Kingdom of Naples

NAPLES, KINGDOM OF, the name conventionally given to the kingdom of Sicily on the Italian mainland (Sicily beyond the Faro), to distinguish it from that of Sicily proper (Sicily on this side of the Faro, i.e., Messina).

The leaders of the Norman house of Hauteville, Robert Guiscard and Richard of Aversa, in 1059 did homage to Pope Nicholas II. (q.v.) for all the conquests they made both in the island and upon the mainland. In 1130 Roger de Hauteville (Roger II. as "great count" of Sicily) assumed the style of king as Roger I. In this way the south of Italy, together with the island of Sicily, was converted into one political body.

The

the death of Tancred, son of Wil liam II., the emperor Henry VI., of the house of Hohenstaufen, who by his marriage with Constance or Costanza d'Altavilla, daughter of Roger I. (d. 1154), laid claims to the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, descended into Italy in 1194. He easily con quered both the mainland and the island, but died in '197. Cos tanza then had her son, Frederick (b. 1194) proclaimed king, and obtained the support of the Holy See on condition that the kingdom should be once more recognized as a fief of the Church. The Hohenstaufen kings afterwards refused to admit this claim; thus provoking the persistent hostility of the popes and many foreign invasions. Costanza died in 1198, leaving Pope Innocent III. regent and tutor to her son. In 1209 Frederick married Costanza, daughter of the king of Aragon, with whose help he succeeded in reducing a large part of Sicily to obedience. Two years later he was elected king of the Romans, and in 1220 he was crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Honorius III., hut con tinued to reside in Sicily. In 1227 Gregory IX. excommunicated him because he delayed the crusade which he had promised to undertake. Frederick sailed for Palestine the following year and on his return defeated the army which the pope had sent into Neapolitan territory, peace being made at San Germano in 1230 and the excommunication withdrawn. In 1231 he issued the celebrated Constitutions of the Sicilian kingdom at the parliament of Melfi. He died in 125o.

His son Conrad IV. succeeded to the empire, while to his ille gitimate son Manfred he left the principality of Taranto and the regency of the southern kingdom. Conrad died in 1254, leaving an infant son, Conradin (b. 1252), and Manfred was appointed vicar-general during the latter's minority. In 1258, on a rumour of Conradin's death, Manfred was offered and accepted the crown of Naples and Sicily. The rumour was false, but he retained the crown, promising to leave the kingdom to Conradin at his death and to defend his rights.

Angevin and Aragonese.

In 1265 Clement IV., wishing to rid himself of the Hohenstaufen, induced Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX. of France, to come to Italy. Agreeing to accept the kingdom of the Two Sicilies as a fief of the Church, Charles, in 1266, marched southward with the privileges of a crusader (see CHARLES I., king of Naples and Sicily). Manfred was defeated and killed at Benevento, and Charles was soon master of almost the whole kingdom.

In Sicily, however, Charles's government soon made itself odious by its exactions and the insolence and cruelty of the king's French officials and favourites. The malcontents were led by the Salernitan noble Giovanni da Procida, who had induced Peter III. of Aragon, husband of Manfred's daughter Costanza, to make good his shadowy claims to the crown of Sicily. On Easter day

1282, just as Charles was preparing an expedition to the East, the popular rising known as the Sicilian Vespers broke out at Palermo and resulted in the massacre of nearly all the French in the island. Peter reached Palermo in September. Pope Martin IV. proclaimed a crusade against the Aragonese, and the war con tinued for many years. The Sicilian fleet under Ruggiero di Lauria defeated that of the Angevins at Malta in 1283, and in 1284 in the Bay of Naples. Charles I. died in 1286; his heir, Charles the Lame, being a prisoner, was not crowned until two years later. (See CHARLES II., king of Naples and Sicily, and FREDERICK III., king of Sicily.) Charles II. died in 1309 and was succeeded by his second son Robert, who became leader of the Guelphs in Italy. War between Naples and Sicily broke out once more, when Frederick allied himself with the emperor Henry VII. on his descent into Italy and proclaimed his own son Peter heir to the throne. Robert died in 1342 ; he had been a capable ruler, a scholar, and a friend of Petrarch, but his authority was limited by the rights of a turbulent and rebellious baronage (see ROBERT, king of Naples). He was succeeded by his granddaughter Joanna, wife of Andrew of Hungary, who was assassinated in 1345, not without suspicion of Joanna's complicity. Andrew's brother Louis, king of Hungary, attempted to make good his claims on Naples and avenge the murder of Andrew; but as Pope Clement refused to recognize his claims he went back to Hungary in 1348 and Joanna and her sec ond husband Louis of Taranto were crowned at Naples by the pope's legate in 1352, but Niccolo Acciaiuoli, the seneschal, be came the real master of the kingdom. Joanna nominated Louis of Anjou her heir, but while the latter was recognized by the anti-pope Clement VII., Pope Urban VI. declared Charles of Durazzo (great-grandson of Charles II.) king of Sicily al di qua del Faro (i.e. of Naples). Charles conquered the kingdom and took Joanna prisoner in 1381, and had her murdered the following year. Louis failed to drive out Charles, and died in 1384. A period of anarchy followed during the reigns of Charles III. and his son Ladislas, and on the latter's death in 1414 he was suc ceeded by his sister Joanna II. (q.v.), during whose reign the kingdom sank to the lowest depths of degradation. Louis died in 1434 and Joanna in 1435. Alphonso was recognized as king of Naples by Pope Eugene IV. in Under Alphonso, surnamed "the Magnanimous," Sicily was once more united to Naples and a new era was inaugurated, for the king was at once a brilliant ruler, a scholar, and a patron of letters. He died in 1458, leaving Naples to his illegitimate son Ferdinand I. (Don Ferrante) (q.v.), and Sicily, Sardinia, and Aragon to his brother John. Ferdinand died in 1494 and was succeeded by Alphonso. In the September of the following year Charles VIII. of France entered Italy and conquered the Neapoli tan kingdom without much difficulty. Alphonso abdicated, and his son Ferrandino and his brother Frederick withdrew to Ischia. But Ferrandino, with the help of Ferdinand II. of Spain, was able later to reoccupy his dominions. He died much regretted in 1496 and was succeeded by Frederick. The country was torn by civil war and brigandage, and the French continued to press their claims; until, with Gonzalo de Cordoba's victory on the Garigliano in Dec. 1502, the whole kingdom was in Spanish hands.