several days to allow a proper showing of deference made for 

the pope's consumption, Pedro took advantage of the revolt. He ordered his fleet to 

sail for Sicily, landed at Trapani on August 30, 1282. While he marched towards 

Palermo, his fleet followed close by the coastal road. Pedro's involvement changed 

the character of the uprising from a local revolt into a European War. Pedro arrived 

at Palermo on September 2 and initially he was received by the populace with 

indifference, it was merely one foreign king replacing another; they much preferred 

a free commune under a vague suzerainty of the pope. However, after Pope Martin 

made plain his orders for the populace to accept Charles, Pedro made a promise to 

the islanders that they would enjoy the ancient privileges they had had under the 

Norman king, William the Good. Thereafter, Pedro was accepted as a satisfactory 

second choice and was crowned by acclamation of the people at the cathedral in 

Palermo on September 4, thus becoming also Peter I of Sicily. 

With the pope's blessing the counter-attack from Charles was not long in coming; 

his fleet from Naples arrived and blockaded the port of Messina and made several 

attempts to land troops on the island, but all were repulsed. 

Peter of Sicily 

Peter nevertheless pressed his advantage and by February 

1283 had taken most of the Calabria coastline. Charles, 

perhaps feeling desperate, sent letters to Peter demanding 

they resolve the conflict by personal combat. The invader 

accepted and Charles returned to France to arrange the duel. 

Both kings chose six knights to settle matters of places and 

dates. A duel was scheduled for 1 June at Bordeaux. A 

hundred knights would accompany each side and Edward I 

of England would adjudge the contest; the English king, 

heeding the pope, however, refused to take part. Peter left 

John of Procida in charge of Sicily and returned via his own 


kingdom to Bordeaux, which, evading a suspected French ambush, he entered in 

disguise. Needless to say, no combat ever took place and Peter returned to a very 

troubled Spain. 

While Peter was back in France and Spain, his admiral, Roger of Lauria, was 

wreaking havoc in Italy. He routed Charles' fleets on the high seas several times 

and conquered Malta for Aragon. 

Peter was the direct descendant and the heir-general of the Mafalda, daughter of 

Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia, the Norman conqueror, and his official wife 

Sigelgaita, daughter of a Lombard prince, Guaimar IV of Salerno. Thus, he stood at 

the end of the Hauteville succession to Sicily. After the ducal family of Apulia 

became extinct with William II in 1127, Mafalda's heirs (then counts of Barcelona) 

apparently became de jure heirs of Guiscard and Sigelgaita: thus Peter was 

dormantly a claimant to the Norman succession of southern Italy. More directly, he 

was the heir of Manfred in right of his wife. The Two Sicilies were to be a 

tenaciously-pursued inheritance for the Aragonese Royal House and its heirs for 

the next five centuries. 

Peter (Pedro) III of Aragon 

(Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Sicily after 1282. The red and gold strips 

are the arms of the Crown of Aragon, and the eagles are the arms of the 

House of Hohenstaufen). 

Peter III of Aragon was born in Valencia, in 1240 and died in 

Villafranca del Penedés, on November 2, 1285. He was called 

"The big", being son of Jaime I the Conqueror and his second 

wife Violante de Hungría. He was the successor of his father in 

1276 in the king of Aragon, king of Valencia (like Peter I) and 

count of Barcelone (like Pedro II). 

He was married on June 13, 1262 in the cathedral of Montpellier with Constance of 

Hohenstaufen, daughter and heiress of Manfredi I of Sicily; they were crowned in 

Saragossa in a ceremony in which Pedro cancelled the vassalage that with the 

papacy his grandfather Pedro II had coordinated. 

All his reign was centered on the expansion of the Crown of Aragon for the 

Mediterranean and for it he made use of his marriage with Constance to claim the 

Sicilian crown. Sicily was from 1266 under the sovereignty of Carlos de Anjou who, 

with the support of pope Clemente IV, who was not wishing any Hohenstaufen in 

the south of Italy, had been invested king after defeating, in Benevento to Manfred, 

who died in the battle. 


The Angevin monarch made to blind to three Manfred's children males and, in 

1268, captured and made to decapitate to Conradin that -like grandson of Federico 

II- was the last hereditary male of the house Hohenstaufen. The succession line 

goes then to Constance, who offered refuge in Aragon to the supporters’ families of 

her father, the Lanza, the Lauria and the Procida. 

A fleet of the Aragonese crown, supervised by Corrado Lanza, covers in 1279 the 

African coasts to restore the feudal sovereignty of Aragon on Tunisia, that the death 

of the emir Muhammad I al-Mustansir had debilitated. Later, in 1281, Peter III 

armed a fleet to invade Tunisia and requested newly elected pope Martín IV a bull 

that the military operation was declaring like crossed; but the pope, of origin 

French and supporter of Carlos de Anjou, denied it to him. 

When the fleet was preparing to weigh anchor, would took place in Sicily the events 

known like "Sicilian day before" that provoked the expulsion of the island, after a 

big slaughter, of the French. The Sicilian sent then an embassy to Peter III offering 

him the Sicilian crown, to which had a right thanks to his marriage. The Aragonese 

king put then his fleet in the direction of Sicily, where arrived on August 30, 1282 

and where king was crowned in the city of Palermo. Immediately he sent an 

embassy to Carlos de Anjou, who was in Messina, urging him to admit him as a 

king of Sicily and to leave the island. The defeat of the Angevin fleet in Nicoreta, in 

hands of Admiral Roger de Lauria, forced Carlos to leave Messina and to shelter in 

his kingdom of Naples. Pope Martín IV answered to the Sicilian coronation of 

Pedro III with his excommunication (November 9, 1282) and his deposition like 

king of Aragon (December 21, 1283), offering the crown to the second son of the 

king of France, Carlos de Valois, whom invested on February 27, 1284, and 

declaring a crusade against Aragon. 

The situation of Peter III was completely unstable, since not only he had face up to 

the French invasion that was prepared to the north of the Pyrenees, but he had face 

up to serious problems inside his kingdoms arisen by the economic needs that the 

conquest of Sicily provoked. 

Peter III the Big solves the internal problems granting, in 1283, the formation of 

the Aragonese Union and taking an oath to the "General Privilege" that was 

defending the privileges of the nobility; also he granted to the County of Barcelona 

the constitution “Una vegada lány” in the courts celebrated in Barcelona between 

1283 and 1284. 

Solved the interior problems, he could center his attention on the French invasion, 

which supervised by the proper French king Felipe III took in 1285 the city of 

Gerona, for immediately having to move back when the Aragonese fleet returned of 

Sicily supervised by Roger de Lauria and inflicted on the French squadron an entire 


defeat in the Formigues islands and next a defeat in ground in the ravine of the 

Panizas, when the French troops were moving back. 

After his big victory, Peter III prepared to confront with his brother Jaime II and 

his nephew the king Sancho IV of Castile, who had not given him support during 

his conflict with the French, but his premature death, in November, 1285, 

prevented it. 

In his testament, Peter III arranged that his corpse was receiving grave in the 

Monastery of Santes Creus, of the Cistercian order. The funeral of the monarch was 

celebrated by big solemnity and the body of the king was placed in an urn of red 

porphyry, that admiral Roger de Lauria brought from Sicily. He was the first 

Aragonese monarch in receiving grave in the Monastery of Santes Creus. King 

Jaime II the Just of Aragon, arranged the construction of the graves of king Peter 

III the Big, his father, at the same time that he was arranging the creation of his 

own grave and that of his second wife, Blanca de Naples. It was arranged that the 

tombs were sheltered, as this way was done, under baldachins worked in white 

marble proceeding from the quarries of San Felíu, near Gerona. When King Jaime 

II arranged the creation of his own tomb, he took that of his father as a model. The 

tomb of King Peter III was realized between the year 1291 and 1307 by Bartomeu of 

Gerona and it is richer than that of his son Jaime II and wife. A little temple lodges 

the tomb of the king, consisting of an urn of red porphyry; before a Roman font of 

bath, surrounded by saints' images. 

In December, 1835, during the Carlists Wars, the French Legion of Alger and 

several companies of municipal polices stayed at the monastic building, causing 

numerous ravages in the same. The real graves of Jaime II and his wife were 

profaned. The remains of Jaime II, son of Peter III were burned, although it seems 

that some remains remained in the tomb. The mummy of the queen Blanca de 

Naples was thrown to a well, from which was extracted in 1854. The tomb of Peter 

III, by the soundness of the urn of porphyry used to lodge the royal remains, 

prevented his remains would have equal luck. 

Corrado Caputo prince of Antioch at the Sicilian Vesper 

The king of Aragon knew that the subjects of the Kingdom hatred felt for Charles. 

Peter chose as counselors two exiles of the Kingdom: Giovanni da Procida, a loyal 

supporter of the Hohenstaufen, and Admiral Roger Lauria. In of 1281, thanks to 

Giovanni da Procida, the Aragonese stipulated in Constantinople an important 

treaty of alliance with Michael Palaeologus. Then Peter called for a fake crusade 

against Africa for which he started to prepare numerous weapons. Meanwhile he 

kept in close agreement with those in the Regno (Kingdom) that nourished 

grievances against Charles. These contacts he needed to secure a possibility of 

landing in Sicily. 


According to Jerónimo Zurita 6 , including those who first had 

made contact with Peter there was Corrado of Antioch, cousin to 

his wife Constance. The Author writes, which refers to the year 

1281 “los principals que persuadian al Rey don Pedro a esto 

eran el Marqués de Monferrato, el conte Guido Novello, 

Corrado de Antiochia nieto del Emperador Federico, que estava 

casado con hija del Conde Galvan, y el Conte Guido de 

Montefieltro” (G. Surita, op. Cit, I, page 237) 

At the beginning of the following year Francesco Troisio, who was also an exile and 

a great friend of Corrado of Antioch, delivered a few letters of credentials to Peter 

Aragon on behalf of Corrado, the Marquis of Monteferrato and other Ghibellines of 

the Kingdom (M. Amari, op. Cit page 164 n. 8). The letters contained explicitly 

promises of help from everyone to Peter of Aragon to demand their rights to the 

kingdom and warm invitations to take immediate steps. 

The king of Aragon welcomed with great satisfaction of both the invitations and 

offers of help. This can be seen in the letter that shortly after he wrote to the king of 

Castile who reported having received “litteras de credencia nobelium virorum 

Montisferrati, comitis Guidoni Novelli, illustris Corradi de Antiochia, nostrorum 

dilectorum affinium, comitis Guidonis de Montefeltro et aliorum comitum et 

magnatum Italie ac Regni Sicilie recipimus per nobilem latorem presentium 

Franciscum Trogisii cuius legationem magestati vestre non expriminus litteris 

istis, cum idem nuncius eamdem veniat relaturus, quem benigne audiat 

excellentia vestra si placet et super capitulo illo precipue scilicet super 

recuperatione regni Sicilie, ad quod vestrum auxilium gratuita volante nobis per 

dilectum scutiferum nostrum Andream de Proxida liberaliter obtulisti” (The letter 

was published by A. Saint-Priest, Histoire de la Conquéte de Naples par Chales 

dÁnjou, Paris, 1847, 4, page 205, of Amari, op. cit., II, page 251, in part from 

Ridola, op. cit., page 249 n.2 and I. Carini, Archives and Libraries of Spain, 

Palermo, 1884, page 45). 

From Africa the Aragonese and his fleet king deviated to Sicily on August 30, 1282 

and disembarked in Trapani acclaimed by the crowd. Then he continued with the 

fleet on to Messina defeated the French. With the arrival of Peter and of his fleet, 

the position became untenable for Charles. On September 26 Charles dÁnjou 

abandoned the siege of Messina and went to Calabria. Meanwhile, Peter of Aragon 

had received in Palermo the crown of King of Sicily. (F. Gregorovius, op. cit., III, 

page 75). 

6 Jerónimo (or Gerónimo) de Zurita y Castro (1512 – 3 November 1580) was an Aragonese historian 

of the sixteenth century who founded the modern tradition of historical scholarship in Spain. 


The king of Aragon came in Italy as heir and representative of the rights of the 

Hohenstaufen and reported for the third time the House of Swabia to reign in a 

part of the Peninsula. The outcome of these events involved Corrado of Antioch, 

now the only survivor of the House of Swabia tied together to the queen of 

Aragon (his cousin). 

Peter of Aragon, stimulated by the successes, immediately thought to aim for total 

victory and the annexation of the whole kingdom under his domain. In the intent to 

pursue this aim, in October 1282, he wrote from Messina to your Corrado of 

Antioch about his achievements and his hopes, but especially to induce him to 

invade the territories of the Kingdom in the field that he would have considered 

more convenient: “Tu autem cum amicis tuis et aliis nostris fidelibus sic tractare 

et operari procures. Quod regnum ab ipsa parte possis intrare et terras et 

homines ipsarum parcium nostro felici dominio convertendo graciose te geren 

cum omnibus”. The letter of the Aragonese king was in response to some letters of 

Corrado containing specific requests. Corrado asked Peter reconfirmation of 

privileges and concessions of which he and his father had enjoyed. 

Corrado became the greatest enemy of Anjou, but he stood almost alone for the 

lack of cohesion between the supporters of the Emperor. In 1284 Corrado had a 

brief from the Pope with whom he was informed that on April 6, in Coena Domini, 

the excommunication was reconfirmed. (G.P. Carosi, op cit. page 468). 

Death of King of Aragon and Charles of Anjou 

Peter died by unknown causes at Vilafranca del Penedès on 2 November 1285, in 

the same year as his royal foe Philip, and was buried in the monastery of Santes 

Creus. His deathbed absolution occurred after he declared that his conquests had 

been in the name of his familial claims and never against the claims of the church. 

His remains are entombed in a porphyry sarcophagus at Santes Creus Monastery. 

Peter left Aragon to his eldest son Alfonso III and Sicily to his second son James II. 

Peter's third son, Frederick III, in succession to his brother James, became regent 

of Sicily and in due course its king. Peter did not provide for his youngest son and 

namesake, Peter (1275 – 25 August 1296), who married Constanca Mendes de 

Silva, daughter of Soeiro Mendes Petite, governor of Santarém in Portugal. This 

Peter left Spain for Portugal with his sister Elizabeth. 

Peter also had two daughters, Elisabeth, who married Denis of Portugal, and 

Yolanda (1273 – August 1302), who married Robert of Naples. 

In the same year Corrado´s royal foe, Charles, exhausted by a persistent fever, died 

in Foggia on January 17, 1285. Before his death had appointed as administrator of 

the kingdom, a relative, Roberto d'Artois. Charles left her son in prison (his son 


Charles the Zoppo (Lame) was made prisoner by the Ghibellines), the kingdom in 

turmoil and the opponents more than ever keen to end the Angevin domain. 

Corrado of Antioch helped with the money that was sent by his cousin the Queen 

Constance of Sicily, took a bitter fight. Taking advantage the disturbance arose in 

the Regno of the death of Charles I of Anjou in January 1285, the Corrado occupied 

lands and castles in Abruzzo, including, as it deems justified in the Ridola (p. 253 

and n. 2), and also the ancestral county of Alba. 

The Antioch family represented the most formidable adversaries for the papacy 

who suffered their threat especially near the eastern borders of the Patrimony of St. 

Peter, the Swabian family controlled through the Valley Sublacenze and 

Giovenzana. 

Corrado of Antioch was a worthy heir of the deeds of his father; in Anticoli he 

founded a dynasty that for two centuries the Antioch formed a thorn in the side of 

the Church: they, the lords of Saracinesco and Sambuci until the mid-sixteenth 

century, never denied the ideal Ghibellines. 

Certainly in the last years of the century, the death on his relentless enemy Charles 

I of Anjou, probably due to the intervention of Pope Boniface VIII, Corrado 

reconciled with the House of Anjou and the Church. Another clue to confirming the 

peace with the Holy See is the marriage of one of the daughters of Corrado with 

Ottaviano da Brunforte, who was appointed in 1297 by Pope Boniface VIII papal 

vicar in Todi (F. Gregorius, op. cit., III, page 118 n. 50; P. Ridola, op. cit., page 255 

n.1) 

The Vespers and Europe 

The outbreak of the Vespers at Palermo marked an important decisive moment in 

history of Sicily. 

On the death of the emperor Frederick the Popes´ main object was to prevent the 

revitalization of Hohenstaufen power. The Papacy seemed to have triumphed over 

its chief rival for the ecumenical sovereignty of Europe. But the Papacy could not 

become the sovereign of Christendom without lay help; it needed the sanction of 

physical force to ensure that its decrees were obeyed and the taxes and tithes that it 

demanded were paid. The prototypical solution would have been an acquiescent 

Emperor whose power would be at the Pope´s command. 

There was never a more fervent and conscientious son of the Church than King 

Louis IX of France. In Louis IX of France were united the qualities of a just and 

upright sovereign, a fearless warrior, and a saint. King Louis IX was the only 

French king ever to be made a saint. He was a very popular monarch, noted for his 

kindness and fair dealings with his people. Louis led the Seventh Crusade in the 


mid-thirteenth century, and died on another crusade 20 years later. This crusading 

king was a living embodiment of the Christianity of the time: he lived for the 

welfare of his subjects and the glory of God. He would not sacrifice the welfares of 

the French to please a papal empire builder. Had all his fellow monarchs been of 

the same high stature, the government of Europe would have been persuasive and 

the Papacy would have had time to understand that limits to its monarchy. But 

Louis was an exception. 

There were still able and glamorous members of the Hohenstaufen family who 

commanded loyalty. Meantime the Pope could not be sure of living safely in his 

own see of Rome. When Manfred acquired the Hohenstaufen inheritance in Italy, 

he seemed, owing to Italian politics, as dangerous as his father government. To 

crush him and to provide Italy with more dutiful government, the Pope determine 

to call in a prince from abroad with abundant money to pay for the military 

campaign. The English Prince Edmund´s youth and King Henry III´s 

incompetence were combined with the excessive financial demand of the Pope to 

make the English candidature would run at a loss; instead salvation was sought 

from France. 

With the Italian cardinals quarrelling among themselves Pope Urban IV, a 

Frenchman who had been Patriarch of Jerusalem and was a man of wide 

international experience, had seemed an obvious choice. To Urban IV it was 

natural to call in a France prince to rescue the Church from Germany-Italian 

dynasty. It was lamentable that at this moment a Frenchman should have sat on 

the papal throne. 

A French Pope meant the creation of a number of French cardinals, who with the 

Guelph allies could be trusted. The Papacy´s alliance with Charles of Anjou brought 

it nothing but trouble. Charles was a man of vast ambition and the invitation to 

come to Italy gave him full scope for it. He was soon as dangerous to the 

independence of the church as ever the Hohenstaufen had been. The danger was 

greater because he, Charles, instead of the Pope, became the leader of the Guelphs. 

Italy commanded Urban IV's near full attention: the long confrontation with the 

late Hohenstaufen German Emperor Frederick II had not been pressed during the 

mild pontificate of Alexander IV, during which it devolved into inter-urban 

struggles between nominally pro-Imperial Ghibellines and even more nominally 

pro-papal Guelf factions. Frederick II's heir Manfred was immersed in these 

struggles. Urban IV's military captain was the condottiere Azzo d'Este, nominally at 

the head of a loose league of cities that included Mantua and Ferrara. Any 

Hohenstaufen in Sicily was bound to have claims over the cities of Lombardy, and 

as a check to Manfred, Urban IV introduced Charles of Anjou into the equation to 

place the crown of the Two Sicilies in the hands of a monarch amenable to papal 


control. Charles was Count of Provence by right of his wife, maintaining a rich base 

for projecting what would be an expensive Italian war. For two years Urban IV 

negotiated with Manfred regarding whether Manfred would aid the Latins in 

regaining Constantinople in return for papal confirmation of the Hohenstaufen 

rights in the realm. Meanwhile the papal pact solidified with Charles a promise of 

papal ships and men, produced by a crusading tithe, and Charles's promise not to 

lay claims on Imperial lands in northern Italy, nor in the Papal States. Charles 

promised to restore the annual census or feudal tribute due the Pope as overlord, 

some 10,000 ounces of gold being agreed upon, while the Pope would work to 

block Conradin from election as King of the Germans. 

Before the arrival in Italy of his candidate Charles, Urban IV died at Perugia on 2 

October 1264. His successor was Pope Clement IV, who immediately took up the 

papal side of the arrangement. 

Charles of Anjou and Sicilian unrest 

Charles regarded his Sicilian as a springboard his Mediterranean ambitions, which 

included the overthrow of the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, and 

the capture of Constantinople, then the richest city in the western world. Although 

his rule was quite just, unrest was simmering in Sicily because the island played a 

very subordinate role in Charles's empire — its nobles had no share in the 

government of their own island and were not compensated by lucrative posts 

abroad, as were Charles's French, Provençal and Neapolitan subjects; also the taxes 

were heavy but they were spent on Charles's wars outside Sicily, making Sicily 

somewhat of a donor economy to Charles' nascent empire. 

The Sicilian had annoyed him by a long rebellion early in his reign. He never paid a 

meaningful visit to the island and never had he inspected its government 

administration. The officials there were more corrupt and oppressive than on the 

mainland where he could exercise a personal control. Yet, in spite of their earlier 

insubordination, Charles does not seem to have foreseen trouble from the Sicilians. 

Charles neglected Sicily, he found it poorer and less useful to him that his other 

dominions. It is here that the Sicilian theme associates with the European. 

Charles´s failure as an empire builder lay in his failure to understand the 

Mediterranean world of his time. He had been content with the role of King of 

Sicily he might have had time to learn how to govern his subjects there instead as 

the soldier of god, chosen by the Holy church to be its champion. The Western 

Empire had fallen because it had opposed the Church. Christendom had split into 

too many units with their own local interests; nationalism was growing too fast, 

Charles himself was affected by it. 


The Sicilian unrest was also being fomented by agents of the Byzantine Emperor 

Michael Palaeologus who was desperate to thwart Charles's projected invasion of 

his empire, and of the Aragonese king Peter III, Manfred's son-in-law, who saw his 

wife Constance as rightful heir to the Sicilian throne. The event takes its name from 

an insurrection which began at the start of Vespers, the sunset prayer marking the 

beginning of the night vigil on Easter Monday, March 30, 1282, at the Church of 

the Holy Spirit just outside Palermo. Because the city's borders have expanded over 

the centuries, the church is now within the city limits. Beginning on the night of the 

Vespers, thousands of Sicily's French inhabitants were massacred within six 

weeks. 

The massacre of the Vespers ruined the expansion of King Charles’s empire and 

perished in the blood bath. It was the ruin of the Hildebrandine 7 Papacy. The 

Papacy had committed itself to Charles. The failure to support Charles would have 

been an admission that Rome had been wrong but to support him so blindly 

against the wishes of a devoted people and against the conscience of much of 

Europe, and then be dragged by him into defeat, meant a far cruller humiliation. 

The Papacy threw more money than it could afford; it threw the weapon of the Holy 

War, and all to no purpose. It emerged financially impoverished; it emerged with 

its chief spiritual weapon tarnished, for there were few Europeans outside France 

and the Guelph cities of Italy who could regard the repression of the Sicilian as a 

spiritual aim. The idea of the Holy War had been cheapened already when it was 

used against the Hohenstaufen. The Sicilian men who poured, with knives drawn, 

through the streets of Palermo on the savage evening struck their blows for 

freedom and with it consequences rescued a gallant people from the oppression 

that changed Europe. It altered the history of Christendom. The lesson was not 

forgotten, more than three centuries later King Henry IV of France boasted to the 

Spanish ambassador the harm that he could do to the Spanish lands in Italy were 

the King of Spain to try his patience too far. “I will breakfast at Milan”, he said, 

“and I will dine at Rome”. “Then”, replied the ambassador, “Your Majesty will 

doubtless be in sicily in time for Vespers”. 

7 Or Hildebrand, one of the most influential of medieval ecclesiastics, who reigned as Pope Gregory 

VII. 1073-85. He is celebrated for his development of the pretensions of the papal see both before 

and after his elevation to the papacy. 


Saint Luis Day in Sicily 

Born in 1214, Louis IX of Anjou was king of France from 

1226 until his death in 1270. He was a contemporary 

of Frederick II, who he sometimes supported politically, 

and elder brother of Charles I, who became king of Naples 

and Sicily in 1266 following extinction of the House of 

Hohenstaufen (Frederick's dynasty). In northern and 

central Italy the Capetians (the House of Anjou) supported 

the Guelph party against the Ghibellines. This was 

sometimes a complex matter; essentially, by the middle of 

the thirteenth century the Guelphs supported the Pope and 

French Angevin interests against those of the Holy Roman 

Emperor and German ones. In the event, it was one of the 

things which earned the French dynasty the support of the Papacy. 

Though Louis was known for his religious piety, he also took an active part in the 

crusading movement, usually (except for Frederick's pacific Sixth Crusade) 

advocating war against the Muslims. He was a patron of the arts, particularly 

favorable to the Gothic architectural movement, and known (when not fighting) as 

a kindly and generous man. Louis was succeeded by his son, Philip III, whose wife, 

Isabella of Aragon, died in January 1271 when she fell off a house while fording a 

stream near Cosenza, in Calabria, during the family's return to France. Her son, 

Philip (IV), later became King of France. 

Sicily remained a peripheral part of the French dynasty's adventures for some 

years. Philip III was less astute politically than his "saintly" father, and perhaps too 

easily influenced by his unsaintly uncle Charles of Naples. He died in 1285 

returning from a failed attempt to conquer Aragon for Charles, who resented King 

Peter of Aragon for accepting the Sicilian crown following the Vespers uprising. 

Today the people of Monreale 8 on the slope of Mountain Caputo, outside Palermo, 

celebrate Saint Louis Day. His obnoxious little brother, Charles of Anjou, was the 

infamous King of Naples who provoked the Sicilian Vespers uprising in 1282, 

but King Louis IX of France, later canonized as Saint Louis, was a far more pleasant 

person - and a far better man. He died during a crusade in Tunisia. 

8 Monreale is a town and comune in the province of Palermo, in Sicily, Italy, on the slope of Monte 

Caputo, overlooking the very fertile valley called "La Conca d'oro" (the Golden Shell). The town was 

for long a mere village, and started its expansion when the Norman Kings of Sicily chose the area as 

their hunting resort, building here a palace. 


His heart (along with his liver and some other organs) was buried in Monreale 

Abbey following a funeral en route to France. These are preserved in a small chapel 

in the abbey cathedral. Few Sicilians - or French, for that matter - are aware of this, 

or the fact that more of the saint is preserved in Sicily than in France. 

Originally, Louis' body, minus his heart, was placed into a tomb at Saint Denis 

outside Paris. During the Revolution most of the royal tombs, including his, were 

desecrated and their contents dispersed. Today all that remains in the tomb of 

Saint Louis in Saint Denis is a finger. 

Kingdom of Sicily under the Crown of Aragon and Spain 

After a few more years of general warfare, marked by the Battle of the Counts on 23 

June 1287, where the Angevines were defeated near Naples, the Treaty of Tarascon 

of 1291 officially restored Aragon to his heir, Alfonso, and lifted the ban of the 

church. A 20-year war for possession of Sicily followed between the Angevin kings 

of Naples and the Aragonese kings of Sicily. 

Sicily was ruled as an independent kingdom by relatives or cadet branch of the 

house of Aragon until 1409 and thence as part of the Crown of Aragon. The 

Kingdom of Naples was ruled by the Angevin ruler René of Anjou until the two 

thrones were reunited by Alfonso V of Aragon, after the successful siege of Naples 

and the defeat of René on June 6, 1443. Eventually, Alfonso of Aragon divided the 


two kingdoms during his rule. He gave the rule of Naples to his illegitimate son 

Ferdinand I of Naples, who ruled from 1458 to 1494, and the rest of the Crown of 

Aragon and Sicily to Alfonso's brother John II of Aragon. From 1494 to 1503 

successive kings of France Charles VIII and Louis XII, who were heirs of 

Angevines, tried to conquer Naples but failed. Eventually the Kingdom of Naples 

was reunited with the Crown of Aragon. The titles were held by the Aragonese kings 

of the Crown of Aragon until the end of the Spanish branch of the House of 

Habsburg in 1700. 

The War of the Spanish Succession 

n 1735, Naples and Sicily were re conquered by King Philip V of Spain, a Bourbon, 

who installed his younger son, Duke Charles of Parma, as King Charles VII of 

Naples and Sicily, starting a cadet branch of the house of Bourbon. In 1799 

Napoleon conquered Naples, governed by Ferdinand IV of Naples (later Ferdinand 

I of the Two Sicilies) at the time. It was formed into the Parthenopaean Republic 

with French support. Under British pressure, especially from Lord William 

Bentinck, who was commander of British troops in Sicily, Naples was then handed 

back to Ferdinand, being forced to create a constitution for the Kingdom of Sicily. 

A two-chamber parliament in Palermo and in Naples was formed. The formation of 

the parliament brought the end of feudalism in the Kingdom. After the defeat of 

Napoleon in 1815 Ferdinand repealed all reforms. The people of Sicily rebelled but 

were defeated by Spanish and Austrian forces. In 1848 another Sicilian revolution 

of independence occurred, which was put down by Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, 

who was surnamed Re Bomba after his 5-day bombardment of Messina. From 1816 

to 1861 the kingdoms were united under the name Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. 


CORRADO CAPUTO PRINCE OF ANTIOCH 

Prince of Antioch of the House of Hohenstaufen. Vicar General for the island of Sicily, grandson of 

Frederick II. Prince of Abruzzo (1267), Duke of Spoleto, Count of Alba, Celano (1258), Laureto and 

Abruzzo (1267), Count of Loreto (1285). Baron of Anticoli, Saracinesco, Rocca dei Surici, Rocca di 

Muzzi and Sambuci. 

Corrado I Prince of Antioch, the grandson of 

Emperor Frederick II, has always been present 

on the Italian scene of the second half of the 

thirteen century. While the shadow of “big” as 

Manfred and Conradin, he is the protagonist of 

his time. Survived the holocaust of the partisan 

of Hohenstaufen, at the end of his live he even 

becomes a symbol: a living memory of the 

Swabian Age, and point of reference, at least the ideal of all the 

Italian Ghibellines. His existence is marked by adventure and feudatory knight, 

pirate, prince and gentleman, for four times escapes from prison and three times he 

was excommunicated. However, he is capable of founding a dynasty in Val d’ 

Aniene to Anticoli Corrado that took his name, he is still remembered and died of 

old age, reconciled with the Church. 

Corrado knows defeats and victories. Always loyal and avid supporter of the 

Imperial House of Hohenstaufen. Corrado of Antioch is a rare example of a 

consistently explained even in the light of a childhood and an adolescence spent in 

direct contact with that Ghibelline world in which, for blood ties, already occupied 

an important place. Ties of those tumultuous events of his time seem to 

strengthening the making of the threads of his existence. 

Corrado of Antioch, one of the most avid supporters of the Swabians, is almost 

completely ignored by historians that, yet, he is occupied with considerable interest 

of the complex and last phase of the Swabian domination in Italy. 

Corrado Caputo of Antioch, born between 1240 and 1241, we do not know the 

precise date of birth and we formulate the hypotheses addressing the life of his 

father Federico (Frederick) of Antioch and his family matters. A document in which 

Frederick of Antioch is married on February 10, 1240 (J.L.A. Hillard-Bréholles, op. 

Cit., p. 864). is a letter wrote by the Emperor Frederick II, his father, to Giovanni 

Raimo, the administrator of the castles of Abruzzo, to ensure to provide the sustain 

of his son Federico of Antioch and his wife Margherita Lancia, daughter of Galvano 

Lancia, Prince of Salerno who was elected the Grand Marshal of the Reign. The 

opinion of Manselli (R. Manselli, Corrado of Antioch, cit., P. 467) states that the 


first-born Corrado "was born after 1240, the year in which his parents already are 

married." In the same opinion is the Carosi (GP Carosi, op. Cit., P. 59) according to 

which "Corrado was born about 1241". 

With the death of his father Frederick of Antioch, Corrado seems to have inherited 

the political trends in net for his uncle Manfred, so soon to become one of the most 

avid supporters of the Swabians, then filling the void that Frederick of Antioch had 

left in Italian Ghibelline movement. The picture of Corrado give us the historical 

sources, is that of a man already powerful by birth, surrounded by many of the 

influential people bound by close ties of kinship, belonging to the inner circle of 

advisers who are trusted unconditional of Manfredi (Manfred). 

Corrado of Antioch had inherited from his father various feuds in southern Lazio 

and the Abruzzi, including those de Anticoli, Saracinesco7, Sambuci and Piglio, so 

that the top of the Mountains Ruffi he could control not only the Aniene Valley but 

also the cross as Subiaco and the Giovenzana. His possessions were a real 

Ghibellini site planted in the side of the papal dominions. 

Corrado of Antioch appears on the stage of history in 1258 (The manuscript of the 

Chronicon Lauretanum, preserved in the National Library of Naples). In the 

summer of that year had spread the news of the death of Corradino (Conradin), the 

rightful heir to the throne of Sicily, Manfred, uncle of Conradin by his father, not 

only did not deny that rumor, but actually profit to be crowned king of Sicily in 

Palermo August 10, 1258. With the coronation, Manfred, who "de facto" had 

already the Kingdom in its domain, took aside the legitimate heir to the throne. In 

September 1258, Corrado was in Foggia where Manfred, returning from Sicily after 

the coronation, summoned his most trusted barons by giving them large estates. 

That Corrado was the "parliament" of Foggia in 1258 is clearly attested by the 

Chronicon Lauretanum, a short but interesting chronicle of anonymous by 

covering the history of the town of Loreto Aprutino in the years 1187-1271. It 

literary said: “ Anno domini MCCLVIII dictus Principes accessit in Sicilian aput 

Panormum cum comitibus et prelatis jujus Regni ubi celebrato colloquio Mense 

Agusti coronatus est, et demum in Apuliam apud Fogyam redeunte (sic) Corradus 

de Antiochia receipt comitatum Laureti ad manus suas” (Chronicon Lauretanum, 

cit., page 587-589). 

Galvano Lancia, father in law of Corrado, obtained the principality of Salerno, the 

county of Fondi and the title of Grand Marshal of the Kingdom. His brother, 

Frederick Lance, was given the county of Squillace. Manfred Maletta, brother in 

law of Corrado, in addition to the Office of great chamberlain of the kingdom, 

received the counties of Mineo and Frigento and was appointed lord of Monte San't 

Angelo. 


On that occasion there were honors and benefits for Corrado of Antioch in which 

Manfredi confirmed the possession of the counties of Alba in the Marsi, of Celano, 

of Loreto Aprutino, adding the County of Abruzzo and the domain of some land in 

Calabria (P.F. Palumbo, op. cit., page 163; G.P. Carosi, op. cit., page 37). 

There are several sources that attest to the veracity of the concessions made to 

Corrado. First of all, the already mentioned Chronicon Lauretanum for what 

concerns the county of Loreto. The chronist Saba Malaspina, speaking of Corrado 

of Antioch, designates him always with the title of Comes Albae. The Pirro, further, 

in its Sicilia sacra, reports a document which reads: “Fides est in literis Conradi 

Anthiochiae Albae, Celani, Laureti et Aprutii comitis “….) magistro terrarium 

suarum Calabriae” (R. Pirro, op. cit., page 982). 

Finally, Ridola confirms the veracity of the concessions, remembering that in the 

famous diploma of Corradino, which we will discuss later; Corrado will be shown as 

the owner of all those counties (P. Ridola, op. cit., page 221 n. 4 and page 222). 

The "parliament" of Foggia is therefore the first occasion, testimony from 

documents, which allows the encounter with a character destined to become a 

major Swabian player and leave singular marks and worthy of attention that allow 

to reconstruct his adventurous existence and recklessness. 

In 1258 documents show Corrado for the first time, he was engaged in a military 

operation against a small group of ambassadors, sent to the Pope in Agnani by the 

Florentine Guelphs. Departing from Agnani November 27, the ambassadors were 

escorted to the gates of Subiaco by Mattia di Anagni, and then they were 

abandoned to their fate. But there Corrado of Antioch was waiting with two 

hundred horsemen and a thousand foot soldiers and for the poor ambassadors 

would be the end if a help against Corrado had not deployed by the Guelph 

Ruggero della Montagna Lord of Arsoli and Andrea Brancaleone. There was no 

battle because Corrado did not attack the ambassadors, who passed on December 1 

unharmed near Anticoli heading Arsoli. In the same year, at the time of the 

"parliament" of Foggia or shortly thereafter, on a date between 1258 and 1261, 

Corrado married Beatrice daughter of Galvano Lancia, while his sister Filippa 

became wife of Manfred Maletta. 

The wife, Beatrice, was daughter of Galvano Lancia. The Head of the House of this 

Ghibelline Piedmont family was Manfredi I Lancia. He had two sons, Manfredi II 

and Bonifaccio of Agliano. Manfredi II was podestà 9 of Alessandria and vicar 

9 Podestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later Middle 

Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state (like otherwise styled counterparts in other cities, 

e.g. rettori "rectors"), but also as a local administrator, the representative of the (Holy Roman) 

Emperor. 


general and Italy of Frederick II (Corrado's grandfather). He had two sons: 

Federico and Galvano. The latter by the bride Margherita of Ochre had three 

children. The first was Galeotto who should marry Cubitosa of Aquina, daughter of 

Thomas of Acera. The second was Costanza of Adinolfo son of Thomas Acera. And 

finally, the third daughter was Beatrice who married our Corrado of Antioch. 

Boniface d'Agliano was the father of Bianca Lancia, mistress and later wife of 

Frederick II. From the couple was born Constance and Manfredi the future King of 

Italy, uncle of Corrado of Antioch. 

Corrado of Antioch had eight children: Federico, Bartolomeo (Archbishop of 

Palermo), Francesco (Archbishop of Palermo), Constanza (married Bartolomeo 

Della Scala), Imperatrice (married Federico Della Scala), Corrado, Galvanus, 

Giovanna (husband Congrante Della Scala). 

The first Federico started the branch with Lorenzo and 

Gualtieri Caputo that leads today the surname Caputo. 

In 1294 were granted concession by King Charles II; the 

Land of Caporosso in Abruzzo, with this concession 

began the Family Coat of Arms. (Discourses of the noble 

families of the Kingdom of Naples by Carlo De Lellis, 

second part of the stamp of Gio: Francesco Paci, 1663, 

page 251….da questi Lorenzo e Gualtieri Caputo, giá 

armati Cavalieri, principiarono lálbero di questa 

famiglia….). 

Corrado of Antioch, grandson of Frederick II, was called Caputo. From certain 

documents is by Gualtieri and Lorenzo, both armed Knights at Pentecost in 1275, 

which begin with absolute historicity of the first two branches of the House Caputo: 

but while the offspring of Gualtieri, noble in the Seat of Portanuova, Family of King 

Charles I of Anjou (1291), Baron of Castel di Tito (1292) and the feudal Starza 

Caputo in Massa Lubrense (1292), Judge advocate of Students and University of 

Naples from 1294 to 1299, expires after two generations, that of Lorenzo continues 

uninterrupted to the present days. By these two illustrious Caputo generates the 

whole Caputo noble family of Naples. 

The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power. This development of a term 

meaning "Power" or "Authority" to be eventually the title of the person holding such power is 

parallel to the development of the Islamic term "Sultan". 


Caputo Coat of Arms of Gualtieri and Lorenzo 

Proof of Corrado of Antioch legitimate descendant of the Hohenstaufen 

Dynasty and first bearer of the family name Caputo. 

We found that in fact Corrado of Antioch was in effect called "Caputo." In the book 

Eight (1-38) First Volume - New Chronic of John Villani, we read "... in Messina 

and Palermo, a captain Messer Currado, said Caputo, of Antioch, descendant of 

Emperor Frederick, who with his army maintained rebels lands rubellate against 

the king Charles, and make great war ...". (The fame of John Villani was mainly 

related to his Chronic that began in 1300). 

Another proof that Corrado led the last name of Caputo we see in 'Archives of R. 

Company Roman history homeland - Page 273, 274 of R. Company Roman history 

homeland – 1934. ….Corrado of Antioch in Anticoli where became head of the 

Latin family of those accounts of Antioch ... family Caputo (CANDIDA-GONZAGA, 

Memoirs of noble families. ...). 

In Memoirs of Noble Families of the Southern Provinces of Italy, collected by Count 

Berardo Candida Gonzaga, the first volume (Naples, Tipog. Del Cav. G. De Angelis 

And Son), clearly says ".... Caputo this .... family originated from Conrad, Prince 

of Antioch of the house Hohenstaufen ..... this Corrado also originated the 

family Antioch ...." 

The History of Sicily Tomm. Fazello Siciliano, p.. 51, we find ¨.... Corrado Caputo, 

prince of Antioch, grandson of Federigo II emperor, born of his son Federigo 

........ (From Serenissimo Summary of King Charles II years 1302, sheet 115 "Ex 

Summary Serenissimi Regis Caroli Secundi signato 1302 A. fol. 115"). 

Another Chronicle of John, Matthew and Philip Villani, "According to the 

Miglioristampe and Corredate of notes and Historical Filogiche, Vol I, (Trieste, 

Section Literary-Artist of the Austrian Lloyd) page 556" ... Corrado Caputo of 

Antioch descendant of Emperor Federigo II .... 


Again we see in ¨ Collection of all the most renowned writers of the History General 

of the Kingdom of Naples ¨, Volume second, Naples, in Stamperia John Gravier 

MDCCLXIX, page 133 ¨.... Conrad of Antioch, said nickname Caputo, gradnson as 

we said of the Emperor Federico... 

Once Sovereign Houses of the State of Italy and national families descended from 

these or from foreign dynasties - download, scroll to page 13 "Caputo – Descend 

from Conrad Caputo, Prince of Antioch of the House of Hohenstaufen. Vicar 

General for the island of Sicily, grandson of Frederick II 

http://nobledinasty.webs.com/Other%20PDF%20-%20DOC/RivAr1922.pdf 

Genealogy History of the Marquise of Petrella. Caputo Family (STORIA 

GENEOLOGICA DEI MARCHESI DI PETRELLA. FAMIGLIA CAPUTO) 

"....Prince of Antioch Corrado of Hohenstaufen called Caputo grandson of 

Fredrick II of Swabia... (Principe dÁntiochia Corrado di Hohestaufen detto 

Caputo nipote di Federico II di Svevia). 

Corrado difficult life 

The Church of Alexander IV was now completely isolated in front of Manfred, 

whose rise the pope had been unable to face. Failed negotiations with Henry III of 

England for grant to Prince Edmund the kingdom of Sicily, Alexander IV had not 

been able to do anything but to excommunicate Manfred and his followers. The 

situation changed dramatically with the election to the papal throne in August 1261, 

of the French Urban IV that clearly was oriented to strengthen the Guelph 

movement and dealing with the king of France, Louis IX, the answer to the 

question of Sicilian in favor to Carlo d'Anjou who was the brother of Louis. 

Urban IV, therefore, managed to find a new king for Sicily in opposition to 

Manfredi. Upon learning of the papal intentions, Manfredi summoned the barons 

of the kingdom to Naples in a "general colloquium," to organize the defense against 

Anjou and decided to consolidate his power in those areas that could most easily be 

lost and with stubbornly resisted him; and these were the Duchy of Spoleto, the 

Romagna and the Marches. If the group in Naples was also Corrado of Antioch is 

not known, but it is hard to believe the contrary, since Corrado was given one of the 

most difficult assignments. 

In fact, in 1261, Manfredi sent to the Marches of Ancona as Vicar his own general's 

nephew Corrado of Antioch, to destroyer of the lands of the Church, he proved to 

be a terrible persecutor of those who defended it. During his vicariate in the 

Marches, Corrado decided to turn his attention to the municipality of Montecchio 

(today Treja in the province of Macerata), faithful to the Church, more than any 

other had resisted, even in the past, the attacks from the imperial armies. After 


subjecting the fortress of Montecchio a series 

of assaults proved to be a failure. Corrado 

went around the town, groped to infringe 

resistance in a major point of vulnerability, in 

the lowest of the wall near a door of a small 

castle called "castrum inferius." 

Corrado approached the "castrium inferius" 

and through its door entered beyond the 

walls with numerous soldiers. There was 

engaged a great battle between the Swabian soldiers and the Montecchio army, in 

the course of which, however, Corrado of Antioch was captured and imprisoned in 

the Fortress, under the supervision of several guards. All this happened at the end 

of 1263. The news of the imprisonment of Corrado soon came to Manfred, who 

immediately ordered that a more numerous army, with head Galvano Lancia, was 

sent against Montecchio to destroy it and free the prisoner's nephew. Galvano 

besieged Montecchio which, however, resisted; including the futility of military 

force, Galvano to obtain the release of Corrado resorted to a weapon more effective: 

corruption. In fact, to the complicity of the guards and especially the mayor of 

Montecchio Baglione Baglioni, Galvano bought the favor with a considerable sum 

of money, Corrado of Antioch, after more a month of captivity managed to escape 

in a January night. 

The Battle of Benevento 

of arrival in Italy of Charles of Anjou. 


Came to know of the events of 

Montecchio, Urban IV in 1264 

excommunicated Corrado, for 

damage to the lands of the 

Church, Corrado of Antioch, who 

in the meantime left the Marches, 

and was returning to the 

Kingdom to assist Manfredi, who 

wanted to organize a serious 

military defense in the imminence 

Corrado met in June 1265 with Manfredi in Lucera, probably to make 

arrangements for the forthcoming war against Charles, and in the hope of 

preventing access to the French in the Kingdom, Manfredi and Corrado decided to 

invade the Roman territory. For the age and the experience acquired, Corrado of 

Antioch was now able to deal with any situation. The bonds of blood and the 

troubled affairs of the kingdom which directly invested his family, were the

elements that hatred in part, formed and matured the character of this young 

descendant of the Swabian house, tenaciously bound to the Ghibelline faction 

which belonged by birth. Manfredi knew all this and he trusted him blindly. 

The Battle of Benevento was fought near Benevento, in present-day Southern Italy, 

on 26 February 1266, between the troops of Charles of Anjou and Manfred of Sicily. 

The battle began in the morning, when Manfred advanced his Saracens (archers 

and a few light cavalry) across the bridge to skirmish. They drove off Charles' 

infantry, but were put to flight by his first battle. Rashly (whether on their own 

initiative or by Manfred's order is not known), Manfred's first battle crossed the 

bridge and counter-charged. At first, the German mercenaries seemed 

unstoppable; all blows rebounded from their armor plates, and Charles was forced 

to commit his second battle. The Germans continued to advance, but then the 

French discovered that the new plate armor did not protect the armpits when the 

arm was lifted to strike. The Germans were swiftly broken. 

The tide of battle now rapidly turned against Manfred. His troops were forced to 

defile across the single bridge over the Calore to reach the field. By the time his 

second battle had crossed the bridge, Charles had ordered his third battle to charge 

them on both flanks and they were swiftly destroyed. Upon the defeat of the 

Italians, most of the nobles in Manfred's third battle deserted him, leaving only the 

king and a few faithful followers. After exchanging the royal surcoat with his friend 

Tebaldo Annibaldi, Manfred threw himself into the battle dressed as a simple 

soldier, who lost his life and the kingdom, while Charles of Anjou, already crowned 

in Rome on January 6, became ruler of that kingdom. 

Three days later came more precise information on the fate of Manfredi, by his 

valet, on the battlefield, it was recognized the corpse, all riddled with wounds. He 

lay next to that of the faithful Tebaldo Annibaldi, who had been, during the fight, 

always close to the king, and next to him was dead. The body of the king was put on 

a donkey and brought before Charles, who, to make sure it was precisely that of his 

rival, showed it to all the barons prisoners. All they recognized him, when he saw 

Giordano Lancia burst into tears pouring down and exclaimed, "O my lord, what 

we have become." The French knights present at the scene asked for a funeral 

honors to the body, but Charles pulling out as a pretext the excommunication of 

Manfred, that he should be buried in a makeshift common pit dug by the highway, 

near the bridge on the Valentino sul Calore, the knights will put only a few stone 

over to make the place recognizable. 

But not even there must have peace the hapless hero. It was argued that the place 

where he was buried was the domain of the Church and so sacred was the land 

where was the pit, because it was next to the ruins of an ancient church of 

Marciano. Pope Clement IV therefore ordered to Thomas Aquinas, Archbishop of 


Cosenza, to remove the body of the excommunicated, and the prelate, who was 

proud enemy of the Swabian, he hastened to obey, and at night he exhumed the 

body and carry it over an unmarked grave in the Garigliano (The Garigliano is a 

river in central Italy). 

Corrado of Antioch did not come in time to the battle along with Manfred; he had 

been to Abruzzo to defend its borders and to recruit troops. If all these forces were 

united under a single command it could have given a hard time to Charles, and 

instead the army were scattered, without a head, in the midst of populations that 

the Angevin victory and death of Manfred had made deploy against Swabians. So it 

was not difficult to get hold of the whole kingdom. 

At the news of the defeat, which marked the end of the southern kingdom of 

Hohenstaufen, Corrado, to avoid capture, fled for his feuds between the ridges of 

the Apennines of Abruzzo. Corrado began one of the most difficult periods of his 

life 

The Papacy had long been in conflict with the Imperial house of Hohenstaufen over 

their rule in Italy. At the time of the battle, the Hohenstaufen ruler in the Kingdom 

of Sicily (which included Sicily and southern Italy) was Manfred, illegitimate son of 

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. While the rightful heir to the kingdom was 

Frederick's legitimate grandson Conradin, he was young and safely across the Alps 

in Bavaria. Taking advantage of a false rumor of Conradin's death, Manfred had 

usurped the throne in 1258. Pope Urban IV determined to wrench the Kingdom 

from him, and in 1263, concluded a secret treaty with Charles of Anjou, giving him 

the Sicilian throne. 

Corrado of Antioch, perhaps reluctantly, he, the grandson of Frederick II and fierce 

Ghibelline, turned to the pope to intervene with Charles of Anjou requesting for 

forgiveness, he asked to be released from excommunication imposed for damage 

caused to the lands of the Church when he was vicar of Manfred in Marches . 

The path of forgiveness was for Corrado long and troubled. The pope did not 

intervene directly with his decision, but on April 10, 1266 he wrote to Cardinal 

Rodolfo Vescovodi Albano, entrusting the task to investigate the facts and express 

all Montecchio a final judgment on the whole matter. The Cardinal Rodolfo 

embraced the assignment, takig also the responsibility to decide on acquittal of the 

excommunication leaning over Corrado. The pope, mindful of obstinacy shown by 

Corrado to people and property of the Church, demands that Cardinal Rodolfo 

forced him to offer "sufficienten et idoneam cautionem" to observe how the Holy 

See would have enjoined by imposing a time limit within which appear at the papal 

Curia. Received the guarantees requested, Corrado of Antioch was absolved from 

excommunication that Urban IV had fined him and all the members of his race. 


These initiatives pacification by the Curia, were perfectly known to Charles of 

Anjou, who had the news of the acquittal of Corrado, claims for its safety and 

security, Corrado should hand over his daughter Beatrice as a hostage to his 

captain and vicar in Abruzzo, Brancaleone. Peace seemed reached, but it was not 

so: Charles of Anjou, probably between 10 and 11 June 1266, while negotiations 

were still in progress and no regard for the pontiff, he captured Corrado of Antioch, 

which was locked in a secret location along with Giovanni di Mareri, another exile 

Ghibelline that perhaps was his consanguineous and after escaped from the 

Benevento battle had followed Corrado. 

In this prison, the second one after Montecchio, Corrado hardly could have avoided 

the most atrocious torture and death if, by luck he could not escape. Managed to 

escape in January 1267, Corrado was able to achieve "extra Regnum" and take 

refuge in his castle Saracinesco where it would be safe for some time. The news of 

Corrado and the anger of Anjou, who in a letter of January 8, with dire threats 

ordered to Andrea Brancaleone immediately, deliver to the executioner of Abruzzo, 

the young daughter of Corrado, Breatrice. This was a vain outburst of cruelty. Any 

plans for revenge Charles would have been meditating, had to be abandoned soon, 

in fact more serious events presented in the horizon. In Germany Corradino 

(cousin of Corrado of Antioch) was preparing the invasion…. the last hope of the 

Hohenstaufen to recuperate the Kingdom. 

Corrado of Antioch and Conradin of Swabia and his expedition to Italy 

With the coronation of Charles of Anjou as King of Sicily and the defeat of Manfred 

at Benevento, the situation, however, was disappointed and were Manfred 

followers to urge Corradino to move toward Italy to revive the fortunes of the 

Swabians and Italian Ghibellines and reacquire his hereditary kingdom of Sicily, of 

which, before the usurper Manfredi and then Anjou, had private him. The contacts 

with the filo Swabian in Italy were gradually strengthened, the "great Ghibelline 

lords of Italy " as Manfred Maletta, Galvano and Federico Lancia, Corrado Capece 

(all relatives of Corrado of Antioch), one after another, presented themselves at the 

court of Corradino in Germany to wake up, says Saba Malaspina, “the young lion 

and the eagle who was sleeping he had not yet strong wings”. 

Faced with the possibility of an alliance between Corradino and Italian Ghibellines, 

Pope Clement IV, resorted to every means to deprive the young prince of his 

supporters in Germany and Italy. On 18 September 1266, he sent a letter to the 

archbishops of Bremen, Cologne and Mainz, threatening excommunication to those 

who supported the election of Corradino as King of the Romans. The strong papal 

intervention led those involved to abandon the project of the election of Corradino, 

by contrast, however, the project went further maturing projects of his descent into 

Italy. 


The eyes of all the supporters of the Swabian house were turned on the last 

legitimate descendant of the family of the Hohenstaufen: Corradino (son of Conrad 

IV, in turn the son of Frederick II). The boy was in 1267 fifteenth year of age, he 

was tall, handsome, blond, gifted lively and of great kindness, and, most 

importantly, the misfortunes of his house had improved the spirit and had reached 

his thought that maturity which only comes by the years. Fierce and proud, like all 

men of his race, Corradino could not resign himself to the loss of the kingdom and 

the sad condition that was in the fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, one time master 

of Germany and Italy, and now without the royal crown and imperial reduced to 

the possession of a few territories. Corradino thought that the mission of his life 

was to be the one to avenge his grandfather Frederick, his father Conrad IV and his 

uncle Manfredi and raise the family in the former glory. 

Among the Ghibellines who first reached Corradino in Verona there was certainly 

his cousin Corrado Caputo of Antioch, who then, in the city met for the first time 

the person that would mark a turning point in his life. In Verona, the young 

Swabian granted privileges and diplomas to many Italian Ghibellines who had 

declared themselves supporters of his cause, and appeared willing to support him 

in his endeavor: among them was Corrado of Antioch, who obtained benefits from 

Corradino perhaps never expected. The young Swabian, in the diploma granted to 

Corrado and attributed to the end of 1267, after referring to the faith and devotion 

of his cousin and his father Federico of Antioch towards his father Conrad IV, also 

remembered the loyalty shown by Corrado of Antioch towards his person ".... erga 

nostram excellentiam .... "Loyalty remained uncorrupted, despite all the 

difficulties. 

Corradino then, considering that Corrado is "flesh of our flesh blood of our blood 

and bones of our bones" and thus reaffirming the close bonds of kinship that bound 

him to Corrado, granted him estates in Abruzzo, but above all, something that most 

honored Corrado, gave him the title, so far never used before, Prince of Abruzzo: 

“erigimus et promevemus eundem Conradum in Aprutii princepem ut tam ipse 

quam eius hereds amodo ab eo legitime descendentes sint Aprucii “. (The feuds of 

Corrado had been already granted to him inherited from his father Frederick of 

Antioch, Corradino assigned him other lands, and added the title of Prince of 

Abruzzo). 


Castle of Saracinesco. There are only a few ruins walls remains of the old castle 

Several times in the course of the expedition, the pope had come his threats to 

Corradino, until April 5, 1268, the Thursday before Easter, Clement IV solemnly 

excommunicated "reckless child" depriving him, this time, also the title of king of 

Jerusalem. 

Left Rome, the Swabian avoided to enter the Kingdom for the usual way of 

Ceprano, because tactically controlled by the enemy, instead he went Via Valeria, 

along which already had some support points such as Tivoli, Vicovaro, Saracinesco, 

Anticoli and Tagliacozzo. So for the past Tivoli and Vicovaro, Corradino crossed to 

Saracinesco, Corrado of Antioch castle, where he chose to make a stop to greet the 

bride's cousin Corrado, the beautiful Beatrice Lancia, her mother Margaret and his 

bride-to Galeotto Lancia, son of Galvano, Cubitosa d’Aquino. The pause was brief, 

lasted the time to pay homage to the illustrious Lord of Saracinesco which, 

however, still held as hostages two princes Orsini and French Jourdain de l'Isle "a 

circumstance which Corrado of Antioch, shortly after , went debtor of his salvation 

"(F. Gregorovius). 


G. Carosi wrote about this episode: "Those were the days most glorious in the 

history of Anticoli and Saracinesco. What a party these days in the two countries, 

including flags and plumes of European chivalry! ". In fact, the joy had be great in 

Saracinesco, the joy and exultation, of which was involved in Corrado of Antioch, 

honored by his presence in that mountain castle do the one who embodied all hope 

of rescue. No one would have thought that jubilant time spent in Saracinesco - that 

for Corradino and his followers seems to be a page of almost familial intimacy - it 

would have been the happiest hours for all members of the expedition and the last 

day of triumph for the young Swabian. Greeted by good wishes from the illustrious 

women who lived in the castle of Saracinesco, Corradino and his brave companions 

descended into the valley of the Salto reaching the Palentini Fields. 

The Battle of Tagliacozzo 

On the evening of August 22 the army of Conradin encamped at the foot of Mount 

Velino, while Charles of Anjou, informed by his spies on the movement of the 

Swabian, camped, by the banks of the Salto, which was lined with thick bushes and 

crossed by a wooden bridge, around which the next day, would be furious battle. 

The Swabian army was divided into three groups: the first were part of the German 

knights in command of Kroff of Fluglingen and the Tuscany militias led by Corrado 

of Antioch and Galvano Lancia, on the second group was Enrico of Castille 

(Enrique or Henry) with three hundred Spanish knights, sent by his brother 

Afonso X of Castille, the third was instead formed by the Lombards led by Hubert 

Pallavicini. In the latter were also Corradino, too young to expose himself in battle, 

and Frederick of Baden. 

Enrico of Castille (Spanish: Enrique de Castilla) (March 1230 – 8 August 1303), 

called El Senador (the Senator), was a Castilian infante, the younger son of 

Ferdinand III, King of Castile, by his first wife, Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen. Enrico 

was cousin to Charles of Anjou. Enrico earned his title of El Senador when 

Charles had him made Senator of Rome (at the time, the ancient Senate of Rome 

evolved into an institution where a single "Senator" was entrusted with civil power 

in the city of Rome). However, he was never repaid by Charles; and Enrico had 

aspired to the Kingship of Sardinia or some other high title, and found the 

senatorship poor compensation. As a result, when his cousin Corradino invaded 

Italy in 1268, Enrico changed sides and joined him. He was one of Conradin's 

generals at the Battle of Tagliacozzo. 

Charles's first division was composed of Italians, with some Provençal knights, 

under an unknown commander ; the second division contained French knights 

under Marshal Enrico (Henry) Cousence, making him wear the clothes of the king 

and the royal insignia for a skilled and cruel ploy devised by Valery, who wanted to 

use the strange resemblance of the marshal with the king to avoid danger to him 


and deceive the enemy; and the final division, which Charles led along with the 

veteran crusader, Erard of Valery (who was referred to by the Italians as "Allardo di 

Valleri" , was composed of French veteran knights—this final division was hidden 

by Charles at Valery's advice, in order to constitute a tactical surprise against the 

Hohenstaufen forces. 

On the morning of August 23, the two armies moved against each other, Enrico of 

Castile, open hostilities, forced the two enemies to flee and killed Marshal Henry of 

Courances believing he was the king, seeing that bore the insignia and then gave 

chase to the bulk of Provence and of the Guelphs who had fled up to the Albe. 

Even Corrado of Antioch and Galvano Lancia entered the battle and attacked the 

French troops violently destroyed. In the belief that King Charles had died and the 

victory won, many Swabians soldiers, dismounted, they began to strip the slain. At 

this point, Charles of Anjou who had seen it all from his hill, came between the 

surprised and disarmed Swabians and after a tough fight defeated them. Even 

Enrico of Castile, when he returned from chasing after a strenuous struggle was 

defeated. Charles of Anjou had so won a battle that cost a total of four deaths. In 

the battle of Tagliacozzo, August 23, 1268, the great dream of Corradino went broke 

forever. Many of the Swabian knights, after the unfortunate battle, they manage to 

escape and among them there were also Galvano Lancia, Frederick of Baden and 

the same Corradino. Corrado of Antioch instead he did not fled and at the head of 

a group of Tuscan knights tried an extreme resistance, but after a hard fight, in 

which he behaved like a true hero, he was surrounded and taken prisoner by the 

French. 

In the following days, Charles of Anjou, and his horsemen, sent in pursuit, returned 

with many prisoners and among them he found himself ENRICO of CASTILE (his 

cousin) delivered by the Abbot of Monte Cassino which had asked for hospitality. 

But there was not Corradino. On the advice of his loyalists when he saw lost the 

battle began to safety with the Duke Frederick of Austria, with accounts Gualfresco, 

Galvano Lancia Lancia and Jailbird, Gerardo and Galvano Donoratico of Pisa, 

Marshal Kroff, Fedrico of Baden with a retinue of five hundred horsemen, safe 

refuge in the Castle of Saracinesco. 


The End of Corradino Hohenstaufen 

An eighteenth-century painting depicting Corradino of Swabia and his cousin Frederick of 

Austria before been decapitated 

Galvano Lancia embraced for the last time his wife Margaret and daughter 

Beatrice; even his son Galeotto greeted the last time his mother and sister. 

Corradino, in the company of his loyalists, left Saracinesco in early September, 

where he managed to board to go to Sicily. Corradino hoped to find safe refuge in 

Pisa, but the land route was not sure, and decided to go to sea and then embark on 

the Pisan fleet. The prince left Rome on 31 August and, now, without being 

recognized at Astura, procured a boat and with his companions put to sea. It was 

believed to be saved except when Giovanni Frangipane, lord of the castle of Astura, 

a Ghibelline time and benefited from Frederick II, then became Guelph and 

supporter of the Curia from which he had received the investiture of Taranto, 

chasing him with a quick ship and forced him to return to the shore. Closed in the 

castle, in vain Corradino threatened, begged the old loyalty to the house of Swabia, 

he offered for himself and for his friends a ransom. The Frangipane was not 

touched, obviously hoping to gain more from the Angevin. 

Spread the news of the capture of young Swabian, the Pope sent Cardinal of 

Terracina to Astura to reclaim the prisoners, while Charles with the same request 

sent Admiral Charles Robert of Lavena. The two fought fiercely for the hapless 

victims; finally the letter of Charles managed to have them delivered. And while 

Charles entered triumphantly to Rome, where he gave him the senatorial office for 


a decade, on September 12 in Genazzano, Corradino and his companions ended up 

locked in the prisons of Castel San Pietro in Palestrina, made available by the 

Colonna and also where were transferred Enrico of Castile and Corrado of Antioch, 

To Palestrina or perhaps at his headquarters in Genazzano, Charles of Anjou, sent 

publicly to the scaffolds Galvano Lancia, after having made slay his son Galeotto in 

his arms. Leaving the other prisoners in Palestrina, Charles went to Rome, where 

by 16 September obtained the appointed of senator for life, after he had settled his 

ministers in the Capitol. At the beginning of October, the Angevin, left his vicar in 

Rome, he went to Palestrina to take the prisoners and led them in chains in Naples 

and after having been well exposed as allegories of his triumph made them close in 

a dark prison castle of the Castel dell'Ovo, in the same castle where there was 

another Swabian to languish; the daughter of Elena (Helen) and Manfredi. 

When Charles returned to Palestrina to pick up the captives detained there and 

bring them to Naples for the execution of the sentence, only Corrado of Antioch 

remained a prisoner in Palestrina. When he was in Naples, Corradino had no 

longer any doubt about the fate that would have been paid: it was entirely at the 

mercy of his arch enemy and they certainly would not have saved his life, having 

already done judge as "guilty of production and majesty". He asked that the Holy 

Father to forgive him replace in the lap of the Church. 


On 29 October 1268, Charles of 

Anjou did not want any 

survivors of the Hohenstaufen; 

the scaffold was erected in the 

Campo Moricino, (now Piazza 

del Mercato). "It seemed like the 

place” - writes the Raumer – 

“have been chosen with malice; 

to the young man before he died 

he wanted to show all the 

magnificence of his reign”. 

When he was announced the 

news of his conviction, his prison Corradino was playing chess with Frederick of 

Austria. The prince was not touched, he asked and obtained a short space of time to 

prepare to die, penned a paper on which upheld the will written in Germany, and 

then confessed and went to the gallows. A huge crowd filled the square and sat on 

top of a tower to enjoy the bloody spectacle, Charles of Anjou and his court. He 

reached the ranks of the condemned, among the followers of the tyrant, preceded 

by Corradino, that with a firm step up the steps of the scaffold and he looked 

beautiful and innocent of all those who were to be his subjects, and now were

present at his execution. Arrived the ranks of the condemned, among the followers 

of the tyrant, preceded by Corradino, with a firm step up the steps of the scaffold 

and he looked beautiful and innocent of all those who were to be his subjects, and 

now were present at his execution. 

The prothonotary of the kingdom, ROBERTO BARI, read in public judgment; 

Corradino then broke up the mantle and knelt to pray. In those supreme moments 

of his life, his thoughts flew to Germany at the mother unaware of the fate of his 

son, a shadow fell on the face of the prince and his lips murmured a sigh: "Ha, my 

Mother! What pain will bring you my death ". Those were his last words: the 

blond head, offered to the executioner, rolled shortly after bleeding on the stage. 

According posterior narratives, while Roberto di Bari read the sentence, a cousin of 

Charles, Count of Flanders, ran him through with his sword, saying: "It is not for 

you, wretch, to condemn a prince so kind and gentle." Corradino before presenting 

his neck for execution, launched his glove into the crowd, almost a pledge of 

revenge, which picked up by a knight, it was taken to Peter of Aragon; after the 

execution, the executioner was pierced by a masked man, but all of these are in the 

legends, which show how much impression and feeling of pity which has aroused 

the torment of the last of the Swabians. 

After Corradino, on the same gallows were beheaded his cousin Frederick of 

Austria, the counts Gualferano, Bartholomew Lancia, Gerardo and Galvano of 

Donoratico and several other Ghibellines taken in Tagliacozzo, Equal fate befell 

Frederick of Baden, and probably also to the marshal of Kroff Flüglingen. 

Only Enrico of Castile (cousin of Charles of Anjou), saved 

his life and he was sentenced to perpetual imprisonment, 

but it was not for the generosity of Charles, who was not 

capable of such a sentiment, but because he feared the 

vengeance of his relatives. The bodies of executed 

prisoners, as it had been for Manfredi, had no burial, 

dragged into the sea there were abandoned and the people 

gracious covered them with stones. Later, the son of 

Charles, built a chapel in that place and in 1779 it became 

the church of Santa Maria del Carmine and the nave of 

this were gathered and buried the bones of Corradino, 

over which Maximilian II wanted it to be erected a statue. 

The Battle of Tagliacozzo on August 23, 1268, between the Ghibellines supporters 

of Conradin of Swabia and the army of Charles of Anjou represents the last act of 

Swabian power in Italy. The end of Conradin mark indeed the fall of the 


Hohenstaufen from the Imperial and Sicilian thrones, leading to the new chapter of 

Angevin domination in Southern Italy. 

Saved the life of Corrado (Caputo) of Antioch 

In the Holocaust of the partisans of the Hohenstaufen unique among the Ghibelline 

leaders to save his life was Corrado of Antioch, the only surviving male of the 

House Hohenstaufen, the survival of which a decisive contribution was given by 

two important hostages remained in the hands of his family. In the castle of 

Saracinesco, in fact, his wife and mother-in-law of Corrado, even when the 

enterprise had become desperate because to the pressure of events, they were able 

to hold the two Guelphs princes in their prisons Matteo e Napoleone. Now, the 

brother of the prisoners, the powerful and influential Cardinal Giangaetano Orsini, 

thought to profit from falling prey to Corrado to obtain the release of the brothers 

and, therefore, put pressure on Pope Clement IV to intervene with Charles of 

Anjou, so that they utilize Corrado d 'Antioch for a hostage exchange. 

So it happened, towards the middle of September 1268 the two Orsini were freed 

and Charles of Anjou, who agreed to save the lives of Corrado provided, that the 

Pope himself would take him into custody and he controlled his movements, 

Corrado was then handed over to Pope Clement IV. On November 29, 1268, the 

Pope ceased to live, Corrado then had to reside in Viterbo at the papal court, 

"detemptus curialiter" that is held nicely in "long prison", until March 1272, when 

the new pope, Gregory X, after having made him swear allegiance to the Church, 

freed him from custody and of the excommunication that his predecessor had 

inflicted. 

Corrado, almost certainly returned to his castle of 

Anticoli or Saracinesco. In that same March 1272, died 

in prison of Bologna, King Enzo of Sardinia, the last 

surviving son of Frederick II and, therefore, uncle of 

Corrado. Enzo, a few days before he died, in his will, 

appointed his nephew Corrado of Antioch of the title 

and the county of Molise: that gesture went well beyond 

its immediate meaning, constituting in fact, a clear 

indication given to the last person still capable of 

reaffirming the greatness of the house of Swabia. Very 

rare example of loyalty and attachment to the imperial 

cause, Corrado of Antioch "was always until he died of the Ghibelline party and 

enemy of the popes" (F. Gregorovius). The will, drawn up in bologna 6 March 1272 

by the notary Tommasino Armnini, was preserved in the State Archives of Bologna, 

but disappeared from the middle of the nineteenth century. For some, this will was 


uncomfortable, but in the State were the series of Memorials of the City, the 

recording, including the essential elements of the Act and its document summary. 

(Above picture: ENZO 1224 Palermo - Bologna 1272) 

Portrait of King Enzo on the tombstone of the grave, in San 

Domenico in Bologna 

Different commentators and scholars argue that Conrad of Antioch, in the defeat of 

the Swabian in Tagliacozzo, has taken refuge in Sicily, where he surrendered to 

Guido de Montfort, was first blinded and then hanged. This another transposition 

of Corrado Capece because of the confusion between the two characters (It is 

surprising that have fallen into the error even modern authors such as De Frede 

that in op. Cit., P.25, states "So the Montfort could have, then, reason of the 

rebels; also Corrado of Antioch was defeated and many others surrendered "). In 

Naples, Charles of Anjou sent Guido de Montfort to oblige obedience in Sicily. 

Corrado Capece falled in the network of Guillaume Estendard that in May 1270, 

made him blind and shortly afterwards hanged on the shore of the sea of Catania 

(N.Kamp, Corrado Capece, cit., P. 413). 

It should be remembered about the figure of Corrado Capece, which is in some 

contemporary chroniclers that contemporary scholars frequently use a unique 

mixture and confusion between him and Corrado of Antioch. The interchange of 

person, and the inclusion of one in the context of the facts and events that mention 

one other and vice versa, it could be the fact that in an Aragonese time a branch of 

the family of Antioch moved in Sicily where they already possessed some fiefdoms, 

as Capizzi. 

Even Palumbo (op. Cit., P. 273 n. 1) points out that confusion. He points out that 

"From the contemporary chroniclers a contemporary historian marks a unique 

frequent confusion between Corrado Capece and Corrado of Antioch." Raffaele also 

falls into the error sheet lets that, 0p. Cit., P. 222, says Manfredi fate in the 

Marches "as Captain Corrado Capece son of Frederick of Antioch." The son of 

Frederick of Antioch was Corrado of Antioch and not Corrado Capece. 

It is important to emphasize that since the day after the battle of Tagliacozzo, 

Corrado proves excluded from the list of those sentenced to death (GP Carosi, op. 

Cit., P. 51). The same Charles I of Anjou wrote from the battlefield in a letter 


addressed to Padovani. It states that all prisoners were immediately sentenced to 

death except Corrado de Antioch (Story of the letter reported by Ridola, op. Cit., P. 

239 n. 1). Certainly Charles of Anjou, under pressure from the powerful Cardinal 

Orsini, the pope and the latter on Charles of Anjou because they utilizes Corrado 

for an exchange of hostages, his two prisoners brothers (C. Piccolini, Monticelli in 

the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries , in "Proceedings of the Society Tiburtina 

and memories of history and art", 8, 1928, p. 257; E. Amadei, op. Cit., p. 1904 

Gregoroius F., op. Cit., III, p . 42; V. Pacifici, op. Cit., p. 274), might have led some 

of his followers to take revenge on their brothers Orsini. Both the Pope that Charles 

of Anjou wanted this absolutely avoided. 

Charles d'Anjou "reluctantly" (See P. Ridola, op. Cit., P. 239) could not deny the 

favor to the representative of one of the most powerful Guelph families. It suggests 

that Charles had kept alive Corrado of Antioch because from his existence 

depended on the Orsini. The two Orsini were released and Charles of Anjou, in 

turn, handed the pontiff Corrado of Antioch (P. Ridola, ibid.). 

The chronicler Saba Malaspina summed up in a few lines the whole affair that 

allowed Conrad to save the life after the battle of Tagliacozzo: “Corrado vero de 

Antiochia post tempus ad magnam Reverendi Patris S. Cajetani Sancti Nicolai in 

carcere Tulliano Diaconi Cardinalis instantiam, vitae benefficium indulgetur, et 

pro excambio Domini Neapoleonis, et Domni Matthaei fratrum Cardinalis 

praedicti, qui apud castrum Sarrascinesci sub uxoris ejusdem Corradi custodia 

tenebantur, a Gallica potestate subducitur, et Ecclessiae donatur” (Saba 

Malaspina, Rerum Sicularum, cit., col. 849). 

The ceremony of the oath and the release of Corrado of Antioch are referred by a 

bull of Pope Martin IV of 1282 published by Raynald (O. Raynal, op. Cit., II, a., 

1282, n. XXVI. The passage of the papal bull is reported by Ridola, op. Cit., p. 247 

n. 2). Corrado of Antioch, with this solemn act, not only promised to be faithful to 

the Church, but gave himself completely, also on behalf of his son, in the power of 

the Pope recognizing him as his sovereign, and in part, of Charles of Anjou. 

Another example to show that Conrad was still alive in 1305, in the epitaph on his 

son Federico (+22-7-1305) said the "magnificent Domains Conradi de Antioch 

Comitis filius Patris et Reverend Bartholomaei .... Frater" if Corrado was already 

dead, Federico would have said "..... filius quondam Conradi," as he pointed the 

father of Frederick, as his brother were alive. 

Corrado of Antioch probably entered the diplomatic game that was 

developing between the pope and the Anjou, for which he managed to 

keep his feuds, provided to bind to two new "owners", as would 


assume the dual coat of arms Antioch: if before 1268 was definitely Ghibelline "in 

black silver eagle, crowned of the same," 

Perhaps from that date Exchange emblems becoming "red, strewn 

with golden lilies" in clear reference to Angevin lilies (GB From 

Crollanza, Dictionary of Italian noble and notable families, extinct and 

thriving, Pisa, 1886, I, p. 51, B. Candida Gonzaga, Memoirs of the 

noble families of the southern provinces of Italy, I, Naples, 1875, p. 

170). 

The last days of Corrado of Antioch 

The protagonist of a long and adventurous life, Corrado of Antioch, feudal knight 

soon became a symbol, a living memory reference of the Swabian time, at least 

ideal of all the Ghibellines central-southern Italy. Supporter, in 1282 the Sicilian 

Vesper of King Peter of Aragon, his family member, Corrado, at the head of fifty 

Ghibellines knights were to come under the banner of Henry VII of Luxembourg, 

which came to Rome May 7, 1312 to be crowned emperor by the Cardinals. 

Corrado, about seventy years, could not think of fighting in the streets of Rome, he 

probably just wanted to pay homage to the emperor, probably in charge of his 

knights there was some of his children. But Corrado had to endure bitterness. In 

fact, the resistance of the opponents of the imperial troop led by Robert of Anjou 

who was victorious and 26 May the attempt of the emperor to reach in St. Peter's 

coronation was finally rejected. In late May the counts of Anquillara and 

Santafiora, both Ghibellines and the same Corrado of Antioch, they decided to 

leave Rome. 

Henry VII could only be crowned on June 29 by three cardinals in S. John Lateran. 

Val dÁniene, Corrado of Antioch´s possessions 

With this flight from Rome, our Corrado disappears from the scene of history. 

Enemy of the popes, who excommunicated him three times, and three times 


acquitted, Corrado of Antioch died reconciled to the Church to which he offered 

two sons archbishops. In that period of great uncertainty so it is likely that Corrado 

of Antioch had decided to stand aside and let down the trend of political events, 

and had retired. Also not to be forgotten or underestimated the expression of 

Honorius IV who in 1286 called “Corrado beloved son of the Church”. 

A short note from Honorius IV, dated Rome, February 5, 1286, is very important 

because it reveals Corrado of Antioch at that time had returned in peace with the 

Church. The pope wrote to Cardinal Gerard, bishop of Sabina and tied 

Headquarters Apostolic, inviting him to absolve from excommunication some 

residents of Antina, a village near Sora, who had accompanied Corrado of Antioch 

in its various raids. In his paper, the pontiff said that those citizens had come to: 

“in auxilium dilectii filii nobilis viri Conrad de Abtiochia, priusquam ad mandate 

nostra ed ecclesie Romane rediret” (Crf. Les Registres de Honorious IV, cit. n. 282; 

G. P. Carosi, op. Cit., page 56). The whole expression confirms the reconciliation of 

Corrado with the Holy See. But, according to a posterior document it would seem 

that Conrad was forced to come to terms with the pope, after most of his fiefs had 

been recaptured by the forces of the Church. 

Possible reflecting the fact that Corrado, now an elderly man let himself overcome 

by desires of peace and tranquility. This could be inferred from the ascertainment 

that there is no news that correlate with important events in the election of 

Giacomo of Aragon (his family member) King of Sicily nor taken the peace treaties 

of the same Giacomo with Carlo called the “Zoppo” (son of Charles of Anjou). Nor 

is he sees alongside Federico of Aragon when he was crowned in the kingdom that 

had been abandoned by his brother (P. Ridola, op cit., page 254). Another clue that 

could support this hypothesis and confirm the peace took place with the Holy See is 

the marriage of one of his daughters (maybe that daughter Beatrice that Charles of 

Anjou had given hostages to Andrea Brancaleone) Corrado with Ottaviano 

Brunforte, appointed in 1297 by Pope Boniface VIII. 

Corrado knew the ventures of war and captivity, brushed his death, but in the end 

he managed to die, at an unspecified date, of old age and in peace, in his fief of 

Anticoli that it will soon called “Anticoli Corrado” after his name. In Val d'Aniene 

Corrado founded a dynasty, which conserved possession of Anticoli until 1430 and 

to Saracinesco and Sambuci up to the middle of the sixteenth century. Corrado of 

Antioch became the forefather of a race that never denied the Ghibellines ideals to 

the house of Swabia, the dynasty that wanted to survive longer in fact in the 

descendants of Corrado, in those of Antioch and Anticoli Saracinesco, the last 

Ghibellines of the Val d 'Aniene. 


Author personal Coat of Arms 

The choice of our symbol is the one that resemble the 

emblems of the families that made our House Illustrious. 

First quarter, OR (gold) to three lions passing of sable 

(black), one placed on the other, alias of argent (silver), to 

three lions passing of gules, placed one on the other. 

Second quarter, azure to the squared red silver band and 

of two rows 

Third quarter of gules (red) and gulls of gold 

Fourth quarter, gules with a silver lion's head, crowned gold: Royal crown. 

Center: Or with sable eagle and crowned gold. 

The cross that divides the four quarters: black cross of the Teutonic Order of 

St. Mary of Jerusalem founded by the Fredrick Duke of Swabia. 

Coat of Arms certified by Don Fernando Muñoz Altea Fernández y 

Bueno, Chronicler King of Arms of The Royal House of Bourbon Two Sicilies in 

1962 by HRH Prince Don Ranieri de Borbón Dos Sicilias, Duque de Castro, Head of 

the Royal House. 

Authors that wrote about the Caputo Family 

Aldimari – Alfano – Almagiore – Ansalone – Avati Carbone – Beltrano – Borello – 

Buonfiglio – Campanile Giuseppe – Campanile Filiberto – Capaccio (il forestiere) – 

Castiglion-Morelli – Choccarelli – Costo – Donnorso – Engenio – Fazello – Fiore – 

Inveges – de Lellis – Lumaga – de Luna – Maldacea – della Marra – Pacichelli – 

Pagano – Presico – Pietrasanta – de Pietri – Pirri – Rossi – Summonte – Tettoni e 

Saldini – Toppi (origineTrib: - Toppi (biblioteca napolitana) – Tutino – 

Ventimiglia (uomini illustri) – Villano – Vincenti. 

Books that refer to Corrado Caputo of Antioch 

S. Viola, Storia di Tivoli dalla sua origine fino al Secolo XVII, Roma 1819;F. 

Bulgarini, Notizie storiche antiquarie statistiche ed agronomiche intorno 

allántichissima cittá di Tivoli e suo territotio, Roma 1850;G. Silvestrelli, Cittá 

castelli e terre della Regione romana, Richerche di storia medievale e moderna 

fino allánno 1800, roma 1840;P. Ridola, Federico dántiochia e i suoi 

discendenti, in “Archivio Storico per le province Napoletane” XI I, 1886, pages 

198-284; M. Meloni, Treja e i Papi, Macerata 1982; G. Cascioli, Memorie storiche 

di Poli, Roma 1896; V. Paicici, Tivoli e Corrado dÁntiochia, in “Archivio della 


Societá Romana di Storia Patria”, 42, 1919, pages 277-293; G. Casciolo, Nuova 

serie dei vescovi di Tivoli, in “Atti e Memorie della Societá Tiburtina di Storia e 

dÁrte” 4, 1942, pages 207-208; R. Manselli, Antiochia Corrado, in Dizionario 

biografico degli Italiani, 3, Roma 1961, pages 467-469; C. Pierattini, Gli 

Antiochia, ultimi ghibellini della Val dÁniene, in “Lunario Romano 1979, Fatti e 

figure medievali, Roma 1979, pages 487-502; A. Meriggi, Storia di Treja dalle 

origini medievali, Roma 1979, pages 487-502; R. Mosti, Gli Antiochia di Anticoli e 

Saracinesco in un “Arbitratum” di Giovanni Orsini del 1364, in “Atti e Memorie 

della societá Tiburtina di Storia e dÁrte, 53, 1980, pages 113-142; A. Meriggi, 

Un documento di rilievo per la storia di Treja – Il processo al podestá Baglioni 

degli anni 1278-1296, in “Atti e Memorie della Deputazione di Storia patris per le 

Marches, n.s. 87, 1982, pages 72-13; G. P. Carosi, Discendenti del Barabarossa 

Signori (1240-1430) di Anticoli Corrado, Casamarti 1983; R. Mosti, Una fonte 

agnanica di Corrado dÁntiochia signore di Anticoli e di Piglio nel 1377, in Scritti 

in amore di Filippo Caraffa, Anagni, pages 267-275. 

Parentage with Caputo family (until 1665) 

Abenavolo – Acciapaccia – Afeltro – Anfora – Aprano – d’Arco – Berrino – 

Brancaccio – Brescia – Bresegna – Candida – Canella – Capece – Caracciolo – 

Carata – Cicinello – Coppola – Crisconio – Dura – Cambitella – de Gennaro – 

Griffo – Guindazzo – Isclano – Longo – della Marra – Matinez – Mormile – 

Palamolla – Palmiero – della Rocca Roccaromana – Sambiase – Stranbone – 

Telesio – del Toro and other families 


Corrado Caputo Genealogy Tree 




Bibliography 

- Archivi di Stato di Caserta 

- AA.VV., “Popolazione Paesi e Società della Basilicata” a cura di A. Giganti e R. Maino, 

edizioni Puglia Grafica Sud, Bari, 1989 

- Alberto Meriggi, “Corrado I d’Antiochia, Un Principe Ghibellino Nelle Vicentde Della 

Seconda Metá Del XIII Secolo” Edizioni QuattroVenti Snc. Cas. Post 156, Urbino (1990). 

- Ancestors Ltd., Heritage House – 35 Watling Street, Canterbury, Kent CT1 2UD, Inghilterra 

- Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli. 

- CANDIDA GONZAGA B., “Memorie delle Famiglie Nobili delle Province Meridionale 

d’Italia”, Napoli, 1875. 

- Carlo De Lellis – “Discorsi Delle Famiglie Nobili Del Regno Di Napoli” Parte Seconda, In 

Napoli Nella Stampa di gio: Francesco Paci, 1663. 

- Chaytor, H.J., “A History of Aragon and Catalonia” 1933. 

- Conte Berardo Candida Gonzaga – “Memorie delle famiglie nobili delle province 

meridionali d’Italia” – Napoli, 1876 

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ristampa anastatica, A. Forni, Bologna 1998, p.216, n.236, blasona "d'argento con tre Leoni 

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dello stemma della Casa d'Austria. 

- A. Montemaggi, La bolla d'oro di Rimini, Federico II e l' Ordine Teutonico, Celebrazioni 

della Bolla d'Oro nell'VIII centenario della nascita di Federico II di Svevia, Comune di 

Rimini, Rimini 1994, p.14. 

- G. Gerola, L'aquila bizantina e l'aquila imperiale a due teste, "Felix Ravenna", anno IV, 

(Gennaio-aprile 1934) XII, p. 

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caricato in cuore alla croce dei Cavalieri Teutonici (di nero, a propria volta caricata da una 


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