Charles I of Anjou
Charles I | |
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King of Sicily Contested by Peter I from 1282 | |
Reign | 1266–1282 (island of Sicily and mainland territories) 1282–1285 (mainland territories, also known as the Kingdom of Naples) |
Coronation | 5 January 1266 |
Predecessor | Manfred |
Successor |
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Count of Provence | |
Reign | 1246–1285 |
Predecessor | Beatrice |
Successor | Charles II |
Prince of Achaea | |
Reign | 1278–1285 |
Predecessor | William |
Successor | Charles II |
Born | Early 1226/1227 |
Died | 7 January 1285 (aged 57–59) Foggia, Kingdom of Naples |
Burial | |
Spouses | |
Issue More |
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House | Capet (by birth) Anjou-Sicily (founder) |
Father | Louis VIII of France |
Mother | Blanche of Castile |
Charles I (early 1226/1227 – 7 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou or Charles d'Anjou, was a member of the royal
The youngest son of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile, Charles was destined for a Church career until the early 1240s. He acquired Provence and Forcalquier through his marriage to their heiress, Beatrice. His attempts to restore central authority brought him into conflict with his mother-in-law, Beatrice of Savoy, and the nobility. Charles received Anjou and Maine from his brother, Louis IX of France, in appanage. He accompanied Louis during the Seventh Crusade to Egypt. Shortly after he returned to Provence in 1250, Charles forced three wealthy autonomous cities—Marseille, Arles and Avignon—to acknowledge his suzerainty.
Charles supported
Charles was crowned king in Rome on 5 January 1266. He
Early life
Childhood
Charles was the youngest child of King
Louis VIII died in November 1226 and his eldest son,
Charles later said that his mother had a strong impact on her children's education;[1] in reality, Blanche was fully engaged in state administration, and could likely spare little time for her youngest children.[3][5] Charles lived at the court of a brother, Robert I, Count of Artois, from 1237.[5] About four years later he was put into the care of his youngest brother, Alphonse, Count of Poitiers.[5] His participation in his brothers' military campaign against Hugh X of Lusignan, Count of La Marche, in 1242 showed that he was no longer destined for a Church career.[5]
Provence and Anjou
The Hohenstaufen
Being a younger child, destined for a church career, Charles had not received an
While Charles was absent from Provence, Marseille, Arles and Avignon—three wealthy cities, directly subject to the emperor—formed a league and appointed a Provençal nobleman, Barral of Baux, as the commander of their combined armies.[15] Charles's mother-in-law put the disobedient Provençals under her protection.[15] Charles could not deal with the rebels as he was about to join his brother's crusade.[15] To pacify his mother-in-law he acknowledged her right to rule Forcalquier and granted a third of his revenues from Provence to her.[15]
Seventh Crusade
In December 1244 Louis IX took a vow to lead a crusade.
Wider ambitions
Conflicts and consolidation
Charles's officers continued the survey of the counts' rights and revenues in Provence, provoking a new rebellion during his absence.
Charles's officials continued to ascertain his rights,
Emperor Frederick II, who was also the ruler of Sicily, died in 1250. The
Queen Blanche, who had administered France during Louis' crusade,[32] died on 1 December 1252.[38] Louis made Alphonse and Charles co-regents, so that he could remain in the Holy Land.[39] Margaret II, Countess of Flanders and Hainaut had come into conflict with her son by her first marriage, John of Avesnes.[40] After her sons by her second marriage were captured in July 1253, she needed foreign assistance to secure their release.[41][42] Ignoring Louis IX's 1246 ruling that Hainaut should pass to John, she promised the county to Charles.[41] He accepted the offer and invaded Hainaut, forcing most local noblemen to swear fealty to him.[32][41] After his return to France, Louis IX insisted that his ruling was to be respected.[32] In November 1255 he ordered Charles to restore Hainaut to Margaret, but her sons were obliged to swear fealty to Charles.[43] Louis also ruled that she was to pay 160,000 marks to Charles over the following 13 years.[43]
Charles returned to Provence, which had again become restive.
Emperor Frederick II's illegitimate son,
Taking advantage of Charles's absence, Boniface of Castellane stirred up a new revolt in Provence.[45][54] The burghers of Marseilles expelled Charles's officials, but Barral of Baux stopped the spread of the rebellion before Charles's return.[55] Charles renounced Ventimiglia in favour of the Republic of Genoa to secure her neutrality.[56] He defeated the rebels and forced Castellane into exile.[56] The mediation of James I of Aragon brought about a settlement with Marseilles: its fortifications were dismantled and the townspeople surrendered their arms, but the town retained its autonomy.[56]
Conquest of the Regno
Louis IX decided to support Charles's military campaign in Italy in May 1263.
In the spring of 1264 Cardinals Simon of Brie and Guy Foulquois were sent to France to reach a compromise and start raising support for the crusade.[53][60] Charles sent troops to Rome to protect the Pope against Manfred's allies.[61] At Foulquois' request, Charles's sister-in-law Margaret (who had not abandoned her claims to her dowry) pledged that she would not take actions against Charles during his absence.[61] Foulquois also persuaded the French and Provençal prelates to offer financial support for the crusade.[59][61] Pope Urban died before the final agreement was concluded.[62] Charles made arrangements for his campaign against Sicily during the interregnum; he concluded agreements to secure his army's route across Lombardy and had the leaders of the Provençal rebels executed.[62]
Foulquois was elected pope in February 1265; he soon confirmed Charles's senatorship and urged him to come to Rome.[63] Charles agreed that he would hold the Kingdom of Sicily as the popes' vassal for an annual tribute of 8,000 ounces of gold.[59] He also promised that he would never seek the imperial title.[59] He embarked at Marseilles on 10 May and landed at Ostia ten days later.[62] He was installed as senator on 21 June and four cardinals invested him with the Regno a week later.[62] To finance further military actions he borrowed money from Italian bankers with the Pope's assistance, who had authorised him to pledge Church property.[64][65] Five cardinals crowned him king of Sicily on 5 January 1266.[65] The crusaders from France and Provence—reportedly 6,000 fully equipped mounted warriors, 600 mounted bowmen and 20,000 foot-soldiers—arrived in Rome ten days later.[64][66]
Charles decided to invade southern Italy without delay, because he was unable to finance a lengthy campaign.[66][67] He left Rome on 20 January 1266.[67] He marched towards Naples, but changed his strategy after learning of a muster of Manfred's forces near Capua.[68] He led his troops across the Apennines towards Benevento.[68] Manfred also hurried to the town and reached it before Charles.[68] Worried that further delays might endanger his subjects' loyalty, Manfred attacked Charles's army, then in disarray from the crossing of the hills, on 26 February 1266.[68] In the ensuing battle, Manfred's army was defeated and he was killed.[68]
Resistance throughout the Regno collapsed[66][69] and towns surrendered even before Charles's troops reached them.[69] The Saracens of Lucera—a Muslim colony established during Frederick II's reign[70]—paid homage to him.[69] His commander, Philip of Montfort, took control of the island of Sicily.[69] Manfred's widow, Helena of Epirus, and their children were captured.[71] Charles laid claim to her dowry—the island of Corfu and the region of Durazzo (now Durrës in Albania)—by right of conquest.[71] His troops seized Corfu before the end of the year.[72]
Conradin
Charles was lenient with Manfred's supporters, but they did not believe that this conciliatory policy could last.[73] They knew that he had promised to return estates to the Guelph lords expelled from the Regno.[73] Neither could Charles gain the commoners' loyalty, partly because he continued enforcing the subventio generalis despite the popes declaring it an illegal charge.[74][75] He introduced a ban on the use of foreign currency in large transactions and made a profit of the compulsory exchange of foreign coinage for locally minted currency.[76] He also traded in grain, spices and sugar, through a joint venture with Pisan merchants.[77]
Pope Clement censured Charles for his methods of state administration, describing him as an arrogant and obstinate monarch.[78] The consolidation of Charles's power in northern Italy also alarmed Clement.[79] To appease the Pope, Charles resigned his senatorship in May 1267.[78][80] His successors, Conrad Monaldeschi and Luca Savelli, demanded the re-payment of the money that Charles and the Pope had borrowed from the Romans.[78]
Victories by the
Charles returned to Tuscany and laid siege to the fortress of Poggibonsi, but it did not fall until the end of November.[90] Manfred's staunchest supporters had meanwhile fled to Bavaria to attempt to persuade Conrad IV's 15-year-old son Conradin to assert his hereditary right to the Kingdom of Sicily.[91] After Conradin accepted their proposal, Manfred's former vicar in Sicily, Conrad Capece, returned to the island and stirred up a revolt.[91] At Capece's request Muhammad I al-Mustansir, the Hafsid caliph of Tunis,[92] allowed Manfred's former ally, Frederick of Castile, to invade Sicily from North Africa.[93] Frederick's brother, Henry—who had been elected senator of Rome—also offered support to Conradin.[91][94] Henry had been Charles's friend, but Charles had failed to repay a loan to him.[95]
Conradin left Bavaria in September 1267.[96] His supporters' revolt was spreading from Sicily to Calabria; the Saracens of Lucera also rose up.[96][97] Pope Clement urged Charles to return to the Regno, but he continued his campaign in Tuscany until March 1268, when he met with the Pope.[96] In April, the Pope made Charles imperial vicar of Tuscany "during the vacancy of the empire", a move of dubious legality.[98][99] Charles marched to southern Italy and laid siege to Lucera, but he then had to hurry north to prevent Conradin's invasion of Abruzzo in late August.[100] At the Battle of Tagliacozzo, on 23 August 1268, it appeared that Conradin had won the day, but a sudden charge by Charles's reserve routed Conradin's army.[100]
The burghers of Potenza, Aversa and other towns in Basilicata and Apulia massacred their fellows who had agitated on Conradin's behalf, but the Sicilians and the Saracens of Lucera did not surrender.[66][101] Charles marched to Rome where he was again elected senator in September.[102] He appointed new officials to administer justice and collect state revenues.[102] New coins bearing his name were struck.[102] During the following decade, Rome was ruled by Charles's vicars, each appointed for one year.[102]
Conradin was captured at Torre Astura.[103] Most of his retainers were summarily executed, but Conradin and his friend, Frederick I, Margrave of Baden, were brought to trial for robbery and treason in Naples.[104] They were sentenced to death and beheaded on 29 October.[105] Conrad of Antioch was Conradin's only partisan to be released, but only after his wife threatened to execute the Guelph lords she held captive in her castle.[103] The Ghibelline noblemen of the Regno fled to the court of Peter III of Aragon, who had married Manfred's daughter, Constance.[106]
Mediterranean empire
Italy
Charles's wife, Beatrice of Provence, had died in July 1267. The widowed Charles married Margaret of Nevers in November 1268.[107] She was co-heiress to her father, Odo, the eldest son of Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy.[107] Pope Clement died on 29 November 1268.[102] The papal vacancy lasted for three years, which strengthened Charles's authority in Italy, but it also deprived him of the ecclesiastic support that only a pope could provide.[108][109]
Charles returned to Lucera to personally direct its siege in April 1269.[108] The Saracens and the Ghibellines who had escaped to the town[108] resisted until starvation forced them to surrender in August 1269.[66][110] Charles sent Philip and Guy of Montfort to Sicily to force the rebels there into submission, but they could only capture Augusta.[111] Charles made William l'Estandart the commander of the army in Sicily in August 1269.[111] L'Estandart captured Agrigento, forcing Frederick of Castile and Frederick Lancia to seek refuge in Tunis.[111] After L'Estandart's subsequent victory at Sciacca, only Capece resisted, but he also had to surrender in early 1270.[111]
Charles's troops forced Siena and Pisa—the last towns to resist him in Tuscany—to sue for peace in August 1270.[112] He granted privileges to the Tuscan merchants and bankers which strengthened their position in the Regno.[113][114] His influence was declining in Lombardy, because the Lombard towns no longer feared an invasion from Germany after Conradin's death.[115] In May 1269 Charles sent Walter of La Roche to represent him in the province, but this failed to strengthen his authority.[115][116] In October Charles's officials convoked an assembly at Cremona, and invited the Lombard towns to attend.[115][116] The Lombard towns accepted the invitation, but some towns—Milan, Bologna, Alessandria and Tortona—only confirmed their alliance with Charles, without acknowledging his rule.[115][116]
Eighth Crusade
Louis IX never abandoned the idea of the liberation of Jerusalem, but he decided to begin his new crusade with a military campaign against Tunis.[117][118] According to his confessor, Geoffrey of Beaulieu, Louis was convinced that al-Mustansir of Tunis was ready to convert to Christianity.[117] The 13th-century historian Saba Malaspina stated that Charles persuaded Louis to attack Tunis, because he wanted to secure the payment of the tribute that the rulers of Tunis had paid to the former Sicilian monarchs.[119]
The French crusaders embarked at Aigues-Mortes on 2 July 1270; Charles departed from Naples six days later.[120] He spent more than a month in Sicily, waiting for his fleet.[120] By the time he landed at Tunis on 25 August,[120] dysentery and typhoid fever had decimated the French army.[118] Louis died the day Charles arrived.[118]
The crusaders twice defeated Al-Mustansir's army, forcing him to sue for peace.[121] According to the peace treaty, signed on 1 November, Al-Mustansir agreed to fully compensate Louis' son and successor, Philip III of France, and Charles for the expenses of the military campaign and to release his Christian prisoners.[121] He also promised to pay a yearly tribute to Charles and to expel Charles's opponents from Tunis.[122] The gold from Tunis, along with silver from the newly opened mine at Longobucco, enabled Charles to mint new coins, known as carlini, in the Regno.[123]
Charles and Philip departed Tunis on 10 November.[118] A storm dispersed their fleet at Trapani and most of Charles's galleys were lost or damaged.[121] Genoese ships returning from the crusade were also sunk or forced to land in Sicily.[124] Charles seized the damaged ships and their cargo, ignoring all protests from the Ghibelline authorities of Genoa.[124] Before leaving Sicily he granted temporary tax concessions to the Sicilians, because he realised that the conquest of the island had caused much destruction.[125]
Attempts to expand
Charles accompanied Philip III as far as Viterbo in March 1271.
An earthquake destroyed the walls of Durazzo in the late 1260s or early 1270s.
Charles hurried to Rome to attend the enthronement of Pope Gregory X on 27 March 1272.[137] The new pope was determined to put an end to the conflicts between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines.[138] While in Rome Charles met with the Guelph leaders who had been exiled from Genoa.[124] After they offered him the office of captain of the people, Charles promised military assistance to them.[124] In November 1272 Charles commanded his officials to take prisoner all Genoese within his territories, except for the Guelphs, and to seize their property.[139][140] His fleet occupied Ajaccio in Corsica.[140] Pope Gregory condemned his aggressive policy, but proposed that the Genoese should elect Guelph officials.[140] Ignoring the Pope's proposal, the Genoese made alliance with Alfonso X of Castile, William VII of Montferrat and the Ghibelline towns of Lombardy in October 1273.[140]
The conflict with Genoa prevented Charles from invading the Byzantine Empire, but he continued to forge alliances in the Balkan Peninsula.[141] The Bulgarian ruler, Konstantin Tih, was the first to conclude a treaty with him in 1272 or 1273.[135] John I Doukas of Thessaly and Stefan Uroš I, King of Serbia, joined the coalition in 1273.[135] However, Pope Gregory forbade Charles to attack, because he hoped to unify the Orthodox and Catholic churches with the assistance of Emperor Michael VIII.[142][143]
The renowned theologian Thomas Aquinas died unexpectedly near Naples on 7 March 1274, before departing to attend the Second Council of Lyon.[144] According to a popular legend, immortalised by Dante Alighieri, Charles had him poisoned, because he feared that Aquinas would make complaint against him.[144] The historian Steven Runciman emphasises that "there is no evidence for supposing that the great doctor's death was not natural".[144] Southern Italian churchmen at the council accused Charles of tyrannical acts.[142] Their report reinforced the Pope's attempt to reach a compromise with Rudolf of Habsburg, who had been elected king of Germany by the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire.[145] In June, the Pope acknowledged Rudolf as the lawful ruler of both Germany and Italy.[145] Charles's sisters-in-law, Margaret and Eleanor, approached Rudolf, claiming that they had been unlawfully disinherited in favour of Charles's late wife.[146][147]
Michael VIII's personal envoy announced at the Council of Lyon on 6 July that he had accepted the Catholic creed and papal primacy.[89] About three weeks later, Pope Gregory again prohibited Charles from launching military actions against the Byzantine Empire.[148] The Pope also tried to mediate a truce between Charles and Michael, but the latter chose to attack several smaller states in the Balkans, including Charles's vassals.[142] The Byzantine fleet took control of the maritime routes between Albania and southern Italy in the late 1270s.[149] Gregory only allowed Charles to send reinforcements to Achaea.[142] The organisation of a new crusade to the Holy Land remained the Pope's principal object.[150] He persuaded Charles to start negotiations with Maria of Antioch about purchasing her claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.[151] The High Court of Jerusalem had already rejected her in favour of Hugh III of Cyprus,[151] but the Pope had a low opinion of Hugh.[152]
The war with Genoa and the Lombard towns increasingly occupied Charles's attention.
Papal elections
Pope Gregory X died on 10 January 1276.[154] After the hostility he experienced during Gregory's pontificate, Charles was determined to secure the election of a pope willing to support his plans.[155] Gregory's successor, Pope Innocent V, had always been Charles's partisan and he rapidly confirmed Charles as senator of Rome and imperial vicar of Tuscany.[156] He also mediated a peace treaty between Charles and Genoa,[142] which was signed in Rome on 22 June 1276.[157] Charles restored the privileges of the Genoese merchants and renounced his conquests, and the Genoese acknowledged his rule in Ventimiglia.[157]
Pope Innocent died on 30 June 1276.
Charles appointed
Pope John died on 20 May 1277.[164] Charles was ill and could not prevent the election of Giovanni Gaetano Orsini as Pope Nicholas III on 25 November.[165] The Pope soon declared that no foreign prince could rule in Rome[166] and reminded Charles that he had been elected senator for ten years.[167] Charles swore fealty to the new pope on 24 May 1278 after lengthy negotiations.[167] He had to pledge that he would renounce both the senatorship of Rome and the vicariate of Tuscany in four months.[167] On the other hand, Nicholas III confirmed the excommunication of Charles's enemies in Piedmont and started negotiations with Rudolf to prevent him from making an alliance against Charles with Margaret of Provence and her nephew, Edward I of England.[168] The negotiations with Rudolf lay behind Nicholas' refusal to renew Charles's vicariate in Tuscany, to which Rudolf had appointed his own vicar.[98]
Charles announced his resignation from the senatorship and the vicariate on 30 August 1278.
Charles had meanwhile inherited the
Pope Nicholas died on 22 August 1280.
End of the Church union
Pope Martin excommunicated Emperor Michael VIII on 10 April 1281 because the Emperor had not imposed the Church union in his empire.[160][180] The Pope soon authorised Charles to invade the empire.[180] Charles's vicar in Albania, Hugh of Sully, had already laid siege to the Byzantine fortress of Berat.[173] A Byzantine army of relief under Michael Tarchaneiotes and John Synadenos arrived in March 1281.[181] Sully was ambushed and captured, his army put to flight and the interior of Albania was lost to the Byzantines.[182] On 3 July 1281 Charles and his son-in-law, Philip of Courtenay, the titular Latin emperor, made an alliance with Venice "for the restoration of the Roman Empire".[183] They decided to start a full-scale campaign early the next year.[180]
Margaret of Provence called Robert and Otto of Burgundy and other lords who held fiefs in the Kingdom of Arles to a meeting at Troyes in the autumn of 1281.[184] They were willing to unite their troops to prevent Charles's army from taking possession of the kingdom, but Philip III of France strongly opposed his mother's plan and Edward I of England would not promise any assistance to them.[184] Charles acknowledged that his wife held the County of Tonnerre and her other inherited estates as a Burgundian fief, which appeased Robert of Burgundy.[185] Charles's ships started to assemble at Marseilles to sail up the Rhone in the spring of 1282.[184] Another fleet was gathering at Messina to start the crusade against the Byzantine Empire.[186]
The empire's collapse
Sicilian Vespers
Always in need of funds, Charles could not cancel the subventio generalis, although it was the most unpopular tax in the Regno.[187] Instead he granted exemptions to individuals and communities, especially to the French and Provençal colonists, which increased the burden on those who did not enjoy such privileges.[188] The yearly, or occasionally more frequent, obligatory exchange of the deniers—the coins almost exclusively used in local transactions—was also an important, and unpopular, source of revenue for the royal treasury.[189][190] Charles took out forced loans whenever he needed "immediately a large sum of money for certain arduous and pressing business", as he explained in one of his decrees.[191]
Purveyances, the requisitioning of goods, increased the unpopularity of Charles's government in southern Italy and Sicily.[191] His subjects were also liable to be forced to guard prisoners or lodge soldiers in their homes.[191] The restoration of old fortresses, bridges and aqueducts and the building of new castles required the employment of craftsmen, although most of them were unwilling to participate in such lengthy projects.[192] Thousands of people were forced to serve in the army in foreign lands, especially after 1279.[191][193] Trading in salt was declared a royal monopoly.[194] In December 1281, Charles again ordered the collection of the subventio generalis, requiring the payment of 150 per cent of the customary amount.[187]
Charles did not pay attention to the island of Sicily, although it had been the centre of resistance against him in 1268.[195] He transferred the capital from Palermo to Naples.[21] He did not visit the island after 1271, preventing Sicilians from directly informing him of their grievances.[195][196] Sicilian noblemen were seldom employed as royal officials, although he often appointed their southern Italian peers to represent him in his other realms.[195] Furthermore, having seized large estates on the island in the late 1260s Charles almost exclusively employed French and Provençal clerics to administer them.[125]
Popular stories credited John of Procida—Manfred of Sicily's former chancellor—with staging an international plot against Charles.[197][198] Legend says that he visited Constantinople, Sicily and Viterbo in disguise in 1279 and 1280 to convince Michael VIII, the Sicilian barons and Pope Nicholas III to support a revolt.[199] On the other hand, Michael VIII would later claim that he "was God's instrument in bringing freedom to the Sicilians" in his memoirs.[200] The Emperor's wealth enabled him to send money to the discontented Sicilian barons.[201] Peter III of Aragon decided to lay claim to the Kingdom of Sicily in late 1280: he did not hide his disdain when he met with Charles's son, Charles, Duke of Salerno, in Toulouse in December 1280.[199] He began to assemble a fleet, ostensibly for another crusade to Tunis.[202]
Rioting broke out in Sicily after a burgher of Palermo killed a drunken French soldier who had insulted his wife before the
The burghers of the major Sicilian towns established communes which sent delegates to Pope Martin, asking him to take them under the protection of the Holy See.[209][210] Instead of accepting their offer, the Pope excommunicated the rebels on 7 May.[211] Charles issued an edict on 10 June, accusing his officials of having ignored his instructions on good administration, but he failed to promise fundamental changes.[207] In July he sailed to Sicily and laid siege to Messina.[207]
War with Aragon
Peter III of Aragon's envoy, William of Castelnou, started negotiations with the rebels' leaders in Palermo.[212] Realizing that they could not resist without foreign support, they acknowledged Peter and Constance as their king and queen.[212] They appointed envoys to accompany Castelnou to Collo where the Aragonese fleet was assembling.[213] After a short hesitation, Peter decided to intervene on the rebels' behalf and sailed to Sicily.[214] He was declared king of Sicily at Palermo on 4 September.[207] Thereafter two realms, each ruled by a monarch styled king (or queen) of Sicily, coexisted for more than a century, with Charles and his successors ruling in southern Italy (known as the Kingdom of Naples) while Peter and his descendants ruled the island of Sicily.[215][216]
In the face of the Aragonese landing, Charles was compelled to withdraw from the island, but the Aragonese moved swiftly and destroyed part of his army and most of his baggage.[217][218] Peter took control of the whole island and sent troops to Calabria, but they could not prevent Charles of Salerno from leading an army of 600 French knights to join his father at Reggio Calabria.[219] Further French troops arrived under the command of Charles's nephews, Robert II of Artois and Peter of Alençon, in November.[219] In the same month, the Pope excommunicated Peter.[220]
Neither Peter nor Charles could afford to wage a lengthy war.
Skirmishes and raids continued to occur in southern Italy.
Charles started to raise new troops and a fleet in Provence, and instructed his son, Charles of Salerno, to maintain a defensive posture until his return.[231] Roger of Lauria based a small squadron on the island of Nisida to blockade Naples in May 1284.[232] Charles of Salerno attempted to destroy the squadron, but most of his fleet was captured, and he himself was taken prisoner after a short, sharp fight on 5 June.[232] News of the reverse caused a riot in Naples, but the papal legate, Gerard of Parma, crushed it with the assistance of local noblemen.[233] Charles learnt of the disaster when he landed at Gaeta on 6 June.[233] He was furious at Charles of Salerno and his disobedience.[233] He allegedly stated that "Who loses a fool loses nothing", referring to his son's capture.[233]
Charles left Naples for Calabria on 24 June 1284.[234] A large army—reportedly 10,000 mounted warriors and 40,000 foot-soldiers—accompanied him as far as Reggio Calabria.[234] He laid siege to the town by sea and land in late July.[235] His fleet approached the coast of Sicily, but his troops could not land in the island.[235] After Lauria landed troops near Reggio Calabria, Charles had to lift the siege and retreat from Calabria on 3 August.[235]
Death
Charles went to Brindisi and made preparations for a campaign against Sicily in the new year.[236] He dispatched orders to his officials for the collection of the subventio generalis.[208] However, he fell seriously ill before travelling to Foggia on 30 December.[208] He made his last will on 6 January 1285, appointing Robert II of Artois regent for his grandson, Charles Martel, who was to rule his realms until Charles of Salerno was released.[237][238] He died in the morning of 7 January.[239] He was buried in a marble sepulchre in Naples, but his heart was placed at the Couvent Saint-Jacques in Paris.[239][240] His corpse was moved to a chapel of the newly built Naples Cathedral in 1296.[238]
Family
Ramon Berenguer IV of Provence | Beatrice of Savoy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alphonse of Poitiers | Charles I of Anjou | Beatrice of Provence | Eleanor of Provence | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Louis IX of France | Margaret of Provence | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Robert II of Artois | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Peter I of Alençon | Edward I of England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All records show that Charles was a faithful husband and a caring father.[241] His first wife, Beatrice of Provence, gave birth to at least six children.[107] According to contemporaneous gossips, she persuaded Charles to claim the Kingdom of Sicily, because she wanted to wear a crown like her sisters.[242] Before she died in July 1267,[90] she had willed the usufruct of Provence to Charles.[31]
- Blanche, the eldest daughter of Charles and Beatrice, became the wife of Robert of Béthune in 1265, but she died four years later.[243]
- Beatrice, her younger sister, married Philip, the titular Latin emperor, in 1273.[244]
- Charles II, Charles's eldest son and namesake was granted the Principality of Salerno in 1272.[245] Charles the Lame (as he was called) and his wife, Maria of Hungary, had fourteen children, which secured the survival of the Capetian House of Anjou.[234]
- Robert, Charles's third son, died in 1265.[245]
- Elisabeth, Charles's youngest daughter, was given in marriage to the future Ladislaus IV of Hungary in 1269, but Ladislaus preferred his mistresses to her.[193][246]
The widowed Charles first proposed himself to Margaret of Hungary.[247] However, Margaret, who had been brought up in a Dominican nunnery, did not want to marry.[248] According to legend, she disfigured herself to prevent the marriage.[247] Charles and his second wife, Margaret of Nevers, had several children, but none survived to adulthood.[249]
Legacy
The works of two 13th-century historians,
Around 1310, the Florentine historian, Giovanni Villani, stated that Charles had been the most powerful Christian monarch in the late 1270s.[256] Luchetto Gattilusio, a Genoese poet, compared Charles directly with Charlemagne.[256] Both reports demonstrate that Charles was regarded almost as an emperor.[256] Among modern historians, Runciman says that Charles tried to build an empire in the eastern Mediterraneum;[239] Gérard Sivéry writes that he wanted to dominate the west; and Jean Dunbabin argues that his "agglomeration of lands was in the process of forming an empire".[257]
The historian Hiroshi Takayama concludes that Charles's dominion "was too large to control".[258] Nevertheless, economic links among his realms strengthened during his reign.[259] Provençal salt was transported to his other lands, grain from the Regno was sold in Achaea, Albania, Acre and Tuscany, and Tuscan merchants settled in Anjou, Maine, Sicily and Naples.[260] His highest-ranking officials were transferred from their homelands to represent him in other territories: his senechals in Provence were from Anjou; French and Provençal noblemen held the highest offices in the Regno; and he chose his vicars in Rome from among southern Italian and Provençal nobles.[261] Although his empire collapsed before his death, his son retained southern Italy and Provence.[262]
Charles always emphasised his royal rank, but did not adopt "imperial rhetoric".
Charles was also a poet, which distinguished him from his Capetian relatives.[269] He composed love songs and a jeu-parti (the latter with Pierre d'Angicourt).[269] He was requested to judge two poetic competitions in his youth, but modern scholars do not esteem his poetry.[270] The Provençal troubadours were mostly critical when writing of Charles, but French poets were willing to praise him.[271] Bertran d'Alamanon wrote a poem against the salt tax and Raimon de Tors de Marseilha rebuked Charles for invading the Regno. The trouvère Adam de la Halle dedicated an unfinished epic poem, entitled The King of Sicily, to Charles and Jean de Meun glorified his victories in the Romance of the Rose.[272] Dante described Charles—"who bears a manly nose"—singing peacefully together with his one-time rival, Peter III of Aragon, in Purgatory.[273]
Charles also showed interest in architecture.[274] He designed a tower in Brindisi, but it soon collapsed.[275] He ordered the erection of the Castel Nuovo in Naples, of which only the palatine chapel survives from his work.[275] He is also credited with the introduction of French-style stained glass windows in southern Italy.[276]
Notes
- ^ The historian Peter Herde notes that Charles may have also been identical with the first son of Louis VIII and Blanche born in 1226, Stephen, or with the unnamed son who was born in late 1226. If Charles was identical with Stephen, he must have changed his name before the late 1230s.[2]
- Latin Empire of Constantinople was established on the ruins of the Byzantine Empire during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The Emperors of Nicaea, a Byzantine successor state, restored Greek rule on most territories lost to the Latin Emperors during the following decades. The Latins also lost Constantinople to the Nicaeans in 1261.[83]
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Further reading
- Fischer, Klaus Dietrich (1982). "Moses of Palermo: Translator from the Arabic at the Court of Charles of Anjou". Histoires des Sciences Médicales. 17 (Special 17): 278–281. ISSN 0440-8888.
- Holloway, Julia Bolton (1993). Twice-Told Tales: Brunetto Latino and Dante Aligheri. Peter Lang Inc. ISBN 978-0-82041-954-1.
External links
- New International Encyclopedia. 1905. .