Manfred

Manfred, regent and king of Sicily, was a natural son (afterwards legitimised) of the Emperor Frederick II. by Bianca, the daughter of Count Lancia, and was born in 1231. On his father's death in 1250 he received the principality of Tarentum, and in the absence of his half-brother, Conrad IV., acted as regent in Italy. He bravely defended his sovereign's interests against the aggression of Pope Innocent IV.; and after Conrad's death he was acknowledged as regent of Apulia, in name of his nephew Conradin (q.v.). The pope, however, renewed his pretensions to Apulia, and compelled Manfred to flee for shelter to the Saracens, by whose aid he defeated the papal troops, and became, in 1257, master of the whole kingdom of Naples and Sicily. On the rumour of Conradin's death he was crowned king at Palermo, 11th August 1258, and immediately afterwards was excommunicated by Pope Alexander IV. along with his adherents; but Manfred invaded the papal dominions, and made himself master of the whole of Tuscany. His power now seemed secure, and his government was at once mild and vigorous. But this tranquillity was not of long duration. Pope Urban IV. renewed the excommunication against him and his friends, and bestowed his dominions as a papal fief on Charles of Anjou, the brother of Louis IX. of France. Manfred, though at first successful in the war which ensued, was at last treacherously defeated, and slain in a bloody battle at Benevento, 26th February 1266. His body was interred as that of an excommunicated person. His widow and children were barbarously treated by the French; the widow and three sons died in prison; the daughter was confined for twenty-two years. His history has been made the subject of drama and opera. See Cesare, Storia di Manfredi (1837); Schirrmacher, Geschichte der letzten Hohenstaufen (1871).