Manfred, King of Sicily

Manfred (* 1232 in Venosa, † February 26, 1266 in Benevento ) was from 1250 Prince of Taranto, Italy Administrator in Empire and Sicily from 1258 and King of Sicily itself.

Life

He was the son of Emperor Frederick II and the Piedmontese nobles Bianca Lancia the Younger, with which the Emperor had still trust on their deathbed to explain Manfred's birth as legitimate. Manfred received from his father the Principality of Taranto and the Verweserschaft kingdom in southern Italy and Sicily during the absence of his half-brother Conrad IV

Verweserschaft

The relationship between the half-brothers was tense. Therefore, and because the situation in Germany became more and more hopeless for the last Staufer, Konrad 1251 even moved to Italy, where he died in 1254. Manfred took over again Verweserschaft in Italy, this time for Conrad's infant son Conradin and sought a reconciliation with Innocent IV, which he directed himself to Naples in October 1254. The Pope did not recognize the Hohenstaufen inheritance of yet and enfeoffed in the same year Edmund, the son of Henry III. of England with Sicily. Manfred fled to the Saracens to Lucera and conquered with the help of Naples and Sicily ( 1257 ). Henry III. but made ​​little institutions to enforce the claim of his son in Sicily. Manfred sat in several respects continued his father's policy and was recognized mainly by the Sicilian nobleman loyal to the emperor and the cities of central and northern Italy as his rightful successor.

Kingship

In the meantime, the rival King William of Holland was in Germany though died, but a recapture of the reign of the Staufer had become completely illusory. Therefore Manfred renounced the German kingship, although he had claimed only representative of Conradin. Also, contrary to the claims of Conradin he was crowned King of Sicily in Palermo on August 10, 1258. Because Manfred would not recognize as his liege lord the pope, he was excommunicated in 1259, his kingdom with an interdict. Again the fight broke out in which Manfred won at Montaperti on September 4, 1260 on the Florentine and overthrew the whole Tuscia his rule. To conquer Rome he was not able. In return enfeoffed Clement IV Charles I of Anjou, the brother of the French king Louis IX. , With Sicily. The French royal family showed significantly more willing to enforce his claim to Sicily, than before the English: In January 1266 a French army of Rome broke out on a crusade against Manfred. On February 26, 1266 came to the decisive battle of Benevento, fell in Manfred. Since he was under the spell, his body was not buried in consecrated ground, but in the rocky valley on the River Garigliano. Thus, the Hohenstaufen rule ended in southern Italy.

Marriage and issue

Manfred's widow Helena, daughter of Despot Michael II of Epirus, whom he married on June 2, 1259 in Trani, was jailed on the run in their home in Trani with her five children and died in July 1271, 29 years old, in prison; her daughter Beatrix was delivered only after 22 years in prison in 1288 against Charles' son, Charles II, who had fallen into Aragonese captivity. Her three sons, Heinrich, Friedrich and Anselino died in prison. On the marriage of the eldest daughter of Manfred, Konstanze (* 1249, † 1302 in Barcelona) from his first marriage with Beatrice of Savoy ( † 10 May preceding 1258 ), which he had closed in December 1247 or January 1248 ( the marriage contract is derived from the April 21, 1247 ), with Peter III. of Aragon ( wedding on July 13, 1262 in Montpellier ) subsequent claims of Aragon, founded in Sicily and Naples. The other surviving Italian Staufer found asylum in Barcelona. By Sicilian Vespers Peter snatched the French Sicily.

The patricide

The anti -minded Florentine chronicler Giovanni Hohenstaufen Villani continued the legend of the murder of Emperor Frederick II by Manfred in the world. Thus, Manfred had harbored ambitions to the imperial throne and fears on the news of the illness of his father, this can surprisingly still healthy. So Manfred had bribed a servant of his father and so gain access to his room, where he suffocated him with a pillow.

Swell

  • The records Manfred. Edited by Christian Friedl using preparatory work by Markus Brantl. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2013, ISBN 978-3-447-06995-3.
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