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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
The Hohenstaufen Dynasty - Page 177 of 200