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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
The Hohenstaufen Dynasty - Page 131 of 200