I Vespri Siciliani
Author: Steven Runciman
Publisher: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli / 1976
Pages: 400pp
What was it that gave the French so much power over 13th century Sicily?
Sicily is the biggest island in the Mediterranean but the last time it was relatively independent was under the Normans.
After the death of Frederick II Stupor Mundi the island became the battlefield field between the popes and the successive kings of Sicily who in turn were tossed about in dynastic feuds with the Holy Roman Emperors.
Even under Frederick Sicily was abandoned - most of the kings never went there anyway and most of the fighting centred around North Italy where two groups came to dominate - the Guelphs representing the popes and the Ghibellines representing the emperor.
Successive popes fought bitterly against the Empire but in doing so the popes were committing collective suicide. While many people harkened back to the Roman era when all Europe was one, in reality various nations were being born. This was the advent of the nation-state.
The chronicle of the times as told by Runciman is full of names, fighting against each other with the popes acting as referees or at times as one of the parties.
The main protagonists were Manfred and Conradin, succeeded later by Charles d'Anjou.
Manfred of Hohenstaufen was the King of Sicily. He was the son of Frederick from Bianca Lancia from the family of the Count of Loreto, in other words an illegitimate son. The elder of the legitimate sons, Corrado, was already King of the Romans and designate Emperor.
Manfred was left vast territories in southern Italy and he was also appointed Governor of all Italy awaiting Corrado to come and set up his administration.
In 1251 Pope Innocent IV returned to Perugia (because Rome was not considered safe). He could not push Corrado out of Southern Italy but at least he could ensure that Sicily and Germany would not be united again. The Pope and Corrado found themselves fighting against each other and hurling excommunications at each other.
But just as Corrado was about to win, he died, aged just 26 years. He left behind him his son and heir, Corrado II, a child of just two years, who the people called Conradin.
That left Manfred whose relations with the pope looked for a time to be better than the enmity between pope and Corrado. But soon trust between the two collapsed. A series of skirmishes followed and the pope died in Naples, conscious that although he had broken down the might of the Hohenstaufen and rendered impossible any union between Germany and Italy, he had left the strongest state in Italy in the hands of his enemies. And, more fundamentally, he had been tenacious and untiring but without any scruples.
Manfred now had no one to stand up to him in southern Italy. Most Sicilians now believed the times of the Normans had come again. Manfred was now crowned as king of Sicily. He was 26 years old and pleasant to see. But he was lazy on administrative matters
Had he contented himself with the kingship of Sicily he might have avoided all that came later but he was under the influence of his family who egged him on to try and become emperor. He disappointed the Sicilians because after he was crowned he rarely visited Sicily. However, a series of battles gave him control over the whole of central Italy. The pope was isolated and died in Viterbo in 1261.
At the pope's death there were only eight cardinals and for three months they could not agree on a new pope, since two-thirds of the votes were needed. However, at the end they agreed on the Patriarch of Jerusalem, a Frenchman, Urban IV. Soon after his election, the new pope appointed 14 new cardinals, many of them French. Thus began the French capture of the church.
He did not feel safe in Rome and lived in Viterbo or Orvieto. Nor did he succeed in taking away the power that Manfred had accumulated, except marginally.
Successive popes, from Alexander IV onwards and especially Urban IV focused on trying to take down Manfred's power, without success.
Pope Innocent tried to interest the French king to take over Sicily but King St Louis refused. Henry III of England was tempted by the offer which meanwhile was also offered to St Louis's younger brother, Charles d'Anjou. This is his entry into the affairs of Sicily, as we shall see.
King Henry of England was enthusiastic, but once Richard of Wales turned down the offer, his younger brother, Edmond, was offered the Sicilian crown and he willingly accepted it.
He was crowned in October 1255 but soon after problems appeared. King Henry had accepted all that the pope was asking for but he started to understand he just did not have that money. And when he started to press the nobles and monasteries to give more, a group of armed men invaded the royal palace at Westminster and made the king take an oath he would do as they say.
A final attempt was made to reconcile pope and Manfred but this collapsed when the pope demanded that those who Manfred had exiled were to be allowed back and confiscated property returned. These demands were not accepted by Manfred. Then secret correspondence was intercepted and was revealed. Charles accepted and the church got its defender.
The conditions imposed by the pope were completely one-sided.
Charles was born in 1227, some months after the death of his father, Louis VIII, king of France. His mother, Blanche of Castille, doted on her first-born, the future St Louis, who, in turn favoured the second-born, Robert, who however died in battle. Of the two remaining brothers, Alfonso and Charles, Louis preferred Alfonso.
Thus, from his youth Charles's character was hardened by the cold treatment by his family. He grew up tall and muscular, robust and undeterred by hard work, with the same energy as his mother.
He was not discouraged by the hostility he faced and when he arrived in Provence, his first responsibility, in 1246, he got with him an army of lawyers and accountants, trained in Paris, who immediately examined what the nobles should have been giving their lord and enforced them.
This predictably raised protests and anger in Marseille, Arles and Avignon but Charles, dividing his enemies, overcame all opposition and even faced down a coup attempt.
Pope Urban increasingly found himself siding with Charles and trying hard to disassociate himself and the church from Manfred. But Pope Urban died in Perugia without signing the agreement with Charles. This did not bother much Charles whereas Manfred stopped all operations until the advent of the new pope. After four months the cardinals elected Clement IV, a Frenchman, thus a friend of Charles, who marched on Rome.
Manfred hurried to head him off but then inexplicably left everything and went hunting. Charles entered Rome and was given a triumphant welcome but Manfred, unimpressed, commented that the bird was in the trap.
The two armies marched towards the south and Charles, with a smaller army caught up with Manfred near Benevento. Here, on 26 February 1266, the battle took place. At first it seemed Manfred was winning but then all the timings came apart and his forces were vanquished. Manfred, though in disguise was killed and he was buried under a mount of stones near the bridge leading to Benevento.
Charles felt free to hunt down allies of Manfred throughout northern Italy. But those who had escaped the rout of Benevento managed to slip out of Italy and made their way to Conradin in Germany.
Urged on by Manfred's remaining supporters Conradin slowly moved south and entered Italy. Meanwhile Sicily was in revolt - they did not love Manfred but they loved even less Charles and his taxmen.
He was welcomed hysterically in Rome, then headed south. Charles hurried to intercept him and the two armies fought in the battle of Tagliacozzo on 22 August 1268, almost a carbon copy of the battle of Benevento, two years before. The Conradin troops understood they were losing rather than winning, they had tired themselves in the fierce heat and could not fight.
Conradin was not killed in the battle. He escaped and tried to find a vessel that could take him to Genoa but he was betrayed and captured. Charles decided to kill him and searched for legal reasons to do so. On 29 October 1268 Conradin was beheaded in the market square of Naples, an event that shook all Europe. The crowd that assisted at the killing got its first glimpse of the fair-headed prince who could have become its king when his head departed from the body.
Conradin's death shocked all Europe especially when the pope died exactly a month later. This was interpreted as God's vengeance.
Charles seemed unconcerned and a few days later got married for the second time. The cardinals met in conclave at Viterbo but for three whole years could not agree on a new pope. The French cardinals did not want an Italian pope nor did the Italians accept a French one. At the same time it so happened that there was no emperor either. Charles thus was unfettered to seek his aims. Now that Conradin was dead, Charles could work on his ambition to create a Mediterranean empire.
This had also been Manfred's ambition. Charles began by occupying Corfu. He prepared to send an expedition to Constantinople in the summer of 1270. But before doing that he wanted to take over Tunisia whose king, Mustansir, was said to be thinking of converting to Christianity. King St Louis accepted the idea and sailed there.
But in Tunisia he found an enemy deadlier than weapons - the heat. Soon French soldiers began falling sick and soon the French king fell sick and died. Moreover, a French convoy on its way to the Holy Land was caught in a terrible storm and 18 vessels sank. Another bad omen was the murder during a religious service of an English nobleman by an assistant of Charles.
The expedition against Constantinople was called off but Charles soon had another bee in his bonnet - Albania and surrounding countries - Serbia , Bulgaria, etc.
The first part of this review was published last week. The third part will be published on 17 March